the final frontier...

real space suit

was at a very good little party last night, thank you Sue, at which a number of scientists from the International Space University, which as any fule kno  is right here in Strasbourg, were present.  A real space suit, which has actually been in actual space, was brought out and shown to us.  We were allowed to touch it!  Suddenly I was 15 again and being yelled at by my parents for staying up to watch the moon landings. How I wanted to take my protein pills and put that helmet on.

pic: University

Kurt Andersen, 'True Believers'

You can get this book here.  I can't tell you that much about the plot without spoiling it, but be assured that it is a cracking read.  It's set in the 1960s,  not among hippies but among radicals, of a kind, in America, who are very young.  It is about friendship, and memory, and lies.  The writer is a man, and has created a terrific female lead character, a kind of sexy grandma.  Perhaps the book, when it is not a political thriller (which it is, a lot of the time) is a study of the danger of being certain about what is and what is not.  As an aside, kind of, I discovered from this book that only one film has ever been made entirely in Esperanto.  It was called Incubus, and starred - William Shatner.  You can see a clip here.  Looks terrific.  Although I object to Esperanto as pointless.

one small step...

RIP Neil Armstrong.  I remembered that he actually got it wrong, by saying "one small step for man" instead of  "one small step for A man", showing the power of the article in English  - something I endeavour to get across to my Russian colleagues, with limited succcess.  But he was a native speaker of English and he got it wrong.  It didn't really matter though.  We knew what he meant. I was 15 that year.  The excitement of the new.  Rest in peace Neil.  I remember your colleague Buzz Aldrin punching a moon-landings denier in the face on live TV, which was great fun, but that is another story.

Kennedy assassination - at last the truth

Well, maybe.  Marbury points us to some work on this.  We have all seen the film (no, not the Oliver Stone one, silly), we know where Lee Harvey Oswald was, and we see the President hit a third time, apparently from the other direction.  From this sprang a thousand conspiracy theories.  The third bullet was, allegedly, fired by a security team member who panicked, and was the one which actually killed the President.  Could be  could be.  The mystery deepens...

Next year, readers, will be the 50th anniversary of that event.  I was nine when it happened, and remember  the adult conversations about it well, although I didn't understand them.  My parents were not on the right politically, though there were times when they weren't sure where they stood (mostly they voted Labour) but they hated all the Kennedys with a passion.  I have never understood why, especially as at the time the more questionable character issues were not known about because of the different media in those days.  I had better ask my mother while there is still time.

Anyway, next year there will be new books out, films probably, TV programmes, interviews with people who were there, a mini-series about the Doomed Dynasty I should think.  Makes you tired already.

Hey, anybody want to commission me to write something?  I can DO this stuff.