I first discovered the Thinking Machine stories of Jacques Futrelle (1875-1912), one of the victims in the sinking of the Titanic, when I was in the fourth grade. I was smitten. This story was first published in 1907. Futrelle never says so, but I’ve always thought that the “S. F. X.” initials between the Thinking […]

STRIP SEARCH by James Lincoln Warren In Saturday’s Los Angeles Times, there was a three inch column on page AA2 (in “LATEXTRA”, the section following the front page section which supposedly contains late-breaking news) stating that the Tribune Company, which owns the Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles TV station KTLA TV (which […]

DEATH and DESTRUCTION by Leigh Lundin So much crime news flooded the network this week, I couldn’t fit in more than a taste. Some are very serious, but I’ll try to lighten the load. Corporate Death Threats Arizona is becoming weirder by the week, no longer a place for odd-tasting ice tea in pretty packaging. […]

LESSER EVILS by John M. Floyd Rob Lopresti’s column about heroes and their sidekicks the other day got me thinking. It’s true that the best Kirks need good Spocks, or Hawks or Tontos or Watsons or Samwise Gamgees, as the case may be. But let’s be fair, here: the villains need interesting helpers as well. […]

OBJECT POVERTY by Steven Steinbock I can’t really blame anyone for dropping the Ms of the end of whom. I may get a momentary sense of unease. But then I remind myself that there are bigger fish to fry. Besides, whom has fallen so far into disuse that when I speak a sentence that calls […]

BE MY FRIEND? by Deborah Elliott-Upton “Even though we’ve changed and we’re all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we’ll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much […]

TRYING NOT TO WRITE by Rob Lopresti So here we are in Copenhagen. This is a bit of a surprise. Not that we got on the wrong plane or anything like that, but Denmark was never on the to-do list, like Israel or Ireland have been. But the opportunity came up, unexpectedly, and like the […]