tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62027771893879465042024-03-06T19:34:30.784-08:00Joyce's TakeFrom the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, posting on issues concerning science, philosophy, political and social commentary and a little bit of satire.Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.comBlogger872125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-38211236702204152992019-01-31T03:01:00.000-08:002019-01-31T07:45:22.029-08:00Happy Birthday Minnie Driver!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It gets me emotional to talk about it cause there... no one would tell that story. I don’t know, it seems so strange when you can see people head’s being blown off, the kind of sexual objectification of women, and all kinds of things that they’re empty in what they’re offering up out into the world. And you go and tell a story that might actually bring comfort to somebody, or remind you of your, remind us of our humanity, and how what survives of us is love. That’s it. That’s what we got. So when you get to do that in your job which is kind of, sometimes superficial as being a celebrity or as an actress, that’s very good news. -Minnie Driver discussing the television film “Return to Zero”</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifkYHEoe6_k">Skyler's Joke</a></div>
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Picture Legend:<br />
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1. Minnie<br />
2. Minnie’s birthplace, Middlesex Hospital, London, England<br />
3. Young Minnie<br />
4. Minnie with her mom, Gaynor Churchward<br />
5. Minnie and sister Kate<br />
6. Minnie with her dad Ronnie and her son Henry <br />
7. Ronnie and Minnie’s parental grandmother Mary in December 1939<br />
8. Minnie and brother Charlie<br />
9. Minnie With Brother Edward (holding his daughter) while shopping for Thanksgiving (yes, they celebrate Thanksgiving in Briton... if they feel like it)<br />
10. The location of the Heligoland Bight<br />
11. The Heligoland Bight<br />
12. Vickers Wellington twin-engined, long-range medium bomber.<br />
13. Couture model <br />
14. Example of “Minnie Driver’s English Living,” her line of home textiles.<br />
15. Bedales School<br />
16. Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art<br />
17 Collingham College<br />
18. Minnie selling Right Guard<br />
19. In “God on the Rocks" <br />
20. “House of Elliot” 1991<br />
21. In “Casualty” <br />
22. In “Lovejoy” 1992<br />
23. Omi the Zebra Man<br />
24. Minnie as Arlette in “Maigret” 1993<br />
25. In “Mr. Wroe's Virgins”<br />
26. Minnie and Keira Knightley on “Screen One” 1993<br />
27. Minnie on“Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge” 1994<br />
28. Alan Cumming in “That Sunday” <br />
29. “Circle of Friends” 1995<br />
30. As a Russian nightclub singer in “Goldeneye”<br />
31. Minnie and George Cole in “My Good Friend”<br />
32. In “The Politician's Wife”<br />
33. Minnie with Tony Shalhoub, Stanley Tucci, and Marc Anthony in “Big Night” 1996. <br />
34. Minnie with one of the most underrated actors in the business, Brad Pitt, in “Sleepers”<br />
35. Minnie with John Cusack in “Grosse Point Blank”<br />
36. Minnie and Damon in “Good Will Hunting” 1998<br />
37. Ben Affleck, Minnie, and Matt Damon<br />
38. Alyssa Milano<br />
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This morning it is my great pleasure and honor to give a great big Joyce’s Take shout out to one of my very favorite actresses, musicians, singers, and songwriters, Ms. Minnie Driver!</div>
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Amelia Fiona Driver (“Minnie" would become a childhood nickname) was born at a very early age as a small, wrinkled up, female infant, at 5:25 A.M. precisely, deep within the turgid bowels of Middlesex Hospital, in the Fitzrovia district (a district in central London, near London's West End, lying partly in the City of Westminster (in the west) and partly in the London Borough of Camden (in the east); north of Oxford Street and Soho between Bloomsbury and Marylebone), of London, England (It is purported that Winston Churchill was treated there in 1962, which seems to make sense. After all, Churchill was British, probably living in or around London, as most British people do... the hospital was in London, sooner or later the two were bound to get together. And we know for almost certain (about as certain as anyone can be about these kind of things) that our good friend, the actor <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2017/09/happy-birthday-peter-sellers.html"><i>Peter Sellers</i></a>, died there in 1980. The hospital giveth, and the hospital taketh away) Alas, that fine institution is no longer with us, having closed in 2005.</div>
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Yes, I know what you’re thinking dear readers. Minnie, if I may call her that, is just another of those damn foreigners who entered the United States to steal all of our acting jobs, justifying themselves by rationalizing they are only taking the menial roles that Americans didn’t want or couldn’t physically manage. One of those immigrants our great leader is valiantly trying to keep out of our glorious country.</div>
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Well, in that you would be correct, but she is truly one of us now. More about that later. </div>
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As an adult Minnie would reach the height of 5' 10" (1.78 m). This will be come interesting later (if you watch the videos). She has dark brown eyes and (naturally curly) hair. Her average weight is 148 pounds (2,368 ounces, depending on what she had for dinner). Her net worth is 20 million dollars. She does not have but certainly deserves her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (I looked into the process of nominating her and discovered it would cost <i>me</i> $40,000 to do so, and that she would have to sign a form giving me permission to nominate her and that she would need to agree to personally show up at the commemoration ceremony, and since I don’t have her address I decided to hold off on this idea, not that the money was an issue, mind you. I could easily get that from Joyce’s Take petty cash... So every time you see someone get their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame you know the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce got paid (Hollywood Historic Trust, a 501(c)3 charitable foundation actually, or so they say))</div>
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Ms. Driver’s lineage is a tad unusual, or unconventional I should say, in that her mother and father never married. Or perhaps that is the norm. Only the statisticians and sociologists know for sure. </div>
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But there was something else.</div>
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Her father, Charles Ronald (“Ronnie") Driver (1921–2009), was married to another woman throughout his relationship with her mother, Gaynor Churchward (née Millington), making Gaynor Charles’ mistress. A secret mistress at that.</div>
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Ronnie was a successful Swansea (a city and county on the south coast of Wales) businessman and financial advisor. His company, London United Investments, gave financial advice to the Royal Family and other high end clients. </div>
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Minnie says: “My parents met in 1962 and were together for 13 years. They broke up when I was six. During that entire time, my dad was married to someone else and had another family. I didn’t know my parents weren’t married until I was 12 or 13 – my dad lived a very split life. We just did not talk about where he came from.”</div>
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Ronnie’s first wife Annie had given birth to a daughter, Kate in 1969, making Kate the elder half-sister to Minnie. Apparently, Ronnie married a second time, and that union produced a son, Charlie, and Gaynor married after the break up with Ronnie, which produced son Edward. Both families were unaware of each other's existence.</div>
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How Ronnie was able to pull this off and survive to the age that he did is the stuff situation comedies are made of. </div>
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Before all of this happened Ronnie had been a member of the Royal Air Force and participated with distinction in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, which occurred in 1939, soon after England declared war on Germany on September 3rd, two days after Germany obstreperously invaded Poland. </div>
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Heligoland Bight (a bight is a bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature) is a bay which forms the southern part of the German Bight, itself a bay of the North Sea, located at the mouth of the Elbe river. </div>
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The Battle of the Heligoland Bight occurred on December 18th and was actually the first aerial battle of World War II that got it’s own name... “The Battle of the Heligoland Bight.” </div>
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You see, the German’s had been and were able to cause all sorts of mischief in the North Atlantic Ocean with their fancy U-Boat submarines. They were sinking Allied ships all over the place, and Britain, personified by aforementioned Winston Churchill, got fed up with it. </div>
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The Air Ministry decided to launch an attack on German surface ships to prevent them from supporting those U-boats, and on the 18th three RAF bomber squadrons (one squadron consisted of 8 bombers) was sent to engage German ships in the Heligoland Bight and sink or damage as many as possible. </div>
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24 Vickers Wellington long-range medium bombers took off. 18 year old Ronnie and his buddy 21 year old Walter were in one of them.</div>
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Two turned back owing to engine trouble before reaching German airspace. The German reaction was slow, but eventually they scrambled strong fighter aircraft forces to intercept the bombers. They scrambled a whole bunch of them, over 120 aircraft.</div>
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120 German vs 22 British, it hardly seems fair does it? Fortunately for the British only 44 German fighters made contact with the British bombers. Still, that’s like an almost exact two to one advantage the German’s had over the British, and the British were flying big unwieldy bombers, with no fighter support (which in itself is rather odd. Why was there no British fighter support? I just don’t know). </div>
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The Germans destroyed half of the British forces. Walter was one of 61 British airmen who failed to return that day.</div>
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The British Air Command reconsidered the idea of air raids during daylight hours after this incident, so the battle did have some historical and strategic significance overall. </div>
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Minnie only discovered her father was an RAF hero when a friend recently bought a book at a rummage sale in Kent (a county in South East England, sort of like Riverside or San Bernardino counties here in Southern California, but with castles). Inside there was a story about Ronnie, aged 18, receiving the Distinguished Flying Medal for bravery in 1939.</div>
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When his aircraft was badly damaged, his gun turret at the front of the plane was all but blown away. Ronnie put out a fire which threatened to destroy the whole plane, using only his hands. </div>
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Later his pilot related: “My gunman was very prompt with the fire and beat it out with his gloved hands. But for this, the aircraft would have been well alight in a few seconds. His quick action saved our lives.”</div>
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Minnie broke down in tears when she learned of her father’s heroism which continued as the plane ditched into the North Sea. Dangling from the remains of his flimsy gun turret, in freezing conditions, Ronnie was then able to launch a dinghy and get the three other members of his injured crew inside. But despite his best efforts, the men discovered that Ronnie’s best friend, the rear gunner, Walter Lilley, had died in the attack.</div>
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Walter had been at the back of the plane and in the end they had to leave his lifeless body in the wrecked plane as it sank into the ocean. The four men in the dinghy were eventually rescued by British forces, which was pretty much a miracle in and of itself.</div>
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Having escaped death by the narrowest of margins, Ronnie, a wool clerk (Wool is the hair that grows on sheep and on some other animals) before joining the RAF, suffered from post-traumatic stress and was hospitalized twice to receive treatment. In the archives of the RAF Museum in Hendon, North London, Minnie discovered newspaper pictures where Ronnie is showing his mother his medal, at home in Stockton on Tees. It was the first time she had ever seen a photograph of her grandmother.</div>
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Minnie’s mom, or mum as they say in England, is a fabric designer and former couture model (Haute couture; French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking" or "high fashion") is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted clothing. Haute couture is high-end fashion that is constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high-quality, expensive, often unusual fabric (wool) and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers - often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. Check out Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “Phantom Thread,” starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and you’ll find out everything you ever wanted to know about haute couture and its models). </div>
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The following is taken (stole) from an article in People Magazine, dated May 8th, 2017:</div>
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“When Minnie Driver came home from school one day to find her mother, Gaynor Churchward, making cushions, ‘I thought she had gone a bit mad,'she tells PEOPLE.</div>
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Churchward was reeling from her recent divorce and didn’t have much in the way of job experience, Driver says. “But she successfully made some very beautiful cushions. And she began what ended up being a multi-million pound (British money, not weight) company.”</div>
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Now Driver, 46 (she’s a lot older now), is following in her mother’s footsteps. The actress has exclusively announced to PEOPLE that she’s launching Minnie Driver’s English Living, a line of home textiles on HSN (Home Shopping Network). </div>
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The collection — including bedding, window treatments and throws — was created in collaboration with Churchward, who first inspired Driver’s passion for interiors.</div>
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‘I’ve always been really interested in design, mostly because of my mom and how I was raised,' Driver says. ‘She’s a really inspiring person.’”</div>
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Gaynor has her very own Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) page by appearing on Lifetime’s biographical television series, “Intimate Portrait,” in 2000. Presumably the episode was mainly concerned with her actress daughter.</div>
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<a href="https://www.hsn.com/shop/minnie-driver-home/ho-14440?rid=4758&query=Minnie%20Driver&isSuggested=true&URL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hsn.com%2Fshop%2Fminnie-driver-home%2Fho-14440%3Frid%3D4758%26query%3DMinnie%2520Driver%26isSuggested%3Dtrue&utm_source=cj-Meredith+Corporation&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term=POHomeMinnieDriverMM&utm_content=8029122-11553341&utm_campaign=www.hsn.com"><i> Here’s</i></a> a link to Minnie’s HSN page.</div>
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As Minnie shared above, Ronnie and Gaynor broke up when she was just six years old. Ronnie moved to an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of North America, named Barbados (13° 6′ 0″ N, 59° 37′ 0″ W), where Minnie spent her school holidays (some sources state that she was raised there).</div>
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At some point she was shipped off to the Bedales School, in Hampshire, as a boarder. The school is a co-educational day independent school in the village of Steep, fairly near the market town of Petersfield. </div>
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Wikipedia whispers to me: “Bedales is renowned for its eccentricity, liberal ethos, relaxed attitude, fashionable parents and famous alumni. The Tatler Schools Guide used to cite Bedales as ‘a bohemian idyll with bite,’ and The Good Schools Guide states that, although the school is ‘less distinctive than in the past,’ it is ‘still good for 'individuals,’ articulate nonconformists, and people who admire such qualities."</div>
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They have fashionable parents! A lot of schools don’t. </div>
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I wonder if that’s a prerequisite. </div>
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Charmingly Bedales calls their alumni “Old Bedalians.” Here’s a few of them, in no particular order: the singer, songwriter, author, and television presenter, Lily Allen. Daniel Day-Lewis and his sister, the television chef and food critic, Lydia Tamasin Day-Lewis. Actor George Sanders, and the lovely and talented actress Alice Eve. The bookbinder, Roger Powell. Painter Nina Murdoch. Anthropologist and psychologist, John Layard. Tom Arnold (the politician, not Roseanne’s ex). And the actor Simon Cadell and his younger sister, Selina.</div>
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Many others have attended Bedales, but I just don’t have room for all of them. I just don’t.</div>
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At the age of 15, Minnie got a tattoo of a red rose on her right butt cheek. Not the left one mind you, but the right butt cheek. </div>
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This is one of the things Minnie and I have in common.</div>
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Minnie later attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in South Kensington (an affluent district of West London split between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster). Notable alumni include the lovely and talented actress, Natalie Dormer, Stewart Granger, Siobhan Hewlett <i>and</i> Hunter, Angela Lansbury, Patrick Macnee, Julia Ormond, Terence Stamp, and Omar Berdouni. </div>
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She also attended Collingham College, an independent college also in Kensington.</div>
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In a 2016 interview, Minnie revealed that she was sexually assaulted at the age of 17 while vacationing in Greece. When she reported the incident to police, she was partially blamed for the incident.</div>
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Just in the United States one in three women and one in six men experience some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime. Imagine what it must be like for women in Greece.</div>
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Minnie first entered the entertainment industry not as a actress, oh no, that was just what they expected, but as a singer-songwriter-musician when she was at Bedales, being part of the Milo Roth Band, which got their own recording contract when she was just 19 years old.</div>
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“How did you get into music?”</div>
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“By going to a very musical school where I was encouraged to sing, write and perform. I got a record deal at 19 with a group called the Milo Roth Band; then I followed the acting path, but I've always made music as well.”</div>
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Minnie has said that she thought about acting as a career when she was very young, around 12 years old let’s say, and was heavily inspired by the actress Meryl Streep in Alan J. Pakula’s rendition of the William Styron novel, “Sophie's Choice” (1982).</div>
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In a 2013 interview she spoke of her time at school.</div>
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“Well,” she says, “maybe it was the school I went to, but the drama department was the English department and I still break down characters in the way I was taught to in English.” She was, she says, “rubbish at maths”, but “really good at music” and always a “voracious” reader. “I'm sad now,” she says, “that I didn't go to university. I'm mad about linguistics and semiotics, language and literature. That was always there, but it was all siphoned into acting. I was so focused. I think you have to be as an actor.”</div>
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After being trained as an actress at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts (making ends meet not as a waitress, which is the traditional route most budding actors choose, but by finding gigs as a jazz singer and guitarist in London. She was a member in the the jazz group Puff, Rocks and Brown, earning a development deal with Island Records. </div>
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“I don’t know if I actually did the whole Malcolm Gladwell thing [a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. His 10,000 hour principle holds that 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice" are needed to become world-class in any field] of playing for 10,000 hours, but I felt like I did,” Driver recalls. “I had planned to make music my primary thing, but then I got offered a film and it all went off in a different direction. At the time, I thought that I was ready to take on the music industry, but I don’t think that I really was. I had to grow up enough to have something to say.”</div>
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When she wasn’t playing music she found work as an actress. There is some controversy as to what is Minnie’s very first appearance on television. The good folks at Wikipedia insist that it was in 1991 for a Right Guard Deodorant commercial in which she was partially nude. The IMDB however, and a few other sources maintain that she was cast in the television movie “God on the Rocks," with Bill Paterson and Sinéad Cusack (no relation to John, Ann, and Joan) in 1990, in which case this would be her first appearance on the telly, as they say in England. YouTube, and a few other sources list the film as being made and broadcast in 1992, so I just don’t know what to believe and may start drinking again due to this unsolved and annoying mystery. </div>
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In any case Joyce’s Take has sparred no expense searching long and hard for video clips from both of these entities... first up, the<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3gLOucHvHU"><i> racy deodorant commercial</i></a>. And now “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOCWrynLpH0"><i>God on the Rocks</i></a>,” which is described thusly: “Growing up in a household incapable of showing love and affection, Margaret's life is transformed when Lydia (Minnie), a worldly teenage maid, arrives.” </div>
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Before being offered that film she mentions above Minnie appeared in Episode #1.4 of the British television series “House of Elliot,” staring Stella Gone and Louise Lombard as the ubiquitous Elliot Sisters, which aired on September 21st of 1991. In November she was found on the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world, “Casualty,” as Zena Mitchell, who suffered from what Inspector Clouseau would call a “bimp” on the head. The show was concerned with the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department. This program started in 1986 and is still running! By Golly you could go to England this very minute and watch new episodes of “Casualty” if you had a mind to. She appeared with the Irish actor Derek Thompson who seemed to make a habit of appearing on the show, being in 783 episodes as the steadfast Charlie Fairhead. </div>
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On March 15th of 1992, a Sunday, the episode “Kids,” aired from the on the comedy-drama mystery series “Lovejoy,” with Minnie on it as Sarah. The show starred Ian McShane way before he became an American God. In this episode Lovejoy learned that his daughter was living with a middle-aged man and that a close friend had been duped into buying an expensive forged painting.</div>
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My God! Will the carnage never end!?</div>
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She also appeared on 3 episodes of “Kinsey,” playing Louise Kinsey, and staring Leigh Lawson as Neil Kinsey. </div>
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“Midlands lawyer Neil Kinsey, known for being a maverick, takes on a new partner, Tricia Mabbott, who has recently left a larger firm. He brings an unconventional approach to dealing with his clients' cases, but has to contend with his estranged wife, Judy, his rivals, and the potential of romance with Tricia.”</div>
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Now I happen to be in possession of some secret information that confirms that Neil Kinsey’s estranged wife Judy was in fact portrayed by the actress Marian McLoughlin. Leigh Lawson was 47 years old when the three episodes Minnie appeared in were produced, and Marian 40. Minnie was all of 22 years old, so her character Louise Kinsey, if indeed she was related to the Neil and Judy characters at all, may have been their daughter, I’m thinking. If not the whole thing dissolves into a crumbling mass of utter confusion. </div>
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When I google “Minnie Driver Kinsey TV show” or just “Kinsey TV show,” looking for pictures and videos to support this portion of Minnie’s life I keep getting nude pictures of the lovely and talented Lizzy Caplan, so I don’t know what’s up with that. Sorry. </div>
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On a personal note, Leigh Lawson once canoodled my very first one true love, the actress Haley Mills, producing a son, Jason, before he married the actress/model Twiggy. </div>
I’m pretty sure I hate him.<br />
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Minnie’s first female lead was in the 11 minute short film, “The Zebra Man,” with Duncan Bell. “The true story of Major Horace Ridler, an English aristocrat who returned from the First World War to 1920s London where he began his transformation into one of the world's greatest oddities, tattooed from head to foot in black and white stripes: Omi the Zebra Man.”</div>
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Okay. </div>
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I don’t know if this guy was related to the Elephant Man or not. It doesn’t really matter. But really... zebra... elephant. All I know is that there were more than an average amount of British African animal people in the past. </div>
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More work in television in 1993 and 1994. Minnie Appeared in the “Maigret and the Night Club Dancer,” episode of the crime/drama/mystery “Maigret,” starring Michael Gambon, way before he became Professor Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter franchise (he’s now a Sir Michael Gambon, and deservedly so).</div>
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“From Montmartre to the remote French countryside, Maigret encounters the dark side of the human psyche. Yet, he manages to maintain both compassion and a sense of humor as he explores the complex motives that lie behind every crime.”</div>
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Minnie plays Arlette in her episode. </div>
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“After a beautiful but alcoholic stripper reports overhearing a murder plot in the club where she works, she recants and is murdered shortly thereafter.”</div>
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I’m fairly sure Minnie played the beautiful but alcoholic stripper (which description is very judgmental I believe) as the only other female in the cast for that episode was the lovely and talented actress Brenda Blethyn, who was like 47 years old when this was made. </div>
Not that I’m saying 47 year old women can’t be both beautiful and alcoholic. I happen to know some that are both, and they can be very fetching... and alcoholic. <br />
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Minnie played Leah in the 200 minute mini-series “Mr. Wroe's Virgins.” </div>
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“Based on the novel by Jane Rogers, the series follows the stories of seven young women who came to live and serve in the household of 19th century cult leader John Wroe.” </div>
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John Wroe was a real person. You can learn all about him <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wroe"><i>here</i></a> if you have a mind to. Jonathan Pryce (“Brazil” “The Brothers Grimm” “Pirate of the Caribbean”) played him. One would suppose Minnie played one of the virgins. </div>
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Hey, stop laughing!</div>
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How rude.</div>
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The only clip I could find of Minnie in this movie was at the pornography site, Porn Hub as it contained full frontal nudity on Minnie’s part, and I don’t feel like going there in this post. You’ll have to look it up yourselves, you nasty people. </div>
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Full frontal nudity on British television in 1993. We have a great deal to learn from our friends in England. </div>
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Minnie also played Sally in the “Royal Celebration” episode on the anthology series “Screen One.” </div>
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“July 29, 1981: After two years of the Thatcher administration, there is recession and unrest, but the economic boom is just around the corner. Meanwhile, there's the fairy tale wedding of Charles and Diana to celebrate.” </div>
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The lovely and talented Keira Knightley made her on-screen debut in this episode. </div>
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1994 saw Minnie playing Sue Keel in the “ Enemy Within,” episode of the long running medical soap-opera “Peak Practice.” She was Daniella Fores in the “Show 2,” episode of the comedy series “Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge.” She worked with the Scottish-American actor Alan Cumming (“Romy and Michele's High School Reunion" “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas” “The Tempest”) in the charming, romantic-comedy short, “That Sunday.” How do I know that it’s charming? Because I just watched it! And <a href="https://vimeo.com/11708148"><i>here</i></a> it is if you want to watch it too (at last a clip of Minnie working with her clothes on)!</div>
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Alan and Minnie would work in at least three films together in the following year (or at least the movies were released the following year and probably filmed in 1994).</div>
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And Minnie appeared on two episodes of the six episode comedy series “The Day Today,” with Steve Coogan (“The Other Guys” “Holmes & Watson” “Stan & Ollie”).</div>
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“A spoof of the British style of news broadcasting - including ridiculous stories, patronizing vox pops, offensively hard-hitting research and a sports presenter clearly struggling for metaphors.” </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0bEcOPNROU"><i>Here’s </i></a>a clip featuring Minnie.</div>
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And now it’s 1995 and we can get to that movie offer that altered Minnie’s career choice away from focusing on music, and that movie was called “Circle of Friends.”</div>
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It was directed by Irish filmmaker Pat O'Connor (“Inventing the Abbotts” “Fools of Fortune” “A Month in the Country”), and based on the novel of the same name written by Maeve Binchy.</div>
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Some anonymous person summarized the film on the IMDB like this: “'Circle Of Friends' is set in 1950's Ireland. The movie focuses on Benny Hogan and her best friend, Eve Malone. The story centers around Benny and Eve as they enter student life at University College, Dublin. Here Benny and Eve reunite with their childhood friend, the ice-cool Nan Mahon, the 'college belle'. They also encounter the handsome and charming Jack Foley, whom Benny quickly falls for.”</div>
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I agree with that, although I’d have to add a goodly amount of romantic intrigue, scheming, and a betrayal. </div>
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The film stars Minnie (who gained 25 pounds for the role), Robin, er, I mean Chris O'Donnell, Saffron Burrows, Alan Cumming, Geraldine O'Rawe, Aidan Gillen, and Colin Firth. </div>
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It is interesting for me at least that only two of the seven main actors listed above are actually Irish. I can only surmise that all the other Irish actors in the world were busy at the time of production. </div>
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I actually saw this movie in a theater when it was released and that was when I was first introduced to Ms Driver, who made a fair impression upon me, so much so that I followed her career as best I could, and looked for her in other vehicles. It is my estimation that she is one of those rare actresses or actors (I refuse to call female actresses actors... I don’t know why) that make any project they are associated with better just for their participation. </div>
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I’ve always remembered one of her lines from “Circle of Friends,” that goes something like this: “Jack says it’s his job to try and seduce me, and that’s it’s my job to stop him.”</div>
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That makes sense considering the huge difference in the time needed for human reproduction between males and females (males about 10 minutes on a good day - females about 3 years for each child, which includes gestation and initial child-rearing), especially significant in the 1950s. </div>
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By that as it may, Minnie was now the female lead of an international big budget film and was introduced to the largest market in the world, the United States of America. </div>
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“Circle of Friends” was positively received by critics, as the film holds a 78% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews. </div>
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It made money! It cost 15 million USD to produce, and made 45 at the box office. </div>
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"I just felt that you never see parts like that," said the ringlet-haired English actress. "When you're young, you don't get character leading roles. You're generally playing the daughter, the nurse, the mistress, the young wife. This was an extraordinary part for me when I was 22 -- this great big, warm character."</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RohiUZBbh7w"><i>Here</i></a> is a fan video featuring Minnie in “Circle of Friends,” accompanied by the song "You're the One" sung by Shane McGowan and Maire Brennan, which played during the film's credits.</div>
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By the way, the characters Sean Walsh and Simon Westward, played by Alan Cumming and Colin Firth respectively, were just despicable and poor examples of the male gender. I apologize on behalf of all males for their reprehensible and shameless behavior. </div>
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“Circle of Friends” was released in April of 1995. In November Minnie was in another international big budget movie ($60 million for this one) having a small part in the James Bond film “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48yK8khFckg"><i>Goldeneye</i></a>,” with Pierce Brosnan as Bond (his first time as that character), Boromir, er, the Hitchhiker, er, Ned Stark, er.. I mean Sean Bean, Izabella Scorupco, Liam Neeson’s “Taken" wife Famke Janssen, and Alan Cumming as a computer programmer working for the bad guy (Bean, I know it’s hard to believe but Sean plays a villain in this film). Minnie plays Irina, a Russian nightclub singer and mistress of Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky (Robbie Coltrane).</div>
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Minnie sings “Stand by Your Man” with a thick Russian accent.</div>
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Does this make Minnie a “Bond Girl?”</div>
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Why yes, it does!</div>
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The movie of course was a huge success, getting generally favorable reviews and making around $350 million US dollars. </div>
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It has been reported that Minnie was paid $5,000. </div>
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She must not have had one of those profit sharing deals.</div>
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I need to say this about Minnie, she seems to be rather fickle. In 2017 she stated that Daniel Craig was the best Bond ever, and that she <i>loved him</i>. When reminded that she had worked with Pierce she said she loved him as well. In the future she would proclaim her love for Dwanye “The Rock” Johnson.</div>
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Women are like this sometimes.</div>
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1995 also saw Minnie as a regular cast member in the first season of the comedy series “My Good Friend,” appearing in all seven episodes as Ellie, Harry's landlady (Richard Pearson). The show also starred George Cole. The show was on the air for two seasons and for some unknown reason the character of Ellie was played by Lesley Vickerage in the second. </div>
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She was in the dramatic television mini-series “The Politician's Wife” as a former escort (British for hooker) turned parliamentary researcher who has an affair with a married member of Parliament. </div>
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Minnie played Flora Mussell in the TV movie “Cruel Train,” which concerns trains with a bad temperament, and “In wartime England, a railway official learns that the chairman of the line had sexually abused his wife as a child, then given him the job so he could continue having sexual access to her. The husband and wife kill him together, but are seen by a train driver, who also has problems of his own. The wife tries to divert suspicion by implicating another driver and befriending the witness, but it doesn't go that smoothly.”</div>
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Nothing about that sounds smooth at all.</div>
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She was also in “Coping with Christmas,” which probably has something to do with the December holiday. I’d be awfully surprised if it didn’t. In it she is reunited with co-star Alan Cumming. </div>
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In 1996 Minnie played police Sgt. Cole in the “Confess” episode of the comedy/crime/mystery series “Murder Most Horrid,” with Dawn French. </div>
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“Two policewomen [Minnie and Dawn] try to get a confession out of an ex-convict suspected of murdering a police inspector. The interrogation finally leads to an unexpected conclusion.”</div>
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Here’s the entire episode in three installments. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BL7lh_GeyU"><i>Part 1</i></a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNy7zdMRav4"><i>Part 2</i></a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHI1yhhgKzk"><i>Part 3</i></a>.</div>
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Minnie also was in two big time Hollywood productions. “Big Night,” written by Joseph Tropiano and the actor Stanley Tucci. Directed by the actors Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci. And starring Minnie, Bilbo, er, I mean Ian Holm, Ingrid Bergman’s lovely and talented daughter Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini, Tony Shalhoub, and, you guessed it... Stanley Tucci. “New Jersey, 1950s. Two brothers run an Italian restaurant. Business is not going well as a rival Italian restaurant is out-competing them. In a final effort to save the restaurant, the brothers plan to put on an evening of incredible food.”</div>
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“In the year after its premiere, Big Night got great reviews (96% fresh, according to Rotten Tomatoes), won multiple awards for its screenplay, and its co-directors, and earned nearly $12million [$12,008,376] against its estimated $4.1million budget, according to IMDB.</div>
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More important than that, Big Night helped kick off a revolution in American food culture. It wasn’t just that restaurants were changing, with ‘authenticity’ the new watchword. How we looked at and thought about food shifted, in both minor (the band Cibo Matto released its first album, featuring food-mad tunes like Know Your Chicken and White Pepper Ice Cream) and major ways.” -Matt Gross of The Guardian</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz19xrc_99o"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip (Yes, Minnie has her clothes on but they’re all wet). </div>
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And she was in the crime/drama/thriller/revenge flick “Sleepers,” also with Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric (Jason Miller’s son. Who’s Jason Miller? Jason Miller is the author of the Pulitzer Prize winning dramatic play, “That Championship Season,” and he was the priest that wasn’t Max von Sydow in 1973‘s “The Exorcist”), Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Billy Crudup, and Vittorio Gassman.</div>
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“After a prank goes disastrously wrong, a group of boys are sent to a detention center where they are brutalized. Thirteen years later, they get their chance for revenge.”</div>
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The film garnered generally good reviews, and made some money, $165.6 million against a production budget of $44 million (which doesn’t take into account print, advertising and distribution costs (or they might be included in the $44 million budget figure. I’d have to actually ask one of the producers, or the studio to find out for sure, but I’m much to high to do that. Producers and studios generally will only report production costs, a lower figure than if everything like advertising were included. They do this to make whatever profits or losses look either greater or less than they might actually be. They’re sneaky that way). Trying to figure out how movies make money will give you a migraine and make you wonder why anyone even bothers at all). </div>
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Directed by Barry Levinson (“Rain Man” “Wag the Dog” “Rock the Kasbah”), and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name. Minnie plays Carol. She got the “And, Minnie Driver” treatment in the opening credits after everyone else, which can be construed as a sign of distinguished respect, at least that’s the way I’m taking it. </div>
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She was really the only woman in the entire film (except for a small part of one of the witnesses).</div>
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I hadn’t seen it since it was initially released, but I watched it the other night in preparation for this post and it was a lot better than I remembered it. </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1piB0xIkvUU"><i> Here’s </i></a>the trailer.</div>
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Now an established Hollywood actress, 1997 would see Minnie in what she has called her favorite film (that she’s in), “Grosse Pointe Blank.”</div>
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“Martin Blank is a freelance hit-man who starts to develop a conscience, which causes him to muff a couple of routine assignments. On the advice of his secretary and his psychiatrist, he attends his 10th year High School reunion in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (a Detroit suburb where he's also contracted to kill someone). Hot on his tail are a couple of over-enthusiastic federal agents, another assassin who wants to kill him, and Grocer, an assassin who wants him to join an ‘Assassin's Union.’” Written by Afterburner </div>
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And he reunites with an old flame (Minnie as Debi Newberry, a local DJ). After arriving in the town and patching things up with Debi (Martin disappeared on her 10 years earlier when he went off into the military, and discovered a natural talent for killing people, eventually becoming a private contractor) and rekindles their relationship, he takes a look at his orders to discover that his intended target is Debi’s father (Mitchell Ryan, as Mr. Bart Newberry). He decides he’s not going to kill him as Debi would probably look unfavorably on such a corse of action. But Martin has competitors who suffer from no such qualms. For instance Dan Aykroyd as Grocer being the fiercest and a twidge, just a twidge, over-the-top. So Martin takes up the task of protecting Bart, while explaining to Debi all of what is going on. Is he successful? I’m not going to tell. I’ve already given freely <i>way</i> too much information as it is. You’ll just have to watch the movie and find out for yourselves. You can do that, can’t you? Of course you can. </div>
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Here’s some more information. John Cusack’s sister Joan plays his secretary. His other sister Ann is one of the reunion people with a baby. His brother Bill is in there somewhere (talk about nepotism), as well as the lovely and talented Jenna Elfman and the lovely and talented Hank Azaria. </div>
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Alan Arkin plays John’s pyschiatrist who feels threatened after Martin tells him what he does for a living. And Jeremy Piven is an old high school chum. </div>
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The film was directed by George Armitage (“Private Duty Nurses” “The Big Bounce” “Miami Blues”), and was well received by critics but didn’t make a whole hell of a lot of money ($31,070,412 on a budget of $15 million during its initial theatrical run) despite my having gone to see it in a theater about three times. </div>
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But the important thing to remember here is that Minnie had a good time making this film. </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZIVSs7IYx8"><i> Here</i></a> is a clip of Minnie, John, and sister Ann. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N3-AVJNueY"><i>Here’s</i></a> another one with just Minnie and John. And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WinsZdTm-a0"><i>one more</i></a> with John and Aykroyd.</div>
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In about three years or so, Minnie would work with Dick Cusack, John’s, Joan’s, Ann’s, and Bill’s dad, making her conquest of the Cusack family nearly complete (only former mathematics teacher and political activist mom Ann Paula Cusack and actress sister Susie would escape her mendacious clutches).</div>
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Minnie would provide the voice for Lady Eboshi in the English version of the animated historical fantasy war epic, “Princess Mononoke (original title “Mononoke-hime“).” </div>
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“Princess Mononoke” is set in the late Muromachi period (approximately 1336 to 1573) of Japan with fantasy elements. The story follows the young Emishi prince Ashitaka's involvement in a struggle between the gods of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The term "Mononoke" is not a name, but a Japanese word for a spirit or monster: supernatural, shape-shifting beings.”</div>
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Other actors involved with the English version are ex-sleeper, Billy Crudup. Billy Bob Thornton, Claire Danes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Scully, er, I mean Gillian Anderson, Keith David, and Tara Strong.</div>
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The IMDB lists this film as being released on December 19th, 1997, but Wikipedia tells me that the movie was only released in Japan in 1997 (where it was a critical and commercial blockbuster, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, and also held Japan's box office record for Japanese-made films until 2001's “Spirited Away,” another Hayao Miyazaki film (director)), and released in North America (after being dubbed into English) on October 29th, 1999. </div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_NYzSREIns"><i>Here’s</i></a> a 9 second clip with Minnie showing how to kill something while being perfectly still. </div>
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She appeared in the 12 minute short film, “Baggage,” with Juan Carlos Malpeli, and Liev Schreiber. </div>
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And then there’s this movie called “Good Will Hunting,” that was released on the 5th of December, 1997. </div>
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“When professors discover that an aimless janitor is also a math genius, a therapist helps the young man confront the demons that are holding him back.” </div>
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That’s how Netflix describes the film. </div>
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I would add that it was the courts that ordered the Will Hunting character (Matt Damon) into therapy as a condition of release to a distinguished M.I.T. mathematics professor (Stellan Skarsgård) due to Hunting inexplicably starting a fight (with his friends, Ben Affleck, Affleck’s brother Casey, and Cole Hauser) with another group of men (apparently this is what passes for fun in Boston, or “Several scholars have examined the film as a portrayal of residual Catholic–Protestant tensions in Boston, as Irish Catholics from Southie (South Boston, a densely populated neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, located south and east of the Fort Point Channel and abutting Dorchester Bay) are aligned against ostensibly Protestant characters who are affiliated with Harvard and MIT.” Hence, the fight is a mini-version of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. But this is not apparent while viewing the movie). When the police attempt to break it up Hunting hits one of them, thus his interaction with the courts. </div>
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The late Robin Williams plays the therapist, Sean, and Minnie plays Hunting’s love interest, Skylar. Matt’s dad, Kent Damon had a cameo as a chess player. Stephen Trouskie played an uncredited bystander. </div>
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Damon and Affleck are credited with writing the original screenplay (after a somewhat tortuous process) and won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for their efforts (beating out “As Good as It Gets,” “Boogie Nights” Woody Allen’s “Deconstructing Harry,” and “The Full Monty,” at the 70th Academy Awards.</div>
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Robin Williams won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, beating out Robert Forster for “Jackie Brown,” Anthony Hopkins for “Amistad,” Greg Kinnear for “As Good as it Gets,” and Burt Reynolds for “Boogie Nights.”</div>
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Our heroine got nominated for an award for Best Supporting Actress, along with Joan Cusack for “In & Out,” Julianne Moore for “Boogie Nights,” and Gloria Stuart for “Titanic.” Kim Basinger won for her work in “L.A. Confidential.”</div>
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Minnie was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role at the 4th SAG Awards.</div>
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Freaking Kim Basinger won again (actually she won this before the Academy Awards on March 8th, 1999. The Oscars were presented on March 23rd)!</div>
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The film itself was nominated for a total of 9 Academy Awards; Best Picture (losing to “Titanic “), Best Director (Gus Van Sant (“Drugstore Cowboy” “Finding Forrester” “Milk” James Cameron won for ”Titanic”), Best Actor (Matt. Jack Nicholson won for “As Good as it Gets”), Best Film Editing (Pietro Scalia), Best Original Score (Danny Elfman), Best Original Song (Elliott Smith (song "Miss Misery"), and Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Original Screenplay. </div>
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Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 97% based on 70 reviews and an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads: It follows a predictable narrative arc, but Good Will Hunting adds enough quirks to the journey – and is loaded with enough powerful performances – that it remains an entertaining, emotionally rich drama.</div>
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I agree. </div>
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“Good Will Hunting,” made a hell of a lot of money for the company that eventually produced it (after being shopped around practically everywhere else), Miramax, headed up at the time by future alleged serial sex offender, Harvey Weinstein. It grossed $138,433,435 in North America </div>
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and $87,500,000 everywhere else for a worldwide total of $225,933,435, on a production budget of $10,000,000. </div>
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The hope that this phenomena will be repeated is why producers bother to make movies. </div>
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So the film was a big success for everyone involved (especially Damon, whose career seemed to be going a little better than his friend Affleck at that time. Ben would eventually catch up, winning another Oscar for Best Picture (as a producer) in 2012 for “Argo”). Both actors were not completely unknown at the time as some have suggested. For Damon “Good Will Hunting,” was sandwiched between “The Rainmaker (directed by Francis Ford Coppola),” and “Saving Private Ryan (directed by Steven Spielberg).” And Affleck was working steadily. </div>
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In my opinion the screenplay was intricate, and strong. The acting was top notch. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kXAeKj3Fgw"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip.</div>
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Yet I really didn’t care for the film and was hesitant to watch it again (having first seen it when it was initially released). Why?</div>
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It’s rather simple. The Matt Damon character Will Hunting is a big pain in the ass and rather unlikable, so why should I care for him or about what happens to him? </div>
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I shouldn’t and didn’t. </div>
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He starts fights with people he doesn’t know. He’s a smart ass to practically everybody, especially those who are trying to help him. He treats Minnie’s character, Skylar, like shit. He treats her about as bad as Damon treated Minnie in real life (the two dated for about a year after making this film, with Damon breaking it off publicly while on Oprah (when asked his relationship status he said he was single, disavowing his relationship with Minnie. This was news to her (Minnie told the Los Angeles Times how she felt about the way he’d ended their relationship, and while she clearly held her tongue, she also was obviously not very happy. “ It’s unfortunate that Matt went on Oprah,” she said. t seemed like a good forum for him to announce to the world that we were no longer together, which I found fantastically inappropriate. Of course, he was busy declaring his love for me on David Letterman a month previously”). </div>
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I might as well mention this here. Minnie has never married, but she has been in some high-profile romances with the likes of actors John Cusack, Harrison Ford and David Schwimmer and rocker Mick Jagger (another thing Minnie and I have in common).</div>
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Minnie started dating Josh Brolin after working with him in straight-to-video flick “Slow Burn,” in 1998. In January 2001, they were engaged. However, they broke up in October supposedly due to her prospective mother-in-law’s interference in producing the wedding. </div>
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Later in 2001 she hooked up with the American singer and sometimes actor, Chris Isaak. The magician Criss Angel in 2006 -2007. </div>
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In and around 2007- 2008, Minnie had a short lived affair with the Australian television writer and producer Timothy J. Lea who worked on four episodes of the television show “The Riches,” which Minnie was working in at the time. Their liaison resulted in Minnie getting pregnant with her son, Henry Story Driver, who was born on September 5th, 2008 (She gave birth naturally at home after enduring a 25-hour labor. Henry weighed 9 lbs. 12 oz). Minnie kept the identity of Henry’s father secret until 2012.</div>
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In 2011 was in a relationship with American writer, producer, actor, and former model, Matthew Felker, which lasted until 2013. </div>
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I found this on the Internet machine: “Elliott Smith (2014) – In 2014, Driver was reported to be dating singer Elliott Smith after they were pictured holding hands while having lunch. Minnie first met Elliott while working in Good Will Hunting and thereafter became close friends. Elliot did the music for the movie.”</div>
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This entry onto the Internet machine is highly inaccurate. Elliot did not “do the music” for “Good Will Hunting.” Jenna’s uncle-in-law Danny Elfman did. Elliot wrote the song "Miss Misery," which was used in the film and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, losing to "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic, music by James Horner and Lyrics by Will Jennings. </div>
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And Elliot Smith died on October 21st, 2003 at the age of 34 from two possibly self-inflicted stab wounds to the chest.</div>
So someone needs to find out who it was that Minnie was holding hands with.<br />
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Minnie debuted a new relationship with American businessman and film producer, Ryan Kavanaugh (Relativity Media) at the Golden Globe Awards held in January of 2014, the same month Kavanaugh received a divorce from his ballet dancer wife, Britta Lazenga. Minnie and Ryan’s relationship (if indeed there ever was one) soon ended as Kavanaugh married model Jessica Roffey in 2015.</div>
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As for current relationships I have no further information. If she is indeed single right now there is hope for guys like me who think very highly of her. I’m 63 and she’s 49 as of today. We’re both 5‘10“, and have identical tattoos on our respective asses, and if she can go out with an old bastard like Harrison Ford I feel I still have a chance. </div>
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But probably not. She seems to prefer high profile men, and I’m very shy and adverse to publicity. </div>
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Back to “Good Will Hunting.”</div>
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The only thing that made Will Hunting (and what’s so “good” about him anyway?) vaguely interesting was the gimmick of him being a yet undiscovered super math genius (which in itself seems unlikely), and that only went so far. </div>
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Having watched it again my distaste for it remains. </div>
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Minnie was fantastic (Minnie is always fantastic). So was Matt, that’s why he was nominated for Best Actor. He played an asshole very well. If you were mean you might say it came naturally to him. Fortunately I’m a very nice man and would never say that about him.</div>
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Never. </div>
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Now Matt is on the surface a very likable person. He has a certain boyish quality that is appealing. He appears in cameos quite often, ofttimes poking fun at himself. (“Saturday Night Live” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HjoqoNyXBE"><i>The Cobert Report</i></a>”). </div>
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He appeared with two other of my very favorite actresses, Milana Vayntrub (Lilly, from the AT&T commercials, “This is Us” the subway rat woman in “Ghostbusters” and the classic “I Dunno” short) and Stevie Nelson (“Mad Men" “The 7 Worst Ways to Thank a Veteran" “Just Shut Up!") promoting water. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1kmOtdHcZ0"><i>Take a look</i></a>. </div>
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See how cute, funny, and concerned he is!</div>
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But Matt has a much darker side as you can plainly tell from his Bourne movies and “Suburbicon.” This man is a natural born killer. There’s just no getting around that.</div>
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He didn’t even give credit for his dad in “Good Will Hunting” for God’s sake! He could have done that!</div>
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A couple of years ago, following Weinstein’s outing as having molested up to 80 women, Matt was asked about how he felt about this, especially since he is the father of four girls (and remember, Harvey had a lot to do with getting both Matt and Affleck into the movie business). Matt had an interesting answer, attempting to put sexual abuse into some form of gradient system, maintaining certain acts are more acceptable than others.<a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/matt-damon-draws-backlash-comments-sexual-harassment-assault/story?id=51860137"><i> Here</i></a> he is talking about it.</div>
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Minnie, and another of my very favorite actresses (there are so many!), Alyssa Milano (“Who's the Boss?” “Fear” “Charmed”), took exception to Matt’s comments, and <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/minnie-driver-matt-damon-sexual-harassment-comment"><i>spoke publicly about it</i></a>.</div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjZXF16PFxQ"><i> Here’s</i></a> a synopsis of what happened. </div>
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Okay, we’re at 15 pages (you can’t see the pages but I can) and about 9,000 words (it takes so long to count them). I think we should take a little break, and give you time to digest all of the information that has been presented. </div>
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I will publish the thrilling conclusion of Minnie’s birthday tribute in a few days, but on this day, all of us here at Joyce’s Take wish you, Minnie, continued good health and fortune for you and your family, and wish you a very happy birthday!</div>
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Happy birthday Minnie Driver!</div>
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Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-49091906208715684892019-01-16T16:20:00.000-08:002019-01-23T23:20:22.679-08:00Human Trafficking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons, by the means of the threat or the use of force, or by others forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control of another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. -United Nations </div>
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I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents…. They are accidents and no one’s fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishments for concealed sins. And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul? ...to a monster, the norm must seem monstrous since everyone is normal to himself…. To a man born without conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. -John Steinbeck -“East of Eden,” p.71</div>
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Picture Legend:<br />
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1. Human Trafficking<br />
2. Sex Trafficking in Cambodia<br />
3. Child Soldiers in Uganda<br />
4. Organ Trafficking<br />
5. Labor Trafficking in Domestic Service<br />
6. Children Trafficked to Beg<br />
7. Labor Trafficking for Construction<br />
8. Labor Trafficking in Thailand<br />
9. Sex Trafficking in Germany<br />
10. Human Trafficking in the United States<br />
11. “Global Estimates of Modern Slavery,” 2017<br />
12. Peonage<br />
13. H-2A Visas<br />
14. Agricultural Worker Sexual and Labor Abuse<br />
15. Coalition of Immokalee Workers<br />
16. Magazine Sales Crew Bondage<br />
17. Thomas Dale DeLay<br />
18. Jack Allan Abramoff<br />
19. Northern Mariana Islands<br />
20. Rep. George Miller, D. CA<br />
21. Garment Industry Labor Trafficking<br />
22. Forced Marriage<br />
23. Massage Therapy Slaves<br />
24. Nail Salon Slaves<br />
25. Restaurant and Food Industry Trafficking<br />
26. Polaris<br />
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In Cambodia, five-year-old Srey was sold by her parents to a brothel. She was probably sold for somewhere between $10 and $100. The child was drugged to gain her compliance and passed from one customer to the next. This small child suffered months of abuse from pimps and sex tourists. At the age of six, Srey was rescued from the life of a sex slave by a former prostitute who ran victim shelters for Cambodia’s rescued children. Somaly Mam, who runs the shelter, describes Srey as “timid, quiet, and damaged.” The child was diagnosed as HIV positive and suffering from pneumonia and tuberculosis. Other children at the shelter with Srey may be even more traumatized. One child who had been imprisoned for two years in a cage where she was repeatedly raped is suffering from profound psychological trauma. </div>
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In 2001, 27-year-old Sergey from Perm in Russia responded to an advertisement in a local newspaper for a job in construction work in Spain. The job agency promised a salary of US$1,200 per month, six times more than Sergey’s monthly salary of $200 in Perm. Sergey’s application was accepted and the agency paid for his plane ticket to Madrid on the condition that the money would be paid back when Sergey started work. Upon arrival, Sergey was met by someone from the agency who took his passport, brought him to Portugal, and forced him to work on a construction site for several months without pay. Sergey was held captive behind a barb-wire fence. He finally managed to escape and “begged his way to Germany.” Because he had no passport, Sergey was arrested by the German authorities who, according to Sergey, “beat him and took away what little money he had before deporting him to Russia.” Sergey is back home but traumatized by his experience. He reportedly is suffering from psychological problems and was unable to work for several months. </div>
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Sixteen year old Susan, abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, reported the following:</div>
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One boy tried to escape, but he was caught. They made him eat a mouthful of red pepper, and five people were beating him. His hands were tied, and then they made us, the other new captives, kill him with a stick. I felt sick. I knew this boy from before. We were from the same village. I refused to kill him and they told me they would shoot me. They pointed a gun at me, so I had to do it. The boy was asking me, “Why are you doing this?” I said I had no choice. After we killed him, they made us smear his blood on our arms. I felt dizzy. There was another dead body nearby, and I could smell the body. I felt so sick. They said we had to do this so we would not fear death and so we would not try to escape.</div>
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I feel so sad about the things that I did... It disturbs me so much--that I inflicted death on other people... When I go home I must do some traditional rites because I have killed. I must perform these rites and cleanse myself. I still dream about the boy from my village who I killed. I see him in my dreams, and he is talking to me and saying I killed him for nothing, and I am crying. -Human Rights Watch (1997).</div>
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John Allan (formerly Mohammed Gheit), 59, and Hassan Zakhalka, 32 persuaded developmentally challenged or mentally ill Arabs from the Galilee region and central Israel to sell a kidney. By placing ads in the newspaper offering money for organ donations, the pair was able to identify potential donors. They gave false information and pressured and threatened the donors to give up their kidney. Following the surgery, the organ brokers refused to pay the donors as promised. </div>
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Henriette was 15 when she was taken by a friend of the family from Togo to work and attend school in Paris. She ended up working as a domestic servant from early morning until late at night and was forced to eat table scraps and sleep on the floor. At the age of 12, Malik was taken from Niger to Mali under the pretense that he would attend a religious school. Instead he was forced to beg on the streets for long hours. Forty two year old Robert was forced to work eight months long, for sometimes 18 hours a day with limited food and no pay in the construction industry in Armenia. Maria, age 16, was tricked by a friend into traveling from her home town in Romania to Bucharest where she was sold into prostitution and kept in line through the threat of beatings. Two 16-year-old Thai boys, Top and Wirat, were drugged, kidnaped, and forced to work under inhumane conditions on a fishing boat off the coast of Thailand for nine months with little food and no pay. Thirty-nine-year-old Lucy was showered with compliments and gifts in her native Kenya. When she traveled to Germany to be with her German “boyfriend,” he forced her into prostitution. </div>
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These are stories of real people. They come from different parts of the world. They differ in age and gender. The jobs they are forced to do vary. But they share one thing in common. They were exploited -- victims of human trafficking. - “Human Trafficking, Human Misery, The Global Trade in Human Beings,” Alexis A. Aronowitz</div>
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A report issued last September attempted to encapsulate the depth of the problem of modern human trafficking and slavery. </div>
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“We now have the largest number of slaves on Earth than we’ve had in human history,” said Andrew Forrest, founder of the Walk Free Foundation, an organization working to end contemporary slavery and human trafficking which co-authored <a href="http://www.alliance87.org/global_estimates_of_modern_slavery-forced_labour_and_forced_marriage-executive_summary.pdf"><i>“Global Estimates of Modern Slavery” </i></a>with the International Labor Organization, or ILO.</div>
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“But we also feel equally as confident that we have the weapons now, we have the communications skills, we have the interest to raise it to public attention,” Forrest said. “As soon as the public becomes aware that slavery exists among them they can ask the question when they’are at the teller, or when they’re at the shops, or when they’re buying clothes, how can I be sure that this clothing, this seafood, this product wasn’t made by slaves? And with that question frees a slave.”</div>
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Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world after drugs, generating approximately $150 billion in profits, according to the ILO. </div>
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The report estimates that “40.3 million people were victims of modern slavery in 2016. In other</div>
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words, on any given day in 2016, there were likely to be more than 40 million men, women, and children who were being forced to work against their will under threat or who were living in a forced marriage that they had not agreed to.</div>
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Of these 40.3 million victims:</div>
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▪ 24.9 million people were in forced labor. That is, they were being forced to work under threat or coercion as domestic workers, on construction sites, in clandestine factories, on farms and fishing boats, in other sectors, and in the sex industry. They were forced to work by private individuals and groups or by state authorities. In many cases, the products they made and the services they provided ended up in seemingly legitimate commercial channels. Forced laborers produced some of the food we eat and the clothes we wear, and they have cleaned the buildings in which many of us live or work.</div>
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▪ 15.4 million people were living in a forced marriage to which they had not consented. That is, they were enduring a situation that involved having lost their sexual autonomy and often involved providing labor under the guise of “marriage.” </div>
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Women and girls (the 2nd weakest among us and the 2nd least able to defend themselves) are disproportionately affected by modern slavery, accounting for 28.7 million, or 71 per cent of the overall total. More precisely, women and girls represent 99 per cent of victims of forced labor in the commercial sex industry and 58 per cent in other sectors, 40 per cent of victims of forced labor imposed by state authorities, and 84 per cent of victims of forced marriages. One in four victims of modern slavery were children (the weakest among us and the least able to defend themselves). Some 37 per cent (5.7 million) of those forced to marry were children. Children represented 18 per cent of those subjected to forced labor exploitation and 7 per cent of people forced to work by state authorities. Children who were in commercial sexual exploitation (where the victim is a child, there is no requirement of force) represented 21 per cent of total victims in this category of abuse. Over the five years of the reference period used in these estimates, a total of nearly 90 million people were in any of the forms of modern slavery for at least a few days. The average length of time victims were in forced labor varied from a few days or weeks in some forms imposed by state authorities to nearly two years for forced sexual exploitation. </div>
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Modern slavery occurred in every region of the world. Modern slavery was most prevalent in Africa (7.6 per 1,000 people), followed by Asia and the Pacific (6.1 per 1,000) then Europe and Central Asia (3.9 per 1,000). These results should be interpreted cautiously due to lack of available data in some regions, notably the Arab States and the Americas. For forced labor specifically, the prevalence is highest in Asia and the Pacific, where four out of every 1,000 people were victims, followed by Europe and Central Asia (3.6 per 1,000), Africa (2.8 per 1,000), the Arab States (2.2 per 1,000) and the Americas (1.3 per 1,000). While noting limits of the data in key regions, particularly the Arab States, the data suggests prevalence of forced marriage is highest in Africa (4.8 per 1,000), followed by Asia and the Pacific (2.0 per 1,000).”</div>
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Modern slavery is not a problem that is exclusive to other countries, such as shrimp shelling factories in Thailand, brothels and sex tourism in Mexico, the Philippines, and Japan, and begging children in India. The practices of slavery and human trafficking are prevalent in modern America with an estimated 17,500 foreign nationals and 200,000 Americans being trafficked into and within the United States every year with 80% of those being women and children. </div>
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Labor trafficking is defined by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victims_of_Trafficking_and_Violence_Protection_Act_of_2000"><i>Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000</i></a> as “The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery and is most frequently reported in domestic work, restaurants, peddling rings, and sales crews.” </div>
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Peonage, which is also referred to as debt slavery or debt servitude, is a system where an employer (which could be anyone from a farmer with a large agricultural concern to a madam in a brothel) compels a worker to pay off a debt with work. In some cases, employers advanced workers some pay or initial transportation costs (the alluded cost of getting from a “Source Country,” where victims are recruited or coerced into being trafficked, to “Destination Countries,” countries where these victims are exploited. (Those who fall prey to human trafficking tend to be the most vulnerable -- usually the socially deprived characterized by low income, poor education, and lack of employment. These are typically circumstances of the poor -- even though available data shows that it is not necessarily the poorest people in a country who are trafficked. Research, however, shows that many of the victims assisted by international organizations and non-government agencies (NGOs) invariably come from some of the most poverty stricken countries (for example, Bangladesh, Mali, Moldova, and Nepal).</div>
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Extensive research has been undertaken and victim support provided in Southeast Europe. There it is shown that trafficked victims come from the poorer countries of the region -- Albania, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Romania. Albania and Moldova are the poorest in the region and are also primary source countries for trafficked persons. In South Asia, Bangladesh and Nepal (two of the region’s most poverty-stricken countries) are the major source countries. Poverty is seen as the key factor in human trafficking in West and Central Africa and for rural trafficking in China). Source countries tend to be poor, with little or no economic opportunity for its citizens, and destination countries tend to be wealthy. Dominican women are trafficked to Montenegro for commercial sexual exploitation, while Russian students were trafficked to the United States for labor exploitation and forced to sell ice cream. Zambian girls were trafficked to Ireland and Kenyan women were trafficked to Mexico for commercial sexual exploitation. Vietnamese children are trafficked to the United kingdom for forced involvement with drug smuggling and Filipino women are trafficked to Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) for commercial sexual exploitation. Thai men are trafficked to the United States for labor exploitation and debt bondage, Chinese women are trafficked to Afghanistan (which is an exception to the trend of source and destination countries, Afghanistan being one of the poorest nations on the planet. It’s my belief that cultural tendencies regarding women in Afghanistan make prostitutes much sought after) for sexual exploitation. Children in Burma were trafficked into armed conflict), and workers willingly agreed to work without pay in order to pay it off. Sometimes those debts were quickly paid off, and a fair wage worker/employer relationship was established. In many more cases in which slavery is apparent, workers became indebted to planters (through sharecropping loans), merchants (through credit. One could make an argument that the $1 trillion plus (since June) of <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Business/credit-card-debt-surpasses-trillion-us-time/story?id=53608548"><i>commercial credit card debt in the United States</i></a>, and student loan debt, approximately $1.48 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 44 million borrowers, is a state sanctioned form of peonage, or debt bondage, and that one making the argument would be right. One could also argue that credit card debt and student loan debt are forms of self imposed debt, and that one would be right as well), or company stores (through living expenses). Workers were often unable to re-pay the debt, and found themselves in a continuous work-without-pay cycle for the remainder of eternity. Often in some countries a debt will become transgenerational, with descendents working to pay off the debt of their forefathers. </div>
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Here is a particularly insidious example of transgenerational debt bondage: </div>
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Raman was born at the same brick kiln site in India where his father and grandfather had worked their entire lives to pay off a debt incurred by his grandfather. For 15 years, Raman and his family earned 3 rupees (2 cents) per 80 kilogram bag of bricks to pay off the $450US advanced by the brick kiln manager. They were beaten with sticks and hit by the owner if they were not working hard enough or producing enough bricks. They could not leave, because the brick kiln owner threatened to hunt them down and beat them or bribe the police into arresting them. </div>
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Back in the United States, in the agriculture sector, the most common victims of trafficking are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, undocumented immigrants, and foreign nationals with temporary H-2A visas (an H-2A visa allows a foreign national entry into the United States for temporary or seasonal agricultural work). </div>
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Due to the nature of agricultural work being seasonal and transient, the ability of employers to exploit these workers is high. Such exploitation may take the form of threats of violence and playing on vulnerabilities (i.e. immigration status). In some cases, workers are held in a state of perpetual debt to the crew leaders who impose mandatory transportation, housing and communication fees upon the workers which are high in relation to pay received, therefore further indebting the worker. Crew leaders may also provide workers with H-2A visas and transportation to the place of work from a home (source) country.</div>
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In 2010, the company Global Horizons, a US-based labor recruiting company, and two Thailand-based recruiters, were indicted on charges of forced labor. The US Justice Department’s criminal charges alleged the defendants brought hundreds of Thai workers to the US from 2001 to 2007 to work on farms across the country and conspired to hold these workers in forced labor. The indictment alleged that the defendants caused the workers to believe that if they did not work for the defendants, they could be arrested and deported. The defendants allegedly confiscated the Thai nationals’ passports after their arrival in the US. Three defendants plead guilty in June of 2011. On July 20th, 2012, a federal judge dismissed the case, after the prosecutors requested dismissal because they believed they could not prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.</div>
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In April 2011, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed two related civil lawsuits. The first was filed in Hawaii federal court against Global Horizons and six local farms (Captain Cook Coffee, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Kauai Coffee, Kelena Farms, MacFarms of Hawaii and Maui Pineapple Farms). The second lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington state against Global Horizons and two farms in that state (Green Acre Farms, Valley Fruit Orchards). In these suits, EEOC alleged that Global Horizons trafficked over 200 men from Thailand between 2003 and 2007 to work at the farms in Washington and Hawaii. The complaint alleged that the companies subjected Thai workers to mistreatment, intimidation, harassment and inhumane working conditions. Between July and September of 2011 the defendant farms in Hawaii filed motions to dismiss the suit, claiming EEOC had not alleged sufficient facts to support its claims. In October 2011, EEOC requested a stay of the proceedings until after the completion of the Global Horizons criminal trial. On November 2nd, 2011, the federal court dismissed the complaint filed against the six defendant farms but allowed that EEOC could re-file their claims. </div>
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On March 24th, 2014, a federal judge held Global Horizons and Maui Pineapples liable for discriminating and abusing hundreds of Thai workers. In June 2014, the parties announced that Captain Cook Coffee, Del Monte Fresh Produce, Kauai Coffee, Kelena Farms, and MacFarms of Hawaii had reached an out of court settlement. In December 2014, in the district court of Hawaii, the judge ruled that Global Horizons and Maui Pineapples should pay $12.3 million in damages to 82 claimants.</div>
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On April 26, 2016, a federal judge ruled that Global Horizons should pay $7,658,500 in damages to the claimants that suffered discrimination, harassment and mistreatment.</div>
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Ronald Evans <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/florida-farm-workers-tell-how-drugs-debt-bind-them-in-modern-slavery/1229662"><i>recruited homeless men from shelters</i></a>, forced them to work on his farm, and kept them in debt by selling them beer and overpriced and highly addictive crack cocaine on credit. The men would be lured from Miami with promises of a decent wage, hot meals, and a place to stay. Instead, they were forced to work on one of Ronald Evan’s work camps in northeast Florida or North Carolina. When police raided the east Palatka, Florida, camp in June of 2005, they found 148 individually wrapped crack cocaine rocks -- one nights supply. Evans was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.</div>
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When Alejandrina Carrera first came to the United States from Mexico 20 years ago, a migrant farmworker in search of a better life. She was just 14 years old, scared, vulnerable, and alone.</div>
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"I was very young, I didn't have my father or mother, no one," she says.</div>
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Carrera says she found work on a farm, and it wasn't long before her supervisor tried to take advantage of her. He promised her an easier job inside a warehouse. But as soon as she got in his truck, she says, he drove to a remote part of the farm and tried to force her to have sex with him.</div>
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"He told me if we don't do this the easy way, we'll do it the hard way. I was afraid and trembling," she says.</div>
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Now 35, Carrera recalls with gratitude the farmworker who heard her screams and rescued her before she could be raped. She also remembers how they both were fired the next day.</div>
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Protections against that type of labor abuse against migrant workers in the United States were virtually non-existent in the 1990's.</div>
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"No one knew anything about rights," Carrera says. "We didn't seek out what our worker rights were. We just accepted everything they told us and just did our jobs." </div>
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In 1993, a group of American activists and migrant farmworkers decided to change that. They founded the <a href="https://ciw-online.org/about/"><i>Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)</i></a>, a non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to improving the wages and working conditions of migrant farmworkers.</div>
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The organization is named after the migrant town of Immokalee, Florida, the epicenter of tomato production in the United States. Ninety-percent of all winter tomatoes consumed in the US come from Florida. Immokalee also used to be known as ground zero for modern day slavery (Immokalee was once home to some of the most brutal atrocities against human rights in the United States. Since 1997, the Justice Department has prosecuted seven slavery cases in Florida, four involving tomato harvesters. More than 1,200 people have been freed from agricultural slavery rings in Florida during the last 10 to 15 years. Workers tell stories of brutal beatings, being shackled in chains at night, no regular pay for work, housing where 20 pickers share one mobile home and are each charged upwards of $200 per month in rent. Yes, per person. No shade in the fields, no breaks for meals, 10 to 12 hour workdays, seven days a week. With financial obligations and no way to escape).</div>
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Farms and fishing boats have long been some the world's least-regulated workplaces, says Laura Germino, who coordinates the anti-slavery campaign for the CIW.</div>
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"There's always been a big imbalance of power between workers and employers in [U.S.] agriculture," says Germino, noting that farm workers were initially excluded from minimum wage requirements. "So agricultural labor is one of the sectors where you see trafficking occurring the most. And [overseas], it's not going to be any different."</div>
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The CIW is a worker-based human rights organization internationally recognized for its achievements in the fields of social responsibility, human trafficking, and gender-based violence at work. Built on a foundation of farmworker community organizing, and reinforced with the creation of a national consumer network since 2000, CIW’s work has steadily grown over more than twenty five years to encompass three broad and overlapping spheres:</div>
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1. The Fair Food Program</div>
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2. The Campaign for Fair Food</div>
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3. Anti-Slavery Program</div>
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On any given day, the fruit and vegetables we eat or drink may have been picked by workers in involuntary servitude. Men and women are held against their will by their employers through the use of violence – including beatings, shootings, and pistol-whippings – threats of violence, and coercion. </div>
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The CIW’s <a href="http://ciw-online.org/slavery/"><i>Anti-Slavery Program</i></a> has uncovered, investigated, and assisted in the prosecution of numerous multi-state, multi-worker farm slavery operations across the Southeastern U.S., helping liberate over 1,200 workers held against their will. The U.S. Department of State credits the CIW with “pioneering” the worker-centered and multi-sectoral approach to prosecutions, and hails the CIW’s work on some of the earliest cases as the “spark” that ignited today’s national anti-slavery movement. </div>
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The CIW’s <a href="http://ciw-online.org/fair-food-program/"><i>Fair Food Program (FFP)</i></a> is a partnership among farmers, farmworkers, and retail food companies that ensures humane wages and working conditions for the workers who pick fruits and vegetables on participating farms. It harnesses the power of consumer demand to give farmworkers a voice in the decisions that affect their lives, and to eliminate the longstanding abuses that have plagued agriculture for generations.</div>
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With the advent of the FFP, the CIW reached the goal of prevention. Rather than cleaning up abuse after the fact. Worker education and monitoring backed by market consequences, enforceable zero tolerance resulted in FFP farms having zero cases of forced labor in a five-year period. In a region and an industry with an uninterrupted 300-year history of forced labor, from chattel slavery to convict leasing, debt bondage, and modern-day slavery operations, this is a remarkable transformation. In three crops and seven states, the FFP is an undisputed success. </div>
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The FFP has been called “the best workplace-monitoring program” in the US by the New York Times, and “one of the great human rights success stories of our day” in the Washington Post.</div>
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The CIW’s national <a href="http://ciw-online.org/campaign-for-fair-food/"><i>Campaign for Fair Food (CFF)</i></a> educates consumers on the issue of farm labor exploitation, its causes and solutions, and forges alliances between farmworkers and consumers in an effort to enlist the market power of major corporate buyers to help end that exploitation. Since 2001, farmworkers have partnered with people of faith, students, and communities all over the country to win respect for workers from some of the largest corporations in the world.</div>
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The Campaign has combined creative, on-the-ground actions with cutting edge online organizing to win Fair Food Agreements with fourteen multi-billion dollar food retailers, including Walmart, Ahold USA, McDonald’s, Subway, and Compass Group, establishing more humane farm labor standards and fairer wages for farmworkers in their tomato suppliers’ operations. Alongside farmworkers and 90% of tomato growers, participating buyers are a key part of the Fair Food Program. Through the Program, these buyers support a wage increase through paying an additional penny per pound and require a human-rights-based Code of Conduct to be implemented on the farms that grow their tomatoes. Not only does the FFP make a substantial difference for workers’ wages, but it transforms the labor environment in Florida’s fields into a workplace rooted in mutual respect and basic dignity for farmworkers.</div>
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With the four largest fast-food companies (McDonald’s, Yum Brands, Burger King, and Subway) and three largest food service providers (Compass Group, Aramark, and Sodexo) having signed Fair Food agreements with the CIW, the focus now falls squarely on the $550 billion supermarket industry and the final major players of the fast food industry. In addition to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, who respectively joined the Program in 2008 and 2012, the CIW signed agreements with Walmart (2014), The Fresh Market (2015) and Ahold USA (2015). It’s time now for the country’s other major grocery chains and final fast food hold-outs to sign up an join the movement (because if the continue not to do so what is it that they are saying about themselves? That they are pro-slavery and inhumane working conditions? Or they can’t afford the extra penny? We shall see). </div>
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In total, the CIW’s work has gained national and international recognition, including the 2015 Presidential Award for Extraordinary Efforts in Combating Modern Day Slavery from President Obama, the 2010 Trafficking in Persons Hero Award from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2007 Anti-Slavery Award from Anti-Slavery International of London, a 2005 commendation from FBI Director Robert Mueller, and the 2003 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award from the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. </div>
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Kumari Indunil, age 23, a trafficked domestic worker in Kuwait was forced to work as much as 20 hours a day with no free time off. When she asked her employer for time to rest, she was told, “You have come to work; you are like my shoes, and you have to work tirelessly.” Conditions declined and her employers refused to pay her salary and refused to return her to the employment agency in Kuwait. The employer’s husband began beating her and pulling her hair. “He went to the kitchen and took a knife and told me he would kill me, cut me up into little pieces, and put the little pieces of me into the cupboard.”</div>
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A couple in Texas smuggled a 12-year-old girl from Mexico under the pretense of using her as a babysitter. She ended up becoming their domestic slave, deprived of school and having to sleep on the floor. The child was told she could not return to Mexico and was physically abused by the wife. Only after the local sheriff responded to a call involving a drug overdose was the child found and rescued. After pleading guilty, the couple were sentenced to 33 and 84 months in prison and ordered to pay $28,822 restitution to the victim.</div>
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In another case, defendants running karaoke bars in Saipan worked with recruiters and brokers to bring Chinese women to the Northern Mariana Islands under the pretense of working in restaurants. Instead, the women were saddled with large debts, forced into prostitution, physically threatened, and subjected to violence. The two defendants were sentenced to 33 and 78 months in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $22,200 and $25,200 to two victims, and fined an additional $55,000.</div>
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Domestic servitude is the forced employment of someone as a maid or nanny, and victims are often migrant women who come from low-wage communities in their home countries. Domestic workers perform duties such as cleaning, cooking and childcare in their employers home. Domestic workers are often US citizens, undocumented workers or foreign nationals most commonly holding one of the following visa types: A-3, G-5, NATO-7 or B-1. </div>
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The most common victims of this type of trafficking are women. Similar means of control to agricultural Work are common. Additionally, a lack of legislation regarding the duties and protection of these workers facilitates their exploitation. Employers commonly use the workers lack of knowledge of the language or legal system as a means of control and intimidation. This is also commonly paired with various forms of abuse and/or threats of passport revocation. Many domestic workers are brought to the United States on a promise of a better life or an education. Traffickers are usually married couples from the same country of origin as the trafficked person, and are usually not involved in organized criminal networks, making it more difficult to identify instances of this type of trafficking. Perpetrators of domestic servitude are often well-respected members of their communities and lead otherwise normal lives. Areas with large middle-class and upper-middle-class populations are commonly the destinations of this type of trafficking.</div>
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Legally employed domestic workers are distinct from illegally employed domestic servants. While legally employed domestic house workers are fairly compensated for their work in accordance with national wage laws, domestic servants are typically forced to work extremely long hours for little to no monetary compensation, and psychological and physical means are employed to limit their mobility and freedom. In addition, deportation threats are often used to discourage internationally trafficked persons from seeking assistance from authorities. </div>
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It’s a testament to their salesmanship that in the time it took to consume one Waffle House meal in Columbus, Ohio, a table of door-to-door itinerant magazine sales crew members convinced their 25-year-old server, Johnathan Terrell Stewart, to quit his job in May of 2014, leave home without telling his family and join them on the road.</div>
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A few weeks later, police in Maryland called Stewart’s grandmother to tell her that he had been found dead in a motel room. It was a heroin overdose, the family learned from the autopsy report they eventually received, but they know little else about what happened to him. Eight months later, police still won’t release any information about their investigation into his death. His body was shipped home shirtless, in jeans and tennis shoes; all of his belongings, including his wallet and cell phone, disappeared along with his crew, whose names remains unknown.</div>
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When magazine crew workers become victims of tragic accidents or violent crimes, they’re often thousands of miles from home, which makes it difficult for their families to get information about their cases, which may often involve foul play. Since their door-to-door jobs are by nature itinerant, they roam the streets, trying to sell magazine subscriptions to the public in town after town.</div>
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It is also a job that, many say, leaves crew members open to serious abuse. There is a long list of persistent mag crew-related problems, which usually generate only local news attention — disappearances, rapes, assaults, van rollover accidents, abandonments and suspicious deaths. Successful civil lawsuits against mag crew company owners haven’t done much to curb the industry’s labor abuses, and because of jurisdictional restrictions, local police in most states can do little other than arrest sales agents for selling without proper permits.</div>
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On a personal note, while looking for employment when I was in my early twenties, I answered an ad to sell magazines in cities far away from Los Angeles, where I lived. I went to an interview and was met by an ordinary, unprepossessing looking, middle-aged woman, sitting behind a folding table, in a small room. We spoke for a few minutes, her telling me what the job entailed, which was to join a sales team of other young people in cities far away from Los Angeles, and sell magazine subscriptions, all expenses paid (board, food, transportation, etc.). If I remember correctly I agreed to take the job, left, and never came back. I wasn’t keen on leaving L.A., and I thought the whole offer was slightly suspicious. I think it was that folding table that set off an alarm in my head. So I may have, and probably did, escape from a form of human slavery, which many others, unfortunately, have not. </div>
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Traveling sales crews have the highest rate of calls to human trafficking hot lines after domestic labor (counting from January 2008 to February 2015). The mobile nature makes it easier for traffickers to control their victims' sleeping arrangements and food and to alienate them from outside contact. Traffickers may withhold food or threaten to abandon their victims in unfamiliar locations without money if they do not comply. Unlike other professions, members of traveling sales crews are considered independent contractors even if they do not have any autonomy in their life outside of work. As independent contractors, they are not overseen by several laws meant to prevent abuse, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Victims often incur debt from their traffickers, and enter into a form of debt slavery.</div>
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On March 26th, 2009, the state of Wisconsin passed<a href="https://www.twincities.com/2015/08/16/fatal-crash-left-permanent-scars-exposed-abusive-%20industry/"><i> Malinda's Traveling Sales Crew Protection Act</i></a> (named after an 18 year old girl (Malinda Turvey) who was killed along with six other young kids while selling magazines door-to-door in Wisconsin on March 25th, 1999), which is a Wisconsin law that gives traveling sales crew members similar employment rights as part-time workers in Wisconsin which are currently guaranteed by state law. It also requires all crews to register with the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection before going door to door in state communities. By registering members of the crew, alerts for members with outstanding warrants in other states can be distributed and criminals identified and detained. It is the only law in the United States that regulates traveling sales crews. Wisconsin governor James E. Doyle said the intent of the law is to "stop companies from putting workers in dangerous and unfair conditions." The bill was passed in a form that applies only to sales workers who travel in groups of two or more. It was authored by Jon Erpenbach. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwestern_Advantage"><i>Southwestern Advantage </i></a>(a multi-level marketing company that recruits and trains college and university students as independent contractors to sell educational books, software, and website subscriptions door-to-door using direct selling methods) lobbied against the bill, arguing that their independent contractor business model nurtured the entrepreneurial spirit. During the hearings, former Southwestern student dealers testified on both sides of the issue, the result being Malinda's Traveling Sales Crew Protection Act' became active law on April 10th, 2010.</div>
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Thomas Dale DeLay, a former Houston exterminator, whose hatred of E.P.A. pesticide regulations sparked his political career in 1978, became a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1985 until 2006. He was the Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 through 2005, until he stepped down as Speaker of the House after being indicted on conspiracy charges by a grand jury in Travis County, Texas, on September 28th, 2005 (On April 3rd, 2006, three days after a former aide, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty to various charges of corruption relating to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff_Indian_lobbying_scandal"><i>Jack Abramoff scandal</i></a>, DeLay announced that he would withdraw from the 2006 race and not run for re-election, effective June 9th of that year).</div>
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Jack Allan Abramoff is an American lobbyist, businessman, movie producer and writer. He was at the center of an extensive corruption investigation that led to his conviction, and to 21 other people either pleading guilty or being found guilty, including White House officials J. Steven Griles and David Safavian, U.S. Representative Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and Congressional aides.</div>
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The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), is an insular area and commonwealth of the United States consisting of 15 islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. The CNMI includes all islands in the Mariana Archipelago except Guam which is the southernmost island of the chain and a separate U.S. territory. Along with Guam, it is the westernmost point (in terms of jurisdiction) and territory of the United States.</div>
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The islands’ past exemption from U.S. labor laws led to many alleged incidents of exploitation, including claims of sweatshops, child labor, child prostitution, and forced abortions. </div>
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The following is from "Sex, Greed And Forced Abortions" written by Rebecca Clarren (May 9, 2006). </div>
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A naked Mongolian woman in a blond wig grinds her body around a silver pole. As music pounds through the small room, disco lights reveal an overweight, graying man in a Hawaiian shirt sitting in the corner, rubbing the thighs of another of the club’s dancers.</div>
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Outside this Saipan nightclub, scantily-clad Chinese girls, their hair dyed red or blond, sit on cheap white plastic chairs. “You want massage?” they call out to the Asian businessmen and U.S. Navy sailors who frequent the club.</div>
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“I can get you lots of Chinese girls,” says a man with one long fingernail, who calls himself Free. “You can take a girl back to her room and do whatever you want to her. All night.”</div>
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One would imagine that Tom DeLay, a right-wing Christian, would be appalled by the teeming red-light district of Saipan, the main island in the Micronesian chain of the Northern Marianas. Or Jack Abramoff, an Orthodox Jew. Yet these two men have been among the strongest supporters of an exploitative labor and immigration system on Saipan that has helped fuel not just this sex tourism, but work arrangements that are tantamount to indentured servitude.</div>
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When asked about reports of forced prostitution and labor abuses, DeLay told the Galveston County Daily News in May 2005: “Sure, when you get this number of people, there are stories of sexual exploitation. But in interviewing these employees one-on-one, there was no evidence of any of that going on. No evidence of sweatshops as portrayed by the national media. It’s a beautiful island with beautiful people who are happy about what’s happening.”</div>
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No evidence? DeLay’s support persisted even when a Department of Interior report documented that workers in Saipan’s garment factories were coerced into having unwanted abortions. The damage continues to this day, even though both men have been stripped of their power.</div>
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The Northern Mariana Islands are a U.S. territory, and thus subject to most U.S. laws. But the 30,000 “guest workers” there—predominately women from China, the Philippines, and Thailand who sew clothing for top-name American brands, which are then allowed to label them “Made in Saipan (USA),” “Made in Northern Mariana Islands (USA)," or simply “Made in USA”—are not covered by U.S. minimum-wage and immigration laws.</div>
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At its peak, the factories in the Northern Marianas annually exported garments worth $2 billion retail to the U.S. Considering that the success of the industry was tied closely to its low wages and exploitative guest worker program—and the fact that it was exempt from tariffs or quotas on exports to the U.S. mainland—it’s not surprising that both the Marianas’ government and the garment manufacturers have fought long and hard to maintain the deal.</div>
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So they hired Jack Abramoff, the formerly high-flying Republican lobbyist. First at the Washington, D.C., law offices of Preston, Gates, Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds and later at Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff and his team brought in nearly $11 million in fees from the Northern Marianas government and Saipan garment manufacturers to block Congressional efforts to raise the minimum wage and eliminate the islands’ exemptions from U.S. immigration laws. His efforts focused on the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over U.S. territories. And he also cultivated powerful allies in the House leadership—notably Tom DeLay, who, as majority whip at the time, could keep a bill off the House floor even if the Resources Committee voted in its favor.</div>
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One of Abramoff’s favorite tactics for influencing Congress was to arrange Saipan junkets for members of Congress and their staffers. As many as 100 people connected to the U.S. Congress—members themselves or their staffers—traveled to the islands. Among the islands’ visitors were DeLay, his wife and daughter and six of his aides. DeLay would later tell The Washington Post: “[The islands are] a perfect petri dish of capitalism.”</div>
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Meanwhile, the garment industry on Saipan has begun to decline with the expiration of worldwide quotas on apparel exports to the United States. Garment makers are moving off Saipan to even lower-wage countries such as China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Desperate to earn money and pay back their recruitment fees, some unemployed garment workers have found themselves turning to another lucrative industry on Saipan: sex tourism. There are no reliable statistics, but an estimated 90 percent of the island’s prostitutes are former garment workers.</div>
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When Ms. contacted DeLay during its investigation, his spokesman Michael Connolly said, “He stands by the things he has said in the past and he stands by the votes he’s made that pertain to the islands.”</div>
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Rep. George Miller, D.-Calif., who has championed efforts to raise the minimum wage in Saipan, hopes that the recent indictment of Abramoff offers a chance for real change in the Marianas. He has requested that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the House Resources Committee chair, Richard Pombo, R.-Calif., launch a full investigation of Abramoff’s dealings in the Marianas.</div>
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“It’s so ironic that people who talk about themselves as having family values are allowing these guest workers to be exploited in the harshest possible ways,” says Miller. “Their money and lobbying allowed the continuation of the worst of human behavior.</div>
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Since leaving Congress, along with tending to his legal troubles, Tom DeLay has co-authored (with Stephen Mansfield) a political memoir, “No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight,” given media interviews (primarily regarding politics), begun a personal blog, opened an official Facebook page (written in the third-person), become active on Twitter (written in the first-person), and appeared on the ninth season of <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2a694c"><i>“Dancing with the Stars,” </i></a>the highly watched ABC television reality show.</div>
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Jack Abramoff returned to lobbying since his release from prison, having attempted to arrange meetings between then President-elect Donald Trump and foreign leaders. He is registered as a lobbyist. He now speaks out against Washington, D.C. corruption and the Lobbying community.</div>
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Have labor conditions improved since the abuses mentioned above were brought to light to the mainland American public and federal legislators?</div>
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Unfortunately, they have not. As a matter of fact, under the Trump administration they have gotten worse. </div>
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From a report by David North on July 30th, 2018 for the Center for Immigration Studies:</div>
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The federal government — as it has for decades — has once again made the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, just North of Guam, a really cushy place for the employers of foreign workers.</div>
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Congress and the president have decided that the old foreign worker ceiling of 4,999 was too low, and that it should be more than doubled to 13,000. The ceiling is just for those with the CNMI-only work permit; there are also a handful of workers in the islands with federal permits, such as H-1B. Aliens on the CW-1 visas have no path to citizenship, and are thus without any political influence, as we have reported earlier.</div>
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The labor market in the Marianas is what one would expect in an environment where the employers have all the political power, and the workers none. Wages in the private sector are kept low, unions are non-existent, and violations of the labor laws are all too common. Most of the indigenous population prefers to work for the undemanding, and over-staffed, commonwealth government.</div>
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The employers control the local government, the islands' non-voting delegate in the U.S. House of Representative goes along with them, and the Department of Homeland Security, in this and previous administrations, always sees it the employers' way. </div>
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The legislation exploding the alien worker ceiling wound its way through Congress and a presidential signature very quietly, and I missed it completely until USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) issued a press release about the new law.</div>
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That bit of legislation contains a useful new element, a $50 per worker anti-fraud fee to be paid by the employers. If the ceiling is met, that will give DHS $650,000; hopefully the department will use it to send a couple of sharp investigators to the islands, people not yet captured by the islands' power structure.</div>
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The CNMI has once again been tagged “destination and transit location for men, women, and children, subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking,” based on the U.S. State Department’s newly released 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report. -saipantribune.com Feb 27, 2017</div>
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In the United States v. Kil Soo Lee, Lee was the director of Daewoosa, Ltd., a garment factory located in American Samoa. Lee recruited internationally for his workers, targeting Vietnam, China and Samoa. The workers were required to pay $3,600 to $8,000 to be hired plus an additional $5,000 if not completed. When they arrived, Lee retained their passports. The living conditions were highly controlled, including a curfew. Complaining about the conditions resulted in punishment: lack of food, physical abuse, detainment or deportation. The United States Department of Labor (DOL) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) began, in May of 1999, an investigation on Lee, eventually reimbursing many unpaid workers. The day the back payments were made, Lee demanded the workers sign the checks over to him, which he placed in his personal account.</div>
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The garment industry is particularly susceptible to labor trafficking in part because of a highly immigrant work force, low profit margins, and a tiered production system. The production of garments is often divided into several parts. Major retailers will often subcontract work to different companies, which will subcontract to other smaller companies. The limited number of contracts will often go to the cheapest subcontractor. The largest cost is often human labor, so subcontractors that pay their employees the least are often the ones that get the contracts. Because of the tiered nature, it is difficult to regulate and there is little incentive to verify that subcontractors are obeying the law. Coupled with a worker population that is vulnerable because of their visa status and unfamiliarity with American laws, this creates a system that is ripe for human trafficking.</div>
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In the El Monte Thai Garment Slavery Case, 72 Thai nationals were discovered working and living in an apartment complex ringed with barbed wire and spiked fences, sewing clothes for major retailers and manufacturers in El Monte, California. Some of the captives had been held for as long as seven years by the leader of a human trafficking ring, "Auntie Suni." The play “Fabric” was based on the events of the case.</div>
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A forced marriage is a marriage where one or both participants are married without their freely given consent. Servile marriage is defined as a marriage involving a person being sold, transferred or inherited into a marriage. According to End Child Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT) (a global network of civil society organizations that works to end the sexual exploitation of children. It focuses on halting the online sexual exploitation of children, the trafficking of children for sexual purposes and the sexual exploitation of children in the travel and tourism industry), "Child trafficking for forced marriage is simply another manifestation of trafficking and is not restricted to particular nationalities or countries."</div>
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A forced marriage qualifies as a form of human trafficking in certain situations. If a woman is sent abroad, forced into the marriage and then repeatedly compelled to engage in sexual conduct with her new husband, then her experience is that of sex trafficking. If the bride is treated as a domestic servant by her new husband and/or his family, then this is a form of labor trafficking.</div>
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The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a charity campaigning and working in child protection in the United Kingdom and the Channel Islands.</div>
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According to case studies released by the charity, one 17-year-old girl told counselors: “I got forced to marry last year. I never wanted any of this. My friends are being supportive, but I can’t talk to my mum about it as she thinks he’s the best thing for me and told me that if I end the marriage, she won’t speak to me ever again. I’ve never even met him.”</div>
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One 18-year-old girl told the NSPCC: “My parents are talking about taking me back to my home country to get married, but I don’t want to. They get violent when I don’t do what they want. I want to leave home but they’d never agree to it. I just want to live a normal teenage life, but they won’t let me.”</div>
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Figures from the leading children’s charity show the number of counseling sessions it has provided for youngsters has trebled in five years.</div>
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Children face violence, bullying and threats from adults pressing them to marry someone they do not want to and, in some cases, have never met.</div>
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The NSPCC’s chief executive, Peter Wanless, said: “This is a crime and an abuse of human rights. Forcing a child to marry shows a complete lack of regard for their feelings, thoughts or ambitions.</div>
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“We understand some may worry about betraying their family, but we would urge anyone, including potential victims, to speak up before it is too late. Help us break the cycle and speak up, so that we can step in and stop a child being bound into something that they would never ask for.”</div>
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Maria grew up in the countryside of an eastern European country. She was the product of an alcoholic father who constantly beat his children. Poorly educated, Maria was sold to an unknown man by her sister when she was only 13 years old. She was taken by boat to Italy and there was sold again to another man who raped and beat her. The police rescued Maria and she was eventually returned to her family, only to be sold four days later -- this time by her father. Again she was taken to Italy, imprisoned for seven months and made to drink vinegar (as a form of punishment). After being smuggled into the United Kingdom, she was forced to work for five years as a prostitute, seeing 65 to 70 customers a day. Maria, 24 years old, has been “raped, beaten, sold, cut with knives, and threatened.” She was finally able to escape and went to the police who brought her to a shelter. “My traffickers threatened to kill me, and they threatened to take my sister too and do the same to her.... I was beaten often, very badly. I have scars from it now, especially from my broken arm. I have been raped many times.... I will never forget what they did to me.”</div>
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Lucy Kabanya, 39, left Kenya for Germany in July of 2006 for a three-month holiday to join her German boyfriend in Frankfurt. Lucy, who was introduced to the man through a friend, began communicating with him through e-mail early in 2005; in 2006, he came to Kenya to meet her. When he came to Kenya they stayed together in a hotel for a month before he returned to Germany. He promised to send her an airline ticket to go on holiday and visit him. Before she traveled to Germany, her “boyfriend” sent her gifts and money. “Before I left Kenya, my host had treated me so well; he had lavished me with gifts of all kinds, sent me money whenever I asked for cash. He promised a life I had never seen before.”</div>
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Upon her arrival in Germany, instead of a vacation, Lucy had her travel documents confiscated and she was denied food for several days before her “boyfriend” informed her that she would be working as a prostitute. She was raped, viciously beaten, and threatened with death. </div>
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Lucy was one of the lucky ones. Although she had been kept incommunicado, denied a telephone, and refused permission to talk to strangers, she was able to convince her captor to allow her to call relatives to inform them that she was alright. Instead, she called a friend who gave her the number of the German police hot line. She was immediately rescued and taken to a hospital, a safe-house, and then to Solwodi, an NGO that provided victim assistance.</div>
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The manager of the Kenya branch of German-based Solwodi, said, “We have received more that 25 women who have been returned to Kenya from Europe after falling prey to international crooks who took them there as their boyfriends before they turned them into sex slaves.”</div>
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Coco was kidnaped in Mexico and taken to Canada after her husband double-crossed the men he worked with as a drug money courier. “At the beginning, they wanted all the information about money, properties, bank accounts, and everything that my husband stole from them.” The drug dealers soon altered their plans. Coco was beaten, locked up, and forced to perform sex acts for money. Within three months of working as a prostitute she got pregnant. Her captors took her to a doctor for an abortion. Instead, the doctor helped her escape.</div>
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Min came to Southern California from the Fujian province in China. She had dropped out of school in the 9th grade but had worked hard all her life. Her husband had always gambled and now had more debts than they could pay, so she came to visit a friend in the United States and look for work. She found an online ad for women to work as massage therapists near Los Angeles and was promised $6,000 a month with free housing.</div>
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She took a bus to the location on the ad and was met by a driver. Min showed the driver the name of the business and the address she had been given. The driver then drove for some time to an apartment where two other women were staying. In the morning, a second driver came to pick everyone up to take them to the massage parlor. On her first day, Min was told that in order to earn the money she had promised her family, she would have to engage in commercial sex.</div>
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Min had no idea where she was or how to contact the first driver to get back to the bus station. Min stayed and when she was able, told her family everything was fine. Min was deeply ashamed this had happened and never wanted them to find out. Whenever she came close to asking a customer for help, her manager would threaten to call the police, who she said would deport her and tell her family how shameful she had been. Every few weeks, Min would be moved to a new apartment and new business. All she knew was that she was still somewhere near Los Angeles.</div>
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Eventually, she wound up in a business that police were targeting. When they came to shut it down, they arrested the traffickers, not Min. The police then told Min she was actually in Illinois, nowhere near LA. The police helped connect Min with service providers in Illinois and then California. The service providers helped Min understand her rights and helped her enroll in English classes. Min is in the process of receiving a visa specifically for victims of trafficking, the T visa. </div>
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Last year in Orange County, California, four Vietnamese women filed a lawsuit against their former employers, the owners of Tustin Nail Spa, for violations of several labor laws, including wage and hour violation. Just three years ago, state officials had fined the same salon $28,000, citing similar offenses.</div>
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“Even though we smiled and seemed happy in front of customers, the truth was that we were quietly suffering,” said Jenny Hoang, a plaintiff who worked at Tustin Nail Spa for nearly a decade. “We did not fight back because we were grateful to have jobs as refugees who do not speak a lot of English, and we wanted to provide for our family and children.” It is extremely common for workers to feel too intimidated to pursue legal recourse and justice in the face of labor violations. Their income and livelihoods are at stake. “The fear of retaliation is a huge issue since the community is relatively insular, and so news of a ‘troublemaker’ worker can easily get around to other owners,” said Trang. And since nearly every Vietnamese non-citizen in America escaped the Communist regime or is directly related to someone who did, they grew up with little faith in the legal system. “Many Vietnamese people carry that skepticism about the legal system and laws to America.”</div>
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The above may seem like a simple labor dispute, but in legal working conditions in the United States fear of retribution and being deported is not used to intimidate laborers. This is a form of coercion, and one of the definitions of trafficking. </div>
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In many circumstances, perhaps most, the situation can turn most dire. </div>
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Many of these young women have fled poverty and unimaginable horrors. Because of no money and no alternatives, they are funneled into nail salons, not out of a passion to do nails, but to pay back their trafficker and make good money for those who hold power over them. Many don’t make a living wage, and yet, they send more money home to support their families in Vietnam than they keep for themselves. Many are also forced to work at night as prostitutes or drug farmers, and it’s not uncommon for 10 or more to live together in the same room.</div>
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Labor trafficking within the restaurant and food industry has been documented in nearly all kinds of food service and may involve bars, clubs, buffets, taquerias, or food and ice cream trucks. People working as cooks, bus staff, and wait staff may be exploited, with traffickers often taking advantage of language barriers between exploited workers and patrons to help avoid detection.</div>
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With this type, it can be difficult for even survivors to decipher who their primary trafficker is since the links between the smugglers, recruiters, and restaurant management are sometimes unclear and may be deliberately obfuscated by the trafficker to help avoid detection.</div>
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Myanmar has joined China, Syria and South Sudan as being among the countries doing least to tackle human trafficking, according to the US State Department's latest annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report (6-28-2018).</div>
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The US report specifically cited the ongoing Rohingya refugee crisis as the reason for downgrading Myanmar to Tier 3, the bottom rung of the TIP scale, which rates the best performing countries at Tier 1.</div>
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The report said Myanmar's military operations in northwestern Rakhine State had "dislocated hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and members of other ethnic groups, many of whom were subjected to exploitation in (Myanmar), Bangladesh, and elsewhere in the region as a result of their displacement."</div>
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At least 700,000 Rohingya have fled Rakhine State since last year, mainly into neighboring Bangladesh, after the Myanmar military launched clearance operations the government claims were targeting terrorist groups. The US and UN human rights chief have since described the operations as "ethnic cleansing."</div>
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Many of those fleeing "were subjected to exploitation -- or transported to other countries for the purpose of sex trafficking -- as a result of their displacement," the US State Department report said, adding that refugees were also vulnerable to "forced labor" in jade mines and other industries [including the use of child soldiers]. -James Griffiths, CNN</div>
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A U.S. State Department report on human trafficking warned on June 28th, 2018, that removing children from their families made them easy targets for traffickers, raising questions about the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children and parents illegally crossing the U.S-Mexico border.</div>
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As mentioned above the annual TIP report looked at 187 countries and territories and ranked them into four tiers. In a special section, the State Department said children should only be removed from their families as a “temporary, last resort.”</div>
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John Sifton, an advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said the report “is an indictment of the Trump administration’s own policies with respect to asylum seekers and others seeking entry into the United States.”</div>
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Since April, more than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal immigrants. Children were kept in shelters while their parents waited to have their cases heard by a judge.</div>
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Faced with criticism at home and abroad, Trump signed an executive order on June 20 requiring families be detained together for the duration of legal proceedings, but many could remain apart as legal challenges drag on.</div>
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A senior State Department official said the United States has screening standards for trafficking indicators when children cross the border unaccompanied or are separated from their parents.</div>
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Trafficking indicators can include children who eat apart from family members, travel unaccompanied by adults and children who have no time for playing, according to the United Nations. -Daphne Psaledakis, Reuters</div>
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Senate Bill 1693, commonly referred to as SESTA/FOSTA, is a new federal law aimed at curbing sex trafficking by holding online platforms accountable for the content their users post. And since the legal definition of sex trafficking is consistently conflated with consensual adult sex work, several websites that advertised in-person adult entertainment services have shut down, or began blocking access from the United States.</div>
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But instead of helping reduce exploitation, say sex trafficking survivors and advocates, taking away their ability to use the Internet has actually increased the risks facing their community, and crippled efforts for harm reduction. Moreover, they say the law does not address issues that truly contribute to trafficking: homelessness, poverty and a broken foster care system. Instead, SESTA/FOSTA drastically <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/sesta-fosta-forces-sex-trafficking-victims-streets-dark-web-w520720"><i>limits</i></a> the tools available to those who survive in the sex trade, pushing workers further underground, into the streets and the dark web, where they are easier targets for those who aim to exploit the vulnerable.</div>
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"This was unlike anything we'd ever seen," says Meg Munoz, a sex-trafficking survivor and founder of the OC Umbrella Collective, an organization that serves sex workers and those being domestically trafficked in Southern California. "The immediate impact was swift and, honestly, terrifying. We watched people literally walk back to their pimps knowing they had lost any bit of autonomy they had. We watched people wind up homeless overnight. We watched members of our community disappear."</div>
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SESTA/FOSTA was signed into law just days after the FBI seized Backpage.com, one of the largest and most affordable online platforms available for sex workers to advertise and screen clients. Platforms such as Backpage, and the dozens of similar sites that shuttered in response to the new law were also an important tool for those who serve victims of trafficking.</div>
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"Every client I have ever worked with has had ads associated with online websites, the majority being Backpage," says Jamie Walton, a survivor of childhood sex trafficking and founder of the Wayne Foundation, an organization in South Florida that provides direct services to young people victimized by exploitation. "Those ads are forms of evidence. Those ads are ways that we were able to find children who were missing. Now, all that information has been driven to places online that are difficult to search, making the work almost impossible."</div>
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Those who aim to traffic minors however, still have ample access to platforms that children use, such as Facebook. "Traffickers targeting children are using Facebook as a way to engage with potential victims," Walton says. "I've worked several cases where the original point of contact was through their site." While the monolithic social media platform actively and publicly supported the bill, Walton says Facebook continues to be a place where pimps and predators can have easy access to potential victims.</div>
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"Recently, screenshots of people being approached by pimps trying to recruit them via Facebook message have been circulating. The same goes for Twitter. This was not as common before SESTA," says Munoz. The national organization of the Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP USA) confirmed that they have received a number of reports and screenshots from their members who have been contacted by pimps and other predators via social media in the past months.</div>
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Facebook and Twitter both responded promptly when asked for comment on these allegations, firmly reiterating their commitment to ensuring trafficking, abuse and exploitation have no place on their platforms, and pointing to the systems and policies they currently have in place to protect minors from being victimized on their site through reporting and cooperation with law enforcement.</div>
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Our ally, Saudi Arabia has reportedly recruited children from Darfur (a region in western Sudan which has been in the throes of a civil war since February 26th, 2003) to join its military campaign in Yemen.</div>
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The New York Times reports that as many as 14,000 Sudanese militiamen have been fighting for the Saudi-led coalition over the last four years.</div>
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Almost all of those fighters come from Darfur, which has its own civil war resulting in 300,000 deaths so far and 1.2 million people displaced.</div>
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Many of the militiamen helping the Saudi-led coalition belong to the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces, who were blamed for the systematic raping of women and girls and indiscriminate killing during the conflict in Darfur, states the Times.</div>
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According to fighters that the Times interviewed, the Sudanese were used on the front lines of the conflict. Five fighters who returned from Yemen told the Times that children made up at least 20 percent of their units. Two said children made up more than double that percentage.</div>
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Saudi Arabia reportedly offers pay that many Sudanese cannot decline.</div>
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“People are desperate. They are fighting in Yemen because they know that in Sudan they don’t have a future,” Hafiz Ismail Mohamed, a former banker, economic consultant and critic of the government, told the Times.</div>
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“We are exporting soldiers to fight like they are a commodity we are exchanging for foreign currency.”</div>
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The Saudi-led war in Yemen has been called the world's worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations. As many as 12 million people in the country are near starvation because of blockades, according to human rights groups.</div>
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“The Saudis told us what to do through the telephones and devices,” Mohamed Suleiman al-Fadil, a 28-year-old member of the Bani Hussein tribe who returned from Yemen at the end of last year, told the newspaper. “They never fought with us.”</div>
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“The Saudis would give us a phone call and then pull back,” added Ahmed, a 25-year-old member of the Awlad Zeid tribe. “They treat the Sudanese like their firewood.”</div>
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Sudan has a young population with 41% of its total population under the age of 15. 20% of Sudanese people are 15 to 24 years old. The age of consent in Sudan is 18, which correlates </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
with the age of the majority which separates children from adults. therefore individuals under the age of 18 who are “recruited” to participate in military activities, willingly or not, are legally unable to make this decision on their own. Thus individuals under the age of 18 recruited to fight in Yemen can be considered a form of human trafficking. </div>
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Last December 13th the U.S. Senate voted to end American support for the conflict in Yemen, although the House will have to approve such a move this year.</div>
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The Senate had supported aiding Saudi military operations earlier in 2018, but changed their position following the outcry over the death of Saudi dissident journalist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi"><i>Jamal Khashoggi</i></a>.</div>
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President Trump has maintained that he would stand by the Saudi government, despite reports that U.S. intelligence has linked Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Khashoggi's killing inside the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul last October.</div>
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Polaris was founded with the name <a href="https://polarisproject.org/human-trafficking?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1oSjqo-83wIV1LfACh1mzQbXEAAYAiAAEgIIVvD_BwE"><i>Polaris Project</i></a> in 2002, by Derek Ellerman and Katherine Chon, who were seniors at Brown University, when they were inspired to create a nonprofit organization that focuses on ending human trafficking and modern-day slavery. The inspiration came to them after learning about a forced labor criminal case which exposed how six South Korean women were forced to work at a brothel in Providence, Rhode Island. </div>
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Polaris is a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that works to combat and prevent modern-day slavery and human trafficking. For the past 10 years, Polaris has run the National Human Trafficking Hotline, working on some 40,000 cases of trafficking. From that work, the organization has built one of the largest data sets on human trafficking in the United States. Based on this data set, in 2017 Polaris released The Typology of Modern Slavery, which classified human trafficking in the United States into 25 distinct businesses. The data set is publicly available for use by researchers through the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative, launched by Polaris and U.N. International Organization for Migration. Polaris also advocates for stronger state and federal anti-trafficking legislation, and engages community members in local and national grassroots efforts. Polaris has been criticized for releasing false and misleading data regarding sex trafficking. Critics of Polaris state that the organization fails to distinguish between consensual sex work and coercion, and that the policies Polaris lobbies for harm sex workers.</div>
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The organization was named after the North Star, which people living in slavery in the Southern United States used to help find their way along the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North. </div>
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The organization is committed to ending human trafficking and slavery and focuses its efforts in the United States. Polaris is one of the few organizations working on all forms of trafficking, including supporting survivors who are male, female, transgender people and children, US citizens and foreign nationals and survivors of both labor and sex trafficking. </div>
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Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline (1-888-373-7888), has been in operation. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families and through non-governmental sources. The National Hotline provides survivors of human trafficking with support and a variety of options to get help and stay safe, and shares actionable tips and expertise with the anti-trafficking community. It is staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Assistance is available in more than 200 languages.</div>
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In 2018, the National Hotline announced expanded modes of communications. Now survivors and others can contact the service using BeFree SMS Textline (233733) and online chat services in both English and Spanish. Chat is available at humantraffickinghotline.org.</div>
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The number of human trafficking cases reported to the National Hotline has increased significantly every year since its inception. More than 7,600 cases were reported in 2016, over 8,700 in 2017, and it is projected to surpass 2017's number by 10 to 20 percent last year. All calls are kept confidential unless a caller consents to being connected to law enforcement or a social service provider, or if the caller reports a situation of imminent danger.</div>
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Accurate statistics are hard to come by, but according to the ILO, forced labor alone generates an estimated $150 billion in profits per annum as of 2014. Again, trafficking in humans is the second most profitable illegal enterprise on the planet, with drug trafficking being the first. One has to remember though when drugs are gone they’re gone. People on the other hand, can be used over and over again.</div>
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As long a greed persists in our societies the monsters will continue to roam and wreck havoc upon the world. </div>
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To be continued<br />
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A message from Polaris:<br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Understanding the true nature of human trafficking is the first step to combating it. </span><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #eeeeee; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.e-activist.com/ea-action/enclick?ea.url.id=1730548&ea.campaigner.email=3fpFOE4n%2BIw47vHnMVcXUmETGp0KZv8k&ea.campaigner.id=msmLtnagwEK15xl1A%2FXc2A==&ea_broadcast_target_id=0" rel="noreferrer" style="color: #00a6cc; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Human trafficking</a></b><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> Hollywood-style looks a lot like kidnapping in a foreign country. The reality though is far more complicated. It is the woman who came to work in the home of a diplomat forced to work for no pay, the migrant worker refused food or water and trapped in debt, and the young woman coerced by her boyfriend to provide sex for money. In order to prevent human trafficking we have to know what it really looks like. Help us spread awareness, by educating friends and family on this terrible crime. The fight to end human trafficking begins with you.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "calibri" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Addendum: 1-23-19: </span><a href="https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/54606-nigeria-finds-more-than-20000-kidnapped-girls-in-mali"><i>Nigeria Finds More Than 20,000 Kidnapped Girls in Mali</i></a><br />
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<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-60749356143059911362018-12-20T14:58:00.000-08:002019-01-25T03:21:14.896-08:00New Horizons, Pluto, and Beyond<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Ultima Thule is a traditional name for distant places beyond the known world</b><br />
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Picture Legend<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
0. New Horizons & Ultima Thule </div>
1. Largest known trans-Neptunian objects<br />
2. Pluto and the largest of its five known moons, Charon<br />
3. The Kuiper belt<br />
4. The Asteroid belt<br />
5. Hubble Space Telescope<br />
6. An annotated overlay of 5 Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 discovery images of 2014MU69 taken on June 24th, 2014. The images were taken at 10-minute intervals. The positions of 2014 MU69 in the 5 images are shown by the green circles.<br />
7. Clyde Tombaugh & his discovery<br />
8. New Horizons<br />
9. Getting ready for launch<br />
10. Asteroid 132524 APL as imaged by New Horizons<br />
11. First images of Pluto in September 2006<br />
12. New Horizons montage of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io captured in three bands of infrared light <br />
13. Jupiter’s moon Europa as imaged by New Horizons<br />
14. Fiery Io<br />
15. Ganymede<br />
16. Callisto<br />
17. Images from July 1 to 3rd, 2013, the first by New Horizons to resolve Pluto and Charon as separate objects. <br />
18. 12 images of Charon revolving around Pluto taken July 19–24th, 2014<br />
19. New Horizon image of Pluto taken July 8th, 2015, six days from closest approach<br />
20. Pluto and Charon to scale during New Horizon’s approach. The spacecraft was about 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Pluto and Charon when it took this picture late on July 8th, 2015<br />
21. Pluto’s largest moon Charon, using New Horizon’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13th, from a distance of 466,000 kilometers (289,000 miles).<br />
22. Encounter<br />
23. Pluto, closest approach, 3:49 am PT or 11:49 UTC on July 14, 2015<br />
24. What you would see if you were approximately 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) above Pluto's equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, informally named Cthulhu Regio ( named after the fictional deity from the works of H. P. Lovecraft). toward the bright, smooth, expanse of icy plains informally called Sputnik Planum. The entire expanse of terrain seen in this image is 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) across. The image were taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14th, 2015, from a distance of 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles).<br />
25. Close-up image of an equatorial region near the base of Pluto’s bright heart-shaped feature showing a mountain range with peaks jutting as high as 11,000 feet (3,500 meters) above the surface.<br />
26. Family Portrait of Pluto’s Moons: This composite image shows a sliver of Pluto’s large moon, Charon, and all four of Pluto’s small moons, as resolved by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on the New Horizons spacecraft. All the moons are displayed with a common intensity stretch and spatial scale (see scale bar). Charon is by far the largest of Pluto’s moons, with a diameter of 751 miles (1,212 kilometers). Nix and Hydra have comparable sizes, approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) across in their longest dimension above. Kerberos and Styx are much smaller and have comparable sizes, roughly 6-7 miles (10-12 kilometers) across in their longest dimension. All four small moons have highly elongated shapes, a characteristic thought to be typical of small bodies in the Kuiper Belt.<br />
27. Charon and Pluto in orbit. The blue cross indicates the barycentre of the two bodies<br />
28. Animation of Pluto's orbit from 1900 to 2100<br />
29. Orbit of Pluto – ecliptic view. This "side view" of Pluto's orbit (in red) shows its large inclination to the ecliptic<br />
30. Animation of New Horizons flyby of Pluto<br />
31. Size comparisons: Earth, the Moon, and Pluto<br />
32. Tombaugh Regio<br />
33. Cthulhu Macula<br />
34. Pluto’s “Brass Knuckles”<br />
35. View of Pluto as New Horizons left the system, catching the Sun's rays passing through the dwarf planet’s atmosphere, forming a ring<br />
36. Solar map with the location of the hypothetical hydrogen wall and bow shock<br />
37. Composite picture of Ultima Thule taken December 2nd, 2018 by New Horizons<span style="background-color: #222222; color: #888888; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #222222; color: #888888; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><span style="background-color: #222222; color: #888888; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #222222; color: #888888; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-size: 12px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">38. </i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "verdana"; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Composite of two images taken by New Horizons' high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), which provides the best indication of Ultima Thule's size and shape so far. Preliminary measurements of this Kuiper Belt object suggest it is approximately 20 miles long by 10 miles wide (32 kilometers by 16 kilometers). An artist's impression at right illustrates one possible appearance of Ultima Thule, based on the actual image at left. The direction of Ultima's spin axis is indicated by the arrows.</span></span></div>
39. First New Horizons image of Ultima Thule<br />
40. <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">The wonders - and mysteries - of Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 continue to multiply as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft beams home new images of its New Year's Day 2019 flyby target.</span><br />
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A trans-Neptunian object (TNO) is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than the planet Neptune, which has a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-major_and_semi-minor_axes"><i>semi-major axis</i></a> of 30.1 astronomical units (AU, a unit of measurement equal to 149.6 million kilometers (92.9 miles), the mean distance from the center of the Earth to the center of the Sun).<br />
When I was much younger I was taught that our solar system consisted of the Sun, a whole bunch of asteroids and comets, and nine planets. It was a matter of some pride that I managed to memorize the names of those planets, in order from their distance from the Sun. Mercury, Venus, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. <br />
When I was much older, after 1992, many other objects were discovered orbiting in the same area as Pluto, indicating that Pluto was merely one of these objects which comprised what is known as the Kuiper belt (a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, believed to contain many comets, asteroids, and other small bodies made largely of ice), which is similar to the Asteroid belt (a region of space between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where most of the asteroids in our Solar System are found orbiting the Sun), but is far larger, 20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive. It was argued that Pluto’s status as a full fledged planet should be reconsidered, and eventually it was reclassified as a dwarf planet (a celestial body resembling a small planet but lacking certain technical criteria that are required for it to be classed as such), 134340 Pluto specifically. <br />
This saddened me. My life went downhill after that. I became addicted to alcohol, cigarettes, cocaine, heroin, LSD, glue, Salvia divinorum, marijuana, crack, nitrous oxide, Screaming Meemies, methamphetamines, regular amphetamines, barbiturates, weezies, food, Fire Babies, flakka (I’ve been observed attempting to have sex with trees on at least two occasions), psilocybin, Pixy Stix, covfefe, peyote, Thunder Snaps, zipeprol, oxycontin, hydrocodone, chocolate and lemon frosting (straight from the can), carfentanil, amyl nitrate, ketamine, either, ecstasy, hash (and its oil), angel dust, propane, Thai sticks, khat, and placebos. <br />
In time I got over it.<br />
On June 26th, 2014, 1110113Y (11 for short) was discovered using the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope"><i>Hubble Space Telescope</i></a> in a preliminary survey specifically to find a suitable Kuiper belt object for a possible New Horizons probe to fly by. The discovery required the use of the Hubble Space Telescope, because ground-based observations had not found a Kuiper belt object in the zone of space that can be accessed by New Horizons.<br />
Go outside at night and look in the direction of Pluto and see for yourself. I bet you can’t find one either. With an apparent magnitude (a number that is a measure of an astronomical object’s brightness as seen by an observer on Earth) of nearly 27, 1110113Y is far too faint for all but the most powerful telescopes.<br />
An added benefit of using the Hubble is that it is also capable very precise astrometry (branch of astronomy that involves precise measurements of the positions and movements of stars and other celestial bodies) and therefore could provide a reliable orbit determination of 1110113Y, which NASA unofficially designated as "Potential Target 1", or PT1. <br />
PT1‘s official designation, 2014 MU69, was assigned by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_Planet_Center"><i>Minor Planet Center</i></a> in March of 2015 after sufficient orbital information had been gathered. After more observations pinned down 2014 MU69 more precisely, it was officially given the permanent minor planet number (486958) on March 12th, 2017, making its new full official name (486958) 2014 MU69.<br />
The nomenclature fun doesn’t stop there. Oh no. 2014 MU69's provisional designation (the naming convention applied to astronomical objects immediately following their discovery), indicates that it was the 1745th object discovered during the second half of June of 2014. A proper name for (486958) 2014 MU69 will be selected after the flyby when its nature is better known. <br />
Then NASA invited suggestions from the public on a nickname to be used in the meantime. This campaign involved 115,000 participants from around the world, who nominated some 34,000 names. Of those, 37 names reached the ballot for voting and were evaluated for popularity... this included eight names suggested by the New Horizons team and 29 nominated by the public. The team then narrowed its selection to the 29 publicly nominated names and gave preference to names near the top of the polls. Ultima Thule was nominated by about 40 members of the public and one of the highest vote-getters among all name nominees. <br />
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In August of 1992, JPL scientist Robert Staehle called the man who discovered Pluto in 1930, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clyde_Tombaugh#Discovery_of_Pluto"><i>Clyde Tombaugh</i></a>, and requested permission to visit his planet. "I told him he was welcome to it," Tombaugh later remembered, "though he's got to go on one long, cold trip." The call eventually led to a series of proposed Pluto missions, leading up to New Horizons (named after the special needs hospital in California’s famed San Fernando Valley).<br />
Which is the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers mission category (others being the Jupiter explorer Juno, and the asteroid explorer, OSIRIS-REx). The cost of the mission (including spacecraft and instrument development, launch vehicle, mission operations, data analysis, and education/public outreach) is approximately $700 million over 15 years (2001–2016).<br />
The spacecraft was built primarily by the Southwest Research Institute (based in San Antonio, Texas) and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (Laurel, Maryland). <br />
New Horizons was launched from Pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, directly south of Space Shuttle Launch Complex 39, at 3 pm EST on January 19th, 2006, aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas V 551 rocket, with a third stage added to increase the heliocentric speed (enough velocity to escape the Sun’s gravity). <br />
On April 7th, 2006, New Horizons passed the orbit of Mars, moving at roughly 21 km/s (76,000 km/h; 47,000 mph) away from the Sun at a solar distance of 243 million kilometers (150.9 million miles). <br />
Now the probe would pass through the Asteroid belt, which as the name implies, is fairly crowded with asteroids. The New Horizons team was not particularly concerned with the spacecraft being hit, or running into a asteroid per se. Most of the rocks out there, and their positions and orbits were pretty well known (the big ones at least. It is estimated that there are between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in diameter, and millions of smaller ones. If by chance the New Horizons craft were to collide with one of these smaller asteroids, that would be a bummer, but one that could not be forseen or able to deter. What the control team counted on was the general emptiness of space, which is profound, and the space between all of these rocks sufficient for the craft to safely pass through). No encounter with any of the asteroids had been planned, but since they were there anyway, the team looked for and found one the New Horizons would pass close enough to take a look. <br />
In May of 2006 it was discovered that New Horizons would pass close to the tiny asteroid 132524 APL on June 13th. Closest approach occurred at 9:05 PST at a distance of 101,867 km (63,297 mi). The asteroid was imaged by the Ralph 75 mm in aperture telescope, one of the photographic instruments that make up the New Horizons' Pluto Exploration Remote Sensing Investigation (PERSI) package, with the other being the Alice instrument, an ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, which could not be used to help image 132524 APL due to its relative proximity, or closeness to the Sun. <br />
The Alice instrument (which was also utilized on the <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2014/08/rosetta.html"><i>Rosetta</i></a> spacecraft) was built before Ralph, and Ralph was named after Alice’s husband from the 1950‘s sitcom “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Honeymooners"><i>The Honeymooners</i></a>.”<br />
New Horizons first got a bead on Pluto while still in the Asteroid belt. When testing the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI, a long-focal-length imager designed for high resolution and responsivity at visible wavelengths), New Horizons acquired its first image of Pluto between September 21st and the 24th. The images, taken from a distance of approximately 4.2 billion km (2.6 billion mi; 28 AU), confirmed the spacecraft's ability to track distant targets, critical for maneuvering toward Pluto and other Kuiper belt objects.<br />
New Horizons used LORRI to take its first photographs of Jupiter on September 4th, 2006, from a distance of 291 million kilometers (181 million miles). The craft received a gravity assist (the use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense) from the giant planet, with its closest approach at 10:43:04 PM PST on February 27th, 2007, when it was 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles) from Jupiter. The flyby increased New Horizons' speed by 4 km/s (14,000 km/h; 9,000 mph), accelerating the probe to a velocity of 23 km/s (83,000 km/h; 51,000 mph) relative to the Sun and shortening its voyage to Pluto by three years.<br />
After getting helped out by Jupiter, New Horizons was put to sleep and spent most of its journey towards Pluto in hibernation mode for there wasn’t anything for it to do during its eight year voyage to Pluto. Shutting down redundant components as well as guidance and control systems would extend their life cycle (New Horizons is powered by a cylindrical radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG), fueled by 9.75 kg (21.5 lb) of plutonium-238 oxide pellets. The RTG provided 245.7 watts of power at launch, and was predicted to drop approximately 5% every 4 years, decaying to 200 W by the time of its encounter with the Plutonian system and will decay too far to power the transmitters in the 2030s), decrease operation costs and free the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Deep_Space_Network"><i> Deep Space Network</i></a> for other missions. They turned it back on for about two months a year so that the instruments could be calibrated and the systems checked. <br />
Images from July 1st to 3rd, 2013 by LORRI were the first by the probe to resolve Pluto and Charon as separate objects.<br />
Between July 19–24, 2014, New Horizons' LORRI snapped 12 images of Charon revolving around Pluto, covering almost one full rotation at distances ranging from about 429 to 422 million kilometers (267,000,000 to 262,000,000 mi).<br />
On December 6th, 2014, mission controllers sent a signal for New Horizons to "wake the hell up" from its final Pluto-approach hibernation and begin regular operations. The craft's response that it was "awake" arrived to Earth on December 7th (my sister’s 56th birthday), 2014, at 6:30 PST, or 02:30 UTC (Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). It is a coordinated time scale, maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (IBWM, French: Bureau international des poids et mesures (BIPM), based at Sèvres, France). It is also known as "Z time" or "Zulu Time").<br />
On the fourth of July, 2015, the spacecraft experienced a software anomaly and went into safe mode, preventing it from performing scientific observations until engineers could figure out what the problem was. The next day NASA announced that they thought the glitch involved a timing flaw in a command sequence used to prepare the spacecraft for its flyby, and the spacecraft would resume scheduled science operations on the 7th. <br />
The difficulty involved compressing previously acquired data to release space for more data, and making a second copy of the approach command sequence, at the same time, which overloaded the spacecraft's primary computer. New Horizons worked as designed and once the overload was detected by itself, it switched from the primary computer to the backup computer, entered safe mode, and sent a distress call back to Earth which is what was received on July 4th. The resolution was that the problem happened as part of preparations for the approach, and was not expected to happen again because no similar tasks were planned for the remainder of the encounter.<br />
The closest approach of the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto occurred at 3:49 am PST or 11:49 UTC on July 14th, 2015, a Tuesday morning, at a range of 12,472 km (7,750 mi) from the surface of Pluto, at a relative velocity of 13.78 km/s (49,600 km/h; 30,800 mph), which I believe everyone can agree is pretty fast. <br />
Folks back here at home didn’t get to see much at first because New Horizons was too busy taking photographs of Pluto to be bothered to radio them back to us. But after 22 hours of planned radio silence due to the spacecraft being pointed toward the Pluto system, telemetry data confirming a successful flyby and a healthy spacecraft were received to mission control from the vicinity of the Pluto system on July 15th, 4:52 pm PST, or 0:52:37 UTC. <br />
Then there was the problem of the low transmission rate that New Horizons used to transmit data back to Earth, and the 4.5 hours it took for a signal from the distance of Pluto to reach Earth (the planets in the solar system travel in elliptical orbits rather than perfect circles, and so the distances between them are constantly changing. At its most distant, when the two bodies are on the opposite sides of the sun from one another, Pluto lies 4.67 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) from Earth. At their closest, the two are a mere 2.66 billion miles (4.28 billion km) apart.<br />
The first details of the encounter were received the next day, but the download of the complete data set took just over 15 months, and analysis of the data took much longer, and is still going on.<br />
Pluto’s day, or it’s rotation period, is equal to 6.39 Earth days (about 192 hours). Much like the planet Uranus, Pluto rotates on its "side" in its orbital plane, with an axial tilt of 120°, and so its seasonal variation is extreme; at its solstices, one-fourth of its surface is in continuous daylight, whereas another fourth is in continuous darkness.<br />
Pluto’s year, or it’s orbital period is currently about 248 Earth years (90,520 days). Its orbital characteristics are much different from those of the regular planets, which follow elliptical, but nearly circular orbits around the Sun close to a flat reference plane called the ecliptic. In contrast, Pluto's orbit is moderately inclined relative to the ecliptic (over 17°) and moderately eccentric (elliptical). This eccentricity means a small region of Pluto's orbit lies closer to the Sun than Neptune's. <br />
The Pluto–Charon barycentre (the center of mass of two or more bodies that orbit each other and is the point about which the bodies orbit, represented in picture 27. In Pluto and Charon’s case the mass ratio of Charon to Pluto is large enough that their barycentre lies outside of the physical mass of of both entities, and is represented by the blue cross in picture 27) came to perihelion (the point in the orbit of a planet, dwarf planet, asteroid, or comet at which it is closest to the sun) on September 5th, 1989, and was last closer to the Sun than Neptune between February 7th, 1979, and February 11th, 1999.<br />
Isn’t that interesting?<br />
Pluto's orbit is actually chaotic. Computer simulations can be used to predict its position for several million years (both forward and backward in time), but after intervals longer than the Lyapunov time (the characteristic timescale on which a dynamical system is chaotic) of 10–20 million years, calculations become speculative: Pluto is sensitive to immeasurably small details of the Solar System, hard-to-predict factors that will gradually change Pluto's position in its orbit.<br />
I know what you’re thinking. If Pluto’s orbit at times brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune, their orbits must intersect, and at some point in this cosmic billiard game, the two will collide.<br />
However, if we calm down and examine the matter most closely, we will discover that the two objects' orbits are aligned so that they can never collide or even approach closely.<br />
The two orbits actually do not intersect. When Pluto is closest to the Sun, and hence closest to Neptune's orbit as viewed from above, it is also the farthest above Neptune's path. Pluto's orbit passes about 8 AU above that of Neptune, preventing a collision.<br />
If hypothetically, the two were to collide, Neptune would just swallow up Pluto faster than a Republican Senator sucking up money from Big Oil.<br />
Pluto's diameter is 2,376.6±3.2 km (1,476.75078±1.98839 mi), and its mass is (1.303±0.003)×1022 kg, or about 17.7% that of our Moon (0.22% that of Earth).<br />
Its surface area is 1.779×107 km2, or roughly the same surface area as Russia. Its surface gravity is 0.063 g (compared to 1 g for Earth).<br />
The discovery of Pluto's satellite Charon in 1978 enabled a determination of the mass of the Pluto–Charon system by application of Newton's formulation of Kepler's third law. Observations of Pluto in occultation with Charon allowed scientists to establish Pluto's diameter more accurately, whereas the invention of adaptive optics allowed them to refine an understanding of Pluto’s shape. <br />
Pluto’s average distance from the Sun is 5,906,376,272 km, or about 3.67 billion miles. That’s the average distance. At perihelion, Pluto gets to within 4.44 billion km from the Sun. At its most distant point of its orbit, called aphelion, Pluto gets to within 7.38 billion km from that big yellow ball of hydrogen and helium. <br />
Light from the Sun takes approximately 5.5 hours to reach Pluto at its average distance.<br />
Just like here on the Earth the average surface temperature varies due to seasonal changes which correspond to the tilt of the Earth's axis. The Earth's axis is tilted from perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic by 23.45°. This tilting is what gives us the four seasons of the year - spring, summer, autumn (fall) and winter. Greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere keep the planet’s surface from freezing over, however, with all things considered, the average temperature for the entire planet is 58.3 degrees Fahrenheit (14.6 degrees Celsius) 6 years ago, in 2013, according to data from NASA.<br />
It’s probably warmer now. <br />
It’s much colder on Pluto than it is here. The surface temperature is between 33 Kelvin (-240 degrees Celsius or -400 degrees Fahrenheit) at it’s coldest, and 55 Kelvin (-218 degrees Celsius or -360 degrees Fahrenheit) on a balmy afternoon. The average temperature is 44 Kelvin (-229 degrees Celsius or -380 Fahrenheit).<br />
If you’re going to Pluto better bring those long-johns. <br />
Pluto has five known natural satellites. The closest to Pluto is Charon. First identified in 1978 by astronomer James Christy. Charon is the only moon of Pluto in hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round shape), Charon's mass is sufficient to cause the barycentre of the Pluto–Charon system to be outside of Pluto (some could make the case that the Pluto--Charon system is a binary system, rather than a single dwarf planet with a moon). Beyond Charon there are four much smaller circumbinary moons (moons that revolve around two objects). In order of distance from Pluto they are Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra.<br />
Pluto has a tenuous atmosphere consisting of nitrogen (N2), methane (CH4), and carbon monoxide (CO), which are in equilibrium with their ices on Pluto's surface. According to the measurements by New Horizons, the surface pressure is about 1 Pa (10 μbar), roughly one million to 100,000 times less than Earth's atmospheric pressure.<br />
The mountains on Pluto likely formed no more than 100 million years ago, a recent phenomena geologically speaking. The mountains are made of water ice. <br />
The plains on Pluto's surface are composed of more than 98 percent nitrogen ice, with traces of methane and carbon monoxide.<br />
Pluto's surface varies greatly, with large differences in both brightness and color.<br />
It is one of the most contrastive bodies in the Solar System, with as much contrast as Saturn's moon Iapetus. The color varies from charcoal black, to dark orange and white. Pluto's color is more similar to that of Jupiter’s moon Io, with slightly more orange and significantly less red than Mars.<br />
Notable geographical features include Tombaugh Regio, or the "Heart" (a large bright area on the side opposite Charon), Cthulhu Macula, or the "Whale" (an elongated dark region along Pluto's equator, 2,990 km (1,860 mi) long and one of the darkest features on Pluto), and the "Brass Knuckles" (A series of semi-regularly spaced dark spots with irregular boundaries, which average about 480 km (300 mi) in diameter and are located along the equator between the Heart and the tail of the Whale).<br />
<br />
This was a flyby mission which of course means New Horizons didn’t stop and orbit Pluto --Charon for an extended visit. No, it zipped right on by and went on it’s merry and freezing way. <br />
Soon after the Pluto encounter New Horizons sent a message back home and reported that it was healthy, its flight path was within the margins, and science data of the Pluto–Charon system had been recorded. The spacecraft's immediate task was to begin returning the 6.25 gigabytes of information it had collected. Because of the extremely low received signal level (RSL), it could only transmit data at 1 to 2 kilobits per second, which can be rather tedious.<br />
By March 30th, of 2016, New Horizons had reached the halfway point of transmitting this data. The transfer was completed on October 25th, at 1:48 pm PST, when the last piece of data... part of a Pluto–Charon observation sequence by the Ralph/LEISA imager—was received by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l4kr36TzQ4"><i>Here’s</i></a> a short video which explains concisely what it was that New Horizons discovered. <br />
The New Horizons team requested, and received, a mission extension through 2021 to explore additional Kuiper belt objects (KBOs). <br />
Why not!? It was already out there, right? Might as well keep on exploring. <br />
This is where Ultima Thule comes in. On August 28th, 2015, it was chosen as the flyby target. The necessary course adjustment was performed with four engine firings between October 22nd and November 4th, 2015. The flyby is scheduled for January 1st, 2019 (if you live on the East Coast of the United States. (In August of 2018, NASA confirmed, based on results by Alice on the New Horizons spacecraft, of a "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliosphere"><i>hydrogen wall</i></a>" at the outer edges of the Solar System that was first detected in 1992 by the two Voyager spacecraft)).<br />
For me here in California, New Horizons will come within 3,500 kilometers of Ultima Thule on New Year’s Eve. The encounter will take place 6.6 billion kilometers from Earth, where it takes more than 6 hours for radio signals traveling at the speed of light to reach NASA's Deep Space Network.<br />
There will only be one chance for New Horizons to perfectly aim its cameras and science instruments at the object as it zips past at 14 kilometers per second, and there may be unforeseen hazards in its path.<br />
But that’s always been the case. <br />
New Horizons is currently closer to the Ultima Thule than the Earth is to the Sun. The spacecraft's encounter sequence starts in five days, on Christmas Day, Dec. 25th, and will last nine days, through Jan 3rd. The closest approach is predicted for December 31st at 9:33 p.m. PST, (just after midnight, Jan. 1, at 12:33 a.m. EST, 04:33 UTC).<br />
Then, there won't be much to do but wait and hope that things go according to plan. Around 10:00 a.m. EST on Jan. 1st, the team expects to get a health and safety report from New Horizons letting them know it survived the encounter. The first up-close images of Ultima Thule are expected to arrive on Earth between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. EST on Jan. 1st.<br />
<br />
And after the flyby, New Horizon will continue to travel through the outer edges of our solar system, joining Voyager 1 & 2 as the only craft humanity has yet launched that might possibly reach for the stars.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.space.com/42859-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-webcast-guide.html"><i> New Horizons Ultima Thule Flyby Webcast Guide</i></a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.space.com/42864-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-what-to-expect.html?utm_source=notification"><i>New Horizons Ultima Thule Flyby What To Expect Tonight</i></a><br />
<br />
<i><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46729898">New Horizons Survives Ultima Thule Flyby</a></i><br />
<br />
<i><a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/new-horizons-successfully-explores-ultima-thule.html">New Horizons successfully Explores Ultima Thule </a></i><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.space.com/42874-new-horizons-ultima-thule-flyby-whats-next.html?utm_source=notification"><i>What's Next?</i></a><br />
<br />
<i><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/nasa-says-faraway-world-ultima-thule-shaped-like-snowman/">NASA says Ultima Thule is red and shaped like a snowman</a></i><br />
<br />
<i><a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/new-horizons-reveals-ultima-thule.html">New Horizons reveals Ultima Thule </a></i><br />
<br />
<i>N<a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/new-movie-shows-ultima-thule-from-an-approaching-new-horizons.html">ew Movie Shows Ultima Thule from an Approaching New Horizons</a></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/new-horizons-newest-and-best-yet-view-of-ultima-thule.html"><i>New Horizons' Newest and Best-Yet View of Ultima Thule</i></a><br />
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Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-52956241397026525402018-11-30T16:07:00.002-08:002019-01-29T08:55:29.924-08:00The Camp Fire, Global Warming, and the Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“No, no I have a strong opinion. I want a great climate. We’re going to have that, and we are going to have that are very safe because we can’t go through this. Every year we go through this. We’re going to have safe forests and that’s happening as we speak,” -Donald Trump, during a briefing at a command center in Chico, California,l November 17th <br />
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"Climate change is spawning more extreme weather, causing irreparable harm to communities, costing billions of dollars a year, and leading to countless deaths. We can stop climate destruction, but only if we act quickly to end the use of fossil fuels ...The decision to release this damning report when families are beginning to celebrate the holidays and newsrooms are short-staffed is a brazen attempt to bury the truth from the public that we must act now to move off fossil fuels and stabilize the climate," Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch<br />
<br />
“Unbelievably deadly and tragic wildfires rage in the west, hurricanes batter our coasts — and the Trump administration chooses the Friday after Thanksgiving to try and bury this critical U.S. assessment of the climate crisis. The President may try to hide the truth, but his own scientists and experts have made it as stark and clear as possible.” -Al Gore<br />
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In fact, the thickness of the Earth's atmosphere, compared with the size of the Earth, is in about the same ratio as the thickness of a coat of shellac on a schoolroom globe is to the diameter of the globe. That's the air that nurtures us and almost all other life on Earth, that protects us from deadly ultraviolet light from the sun, that through the greenhouse effect brings the surface temperature above the freezing point. (Without the greenhouse effect, the entire Earth would plunge below the freezing point of water and we'd all be dead.) Now that atmosphere, so thin and fragile, is under assault by our technology. We are pumping all kinds of stuff into it. You know about the concern that chlorofluorocarbons are depleting the ozone layer; and that carbon dioxide and methane and other greenhouse gases are producing global warming, a steady trend amidst fluctuations produced by volcanic eruptions and other sources. Who knows what other challenges we are posing to this vulnerable layer of air that we haven't been wise enough to foresee? -Carl Sagan<br />
In Wonder and Skepticism, Skeptical Enquirer (Jan-Feb 1995), 19, No. 1.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM0uZ9mfOUI"><i>The Newsroom Interview</i></a></div>
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<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v62_PuNxZN8"><i>White House dismisses ominous climate change report</i></a><br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/colbertlateshow/videos/1931661270473333/"><i>Colbert</i></a><br />
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Picture Legend:<br />
<br />
1. Holy Fire<br />
2. Carla Gugino<br />
3. Richard Campbell<br />
4. Paradise<br />
5. Map<br />
6. Another map, Butte County<br />
7. The scenery in Paradise<br />
8. The top of Old Town Plaza on Clark Road in Paradise<br />
9. The Little Grand Canyon<br />
10. Homes<br />
11. Pluga welcomes you<br />
12. More Pluga<br />
13. The Camp Fire begins November 8th<br />
14. The total area of the Camp Fire superimposed over the city of New Orleans<br />
15. Blaze<br />
16. After the fire in Paradise<br />
17. ^<br />
18. ^<br />
19. ^<br />
20. ^<br />
21. Camp fire as seen from Chico, CA<br />
22. Paget Brewster & Jim Rash, "Community, "Advanced Safety Features"<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; display: inline; float: none; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
23. Northern California fires<br />
24. Fires north of Bundaberg in northeastern Australia<br />
25. Drought<br />
26. Dustbowl<br />
27. Heat Wave<br />
28. Hurricanes everywhere, Jose at the top near the Eastern U.S. and Maria at the bottom, heading toward Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic<br />
29. Florence getting ready to park on the Carolinas and dump its rain<br />
30. Rising sea levels<br />
31. Ocean acidification<br />
32. Example of coral bleaching<br />
33. Deforestation<br />
34. Earthquakes<br />
35. The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II<br />
36. It's cold!<br />
37. Colbert<br />
38. Faith <br />
39. Naomi Klein<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
One of my very favorite actresses and persons in general is the lovely<i> </i>Carla Gugino. All of us here at Joyce’s Take like her so much that we gave her a happy birthday shout out relatively soon after this site was launched back in February of 2009, and that can be seen <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/08/happy-birthday-carla-gugino.html"><i>here</i></a>.<br />
Carla of course was born in Sarasota, Florida, but after her dad, Carl, and some unknown woman who is her mother (no one knows her name, and Carla states “I'm fiercely protective of my privacy,” so it doesn’t look like we’re going to get any fresh information out of her anytime soon), separated when she was two years old, Carla spent her time between the two households, with her dad and half-brother in Sarasota, and her mom in a little town in Northern California, called Paradise, where her mom moved to when Carla was four or five. <br />
Carla has been heard speaking of her upbringing, "I lived in a tepee in Northern California and a van in Big Sur. With my dad, I lived in a beautiful house with a swimming pool and a tennis court and went to Europe for the summers. So I feel like I lived two childhoods."<br />
The famous musician <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Campbell_(musician)"><i>Richard Campbell </i></a>(AKA DoctorDawg), who was born on the very same day as my sister (December 7th, 1958), also moved to Paradise when he was very young, eight years old to be exact. He more or less stayed there all of the time and graduated from Paradise High School in 1977, before going on to perform with the likes of Natalie Cole, Three Dog Night, Dave Mason, Edgar Winter and America. <br />
Paradise (39° 45′ 35″ N, 121° 37′ 19″ W) was located in Butte County, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley, 10 miles east of Chico and 85 miles north of Sacramento, our states capital. The town was spread out on a wide ridge between deep canyons formed by the west branch of the Feather River to the east and Butte Creek to the west. The Paradise area extended northward to include the unincorporated town of Magalia, as well as Stirling City, eleven miles to the north. Elevation of the area where the town was located is 1,778 feet.<br />
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town had a total area of 18.3 square miles, over 99% of it land. As of the census of 2000, there were 26,408 people, 11,591 households, and 7,244 families residing in Paradise. The population density was 1,447.1 people per square mile. There were 12,374 housing units at an average density of 678.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 93.73% White, 0.19% Black or African American, 1.07% Native American, 1.04% Asian, 0.12% Pacific Islander, 1.21% from other races, and 2.64% from two or more races. 4.27% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.<br />
The girl to guy ratio gave the advantage to the guys. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 83.5 males.<br />
The median income for a household in Paradise was $31,863, and the median income for a family was $41,228 (I can find no information on what it was that the residents of Paradise did to make money, probably babysitting, odd jobs, roof repair, stuff like that) Males had a median income of $35,419 versus $25,231 for females, another glaring example of income inequality.<br />
I’ve used the past tense in describing Paradise for the simple reason that it no longer exists.<br />
At approximately 6:19am PST on November 8th, of this year, a Thursday morning, fire broke out near Pluga, CA (Pluga is not indicated on maps usually, but is about 10 or 11 miles northeast of Paradise). It was first reported at 6:33am, near Camp Creek Road. Soon after the ignition of what would be called the Camp Fire (named due to its close proximity to Camp Creek Road), initial attack firefighters were dispatched to a report of a brush fire under Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) power lines near Poe Dam on the Feather River. <br />
Firefighters arrived 10 minutes later, the first units on scene observing rapid fire growth and extreme fire behavior due to the low humidity and high winds in the area. The National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning for most of Northern California's interior, as well as Southern California, through the morning of November 9th. <br />
PG&E reported that power lines were down (there is some speculation that downed power lines started the fire, although the exact cause is still under investigation).<br />
Shortly after the fire erupted, the Butte County Sheriff's Office ordered the evacuation of Paradise. Other locations were also issued evacuation orders, while others were issued evacuation warnings, and emergency shelters were established.<br />
The fire spread very quickly and prevented most residents of the town Concow and many residents of Paradise from evacuating before the fire arrived. The fire spread so rapidly that firefighters stopped attempting to control the flames, and instead sought to help people get out alive.<br />
By 8:00pm of November 9th, the fire had burned 20,000 acres and threatened about 15,000 structures, with wind speeds approaching 50 miles per hour, feeding oxygen to the vastly expanding flames.<br />
According to Captain Scott McLean of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, "Pretty much the community of Paradise is destroyed, it's that kind of devastation. The wind that was predicted came and just wiped it out."<br />
By the next morning the fire had grown to 100,000 acres and was only 20% contained. By then, an estimated 6,713 structures had been destroyed, surpassing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubbs_Fire"><i>Tubbs Fire</i></a>, the previous year, as the most destructive wildfire in California history.<br />
Nine fatalities had been reported until they found 14 more on November 10th, and 6 more the next day, making the total 29. <br />
By the morning of the 13th the fire had expanded to 125,000 acres with 30% containment. It had destroyed over 8,700 residences in addition to commercial buildings and other structures, with most of the damage occurring within the first two days. The death toll increased to 42, making it the single-deadliest wildfire in California history, surpassing the 1933 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_Griffith_Park_Fire"><i>Griffith Park Fire</i></a>, which had killed 29 people. By that evening the death toll had risen to 48. <br />
By November 15th the numbers of firefighters and equipment employed in fighting the fire included 5,596 firefighters, 622 engines, 75 water tenders, 101 fire crews, 103 bulldozers, and 24 helicopters from all over the state and the the rest of the country. Then as of 7:00am, the fire was 40% contained with 140,000 acres burned and still threatening 15,500 structures. Death toll 63.<br />
The next day 146,000 acres had been burned with 50% containment, 71 dead.<br />
By the time our fearless leader, Donald Trump got there, escorted by outgoing Governor Jerry Brown, Governor-elect Gavin Newsom, and FEMA director Brock Long (Brock Long? Good porn name). Trump explained how all of this death and carnage could have been avoided if California Interior Officials had simply had the foresight to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwL6GWYg34M"><i>rake</i></a> 330,000 acres of forest floor... like they do in Finland, whose President told him that’s what they did in his country (about a third of Finland’s territory lies inside the Arctic Circle, and overall it is a cold, wet and dark place. Finland’s landscape is dotted with lakes and swamps, which act as natural barriers to fire. The rain and wind conditions are also completely different from those in California. Oh yes, Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö, says he never discussed raking with Donald).<br />
Just before making the rake prognosis Donald got the name of the remains of the town he had visited just ten minutes earlier wrong, calling it Pleasure, rather than its true name, Paradise, thus at least giving Paradise national prominence for a brief period of time. <br />
Our President is an moron. I’m sorry, that statement does a disservice to morons everywhere. Let’s just say Donald is... mentally confused, sometimes.<br />
He quite often reminds of a scene from the television show, “Community,” season 6, episode 7, written by ex-editor-in-chief of The Onion, Carol Kolb, in which the lovely and talented Paget Brewster as Francesca "Frankie" Dart, a consultant hired to help improve the Greendale Community College, and Jim Rash as the school’s Dean have a conversation in the Dean’s office. Frankie walks in on the Dean, who is engulfed in packages and parcels that he has been duped into buying using school funds because he is highly susceptible to a guerrilla marketing campaign carried out by Britta's ex-boyfriend, Rick.<br />
Frankie confronts the Dean and makes the following observation:<br />
Frankie: Are you... I don’t know how to... I have a rule about being constructive so I can’t ask any questions right now because all of them I have are rhetorical and end with the word idiot. Do you know what a rhetorical... of course you know what it is, you’re an idiot. (aghast) Oh, I am so sorry. I am so sorry, but you’re so stupid, you have no idea, and you’re the only one who has no idea because, guess why. Don’t answer that, you’ll get it wrong. Oh, so dumb. You’re just a dumb little man who tries to destroy the school every minute. I am so sorry (at this point the Dean breaks down realizing the enormity of his stupidness and seeks a comforting hug from Frankie) Oh, it’s okay... I mean it’s not okay (holding him and patting his bald, sobbing head, providing the comfort he needs). Shuusss, Shuusss, oh so stupid... such a dummy.<br />
I don’t know why that reminds me of President Trump but it does.<br />
On November 19th, the death toll was raised to 79. 83 by the 21st. The official total would become 88 civilian fatalities, 12 civilians and 5 firefighters experienced non-fatal injuries, 18,421 buildings were burned, 153,336 acres. And here is the statistic that is most shocking to me, 196 people remain missing.<br />
These numbers keep changing, sometimes in a good way. The number of missing people was once in the six hundreds.<br />
As of November 21st at 7am, the fire was 80% contained. Fire crews pulled back and let rain do the work of putting out fires while teams searched for victims. By 7 pm, the fire was described as 85% contained. As of November 22nd at 7am, the fire was 90% contained.<br />
On the morning of November 25th rain helped extinguish the last of the Camp Fire. <br />
This fire was the deadliest in California’s history, but just one of 7,579 fires burning an area of 1,667,855 acres during this year’s wildfire season (The Santa Ana Season, October through April, and the Summer Season which tends to burn between June and September. This means that the only month of the year that is not in a wildfire season is May. Wildfires don’t care about seasons anymore though, as there were two that began in May this year, The Nees fire in Merced, and the Patterson fire in Riverside). <br />
As of November 11th, the wildfires in 2018 recorded the largest amount of burned acreage in a fire season, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). <br />
The fires have caused more than $2.975 billion American dollars in damages, including $1.366 billion in fire suppression costs. Through the end of August, Cal Fire alone spent $432 million on operations.<br />
The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mendocino_Complex_Fire"><i>Mendocino Complex Fire</i></a> alone burned more than 459,000 acres, becoming the largest complex (consisting of two or more different fires) fire in the state's history, with the complex's Ranch Fire surpassing last December’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Fire"><i>Thomas Fire</i></a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Canyon_Fire"><i>Santiago Canyon Fire</i></a> of 1889 to become California's single-largest recorded wildfire.<br />
Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, said that he hoped new legislation would allow for the “thinning” of forests to help prevent wildfires. He said he was confident Congress would soon pass a new farm bill that would remove environmental reviews for the removal of trees and brush, as well as the building of roads through federal forests.<br />
In other words Zinke is using the fires to boost the logging industry. This is a glaring example of what <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein"><i>Naomi Klein</i></a> would dub “Disaster Capitalism,” using a disaster, or shock (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shock_Doctrine"><i>“The Shock Doctrine”</i></a>) to push through a certain agenda.<br />
Look forward to to this type of maneuver becoming more prevalent as the deleterious effects of climate change make themselves more apparent. <br />
Number 1, those who are climate deniers, who are actively participating in ignoring or hindering efforts to curb global warming will never take responsibility for their actions, so they’ll blame everything on Obama, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore. Number 2, they’ll try to figure out a way to make money off of rising sea levels, spreading diseases, and heat waves (a surge in the sale of air conditioners?). <br />
On August 4th, a national disaster was declared in Northern California, due to massive wildfires burning there.<br />
Of course the United States is not the only country susceptible to wildfires. Currently <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/world/australia/queensland-wildfires-photos.html"><i>Queensland in eastern Australia is in flames. </i></a><br />
Why?<br />
Why so much fire? Why are there so many? Why are they so large and destructive?<br />
Well, there was a lot of fuel out there to burn. There was a record 129 million dead trees in California at the beginning of the year. That’s a lot of wood available for combustion. <br />
Climate change is certainly a factor. Stanford Earth System Science Professor Noah Diffenbaugh stated that atmospheric conditions for California wildfires are expected to worsen in the future because of the effects of climate change in California and that "what we're seeing over the last few years in terms of the wildfire season in California is very consistent with the historical trends in terms of increasing temperatures, increasing dryness, and increasing wildfire risk." Other experts agreed, saying that global warming is to blame for these extreme weather conditions. Global warming led to higher temperatures and less rain, creating a drier landscape that gave fires more fuel to burn longer and stronger.<br />
Climate Change. That not only affects wildfires here in California, but a host of other things as well.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droughts_in_the_United_States"><i>Droughts</i></a> will continue and intensify as the ambient temperature increases, or even stays the same. Currently 93.91 of California is in a severe drought or worse. 86.99% of Nevada, 68.48% of Oregon, 34.38 % of Utah, 29.26% Arizona, 26.19 Idaho, 23.76% Washington State, 11.95% New Mexico (according to the good folks at The Weather Channel). <br />
So what, you may declare. Well, what’s the definition of drought? Wikipedia tells us: “A drought is a natural disaster of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in the water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or years, or may be declared after as few as 15 days. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing and subsequent bush fires. Periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour... Prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crisis’. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity.”<br />
Bernie Sanders quite rightly considers drought and drought conditions to be a major, maybe the major cause for all the strife in the Middle East we’re currently seeing, and have seen in the past.<br />
We’ve discussed drought at length before <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2013/02/drought-california.html"><i>here</i></a> and <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2015/08/drought-united-states-and-beyond.html"><i>here</i></a>. We've discussed the <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-dustbowl.html"><i>Dustbowl</i></a> as well, which stands as the greatest period of drought in the United States. <br />
Longer and hotter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_wave#Health_effects"><i>heat waves</i></a> (periods of abnormally hot weather lasting days to weeks) everywhere are projected to become more intense, and cold waves less intense everywhere. Summer temperatures are projected to continue rising, and a reduction of soil moisture, which exacerbates heat waves, is projected for much of the western and central U.S. in summer. By the end of this century, what have been once-in-20-year extreme heat days (one-day events) are projected to occur every two or three years over most of the nation.<br />
The proportion of Earth's population that's vulnerable to <a href="https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/53628-extreme-heat-from-climate-change-a-medical-emergency-sickening-tens-of-millions-worldwide"><i>heat-related</i></a> death and disease continues to grow both in the United States and around the world because of human-caused climate change, according to a report released this week.<br />
"Climate change is a medical emergency," said report co-author Renee Salas, a doctor of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She said, "It is truly harming the health of Americans, and especially the most vulnerable ... Children, the elderly, minorities, and the poor."<br />
Just last year, approximately 157 million vulnerable people were exposed to heat waves globally. That's 18 million more than in 2016.<br />
Heat waves are also a precursor to wildfires.<br />
We’ve had some pretty strong hurricanes lately. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Maria"><i>Hurricane Maria</i></a> devastated Puerto Rico in September of 2017. Officials there now say 2,975 people died following its passing. 2,975 American citizens. <br />
Total damage done by Maria is said to have cost between $45 to $95 billion, making it the third-costliest tropical cyclone on record, and certainly the costliest in Puerto Rican history.<br />
Hurricane Florence was a powerful and long-lived Cape Verde hurricane that caused severe damage in the Carolinas last September, primarily as a result of freshwater flooding. Florence dropped a maximum total of 35.93 inches of rain in Elizabethtown, North Carolina, becoming the wettest tropical cyclone recorded in the Carolinas, and also the eighth-wettest overall in the contiguous United States. 55 people died either directly or indirectly due to Florence. 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs died in flooded farms. Dozens of farms remained isolated with animals unable to be fed. Piles of manure stored at these farms were swept into overflowing rivers, about a dozen pits holding animal waste were damaged by the flooding and debris and guess where that waste went. Property damage and economic losses in North and South Carolina reached at least $17.9 billion American dollars, with estimated insured losses ranging between $4.8–5 billion. One estimate for North Carolina is nearly $17 billion, more than the damage from Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Floyd in that state combined.<br />
The intensity, frequency and duration of North Atlantic hurricanes, as well as the frequency of the strongest (Category 4 and 5) hurricanes, have all increased since the early 1980s. <br />
Unchecked global warming will insure hurricanes will become stronger and more intense, and possibly more frequent. <br />
Despite North Carolina passing a law making it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/12/north-carolina-didnt-like-science-on-sea-levels-so-passed-a-law-against-it"><i>illegal</i></a> to make policies based on forecasts of rising sea levels in 2012, climate change and global warming will insure that water that is locked up in various forms of ice (Artic Ocean, Antarctica, Greenland, etc. The Arctic Ocean is expected to become essentially ice free in summer before mid-century) will melt into the the world’s oceans and sea levels will rise because of it. <br />
At least since 1880, the average global<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level_rise"><i> sea level</i></a> has been rising with about a 7.1 inch rise from 1897 to 1997. More precise satellite based data show about a 3.0 inch accelerating rise in sea level from 1993 to 2017. This is due mostly to global warming originating from human activity, and which is driving the thermal expansion of seawater while melting land-based ice sheets and glaciers. <br />
In the next several decades, storm surges and high tides could combine with sea level rise and land subsidence to further increase flooding in many regions. Sea level rise will continue past 2100 because the oceans take a very long time to respond to warmer conditions at the Earth’s surface. Ocean waters will therefore continue to warm and sea level will continue to rise for many centuries at rates equal to or higher than those of the current century. <br />
Globally tens of millions of people will be displaced in the last half of the century if greenhouse gases are not reduced drastically. Many coastal areas have large populations, which will result in more people at risk from sea level rise. The rising seas pose both a direct risk: unprotected homes can be flooded, and indirect threats of higher storm surges, tsunamis and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_tide"><i>king tides</i></a>. Asia has the largest population at risk from rising sea levels with countries like Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam having very densely populated coastal areas. <br />
Ten per cent of the world's population live in coastal areas that are less than 33 feet above sea level. Two thirds of the world's cities with over five million people are located in these low-lying coastal areas. Future sea level rise could lead to potentially catastrophic difficulties for shore-based communities in the next centuries, including North Carolina.<br />
For example, many major cities such as Venice, London, New Orleans, and New York City already need storm-surge defenses, and will need more if the sea level rises; they also face issues such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidence"><i>subsidence</i></a>, which is just vertically sinking ground.<br />
Scientists predict that as sea levels rise,<a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/4/eaap9741"><i> thousands of islands</i></a> will be afflicted by frequent flooding, lack of freshwater and damage to infrastructure. The research, published in the journal Science Advances, looked specifically at a case study from the Marshall Islands – a country already feeling the harmful effects of climate change. However, the authors warned that their findings also apply to islands all over the world including the Maldives, Seychelles and parts of Hawaii – meaning hundreds of thousands of people could be driven from their homes.<br />
Another study found that at least eight islands in the Pacific Ocean have<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2017/09/09/new-study-finds-8-islands-swallowed-by-rising-sea-level/#21ae74305283"><i> already disappeared</i></a> due to rising sea levels. <br />
Miami has been listed as "the number-one most vulnerable city worldwide" in terms of potential damage to property from storm-related flooding and sea-level rise.<br />
Another dire aspect of global warming is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification"><i>acidification</i></a> of the planet’s oceans, which is an ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. An estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide from human activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into the planet’s oceans, rivers and lakes. Normally seawater is slightly basic (meaning pH > 7), and ocean acidification involves a shift towards pH-neutral conditions rather than a transition to acidic conditions (pH < 7).<br />
Some of this CO2 reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. Some of the carbonic acid dissociates into a bicarbonate ion and a hydrogen ion (an ion is an atom or molecule with a net electric charge due to the loss or gain of one or more electrons), thus increasing ocean acidity. Between 1751 and 1996, surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14, indicating an increase of almost 30% in H+ ion concentration in the world's oceans.<br />
So what, you say again. What has this got to do with me?<br />
Good question. Let’s see. Ongoing acidification of the oceans may threaten future food chains linked with the oceans. Acidification and the general warming of ocean water causes coral bleaching. With more carbonate ions bonding with hydrogen ions, less carbonate ions are available for coral reefs (Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically live in compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Corals species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton). When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_bleaching"><i>coral bleaching</i></a>. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality. <br />
So what, you say! I don’t need no stinking coral reefs!<br />
Beyond a certain apathetic and callous attitude apparent in the question itself, you may indeed need coral and the reefs they make. <br />
Coral reefs are important for many different reasons aside from containing some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. They protect coastlines from the damaging effects of wave action and tropical storms and provide habitats and shelter for many marine organisms. An estimated one billion people have some dependence on coral reefs for food and income from fishing. If properly managed, reefs can yield around 15 tons of fish and other seafood per square kilometer each year. <br />
Also the impacts of acidification will extend up the food chain to affect economic activities such as fisheries, aquaculture and tourism. This of course will and does affect the economy, which in turn may affect you, you heartless bastard.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation"><i>Deforestation</i></a>, the removal of a forest or stands of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a non-forest use (examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use), is occurring at breakneck speeds. <br />
I don’t need no stinking forests!<br />
Now wait a second. We do need forests. <br />
About 31 percent of Earth's land surface is covered by forests. Deforestation itself contributes to global warming, and is often cited as one of the major causes of the enhanced<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect"><i> greenhouse effect</i></a>. Tropical deforestation is responsible for approximately 20% of world greenhouse gas emissions. Why? Deforestation causes carbon dioxide to linger in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide accrues, it produces a layer in the atmosphere that traps radiation from the sun. The radiation converts to heat which causes global warming, which is better known as the greenhouse effect. Plants remove carbon in the form of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis, but release some carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere during normal respiration. Only when actively growing can a tree or forest remove carbon, by storing it in plant tissues. Both the decay and burning of wood (which occurs during deforestation) releases much of this stored carbon right back into the atmosphere.<br />
So here’s another example of humanity screwing itself for short-term economic gain. <br />
In Brazil, where 60% of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rainforest"><i>Amazon rainforest</i></a> lives, between August of 2017 and July of 2018, 7,900sq kms (3,050 sq miles) were <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/24/brazil-records-worst-annual-deforestation-for-a-decade"><i>deforested</i></a>, according to preliminary figures from the environment ministry based on satellite monitoring – a 13.7% rise from the previous year and the biggest area of forest cleared since 2008. The area is equivalent to 987,000 football fields. <br />
Climate change itself can result in deforestation. One computer model of future climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions shows that the Amazon rainforest could become unsustainable under conditions of severely reduced rainfall and increased temperatures, leading to an almost complete loss of rainforest cover in the basin by 2100.<br />
The situation in Brazil looks like it will only get worse with the election of right-wing madman, Jair Bolsonaro, who will become President on the first of January, 2019. <br />
"Bolsonaro is a powerful supporter of agribusiness...and is likely to favor profits over preservation. ... Bolsonaro has chafed at foreign pressure to safeguard [the Amazon rainforest], and he served notice to international nonprofit groups such as the World Wildlife Fund that he will not tolerate their agendas in Brazil. He has also come out strongly against lands reserved for indigenous tribes. Bolsonaro advisers additionally say that he plans to expand nuclear and hydroelectric power into the Amazon." <br />
If there were ever a good reason for the United States to invade another country, Brazil would be it, to save the rainforest for the sake of humanity.<br />
If all that wasn’t enough changes in temperatures, rainfall, and humidity levels allow vectors like mosquitoes, ticks, rodents, and bats to multiply or migrate to new areas to survive, bringing infectious diseases along with them. Climate change isn’t the only villain associated with changing disease vectors. They are also being displaced as a result of deforestation, urbanization, and the demands of economic development. It is believed that deforestation in Guinea is partly responsible for the Ebola outbreak, forcing the most likely vector of the disease – fruit bats – to come into closer contact with us humans. As floods and more frequent rainfall are on the rise, diarrheal diseases and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptospirosis"><i>Leptospirosis</i></a> are a serious threat, especially in areas with poor sanitation. <br />
We’re already seeing the Appearance of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikungunya"><i>Chikungunya</i></a> in the Caribbean, locally acquired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue_fever"><i>Dengue</i></a> in southern Florida, southern France, Italy, Portugal, and Japan, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Nile_fever"><i>West Nile Virus</i></a> spreading across North America and Europe, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria"><i>Malaria</i></a> being transmitted at higher altitudes, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease"><i>Lyme Disease</i></a> spreading further north into Canada, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_encephalitis"><i>Japanese Encephalitis</i></a> outbreaks intensifying in northern India (all of these diseases are viral and spread by mosquitos except Malaria which is caused by parasites, and Lyme Disease which is carried by ticks). <br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake"><i>Earthquakes</i></a>. Earthquakes are not affected by global warming or climate change whatsoever. The ubiquitous rumors that a warmer climate cause tectonic plates to become more slippery are completely false and without merit. <br />
Earthquakes aside, climate change is a big and serious deal. Like an oncoming train ignoring it won’t make it go away and the longer you wait to do something about it the problem gets decidedly worse.<br />
What’s the Trump Administration going to do about climate change? <br />
Not a fucking thing. <br />
As a matter of fact they’re doing pretty much everything they can to exacerbate the problem. Trump pulled the US out of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement"><i>Paris Agreement</i></a>, and then claimed that it wouldn’t do any good to limit CO2 emissions if the rest of the world didn’t follow suit, a problem the Paris Agreement was specifically designed to mitigate!<br />
The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) 2017/2018 is a 1,656 page two-part congressionally mandated report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) —the first of its kind by the Trump administration, who unsuccessfully tried to bury it by releasing it on November 23rd, the day after the Thanksgiving holiday when most Americans were fat, bloated, and lethargic from eating too much turkey and yams. What those who released it didn’t realize was that there wasn’t any other news being made that day, the conclusions the report made were serious and dire, and a lot of people were really interested in its findings, like national news organizations, which made a very big deal about reporting it. <br />
The report as stated is mandated by the federal government, the very same federal government that Trump is nominally the head of. It is to be submitted to Congress every four years, is mandated by law through the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The report, which took two years to complete, is the fourth in a series of National Climate Assessments (NCA) which included NCA1 (2000), NCA2 (2009), and NCA3 (2014), way before Trump became President (and considered about as seriously as Trump is considering this one). <br />
Volume 1 of this report was released in October of last year and titled "Climate Science Special Report" (CSSR). In the CSSR, researchers reported that "it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence."<br />
There you go! Human caused. Anthropogenic. It’s our fault. We’ve been dumping greenhouse gases and pollutants into our atmosphere at an alarming rate since the beginning of the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution"><i> industrial revolution</i></a> (a technical advance that began in Britain in the 18th century and from there spread to other parts of the world. Although used earlier by French writers, the term Industrial Revolution was first popularized by the English economic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852–83) to describe Britain's economic development from 1760 to 1840). <br />
A lot of people make the argument that if global warming and climate change are not caused by humans, that its a natural process, then we don’t need to do anything about it, that it will self-correct somehow, and that’s just the way it is. I say bullshit! And I say that proudly. Even if global warming were not anthropogenic we would still be dealing with a warming planet and all that ensues. We’d have to deal with deforestation, drought, ocean acidification, rising sea levels anyway. <br />
In other words it doesn’t matter what causes global warming. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed. <br />
A little history. President George H.W. Bush (the relatively good Bush, who passed away today at the age of 94) signed the Global Change Research Act of 1990 104 Stat. 3096 into law on November 16th, 1990, which established the United States Global Change Research Program with a mandate to understand and respond to global change, including the cumulative effects of human activities and natural processes on the environment, to promote discussions toward international protocols in global change research, and for other purposes.<br />
Although the National Climate Assessment was mandated to release a report every four years, there have only been four reports since the 1990 Act was enacted, so we’re missing three. I don’t know why (the Trump administration disbanded a 15-member Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment last year. The advisory panel, made of up of academics and local officials, is supposed to help translate the analysis provided by the assessment into concrete proposals and guidance for local authorities, and you know, who needs that).<br />
In the preparation of the NCA4, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), one of thirteen federal agencies comprising the USGCRP team, was the "administrative lead agency," responsible for the report. <br />
The other agencies include the Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Interior, Department of State, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Agency for International Development. The report was produced with the assistance of 1,000 people, including 300 leading scientists, roughly half from outside the government.<br />
The media is making a big deal out of this report, but it merely "warns, repeatedly and directly, that climate change could soon imperil the American way of life, transforming every region of the country, imposing frustrating costs on the economy, and harming the health of virtually every citizen." -Robinson Meyer of The Atlantic.<br />
The report goes on to say that without more significant mitigation efforts, there will be substantial damages on the U.S. economy, human health, and the environment. Under scenarios with high emissions and limited or no adaptation, annual losses in some sectors are estimated to grow to hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century.<br />
The report cited a 2017 study, published in the journal Science, that estimated the economic damage to the U.S. economy in relation to increases in the global mean surface temperature.<br />
The report said that across the United States damages are "intensifying". It analyzed the "effects of climate change by U.S. region," emphasized that "poor and marginalized communities" will be the most negatively "impacted by the intensifying storms and weather patterns caused by global warming."<br />
"While Americans are responding in ways that can bolster resilience and improve livelihoods, neither global efforts to mitigate the causes of climate change nor regional efforts to adapt to the impacts currently approach the scales needed to avoid substantial damages to the U.S. economy, environment, and human health and well-being over the coming decades." <br />
The report indicates that the global climate will continue to change rapidly compared to the pace of the natural variations in climate that have occurred throughout Earth’s history. Trends in globally averaged temperature, sea level rise, upper-ocean heat content, land-based ice melt, arctic sea ice, depth of seasonal permafrost thaw, and other climate variables provide consistent evidence of a warming planet. These observed trends are robust and have been confirmed by multiple independent research groups around the world.<br />
The frequency and intensity of extreme heat and heavy precipitation events are increasing in most continental regions of the world. These trends are consistent with expected physical responses to a warming climate. Climate model studies are also consistent with these trends, although models tend to underestimate the observed trends, especially for the increase in extreme precipitation events. The frequency and intensity of extreme high temperature events are virtually certain to increase in the future as global temperature increases. Extreme precipitation events, like hurricanes, will very likely continue to increase in frequency and intensity throughout most of the world. Observed and projected trends for some other types of extreme events, such as floods, droughts, and severe storms, have more variable regional characteristics. <br />
Annual average temperature over the contiguous United States has increased by 1.2°F (0.7°C) for the period 1986–2016 relative to 1901–1960 and by 1.8°F (1.0°C) based on a linear regression for the period 1895–2016. Surface and satellite data are consistent in their depiction of rapid warming since 1979. Paleo-temperature evidence (older or ancient, especially relating to the geological past) shows that recent decades are the warmest of the past 1,500 years.<br />
There have been marked changes in temperature extremes across the contiguous United States. The frequency of cold waves has decreased since the early 1900s, and the frequency of heat waves has increased since the mid-1960s. The Dust Bowl era of the 1930s remains the peak period for extreme heat. The number of high temperature records set in the past two decades far exceeds the number of low temperature records.<br />
Annual average temperature over the contiguous United States is projected to rise. Increases of about 2.5°F (1.4°C) are projected for the period 2021–2050 relative to 1976–2005 in all <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_Concentration_Pathway"><i>RCP</i></a> scenarios, implying recent record-setting years may be “common” in the next few decades. Much larger rises are projected by late century (2071–2100): 2.8°–7.3°F (1.6°–4.1°C) in a lower scenario (RCP4.5) and 5.8°–11.9°F (3.2°–6.6°C) in the higher scenario (RCP8.5).<br />
Annual precipitation has decreased in much of the West, Southwest, and Southeast and increased in most of the Northern and Southern Plains, Midwest, and Northeast. A national average increase of 4% in annual precipitation since 1901 mostly a result of large increases in the fall season.<br />
Heavy precipitation events in most parts of the United States have increased in both intensity and frequency since 1901. There are important regional differences in trends, with the largest increases occurring in the northeastern United States. In particular, organized clusters of thunderstorms, the main mechanism for warm season precipitation in the central part of the United States, have increased in occurrence and precipitation amounts since 1979.<br />
The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events are projected to continue to increase over the 21st century. Thunderstorms in the central United States are expected to continue to increase in number and intensity in the future. There are, however, important regional and seasonal differences in projected changes in total precipitation: the northern United States, including Alaska, is projected to receive more precipitation in the winter and spring, and parts of the southwestern United States are projected to receive less precipitation in the winter and spring.<br />
Recent droughts and associated heat waves have reached record intensity in some regions of the United States; however, by geographical scale and duration, the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s remains the benchmark drought and extreme heat event in the historical record. While by some measures drought has decreased over much of the continental United States in association with long-term increases in precipitation, neither the precipitation increases nor inferred drought decreases have been confidently attributed to anthropogenic forcing.<br />
Substantial reductions in western U.S. winter and spring snowpack are projected as the climate warms. Earlier spring melt and reduced snow water equivalents have been formally attributed to human-induced warming and will very likely be exacerbated as the climate continues to warm. Under higher scenarios, and assuming no change to current water resources management, chronic, long-duration hydrological drought is increasingly possible by the end of this century.<br />
Human activities have contributed substantially to observed ocean–atmosphere variability in the Atlantic Ocean, and these changes have contributed to the observed upward trend in North Atlantic hurricane activity since the 1970s.<br />
Both theory and numerical modeling simulations generally indicate an increase in tropical cyclone (TC) intensity in a warmer world, and the models generally show an increase in the number of very intense TCs. For Atlantic and eastern North Pacific hurricanes and western North Pacific typhoons, increases are projected in precipitation rates and intensity. The frequency of the most intense of these storms is projected to increase in the Atlantic and western North Pacific and in the eastern North Pacific.<br />
Tornado activity in the United States has become more variable, particularly over the 2000s, with a decrease in the number of days per year with tornadoes and an increase in the number of tornadoes on these days. Climate models consistently project environmental changes that would putatively support an increase in the frequency and intensity of severe thunderstorms (a category that combines tornadoes, hail, and winds), especially over regions that are currently prone to these hazards.<br />
Global mean sea level (GMSL) has risen by about 7–8 inches (about 16–21 cm) since 1900, with about 3 of those inches (about 7 cm) occurring since 1993. Human-caused climate change has made a substantial contribution to GMSL rise since 1900, contributing to a rate of rise that is greater than during any preceding century in at least 2,800 years.<br />
Relative to the year 2000, GMSL is very likely to rise by 0.3–0.6 feet (9–18 cm) by 2030, 0.5–1.2 feet (15–38 cm) by 2050, and 1.0–4.3 feet (30–130 cm) by 2100. Emerging science regarding Antarctic ice sheet stability suggests that, for high emission scenarios, a GMSL rise exceeding 8 feet (2.4 m) by 2100 is physically possible, although the probability of such an extreme outcome cannot currently be assessed. It is extremely likely that GMSL rise will continue beyond 2100.<br />
The world’s oceans have absorbed about 93% of the excess heat caused by greenhouse gas warming since the mid-20th century, making them warmer and altering global and regional climate feedbacks. Ocean heat content has increased at all depths since the 1960s and surface waters have warmed by about 1.3° ± 0.1°F (0.7° ± 0.08°C) per century globally since 1900 to 2016. Under a higher scenario, a global increase in average sea surface temperature of 4.9° ± 1.3°F (2.7° ± 0.7°C) by 2100 is projected, with even higher changes in some U.S. coastal regions.<br />
Reducing net emissions of CO2 is necessary to limit near-term climate change and long-term warming. Other greenhouse gases (for example, methane) and black carbon aerosols exert stronger warming effects than CO2 on a per ton basis, but they do not persist as long in the atmosphere; therefore, mitigation of non-CO2 species contributes substantially to near-term cooling benefits but cannot be relied upon for ultimate stabilization goals.<br />
Stabilizing global mean temperature to less than 3.6°F (2°C) above preindustrial levels requires substantial reductions in net global CO2 emissions prior to 2040 relative to present-day values and likely requires net emissions to become zero or possibly negative later in the century. After accounting for the temperature effects of non-CO2 species, cumulative global CO2 emissions must stay below about 800 GtC (Gt = gigatonne = 10^9 metric tonnes, which is the mass of one cubic kilometer of water. Instead of Gt, some authors use Pg = petagram = 10^15 grams 1 GtC corresponds to ~3.67 Gt CO2) in order to provide a two-thirds likelihood of preventing 3.6°F (2°C) of warming. Given estimated cumulative emissions since 1870, no more than approximately 230 GtC may be emitted in the future to remain under this temperature threshold. Assuming global emissions are equal to or greater than those consistent with the RCP4.5 scenario, this cumulative carbon threshold would be exceeded in approximately two decades.<br />
Achieving global greenhouse gas emissions reductions before 2030 consistent with targets and actions announced by governments in the lead up to the 2015 Paris Climate Conference would hold open the possibility of meeting the long-term temperature goal of limiting global warming to 3.6°F (2°C) above preindustrial levels, whereas there would be virtually no chance if net global emissions followed a pathway well above those implied by country announcements. Actions in the announcements are, by themselves, insufficient to meet a 3.6°F (2°C) goal; the likelihood of achieving that goal depends strongly on the magnitude of global emissions reductions after 2030.<br />
Detailed economic research has estimated that climate change could cause hundreds of billions of dollars in annual damage, as deadly heat waves, coastal flooding, and an increase in extreme weather take their toll, and knock as much as 10 percent off the size of the American economy by the century’s end, more than double the losses of the Great Recession of a decade ago.<br />
Extreme weather events driven by global warming are “virtually certain to increasingly affect U.S. trade and economy, including import and export prices and businesses with overseas operations and supply chains,” the report concludes.<br />
Such disasters will temporarily shutter factories both in the United States and abroad, causing price spikes for products from apples to automotive parts, the scientists predicted. So much of the supply chain for American companies is overseas that almost no industry will be immune from the effects of climate change at home or abroad.<br />
“Rising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, wildfire on rangelands and heavy downpours are expected to increasingly disrupt agricultural productivity in the U.S.,” the report says. “Expect increases in challenges to livestock health, declines in crop yields and quality and changes in extreme events in the United States and abroad.”<br />
Summery: Climate change, the gradual warming of the planets atmosphere and oceans are causing a lot of bad things for humans right now and will continue to do so, getting worse as the climate and oceans get hotter, unless drastic actions are taken to limit CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. <br />
Speaking of our country only for a moment, is there any impetus or drive to drastically limit CO2 emissions within the federal government?<br />
Some. <br />
Why only some?<br />
Probably lobbying and the control the fossil fuel industry has over Congress has a great deal to do with it. <br />
This has got to change. Furthermore, the fossil fuel industry has to be held responsible for the damage they are causing the planet and the human race (and by extension, the entire animal kingdom). There has to be a stiff penalty, monetarily, since that’s all the industry leaders seem to understand, for dumping these gases into everyone’s atmosphere (and all industrial polluters for that matter). Clean energy technologies need to be fiercely embraced and subsidized if necessary.<br />
Is there hope? <br />
Yes, there is! There are members of the Congress who recognize the dangers climate change and global warming pose and are willing to do something about it (unfortunately not our President, who still insists climate change is is some kind of hoax perpetrated by the Chinese (he offers no proof of this of course). Right wing tool, former Senator, Rick Santorum, claims that the 97-98% of scientists who promote climate change is real (the other 2-3% work for the oil industry) are in it for the money (he offers no proof of this of course). What money? From whom? George Soros? Obama? Hillary? Might as well blame it on them as everything else is blamed on them. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-2RpydEEnc"><i>Trump when asked</i></a> said the report was “Fine.” Did he believe it? “No.” One has to wonder then why did he request a sea wall in Ireland to protect one of his golf courses from rising ocean levels? Why I ask you? (his own military, of which he is Commander and Chief, has long taken climate change seriously, both for its potential impacts on troops and infrastructure around the world and for its potential to cause political instability in other countries) Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the official Trump administration’s liar, er... press secretary,<a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2018/11/watch-cnn-trolls-sarah-sanders-with-facts-first-real-time-lie-buster-during-white-house-briefing/"><i> has said</i></a>: “The president is certainly leading on what matters most in this process and that’s on having clean air and clean water,” [tell that to the people of Michigan] Sanders began, before saying that the latest report came to “radical conclusions” that “contradicts long-established trends.” “Regarding climate change, Trump said: “One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers.” Putting aside the absurdity of Trump’s boasts about his own intelligence, this claim — like many the president makes — is simply unintelligible. What is he actually saying about climate change? He doesn’t believe it because smart people like him don’t believe it? Climate change denialism is delusional, but at least some of its defenders can string together a coherent argument to defend the view. Trump can’t even manage that.” Washington Post 11-27-18). <br />
The Canadian sex symbol, activist, and author of “The Shock Doctrine, the Rise of Disaster Capitalism,” Naomi Klein,<a href="https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/53619-focus-the-game-changing-promise-of-a-green-new-deal"><i> has written</i></a> “Like so many others, I’ve been energized by the bold moral leadership coming from newly elected members of Congress like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley in the face of the spiraling climate crisis and the outrageous attacks on unarmed migrants at the border. It has me thinking about the crucial difference between leadership that acts and leadership that talks about acting.” (her 4th book, "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate," discusses the subject of climate change at great length. I highly recommend it... even to small children) <br />
Even in our current Congress, there are members who seem to be serious about doing something about climate change. <br />
A bipartisan group of lawmakers are introducing a landmark bill that would charge fossil fuel companies a tax for their carbon dioxide emissions.<br />
The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, announced by two Republicans and three Democratic members of the House last Tuesday (11-27-18), would charge $15 for each ton of carbon emitted into the air and would increase that fee by $10 every year afterward, in an effort to fight climate change. Other than administrative costs, all of the money would go back to taxpayers.<br />
Supporters say the bill would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent in 10 years, and 91 percent by 2050. That’s a bigger cut than former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan (which Trump has actively undermined) or the United States’ commitment under the Paris climate agreement (which Trump has rejected).<br />
Introduced weeks before Congress ends for the year, the legislation is unlikely to get serious House consideration in this session. But with Democrats ready to take control of the House January 3rd, the bill is poised for potential future consideration and will likely be a major marker of where lawmakers from both parties can agree on tackling climate change.<br />
That’s welcome good news. Because climate change is not something that might happen in the future. It’s happening now, and we can’t afford to sit back and continue to pay lip service to actually doing something about it. It is said the the old guard democrats that will soon be back in power in the House of Representatives are afraid of the zeal to actually do something to fight global warming which is apparent in their younger and more progressive counterparts who will soon be sharing that power with them. I know a little about how politics work, but democrats like Nancy Pelosi need to take a strong stance, forget political conformity and begin tackling this problem, probably the greatest problem man and womankind has ever faced, not for themselves, not for you or me, but for the future generations whose lives will be affected by the decisions and actions that we take now. For how can we say to them that we knew what the consequences would be if we did nothing about climate change, and continued to do nothing about it because it was politically expedient to do so. <br />
Let’s not hope but work for the best.<br />
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“The rest of us are listening to the scientists — and to Mother Nature. The impacts of the Climate Crisis are being felt in all regions across our country – extreme weather, heat waves, deeper and longer droughts, crop failures, strengthening wildfires, sea level rise – and they are disproportionately borne by the most vulnerable among us. Mr. President, the majority of Americans are deeply concerned about the climate crisis and demand action. Even as local leaders are responding in the wake of fires and storms, national leaders must summon the will to respond urgently to the dire warnings of this report with bold solutions.” -Al Gore<br />
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Addendum: 12-1-18: <a href="https://weather.com/science/environment/news/2018-11-29-climate-deniers-found-themselves-on-tv?fbclid=IwAR0Xd0KGFE0ru6E8Pe2R8drKysi0sAAwszOQDpdaBkc1Hp0r2TQ2O7DNWSM"><i>A Major National Climate Report Came Out. Then the Deniers Got on TV.</i></a><br />
Addendum: 12-1-18: <a href="https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/53664-why-no-us-region-is-safe-from-climate-change"><i>Why No US Region is Safe From Climate Change.</i></a><br />
Addendum: 12-1-18: <i><a href="https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/53671-rsn-climate-change-response-pits-trump-against-us-government">Climate Change Response Pits Trump Against US Government</a></i><br />
Addendum: 12-1-18: <a href="https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/53672-in-mount-everest-region-worlds-highest-glaciers-are-vanishing"><i>In Mount Everest Region, World's Highest Glaciers Are Vanishing</i></a><br />
Addendum: 12-2-18:<a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8xjwpz/the-epa-page-that-provided-climate-change-information-is-just-gone-now?fbclid=IwAR2VqqopVw6gKykR1fpkiKro1Ri7zOeVaS3lP-n6KgNYnFflAz_YPk8tyac"><i> The EPA's Climate Change Page Is Just Gone Now</i></a><br />
Addendum: 12-2-18: <a href="https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/53694-noam-chomsky-the-future-of-organized-human-life-is-at-risk-thanks-to-gops-climate-change-denial"><i>Noam Chomsky: The Future of Organized Human Life Is at Risk Thanks to GOP's Climate Change Denial</i></a><br />
Addendum: 12-3-18: <a href="https://www.care2.com/causes/global-co2-rises-for-the-first-time-in-4-years-whats-going-on.html"><i>Global CO2 Rises for the First Time in 4 Years: What’s Going On?</i></a><br />
Addendum:12-24-18: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/20/last-day-in-paradise-california-deadliest-fire-untold-story-survivors?ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__122418"><i>Last day in Paradise: The untold story of how a fire swallowed a town</i></a><br />
<i>Addendum: 12-31-18:</i> <a href="https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/54197-california-attorney-general-pgae-could-face-murder-charges-for-role-in-deadly-camp-fire"><i>California Attorney General: PG&E Could Face Murder Charges for Role in Deadly Camp Fire</i></a><br />
Addendum 1-15-19: <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pacific-gas-electric-california-bankruptcy_us_5c3cd388e4b0922a21d7708a?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__011519&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__011519+CID_fd8dec4e2da1e9ab2253793d0a6bd6b2&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=HuffPost&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__011519"><i>California Utility Tied To Devastating Wildfires To File For Bankruptcy</i></a><br />
Addendum: 1-29-19: <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-wildfires-losses-insurance-claims_us_5c4f6490e4b0d9f9be68111c?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=__TheMorningEmail__012919&utm_content=__TheMorningEmail__012919+CID_0770beb9c2edf6dd75fa228c42e32c02&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=114%20billion&ncid=newsltushpmgnews__TheMorningEmail__012919"><i>California Wildfires Losses Top $11.4 Billion In Insurance Claims</i></a><br />
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Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-50617689828415451842018-09-30T06:32:00.001-07:002018-10-13T19:59:43.314-07:00Rendezvous With Rama, a Screenplay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Rendezvous With Rama, a Screenplay</b><br />
<br />
by Richard Joyce<br />
<br />
<b>Based on the novel by Arthur C Clarke </b><br />
<br />
<br />
Picture Legend:<br />
<br />
1. Rama and Endeavor<br />
2. Sandra Bullock<br />
3. A three-dimensional model of 1862 Apollo based on its light-curve<br />
4. & 5. Artist renderings of the interior of Rama<br />
6. Residence of Dr. Carlisle Perera<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>RAMA CHARACTER LIST</b>:<br />
<br />
Commander William Norton, Captain of the Endeavor, 55 years old<br />
<br />
Lieutenant James “Jimmy” Pak<br />
<br />
Lieutenant Commander Karl Mercer <br />
<br />
Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst, <br />
<br />
Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo<br />
<br />
Lieutenant Joe Calvert <br />
<br />
Technical Sergeant Willard Myron<br />
<br />
Sergeant Pieter Rousseau<br />
<br />
Chief Stewart, Ravi McAndrews<br />
<br />
Sergeant Scarborough<br />
<br />
Sergeant Ruby Barnes <br />
<br />
Sergeant Linda Jackson<br />
<br />
Corporal Ellis Jansen<br />
<br />
Corporal Joss Latendy <br />
<br />
Staff Sergeant Iskra Miloslavsky<br />
<br />
Ensign Elizabeth Dian<br />
<br />
Sergeant Aaron Law<br />
<br />
Sergeant Mathilde Arseneault<br />
<br />
Corporal William Bryant<br />
<br />
Sergeant Joshua Adeyemi<br />
<br />
Yeoman Emily Fontana<br />
<br />
Executive Officer Jerry Kirchoff<br />
<br />
Dr Bose, Ambassador from Mars<br />
<br />
Professor Olaf Davidson, Astrophysicist<br />
<br />
Dr. Thelma Price, Archaeologist<br />
<br />
Dr. Carlisle Perera, Exobiologist<br />
<br />
Sir Lewis Sands, Historian<br />
<br />
Sir Robert MacKay, Ambassador from Earth<br />
<br />
Dr. Dennis Solomons, Science Historian <br />
<br />
Dr. Conrad Taylor, Anthropologist<br />
<br />
Ambassador from Mercury <br />
<br />
Astrogeologist Maslak Kuznetsov<br />
<br />
Surveyor Ilyukhin Fedorov<br />
<br />
Surveyor Fred Jones<br />
<br />
News Anchor Person<br />
<br />
Commander Fitzhugh of the Calypso<br />
<br />
Commander Morgan of the Beagle<br />
<br />
Commander Atoni of the Challenger<br />
<br />
1st Technician<br />
<br />
2nd Technician<br />
<br />
Ed Cadron, Tech Supervisor<br />
<br />
Director Griffin, Ed’s boss<br />
<br />
Representative of Planetary Security James McDonald<br />
<br />
President’s Science Advisor Ronald Jameson<br />
<br />
Admiral Hendrix, Commander and Chief (comparable to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff)<br />
<br />
General Assembly President<br />
<br />
Perera’s wife<br />
<br />
Narrator (I suggest George Clooney)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Rendezvous With Rama</b><br />
<br />
<br />
Black screen and silent.<br />
<br />
Opening credits. Titles fade in and out. (short list. Studio Presents, Major Actors, Editor, Cinematographer, Music by, Screenplay by, Produced by, Directed by)<br />
<br />
Black screen and silent for 5 seconds<br />
<br />
VO: <b>It was not a matter of if it was going to happen... but when.</b><br />
<br />
Screen opens to rear view of asteroid with the Earth in the background. The rock tumbles slowly through space, no sound, the Earth slightly to one side.<br />
<br />
VO: <b>Although the probability had been predicted, and precautions taken, not every eventuality could be forseen.</b> <br />
<br />
Cut to far long shot of: Padua, Italy. Fade in <b> “Padua, Northern Italy.”</b> Fade out. Fade in <b>“September 22, 2077“</b> Fade out.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Scenes of everyday street life, slightly futurized as this is 2077. Scenes of traffic, street venders, the Pontifical Basilica of Saint Anthony, the Palazzo della Ragione, Orto Botanico di Padova, etc. Scene shifts back and forth between locations and people. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot of the Prato Della Valle.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of people walking to and fro as sound of the asteroid entering the atmosphere starts to be heard in the background. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close med shot of couple stopping what they are doing, turning around and looking into the sky.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Scenes from other locations with people stopping and looking into the sky as the sound increases in volume.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot into the sky as fireball is seen in the distance. Sound gets louder. Fireball increases in brilliance.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from space, directly above Austria, Slovenia, and Northern Italy as asteroid approaches Italy from the northeast. Hold as asteroid begins to break up.</div>
<br />
Long shot into the sky as fireball approaches. The sound is deafening.<br />
<br />
Long to Med shot of people beginning to react, running wherever they could. <br />
<br />
Long shot from upper atmosphere as asteroid strikes the Earth. This is like a nuclear explosion times six. <br />
<br />
Long shot from space at the impact <br />
<br />
Long shot from shore, Venice, as a huge wave crashes into the city, inundating it<br />
<br />
Long shot from above as water envelopes Venice<br />
<br />
Long shot from space looking at an angle as the impact spreads out in a circular fashion.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO: <b>Thirty four million people died. The total damage cost trillions. The loss to art, to history, to science - to the whole human race, for the rest of time, was beyond all computation. It was as if a great war had been fought and lost in a single morning. And few could draw pleasure from the fact that, as the dust of destruction slowly settled, for months the entire world witnessed the most magnificent dawns and sunsets since Krakatoa. </b></div>
<br />
Fade to black.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO: <b>It was realized that such a disaster might not occur again for a thousand years - but it might occur tomorrow. And the next time, the consequences would undoubtedly be worse.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in: Exterior of SPACEGUARD headquarters.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in <b>“Houston, Texas. Project SPACEGUARD headquarters. 2131”</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO: <b>So began the last version of Project Spaceguard, and fifty years later - and in a way that none of its designers could ever have anticipated - it justified it’s existence. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to interior main hallway of SPACEGUARD headquarters. Camera moves slowly down corridor. Rows of computer servers can be seen behind glass panels on each side of the hallway.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO: <b>Mars based radars were discovering new asteroids at a rate of a dozen a day. The Spaceguard computers automatically calculated their orbits and stored the information in their own enormous memories. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> It had taken more than one hundred and twenty years to collect data on the first thousand asteroids since the discovery of the dwarf planet Ceres, largest of these tiny worlds that lie within the Asteroid Belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Hundreds had been found and lost and found again, they existed in such swarms that one exasperated astronomer had christened them “vermin of the skies.” That astronomer would have been appalled that Spaceguard was now keeping track of almost half a trillion. </b></div>
<br />
Camera approaches door at the end of the corridor and passes through it into the main computer complex. Seen are rows of control panels maned by technicians, with a large screen in the front of the room showing tracking of asteroids. Camera moves close to this screen and turns 180 degrees toward the room and slowly moves in on one particular server. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO: <b>Only the six giants, Ceres, Vista, Pallas, Hygiea, Interamnia, and Fifty-Two-Europa were more than three hundred kilometers in diameter. The vast majority were merely oversized boulders that could fit into a park. Almost all of them moved in orbits that were beyond the orbit of Mars. Only the few that came far enough sunward to be a possible danger to the Earth were the concern of Spaceguard. And not one in a thousand of these, during the entire future history of the solar system, would pass within a million kilometers of Earth.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Camera moves into the circuitry of the server. as the VO describes the detection of 31/439, circuits fire. camera reverses out of server into a long shot of the control center. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO: <b>The object cataloged as 31/439, according to the year and order of discovery, was detected while it was still outside the orbit of Jupiter. There was nothing unusual about its location; many asteroids went beyond Saturn before returning once more toward their distant master, the Sun. And Thule II, most far ranging of all, traveled so close to Uranus that it might well be a lost moon of that planet.</b></div>
<br />
Camera slowly pans over control room and technicians.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO:<b> But a first radar contact at such a distance was unprecedented; clearly, 31/439 must have been of exceptional size. From the strength of the echo, the computers deduced a diameter of at least forty kilometers. Such a giant had not been discovered for over a hundred years. That it had been overlooked for so long seemed incredible. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Then the orbit was calculated, and the mystery was resolved, to be replaced by a greater one. 31/439 was not traveling on a normal asteroidal path, along the elliptic which it retraced with clockwork precision every few years. Instead, it was a lonely wanderer among the stars, making its first and last visit to the solar system, for it was moving so swiftly that the gravitational field of the Sun could never capture it. It would flash inward past the orbits of Jupiter, Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury, gaining speed as it did so, until it rounded the Sun and headed out once again into the vastness of space. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Camera moves into one technician sitting at one control panel talking to another technician.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO:<b> It was at this point that the computers started flashing their “We have something interesting” sign </b>(Light on technician’s control panel begins blinking)<b>, and, for the first time, 31/439 came to the attention of human beings.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med Shot: Two technicians talking to each other.</div>
<br />
2nd Tech: <b>Hey, you’re blinking.</b><br />
<br />
1st Tech: <b>Huumm?</b><br />
<br />
2nd tech points to the 1st tech’s panel.<br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>Oh!</b><br />
<br />
1st tech pushes a button and his monitor activates. <br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>What have we got here?</b><br />
<br />
2nd tech moves in closer to have a look.<br />
<br />
Close up: Both tech’s faces as they take in information about 31/439. They’re expressions change from mild curiosity to fascination to intense scrutiny.<br />
<br />
2nd tech: <b>Wow. </b><br />
<br />
Med shot: both techs look at each other.<br />
<br />
1st tech stands up and calls to his supervisor.<br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>Ed! Ed! </b><br />
<br />
Long shot: A man in the back of the room stops what he is doing and stands.<br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>I’m going to send something to you.</b><br />
<br />
Ed: <b>Alright.</b><br />
<br />
Med shot: Ed’s face looking at his monitor. His expression of mild interest soon changes. The two techs come and stand behind him. <br />
<br />
Ed: <b>If this is right we haven’t seen anything like this for, oh, over seventy years. </b><br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>Oumuamua... Nunnehi?</b><br />
<br />
Ed: <b>Yeah. But this is a hell of a lot bigger.</b> <br />
<br />
He tears his gaze from the monitor and looks at the two techs. <br />
<br />
Ed: <b>I have to notify Griffin. We better give it a name. </b><br />
<br />
2nd tech: <b>I’ll get it.</b> (he walks away)<br />
<br />
Long shot of the room. <br />
<br />
2nd tech stops at a computer console and punches in some information. <br />
<br />
Long shot of the room, side angle: By now the entire room has quieted, all attention is on the three men. Some other techs walk over to Ed’s station. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot, Ed looks down at the 2nd tech.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot, 2nd tech:<b> Asteroid thirty one four thirty nine is now designated... “Rama.”</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close shot Ed, who considers a moment: <b>Hindu God. Rama it is! </b>(Ed picks up a land-line phone) <b>Hi. This is supervisor Cadron. Could you get me Director Griffin please. Okay I’ll hold.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Spaceguard conference room days later. Present were Director Griffin, Supervisor Cadron, First Tech, Representative of Planetary Security McDonald, President’s Science Advisor Jameson, and assorted Spaceguard and PR representatives.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Director Griffin: <b>Okay, most of us know each other. This is Representative of Planetary Security James McDonald, and the President’s Science Advisor, Ronald Jameson.</b> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ed and 1st tech look a little surprised. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Griffin: <b>Rama. What we know, and what the media has found out, is that it’s big, and it’s coming from outside the solar system. Let’s review please. What else do we know? Number one, and most important, how close will it come to Earth?</b></div>
<br />
Ed looked at his tech.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1st tech: <b>No worries there. Rama won’t get any closer than approximately thirty three million kilometers to Earth. It will approach Mercury a little closer at 18 million, but still a very safe distance.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Griffin: <b>I’m not betting on that being very reassuring to our Mercurian friends, but we’ll deal with that as it happens I suppose. </b>(he looks at McDonald who nods)<b> What else? Where does it come from?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ed: <b>We’re not completely sure. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jameson, surprised: <b>Really? It seems it would be a simple matter of calculating from Rama’s trajectory backwards to it’s point of origin.</b> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ed: <b>Yeah.</b> <b>We would expect that to true in this case. And it would appear that the closest candidate for a point of origin would be Vega...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jameson: <b>Twenty five light years away? </b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1st tech: <b>Correct. But there’s a problem. We know it came from the direction of the Lyra Constellation, which includes the main sequence star Vega. However, Vega was not in the same part of the sky at that time when it was detected. We calculate that a hundred years ago, Rama was about 83 billion kilometers from the Sun and traveling at a speed of 26 kilometers per second relative to it. That interstellar speed is very close to the mean motion of material in the galaxy relative to the Sun. This velocity profile also indicates an extra-solar origin, but appears to rule out the closest dozen of stars. In fact, the strong correlation between Rama's velocity and the local standard of rest, might mean that it has circulated the galaxy several times and thus may have originated from an entirely different part of the Milky Way.</b></div>
<br />
Ed:<b> Of course, as it approaches the Sun it’s velocity will correspondingly increase.</b><br />
<br />
Griffin: <b>How fast is it now?</b><br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>About forty eight kilometers per second. It’s expected to reach a maximum velocity of eighty eight KPS.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>Too fast to intercept?</b><br />
<br />
1st tech, looks surprised: <b>Intercept? Oh yes. Much too fast. The energy cost would be far too great to make any physical contact with Rama.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>What does it look like?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ed: <b>We don’t know. It’s too far away. It still appears as a fifteenth magnitude star through our telescopes. We’ll get a better idea as it gets closer. It will grow brighter and larger month by month. Within the next few years some spacecraft might be able to get close enough to get some really good pictures of it.</b></div>
<br />
Griffin clears his throat: <b>I understand you’ve discovered something new about Rama that has prompted Mr. McDonald’s and Jameson’s presence. Care to extrapolate? </b><br />
<br />
Ed looks at 1st tech.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
1st tech:<b> Yes, we did. after examining further optical observations we noticed something interesting concerning Rama’s light curve. </b></div>
<br />
Jameson: <b>What about it?</b><br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>It doesn’t have one. </b><br />
<br />
Simultaneously, Griffin: <b>Really.</b><br />
<br />
Jameson: <b>What?!</b><br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>Rama does not not indicate any curve at all.</b><br />
<br />
Jameson: <b>Well that’s just ridiculous. You’re observations must be wrong.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>What’s a light curve?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ed: <b>All objects in the solar system, like asteroids, exhibit some difference in their brilliance, waxing and waning in a few hours, corresponding to the object’s rotation and it’s irregular shape. As they topple over in their orbits, the reflecting surfaces they present to the Sun are constantly changing, and their brightness varies accordingly.</b></div>
<br />
1st tech: <b>No discernible light curve would mean one of two things.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>Which are?</b><br />
<br />
Ed: <b>Either Rama isn’t rotating at all, which has never been observed before, or...</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>Or...?</b><br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>It’s completely smooth, or circular, or symmetrical.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald, looking around: <b>So what’s the big deal about that?</b><br />
<br />
Ed: <b>Nothing in nature is completely smooth, circular, or symmetrical.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>The Earth is circular.</b><br />
<br />
1st tech: <b>With all due respect, the Earth is an oblate spheroid—a sphere that is squashed at its poles and swollen at the equator, with a diameter of almost thirteen thousand kilometers and a mass of six times ten to the twenty fourth power in kilograms. </b><br />
<br />
Ed: <b>Rama’s diameter doesn’t appear to be any larger than forty to fifty kilometers.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>So?</b><br />
<br />
Jameson: <b>So... gravity would have no affect on Rama’s shape.</b><br />
<br />
McDonald: <b>Okay. So what does this all mean essentially?</b><br />
<br />
Griffin looks at his two men. They look at each other.<br />
<br />
Ed: <b>We don’t know.</b><br />
<br />
Fade out.<br />
<br />
Fade in to extreme long shot of outer space. Slowly the Solar Survey Ship Endeavor comes into view from out of the darkness.<br />
<br />
Fade in:<b> “Solar Survey Ship Endeavor. Current Mission: Locate, Catalog, and Mark Potentially Dangerous Asteroids Between the Orbits of the Earth and Venus”</b> Fade out<br />
<br />
The ship passes the vantage point of the camera<br />
<br />
Cut to Endeavor’s interior. Pilot’s cockpit. Weightless environment. Commander William Norton, Captain of the Endeavor, and Lieutenant Joe Calvert are at the ship’s controls. <br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton<br />
<br />
Fade in:<b> “Commander William Norton, Captain of the Endeavor”</b> Fade out<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Calvert<br />
<br />
Fade in:<b> “Lieutenant Joe Calvert, Pilot”</b> Fade out<br />
<br />
Cut to med side angle of the two as Norton receives a communication from his signals officer.<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Yes Pieter.</b><br />
<br />
Sergeant Pieter Rousseau:<b> Skipper, we’re receiving a Mayday call from the surveyors on eighteen sixty two Apollo. They say they’re experiencing a “Gravity Situation.”</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of the two as Norton and Mercer look at each other, the direness of the situation enveloping them</div>
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>Put them on please.</b> (waits a moment)<br />
<br />
Voice of astrogeologist Maslak Kuznetsov: <b>Hello?!</b><br />
<br />
Norton:<b> This is Commander Norton of the Endeavor. Who am I speaking to?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to exterior of the surface of the asteroid 1862 Apollo, approximately 1.5 kilometers in diameter, which rotates at a rate of 3 times an hour. The star field in the background shall revolve appropriately. Long establishing shot of a small asteroid jumper ship.<br />
<br />
Cut to to the ship’s interior wherein there men are inside. Astrogeologist Maslak Kuznetsov, Surveyor Ilyukhin Fedorov, and Surveyor Fred Jones. <br />
<br />
Kuznetsov:<b> Bill?! This is Maslak. Maslak Kuznetsov.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>Maslak! What seems to be the problem?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to close on Kuznetsov: <b>Bill, our survey ship has warned us of a recent high velocity collision between two Apollo’s nearby, and part of the debris field seems to be headed our way. Our own radar confirms this.</b></div>
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>Wow. If I were you I’d get the hell out of there Maslak.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Kuznetsov: <b>Yeah. That’s the problem. Our ship won’t start.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>What?!</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Kuznetsov: <b>We’ve tried everything, but the damn engine won’t fire. </b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>Where’s your survey ship?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kuznetsov: <b>Another part of the problem. It’s about five hours away.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Norton and Calvert<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>How far away are we?</b><br />
<br />
Calvert calls out: <b>Willard! How far away are we from these guys?</b><br />
<br />
Med on Technical Sergeant Willard Myron from a compartment just behind the cockpit, calls out: <b>Ahh, one hour and eleven minutes at our current velocity, Lieutenant.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton and Calvert<br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>Maslak? How long until you expect the debris field to reach your location? </b><br />
<br />
Close on Kuznetsov: <b>About ninety minutes.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>Jesus!</b> (to Calvert) <b>Set a course to their location and prepare for a three second burn.</b><br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>Aye, aye, Skipper.</b><br />
<br />
Kuznetsov:<b> Bill...</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kuznetsov: <b>I’m sorry about this. The debris will probably just pass us by. We issued the “Mayday” in the hopes of someone being close, and there you were.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>Yeah, well, don’t worry about it Maslak. We’re going to come and get you out of there. We should be there in about thirty minutes...</b> (he looks at Calvert who nods his head in confirmation)<br />
<br />
Kuznetsov: <b>Thank you, Bill.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton, into his intercom:<b> Lieutenant Rodrigo!</b><br />
<br />
Voice of Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo answering: <b>Yes, Commander.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Boris, are you up for a little ride?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo in another part of the ship. He thinks about this a moment, then answers: <b>Why not.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>I’ll be down in a minute.</b> (he pushes a button on his counsel. An alarm sounds throughout the ship) <b>General quarters. General quarters. This is not a drill.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to exterior in space from behind Endeavor as it’s maneuvering thrusters place in the correct orientation, and the main engines ignite for three seconds, as the ship disappears into the distance. Hopefully this is done silently, as there is no sound in space as there is no atmosphere. I hope the producers are courageous enough to take a cue from the films “2001, A Space Odyssey,” and “Gravity,” that got along quite well without resorting to unrealistic sound effects<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Endeavor interior, weightless environment, navigation compartment behind cockpit. Technical Sergeant Willard Myron and Lieutenant James Pak are manning the stations at their respective control counsels. As in most vessels there are background noises. </div>
<br />
Pak, thinking aloud: <b>Why do they call it a gravity situation?</b><br />
<br />
Myron: <b>What?</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>The surveyors called this a gravity situation. Why?</b><br />
<br />
Myron: <b>That’s what they call it when there is a potential debris strike on a manned station.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Why?</b><br />
<br />
Myron, annoyed: <b>Why, what?</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Why do they call it a gravity situation? There’s no gravity down there.</b><br />
<br />
Myron:<b> I don’t know.</b><br />
<br />
Voice of Norton from the cockpit: <b>It’s from a old movie, Jimmy...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton:<b> ...from back in the nineteen nineties I think. It was about one of the space shuttles in orbit around Earth getting hit and destroyed by debris from a broken up satellite. </b>(thinking)<b> Let’s see, it starred an actress named... Sandra Bull..., something... Sandra Bullock, and an actor... James Cagney, I believe.</b></div>
<br />
Calvert, impressed: <b>That’s pretty good Skipper.</b><br />
<br />
Norton smiles<br />
<br />
Cut back to Pak, to himself: <b>Still no gravity.</b> (he types onto his computer keyboard. Close on his typing the name “Sandra Bullock.” Med close on his monitor where hundreds of pictures flash by in a second or two stopping at the Sandra Bullock Underwater Smiling Face picture. <br />
<br />
Cut to med shot of Pak and his subdued reaction. <br />
<br />
Cut to med on Rodrigo working in the sled bay, as Norton floats in <br />
<br />
Norton: <b>We’re going to have to make this short and sweet, Boris.</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo:<b> I understand Commander.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>You’re sure you’re up to it? It’s probably going to be dicey.</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo:<b> I’ll be fine. We need to get those men out of there.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton looking at him<br />
<br />
Med on both<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Okay. Good luck.</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo: <b>Thanks.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton returning to the cockpit<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Prepare to launch the sled, Joe.</b><br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>Ready to launch, Skipper.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Captain to launch bay. Are you ready, Boris?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on Rodrigo from the side, on the sled, in spacesuit: <b>I’m ready, Commander.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>Launch, Joe.</b><br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>Launch, aye.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on the launch bay of the sled and Rodrigo from above as they descend into a lower chamber, the sounds of machinery moving the sled is heard<br />
<br />
Close on Rodrigo as he looks up<br />
<br />
Med on the airlock doors closing above Rodrigo and the sled<br />
<br />
Cut to med on Rodrigo and the sled from front as the air is emptied into space. As this procedure occurs the ambient sound disappears<br />
<br />
Cut to med of the sled and driver from above as the doors below them open to space and the sled descends <br />
<br />
Cut to long on the underside of Endeavor as the sled emerges and is released<br />
<br />
Cut to med on Rodrigo as he applies power to his thrusters<br />
<br />
Cut to long of the two as the sled moves quickly away from the ship<br />
<br />
Cut to the cockpit<br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>Sled has launched, Skipper.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Very well. Jimmy! How long do you estimate until Boris reaches eighteen sixty two?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Pak: <b>At its current speed approximately twenty six minutes, Captain.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>Thank you.</b> (talk on intercom)<b> Pieter! Get the surveyors back for me, please.</b><br />
<br />
Rousseau on intercom: <b>Aye, aye, Skipper.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to long on the sled from the side as it moves through space<br />
<br />
Cut to med on Rodrigo from the front<br />
<br />
Cut to long on his POV looking at 1682 in the distance<br />
<br />
Cut to side shot again as Rodrigo applies thrusters to turn the sled around so the main engine faces his direction of flight, and Rodrigo is facing backwards<br />
<br />
Cut to long on the sled as it approaches the camera as Rodrigo fires the main engine to slow the sled down<br />
<br />
Cut to side shot again as Rodrigo uses his thrusters to turn the sled around once again so he is facing forward again<br />
<br />
Cut to Norton in the cockpit talking on the radio to Kuznetsov<br />
<br />
Kuznetsov on the radio: <b>You’re going to send, what?</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>A sled.</b><br />
<br />
Kuznetsov: <b>A sled. </b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Yeah, a sled.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Kuznetsov on the asteroid: <b>Why aren’t you coming?</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>I’m not taking this ship anywhere near a runaway asteroid field. I have eighty seven people on board that I’m responsible for, not to mention the ship itself.</b><br />
<br />
Kuznetsov on the radio: <b>A sled.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Yes! But Lieutenant Rodrigo is an expert on this equipment, and in emergency procedures. You guys will be fine. As a matter of fact I suggest you get your gear on and get outside. He’ll be there in about five minutes...</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kuznetsov: <b>A sled.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>It’s official designation is different, but we call it a sled.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kuznetsov: <b>What’s the official name for it?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton, as he sighs before answering: <b>A scooter.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kuznetsov<br />
<br />
Cut to the sled and Rodrigo in space Med from behind as they approach 1682<br />
<br />
Close on Rodrigo<br />
<br />
Norton on his radio: <b>Boris, how are you doing?</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo:<b> I’m almost there, Commander. ETA in two minutes. Have them be ready.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to rear view again as the camera stops moving and the sled moves on to the right of the slowly rotating asteroid<br />
<br />
Cut to Med of Norton and Calvert on the bridge of Endeavor<br />
<br />
Norton to the radio: <b>Did you hear that, Kuznetsov? Are you ready?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on the surveyors now in their spacesuits and outside of their craft, waiting<br />
<br />
Kuznetsov: <b>We’re ready. I think I see your <i>sled</i> coming.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>Good. </b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to the surveyors as the sled can be seen high in the asteroid’s sky to the south coming in fast over the short plain. Rodrigo applies the sled forward thrusters to slow it down to a stop in front of the three men as they scramble to board and hook on to the sled with safety lines.</div>
<br />
Close on Rodrigo:<b> All set?</b><br />
<br />
Close on Jones: <b>Yes, we’re ready!</b><br />
<br />
Close on Rodrigo: <b>Hold on.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to behind the sled as it applies full thrust, as the vehicle distances itself from the camera and bends up into space<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Rodrigo: <b>Rodrigo to Endeavor.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton on Endeavor’s bridge: <b>Yes Boris.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Rodrigo: <b>I’ve got them. I’m going to burn full thrust to get us out of the vicinity. All my fuel will be gone and we’ll need you to pick us up. Copy?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>No problem, Boris. Do what you think is prudent.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Rodrigo: <b>Copy that. </b><br />
<br />
Cut to behind the sled as it’s main engine fires<br />
<br />
Cut to long in front of the sled and men with 1682 in the background<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Kuznetsov looking back at the asteroid<br />
<br />
Cut to 1682 as the asteroid field reaches it, impacting the asteroid and destroying their spacecraft<br />
<br />
Cut to the sled from front as other pieces fly near by, one barely missing them<br />
<br />
Cut to long on behind the sled as it advances into the distance<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in long on the men and sled, now out of fuel, drifting in space<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Rodrigo: <b>Rodrigo to Endeavor. We’d like to be picked up now.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to long as Endeavor enters the screen from above and nears the stranded men<br />
<br />
Norton’s voice:<b> Endeavor to Lieutenant Rodrigo. We’ll be picking you up in a moment.</b><br />
<br />
Voice of Rodrigo: <b>We sure would appreciate it.</b><br />
<br />
Voice of Norton: <b>Hey, don’t worry about it. We need the sled back.</b><br />
<br />
Sound of laughter<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in ext surface of the Moon looking down at Tranquility Base from lunar orbit.<br />
<br />
Fade to conference room.<br />
<br />
Fade in <b>“Space Advisory Council, Moon Base Tranquility”</b> Fade out.<br />
<br />
Fade in<b> “Rama Committee” </b>Fade out.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Davidson, as he speaks <b>“Professor Olaf Davidson, Astrophysicist”</b> fades in and out: <b>The question today before the committee is straight forward enough. It is agreed that the object Rama is an unusual object. It has yet to be determined if it is an important one. Dr Bose?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose, as he speaks <b>“Dr Andrew Bose, Ambassador from Mars”</b> fades in and out: <b>We do have some new developments. Dr. William Stenton, using the Farside Two-Hundred-Meter Reflector, was able to determine that Rama’s reflection is not entirely uniform, and that it is indeed rotating. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close shots of the other committee members taking this in.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>We know of course that most asteroidal objects rotate at a rate of a few hours to complete one rotation. Rama it seems has a rotational period of four minutes.</b></div>
<br />
Reaction shots of the others.<br />
<br />
Perera, as he speaks <b>“Dr. Carlisle Perera, Exobiologist”</b> fades in and out: <b>Amazing! That would mean... lets see </b>(he scribbles on a piece of paper)<b> that at it’s equator, Rama must be spinning at more than a thousand kilometers per hour.</b><br />
<br />
Bose: <b>Yes. It’s difficult to see how it’s holding itself together actually. </b><br />
<br />
Davidson: <b>Where does that leave us?</b><br />
<br />
Bose:<b> It doesn’t leave us anywhere. The only known object that fits a model of forty kilometers in diameter with a rotation rate of four minutes is a neutron star. </b> <br />
<br />
The others take this in somewhat incredulously.<br />
<br />
Bose:<b> Fortunately we know Rama is not a neutron star, due to the fact that it’s gravity has not already torn the planets from their respective orbits. </b><br />
<br />
Sir Lewis Sands: <b>What is it then?</b><br />
<br />
Bose: <b>That is what needs to be determined.</b><br />
<br />
Davidson: <b>What are you suggesting. </b><br />
<br />
Bose: <b>There is a a probe scheduled to be launched from Phobos in three months to explore regions beyond Neptune that at a quite horrifying cost could be retrofitted and sent to Rama for what would be the fastest flyby mission ever conceived. </b><br />
<br />
Davidson: <b>I think that would be a tremendous waste of time and resources.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>I know you do Olaf. But considering the unique nature of Rama, and the short period of time we have to explore it before it leaves the solar system altogether, I believe we have an obligation to do what we can. I think we should put it up for a vote. Does anyone else care to second.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Price: <b>I second that.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Alright, all those in favor...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to interplanetary space. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Camera pans down to the Sita spacecraft which has the name “SITA” vertically imprinted on it’s hull. As camera stops the probe activates and twelve mini probes silently detach and spread out through space. Camera moves downward and to the side of Sita with a bright point of light coming into view which is quickly approaching. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to interior of SITA control room with technicians scurrying about, most of them looking at computer monitors. There is a large monitor in the front of the room.<b> “SITA Control Center, Tikhonravov Crater, Mars”</b> appears on the screen briefly before fading out. </div>
<br />
Med Shot, technicians working at control monitors. <br />
<br />
Tech One: <b>Encounter should have just occurred. Waiting for transmission back. We should get data in twelve and a half minutes.</b><br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in twelve minutes later. <br />
<br />
Mission Controller: <b>Okay, put it on the screen. </b><br />
<br />
The large screen in the front of the room activates. All that can be seen is static. <br />
<br />
Med Shot of Mission Controller and several technicians staring at the large monitor. <br />
<br />
Long Shot from behind technicians with large monitor prominently displayed as the static starts to clear.<br />
<br />
Med Shot of Mission Controller and technicians staring at the screen.<br />
<br />
Long Shot from behind as a bright point of light off center on the monitor grows in size.<br />
<br />
Med Shot of Mission Controller and technicians staring at the screen as their facial expressions begin to react to what they are seeing. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med Shot on the monitor as Rama grows in size to dominate the screen. “Its body was a cylinder so geometrically perfect that it might have been turned on a lathe -- one with centers fifty kilometers apart. The two ends were quite flat, apart from some small structures at the center of one face, and were twenty kilometers across; from a distance, when there was no sense of scale, Rama looked almost comically like an ordinary domestic boiler...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
...Its surface was a dull, drab gray, as colorless as the Moon, and completely devoid of markings except at one point. Halfway along the cylinder there was a kilometer-wide stain or smear, as if something had once hit and splattered, ages ago.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The smear is the only indicator of Rama’s spin. </div>
<br />
Second Tech: <b>Holy... </b><br />
<br />
Cut to conference aboard the Endeavor. Commander Norton, Lieutenant Commander Mercer, Commander Fitzhugh of the Calypso, Morgan of the Beagle, and Atoni of the Challenger are in attendance. The men are seated around a small table. It is a weightless environment. <br />
<br />
Close on Commander Morgan:<b> Shit! You gotta be kidding me!</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton and Mercer.<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Those are the orders. Look for yourself.</b><br />
<br />
Morgan: <b>I see the orders. You still gotta be kidding me!</b><br />
<br />
<b>“Conference Room, Endeavor, Inside The Orbit of Venus"</b> fades in and out.<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>I wish there was some other way... </b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Commander Atoni: <b>So let me get this straight. You siphon off all of our fuel and go chasing after this thing while our ships drift pretty much helplessly in space waiting for the next tanker to show up and rescue us. </b></div>
<br />
Norton: (uncomfortably) <b>Yeah. That sums up the situation fairly well. </b><br />
<br />
Commander Fitzhugh: (calmly) <b>Why the Endeavor, Bill? </b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>I imagine it’s our location relative to Rama... The Endeavor seems to be the only ship in the solar system situated to have a chance of intercepting Rama.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Also our capacity to carry the extra fuel. Our crew is particularly suited for this type of mission...</b><br />
<br />
Morgan: <b>No crew is particularly suited for this mission. </b><br />
<br />
Norton and Mercer look at the three Commanders<br />
<br />
Atoni: <b>And what is it that you hope to do when and if you get there?</b><br />
<br />
Norton: (shrugs) <b>Rendezvous. At the very least we’ll have a good look. We really can’t pass this chance up. </b><br />
<br />
The three Commanders look at Norton and Mercer.<br />
<br />
Close on Morgan: (sighs) <b>Alright. I suppose the sooner we transfer the fuel the sooner you can be on your way.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Thanks Ed, Jerry, Thomas. Again, I’m sorry for this...</b><br />
<br />
Morgan: <b>It’s not your fault. Just find our what that thing is, okay?</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>We’ll try our best.</b><br />
<br />
Atoni: <b>And for God’s sake, be safe.</b><br />
<br />
Norton and Mercer react to that last command.<br />
<br />
Fade to earth based television news broadcast center. The camera moves in slowly toward the news anchor person as they speak.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anchor Person: <b>And so it has happened. For as long as man has looked into the skies and toward the billions of flashing, bright stars above we have wondered in all of the vastness of space, are we alone? Now we have the answer to that question. The spacecraft christened Rama has proven that other civilizations exist other than ours. That throughout the galaxy other cultures thrive, some of them capable of making themselves known to us. In many ways the sorrowful truth that we are but one of many societies denies us the privileged platform that we are somehow special. That the universe was not made solely for human beings. That we are not unique in the cosmos. This doleful reality is balanced by the knowledge that ours is but one of many species that inhabit nearby planetary systems, that we share in the miracle of life, that we do not need to feel lonely among the mysteries yet to befall us. How this phenomenon will affect our planet’s religions, our economy, the state of our evolving modes of science and government, is unknown at this time, but surely some of our precious and most closely held beliefs and customs will by necessity need to be revised. Rama, it’s mission unknown, within the next few weeks will reach perihelion, making it’s closest approach to our sun, using it’s gravity to propel it once again into the dark reaches of outer space. Perhaps those who made and pilot the huge ship will talk to us before leaving. Perhaps not. In any case the long hoped for, the long feared encounter has come at last. Mankind is receiving it’s first visitor from the stars. </b></div>
<br />
Fade to black<br />
<br />
Cut to Endeavor approaching a spinning Rama. Endeavor moves along Rama’s hull toward the north surface plain. <br />
<br />
Cut to Endeavor over north plain. Rama’s spin is indicated by the three moving pillbox structures below and their shadows. Endeavor’s reaction thrusters fire to match Rama’s spin.<br />
<br />
Interior, Endeavor’s cockpit. Commander Norton and Lieutenant Joe Calvert are at the ship’s controls. A display screen shows the northern plain below them. Weightless environment.<br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>In three minutes we’ll know if it’s made of antimatter</b> (Norton smiles).<br />
<br />
Exterior as the Endeavor slowly approaches the plain below, off center, toward one of the three structures.<br />
<br />
Med interior, cockpit of Norton and Calvert.<br />
<br />
Exterior: the Endeavor gets closer to touching down.<br />
<br />
Interior, Cockpit.<br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>Contact in five seconds. </b><br />
<br />
Both men tense in anticipation of landing. <br />
<br />
Exterior: The Endeavor lands near one of the pillbox structures.<br />
<br />
Close shot of the Endeavors landing pads sliding up to the nearest pill box due to Rama’s spin, and stopping.<br />
<br />
Close shot of another land pad shifting to another pillbox.<br />
<br />
Interior: As both men switch off power, <br />
<br />
Norton: (flips open a radio circuit) <b>Rama Base. Endeavor has landed.</b><br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in. Endeavor interior, control center. various crew members are about monitoring various controls. Weightless environment. </div>
<br />
Norton and Mercer are floating behind Sargent Scarborough who has been monitoring one of the control panels. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Scarborough: <b>Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No radio signals... at any frequency. No vibrations that the seismograph can detect, except for expected thermal heating. No electrical currents. No radioactivity. No nothing.</b> (he looks up at the two officers)<b> It’s like a tomb.</b></div>
<br />
Close on Norton and Mercer. <br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Perhaps that’s exactly what it is. A tomb. </b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>It looks like there’s some kind of instrumentation on those structures outside. It might be an airlock. Maybe we can find out what Rama is. </b><br />
<br />
Norton : <b>Maybe. We’ll wait twenty four hours to see if Rama doesn’t mind us sitting on it, then go out and take a look.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Sounds good. </b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>You and I will make the first EVA.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Mercer: <b>Sounds good! </b><br />
<br />
Cut to med, Exterior: Endeavor’s airlock door opens and Norton and Mercer float out in spacesuits using thrusters to maneuver. Throughout the scene the surrounding star field revolves to approximate Rama’s spin.<br />
<br />
Long shot: Both astronauts float to where the Endeavor is in contact with the pillbox structures. <br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Looks good Captain. There must be several tons of pressure holding them together, but it seems to be evenly distributed.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Good... okay, what have we got here?</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he uses his thrusters to float around one of the structures. <br />
<br />
Close on Mercer watching him. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton as he comes across the embedded wheel. “Six radial grooves, or slots, were deeply recessed in the metal, and lying in them were six crossed bars, like the spokes of a rimless wheel, with a small hub at the center.”</div>
<br />
Norton:<b> It looks like it could be some kind of handwheel.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Yeah?</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>But it’s useless. It’s embedded in the wall.</b> (Mercer joins Norton). <b>It doesn’t make any sense. </b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>What’s this?</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>What?</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>This recess. It looks like you can put your hand in there and grab the spoke.</b><br />
<br />
Norton does just that and pulls the wheel smoothly out of the wall. <br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Amazing. I would think that any moving part would have been vacuum-welded ages ago.</b> (he thinks a moment) <b>Endeavor?</b><br />
<br />
Myron: <b>Endeavor here Captain.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Has anything changed inside Rama?</b><br />
<br />
Myron: <b>Negative Captain. Still quite as a mouse.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Mercer: <b>Well Skipper, are you going to turn it?</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton thinking: <b>What’s your diagnosis, Karl?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Mercer: <b>It’s obviously a manual control for an air lock... probably an emergency back-up system in case of a power failure. I can’t imagine any technology, however advanced, that wouldn’t take such precautions.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton, making up his mind grabbed the wheel with both hands and attempted to turn in a clockwise fashion. It doesn’t move. He strains again. It still doesn’t budge.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Give me a hand.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Each astronauts took a spoke and exerted all of the force that they could muster but it didn’t move. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They step back and look at it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Let’s try it the other way.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Both men try the wheel again, this time in a counter clockwise fashion and it moves effortlessly a full rotation before taking up the load. </div>
<br />
Half a meter away the curving wall of the pillbox began to move like a slowly opening clam shell. A few dust particles escape to space from within looking like “dazzling diamonds” as they flew off. A doorway was opened. <br />
<br />
Both men take a moment to look at it.<br />
<br />
Cut to the Rama Committee interior long shot.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot Dr Bose:<b> Gentlemen, Doctor Price, the committee is now in session. I think I am correct in saying that this is a gathering of unique talents, assembled to deal with a unique situation. The directive that the Secretary-General has given us is to evaluate that situation, and to advise Commander Norton if necessary. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sir Robert MacKay: (<b>“Sir Robert MacKay, Ambassador from Earth”</b> fades in and out) <b>This Commander Norton has a tremendous responsibility. What sort of person is he?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Professor Davidson:<b> I can answer that. </b>(he looked down at his phone)<b> William Tsien Norton, born two thousand seventy seven, Brisbane, Oceana. Educated Sydney, Bombay, Houston. Then five years at Astrograd, specializing in propulsion. Commissioned twenty one oh two. Rose through the usual ranks... lieutenant on the third Persephone expedition... distinguished himself during fifteenth attempt to establish a base on Venus... um... ...um... </b>(looks up)<b> exemplary record... </b>(looks down)<b> dual citizenship, Earth and Mars... wife and one child in Brisbane, wife and two in Port Lowell, </b>(looks up)<b> with an option on a third.</b></div>
<br />
Dr. Conrad Taylor:<b> Wife?</b><br />
<br />
Professor Davidson: <b>No. Child, of course! </b><br />
<br />
Taylor is smiling. Polite laughter fills the room. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Professor Davidson: <b>Appointed Commanding Officer Solar Survey Research Vessel Endeavor. First voyage to retrograde satellites of Jupiter... um, that was a tricky one... one asteroid mission when ordered to prepare for this operation... managed to beat the deadline... </b>(Davidson cleared his screen and looked at his colleagues)<b> I think we were extremely lucky, considering that he was the only man available at such a short notice. We might have had a run-of-the-mill captain. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>The record proves only that he’s competent. How will he react in a wholly novel situation like this?</b></div>
<br />
Dr Bose: <b>How would anyone react in a situation like this?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sir Lewis Sands: (<b>“Sir Lewis Sands, Historian”</b> fades in and out) (clears his throat)<b> Not exactly a novel situation, even though it’s three centuries since it last occurred. If Rama is dead, or unoccupied... and so far all evidence suggests that it is... Norton is in the position of an archaeologist discovering the ruins of an extinct culture. </b>(he nods to Price who acknowledges) <b>Obvious examples are Schliemann at Troy and Mouhot at Angkor Vat. The danger is minimal, though of course accidents can never be completely ruled out.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dr Price: (<b>“Dr. Thelma Price, Archaeologist"</b> fades in and out) <b>But what about the booby traps and trigger mechanisms these Pandora people have been talking about? </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>Pandora? What’s that?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
MacKay: <b>It’s a crackpot movement that is convinced that Rama is a grave potential danger A box that shouldn’t be opened.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Taylor: <b>Pandora... Pandora. Oh of course such things are conceivable, but why should any intelligent race want to play childish tricks?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
MacKay: <b>Well, even ruling out such unpleasantness, we still have the much more ominous possibility of an active, inhabited Rama. Then the situation is one of an encounter between two cultures... at very different technological levels. Pizzaro and the Incas. Perry and the Japanese. Europe and Africa. Almost invariably, the consequences have been disastrous... for one or both parties. I’m not making any recommendations; I’m merely pointing out precedents.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Thank you, Sir Robert. I’m sure we’ve all thought of these alarming possibilities. But if the creatures inside Rama are... er... malevolent, will it really make the slightest difference what we do?</b></div>
<br />
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>They might ignore us if we go away.</b><br />
<br />
Price: <b>What... after they’ve traveled billions of miles for thousands of years?</b><br />
<br />
An argument begins to ensue. Dr. Bose breaks it up<br />
<br />
Bose: <b>I think that we can all agree that since Commander Norton has opened the first door... it would inconceivable for him not to open the second. </b><br />
<br />
<br />
Fade to interior, Commander Norton’s cabin aboard the Endeavor. He is seated at his desk in front of a computer monitor recording a video for his wives. Weightless environment.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> Sorry I’m a day late with this transmission, but I’ve been away from the ship for the last thirty hours. Don’t be alarmed... everything is under control and going perfectly.</b> (as he speaks fade to astronauts (suited up) working in the Rama airlock complex)<b> It’s taken us two days, but we’re almost through the airlock complex. We could have done it in a couple of hours if we’d known what we do now. But we took no chances, sending remote cameras ahead, and cycled all of the locks a dozen times to make sure they wouldn’t seize up behind us... after we’d gone through.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> </b> (fade to one of the locks with one of the crew members entering)<b> Each lock is a simple revolving cylinder with a slot on one side. You go in through this opening, crank the cylinder around a hundred and eighty degrees. </b>(cut to inside a cylinder as it opens to a artificially lighted passageway)<b> and then the slot matches up with another door so you can step out of it </b>(cut to crew stepping out of cylinder)<b> Or float, in this case.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton:<b> And that’s only the beginning. The final lock opens into a straight corridor, almost half a kilometer long. </b>(cut to view of the corridor as the camera moves along though it, passing one or two astronauts along the way)<b> It looks clean and tidy, like everything else we’ve seen. Every few meters there are ports that probably held lights, but now, except for the lighting we bring in, everything is completely black, and I don’t mind telling you a little scary. There are also two parallel slots, about a centimeter wide, cut into the walls and running the whole length of the tunnel. We suspect that some kind of shuttle runs inside these to tow equipment... or people... back and forth. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Norton:<b> I mentioned that the tunnel was a half a kilometer long. </b>(fade back to moving camera as it approaches the final airlock and stops)<b> Well, from our seismic soundings we knew that that’s about the thickness of the hull, so obviously we’re almost through it. And at the end of the tunnel we weren’t surprised to find another of those cylindrical air locks.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton: <b>Yes, and another. And another. The Ramans seem to have done everything in threes. We’re in the final lock chamber now, waiting for the okay from Earth before we go through. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>The interior of Rama is only a few meters away. I’ll be a lot happier when the suspense is over. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton) <b>You know Jerry Kirchoff, my exec, who’s got such a library of real books that he can’t afford to emigrate from Earth? He told me of a situation that was similar to ours, back at the beginning of the twenty first, no twentieth century. An archaeologist found the tomb of an Egyptian king, the first one that hadn’t been looted by robbers. His workmen took months to dig their way in, chamber by chamber, until they came to the final wall. Then they broke through the masonry, and he held out a lantern and pushed his head inside. He found himself looking into a whole roomful of treasure, incredible stuff. Gold and jewels. </b> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Perhaps this place is also a tomb; it seems more and more likely. Even now, there’s still not the slightest sound, or hint of activity.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Well, tomorrow we should know.</b> (he turns off the video recorder and sits in thought)</div>
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in to total black screen. camera is in the interior of Rama looking at the airlock door. After three to five seconds of total black, the airlock opens and light from within breaks out. Norton emerges from airlock with a lighting array attached to his suit. He is on a tether that is attached to something back in the airlock. Weightless environment. <br />
<br />
Long shot from Norton’s POV. His lights are sucked up by the immense darkness. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med Shot of Norton floating out of the airlock until his momentum damper tightens and brings his forward movement to a halt. He moves so he is turned around, looking at where he had come from.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med to Long shot. Norton was hovering over the center of a small crater, which was itself a dimple in the base of a much larger one. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton’s POV: Looking around him he can see only what is illuminated by his lights. He sees on either side a complex of terraces and ramps, all geometrically precise and obviously artificial, which extend as far as his lights can reach. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind Norton as he points his lights toward to two other exits of the airlock system, which are identical to the one he just emerged from and are at the very limit of his ability to see them. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Norton floating. </div>
<br />
Norton: <b>I’m sending out a flare... two minute delay. Here goes.</b><br />
<br />
Norton points a flare gun toward the middle of the vast darkness in front of him and fires. <br />
<br />
Long shot as the flare disappears into the darkness. <br />
<br />
Med shot of Norton. He can be heard counting. When he reaches 100 he points the camera in the direction of the flare. <br />
<br />
Long shot as flare explodes and Rama is revealed. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He was at one end of a hollow cylinder at least ten kilometers wide and of indefinite length. From his viewpoint at the central axis, he could see such a mass of detail on the curving walls surrounding him and his mind could not absorb more than a minute fraction of it. He was looking at the landscape of an entire world by a single flash of lightening, and he tried by a deliberate effort of will to freeze the image in his mind. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The tube of the landscape that enclosed him was mottled with areas of light and shade that could have been forests, fields, frozen lakes, or towns, the distance and the fading illumination of the flare made identification impossible. Narrow lines could be highways, canals, or well-trained rivers formed a faintly visible geometrical network, and far along the cylinder, at the very limit of vision was a band of deeper darkness. It formed a complete circle, ringing the interior of this world.”</div>
<br />
Long shot as the flare sputters and dies. <br />
<br />
Med shot back on Norton as flare lights fade out.<br />
<br />
Fade out.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in. Rama Committee. Long shot moves into med on large view screen display. The screen shows various photographs and videos of Rama’s interior taken from the hub airlock vicinity, as Norton narrates the pictures/videos change accordingly. Cut to committee members reactions occasionally. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>We have now launched five long-delay flares down the axis of the cylinder, and have a good photo-coverage of its full length. All of the main features have been mapped. Though there are a few that we can identify, we’ve given them provisional names. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The interior cavity is fifty kilometers long and sixteen wide. The two ends are bowl shaped, with rather complicated geometries. We’ve called ours the Northern Hemisphere and we are establishing our first base here at the axis.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Radiating from the central hub, one hundred and twenty degrees apart, are three ladders that are almost a kilometer long. They all end at a terrace, or ring shaped plateau, that runs right around the bowl. And leading on from that, continuing the direction of the ladders, are three enormous stairways, which go all the way to the plain. If you can imagine an umbrella with only three ribs, equally spaced, you’ll have a good idea of this end of Rama.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Each of those ribs is a stairway, every step near the axis and then slowly flattening out as it approaches the plain below. The stairways... we’ve called them Alpha, Beta, Gamma, aren’t continuous, but break at five more circular terraces. We estimate there must be between twenty and thirty thousand steps. Presumably they were only used for emergencies, since it’s inconceivable that the Ramans... or whatever we’re going to call them... had no better way of reaching the axis of their world. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The Southern Hemisphere looks quite different. For one thing it has no stairways and no flat central hub. Instead there’s a huge spike, kilometers long, jutting along the axis, with six smaller ones around it. The whole arrangement is very odd, and we can’t imagine what it means. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The fifty kilometer long cylindrical section between the two bowls we’ve called the Central Plain. It may seem crazy to use the word “plain” to describe something so obviously curved, but we feel it’s justified. It will appear flat to us when we get down there... just as the interior of a bottle must seem flat to an ant crawling around inside it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The most striking feature of the Central Plain is the ten kilometer-wide dark band running completely around it at the halfway mark. It looks like ice, so we’ve christened it the Cylindrical Sea. Right out in the middle there’s a large oval island, about ten kilometers long and three wide, and covered with tall structures. Because it reminds us of old Manhattan, we’ve called it New York. Yet I don’t think it’s a city; it seems more like an enormous factory or chemical processing plant.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But there are some cities... or at any rate, towns... six of them. If they were built for human beings, they could each hold about fifty thousand people. We’ve called them Rome, Beijing, Paris, Moscow, London, and Tokyo. They are linked with highways and something that seems to be a rail system.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> There must be enough material for centuries of research in this frozen carcass of a world. We’ve four thousand square kilometers to explore, and only a few weeks to do it in. I wonder if we’ll ever learn the answer to the two mysteries that have been haunting me ever since we got inside:<i> who were they, and what went wrong? </i></b></div>
<br />
Med shot on Dr. Bose<br />
<br />
Bose: <b>Dr. Perera, I believe you have some comment to make.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Perera<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Yes Mr. Ambassador, I think I have some information of interest. Rama undoubtedly is a ‘space ark.’ It’s an old idea in astronomical literature. I’ve been able to track it back to the British physicist J.D. Bernal, who proposed this mode of interstellar colonization in a book published in 1929. Two hundred years ago! Also the great Russian pioneer Tsiolkovsky put forward somewhat similar proposals even earlier. </b></div>
<br />
Reaction shots of the other committee members throughout scene. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera continues: <b>If you want to go from one star system to another, you have a number of choices. Assuming that the speed of light is an absolute limit... and that’s still not completely settled, despite anything you may have heard to the contrary...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot on a frowning Davidson</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera continues: <b>you can make a fast trip in a small vessel, or a slow journey in a giant one.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> There seems to be no technical reason why spacecraft cannot reach ninety percent, or more, of the speed of light. That would mean a travel time of five to ten years between neighboring stars... tedious perhaps, but not impracticable, especially for creatures with significantly longer life spans than ours. One can imagine voyages of this duration carried out in ships not much larger than those we utilize now. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But perhaps such speeds are impossible... with reasonable payloads. Remember, one would need to carry the fuel necessary to slow down at the end of the voyage, even if you’re on a one way trip. So it may make more sense to take your time... ten thousand let’s say... a hundred thousand years.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Bernal and others thought this could be done with mobile worldlets a few kilometers across, carrying thousands of passengers on journeys that would last generations. Naturally, the system would need to be rigidly closed, recycling all food, atmosphere, and other expendables. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Some writers suggested that these arks should be built in concentric spheres; others proposed hollow, spinning cylinders so that centrifugal force could provide artificial gravity... exactly what we’ve found in Rama...</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Davidson</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Davidson: <b>There is no such thing as centrifugal force. It’s an engineer’s phantom. There’s only inertia...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>You’re quite right of course... though it may be hard to convince a man who has just been slung off a carousel. However mathematical rigor seems unnecessary...</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Yes Dr. Perera. We all know what you mean... or think we do. Please continue</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Well, I was merely pointing out that there’s nothing conceptually novel about Rama... although it’s size is startling. Mankind has imagined such things for over two hundred years.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera continues: <b>Now I’d like to address another question. Exactly how long has Rama been traveling through space?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> We now have a precise determination of it’s orbit and velocity. Assuming that it’s made no navigational changes, we can trace it’s position back for millions of years. We expected that it would be coming from a nearby star. But that isn’t the case at all.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> It’s been more than two hundred thousand years since Rama passed near any star, and that particular one turns out to be an irregular variable... about the most unsuitable sun you could imagine for an inhabited solar system. It has a brightness range of over fifty to one. Any planets near it would be alternatively baked and frozen every few years.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Price</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Price: <b>A suggestion doctor. Perhaps that explains everything. Maybe this was once a normal sun that became unstable. That’s why the Ramans had to find a new one.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera, putting her down kindly<b>: We did consider that. But if our present theories of stellar evolution are correct, this star could never have been stable, could never have had life bearing planets. So Rama has been cruising through space for at least two hundred thousand years, and perhaps for more than a million.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Now Rama is cold, dark, and apparently dead, and I think I know why. The Ramans may have had no choice... perhaps they were fleeing from some disaster... but they miscalculated.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> No closed ecology can be one hundred percent efficient; there is always waste, loss... some degradation of the environment and built up pollutants. It may take billions of years to poison and wear out a planet, but it will happen in the end. The oceans will dry up, the atmosphere will leak to space.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> By our standards Rama is enormous... yet it is still a very tiny planet. By my calculations, based on the inevitable leakage through it’s hull, and some reasonable guesses about the rate of biological turnover, indicates that it’s ecology could survive for only a thousand years. At the most, I’ll grant ten thousand.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> That would be long enough, at the current speed Rama is traveling, for a transit between the closely packed suns in the center of the galaxy. But not out here, in the scattered population of the spiral arms. Rama is a ship that exhausted it’s provisions before it reached it’s goal. It’s a derelict, drifting among the stars </b></div>
<br />
Reactions of the committee members<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera continues:<b> There’s just one serious objection to this theory, and I’ll raise it before anyone else does, Rama’s orbit is aimed so precisely at the solar system that coincidence seems ruled out. In fact, I’d say it’s now heading much too close to the Sun for comfort. Endeavor will have to depart long before perihelion to avoid overheating.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> I don’t pretend to understand this. Perhaps there is some form of automatic terminal guidance still operating, steering Rama to the nearest suitable star ages after it’s builders died.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Perera</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera continues: <b>And they are dead. I’ll stake my reputation on that. All the samples we’ve taken from the interior are absolutely sterile. We’ve not found a single microorganism. As for the talk you may have head about suspended animation, you can ignore it. There are fundamental reasons why hibernation techniques will work for only a few centuries... and we’re dealing with time spans a thousandfold longer.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> So the Pandorans and their sympathizers have nothing to worry about. For my part, I’m sorry. It would have been wonderful to have met another intelligent species.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But at least we have answered one ancient question. We are not alone. To us, the stars will never again be the same. </b></div>
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in, Central Hub Airlock, Weightless Environment, as Lieutenant Commander Mercer exits, wearing a full spacesuit, and floats along the axis, followed by Lieutenant Joe Calvert and Technical Sergeant Willard Myron. They descend the beginning of the ladder headfirst.<br />
<br />
Cut to from several hundred feet out as the lights attached to the suits continue to descend through the complete blackness<br />
<br />
Cut to side shot of the three men descending<br />
<br />
Cut to shot before the men approach and reach the five hundredth rung<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Everything OK, Skipper. We’re just passing the halfway mark. Joe, Will, any problems? </b></div>
<br />
Calvert: <b>I’m fine. What are you stopping for?</b><br />
<br />
Myron: <b>Same here. But watch out for the Coriolis force. It’s starting to build up.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Watch out... I’m going to swing around.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer grips the ladder and swings from headfirst to feet first<br />
<br />
Mercer and the others continue their descent, falling rather than using the ladder traditionally<br />
<br />
Various shots of the men descending until they reach the first step<br />
<br />
“The ledge of the platform from which the stairway descended was about ten meters wide, and curved upward on each side until it disappeared into the darkness.” A tall handrail flanked the stairway.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Skipper, there were no problems getting down the ladder. If you agree, I’d like to continue toward the next platform. I want to time the rate of descent on the stairway.</b></div>
<br />
Norton replies over an intercom: <b>Go ahead.</b><br />
<br />
The three men began to descend on the stairway, but it soon became apparent that walking in a normal manner was impossibly tedious considering the weak force holding them down provided by Rama’s spin, at their current position on the stairs<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>There must be a better way.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>This stairway was built to walk up, not down! You can use the steps when you’re moving against gravity, but they’re just a nuisance in this direction. It may not be dignified, but I think the best way down is to slide along the handrail. </b></div>
<br />
Myron: <b>That’s ridiculous! I can’t believe the Ramans did it that way.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer:<b> I doubt if they ever used the stairway. It’s obviously only for emergencies. They must have had some mechanical transport system to get up here. A funicular, perhaps. That would explain the those long slots running down from the hub.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>I always assumed they were drains... but I suppose they could be both. I wonder if it ever rained here.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Probably. But I think you’re right Joe, and to hell with dignity. Here we go.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The handrail was a smooth flat metal bar supported by widely spaced pillars a meter high. Mercer straddled it, tested the breaking power he could exert with his hands, then slid down, gaining speed, into the darkness. The other followed suit</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to below the men as they pass</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to the second platform as the men arrive and disembark</div>
<br />
Norton via intercom: <b>I hope you enjoyed yourselves. Climbing back won’t be so easy.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>That’s what I want to check. </b><br />
<br />
He walks back and forth on the platform<br />
<br />
Mercer continues: <b>It’s already a tenth of a gee here. You can really notice the difference. </b><br />
<br />
He walked to the edge of the platform and looked down<br />
<br />
Cut to view of the stairway for as far as the suit lights would permit<br />
<br />
Cut to Mercer turning around and looking up at the hub<br />
<br />
Cut to a view of the stairway and ladder and a small glow of light at the hub<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer continues: <b>There’s no change in temperature. Still just below freezing. But the air pressure is up as expected... around three hundred millibars. Even with this low oxygen content, it should be almost breathable, farther down there will be no problems at all. That will simplify exploration enormously. What a find! The first world on which we can walk without breathing gear! In fact I’m going to take a sniff.</b></div>
<br />
Mercer equalized the pressure, unlatched the securing clip of his helmet, and opened it a crack. After a moment. His breath condenses due to the cold<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Dead. The air smells and tastes dead.</b><br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>What do you mean?</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Sterile. Musty... like anything that may have caused an odor... or smelled like life... disappeared a long time ago. </b><br />
<br />
After a moment he closed his helmet<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>We’er coming back, Skipper. There’s no reason to go further until we’re ready to go all the way.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to the hub where Norton and others were monitoring the three men<br />
<br />
Norton:<b> I agree. We’ll be timing you... but take it easy.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to the second platform as the men bound up the steps three or four at a time until they disappear into the darkness<br />
<br />
4 beats<br />
<br />
Fade in to Norton’s cabin aboard the Endeavor, weightless environment. There is a knock on his door and Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst floats in the doorway<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> Bill, I’ve checked our mountaineers, and here’s my verdict. Karl and Joe are in good shape... all indications normal for the work they’ve done. But Will shows signs of exhaustion and body loss. I won’t go into the details. I don’t believe he’s been getting all the exercise he should, and he’s not the only one. There’s been some cheating on the centrifuge; if there’s any more, heads will roll. Please pass the word.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Yes, ma’am. But there’s some excuse. The crew has been working very hard.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>With their brains and fingers, certainly. But not with their bodies... not real work in kilogram-meters. And that’s what we’re dealing with, if we’re going to explore Rama.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Well, can we?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Yes, if we proceed with caution. Karl and I have worked out a very conservative profile... based on the assumption that we can dispense with breathing gear below the second level. Of course, that’s an incredible stroke of luck, and changes the whole logistics picture... so we need to supply only food and water, and thermosuits, then we’re in business. Going down will be easy. It looks as if we can slide most of the way, on that very convenient banister.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> I’ve got Chips working on a sled with parachute-breaking. Even if we can’t risk it for the crew we can use it for stores and equipment.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> Fine; that should do the trip in ten minutes. Otherwise it will take about an hour. Climbing up is harder to estimate. Id’ like to allow six hours, including two thirty minute rest periods. Later , as we get experience... and develop some muscles... we may be able to cut this back considerably.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>What about psychological factors?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Hard to assess, in such a novel environment. Darkness may be the biggest problem.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>I’ll establish searchlights on the hub. Besides it’s own lamps, any party down there will always have a beam playing on it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Good... that should help.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>One other point: should we play it safe and send a party only halfway down the stair and back of should we go the whole way, on the first attempt?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> If we had plenty of time, I’d be cautious. But time is short, and I can see no danger in going all the way... and looking around when we get there.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Thanks, Laura... that’s all I need to know. I’ll get the Exec working on the details. And I’ll order all hands to the centrifuge... twenty minutes a day at half a gee. Will that satisfy you?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>No. It’s point six gee down there in Rama, and I want a safety margin. Make it three quarters...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Ouch!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>For ten minutes...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>I’ll settle for that.</b></div>
<br />
Ernst: <b>Twice a day.</b><br />
<br />
Norton:<b> Laura, you’re a cruel, hard woman. But so be it. I’ll break the news just before dinner. That should spoil a few appetites.</b><br />
<br />
Ernst smiles. <br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in. View point from the hub airlock as a searchlight shines down onto the stairway where three figures are moving, casting long shadows. The actual beam of light cannot be seen in the antiseptic atmosphere inside Rama</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the fifth level where Norton, Calvert, and Rodrigo have stopped their descent briefly. Norton walked several hundred meters along to narrow ledge before returning to his companions. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Gravity at this level has reached almost half the value of Earth’s. “The stairway had long ago ceased its vertiginous downward plunge and was now flattening out toward the horizontal. The gradient was now only about one in five; at the beginning it had been five in one. Normal walking was now both physically and psychologically acceptable; only the lowered gravity reminded them that they were not descending some great stairway on Earth."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cold set. The breath of the three men condenses as they breath. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The three walked down the steps two at a time in long, gentle strides until they ran out of steps and were now standing on the northern plain, “dull grey in the now weakening beam of the hub searchlight, fading away into the darkness a few hundred meters ahead.”</div>
<br />
Med shot on Mercer as he turns and looks back up to the hub.<br />
<br />
Med shot of Mercer at the hub looking through a telescope at the three men on the plain below<br />
<br />
Telescope POV shot of the three men on the plain. Mercer is looking directly at the hub<br />
<br />
Cut to med shot of Norton as he speaks into his intercom unit<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Captain here. Everyone’s in fine shape... no problems. Proceeding as planned. </b><br />
<br />
Cut to Mercer: <b>Good, we’ll be watching.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to the three men on the plain<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO Executive Officer Kirchoff: <b>This is the Exec. Really skipper, that’s not good enough. You know the news services have been screaming at us for the last week. I don’t expect deathless prose, but can’t you do better than that?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton chuckles: <b>I’ll try, but remember there’s nothing to see yet. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He looks out to the plain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot of the plain, darkness beyond the boundaries of the searchlight</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>It’s like... well... being on a huge, darkened stage, with a single spotlight.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Norton as he turns toward the stairway</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot of the stairway still partially illuminated by the searchlight</div>
<br />
Norton: <b>The first few hundred steps of the stairway rise out of the plain until they disappear into the darkness overhead.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>What we can see of the plain looks perfectly flat. The curvature too small to be visible over this limited area.</b><br />
<br />
Norton shrugs: <b>And that’s about it.</b><br />
<br />
Kirchoff:<b> Like to give any impressions?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Well, it’s still very cold... below freezing... and we’re glad of our thermosuits. And quiet, of course; quieter than anything I’ve ever experienced on Earth.. or in space, where there’s always some background noise. Here, every sound is swallowed up. The space around us is so enormous that there aren’t any echos. It’s weird, but I hope we’ll get used to it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kirchoff: <b>Thanks Skipper. Anyone else? Joe, Boris?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: I<b> can’t help thinking that this is the first time... ever... that we’ve been able to walk on another world, breathing it’s natural atmosphere, though I suppose “natural” is hardly the word you can apply to a place like this. Still Rama must resemble the world of it’s builders; our own spaceships are all miniature earths. Two examples are damned poor statistics, but up to this point it seems that all intelligent life forms... most life forms... utilize oxygen to live. What we’ve seen of their work suggests that the Ramans were humanoid, though perhaps about fifty percent taller that we are. Wouldn’t you agree, Boris?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rodrigo. After a moment: <b>They were certainly oxygen breathers, and they could be humanoid. But let’s wait and see. With any luck, we should discover what they were like. There may be pictures, statues... perhaps even bodies, over in those towns... if they are towns.</b></div>
<br />
Calvert, hopefully: <b>And the nearest is only eight kilometers away...</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Laura, what do you think?</b><br />
<br />
Ernst over radio: <b>Take thirty minutes rest, and a five-hundred-calorie energy module. Then you can start.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>Thanks Doc, now I can die happy. I always wanted to see Paris. Moulin Rouge, here we come...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in on the three explorers as they march through the plain illuminated only by the hub’s searchlight. It is eerily quiet. Cold set. The men’s breath condenses. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the men walking away from the camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the men walking toward the camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to side view of the men walking</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Calvert who begins to whistle “Heigh-Ho”</div>
<br />
Med on Norton and Rodrigo as they look at him<br />
<br />
Calvert looks back at them before switching to the theme song from “The Bridge on the River Kwai”<br />
<br />
Norton stops and motions for Calvert to stop whistling. <br />
<br />
Calvert: <b>I can do old movies too, boss.</b><br />
<br />
He talks into his intercom:<b> Karl. I want to make a detour to the Straight Valley. It should be only a kilometer away to our left. Can you light it up for us?</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>You got it Skipper.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot behind the three men as another searchlight begins to shine in the distance. The area of illumination moves quickly away to a point. Then moves up and down the Valley’s length. The valley is slightly elevated due to Rama’s curvature </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>There it is Skipper. About ten kilometers long, approximately forty meters deep, and a hundred across. Just like it’s brother and sister above...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Yeah.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot as the men begin to walk toward the light</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aerial shot of the three men approaching the Straight Valley illuminated by the hub’s searchlight. Their long shadows veer to the right. As they approach the second searchlight comes into the frame above them until both areas of illumination merge</div>
<br />
Wide angle long shot inside the Straight Valley. The three men appear at the edge, in the upper right side of the frame. <br />
<br />
Cut to med shot of the three men<br />
<br />
Cut to their POV looking down into the valley. “The perfectly smooth walls sloped down at an angle of sixty degrees, there were no steps or footholds. Filling the bottom was a sheet of flat white material that looked much like ice.<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton: <b>I’m going down.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to long shot of Norton rappelling down the side of the valley with a rope anchored by Calvert and Rodrigo<br />
<br />
Cut to med shot at the bottom of the valley as Norton reaches the bottom. He the rope remains attached to his waist. He takes a few steps<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>It’s not ice. The friction is too great and my footing’s secure. </b><br />
<br />
Norton crouches down and touches the surface material<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>This is some kind of glass or transparent crystal.</b><br />
<br />
Norton turns away from the glare of the searchlight and bends close to the surface trying to see what lies beneath. He switches on his helmet lamp <br />
<br />
Close shot of the surface Norton is looking at<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>I can’t see anything underneath the surface. This stuff is translucent, but not transparent.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He sits back up</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>If this is a frozen liquid it has a melting point much higher than water.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He taps the surface with a hammer, which rebounds with a dull “clunk.” He tries again a little harder with the same result. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Norton about to use his full strength with the hammer, when he stops himself, reluctant to possibly damage an artifact he doesn’t know the purpose of</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Norton standing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>It doesn’t seem likely that this is some kind of canal. There’s no sign of water residue anywhere. Everything is bright and clean as if it was just built, yet it might be a million years old.</b></div>
<br />
Norton turns around and looks down the length of the valley until it disappears into the darkness. <br />
<br />
Norton, softly: <b>This is just a strange trench that starts and stops abruptly and leads to nowhere.</b><br />
<br />
Norton walks down the valley<br />
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Long shot of Calvert and Rodrigo keeping pace with Norton and holding the rope that is attached to him<br />
<br />
Norton stops. He’s thinking of something<br />
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Rodrigo: <b>What is it, Commander? Have you found something?</b><br />
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Close on Norton as he climbs out of his revery <br />
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Norton: <b>No. There’s nothing down here. Haul me up. We’ll head straight to Paris.</b><br />
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Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in to Rama Committee conference room. Staffers are milling about while the major participants take their seats. Close on Dr.Bose. While he speaks, close on the various members as they listen<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>I’ve called this meeting of the committee because Dr. Perera has something important to tell us. He insists that we get in touch with Commander Norton right away, using the priority channel we’ve been able to establish... after, I must say, a good deal of difficulty. Dr Perera’s statement is rather technical, and before we come to it, I think a summary of the present position might be in order. Dr. Price has prepared one. Oh yes... some apologies for an absence. Sir Lewis has had to leave for Earth for a conference he’s chairing, and Dr. Taylor asked to be excused. Dr Price...</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Close on Price: <b>As you all know, Commander Norton has completed one traverse of almost thirty kilometers without encountering any problems. He explored the curious trench shown on your maps as the Straight Valley. Its purpose is still quite unknown, but it is clearly important, because it runs the full length of Rama... except for the break at the Cylindrical Sea... and there are two identical structures one hundred and twenty degrees on the circumference of the world.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Price continues: <b>Next, the party turned left... or east, if we adopt the North Pole convention... until they reached Paris. </b></div>
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A picture of Paris appears on the large monitor in the room</div>
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Price: <b>As you’ll see from this photograph, taken by a telescopic camera at the hub, Paris is a group of several hundred buildings, with wide streets between them.</b></div>
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The pictures on the monitor change to reflect what Dr. Price is talking about</div>
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Price continues: <b>Now these photographs were taken by Commander Norton’s group when they reached the site. If Paris is a city, it is a most peculiar one. Note that none of the buildings have windows, or even doors! They are all plain, rectangular structures, an identical thirty-five meters high. And they appear to have been extruded from the ground. There are no seems or joints. Look at this close-up of the base of a wall... There’s a smooth transition into the ground.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> My own feeling is that this place is not a residential area, but a storage or supply depot. In support of that theory, look at this photo.</b></div>
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Picture changes to show grooves in the streets<br />
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<br /></div>
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Price continues: <b>These narrow slots or grooves, about five centimeters wide, run along all of the streets, and there is one leading to every building... going straight into the wall. There is a striking resemblance to the streetcar tracks of the early twentieth century. They are obviously part of some transport system. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> We’ve never considered it necessary to have public transport direct to every house. It would be economically absurd; people can always walk a few hundred meters. But if these buildings are being used for storage of heavy materials, it would make sense.</b></div>
<br />
Sir Robert MacKay: <b>May I ask a question?</b><br />
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Price: <b>Of course, Sir Robert.</b><br />
<br />
MacKay: <b>Commander Norton couldn’t get into a single building?</b><br />
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Price: <b>No. When you listen to his report, you can tell he was quite frustrated. At one point he surmised the buildings could only be entered from underground; then he discovered the grooves of the transport system, and changed his mind.</b></div>
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MacKay: <b>Did he try to break in?</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Price: <b>There was no way he could without explosives or heavy tools. And he doesn’t want to do that until all other approaches have failed.</b></div>
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Dr. Dennis Solomons: <b>This may be an example of cocooning.</b></div>
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Price: <b>I beg you pardon?</b></div>
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Solomons: <b>It’s a technique developed a couple of hundred years ago. Another name for it is mothballing. When you have something you want to preserve, you seal it inside a plastic envelope, and then pump in an inert gas. The original use was for military equipment between wars; it was once applied to whole ships. It’s still widely used in museums that are short of spac</b>e. <b>No one knows what’s inside some of the hundred-year-old cocoons in the Smithsonian basement.</b></div>
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Perera: <b>Please, Mr Ambassador! This is all very interesting, but I feel my information is rather more urgent.</b><br />
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Bose: <b>If there are no other points... very well, Dr. Perera.</b><br />
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Med shot on Perera: <b>According to our latest information one party is now on its way to the Cylindrical Sea, while Commander Norton has another group setting up a supply base at the foot of Stairway Alpha. When that’s established, he intends to have at least two exploratory missions operating at all times. In this way he hopes to use his limited manpower at maximum efficiency. </b></div>
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Close on Perera:<b> It’s a good plan, but there may be no time to carry it out. In fact, I would advise an immediate alert, and preparation for total withdrawal at twelve hours notice. Let me explain.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Med on Perera: <b>It is surprising how few people have commented on a rather obvious anomaly about Rama. It is now well inside the orbit of Venus, yet the interior is still frozen. And the temperature of an object in direct sunlight at this point is about five hundred degrees! </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The reason, of course is that Rama has not had time to warm up. It must have cooled down to absolute zero... two hundred and seventy degrees below... while it was in interstellar space. Now as it approaches the Sun, the outer hull is already almost as hot as molten lead. But the inside will stay cold until the heat works its way through that kilometer of whatever it is the hulls made of. </b></div>
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<b> There’s some kind of fancy dessert with a hot exterior and ice cream in the middle... I don’t remember what it’s called...</b></div>
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MacKay: <b>Baked Alaska. It’s a favorite at U.P. banquets, unfortunately.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Thank you, Sir Robert. That’s the situation in Rama at the moment, but it won’t last. All these weeks, the solar heat has been working its way through, and we can expect a sharp temperature rise to begin in a few hours. That’s not the problem, however. By the time Endeavor will have to leave anyway due to Rama’s proximity to the Sun, it will be no more than comfortably tropical inside.</b></div>
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Bose: <b>Then what’s the difficulty?</b></div>
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Close on Perera: <b>I can answer in one word, Mr. Ambassador:<i> hurricanes</i>.</b></div>
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Fade out</div>
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Fade in to med shot of suited astronauts passing supplies out of the air lock at the hub</div>
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Cut to long shot of other astronauts moving said equipment and supplies down the ladder. </div>
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Cut to party walking on the plain illuminated by searchlight from the hub. Surgeon Commander Laura Ernst, Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo, Sergeant Pieter Rousseau, and Sergeant Ruby Barnes are walking towards camera. Cold set as their breathing condenses. </div>
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Cut to them walking toward the darkness from behind as search light beam elongates into the darkness. </div>
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Cut to med shot of Ernst talking into her radio<br />
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Ernst: <b>How much father now hub?</b><br />
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Hub Control: <b>Only a hundred meters. Better slow down.</b><br />
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Ernst: <b>Copy that.</b><br />
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Rodrigo: <b>There it is!</b><br />
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Cut to forward shot of the weakened searchlight beam displaying an abrupt end of the plain in the distance. They were approaching the Cylindrical Sea<br />
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Cut to the four walking up to the edge of the plain from overhead<br />
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Cut to long shot from below the cliff looking up as the three come to the edge and look down with their suit lights. <br />
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Cut to long shot of the icy surface of the sea for as far as their lights and the searchlight permit. Their long shadows appear on the ice magnifying and exaggerating their movements<br />
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Rodrigo:<b> Fifty meters to the surface Commander.</b><br />
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Ernst:<b> Yeah. Fifty meters here. But why is it five hundred meters on the southern side?</b> <br />
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Rousseau: <b>Good question. I have no idea. </b><br />
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Ernst into her radio: <b>Hub Control, please aim the light at New York.</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot from behind the four as they are plunged into darkness as the searchlight beam moves out over the ice to the island of New York, four kilometers distant. The towers of the island come into view. The searchlight plays over the entire island. The beam tracked along the towers and domes and interlocked spheres and criss-crossed tubes. Sometimes there was a brilliant reflection as some flat surface shot the light back at them. </div>
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</div>
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Cut to the four looking out over the sea towards New York illuminated by their suit lights</div>
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Cut to long shot from above and behind the four as they walk along the cliff’s edge, the searchlight has returned to them.</div>
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Cut to med shot of Sergeant Ruby Barnes</div>
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Barnes: <b>Where there’s sea there must be docks and harbors... and ships. You can learn everything about a culture by studying the way it builds boats.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> Unfortunately Ruby I don’t see any of that right now. Pieter, Boris... I think it’s time I climbed down...</b></div>
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Rodrigo: <b>Wait a second Commander. What’s that?</b></div>
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Cut to floor shot looking up at astronauts as they approach the stairway</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot above and behind astronauts looking down at the staircase. The narrow stairway could easily been overlooked in the shadowed darkness below the edge of the cliff, for there was no guardrail or other indications of its presence. It ran down the fifty meter vertical wall at a steep angle and disappeared below the surface of the sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> Well here’s your dock, Ruby... I guess. </b></div>
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Cut to shot from midway down the stairway looking up at the team as the suit lights flash down. </div>
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Cut to med shot of Rodrigo and Ernst</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>I don’t see any hazards. Do you want me to go down?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>No. I’ll do it. </b>(talking into radio)<b> Commander Norton, we’ve found a stairway leading directly into the Cylindrical Sea. Request permission to go down to the surface. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton through radio: <b>Be careful, Laura. </b></div>
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Ernst: <b>Roger that.</b></div>
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Cut to med shot as she starts her descent.</div>
<br />
Cut to the ice surface as Ernst’s suit lights illuminate the surface and as she steps onto the ice. <br />
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Cut to close shot of her foot moving back and forth on the ice, testing it.<br />
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Ernst into her intercom: <b>It feels like ice. It is ice I think. </b><br />
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Cut to med shot as she bends down and uses a hammer to hit the surface<br />
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Cut to close as she cracks the icy surface with the hammer<br />
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Cut back to med shot of her as she picks up pieces of the ice<br />
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Cut to close shot of her putting specimens into a sample bottle<br />
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Rodrigo with a trace of anxiety: <b>Is that safe?</b><br />
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Ernst:<b> Believe me, Boris</b> (she stands) <b>if there are any pathogens around here that have slipped through my detectors, our insurance policies lapsed a week ago. </b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close shot as Ernst looks and smells the melted water in the bottle</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>It’s water, but I wouldn’t care to drink it... it smells like an algae culture that’s gone bad. I can hardly wait to get it to the lab.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Is the ice safe to walk on?</b></div>
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Ernst looks out into the darkness beyond her suit lights</div>
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Ernst: <b>Yeah. Solid as a rock.</b></div>
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Rousseau: <b>Then we can walk to New York.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Can we, Pieter? have you ever tried to walk across four kilometers of ice?</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Rousseau: <b>Oh, I see what you mean. Just imagine what Stores would say if we asked for a set of skates! Not that many of us would know how to use them, even if we had any aboard.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Rodrigo: <b>And there’s another problem. Do you realize that the temperature is already above freezing? Before long, that ice is going to melt. How many spacemen can swim four kilometers? Certainly not this one.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot as Ernst rejoins them at to top of the stairway holding up the sample bottle</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>It’s a long walk for a couple of cc’s of dirty water, but it may teach us more about Rama than anything we’ve found so far. Let’s head for home.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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Cut to long shot from over the ice behind them as they turn toward the light of the hub</div>
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Cut to close shot of Ernst’s face as a slight breeze ruffles her hair which she does not notice</div>
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Cut to long shot from over the ice behind them as they begin walking toward the hub</div>
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Fade out </div>
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Fade in to the Rama Committee same as before. Cut to med shot of Bose</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>As you may know perfectly well, Dr. Perera, few of us share your knowledge of mathematical meteorology, so please take pity on our ignorance.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot of Perera</div>
<b><br /></b>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera:<b> With pleasure. I’ll explain it best by telling you what is going to happen inside Rama... very soon.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The temperature is now about to rise, as the solar heat pulse reaches the interior. According to the latest information I’ve received, it is already above the freezing point. The Cylindrical Sea will soon start to thaw, and unlike bodies of water on Earth, it will melt from the bottom upward. That may produce some odd effects, but I’m much more concerned with the atmosphere.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> As it is heated, the air inside Rama will expand... and will attempt to rise toward the central axis. And this is the problem. At ground level, although it is apparently stationary, it is actually sharing the spin of Rama... over eight hundred kilometers an hour. As it rises toward the axis, it will try to retain that speed. And it won’t be able to do so, of course. The result will be violent winds and turbulence. I estimate velocities of between two and three hundred kilometers an hour.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close of Perera: <b>Incidentally, very much the same thing occurs on Earth. The heated air at the Equator... which shares the planet’s sixteen-hundred-kilometer-an-hour spin... runs into the same problem when it rises and flows north and south.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot on MacKay</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
MacKay: <b>Ah, the trade winds! I remember from my geography lessons.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Exactly, Sir Robert. Rama will have trade winds... with a vengeance. I believe they’ll last only a few hours, and then some kind of equilibrium will be restored. Meanwhile, I should advise Commander Norton to evacuate... as soon as possible. Here is the message I propose sending.</b></div>
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Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in med shot of Norton taking in the surroundings of Camp Alpha.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to pan of the camp “The clutter of sleeping pads, collapsible chairs and tables, portable power plant, lighting equipment, electrosan toilets, and miscellaneous scientific apparatus would not looked out of place on earth--especially because there were men and women working here without life-support systems.”</div>
<br />
Cut to med shot of Norton as he picks up a chair and carries it out of the searchlights illumination and sits in the dark. He is only illuminated by the faint light from the searchlight, but still very dark. He sits with his back to the organized confusion of the camp and speaks into a recorder he has attached to a cord around his neck<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> Original for personal file, dupes to Mars and Earth. Hello, darling. Yes, I know I’ve been a lousy correspondent, but I haven’t been aboard the ship for over a week. Apart from a skeleton crew, we’re all camping inside Rama, at the foot of the stairway we’ve christened Alpha.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to side med view of Norton: <b>I have three parties out now, scouting the plain, but we’ve made disappointingly slow progress, because everything has to be done on foot. If only we had some means of transportation. I’d be happy to settle for a few electric bicycles; they’d be perfect for the job. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to front view of Norton: <b>No luck in exploring the Southern Hemisphere either. We’ve tried sending five drones over the Cylindrical Sea into it and they all have failed, crashing onto the plain. We have no idea what’s causing these failures... the best theory being there’s some sort of force or electrical field permeating the area to the south causing the electronics in the drones to fry. We just don’t know. It might be we’ll never get a chance to see what’s over there close up. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Norton: <b>You’ve met my medical officer, Surgeon Commander Ernst... </b>(he stops, thinks a moment, then erases the last sentence)<b> My M/O, Surgeon Commander Ernst, led the first group to reach the Cylindrical Sea, fifteen kilometers from where I’m at now. She found that it was frozen water, as we expected... but you wouldn’t want to drink it. Dr. Ernst says it’s a dilute organic soup, containing traces of almost any carbon compound you’d care to name, as well as phosphates and nitrates and dozens of metallic salts. There’s not the slightest sign of life... not even any dead microorganisms. So we still know nothing about the biochemistry of the Ramans... though it was probably not wildly different from ours. </b></div>
<br />
A breeze brushes slightly against his hair, which he brushes with his hand<br />
<br />
Cut to med shot<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>You’ve seen the videos of Paris and the other towns we’ve explored on this side of the sea... London, Rome, Moscow. It’s impossible to believe that they were ever built for anything to live in. Paris looks like giant storage depot. London is a collection of cylinders linked together by pipes connected to what are obviously pumping stations. Everything is sealed up, and there’s no way to find out what’s inside without explosives or lasers. We won’t try those until there are no alternatives. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med side shot of Norton: <b>As for Rome and Moscow...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot of Sergeant Law walking up to Norton. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Law: <b>Excuse me, skipper. Priority from Earth.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Law hands Norton a message.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Thank you, Sergeant.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton scans the message, then reads it more carefully, frowning</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, talking to himself: <b>What the hell is the Rama Committee? </b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot on Norton: <b>Two-hundred-kilometer winds... probably sudden onset... now that’s something to think about. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton’s hair falls into his eyes, and he brushes it back, then looks at his hand, thinking</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Sergeant waited patiently, while his Commander stared silently out into the night of Rama. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot behind Norton and the Sergeant as two spots of light about four kilometers away, faint patches of light marked the spots where exploring parties were at work</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot of Norton and Law. Norton turns to him</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Take this message. Rama Committee, care of Planetcom. Appreciate your advice and will take precautions. Please specify meaning of phrase “sudden onset.” Respectfully, Norton, Commander, Endeavor.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Law: <b>Got it, Skipper.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nichols leaves Norton in the dark</div>
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Fade out<br />
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Fade in long shot of Camp Alpha during a sleep period when lights are dimmed. Unobtrusive background music is heard. </div>
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Cut to med shot of Norton sitting on his cot staring off into the blackness of Rama</div>
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Cut to close shot of his face as he looks and listens</div>
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Cut to med shot as he decides to lay down</div>
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Cut to close shot of Norton’s face as he closes his eyes and tries to sleep</div>
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Cut to long shot of his cot and others near by with people sleeping</div>
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Fade out</div>
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Fade in long shot of the camp from a different angle. Camera slowly pans as many are sleeping</div>
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Cut to med shot of officer on watch at the communications console, reading</div>
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Cut to close shot of the device emitting the soft background music. Music gets louder during this brief shot.</div>
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Cut to med shot of Norton sleeping on his cot</div>
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Cut to long shot of Camp Alpha as a low frequency grinding sound can be heard reverberating from the vast darkness, then silence</div>
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Cut to close shot on Norton’s face as his eyes open</div>
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Cut to med shot of Norton lying on his cot as all hell breaks lose. A loud crackling, crashing sound dominates the scene, a sound like the sky is falling coming from the direction of the Cylindrical Sea. A sound like Rama had opened and was splitting itself apart. “First there was a rending crack, then a long-drawn-out series of crystalline crashes, like a million glasshouses being demolished” The sounds continue as Norton reaches the communication center and talks over it. During this there are a series of shots showing personnel reacting to the deafening sounds</div>
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Norton, excitedly: <b>Hub Control! What’s happened?!</b></div>
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Hub Control: <b>Just a minute, Skipper. It’s over by the sea. We’re getting the light on it.</b></div>
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Cut to long shot as searchlight shoots out from hub</div>
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Cut to Med shot as Norton looks above and behind as the lights hits the Cylindrical Sea</div>
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Cut to long shot of the searchlight roaming along the sea embankments up and down and completely over until half way up the side of Rama’s interior on the left we see... “at first it seemed to Norton that the sea was boiling. It was no longer static and frozen in the grip of an eternal winter. A huge area, kilometers across, was in turbulent movement. And it was changing color, a broad band of white was marching across the ice.”</div>
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Cut to Norton and Ernst reacting to the sight</div>
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Cut to long shot of a slab of ice perhaps a quarter of a kilometer on a side begins to tilt upward like an opening door. “Slowly and majestically, it reared into the sky, glittering and sparkling in the beam of the searchlight.” Appropriate sound accompanies this ice movement. The slab slid back and vanishes beneath the surface of the sea, “while a tidal wave of foaming water raced outward in all directions from its point of submergence.”</div>
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Cut to med shot on Norton as he calls Hub Control: <b>Hub Control, play the light along the rest of the sea...</b></div>
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Hub Control: <b>Got ya, Skipper.</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot as the searchlight moves around the rest of the circular sea. We see the ice breaking up along it’s entire length. The sounds are still roaring on as the ice groans, changing positions</div>
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Cut to med shot of Norton and Ernst. Norton walks forward</div>
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Cut to behind the two as Norton stands and looks on. They are silhouetted as the searchlight illuminating the ice dominates the foreground</div>
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Cut to Norton as Ernst walks up to him</div>
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Norton: <b>It’s pretty obvious now that it’s happened.</b></div>
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Ernst:<b> What?</b></div>
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Norton: <b>The sea has been thawing from from beneath as the Sun’s heat has seeped through Rama’s hull... and when ice turns into water it occupies less volume.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>So the sea has been sinking below the upper layer of ice... leaving it unsupported.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Yes. Everyday the strain has been building up, and now its collapsing. Like a bridge that has lost it’s center pier.</b></div>
<br />
Long shot of the searchlight on the Cylindrical Sea as the ice was splintering into hundreds of islands which crash and jostle into each other<br />
<br />
Cut to med shot as Norton returns to the communication console<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Rodrigo... Boris, are you alright?! Do you hear me?</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo replying over the radio: <b>We’re alright Commander. No water has come our way...</b><br />
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Cut to med shot of Rodrigo standing with three others in his exploration party near the sea<br />
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Rodrigo: <b>No water has reached us or bridged the edge of the cliff.</b><br />
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Close on Rodrigo: <b>Now we know why there is a cliff.</b><br />
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Cut to close on Norton: <b>Yes. Spring has been a little late, but winter has definitely ended. </b><br />
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Cut to close on Rodrigo:<b> Definitely.</b><br />
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Cut to med shot on Norton and Ernst who look at each other as a slight breeze passes through their hair<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Did you feel that breeze?</b><br />
<br />
Ernst: <b>Yes.</b><br />
<br />
Norton, making up his mind: <b>Okay. Rama has given us enough warnings. Time to get out.</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Long shot of suited astronauts ascending the stairway from behind, illuminated by a hub searchlight</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to close shot of Norton face as he climbs, his visor is up as he can still freely breathe at the level he is at. He looks up and sees other climbing above him.</div>
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Cut to astronauts at the last plateau and the beginning of the ladder. Some begin climbing in the reduced gravity. They are now breathing in a closed suit</div>
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Cut to close as Norton starts to climb</div>
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Cut to long shot of the climbers only illuminated by their individual suit lights</div>
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Cut to several angles of the climbers</div>
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Cut to POV of Norton’s view of the ladder as he climbs from inside his helmet</div>
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Cut to Norton’s face as he exerts himself</div>
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Cut back to POV for five counts when the darkness out side is replaced by a bright light</div>
<br />
Cut back to Norton’s face as he first notices the change in lighting and then has to close his eyes due to the brightness<br />
<br />
Cut to long shot of the climbers from underneath and to the side as they are now fully illuminated and reacting to the new light<br />
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Cut back to Norton’s face eyes closed and breathing heavily<br />
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Cut to Norton on the ladder as he turns himself around<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to behind Norton as he takes on the now fully illuminated Rama interior and all of it’s spectacle from his point of view. Rama is now lighted by the activated strip lights that were the Straight Valleys </div>
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Cut to Norton’s face as he tries to keep his eyes open and look at Rama</div>
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Cut to long shot of Rama’s interior from Norton’s POV</div>
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Cut to Norton on ladder heard breathing heavily</div>
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Cut to Norton’s face: <b>Caption here. Is everyone okay?</b></div>
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Cut to the climbers on the ladder as the count off</div>
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Cut back to Norton: <b>Keep your eyes closed until you’re quite sure you can handle it. The view is... overwhelming. If anyone finds it too much, keep on climbing without looking back. You’ll soon be at zero gravity, so you can’t possibly fall.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton as he turns and lets go of the ladder briefly, he hooked his left arm under a rung and turned around</div>
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Cut to Norton’s face, eyes closed then open</div>
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Cut to long examination of what Norton is seeing. Rama in all of it’s glory. Norton’s breathing is emphasized during this section</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“His first impression was one of blueness. The glare that filled the sky could not have been mistaken for sunlight; it might have been that of an electric arc. So Rama’s sun, Norton told himself, must be hotter than ours. That should interest the astronomers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And now he understood the purpose of those mysterious trenches, the Straight Valley and its five companions. They were nothing more that gigantic strip-lights. Rama had six linear suns, systematically ranged around its interior. From each a broad fan of light was aimed across the central axis, to shine upon the far side of the world...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
...First he had to establish some kind of reference system. He was looking at the largest enclosed space ever seen by man, and he needed a mental map to find his way around it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The feeble gravity was little help, for with an effort of will he could switch 'up’ and 'down’ in any direction he pleased. But some directions were psychologically dangerous; whenever his mind skirted these, he had to vector it hastily away.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Safest of all was to imagine that he was at the bowl-shaped bottom of a gigantic well, sixteen kilometers wide and fifty deep. The advantage of this image was that there could be no danger of falling farther. Nevertheless, it had some serious defects.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He could pretend that the scattered towns and cities, and the differently colored and textured areas, were all securely fixed to the towering walls. The various complex structures that could be seen hanging from the dome overhead were perhaps no more disconcerting than the pendent candelabra in some great concert hall on Earth. What was quite unacceptable was the Cylindrical Sea.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There it was, halfway up the well shaft... a band of water, wrapped completely around it, with no visible means of support. There could be no doubt that it was water; it was a vivid blue, flecked with brilliant sparkles from the few remaining ice floes. But a vertical sea forming a complete circle twenty kilometers up in the sky was such an unsettling phenomenon that after a while he began to seek an alternative.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That was when his mind switched the scene through ninety degrees. Instantly, the deep well became a long tunnel, capped at each end. 'Down’ was obviously in the direction of the ladder and the stairway he had just ascended; and now, with this perspective, he was at last able to appreciate the true vision of the architects who had built this place.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He was clinging to the face of a curving, sixteen-kilometer-high cliff, the upper half of which overhung completely until it merged into the arched roof of what was now the sky. Beneath him, the ladder descended more than five hundred meters, until it ended at the first ledge or terrace. There the stairway began, continuing almost vertically at first in this low gravity region, then slowly becoming less and less steep until, after breaking at five more platforms, it reached the distant plain. For the first two or three kilometers he could see the individual steps, but thereafter they had merged into a continuous band. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The downward swoop of that immense stairway was so overwhelming that it was impossible to appreciate its true scale. Norton had once flown around Mount Everest, and had been awed by its size. He reminded himself that this stairway was as high as the Himalayas, but the comparison was meaningless. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And no comparison at all was possible with the other two stairways, Beta and Gamma, which slanted up into the sky and then curved far out over his head. Norton had now acquired enough confidence to lean back and glance up at them... briefly. Then he tried to forget that they were there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Too much thinking along those lines evoked yet a third image of Rama, which he was anxious to avoid at all costs. This was the viewpoint that regarded it once again as a vertical cylinder, or well... but now he was at the top, not the bottom, like a fly crawling upside down on a domed ceiling, with a fifty kilometer drop immediately below. Every time he found this image creeping up on him, he needed all his will power not to cling to the ladder in mindless panic.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In time, he was sure, all these fears would ebb. The wonder and strangeness of Rama would banish its terrors, at least for men who were trained to face the realities of space. Perhaps no one who had never left Earth, and had never seen the stars all around him, could endure these vistas. But if any men could accept them, Norton told himself with grim determination, it would be the captain and crew of the Endeavor.”</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Camera sweep pans quickly throughout Rama’s northern plain, up to the Cylindrical Sea, then returns to Norton looking out into Rama</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He looked at his chronometer. This pause had lasted only two minutes, but it had seemed a lifetime.” </div>
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Close on Norton: <b>Alright! Let’s get out of here.</b></div>
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Long on the climbers from underneath</div>
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Cut to med on the lead climber (Jansen) who seems to be frozen into place, starring off into Rama. Camera pans to the climber below him (Jackson)</div>
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Close on Jackson’s face: <b>Ellis! Are you alright?</b> (med on the two climbers as Jackson reaches up and taps Jansen’s boot) <b>Skipper says to move on. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Close on Norton: <b>What’s the matter Linda? Is Jansen alright?</b></div>
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Cut to Jackson: <b>I’m sure he is Skipper. Ellis! Ellis!</b></div>
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Cut to Jansen as he snaps out of his reverie and looks down: <b>Sorry.</b> (he starts climbing)<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long of the climbers assembling near the airlock in weightless environment. One of the suited climbers (Miloslavsky) fumbles with their faceplate, removing it completely and vomits. Norton floats over to assist her, as she begins to cough</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Are you okay Iskra? Put your plate back on.</b></div>
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Miloslavsky: Y<b>eah, I’m alright.</b> (puts her faceplate back into place) <b>Sorry Captain.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>No need to apologize Sargent. I feel like throwing up myself. </b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Just before he entered the airlock and turned his back on Rama, he made one final survey of the interior.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It had changed, even in the last few minutes, a mist was rising from the sea. For the first few hundred meters the ghostly white columns were tilted sharply forward in the direction of Rama’s spin; then they started to dissolve in a swirl of turbulence, as the uprising air tried to jettison its excess velocity. The trade winds of this cylindrical world were beginning to etch their patterns in its sky; the first tropical storm in unknown ages was about to break.”</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Norton, the last to enter the airlock, as he looks back into Rama as the door slowly closes.</div>
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Fade out<br />
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Fade in to long shot of the Rama Committee already in progress<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Congratulations Doctor Perera on the confirmation of the manifestation of Rama’s, er, trade winds.</b></div>
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Close on Perera looking somewhat embarrassed: <b>Thank you.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Might I ask what other atmospheric changes do you expect?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>It’s hard to say Doctor. You must realize that the meteorology of a world as strange as Rama may have many more surprises. But if my calculations are correct, there will be no further storms, and conditions will soon be stable. There will be a slow temperature rise until perihelion... and beyond... but that won’t concern us, because Endeavor will have had to leave long before then.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
MacKay: <b>So it should soon be safe to go back inside?</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera:<b> Er... probably. We should certainly know within forty eight hours.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>A return is imperative. We have to learn everything we possibly can about Rama. The situation has now changed completely.</b></div>
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Bose: <b>I think we know what you mean, but would you care to elaborate Ambassador?</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: (the words <b>“Ambassador from Mercury”</b> appear briefly) <b>Of course. Until now, we have assumed that Rama is lifeless... or at any rate uncontrolled. But we can no longer pretend that it is a derelict. Even if there are no life forms aboard, it may be directed by hidden computers which are programmed to carry out some mission... perhaps one highly disadvantageous to us. Unpalatable as it may be, we must consider the question of self-defense.</b></div>
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There was a babble of protesting voices, and Bose had to hold up his hand to restore order</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Let the Ambassador finish please! Whether we like the idea or not, it should be considered seriously.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Taylor, not kindly: <b>With all due respect to the Ambassador, I think we can rule out as naive the fear of malevolent intervention. Creatures as advanced as the Ramans must have correspondingly developed morals. Otherwise, they would have destroyed themselves... as we nearly did in the twentieth century. I’ve made that quite clear in my new book, <i>Ethos and Cosmos.</i> I hope you received your copy.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Perera looking amused</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Ambassador from Mercury: <b>Yes, I did, thank you. I’m afraid the pressure of other matters has not allowed me to read beyond the introduction. However, I’m familiar with the general thesis. We may have no malevolent intentions toward an ant heap, but if we want to build a house on that same site...</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Taylor: <b>This is as bad as the Pandora party! It’s nothing less than interstellar xenophobia!</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Please gentlemen! This is getting us nowhere. Mr Ambassador, you still have the floor.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>Thank you. The danger may be unlikely, but where the future of the human race is involved we can take no chances. And if I may say so, we Hermians may be particularly concerned. We may have more cause for alarm than anyone else.</b></div>
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Cut to Taylor, looking disgusted<br />
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Cut to Bose: <b>Why Mercury, more than any other planet?</b><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>Look at the dynamics of the situation. Rama is already inside our orbit. It is only an assumption that it will go around the Sun and head on out again into space. Suppose it carries out a breaking maneuver? If it does so, this will be at perihelion, in about thirty days from now. My science division tells me that if the entire velocity change is carried out there, Rama will end up in a circular orbit only twenty-five million kilometers from the Sun. From there it could <i>dominate</i> the entire solar system.</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot of the silent Committee Room as they silently take in the possibilities</div>
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Cut to Taylor looking down to his notes</div>
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Cut to Perera</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Bose: <b>I think there is some merit in your argument, Mr. Ambassador. Have you any proposals?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury:<b> Yes sir. Before we know what action to take, we must have the facts. We know the geography of Rama... if one can use that term... but we have no idea of its capabilities. And the key to the whole problem is this: does Rama have a propulsion system? Can it change orbit? I would be very interested in Dr. Perera’s views.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>I’ve given the subject a good deal of thought. Of course Rama must have been given its original impetus by some kind of launching device, but that could have been an exterior booster. If it does have onboard propulsion, we’ve found no trace of it. Certainly there are no rocket exhausts, or anything similar, anywhere on the outer shell.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>They could be hidden.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>True, but there would seem little point in it. And where are the propellant tanks, the energy sources? The main hull is solid; we’ve checked that with seismic surveys. The cavities in the northern cap are all accounted for by the air-lock systems.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> That would leave the southern end of Rama, which Commander Norton has not been able to surveil or reach due to some kind of interference in that area that renders our drones inoperable, which is interesting in itself. Unlike the north, the Southern Hemisphere may be completely inhabitable... we just don’t know.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> And the there’s that ten-kilometer-wide band of water known as the Cylindrical Sea. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Still, there are all sorts of curious mechanisms and structures up on the South Pole... you’ve seen the photographs. What they are is anybody’s guess.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But I’m reasonably sure of this. If Rama does have a propulsion system, it’s something completely outside our present knowledge. In fact, it would have to be the fabulous ‘space drive’ people have been talking about for two hundred years.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>You wouldn’t rule that out?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Certainly not. If we can prove that Rama has a reactionless propulsion system, even if we learn nothing about its mode of operation... that would be a major discovery. At least we’d know that such a thing is possible. </b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
MacKay: <b>What is a space drive?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Any kind of propulsion system, Sir Robert, that doesn’t work on the rocket principle. Antigravity... if it is possible... would do very nicely. At present we don’t know where to look for such a drive, and most scientists doubt it exists.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Davidson: <b>It doesn’t. Newton settled that. You can’t have action without reaction. Space drives are nonsense. Take it from me.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>You may be right. But if Rama doesn’t have a space drive, it has no drive at all. There’s simply no room for a conventional propulsion system, with its attendant fuel tanks.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Solomons: <b>It’s hard to imagine a whole world being pushed around. What would happen to the objects inside it? Everything would have to be bolted down. Most inconvenient.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Well, the acceleration would probably be very low. The biggest problem would be the water in the Cylindrical Sea. How would you stop that from...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera’s voice fades away as his mind pulls everything together. He falters a bit, then sputters...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera continues: <b>Of course! That explains everything... The southern cliff... now it makes sense!</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lunar Ambassador: <b>Not to me.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera, excitedly: <b>Look at this longitudinal cross section of Rama. Have you got your copies? The Cylindrical Sea is enclosed between two cliffs, which completely circle the interior of Rama. </b>(as Perera speaks what he is describing is represented on the room’s large monitor)<b> The one on the north is only fifty meters high. The southern one, on the other hand, is almost half a kilometer high. Why the big difference? No one’s been able to think of a sensible reason.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But suppose Rama is able to propel itself... accelerating so that the northern end is forward. The water in the sea would tend to move back; the level at the south would rise, perhaps hundreds of meters. Hence the cliff. Let’s see... </b>(Perera scribbles some calculations on a sheet of paper before him. Cut to the faces of other Committee members as he does this. Back to Perera as he finishes and looks up)<b> Knowing the height of those cliffs, we can calculate the maximum acceleration Rama can take. If it was more than two percent of a gravity, the sea would spill out over the southern continent.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>A fiftieth of a gee? That’s not very much.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera:<b> For a mass of ten million megatons, it is, and it’s all you need for astronomical maneuvering.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>Thank you very much, Dr. Perera. You’ve given us a lot to think about. Mr. Chairman, can we impress on Commander Norton the importance of looking at the south polar region?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>He’s doing his best. The sea is the obstacle of course. They are trying to build some kind of raft... so they can at least reach New York.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>The South Pole may be even more important Meanwhile, I am going to bring these matters to the attention of the General Assembly. Do I have your approval?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nobody objected. Sands raised his hand</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: <b>Sir Lewis?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sands:<b> Suppose we do find that Rama is... active... and has these capabilities. There is an old saying in military affairs that capability does not imply intention.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>How long should we wait to find what its intentions are? When we discover them, it may be far too late.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sands: <b>It is already too late. There is nothing we can do to affect Rama. Indeed, I doubt if there ever was.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador from Mercury: <b>I do not admit that, Sir Lewis. There are many things we can do... if it proves necessary. But the time is desperately short. Rama is a cosmic egg, being warmed by the fires of the Sun. It may explode at any moment.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Fade out</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to Commander Norton’s cabin aboard the Endeavor. Weightless environment. Med shot on Norton sitting at his desk writing. Cut to from behind Norton as someone knocks on his door.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to med on Norton: <b>Come in. </b></div>
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Cut to med of Lieutenant Boris Rodrigo entering: <b>Commander, do you have a minute?</b></div>
<br />
Cut to med on Norton as he sits back into the chair that he’s strapped into and contemplated the Lieutenant’s question. <br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Yeah, sure. What’s the problem, Boris?</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo floats to the chair opposite of Norton and straps in: <b>I’d like permission, Commander, to use ship priority for a direct message to Earth.</b><br />
<br />
Norton thinks a moment: <b>You know, of course, that you have to give me a good reason. All our available band width is already clogged with data transmission. Is this a personal emergency?</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo: <b>No, Commander. It is much more important than that. I want to send a message to the Mother Church.</b><br />
<br />
Norton thinks again for another moment: <b>I’d be glad if you’d explain.</b><br />
<br />
Rodrigo looks intently at Norton: <b>It concerns the purpose of Rama, Commander. I believe I have discovered it.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Go on.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Look at the situation. Here is a completely empty, lifeless world... yet it is suitable for human beings. It has water and an atmosphere we can breathe. It comes from the remote depths of space, aimed precisely at the solar system... something quite incredible, if it was a matter of pure chance. And it appears not only new; it looks as if it has never been used. </b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Yes. This has been noted before.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>My faith, our faith, has told us to expect such a visitation, though we did not know in what form it would take. The Bible gives us only hints. If this is not the Second Coming, it may be the Second Judgment; the story of Noah describes the first. I believe that Rama is a cosmic Ark, sent here to save... those who are worthy of salvation.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton thinks again for a few moments: <b>That’s a very interesting concept, and though I don’t go along with your faith, it’s a tantalizing plausible one. </b>(Norton shifts in his seat)<b> A couple of questions, Boris. Rama will be at perihelion in three weeks; then it will round the sun and leave the solar system just as fast as it came in. There’s not much time for a day of Judgment, or for shipping across those who are... er... selected... however that’s going to be done.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Very true. So when it reaches perihelion, Rama will have to decelerate and insert itself into a parking orbit, probably one with aphelion at Earth’s orbit. Once there it will make another velocity change and rendezvous with Earth.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton thinks again: <b>Okay... one other point Boris. What’s controlling Rama now?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>There is no doctrine to advise on that. It could be a pure robot. Or it could be... a spirit. That would explain why there are no signs of biological life forms. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton thinks again: <b>I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Boris. Can you sum up your ideas in less than... oh, a thousand bits?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Yes, I think so.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Well, if you can make it sound like a straightforward scientific theory, I’ll send it, top priority, to the Rama Committee. Then a copy can go to your church at the same time, and everyone will be happy.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Thank you, Commander. I really appreciate it.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Oh, I’m not doing this to save my conscience. I’d just like to see what the committee makes of it. Even if I don’t agree with you along that line, you may have hit on something important.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Well, we’ll know at perihelion, won’t we?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Yes. We’ll know at perihelion.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in. Med shot. Endeavor control center. Weightless environment. Norton, Mercer, Kirchoff, Pak, and Myron are present monitoring instruments. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Winds are at five MPH at base camp. Still zero at the hub, Skipper. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> What’s it look like in there?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Still pretty much a white out. Cloudy at the hub...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>And we lost video at base camp. </b></div>
<br />
Norton:<b> So we don’t have any idea what it’s like down there?</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Right.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Well, we don’t have a whole lot of time here. </b>(he hits a button on a wall mounted intercom)<b> Commander Ernst!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After a moment</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Yes Captain.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Laura, conditions have stabilized somewhat inside Rama. Our intentions are to go back. Do you see any problems?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>What are the conditions?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Mild wind at the base camp... cloudy...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>I don’t see any problems, except I want you all to wear re-breathers on the plain until the humidity dissipates. The toxins from the Cylindrical Sea should have been evaporated out, but I want to be careful. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: Acknowledged. <b>Thanks Laura.</b> (he turns to his exec and Mercer)<b> Let’s suit up.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to astronauts floating through the last airlock toward the last door</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Norton leading the away party floating toward the door (and camera)</div>
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<br /></div>
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Med shot of the astronauts as they stop at the door</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton is the first to enter the airlock, and the door closes after him. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to black. The airlock door opens to: “Norton was struck first by the change in the light. It was no longer harshly blue, but was much more yellow and gentle, reminding him of a bright, hazy day on Earth</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He looked outward along the axis of the world and could see nothing except a glowing, featureless tunnel of white, reaching all the way to those strange mountains at the South Pole. The interior of Rama was completely blanketed by clouds, and nowhere was a break visible in the overcast, The top of the layer was quite sharply defined; it formed a smaller cylinder inside the larger one of this spinning world, leaving a central core, five or six kilometers wide, quite clear except for a few stray wisps of cirrus</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The immense tube of cloud was lit from within by the six artificial suns of Rama. The locations of the three on this northern continent were clearly defined by diffuse strips of light, but those of the far side of the Cylindrical Sea merged together into a continuous glowing band”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut med shot of Norton looking out at the clouds of Rama, as other astronauts emerge and move around behind him in a weightless environment. The hub is now festooned with guide wires that the astronauts use in order to move around easily.</div>
<br />
Cut to long shot from behind Norton as he watches Mercer, Calvert, and Myron descend the ladder toward the plain. <br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in, long shot, as the three astronauts (or Ramanauts if you prefer) reach the first platform at the base of the ladder. They are wearing re-breathing masks instead of helmets </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Mercer stopping to make an atmosphere check with his suit instruments.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close shot of Mercer looking at his read out.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on read out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer and the two others in the background</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Damn!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>What’s the problem?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>My read out must be broken. It’s oxygen reading way too high. Strange... that’s never happened before... I’ll check it on the breathing circuit.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer as he plugs the analyzer into the test point of his oxygen supply. He unplugged the meter and used it to sample the Rama atmosphere again.</div>
<br />
Close on Mercer<br />
<br />
Mercer as he speaks on his radio: <b>Skipper?! Can you take an O two reading please?</b><br />
<br />
Med shot of the three men<br />
<br />
Norton over the radio: <b>Alright. </b><br />
<br />
Cut to another angle of the men as they wait<br />
<br />
Cut to med on Mercer<br />
<br />
Norton over radio:<b> I think there’s something wrong with my meter.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Mercer smiling:<b> It’s up fifty percent, isn’t it?</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Yes. What does that mean?</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>It means we can all take off our masks. Isn’t that convenient?</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton at the hub: <b>I’m not sure. It seems too good to be true.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Mercer: <b>I’m going to test the air manually...</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Karl, remember what Laura said about contaminants!</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>I do Skipper. But we know there’s no biological activity in the water, and what’s in it is documented pretty thoroughly. I’m just going to take a sniff.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer as he opens his mask, takes a couple of breathes, and smiles. He then closes his mask</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>The air’s perfectly breathable at this altitude now. There’s no more musty, sterile, dead smell. And it’s really humid.</b> (he checks his instrument readout) <b>Up eighty percent by my reading. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer turns to his men: <b>Okay. Let’s keep going.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in med shot of Mercer sliding down the stairway’s rail, then Calvert, then Myron.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut Mercer’s POV while sliding and looking up at his two colleagues</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot of the three men as they enter the clouds</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Mercer’s POV</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Take it easy. Spread out so we can just see each other. And don’t let yourself build up speed in case I have to stop suddenly. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Simultaneously</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>Copy.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myron: <b>Copy that.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in med shot, stationary camera as the three men slide past in the fog</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot of Mercer breaking</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Whoa! Stop a minute. Stop!</b></div>
<br />
Cut to long of the three as they bunch together<br />
<br />
Mercer in a low voice: <b>Listen! Do you hear something?</b><br />
<br />
Pause, then close on Myron: <b>Yes. It kind of sounds like wind.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Calvert as he turns his head trying to listen<br />
<br />
Close on Mercer: <b>Let’s go.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade into long shot of the stairway’s rail emerging from the overhead cloud cover, just as the three astronauts emerge from the clouds. The sounds of a waterfall are now much louder. “They shot out into the blinding glare of the Raman day, made more brilliant by the light reflected from the low hanging clouds. There was the familiar curving plain-now made more acceptable to mind and senses because its full circle could not be seen. It was not too difficult to pretend that they were looking along a broad valley, and that the upward sweep of the sea was really an outward one.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot of the three men stopping at the fifth terrace. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer: <b>Skipper, we’ve broken through the clouds.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The two other men are staring out onto the plain</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Voice of Norton on radio: <b>Copy that Karl. Anything else?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind the men at a huge waterfall falling “from some hidden source in the clouds three or four kilometers away... For a long minute they stared at it silently, almost unable to believe their eyes. Logic told them that on this spinning world no falling object could move in a straight line, but there was something horribly unnatural about a curving waterfall that curved sideways, to end many kilometers away from the point directly below its source.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Mercer: <b>Yeah, Skipper. There’s something else. Take a look at this. </b>(Mercer points a camera at the far off phenomenon</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>If Galileo had been born on this world he’d have gone crazy working out the laws of dynamics.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>I thought I knew them and I’m going crazy anyway. Doesn’t it get to you Professor? </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myron seems nonplussed: <b>Why should it? It’s a perfectly straightforward demonstration of the Coriolis Effect. I can’t wait to show this to my students.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind them out at Rama and the Cylindrical Sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myron: <b>Have you noticed what’s happened to the water?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>Why? Oh... it’s no longer blue, is it? </b></div>
<br />
Mercer: <b>I’d call pea green.</b><br />
<br />
Calvert looking at Myron: <b>What does that signify?</b><br />
<br />
Myron: <b>Perhaps the same thing that it does on Earth. Commander Ernst called the sea an organic soup, waiting to be shaken into life. maybe that’s exactly what happened.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>In a couple days! It took billions of years on Earth.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myron: <b>Three point eight billion according to the latest estimates. So that’s where the oxygen’s come from. Rama’s shot through the anaerobic stage and has got to photosynthetic plants... in a bout forty eight hours. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Myron: <b>I wonder what it will produce tomorrow.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot on all three</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in Endeavor’s sick bay. Weightless environment. Mercer and Ernst are present. Mercer is dressed only in shorts, vomiting into a bag and looking very sick</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> Next time you’ll listen to Dr. Laura, and not take off the mask... right?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Closer on Mercer as he wearily shakes his head in the affirmative right before throwing up again</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to long shot from above of crew members looking down at other crew members attending to the motorized raft (it was a small raft, constructed from six empty storage drums, held together by a light metal framework) that they have just finished launching onto the Cylindrical Sea from the stairway they had used previously to get an ice sample. Now the waters were calm... and slightly green.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Sergeant Pieter Rousseau:<b> Shouldn’t one christen a new boat with a bottle of champagne?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Even if we had some on board I wouldn’t allow such a criminal waste. Anyway, it’s too late. We’ve already launched the thing.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the raft</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rousseau: <b>At least it floats. You’ve won your bet, Jimmy. I’ll settle when we get back to Earth.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak:<b> It’s got to have a name. Any Ideas?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>I’ve got one for you. Call it Resolution. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Why?</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>That was one of Captain James Cook’s ships. It’s a good name. May she live up to it. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on all looking at the Resolution silently</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sergeant Ruby Barnes: <b>Okay. I need three volunteers.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on everyone holding up their hands</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>Sorry... we only have four life jackets. Boris, Jimmy, Pieter... you’ve all done some sailing. Let’s try her out.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med long on all four in the raft</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Barnes as she opened the rafts throttle</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Resolution powering away from the staircase, setting a course along the cliff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long as the Resolution returns to the staircase</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Barnes as she stepped up on the staircase and salutes Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>Maiden voyage of Resolution successfully completed sir. Now awaiting your orders.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Very good... Admiral. When will you be ready to sail?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>As soon as stores can be loaded aboard, and the Harbor Master gives us clearance.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Then we leave at dawn.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>Aye, aye, sir!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in on med of Resolution and it’s crew (Barnes, Norton, Rousseau, and Rodrigo) sailing the Cylindrical Sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot as the Resolution approaches the camera from a distance. Camera pans first to one side of the sea as it curves upward and above, then back down again, past the Resolution, panning to the other side, up and above</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Norton as he looks out of the sea.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long on New York as it gets closer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot from high above as the Resolution approaches the New York shore</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long back on New York (“New York was no longer a distant island. It was becoming a real place, and details they had seen only through telescopes and photo enlargements were now reveling themselves as massive, solid structures. It was strikingly apparent that the ‘City,’ like so much of Rama, was triplicated. It consisted of three identical, circular complexes or superstructures, rising from a long, oval foundation. Photographs taken from the hub had also indicated that each complex was itself divided into three equal components, like a pie sliced into 120-degree portions. This would greatly simplify the task of exploration; presumably they had to examine only one-ninth of New York to see the whole of it. Even this would be a formidable undertaking. It would mean investigating at least a square kilometer of buildings and machinery, some of which towered hundreds of meters into the air... New York appeared to be an example of triple-triple redundancy)</div>
<br />
Cut to long from behind the Resolution as it gets nearer the central portion of New York<br />
<br />
Cut to long from above as the Resolution makes contact with a flight of steps which led from the water to the top of the wall or levee that surrounded the island<br />
<br />
Barnes: <b>This will do for a mooring post.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Pretty convenient. </b><br />
<br />
Barnes: <b>Yes sir. I’d really like to see what the Ramans use to sail this sea.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he stepped on one of the steps<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Wait here on the boat until I get to the top of the wall. When I wave, Pieter and Boris, you come up. Ruby, you stay at the helm so we can cast off at a moments notice. If anything happens to me, report back to Karl and follow his instructions. Use your best judgment, but no heroics. Understood!”</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on crew as Barnes and Rodrigo say: <b>Yes.</b> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau: <b>Yes, Skipper. Good luck!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he turns and looks up at the stairway. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on ascending stairway</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Norton as he climbs the staircase</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from Norton’s POV as he climbs</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from the bottom of the stairs looking up at Norton. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from out at sea looking at Norton ascending and the Resolution and crew</div>
<br />
Med from the top of the stairway looking down at Norton as he approaches the top<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton speaking into his suit radio: <b>Nearly at the top.</b> (he takes a few more steps) <b>Still completely quiet. Radiation normal. I’m going to hold the meter above my head, just in case this wall is acting as a shield for anything. If there are any hostiles on the other side hopefully they’ll shoot at it first.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton as he does this</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Everything seems alright. I’m going up.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
(“When he took the last step, he found that the flat-topped embankment was about ten meters thick. On the other side, an alternating series of ramps and stairways led down to the main level of the city, twenty meters below. In effect, he was standing on a high wall, which completely surrounded New York, and so was able to get a grandstand view of it”)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton as he uses his camera to record what he is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot of what camera is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>No sign of any activity; everything quiet. Come on up... let’s take a look around. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to long shot of the three crew members walking down an avenue toward a large intersection (“This celestial New York was just about as wide as the island of Manhattan, but its geometry was totally different. There were few straight thoroughfares, it was a maze of short, concentric arcs, with radical spokes linking them. Luckily, it was impossible to lose one’s bearings inside Rama; a single glance at the sky was enough to establish the north-south axis of the world... It was not a city; it was a machine. Norton had come to that conclusion in ten minutes... A city, whatever the nature of its occupants, surely had to provide some form of accommodation; there was nothing here of that nature, unless it was underground. And if that was case, where were the entrances, the stairways, the elevators? He had not found anything that even qualified as a simple door. The closest analogy to this place that he had ever seen on Earth was a giant chemical-processing plant. However, there were no stockpiles of raw materials, or any indications of a transport system to move them around)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot of the three. Norton and Rodrigo take panoramic videos of their surroundings</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Norton: <b>Anybody care to make a guess? If this is a factory, what does it make? And where does it get its raw materials?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Rodrigo and Rousseau as they consider the question</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton as Mercer calls on the radio</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer:<b> I’ve a suggestion, Skipper.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Mercer on board the Endeavor. Weightless environment</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer continues: <b>Suppose it uses the sea. According to Doc, that contains just about anything you can think of.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Norton: <b>That’s a good idea Karl. But what does New York do with its sea water?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on the three as silence ensues for a few moments</div>
<br />
Close on Norton<br />
<br />
McAndrews over the radio: <b>That’s easy, Skipper. But you’re all going to laugh at me.</b><br />
<br />
Med from behind Norton as he looks at Rodrigo and Rousseau<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton: <b>No, we’re not, Ravi. Go ahead. </b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on McAndrews on board the Endeavor. Weightless environment</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
McAndrews: <b>Well, it’s a factory, all right, Skipper, and maybe the sea provides the raw material. After all, that’s how it all happened on Earth, though in a different way. . . . I believe New York is a factory for making. . . <i>Ramans</i>.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Someone snickers over the circuit then silence</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Norton: (after a moment) <b>You know, Ravi, that theory is crazy enough to be true. And I’m not sure if I want to see it tested... at least until I get back to the mainland. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot as the three continue walking</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to long on the three as they reach the opposite side of New York. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med as they climb the embankment</div>
<br />
Cut to med shot from behind as they reach the top and the view of the southern sea and hemisphere fills the screen<br />
<br />
Close on Norton looking out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot of (“the five-hundred-meter cliff that barred them from almost half of Rama... from this angle it appeared an ominous, forbidding black, and it was easy to think of it as a prison wall surrounding a whole continent. Nowhere along its entire circle were there stairways or any other means of access)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot of the three from in front of them as they contemplate their surroundings</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in on med shot of Jimmy Pak sitting across from Norton in his office/stateroom. Weightless environment </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton staring at him, a stern look on his face</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Pak looking a bit hesitant and uncertain</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Norton:<b> Well Jimmy, what is it?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>I have an idea, Commander. I know how to reach the southern continent... even the South Pole.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> I’m listening. How do you propose to do it?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Er... by flying there.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Jimmy, I’ve had at least five proposals to do that... more, if you count crazy suggestions from Earth. We’ve looked into the possibility of adapting our spacesuit propulsors, but air drag would make them hopelessly inefficient. They’d run out of fuel before they could go ten kilometers.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>I know that. But I have the answer.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton looked at Pak, studying him, then: <b>Well, go on. If it works, I’ll see your promotion is retro-active.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak gave a rather sickly smile at Norton’s attempt at humor, made several nervous false starts, then: <b>You know, Commander, that I was in the Lunar Olympics last year.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> Of course. Sorry you didn’t win.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>It was bad equipment; I know what went wrong. I have friends on Mars who’ve been working on it, in secret. We want to give everyone a surprise.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> Mars? But I didn’t know...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> Not many people do. The sport’s still new there; it’s only been tried in the Xante Sportsdome. But the best aerodynamicists in the solar system are on Mars. If you can fly in that atmosphere you can fly anywhere.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Now, My idea was that if the Martians could build a good machine, with all their know how, it would really perform on the Moon... where gravity is only half as strong.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> That seems plausible, but how does it help us?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> Well I formed a syndicate with some friends in Port Lowell. They’ve built a fully aerobatic flyer, with some refinements that no one has ever seen before. In lunar gravity, under the Olympic dome, it should create a sensation.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>And win you the gold medal.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>I hope so.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, changing his position in his seated chair, and building up to some false enthusiasm:<b> Let me see if I follow your train of thought correctly. A sky-bike that could enter the Lunar Olympics, at a sixth of a gee, would be even more sensational inside Rama, with no gravity at all! You could even fly right along the axis,</b> (making hand gestures) <b>from the North Pole to the...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Pak watching him, then back to Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>...South, and back again!</b> (he raises both hand in the air triumphantly)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak, caught up in Norton’s attitude: <b>Yes... exactly. The one way trip would take about three hours, nonstop. But of course you could rest whenever you wanted to, as long as you... as I kept near the axis.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>It’s a brilliant idea, and I congratulate you! </b>(turning serious)<b> What a pity sky-bikes aren’t part of regular Space Survey equipment.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak seemed to have difficulty finding words, opening his mouth several times with nothing coming out. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>All right, Jimmy. As a matter of morbid interest, and purely off the record, how did you smuggle the thing aboard?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> Er... recreational stores.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Well, you weren’t lying. And about the weight?</b></div>
<br />
Pak:<b> It’s only twenty kilograms.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Only! Still, that’s not as bad as I thought. In fact, I’m astonished you can build a bike at that weight.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Some have been only fifteen, but they were too fragile and usually folded up when they made a turn. There’s no danger of Dragonfly doing that. As I said, She’s fully aerobatic.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Dragonfly... nice name. So tell me just how you plan to use her, then I can decide whether a promotion or a court martial is in order. Or both.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to central hub, weightless environment, onto Dragonfly. “The long tapering wings were almost invisible, except when the light struck them from certain angles and was refracted into rainbow hues. It was if a soap bubble had been wrapped around a delicate tracery of aerofoil sections; the envelope enclosing the little flyer was an organic film only a few molecules thick, yet strong enough to control and direct the movement of a fifty-kph air flow. The pilot---who was also the power plant and the guidance system---sat on a tiny seat at the center of gravity, in a semireclining position to reduce air resistance. Control was by a single stick, which could be moved backward and forward, right and left; the only “instrument” was a piece of weighted ribbon attached to the leading edge, to show the direction of the relative wind.”</div>
<br />
Long shot of Dragonfly, Norton, Ernst, Calvert, and several others there to see Pak off<br />
<br />
Cut to med shot of Ernst talking to Pak<br />
<br />
Ernst:<b> Now listen to me carefully, Jimmy. It’s very important not to over-exert yourself. Remember, the oxygen level here at the axis is still very low. If you feel breathless at any time, stop and hyperventilate for thirty seconds... but no longer.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Okay.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton looking very concerned<br />
<br />
Med long on Pak climbing into and aboard Dragonfly. <br />
<br />
Med on Pak testing the controls. “The whole rudder-elevator assembly, which formed a single unit on an outrigger five meters behind the rudimentary cockpit, began to twist around; then the flap-shaped ailerons, halfway along the wing, moved alternately up and down.” <br />
<br />
Cut to med on Calvert: <b>Do you want me to swing the prop?</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>No, I’ve got it.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak and Dragonfly as Pak slowly starts to move the foot pedals. “The flimsy, broad fan of the airscrew---like the wing, a delicate skeleton covered with shimmering film---began to turn. By the time it had made a few revolutions, it had disappeared completely. And Dragonfly was on her way.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Several long shot angles of Dragonfly lifting off from the central hub</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Dragonfly and Pak as he lifts away</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly as it moves toward the camera at an angle and stops. Now the spin of Rama’s interior becomes apparent, and will continue to do so throughout these flight scenes as Dragonfly is now separated from Rama physically. This perception will be slow at first as Pak and Dragonfly share Rama’s spin, but as they shed their spin velocity relative to Rama’s interior, it will soon become more apparent and noticeable</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he calls out to Pak: <b>How does she handle?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak and Dragonfly: <b>Response good, stability poor. But I know what the trouble is... no gravity. I’ll be better off a kilometer lower down.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton and the others: <b>Now wait a minute... is that safe?</b></div>
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>I can manage a tenth of a gee without any trouble. And she’ll handle more easily in denser air.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot of Pak and Dragonfly making a slow spiral across the sky, roughly following the stairway down toward the plain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As Dragonfly maneuvers we look at it from various angles. At times the little ship’s structures seems to be invisible, depending on the angle, which make it look like Pak is floating by himself through the air, at times rolling completely over. Pak continues to to test the bike, making several spurts of speed, then coasts to a halt. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he stops, feeling and getting used to the controls.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Back to long on Dragonfly, as it soon became apparent that the ship handled much better at lower altitudes, and no longer rolled, becoming parallel to the plain seven kilometers below. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from a further angle as Pak makes several wide orbits, then started to climb</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot from the hub from behind the astronauts as the Dragonfly comes into view from directly below them, filling the screen</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from Pak’s POV</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Shall we throw you a rope?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak: <b>No, Skipper, I’ve got to work this out myself. I won’t have anyone to help me at the other end.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He sat thinking for a while, then started to ease Dragonfly toward the hub with short bursts of power. She quickly lost momentum between each, as air drag brought her to rest again. When he was only five meters away, and the sky-bike was still barely moving, Jimmy abandoned ship. He let himself float toward the nearest safety line in the hub webwork, grasped it, then swung around in time to catch the approaching bike with his hands. The maneuver was so neatly executed that it drew a round of applause.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Calvert: <b>And now, for my next act...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak: <b>That was messy. But I know how to do it. I’ll take a sticky-bomb with me, on a twenty meter line. Then I’ll be able to pull myself in wherever I want to.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Ernst as she approaches Pak</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Give me your wrist, Jimmy. And blow into this bag. I’ll want a blood sample, too. Did you have any difficulty in breathing?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Only at this altitude. What do you want the blood for? </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>To test your blood sugar, so I can tell how much energy you’ve used. We’ve got to make sure that you carry enough fuel for the mission. By the way, what’s the endurance record for sky-biking?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Two hours twenty-five minutes three point six seconds. On the Moon, of course... a two kilometer circuit in the Olympic Dome.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst looked at him incredulously: <b>And you think you can keep this up for six hours?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Easily, since I can stop for a rest at any time. Sky-biking on the Moon is at least twice as hard as it is here.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> Alright Jimmy. Let’s get you back to the lab. I’ll give you a Go-No Go as soon a I’ve analyzed these samples. I don’t want to raise false hopes, but I think you can make it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak smiles and Ernst leads him to the airlock</div>
<br />
Med on both as Pak turns around and calls out: <b>Hands off, please.</b> (looking at Norton) <b>I don’t want anyone putting their fist through the wings.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton: <b>I’ll see to that, Jimmy. Dragonfly is off limits to everybody... including me.</b><br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in <br />
<br />
Med shot behind Pak and Dragonfly as it reaches the coast of the Cylindrical Sea. Rama’s spin is readily apparent now relative to Dragonfly<br />
<br />
Med side shot looking at a downward angle as Dragonfly crosses the coast<br />
<br />
Med on Pak<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Dragonfly to Hub Control. I’m now over the Cylindrical Sea. It’s kind of the point of no return. If something were to happen to Dragonfly now I’d be totally...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Central Hub: <b>Norton: Yes, we know Jimmy. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton at Hub Control: <b>Don’t let anything happen to Dragonfly. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> Copy that.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in long shot looking down on Dragonfly which is further along over the Cylindrical Sea, as New York passes below him, moving with Rama’s spin. Pak peddles in circles over it as it passes photographing it with a hand held camera. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med side shot of Pak and Dragonfly</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak into his intercom:<b> From this angle New York looks like a big ship sailing round and round Rama as it spins.</b></div>
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Dragonfly... you’re getting a little low. Twenty-two hundred meters from the axis.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Thanks. I’ll gain altitude. Let me know when I’m back at twenty.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Copy.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot as Dragonfly turns it course back towards the south</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly as Pak seemingly makes a mad dash for the coast. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in med long shot on Dragonfly from directly above as it crosses the southern coast</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med side shot on Pak</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>I’m now over the Souther Continent and back over land. I don’t mind telling you I feel a little better not being over water any more.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Copy that Jimmy. I think we all feel better.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another angle on Dragonfly as Pak pans his camera over the varied landscape below</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak</div>
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Beautiful, Jimmy! This will keep the map makers happy. How are you feeling?</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>I’m fine. Just a little fatigue, but no more than I expected. How far do you make me from the pole?</b><br />
<br />
Long shot from behind Dragonfly which is dwarfed by the enormous and ominous central spike ahead of it<br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Fifteen point six kilometers.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak: <b>Tell me when I’m at ten; I’ll take a rest then. And please make sure I don’t get low again. I’ll start climbing when I’ve five to go.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Central Hub: <b>Copy. Jimmy, we’d like you to release the drone at this point.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Copy that. Hope it works now.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot from above and behind Dragonfly as the drone that had been affixed to the rear part of the bike was released. The camera pans following it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control as Norton and others watch a monitor which is receiving video signals from the drone</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Pak: <b>How’s it going?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Hub Control, Norton: <b>So far so good.</b> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back med shot from above Dragonfly</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Great!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The camera pans over to the drones flight and closes in on it as it begins to spiral out of control</div>
<br />
Cut to close on Pak watching it<br />
<br />
Cut to Hub Control watching the spiral death dance of the drone<br />
<br />
Cut to long shot above the drone as it spirals to the plain below <br />
<br />
Cut to Hub Control as the monitor displays the uncontrolled spiral<br />
<br />
Cut to shot above the drone as it crashes onto the plain<br />
<br />
Cut to Hub Control as the monitor blacks out<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Pak, watching the drone: <b>Ouch!</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Hub Control, med on Norton: <b>Yeah</b> (he looks up). <b>That didn’t work out as well as we might have liked. </b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on Pak: <b>No, I guess not.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Norton, seriously:<b> Listen to me, Jimmy. I need you to be very careful. There is something acting on these drones. Some force. Report if you notice anything like that at once and then get the hell out of there!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Pak, equally seriously: <b>Roger that Skipper. Don’t worry. I have no intention of sacrificing myself.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Norton: <b>Good man. Now I guess we continue on.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Pak: <b>Copy.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind Dragonfly as Pak peddles toward the Southern Dome</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Transpose shot to same long shot from behind Dragonfly twenty minutes later. It is much closer to the Southern Dome section</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from above side angle as Dragonfly leaves the plain section</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind again</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He had studied it for hours through the telescopes at the other end of Rama, and had learned its geography by heart. Even so, that had not fully prepared him for the spectacle all around him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In almost every way the southern and northern ends of Rama differed completely. Here was no triad of stairways, no series of narrow, concentric plateaus, no sweeping curve from hub to plain. Instead, there was an immense central spike, more than five kilometers long, extending along the axis. Six smaller ones, half the size, were equally spaced around it; the whole assembly looked like a group of remarkably symmetrical stalactites, hanging from the roof of a cave; or inverting the point of view, the spires of some Cambodian temple, set at the bottom of a crater.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Linking these slender, tapering towers, and curving down from them to merge eventually in the cylindrical plain, were flying buttresses that looked massive enough to bear the weight of a world. And this, perhaps, was their function, if they were indeed the elements of some exotic drive unit, as had been suggested.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from the central spike down to Pak and Dragonfly as they cautiously approach</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Dragonfly from behind and down as it approaches the spike</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>What can you see?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Just Big Horn. It’s absolutely smooth... no markings... and the point’s so sharp you could use it as a needle. I’m almost scared to go near it.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Dragonfly as Pak peddles along it’s length. The spike slowly flares out becoming larger in diameter</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from in front of Dragonfly as it continues on until he reaches a point where the spike is several meters in diameter</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he opens a small container and takes out a small sphere about the size of a baseball and tosses it out to the spike. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the sphere as it makes contact with the spike and sticks to it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he tugs on the line attached to the sphere pulling himself and Dragonfly closer to the spike.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another med angle as Pak gets close enough to put out his hand and touch it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak’s hand as he touches the spike</div>
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>I suppose you could call this some kind of touchdown. It feels like glass... almost frictionless... and slightly warm. </b>(he removes his hand)<b> The sticky bomb worked fine. </b>(Pak takes out a wire attached to a suction cup and places the cup on the spike)<b> Now I’m trying the mike. Let’s see if the suction pad holds as well... Plugging in the leads... Anything coming through?</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control:<b> Hold one...</b> (long pause) <b>Not a damn thing, except the usual thermal noises. Can you tap it with a piece of metal? Then at least we’ll find out if it’s hallow.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Okay.</b><br />
<br />
Pak taps the spike with a small screwdriver<br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Okay, now what?</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>We’d like you to fly along the spike, making a complete scan every half kilometer and looking out for anything unusual. Then if you’re sure it’s safe, you might go across to one of the Little Horns. But only if you’re certain you can get back to zero gee without any problems.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Pak, to himself mostly, looking down:<b> Anything unusual, huh? </b><br />
<br />
Long on Pak and Dragonfly from above and to the side with deep focus on the buttresses and infrastructure of the moving smaller horns below him: <b>That won’t be hard.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>Three kilometers from the axis... that’s slightly above lunar gravity. Dragonfly was designed for that. I’ll just have to to work harder.</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control, Norton: <b>Jimmy. this is the captain. I’ve got second thoughts on that...</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Norton:<b> ...Judging by your pictures, the smaller spikes are just that same as the big one. Get the best coverage of them you can with the zoom lens. I don’t want you leaving the low-gravity region... unless you see something that looks very important...</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to med on Pak:<b> ...then we’ll talk it over.</b><br />
<br />
Pak:<b> It’s alright, Skipper... here I go...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He felt he was dropping straight downward into a narrow valley between a group of incredibly tall and slender mountains. Big Horn now towered a kilometer above him, and the six spikes of the Little Horns were looming up all around [and moving as Rama spinned relative to Dragonfly). The complex of buttresses and flying arches that surrounded the lower slopes was approaching rapidly. He wondered if he could make a safe landing somewhere down there in that Cyclopean architecture. He could no longer land on Big Horn itself, for the gravity on its widening slopes was now too powerful to be counteracted by the feeble force of the sticky-bomb.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As he came ever closer to the South Pole, he began to feel more like a sparrow flying beneath the vaulted roof of some great cathedral... though no cathedral ever built had been even one-hundredth the size of this place. He wondered if it was indeed a religious shrine, or something remotely analogous, but quickly dismissed the idea. Nowhere in Rama had there been any trace of artistic expression; everything was purely functional. Perhaps the Ramans felt that they already knew the ultimate secrets of the universe, and were no longer haunted by the yearnings and aspirations that drove mankind.”</div>
<br />
Long shot from the spike as Pak and Dragonfly spiral downward toward the six moving smaller spikes.<br />
<br />
Med shot from in front of Dragonfly as Pak distances himself from the huge spike overhead<br />
<br />
Various shots and angles of the architecture that Pak is seeing and recording with his camera<br />
<br />
Various shots and angles of Dragonfly as it traverses this domain<br />
<br />
Long shot as Dragonfly approaches one of the smaller spikes, catching up to it and matching its relative speed<br />
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>Hub Control, are you getting this?</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Say again, Dragonfly. We can’t understand you; your transmission is garbled.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>I repeat... I’m near the base of one of the Little Horns, and am using the sticky bomb to haul myself in. </b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Understand only partially. Can you hear me?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak surprised: <b>Yes! Perfectly. Repeat, perfectly.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control:<b> Please start counting numbers.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>One, two, three, four...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Got part of that. Give us beacon for fifteen seconds, then go back to voice.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak switched on a low powered beacon</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly and its surroundings</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he goes back to voice: <b>What’s happening? Can you hear me now?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control:<b> Jimmy give us fifteen seconds on TV, then go back to voice.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak, becoming frustrated: <b>Jeeez. </b></div>
<br />
Pak switches over to television mode<br />
<br />
POV from Pak’s TV for fifteen seconds<br />
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>Can you hear me? </b><br />
<br />
Long pause. Pak absently rubs both of his arms with his hands<br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Hub Control, can you hear me. I can hear you fine...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Glad you can hear us okay, Jimmy. But there’s something very peculiar happening at your end. Listen.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Over the radio, he heard the familiar whistle of his own beacon, played back to him. For a moment it was perfectly normal; then a weird distortion crept into it. The thousand-cycle whistle became modulated by a deep, throbbing pulse so low that it was almost beneath the threshold of hearing. It was a kind of basso-profundo flutter in which each individual vibration could be heard. And the modulation was itself modulated; it rose and fell, rose and fell, with a period of about five seconds.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>We think you must be in some kind of very intense magnetic field, with a frequency of about ten cycles. It may be strong enough to be dangerous. We suggest you get out right away... it may only be local. Switch on your beacon again, and we’ll play it back to you. Then you can tell when you’re getting clear of the interference.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak jerks the sticky-bomb free from the spike and shoved off peddling away and upward rapidly. The sound of his modulated beacon can be heard, and the farther away he gets from the small spike the less interference he receives, until he is clear of it completely.</div>
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>Hub Control, I think I’m free from whatever it was. Can you hear me.</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Yeah, Jimmy. We can hear you fine. Good job.</b><br />
<br />
Long on Dragonfly from underneath at an angle as Pak continues to peddle upward<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in to long shot from above and slightly above Dragonfly as Pak makes his return trip<br />
<br />
Long from below Dragonfly as it progresses. Big Horn is directly above <br />
<br />
Med and behind Dragonfly as it climbs to just underneath Big Horn, which stretches out for a kilometer ahead<br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he peddles steadily. At this point all of the hair on Pak’s body begins to stand up<br />
<br />
Close on Pak as he begins to look concerned<br />
<br />
Med on Pak and Dragonfly as it stops in mid-air<br />
<br />
Close on Pak as he looks around. Something is bothering him but he can’t figure out what or why<br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he absently brushes his arms and hands<br />
<br />
Close on Pak as he lifts his hand and examines it and notices that every single hair was standing straight up. <br />
<br />
Med shot on Pak as he explores his arms and head<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak:<b> Hub Control, there’s a static charge building up around me. I think there’s going to be a thunder storm at any moment.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med On Pak and Dragonfly as a flicker of light shines behind them</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Soon followed by “the first crackling rumble arrived.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak looks behind him</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Little Horns “every one of the six needles seemed to be on fire. Brush discharges, hundreds of meters long, were dancing from their points, as if they were giant lightening conductors.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Dragonfly as Pak starts peddling furiously to distance himself from Big Horn</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly as it separates from Big Horn and loses altitude</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot from just behind Pak as he continues</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly as it passes the tip of Big Horn leaving the giant structure behind </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Dragonfly as the air around it begins to become turbulent, and Pak fights to control the vehicle</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“A wind seemed to have sprung up from nowhere, and if conditions became much worse, the sky-bikes fragile skeleton would be endangered. He peddled grimly on, trying to smooth out the buffeting by variations in power and movements of his body. Because Dragonfly was almost an extension of himself, he was partly successful, but he did not like the faint creaks of protest that came from the main spar, or the way the wings twisted with every gust. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And there was something else that worried him: a faint rushing sound, steadily growing in strength, that seemed to come from the direction of Big Horn. It sounded like gas escaping from a valve under great pressure, and he wondered if it had anything to do with the turbulence he was battling.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med On Pak: <b>Hub Control. I’m experiencing a lot of turbulence and Dragonfly is getting harder to control... You see what’s going on behind me!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control, Norton: <b>Oh yes! Just continue on and get the hell out of there Jimmy. You’re doing fine.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from behind as he continues, battling the turbulence</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly from in front, deep focus on all of the spikes. Pak looks behind him as a enormous electrical charge disperses from the tip of Big Horn to each of the Little Horns. Within six seconds the concussion reached Pak and Dragonfly. The Sky-Bike loses what stability it had. The sound should be deafening. Members of the audience should cover their ears because of it. Dragonfly is pushed toward the camera, and passes it</div>
<br />
Cut to med shot of Norton and others at Hub Control<br />
<br />
Cut to long shot from behind them looking at the electrical display at the South Pole<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton: <b>Holy mother of God.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med shot of Pak and Dragonfly<br />
<br />
Pak:<b> The wing’s buckling... I’m going to crash...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Pak and Dragonfly as the bike spirals, Pak trying to regain some measure of control. He is barely able to get it parallel with the ground far below when “Dragonfly started to fold up gracefully around him. The left wing snapped cleanly in the middle, and the outer section drifted away like a gently falling leaf. The right wing put up a more complicated performance. It twisted around at the root, and angled back so sharply that its tip became entangled in the tail. Jimmy felt that he was sitting in a broken kite, slowly falling down the sky.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He was falling very slowly, here in this tenth-of-a-gravity zone, but would soon start to accelerate as he got farther away from the axis. However, air drag would complicate the situation, and would prevent him from building up too swift a rate of decent. Dragonfly, even without power would act as a crude parachute. The few kilograms of thrust he could still provide might make all of the difference between life and death; that was his only hope.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly as it spirals toward the camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the South Pole</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The streamers of lightening still played from the tip of Big Horn down to the lesser peaks beneath, but now the whole pattern was rotating. The six-pronged crown of fire was turning against the spin of Rama, making one revolution every few seconds. Jimmy felt he was watching a giant electric motor in operation, and perhaps that was not hopelessly from the truth.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Dragonfly as it continues to spiral downward, when the fireworks display behind it ceased. The hairs on Jimmy’s body collapse. </div>
<br />
Long on the scenery on front of Pak and Dragonfly<br />
<br />
Close on Pak’s face as he picks his landing spot<br />
<br />
Med on Dragonfly from behind as Pak tries to maneuver<br />
<br />
Close on Pak:<b> I’ve still got some control... will be down in half a minute... will call you then...</b><br />
<br />
Med On Pak and Dragonfly from behind as the plain rushes up to meet them<br />
<br />
Long from the plain toward Dragonfly as it rushes past<br />
<br />
Med on Pak and Dragonfly as he is about to crash land<br />
<br />
Black out, ten seconds<br />
<br />
Fade in<br />
<br />
Slow fade in, close on Pak as he lies unconscious on a bare patch on the southern plain<br />
<br />
Pak starts to move around a little, opens his eyes, groans<br />
<br />
POV of Pak’s view starring up at two light strips above him<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to close on Pak as he closes his eyes due to the painful light. He moans. A crunching sound is heard off camera. Pak slowly raises up on one arm and risks a look at the source of the sound</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot of “a large crab like creature was apparently dining on the wreckage of poor Dragonfly. When Jimmy had recovered his wits, he rolled slowly and quietly away from the monster, expecting at every moment to be seized by its claws when it discovered that more appetizing fare was available. However, it took not the slightest notice of him; when he had increased their mutual separation to ten meters, he cautiously propped himself up in a sitting position.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From this greater distance, the thing did not appear quite so formidable. It had a low, flat body about two meters long and one wide, supported on six triple-jointed legs. Jimmy saw that he was mistaken in assuming that it had been eating Dragonfly, in fact, he could not see any sign of a mouth. The creature was actually doing a neat job of demolition, using scissorlike claws to chop the sky-bike into small pieces. A whole row of manipulators, which looked uncannily like tiny human hands, then transfered the fragments to a steadily growing pile on the animal’s back.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But was it an animal? Though that had been Jimmy’s first reaction, now he had second thoughts. There was a purposefulness about its behavior that suggested fairly high intelligence. He could see no reason why any creature of pure instinct should carefully collect the scattered pieces of his sky-bike... unless, perhaps, it was gathering material for a nest.”</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Pak and the crab in the background as Pak slowly gets to his feet and the crab continues to demolish Dragonfly</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he tests his footing, then calls Hub Control</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak softly: <b>Hub Control. Can you receive me?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut close on Norton at Hub Control: <b>Thank God! Are you alright?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to close on Pak: <b>Just a bit bruised and shaken. Take a look at this.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from behind Pak with the crab in the background as Pak aims his video camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>What the hell is that, and why is it chewing up your bike?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from the front: <b> I wish I knew. It seems to be finished with Dragonfly. I’m going to back away in case it wants to start of me.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Pak and the crab from behind as Pak backs away, keeping a steady eye on the crab</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from the front backing away</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the crab, now finished, as it turns to face Pak</div>
<br />
Med on Pak facing the crab<br />
<br />
Long on the crab as it begins to search the area in slowly descending circles<br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he stop and looks at the crab<br />
<br />
Med on the crab as it stops its searching, faces Pak, makes a small and rapid up and down motion three times<br />
<br />
Med back on Pak<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The name “crab” which he had automatically given to it, was perhaps a little misleading. If it had not been so impossibly large, he might have called it a beetle. Its caprice had a beautiful metallic sheen; he would almost have been prepared to swear that it was metal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That was an interesting idea. Could it be a robot, and not an animal? He stared at the crab intently with this thought in mind, analyzing all the details of its anatomy. Where it should have had a mouth was a collection of manipulators that reminded Jimmy strongly of a multi-purpose knives that are the delight of all red-blooded boys; there were pinchers, probes, rasps, and even something that looked like a drill. But this was not decisive. On Earth, the insect world had matched all these tools, and many more. The animal-or-robot question remained in perfect balance in his mind.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The eyes, which might have settled the matter, left it even more ambiguous. They were so deeply recessed in protective hoods that it was impossible to tell whether their lenses were made of crystal or of jelly. They were quite expressionless, and of a startling vivid blue. Though they had been directed toward Jimmy several times, they had never shown the slightest flicker of interest. In his perhaps biased opinion, that decided the level of the creature’s intelligence. An entity----robot or animal ---- which could ignore a human being could not be very bright.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the crab as it does the up and down motion three times, pauses a second, then turns and sets off in the general direction of the northeast toward the sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot in front of the crab as it makes its way toward the camera with Pak in the background</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from above looking down as the two’s separation becomes greater</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he makes a decision and starts to follow the crab which is moving at a steady rate at four or five kilometers an hour, and in a straight line</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from above as Pak closes the distance on the crab</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from behind the crab</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from in front of Pak as he makes a realization</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from the side of the two moving</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Hub Control.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Yes Jimmy. We read you.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>This thing has my food and water.</b></div>
<br />
Hub Control:<b> Copy.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>What do you suggest I do?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Hub Control<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>This is the Captain, Jimmy. We suggest that you try and get it. </b><br />
<br />
Cut back to med on Pak and the crab walking<br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Try and get it. Okay.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Pak and the crab from the side as Pak carefully approaches the crab from the side<br />
<br />
Med from Pak’s POV looking at the crab<br />
<br />
Med from the side with both in the frame<br />
<br />
Close on the crab’s caprice at the water flask and food pack<br />
<br />
Med from the side as Jimmy gets close to the crab and reaches for the items<br />
<br />
Close from Pak’s POV as he snatches up both items<br />
<br />
Med from the side as Pak does this<br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Excuse me...</b><br />
<br />
Med from above as Pak retreats<br />
<br />
Close on Pak: <b>Hub Control. I was able to get them.</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Great job Jimmy. Did it react?</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>It ignored me completely.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control: <b>Good. You two seem to be headed straight for Copernicus. Are you going to keep following it?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Pak: <b>Yeah. It’s not like I have anything else to do. Besides, I want to see what it does with my bike.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control: <b>Alright Jimmy. You’re headed in the general direction of the sea, which is where any escape attempt can be made and where we want you to wind up. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Pak and the crab</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Copy that.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton at Hub Control: <b>Don’t worry Jimmy... </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton: ...<b>We’ll find a way down somehow. That cliff can’t go right around the world, without a break anywhere...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Pak, more to himself than into the radio<b>: Why not?</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>What was that, Jimmy?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak: <b>Nothing, Hub Control. We’re getting close now.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long shot from above and partially showing the edge of Copernicus closest to the approaching crab and man. Copernicus is a half-kilometer wide, circular pit</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from above Copernicus, partially showing directly down into it, and the two approaching, Pak overtaking the crab to get to the edge of the pit before it does</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind Pak as he approaches the pit, camera lifts above him and moves forward to look directly down in to it, as Pak gets to the edge and lifts further until the well is shown in its entirety </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“When he came close enough to look into it, Jimmy was able to see a pool of ominous leaden-green water at least a half a kilometer below...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
... Winding down the interior of the well was a spiral ramp, completely recessed into the sheer wall, so the effect was rather like that of rifling in an immense gun barrel. There seemed to be a remarkable number of turns; not until Jimmy had traced them for several revolutions, getting more and more confused in the process, did he realize that there was not one ramp, but three, totally independent and 120 degrees apart. In any other background than Rama, the whole concept would have been an impressive architectural tour de force.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The three ramps led straight down into the pool and disappeared beneath its opaque surface. Near the water line Jimmy could see a group of black tunnels, or caves. They looked rather sinister, and he wondered if they were inhabited.”</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from inside the well looking up at Pak as he is using his camera to record what he is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long to med shot of what he is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med to long shot from slightly above Pak and looking down into the well</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>There seems to be a ramp that goes all the way down into the water, if you want to call it water. It looks pretty yucky.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to POV from the camera as Pak pans</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> I have to revise that Hub Control. It looks like there are actually three ramps built directly into the wall.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from camera as Pak focuses on the water. There’s a hint that there may be something big swimming around just below the surface</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak’s face as he contemplates what he is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from Pak’s side as the crab makes it to the edge</div>
<br />
Med on the crab as it approaches the edge and sloughs off Dragonfly into the depths below, almost falling in itself in the process<br />
<br />
Med from behind Pak as he watches<br />
<br />
Med on the crab as it finishes and turns toward Pak<br />
<br />
Med from behind Pak as the crab starts to walk toward him<br />
<br />
Close on Pak speaking into his radio softly but urgently: <b>What do you advise?</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Don’t run until you’re sure it’s hostile...</b><br />
<br />
Long from the side containing the two as Pak holds out his outstretched, empty hands<br />
<br />
Med on Pak:<b> See, no weapons...</b><br />
<br />
Med on the approaching crab which ignores Pak<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the two from the side as the crab passes Pak and begins to walk off into the distance</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak’s reaction of something between humiliation and astonishment</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the crab from behind walking off</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Pak as he walks back to the well’s edge and looks down</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from Pak’s view to close on the water below. This time “vague shapes, some of them quite large, were moving slowly back and forth beneath the surface.”\</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on one of these shapes approaching one of the ramps. “something that looked like a multilegged tank” emerged from the water and began to slowly ascend the ramp</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from below as he records what he is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on camera’s POV </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Then he noticed a flicker of much more rapid movement, near those cavelike openings down by the water line. Something was traveling swiftly along the ramp, but he could not clearly focus upon it, or discern any definite shape. It was as if he was looking at a small whirlwind or dust devil, about the size of a man.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak looking down. He shakes his head and rubs his eyes and looks back down</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from the camera at the previous location wherein the whirling shape was gone</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak at his level as he backs away from the edge</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he turns around to view the incredible vista before him</div>
<br />
Med on Pak as he walks away<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to extreme long from above Pak as he walks in the Southern Hemisphere, which is comprised mostly of huge squares, with each square displaying various types of terrain</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Pak as he walks between the squares. He stops and takes drink from his flask</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from behind as Pak surveys the road ahead of him and sees the quartz filed to his left. He starts walking toward it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot as Pak is bending down examining one of the quartz crystals</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the quartz field which holds millions of identical crystals embedded in sand</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he takes his camera and pans across the field</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak from in front</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> It looks like quartz crystals, Control. Millions of them.</b></div>
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Copy that, Jimmy.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak’s side as he turns around to view the adjacent square</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med to long on Pak from behind viewing the square which consists of “an apparently random pattern of hollow metal columns, set close together and ranging in height from less than one to more than five meters.” Pak stands to record what he is seeing as the camera moves above him to also view what the square contains</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Pak in between the two square, or fields, as he continues walking towards the camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Pak from behind as he walks away from the camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long on Pak from above as he comes to a crossroad between the squares</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from behind as he surveys the two new squares in front of him</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the wire tapestry square, which is a huge expanse of “tapestry made of woven wire.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from in front as he finishes recording the field and sits down to try and pry one of the wires lose</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the wire tapestry that Pak is touching but can’t budge</div>
<br />
Med on Pak as he stands back up to look at the other square and steps up to it<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on this square “a tessellation of hexagonal tiles, so smoothly inlaid that there was no visible joints between them. It would have been a continuous surface if the tiles not been colored all the hues of the rainbow.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from the side as he tentatively walks up to the tile square and sticks his foot out to touch it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close from above Pak’s foot as he touches the solid tile</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak from the side as he walks out of the tile field, looking down</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak’s feet as he walks</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he walks back to the crossroad</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he surveys the scene with his camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>What do you think this is? I feel I’m trapped in a giant jigsaw puzzle. Or is this the Raman Art Gallery?</b></div>
<br />
Hub Control: <b>We’re as baffled as you are, Jimmy. But there’s never been any sign that the Ramans go in for art. Let’s wait until we have some more examples before we jump to any conclusions.</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Copy, Control.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from behind Pak as he walks away from the camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in on long shot from above as Pak reaches the next crossroad</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he uses his camera to record what he is seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from Pak’s camera as Pak records the two squares. The one on the left is a pure grey surface, the one on the right, a huge soft sponge</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he approaches the grey square and tests it with his foot</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak: <b>Control, this field appears uniformly grey in color, and has a hard surface, but is slippery, like ice...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he turns around</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> ... and on this side we have what looks like a big sponge!</b> (Pak bends down to get a closer look) </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on what Pak is seeing</div>
<br />
Pak: <b>A big sponge with a bunch of tiny holes in it.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he touches the sponge<br />
<br />
Close to med on Pak’s hand touching the sponge which begins to undulate<br />
<br />
Long from above of Pak and the sponge as the whole field moves<br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he stands back up<br />
<br />
Pak: <b>Wow! You getting this control?</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>Yeah, Jimmy. We’re getting it.</b><br />
<br />
Pak:<b> It’s like the biggest water bed ever, huh?</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: (laughter) <b>I wouldn’t try it out if I were you.</b><br />
<br />
Pak:<b> You don’t need to worry about that.</b><br />
<br />
Back to long on Pak and the undulating field from above<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to a montage of Pak continuing to walk and explore with different squares with different things on them. At one point he is walking along the edge of the cliff next to the Cylindrical Sea. Next he is walking along what looks like squares of barren fields</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Further inland were other fields, and many of them were complicated constructions of rods and wires, presumably intended for the support of climbing plants. They looked bleak and desolate, like leafless trees in the depths of winter.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot from over the sea looking back at the cliff from a forward angle at Pak as he continues walking</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot of Pak as he walks toward the camera. He notices something in the distance and stops, and shields his eyes from the Straight Valley’s strip lights</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from behind as he continues to look, then begins to run to what he has seen</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from above the square Pak has run to as he arrives at the edge</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he stares at what he has seen</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the flower, which is protuding from a hole in the sheathing that protected the ground below it from contamination, and embedded in a trellis of wires and rods</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Through this break extended a green stem, about as thick as a man’s little finger, which twined it’s way up through the trelliswork. A meter from the ground it burst into an efflorescence of bluish leaves, shaped more like feathers than the foliage of any plant known to Jimmy. The stem ended, at eye level, in what he had first taken to be a single flower. Now he saw, with no surprise at all, that it was actually three flowers tightly packed together.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The petals were brightly colored tubes about five centimeters long; there were at least fifty in each bloom, and they glittered with such metallic blues, violets, and greens that that they seemed more like the wings of a butterfly than anything in the vegetable kingdom. Jimmy knew practically nothing about botany, but he was puzzled to see no trace of any structures resembling pistils or stamens.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he points his camera at the flower</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: Hub: <b>Control, can you believe this, a flower!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control as Mercer and others watch a monitor: <b>That is beautiful, Jimmy! We at least know for sure that this must be organic.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to med on Pak as he continues to record what he has found.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak: <b>It sure looks like it. </b></div>
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>Actually, it looks like it was a mistake.</b><br />
<br />
Hub Control: <b>What do you mean?</b><br />
<br />
Pak:<b> It looks like...</b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on the flower<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>there was a tear in the sheathing that must protect the ground below from contamination. An unintended tear, that this flower popped out of when it got warm enough inside Rama for it to start growing.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Pak:<b> I’m going after it!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control as the officers silently look at each other a moment</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Are you sure, Jimmy? It’s a native life form. I don’t know if taking it is appropriate.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Pak as he begins to take off his clothes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> Neither do I. But it wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place, and when Rama returns to interstellar space it won’t survive the cold anyway.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control: <b>Copy, Jimmy.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long from behind Pak as he strips off his clothes</div>
<br />
Med on Pak from behind as he squeezes into the network of trellis, wires and rods<br />
<br />
Close on Pak as he continues toward his objective, at various angles<br />
<br />
Close on Pak as he reaches his goal and reaches out as far as he can<br />
<br />
Close on Pak’s hand reaching for the flower, he grasps it, and it came away into his hand<br />
<br />
Cut to med on Pak with his prize as he begins to back out the way he had got in<br />
<br />
Close on Pak’s face as he looks back at the remaining plant<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the plant </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It was then that he noticed that the feathery leaves were closing, and the headless stem was slowly unwinding itself from its supports. As he watched with a mixture of fascination and dismay, he saw that the whole plant was steadily retreating into the ground, like a mortally injured snake crawling back into its hole.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he continues to back out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton’s stateroom, weightless environment, Norton is strapped into his chair and considering various escape options on his computer when Mercer pops in through the open door and hands Norton a message</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>What’s this?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>From Earth. It was sent twice as a matter of fact. Look who wrote it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Huumm.</b> (Norton reads it, becoming a little astonished) <b>Well. What do you think?</b></div>
<br />
Mercer: <b>He’s right of course.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Are you sure?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>He was right about the storm, wasn’t he? We should have thought of this; it makes me feel like a fool.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>You have company. The next problem is... how do we break it to Jimmy?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>I don’t think we should... until the last possible minute. That’s how I’d prefer it if I was in his place. Just tell him we’re on our way.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton’s face</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to med of Pak walking among the various fields with his flower</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he turns to look at something</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Pak as he walks in a different direction</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med to close on Pak as he reaches his objective and looks intently at it</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on a square with a completely black surface. In the middle of this large square is a small mound in which a black monolith protrudes, whose sides extend in the precise ratio of 1 : 4 : 9. It’s large, at least 6 meters tall</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on the monolith from below, with Big Horn above in the distance</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he cautiously approaches it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from the side as Pak walks up in front of it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from low at Pak’s side as he stares up at the monolith</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from low from behind Pak looking up at the monolith </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from just above the monolith looking down at Pak looking up at it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med shot as Pak reaches out to touch it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close as Pak’s hand almost touches the monolith’s smooth, black surface</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control, Mercer: <b>Hey, Jimmy!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he pulls his hand back and answers</div>
<br />
Pak: <b>Yes.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Mercer at Hub Control looking through a telescope: <b>Quit screwing around. </b>(he relinquishes the scope)<b> The Skipper’s on his way to you and wants you there when he arrives. Copy?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Pak: <b>Yeah. Sure. Thanks.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he walks away from the monolith</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from above on Pak and the monolith as Pak continues walking</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in Long shot from Pak’s POV on the cliff looking out at the Cylindrical Sea and New York as the Resolution passes the island</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med On Pak looking out, standing at the edge of the cliff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he looks down</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Pak’s POV looking down to the sea far below, 500 meters down, almost a third of a mile</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he involuntarily steps back from the cliff’s edge and looks back out to the sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Resolution, several transposition shots as it gets closer to Pak’s location. After the boat is approximately a kilometer away...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak as he begins to frantically wave at the boat</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med of the crew of Resolution, Norton, Barnes, Technical Sargent Myron, and Sargent Scarborough. Norton is looking at the cliff through binoculars. </div>
<br />
Cut to POV through the binoculars as he spots Pak<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he waves back at Pak<br />
<br />
Med on Pak<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he uses a radio: <b>Glad to see you’re in good shape, Jimmy...</b><br />
<br />
Med on Pak<br />
<br />
Norton over the radio: <b>I promised we wouldn’t leave you behind. Now do you believe me?</b><br />
<br />
Pak: <b>I’ll believe you, Skipper, when I’m down there on the deck with you. Now, can you tell me how that’s going to happen?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Resolution from the top of the cliff. The boat slows down when it is about a hundred meters from the cliff’s base</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Sorry about that Jimmy, but we didn’t want you to have too many things to worry about.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Resolution as it stops fifty meters from the cliff’s base</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton:<b> This is it, Jimmy. You’ll be perfectly safe, but it will require some nerve...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton:<b> ... We know you’ve got plenty of that. You’re going to jump.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak: <b>Five hundred meters!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Yes, but only at half a gee.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med On Pak: <b>Have you ever fallen two hundred and fifty on Earth?!</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Shut up, or I’ll cancel your next leave. You should have worked this out for yourself. It’s just a question of terminal velocity. In this atmosphere you can’t reach more than ninety kilometers an hour... whether you fall two hundred or two thousand...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he takes this in</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton on radio: <b>... Ninety’s a little high for comfort, but we can trim it some more. This is what you’ll have to do, so listen carefully.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>I will. I hope it’s good.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Quick fade out and fade in</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton in the boat: <b>It will be just the same as stepping off a diving board on Earth. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Nothing to it---<i>if</i> you make a good entry.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak: <b>And if I don’t?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he considers Pak’s question: <b>Then you’ll have to go back and try again.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Norton: <b>I don’t want to hurry you, but the sooner the better.</b></div>
<br />
Med on Pak as he looks at his flower<br />
<br />
Close from Pak’s POV looking down at the flower in his hands. He wraps it in a dirty hankerchief<br />
<br />
Med from above and behind Pak as he tosses the bundle over the edge of the cliff<br />
<br />
Long from below the bundle as it approaches the camera and passes it<br />
<br />
Med from above and behind Pak looking down as the flower descends<br />
<br />
Long from somewhere along the cliff looking down. The Resolution is in the frame far below. The bundle passes and continues down. The boat surges to meet it<br />
<br />
Long on the boat moving <br />
<br />
Long on the bundle as it hits the sea<br />
<br />
Long on the boat as it rushes to retrieve it<br />
<br />
Med on the boat as it picks up the bundle from the water<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he unwraps the bundle<br />
<br />
Close on the flower as it is revealed<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he shows it to the crew.<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>It’s beautiful, Jimmy. I’m sure they’ll name it after you.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton:<b> Okay... we’re waiting.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he removes his shirt and stretches it several times<br />
<br />
Med on Pak from behind as he turns around to take a last look at the Southern Hemisphere<br />
<br />
Panoramic view of the world Pak had just explored<br />
<br />
Med on Pak as he turns back and starts to run at the camera<br />
<br />
Med to long as Pak continues to run from the camera toward the cliff’s edge as he jumps off the camera following him over the edge and down<br />
<br />
Long on Pak from below as he passes the camera holding his shirt above him as an air break<br />
<br />
Med on Pak from above as he plummets, the sea coming up fast<br />
<br />
Long from the boat as Pak approaches the sea. At the last moment Pak lets go of the shirt, holding his hands over his nose and mouth as he makes a clean feet first entry into the poisonous water<br />
<br />
Long in the water as Pak’s momentum carries him further down<br />
<br />
Med On Pak as he stops and begins to swim upwards, fast<br />
<br />
Med on the sea’s surface as Pak surfaces, gasping air<br />
<br />
Long on the Resolution as it races to pick up Pak<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med as the boat reaches Pak and pulls him out of the water. The Resolution starts its return trip at full speed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med inside the boat</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Did you swallow any water?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak:<b> I don’t think so.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Rinse your mouth out with this, anyway. </b>(Pak does) <b>That’s fine. How do you feel?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>I’m not really sure. I’ll let you know in a minute... oh, thanks everybody.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak then rushes to the side of the boat and vomits overboard</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When Pak recovers, Barns, incredulous, and straining to be heard above the noise of the engine: <b>Oh come now... on a flat sea?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>I’d hardly call it flat.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from below Norton as he waves his hand at the sea directly above them</div>
<br />
Cut back to med on Norton:<b> But don’t be ashamed. You may have swallowed some of that stuff. Get rid of it as quickly as you can.</b><br />
<br />
Pak hangs his head over the side again as a flicker of light shined in the sky behind them<br />
<br />
Close on Pak as he raises up to look<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat as Barns slows to a stop</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“There were the kilometer-long steamers of fire, dancing from the central spike to its smaller companions. Once again they began their stately rotation, as if invisible dancers were winding their ribbons around an electric Maypole. But now they began to accelerate, moving faster and faster, until they blurred into a flickering cone of light.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was a spectacle more awe-inspiring than any they had yet seen here, and it brought with it a distant crackling roar, which added to the impression of overwhelming power.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long in front of Resolution about ten meters up from the surface with the boat in the foreground and the lightening display in the background</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med of the crew looking back</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the boat from in front near surface level as the lightening display stops “as abruptly as if someone had turned a switch</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton:<b> I’d like to know what the Rama Committee makes of that.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton as he turns to his crew: <b>Has anyone here got any theories? </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hub Control on the radio:<b> Resolution! Are you okay? Did you feel that?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton talks into his microphone:<b> Feel what?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Mercer at the hub: <b>We think it was an earthquake. It must have happened the minute those fireworks stopped.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Norton: <b>Any damage?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Mercer:<b> I don’t think so. It wasn’t really violent---but it shook us up a bit.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton: <b>We felt nothing at all. But we wouldn’t, out here on the water.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer over the radio: <b>Of course---silly of me. Anyway, everything seems quiet now... until next time.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Yes, until next time.</b></div>
<br />
Myron: <b>Skipper!</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from Norton’s POV as Myron points directly above him: <b>Look! Up there!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he looks</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Cylindrical Sea panning upward until directly above the Resolution, where there is a tidal wave racing toward the boat down the curve of the sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>My God.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton:<b> Endeavor! Situation report!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kirchoff over radio: <b>All okay, Skipper.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Kirchoff onboard Endeavor, weightless environment: <b>We felt a slight tremor, but nothing that could cause any damage. There’s been a small change in attitude; the bridge says about point two degrees. They also think the spin rate has altered slightly.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kirchoff on radio: <b>We’ll have a more accurate reading on that in a few minutes.</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Thanks, Jerry.</b> (he looks back up at the wave, and says to himself) <b>So, it’s beginning to happen.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The wave was about ten kilometers away, and stretched the full width of the sea from northern to southern shore. Near the land it was a foaming wall of white, but in deeper water it was a barely visible blue line, moving much faster than the breakers on either flank. The drag of the shoreward shallows was already bending it into a bow, with the central portion getting farther and farther ahead.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat from the front with the entire crew</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, with some urgency: <b>Sergeant, this is your department. What can we do?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Barnes who is studying the approaching wave. She seems more excited than worried, and may even be smiling a little.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>I wish I had some soundings. </b>(looking at Norton)<b> If we’re in deep water there’s nothing to worry about.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, a little relieved: <b>Then we’re all right. We’re about four kilometers from shore.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>I hope so, but I want to study the situation.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat as Barnes applies power and swings the boat around in the direction of the wave. As the wave approaches the appropriate sound is applied</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Norton judged that the swiftly moving central portion would reach them in less than five minutes, but he could also see that it presented no serious danger. It was only a racing ripple a fraction of a meter high, and would scarcely rock the boat. The walls of foam lagging far behind it were the real menace.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Suddenly, in the very center of the sea, a line of breakers appeared....</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
...At the same time, the breakers on the two flanks collapsed as they ran into deeper water.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>What happened?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Barnes, calmly: <b>Anti slosh plates, like in Endeavor’s fuel tanks. Below the surface. But these are real big. Like several kilometers long big. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Resolution as Barnes brings her to a full stop</div>
<br />
Med on the boat as Barnes threw out the anchor <br />
<br />
Barnes: <b>Five meters!</b><br />
<br />
Barnes returns to the engine controls: <b>Haul it up! We’ve got to get away from here!</b><br />
<br />
Med on Myron and Scarborough as the haul the anchor back up<br />
<br />
Med on the boat as Barnes heads it toward the wave at full speed<br />
<br />
Long on the Resolution from above and forward as it makes it’s way<br />
<br />
Med on Barnes as she cuts the throttle and throws out the anchor again<br />
<br />
Close on the line attached to the anchor as it plays out<br />
<br />
Close on Barnes<br />
<br />
Close on Norton<br />
<br />
Med on Barnes: <b>It’s over thirty meters deep here. We’re okay, but I’ll keep the motor running in case.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat as all the crew look ahead to the wave</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Now there were only the lagging walls of foam along the coast. Out here in the central sea it was clam again, apart from the inconspicuous blue ripple still speeding toward them...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
... Then, only two kilometers ahead of them, the sea started to foam once more. It humped up in white-maned fury, and now it’s roaring seemed to fill the world. Upon the the sixteen kilometer-high wave of the Cylindrical Sea, a smaller ripple was superimposed, like an avalanche thundering down a mountain slope. And that ripple was quite large enough to kill them.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat. All of the crew members except Barnes were looking very anxious indeed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Barnes as she looks at the expressions of the others</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the crew as Barnes shouts above the oncoming roar: <b>What are you scared of! I’ve ridden bigger ones than this!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Barnes: <b>But if we have to jump, wait until I tell you. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the crew</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Barnes: <b>Check your life jackets!</b></div>
<br />
Long on the Resolution and the enormous wave from behind as it rushes toward the boat. “Then, within seconds, it collapsed, as if the foundations had been pulled out from underneath it.”<br />
<br />
Long on the boat from the side as the now small ripple came and went, making the Resolution bounce up and down a couple of times<br />
<br />
Close individual shots of the crew members who are looking rather astonished and relieved<br />
<br />
Barnes: <b>See! No problem.</b><br />
<br />
Med on the other crew members looking at her<br />
<br />
Med on the boat as Barnes heads the Resolution off at full speed toward the north<br />
<br />
Med on Norton who comes up to Barnes<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Thanks, Ruby... that was splendid. But will we get home before it comes around for the second time?</b><br />
<br />
Barnes: <b>Probably not; it will be back in about twenty minutes. But it will have lost all of its strength by then. We’ll scarcely notice it.</b><br />
<br />
Long on the Resolution from the side as the wave now large again is seen behind them, moving up the side of Rama, as it collapses once again<br />
<br />
Med on the boat as the crew members can now sit back and relax<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Resolution from behind, and the left side as one hundred meters on the right side “something like a slowly rotating wheel began to rear up out of the water. Glittering metallic spokes, five meters long, emerged dripping, spun for a moment in the fierce Raman glare, and splashed back. It was if a giant starfish, with tubular arms, had broken the surface.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat and crew as they stared at the creature, completely dumbfounded. Myron starts to record what they are seeing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the starfish</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“At first sight it was impossible to tell whether it was an animal or a machine. Then it flopped over and lay half-awash, bobbing up and down in the gentle aftermath of the wave.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now they could see that there were nine arms, apparently jointed, radiating from a central disk. Two of the arms were broken, snapped off at the outer joint. The others ended at a complicated collection of manipulators that reminded Jimmy strongly of the crab he had encountered...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
... At the middle of the disk was a small turret, bearing three large eyes. Two were closed, one open---and even that appeared to be blank and unseeing. No one doubted that they were watching the death throes of the strange monster, tossed up to the surface by the submarine disturbance that had just passed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the boat and crew as they stared at the creature, still dumbfounded</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from behind Resolution with the creature on the background</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the starfish </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Then they saw that it was not alone. Swimming around it, and snapping at its still feebly moving limbs, were two small beasts like overgrown lobsters. They were efficiently chopping up the monster, and it did nothing to resist, though its own claws seemed quite capable of dealing with the attackers.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Look, Skipper...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak and Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Do you see... they’re not eating it. They don’t even have any mouths. They’re simply chopping it to pieces. That’s exactly what happened to Dragonfly.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>You’re right. They’re dismantling it... like... like a broken machine. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he wrinkled his nose: <b>But no dead machine ever smelled like that.</b></div>
<br />
Med on Norton: <b>My God! Suppose they start on us! Ruby, get us to shore as fast as you can!</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Resolution as Ruby thrusts the boat into maximum speed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the creatures in the foreground and Resolution as it speeds away. The creatures sink back under the water</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Camp Alpha, med shot on Norton, Rodrigo, Calvert, and Ernst who are sitting around a monitor watching the evening news. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from behind them watching the monitor. They were watching a scene of the starfish being dismantled </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long from slightly above and to the side of the four. A sizable part of the camp is in the frame as a dark blur rushes across the top of the screen</div>
<br />
Med from in front of the four watching the monitor intently as Ernst looks off in front of her and to the right<br />
<br />
Ernst: <b>Don’t move Bill. Now look slowly to the right.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton as he slowly turns his head<br />
<br />
Norton’s POV from ten meter’s away <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the “slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a soccer ball. Set around the body were three large, expressionless eyes, apparently giving 360 degrees of vision, and trailing beneath it were three whiplike tendrils. The creature was not quite as tall as a man and looked far too fragile to be dangerous, but that did not excuse their carelessness in letting it sneak up on them unawares. It reminded Norton of nothing so much as a three-legged spider or daddy longlegs, and he wondered how it had solved the problem---never attempted by any creature on Earth---of tripedal locomotion.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the four somewhat amazed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton and Ernst</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, whispering: <b>What do you make of it, Laura?</b> (he turned off the monitor)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Usual Raman threefold symmetry. I don’t see how it could hurt us, though those whips might be unpleasant... and they could be poisonous, like a coelenterate’s. Sit tight and see what it does.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on the spider</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of the four</div>
<br />
Cut to med of the spider<br />
<br />
Cut to med of the four<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to the spider “the creature suddenly moved, and now they could understand why they had failed to observe its arrival. It was <i>fast</i>, and it covered the ground with such an extraordinary spinning motion, that the human eye and mind had real difficulty in following it.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to several med shots of the spider moving around the camp, touching things with it’s tendrils. A couple of close shots of those tendrils touching stuff like “the improvised beds and chairs and tables, communication gear, food containers, electrosans, cameras, water tanks, tools---there seemed to be nothing that it ignored except the four watchers</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Ernst: <b>I wish I could examine it!</b> (hopefully) <b>Should we try to catch it?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Calvert:<b> How?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on all four. Rodrigo has begun to record the spider with a camera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> You know the way primitive hunters bring down fast-moving animals with a couple of weights whirling around at the end of a rope? It doesn’t even hurt them.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>That I doubt. But even if it worked...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the spider continuing its exploration</div>
<br />
Norton VO:<b> ... we can’t risk it. We don’t know how intelligent this creature is... and a trick like that could easily break its legs...</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to the four<br />
<br />
Norton continues:<b> ... Then we would be in real trouble, from Rama, Earth, and everyone else.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Ernst: <b>But I’ve got to have a specimen!</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton and Ernst<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>You may have to be content with Jimmy’s flower... unless this thing cooperates with you. Force is out. </b><br />
<br />
Med on all four<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>How would you like it if something landed on Earth and decided that you would make a nice specimen for dissection?</b><br />
<br />
Ernst, unconvincingly: <b>I don’t want to dissect it. I only want to examine it.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Well alien visitors might have the same attitude toward you, but you could have a very uncomfortable time before you believed them. We must make no move that could possibly be regarded as threatening.</b><br />
<br />
Med on the spider which seemed to finished examining stuff<br />
<br />
Long from above as it made one more high-speed circuit of the camp, then shot off in the direction of the stairway. The camera lowers to ground level watching its progression<br />
<br />
Cut to med of Norton and Ernst, who are now standing<br />
<br />
Ernst:<b> I wonder how it’s going to manage the steps...</b><br />
<br />
Long on the spider in the distance as it ignored the stairway all together and “headed up the gently sloping curve of the ramp without slackening its speed.”<br />
<br />
Med on Norton and Ernst looking at the spider then each other<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he walks to the radio<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Hub Control. You may have a visitor shortly. Take a look at Stairway Alpha, section six... and incidentally, thanks a lot for keeping such a good watch on us. </b><br />
<br />
Cut to Latendy at Hub Control looking through a telescope<br />
<br />
Latendy: <b>Oh wow... sorry about that Skipper. I can just see it... something, now that you tell me it’s there.</b> (he stops looking for a moment) <b>But what is it?</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to Norton: <b>Your guess is as good as mine. </b><br />
<br />
Norton press a button on a control panel. An alarm sounds. He lets it go on for six seconds, then turns it off. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Camp Alpha calling all stations. We’ve just been visited by a creature like a three-legged spider, with very thin legs, about two meters high, small spherical body, travels very fast, with a spinning motion. Appears harmless but inquisitive. There may be more of them about, and they could sneak up on you before you notice it. Please acknowledge.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Arseneault at London, looking around:<b> London here, Skipper. Nothing unusual around.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long on Law at Rome who is sitting on a cot: <b>Same here at Rome, Skipper. Uh... just a moment...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton: <b>What is it? </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Law: <b>I put my pen down a minute ago... and it’s gone! Wait... oh!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton: <b>Talk sense Sergeant!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Law: <b>You won’t believe this, Skipper. I was making some notes... you know I like writing, and it doesn’t disturb anybody...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Norton listening</div>
<br />
Law on radio: <b>And I was using my favorite ballpoint; it’s nearly two hundred...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Law: <b>... years old. Well, now it’s lying on the ground...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on pen lying on the floor</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Back on Law:<b> ... about five meters away! (Law picks it up. Close on him examining it) Thank goodness it isn’t damaged.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>And how do you suppose it got there?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Law: <b>Er... I may have dozed off for a minute. It’s been a hard day.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Norton, as he sighs: <b>Now listen, Hub, Rome, London... everyone. I want a report every half hour from this point forward. We must assume that from now on we may have visitors at any time. Some of them may be dangerous, but at all costs we have to avoid... incidents. You all know the directives on this subject.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long and slightly above and to the side of Norton as his order is acknowledged</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Calvert at Camp Alpha as he walks from the middle of camp to its edge and looks out at the northern plain as the camera moves ahead past him into a long shot of the plain with herds of the spiders zipping about. Hundreds of them</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control med on Mercer and Latendy. Mercer is looking through the telescope</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV of what Mercer is seeing, which is hundreds of the spiders all over the plain below.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Latendy:<b> They’re all over the Southern Hemisphere too.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer relinquishes the scope</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Latendy:<b> It’s weird. I‘ve been watching them for an hour now and they don’t seem to ever visit the same place twice.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer:<b> It’s like their looking for something.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Latendy: <b>Yeah. But whatever it is they don’t seem to have found it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to close on Dian who is using binoculars to look at the plain</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV of what she is seeing, which is the spiders on the plain as she pans down to the plateaus and stairway as a lone spider is making its way toward the hub</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Dian</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dian: <b>Commander!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer and Latendy</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Yes Sergeant.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dian: <b>We have a spider coming our way.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer moves over to where Dian is posted and takes the binoculars and looks</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV of what he is seeing, which is the spider much closer now</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two as the spider zips up the wall behind them and to their side where it stops just above the airlock entrance where it looks down at the astronauts </div>
<br />
Med on the spider<br />
<br />
POV from the spider looking at the three below it<br />
<br />
Long on the three of them <br />
<br />
Med on Mercer and Dian with the spider at the top of the frame as it zips off<br />
<br />
Long on the hub as the spider rushes past Hub Control on the other side and starts down the wall<br />
<br />
Med on Mercer and Dian<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Well that was interesting.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer gives the binoculars back to Dian <br />
<br />
Close on Dian who is monitoring the spider’s progress<br />
<br />
Dian: <b>Oh no!</b><br />
<br />
Med on Mercer and Dian<br />
<br />
Mercer, alarmed: <b>What?!</b><br />
<br />
Dian: <b>It fell.</b><br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>What?</b><br />
<br />
Dian: <b>The spider, it fell down the wall. Here, look...</b><br />
<br />
She hands Mercer the binoculars who takes them and looks down<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Where.</b><br />
<br />
Dian: <b>Right there</b> (she points). <b>It’s sliding down the wall.</b><br />
<br />
POV of what Mercer sees through the binoculars as he searches in the direction Dian had indicated, until it is spotted lying on the first plateau motionless<br />
<br />
Close on Mercer<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>It’s lying on the first plateau. It looks like it’s dead or injured.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Mercer and Dian<br />
<br />
Dian:<b> Oh, the poor thing...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer looks at her, a little bemused, then uses his radio</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Hub Control to Commander Ernst. Hub Control to Commander Ernst.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst over the radio: <b>Yes Karl.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Laura, I may have something for you...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the inside of sick bay on board Endeavor, Weightless enviornment. Ernst enters followed by Bryant and Adeyemi who are carrying a covered stretcher</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Over here guys. Be careful.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They place the stretcher on the examination table and all three strap it down</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Thanks.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The men leave</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med from above the spider fully exposed now</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Ernst and the spider as she begins to examine it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on her hands as she touches the creatures legs that almost come apart in her hands</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst talking into a recorder: <b>The creature is one hundred and eighty seven centimeters tall or long. The upper circular portion is sixty nine centimeters in circumference. It seems to be extremely fragile.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on her hands as she disarticulated one of the legs</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>The legs are coming off the main body with little effort.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from above as she removes the other legs and tendrils</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med at the side as Ernst takes a camera and photographs the specimen from several angles. When finished she picks up a scalpel</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Ernst looking down at it</div>
<br />
Ernst, to herself: <b>Where to start...</b><br />
<br />
Close on the spider’s head as she starts to cut into it, the blade meeting little resistance<br />
<br />
Close on Ernst’s face as she works<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the corridor just outside of sickbay where Yeoman Fontana has passed the open door just as Ernst screams from inside. Fontana turns around, very alarmed and makes her way inside sickbay</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the Rama Committee the members, various staff, and media mill about as Bose calls everyone to order</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose: <b>As you are aware, gentlemen, a great deal has happened since our last meeting. We have much to discuss...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As he speaks med shots of the other members listening</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bose: .<b>.. and to decide. I’m therefore particularly sorry that our distinguished colleague from Mercury is not here. Two of our members have statements to make. I would first like to call on Professor Davidson.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the room, where members and staff are murmuring to each other. They quiet down as the Professor speaks</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Davidson: <b>Mr. Ambassador. I have been analyzing the curious behavior of Rama during the last few days, and would like to present my conclusions. Some of them are rather startling</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Back on Davidson:<b> First of all, there was the remarkable series of events when that young leftenant flew over the Southern Hemisphere. The electrical discharges themselves, though spectacular, are not important; as it easy to show that they contained relatively little energy. But they coincided with a change in the rate of Rama’s spin, and its attitude... that is, its orientation in space. This must have involved an enormous amount of energy; the discharges which nearly cost Mr... er... Pak his life were merely a minor by-product.. perhaps a nuisance that had to be minimized by those giant lightening conductors at the South Pole.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> I draw two conclusions from this. When a spacecraft... and we must call Rama a spacecraft, despite its fantastic size... makes a change of attitude, that usually means its about to make a change in orbit. We must therefore take seriously the views of those who believe that Rama may be preparing to become another planet of our Sun, instead of going back to the stars.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> If this is the case, Endeavor must obviously be prepared to cast off... is that what spaceships do? At a moments notice. She may be in very serious danger while she is still physically attached to Rama. I imagine that Commander Norton is already well aware of this possibility, but I think we should send him an additional warning.</b></div>
<br />
Med on Bose: <b>Thank you very much, Professor Davidson. Yes... Professor Solomons?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Solomons: <b>I’d like to comment on that. Rama seems to have made a change in spin without using any jets or reaction devices. This leaves only two possibilities, it seems to me.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The first one is that it has internal gyroscopes, or their equivalent. They must be enormous. Where are they?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The second possibility... which would turn all of our physics upside down... is that it has a reactionless propulsion system. The so-called space drive, which Professor Davidson doesn’t believe in. If this is the case, Rama may be able to do almost anything. We will be quite unable to anticipate its behavior, even on the gross physical level. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the chamber as the members and staff react</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Davison:<b> I’ll stick to the laws of physics, if you don’t mind, until I’m forced to give them up. If we’ve not found any gyroscopes in Rama, we may not have looked hard enough, or in the right place. </b></div>
<br />
Med on Solomons<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose: <b>Very well. If there are no other comments, I know that Dr. Perera has some important information. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera: <b>Thank you, Mr. Ambassador. As you’ve all seen, we have at last obtained a specimen of a Rama life form, and have observed several others at close quarters. Surgeon Commander Ernst, Endeavor’s medical officer, has sent a full report on the spider-like creature she dissected. I must say at once that some of her results are baffling, and in any other circumstances I would have refused to believe them.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The spider is definitely organic, though its chemistry differs from ours in many respects. It contains considerable quantities of light metals. Yet I hesitate to call it an animal, for several fundamental reasons.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> In the first place, it seems to have no mouth, no stomach, no gut... no method of ingesting food. Also no air intakes, no lungs, no blood, no reproductive system...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> You may wonder <i>what is has got</i>. Well, there’s a simple musculature, controlling its three legs and three whip-like tendrils or feelers. There’s a brain... fairly complex, mostly concerned with the creature’s remarkably developed triocular vision. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on MacKay</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera:<b> ... But eighty percent of the body consists of a honeycomb of large cells...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera: <b>... and this is what gave Dr. Ernst such an unpleasant surprise when she started her dissection. If she’d been luckier, she might have recognized it in time, because it’s one Rama structure that does exist on Earth... although only in a handful of marine animals.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Most of the spider is simply a battery, much like that found in electric eels and rays. But in this case it’s apparently not used in defense. It’s the creatures source of energy. And that is why it has no provisions for eating and breathing; it doesn’t need such primitive arrangements. And incidentally, this means it would be perfectly at home in a vacuum.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>So we have a creature which...</b></div>
<br />
Med on Sands<br />
<br />
Perera: .<b>.. to all intents and purposes, is...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera:<b> ... nothing more than a mobile eye. It has no organs for manipulation; those tendrils are mush too feeble. If I had been given its specifications, I would have said it’s merely a reconnaissance device. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Davidson</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera: <b>It’s behavior certainly fits that description. All the spiders ever do is run around and look at things. That’s all they can do.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But the other animals are different. The crab, the starfish, the sharks... for want of better words... these can obviously manipulate the environment, and appear to be specialized for various functions. I assume that they are also electrically powered, since, like the spider, they appear to have no mouths.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera: <b>I’m sure you’ll appreciate the biological problems involved raised in all this. Could such creatures evolve naturally? I really don’t think so. They appear to be designed, like machines, for specific jobs. If I had to describe them, I would say that they are robots... biological robots... something that has no analogy on Earth.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> If Rama is a spaceship, perhaps they are part of the crew. As to how they are born... or created... that’s something I can’t tell you. But I can guess that the answer’s over there in New York. If Commander Norton and his men can wait long enough, they may encounter increasingly more complex creatures, with unpredictable behavior. Somewhere along the line they may meet the Ramans themselves... the real makers of this world. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> And when that happens, gentlemen and ladies, there will be no doubt about it at all.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in on med of Scarborough and Law as they are carrying garbage from Camp Alpha away from the camera and place it on the plain with other trash, or stuff they don’t need anymore</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of the two walking back and passing Norton and Mercer who continue to stand there as the other two return to the camp. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long on the plain as several crab creatures approach from the distance</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton and Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on the crabs as they disseminate the refuse and haul it off</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton and Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of two crabs as they face Norton and Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton and Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two crabs as they move toward the two men in order to get to the camp where they deem there’s a whole bunch more trash to be had</div>
<br />
Med on Norton and Mercer who stand their ground, hold out their arms and hands and yells at the crabs: <b>No! No!</b><br />
<br />
Med on the two crabs who have now stopped. One crab makes an up and down motion three times, then the other<br />
<br />
Close on Norton and Mercer<br />
<br />
Med on the two crabs as they turn around and waddle away<br />
<br />
Close on Norton and Mercer, looking quite relieved <br />
<br />
Med as they turn around and walk back to the camp<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in<br />
<br />
Camp Alpha, close on Norton sleeping as his communicator sounds.<br />
<br />
Med on Norton, after grabbing and opening it: Yes.<br />
<br />
Cut to Kirchoff on Endeavor, control room, weightless environment:<b> Sorry to wake you, Skipper. Triple-A priority from headquarters.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Norton: <b>Let me have it.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Kirchoff: <b>I can’t. It’s in code... Commander’s eyes only.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton, instantly alert: <b>Damn! What do we do now?</b> (he thinks a moment) <b>Jerry, who’s on the switchboard?</b><br />
<br />
Kirchoff on the radio: <b>No one. I’m making the call myself. </b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Recorder off?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on Kirchoff:<b> By an odd breach of regulations, yes.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Norton, smiles: <b>Okay. You know where my key is. Call me back.</b> (he lays back down)<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in a few moments later. Med on Norton who is standing near the camp’s perimeter, looking out on the plain<br />
<br />
Kirchoff on the radio:<b> Skipper!</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Yes.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kirchoff on Endeavor:<b> It’s not really urgent, Bill. An hour won’t make any difference. But I prefer to avoid radio. I’ll send it down by messenger.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Norton: <b>But why... oh, very well. I trust your judgment. Who will carry it through the air locks?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kirchoff: <b>I’m going myself. I’ll call you when I reach the hub.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton: <b>Which leaves Laura in charge.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to med on Norton<br />
<br />
Kirchoff on radio: <b>For one hour at the most. I’ll get right back to the ship.</b><br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Very well. For the record, you never left the ship. Have you woken Laura?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Kirchoff: <b>Yes. She’s delighted to have the opportunity.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton:<b> Lucky that doctors are used to keeping secrets. Oh, have you sent the acknowledgment? </b><br />
<br />
Kirchoff on radio: <b>Of course, in your name.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton: <b>Then I’ll be waiting. </b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in on Hub Control, weightless environment, POV through telescope, extreme long shot of “Something that looked like a [huge] centipede with suction pads... ... exploring Big Horn...” Pan down to a “a burly creature around the lower peaks that could have been a cross between a hippopotamus and a bulldozer” Pan to one of the Straight Valley strip lights to see a “‘window cleaner’ with large padded feet, who was apparently polishing its way the whole length of the artifical sun. Its enormous shadow, cast right across the diameter of the world, sometimes causing temporary eclipses on the far side.” Pan to the plain below where a myriad of different kinds of creatures were working at one thing or another, except the spiders. They were gone now</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med shot in front of Rousseau looking through the scope as Kirchoff in spacesuit exits the airlock behind him. Rousseau turns around</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Kirchoff floating over to Rousseau</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau: <b>Jerry... who’s in charge of the ship?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kirchoff, flips open his helmet:<b> I am. You don’t think I’d leave the bridge when I’m on watch, do you?</b> (he opens a pocket on his suit and pulls out a small can labeled “Concentrated Orange Juice”) <b>You’re good at this, Pieter.</b> (he gives Rousseau the can) <b>The Skipper is waiting for this.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau:<b> I just hope you put enough mass inside it. Sometimes they get stuck on the first terrace.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kirchoff:<b> Well, you’re the expert. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two from above as Rousseau anchors himself, and hurls the can down the face of the cliff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long shot on the can as it makes it way down. “Almost immediately, air resistance robbed the can of its initial speed, but then the pseudo-gravity of Rama took over and it started to move downward at a constant velocity. It hit once near the base of the ladder, and did a slow-motion bounce which took it clear of the first terrace.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from the side and slightly in front of Rousseau and Kirchoff. While the following conversation occurs a large creature that resembles a grey worm with what looks like a mop as an undercarriage passes them close by in the near distance making it’s way slowly but steadily down the cliff. The two astronauts take a look at it briefly</div>
<br />
Kirchoff: <b>What does that thing do?</b><br />
<br />
Rousseau: <b>I’m not sure. I’ve been watching it for a while. I don’t see it doing anything at all really.</b> (Rousseau looks back down) <b>The can’s okay now. Like to make a bet?</b><br />
<br />
Kirchoff:<b> No. You know the odds.</b><br />
<br />
Rousseau: <b>You’re no sportsman, but I’ll tell you now...</b> <br />
<br />
Cut to long on the can as it progresses<br />
<br />
Rousseau:<b> ... it will stop within three hundred meters of the camp.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to the two men<br />
<br />
Kirchoff: <b>That doesn’t sound very close.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau: <b>You might try it sometime. I once saw Joe miss by a couple of kilometers.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the can now glued to the floor’s surface rolling past the second terrace at 25 kilometers per hour</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to the two</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau:<b> Now we’ll have to wait.</b> (he returns to the telescope to monitor the can) <b>It will be there in ten minutes.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from the telescope as Norton enters the frame</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Rousseau: <b>Ah, here comes the Skipper. I got used to recognizing people from this angle.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to telescope POV as Norton looks up directly at the Hub</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau:<b> Now he’s looking at us. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Kirchoff: <b>I believe that telescope gives you a sense of power.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on them both. Rousseau smiles</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau: <b>Oh, it does. I’m the only person who knows everything that happens in Rama.</b> (looks at Kirchoff) <b>At least I thought I did.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Kirchoff as he stretches: <b>If it will keep you happy, the Skipper found out he had run out of toothpaste.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rousseau who doesn’t seem convinced he’s being told the truth</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fast fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in at the two looking down at the plain Rousseau on the telescope</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from the telescope as the can, now on the plain comes to a rest</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau: <b>Wish you had taken that bet...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rousseau: <b>He’s only got to walk fifty meters...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Back on POV as Norton enters frame, sees the can and walks over to it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rousseau: <b>Now he sees it. Mission complete.</b></div>
<br />
Med on the two<br />
<br />
Kirchoff: <b>Thanks, Pieter... a very good job. Now you can go back to sleep.</b> (he gets his suit together preparing to exit Rama<br />
<br />
Close on Rousseau: <b>Sleep! I’m on watch until zero four hundred.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Kirchoff: <b>Sorry... you must have been sleeping. Or how else could you have dreamed all this?</b><br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in on close on message:<br />
<br />
SPACEGUARD REPORTS ULTRA-HIGH-SPEED VEHICLE APPARENTLY LAUNCHED MERCURY TEN TO TWELVE DAYS AGO ON RAMA INTERCEPT. IF NO ORBIT CHANGE ARRIVAL PREDICTED DATE 322 DAYS 15 HOURS. MAY BE NECESSARY YOU EVACUATE BEFORE THEN. WILL ADVISE FURTHER. C IN C.<br />
<br />
Cut to close on Norton<br />
<br />
Cut to med on Norton who looks at his watch, turns and thoughtfully walks away from camera<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
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Fade in, outer space near Rama as the Mercurian missile completes its breaking maneuver and parks fifty kilometers from the giant spacecraft</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on missile as its two cameras survey Rama</div>
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Long on missile from behind with Rama in the background</div>
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Cut to inside Endeavor control room, weightless enviornment, close on monitor showing the missile up close</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to med on Mercer, Kirchoff, and Norton looking at the monitor</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over the intercom: <b>Bridge to Captain. Triple-A message from Earth, Skipper. Video and back-up text from Commander in Chief Hendrix. Ready to accept?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Check and file the text, let me have the video.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bridge: <b>Here it comes.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the monitor as the view of the missile is replaced with a seal of the C in C, then to Admiral Hendrix. Through this brief seen close cuts to the faces of the three officers are made to record their reactions. At the same time the camera slowly pulls back from the monitor</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hendrix:<b> C in C to Commander, Endeavor. This is a quick summery of the situation as we see it now. You know that the General Assembly meets at fourteen hundred and you’ll be listening to the proceedings. It is possible that you may have to take action immediately, without consultation; hence this briefing.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> We’ve analyzed the photos you have sent us. The vehicle is a standard probe, modified for high-impulse and probably laser-riding for initial boost. Size and mass are consistent with fusion bomb in the five-hundred to one-thousand-megaton range. The Hermians use up to one hundred megatons routinely in their mining operations, so they would have no difficulty in assembling such a warhead.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Our experts also estimate that this would be the minimum size necessary to assure the destruction of Rama. If it was detonated against the thinnest part of the shell, underneath the Cylindrical Sea, the hull would be ruptured, and the spin of the body would complete its disintegration.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> We assume that the Hermians, if they are planning such an act, will give you ample time to get clear. For your information, the gamma-ray flash from such a bomb could be dangerous to you up to a range of a thousand kilometers, despite Endeavor’s inherent shielding for cosmic and solar radiation. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> But that is not the most serious danger. The fragments of Rama, with masses of several metric tonnes and spinning off at almost a thousand kilometers an hour, could destroy you at an unlimited distance. We therefore recommend that you proceed along the spin axis, since no fragments will be thrown off in that direction. Ten thousand kilometers should give an adequate safety margin.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> This message cannot be intercepted; it is going by multiple-pseudo-random routing, so I can talk in clear English. Your reply may not be secure, so speak with discretion and use code when necessary. I will call you immediately after the General Assembly discussion. Message concluded. C in C.</b></div>
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to long shot of the United Planets General Assembly chamber, a large meeting room with delegates from the seven members, Mercury, Earth, Luna, Mars, Ganymede, Titan, and Triton. Their staff and and media fill the chamber</div>
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<br /></div>
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Fade in text:<b> “United Planets General Assembly”</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Med on President: <b>We recognize His Excellency the Ambassador from Mercury.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the Ambassador as he picks up his notes and stands. During his presentation cuts are made to various members of the Assembly for reactions, including members of the Rama Committee, especially Perera. During the scene the camera will also slowly move in from a long shot, to med, and ending on a close</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ambassador: <b>Mr. President. Distinguished fellow delegates, I would like to begin with a brief summary of the situation which now confronts us.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> The giant spaceship or artifical asteroid which has been christened Rama was detected over a year ago, in the region beyond Jupiter. At first it was believed to be a natural body, moving in a hyperbolic orbit that would take it around the Sun and on to the stars.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> When its true nature was discovered, the solar survey vessel Endeavor was ordered to rendezvous with it. I am sure we will all want to congratulate Commander Norton and his crew for the efficient way in which they have carried out their unique assignment.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> At first, it was believed that Rama was dead... frozen for so many hundreds of thousands of years that there was no possibility of revival. This may still be true, in a strictly biological sense. There seems general agreement, among those who have studied that matter, that no living organism of any complexity can survive more than a few centuries of suspended animation. Even at absolute zero, residual quantum effects eventually erase too much cellular information to make revival possible. It therefore appeared that, although Rama was of enormous archaeological importance, it did not present any major astropolitical problems. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>It is now obvious that this was a very naive attitude, though even from the first there were some who pointed out that Rama was too precisely aimed at the Sun for pure chance to be involved.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Even so, it might have been argued,... indeed, it was argued... that here was an experiment that had failed. Rama had reached the intended target, but the controlling intelligence had not survived. This view also seems very simpleminded; it surely underestimates the entities we are dealing with.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> What we failed to take into account was the possibility of nonbiological survival. If we accept Dr. Perera’s very plausible theory, which certainly fits all the facts, the creatures that have been observed inside Rama did not exist a short time ago. Their patterns, or templates, were stored in some central information bank, and when the time was ripe they were manufactured from available raw materials... presumably the organometallic soup of the Cylindrical Sea. Such a feat is still somewhat beyond our own ability, but does not present any theoretical problems. We know that solid-state circuits, unlike living matter, can store information without loss for indefinite periods of time.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> So Rama is now in full operating mode, serving the purpose of its builders... whoever they may be. From our point of view it does not matter if the Ramans themselves have all been dead for millions of years, or whether they, too, will be re-created, to join their servants, at any moment. With or without them, their will is being done, and will continue to be done.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Rama has now given proof that its propulsion system is still operating. In a few days, it will be at perihelion, where it would logically make any major change in orbit. We therefore may soon have a new planet... moving through the solar space over which my government has jurisdiction. Or it may, of course, make additional changes and occupy a final orbit at any distance from the Sun. It could even become a satellite of a major planet, such as Earth.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>We are therefore, fellow delegates, faced with a whole spectrum of possibilities, some of them very serious indeed. It is foolish to pretend that these creatures must be benevolent and will not interfere with us in any way. If they come to our solar system, they need something from it. Even if it is only scientific knowledge... consider how that knowledge may be used.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> What confronts us now is a technology hundreds, perhaps thousands of years in advance of ours, and a culture that may have no points of contact with ours whatsoever. We have been studying the behavior of the biological robots... the biots... inside Rama, as shown in the films that Commander Norton has relayed, and we have arrived at certain conclusions, which we wish to pass on to you.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> On Mercury we are perhaps unlucky in having no indigenous life forms to observe. But, of course, we have a complete record of terrestrial zoology, and we find in it one striking parallel with Rama.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> This is the termite colony. Like Rama, it is an artificial world with a controlled environment. Like Rama, its functioning depends upon a whole series of specialized biological machines: workers, builders, farmers... <i>warriors</i>. And although we do not know if Rama has a queen, I suggest that the island of New York serves a similar function.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Now it would be obviously absurd to press this analogy too far; it breaks down at many points. But I put it to you for this reason: What degree of cooperation or understanding would ever be possible between humans and termites? When there is no conflict of interest, we tolerate each other. But when either needs the other’s territory or resources, no quarter is given.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Thanks to our technology and our intelligence, we can always win if we are sufficiently determined. But sometimes it is not easy, and there are those who believe that final victory may go to the termites.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> With this in mind, consider now the appalling threat that Rama may... I do not say must... present to human civilization. What steps have we taken to counter it, if the worst eventually should occur? None whatsoever. We have merely talked and speculated and written learned papers. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Well, my fellow delegates, Mercury has done more than this. Acting under the provisions of Clause thirty four of the Space Treaty of twenty fifty seven, which entitles us to take any steps necessary to protect the integrity of our solar space, we have dispatched a high-energy nuclear device to Rama. We will indeed be happy if we never have to utilize it. But now, at least, we are not helpless... as we were before.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> It may be argued that we have acted unilaterally, with out prior consultation. We admit that. But does anyone here imagine... with all respect, Mr. President... that we could have secured any such agreement in the time available? We consider that we are acting not only for ourselves, but also for the entire human race. All future generations may one day thank us for our foresight.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> We recognize that it would be a tragedy... even a crime... to destroy an artifact as wonderful as Rama. If there were any way in which this can be avoided, <i>without risk to humanity</i>, we will be very happy to hear it. We have not found none, and time is running out.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Within the next few days, before Rama reaches perihelion, the choice will have to be made. We will, of course, give ample warning to Endeavor, but we would advise Commander Norton always to be ready to leave at an hour’s notice. It is conceivable that Rama may undergo further dramatic transformations at any moment.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>That is all, Mr. President, fellow delegates. I thank you for your attention. I look forward to your cooperation.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in, Norton’s stateroom aboard Endeavor, weightless environment</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Well, Boris, how do the Hermians fit into your theology?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo and Norton from the side</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Only too well, Commander. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rodrigo: <b>It’s the age-old struggle between the forces of good and evil. And there are times when men have to take sides in such a conflict.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>I take it you have a plan, Boris.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on both</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Yes, Commander. It’s really quite simple. We merely have to disable the bomb.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>And how do you propose to do that?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rodrigo: <b>With a small pair of wire cutters.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on both</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Now just a minute! It’s bristling with cameras. Do you suppose the Hermians will just sit back and watch you?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo: <b>Of course, that’s all they can do.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo: <b>When the signal reaches them, it will be too late. I can easily finish the job in ten minutes. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on both</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>I see. They certainly will be <i>mad</i>. Suppose the bomb is booby-trapped so that interference sets it off?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo: <b>That seems very unlikely. What would be the purpose? </b></div>
<br />
Close on Norton<br />
<br />
Rodrigo: <b>This bomb was built for a specific deep-space mission...</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo<b>: ... and it will be fitted with all sorts of safety devices to <i>prevent</i> detonation except on a positive command. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on both</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rodrigo:<b> But that’s a risk I’m prepared to take... and it can be done without endangering the ship. I’ve worked everything out.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>This close to the Sun... it’s pretty hot out there. In both infrared and gamma...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rodrigo, smiles: <b>I’ll take precautions.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he considers what has been said</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in same setting as the last scene. Norton is strapped into his chair, lost in thought. What if he allows Rodrigo to disable the bomb and Rama does prove to be hostile? But there has been no sign of hostility anywhere inside Rama</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton glance up across the small room</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the picture of Capt. Cook</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton, whispering: <b>I agree with you Captain. The human race has to live with its conscience. Whatever the Hermians argue, survival is not everything.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton as he pushes his intercom button</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Lieutenant Rodrigo, this is the Captain. I’d like to see you...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in, outer space, the northern central axis of Rama, long on Rodrigo on a stripped down sled, Endeavor disconnected from Rama, in the background as it disappears behind Rama’s bulk, the star field is moving in accordance with Rama’s spin</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo and the sled as he thrusts off. Throughout the scene Rodrigo’s breathing is heard</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo and the sled from behind crossing the polar plain</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the two from high above</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo from the side and below as the bright Sun is seen above him</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two as they approach the edge of the plain</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from in front of the two as Rodrigo applies thrusters to stop, and maneuvers the sled to coincide with the edge of the Raman plain, he applies power to decrease his inherent spin in relation to Rama’s. The background star field slowly stops moving</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo and the sled as he thrusts to the left and over the edge of Rama into open space</div>
<br />
Long on the two as Rodrigo applies full power<br />
<br />
Med on the two from behind as Rodrigo cuts off his power<br />
<br />
Long on the sled as it continues<br />
<br />
Long on Rodrigo and the sled from in front and they approach the camera<br />
<br />
Long from Rodrigo’s POV as he sights the probe<br />
<br />
Med of the sled as Rodrigo applies maneuvering thrusters to turn the sled around so the main thrusters are aimed at the probe. Rodrigo applies power to the main thrusters to decrease its velocity<br />
<br />
Long from behind the probe as the sled approaches<br />
<br />
Long on the probe and sled coming together<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo as he attaches lines to the probe securing the sled to it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The bomb was a cylinder about ten meters long and three in diameter---by a strange coincidence, almost the same proportions as those of Rama. It was attached to the framework of the carrier vehicle by an open latticework of short I beams. For some reason, probably to do with the location of the center mass, it was supported at right angles to the axis of the carrier, so that it conveyed an appropriately sinister hammer-head impression....</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From each end of the bomb a bundle of braided cables ran along the cylindrical side and disappeared through the latticework into the interior of the vehicle. All communication and control was here. There was no antenna of any kind on the bomb itself.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Rodrigo’s face inside the helmet as he finishes grappling the bomb and sled together</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med POV from Rodrigo as he survey’s the bomb and carrier</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo as he checks his watch</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Rodrigo, the sled and carrier/bomb</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo as he inspects an engraved plate</div>
<br />
Close on the plate: <b> DEPARTMENT OF POWER ENGINEERING</b><br />
<b> SECTION D</b><br />
<b> 47 SUNSET BOULEVARD</b><br />
<b> VULCANOPOLIS, 17464</b><br />
<b> For information apply to Henry K. Jones</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo as he gets up and moves to the cables</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close as he cuts through them with wire cutters</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo as he checks his watch again, he moves to the back-up-cables </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on his hands as he is about to begin cutting</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on his face</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo from behind as he looks back</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med POV from Rodrigo looking at one of the carriers thrusters firing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to interior of Endeavor, control room, weightless enviornment, Mercer has just handed Norton a printed message</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the message: COMMANDER ENDEAVOR FROM MERCURY SPACE CONTROL, INFERNO WEST. YOU HAVE ONE HOUR FROM RECIEPT OF THIS MESSAGE TO LEAVE VICINITY OF RAMA. SUGGEST YOU PROCEED MAXIMUM ACCELERATION ALONG SPIN AXIS, REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, MESSAGE ENDS.</div>
<br />
Close on Norton’s reaction<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long on the bomb, carrier, sled, Rodrigo as the orientation in space of them all changes due to the firing thruster</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med from Rodrigo POV as a second thruster fires</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rodrigo as he checks the lines holding him and the sled to the carrier. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to control room</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton and Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>What are you going to do, Skipper?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Nothing. Ignore them. It’s too late to stop Boris, and will be at least another thirty minutes before we can pick him up.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Mercer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two</div>
<br />
Norton: <b>We’ll see what they do next.</b><br />
<br />
Cut back to med on Rodrigo as he looks back on the firing thrusters<br />
<br />
POV from Rodrigo as the two thrusters stop firing and the main engine ignites<br />
<br />
Long from behind the bomb and carrier as it begins to move<br />
<br />
Med on Rodrigo as he moves to the second set of cables<br />
<br />
Close on his hands as he cuts the cables<br />
<br />
Cut to med of Rodrigo finishing<br />
<br />
Med on Rodrigo crawling toward the long-range antenna<br />
<br />
Med as he reaches it<br />
<br />
Close as he cuts the multiplex feed system<br />
<br />
Close as the antenna slowly began to swing around almost hitting Rodrigo<br />
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Med as Rodrigo crawls back to the sled and he disengages the grapples<br />
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Med as Rodrigo gets back into the sled’s seat<br />
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Long from behind the sled as Rodrigo fires it’s thrusters, slowly pushing the carrier and bomb into a trajectory away from Rama<br />
<br />
Long on the sled and bomb being pushed<br />
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Med as Rodrigo applies thrusters separating the bomb from the sled<br />
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Long as the two further the distance from each other<br />
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Med on the sled as Rodrigo applies the thrusters necessary to turn the sled around toward Rama<br />
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Long on the bomb and carrier as it slowly moves out into space<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in to Norton’s stateroom, Med on Norton strapped into his chair writing<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
VO, Norton:<b> Darling, this nonsense has cost us more than a day, but at least it’s given me a chance to talk to you.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> I’m still in the ship, and she’s heading back to station at the polar axis. We picked up Boris an hour ago, looking as if he’d just come off duty after a quiet watch. I suppose neither of us will ever be able to visit Mercury again, and I’m wondering if we’re going to be treated as heroes or villains when we get back to Earth. But my conscience is clear. I’m sure we did the right thing. I wonder if the Ramans will ever say 'thank you.’</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton, VO continues: <b>We can stay only two more days. Unlike Rama we don’t have a kilometer-thick skin to protect us from the Sun. Endeavor’s hull is already developing dangerous hot spots and we’ve had to put out some local screening. I’m sorry... I didn’t want to bore you with my problems.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Back to med: <b>So there’s time for just one more trip into Rama, and I intend to make to most of it. But don’t worry, I’m not taking any chances.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton, from the side and above: <b>In forty-eight hours, then, we’ll have completed this mission. What happens after that is uncertain; as you know, we’ve used virtually all of our fuel getting into this orbit. I’m still waiting to hear if a tanker can get with us in time to get back to Earth, or whether we’ll have to make planet-fall on Mars. Anyway, I should be home by Christmas. Tell Jessie I’m sorry I can’t bring home a baby biot; there’s no such animal.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>We’re all fine, but very tired. I’ve earned a long leave after all this, and we’ll make up for lost time. </b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close: <b>Whatever they say about me, you can claim you’re married to a hero. How many wives have a husband who saved a world?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton from across the room as he finishes</div>
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to black screen. After a moment a light can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It is a laser torch cutting through a wall</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to med of the torch as it quickly cuts a rectangle into the wall about three quarters the size of a man</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut to close on the torch as it progresses</div>
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<br /></div>
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Cut back to med as the torch completes its circuit and is turned off. The rectangular piece of metal is kicked in from outside and Mercer appears through the hole, wearing a re-breather, and steps in holding an instrument and flashlight. He tentatively checks the air with the tool, then looks at the instrument. He takes of the re-breather and calls back out through the hole</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Oxygen level okay, Skipper. It’s not any different from outside. There’s no inert gases...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med from outside as Norton, Calvert, Myron mill about. Norton enters the building at London carrying a high-intensity lantern. Myron disassembles the laser torch</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the building’s interior as Calvert enters and the three shine their lights about the large room, soon to be followed by Myron. They set down several lanterns that begin to shed some light on their surroundings</div>
<br />
Long on: “A Greek temple made of glass---that was his first impression. The building was filled with row upon row of vertical crystalline columns, about a meter wide and stretching from floor to ceiling. There were hundreds of them, marching away into the darkness beyond the reach of his light.”<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he walks up to one of the columns and directs his light into the interior<br />
<br />
Med on “Refracted as through a cylindrical lens, the light fanned out on the far side to be focused and refocused, getting fainter with each repetition, in the array of pillars beyond. He felt that he was in the middle of some complicated demonstration in optics.”<br />
<br />
Med on Norton and Mercer who was watching<br />
<br />
Mercer: <b>Very pretty, but what does it mean? </b><br />
<br />
Close on Mercer: <b>Who needs a forest of glass pillars?</b><br />
<br />
Med on the two. Norton raps on the glass. The sound indicates the column is solid<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>When in doubt, say nothing and move on.</b><br />
<br />
Long on all four as Norton walks up to another column and shines his light into it<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton and Mercer. Suddenly Mercer acts surprised</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>I could have sworn this pillar was empty. Now there’s something inside it.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Where? I don’t see anything.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer points to a spot in the interior. Norton looks</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>You can’t see it? Come around to this side. Damn, now I’ve lost it!</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert walks up: <b>What’s going on here?</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the column as the camera circles it: “ The columns were not transparent from every angle or under all illuminations. As one walked around them, objects would suddenly flash into view, apparently embedded in their depths like flies in amber, and when then disappear again. There were dozens of them, all different. They looked absolutely real and solid, yet many seemed to occupy the identical volume of space.” </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the men looking into the column</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert:<b> Holograms. Just like a museum on Earth.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton moves off to examine other columns. He stops at one and shines his light inside </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on what he is seeing: “Hand tools (though for huge and peculiar hands), containers, small machines with keyboards that appeared to have been made for more than five fingers, scientific instruments, startling conventional domestic utensils, including knives and plates that apart from their size would not have attracted a second glance on any terrestrial table: they were all there, with hundred of less identifiable objects, often jumbled up together in the same pillar. A museum surely, would have some logical arrangement, some segregation of related items. This seemed to be a completely random collection of hardware.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the four men exploring the pillars. Three of them are photographing the column’s interiors</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Not a museum... maybe a catalog... a catalog of items, indexed according to some arbitrary but perfectly logical system.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer: <b>I see what you mean. The Ramans might be equally surprised to find us putting... ah... camshafts next to cameras.</b></div>
<br />
Calvert walks up: <b>Or books beside boots.</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton: <b>That’s the idea. This may be an indexed catalog for 3-D images... templates... solid blueprints, if you want to call them that.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Calvert: <b>For what purpose?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton, he turns to face Mercer and Calvert:<b> Well, you know the theory about the biots... the idea that they don’t exist until they’re needed and then they’re created... synthesized... from patterns stored somewhere?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer and Calvert. Myron walks up to them</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>I see. So when a Raman needs a left-handed blivet, he punches out the correct code number and a copy is manufactured from a pattern in here. </b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton: <b>Something like that. But please don’t ask me about the practical details.</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long as the four continue to walk and explore further in to the room. The pillars got bigger the father they progressed. Now the were two meters in diameter. The four spread out in order to cover more area</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton photographing what seemed to be some kind of optical device when he heard Calvert in the distance</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert off screen: <b>Skipper, Karl, Will... look at this!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton starts to run toward the Calvert’s voice</div>
<br />
Med on Calvert and Mercer as Myron and Norton run up to them. They all stare at what it was that Calvert had seen, looking slightly upwards<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on and from below looking up. What is inside is lighted to inspire some sense of grandeur as this is the closest we will see of an actual Raman: “Inside one of the two meter columns was an elaborate harness, or uniform, obviously made for a vertically standing creature much taller than a man. A very narrow central metal band apparently surrounded the waist, thorax, or some division unknown to terrestrial zoology. From this rose three slim columns, tapering outward and ending in a perfectly circular belt, and impressive meter in diameter. Loops equally spaced along it could be intended only to go around upper limbs or arms---three of them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There were numerous pouches, buckles, bandoliers from which tools (or weapons?) protruded, pipes and electrical conductors, even small black boxes that would have looked perfectly at home in an electronics lab on Earth. The whole arrangement was almost as complex as a spacesuit, though it obviously provided only partial covering for the creature wearing it.”</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the men. Myron begins to photograph the suit</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>About two and a half meters high... not counting the head... whatever that’s like. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>With three arms...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to behind and below the men with the suit in the background</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> ... and presumably three legs. The same plan as spiders, on a much more massive scale.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Do you suppose that’s a coincidence?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer: <b>Probably not. We design robots in our own image; we might expect the Ramans to do the same. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the men</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myron, looking around: <b>Do you suppose they know we’re here?</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Mercer: I doubt it. We’ve not even reached their threshold of consciousness... though the Hermians certainly had a good try.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the four</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau over the radio:<b> Skipper, you’d better get outside.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>What is it... biots heading this way?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau: <b>No. Something much more serious. The lights are going out.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to the men emerging from the hole. The lights seemed as normal as they had ever been</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Pieter, the lights seem to be normal.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Hub Control, med on Rousseau: <b>It happened so slowly that it was a long time before I noticed any difference. But there’s no doubt about it... I’ve taken a meter reading, and the light level is down by forty percent.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Norton Myron, and Mercer from behind and to the side, and below as they survey Rama’s interior. The camera moves around them as they do this</div>
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>This is it. We’re going home. </b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton: <b>Leave all of the equipment behind... we won’t need it again.</b><br />
<br />
Long on the four men as the start a “loping trot” back to Stairway Beta<br />
<br />
Transposed fade out and in to med from the side of the men making their way<br />
<br />
Med on them from the front walking towards the camera<br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>Wait!</b><br />
<br />
Med on the four. Norton turns around to view the Southern Hemisphere<br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>Bridge, did you notice that?</b><br />
<br />
Cut to Endeavor’s bridge, weightless enviornment<br />
<br />
Med on Dian, looking at her monitors: <b>Yes, Skipper... very small shock. Could be another attitude change. We’re watching the rate gyro. Nothing yet... just a minute! Positive reading!</b><br />
<br />
Close on the instrument she is looking at<br />
<br />
Med on Dian: <b>Can just detect it... less than a microradian per second, but holding.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of the four men on the plain</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Rama’s beginning to turn...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the other three’s reaction </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Dian:<b> Rate increasing. Five micorad. Hello! Did you feel that shock?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of the four men</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>We certainly did. Get all ship’s systems operational. We may have to leave in a hurry.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dian over the radio:<b> Aye, Skipper.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer walks over to Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mercer: <b>Did you expect an orbit change already? We’re still a long way from perihelion.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> I don’t think Rama works by our textbooks. We’re nearly at Beta. We’ll rest there for five minutes.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Quick fade out and in</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton still on the plain, at this time the ambient light inside Rama progressively, but slowly weakens:<b> Hub Control. Is the searchlight operating. We may need it in a hurry.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Over the radio, Rousseau: <b>Yes, Skipper. Here it comes.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Hub Control from the plain as a bright light begins to shine</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the men</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Let’s go.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the men from behind as they advance toward the stairway</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<br />
Fade in, med on the men resting on the fourth platform<br />
<br />
Med as the camera pans from one man to the next<br />
<br />
Close on Calvert: <b>What’s that noise, Skipper?</b><br />
<br />
Med on Norton and Mercer<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Noise? I don’t hear anything.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Calvert and Myron</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>High-pitched whistle, dropping in frequency. You must hear it. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A high-pitched whistle, dropping in frequency, begins to be heard</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer and Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Your ears are younger than mine. Oh, now I do.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The whistle seemed to come from everywhere. Soon it was loud, even piercing, and falling swiftly in pitch. Then it suddenly stopped.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the four men</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
POV from the men on the platform looking at over the interior of Rama</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The sound came on again as the lights dimmed almost all the way, then started to flash</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the men</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Rama’s interior as: “Brilliant beads, like ball lightening, raced along the six narrow valleys that had once illuminated this world. They moved from both poles toward the sea in a synchronized, hypnotic rhythm that could have only one meaning. ‘To the sea!’ the lights were calling. ‘To the sea!’ And the summons was hard to resist; there was not a man who did not feel a compulsion to turn back, and seek oblivion in the waters of Rama.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton:<b> Hub Control. Can you see what’s happening?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Rousseau looking through the telescope, sounding frightened and a little in awe: <b>Yes, Skipper. I’m looking across at the Southern Hemisphere.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Telescopes POV watching the biots running and falling into the sea</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rousseau VO: <b>There are scores of biots over there... including some big ones. Cranes, bulldozers... lots of scavengers. And they’re all rushing back to the sea faster than I’ve ever seen them before. There goes a crane... right over the edge! Just like Jimmy, but going down a lot quicker... it smashed to pieces when it hit... and here come the sharks; they’re tearing into it... ugh! It’s not a pretty sight...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b> Now I’m looking at the plain. There’s a bulldozer that seems to have broken down... it’s going round and round in circles. Now a couple of crabs are tearing into it, pulling it to pieces...</b></div>
<br />
Close on Rousseau: <b>Skipper, I think you’d better get back right away.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the men now standing</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Believe me, we’re coming just as quickly as we can.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med as they start up the last section of stairway</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Transposition fade out and in as the reach the ladder and begin to ascend </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Transposition fade out and in on long of the men ascending the ladder. The whistle abruptly stops as does the fireball lights</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton as he turns to look at Rama’s interior</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on Rama’s interior. The narrow valley’s lights were now continuous once again, but fading rapidly, sometimes flickering</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>Bridge, is Rama still turning?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of Kirchoff on the bridge: <b>Yes, Skipper. Very slowly but constant.</b></div>
<br />
Cut to close on Norton: <b>Good. It’s when Rama stops moving that I’ll really start to worry.</b><br />
<br />
Cut to telescope POV of an empty plain<br />
<br />
Rousseau VO: <b>Skipper, the biots are all gone now.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>Copy that. </b><br />
<br />
Long on the men as they continue to ascend<br />
<br />
Cut to med of the men reaching the Hub. Others helped the men to the airlock. <br />
<br />
Close on Norton as he turns to look at Rama one last time<br />
<br />
Long on Rama with very low light<br />
<br />
Med on Norton who is the last to enter the airlock, which closes behind him<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in, Norton’s state room aboard Endeavor, weightless enviornment, med on Norton sleeping as Mercer shakes him awake<br />
<br />
Med on Norton as he gets up: <b>It’s stopped turning?</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Mercer: <b>Yes. Steady as a rock.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton:<b> Let’s go to the bridge.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut exterior in space of both Endeavor and Rama. The smaller ship is in the shadow of the larger, using it as a heat shield. In this shot the Sun begins to peek over the top of Rama, displaying “the pearly splendor of the corona reappear across a background of brighter stars. There was one huge prominence, at least a half a million kilometers high, that had climbed so far from the Sun that its upper branches looked like a tree of crimson fire.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on Endeavor’s bridge</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Calvert, from navigation: <b>Skipper! We’re rolling... look at the stars...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton adjusting a monitor to display a moving star field </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Calvert: <b>But I’m getting no instrument readings!</b></div>
<br />
Med on the room<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Rate gyros operating?</b><br />
<br />
Close on Calvert: <b>Perfectly normal. I can see the zero jitter. But we’re rolling several degrees a second!</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>That’s impossible!</b><br />
<br />
Med on Calvert: <b>Of course it is... but look for yourself.</b><br />
<br />
Med as Norton does just that<br />
<br />
Close on Mercer:<b> I think we have to be in some kind of gravitational field. That’s the only explanation.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton looks at him as a bright light begins to shine on the monitor</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to exterior of Rama beginning to pull away from the Endeavor, with the Sun fully in sight now</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on the bridge</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, talking to Pak: <b>Can you get a radar reading? What’s the Doppler?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Yes, Skipper. Rama’s pulling away, accelerating at, uh, zero point zero one five gravities. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton to Mercer: <b>Rama’s underway now, and I think we’re caught in its wake.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Mercer as he nods in agreement</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to exterior as Rama’s distance from Endeavor increases</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in, the next day (24 hour period), med on Norton and Mercer in the cockpit</div>
<br />
Mercer:<b> Four, three, two, one.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to exterior as Endeavor’s main engine fires. The ship slowly turns from the course it was following, turning around, away from the Sun, toward the camera, and past it</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med on cockpit as Pak calls on the intercom</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Skipper, you better come see this.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton gets up and enters the compartment behind</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton to Pak: <b>What is it Jimmy?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak:<b> We’re approximately two hundred thousand kilometers away from Rama now, and it seems to have stopped maneuvering, but it’s gaining speed. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>It’s gaining speed? Are you sure?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pak: <b>Of course.</b></div>
<br />
Norton: <b>Have you calculated its orbit? </b><br />
<br />
Pak:<b> Yeah.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Pak: <b>It’s headed straight for the Sun.</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Fade in on long of the Rama Committee, already in progress<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose: <b>We’ve refined the calculations concerning Rama’s new orbit, and re-checked them thoroughly. It would appear the spacecraft will pass so close to the Sun... er... five hundred thousand kilometers from its surface at perihelion, to be exact. So close that it will assure it’s own destruction. How could this be? Dr Perera?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera: <b>I don’t know Ambassador. Perhaps those that controlled Rama made a mistake, or its computers malfunctioned. All it would take would be a minor miscalculation, perhaps changing the sign of an equation from a plus to a minus. That’s all it would take. I’m afraid we’ll never know for certain. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the room</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to med on Endeavor’s control room, amidst the normal business of the ship, Norton and Calvert are watching the main monitor.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the monitor which shows the Sun blacked out and a small object approaching it from the side. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the object which is Rama. Details of Rama cannot be seen due to its proximity to the Sun and the distance from Endeavor</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two men</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>How close is it to the Sun’s surface?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert turns: <b>Jimmy?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Pak at his station: <b>Approximately five million kilometers...</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Norton and Calvert</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the dot</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to outer space as Rama approaches the camera, the camera begins to move with it keeping it in the frame. Rama begins to exude a cocoon, or shell from each end of the craft until it is totally enveloped in a perfectly spherical shell about 100 kilometers in diameter, that is perfectly reflective and mirror like. The camera stops and Rama passes on its way to perihelion</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to control room on Endeavor, Norton and Calvert still watching the monitor</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on the dot, or object as it disappears</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two men</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>Wow, what happened?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, looking somewhat sad: <b>It’s gone... </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to the monitor and the empty space where the object was when a star like shinning object comes into view.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on the two</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Calvert: <b>Hey, wait a second. What’s that?</b></div>
<br />
Norton floats over to Pak<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Do you still have radar contact with Rama?</b><br />
<br />
Med on Pak: <b>I think so, or at least I have contact with something where Rama used to be...</b><br />
<br />
Close on Norton: <b>What do you mean? </b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Pak as he turns to face Norton: <b>If it’s Rama, its has changed its shape and size. It’s now a hundred kilometers in diameter and spherical.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer across the room:<b> It could be a shield of some kind. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>So Rama’s protecting itself? </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Mercer who shrugs</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton returns to the monitor</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to outer space 30 million kilometers from the sun as a remote observatory trains its cameras toward the Sun and Rama</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Rama near the Sun as its shape turns from a sphere into an ellipsoid. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to long on the Sun and Rama as the Sun’s lines of force in its corona begin to bend into a tube, that surrounds Rama</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to various angles of this phenomenon</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut long in Rama interior looking head on and a little below the Big and Little Horns as they are in full electric display, with the accompanying thunderous sound</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut back to Rama exterior shots as: “Something was happening to the solar magnetic field in the region around Rama. The million-kilometer-long-lines of force that threaded the corona and drove its wisps of fiercely ionized gas at speeds that sometimes defied even the crushing gravity of the Sun were shaping themselves around that glittering ellipsoid. Nothing was yet visible to the eye, but the orbiting instruments reported every change in magnetic flux and ultraviolet radiation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And presently even the eye could see the changes in the corona. A faintly glowing tube or tunnel, a hundred thousand kilometers long, had appeared high in the outer atmosphere of the Sun. It was slightly curved, bending along the orbit Rama was tracing, and Rama itself---or the protective cocoon around it---was visible as a glittering bead racing faster and faster down that ghostly tube through the corona.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For it was still gaining speed. Now it was moving at more than two thousand kilometers a second, and there was no question of it ever remaining a captive of the Sun. Now, at last, the Ramans’ strategy was obvious. They had come so close to the Sun merely to tap its energy at the source and to speed themselves even faster on the way to their ultimate, unknown goal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Soon it seemed that they were tapping more than energy. No one could ever be certain of this, because the nearest observing instruments were thirty million kilometers away, but there were definite indications that matter was flowing from the Sun into Rama itself, as if it was replacing the leakage and losses of ten thousand centuries in space.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Faster and faster Rama swept around the Sun, moving more swiftly than any object that had ever traveled through the solar system. In less than two hours its direction of motion had swung more than ninety degrees, and it had given a final, almost contemptuous proof of its total lack of interest in all the worlds whose peace of mind it had so rudely disturbed. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was dropping out of the elliptic, down into the southern sky, far below the plain in which all the planets move. Though that, surely, could not be its ultimate goal, it was aimed squarely at the Greater Magellanic Cloud, and the lonely gulfs beyond the Milky Way.” </div>
<br />
Cut to long shot of Rama as it leave the vicinity of the Sun downwards, as it’s shell retracts, and it disappears into space<br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to another meeting of the Rama Committee. Med on Perera</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera, a little embarrassed: <b>It would seem, ladies and gentlemen, that Rama simply used our Sun as a refueling station, and that it had no interest, whatsoever, in any of our worlds, or making contact of any kind with any of us</b>. (he looks directly at the Ambassador from Mercury)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med of the Ambassador from Mercury, also looking rather embarrassed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to Davidson: <b>Amazing. No interest in contact at all?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera: <b>It certainly seems that way.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Davidson: <b>That seems rather rude, doesn’t it?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera who cannot say anything to that</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose: <b>Where is Rama headed now?</b></div>
<br />
Med on Perera: <b>Huumm. Good question. According to our best projections, Rama is leaving the solar elliptic, and headed into the southern skies, on a course straight toward the Greater Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way’s companion galaxies, one hundred and fifty eight thousand and two hundred light years away. </b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to various reactions from the committee’s members</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Bose: <b>How long will it take to get there?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera:<b> Another good question, and the answer to that is relative to Rama’s velocity of course, and if it remains constant, but I can surmise this. The Greater Magellanic Cloud is probably not Rama’s true destination, surely it will make a change in course sometime in the future, as the time it would take to traverse the distance between the two galaxies is, at Rama’s last recorded speed, a little over twenty four million years. Even for a craft as advanced and unpredictable as Rama has proven to be, a voyage of that duration is virtually inconceivable. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Price: <b>Why?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera: <b>Well, that would be a trip over a hundred times longer than that which brought it here. If it needed to replenish its stores, so to speak, after just two hundred thousand years, think of how exhausted it would be at twenty four million. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Price: <b>Doctor Perera. We’ve all underestimated Rama’s capabilities far too many times to declare anything out of its reach. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perera, admittedly: <b>Perhaps you’re right, Doctor Price. Perhaps you are right.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Long on the room as the members digest this information</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in to med in Norton’s stateroom, weightless enviornment. Norton is lying on his bunk when there is a knock on the door</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Come in.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Ernst entering. She closes the door</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Some news for you Bill. I wanted to give it first, before the crew gets into the act. And anyway, it’s my department.</b></div>
<br />
Med on Norton as he comes out of his reverie, and sits up<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>Sorry, Laura, I don’t understand. What’s it all about?</b><br />
<br />
Ernst: <b>Don’t say you’ve forgotten!</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Stop teasing you wretched woman. I’ve had a few things on my mind recently.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst floated over to a chair and sat</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Through interplanetary crises come and go, the wheels of Martian bureaucracy grind steadily away. But I suppose Rama helped. Good thing you didn’t have to get permission from the Hermians as well. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, realizing what she’s talking about: <b>Oh! Port Lowell has issued the permit?!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Better than that. It’s already been acted on. (she looked at the piece of paper she was holding) Immediate. </b>(looking up) <b>Probably right now your new son is being conceived.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>Thanks! I hope he hasn’t minded the wait.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Ernst</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>You’re off duty, aren’t you?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>What are you thinking? This visit was purely in a professional capacity.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Norton: <b>After all these years we know each other better than that.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Close on Ernst smiling</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade out</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade in, same setting, Norton and Ernst are now in his bunk, naked and covered, he is holding her from behind. They may have had sex. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton is lost in thought. Ernst notices</div>
<br />
Ernst:<b> Now what are you thinking? You’re not becoming sentimental I hope.</b><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton, he sighs: <b>Not about us. About Rama. I’m beginning to miss it.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst: <b>Thanks very much for the compliment.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton: <b>It’s a well known fact, Laura, that men, unlike women, have two-track minds. But seriously... well, more seriously... I do feel a sense of loss.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ernst:<b> I can understand that. But hey, look. You were immensely successful, beyond all reasonable expectation. Scientists will be busy for decades analyzing what you discovered in Rama, and I might add, you did it without a single casualty. </b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Norton:<b> I suppose. But in a very real sense I failed. The Ramans used our solar system as a refueling stop, a booster station, call it what you will, on their way to more important business. They probably won’t even know the human race exists!</b></div>
<br />
Close on their faces<br />
<br />
Norton: <b>But I failed, because the nature and the purpose of the Ramans is still totally unknown. Our chance has been lost... forever.</b><br />
<br />
Fade out<br />
<br />
Slow fade in to long shot of a moderately expensive three story house in a rural setting, at night. Ambient rural noises are heard<br />
Fade in<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
“Residence of Dr. Carlisle Perera</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Lehighton, Pennsylvania</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Earth"</div>
Fade out<br />
<br />
Camera moves in slowly<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Transposition fade out and in on Perera’s living room. Camera moves through this slowly toward a stairway</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Transposition fade out and in on Perera’s bedroom, with Perera and his wife sleeping in bed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to view from above the bed as Perera sits up suddenly out of a deep sleep, breathless.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cut to med from the side as Perera’s wife wakes up in response to Perera’s movement</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wife: <b>What is it Carlisle? What’s the matter?</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Med on Perera from the front, face on looking into the camera, as he gasps: <b>The Ramans do everything in threes!</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fade to black</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Credits</div>
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-32252180620038130842018-07-25T00:11:00.002-07:002018-09-14T17:11:22.051-07:00In Remembrance of Riley Ann Sawyers and Lily Belle Burk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents…. They
are accidents and no one’s fault, as used to be thought. Once they were
considered the visible punishments for concealed sins. And just as there
are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters
born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a
malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process
produce a malformed soul? -John Steinbeck, “East of Eden”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
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</div>
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On their anniversary, for as long as Joyce’s Take is active and being
published, as much as it is possible, I will post the stories below of
Riley Ann Sawyers and Lilly Belle Burk, who were brutally murdered two
years apart, on July 25th, 2007, and July 24th, 2009 respectively. </div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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Riley Ann</div>
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</div>
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Sunday, September 20, 2009</div>
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</div>
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It's terrifying to write this. So I won't. The following are actual excerpts from various news reports:</div>
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On Oct. 29, 2007, fisherman Robert Spinn of Bayou Vista found a
storage container on an uninhabited island about a mile offshore in
Galveston Bay, Texas. It contained cement and a blonde toddler wrapped
in three plastic bags. "I ripped the bags (in the container) open with
some fishing pliers. I saw a shoe. I knew it was a person." Sheriff’s
investigators named the girl “Baby Grace” and embarked on 26-day media
blitz to confirm her identity.</div>
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Nellie Zeigler heard about “Baby Grace” on a talk radio program and found an artist’s sketch of her on the Internet.</div>
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The toddler's identity was a mystery for weeks until Sheryl Sawyers
of Ohio, saw an artist's sketch of the girl and told authorities in
Texas she thought it was her granddaughter. The call from Sheryl Sawyers
led authorities to Royce Clyde Zeigler II (24) and Kimberly Dawn Trenor
(19), who had invented a story that their daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers
had been taken away by child welfare officials in Ohio.</div>
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Riley was born and lived in Ohio until her mother Kimberly separated
from Robert Sawyers, and took Riley to Texas last summer. Kimberly met
Royce Zeigler playing the online game World of Warcraft, and had an
online relationship with him.</div>
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Kimberly's defense attorney portrayed Trenor as a scared 19-year-old
girl who had moved to Texas from Ohio to marry a man she met while
playing an online game, and after two brief encounters. She said Riley's
father, her former boyfriend, had assaulted her and Zeigler was her
"knight in shining armor, her Texas cowboy."</div>
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They married June 1st, 2007, and settled in Spring, Texas.</div>
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Although Zeigler's mother Nellie, and her husband didn’t approve of
“ready-made marriages,” she said the family opened their home to Trenor
and Riley and quickly came to love and adore the vibrant, charismatic
and intelligent toddler who brightened their lives.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nellie Zeigler recalled going to the couple’s home in June to deliver
milk and snacks, saying she knocked on the door, but it took Trenor a
while to answer. "Kim had a belt wrapped around her shoulder," Nellie
Zeigler testified.</div>
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The following week, Nellie Zeigler picked up Riley on Saturday morning, eventually changed her diaper and was disgusted with what she saw.</div>
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“Her little butt was bruised, greenish, yellowish, purplish, and I got mad,” Mrs. Zeigler said. “I let her watch cartoons, anxious for Kim and Royce to come over."</div>
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Nellie Zeigler told the couple she disapproved of the belt
discipline, saying both dropped their heads."Mom. This is never going to
happen again," Nellie said of how her son replied. "After that, I never
saw bruises on her again."</div>
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The weekends of mall shopping and bonding ended abruptly with Riley’s
death July 25, 2007, and Nellie Zeigler would spend the next four
months agonizing over the whereabouts of the “sunshine of our lives.”</div>
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Nellie Zeigler eventually learned Ohio officials didn’t have Riley,
and she and her husband confronted Trenor, asking her why she wouldn’t
tell authorities her girl was kidnapped.“My husband said, ‘Kim. You’re
lying,’ and the third time he asked, she jumped up and starts to cuss us
out,” Nellie Zeigler testified. “She shot the finger at us and said
‘F---you! F---you! F---you!’”</div>
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The confrontation continued upstairs, Nellie said. "What kind of
mother are you?’” Nellie Zeigler said. “‘You show no emotion. You never
talk about her. You never seem to care where</div>
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she's at.' I'm crying and she's smiling at me."</div>
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The two had more heated words, when Trenor said, “You’re going to pay
for this,” Nellie Zeigler testified. The couple left, she said.</div>
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Royce Zeigler worked for a company contracted to create schedules for
petrochemical companies, earning $54,000 annually. The fatal beating
happened after Zeigler stayed home from work to make sure his wife was
following his discipline plan, the defense said.</div>
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According to Trenor's attorney, Tommy Stickler Jr., Zeigler wanted
Trenor to spank Riley with a belt when she failed to say things like
"please" and "yes sir" or "no sir." Zeigler didn't believe Trenor was
doing it, however, because the 2-year-old's behavior wasn't changing. A
list was found by authorities after the arrest of the couple for the
murder of Riley, the list, called "Rules for Riley," included such
things as "being polite," "behaves in public," "toys stay in her room"
and "listen to mom & me." There was space for a 10th item on the
list but it was left blank.</div>
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During her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Kayla Allen
detailed for jurors the day that she said Riley Ann died for forgetting
to say "please" and "yes, sir. "Allen said that on July 25th, 2007,
Trenor and Zeigler disciplined Riley by whipping her with a belt,
pushing her head against a pillow and holding her head under water. She
said Zeigler grabbed Riley and tossed her across the room, fracturing
her skull. An autopsy concluded the skull fractures caused her death.
Riley died of three skull fractures she received when Zeigler, threw the
child across the room, authorities said.</div>
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Riley Ann Sawyers tried to stop her mother and stepfather from
beating her to death by reaching out to her mother and saying, "I love
you," assistant district attorney Kayla Allen told jurors earlier in the
day during her opening statement. The toddler's pleas didn't stop her
mother from brutalizing her, the prosecutor said. "To the very end,
Riley said, 'I love you' to her mom. She's reaching out," Allen said.
"That's her lifeline, to her mother. What does Kim do after hearing her
say I love you? She starts beating her."</div>
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"I said we have to get her to a hospital. (Zeigler) said, 'No we
can't. We'll go to jail,' " Trenor said in the videotape, crying. "There
came a point where she stopped breathing. He started doing CPR on the
floor. He took her ... and handed her over to me. I could just feel her
going cold."</div>
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At the defense table, Trenor's eyes teared up as she watched the videotape on a large screen.</div>
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Several jurors wiped away tears.</div>
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Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik Testified
that any one of three skull fractures he found during his autopsy could
have killed Riley. He said that it would have been apparent within
seconds of one of the fractures that Riley was in need of medical help.
Symptoms included a change in body temperature, headache and the
inability to stand up, he said, all symptoms described by Trenor in her
statement to investigators. She said that Zeigler accused Riley of
faking when she was unable to stand.</div>
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After Riley was killed, beaten so badly that Trenor said Zeigler
complained of it making his shoulder sore, the couple bought a plastic
container, partially filled it with cement, stuffed her beaten body
inside and stored it in a shed for two months. They tried to bury it in a
wooded area north of their home, but when that failed, they dumped it
in Galveston Bay in September.</div>
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The seven-woman, five man jury took less than two hours to convict
Kimberly Trenor of capital murder in the slaying of her 2-year-old
daughter. Trenor will receive an automatic life sentence without parole
because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty due to technical
reasons peculiar to Texas law. Jury foreman Randal Rothschild said it
didn't take the panel long to reach a verdict because we had all the
evidence. Apparently the jury felt it was pretty cut and dried. As his
eyes teared up, Rothschild added, "It was a very emotional trial."</div>
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Zeigler will be tried for capital murder in a separate trial. No date has been set yet.</div>
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The island where the toddler's body was found was officially renamed
"Riley's Island." A wooden cross bearing a plaque with her name was
placed there as a memorial, but Hurricane Ike washed it away on Sept.
13.</div>
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A Mr. Miller, who made that cross, said he is making a new one and
hopes that he and Riley's family can place it on the island later.</div>
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"It's sad the cross is gone. But as much damage as the hurricane did,
I was afraid the whole island would be wiped away," he said. "God did
not want that to happen. The cross will be put there again in her
honor."</div>
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In Mentor, Ohio, pink balloons were released into the wintry sky
after the funeral for Riley. Some of the balloons had cards attached
with her picture and an address where the finder could return it to her
family in northeast Ohio. The balloon release coincided with similar
releases around the world in memory of the toddler, who had been
nicknamed Baby Grace.</div>
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"People all over the world adored this child. She was loved and
cherished by everyone," Riley's great-uncle, Mike Nebelski, said in a
eulogy.</div>
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"Let's not forget Riley. Let's not forget all the other kids out there who are missing," he said.</div>
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After the service and balloon release, the funeral procession left
for Mentor Cemetery for burial of the 36-inch coffin. Inside was an urn
with the girl's ashes and various other items, including a dress and a
stuffed animal toy.</div>
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Riley Ann Sawyers was with us for 866 days. Her online memorial can be found here.</div>
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</div>
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On November 6, 2009, Royce Zeigler was convicted of capital murder
and received an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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Lily Belle Burk</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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Soon the donut and noodle people came. The line had grown to over a
block long. I got mine, seven donuts, and I took the soup too, then was
on my way home.</div>
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Unbeknownst to me, and unknown to me until Monday morning, approximately
and hour and forty five minutes before I secured my 7 donuts, the body
of Lily Belle Burk, age 17, was found near the intersection of Fifth St.
and Alameda, about a block from my home. She was discovered by an
employee of a nearby business, presumably the same gas station where
Paul and I had inflated his dolly's tires a few days previously (see,
Puzzles & Bricks). She was found in her own black Volvo, in the
passenger seat, apparently having been bludgeoned to death and her neck
slashed. There were signs of a struggle.</div>
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She had left her home in Los Feliz the day before at about 2:30 to
pick up some papers for her mother from the Southwestern University
School of Law, where her mother worked as an adjunct professor. About an
hour later she made calls to both of her parents asking them how she
might get cash from an ATM machine using her credit card, something her
card was not set up to do. Her parents stated that she did not sound
distressed.</div>
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She did not return Friday night and her parents contacted police and filed a missing persons report.</div>
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The next morning her body was discovered. Police estimate she had been dead from 5:00PM the day before.</div>
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That Friday at 5:30PM, Charlie Samuel, aged 50, was arrested on
suspicion of possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia on 3rd Street. His
fingerprints were discovered in Lily's Volvo and is now being held on
suspicion of murder without bail. Sources said Samuel had a previous
history of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, and kidnaping, and if
he did indeed kill that lovely young girl I am ashamed that I am against
the death penalty.</div>
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From the LA Times: "The thing we want people to know about Lily is
that she was a beautiful person and that she was looking forward to her
life. She was funny, warm, kind and empathetic. She was deeply and
widely loved," read the statement from her parents, Deborah Drooz and
Gregory Burk, a Times freelancer who writes about pop music.</div>
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Burk was supposed to begin her senior year at Oakwood School in North Hollywood in the fall.</div>
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She was set to star in her high school's production of a David Mamet
play and planned to volunteer helping the homeless this summer."</div>
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Dear Erin, I hope your heaven is real, and Lily now resides there.</div>
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My sincere condolences go to her parents, family, and friends.</div>
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May she rest in peace.</div>
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Update from NBC Los Angeles, May 28th 2010:</div>
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</div>
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Charlie Samuel was sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole for the July 24, 2009, slaying of Lily Belle Burk.
During the sentencing hearing, he apologized to the girl's family.</div>
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</div>
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He pleaded guilty first-degree murder, kidnapping to commit robbery,
second-degree robbery, attempted first-degree ATM robbery, carjacking
and kidnapping for carjacking. He admitted special circumstance
allegations of murder during a carjacking, kidnapping and robbery.</div>
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</div>
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The plea deal saved him from a possible death sentence. </div>
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-83539890006957966502018-06-19T17:12:00.001-07:002018-11-22T11:32:08.407-08:00Renovation 6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“What we would like to do is change the world--make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, the poor, of the destitute--the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor, in other words--we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.” ― Dorothy Day<br />
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Picture Legend<br />
<br />
1. Los Altos<br />
2. Catherine Morris & Jeff Dietrich<br />
3. Hardy in a contemplative moment<br />
4. Whittier Narrows Recreation Area<br />
5. Legg Lake<br />
6. Ducks<br />
7. One footed goose<br />
8. Megan <br />
9. Obon<br />
10. Traditional Japanese attire<br />
11. Shrine<br />
12. Rev, Peter Hata<br />
13. TaikoProject<br />
14. Bishop Noriaki Ito<br />
15. 11 year old Meivelyn Noemi Cacao Mendoza<br />
16. Fracking next door<br />
17. Light’s journey<br />
18. Eclipse<br />
19. The Dude<br />
20. Michael Deutsch and Michael H. Parsons<br />
21. The tunnel <br />
22. What we saw<br />
23. Resting<br />
24. Someone had come before us<br />
25. Michael Deutsch’s Ruminations <br />
26. Bats!<br />
27. Big bats!<br />
28. Traversing<br />
29. The River<br />
30. Continuing On<br />
31. Parsons Smoking a Cigarette<br />
32. Adrienne Barbeau<br />
33. Amazonian Giant Centipede<br />
34. Leipsic, Ohio<br />
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Los Altos, California. Jesuit Retreat Center. July 27 1:37pm</div>
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Fr. Kirinan McCalister walked along one of the many secluded paths which interlaced through out the 36 acre retreat center. </div>
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Although the sun was high in the cloudless sky, and the day warm, his thoughts swayed toward a brooding eventuality laced with bitter resolve and dull foreboding. </div>
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A neophyte, a young boy of 16 dressed the same as the Father hurried up the path to meet him.</div>
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“Father,” he called out.</div>
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McCalister turned around and received the written message the boy handed to him.</div>
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McCalister glanced at it, already fairly sure what the message contained.</div>
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He read it, looked around at the beautiful surroundings, then began walking back the way he had come.</div>
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</div>
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Los Angeles, California. Hospitality Kitchen. July 28 8:22am Friday</div>
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The new laundry room doesn’t have a sink. It used to. The large sink in the old laundry room was useful for just about everything a large sink normally does, plus one could hand wash large items in it if one had a mind to, which I often did. </div>
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But now we don’t have one. It’s as if someone, or something, zapped it out of existence.</div>
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Basically the renovation planners and workers did not renovate the laundry room. What they did, what took them 18 months to do, was make a small room where one had previously existed, then place inside that room two washers and two dryers. </div>
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There’s a small chair in there presently. That will come and go as it’s not attached to the floor.</div>
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And there’s no coffee! All laundry rooms and laundromats should have coffee!</div>
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Anyway, I was at the <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2009/03/hippie-kitchen.html"><i>Hippie Kitchen</i></a> (what the <a href="http://lacatholicworker.org/about-the-lacw"><i>Los Angeles Catholic Worker</i></a>, nominally run by Catherine Morris and Jeff Dietrich, naively call the Hospitality Kitchen. The L.A. Catholic Worker is an offshoot of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Worker_Movement"><i>Catholic Worker Movement</i></a>, founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin in 1933) this morning to go on a picnic!</div>
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The annual July Picnic! </div>
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I had come down to the kitchen yesterday and got a ticket for this event. It wasn’t hard. They were just giving them away.</div>
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I was #32.</div>
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Hardy has Hippie Kitchen connections, and didn’t even bother to get a ticket, and he got on the bus before I did, the little brown nosing bastard. </div>
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Why was I going? I feel the need to get closer to the community I live in. I live on the outskirts of Skid Row but rarely deal with the homeless themselves other to pass them on the streets. If I survive the renovation I hope to work more intimately with this population, and the Hippie Kitchen, and this picnic is as good a place to start as any. </div>
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Ann herded everyone on the bus and we began our journey to South El Monte (34° 2′ 56″ N, 118° 2′ 54″ W), a trip of some 13.4 miles via the mighty CA-60 E. </div>
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I found it mildly amusing that Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” was playing over the radio, on a bus almost filled to capacity with black people.</div>
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Our destination was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittier_Narrows"><i>Whittier Narrows Recreation Area</i></a>, and it’s Legg Lake.</div>
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We got there around 9:30. Catholic Worker people (mostly very young men and women in their early twenties) gave us chips and salsa as we exited the bus. </div>
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And then we walked over to the picnic area and waited around for lunch. Or at least that’s what I did. I was at a picnic table with four other picnickers. I tried to read from “The Essential Shinran,” Shinran Shonin (1173 – 1263) being the founder of Shin Buddhism, or Jōdo Shinshū, but I kept falling asleep. Some people threw a football around. Some people, like Hardy, took a nap. Some people played chess and board games. </div>
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I began to fall asleep without reading. I was either tired or being asphyxiated by the smoke from the hamburger grill. </div>
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At one point I got up and walked around. I found some geese that I walked amongst, which is something I rarely do. I had no idea geese liked to stand on one leg, but I saw this happen. I had thought that only flamingoes or storks did this, but I was wrong. Lot’s of birds do it. </div>
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Later I asked Hardy about this phenomena, and he told me that birds' legs have an adaptation called "rete mirabile" that minimizes heat loss. The arteries that transport warm blood into the legs lie in contact with the veins that return colder blood to the bird's heart. The arteries warm the veins. </div>
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It all made so much sense then. </div>
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A short, pretty, brunette spitfire by the name of Megan seemed to be in charge of everything at the picnic area.</div>
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This is what I know about <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Megan"><i>Megan</i></a>: Megan (also spelled Meagan, Meghan, Meagen, Meagan, Meaghan, Megyn etc.) is a Welsh female name, originally a pet form of Meg or Meggie, which is itself a short form of Margaret. Megan is one of the most popular Welsh names in England and Wales; it is commonly truncated to Meg. Nowadays it is generally used as an independent name rather than as a nickname.</div>
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Urban Dictionary: “Megan is a girl that no matter how hard you try you can't stop thinking about her. Whether you spoke to her yesterday or 3 years ago you still think about her everyday!”</div>
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This is true. I think of her often. She frightens me.</div>
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Before lunch was served she gathered everybody into a large circle for a prayer, but before that she laid down the law. Two burgers for everybody. Veggie burgers were available but please leave them to the real vegetarians. After the staff gets to eat if there is anything left we will hand out seconds. If you take a nap after eating make sure we know where you are as the bus is leaving promptly at 1:30, and if you’re not on it you will be left there.</div>
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Damn! I briefly thought I was back in boot camp!</div>
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She threatened to leave us there! 13.4 miles is a pretty long walk.</div>
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If I was duck I could flap my wings and fly home, but I’m not a duck.</div>
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Accordingly everyone was on that bus at 1:30.</div>
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And so we made our way home.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Later, while looking over the Los Angeles Catholic Worker web-site, I discovered that this year’s pool party, scheduled for July 30th, had been canceled due to a frightening infestation of ravenous, chlorine loving jellyfish... the bad kind, not those nice jellyfishes. </div>
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July 29. Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple (34° 3′ 25.2″ N, 118° 14′ 16.8″ W). 1:37pm</div>
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Today was the first day of the annual <a href="http://www.japanese-city.com/calendar/events/index.php?eID=34607"><i>Oban Festival</i></a> (often called the Japanese Day of the Dead, Obon is an annual summertime celebration that honors loved ones who have passed away, similar to an Irish Wake in not very many ways). </div>
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I prepared for the much anticipated festival by walking to the library and back in the 82 degree heat, ensuring that I was nice and sweaty before I left for the temple.</div>
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Fortunately I had purchased an official 2017 Obon Festival T-Shirt which I had never worn before, so I took off my sweat stained regular T-Shirt and on my new Obon T-Shirt (accidentally backwards), and went to the festival.</div>
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The festival resided in the temple’s ample parking lot. There were a lot of people already there, maybe thirty thousand or so. I wanted to buy either an Obon or Higashi Honganji ball cap, but they didn’t have any. I would have bought a Happi Shirt for $60, but they didn’t take credit cards and my cash was limited.</div>
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So I bought nothing at that time.</div>
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A band was playing popular music. There were booths selling chicken teriyaki bowls, hot dogs, hamburgers, and tacos, beef bowls, shaved ice with different toppings, cold drinks, even beer. </div>
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On the other side of the parking lot there were ring toss games, bottle knocking over games, face painting, duck squirting games, etc. </div>
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Little girls were dressed in traditional Japanese attire, like in picture #10 above. </div>
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Everything was quite festive, so I went home.</div>
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But not before buying a serving of Japanese somen noodles. </div>
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They seemed like regular noodles with some tofu and other spices in it. </div>
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I had forgotten that these were served cold, so I took them home and microwaved them for a minute and a half, and golly, they were good! </div>
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I had volunteered to work in one of those booths, but Higashi officials had forgotten to get back to me, so I could go there at will and with a clear conscience about not having to do anything, which I do particularly well.</div>
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I returned to the festival shortly before 4pm and bought a lottery ticket. Perhaps I’ll win. Probably not.</div>
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My esteemed teacher, Rev. Peter Hata was giving a talk on mindfulness in the hondō, or meeting hall where the stage or shrine is located, and from where the Rev spoke. </div>
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Basically I’ve forgotten what it was he said because I forgot to bring my notebook and pen, but the talk was very informative, I’m sure.</div>
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After the lecture I had the extreme pleasure of watching a live performance from the <a href="http://www.taikoproject.com/#home-section"><i>TaikoProject</i></a>, which consisted of mostly young men and women beating poor defenseless taiko drums (a broad range of Japanese percussion instruments) in a choreographed manner. </div>
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They were absolutely amazing. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQX9yP9dLEU"><i>Here </i></a>is a clip of them filmed at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts // St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this year. </div>
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I bought a nice chicken teriyaki bowl before leaving for the day. </div>
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I was exhausted.</div>
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July 30. Alameda Street headed North. 10:35am.</div>
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As I passed Palmetto St a lady in a car asked me for directions to the homeless people.</div>
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She had some kind of foreign accent and may not have been familiar with the downtown area. She and her friend were there to give the homeless people some food, submarine sandwiches to be exact.</div>
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I told her to make a left on Alameda, a right on 6th St, another right on Central, then a left on 5th. She’d find plenty of homeless people around there.</div>
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Lot’s of nice people bring food to the streets of the homeless. They are usually affiliated with religious organizations. Not always, but most of the time.</div>
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That, and the missions that serve meals every day, and the Hippie Kitchen, pretty much ensures that no one will ever starve on Skid Row.</div>
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I was headed back to the temple for the annual Obon/Hatsubon service, which honors members who have passed away since the last Obon/Hatsubon service.</div>
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I bought a beef bowl before leaving and stopped at the Japanese Market to consume a plate of curried shrimp. It was good.</div>
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I returned to the temple by 4:00pm to hear<a href="http://hhbt-la.org/?page_id=302"><i> Rev. Hata</i></a>’s talk on an introduction to Buddhism, which included the song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day, and a clip from the 1995 animated film “Pocahontas (Colors of the Wind).”</div>
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I left for a meeting of the Drifters at 7:00pm, after which the power in the east side of my room (which included my computer and TV) shut off for no apparent reason. </div>
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When I returned I switched the circuit breaker back on and the power was restored.</div>
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About an hour later the power shut itself off for about half a second, long enough to screw up my computer and TV. </div>
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No one knows why.</div>
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No one.</div>
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July 31. The Las Americas. 10:32am.</div>
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The exterminators came today. I don’t know why.</div>
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I mean, there are plenty of things to exterminate with the snails, rats, centipedes, and all, but those animals are never around when the exterminators come.</div>
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It’s as if they knew they were coming somehow.</div>
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Maybe that’s why the exterminators came today rather than the second Wednesday of the month. Maybe they’re trying to mix the critters up a little. </div>
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The exterminators don’t really strike me as being that smart or clever though. They were probably here for some other, unfathomable reason.</div>
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A SRHT maintenance person came and fixed my fire alarm today. He only did it because Tommy noticed it hadn’t been fixed when the exterminator came, and my room is scheduled for an inspection by the Housing Authority tomorrow, otherwise I’d still have wires hanging out of my ceiling. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A tiny, tan colored moth alighted on my shirt today as I watered the thirsty plants in the garden. It told me there were dark forces afoot in the bowels of the Las Americas trying to break free and that I, and everyone else should leave the vicinity immediately. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have never had such a message from the moths before. </div>
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I usually get my information from the sparrows.</div>
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For some indeterminate reason Miracle gave me a piece of barbecued chicken, and ear of corn, cornbread and greens as I watered the garden. </div>
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She probably did it because she was happy that I was not getting water on the mud below her window as she was afraid of mosquitoes that might evolve from that wet mud. </div>
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And because she had been drinking. </div>
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The only mosquitoes around are the ones in her head.</div>
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Plenty of snails, rats, and centipedes though. </div>
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And Martian Mousetraps (Nepenthes spathulata).</div>
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They’re proliferating. </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 1. 10:31am. Tuesday.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy knocked on my door this morning. He had the Housing Authority’s official inspector with him. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The inspector inspected my room. He checked the newly installed fire alarm. He asked me if my window was working.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Brand new,” I told him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We just came from a room that had a brand new broken window,” he told me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really?” I said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah,” Tommy said. “Your friend, your best friend... ah, what’s his name... Francisco... had a broken window that he didn’t tell anyone about.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh gosh. Did he say how it was broken?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No,” Tommy said. “He wasn’t there. His room was empty, and it looked like it had been vacated quickly. It as if someone, or something, zapped him out of existence.”</div>
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A cold shiver ran up and down my spine.</div>
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“Well I’m sure he’ll have a good explanation when he gets back.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We’ll see,” Tommy said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Housing Authority inspector checked my electrical outlets and if water was flowing from the sink spigot. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was.</div>
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And then they were gone. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I know what you’re thinking. I had the perfect opportunity to let someone in authority know about the sinister going’s on at the hotel. I could have passed a note to the inspector directing them to this detailed account, but I didn’t. Why?</div>
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I don’t know. I got spooked. I found myself paralyzed with uncertainty.</div>
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We’ll continue to hope for the best.</div>
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In any case I’ve been inspected and am good for another year.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s as if someone, or something, wants me to stay right where I am.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
11:04am</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw Megan at the Hippie Kitchen this morning spooning out diced onions to those who wanted them.</div>
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Tuna casserole today!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got up the courage to briefly talk to her and told her that I had written about her in conjunction with last week’s picnic. I gave her my card and told her I would post “The Picnic,” excerpt from this post for three days so she could read it if she wanted. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She told me to get a haircut, and that I would be inspected Thursday at 10:30am sharp!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got myself some tuna casserole and left... quickly.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
1:22pm. Downtown Los Angeles. 5th & Broadway.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got a haircut at the <a href="http://labarbercollege1.com/"><i>LA Barber College </i></a>in the little mall just north of 5th Street on Broadway.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They’ve raised the price of a simple haircut from $5.50 to $7.50.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Inflation. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Plus a buck tip. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned to the Las Americas feeling somewhat more secure.</div>
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August 3. 8:16am.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The pretty black girl and her little dog are still sleeping near the west bound 18 bus stop. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During the early evening she sets up her baby stroller and blanket in front of the Metro Division 1 building across the street from the bus stop, and a few hours later moves over to the bus stop proper. </div>
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She makes me sad, but there’s nothing I can do for her if she doesn’t want help.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The residents of the Las Americas (SE1) were notified last Friday that workers would either come today or tomorrow to install fire alarms.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As previously noted I had a fire alarm installed Monday in order to pass the annual inspection by the Housing Authority.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did not expect the workers would come this morning just after 8 and install a second ceiling fire alarm. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now I have two.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Usually I applaud redundancy in critical and complex systems, but this had me scratching my head a little.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“So I have two alarms now?” I asked the installer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He shook his head in the affirmative.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps each fire alarm is for a different kind of smoke or fire. Maybe one alarm is primarily for electrical fires and the other for oil, or combustible fires. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I doubt it though. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have no idea why I have two fire alarms, but I will endure.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Last night as I was paying my bill to <a href="https://www.children.org/"><i>Children International</i></a> online I discovered that a new photograph of the little girl I’ve sponsored for almost 5 years in Guayaquil, Ecuador, 11 year old Meivelyn Noemi Cacao Mendoza, was now available (picture #15). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On July 22nd I received Meivelyn’s Report, an annual report that lets me know what she has been up to.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here’s what Meivelyn has been up to:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Details About Meivelyn</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Meivelyn turned 11 years old on her last birthday, which was April 7, The last time she was measured and weighed, she had grown to 4 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 73 pounds.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
School/Activities</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Meivelyn attends school. According to Meivelyn , her favorite subjects are art and math.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Like other Ecuadoran children her age, Meivelyn loves to spend her free time engaged in activities like playing with dolls and listening to music. She counts drawing among her talents or hobbies.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Home Life</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Meivelyn lives with her parents in a community where most families survive on incomes that average around $327 a month. Frankly, because the unemployment rate is high, many parents struggle to find a steady job. When they do find consistent work, most adults are laborers, bricklayers, and vendors.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While the income varies, they usually average about $318 a month.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The family lives in a house, which is constructed of concrete block walls, concrete flooring, and a corrugated metal roof. It has a kitchen, two bedrooms, and one multipurpose room. Meivelyn sleeps on a wooden bed. Cooking facilities consist of a portable gas stove. The home has electricity, and the sanitary facility is a latrine. The family is fortunate to have running water.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m fortunate to have running water.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If memory serves, her father’s name is Jose. He is a bricklayer. Her mother’s name is Cecilia. She is a homemaker. And Meivelyn has a little brother, Johan Jose, who is 9 years old.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My hope for Meivelyn is that she continues her education, and does not get caught in the marriage, child bearing cycle that would more than likely subject her to unrelenting and abject poverty for the rest of her life. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The chances of that happening are small, but I will continue to do everything in my power to help her along, whatever she does. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Her existence makes me happy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The garden ladies didn’t show for a second week in a row. Very strange.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They were expected at 9am, and once again Hardy and myself were outside in front to greet them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 3.12pm we decided they were not coming and went back inside.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 4. 10:52am.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The mist next door briefly cleared this morning to reveal what appeared to be a small fracking facility.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had no idea there was oil or gas anywhere around the Las Americas.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 11:03 the mist returned obfuscating our new neighbor. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 11:42pm the Las Americas began shaking violently due to a small earth tremor, causing some of my books to fall from their shelf. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A relatively minor tremor, with preliminary magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter Scale. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The quakes epicenter was not immediately pinpointed, but seemed to emanate from somewhere in the downtown Los Angeles area.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 7. 9:31am.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I returned from a late shower this morning the power was off in my room in a way that had never occurred before. The lights were off but all of my appliances were on and working.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My computer, TV, fans, toaster, microwave were all on and running, but the room light and the light above my sink were off and would not switch back on.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How could this be? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My fans, toaster and microwave are all connected to the same breaker that the lights should be on, but they were working and the lights were not.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I became frightened and insecure.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I found some breakers off in Jose’s janitor closet and switched them back on, and the power to my lights returned.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Very strange. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The entities that inhabit the Las Americas are making themselves known.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 21. 9:00:58am. Monday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At about 227,497 miles due north of the planet’s surface our moon... the Moon, had the effrontery to place itself between the Earth and the Sun... our sun. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 21 Solar Eclipse as seen from Los Angeles:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
33°30'18"N 122°46'59"W</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Partial solar eclipse visible (58.91% coverage of Sun)</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Magnitude: 0.6671</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Duration:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2 hours, 32 minutes, 33 seconds</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Partial begins:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aug 21 at 9:00:58 am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Maximum:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aug 21 at 10:12:56 am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Partial ends:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aug 21 at 11:33:31 am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dubbed "The Great American Eclipse" by the media, it was a total solar eclipse visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States, passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Was this some kind of sign? Was the Moon trying to tell me something?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Probably not.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 22. 12:05pm. Tuesday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It looks like we might get a sink in the laundry room yet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There’s a counter in there now, with a rectangular hole in it, suggesting a sink will be installed eventually. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Good!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although when it might be installed is anyone’s guess. I returned from a short walk about an hour ago and noticed there were no renovation workers about, and therefore no work was being done, which is rather odd considering the renovation process doesn’t seem to be anywhere near complete. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For example, that room inspection by the Housing Authority that transpired on August 1st... well I received a determination in the mail a few days ago.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I failed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Or rather, the building that surrounds my room failed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Tenant:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
TO TENANT AND OWNER: The unit referenced above failed inspection. The deficiencies (problems) and who is responsible for correcting them are noted below. A re-inspection has been automatically scheduled for 8/29/2017 between the hours of 8:00am and 4:30pm.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The letter goes on with a section for the tenant describing what might happen if my “unit” failed the re-inspection due to deficiencies that I was responsible for (the portion of my rent that the Housing Authority pays), and a section for the owner describing again what might happen if said “unit” failed the re-inspection due to deficiencies the owner was responsible for (that Housing Authority payments will cease, and the owner will have to make up the deference).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And those deficiencies “noted below” are the following (please excuse me. This section is a little dry but necessary for a complete record):</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
ROOM DEFICIENCIES RESULT/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
RESPONSIBLE</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bathroom Electrical Hazards</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Repair ground fault interrupters (GFI) in bathrooms Owner Fail/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
on 3rd floor (No power) Owner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Bathroom Tub or Shower in Unit Owner Fail/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Install shower heads in stalls on 3rd floor Owner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Entrance Halls, Security/Door Owner Fail/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Corridors, Halls, Install locks on corridor doors Owner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Staircases </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Entrance Halls, Ceiling Condition Owner Fail/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Corridors, Halls, Cover openings on ceiling showing exposed Owner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Staircases wires in hallways and above unit front door</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Entrance Halls, Wall Condition Owner Fail/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Corridors, Halls, Cover openings on walls showing exposed wires Owner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Staircases in hallways</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Entrance Halls, Electrical Hazards Owner Fail/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Corridors, Halls, Secure dangling light fixtures and fire alarms Owner</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Staircases in hallways as needed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
______________________________________________________________________________</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now this report is strange in several ways, first and foremost, these deficiencies have nothing to do with my room, so why was I failed?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Don’t know. Perhaps this is just Housing Authority standard operating procedure. Obviously the hallways, ceilings, and exterior bathrooms do not collect Housing Authority rental assistance, so the only incentive the Authority can provide to the owner to fix said deficiencies is to fail a room and threaten to withhold rental assistance.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I guess I answered my own question.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In any case it’s not my problem. Ultimately it’s SRHT’s problem... one that they don’t seem very concerned about, as I said earlier, there is no one working around here today.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So the Housing Authority is pissed off about the general condition of the hotel, something I’ve suspected for many months now. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And the Housing Authority, I believe, carries a lot of weight around here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And so does the Los Angeles Fire Department.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They were here last Saturday night when a black girl on the second floor began suffering from unexplained seizures (she was not epileptic, and had no prior history seizures). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unfortunately she succumbed to the attack and passed away. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In any case, the night time security guard told Hardy, who told me, that the fire people were not at all pleased with the state of the Las Americas, citing many of the same deficiencies cited above.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So now we have two huge agencies that weld not a small amount of power, I imagine, over SRHT, who are upset with the progress being made concerning the renovation. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hardy and I thought about the possibility of being evicted, not through any fault of our own, from the Las Americas, and relocated to one of the other hotels.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Considering the events currently transpiring within the building perhaps that would be best... before more people disappeared or were hurt.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We shall see.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
SRHT ambassador John came by my unit this afternoon, with another man who needed to check something in my room. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I mentioned to them both that my room had failed the Housing Authority’s inspection.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah,” John said. “All of the units have failed inspection.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Doesn’t Skid Row Housing Trust suffer from this?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh yes, we do.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Well what’s going to happen?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We prefer to get the building up to code by finishing the renovation.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I hate to tell you this John, but no one seems to be working around here today.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A pained expression came over his youthful and handsome face.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes, I know,” he said. “We’re negotiating contracts right now.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yup.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There you have it. SRHT is openly ignoring Housing Authority protocol, apparently not overly concerned about the consequences of doing such.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Why? What drives them?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 9:47pm downtown Los Angeles experienced a 2.4 trembler.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I hardly felt it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 25. 5:27pm. Friday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Went to the showers this morning, using the main shower room on the 3rd floor. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I found the sink about half way filled with urine. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whether it was half full or half empty is at the cruxes of an ongoing philosophical debate that I’ll leave for a future time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I put my towel on the one available towel rack which promptly disengaged itself from the wall and fell to the floor drawn toward the planet’s center due to gravity.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The shower worked!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And I need to report that throughout the entire week no work was done, and no renovation worker showed up to renovate. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps next week.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
August 31. 3:50pm. Thursday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another resident died last night.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I left my room to attend the weekly Garden Group I saw the police in the third floor hallway talking to emergency medical personal. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apparently it was a male who passed away during the night. Cause of death unknown.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s unreasonably hot in Los Angeles. 99 degrees today. It’s been this way for the last several days, and isn’t expected to cool down anytime soon. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m experiencing a deep seated cough for the last week and a half. A dry cough that does nothing to break up the congestion in my lungs. I’ve skipped four yoga classes because of it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve also been very fatigued for as long as I’ve had the cough, and take several naps during the day, something I don’t normally do. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps it is walking pneumonia, acute broncitius, whooping cough, or some other foul medieval disease. If it’s not better soon I will seek medical attention with the goal of treating this with antibiotics. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With the draining heat and this fatigue I try to stay in my room as much as possible.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But it’s hot in there as well. The air conditioning units that the renovators installed on our walls in the rooms have not been activated. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did walk to the Hippie Kitchen at around 10:50 to load up on split pea gunk. I put some diced ham, cheese, peppers, and soy sauce in it, and mixed it with rice for lunch.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was good.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The pretty black lady and her dog are still out there on the sidewalk in front of the MTA’s office. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I wonder what her plans are.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The noise from the misted over fracking site next to our building is irritating.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I spoke to SRHT employee John yesterday. I asked him when it was expected that workers would return to the work of completing the renovation as they have been absent this week as well.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Hopefully next week,” he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hopefully.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
September 2. 10:25am. Saturday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I used our new laundry room this morning to wash two pair of pants and a towel. Still no sink, which is to be expected as no renovation workers showed up last week.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did discover that there is one washer to five dryers which is interesting, don’t you think?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I believe it’s the only laundry room I’ve ever seen with such an emphasis on drying clothes rather than washing them. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Of course somebody had left a load of washed clothes in the washer which I had to remove, which is always a tricky business. Some people get very upset when another person touches their<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac"><i> stuff</i></a>, even when they are decidedly in the wrong for not having taken the responsibility to remove their clothes themselves. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Last night a man of Hispanic heritage came out into the garden as I was watering. After asking me if I spoke Spanish, I told him “No, amigo mío, no hablo español. ¿Cómo puedo estar de servicio?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He told me that I was getting water in his first floor window which was getting some of his clothes wet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I showed him how I watered the plants directly below his window and that no water was getting anywhere near his room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He persisted.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I told him that I was not the only one who watered the garden, and that if he had a problem the garden being watered he should talk to Tommy. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He persisted, and begged me not to water his window anymore. “I’m saying please!” he cried.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a perfect example of dealing with people who know they’re right even when they clearly are not.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Alright. I will stop,” I told him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He went away then.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On my way back to my room I noticed that there were actually three washers in there, and three dryers. I had mistaken two washers as dryers because all of the machines are front loading.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Following the principles of the scientific method I had to bow to new evidence that had presented itself and change my position accordingly. Now I admit there are an equal number of washers and dryers. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The semi-wet clothes I had removed from the washer I had used earlier were still on the counter where I had placed them hours before. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I snuck up on Kevin, the assistant residence manager, and got him to give me my mail, a difficult feat as half of the time both Kevin and Tommy are no where to be found.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I received a great many things in the mail, some of consequence.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Most importantly I got my Monty Phyton and Dude T-Shirts. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Phyton shirt is black with the symbols and words “The Royal Society of Putting Things on Top of Other Things,” printed on the front.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Dude shirt just had a picture of a long-haired, and bearded Jeff Bridges portraying Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, smiling and holding a glass of kalhua.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am an ordained minister of <a href="http://dudeism.com/"><i>The Church of the Latter-Day Dude</i></a>, and can officiate marriage ceremonies in Los Angeles.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have a certificate to prove this. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I also received a letter from my doctor at the Veteran’s Administration, Dr. Garcia, informing me of the results of my latest blood, urine tests, and chest X-ray.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It told me my urine was slightly hazy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It also told me that all of my tests were normal except for my thyroid level, which was “not controlled.” He sent me some more levothyroxine with a higher dose than that I had been taking.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The letter did not mention the results from my electrocardiogram and FOB test.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What are they trying to hide?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What gave me pause, what got me a little excited, was the section describing the results of my chest X-ray, which at first glance looked like this:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is no acute cardiopulmonary disease.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The lung fields are overall clear. There is no focal air space </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
consolidation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is no gross pulmonary edema, or gross pleural effusions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The cardiomediastinal silhouette is overall normal. There is</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
evidence of gross cardiomegaly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cardiomegaly! WTF is cardiomegaly!? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wikipedia tells us: “Cardiomegaly is a medical condition in which the heart is enlarged. It is more commonly referred to as an enlarged heart. The causes of cardiomegaly may vary. Many times this condition results from high blood pressure (hypertension) or coronary artery disease. An enlarged heart may not pump blood effectively, resulting in congestive heart failure. Cardiomegaly may improve over time, but many people with an enlarged heart need lifelong treatment with medications. Having an immediate family member who has or had cardiomegaly may indicate that a person is more susceptible to getting this condition. Cardiomegaly is not a disease but rather a condition that can result from a host of other diseases such as obesity or coronary artery disease. Recent studies suggest that cardiomegaly is associated with a higher risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sudden cardiac death! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
WTF!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After I wrote my will I looked at the letter a second time, and a little bit closer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I discovered I missed something.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is no acute cardiopulmonary disease.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The lung fields are overall clear. There is no focal air space </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
consolidation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is no gross pulmonary edema, or gross pleural effusions.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The cardiomediastinal silhouette is overall normal. There is</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
no</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
evidence of gross cardiomegaly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jesus H Christ and his mother Alice! I was about ready for the bone yard and that little two letter misplaced word saved me!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think Dr. Garcia is trying to kill me to reduce his caseload. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I also got an interesting letter from the Housing Authority. It told me that “The unit listed above [my unit] failed the reinspection on 08/29/2017 because the deficiencies listed below have not been corrected. Effective the day after 08/29/2017 the Housing Authority Payment (HAP) for the above referenced unit is hereby abated. This means no further payment will be made on the unit until it passes inspection and such payment will be retroactive only to the date the unit passes inspection. The tenant will continue to pay only the tenant portion of the rent.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The letter went on to list the same deficiencies that were listed on the letter I received August 22nd.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, SRHT really is suffering from the lack of progress being made around here. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How long will this continue?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How long until this whole nightmare ends.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
September 5. 11:02am. Tuesday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some renovation workers are back!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They were on the first floor doing electrical stuff, which was rather frightening considering their tendency to turn the building’s power off.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got two notices on my door this morning. One telling my I had to let workers into my room so they could replace the fire sprinkler, and one telling me there would be no hot water from 8am until noon. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, at least something’s being done. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I passed the corner of Central and 6th on my way to the Hippie Kitchen (pasta with chicken and red sauce. Megan served me, with a sly, come-hither look) I noticed a billboard with the words “In The Beginning, God Created.” with a evolution symbol, but with an X drawn through it, which I assume meant the people paying for the billboard believed God created everything and discounted Darwin’s theory of evolution. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Anytime, anyone uses "God" in an argument, any argument (or to state a position), I have to ask, first of all, please provide unambiguous (not antidotal) evidence for the existence of this "God." The onus or burden of proof is on the one using "God" in an argument. It is not on those faced with this argument to disprove the "God" theory. If no evidence can be provided, then whatever argument is being made cannot be taken seriously.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is ample evidence that the theory of evolution is a fact. There is no evidence that God exists.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Which reminds me of what happened last Sunday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
September 3 Las Americas 5:48pm. Sunday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was sitting in my room, minding my own business, watching “Sharknado 5: Global Swarming ("Make America Bait Again").” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I must say the whole sharknado thing seems highly unlikely.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anyway, Tommy knocked on my open door and asked me if I had a water key (the four pronged metal tool that opens up the water faucet in the garden).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I have a key... yes.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Can I borrow it? I’m trying to clean out my grill. I’ll bring it right back.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Sure,” I said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He didn’t come back. At 6:45pm my neighbor Arnold called to me from the hallway, then entered my room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Rick,” he said. “Why would the water be off on the weekend?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The water’s off?” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I checked my sink, and indeed, the water was off.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I don’t know,” I said. “Tommy’s downstairs. You should ask him.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No. It’s the weekend,” Arnold exclaimed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Tommy lives here now. He just borrowed the water key from me a little while ago.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh. I didn’t know that. Where’s his room?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s the room right across from his office.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Arnold left, then came back.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s alright,” Arnold told me. “Tommy shut off the water himself. He’s working on something and he’ll turn it back on when he’s finished.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was time for me to leave for a Drifters meeting anyway so I went downstairs to find Tommy and my friend Cliff trying to break into Tommy’s office as Tommy had locked himself out.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The water key was in there as well.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They had to unscrew a large rectangular piece of plywood that was covering a rectangular hole in the side of his office that would normally be a window if the renovation process were complete. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy stood on a can of paint while he leaned into the window/hole and fished for his keys with a long piece of metal.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What happened?” I asked Cliff. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Rats,” he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Tommy left his keys in the office and three rats rushed in and closed and locked the door.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Come here you little bastard!” Tommy called out.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Geez. The rats are getting pretty bold,” I said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I’ll say. Last week they kidnaped Fernando,” Cliff told me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really? I was wondering why I hadn’t seen him.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Suddenly Tommy’s rear end and legs were roughly pulled into the office, and sound of a huge scuffle could be heard inside there as Tommy negotiated with the rats.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Gimme that, fuckers!” Tommy screamed. “Take that, and that, and that!” He was now beating at his rat attackers with his office broom. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A loud crash issued from his office.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Maybe we should call nine-one-one,” I suggested to Cliff.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It wouldn’t do any good. The police and fire people won’t come here anymore.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I leaned over the open window and called out, “Tommy, are you alright?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A loud boom echoed through the office and hallway, several, kicking noises and beating noises could be heard.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At last the office door opened. Tommy came out looking quite disheveled, his clothes torn and in tatters, several deep scratches could be seen on his arms, face, and chest. The broom he was holding head was missing so he was actually holding a long pointed stick. And in the other hand he had his keys.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Gott'em,” he said triumphantly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Speaking of rats, back in July, Dr Parsons and his crew followed me as I descended the back stairway that led to the basement.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We have to be quiet. The resident manager didn’t give me permission to come down here, let alone bring you guys." </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Michael H. Parsons of the the Department of Biological Sciences, Fordham University in New York, had brought ten of his students and assistants with him. Don’t worry,” Dr. Parsons said. “We’ve conducted clandestine operations before.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As we reached the floor of the basement I looked around and found the light switch. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The cavernous room was washed in dull white light. The men and two women adjusted their equipment as they looked around. No rats could be seen... yet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We walked around the the walls of the buildings lowest room, starting from north to the south. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At the southern end we stopped, having found nothing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I don’t understand it,” I said. “I know for a fact that the rats come from here.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes, I know,” Parsons replied. “Look at all of these droppings.” He pointed to the floor that was littered with pounds of rat shit. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“See! They are here, somewhere,” I said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes, indeed. But where?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I feel a breeze here, doctor,” one of his male assistants said, pointing to a section of the wall the had been covered with several sheets of pressboard.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons walked up to it, took off one of his rat gloves, and felt around the pressboard.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“There’s something behind this,” he said. “Let’s clear this away.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Which they did, discovering the passageway shown in picture A21 above. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Wow,” I said. “I’ve never seen this before.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Somebody’s trying to hide it,” the doctor said. “I wonder why.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Well, let’s get started.” Parsons led they way, I followed him, and the rest followed me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I really need to thank you for coming,” I said. “The rats are really getting to be a big problem.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons looked back at me. “It’s a real opportunity to come out here. The most difficult challenge of urban rat research is finding suitable research sites, such as this, if what you indicated in your letter is true.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh, it’s true all right. Just you wait and see.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Well, city inhabitants often believe they know more about rats than they actually do. Nearly all urban-dwellers see rats on a frequent basis and assume familiarity with these animals. However, due to the tendency to overgeneralize and the challenge of identifying individual rats, a few rats, the most brazen and risk-taking individuals, are responsible for most of our collective knowledge. For instance, the public comes into contact with a minority—the boldest and the most desperate rats—and rarely the ‘silent majority’ which consists of many more risk-averse animals. These over-generalizations fueled by anecdote and popular social media, are becoming entrenched in lieu of ecological knowledge. Compounding this problem, a cursory search through the literature will identify thousands of research papers on rats. Rats are the most common models for human illness and metabolism. Further, studies of rat physiology and behavior are also well-represented. However, the vast majority of these studies are performed on lab rats due to their similar sensory acumen. The sheer volume of these papers may lend the false impression that we know more about urban rats than we truly do.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What made you get into rat work?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Rats! Rats, of course! We need to increase our knowledge of these magnificent creatures. Rats are the ‘pariahs’ of the animal kingdom, linked with disease, poverty and fear, topics that society may wish to avoid. A two thousand sixteen report from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene noted that twenty three percent of seven thousand seven hundred and seventy six restaurants in Manhattan showed signs of rat activity. Each of those restaurants would have been embarrassed, cited for active rat signs and/or faced fines or possible closure. Humans detest rats enough so that an association with rats causes more depression than does crime. The entities that harbor rats have strong incentive to quickly hide or exterminate rats. The property owners or managers rarely have reason to study rats, an option that requires rats to persist in areas they are unwanted, and only offers hope of a better solution in the long-run rather than immediate gratification of their demise. Unfortunately, this wicked problem has historically kept rat research from being taken seriously enough by the public, funding agencies or other researchers.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“But not me,” Parsons said gleefully. “I’ll study rats until the day I die.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Did you know that rats originated in Asia, and that urban rats have evolved over thousands of years to be commensal, and by that I mean not competing while residing in or occupying the same area as another individual or group having independent or different values or customs? Rat migrations have followed our migrations, and they are mostly restricted to human-built environments. Thus, in the city, they inhabit artificial environments owned by multiple private entities such as municipal commerce and dwellings. Here, the very act of locating a private area with a rat infestation, and then gaining entry to this area can be prohibitively difficult in the city. That’s why when we heard from you and your unique problems with rats, we jumped at the opportunity to come out and study the situation.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Thanks.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“At the present rate of human urbanization, compounded by climate change and inefficient rodent control, is leading to a proliferation of rat-related risks. From two thousand to twenty thirty, the global human population is expected to grow by two point two billion, with two point one billion of this increase in urban areas. By twenty fifty, almost seventy percent of all people will live in cities. These densely packed cities will inevitably proliferate the resources that support commensal or anthropo-dependent wildlife, especially rodents. In nineteen eighty two, commensal rodents already cost the world’s economy more than three hundred billion US dollars. These costs, however, were estimated from food losses and did not factor the impact on native or threatened wildlife, fires of unknown origin [from gnawing of wires], or the lack of medical assays to directly associate rat-caused diseases with their vectors. Compounding this problem, climate forecasts suggest an increasing trend in terrestrial temperatures, resulting in longer warm seasons and shorter cool seasons. These seasonal changes limit the cold-stress that influences the range and distribution of insects and arachnids. Taken together, these trends suggest rodents will be exposed to more people, while the arthropod fauna and infectious organisms they vector will persist longer. Conversely, humans are increasingly vectoring antimicrobial resistant microbes back into wildlife via rodents and rodent-predators. The science behind mitigating these expenses and risks like efficient rat control and pathogen monitoring has not progressed as fast as the wildlife are evolving.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You’re going to get rid of them aren’t you?” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“In time, my friend. In time. Researchers like us have a duty-of-care to the welfare of society to not put the public at risk while carrying out research. It is our duty to remove the rats. Researchers must exercise precaution and due diligence anytime we consider a new research site, especially if we are purposefully allowing rats to survive beyond a time when they would otherwise be exterminated. Part of the solution may be to mitigate any immediate threats posed by rats, perhaps controlling numbers below a critical damage/threat threshold to allow study at the same time as managing the worst impacts.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Ah, okay.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You should stop talking now, or else we might scare away our specimens.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Ah, okay.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The tunnel became narrower as we continued walking, and began a downward slant. If I had to judge the distance we had traversed to that point I’d say around 800 meters. That’s when the tunnel walls gave way to a large open space, wide and dark. Fortunately we were all equipped with state of the art Fenix TK35 Tactical LED Flashlights and Petzl specialized TRIOS caving helmets with ultra Vario multi-beam LED headlamps, and good old fashioned torches.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The floor beneath us became rocky as did the walls. It’s as if we had entered a vast underground cavern that was located somewhere beneath the Las Americas. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I had no idea this was down here,” I said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons turned to me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Someone did.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He pointed his light to what appeared to be the skeleton of a previous explorer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh my God!” I exclaimed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes. Your God. Your God might not be able to help you here,” Parsons said rather cryptically I thought.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The others muttered between themselves as I suggested turning back.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons looked at me with an air of defiance. “There’s no turning back now. We’ve come too deep,” he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons was beginning to sound and act rather strange, as if the oppressiveness of the passage, or cavern was wrecking havoc upon his psyche. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Let’s move on,” Parsons commanded.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We continued on inside the large open space as the first of the giant cave bats attacked us. Apparently they considered us a nice tasty, unexpected dinner. We took cover as best we could among the varied rocks and oddly deformed stalagmites, but to little avail, as two of our group were carried off into the dark recesses of the cavern, never to be seen again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The men screamed horribly as they were taken, but that did not help them as bats care little for the sensibilities of human prey. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Usually bats don’t carry away people, but these were giant bats.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons yelled hysterically, “Bats! You didn’t say anything about any stink’en bats!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I didn’t know bats were down here! I didn’t even know down here was down here!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We’ve got to get out!” Parsons cried.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We used our torches to fend off the flying invaders, and when the bats dissipated somewhat we made a mad dash back the way we had come only to discover that the cave was now blocked off with tons of ruble, most likely due to the nearby fracking activities so prevalent in the area. We had little choice other than to progress further into the cavern, and hopefully find an exit, somewhere... anywhere.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We got out of the bat cave and made our way stealthily into the depths of the unknown. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We went on for several hundred yards, picking our way through maze of rocks and empty beer cans. At one point Parsons motioned for us to halt.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Do you hear that,” he asked suspiciously. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes doctor,” Deutsch replied. “It sounds like water.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s coming from that direction,” Parsons pointed off into the distance. “It’s sounds like running water... a river...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We can follow it out,” Deutsch insisted.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes,” Parsons replied. “Maybe.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We continued on until we reached the banks of a slow moving stream. As we waded in the clear water came up to our mid-thighs. It was slow going at first. The rocky streambed was a little slippery, and none of us wanted to get emersed in the cold, icy, briny channel. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After the first piranha attack which took out two more of our crew, and our photographer was sucked down a rather large and unseen whirlpool, our pace quickened quite markedly. After three other succumbed to the ministrations of various tentacled water snakes (Erpeton tentaculatum), dragonfish, and water spitting archerfish, we started running, made more difficult by the now swift flowing water, which quickly transformed into a series of dangerous rapids. Deutsch broke his left leg before he was able to extricate himself from the abyss. One man was swallowed whole by a giant clam, one was almost electrocuted by an eel, and a pod of killer whales made off with our hair stylist.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Killer whales, for freaking sake!” Parsons screamed while smoking a cigarette. Clearly he was upset. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As he was saying this an Amazonian Giant Centipede came out of a hole in the rocks and made off with Deutsch. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parsons exploded.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Jesus Christ! An Amazonian Giant Centipede! We’re no where near the freaking Amazon! I blame you for this Joyce. You and you alone!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was suitably flabbergasted. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I had no idea, I assure you. I’ve only seen rats,” I said. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Rats! Yeah! haven’t seen many of them have we?! As a matter of fact we haven’t seen one freaking rat!” Parsons exclaimed. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At this point a giant rat, the size of a grizzly bear, came from behind and ripped off Parsons head. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I ran blindly in the dark, following the path of the water when I could. I was breathing heavily, but did not scream as I didn’t want that rat to get me. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After several hours I saw a bright light ahead.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Daylight!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I climbed out into the stale sunshine of an overcast day. The stream was exiting from the side of a large embankment. I was beat up pretty badly, dirty, covered in mud and bruises. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw a small town in the distance and wondered where downtown Los Angeles had got to. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I found myself in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leipsic,_Ohio"><i>Leipsic</i></a>, Ohio (41°6′6″N 83°59′3″W), in Putnam County. The people were very nice there, and bandaged me up a little before I got on a Greyhound bus back to L.A.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Los Angeles Greyhound station is only a couple of blocks from the Las Americas. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was very tired and needed rest. I made my way up the stairs to the third floor, then to my room. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I entered and found myself back in the cave, tied to an alter with millions of rats all around me with gleeful expressions on their little rat faces. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had never left the cave! It had played an awful trick on me!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m still there!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Aaaahhhhhhh!!</div>
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-44908974039789667622018-02-27T08:22:00.002-08:002018-02-27T08:22:37.135-08:00The Death of Kristi Johnson<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today is the birthday of Kristi
Johnson. She would have been 37 years old today. As promised this is a
re-post of a story first published on Feb 27th 2011
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Another sad story for me to write involving a beautiful young girl from Michigan.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">A
few weeks ago, a little more than a month, I wasn't feeling very well,
and between bouts of running to the bathroom, for a time I stayed in
bed, covers up to chin, while I watched MSNBC on my television. This was
on a Saturday, near noon, and because there is no news on the weekends,
MSNBC devotes it's programming time to stories about being locked up in
prison, or in this case, the NBC newsmagazine, Dateline, of which most
of the information in this post is based.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">As
I laid in bed I began watching the episode entitled "Death in the
Hollywood Hills." The correspondent who reported this story was Keith
Morrison, and it was first aired on March 1st, of 2007. It concerned the
young woman mentioned above, 21 year old Kristi Johnson.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Like so many other hopefuls she came to Southern California in 2001 in search of a job in the entertainment industry.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Terry
Hall, Kristi's mother: “She thought, 'I would really like to be
involved in this industry but on the production side of it, on the other
side of the camera.'”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">She
was exceptionally pretty, as the pictures above indicate (Hall: "She
could you know tie her hair back in a ponytail and wear no make-up and
look absolutely smashing. Or she could put on her high heels and a great
outfit and look a totally a different way too"), and was repeatedly
told she should audition for acting jobs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Hall: "Kristi loved the beach. And she told me you know how beautiful it was and how much she was enjoying being in California."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Kristi
and her mother were very close and spoke to each other every day. In
2003, on Valentine's Day, another Saturday, Kristi called her mother and
told her she was going shopping at the mall. That was the last time she
got to speak to her daughter.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">A
nightmare was about to begin for Terry. One that every caring parent
must dread the possibility of enduring. Thousands of miles away, the
link to Kristi's existence suddenly faded away. She should have called
her mom back the next day. No word was heard from her.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Two days passed. No word... no call.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Terry filed a missing person's report with the police in Santa Monica. Det. Virginia Obenchain was given the case.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det.
Obenchain: "The original patrol officer that was sent to take the
missing persons report didn’t feel too good about the circumstances, so
he came upstairs to the detective bureau, and I was the only one
upstairs. So he told me, and I remember when he explained the
circumstances, the hair on the back of my neck started to rise.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">We
talked to the roommate, and the roommate told us that she had gone to
Century City mall, went shopping there and was very excited when she
came home because she was going to audition for a James Bond clip.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">There
are some girls that will go with perfect strangers in the hopes that
they can make it big. They don’t know Hollywood. They just come in, and
they figure, 'Oh, back in the old days where you used to meet at the
drug store counter and then you’re all of a sudden a star...' some gals
still believe that that can happen."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Morrison: "Does it?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det. Obenchain: "Not that I know of."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Kristi
remained missing, and Det. Obenchain had few clues to work with. She
held a press conference and explained Kristi's case, and got a call from
another young woman on a tip line, who said that she had been
approached too in the Century City Mall.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">21
days before Kristi went to the mall to look for a Valentine’s gift,
Susan Murphy was approached by a man who claimed to be in the
entrainment business, and that his name was Victor Thomas.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Murphy:
"He looked normal and he just said, “I think you’re very attractive. He
said, 'I’m a director of photography and we’re casting for the new
James Bond movie.' And he said, 'We’ve been casting all day and you’re
the look we want, you’re perfect.'</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">I’d
had enough experience to kind of know that this was a come-on, a
pick-up. And I knew that and— I was very intrigued. If it’s true, hey
cool, that’d be great. How fun would that be, to be a 'Bond Girl?' I
think every girl has a dream about that."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Five years earlier this happened to yet another pretty girl, Cathy Debuono.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">"He
told me he really liked my legs and that he was working closely with
the James Bond movies and that they were looking for new people, people
who weren’t so recognizable. He talked about 'big bucks.' He named
numbers of money that I can’t recall today, but it was a lot of money."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">To Cathy the man's name was Brian.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">"He
wasn’t lascivious at all. He didn’t try to touch me. He didn’t try to
flirt with me or come onto me. He seemed like he could be legitimately
in the business and talking to me about a real opportunity."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Susan told Det. Obenchain that the man had requested she ware specific types of clothing for her "audition."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">"He
said it’s very important that I wear stilettos," she said. "Black
stilettos as high as possible. And then he said a black mini-skirt
preferably, but any mini-skirt would be great. Panty hose, pantyhose not
nylons, a white man’s shirt, hair slicked back really tight in a
ponytail. And a man’s tie. And he said he would provide the tie."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det. Obenchain: "And, that happens to be everything that Kristi purchased on February 15."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">In
the hours before she disappeared, Kristi Johnson bought a black mini
skirt, sheer nylons, stiletto heels, and the white shirt. This is what
was so heart wrenching for me as I watched this on my television. You
see there was actual video footage taken in the Mall of Kristi on that
day, footage of her being approached by a man, although his features
were indiscernible, and other footage of Kristi making those purchases.
What I can't seem to wrap around my head is the report of Kristi's
roommate saying that Kristi was so excited, so happy to be getting this
break, and her apparent joy and happiness as she bought these items, you
could almost see it in the videos, her hopes of getting that impossible
opportunity that thousands of men and women dream about, only to
discover a human monster instead, one that would use her and end her
short life.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">For
that's exactly what happened very soon after those last video pictures
of Kristi Johnson alive were taken that day. I'll never get those images
out of my consciousness for the rest of my life.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">I'm
not a father. I've not been fortunate in life to have had that
privilege. But I can imagine the pleasure of having a child that is part
of you, to share that beautiful creatures early life, to help mold that
child's world view, helping it to understand, and one day cope with the
world's intricacies and joys, and dangers. Of sharing birthdays, and
Christmases, and spelling tests, and first dates, and Halloweens, and
everything else, and then to suddenly have all of that abruptly taken
away by the insane acts of that human monster. Maybe just monster, for
the act perpetrated upon Kristi can hardly be called human.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">It
rained hard during the winter of 2003. In the hills above Hollywood
rivers of water poured off the hills, and mud, and one day some hikers
found what looked like the remains of a female body.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det.
Obenchain: "Kristine’s body was found. Her hands tied behind her back.
Her legs tied. She was partially in a sleeping bag, and she was severely
decomposed from the shoulders up."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Morrison: "Simply by being out of doors in a very rainy, wet season."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det. Obenchain: "Correct."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Morrison: "Dumped."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det. Obenchain: "Dumped."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Terry
Hall: "I think Kristi appreciated life very much. She was very aware
that what there was in this world, you know that was beautiful about
this world."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">The
name of the man who murdered Kristi is Victor Paleologus, 40 years old
at the time, and had no connection with the film industry. I'm not going
to go into a lot of detail about this piece of filth. The two women he
had attempted this scam on before had taken precautions when meeting him
for the "audition," one taking a male friend along. They were able to
identify Paleologus, after a police sketch had been issued of the person
of interest in Kristi's case. A parole officer contacted Det. Obenchain
and told her he was one of theirs. Fortunately for Det. Obenchain,
Paleologus was already in county jail for an unrelated offense. He
admitted to meeting Kristi on that day, but nothing else.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Any
physical evidence that might have tied Kristi's murder to Paleologus
had been washed away, but after his arrest got a little publicity other
witnesses came forth, and...</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det.
Obenchain: "We had another woman call us on the tip line, and she said
that she saw Mr. Paleologus at the Century City mall on February 15. We
also got a call from Mr. Paul Cady who is a realtor, who had shown Mr.
Paleologus numerous houses, particularly one house on Skyline Drive that
was several hundred yards away from where her body was found."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">The prosecution brought in Susan Murphy, Cathy Debuono, and other women who had encountered Paleologus in the past.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Susan
Murphy: "Anyone who was in that court will tell you my voice. I was
shaking. There’s a jury right there. And then just looking at her
family, that broke my heart. Broke my heart. And I kept thinking about,
what if that was my dad sitting out there?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Over
3 years after her disappearance, 13 days into his trial, Paleologus
decided to make a deal and pled guilty to Kristi's murder.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">The deal: He would escape the death penalty and get 25 to life with the possibility of parole but without the right to appeal.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Morrison: "Was it important to the family to hear him say, 'I killed your daughter?'"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det. Obenchain: "It was."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Morrison: "Did they get as much as they wanted in that respect?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det.
Obenchain: "No. I think they wanted to know why she had to die. I have a
theory. I can’t prove it. Only Victor knows if it’s true. But I think
he lured her up there for the purposes of raping her. He assaulted her,
she fought back, he strangled her, went a little too far, she lost
consciousness, he thought he had killed her and he dumped her over the
hill."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Morrison: "You think it’s even possible she went down the side of that hill still alive?"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Det.
Obenchain: "According to the coroner the head wound was peri-mortem,
which is on the brink of death, so she may have still been alive."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Then Paleologus asked the judge through a letter if he could withdraw his guilty plea. The judge denied his request.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Kristi's parents were then allowed to address the murderer of their daughter.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Kirk
Johnson, Kristi’s father: "The reason we are here is because of Mr.
Paleologus. And there is a reason why this happened. Only God knows. And
I can’t find an answer for that."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Terry
Hall: "Victor Paleologus has been allowed the freedom to let the evil
in his life escalate, resulting in the heinous murder of Kristi my
beloved young daughter, a beautiful young woman on the threshold of her
life."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Judge:
"For the willful deliberate and premeditated first degree murder of
Kristine Johnson, the court sentences the defendant to serve 25 years to
life in the state penitentiary."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Christine
Kludjian: "One had to die for us to pay attention? One had to die for
us to look at a situation and say, 'Wait a minute, what is going on with
our laws in this country that put repeat offenders who are not
rehabilitateable out on the street again and again and again?'"</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Back
in jail Victor Paleologus continued to deny killing Kristi, stating he
only pled guilty because it would cost too much to go to trial.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Really?</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">He continues to deny the murder to this day.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Here is the link to the Dateline story:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15625846/ns/dateline_nbc-crime_reports/" style="background-color: white; color: #d6a0b6; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15625846/ns/dateline_nbc-crime_reports/</a><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Today would have been Kristi's 37th birthday.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Below is an essay written by Kristi's mother, Terry Hall:</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">I
reported Kristi as missing on Monday morning, February 17, 2003. It was
about two weeks later that I retrieved a phone message telling me her
body had been discovered. I was alone in the back of a limo at night
heading into New York City. The plans had been to speak on a national
talk show the next morning to continue efforts escalating publicity on
Kristi’s disappearance in the hopes that she was still alive and would
be found. The words on the voice mail from the chief of police
confirming Kristi’s death extinguished all hope. I was engulfed with an
overwhelming physical hollowness and a mental paralysis. At the same
time, I was filled with a presence of strength and love. I was not alone
in the back of the limo; a spirit resided within me. Kristi was now at
peace in an everlasting world filled with love.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">During
the search for Kristi, everything moved rapidly — but not fast enough.
The last time I had spoken with Kristi was on Saturday, February 15,
2003, the day of her murder. We spoke with each other daily. That
morning we chatted a little about this and that; I thanked her for the
e-Valentine she had sent me the day before. It was a sweet message
accompanied by a song she liked. She was going to go to the mall later
on; she wanted to buy some candles. I told her to pick some out. The
candles would be my Valentine Day present to her. President's Day was
going to be on Monday, she had to work but I had the day off.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Later
during the day, I tried to call Kristi. She didn’t pick up. The next
day I tried several times to call her again, still no pick up. I thought
it was odd; maybe she didn’t remember to charge her cell phone or maybe
she was busy with friends. Whatever the reason, I’d try back on Monday
morning.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Monday
morning came and still nothing. At 9 a.m., I called her office number;
no pick up on her direct line. I called the main number and they hadn’t
heard from her either. This was unusual since Kristi was always on time
or would have called if running late.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">The
next call I made was to the Santa Monica Police Department to report
Kristi as missing. I was concerned she had been in an accident. The SMPD
suggested I contact local hospitals. I called multiple hospitals.
Kristi had not been admitted to any of them. I called SMPD back to
confirm reporting Kristi as missing. An officer was deployed to her
apartment around noon to interview one of her roommates. The search for
Kristi was on.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Every
waking moment was spent ramping up the search efforts for Kristi. Any
possible scenario of her whereabouts was ever present in my mind. Phone
calls became constant. Missing persons and search organizations, the
media, the police department, family, friends, Kristi’s co-workers.
Pictures of Kristi were put together to assist in building the awareness
of her [being] missing. The circumstances related to Kristi's
disappearance combined with her beauty and innocence heightened media
interest. I was grateful to get the attention to build awareness of
search efforts. Time was lapsing but never my hope that she would be
found. I hadn’t known at this time the fact that after 72 hours of a
person [being] missing, they most would not be found alive.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Kristi’s
birthday was coming up soon. She was born on February 27, 1981. She
would have turned 22 years old on that birthday had she lived. I reached
out to the Episcopal Church in Santa Monica to organize a vigil on
Kristi’s birthday. I had been an Episcopalian all my life and Kristi and
her brother grew up attending the Episcopal Church. Saint Augustine by
the Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica welcomed me with love and
support.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">A
candlelight vigil was held on Kristi’s birthday, February 27. On the
evening the vigil was held, I received much love, support and prayers.
The music at the service was beautiful. Two songs were sung, one “You
Are So Beautiful To Me,” a song I used to sing to Kristi as a baby when I
rocked her to sleep. The other song, “Hero,” by Enrique Iglesias, was
the song Kristi had sent to me in her e-Valentine. The crowd that had
gathered for the vigil proceeded outside to the courtyard while singing
and holding lit candles. A circle of prayer was formed under a beautiful
tree within the courtyard. This would eventually be the location of the
Fountain of Joy in Kristi’s memory.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">On
March 3, 2003, Kristi’s body was discovered down a ravine in the
Hollywood hills. The circumstances of her murder are beyond horrendous.
After receiving the news of Kristi’s death, all my energy immediately
went to planning a beautiful funeral. This was my last opportunity to
lay Kristi to rest with the respect and dignity her life deserved. The
activity of dealing with details of funeral preparation somehow kept me
functional. It diminished my deep dark grief.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">I
shopped for Kristi for the last time, picking out a lovely sleeping
gown and wrap for her to be dressed in. Even though the casket would be
closed, it gave me comfort to know I could somehow make a contribution
to honor her, no matter how unnecessary. I could barely see the road
driving home as my eyes welted with tears, the shopping bag on floor
next to me containing the sleeping gown packed in a gift box.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Kristi’s
funeral was held at the Episcopal Church in the town where I was then
living, Los Gatos, Calif. Simultaneously, a memorial service for Kristi
was being held at the Episcopal Church in Saugatuck, Mich. A memorial
service was also held later that week in Santa Monica, at St. Augustine
by the Sea Episcopal Church.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">While
Kristi's brother and I were planning her funeral with the Father at St.
Luke’s in Los Gatos, he told us that his mother had always said,
“Funerals are for the living.” These words still reside with me. Not
only was Kristi’s funeral for the living, but also any future tributes
to Kristi’s life would be for the living. Kristi loved life and that’s
how she would want us to continue ours.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">An
incredible amount of people had given time, effort and support during
the search effort for Kristi. People continued to give of themselves and
made financial donations in her memory after her death. I contacted St.
Augustine by the Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica to discuss
possible projects to channel contributions to. The church had started a
project a couple years before to erect a fountain in the courtyard but
the project had taken a back burner.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">A
fountain sounded perfect. My parents have a fountain in the courtyard
at their home. This fountain had always been a focal point of family
photo shoots during gatherings and events. The fountain could represent
so much of what Kristi’s life emitted, it would be called the Fountain
of Joy.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">It’s
been over three years since Kristi’s murder. The trial just recently
completed with an outcome we can be satisfied with. The Fountain of Joy
project is still living. As with many projects, it’s evolved into a
larger undertaking than originally anticipated. The Fountain of Joy’s
concept and intent have grown as well.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">The
Fountain of Joy is still a tribute to Kristi’s life and a gift to all
inside and beyond the community who gave so unselfishly during a time of
another person’s tragedy. Many of the people who donated their energies
did not even know Kristi or anything about her. It was inspiring for me
during my difficult journey to see how truly loving and generous people
are.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">In
addition to these tributes, the Fountain of Joy will also be presented
to anyone seeking a place of respite and meditation from the challenges
of daily life. The fountains beautiful final design, comprised of
natural elements; water, stone and light, will evoke the essence of the
project, to “Celebrate the Quiet Power.”</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">How
wonderful it will be to see a tranquil welcoming spot in the middle of a
busy metropolis welcoming the human sprit to pause, gain strength and
celebrate the beauty of this world. I hope the Fountain of Joy will help
flourish the joy, love and celebration encompassed in Kristi’s life.
Terry Hall, November 9th, 2006</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">I'm
sorry to report that I took a trip to the St. Augustine by the Sea
Episcopal Church in Santa Monica one recent Sunday morning, and no one
there could point out, tell me about, or remember anything concerning
the Fountain of Joy. After only five years it seems to have been
discarded and forgotten, or perhaps it was never built.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">But
I, and this website will always remember Kristi and her short,
beautiful, wondrous life, and will repost this story every February 27th
for the remainder of Joyce's Take's active existence.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #474b4e; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2000007629395px; text-align: justify;">Not
only for Kristi, though she would be enough, but for all of the
children who have tragically died under similar circumstances. All of
those children who disappear. All of the ones we have loved and refuse
to forget.</span>Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-19113460265839696902018-01-24T05:39:00.002-08:002018-11-20T21:07:49.176-08:00ʻOumuamua<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Asteroids are rocky worlds revolving around the sun that are too small to be called planets. They are also known as planetoids or minor planets. There are millions of asteroids, ranging in size from hundreds of miles to several feet across. In total, the mass of all the asteroids is less than that of Earth's moon.<br />
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A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are significantly smaller than asteroids, and range in size from small grains to one-meter-wide objects. Objects smaller than this are classified as micrometeoroids or space dust.Most are fragments from comets or asteroids, whereas others are collision impact debris ejected from bodies such as the Moon or Mars.<br />
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The difference between asteroids and meteoroids is mainly one of size: meteoroids have a diameter of less than one meter, whereas asteroids have a diameter of greater than one meter<br />
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A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit can bring it into proximity with Earth. By definition, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical unit (AU).[2] If a NEO's orbit crosses that of the Earth's and the object is larger than 140 meters across, it is considered a potentially hazardous object (PHO). Most known PHOs and NEOs are asteroids<br />
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A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. <br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvFcY9rTPx8"><i>Michigan meteor</i></a><br />
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Picture Legend<br />
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1. Artist rendering of a Near Earth Object<br />
2. Indian ice-ball (don’t eat that yellow snow!)<br />
3. Detroit meteorite<br />
4. The Asteroid Belt and associated families<br />
5. Spaceguard<br />
6. Chelyabinsk fireball<br />
7. Porous chondrite interplanetary dust particle.<br />
8. Projected orbital path of Asteroid 2002 AJ129 on February 4th, 2018<br />
9. Another view of 2002 AJ129‘s orbit relative to the Solar System’s orbital plane<br />
10. The hyperbolic trajectory of Oumuamua through the inner Solar System with the Sun at the focus<br />
11. Rama and the Solar Survey Ship Endeavor <br />
12. Time exposed picture of ʻOumuamua<br />
13. Simulation of ʻOumuamua spinning and tumbling through space, and the resultant light curve which was the only information available to infer ‘Oumuamua shape<br />
14. Artist's impression of ʻOumuamua<br />
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January 13, 2018 Fazilpur Badli Village, India 2:38PM<br />
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"There was big thud and people of the village came running out of their homes to find out what had happened," senior official Vivek Kalia told the BBC.<br />
"Some villagers thought it was an extraterrestrial object," he added.<br />
"Others thought it was some celestial rock and I've heard that they took samples home."<br />
It is extremely unfortunate that what these inquisitive villagers brought into their homes in the hope of making a rare and grand scientific discovery were pieces of a 26 pound chunk of frozen human crap that had apparently dropped from an overhead airplane traveling at a high altitude.<br />
Although the airline industry states it is not a common practice to dump <i>anything</i> from their planes while in flight, sometimes, they say, urine and faeces forms around the plane's overflow outlet, turning icy as the craft cruises at high altitudes. Blocks of this stuff then fall from the planes, but mostly break up before reaching the planet’s surface. Sometimes they don't however, and the resultant projectiles can cause serious damage to property or injuries to people and animals.<br />
"Villagers who kept it inside their refrigerators are disappointed and are now busy cleaning their houses," one resident told the Times of India.<br />
These icy shit-balls are not asteroids, or even meteorites. They’re just... icy chunks of frozen human waste.<br />
Very unfortunate.<br />
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January 17th, 2018 Detroit, Michigan 8:08 PM <br />
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A real meteor entered the Earth’s atmosphere above Detroit briefly lighting up the night sky. It was caught on several cameras, including NASA’s own meteor camera located at Oberlin College in Ohio.<br />
“I went to turn and I noticed a ball of flame coming at an angle,” Danny McEwen Jr. told the Detroit News. He said he was driving when “it just blew up into a bunch of sparks. I didn’t even know what to think. It was kind of odd how orange the sky was behind me and this blaze of flame out of nowhere.”<br />
NASA said on its Meteor Watch Facebook page that “we have calculated that this was a very slow moving meteor — speed of about 28,000 miles per hour.<br />
“This fact, combined with the brightness of the meteor (which suggests a fairly big space rock at least a yard across), shows that the object penetrated deep into the atmosphere before it broke apart (which produced the sounds heard by many observers). It is likely that there are meteorites on the ground near this region — one of our colleagues at Johnson Space Center (JSC) has found a Doppler weather radar signature characteristic of meteoritic material falling to earth.<br />
Bill Cooke from NASA’s meteoroid environment office in Alabama told The Detroit News he estimates the meteor was about one or two yards across, weighed more than one metric ton and traveled between 40,000 to 50,000 miles to get to Earth.<br />
But from where? That, my friends, no one is talking about.<br />
Ever since Arthur C Clarke destroyed the Italian cities of Verona and Padua, and sank Venice due to an astroid impact in his 1973 novel <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezvous_with_Rama"><i>“Rendezvous With Rama,”</i></a> efforts have been made to identify and track Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Clarke invented Project Spaceguard, which utilized advanced computerization and Mars based telescopes to keep an eye on the sky. The United States, in it’s efforts, first stole Dr. Clarke’s title (Spaceguard), then adopted this name to a number of real life efforts to discover and study Near-Earth Objects. <br />
A 1992 US Congressional study produced a "Spaceguard Survey Report" which led to a mandate that NASA locate 90% of near-Earth asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.621371 miles) within 10 years. This is often referred to as the "Spaceguard Goal." A number of efforts which receive money through NASA are all considered to be working on the "Spaceguard Project." (the initial Spaceguard Goal was achieved, although in slightly longer than 10 years. An extension to the project gave NASA the mandate of reducing the minimum size at which more than 90% of near-Earth asteroids are known to 140 meters (459.318 feet))<br />
One of those efforts is the NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program, which is a subdivision of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview"><i>NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office</i></a> (PDCO).<br />
The Near-Earth Object Observations Program is responsible for finding, tracking, and characterizing NEOs, asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them within approximately 1.3 Astronomical Units (AU, the distance between the Sun and the Earth... approximately 92.96 million miles) of the Sun. This implies that they can come within 0.3 AU – about 30 million miles, or 50 million kilometers – of Earth’s orbit. <br />
Unfortunately NASA recently and for a third time chose not to fully fund a mission called NEOCam: a proposal for a powerful asteroid-hunting space telescope that could help keep track of asteroids that have the potential of impacting with the Earth. <br />
The work that the Near-Earth Object Observations Program and other entities associated with the Spaceguard Survey is impressive, and so far we’ve avoided colliding with large asteroids and comets. <br />
But Spaceguard hasn’t identified and tracked everything. <br />
On February 15th, 2013, (03:13PM UTC, 7:13AM PT) an asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere over Russia as a fireball and exploded above the city of Chelyabinsk during its passage through the Ural Mountains region. The object's air burst occurred at an altitude between 30 and 50 kilometers (19 and 31 miles) above the ground, and about 1,500 people were injured, mainly by broken window glass shattered by the shock wave. Two were reported in serious condition; however, there were no fatalities. Initially some 3,000 buildings in six cities across the region were reported damaged due to the explosion's shock wave, a figure which rose to over 7,200 in the following weeks. The Chelyabinsk meteor was estimated to have caused over $30 million in damage. It is the largest recorded object to have encountered the Earth since the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event"><i>1908 Tunguska Event</i></a>, by far the best documented, and the only such event known to have resulted in a large number of casualties. The meteor is estimated to have an initial diameter of 17–20 meters (55 - 65 feet) and a mass of roughly 10,000 tons (on October 16th, 2013, a team from Ural Federal University led by Victor Grokhovsky recovered a large fragment of the meteor from the bottom of Russia’s Lake Chebarkul, about 80 kilometers west of the city).<br />
Space rocks falling from the sky is hardly unusual. It happens all of the time. It’s really just a matter of size. The larger the rock, the less frequently they fall to the surface of the planet. <br />
Extraterrestrial dust, ranging in size from a few molecules to 0.1 µm (micrometers), or 3.93701e-6 inches in size, with a mass between 10 minus16kg (0.1 picograms) and 10 minus 4 kg (100 milligrams) rain down onto the planets surface constantly. <br />
That might not sound like a lot to you but it adds up. The amount of extraterrestrial dust that falls to Earth each day is estimated to be 60 tons, or almost 22,000 tons a year. This is the main reason it is so hard to keep your car clean if you leave it parked outside.<br />
In the news lately are stories about the asteroid asteroid 2002 AJ129 which on February 4th will fly closest to the Earth at around 1:30 p.m. PT, according to a press release by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.<br />
NASA considers this asteroid (which is estimated to be between 500 -- 200 meters across (1640.42 -- 3937.008 feet)) "potentially hazardous" because it will pass within 0.028126 AU (4,207,600 kilometers; 2,614,500 miles) from the Earth, and because of it’s relatively large size. <br />
2002 AJ129, with an orbital period (the time it takes an object to make one orbit around another celestial body, in this case, the Sun) of just 1.61 years (586.31 days), will come much closer to the Earth on February 8th, 2172, at a distance of about 0.00458 AU (685,000 kilometers; 426,000 miles).<br />
"We have been tracking this asteroid for over 14 years and know its orbit very accurately," Paul Chodas, an astronomer who manages NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at JPL, said in a press release. "Our calculations indicate that asteroid 2002 AJ129 has no chance — zero — of colliding with Earth on Feb. 4 or any time over the next 100 years."<br />
Good news!<br />
There is one object that we know of that has no orbital period at all, which means it does not orbit the Sun, or anything in the solar system. <br />
Last year, on October 19th, astronomer Robert J. Weryk, using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii, discovered 1I/2017 U1, what would later be called ʻOumuamua, which turned out to be the first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System, 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun. <br />
When Weryk first observed ‘Oumuamua it was approximately 33,000,000 kilometers (21,000,000 miles; 0.22 AU) from the Earth (about 85 times as far away as the Moon), and heading away from the Sun. It was initially thought to be a simple comet, and reclassified as an asteroid a week later. On November 6th it was finally deemed to be the first of a new class of interstellar objects. <br />
The<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_designation_in_astronomy#New-style_provisional_designation"><i> name </i></a>ʻOumuamua comes from the Hawaiian ʻoumuamua, meaning 'scout', (from ʻou, meaning 'reach out for', and mua, reduplicated for emphasis, meaning 'first, in advance of' and reflects the way this object is like a scout or messenger sent from the distant past to reach out to mankind (and womankind too!). <br />
Before the official name was decided upon, the name Rama was suggested, the name given to an alien spacecraft discovered under similar circumstances (‘Oumuamua has the same hyperbolic trajectory (indicating that it is not gravitationally bound to the Sun) as Rama did) in the science fiction novel “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C. Clarke.<br />
This object may be referred to as 1I; 1I/2017 U1; 1I/ʻOumuamua; or 1I/2017 U1 (ʻOumuamua).<br />
ʻOumuamua is a relatively small object, estimated to be about 230 by 35 meters (800 ft × 100 ft) in size. It has a dark red color, similar to objects in the outer Solar System. <br />
It has no volatile compounds on it’s surface, like water or ammonia ice as it showed no signs of a cometary tail despite its close approach to the Sun. It is an elongated object, similar to an oversized flattened out tree trunk. It is thought to be a metal-rich rock with a relatively high density. <br />
ʻOumuamua is tumbling (most likely, ʻOumuamua was set tumbling by a collision in its system of origin, and remains tumbling since the time scale for dissipation of this motion is very long, at least a billion years) rather than smoothly rotating, and it is moving so fast relative to the Sun that there is no chance it originated in the Solar System. It also means that it cannot be captured into a solar orbit (hyperbolic), so it will eventually leave the Solar System and resume traveling into interstellar space. ʻOumuamua's system of origin and the amount of time it has spent traveling amongst the stars are unknown.<br />
One week after ʻOumuamua's discovery, asteroid hunter Luca Buzzi tracked it from northern Italy with a 50-minute image exposure on October 26th. In an email, Buzzi said he fought thin cirrus clouds to barely pull the asteroid above the visual threshold using his 0.84-meter telescope and <a href="http://www.planetary.org/"><i>Planetary Society</i></a> (an American internationally active, non-governmental, nonprofit foundation, founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, and has over 50,000 members from more than 100 countries around the world. Bill Nye, is the current chief executive officer, and Neil deGrasse Tyson serves on its advisory council)-funded CCD camera (picture 12). He ordinarily uses the equipment to track potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids.<br />
Based on observations spanning 34 days, ʻOumuamua's orbital eccentricity (a parameter that determines the amount by which an objects orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values between 0 and 1 form an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptic_orbit"><i>elliptic orbit</i></a>, 1 is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_trajectory"><i>parabolic escape orbit</i></a>, and greater than 1 is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbola"><i>hyperbola</i></a>) is 1.20, the highest ever observed. An eccentricity above 1.0 means an object exceeds the Sun's escape velocity and is not bound to the Solar System, and may escape to interstellar space. While an eccentricity slightly above 1.0 can be obtained by encounters with planets, ʻOumuamua's eccentricity is so high it could not have been obtained through an encounter with any of the Sun's planets, known or unknown. Even undiscovered planets, if any exist, could not account for ʻOumuamua's trajectory any undiscovered planet must be far from the Sun and hence moving slowly according to Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Encounters with such a planet could not boost ʻOumuamua's speed to the observed value, and therefore ʻOumuamua can only be of interstellar origin.<br />
ʻOumuamua entered the Solar System from above the plane of the ecliptic. The pull of the Sun's gravity caused it to speed up until it reached its maximum speed of 87.71 kilometers per second (196,200 mph) as it passed below the ecliptic on September 6th and made a sharp turn upward at its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) on September 9th at a distance of 0.255 AU (38,100,000 kilometers; 23,700,000 miles) from the Sun, about 17% closer than the planet Mercury's closest approach to the Sun. The object is now heading away from the Sun (towards the constellation Pegasus) at an angle of 66° from the direction of its approach.<br />
On the outward leg of its journey through the Solar System, ʻOumuamua passed below the orbit of Earth on October 14th at a distance of approximately 0.1616 AU (24,180,000 kilometers; 15,020,000 miles) from Earth, and went back above the ecliptic on October 16th and passed above the orbit of Mars on November 1st. It will pass above Jupiter's orbit in May of this year, Saturn's orbit in January of next year, and Neptune's orbit in 2022.<br />
As it leaves the Solar System it will be approximately right ascension (RA) 23h51m and declination +24°45', in Pegasus. It will continue to slow down until it reaches a speed of 26.33 kilometers a second relative to the Sun, the same speed it had before its approach to the Solar System.<br />
It will take the object roughly 20,000 years to leave the Solar System completely.<br />
Unlike Rama ʻOumuamua is traveling too fast for any existing spacecraft to reach. Astronomers estimate that several interstellar objects similar to ʻOumuamua pass inside the orbit of Earth each year. If true, that would provide possible opportunities for future studies of interstellar objects, although with the current space technology, close visits and orbital missions are impossible due to their high speeds.<br />
As a teenager I read “Rendezvous with Rama” with rapt fascination, and wondered what kind of civilization would and could have built such a craft, and for what purpose. None of those questions are answered in Dr. Clarke’s novel. <br />
With all of the stale, reworked, superhero sequels, the umpteenth Star Wars episode (which are actually just fueled by a series of battle scenes), cop, doctor, and crime mysteries, mindless action films, and remakes of movies that shouldn’t be remade (Steve martin as Inspector Clouseau comes to mind) and the advent of Daddy’s Home and Bad Santa 2, why in the world hasn’t “Rendezvous with Rama” been made into a movie (or Fountains of Paradise, for that matter. Childhood’s End was made into a television mini-series, and it was just awful)?! It has been said that both Morgan Freeman and director David Fincher wanted to make a film of “Rendezvous with Rama” but they were hampered by the lack of a good script. <br />
Really? I find this difficult to believe.<br />
It’s all there in the book! There is a reason the book is a science fiction classic. Just follow the book. Nothing more needs to be added or embellished (although there is a natural tendency to make films that are significantly different than their source material in Hollywood, like 2008‘s remake of the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, which in my opinion was a mediocre effort (although it made a lot of money)). It’s all in the book.<br />
Hell, I’ll write a script.<br />
In any case, we now have a real interstellar entity visiting our solar system. Let’s try and behave while it is still here so it will think kindly of us as it makes its way back to the stars.<br />
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Addendum 3-19-18 <i><a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/oumuamua-likely-came-from-a-binary-star-system.html">Proposal that Oumuamua was ejected from a binary star system</a></i><br />
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Addendum 5-22-18 <i><a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/extrasolar-asteroid-has-been-orbiting-the-sun-for-45-billion-years.html">Is Oumuamua really the only extrasolar asteroid to visit our solar system?</a></i><br />
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Addendum 6-27-18 <i><a href="http://spaceref.com/comets/oumuamua-was-propelled-by-cometary-jets.html">Oumuamua was propelled by Cometary Jets</a></i><br />
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<i>Addendum 6-27-18 </i><i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://spaceref.com/comets/interstellar-asteroid-oumuamua-is-actually-a-comet.html"><i>Oumuamua is actually a comet</i></a></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>Addendum 9-25-18 <a href="http://spaceref.com/asteroids/gaia-finds-four-candidate-stars-that-could-be-oumuamuas-home.html">Gaia finds four candidate stars that could be Oumuamua's home</a></i></span></i><br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "georgia" , "times" , serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><i>Addendum: 11-20-18 <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/6-strange-facts-about-the-interstellar-visitor-oumuamua/?fbclid=IwAR2J3Gfz0FX21FSmzkerFOfalZGQ8N3cGtOa9tmQRdKOgx44ngivQ4fWhGM">6 Facts</a> </i></span></i>Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-1472282806041432852018-01-01T00:05:00.000-08:002018-01-01T13:48:40.870-08:00Happy Birthday Peter Sellers, the Shocking Conclusion! <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"I start with the voice. I find out how the character sounds. It's through the way he speaks that I find out the rest about him. ... After the voice comes the looks of the man. I do a lot of drawings of the character I play. Then I get together with the makeup man and we sort of transfer my drawings onto my face. An involved process. After that I establish how the character walks. Very important, the walk. And then, suddenly, something strange happens. The person takes over. The man you play begins to exist."<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bow1ZJTV4L4"><i>Chance Takes a Walk</i></a><br />
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Picture legend:<br />
<br />
1. 1964 appearance in Playboy magazine<br />
2. Peter as Dr. Strangelove<br />
3. Peter as President of the United States Merkin Muffley<br />
4. Peter as Group Captain Lionel Mandrake<br />
5. George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson<br />
6. Slim Pickens as Major T. J. "King" Kong with two hydrogen bombs<br />
7. Major Kong takes a ride<br />
8. The only female in “Dr. Strangelove,” Tracy Reed as Miss Scott, General Turgidson's secretary and “friend”<br />
9. Keenan Wynn as Colonel Bat Guano<br />
10. Sterling Hayden as Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper<br />
11. Stanley Kubrick<br />
12. Kubrick talking to Peter on the War Room set<br />
13. Merrie Spaeth, Peter, and Tippy Walker in “The World of Henry Orient”<br />
14. Tippy Walker & George Roy Hill<br />
15. Elke Sommer and Peter in “A Shot in the Dark”<br />
16. George Sanders and Peter<br />
17. Britt Ekland<br />
18. Peter and Britt get married<br />
19. Britt and Peter relaxing at home<br />
20. With Felicia Farr in “Kiss Me, Stupid”<br />
21. Britt with a convalescing Peter<br />
22. Britt and Peter at airport in London airport on their way to make “A Carol for Another Christmas” in New York<br />
23. Peter as Imperial Me in “A Carol for Another Christmas”<br />
24. Hayley Mills<br />
25. In “The Wrong Box” 1966<br />
26. Mimmo Poli, Peter, and Britt in “After the Fox”<br />
27. Former Miss Italy, Maria Grazia Buccella<br />
28. Victor Mature in “After the Fox”<br />
29. Brit and Peter in “The Bobo”<br />
30. Shirley MacLaine and Peter in “Woman Times Seven”<br />
31. Carol Wayne<br />
32. Claudine Longet and Peter in “The Party”<br />
33. Leigh Taylor-Young and Peter in “I Love You Alice B Toklas”<br />
34. Fred Astaire and Robert Wagner in “It Takes a Thief”<br />
35. Ringo Starr and Peter in “The Magic Christian”<br />
36. Yul Brynner and Roman Polanski in “The Magic Christian”<br />
37. Raquel Welch as Priestess of the Whip<br />
38. Graham Stark in 1970‘s “Simon, Simon”<br />
39. 3rd wife Miranda Quarry and Peter<br />
40. Peter and Sinead Cusack in 1970‘s “Hoffman”<br />
41. Peter and Goldie Hawn in “There’s a Girl in My Soup”<br />
42. Goldie (without make up) and Peter<br />
43. Peter and Jo Ann Pflug in 1972‘s “Where Does it Hurt?”<br />
44. Peter as the March Hare in “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland”<br />
45. Peter and Fiona Fullerton<br />
46. Donna Mullane and Peter in “The Optimists of Nine Elms”<br />
47. Peter and Liza Minnelli<br />
48. Peter in “The Blockhouse”<br />
49. Peter as Queen Victoria in 1974's “The Great McGonagall”<br />
50. Dan Leno<br />
51 Lew Grade<br />
52. Peter, Peter Arne, Christopher Plummer, and Catherine Schell in 1975's “Return of the Pink Panther”<br />
53. Carol Cleveland<br />
54. Neil Simon and Inspector Sidney Wang<br />
55. Peter as Inspector Wang in “Murder by Death”<br />
56. The increasingly distressed Herbert Lom and Peter in “The Pink Panther Strikes Again”<br />
57. Peter and his fourth wife Lynne Frederick<br />
58. “Being There”<br />
59. Peter as Chance the Gardener<br />
60. Shirley MacLaine and Peter<br />
61. Melvyn Douglas and Peter<br />
62. Peter and Jack warden<br />
63. Biltmore Estate<br />
64. Illeana Douglas<br />
65. Chauncey Gardiner takes a walk<br />
66. Helen Mirren and Peter “The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu”<br />
67. As Monty Casino for Barclays Bank<br />
68. Cassie Unger<br />
68. Peter<br />
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<br />
Writer. producer, photographer, master chess player, and director Stanley Kubrick started out with just an idea to make a movie built around the, at the time, ever present hope of remaining “safe and non-blown up” (-Rep. Howard Birdwell) during the time of “Mutual Mass Destruction, (or as some like to call it Mutual Assured Destruction, so the appropriate acronym MAD could be utilized)” made possible by the stockpiling of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union and the United States of America during the 50s and 60s (this threat still remains, as Russia and the United States still stockpile nuclear weapons, however it lessened somewhat with the collapse of the Soviet Union and it’s attendant weakening, and the theory of Nuclear Winter (the severe and prolonged global climatic cooling effect hypothesized to occur after widespread fire storms erupt following a nuclear war, or even the detonation of just a few large yield hydrogen weapons. The hypothesis is based on the fact that such fires can inject soot into the stratosphere, where it can block most direct sunlight from reaching the planet’s surface) was fully understood by the world’s leaders, scientists, and military personnel). <br />
Stanley’s buddy, Alastair Buchan, who was the head of the Institute for Strategic Studies, recommended the thriller novel “Red Alert” by Peter George as as basis for a possible story idea and screenplay.<br />
Kubrick was impressed with the book and immediately bought the film rights to the novel.<br />
“Dr. Strangelove,” closely follows the plot of “Red Alert,” except for a couple of factors, one of them being there was no Dr. Strangelove character in the book, another being “Dr. Strangelove” became a black, satirical, comedy, wherein “Red Alert” was a straight up dramatic thriller. <br />
Both the film and the book had issues with the book and the film of “Fail Safe,” a book written by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler, first serialized in three parts in the Saturday Evening Post on October 13, 20, and 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and later made into an outstanding film directed by Sidney Lumet in 1964.<br />
There were many similarities between “Fail Safe,” and “Red Alert,” and of course they dealt with the same subject matter. Stanley, upon learning of the production of the film “Fail Safe,” became worried that it might harm the reception of “Dr. Strangelove” upon it’s release (and that it was being directed by such an accomplished director as Lumet (“12 Angry Men,” “Long Day's Journey into Night,” “The Pawnbroker”), and boasted a cast that included Henry Fonda and Walter Matthau), especially if “Fail Safe” were to premier first, before “”Dr. Strangelove.” So, what did he do? He sued the production of “Fail Safe,” claiming the producers basically ripped off “Red Alert,” or copied it, to make the book and the movie. Kubrick owned the filming rights to “Red Alert,” and so had legal standing.<br />
The issue was settled out of court, yet “Dr. Strangelove” was released January 29th, and “Fail Safe” on October 7th, 1964.<br />
The writing of the screenplay for “Dr. Strangelove” took many turns. George collaborated with Stanley during the time when Kubrick was considering making a serious, straight forward drama.<br />
But then he changed his mind.<br />
“My idea of doing it as a nightmare comedy came in the early weeks of working on the screenplay. I found that in trying to put meat on the bones and to imagine the scenes fully, one had to keep leaving out of it things which were either absurd or paradoxical, in order to keep it from being funny; and these things seemed to be close to the heart of the scenes in question.”<br />
Just before filming began, Kubrick hired noted journalist and satirical author Terry Southern (Peter had given Stanley a copy of Southern’s book “The Magic Christian,” which is why he hired him. Peter would star in the film version of “The Magic Christian,” five years later) to transform the script into its final form, a black-comedy, filled with sexual innuendo.<br />
Columbia Pictures agreed to finance the film if Peter played at least four major roles. They had seen him in “Lolita,” and felt that the success of that film was largely due to Peter’s ability to effectively play multiple parts (as he had done in “The Mouse That Roared”). <br />
Stanley accepted the demand because he wanted to get the film made and he didn’t have much choice in the matter, later stating that "such crass and grotesque stipulations are the sine qua non of the motion-picture business (“sine qua non” being fancy talk for “what can you do?”).”<br />
Peter wound up playing three of the four parts (pictures 2 through 4 above). The studio and Kubrick had also wanted him to play Air Force Major T. J. "King" Kong, the B-52 Stratofortress aircraft commander as well, but Peter had severe reservations about taking on the role. He was unsure about perfecting the Texas accent required, and he felt, well basically that it was just too much work taking on four major parts. <br />
There is some speculation regarding what happened next. Peter sprained his ankle and could not work in the cramped cockpit set. Some say this was an honest accident that couldn’t be helped, and others say, and the “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” suggests that Peter either sprained his ankle on purpose to get out of playing the role, or he was faking it entirely. In any case the wonderful veteran character actor <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/06/happy-birthday-slim.html"><i>Slim Pickens</i></a> was chosen to fill that part. <br />
“Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” cost 2 million dollars to make (which equals a modest budget of $15,626,666.67 today), and filming took place between December of 1962 and April of 1963. <br />
When it was released it stirred up much controversy and mixed opinions. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther worried that it was a "discredit and even contempt for our whole defense establishment ... the most shattering sick joke I've ever come across," while Robert Brustein of Out of This World in a February 1970 article called it a "juvenalian satire."<br />
Stanley responded to the criticism, stating: "A satirist is someone who has a very skeptical view of human nature, but who still has the optimism to make some sort of a joke out of it. However brutal that joke might be."<br />
Today, the film is considered to be one of the shrewdest comedy movies ever made, and holds a near perfect 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 68 reviews as of August 2015. The site's critical consensus reads, "Stanley Kubrick's brilliant Cold War satire remains as funny and razor-sharp today as it was in 1964." “Dr. Strangelove” also holds a score of 96 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 11 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." The film is ranked number 7 in the All-Time High Scores chart of Metacritic's Video/DVD section. It was voted the 39th-greatest American film and third-greatest comedy film of all time by the American Film Institute, and in 2010, it was voted the sixth-best comedy film of all time by The Guardian.<br />
“Dr. Strangelove” is on Roger Ebert's list of The Great Movies, and he described it as "arguably the best political satire of the century." One of the most celebrated of all film comedies, it is the only one that made the top 10 in the 2002 Sight & Sound directors' poll, and John Patterson of The Guardian wrote, "There had been nothing in comedy like Dr Strangelove ever before. All the gods before whom the America of the stolid, paranoid 50s had genuflected – the Bomb, the Pentagon, the National Security State, the President himself, Texan masculinity and the alleged Commie menace of water-fluoridation – went into the wood-chipper and never got the same respect ever again." It is also listed as number 26 on Empire's 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, and in 2010 it was listed by Time magazine as one of the 100 best films since the publication's inception in 1923. The Writers Guild of America ranked its screenplay the 12th best ever written. <br />
It was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.<br />
And it made money. 9.4 million dollars in 1964, which would work out to approximately $73,445,333.33 today. <br />
The three parts Peter undertook were distinct, "variegated, complex and refined," and critic Alexander Walker considered that these roles "showed his genius at full stretch." He played Muffley as a bland, placid intellectual in the mould of Adlai Stevenson (American lawyer, politician, diplomat, and two time presidential candidate noted for his intellectual demeanor, eloquent public speaking, and promotion of progressive causes in the Democratic Party); he played Mandrake as an unflappable Englishman; and Dr. Strangelove, a character influenced by pre-war German cinema, as a wheelchair-bound fanatic. The critic for The Times wrote that the film includes, "three remarkable performances from Mr. Peter Sellers, masterly as the President, diverting as a revue-sketch ex-Nazi US Scientist ... and acceptable as an RAF officer," although the critic from The Guardian thought his portrayal of the RAF officer alone was, "worth the price of an admission ticket." <br />
For his performance in all three roles, Peter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor at the 37th Academy Awards, and the Best British Actor Award at the 18th British Academy Film Awards.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL8VIcp0ECI"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of Peter as the President. And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM"><i>here’s</i></a> one with Peter and Sterling Hayden talking about water fluoridation. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ANJOEGCRJ4"><i>Here’s</i></a> Dr. Strangelove. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfpe28mv9n0"><i>Here’s </i></a>a clip of Slim having a little fun, and a short piece on the making of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ6BiRtGTAk"><i>Dr. Strangelove</i></a>.”<br />
“Dr. Strangelove” is one of my favorite movies. I could watch it right now!<br />
I once enthusiastically showed “Dr. Strangelove” to some of my case manager friends, young people in the early to mid twenties. After it was over one girl looked at me and passed her hand over her head, a sign that she didn’t understand it. <br />
Nobody even laughed at the famous line “Gentlemen you can't fight in here... this is the war room.”<br />
Either you had to be around during the Cold War or today’s youth are growing up stupid.<br />
In any case, it seems the whole thing worked out rather well for Peter.<br />
His next project was “The World of Henry Orient,” which was filmed during the period between June of 1963 and finished that October (it was released March 19th, 1964). The film also starred Paula Prentiss, Angela Lansbury, Tippy Walker, Merrie Spaeth, Phyllis Thaxter, Bibi Osterwald and Tom Bosley. It was directed by acclaimed American director George Roy Hill (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “Thoroughly Modern Millie”) and concerned two teenage girls (Walker and Spaeth) who develop a crush on the concert pianist Henry Orient (Peter). <br />
The film was a big success! “The World of Henry Orient,” premiered at Radio City Music Hall on March 19th, 1964. It became the official U.S. entry at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. In 1965 it was nominated for the Golden Globe Award in the category "Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy" and for a Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Written American Comedy." It has an 88% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. It was voted one of the Year's Ten Best Films by the National Board of Review in 1964.<br />
In his review for The New York Times, Bosley Crowther wrote that it was "one of the most joyous and comforting movies about teenagers that we've had in a long time."<br />
As a matter of full disclosure, especially during these troubling times of revelation, it would appear that married 44 year old director George Roy Hill had a continuing dalliance with his 16/17 year old co-star Tippy Walker.<br />
According to a 2012 article in The New Yorker by John Colapinto, Hill handpicked Tippy from hundreds of actresses who auditioned for the role of "Val." The filmmakers were so impressed with her performance that they reshaped the film during editing to focus more on her character, and shot the scene of her walking through a snowy Central Park months after production had wrapped. <br />
According to the New Yorker article, in the 2000s she revealed through a series of posts on the IMDB that she and Hill fell in love during the filming, and that the relationship lasted throughout most of her senior year in high school. Tippy claimed that the resulting Hollywood gossip made others reluctant to cast her and contributed to her decision to stop acting in the early 1970s.<br />
“That’s just the trouble. You have your dreams, and when you get there it isn’t as great as you thought it would be. Maybe I’ll become a poet or do illustrations instead of becoming an actress...”<br />
Another career ruined because a an older, powerful man couldn’t keep it in his pants.<br />
Next up for Peter was “A Shot in the Dark,” the first film featuring Peter as Inspector Jacques Clouseau. He had been attached to make a movie from an adaptation of a French play, “L'Idiote” (“The Idiot”) by Marcel Achard, which did not include the character of Clouseau. <br />
When Peter got around to doing this he found the part and the director, Anatole Litvak, unsatisfactory, so the producers brought in good old Blake Edwards to replace Litvak. Together with exorcist writer William Peter Blatty, they turned the script into a Clouseau comedy, and added Herbert Lom as Commissioner Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as Cato. The German beauty Elke Sommer aslo co-starred as the murder suspect Maria Gambrelli, as well as future Mr. Freeze George Sanders (After a distinguished career as an actor, singer-songwriter, music composer, and author that spanned more than 40 years, George’s health deteriorated, and he suffered from dementia, and survived a stroke. He was at a point wherein he couldn’t take care of himself and his depression deepened. On April 23rd, 1972, he checked into a hotel in Castelldefels, a coastal town near Barcelona. He was found dead two days later, having gone into cardiac arrest after swallowing the contents of five bottles of the barbiturate Nembutal. He left behind three suicide notes, one of which read:<br />
“Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.”)<br />
During filming of “A Shot in the Dark” Peter and Blake’s vision for the film began to differ, and their relationship soured, so much so that they were reduced to communicating through written notes. By now Peter had earned a reputation as being difficult and demanding, often clashing with fellow actors and directors. Blake and Peter’s relationship deteriorated to such a point that by the conclusion of the film they vowed never to work together again. They even spit on it, however they eventually reconciled to collaborate successfully four years later on “The Party,” and on three more "Pink Panther" films.<br />
Why? <br />
Money.<br />
“A Shot in the Dark" was well received by critics. As of September 2012, it has 93% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes out of 29 reviews counted. The average rating given by critics is 8 out of 10. It is generally regarded as the best of the Sellers/Pink Panther films. In 2006, the film was voted the 38th greatest comedy film of all time in Channel 4's 50 Greatest Comedy Films. “A Shot in the Dark" is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists: 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #48, and 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10.<br />
It made money as well (or else there wouldn’t have been any sequels) gathering in $12,368,234 upon it’s initial release, which would equal about $96,637,134.99 today. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA8gAvdkCQ8"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter and Elke. And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0snvJT3kGOc"><i>here’s</i></a> one featuring Peter and George. <br />
After filming “A Shot in the Dark” in February of 1964, Peter met the Swedish actress and singer Britt Ekland, who was in London to make a movie. Not inclined to waste time the couple got married 10 days after they first met, on February 19th, 1964. <br />
The problem with going out or getting married to a beautiful and attractive young woman is that you always have to worry about them because guys are going to be hitting on them like all of the time. It doesn’t matter if their married, men are still going to hit on them because that’s the way a great percentage of men are. They have no sense of propriety. They’re just rude.<br />
Peter soon found this out and is said to have shown signs of insecurity and paranoia, and would become highly anxious and jealous, for example, when Britt starred opposite attractive men.<br />
Shortly after the wedding, Peter started filming on location in Twentynine Palms, California for Billy Wilder's “Kiss Me, Stupid,” opposite Dean Martin and Kim Novak. Billy and Peter didn’t get along (big surprise), both having different ideas on how to proceed. <br />
Six weeks into the production, on the night of April 5th, and after making out with Britt, Peter inhaled amyl nitrites as a sexual stimulant and promptly suffered a series of eight to thirteen heart attacks over the course of two days, each time he was saved from death by the staff at the Cedars of Lebanon Hospital. <br />
Everybody in England thought he was already dead. So Peter went back to London to convalesce and prove them wrong. <br />
For some unfathomable reason after 10 days Peter disparaged Wilder and his movie in an interview with the Evening Standard, saying that Hollywood studios “give you every creature comfort except the satisfaction of being able to get the best work out of yourself.” <br />
That seems innocuous enough but it pissed of the director and cast of “Kiss Me, Stupid,” who sent Peter a telegraph in which they claimed he was unprofessional. This pissed off Peter who pulled out of a second movie deal with Billy, as well as not finishing “Kiss Me, Stupid.” He also took out a full-page ad in Variety to defend himself, thank hospital staff and fans, and declare that the Hollywood “atmosphere is wrong for me.”<br />
Billy Wilder was unsympathetic about the heart attacks, saying that "you have to have a heart before you can have an attack."<br />
The production of “Kiss Me, Stupid (a sordid tale of blanket opportunism, wife swapping, and gratuitous sex),” continued with our friend <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2012/12/happy-birthday-ray-walston.html"><i>Ray Walston</i></a> taking over Peter’s role. The film was released and flopped.<br />
“I don't know why the film shocked people. It's the most bourgeois film there is," Wilder declared. "A man wants a career and the person who wants to help him wants to sleep with his wife. He replaces his wife with another, but when he is nearest to success, he refuses it and throws the guy out . . . The public accepted it better in “The Apartment” because it was better conceived, better written, better lubricated.” <br />
Lubricated.<br />
After some months recovering, Peter returned to filming in October of 1964, playing King of the Individualists with his wife in “A Carol for Another Christmas,” a feature-length United Nations special, written by Rod Serling (“The Twilight Zone,” “Night gallery”) as a modernization of Charles Dickens' “A Christmas Carol,” and a plea for global cooperation (the goal of the production being to educate viewers about the mission and work of the UN and thereby gaining more widespread support for it’s nefarious activities). <br />
It broadcast in the United States on American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) December 28th, 1964. It was not shown again for 48 years, until Turner Classic Movies (TCM) broadcast it on December 16th, 2012.<br />
The movie also starred Sterling Hayden, Ben Gazzara, Steve Lawrence, Eva Marie Saint, Pat Hingle, and Robert Shaw.<br />
This program was the only television work ever done by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“All About Eve” “Guys and Dolls” “Sleuth”) who, according to Phil Hall, was happy to have work following the damage done to his reputation by “Cleopatra” the previous year (“Cleopatra” achieved notoriety during its production for its massive cost overruns and production troubles, which included changes in director and cast, a change of filming locale, sets that had to be constructed twice, lack of a firm shooting script, and personal scandal around co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. It was the most expensive film ever made up to that point and almost bankrupted 20th Century-Fox). The actors involved with the production reportedly agreed to waive their fees due to the nature and perceived importance of the show. Peter, who at the time was reported to charge $750,000 or more per picture, appeared for only $350, the Screen Actors Guild weekly minimum. Henry Mancini wrote the theme music, also waiving his usual fee.<br />
<a href="http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/567298/Carol-For-Another-Christmas-A-Movie-Clip-The-Imperial-Me.html"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
Peter had been concerned that the recent bout of heart attacks may have impaired his brain function and his ability to remember his lines and to perform properly, but things turned out well.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYYGO29u870"><i>Here’s</i></a> a Late Night interview with Peter talking about his health, Goon characters, Inspector Clouseau, “What’s New Pussycat?” etc.<br />
On January 20th, 1965, Peter and Britt announced the birth of a daughter, Victoria.<br />
Peter next appeared as Dr. Fritz Fassbender (Michael’s father) in “”What’s New Pussycat,” a film we’ve previously discussed. <br />
That year he worked with an ensemble cast in “The Wrong Box,” along with John Mills (father of my first true love,<a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-birthday-hayley-mills.html"><i> Hayley Mills</i></a>), Ralph Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, and the American actor Peter Graves, among others.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJbwtyHSu6E"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
They moved to Rome in May of 1965 to film “After the Fox,” an Anglo-Italian production in which Britt also appeared, along with Victor Mature, Martin Balsam, Maria Grazia Buccella, and the film’s Italian director, Vittorio De Sica.<br />
The screenplay was written by Neil Simon (with Cesare Zavattini, who is not listed in the opening credits), his very first. At the time Neil had three hit Broadway plays running, “Little Me,” “Barefoot in the Park,” and “The Odd Couple,” but he’d never written a screenplay for a movie.<br />
The film, by the way, concerned smuggling $3 million in stolen gold bullion into Europe from Cairo. Those that stole the gold enlist the help of a master criminal, the Fox, played by Peter, who fakes making a movie as a way to facilitate the smuggling. The film takes place in Italy.<br />
Neil wanted a real Italian person to play the Fox, but Peter got a hold of the script and liked it. “After the Fox,” was the first and last film produced by Peter’s own company, Brookfield Production Company, which he formed in partnership with John Bryan, a former production designer (the two would soon have a falling out largely due to the choice of Vittorio De Sica as the director).<br />
Peter sought out and asked De Sica to direct, who was reluctant at first. He also insisted that Britt play the role of the Fox’s sister, Gina, even though she obviously wasn’t Italian, and didn’t have an Italian accent. De Sica gave in to the request, later saying Britt worked hard and did a fine job. <br />
But Peter, uncharacteristically, changed his mind about Vittorio, and tried to have him fired. Apparently Peter couldn’t understand De Sica’s attempts at speaking English. Trying to have the director fired understandably caused a lot of tension on the set. <br />
The veteran actor Victor Mature (“One Million B.C.” “My Darling Clementine” “The Robe”), who had retired from the movie business five years previously, was lured back to the screen by the prospect of parodying himself as the character Tony Powell, an aging American actor who is living off his reputation from his earlier body of work. <br />
It seems Victor was a cool guy (he died of leukemia in 1999 at his Rancho Santa Fe, California, home, at the age of 86) who didn’t take himself too seriously. There’s a story about him applying for membership in the Los Angeles Country Club at the height of his film career. He was told that the club did not accept actors. He replied: "I'm not an actor — and I've got 64 films to prove it!"<br />
He agreed to make the film after a personal call from Peter. <br />
The blume of fresh and passionate love began to fade in the Sellers/Ekland marriage. Peter apparently became unhappy with his wife's performance, straining their relationship and triggering open arguments during one of which Sellers threw a chair at her. <br />
The film received mixed reviews. Bosley Crowther summed up his in The New York Times: "It's pretty much of a mess, this picture. Yes, you'd think it was done by amateurs." The Variety reviewer thought "Peter Sellers is in nimble, lively form in this whacky comedy which, though sometimes strained, has a good comic idea and gives the star plenty of scope for his usual range of impersonations."<br />
Opinion continues to be divided. “After the Fox” is rated 6.5/10 on IMDB, an average of more than 2,500 user ratings. Rotten Tomatoes reported an 83% approval rating with an average rating of 5.7/10, based on six reviews; their audience score was 68%.<br />
“After the Fox” cost $3 million to make and earned $2,296,970 at the box office and in rentals. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbFFdvXIta0"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of the opening credits with a catchy song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and performed by The Hollies and Peter (with Graham Nash. The Hollies made a popular cover of “Just One Look," and after Nash left to form Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1968, the group came out with “He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother,” and “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress,” among others).<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqZKUx91MFI"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter as the crazy director. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glL7qrUsVBA"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Akim Tamiroff, and Maria Grazia Buccella.<br />
That last scene inspired a similar one in 2002‘s “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” in which Austin talks to Foxxy Cleopatra through the lovely and talented Nathan Lane.<br />
After the success of “What’s New Pussycat?” Charles Feldman brought Peter and Woody Allen together again in 1967‘s “Casino Royal.” Peter signed a $1 million dollar contract ($7,592,201.26 in 2017 dollars), and it’s not clear if he collected his money as he walked off the set without finishing the film.<br />
Shortly after leaving “Casino Royale,” Peter was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE, just short of being a knight proper) in honor of his career achievements. The day before the investiture at Buckingham Palace, Peter and Britt argued, with her scratching his face in the process. Peter had a make-up artist cover the marks. Britt later reported that although she and Peter argued, he never hit her (I assume the chair he threw at her missed).<br />
In any case Peter also worked with Britt again in 1967 for “The Bobo.” Peter co-directed, and the film also starred Rossano Brazzi (“South Pacific” “Three Coins in the Fountain” “The Barefoot Contessa”), “Thunderball” villain, Adolfo Celi, and Al Lettieri, who was the bad guy in 1972's “The Getaway,” and Virgil 'The Turk' Sollozzo in “The Godfather.”<br />
During filming, Peter and Britt’s marital problems worsened. Three weeks into production in Italy, Peter told co-director Robert Parrish to fire his wife, saying "I'm not coming back after lunch if that bitch is on the set." Britt later stated that the marriage was "an atrocious sham" at this point.<br />
This would be the last time Peter and Britt worked together. <br />
I don’t know if “The Bobo” made any money as the revenue was not reported. As far as it’s reception, well here’s what Bosley Crowther had to say about it: <br />
“It's amazing how labored and unfunny is the screenplay of this pseudocomic tale. It concerns an ex-matador in Barcelona who wants to get a job as a singer in vaudeville and who makes a deal with an impresario that he will be engaged for one week if he succeeds in seducing an especially haughty and selective courtesan. And it is downright pitiful to see how wistful and without spirit Mr. Sellers is as this pretentiously quixotic fellow who succeeds, but then is too honorable to take advantage of the deal.<br />
Actually, Mr. Sellers doesn't really get into the film until it has been going almost a half-hour, most of which time is taken in working up the tedious preliminaries of the plot. In these, Mr. Sellers's wife, Britt Ekland, is thoroughly introduced and exhaustively looked over for her physical attributes, which are nothing out of the ordinary, as the greedy, gold-digging courtesan.<br />
Rossano Brazzi, Adolfo Celi and Kenneth Griffith mangle three dull supporting roles. We're not even permitted to see much of Barcelona. Most of this scenically synthetic color picture was shot in Rome's Cinecittá studio. And the songs of Francis Lai are so unimpressive I almost forgot there are a couple of them scattered around, supposedly sung by Mr. Sellers, but obviously dubbed in by someone else.”<br />
My sense is he didn’t care for it. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oulxYURn-00"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Lettieri, and Celi. <br />
Also, in the midst of filming “The Bobo,” Peter’s mother had a heart attack. Parrish asked him if he wanted to visit her in hospital, but he remained on set. She died within days, without Peter having seen her. <br />
He was deeply affected by her death and remorseful at not having returned to London to see her. Britt served him with divorce papers shortly afterwards. <br />
“If I’d stayed I’d have been driven literally mad,” Britt confided. “I still loved him but I just couldn’t take any more. It was him or me. He possessed me and that’s no way to live.”<br />
The divorce was finalized on December 18th, 1968, and Peter’s friend Spike Milligan sent her a congratulatory telegram which was rather odd considering his close friendship with Peter. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ5eQ7KkRGQ"><i>Here’s</i></a> clip of a 2016 interview with Britt talking about life with Peter.<br />
Roger Lewis, author of “The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers (the book),” says of Peter: “Though supremely confident when disguised as a French police inspector or a German scientist he didn’t have much faith in himself in ordinary life. Sellers never could believe in anyone’s love for him – so he’d test their loyalty to the limit.”<br />
1967 also saw Peter in the Funeral Procession portion of “Woman Times Seven,” an Italian/French/American co-production anthology film of seven episodes, all starring Shirley MacLaine (Our friend Natalie Wood was first offered the part but turned it down), most of them dealing with the subject of adultery.<br />
The film also starred Rossano Brazzi, Alan Arkin (who would portray Inspector Clouseau the next year in “Inspector Clouseau,” which was made without Peter and Blake Edwards who were busy making “The Party.” The Mirisch Company wanted to proceed with this franchise, so when Peter and Blake declined to participate, Mirisch decided to proceed without them. The film received mostly negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office), Michael Caine, Robert Morley, and the lovely and talented Anita Ekberg.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpNCYa5tYlw"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Shirley, Peter, and Michael Caine.<br />
Peter’s first film of 1968 was “The Party,” wherein he reunited with Blake Edwards for the only non-Pink Panther film they made together. Claudine Longet also starred (Claudine (former wife of popular singer and television host Andy Williams, who used to sing “Moon River” a lot, which of course was written by Henry Mancini, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, for the film “Breakfast at Tiffany's,” which was directed by Blake Edwards) was arrested and charged with fatally shooting her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich, at his Aspen, Colorado, home on March 21st, 1976. At her trial she said the gun discharged accidentally as Sabich was showing her how it worked. The jury convicted her of negligent homicide and sentenced her to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail. The judge allowed Claudine to choose the days to be served, believing this arrangement would allow her to spend the most time with her children. She chose to serve most of her sentence on weekends. (Critical reaction to the verdict and sentencing was exasperated when she subsequently vacationed with her defense attorney, Ronald D. Austin, who was married at the time. Claudine and Austin later married and still live in Aspen.) After the criminal trial, the Sabich family initiated civil proceedings to sue her. The case was eventually resolved out of court, with the provision that Claudine never tell or write about the death or the settlement), along with Gavin MacLeod, Denny Miller, and Tonight Show helper,<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/pin/449163762819015858/"><i> Carol Wayne</i></a> (In January 1985, Carol and a companion, Edward Durston were vacationing at the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. After they had an argument she reportedly took a walk on the beach. Three days later a local fisherman found her body in the shallow bay. An autopsy performed in Mexico revealed no signs of drugs or alcohol in her body. Her death was ruled "accidental"). <br />
Peter appeared as Hrundi V. Bakshi, a bungling Indian actor who accidentally receives an invitation to a lavish Hollywood dinner party. His character, according to Sellers's biographer Peter Evans, was "clearly an amalgam of Clouseau and the doctor in ‘The Millionairess.'"<br />
From TMC, “A Hollywood movie studio has the bright idea of importing a stage actor from New Delhi to lend some authenticity to their production of Son of Gunga Din. Their chosen lead, Hrundi V. Bakshi (Peter Sellers), turns out to be a walking disaster, bungling his scenes and inadvertently destroying one of the most expensive sets in the film. Although he is promptly fired, Bakshi continues to create further mayhem at the home of the outraged studio head, Fred Clutterbuck, when he receives a party invitation by accident.<br />
Essentially a string of jokes and sight gags inspired by Peter Sellers' gift for mimicry, “The Party” is one of Blake Edwards' most unconventional films. The script, barely sixty-five pages, was about half the length of the normal Hollywood screenplay and at least a fourth of the film had no dialogue, just sound effects and incidental music. Truly a concept film, “The Party” bears favorable comparison to the comedies of Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy in the way that Bakshi retains his innocence and naiveté in the face of recurring disaster. There are also similarities to the films of French comedian Jacques Tati and his fascination with gadgets and inanimate objects. This is particularly true of the scenes at the movie executive's home where Bakshi manages to turn a fountain into a geyser, a roast chicken into a woman's headwear, and a public address system into an ear-splitting broadcast of muzak.<br />
“The Party” was released on April 4th, 1968, the same day as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. <br />
It cost $1.5 million (approximately $10,551,120.69 in 2017) to make and brought in $2.9 million (about $20,398,833.33 today) at the box office and in rentals, so it was moderately successful financially. <br />
And the critics seemed to like it.<br />
Blake’s biographers Peter Lehman and William Luhr said, "The Party may very well be one of the most radically experimental films in Hollywood history; in fact it may be the single most radical film since D. W. Griffith's style came to dominate the American cinema." Film historian Saul Austerlitz wrote, "Despite the offensiveness of Sellers's brownface routine, The Party is one of his very best films... Taking a page from Tati this is neorealist comedy, purposefully lacking a director's guiding eye: look here, look there. The screen is crammed full of activity, and the audience's eyes are left to wander where they may."<br />
I liked it. And “The Party” is considered a classic comedic cult film.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkrKkBhsMiA"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter in a bathroom (you may recognize the background music from another Sellers film), and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA_j4KpP0W0"><i>here’s</i></a> one featuring Peter and his shoe (Carol can be seen sitting at the bar) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cak9bZpn4uQ"><i>here’s</i></a> one with Claudine singing the song “Nothing to Lose,” written by Don Black and Henry Mancini.<br />
Peter followed up “The Party” with director Hy Averback's “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas,” (Alice B. Toklas was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde (people or works that are experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society) of the early 20th century, and the life partner of American writer Gertrude Stein) playing an attorney who abandons his lifestyle to become a drug addled hippie. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars, remarking that Peter was "back doing what he does best", although he also said that in Sellers's previous films he had "been at his worst recently.”<br />
The lovely and talented actress Leigh Taylor-Young made her film debut in “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas,” and for her work she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Most Promising Female Newcomer.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUgHDIqON_E"><i>Here's</i></a> the trailer. <br />
Peter had a cameo appearance in the second episode of season three of the American television program “It Takes a Thief,” entitled, “ Who'll Bid Two Million Dollars,” as the man in the office. Robert Wagner starred in the show, and concerning full disclosure, I used to hang out on the set of “It Takes a Thief,” at Universal Studios, when I was a kid.<br />
I never saw Peter though.<br />
In 1969 Peter starred opposite Beatles percussionist Ringo Starr in “The Magic Christian,” which was directed by “Casino Royale” alumni, Joseph McGrath.<br />
The movie was of course based on the 1959 novel of the same name written by Terry Southern, who, as you recall, helped out with the script for “Dr. Strangelove.” <br />
Peter portrayed Sir Guy Grand, an eccentric billionaire who plays elaborate practical jokes on people that usually involves money in some way. All his escapades are designed to prove his theory that everyone has their price, it just depends on the amount one is prepared to pay them, which, by the way isn’t much of a theory, rather it’s a logical conclusion. Ringo plays Grand’s adopted son, who he befriends for some unexplained reason, and who follows him around to help facilitate Grand’s deceptions and pranks. <br />
Many British and American actors appear briefly in the film, many playing against type. The macho actor Yul Brynner (“The King and I” “The Magnificent Seven” “Westworld”) playing an uncredited transvestite cabaret singer being a prime example. <br />
Other notable cast members include pre-Monty Python John Cleese and Graham Chapman (who had jointly written an earlier version of the film script, of which only the scenes they appear in survived), Spike Milligan, Richard Attenborough, Graham Stark, Laurence Harvey, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Christopher Lee, Roman Polanski, Raquel Welch, and Caroline Blakiston.<br />
I re-viewed “The Magic Christian” recently and came to the same conclusion I had upon initially watching it, believing it to be heavy handed, mean spirited, at times cruel, not particularly funny, and one big mess. <br />
Most of the reviews of the film that I’ve read tend to agree with my assessment. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c54d2wHk4Oo"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Ringo, and John Cleese.<br />
And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f8M8hL-OWA"><i>here’s</i></a> a very rare 50 minute clip of behind the scenes interviews with Peter during the making of “The Magic Christian.”<br />
Peter appeared in a cameo as “the man with two cars,” in his long time associate’s short film, “Simon, Simon,” starring Graham Stark and John Junkin, directed by Graham Stark, and co-written by Graham Stark. Michael Caine and David Hemmings (“Blow Up" “Barbarella” “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”) also appeared in this 32 minute, 1970 sound effect comedy short film about two handymen who cause chaos on a new crane while haphazardly trying to accomplish jobs for their ever more frustrated boss.<br />
During this time Peter had been seeing the twenty-three-year-old model Miranda Quarry (Miranda, Countess of Stockton (born 1947) is an Australian socialite and former fashion model. She was born as Miranda Elizabeth Louise Quarry in Wokingham, Berkshire, the daughter of Richard Bridges St. John Quarry and his first wife, Diana Elizabeth, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Horace Lloyd. Her mother later married Stormont Mancroft, 2nd Baron Mancroft). <br />
. The couple married on August 24th, 1970, despite his private doubts, expressed to his agent, Dennis Selinger, about his decision to re-marry. <br />
Roger Lewis says that after his marriage to Britt was over Peter “went even more bonkers. He had a relationship with Princess Margaret that was like his relationships with Sophia Loren – all in his mind. Britt put up with his antics for four years, after which Sellers married a socialite called Miranda Quarry. Her dogs were the bridesmaids and he left her during the honeymoon.”<br />
They were married from 1970 until 1974. <br />
1970 also saw Peter in “Hoffman,” a British dramatic feature film directed by Alvin Rakoff (1979‘s “King Solomon's Treasure,” with Britt Ekland, David McCallum, and Patrick Macnee), also starring the Irish actress Sinéad Cusack, as Peter’s love interest. It is the tale of an older man who blackmails an attractive young woman into spending a week with him in his flat in London, his hope being that she will forget her crooked fiancé and fall in love with him instead because he’s so hot and all.<br />
Here’s what Mike Sutton of BFI had to say about “Hoffman:”<br />
“Hoffman is a film without much of a reputation, which is a shame because it contains one of Sellers’ most interesting performances. Famously, he considered the end result to be too revealing of his own personality and offered to buy back the negative from EMI. This in itself is fascinating because Hoffman is a troubled, dark character, a man who becomes obsessed with the woman he imprisons in his flat for a weekend for the purposes of blackmail. It’s a complex and enlightening turn, with Sellers appearing gaunt and grim, spitting out misogyny and simmering with suppressed rage. The film falls apart after the first half and never becomes the battle of wills that it promises to be – no reflection on Sinead Cusack’s excellent performance – but it’s full of interesting things. It shows a demon inside Sellers which we now know to have been ever-present in his life and it’s not comfortable to watch.” <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP5IM6fx5Ng"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
“There’s a Girl in My Soup,” starring Peter and Goldie Hawn, was released on December 15th of 1970, and according to The Times (a British daily (Monday to Saturday) national newspaper based in London, England), the film was a major commercial success and became the seventh most popular film at the British box office in 1970.<br />
Huggo, from the IMDB, tells us “At age forty-one, Robert Danvers is renowned for being an ego-maniacal celebrity chef and culinary critic who hosts his own London based gourmet food television show called "Good Taste". But he's equally renowned for being a womanizing cad who has a revolving door of women coming and going. He's met his match in a nineteen year old American named Marion, who picks up him up without knowing who he is or anything about his public or personal life. But she seems to immediately know what he's all about. She admits that she wants to stay one step ahead of him in their sexual game. Despite their bumpy start or perhaps because of it, she moves into his flat a day after knowing him and accompanies him on a business trip to the south of France. This being a relationship totally foreign to both, can it last, or will it last because it is different than all the previous casual relationships they've had up until now?”<br />
Well, will it!? I really want to know!<br />
“There’s a Girl in My Soup” made $28,818,143.24, 2017 dollars against a budget of who knows what.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnrEBAGJMPk"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Q5X-FNx2E"><i>Here’s</i></a> a small piece of an interview Peter gave to The Late Late Show in 1970. And a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5naOlplJus"><i>companion piece!</i></a><br />
On December 26th Peter and Spike appeared in small parts of the television movie “'Wiltons' - The Handsomest Hall in Town,” which concerned a reenactment of performances at the Wilton's Music Hall (a Grade II listed building, built as a music hall and now run as a multi-arts performance space in Graces Alley, off Cable Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets) in 1880. <br />
Peter starred along with “M.A.S.H.’s” Jo Ann Pflug (The first woman to have a live weekly television talk show in the late 1960s in Los Angeles on KHJ-TV (channel 9).” in “Where Does it Hurt?” a Kafkaesque take on the medical profession, in which Peter plays hospital administrator Albert T. Hopfnagel, who oversees a facility that is more interested in generating revenue than it is in providing sound medical care. <br />
TV Guide (a weekly magazine that once published a list of the television shows that were being broadcast during the week) described “Where Does it Hurt?” upon it’s release by saying, “The language is profane, the pcomroceedings inane, and the story insane…If you hate doctors, Mexicans, homosexuals, blacks, females, Catholics, Jews, Italians, Japanese, insurance companies, hospitals, Poles, and humanity, you'll love this movie.”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtWy14AGDiU"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
Peter played the March Hare (a leporid belonging to the genus Lepus), in 1972‘s “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” along with Spike Mulligan playing the Gryphon, Dudley Moore as the Dormouse, Ralph Richardson as the Caterpillar, and a host of others playing different parts. The Nigerian-born British actress and singer Fiona Fullerton played Alice.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=485tMccPTfY"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Dudley Moore, Michael Crawford, and Fiona. <br />
Peter, Spike, and Harry Secombe would reunite on the radio on April 20th, 1972, for what was called “The Last Goon Show of All,” which was broadcast on October 5th.<br />
Was it really the last Goon Show of all? Well, that depends on your ideas on reincarnation. <br />
When asked about it later Spike considered the early 70's to be “a period of indifference in Peter’s professional career, and it would appear at one time that his career might have come to a conclusion." <br />
Why did he think that? Well looking into the future a little bit, one of Peter’s biographers, Peter Evens, noted in 1980 that out of nine films in the period, three were never released and five had flopped, while only “There's a Girl in My Soup” had been a success. <br />
On October 19th, 1973, “The Optimists of Nine Elms,” was released. Peter starred with Donna Mullane and John Chaffey, in a tale of an old street musician (Peter) who strikes up a friendship with two children, Liz, played by Donna, and her young brother Mark, played by John. <br />
Donna was abducted... er, molested by... er, recruited for her role by the film crew, who saw her walking home from school when they were scouting locations for the movie.<br />
“Hey, you wanta be in pictures baby?”<br />
“Okay.”<br />
Variety said of “The Optimists of Nine Elms,” upon its release, “Pic is a romanticized, Anglicized variant on [Vittorio De Sica’s 1952 Italian classic] ‘Umberto D,'with Peter Sellers playing an aging vaudevillian whose meager income derives from sidewalk minstrelling with his equally-weary trained mutt. He tentatively befriends an eleven-year-old girl and her six-year-old brother, opening their poverty-clouded eyes to a world of magical dreams while they offer him the blessing of human contact.<br />
It all sounds like goo, and the film’s last half-hour verges perilously close. But even at its worst The Optimists is acceptable family fare, and for much of its first 80 minutes it engagingly achieves a sense of fantasy.<br />
Director-coscripter Anthony Simmons (on whose novel The Optimists of Nine Elms screenplay is based) obviously understands and relishes the unique world of childhood.”<br />
Peter won the Best Actor award at the 1973 Tehran Film Festival for his work in “The Optimists of Nine Elms,” six years before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 when all hell broke lose in that country. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Fal0faBog"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip. <br />
In May of 1973, with his third marriage failing, Peter went to a theater to watch Liza Minnelli perform. He became entranced with her and they quickly became a couple, becoming engaged three days later, despite Liza’s betrothal at the time to Desi Arnaz, Jr., and of course Peter still being married to Miranda.<br />
The relationship lasted a month before they broke up.<br />
January of 1974 saw the release of “The Blockhouse,” a wartime drama about some forced laborers who take refuge from overhead bombing in an underground bunker which consequently collapses on them trapping them inside forever. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) the bunker was also a storehouse, with food and supplies enough to last for years... but not forever. <br />
The film and the book that inspired it may have been based on a true story. On June 25th, 1951, Time magazine reported that two German soldiers claimed to have been trapped for six years in an underground storehouse in Babie Doły (real name), Poland.<br />
Once again TV guide weighed in on one of Peter’s films. "The film tries to study men in a terrible, claustrophobic setting, but it never reveals the true nature of the characters or a metaphysical reason for their predicament. A worthy idea that sadly goes nowhere." <br />
Don’t beat around the bush, TV Guide. Tell us what you really think.<br />
No one knows how much the movie cost or how much it made. <br />
No One.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOb_30RNclI"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip<br />
Also in 1974, Peter portrayed a horny Queen Victoria in Joseph McGrath's comedic biographical film of the Scottish poet William McGonagall, “The Great McGonagall,” starring opposite Spike and Julia Foster.<br />
Peter worked one week of the three week shoot. Apparently the producer of “The Great McGonagall,” David Grant, was a big time British porn producer and distributor, who forced McGrath to include a bunch of female nude scenes and really only wanted to use the film as a tax write off. <br />
Not surprisingly “The Great McGonagall,” was a critical failure. The New York Times’, Richard Eder wrote, "'The Great McGonagall,' which opened yesterday at the Cinema Village, is endearing, and parts of it are lovely and hilarious. But it lacks enough of an organizing principle in its chaos to succeed as a movie...The pace is frenetic, the level of reality shifts every two minutes, it is stuffed with visual absurdities, old jokes and take-offs. Some work, some exasperate...McGonagall dies, and you are sorry. Despite his madness, his delusions, his bad poems, you miss him. He is a radiant failure. So, in a way, is his movie, with all bad jokes, carelessness and confusion.”<br />
Judge for yourself if you dare. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Los8c8amIF8"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
I have no information on if “The Great McGonagall,” was a financial failure as well. It probably made some money somewhere due to the naked ladies.<br />
In any case Peter’s career and life reached an all-time low. <br />
Due to hitting bottom Peter agreed to accept salaries of £100,000 and 10 per cent of the gross to appear in TV productions and advertisements, well below the £1 million he had once commanded per film.<br />
In 1973, he appeared in a Benson & Hedges cinema commercial. In 1975, he appeared in a series of advertisements for Trans World Airlines, in which he played several eccentric characters, including Thrifty McTravel, Jeremy "Piggy" Peak Thyme and an Italian singer, Vito.<br />
I think we all have to be thankful the communication Peter had in 1974 with the British music hall comic Dan Leno, who unfortunately up to that point had been dead for 70 years. <br />
Peter claimed to have talked to him previously so they were old friends. <br />
Dan gave Peter some good advice, and Peter’s career was revived for taking it. <br />
Dan had told him to return to the role of Inspector Jacques Clouseau.<br />
As it happened Blake had been up on the idea of making another Panther film, and had written a 15-20 page outline for such a movie and presented it to Walter Mirisch, who had you may remember produced the previous Pink Panther films. Walter was very interested in making the film but the franchise's distributor and main backer, United Artists, rejected the project as they didn’t care to work with Blake or Peter, whose careers had declined (in the case of Edwards, his films since “The Party,” “Inspector Clouseau (1968, without Peter),” “Darling Lili (1970),” “Wild Rovers (1971),” “The Carey Treatment (1972),” did poorly both critically and financially).<br />
Former dancer and talent agent turned media proprietor (a successful entrepreneur or business person who controls, through personal ownership or via a dominant position in any media related company or enterprise, media consumed by a large number of individuals, in Grade’s case, he did well producing television and films... for the most part), Lew Grade brought the idea of a Pink Panther television series to Blake. Edwards didn’t care to get involved other than to work on some scripts. <br />
Grade then agreed to finance two films for Blake as part of a deal to get his wife, the actress and singer Julie Andrews (“Mary Poppins,” “The Sound of Music”), to appear in a TV special for him. The first movie was “The Tamarind Seed (1974. The film starred Andrews and Omar Sharif. Blake wrote the screenplay. Grade said the film "did fairly well" at the box office but that he struggled to make money out of the movie because Blake and Julie took such a large percentage of the profits (Andrews 10% of the gross, Edwards 5%)), and afterward a project which took place in Canada called Rachel and the Stranger, but Lew disliked the idea and offered to buy Blake out of the second commitment. <br />
Blake wanted to make another movie, however, partly to repair his tarnished career in Hollywood. Lew suggested making a new Pink Panther film and Blake agreed, provided Peter would come back and star in it. <br />
Lew talked to Peter who agreed to make the movie, not having much choice really, considering the state of his own career, and Dan Leno’s directive.<br />
United Artists gave what would become “Return of the Pink Panther,” to Lew in exchange for world distribution rights and a share of the profits, after which Lew’s company, ITC, would permanently own the rights to the film. <br />
Blake and Peter waived their usual fees in return for a profit-sharing arrangement (UA was offered the same deal ,but declined, eventually coming to an agreement to distribute in America, taking 5% of the profits. ITC distributed everywhere else.<br />
And the film was a success! It made $41.8 million 1974 dollars ($218,438,476.19 now) against a budget of $5 million ($26,129,004.33).<br />
Along with Peter “Return of the Pink Panther,” also starred Christopher Plummer (who had worked with Blake’s wife 10 years prior in “The Sound of Music”), replacing David Niven (who was unavailable at the time) as Sir Charles Litton, the lovely and talented Catherine Schell as Christopher’s wife, Lady Claudine Litton, and Herbert Lom and Burt Kwouk, reprising their roles from “A Shot in the Dark,” Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, and Cato respectively. Also, Peter’s old friend Graham Stark appears in the film playing a different character than he did in “A Shot in the Dark,” which insults my sense of continuity to no end.<br />
Here’s a little secret from the production notes. Please don’t tell anybody.<br />
Catherine Schell (born Katherina Freiin Schell von Bauschlott, daughter of Baron Paul Schell von Bauschlott, an Hungarian diplomat, and Countess Katharina Maria Etelka Georgina Elisabeth Teleki de Szék. At the start of the Second World War, her parents' estates were confiscated by the Nazis. Fleeing Hungary in advance of the Russians and Communism, the family lived in poverty until 1948, finding asylum in Austria: first in Vienna, then in Salzburg. In 1950, the family emigrated to the United States, where the Baron acquired American citizenship, something that might prove to be decidedly difficult today in Trump’s anti-immigration environment) can be seen laughing on at least two occasions in “Return of the Pink Panther.” Once when Clouseau impersonates a telephone repairman to infiltrate her home, and again when he meets her in a restaurant and pretends to be "Guy Gadbois," a ladies' man.<br />
In the latter, the scene appears to cut suddenly as she starts choking on her drink from laughing. This magnifies the impression that Lady Lytton sees Clouseau as amusing and no real threat. <br />
These scenes are frequently proffered as classic examples of corpsing (British theatrical slang for unintentionally breaking character by laughing. In North American TV and film, this is commonly referred to as breaking, and it is generally categorized as a blooper. The origin of the term corpsing itself is unclear, but probably formulated by the zombie faction, alluding to provoking an actor into breaking character by laughing while portraying a corpse. As the name suggests, many examples of corpsing have been created from actors performing this role or related roles, such as a sleeping or unconscious character), and it was not uncharacteristic of Peter to goad his fellow actors into breaking character. <br />
Nevertheless, Catherine has maintained in various interviews that she always considered it in character for Lady Lytton to be amused at Clouseau's antics.<br />
I agree. If indeed it were an example of a “blooper,” breaking the continuity of the scene, it would have been cut out in the editing process. <br />
Also, the lovely and talented Carol Cleveland, of Monty Python fame, had a small part as a swimming pool diver. <br />
She can briefly be seen in the scene with the pool.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaHG1x2Bg84"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Herbert Lom, a blind lookout man, and a minkee.<br />
“Return of the Pink Panther” earned Peter a nomination for the Best Actor – Musical or Comedy award at the 33rd Golden Globe Awards.<br />
The film energized both Blake’s and Peter’s careers, which allowed them the flexibility to choose what they wanted to work on in the future. <br />
They both chose to make 1976's “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” with a little “Murder by Death,” thrown in in the middle (“Murder by Death” was released June 23rd, and Panther December 15th).<br />
“Murder by Death” reunited Peter with Neil Simon who wrote the screenplay (as he did for “After the Fox”), Truman Capote (who helped John Houston write the screenplay for “Beat the Devil”), Alec Guinness (“The Ladykillers”), and David Niven (“The Pink Panther”). <br />
Here is a short synopsis provided by the media historian Hal Erickson:<br />
“As penned by Neil Simon, this satire of movie mysteries is set in motion when several prominent detectives are invited to the mansion of the reclusive Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). In Ten Little Indians fashion, the gathered sleuths are locked into the forbidding mansion, and subject to various death-dealing devices. While struggling for their lives, the vainglorious gumshoes continue to try to one-up one another. Each character is broadly based on a famous literary detective: Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is an aphorism-spouting Charlie Chan clone: Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are patterned on the protagonists of the Thin Man flicks; Milo Perrier (James Coco), a Hercule Poirot takeoff, stalks through the proceedings declaring "I'm a Belgie, not a Frenchie!"; Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade rolled in one; and Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) is a dottier variation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Best bit: a "conversation" between blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness) and deaf-mute maid Yetta (Nancy Walker)."<br />
Although no information is available about the production budget for “Murder by Death,” it would appear that the film was financially successful earning $32,511,047 at the box office in 1976 (equivalent to $139,863,781.21 in 2017).<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szG35uyiiuk"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring various parts of the film.<br />
And then came “The Pink Panther Strikes Again.”<br />
The film was rushed into production owing to the success of “The Return of the Pink Panther." Blake had used one of two scripts that he and Frank Waldman had written for that "Pink Panther" TV series that Lou Grade had proposed as the basis for Return, and he used the other as the starting point for Strikes Again. As a result, it is the only Pink Panther movie which has a story-line that explicitly follows on from the previous film.<br />
It’s almost exactly like a continuous story.<br />
"If you went to an asylum and you described the first inmate you saw, that's what Peter had become. He was certifiable," said Blake Edwards of his leading man. <br />
Peter’s health was declining. Due to his heart condition a stand in was used as much as possible during the scenes that demanded a certain amount of physicality. <br />
Possibly due to the state of his physical health, his mental health seemed to deteriorate as well. Peter could at times be unbearable on the set. His behavior was regarded as unprofessional and childish, and he frequently threw tantrums, often threatening to abandon projects. Biographer Peter Evans mentioned that Peter was a "volatile and perplexing character [who] left a trail of misery in his private life". He also noted that Peter had a "compulsive personality and [was] an eccentric hypochondriac" who became addicted to various medicines aside from his recreational drug habits during this period.<br />
His difficult behavior while working was widely reported and made it more difficult for Peter to get a job at a time when he most needed the work (when he most needed the money).<br />
In any case, “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” received mixed critical reactions, but was a big success financially making $33,833,201 ($145,551,738.84 today) off of a budget of $6 million ($25,812,231.99), as was the followup to Strikes Again, and the last original Clouseau film with Peter, “Revenge of the Pink Panther (at this point the Pink Panther diamond has nothing to do with the film’s plot, for Revenge and Strikes Again),” which made $49.5 million in 1978 ($185,842,131.90 now) against a budget of $12 million ($45,052,638.04 now).<br />
Vincent Canby of The New York Times said of Peter in the film, "There is, too, something most winningly seedy about Mr. Sellers' Clouseau, a fellow who, when he attempts to tear off his clothes in the heat of passion, gets tangled up in his necktie, and who, when he masquerades—for reasons never gone into—as Quasimodo, over inflates his hump with helium."<br />
While Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half stars out of four and wrote, "If I'm less than totally enthusiastic about 'The Pink Panther Strikes Again,' maybe it was because I've been over this ground with Clouseau many times before," stating that a time would have to come "when inspiration gives way to habit, and I think the 'Pink Panther' series is just about at that point. That's not to say this film isn't funny -- it has moments as good as anything Sellers and Edwards have ever done -- but that it's time for them to move on. They worked together once on the funniest movie either one has ever done, 'The Party.' Now it's time to try something new again.”<br />
I agree with Roger. As Graham Chapman of Monty Python has said, and I paraphrase, “This just gets sillier and sillier.” <br />
Despite the success of Revenge, the Clouseau character, if you compare him from the first film, “The Pink Panther,” to what appears in Strikes Again and Revenge, the character just dissolves into an increasing morass of silliness, relying on slapstick and even scatological humor more than characterization or plot. <br />
Apparently Peter was tiring of the role himself, stating "I've honestly had enough of Clouseau—I've got nothing more to give."<br />
It was time for both Blake and Peter to move on (despite returning to the series in 1982‘s “Trail of the Pink Panther,” which utilized unused scenes from previous Pink Panther films starring Peter), 1983's “Curse of the Pink Panther,” and 1993's “Son of the Pink Panther,” Blake Edwards moved on to make such films as “10,” “S.O.B.,” and “Victor/Victoria”).<br />
Peter’s performance in Strikes Again earned him a further nomination at the 34th Golden Globe Awards, as well as a 1977 Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Comedy Adapted from Another Medium," for Blake and Frank Waldman.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu1RZaFnkKs"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
<br />
"'He causes pain to everyone who gets close to him ... Even when you're the victim of his outrageous behavior, his selfishness, or one of his tantrums, you always found yourself smiling about it afterwards, even if you had to do it through gritted tears." -Spike Milligan on Peter Sellers.<br />
<br />
In March of 1976 Peter began dating actress Lynne Frederick, whom he married on February 18th, 1977.<br />
Biographer Roger Lewis wrote that of all of Peter’s wives, Frederick was the most abused. <br />
Author of “Fallen Stars: Tragic Lives and Lost Careers," Julian Upton, likened the relationship to a boxing match between a heavyweight and a featherweight, a relationship that "oscillated from ardor to hatred, reconciliation and remorse." <br />
Peter Evans claimed that Milligan detested Lynne and believed she was to blame for his increasing alcohol and cocaine dependency.<br />
Being somewhat familiar with the subject of drug dependency I can categorically state that no one is responsible for an addicts drug (alcohol is a drug) use other than the addict. <br />
March 20th, 1977, Sellers suffered a second major heart attack during a flight from Paris to London; he was subsequently fitted with a pacemaker.<br />
After recovering from his illness Peter made “Revenge of the Pink Panther.”<br />
Steven Bach, the senior vice-president and head of worldwide productions for United Artists, who worked with Peter on Revenge, considered that Sellers was "deeply unbalanced, if not committable: that was the source of his genius and his truly quite terrifying aspects as manipulator and hysteric."<br />
Peter refused to seek professional help for his mental issues, and would claim that he had no personality and was almost unnoticeable, which meant that he "needed a strongly defined character to play."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-0F1q_YUlc"><i>Here’s</i></a> a 1978 City Lights interview<br />
In 1979 Peter played, along with his wife Lynne, Graham Stark ,and old friends Catherine Schell, Lionel Jeffries and Elke Sommer, in a Richard Quine (“Bell, Book and Candle,” “How to Murder Your Wife,” “The World of Suzie Wong”) production of “The Prisoner of Zenda (Quine’s final film before his death ten years later).”<br />
He portrayed three roles, including King Rudolf IV and King Rudolf V—rulers of the fictional small nation of Ruritania—and Syd Frewin, Rudolf V's half-brother. <br />
The film includes elements of other stories such as Alexandre Dumas’ “The Man in the Iron Mask,” wherein a double for a reigning monarch is used to depose said monarch (Blake Edwards used a similar plot element in his 1965 “The Great Race,” with Jack Lemmon playing two different parts). <br />
“The Prisoner of Zenda” didn’t make a whole lot of money, $7,650,600 1979 dollars ($25,795,589.14 now) against a production budget of who knows? I certainly don’t!<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSvjXa5K1l8"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter and Lynne.<br />
One of my very favorite films is 1979‘s (released on December 19th) “Being There,” directed by Hal Ashby (“Harold and Maude,” “The Last Detail,” “Shampoo”), and based on the book of the same name written by Polish-American writer Jerzy Kosiński (who co-wrote the screenplay)<br />
Peter plays Chance, “a mindless, emotionless gardener addicted to watching TV.” -Ed Sikov<br />
Chance, through misadventure, is mistaken for a powerful business person, who is taken in by a hugely successful, aging philanthropist, with the end result of him quite possibly making his way to the Oval Office (comparisons have been made between Chance and Donald Trump’s ascendency to the Presidency. I don’t know why as Chance was not a hateful, spite-ridden, thin skinned, childish (although he was childlike), retributive, vindictive, base, profane, greedy, sexual predictor, and lying sack of shit)<br />
The film also starred Shirley MacLaine, Melvyn Douglas (who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in “Being There”), Jack Warden, Ishmael, er, I mean Richard Basehart, and Richard Dysart. <br />
Peter had expressed interest in making “Being There,” at least since 1971, stating in a BBC interview that he wanted to play Chance more than anything else, and he finally persuaded Jerzy Kosinski, to allow him and director Hal Ashby to make the film, provided Jerzy could write the script.<br />
During filming, to remain in character, Sellers refused most interview requests and kept his distance from the other actors. According to Shirley, "[Peter] believed he was Chauncey. He never had lunch with me... He was Chauncey Gardiner the whole shoot, but believing he was having a love affair with me."<br />
Peter considered Chance's walking and voice the character's most important attributes, and in preparing for the role, he worked alone with a tape recorder, or with Lynne, and then with Ashby, to perfect the clear enunciation and flat delivery needed to reveal "the childlike mind behind the words".<br />
Peter described his experience of working on the film as "so humbling, so powerful", and co-star Shirley MacLaine found Sellers "a dream" to work with.<br />
His performance was universally lauded by critics and is considered by critic Danny Smith to be the "crowning triumph of Peter Sellers's remarkable career". Critic Frank Rich wrote that the acting skill required for this sort of role, with a "schismatic personality that Peter had to convey with strenuous vocal and gestural technique ... A lesser actor would have made the character's mental dysfunction flamboyant and drastic ... [His] intelligence was always deeper, his on screen confidence greater, his technique much more finely honed": in achieving this, Sellers "makes the film's fantastic premise credible." <br />
The film earned Peter a Best Actor award at the 51st National Board of Review Awards; the London Critics Circle Film Awards Special Achievement Award, the Best Actor award at the 45th New York Film Critics Circle Awards; and the Best Actor – Musical or Comedy award at the 37th Golden Globe Awards.<br />
Additionally, Sellers was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 52nd Academy Awards and the Best Actor in a Leading Role award at the 34th British Academy Film Awards.<br />
“Being There,” was also a financial success making $30,177,511 initially ($101,749,754.93 now) on a budget of $7 million ($23,601,955.92). <br />
Filming took place at the largest privately owned home in America, the Biltmore Estate, in Asheville, North Carolina, owned by members of Vanderbilt family (old money from shipping and railroads).<br />
Melvyn Douglas's granddaughter, Illeana, had a chance to visit the set and got to meet Peter, who was her favorite actor. She has since credited the film for inspiring her to pursue a career in acting (subsequently Illeana has appeared in such films as “Goodfellas,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” and “Cape Fear (1991)”). According to Illeana, Peter and Melvyn had known each other since the 1940s when they first met in Burma during World War II. They often reminisced about their war days while on the set.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgGvd1UPZ88"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Melvyn, and Jack Warden as the President of the United States. <br />
In March of 1980 Peter asked his fifteen-year-old daughter Victoria what she thought about “Being There.” She reported later that, "I said yes, I thought it was great. But then I said, 'You looked like a little fat old man'. ... he went mad. He threw his drink over me and told me to get the next plane home."<br />
His other daughter Sarah told him her thoughts about the incident and he sent her a telegram that read "After what happened this morning with Victoria, I shall be happy if I never hear from you again. I won't tell you what I think of you. It must be obvious. Goodbye, Your Father."<br />
I said Chance wasn’t childish and vindictive... not Peter. <br />
Peter’s last film before his death was “The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu,” a comedic re-imagining of the adventure novels by Sax Rohmer, who created the character of Fu Manchu and Inspector Nayland Smith, both of whom Peter portrayed in the film. <br />
A 35 year old Helen Mirren and a 63 year old David Tomlinson (his last film before retiring) also starred. <br />
The production was troubled even before filming began. Three directors were fired (at Peter’s insistence) before Peter wound up finishing the film himself. His increasing ill health caused delays in the production as well. <br />
However, when all was said and done the movie was poorly received and didn’t make any money.<br />
Tom Shales of The Washington Post described the film as "an indefensibly inept comedy," adding that "it is hard to name another good actor who ever made so many bad movies as Sellers, a comedian of great gifts but ferociously faulty judgment. "Manchu" will take its rightful place alongside such colossally ill-advised washouts as “Tell Me Where It Hurts,” “The Bobo” and “The Prisoner of Zenda."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgMWhJUS50"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip of Peter playing both parts.<br />
Peter’s final performances were a series of advertisements for Barclays Bank. Filmed in April of 1980 in Ireland, in which he played Monty Casino, who was apparently a con man of some type who was out to take your hard earned “pay packets,” hence it was wise to put your cash away in Barclays Bank. <br />
Peter was scheduled to make four of the short commercials, but only completed three (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36dTSwRwq50"><i>here</i></a> they are) before collapsing in Dublin due to heart problems. <br />
After two days in hospital Peter checked himself out, against the advice of his doctors, and headed out to the Cannes Film Festival where “Being There,” was in competition. <br />
Peter got sick again at Cannes and retreated to his residence in Gstaad, Switzerland, where he worked on yet another script for a Pink Panther film, in this case, “Romance of the Pink Panther.” <br />
He agreed to undergo an angiogram at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, to see if he was able to undergo open-heart surgery.<br />
After his son Michael’s marriage fell apart, Peter attempted to rebuild his relationship with him. Michael later said that "it marked the beginning of an all-too-brief closeness between us."<br />
Peter admitted to Michael that "he hated so many things he had done," including leaving Anne, his first wife, and his infatuation with Sophia Loren (something I personally have to deal with on a daily basis).<br />
In lighter moments, Peter joked that his epitaph should read "Star of Stage, Screen and Alimony."<br />
On July 21st, 1980, Peter arrived in London from Geneva. He checked into the Dorchester Hotel, before visiting Golders Green Crematorium for the first time to see the location of his parents' ashes. <br />
He had plans to attend a reunion dinner with his Goon Show partners Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe, scheduled for the evening of July 22nd. On the day of the dinner, Peter took lunch in his hotel suite and shortly afterwards collapsed from a heart attack. He was taken to the Middlesex Hospital in London, and died there just after midnight on July 24th, at the age of 54. <br />
Following Peter’s death, fellow actor Richard Attenborough said that he "had the genius comparable to Chaplin", while the Boulting brothers considered Peter as "a man of enormous gifts; and these gifts he gave to the world. For them, he is assured of a place in the history of art as entertainment." Burt Kwouk, Cato in the Pink Panther films, stated that "Peter was a well-loved actor in Britain ... the day he died, it seemed that the whole country came to a stop. Everywhere you went, the fact that Peter had died seemed like an umbrella over everything." Director Blake Edwards thought that "Peter was brilliant. He had an enormous facility for finding really unusual, unique facets of the character he was playing." <br />
Spike Milligan was too upset to speak to the press at the time of Peter’s death, while fellow Goon Harry Secombe said "I'm shattered. Peter was such a tremendous artist. He had so much talent, it just oozed out of him.” Then, referring to the missed dinner the the three had planned, he added, "Anything to avoid paying for dinner." <br />
A private funeral service was held at Golders Green Crematorium on July 26th, conducted by one of Peter’s old friends, Canon John Hester.<br />
His body was cremated and his ashes were interred at Golders Green Crematorium in London.<br />
A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields on September 8th, 1980, what would have been Peter’s 55th birthday.<br />
Close friend Lord Snowdon read the twenty-third Psalm, Harry Secombe sang "Bread of Heaven" and the eulogy was read by David Niven.<br />
Although Peter’s marriage with Lynne had deteriorated, and he was reportedly in the process of excluding her from his will a week before he died, she inherited almost his entire estate, cash, cars, houses and art, worth an estimated £4.5 million (worth about $23,802,960.00 today), while his children received £800 each (about $4,233.43 today).<br />
Spike Milligan appealed to her on behalf of Peter’s three children, but she refused to increase the amount.<br />
Lynne, an addict herself, subsequently married the British television commentator and host David Frost, and after that a third husband, Barry Unger. She died in 1994, at the age of 39. She was cremated and her ashes were interred along with Peter’s. <br />
All income from Peter’s estate, including royalties from movie profit-sharing deals, was inherited by Lynne’s daughter, Cassie Unger, who was born 4 years after Peter’s death. <br />
As stated previously, Michael Sellers died of a heart attack at 52 during surgery on July 24th, 2006, twenty-six years to the day after his father's death.<br />
After Peter’s death, MGM tried to continue with Romance of the Pink Panther and offered the role of Clouseau to Dudley Moore, who turned it down. The studio then turned back to Blake Edwards, who didn’t want any part in making another Panther film without Peter, as he felt no one could adequately replace him. <br />
In 1982 Blake released “Trail of the Pink Panther,” which was composed entirely of deleted scenes from his past three Panther films. Lynne Frederick sued, claiming the use of the clips was a breach of contract; the court awarded her $1 million 1982 dollars ($2,568,425.53 today), plus 3.15 per cent of the film's profits and 1.36 per cent of its gross revenue.<br />
Trail cost $6 million to make ($15,410,553.19 today) and made $9.1 million ($23,372,672.34) at the box office, so when factoring in distribution and marketing costs, Trail lost money upon it’s initial release. <br />
Blake tried again the next year (I don’t know why) with “Curse of the Pink Panther.” Curse attempted to re-launch the series with a new lead, American actor turned director, Ted Wass, as bumbling American detective Clifton Sleigh, assigned to find the missing Inspector Clouseau.<br />
This was David Niven's final film appearance before he passed away shortly before the film was released. <br />
Robert Wagner and Capucine also reprise their roles from the first Panther film. <br />
This film marked Herbert Lom's 6th outing as Chief Inspector Dreyfus. He would reprise the role one last time in “Son of the Pink Panther.” <br />
The budget for Curse has been estimated at $11 million ($27,210,573.77 today) and made $4,491,986 ($11,111,774.22).<br />
Apparently addicted to the Pink Panther (and to losing money) Blake tried yet again to make a successfull Panther film in 1993‘s “Son of the Pink Panther,” starring future Academy Award winner Roberto Benigni (he co-wrote, directed and acted in 1997‘s “Life is Beautiful,” after which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film), playing Clouseau’s son, Jacques Gambrelli, the result of a liaison between Clouseau and Maria Gambrelli, who, you may recall, was a suspect in “A Shot in the Dark,” played by the lovely and talented Elke Sommer, but who was played by in Son by the lovely and talented Claudia Cardinale, who, you may recall, played the lovely and talented Princess Dala in the very first film back in 1963 (this just shoots my delicate sense of continuity straight to hell!) <br />
“Son of the Pink Panther,” cost $28 million in 1993 ($47,639,859.06 today) and made $2,438,031 ($4,148,123.33).<br />
Blake stopped making movies after this. <br />
<br />
Despite Peter’s glaring flaws he may have had as a human being, father, and husband, Joyce’s Take is proud to have presented his life and genius hopefully in an unbiased, frank, affectionate, and truthful manner. My life has personally benefited from his life and work. Many people I know feel the same way (I recently asked two young ladies in their late teens or early twenties (it’s so hard to tell) if they have ever heard of Peter Sellers, and they said no. “Have you ever seen “the Pink Panther films, and I’m not talking about the ones with Steve Martin?” “Oh, yes!” they said).<br />
I’ll let Peter have the last word.<br />
<br />
"Finally, in conclusion, let me say just this."<br />
<br />
<br />
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-72147553506346853432017-12-26T00:07:00.000-08:002017-12-26T00:10:51.925-08:00Andrea Absolonová, Who Was at Times Lea De Mae... a Remembrance <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Picture Legend:<br />
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1. Jonathan Groff, Anna Torv, and Holt McCallany of “Mindhunter”<br />
2. Andrea training in 1991<br />
3. Andrea’s mom<br />
4 through 47. Andrea & Lea<br />
48. Lynda Wiesmeier<br />
49. Memorial picture<br />
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I recently binge watched the first season of the television show “Mindhunter,” which is distributed by Netflix. <br />
“Set in 1977 – in the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – “Mindhunter” revolves around FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), along with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv), who interview imprisoned serial killers in order to understand how they think with the hope of applying this knowledge to solving ongoing cases.” -Adam Chitwood<br />
The show was created by the English Australian playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall, and produced by such Hollywood ne'er do wells as the director David Fincher (“Fight Club” “Seven” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”) and actress Charlize Theron (“Monster” “Hancock” “Mad Max: Fury Road”). It is based on the book “Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit,” written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. <br />
It’s pretty good show and I recommend watching it. <br />
Not only that, while watching it I heard two, count’em two, universal truths, uttered by the psychologist character Wendy Carr, played by the lovely and talented Australian actress, Anna Torv. In two different episodes Carr said in an exchange with the characters Holden Ford and Bill Tench:<br />
Holden Ford: “So what are you teaching?”<br />
Wendy Carr: “Um, I'm teaching a class on the intersection of sociopathy and fame. People like, um, Andy Warhol, Jim Morrison. Their celebrity becomes the only thing they need to sustain their ego.”<br />
Bill Tench: “Nixon was a sociopath.”<br />
Wendy Carr: “Very similar.”<br />
Holden Ford: “How do you get to be president of the United States if you're a sociopath?”<br />
Wendy Carr: “The question is, how do you get to be president of the United States if you’re not?”<br />
Indeed, who would want that job other than a sociopath? <br />
And the second universal truth: <br />
Wendy Carr: “In the photo, she looks like the girl next door."<br />
Holden Ford: “You really believe that a young, pretty girl can't be manipulative?” <br />
Wendy Carr: “Even if she was using sex to control him, and you have absolutely no evidence for this, then it would be what many women do to have an ounce of power in this world.”<br />
“...an once of power...”<br />
Indeed, how much and of what type of power do women really wield in this world?<br />
Well if you don’t live in China, near the border of Tibet in the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and are a Mosuo female, or a Minangkabau woman of West Sumatra, Indonesia, or an Akan babe of Ghana, or a Bribri lass in the Talamanca canton in the Limón province of Costa Rica, or a Garo chachka in the North-East Indian state of Meghalaya, or a Nagovisi belle in South Bougainville, an island west of New Guinea, which are all matriarchal societies, you don’t inherently wield that much power really... unless you’re rich.<br />
In the United States men typical hold more power than their female counterparts. They get paid more for the same work, they’re usually the nominal head of their respective households, maintaining their dominance through the power of the purse.<br />
We’ve discussed the inequality of women and men before,<i><a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2014/06/women-and-men-or-what-hells-matter-with.html"> here</a></i>, and <i><a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2014/06/women-and-men-or-what-hells-matter-with_28.html">here</a></i>.<br />
We discovered that most societies are designed to keep women powerless compared to men, in every way imaginable. What inherent power (and we’re not talking about the rate of doing work, the amount of energy transferred per unit time. Oh no! We’re talking about the ability to influence or outright control the behavior of people. The term "authority" is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to humans as social beings. That’s the kind of power we’re talking about!) women do possess most often relates to their appearance and sexuality, and by extension (and more than likely subconsciously) their reproductive capabilities. <br />
In this country a woman’s sexuality and physical beauty is celebrated, and often used as a standard of worth or value. <br />
It is said that a man’s attractiveness is based on their ability to earn money, or their possession of other pragmatic social and professional qualities, and a woman’s solely on her youth (which translates into the amount of years she is able to bear children) and sexual desirability (in parts of Asia, Northern Africa and the Balkans a dowry may enter into the desirability of a prospective bride). In order to enhance one’s natural feminine features, and in doing so one’s personal feminine power, a multi-billion dollar (per annum) cosmetic, diet, and bikini (fashion) industry arose and exists.<br />
In other countries males fear the sexual power of women and attempt to suppress it, quite often brutally. <br />
So, what our psychologist character observed above holds true in the real world. Woman use their sexuality to gain advantage in the society they find themselves in. <br />
Feminine sexuality and desirability is a powerful advantage in many ways (often with undesired side effects. Look at this <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XGPvbWn0A">video</a></i> of an attractive brunette silently walking through the streets of Manhattan for ten hours wearing jeans and a crew neck T-shirt), but a fragile one which depends on the reaction of others to practically take effect, and one that is fleeting and doesn’t age well. <br />
<br />
Little Andrea Absolonová was born at a very early age in what was formerly Czechoslovakia (Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved by parliament. On January 1st, 1993, it separated into two independent countries, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic). <br />
Andrea and her sister were chosen along with 13 other girls and 15 boys out of 2000 hopefuls to participate in swimming and diving training with coach Michael Ľuptovská. At first she trained twice a week. <br />
And she got better. At the age of 10 she won the women's championship in diving, then 4 times more. She won bronze at the European Championships and people began to consider her as a jumping prodigy, one that appeared every hundred years or so. Naturally she became a member of the Czech National Olympic Team. <br />
And then on May 18th, 1996, in Atlanta, two months before the beginning of the summer Olympics, Andrea prepared to jump from the three-meter board. She leaned forward, swinging up, and ... something ruptured in her spine. She did not jump, she fell literally into the water. She could not get to the surface. She had to be pulled from the water before she drowned. <br />
She required hospital rest, massage and physical therapy. <br />
She got better. She started to run. Although very painful she pushed herself. <br />
She took to the diving board again, making small jumps without spectators. <br />
Naturally she and her family began having financial difficulties. <br />
She persisted and continued training but did not qualify for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Her financial problems also persisted, so she retired from professional sports and her life took a different path.<br />
60 miles east of Prague in the city of Pardubice, while using a public swimming pool, she met a well known advertising photographer by the name of Adolf Zika. He told her of his idea of a calender featuring, of all things, pictures of naked females, and he asked if she would consider posing for such a project. <br />
The money he was offering was good, and she was a uniquely beautiful girl. <br />
“She has grown up as a beautiful woman with a perfect figure,” said her former coach Ľuptovská, creepily. <br />
Andrea agreed to the photo shoot despite the misgivings of her family. The calender was a success. She began to associate with people who used nude women to make money, attending parties and other social gatherings. She tried modeling and was successful with this as well. She began to get used to the interest and admiration that was thrown her way. <br />
She once came to see her mother and said, "Mom, they offered me the porn movies, what do you think?” <br />
“You can try it... maybe it's going to help you deal with yourself.”<br />
By all accounts Andrea entered the porn business in a professional manner and worked it as a job, and important, conscientious job. She was punctual, accurate, in detail, “studied the roles.” She filmed over a hundred porn videos (including “Hot Property,” “Le Parfum du Désir,” “Broken English,” and many other fine films), performing in them under the "artistic name" of Lea De Mae. <br />
She first showed up on American screens in a series of features for Private Studios (a Swedish production and distribution company that distributes adult entertainment via print publications, DVDs, the Internet, and mobile). She eventually returned to Europe, shooting more films but, after a brief period of time returned to the United States.<br />
She made a lot of money and enjoyed new hobbies like parachuting and rafting. She met a guy named Martin Vesecký, and so had her first serious romance. <br />
After an accident while skydiving (while diving in tandem they hit the plane due to wind gusts), they broke up. Martin was soon replaced by hockey player Sparty Maskarinec. <br />
It started with headaches. Strong, long, exhausting. The pain increased, and occasional loss of balance.<br />
Tomography told the doctors Andrea had a brain tumor... and it was growing, apparently at the rate of 1.1 millimeters per day. <br />
On August 13th, 2004, Professor Beneš operated at the Na Bulovce hospital in Prague. The tumor was successfully removed but later analysis provided a bleak picture. <br />
Andrea was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer (the most common length of survival following diagnosis is 12 to 15 months, with fewer than 3% to 5% of people surviving longer than five years. Without treatment survival is typically 3 months). <br />
Her family and friends realized Andrea was going away, it was just a matter of time.<br />
The word went out. Money was solicited internationally in the hope of finding some experimental procedure or medicine that would reverse the damage her cancer was causing. Fans from around the world and fellow workers in the sex industry supported a medical fund that had been set up for her in Prague. <br />
Andrea suffered terribly. Her mother collapsed not being able to cope with the idea of her daughter dying, and the efforts needed to keep her alive on a daily basis. She ended up as a patient herself and was placed in a room upstairs from Andrea. <br />
Although it was unbelievable, Andrea lived much longer than expected. The hard body of the sportsman and the hard will refused to retreat to death. She won until December 9th, 2004, 17 days shy of her 28th birthday. <br />
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<br />
Date: Nov 14, 2005<br />
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For Tom and, and everyone else about that basically hates her and every person for what she, they do for a living.<br />
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I never ever did call Andrea by Lea. Because from our conversations Lea De Mae was a mask. She considered what she did for a living an occupation. Overall she loved it. But there were times she did not like what she was doing. There were certain people she liked and did not like performing with. There were days she did not want to shoot. She had called me a few times complaining and even sounding tiresome of it. Just like a job for anyone. Yes, this was a job. For those of you that think when these performers say they want "it" all the time and really mean it. Your living in obscurity. It is their job. Usually they are under contract and much of the time that includes putting on a show behind as well as in front of the camera. It's all about selling film.<br />
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For some, it is so easy to think and call these persons sluts, whores, prostitutes, etc. when in fact it is totally diffrent. Some turn into the business because there is no other choice. Some turn because it is the best choice. Most little boys and girls would not grow up wanting to be a porn star when they grow up. For a lot of people the money is better than what they could get elsewhere. Would you not give a job a try if you think you might like it and it pays more? I bet you 95% or even higher would do it. If you like it you would stay. Hell, so would I.<br />
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Then you have the question of morality and religions. What exactly is the good of morality when you cannot have an open mind about things? And how can God forgive if you do not sin? I know for a fact that the religion thing was on Andrea's mind. She told me. She had pressures about it personally. She was upset very much at times. Does that make anything she or anyone else does right when we feel bad. Of course not. Andrea was just really starting to find herself when tragedy struck. In my opinion she had Atheistic views. But she definitely knew that there is a higher power. She at times when it came up, very reluctant to talk about it. But she was starting to change it seemed.<br />
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Yes, Lea De Mae worked in the porn industry. But Andrea Absolonova was a bright, kind, humble, person. Who loved life, and what life had to offer. I am lucky that I got to know Andrea side as well as the Lea side. I could tell them apart. Maybe that is why I felt so close. Maybe that is why she confided to me thing she might not have confide to others closer to her. I don't know. Maybe Tom and XXX, and others cannot comprehend the difference.<br />
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Tom, lets say you would be hit by a car and Andrea was one of few people there to see it. No one there to help? Or would she be one of the first to reach you if no one else were there for you? Would it then matter to you what she did for a living? I wonder, if you even care to know the true answer? I even wonder if you care to know the true person she was and not the actress? If you could blink from your TV once in a while you might be able to see some truth. Reality is out here man. Reach for it all with an open mind.<br />
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Andrea is the second lady Joyce’s Take has remembered and celebrated who succumbed to brain cancer, the other being the lovely Playboy model and actress <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2015/05/lynda-wiesmeier-remembrance.html"><i>Lynda Wiesmeier</i></a>, who passed away on December 16th, 2012 in Ramona, California. <br />
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On this, what would have been Andrea’s 41st birthday, Joyce’s Take is proud and honored to present this small remembrance, memorial, and celebration of her all too brief life. It is sad that she left us, but that she was with us for a time is a treasure beyond words. <br />
Her life and death teach us, reminds us, how precious life is. How it’s not to be taken for granted, and if it is at what cost. And that each and every day, no matter how mundane it may seem at the time, that day is unique and should be cherished as part of a well realized life.<br />
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<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-41117722181460807202017-12-08T07:28:00.001-08:002017-12-08T10:56:35.547-08:00Leaked Republican Memo: Conservative Plan To Take Over Congress<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The Republican strategy to have it’s female surrogates accuse prominent members of the Democratic Congress of sexual misconduct seems to be working considering as soon as the accusations are made Democrats in leadership positions fall all over themselves to prove their moral superiority over Republicans by calling for the resignation of those accused without benefit of investigations into the allegations themselves or examination by the Congressional Ethics Committee. Accordingly due to mounting public pressure, Congressional leaders, Minnesota Senator Al Franken for example, take a collective dive on their own sword and resign. Thanks to internal memos gathered from senior Republican leadership, it has been ascertained that Republicans expect the entire existing Democratic Congressional membership to be uplifted and sent back to the states from which they came covered in a shroud of disgrace and humiliation before the 2018 midterm elections, while Republicans accused of similar actions (Roy Moore of Alabama and President Trump being prime examples) march on, oblivious to public opinion, and without worries of scrutiny by their own Republican Congressional leadership, proving the Republican mantra of "We Just Don't Give A Fuck!" to be 100% true.<br />
The next phase of this plan will go into effect within the next month by the surreptitious spreading of rumors of female Congressional Democrats, such as New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, of groping male interns in a suggestive and unseemly manner. It is expected she will resign shortly after it is discovered that the senior senator from her state, Chuck Schumer, committed suicide after allegations were made that he molested 12 to 15 year old female members of the Coxsackie Frontier Girls, initiating Gillibrand's call for his immediate resignation citing a non-existent policy of zero tolerance.</div>
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-42294017658528272017-12-06T05:04:00.001-08:002017-12-06T05:04:49.187-08:00Happy Birthday Janine Turner (reposted from 2010)!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Picture Legend:<br /><br />1. Janine Turner<br />2. Juliette & Mom<br />3. Modeling<br />4. With “Thing”<br />5. Maggie<br />6. High step<br />7. With a younger Juliette<br />8. Cow<br /><br /><br />Today it is my great pleasure to give happy birthday wishes to one of my favorite actresses, the lovely Ms. Janine Turner!<br />Janine Loraine Gauntt was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the healthiest city in the United States in 2008. Her mom, dad, and brother were all born in Texas, and she was raised in Euless, Texas (a suburb of Fort Worth. She lives today on her own working cattle ranch outside Colleyville, Texas, which is also a suburb of Fort Worth). Her mother Janice was, or is a real estate agent, and her dad, Turner M. Gauntt, was a graduate of West Point, and a pilot for Braniff Airlines for 30 years. She has an older brother, Tim.<br />Janine studied ballet when a small girl, as well as tap dancing (as did I), and theater, and modeling at the ripe old age of 3. She was a cheerleader in her teens, and moved with her mom to New York to study at the Professional Children's School. At age 15 she was noticed by, and became the youngest model signed by the famed Wilhelmina Agency, where Pam Dawber of "Mork and Mindy," fame once worked, as did the actress Jessica Lange, Sela Ward, Jessica Simpson, Angelica Huston, Beyoncé, Fergie, and a whole bunch of other nice people. But after appearing in a few commercials she returned to school in Texas, where the popular prime time soap opera, "Dallas," was being filmed on location. Janine found some work on “Dallas," in minor roles.<br />This led her to Los Angeles, and at the age 17 she won the part of Laura Templeton on a daytime soap opera, the popular "General Hospital." She also worked on "Another World."<br />At age 20 she appeared in her first movie, 1982's "Young Doctor's in Love," a Gary Marshall comedy, parodying shows like, well "General Hospital." She along with other soap actors played in cameos.<br />Now I remember this film, and liked it. I even remember two lines from it quite clearly. The first was after the two leads, the lovely Sean Young and Michael McKean, both a hell of a lot younger than they are now, finished "doing it," in a operating room theater, where one of them said something about having just made love.<br />"You call that making love?!" shouts a nonchalant Harry Dean Stanton, who had been sitting in one of the theater seats quietly appraising the display from above.<br />And a scene in which a professionally dressed young man is telling a very attractive young woman (who appears to be putting her clothes back on) in a doctor's office this: "I've examined your legs, your back, your face, in fact I've examined every part of your body."<br />"Well, what's the matter with me doctor?" the young lady asks.<br />"How should I know? I'm a lawyer."<br />However, I do not remember Janine. I will have to watch this film once again soon.<br />Like my former lovely case manager, Michele, Janine attended Pepperdine University in nearby Malibu by the sea, but left when she got her first major motion picture role in the film adaptation of my favorite novel of James Clavell, "Tai-Pan," a story of Hong Kong. She played the lovely southern temptress, Shevaun Tillman, but I do not remember her from this film, probably because I disliked the whole movie to begin with, believing it came no where near doing Clavell's epic the justice it deserved. I am going to watch it again though, am downloading as I type this as a matter of fact. We shall see. I certainly want to see Janine, and might think better of the whole movie.<br />Probably not.<br />It should have been a mini series.<br />Four years later she got the role of her life as Mary Margaret O’Connell, an Alaskan bush pilot in the quirky prime time comedy, "Northern Exposure," with Rob Morrow, and a host of other quirky characters. It was an ensemble show actually based primarily around Rob's Dr. Joel Fleischman. A fish out of water story really, of a young doctor getting tricked into opening up a practice in a small isolated town in Alaska. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnpEf9Dd0yI"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip:<br />Janine would appear in 110 episodes from 1990 to 1995, and become a house hold name.<br />The show was actually filmed in Washington State, so Janine could hardly see Russia from her house, but she took on a decidedly conservative bent, and has since campaigned for Sarah Palin, and has appeared on Fox "News," ironically complaining about the liberal media. <br />Janine, with her lovely daughter Juliette, has founded the conservative organization Constituting America, it's goal to teach Americans about the United States Constitution, most assuredly through a conservative perspective, which usually means those things occurring that conservatives do not agree with are inherently unconstitutional, while all of those they do agree with, even if they don't actually appear in the document, like the country was really founded on Christian principles, is okay and implicit in the Constitution.<br />But this is not the place to quibble about ideology. Today we are celebrating this lovely and strong woman's life and birthday.<br />Janine would go on making films, appearing as June Cleaver, in a film version of "Leave it to Beaver," and another helicopter pilot in the cliffhanger adventure thriller, "Cliffhanger,” with Sylvester Stallone.<br />In 2004 she wrote and directed "Trip in a Summer Dress," a film about a strong-willed mother and her children. She is an author, writing and publishing "Holding Her Head High: Inspiration from 12 Single Mothers Who Championed Their Children and Changed History."<br />And apparently she raises freaking Longhorn cows! Well one's got to do something I suppose.<br />I applaud Janine for her beauty, talent, the courage of her convictions, her strength and compassion, and everyone her at Joyce's Take wish her, Juliette, and anyone else she may happened to meet and love, continued good health and success, and a very happy birthday!<br />Happy Birthday Janine! <br />
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-63373197933983530352017-11-02T18:56:00.003-07:002019-01-18T19:07:39.529-08:00Happy Birthday Peter Sellers, Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“Absolute control is a useful thing. Eliminate the personal element... and you can get so much more done. This was a realization that Peter Sellers never had to face... because there was <br />
no person there to begin with. He was a vessel into which characters and personalities ran like phantoms. But even an empty vessel can become too full.” -Peter Sellers reflecting as Stanley Kubrick from “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely<br />
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Picture Legend:<br />
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1. Popeye’s Goons<br />
2. Plaque commemorating “The Goon Show”<br />
3. Peter and his first wife, Anne Howe<br />
4. Anne with children Michael and Sarah. <br />
5. Michael Sellers<br />
6. Robert Blake in “Lost Highway”<br />
7. Ursula Andress in “Dr. No”<br />
8. Jacqueline Bisset in “The Deep”<br />
9. Donald Pleasence as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in 1967‘s “You Only Live Twice”<br />
10. Peter and Ursula in 1967‘s “Casino Royale”<br />
11. Peter and Graham Stark 1964‘s “A Shot in the Dark”<br />
12. Peter as The Major in 1951‘s “Penny Points to Paradise”<br />
13 Peter as Arnold J. Fringe in “Penny Points to Paradise”<br />
14. Peter as Groucho Marx in “Let’s Go Crazy”<br />
15. Gina Lollobrigida<br />
16. Joan Collins and Peter<br />
17. Joan, George Cole, Kenneth More and Robertson Hare in 1953‘s “The Adventures of Sadie”<br />
18. Bill Fraser, Sidney James and Peter in 1954‘s “Orders are Orders”<br />
19. Peter in “The Ladykillers” 1955<br />
20. Fran Jeffries singing “Meglio stasera” in “The Pink Panther” with David Niven, Robert Wagner, and Capucine in the background<br />
21. Peter, Virginia McKenna, and Bill Travers in 1957's “The Smallest Show on Earth”<br />
22. Peter in “Up the Creek” 1958<br />
23. Terry-Thomas and Peter in “Tom Thumb”<br />
24. LP (Long Playing) record album<br />
25. In 1959‘s “Carlton-Browne of the F.O.”<br />
26. In “I’m Alright Jack”<br />
27. Peter as Tully Bascomb with Jean Seberg in “The Mouse that Roared” 1959<br />
28. David Lodge, Bernard Cribbins, and Peter in “Two-Way Stretch”<br />
29. Liz Fraser<br />
30. Constance Cummings and Peter in “The Battle of the Sexes”<br />
31. Sophia Loren and Peter in “The Millionairess”<br />
32. Herbert Lom and Peter in “Mr. Topaze”<br />
33. Peter and Mai Zetterling in “Only Two Can Play”<br />
34. Dany Robin and Peter in “Waltz of the Toreadors”<br />
35. Stanley Kubrick and Sue Lyon<br />
36. 14 year old Sue Lyon as “Lolita”<br />
37. Sue and James in “Lolita”<br />
38. Peter and James Mason in “Lolita”<br />
39. Bing Crosby and Peter looking through Bob Hope’s head and finding empty space in “The Road to Hong Kong”<br />
40. Richard Attenborough and Peter in “The Dock Brief” 1962<br />
41. Peter and Nanette Newman in “The Wrong Arm of the Law” 1963<br />
42. Lionel Jeffries<br />
43. In “Heaven’s Above!” <br />
44. Gregory Peck and Brock Peters<br />
45. Blake Edwards and his wife, actress and singer Julie Andrews<br />
46. Henry Mancini<br />
47. Peter with Capucine in “The Pink Panther”<br />
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“The Goon Show” was a British radio comedy program, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960 for a total of ten seasons, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The title was inspired, according to Spike Milligan, by some Popeye characters who were called “Goons.” The Goons consisted of Spike, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Michael Bentine. <br />
The show's chief creator and main writer was Spike Milligan. The scripts mixed ludicrous plots with surreal humor, puns, catch phrases and an array of bizarre sound effects. Some of the later episodes feature electronic effects devised by the fledgling BBC Radiophonic Workshop, many of which were reused by other shows for decades. Many elements of the show satirized contemporary life in Britain, parodying aspects of show business, commerce, industry, art, politics, diplomacy, the police, the military, education, class structure, literature and film.<br />
The show was released internationally through the BBC Transcription Services (TS). It was heard regularly from the 1950s in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Canada, although these TS versions were frequently edited to avoid controversial subjects.<br />
In the United States, NBC began broadcasting the program on its radio network from the mid-1950s.<br />
Starting with 370,000 listeners, “The Goon Show,” eventually reached up to seven million people in England, and was described by one newspaper as "probably the most influential comedy show of all time," and has been cited as a major influence by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles"><i>The Beatles</i></a> and the American comedy team <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firesign_Theatre"><i>The Firesign Theatre</i></a>, as well as Britain’s own <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python"><i>Monty Python</i></a>, and many others.<br />
Here is an audio clip from one of the shows labeled “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuVFFNvyUT8"><i>Rommel’s Treasure</i></a>,” and <a href="http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts.asp"><i>here</i></a> is a site where you can find the shows scripts, if you are interested.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1b3Njndqo0"><i> Here</i></a> is a clip entitled “The Last Goon Show Ever, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmuS3SGgRsw"><i>here</i></a> is a featurette on the “Heros of Comedy, The Goons,” hosted by Monty Python’s John Cleese.<br />
Back in 1949, Peter dated Anne Howe, an Australian actress who lived in London. He proposed to her in April of 1950 and the couple were married in London on September15th, 1951.<br />
The couple had two children. Michael, was born on April 2nd, 1954, and their daughter, Sarah, followed in 1958.<br />
Peter and Anne divorced in 1961.<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Sellers_(actor)"><i>Michael Sellers </i></a>died of a heart attack on July 24th, 2006, exactly 26 years to the day after Peter’s death. He was 52 years old. <br />
Sarah tends to shun publicity and runs a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bear"><i>Teddy bear</i></a> shop (a business establishment that sells, rents, and repairs Teddy bears) in London. <br />
Anne remarried. Her new husband was Ted Levy, a South African architect whom she had met while he was working on her and Peter’s home. It has been said she had a long and happy marriage. <br />
The beautiful and talented actress Emily Watson, who portrayed Anne in “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” said "I know Anne slightly and I know she is chuffed I am playing her."<br />
“Chuffed,” is British for “very pleased.”<br />
Besides getting married in 1950, Peter also began a long association with the film industry by doing what we now call voice work (not physically appearing in a film, television show, or commercial, but lending one’s voice to a film, television film, or commercial) in an American film that’s setting was at first England before heading out to parts east. <br />
“The Black Rose,” starred Tyrone Power and Orson Welles (both men died, like Peter, of heart attacks. Power when he was only 44 years old, and Wells when he was 70), and produced by 20th Century Fox, way before Murdoch got to it. <br />
The story concerns the illegitimate son of some English nobleman who gets screwed out of his inheritance and heads to China to become at first a mercenary, then a prisoner. He falls in love with fellow prisoner Cécile Aubry (a French actress who displayed some originality by dying from lung cancer in 2010, at the age of 81), “The Black Rose.” Power’s character escapes, but he and Aubry lose each other, so he returns to England, and is thusly rewarded by King Edward (played by Klaatu, er, I mean the English actor Michael Rennie) because he brought gun powder back with him (as well as that little finger trap thingy). <br />
The movie is noteworthy for it’s use of props. <br />
There are stories regarding a 40 second scene where the bodies of two Moroccan peasants can be seen hanging from a tree. The two bodies were said to be offered to the movie director by a French colonel called Louis Morin (or Moran) due to his admiration for Orson Welles, who was always inspiring stuff like this (it became a real problem in his later years). The movie was shot in Morocco, which was colonized by French troops at the time.<br />
Peter’s part in the film was to dub (in this instance the term “dub” refers to is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production in which additional or supplementary recordings are "mixed" with original production sound to create the finished sound track) over the voice of a Mexican actor to make him sound Chinese. The actor in question was Alfonso Bedoya, who you might remember as one of the bandits in the John Houston / Humphrey Bogart classic, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” which he had appeared in a couple of years earlier. He was the “Gold Hat” bandit who uttered the famous line, “Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!" <br />
Bedoya was hired on “The Black Rose,” because all of the Chinese actors were busy at the time.<br />
The Czech-born British film and television actor, Herbert Lom appeared in the film as well as the character Anthemus. He and Peter would have a long working relationship together, first in 1955‘s “The Ladykillers,” 1961‘s “Mr. Topaze,” and later five Pink Panther movies (one using unused footage after Peter’s death) as Chief Insp. Charles Dreyfus, whom Peter’s trademark character, Inspector Clouseau, drives utterly insane. <br />
The only cast member from “The Black Rose,” who is still alive is the the now 84 year old American actor Robert Blake (“In Cold Blood,” “Baretta”), who at one point in his life was put on trial for murdering his wife, acquitted, then found guilty in a civil lawsuit to the tune of $30 million dollars (dropped down to 15 in an appeal). Blake has since retired from the entertainment business, and except for a couple of appearances on talk shows, his last acting job was in 1997's “Lost Highway,” with Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette, written and directed by David Lynch. <br />
Peter an Welles would “work” together again 17 years later in 1967‘s “Casino Royale,” or at least appear in the same film. <br />
Boasting quite an impressive ensemble cast, (the largest cast in any James Bond film) which besides Welles and Peter included, Ursula Andress (the first “Bond Girl,” having starred with Sean Connery in 1962‘s “Dr. No,” and still with us at 81), David Niven (who Peter had worked with in 1963‘s “The Pink Panther,” and who he would work with again in 1976‘s “Murder by Death.” Niven died at his Swiss chalet from ALS on July 29th, 1983 at the age of 73, the same day as his “The Prisoner of Zenda,” and “A Matter of Life and Death” co-star Raymond Massey), John Houston (died on August 28th, 1987, in his rented home in Middletown, Rhode Island, from pneumonia as a complication of lung disease), Joanna Pettet (who would suddenly decide to give up her acting career after being held hostage by Philippine rebels during the 1990 filming of a Roger Corman “bad action film,” and now “lives a quiet but full life outside Los Angeles. She is very devoted to animals, and animal causes,” as am I), the Israeli actress Daliah Lavi (passed away just last May 3rd at her home in Asheville, North Carolina, at the age of 74), Woody Allen (still making movies), Deborah Kerr (one of my favorite actresses, she passed away October 16th, 2007 at the age of 86 at Botesdale, a village in county of Suffolk, England, from the effects of Parkinson's disease), William Holden (who died a drunken mess in his Santa Monica apartment on November 12th, 1981. He was 63 years old), Charles Boyer (the original gaslighter. On August 26th, 1978, two days after his wife's death from cancer, and two days before his own 79th birthday, Charles committed suicide with an overdose of Seconal while at a friend's home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was taken to the hospital in Phoenix, where he passed away), George Raft (in the last years of his life the renowned actor and dancer, player of gangsters, was living on about $800 a month from a pension and social security. He died from leukemia at the age of 79 in Los Angeles, California, on November 24th, 1980), Jean-Paul Belmondo (still hanging at 84), Jacqueline Bisset (who I must admit to having a crush on as a young man, especially after she won the wet T-shirt contest in the film “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCVv9rgVPXo"><i>The Deep</i></a>.” She ignored me completely. She is also the godmother to actress Angelina Jolie. In 2015, she co-starred with Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette in the film “Miss You Already”), and Peter O'Toole (John Houston’s daughter, Anjelica Huston also made her first appearance in a feature film in “Casino Royale,” as a hand double for Deborah Kerr, and the guy who would be the physical form of Darth Vader in the first three “Star Wars” films, David Prowse (“Dr. Strangelove" bombardier Lieutenant Zogg (James Earl Jones) would provide the voice), also debuted in this film as Frankenstein's monster).<br />
Actually the cast seems to consist of refugees from 1965's comedy “What’s New Pussycat?” which starred Peter, Peter O’Toole, Woody Allen (who wrote the screenplay, his first ever that was produced. The actor Warren Beatty got the ball rolling on this film wanting to make a movie about sex addiction (big surprise). He and producer Charles K. Feldman hired Woody to write the script for $30,000, provided Woody could also be in the film. As the script progressed Warren noticed that Woody’s part was getting bigger at the expense of his own. Warren threatened to walk out of the project, and indeed did walk out of the project, which brought in O’Toole. O’Toole insisted on having Peter Sellers as his co-star rather than Groucho Marx who Feldman first wanted. Another writer was brought in to tune up the script a tad and who pared down Woody’s role to that of a minor character. The film’s title came from Warren’s salutation which he would use when addressing his lady friends. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times criticized the script, the directing and the acting and described the film as "the most outrageously cluttered and campy, noisy and neurotic display of what is evidently intended as way-out slapstick." He praised the scenery and title song. That song, sung by the Welsh singer Tom Jones, and which can be heard <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga3I5DTIA-E"><i>here</i></a>, was written by Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics), and nominated for an Academy Award. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DVZ_jhI2n0"><i>Here</i></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4pkwRLbMvk"><i>here</i></a> are the movie’s opening sequence. And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBvPcCZcZCI"><i>here’s</i></a> another scene, and yet <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJN5ykNrCto"><i>another</i></a>), Ursula Andress, as well as Romy Schneider, Paula Prentiss, Capucine (who had worked with Peter in “The Pink Panther”), and Richard Burton in a cameo.<br />
Okay, I know we’re jumping ahead here a little, but let’s try to make sense out of this monster (like we just did with “What’s New Pussycat?”).<br />
The 1967 version of “Casino Royale,” is a satirical, comedic, James Bond movie (an argument can be made that all James Bond films are so over the top that they all qualify as being satirical, but I’m not here to bash James Bond movies).<br />
It is loosely based on Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, “Casino Royale.” At the time this film was made Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had made 4 Bond films (“Dr. No,” “From Russia with Love,” “Goldfinger,” and “Thunderball”) with another to be released two months after “Casino Royale” was released in April... “You Only Live Twice (which interestingly cast our friend <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2016/10/happy-birthday-donald-plesence.html"><i>Donald Pleasence</i></a> as Bond’s arch enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld).”<br />
“Casino Royale” was produced by Pussycat producer Charles Feldman and Jerry Bresler. Feldman had bought the rights to the book in 1960 and tried to make it a serious Bond film by selling it to Broccoli and Saltzman’s Eon production company, but they couldn’t come to terms or make a deal, and Feldman made the decision to make his own satirical film instead, believing he couldn’t compete with Eon with a serious, dramatic Bond film (at one point he considered casting Cary Grant as Bond). <br />
“Casino Royale,” was written by Wolf Mankowitz, John Law, and Michael Sayers. At least that’s what the credits say. In addition to these credited writers, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Val Guest, Ben Hecht, “Catch 22“ writer Joseph Heller, Terry Southern (Southern's reputation was established with the publication of his comic novels “Candy,” and “The Magic Christian,” and through his gift for writing memorable film dialogue as evident in “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Loved One,” “The Cincinnati Kid,” and “The Magic Christian.” His work on “Easy Rider” helped create the independent film movement of the 1970s. He also wrote for “Saturday Night Live”) and writer/director Billy Wilder, are all believed to have contributed to the screenplay to varying degrees. <br />
“Casino Royale,” had six directors. Ken Hughes (who would also co-write and direct the 1968 children's film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” which was based on the children’s book of the same name, which was written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming), John Huston, Joseph McGrath (he directed the segment with Peter and Orson Welles, and was a long time collaborator with Peter and Spike Milligan, directing them in “The Magic Christian (1969),” and “The Great McGonagall (1974)”), Robert Parrish (who learned his craft working with John Ford on films such as “Mary of Scotland,” “Young Mr. Lincoln,” “Drums Along the Mohawk,” and “The Grapes of Wrath”), Val Guest (“Quatermass 2“), and Richard Talmadge. <br />
With this many collaborating writers and directors you got pretty much what you would expect... a huge mess!<br />
No advance press screenings were held, leading reviews to only appear after the film’s premiere. <br />
Roger Ebert said "This is possibly the most indulgent film ever made," Time described “Casino Royale” as "an incoherent and vulgar vaudeville," and Variety declared the film to be "a conglomeration of frenzied situations, ‘in’ gags and special effects, lacking discipline and cohesion."<br />
Bosley Crowther had some positive statements about the movie (which is odd as he hated Pussycat), considering “Casino Royale” had "more of the talent agent than the secret agent" and praising the "fast start" and the scenes up to the baccarat game between Bond and Le Chiffre. After those scenes, Crowther felt, the script became tiresome, repetitive and filled with clichés due to "wild and haphazard injections of 'in' jokes and outlandish gags," leading to an excessive length that made the film a "reckless, disconnected nonsense that could be telescoped or stopped at any point."<br />
To be fair it didn’t help matters that Peter left the production before all his scenes were shot, which is why his character, Tremble, is so abruptly captured in the film. Whether he was fired or simply walked off is unclear. Given that he often went absent for days at a time and was involved in conflicts with Welles, either explanation is plausible.<br />
Regardless, Peter was unavailable for the filming of an ending and of linking footage to explain the details, leaving the filmmakers to devise a way to make the existing footage work without him. So a framing device was invented, which is why we have the David Niven/Deborah Kerr scenes at the beginning of the film, then the Sellers/Welles/Andress scenes (which actually follow the book’s plot, which concerns Bond defeating the evil Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, as can be seen in the 2006 version of “Casino Royale,” starring Daniel Craig in his first outing as James Bond, the lovely and bountiful Eva Green, and Mads Mikkelsen), then back to Niven, with Pettet, Allen, and Lavi in an ending that resembles that of Mel Brooks “Blazing Saddles,” and the pie throwing, and western saloon fight scenes from Blake Edwards “The Great Race.”<br />
What ever you say about “Casino Royale,” it did have some great music. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass provided the film’s theme, which can be heard <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3-hFB1hZ60"><i>here</i></a>. <b>Warning, this song is infectious, and will play itself through your mind for the rest of your life.</b><br />
And Burt Bacharach and Hal David found their way back to compose the song “The Look of Love," which was sung by the English pop singer Dusty Springfield, and which received another freaking Academy Award nomination. <br />
And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGlWalxUId0"><i>here’s</i></a> a scene with Peter and Jacqueline Bisset.<br />
I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention the “Fourth Wall.”<br />
Wikipedia tells us “The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes, the actors act as if they cannot. From the 16th century onwards, the rise of illusionism in staging practices, which culminated in the realism and naturalism of the theatre of the 19th century, led to the development of the fourth wall concept.<br />
‘Breaking the fourth wall’ is any instance in which this performance convention, having been adopted more generally in the drama, is violated. This can be done through either directly referencing the audience, the play as a play, or the characters' fictionality. The temporary suspension of the convention in this way draws attention to its use in the rest of the performance. This act of drawing attention to a play's performance conventions is metatheatrical (Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describe aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance). A similar effect of metareference is achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with the camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended. The phrase "breaking the fourth wall" is used to describe such effects in those media. Breaking the fourth wall is also possible in other media, such as video games and books.<br />
Oliver Hardy was probably the first to break the fourth wall, in his movies with Stan Laurel, by staring at the camera to seek comprehension from the viewers. Groucho Marx spoke directly to the audience in ‘Animal Crackers,’ 1930, and ‘Horse Feathers,’ 1932. Comedy films by Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker frequently broke the fourth wall, such that with these films, ‘the fourth wall is so flimsy and so frequently shattered that it might as well not exist,’ according to The A.V. Club. Woody Allen broke the fourth wall several times in his movie Annie Hall, as he explained, ‘because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems. I wanted to talk to them directly and confront them.' The John Hughes movie ‘Ferris Bueller's Day Off’ is another well-known fourth-wall-breaking movie. Bueller, played by Matthew Broderick, often turns to the camera and breaks character to tell his thought process or explain his reasoning. In the Mel Brooks film ‘Blazing Saddles,’ the characters literally break the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall is an integral part of the ending of Alejandro Jodorowsky's 1973 film ‘The Holy Mountain.’ A more recent example is the 2016 film "Deadpool," in which it is used as a comedic device between the main character and the audience.”<br />
My point in mentioning this is that Peter broke said fourth wall twice in “Casino Royale.” Once in scene with Ursula wherein he actually winked at the camera (and which was reemphasized during the ending credits), and another time as he sits in a Lotus racing car on his way to rescue Vesper (Ursula) who has been kidnaped by Le Chiffre (Welles).<br />
He would do so again in the final scenes of “A Shot in the Dark,” in which the suspects of a murder angrily confront each other to the exclusion of Insp. Clouseau. Peter briefly looks directly at the camera to emphasize Clouseau’s frustration at not being able to get a word in edgewise. <br />
The American singer, dancer, actress, and model, Fran Jeffries, destroys the fourth wall entirely while singing “Meglio Stasera,” in Italian, in “The Pink Panther.” She looks directly at the camera throughout the entire scene (pretty much).<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paWt-vWYbyU"><i> Here</i></a> it is.<br />
Alright, let’s move on.<br />
The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) credits Peter with narrating a Charles Chaplin short film, “A Burlesque on Carmen,” which is odd at first glance as it’s a the beginning of his list of acting credits, and was produced and released in the United States in 1915, ten years before Peter’s birth. One has to delve into the deep, dark secrets of the IMDB to discover that Peter narrated the 1951 sound version of this film in the United Kingdom.<br />
The three quarters of the cast of “The Goon Show” made their feature film debut in 1951's “Penny Points to Paradise,” and marks the first time Peter actually appears on screen. <br />
The film was not written by any Goon, but by a chap by the name of John Ormonde, and the story concerned the difficulties one can face after winning a significant amount of money (getting married not the least of them).<br />
Later Peter would reflect that “Penny Points to Paradise,” was "a terrifyingly bad film." It was not profitable on initial release and was eventually re-issued for distribution abroad in 1960 as a cut-down 55-minute version under the title "Penny Points."<br />
Peter and Spike wrote and I assume produced “Let’s Go Crazy,” in 1951, a 32 minute musical featurette set in a nightclub combining variety acts with comedy sketches that linked everything together. Peter played multiple parts (such as Groucho Marx, Giuseppe, Cedric, Crystal Jollibottom, and of course Izzy Gozunk).<br />
The entire cast of “The Goon Show (Michael Bentine did not appear in “Penny Points to Paradise.” He was also busy at the time),” appeared for a final time in the ill-fated 1952 feature film, “Down Among the Z Men, (contrary to popular belief, “Down Among the Z Men” has absolutely nothing to do with he the Firesign Theatre’s 1979 “J-Men Forever,” the theatre’s failed attempt at world domination through the use of sex, drugs, and rock and roll),” a tale of espionage and intrigue. It was also a kind of live action clip show, transposing plots and characters found on their radio program into a feature film. <br />
The transposition did not work and “Down Among the Z Men,” did not fair well commercially. It was not released in the U.S. as “The Goon Show,” was not known here at the time (the first serious attempt to translate the humor of “The Goon Show” to television was 1956‘s “The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d,” which starred Peter and Spike, and was broadcast only in the London area).<br />
Years later, after Peter became a major film star, bootleg 16mm prints of the “Down Among the Z Men” began to turn up in the United States, sometimes under the title “The Goon Show Movie."<br />
One member of the cast, Graham Stark, who would substitute for Milligan on “The Goon Show,” when Spike was ill, would continue to work with Peter on many projects, including televisions “The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d,” its successor, “A Show Called Fred,” its successor, “Son of Fred (all three produced in 1956. Terry Jones, of “Monty Python's Flying Circus,” has stated that “Son of Fred’s,” minimalist format, with little or no scenery and few props, sketches without any real purpose or punch line, and mixing live action and short animations directly influenced the format of their own 1969 television show),” 1960‘s “The Millionairess,” “Only Two Can Play," the first real Inspector Clouseau movie, 1964‘s “A Shot in the Dark,” “Casino Royal,” “The Magic Christian,” “The Return of the Pink Panther,” “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” and “Revenge of the Pink Panther.” <br />
In 1953 Peter worked directly for John Houston by lending his voice to another Humphrey Bogart vehicle, “Beat the Devil,” also starring Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre. <br />
The script was written by Houston and the American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor, Truman Capote (who wrote the non-fiction novel “In Cold Blood,” which was what the 1967 film of the same name was based on, and which Robert Blake appeared in. Truman and Peter would both have parts in the 1976 Neil Simon film (directed by Robert Moore), “Murder by Death,” along with David Niven and Peter’s “The Ladykillers,” co-star, Alec Guinness). It “concerned the adventures of a motley crew of swindlers and ne'er-do-wells trying to claim land rich in uranium deposits in Kenya as they wait in a small Italian port to travel aboard a tramp steamer en route to Mombasa.” -Rotten Tomatoes. <br />
During the filming of “Beat the Devil,” Bogart lost several of his teeth in a car accident. Peter of course had a talent for imitating voices and was hired to dub some of Humphrey’s lines while Bogie was adjusting to the loss of his teeth and unable to speak clearly.<br />
Again, all of the cast members mentioned above have passed except for one, the lovely and talented Italian actress, Gina Lollobrigida, who as her acting career slowed enjoyed a second as a photojournalist and sculptress. In the 1970s, she achieved a scoop by gaining access to Fidel Castro for an exclusive interview.<br />
She has continued as an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF). In 2008, she received the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award at the Foundation's Anniversary Gala. In 2013, she sold her jewelry collection, and donated the nearly $5 million from the sale to benefit stem cell therapy research.<br />
Now retired, Lollobrigida has not made a film since 1997. 90 years old now she is estimated to have a net worth of $20 million dollars. <br />
She told PARADE magazine in April of 2000: "I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake ... I've had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I've had too many admirers." Something Ms Lollobrigida and I have in common.<br />
Peter provided the voice of a parrot in 1953's “The Adventures of Sadie,” or “Our Girl Friday,” in the U.K., starring Joan Collins, George Cole, Kenneth More and Robertson Hare. The film was about a girl (20 year old Collins) stranded on an island with three men. <br />
"I wore a bikini and no make up," said Joan later. "It was quite restful and more like a holiday than work."<br />
She later claimed she was the first actress to appear in a bikini on screen in “The Adventures of Sadie.” If this is correct, and no one knows if it is, than this is a truly historical landmark work of art, and a huge win for the rights of women everywhere that should be lauded the world over for the rest of eternity. <br />
Much like Gina, Ms Collins has survived all of her co-stars. The 84 year old actress now spends her time between her homes in London, Los Angeles, New York City, and an undisclosed location in France. She describes her life as being "that of a gypsy.”<br />
In 1954, Peter was cast opposite Sid James (who died of a heart attack while on stage in April of 1976 at the age of 62), Tony Hancock, Raymond Huntley, Eric Sykes, and Donald Pleasence, in the British Lion Film Corporation comedy production, “Orders Are Orders.”<br />
“A film production company decides to make a new science fiction film in an army barracks, using the soldiers as extras. This does not go down well with the commanding officer, who attempts to make life as difficult as possible for the film crew.”<br />
Some say the commanding officer sent the crew to a haunted house. Just saying. <br />
John Grierson, the pioneering Scottish documentary film maker, believed that “Orders are Orders,” was Peter’s breakthrough role on screen and credits this movie with launching the film careers of both Peter and Tony Hancock (Hancock’s career declined rapidly within the next ten years. He suffered from ill health, possibly due to alcoholism. He committed suicide by overdose (vodka and amylo-barbitone tablets, a depressant) on June 25th, 1968. "Things just seemed to go too wrong too many times," he wrote on a note). <br />
It has been rumored that the production of “Orders are Orders,” was cursed as it didn’t receive particularly good reviews (TV Guide wrote, "except for a couple of decent comic performances, the good cast, including both Peter Sellers and Donald Pleasence in early roles, are wasted by the film's haphazard construction”), didn’t make all that much money (84,148 pounds which is equivalent to $1,003,979 in 2016 (subtracting the production and promotional costs), and no one in the cast of “Orders are Orders,” is alive today. <br />
As far as I’m concerned Peter’s first important role in film was in 1955‘s “The Ladykillers,” starring Obi-Wan, er, I mean, Alec Guinness (who was no slouch in playing multiple characters himself. He portrayed 9 different people in the 1949 black comedy, “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” Despite being known for his work in dramatic roles, including 6 David Lean pictures (Herbert Pocket in “Great Expectations (1946),” Fagin in “Oliver Twist (1948),” Col. Nicholson in “The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor),” Prince Faisal in “Lawrence of Arabia (1962),” General Yevgraf Zhivago in “Doctor Zhivago (1965),” and Professor Godbole in “A Passage to India (1984),” he started his film career in comedies), Cecil Parker, Herbert Lom, Danny Green, Jack Warner, Katie Johnson, and Peter.<br />
The plot of “The Ladykillers,” involves a criminal gang using the boarding house of a naive older lady, to stage a crime, and what transpires afterwards. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7w4D25Dqpk"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip with Peter and another parrot.<br />
“The Ladykillers,” enjoys a rare 100% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 23 reviews. In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted “The Ladykillers” as the 36th greatest comedy film of all time, and The Guardian labeled it the 5th greatest comedy of all time in 2010.<br />
Which one is right?! I don’t know! 36th... 5th..., let’s split the difference and say it is the 20th and a half greatest comedy film of all time.<br />
Sounds good to me.<br />
“The Ladykillers” was a success in both Britain and the US, and the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.<br />
“The Ladykillers,” has been made into an opera, play, radio presentation. In 2004 the Coen Brothers (“No Country for Old Men," “Fargo," “The Big Lebowski") directed an American remake of the film, starring Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans, J. K. Simmons, Tzi Ma and Ryan Hurst. <br />
1956 was a television year for Peter. He appeared in the aforementioned three television series based on The Goons, which aired on Britain's new ITV channel, “The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d,” “A Show Called Fred,” and “Son of Fred." <br />
In 1957 film producer Michael Relph became impressed with Peter's portrayal of an elderly character in Idiot Weekly, and cast the 32-year-old actor as a 68-year-old projectionist in Basil Dearden's “The Smallest Show on Earth (“Big Time Operators,” here in the U.S.),” supporting actors being Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna and Margaret Rutherford. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4ZTR3sJeSg"><i>Here's </i></a>the trailer. <br />
The film was a commercial success and is now thought of as a minor classic of British screen comedy in the post-war era.<br />
Following this, Peter provided the growling voice of Winston Churchill to the BAFTA award winning film “The Man Who Never Was."<br />
Later in 1957 he portrayed a television star with a talent for disguises in Mario Zampi's offbeat black comedy “The Naked Truth,” opposite Terry-Thomas, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton and Dennis Price.<br />
One of the directors of “Casino Royal,” Val Guest, co-wrote and directed 1958‘s “Up The Creek,” a navel comedy (in the vein of “Operation Petticoat," and “McHale’s Navy," except Peter’s ship, the HMS Berkeley, didn’t go anywhere) starring Peter, David Tomlinson, Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Lodge and Lionel Jeffries.<br />
This film gained critical acclaim in the U.S., and is important as being the first leading role for Peter. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGih9yCC-_0"><i>Here’s</i></a> the whole movie if you are so inclined. <br />
The Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, George Pal (“The Time Machine,” “The War of the Worlds”) hired Peter that year, along with Terry-Thomas, as a pair of villains in “Tom Thumb,” a fantasy-musical film based on the Tom Thumb fairy tale.<br />
The movie also starred Russ Tamblyn, Jessie Matthews and Peter Butterworth.<br />
“Tom Thumb” was released by the Los Angeles based studio MGM, and filmed both in L.A. and London.<br />
It was financially successful, and the 8th most popular film in Great Britian in 1959. It also introduced Peter to the Hollywood film industry. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fgOR6Q8_38"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
1958 also saw Peter releasing a comedy album (for those of you who are too young to know what an album is it was a analog sound storage medium in the form of a 12- or 10-inch (30 or 25 cm) fine-grooved disc made of vinyl (Polyvinyl chloride, the world's third-most widely produced synthetic plastic polymer, after polyethylene and polypropylene) and played with a smaller-tipped "microgroove" stylus at a speed of 33 1⁄3 revolutions per minute (rpm), on what was called a record, or album player, specifically designed to play, or make music, or sounds, magically appear from said records or albums. Each side of a 12-inch LP could play for more than 20 minutes), labeled “The Best of Sellers; a collection of sketches and comic songs.” It was produced by George Martin (who would later work extensively with a British rock band called The Beatles) and released on Parlophone (a German-British major record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon). The album reached number three in the UK Albums Chart. <br />
1959 saw Peter working with Terry-Thomas <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5gdCXjTLzY"><i>again</i></a> (“People will say we’re in love.” -Hannibal Lector), in the Boulting Brothers (John and Roy... identical twins) production of “Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (“Man in a Cocked Hat” in the U.S.).” The film also starred SPECTRE assassin Luciana Paluzzi, and concerned an inept Foreign Office (F.O.) diplomat (played by Thomas) who is sent to re-establish good relations with the mineral-rich island of Gaillardia, a former British colony that has been forgotten for 50 years and is attracting the attention of both the USA and the USSR.<br />
Before the release of “Carlton-Browne of the F.O.,” John and Roy began filming “I’m Alright Jack (British for smug and complacent selfishness),” a satire on British industrial life in the 1950s. <br />
Peter worked with Terry-Thomas again on this film, along with Ian Carmichael and Richard Attenborough. He played one of his best-known roles, as the trades union shop steward Fred Kite and won a Bafta (British Academy Film Award) Best Actor Award.<br />
“I'm All Right Jack” became the highest grossing film at the British box office in 1960. <a href="http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/186285/I-m-All-Right-Jack-Movie-Clip-Fred-Kite.html"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
1959 also saw Peter in “The Mouse that Roared,” the prequel to “Dr. Strangelove.” A tale of international and political intrigue, weapons of mass destruction, war, and unfathomable love. <br />
“The Mouse that Roared,” was the first film in which I became aware of Peter Sellers, watching it from reruns on television. <br />
This film is also notable for being the first in which he played multiple characters (other than Goon Show projects), Duchess Gloriana XII; Count Rupert Mountjoy, the Prime Minister; and Tully Bascomb, the military leader. The film received universal high praise by critics.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unlpRJh6eEA"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter in all three of his roles.<br />
The American actress Jean Seberg (“A Fine Madness,” “Paint Your Wagon,” “Airport”) starred with Peter. Living abroad for most her life she would become a target of the FBI COINTELPRO project (a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations, and apparently individuals). Her victimization was rendered as a well-documented retaliation for her support of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.<br />
At the peak of her career, Ms Seberg suddenly stopped acting in Hollywood films. Reportedly, she was not pleased with the roles she had been offered, some of which, she noted, bordered on pornography.<br />
Experts in FBI COINTELPRO activities suggest that she was "effectively blacklisted" from Hollywood films, as was Jane Fonda for a period of time. <br />
On the night of August 30th, 1979, Ms Seberg disappeared. Her “companion" at the time, Ahmed Hasni, told police that they had gone to a movie that night and when he awoke the next morning, Ms Seberg was gone.<br />
Nine days after her disappearance, on September 8th, her decomposing body was found wrapped in a blanket in the back seat of her Renault, which was parked close to her Paris apartment in the 16th arrondissement. <br />
Police found a bottle of barbiturates, an empty mineral water bottle, and a note written in French addressed to her son. It read, in part, "Forgive me. I can no longer live with my nerves."<br />
Her death was ruled a probable suicide by Paris police, but the following year additional charges were filed against persons unknown for "non-assistance of a person in danger."<br />
Ms Seberg's second husband, Romain Gary, called a press conference shortly after her death where he publicly blamed the FBI's campaign against his ex-wife for her deteriorating mental health. Gary claimed that Jean "became psychotic" after the media reported a false story the FBI planted about her becoming pregnant with a Black Panther's child in 1970. Romain Gary stated that Seberg had repeatedly attempted suicide on the anniversary of their child's death, August 25th.<br />
As our current President would say, sad.<br />
<br />
Peter won an U.S. Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film in 1959, for a Goon related project originally intended to be a private film for his use and that of his goon friends. <br />
Over the course of two Sundays, and at a cost of £70 (including £5 for the rental of a field. £70 in the year 1959 is equivalent to £1,534.45 in 2017, a difference of £1,464.45 over 58 years. £1,534.45 equals $2025.72) he took his 16mm cine-camera to Totteridge Lane in London and filmed himself, Spike Milligan, Mario Fabrizi (an English comedian and actor of Italian descent), Leo McKern (an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programs and films, and in more than 200 stage roles), and Richard Lester (an American film director based in Britain). <br />
The eleven-minute short film “The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film” was screened at the 1959 Edinburgh and San Francisco film festivals. It won the award for best fiction short in the latter festival, and that Academy Award nomination. <a href="https://vk.com/video42643652_169402560?list=1a5e2b6b4124976e5b"><i>Take a look</i></a>!<br />
The film was a favorite of the four members of The Beatles, which led to Lester being hired to direct “A Hard Day's Night” and then “Help! (he would later direct 1980’s “Superman II,” and 1983‘s “Superman III”).”<br />
1959 also saw the release of Peter’s second comedy album, “Songs For Swinging Sellers,” which also reached number three in the UK Albums Charts.<br />
Peter’s last films of the 50‘s were “Two-Way Stretch,” sometimes titled “Nothing Barred,” which is a 1960 (filmed in 1959) British comedy film, about a group of prisoners who plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into jail again, thus giving them the perfect alibi... that they were behind bars when the robbery occurred.<br />
Besides Peter the film also starred Wilfrid Hyde-White, Lionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbins, and Liz Fraser, who played Peter’s daughter in “I’m Alright Jack,” and his love interest in “Two-Way Stretch.”<br />
Apparently that love interest went further than the movies... as far as Peter was concerned. <br />
In this day and age of sexual inappropriateness brought to light by the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Bill O'Reilly, Kevin Spacey, and others, Liz has claimed similar conduct committed by Peter. <br />
Speaking of auditioning for the Jack film, Liz told the Daily Mail in 2015: <br />
“When I turned up John Boulting [who produced and directed the film with his twin brother Roy] took one look at me and said, ‘You’re completely not right for this part.' I begged, ‘Oh please, I’ve come by train and bus to get here.' So he took me to the make-up department and said, ‘Do something with her.'<br />
They put a long wig on me. I’ve always had a large bust but at that time I tried to hide it; but the make-up department put a tight sweater on me and cinched my waist in with a belt. Suddenly I looked glamorous and I got the role."<br />
Peter Sellers noticed the change immediately. Although they knew each other well – he was sleeping with one of her friends – he invited her into his trailer, locked the door and pulled his trousers down. “I said, ‘Peter, you can pull your trousers back up again and I hope you’re not planning to deprive me of my lunch.' We stayed friends but he was a so-and-so, always trying it on with people.<br />
My friend was his secretary; she’d appear at lunchtimes and go into his trailer. One day she told him, ‘I don’t want to do this any more, I feel like a tart and I love you so much.' Well, she got back to the office and a colleague told her, ‘I don’t know what you’ve done with Peter but he’s sacked you.’<br />
He was such a rogue. I remember when he claimed he was having an affair with Sophia Loren [when they made the film “The Millionairess” Together in 1960]. He was so excited he told his wife Anne Howe, and was surprised when she threw him out of the house.”<br />
Being somewhat aware of certain aspects of sexual addiction I have to assume that if left unchecked this type of behavior would constitute a fundamental element of Peter’s personality. Noting addiction’s progressive nature this illness if you will, would only get worse and more profound.<br />
As a direct result of these manifestations, and increasing problems with his personal life and marriage, Peter sought periodic consultations with the astrologer and alleged clairvoyant Maurice Woodruff, who would have considerable influence over his later career.<br />
Unfortunately for Peter there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that astrology or clairvoyance have any actual basis in reality.<br />
The last movie he filmed in 1959 and that was released the following year was “The Battle of the Sexes,” also starring Robert Morley, Constance Cummings, Donald Pleasence, and directed by Charles Crichton, whose last directorial effort was 1988's “A Fish Called Wanda,” which featured two Monty Python cast members, John Cleese and Michael Palin.<br />
Speaking of Sophia Loren, she and Peter starred in 1960's “The Millionairess,” which appears to have been based on a 1936 play written by the Irish playwright, critic and polemicist George Bernard Shaw, which coincidentally had the very same name as the movie.<br />
Ms Loren plays the richest woman in the world who is looking for love, but can’t marry unless she, or her prospective husband, fulfills certain conditions of her father’s will. Peter plays a well meaning and dedicated Indian doctor, who eventually become the object of Sophia’s affections. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikwqo8H6Kus"><i>Here's </i></a>a clip.<br />
Peter wasn’t interested in acting in the film until he learned that Sophia Loren would be his co-star. <br />
"I don't normally act with romantic, glamorous women ... she's a lot different from Harry Secombe," referencing his former Goon Show co-star.<br />
Ms Loren, who was married to the Italian film producer Carlo Ponti at the time, developed a close, friendly relationship with Peter while making the film.<br />
Peter, however, became instantly enamored with the Italian beauty (who was a French citizen by the way), and as mentioned above, declared his love for her to Anne, his wife, which was good enough reason as any to get divorced the next year. <br />
Sophia spurned Peter’s advances, and pretty soon he was left with nothing but his work and occasional visitation with his two children.<br />
So, what do you do in a situation like this if you’re Peter Sellers? You direct yourself in a movie.<br />
Directing one’s self in a film is a lot harder than it sounds. <br />
Peter did it in “Mr. Topaze (also known as “I Like Money,” because who doesn’t like money? (My good friend<a href="https://www.facebook.com/amasiak72?fref=pb&hc_location=friends_tab&pnref=friends.all"><i> Alexandria Masiak</i></a>, that’s who! She hates money. Hates it!),” in which he also starred, along with the Rumanian actress Nadia Gray, his old friend Leo McKern, and Herbert Lom. <br />
Peter portrayed an ex-schoolmaster in a small French town who turns to a life of crime to obtain wealth.<br />
“Mr. Topaze,” was not well received.<br />
1962 also saw Peter starring in the Sidney Gilliat directed “Only Two Can Play,” a film based on the novel “That Uncertain Feeling” by Kingsley Amis. He played John Lewis, an unappreciated Welsh librarian who is caught between his ambitious wife and a glamorous amateur actress. Peter was nominated for the Best British Actor award at the 16th British Academy Film Awards for his work in this film.<br />
<a href="http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/480467/Only-Two-Can-Play-Movie-Clip-I-d-Love-One-Of-Those.html"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip featuring Peter, Graham Stark, and the Swedish actress Mai Zetterling. <br />
In 1962 Peter played a retired British army general in John Guillermin's “Waltz of the Toreadors,” based on a play that had again, the same name, written in 1951 by Jean Anouilh. <br />
The film was the 11th most popular movie at the British box office in 1962 and was widely criticized for its slapstick cinematic adaption, yet Peter won the San Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best Actor and a BAFTA award nomination for his performance.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTZ5G_RVQh4&list=UUwNfxdQDpPyr8979aNmrxfA&index=16"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip<br />
It is sad to note that one of Peter’s co-stars in “Waltz of the Toreadors,” the French actress Dany Robin, died with her second husband, one Michael Sullivan, in a fire in their apartment in Paris. She was 68 years old.<br />
The American actress Sue Lyon was 14 years old when she appeared with Peter, James Mason, and Shelly Winters in 1962‘s “Lolita.” The film was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov (he also wrote the screenplay), and was directed by <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2013/06/happy-birthday-stanley-kubrick_5305.html"><i>Stanley Kubrick</i></a>, fresh off of an unsatisfactory experience making the slave rebellion epic, “Spartacus,” despite the film’s critical and commercial success. <br />
The film concerns a middle-aged literature lecturer (Mason) who becomes obsessed with an adolescent girl (Lyon).<br />
Kubrick asked Peter to play the role of Clare Quilty, another lover of Lolita’s mother who also had a fixation on the teenage girl. <br />
Stanley had seen Peter in “The Battle of the Sexes,” and listened to one of his comedy albums, and was impressed by the range of characters he could portray.<br />
Peter was apprehensive about accepting the role, doubting his ability to successfully portray the part of a flamboyant American television playwright who was "a fantastic nightmare, part homosexual, part drug addict, part sadist."<br />
But in the end he did okay.<br />
Peter’s character, Clare Quilty, was greatly expanded from that in the novel and Stanley allowed him to adopt a variety of disguises throughout the movie. Early on in the film, Quilty appears as himself: a conceited, avant-garde playwright with a superior manner. Later he is an inquisitive policeman on the porch of the hotel, where Humbert and Lolita are staying. Next he is the intrusive Beardsley High School psychologist, Doctor Zempf, who lurks in Humbert's front room, to persuade him to give Lolita more freedom in her after-school activities. He is then seen as a photographer backstage at Lolita's play. Later in the film, he is an anonymous phone caller conducting a survey.<br />
“Lolita” was shot over 88 days on a budget of $2 million at Elstree Studios (Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and defunct British film studios and television studios based in or around the towns of Borehamwood and Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Studios have been located there since film production began in the area in 1914), between October 1960 and March 1961.<br />
Because of its provocative story, “Lolita” was Stanley’s first film to generate controversy, and he felt somewhat forced to comply with censors and accordingly toned down the erotic element of the story concerning the relationship between Mason’s Humbert Humbert and Lyon’s Lolita (spoiler alert! They become lovers). <br />
“Lolita" was not a big success critically or commercially when it was released on June 13th, 1962 (a Wednesday). It has since become acclaimed by film critics and the public alike.<br />
Social historian Stephen E. Kercher documented that the film "demonstrated that its director possessed a keen, satiric insight into the social landscape and sexual hang-ups of cold war America," while Jon Fortgang of Film4 wrote: "Lolita, with its acute mix of pathos and comedy, and Mason's mellifluous delivery of Nabokov's sparkling lines, remains the definitive depiction of tragic transgression."<br />
Writing in The Sunday Times, Dilys Powell noted that Peter gave "a firework performance, funny, malicious, only once for a few seconds over reaching itself, and in the murder scene which is both prologue and epilogue achieving the macabre in comedy." <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYbNpamv5Dg"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
Three months before “Lolita” (June. Some sources say it was released on May 22nd. I was only 7 at the time and honestly can’t remember) was released Peter made a short appearance in Bob Hope and Bing Crosby’s last “Road Picture (a series of seven comedy films starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. They are also often referred to as the "Road" pictures or the "Road" series. The movies were a combination of adventure, comedy, romance, and music. The minimal plot often took a back seat to gags, many of them supposedly ad-libbed by Crosby and Hope during filming. The first six films were all distributed by Paramount Studios. The last film in the series, the one we’re talking about now, was distributed by United Artists),” “The Road to Hong Kong.”<br />
Peter played an Indian neurologist snake charmer who is hired to help restore Hope’s memory. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC_YXY6HZQI"><i>Here’s </i></a>the clip.<br />
The lovely and talented Dorothy Lamour did not play the female lead in this one. That fell to Peter’s old human friend Joan Collins. Bing Crosby felt that Dorothy was too old to play a leading lady (she was 48 years old at the time. Crosby (and Hope) were 59... and looked it. What a douche!). Bob said he wouldn’t make the film without her (what a nice man!). So an accommodation was made and Ms Lamour made an extended cameo that featured her singing with the two aging actors (others who made cameo appearances in “The Road to Hong Kong,” were David Niven, Roger Delgado, Jerry Colonna, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin). Peter’s addition to the film was particularly well praised. <br />
In September Peter starred with future dinosaur wrangler Richard Attenborough in “The Dock Brief (“Trail and Error,” in the U.S.),” a legal satire directed by James Hill (“Born Free”). Richard was nominated for the 1963 BAFTA Award for best British actor for his work in this film. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU1wD9krZC0"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
Peter’s father, Bill, passed away in October of 1962. He was 62 years old.<br />
Despite the obvious success Peter was having professionally, he never really accepted it and quite often thought and told others he was doing a horrible job at acting. He railed against many of the parts that were being offered to him, and generally became a pain in the ass to work with. <br />
His relationship with his two children deteriorated. according to Michael, his dad once asked him and his sister "who [do] we love more, our mother or him. Sarah, to keep the peace, said, 'I love you both equally.' I said, 'No, I love my mum.'" This prompted Peter to throw both children out, saying that he never wanted to see them again (Michael and Sarah would receive a little over four thousand 2016 dollars from Peter’s will after he died in 1980, from an estate valued at $23 million. The rest of the money went to Peter’s third wife, Lynne Frederick, even though Peter had initiated the process to remove her from his will entirely a week before he died).<br />
1963 saw Peter play the gang leader "Pearly Gates" in Cliff Owen's “The Wrong Arm of the Law.” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NajbyyBbwfE"><i>Here’s</i></a> the trailer.<br />
Lionel Jeffries starred with Peter in “The Wrong Arm of the Law.” As a young lad I enjoyed Jeffries in one of my favorite “Moon” science fiction films, “The First Men in the Moon,” which was based on a true story I’m told.<br />
From 1956 to 1963 Michael Caine appeared in 16 movies, 9 of which were uncredited. “The Wrong Arm of the Law” was one of those 9.<br />
Peter got back together with the Boulting brothers to make “Heavens Above!” He played a vicar with wild economic ideals. <br />
The film was daring in its use of profanity for it’s time. Former Goon Show collaborator Eric Sykes’s character at one point utters the line, "What if it pisses with rain?"<br />
I don’t have to tell you that I am not just a little bit shocked... and appalled as well! <br />
The American actor Brock Peters was part of the cast of “Heavens Above!” fresh from his acclaimed portrayal of defendant Tom Robinson in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the year before. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA5fvO21H6o"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip. <br />
The America director <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/12/goodbye-blake.html"><i>Blake Edwards</i></a>, heady with the success of several films (“Operation Petticoat (the composer, Henry Mancini apparently contributed to the musical score of this Cary Grant, Tony Curtis pink submarine movie, but was uncredited. Henry became an independent composer/arranger in 1958. Soon afterward, he scored the television series “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oysMt8iL9UE"><i>Peter Gunn</i></a>," for writer/producer Blake Edwards. This was the beginning of a relationship in which Edwards and Mancini collaborated on 30 films over 35 years. Henry’s scores for Blake included “Breakfast at Tiffany's” (with the standard "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uirBWk-qd9A"><i>Moon River</i></a>"), with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, and “Days of Wine and Roses (with the title song, "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNlT7Rx77y8"><i>Days of Wine and Roses</i></a>"),” as well as “Experiment in Terror,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OPc7MRm4Y8"><i>The Pink Panther</i></a> (and all of its sequels),” “The Great Race,” “The Party,” “10 (including "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnwAWv8LPEA"><i>It's Easy to Say</i></a>")” and “Victor Victoria.” Henry wrote music for a lot of other movies too, one of my favorites being “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yl0cjXDNO0"><i>Baby Elephant Walk</i></a>,” for the Howard Hawks film “Hatari,” with John Wayne),” “Breakfast at Tiffany's,” “Days of Wine and Roses”)<br />
Blake co-wrote “The Pink Panther,” with Maurice Richlin, and was set to direct it (it was produced by Edwards associate Martin Jurow (“Breakfast at Tiffany's,” “Soldier in the Rain,” “The Great Race”)). The film was initially intended as a vehicle for David Niven, who received top billing. It was "conceived as a sophisticated comedy about a charming, urbane jewel thief, Sir Charles Lytton (Niven)." The Russian-English actor, writer, dramatist, filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, screenwriter, comedian, humorist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster, and television presenter Peter Ustinov was "originally cast as Inspector Jacques Clouseau, with Ava Gardner as his faithless wife in league with Lytton." -TMC Movie Database. After Gardner backed out (the Associated Press reported in November 1962 it was because The Mirisch Company wouldn't meet all her demands), Ustinov also left the project, and Blake Edwards then chose Peter to replace him. Janet Leigh turned down the lead female role of Princess Dala, as it meant being away from the United States for too long.<br />
Blake offered Peter the role of Clouseau. He later recalled his feelings as "desperately unhappy and ready to kill, but as fate would have it, I got Mr. Sellers instead of Mr. Ustinov—thank God!"<br />
Peter accepted a fee of £90,000 ( a little over $900,000 today) for five weeks' work on location in Rome and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Niven starred in the principal role, with two other actors, Capucine and Claudia Cardinale, having more prominent parts than Peter. The film also starred Robert Wagner, and the aforementioned Fran Jeffries. <br />
The film was shot in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Rome and Rocca di Papa; Paris, France; and right here in Los Angeles, using the Technirama process in an aspect ratio of 2.20:1. <br />
According to the DVD commentary by Blake, the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nistdsACs3E"><i>chase scene </i></a>at the piazza (filmed at Piazza della Repubblica in Rocca di Papa) was an homage to a similar sequence 26 minutes into Alfred Hitchcock's “Foreign Correspondent (1940).”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEsfYG_bF-E"><i>Here's</i></a> another scene.<br />
As Blake shot the film, employing multiple takes of improvised scenes, it became clear that Peter, originally considered a supporting actor, was stealing all of the scenes he was in (which resulted in his continuation throughout the film's sequels).<br />
When presenting at a subsequent Oscar Awards ceremony, Niven requested his walk-on music be changed from the "Pink Panther" theme, stating, "That was not really my film."<br />
Although the Clouseau character was in the script, Peter created the personality, devising the costume, accent, make-up, mustache and trench coat.<br />
His performance is regarded as being on par with that of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, according to biographer Peter Evans.<br />
“The Pink Panther” was released in the UK in January 1964 and received a mixed reception from the critics, although Penelope Gilliatt, writing in The Observer, remarked that Peter had a "flawless sense of mistiming" in a performance that was "one of the most delicate studies in accident-proneness since the silents." Despite the views of the critics, the film was one of the top ten grossing films of the year. The role earned Peter a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 22nd Golden Globe Awards, and for a Best British Actor award at the 18th British Academy Film Awards.<br />
Speaking of working with Peter throughout the years Blake "more than once swore off Sellers" as too hard to direct. However, in his later years, he admitted that working with Peter was often irresistible: "We clicked on comedy, and we were lucky we found each other, because we both had so much respect for it. We also had an ability to come up with funny things and great situations that had to be explored. But in that exploration there would oftentimes be disagreement. But I couldn't resist those moments when we jelled. And if you ask me who contributed most to those things, it couldn't have happened unless both of us were involved, even though it wasn't always happy."<br />
The next year Stanley Kubrick would ask Peter to work with him once again in a small black and white film that had something to do with the Cold War.<br />
<br />
To be continued.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2018/01/happy-birthday-peter-sellers-shocking.html"><i>Part 3, the Conclusion</i></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-65229930987239662752017-09-08T18:59:00.000-07:002019-01-18T19:06:21.977-08:00Happy Birthday Peter Sellers!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.”<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXn2QVipK2o"><i>Does Your Dog Bite?</i></a><br />
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Picture Legend<br />
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1. Peter Sellers<br />
2. Southsea Beach<br />
3. Row of wind-pruned Huntingdon Elms, Southsea Common<br />
4. Peter’s birthplace on Castle Road, Southsea<br />
5. Kings Theatre in Southsea, where Peter made his first stage appearance<br />
6. Young Peter<br />
7. Alexandra Palace<br />
8. Artist portrayal of Shub-Niggurath<br />
9. St. Aloysius College<br />
10. Drummer<br />
11. Waldini<br />
12. Geoffrey Rush and Charlize Theron in 2004‘s “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers”<br />
13. Peter (top), Spike Milligan (left) and Harry Secombe (right), three of the cast of the “The Goon Show”<br />
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This morning it is my great pleasure and honor to give a Joyce’s Take birthday shout out to one of the greatest comedic actors who ever lived, Peter Sellers! </div>
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Mr. Sellers would have been 91 years old today. Unfortunately he passed away in London just after midnight (12:26am - British Summer Time), after being in a coma for more than 30 hours, on July 24th, 1980, at the age of 54. </div>
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Peter was born as Richard Henry Sellers at a very early age in 1925, in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth, at the southern end of Portsea Island, Hampshire, England (50° 47′ 6″ N, 1° 4′ 12″ W).</div>
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Southsea is located to the south of Portsmouth city center and to the east of Old Portsmouth. It originally developed as a Victorian seaside resort in the 19th century and grew into a dense residential suburb and large distinct commercial and entertainment area, separate from Portsmouth city center itself.</div>
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Southsea Common is a large expanse of mown grassland parallel to the shore from Clarence Pier to Southsea Castle. </div>
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The Common is home to a remarkable collection of mature elm trees, believed to be the oldest and largest surviving in Hampshire, which have escaped Dutch elm disease owing to their isolation. The majority of the larger trees are Huntingdon Elms planted in the 1920s, but nearer the entrance to the Skate Park there is a fine example of a hybrid of the Siberian Elm Ulmus pumila. Huntingdon Elms once lined the Ladies' Mile—an avenue through the center of the Common—but many were lost in the Great Storm of 1987 and replaced by the Dutch hybrid elm cultivar 'Lobel'.</div>
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, once lived in Southsea, and played soccer there, what the English humorously call football, as a goalkeeper for the Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur, under the pseudonym A. C. Smith.</div>
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Rudyard Kipling, the author of “The Jungle Book,” and “Kim,” lived in Southsea when he was six to twelve years old. </div>
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The writer H.G. Wells, best known for his works in science fiction, like “The Time Machine,” “The Island of Doctor Moreau,” and “The War of the Worlds,” also lived in Southsea.</div>
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So a lot of good writers lived in Southsea. Many others who were or are not writers have lived there as well.</div>
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Although born Richard Henry Sellers, his parents, Yorkshire-born William "Bill" Sellers (1900–62) and Agnes Doreen "Peg" (née Marks, 1892–1967), called him Peter, in remembrance of his older brother who was stillborn. Peter remained an only child.</div>
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He grew up in an entertainment family. He made his first appearance on stage when he was two weeks old at the Kings Theatre in Southsea. The audience sang "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow," to him, which made him cry, then he was shot out of a cannon. </div>
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Ha, ha, ha. Just joking. It was actually a catapult. </div>
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The family was always on the move, touring as entertainment people often do, which affected Peter in a negative manner.</div>
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He was much closer to Peg, than his dad, who rarely encouraged his son in his efforts to carry on the family business, just the opposite of his mom. </div>
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Some of his friends observed that he may have been a little too close to his mother, allowing her to dominate his life. </div>
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Well what can you do? Moms are moms.</div>
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When he was ten the family moved to North London and settled in Muswell Hill (a suburb of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey and the London Borough of Barnet. It is one of the more expensive suburbs in London situated near to Highgate, Hampstead, East Finchley and Crouch End, (where the divide between our world and an alien, demonic world is somehow lesser. Crouch End is the home of Shub-Niggurath, who is often associated with the phrase “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young.” There are still strange occurrences in Crouch End, and that, very occasionally, people are known to "...lose their way. Some lose their way forever."). Muswell Hill is the home of the Alexandra Palace (designed to serve as a public center of recreation, education and entertainment). </div>
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Although Bill Sellers was Protestant and Peg was Jewish, Peter attended the North London Roman Catholic School St. Aloysius College in Highgate, two miles south of Muswell Hill. The college was and is run by the Brothers of Mercy of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (The institute was founded in 1839 by Canon J. B. Cornelius Scheppers (1802 - 1877) for the instruction and care of prisoners and of the sick. Cardinal Manning invited them to London in 1855, where they have undertaken the care of the prisoners in Catholic reformatories and the education of the children of the poor). </div>
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“I was never a good scholar, Perhaps I never settled down to it,” Peter recalled in 1962. “Perhaps that’s what was wrong with my education. But I didn’t dislike it at St. Aloysius. I’ve sometimes been back to see the people there...”</div>
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While at school Peter began to develop his improvisational skills. He and his closest friend at the time, Bryan Connon (April 5 1927 to September 4 2007. Bryan became a successful writer and biographer), both enjoyed listening to early radio comedy shows. Connon remembers that "Peter got endless pleasure imitating the people in “Monday Night at Eight.” He had a gift for improvising dialogue. Sketches, too. I'd be the 'straight man', the 'feed', ... I'd cue Peter and he'd do all the radio personalities and chuck in a few voices of his own invention as well."</div>
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When World War II began in 1939, the students at St. Aloysius were evacuated to Cambridgeshire, 61.5 miles from Highgate, and famous for it’s bomb shelters.</div>
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Peg would not allow Peter to go, so his formal education ended when he was fourteen. </div>
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The next year the family moved to the seaside resort town of Ilfracombe, 229.9 miles west of Highgate, where Peg’s brother lived, and who managed a local theatre. </div>
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That’s where Peter got his first job when he was fifteen. He started as a caretaker (janitor) for ten shillings a week (maybe about £70.78 in 2016, which is about $93.45 U.S), and was steadily promoted, becoming a box office clerk, usher, assistant stage manager and lighting operator. </div>
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Working backstage gave him a chance to study actors such as Paul Scofield and Mary Clare.</div>
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He became close friends with another boy his age, Derek Altman, and together they launched Peter’s first stage act under the name "Altman and Sellers," which pretty much consisted of playing ukuleles, singing, and telling jokes (they also began their own detective agency (Selman Investigations Inc. as they were fans of the novelist Dashiell Hammett, creator of the fictional detectives Sam Spade and the Thin Man). </div>
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“We’re Altman and Sellers</div>
The younger generation<br />
We always sing in the best syncopation<br />
And we hope we make a big sensation<br />
With you - ooh - ooh!”<br />
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It was during this time that Peter learned to play the drums (he had no patience for the piano) and was so enthusiastic about them he thought he might do it professionally.</div>
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“It was the drums I was really keen on in the early days. I suddenly went mad about the drums. I spent months learning from a professional drummer. And I was pretty good.”</div>
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Good enough to appear twice in Waldini’s (Waldini, Wally Bishop, was the founder of Waldini‘s Gypsy band, and many others) “Symphony in Colour,” in August of 1941. </div>
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Peter joined the Royal Air Force in September of 1943. He was probably drafted as Peg tried unsuccessfully to get him deferred on medical grounds. </div>
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He wanted to become a pilot but was rejected for poor eyesight. </div>
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He got bored with ground duties and auditioned for Squadron Leader Ralph Reader's RAF Gang Show entertainment troupe. Reader accepted him and Peter toured the UK before the troupe was transferred to India. He also served in Germany and France after the war.</div>
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Back home Peter continued his career in entertainment, with limited success. In 1948 he wrote to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and was given an audition. As a result, he made his television debut on March 18th, 1948 in “New To You.”</div>
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His act was well received and he was invited back the next week. </div>
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However, Peter’s personality was such that he was determined to make it in the entertainment business and he felt his career was advancing too slowly.</div>
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Accordingly he called BBC radio producer Roy Speer, pretending to be Kenneth Horne, star of the radio show “Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh.”</div>
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When Speers discovered it was Peter who telephoned him Speer called Peter a "cheeky young sod" for his efforts, which is pretty strong language in Britain, but that prank got him an audition (which is depicted by the wonderful Australian actor, Geoffrey Rush, in 2004's “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,” with the lovely and talented Charlize Theron). This led to a brief appearance on “ShowTime," on July 1st, 1948, which led to more work on “Ray's a Laugh,” with comedian Ted Ray.</div>
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In October of 1948, Peter was a regular radio performer, appearing on the “Starlight Hour,” “The Gang Show,” “Henry Hall's Guest Night,” and “It's Fine To Be Young.”</div>
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By the end of the year the BBC Third Programme (a national radio service produced and broadcast by the BBC between 1946 and 1970) began to broadcast the comedy series “Third Division,” which starred, among others, Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine and Peter. One evening, Peter and Michael visited the Hackney Empire (a theatre on Mare Street, in the London Borough of Hackney, built in 1901 as a music hall), where Harry was performing, and Michael introduced Peter to Spike Milligan. </div>
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And thus these four founded and constituted the cast of “Crazy People,” which appeared on British airwaves for the first time on May 28th, 1951.</div>
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Subsequent seasons had the title changed to “The Goon Show.”</div>
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To be continued<br />
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<a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2017/11/happy-birthday-peter-sellers-part-2.html"><i>Part 2</i></a> <br />
<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-10144666846562371172017-09-04T19:29:00.001-07:002017-09-04T22:59:48.738-07:00Labor Day 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Labor Day. This weekend, as you enjoy a day off and the remaining days of summer with friends and family, it’s important to remember what Labor Day is actually celebrating—the incredible progress of workers’ rights. When unions are strong, they are able to boost all workers' wages—regardless of whether they are members of a union, reduce poverty and strengthen the middle class. But the fight for workers’ rights isn’t over. Workers across the country will be <a href="http://www.sfltimes.com/news/local/miami-fast-food-workers-join-nationwide-labor-day-strike"><i>on strike</i></a> this Labor Day to demand $15 and a union. Unions are under attack by corporate interests, and many workers still aren’t paid fair wages. So this Labor Day, let’s honor those who have fought so hard for weekends, fair compensation, paid leave, and more by standing up for those who still need more protections in their jobs.<br />
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Last Thursday a Texas federal judge struck down an Obama-era rule that would have provided overtime protections for over 4 million workers throughout the country. Ben Olinsky, the vice president of policy and strategy at the Center for American Progress, noted that this decision “is a huge loss…[and] Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta and President Donald Trump should stand up for workers by appealing this ruling immediately.”<br />
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“The good news this Labor Day: Jobs are returning. The bad news this Labor Day: Most of them pay lousy wages and low if non-existent benefits.” -Robert Reich, Former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton<br />
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Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September, that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. It was first nationally recognized in 1894 to placate unionists following the Pullman Strike. With the decline in union membership, the holiday is generally viewed as a time for barbecues and the end of summer vacations. -Wikipedia<br />
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Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries in the United States. Their activity today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for their membership, and on representing their members in disputes with management over violations of contract provisions. Larger unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level. -Wikipedia<br />
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You see that first picture above? The one that says “Labor Day,” with the four flags. It looks pretty patriotic doesn’t it?<br />
You can even find pictures of naked ladies with the American flag strategically draped over them denoting that Labor Day is a very American and an important holiday, although one has to wonder exactly what kind of labor they’re advocating for.<br />
Most politicians wouldn’t mind seeing labor unions go the way of the dinosaurs, including those that live in the White House. Republicans traditionally resent labor unions and do what they can to curb their influence. The right wing media villainize unions and their members as parasites upon society, and unfortunately those who listen to their dribble, tend to carry on and live with that idea as if it were their own, and resent those being represented by labor, those who might make a decent living and enjoy pensions and health benefits, and think of them as overpaid and unnecessary burdens placed upon the rest of the country.<br />
Unless of course they happen to be members of unions themselves.<br />
As did my own sister who worked in the gaming industry in Laughlin, Nevada.<br />
For one reason or another she had a negative view of unions and refused to take part in efforts to unionize the worker in casinos. <br />
I still don’t know how she feels about unions in general. I do know she was summarily fired from her long standing job as a black jack dealer when she developed severe back pain and wasn’able to stand for lengthy periods of time. She was let go without a pension or benefits of any kind. The casino just used her up and discarded her when she couldn’t meet their expectations, something that a union definitely could have helped her with. <br />
In any case, regardless of how unions are perceived, “Study after study has come to the same conclusion: When workers come together in unions, they can help make things better for themselves, and indeed most Americans. Joining together enables workers to negotiate for higher wages and benefits, and when unions are strong, these benefits can spill over into other nonunion workplaces. Unions of working people also help ensure that government works for everyone—not just those at the top—by encouraging people of modest means to vote and by providing a crucial counterbalance to wealthy interest groups. Their ability to improve conditions in the workplace and in our democracy means that unions play a critical role in building the middle class.” -David Madland and Alex Rowell of The Center for American Progress action Fund.<br />
Democrats are traditionally seen as pro-union, pro-labor, and have indeed benefited by receiving major campaign contributions from unions as a result, which is another reason the Republicans hate them... unions that is (they hate Democrats too, as seen by their childish refusal to call the Democratic Party by their real name... the Democratic Party. Instead they call it the Democrat Party, a pejorative reference, one that sadly has infected many democrats and media anchor people, who should know better).<br />
I was a member of a union at one time. The Communication Workers of America, representing about 550,000 members in both the private and public sectors. I didn’t have a whole lot of exposure to it, and my pay was hourly and not expansive, and I don’t recall how much the dues were, but it did help me by making it difficult for AT&T (I was working as a long distance operator at the time) management to fire me when I was absent from work for extended periods of time due to illness. And my health benefits, which the union promoted and protected, allowed me to enjoy hospital care when I needed it, medical attention I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford.<br />
Being in that union was also psychologically beneficial, knowing I had a whole bunch of people whose only job it was to look out for my interests. I had worked too many jobs where that wasn’t the case, and the boss could fire me at their whim, for any reason, or none at all.<br />
Unions tend to even out the power structure of the working place.<br />
Lately, as the second and third paragraph above suggests, unions have been in decline in this country. “With the decline in union membership, the holiday is generally viewed as a time for barbecues and the end of summer vacations.” Wow, what a sad declaration. A day set aside to celebrate the average worker's contribution to the country to one that designates it’s a good time to cook some hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, or maybe get that vacation to Ogallala, Nebraska in before autumn comes and the falling leaves begin to blanket the roads.<br />
Labor unions and the laborers that make them up originally proposed the idea of a national holiday devoted to labor. A machinist, Matthew Maguire, while serving as secretary of the CLU (Central Labor Union) of New York, proposed the idea in 1882, way before my time... or even yours (others say it was Peter J. McGuire of the AFL (American Federation of Labor) that same year, after attending a “labor festival” in Canada. I have no idea who was actually first, so we’ll let the two duke it out amongst themselves). However, it was the states who took up the idea way before the federal government got on board. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21st, 1887. During the next year four more, the states Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York created a Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By 1894, 30 states had adopted the holiday.<br />
And that was the year that Congress passed legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday, 1894, and the President at the time, one Grover Cleveland (no relation to the city. He is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897)), who was definitely pro-business. A Democrat, as a matter of fact a Bourbon Democrat (a Democrat who only drinks whiskey made of a grain mix of at least 51% corn), who opposed high tariffs, Free Silver, inflation, imperialism and subsidies to business, farmers or veterans. Today’s Republicans would have loved him (although when a “Railroad Bubble” burst at the beginning of his second term, causing a national depression he was unable to alleviate, allowing the Republicans to dominate the government which ironically ushered in the “Progressive Era,” a period of social activism and political reform that flourished until the 1920s).<br />
Grover signed Labor Day into law more than likely as a political sop to the existing labor organizations and unions due to his intervention in the Pullman Strike (second picture above), in which thousands of United States Marshals and some 12,000 United States Army troops intervened in a strike by workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company, which made railroad cars, causing the death of 30 strikers, and wounding 57 others. He signed it into law just six days after the strike ended.<br />
In 1987 President Cleveland opted to celebrate the new national holiday in September, as the unions favored, rather than on May 1st, which was synonymous with, or linked to, International Workers' Day, which celebrated labor forces internationally, but was also linked with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements of the day.<br />
For a time unions flourished and fought for the rights of all workers, whether unionized or not.<br />
In 1938, in the midst of the “Great Depression,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law, which introduced a maximum 44-hour seven-day workweek (the United States Adamson Act in 1916 established an eight-hour day, with additional pay for overtime, for railroad workers. This was the first federal law that regulated the hours of workers in private companies. The United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Act in Wilson v. New, 243 U.S. 332 (1917). The Fair Labor Standards Act, as enacted applied to industries whose combined employment represented about twenty percent of the U.S. labor force. In those industries, it set the maximum workweek at 40 hours, but provided that employees working beyond 40 hours a week would receive additional overtime bonus salaries), established a national minimum wage, guaranteed "time-and-a-half" for overtime in certain jobs, and prohibited most employment of minors in "oppressive child labor," all in the face of considerable opposition and criticism from large business interests.<br />
Despite projections to the contrary, the Sun still shined, the world still existed, and the country somehow survived.<br />
This is one reason today’s right wing, and modern conservatives hate FDR and everything he stood for (Rush Limbaugh: "Roosevelt is dead. His policies may live on, but we're in the process of doing something about that as well."), and wish to repeal all of his legislative efforts. (in May of 2013 and 2017, House Republicans passed a bill that would end the 40-hour work week (it would be nice if we could get Congress to actually work 40 hours a week), dismantling an important component of the Federal Labor Standards Act, which made into law would hurt middle-class families across the country. Sponsored by Rep. Martha Roby (AL), in 2013, and Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL) in 2017, the dubiously-titled “Working Families Flexibility Act” (H.R. 1180) would remove the requirement that employers pay a cash premium for overtime work and instead allow them to offer employees compensatory time off. The effect would be a Federal Labor Standards Act that is undermined of its only incentive against excessive hours and a cheaper way for employers to demand mandatory overtime. Eileen Appelbaum, a senior economist with the Center for Economic Policy and Research, says the bill’s major effect would be to hurt workers, “likely increasing overtime hours for those who don’t want them and cutting pay for those who do.” The Bill was passed in the House May 2nd, 2017, and sent to the Senate in April where it was sent to committee. Repealing Child Labor Laws are also on the Republican agenda).<br />
There are many and varied arguments against<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_to_trade_unions"><i> unions</i></a> and <a href="https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2011/03/08/5-reasons-unions-are-bad-for-america-n1180613"><i>unionization</i></a>, many of which are born from economic theory from the likes of the economist Milton Friedman, which the Republican Party has adopted in it’s efforts to stymie the advancement of the labor force and higher wages. Some of these arguments are valid, as in the case of the corruption in unions and their leadership (the case of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hoffa#Disappearance"><i>Jimmy Hoffa</i></a> comes to mind) and the mistaken assumption that higher wages, and by extension, a living minimum wage, are harmful to the overall economy in that they will discourage job formation. <br />
Well there is corruption in unions. There’s corruption everywhere! The United States enjoys a 2015 Corruption Perception Index of 76 (0 being the least corrupt and 100 being the most), with only Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Singapore, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Australia, Iceland, Belgium, and Austria being less corrupt. <br />
The passage of <a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/search?q=The+Day+Democracy+Died"><i>Citizens United</i></a> v. FEC insured that massive amounts of money could and would be injected into the American election process. Who needs Russian hacking when politicians can just be bought and paid for? And if Citizens United were not bad enough, members of Congress spend at least <a href="https://www.termlimits.com/congress-fundraising-priority/"><i>half of their time</i></a> soliciting funds for their next election. It would seem that the interests of congress is not to do the people’s business, but to stay in power. So to the question, is our Congress corrupt, I would have to refer to Joyce’s Take’s own <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2012/02/is-our-congress-corrupt_17.html"><i>exhaustive investigation</i></a>. <br />
Corruption is a problem everywhere, and should be dealt with accordingly any time it is detected... unions don’t need to be singled out. <br />
As to higher wages being responsible for poor employment, that is a right wing myth. As a matter of fact just the <a href="http://www.nelp.org/publication/raise-wages-kill-jobs-no-correlation-minimum-wage-increases-employment-levels/"><i>opposite is true</i></a>.<br />
Some people, like Mike Patton writing for Forbes Magazine, imply that an “increase in annual pay would be approximately $40.8 billion. If we exclude all taxes and assume 100% of the increase was spent on various goods and services, it would equate to 0.23% of total U.S. GDP ($40.8 billion / $18 trillion). Here's my point. This increase, even if completely spent (which is doubtful), would not be very significant. Therefore, in my view, the economic benefit "argument" is a red herring.”<br />
Assuming his numbers are correct <a href="http://equitablegrowth.org/research-analysis/the-importance-of-raising-the-minimum-wage-to-boost-broad-based-u-s-economic-growth/"><i>I take issue</i></a> with his conclusion. A $40.8 billion injection into our economy is a good thing and not to be belittled (and a higher wage for workers has the added, and not insignificant affect of bettering the lives of American workers, reducing poverty and homelessness, etc.).<br />
Unions fight for this, and for doing so directly interfere with the interests of most politicians, which is to shovel all available funds to powerful people and business interests, therefore insuring their own ability to stay in power. <br />
Please, enjoy this almost hypocritical celebration of labor on this day. Grill some hot dogs, hamburgers, and maybe some ears of corn. Take a vacation.<br />
Celebrate the fact that Labor Day Weekend is the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/drugs/labor-day-weekend-top-holiday-marijuana-sales?akid=16035.204705.kRFJpB&rd=1&src=newsletter1081898&t=23"><i>top holiday</i></a> for those who legally sell marijuana!<br />
I’ll let the independent Senator from Vermont, and former presidential candidate <a href="http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/45597-focus-this-labor-day-the-struggle-continues"><i>Bernie Sanders</i></a> have the last word:<br />
<br />
We must rebuild the American labor movement and make it easier, not harder, for workers to join unions. Forty years ago, more than a quarter of all workers belonged to a union. Today, that number has gone down to just 11 percent and in the private sector it is now less than 7 percent as Republican governors across the country have signed anti-union legislation into law, drastically cutting labor membership in this country.<br />
It is not a coincidence that the decline of the American middle class virtually mirrors the rapid decline in union membership. As workers lose their seat at the negotiating table, the share of national income going to middle class workers has gone down, while the percentage of income going to the very wealthy has gone up.<br />
The benefits of joining a union are clear. Union workers earn 27 percent more, on average, than non-union workers. Over 76 percent of union workers have guaranteed defined benefit pension plans, while only 16 percent of non-union workers do. More than 82 percent of workers in unions have paid sick leave, compared to just 62 percent of non-union workers.<br />
In order to revitalize American democracy we must overturn Citizens United, move to public funding of elections and end voter suppression.<br />
We must demand that the wealthy and large corporations begin paying their fair share of taxes.<br />
We must break-up the large Wall Street financial banks and make sure that no institution in America is too big to fail.<br />
We must raise the minimum wage to a living wage, $15 an hour, and end the unconscionable and inequitable pay gap that currently exists between male and female workers.<br />
We must re-write our disastrous trade policies and make sure that trade agreements benefit workers and not just CEOs of large corporations.<br />
We must rebuild our crumbling infrastructure with a $1 trillion dollar investment and create up to 15 million good-paying jobs.<br />
We must pass a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health care system and guarantee health care as a right, not a privilege.<br />
We must make public colleges and universities tuition free for working families so that everyone can get a higher education regardless of income.<br />
Today, on Labor Day, we must recommit ourselves to bringing all working people together in the fight for a just and humane world.</div>
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-75325664971600549752017-07-27T18:44:00.003-07:002018-11-21T18:44:23.789-08:00Renovation 5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Picture Legend<br />
<br />
1. Church of the Gesù, Rome Italy<br />
2. Hardy<br />
3. Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple <br />
4. Beth and her yoga<br />
5. Martian Mouse Trap<br />
6. Mongolian Man Eater<br />
7. African Land Snail in the restroom<br />
8. Michael Deutsch and Michael H. Parsons<br />
9. Pictures<br />
10. ^<br />
11. ^<br />
12. ^<br />
13. ^<br />
14. ^<br />
15. Grand Park, where I was<br />
16. People at Grand Park<br />
17. ^<br />
18. ^<br />
19. My view<br />
20. More Fireworks <br />
21. Mike Alvidrez<br />
22. “The Beguiled”<br />
23. My room<br />
24. Arclight Theater<br />
25. Cinerama Dome<br />
26. Sister Kate Micucci, Sister Alison Brie, and Sister Aubrey Plaza<br />
27. The mist<br />
28. Lovely Emi and her yoga enthusiasts <br />
29. Claudia Christen<br />
30. One of Claudia’s memes<br />
31. My coffee <br />
<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rome, Italy. Church of the Gesù. June 23, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Inside the office of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Father General Arturo Sosa was speaking with the Provincial of the California Province U.S., Fr. Michael F. Weiler. They spoke in furtive and guarded tones. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Well, he does know the background. He’s been on site... how long now?” Sosa asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Five months.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“How much time does he spend actually in the hotel?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“As little as possible. We want to keep his exposure to a minimum,” Weiler replied.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Good,” Sosa continued. “I doubt there's any danger in just having him assist when the time comes. There should be a psychiatrist present, anyway.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“And what about the exorcist? Any ideas?” Weiler asked. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“How about Kirinan McCalister.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“McCalister? I thought he was over in Uzbekistan. I think I read he was working on a dig somewhere in the Kyzylkum.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“That's right Mike. But he's finished and came back around two or three months ago, He's in Los Altos now.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What's he doing there? Teaching?” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No, he's working on another book,” Sosa said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Don't you think he's too old, though? How's his health?” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It must be alright. He's still running around digging up tombs,” Sosa replied. “Besides, he's had experience.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I didn't know that.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Ten maybe twelve years ago, in Africa. The exorcism supposedly lasted for months. I heard it damn near killed him.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Huumm, okay. I’ll get in touch with him.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Weiler stood up and kissed the hand of Sosa.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Goodbye Father Superior.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Goodbye Mike.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Weiler turned to leave.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh Mike...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Weiler turned around.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We want to keep this as quiet as possible. There is little benefit in antagonizing SRHT.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Weiler shivered at the mention of the organization.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes,” he said. “I understand.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Los Angeles. June 23, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I told Tommy about the elevator shaft. He didn’t say it but I knew he thought I was crazy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cliff didn’t remember last night’s incident at all. He thinks I’m crazy too.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Maybe I am.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Am I slowly losing my mind like Jack Torrance in Stephen King’s novel “The Shining?” Would I start mumbling to myself and typing “All work and no play makes Rick a dull boy,” over and over again. Will I stare dazedly off into space for hours at a time, start drinking, and throw tennis balls against the walls. Will I turn against my friends and family at the bequest of that which now inhabits the soul of the Las Americas, and go at them with an ax and crowbar?!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nah.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Southeast 1 Construction Notice</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>To:</b> Las Americas - All 2nd & 3rd Floor Units</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>From:</b> Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Date: </b>June 23rd, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Re:</b> Window Work</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You are being notified that in-unit work has been scheduled for your unit. Los Angeles Building & Safety regulations require safety bars to be installed on each 2nd and 3rd floor window. These bars are designed to protect against accidental fails. They will not impede the windows from opening.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The contractor will need access to your unit on either <b>Monday, 6/26</b> or <b>Tuesday, 6/27</b> for approximately <b>30 minutes</b> from<b> 8am</b> to <b>4pm</b> to install safety bars in your unit. You will not need to vacate your unit when the contractor arrives to do the work, but you will need to allow them to enter.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding the work. We appreciate your cooperation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sincerely,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Screw this! I’m getting my shotgun out and will put a load of saltpeter up the butt of the first contractor who tries to get in here!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Accidental fails.” I assume they meant accident falls. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve spent the last 13 years in my room with no urge whatsoever to take a running header through my window to the forecourt below. There’s no way I could, or anybody else, accidentally fall out of the window.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What they are doing, however, is denying us 2nd and 3rd floorers one possible way to get out of the room in case of an emergency, let’s say a fire or rat attack.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They’re trying to keep us in here. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Why?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 24</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw another young and pretty black lady sleeping on the street nearby. She was lying down at the 18 bus stop on 6th Street between Central and Alameda. She had a little dog, a miniature poodle type thing, tied to her by a leash. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The dog looked at me briefly, then returned to sleep.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That was at 5:30am. I was on my way to the Try and Save supermarket to buy some groceries. I bought as much as I could carry back to my room, about $60 worth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And 10 tacos from the Jack that lives in the Box.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The kitchen was still closed at that point. When I went down to water the thirsty plants at 5:30pm it was open. It’s a big room now, with two ovens, a sink, and nothing else.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The sink has a garbage disposal now. It didn’t used to. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s not plugged in though. I didn’t see where it could be plugged in as there’s no receptacle nearby.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m sure that will be worked out in the distant future.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There’s a big 3 by 4 foot rectangular hole in the wall right above the sink. On the other side of the hole is a one floor drop into the basement below... where the rats live.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For some reason once I saw this hole I felt an urge to jump through it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think it needs some safety bars.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ll ask Tommy to put the common TV in the kitchen so Hardy will have something to do other than sit outside in front monitoring the traffic.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps Tommy will.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 25</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I attended the “Coffee and Dharma,” discussion group at Higashi Honganji this morning, then the weekly service, then a another discussion group as this was the last Sunday of the month, and they have discussion groups after the service on the last Sunday of the month. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The discussion at one point turned to the divisiveness that permeates our political system these days, and some took the position that we might appease the Republicans by acknowledging that their positions are valid, we just disagree vehemently with those policies.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I pointed out that that position sounds reasonable, but that it was hard to deal with people who live to advance their ideology despite facts that counter their core beliefs. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The legislatures in North Carolina, or South, one of the Carolina states, made rising sea levels... <i>illegal</i>. How do you deal with that?” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one had an answer. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I ate two donuts during the course of these groups. I’m fat now.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fatter.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Later I used reverse psychology on my beautiful and esteemed yoga teacher, <a href="http://bethprandiniyoga.com/"><i>Beth</i></a>, by messaging her on Facebook and pleading with her not to read “Renovation 4,” while informing her that I had used two of her pictures in the post. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Bad things happen to people who read it,” I maintained. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then I provided a link to “Renovation 4,” with the adage “Don’t read it!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She’ll read it for sure now, maybe. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The people must be warned.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I received this response from Beth. “Oooooooo!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I wondered what that meant in Beth Speak.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 26</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They boarded up the 3 by 4 foot rectangular hole in the kitchen. My urge to jump through it accordingly dissipated.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Southeast 1 Construction Notice</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>To:</b> All Residents at the Las Americas</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>From:</b> Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Date: </b>June 26rd, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Re:</b> Kitchen Offline</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This notice is to inform you that the kitchen will be closed from <b>8am</b> to <b>4pm</b> tomorrow (<b>Tuesday, 6/27</b>) while the countertops are installed. You will receive $64 cash per diem for the day.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
$64. They’re trying to buy my soul.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 27</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I waited patiently for the construction people to come and put the “safety bars” in my window.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They never came. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And now the danger of falling out of my window continues. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I feel unsafe.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I received the following notice on my door today. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>NOTICE TO ENTER DWELLING UNIT<br />(CCP 1954)</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1954, Owner does hereby give notice to access the dwelling located at: My address</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The owner, owner’s agent or owner’s employees will enter said premises on June 28, 2017 during normal business hours between 10:30AM - 11:30AM for the reason set forth in the checked numbered item(s) below:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pest Control Services</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So they want to control my pests do they!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I hope they bring a whole lot of rat traps for the rats that live in the walls.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They probably won’t though. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They only concern themselves with cockroaches. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We shall see.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t have cockroaches in my room. They’re downstairs though, on the first floor, the kitchen, and in the basement.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And they’re getting bigger.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 28</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The exterminator came this morning at 10:30am. His entire extermination protocol consisted of placing a Catchmaster Insect Trap and Monitor, a little 3 by 2 inch cardboard thing, on the floor under my sink. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After he left two two inch cockroaches came in through the wall, looked at it, and began laughing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then they left.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I watered the garden this afternoon I noticed an influx of Martian Mouse Trap plants (Nepenthes spathulata) growing by the east chain link fence that separates the hotel’s property line from that of our neighbors. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There were little mouse bones scattered near them. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I thought about pulling them up but decided to confer with the garden ladies before doing so as I was not fully aware of the ramifications of killing them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was quietly thankful that no Mongolian Man Eaters had infiltrated the garden as of yet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 29</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I found an African Land Snail in the restroom today and took a picture of it before taking it outside of the building and letting it lose.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t like killing things as my Buddhist teachings tell me to “have an unswerving kindness toward members of the animal kingdom.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I assume the cockroach bait has no affect on snails. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I didn’t think much about it, except I was kind of freaked out by it’s size.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I found a centipede, a real centipede, not one of those human things, in my kitchen once. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Somebody is building something in the empty lot right next to our building. That lot has been empty for the 13 years plus that I’ve lived here and now somebody is building something on it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t know what yet. Who ever is building it has dug long trenches on the dirt ground, and several vertical structures have now popped up in several places. Square structures that stand about three feet from the ground surrounded by vertical pipes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It doesn’t look like a refurbished parking lot to me. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t know what it is.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw this story on the Internet machine today. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"City rats are among the most important but least-studied wildlife in urban environments," the team of U.S. and Australian researchers and pest control experts wrote in the Journal of Urban Ecology.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-rats-scientists-will-pay-study-your-infestation/"><i>Michael H. Parsons</i></a>, lead author of the paper and a visiting research scholar at Fordham University, is offering a "reward" of up to $1,000 for access to an appropriate rat-infested location in Manhattan.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In return, the homeowner will get free, confidential extermination services — once the researchers are done studying the rats.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We have rats here. I think I’ll contact Dr. Parsons and give him and his team free reign on our rats.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps he can deal with snails as well.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 1</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On my way to the Hippie Kitchen and Rite-Aid this morning I saw the same young black girl with her little dog sitting with her stroller in the sidewalk at the westbound 18 bus stop. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are literally hundreds of folks who live on the streets a few blocks west of where she was sitting. Many have makeshift tents that line the sidewalks, some just sit on the streets, some are sleeping, laying out. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps this pretty, young girl is trying to distance herself from them, but she’s picking a very odd and public spot to do it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Or perhaps that’s her plan, to be in a public space where there is less chance of others bothering or attempting to abuse her... and her dog.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I feel sorry for her. I wish there was something I could do.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There was a sale at Rite-Aid on Thrifty Ice Cream. Buy one 1.5 quart container and get one free. I bought some last Thursday after yoga with Beth, and I bought some more today. I now have six quarts of ice cream in my freezer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m fat now.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Fatter.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Later in the afternoon I took another look at some of the photographs taken by Gudrun G & Fatemeh B (9 thru 14 above), and couldn’t help but notice some of them seem to have changed in slight, almost imperceptible ways. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is not only strange but decidedly odd as well.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What do you think?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one had access to these pictures but me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Who would do such a thing? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Who?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Or what?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We received a notice today that the laundry room is now open. It only took them a year and a half to renovate it, a year and a half of dirty, stinking clothes and residents.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ha, ha, just kidding. I don’t think I’ll ever use it. I like the free coffee at the laundromat too much.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That and the Spanish television.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t speak Spanish, but they always seem to having such a good time on Spanish TV. They sing and dance all of the time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The building’s power went off during the afternoon and evening twice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t know why.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 2</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. The Las Americas, SE1, not sane, stood by itself against its urban sprawl, holding darkness within; it had stood so for one hundred years and might stand for one hundred more. Within, walls continued somewhat upright, bricks met at times, floors were infirm, and doors sensibly shut themselves; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of the Las Americas, and whatever walked there, walked alone.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 3</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All residents received a mysterious notice on their doors the other day. It informed us that the building’s power would be off from 8am to 5pm on Thursday the 6th and Saturday the 8th. Apparently the renovators were going to do some electrical work.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There goes my ice cream.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I wrote the following E-mail to case manager Henry today.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To: Henry N. Jul 3 at 7:49 PM</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Henry,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you're still alive (we haven't seen you for awhile and miss you very much) we could really use some blank tracking sheets over here at the Las Americas. Usually LaShunda would handle something as complicated as this but she seems to be on vacation. If you could bring some over that would be just swell, as many on the Shelter-Plus -Care are starting to go crazy because they don't have any tracking sheets being afraid they'll get kicked out of the program for non-compliance.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
R</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I received this reply:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Your message to henry@_ _ _ _ _ _ _.org couldn't be delivered.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
henry wasn't found at _ _ _ _ _ _ _.org.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Original Message Details</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Created Date: 7/3/2017 7:49 PM</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sender Address: rickjoyce@_ _ _ _ _.com</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Recipient Address: henry@_ _ _ _ _ _ _.org</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Subject: Tracking Sheets</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Error Details</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Reported error: 550 5.1.10 RESOLVER.ADR.RecipientNotFound; Recipient not found by SMTP address lookup</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
WTF?!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 4 Independence Day</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I spent the day watching Marilyn Monroe documentaries and a NOVA special about why sharks attack.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Because they’re hungry?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 7pm I left the Las Americas and made my way to Grand Park downtown. A fireworks display was to occur precisely at 9 and this was the only way I had available for me to celebrate the day.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Myself and about thirty five thousand other celebrators (according to KTLA News).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To enter the park I first had to pass through a checkpoint wherein I had to empty my pockets and submit to an electronic wand scan. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I knew how these kind of things operate and prepared accordingly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I hid my M4a1 carbine, Mk 46 machine gun, M9 Beretta, MK 12 Mod 1 SPR sniper rifle, M136 AT4 rocket launcher, M224 60mm mortar, Ontario MK 3 Navy knife, karambit, Strider SMF, Ka-Bar, body armor, cigarette lighter, and twelve 40mm grenades about my person in such a way as the security guy conducting the wand scan would just register my pants zipper, my belt buckle and my jacket zippers as the only metallic entities upon me. I even had to put two of those grenades up my butt to get them all through, but that’s the price one pays when taking preparatory precautions before advancing into a large crowd of unknown individuals.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s good to be ready in case of emergencies (I was forced to leave my old M9A1 flamethrower at home as it was just too bulky).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I approached the entrance I was told to take everything out of my pockets. I dutifully got my keys, wallet, cell phone, and a half empty pack of cigarettes I happened to have (I was smoking at the time).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I got near the check point a small black security lady looked at the things I was holding.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You can’t bring those cigarettes in here,” she said. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You can’t bring those cigarettes in here, or a lighter if you have one.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You’re kidding?!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Nope.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I suppose I can’t bring in my blunts and eight balls either!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Nothing.” I turned around and walked away in disgust.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then I walked over across the street to another entrance line, kept my damn cigarettes in my pocket, and entered the park.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After decorously pulling the grenades out of my ass I headed to the gourmet food trucks to get something to eat, it being the 4th of July and all. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There were long lines at every truck. I checked out some of the menus. There were Japanese, Argentinian, Hispanic, Turkish, Indian, Burger, trucks, and many more. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But I noticed the prices were just outrageous. $16 for a freaking hamburger. All of the trucks were just as expensive. Even ice cream was like $8 for whatever it was they were selling.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If I was with a girl, or woman actually, then I guess I’d be forced to buy this crap and feed her, not wanting to appear cheap and all. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And I imagine many of the men there were caught in that particular trap. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But not me. I decided I wasn’t that hungry and moved on.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked through the crowd as inconspicuously as possible, trying to figure out where the fireworks would be discharged from and situating myself in the best possible spot to see them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And that seemed to be the northern end of the park, near the water fountains (picture 15. I was situated on the stairs to the right).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I waited there for about an hour, watching the people wade through the waters of the lower fountain, sit on structures then told to get down by security people, eat, listen to the deafening music coming from a DJ to the south. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw people everywhere and doing all kinds of things.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But not smoking.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Promptly at 9pm the fireworks began. It seemed like they were being deployed from the roof of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (34° 3′ 23″ N, 118° 14′ 55″ W) on N Grand Ave (pictures 19 & 20).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The show lasted for 15 minutes, at which point I spent 30 minutes getting out of the park, which dumped me near Hill St and 1st. I continued downtown to Broadway and 5th, to Rite-Aid where I bought some milk and ice cream (my refrigerator should keep it cool if I don’t open the freezer door during Thursday’s power outage), I then bought a carnitas quesadilla from a Mexican food place run by Asian people on Spring and 6th. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went home and ate half of my food while watching Robert Wise’s 1971 “The Andromeda Strain.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 5</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To Richard Joyce Today at 11:52 AM</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Ricky</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After 27 years at Skid Row Housing Trust, including 13 years as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, I have decided to step down as CEO next year to allow new leadership to advance the Trust's mission.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I have made this decision with a sense of fulfillment that many of my professional efforts have been realized. The public perception of supportive housing has forever changed thanks to our partnerships with renowned architects to design beautiful residential and community spaces that foster reconnection, healing, and dignity. Housing First, a model that Skid Row Housing Trust began piloting in the early 2000s, is now a nationally-recognized best practice for serving homeless individuals that many once thought to be "unreachable." And the Trust's affiliate Property Management Company is a model of blended management that puts a premium on keeping our formerly-homeless tenants successfully housed long term.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Additionally, there is increasing public awareness of the value that permanent supportive housing brings to our communities. Skid Row Housing Trust advocated strongly for the passage of both Prop HHH and Measure H, which will provide significant local support for both capital development of supportive housing as well as the intensive wraparound services needed to help stabilize the lives of formerly-homeless people in permanent supportive housing. Nevertheless, the disheartening increase in our region's homeless population is a call to action to redouble our collective efforts to end homelessness, and today the Trust is well situated to answer the call.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is time for me, the executive team, and the Board of Directors of Skid Row Housing Trust to plan a successful transition of the Chief Executive Offer role. I have communicated to our Board that I will stay on as CEO for at least another year so that a succession plan can be finalized and a thorough, intensive search for the most qualified person to assume the role of CEO can be accomplished. It is the Board's and my joint decision to continue to stay on at the Trust as an ambassador after the successful succession.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It has been the honor of my professional life to lead such a wonderful organization that is unafraid to take on one of the most challenging issues of our time - ending homelessness. Skid Row Housing Trust has become known for its innovation in housing production and services delivery, its thought leadership, and its commitment to finding decent and humane solutions to homelessness. Without reservation, I am supremely confident that the Trust will maintain its leadership role in the coming years.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Trust will send out public notifications when it is ready to accept applications for the CEO position. In the meantime, I am looking forward to an exciting final year as CEO and in making a successful hand-off to my successor.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My deepest gratitude to everyone who has supported my efforts and those of Skid Row Housing Trust. Thank you helping us touch the lives of tens of thousands of homeless and low-income men and women with your generous confidence and support.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Very Truly Yours,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mike Alvidrez</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chief Executive Officer</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In order to prepare us for the big power shut off tomorrow the building’s power turned off then on three times today, which meant of course I had to reboot my TV and computer three times. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I get the feeling the building is laughing at me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 6</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was up early and finished my morning routine (check E-mail, read from “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Don Quixote,” Finnegans Wake,” “Love in the Time of Cholera,” “Sold,” “Young Man Shinron,” “Human Trafficking, Human Misery,” Naomi Klein’s “No is Not Enough,” And “How to Clear Your Home of Ghosts & Spirits: Tips & Techniques from a Professional Ghost Hunter,” two hours of vigorous yoga/calisthenics, 400 meditation breaths, and a six mile run.. and shower) by 7am. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had noticed the young black girl and her little dog sleeping at the bus stop again and thought I’d do something for her.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went to the McDonald’s on Central and 7th and bought her a deluxe breakfast consisting of 3 pancakes, hash browns, eggs, a sausage patty, 2 strips of bacon, and an English muffin. I bought her dog 2 breakfast burittos (not normally known as dog food, but they don’t sell dog food at McDonald’s... or do they?). I bought myself 2 breakfast burittos and hash browns, and I bought her and myself coffee.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned to the bus stop and woke her up.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Miss...” I said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She looked up at me, looked at the bag I was holding out to her, smiled, and of all the possible things she could have said to me (“Thank you ,” “Oh that’s so nice of you,” “Take me!”) I did not expect “I don’t eat McDonald’s.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned home and ate her breakfast.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She was right of course. No one should eat McDonald’s. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They didn’t even give me any syrup for the pancakes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I turned my computer and T.V. off at 7:45, allowing them to shutdown properly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power was supposed to be shut off precisely at 8, so they shut it down at 7:56.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I laid down for awhile, then near 9am went to the building’s entrance and waited for the garden ladies. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chris (the lady on the right in picture 10) and Fatemeh (the lady on the left in picture 13) showed up. Hardy was there. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The lovely and vivacious Fatemeh brought cookies. I returned to McDonald’s and bought coffee.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We didn’t get much gardening done but we had a good time. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After they left at 10 I walked to the post office on 7th and inquired about my toaster that had been delivered to the Las Americas at 7:16 the previous evening when naturally no one was there to receive it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The postal guy said I would have to go to the annex on N Alameda near Union Station to get it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I briefly stopped at the Hippie Kitchen before going to yoga with Beth at the Abby Hotel on San Pedro and 6th. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After yoga I walked to a check cashing place on Broadway and 6th to buy a roll of quarters to be used for bus rides and laundry. I put them in my backpack.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then I walked to the Regent Theaters LA Live 14 on Olympic Blvd near the 101 freeway. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had wanted to see “Baby Driver,” with Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Jon Bernthal, Eiza González, Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx, but the Internet machine had lied to me telling me that it would start at 2:15pm. I arrived at the theater at 1:39 and discovered that “Baby Driver” didn’t start until 3:15. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw Sofia Coppola’s version of “The Beguiled,” instead as it began at 2pm.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was the first time I’ve been to a movie theater in about six years. It cost me about $30 to get in and for popcorn and coke (the popular drink, not the white powdery substance).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t think I’ll be coming back anytime soon.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power was back on when I returned to the Las Americas at 5. I watered the plants and went to my room. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I chased two rats out of there before noticing a notice on my door from the SE1 Renovation Staff. They were going to postpone Saturday’s power shut down until Monday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I watched “The Exorcist,” before going to bed and dreamt of being molested by Sac spiders. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 7 2:33pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
John Miller, the tall SRHT representative, gave all of the residents of the Las Americas 20 inch Lasko floor fans today, which was really nice of him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I suppose the Trust feels guilty that the in-room air conditioners are not yet on line, and that Los Angeles is currently experiencing ambient temperatures in the 90s.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They don’t want any heat related deaths to occur now do they. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It wouldn’t be good publicity.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 10 Monday 8:03am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power throughout the building went off. The sound of my three fans which I usually find so comforting, dissipated and then died out all together. Even the large grandfather clock in the northeast corner stopped functioning, which was odd as it doesn’t run on electricity.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I briefly panicked, feeling alone and without resources.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The encroaching heat drove me out of my room, and I took my office chair out to the little hallway next to the fire escape door where there was a slight breeze and read from Naomi Klein’s wonderful book (all of her books are wonderful, thought provoking, and terrifying) “No is Not Enough,” until 10am when I left the Las Americas.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I mailed a letter to the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) as I hope to volunteer there as a Hotline Advocate.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There’s a pretty good chance that I won’t be accepted due to my colorful past, but all they can do to me is say no.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I next walked to the library where it was nice and cool. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 1pm I left and took the mighty Red Line subway to Hollywood’s Hollywood and Vine station, from which I walked south to Sunset Blvd. and the famous Arclight theater, which is adjacent to the famous Cinerama Dome where my dad and I watched “Thunderball” together a long time ago. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was there to see “The Little Hours,” staring three of my favorite actresses, Alison Bree, Kate Micucci, and Aubrey Plaza. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The film also features performances by Dave Franco, John C. Reilly, Nick Offerman (who in the film walls up his wife along with a dog and a boar. One would think being walled up was enough) Fred Armisen, and Molly Shannon. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The story concerns a young servant (Franco, the youngest of the infamous Franco brothers) who flees from his master (Offerman) and takes refuge at a convent full of 14th-century horny nuns.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This film is not your typical nun story, and not for the faint of heart.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The following is part of a review by Rev. Alexander Santora:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Medieval nuns Alessandra (<a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/12/happy-birthday-alison-brie.html"><i>Alison Brie</i></a>), Fernanda (Aubrey Plaza) and Genevra (<a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2014/03/happy-birthday-kate-micucci.html"><i>Kate Micucci</i></a>) are the leads in this story inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio. In the opening scene when they encounter the gardener looking at them, they berate him in expletives that would make potty-mouthed comedians Wanda Sykes or Amy Schumer blush. It was so shocking that the audience of some 50 mostly young adults burst into laughter. These nuns speak in 21st-century shock language with accents that are more Manhattan than Bologna.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The sisters have been known to physically attack people,” warns Father Tommasso (Reilly).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I enjoyed the movie very much. I wish I could watch it again right now.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I also enjoyed my popcorn and soda. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The film was only 90 minutes long and I was out of the cool (bordering on cold) theater by 2:30. The electrical guys had until 5pm to finish up, but last Thursday the ended early, so I headed back home after buying two gallons of milk from Rite-Aid. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power was still off at 3:30 when I returned.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I continued to read Naomi’s book, becoming terrified.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power resumed at 4:33. I powered up my computer and television, both having been shut down properly that morning. Everything was running nicely when the power abruptly shut off. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It stayed off until 5:27. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is just another example of the renovators attempts to drive us residents stark raving mad.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My grandfather clock began working at midnight.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 11 6:12am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A thick white mist began to manifest itself over the construction sight next to the west wall of the Las Americas. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went outside and looked at it. The site had a chain link fence surrounding it and the fog, or mist confined itself just outside of it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned to my room. The mist would remain next door throughout the day when the sun’s heat should have dissolved it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The media came and took pictures then left.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I felt uncomfortable near the mist. Somehow it felt sinister to me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 19 5:32pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We were given another notice that someone would come fix the fire alarms in our rooms sometime between 8am and 4pm on either Friday the 21st or Monday the 24th.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Instead of a nice, blinking fire alarm on my ceiling, I’ve had a plastic rim with electrical wires hanging from it. It’s been like that for about a year now.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It will be comforting to be protected again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 24 5:00pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The fire alarm people never showed up.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s almost as someone, or something, wants all of us to die in a blazing inferno.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t feel comforted.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 25 9:23am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I received a notice on my door this morning dated July 24th.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You are being notified that there will be a temporary electrical shutdown this <b>Wednesday, 7/26</b> for approximately <b>2-3 hours</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The electrical shutdown is part of a city required inspection of the building. The power should be shut off for no more than 3 hours.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sincerely,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
-Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What possible inconvenience could a 3 hour power outage cause?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That aside, this notice was totally unacceptable. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I immediately E-mailed my lovely case manager LaShunda the following message:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hi LaShunda! It was nice seeing you yesterday.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A construction notice was placed on my door this morning alerting me to the fact that there will be an electrical shutdown tomorrow for approximately 2 - 3 hours but it does not say when this will begin. Residents like myself need to know that so we can shut down our computers and other delicate electronic devices. Saying there will be a shut down at some point during the day is not sufficient information. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don't have John's e-mail and I'm waiting for a new phone, so if you could please contact him about this matter and get back to me I would really appreciate it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
R</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She made a timely reply:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I truly apologize, you can maybe reach him in the office 213-683-0522 ext. 150</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To which I also replied:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That's the thing LaShunda. I don't have a phone right now. Mine was stolen, and I'm waiting for a new one which should be here in a week.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To which she replied:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Okay. Regarding this matter go downstairs and speak with Tommy the Property Manager he should have more information regarding the shut down..</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To which I replied:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What matter?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No, what I really wrote was:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy always says he knows nothing about nothing concerning construction. Never mind. I'll borrow someone's phone. Sorry I bothered you.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She replied:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No worries, sorry you could not get the information you were looking for…</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy somehow got in the mix and he replied, rather formerly I believe:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The electrical shutdown will start between 8:00am and 10:30am it should not last no longer than 2:oopm.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The difficult syntax aside, Tommy’s pissed off at me since I busted him and the case managers pilfering 3 of our pizzas yesterday at one of our resident meetings rather than offering second helpings. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was just trying to help him. I’ve seen men go to state prison for less.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He’s also upset that SRHT made him move back into the Las Americas. He had been living the good life over at the New Genesis on 5th and Los Angeles for the last year.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anyway, the information he provided wasn’t very helpful, was it? I still don’t know when I should shut down my delicate electronic equipment. My computer, my TV, the surveillance hookups I use to monitor Tommy’s, Lashunda’s, the SRHT and mayor’s offices. You can’t play around with this stuff or it goes bust real fast.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sometime between 8am and 10:30. Well, it’s a good thing I have yoga tomorrow with my lovely Italian friend <a href="http://yogamadre.com/team/emi-fontana/"><i>Emi</i></a> at 11 (I know what you’re thinking... I’m cheating on Beth, right? Well, you’re absolutely right. Men are pigs. They’d do yoga with mud if they could). At least I’ll have something to do during this horrible time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But what could cause my usually helpful case manager to be afraid to simply make a phone call to John?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What terrifies this normally stout young woman?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 26 Wednesday 10:21am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power shut off abruptly at 10:21. Fortunately my computer was shut off at the time, so as far as that was concerned there were no problems.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I used the time wisely to walk over to Joshua House (Christian Health Center) on Winston St, right behind the L.A. Mission, to make a dentist appointment (Lovely Emi contacted me earlier and told me she had lost her voice this morning and would not be holding her class, allowing me to remain faithful to Beth... for the time being).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I then walked to the VA Clinic on Temple to make a regular doctor’s appointment. From which I walked to the Central Library on Bunker Hill, as I needed to turn in some books which were due to be turned in. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I bought some milk at Right-Aid on Broadway and 5th, then walked back to the Las Americas.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s a good thing it was only 84 degrees outside today. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The power was back on when I arrived at about 1:30. That was good.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apparently it had been off for less than an hour, according to my neighbor, so I hadn’t really needed to walk around all that much, but I got some good stuff done, burned a few calories, and had some nice milk to drink. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I noticed on my Google Calendar that the actress Claudia Christen’s birthday was coming up, August 10th to be precise, so I decided to start working on a birthday tribute to the lovely lady. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve enjoyed her work throughout her career (“The Hidden,” “Babylon 5,” ”T.J. Hooker”), but more than that, she’s a wonderful and funny person. I follow her on Facebook, and anybody who follows Claudia will periodically receive memes that more often than not will make those people laugh, like picture #30 above. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She’s the only person I know who does this, so I was very happy to begin this project.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While I work on this I have a picture of Claudia on my wall. She stares at me all of the time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She’s dong it right now!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 6:30 I walked over to Higashi Honganji for the by-weekly study group, wherein<i> <a href="http://hhbt-la.org/?page_id=302">Rev</a></i><a href="http://hhbt-la.org/?page_id=302"> <i>Peter Hata</i></a> (a master <a href="http://speakingjazz.com/index.html"><i>jazz musician</i></a>) teaches us students about Pure Land Buddhism, or Shin Buddhism to be exact.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Everyone was getting ready for the big <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Festival"><i>Obon</i></a> Festival this weekend, so we were kicked, unceremoniously I might add, out of our usual meeting place, the conference room, and into the actual Hondō, or main hall, where the Sunday services are held.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There instead of studying this time, we practiced chanting. We chanted and chanted.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Shin Buddhist’s like to chant a lot.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
July 27 Thursday 4:38am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had begun my morning routine and at about 4:38 I made my first cup of coffee of the day. I looked down at it when it was ready, then took a picture of it. Picture number 31.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That wasn’t good, I told myself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Garden Ladies didn’t show. Me and Hardy were waiting outside the hotel’s front entrance at 9:00 for them to arrive, but they never did.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 3:00pm we got tired of waiting and went back inside.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s as if the universe... or something, had plucked them out of existence.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 7:23pm Hardy knocked on my door to tell me I had some visitors downstairs.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Visitors?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Who are they?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Hell, I don’t know, man. Go downstairs and find out!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had never had visitors before. Who could they be?</div>
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On the first floor I found several dark men wearing fedoras, black overcoats, and gloves. It looked like they had stacked several boxes of, of, I don’t know, some kind of tools or equipment in the lobby. </div>
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“Can I help you?” I asked.</div>
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One of the men, tall, with black eyes, mustache and goatee, came up to me.</div>
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“Mr Joyce?” he asked.</div>
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“Yes.”</div>
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He held out his hand. “I’m Mike Parsons. I hear you have some rats.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2018/06/renovation-6.html"><i>Renovation 6</i></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br />
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-71157811913634298052017-07-25T01:29:00.002-07:002017-07-25T01:29:24.676-07:00In Rememberance of Riley Ann Sawyer and Lilly Belle Burk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents…. They
are accidents and no one’s fault, as used to be thought. Once they were
considered the visible punishments for concealed sins. And just as there
are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters
born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a
malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process
produce a malformed soul? -John Steinbeck, “East of Eden”</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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On their anniversary, for as long as Joyce’s Take is active and being
published, as much as it is possible, I will post the stories below of
Riley Ann Sawyers and Lilly Belle Burk, who were brutally murdered two
years apart, on July 25th, 2007, and July 24th, 2009 respectively. </div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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Riley Ann</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sunday, September 20, 2009</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's terrifying to write this. So I won't. The following are actual excerpts from various news reports:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On Oct. 29, 2007, fisherman Robert Spinn of Bayou Vista found a
storage container on an uninhabited island about a mile offshore in
Galveston Bay, Texas. It contained cement and a blonde toddler wrapped
in three plastic bags. "I ripped the bags (in the container) open with
some fishing pliers. I saw a shoe. I knew it was a person." Sheriff’s
investigators named the girl “Baby Grace” and embarked on 26-day media
blitz to confirm her identity.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nellie Zeigler heard about “Baby Grace” on a talk radio program and found an artist’s sketch of her on the Internet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The toddler's identity was a mystery for weeks until Sheryl Sawyers
of Ohio, saw an artist's sketch of the girl and told authorities in
Texas she thought it was her granddaughter. The call from Sheryl Sawyers
led authorities to Royce Clyde Zeigler II (24) and Kimberly Dawn Trenor
(19), who had invented a story that their daughter, Riley Ann Sawyers
had been taken away by child welfare officials in Ohio.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Riley was born and lived in Ohio until her mother Kimberly separated
from Robert Sawyers, and took Riley to Texas last summer. Kimberly met
Royce Zeigler playing the online game World of Warcraft, and had an
online relationship with him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kimberly's defense attorney portrayed Trenor as a scared 19-year-old
girl who had moved to Texas from Ohio to marry a man she met while
playing an online game, and after two brief encounters. She said Riley's
father, her former boyfriend, had assaulted her and Zeigler was her
"knight in shining armor, her Texas cowboy."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They married June 1st, 2007, and settled in Spring, Texas.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Although Zeigler's mother Nellie, and her husband didn’t approve of
“ready-made marriages,” she said the family opened their home to Trenor
and Riley and quickly came to love and adore the vibrant, charismatic
and intelligent toddler who brightened their lives.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nellie Zeigler recalled going to the couple’s home in June to deliver
milk and snacks, saying she knocked on the door, but it took Trenor a
while to answer. "Kim had a belt wrapped around her shoulder," Nellie
Zeigler testified.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The following week, Nellie Zeigler picked up Riley on Saturday morning, eventually changed</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
her diaper and was disgusted with what she saw.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Her little butt was bruised, greenish, yellowish, purplish, and I got mad,” Mrs. Zeigler said. “I</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
let her watch cartoons, anxious for Kim and Royce to come over."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nellie Zeigler told the couple she disapproved of the belt
discipline, saying both dropped their heads."Mom. This is never going to
happen again," Nellie said of how her son replied. "After that, I never
saw bruises on her again."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The weekends of mall shopping and bonding ended abruptly with Riley’s
death July 25, 2007, and Nellie Zeigler would spend the next four
months agonizing over the whereabouts of the “sunshine of our lives.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nellie Zeigler eventually learned Ohio officials didn’t have Riley,
and she and her husband confronted Trenor, asking her why she wouldn’t
tell authorities her girl was kidnapped.“My husband said, ‘Kim. You’re
lying,’ and the third time he asked, she jumped up and starts to cuss us
out,” Nellie Zeigler testified. “She shot the finger at us and said
‘F---you! F---you! F---you!’”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The confrontation continued upstairs, Nellie said. "What kind of
mother are you?’” Nellie Zeigler said. “‘You show no emotion. You never
talk about her. You never seem to care where</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
she's at.' I'm crying and she's smiling at me."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The two had more heated words, when Trenor said, “You’re going to pay
for this,” Nellie Zeigler testified. The couple left, she said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Royce Zeigler worked for a company contracted to create schedules for
petrochemical companies, earning $54,000 annually. The fatal beating
happened after Zeigler stayed home from work to make sure his wife was
following his discipline plan, the defense said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
According to Trenor's attorney, Tommy Stickler Jr., Zeigler wanted
Trenor to spank Riley with a belt when she failed to say things like
"please" and "yes sir" or "no sir." Zeigler didn't believe Trenor was
doing it, however, because the 2-year-old's behavior wasn't changing. A
list was found by authorities after the arrest of the couple for the
murder of Riley, the list, called "Rules for Riley," included such
things as "being polite," "behaves in public," "toys stay in her room"
and "listen to mom & me." There was space for a 10th item on the
list but it was left blank.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
During her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Kayla Allen
detailed for jurors the day that she said Riley Ann died for forgetting
to say "please" and "yes, sir. "Allen said that on July 25th, 2007,
Trenor and Zeigler disciplined Riley by whipping her with a belt,
pushing her head against a pillow and holding her head under water. She
said Zeigler grabbed Riley and tossed her across the room, fracturing
her skull. An autopsy concluded the skull fractures caused her death.
Riley died of three skull fractures she received when Zeigler, threw the
child across the room, authorities said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Riley Ann Sawyers tried to stop her mother and stepfather from
beating her to death by reaching out to her mother and saying, "I love
you," assistant district attorney Kayla Allen told jurors earlier in the
day during her opening statement. The toddler's pleas didn't stop her
mother from brutalizing her, the prosecutor said. "To the very end,
Riley said, 'I love you' to her mom. She's reaching out," Allen said.
"That's her lifeline, to her mother. What does Kim do after hearing her
say I love you? She starts beating her."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"I said we have to get her to a hospital. (Zeigler) said, 'No we
can't. We'll go to jail,' " Trenor said in the videotape, crying. "There
came a point where she stopped breathing. He started doing CPR on the
floor. He took her ... and handed her over to me. I could just feel her
going cold."</div>
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At the defense table, Trenor's eyes teared up as she watched the videotape on a large screen.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Several jurors wiped away tears.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Galveston County Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Pustilnik Testified
that any one of three skull fractures he found during his autopsy could
have killed Riley. He said that it would have been apparent within
seconds of one of the fractures that Riley was in need of medical help.
Symptoms included a change in body temperature, headache and the
inability to stand up, he said, all symptoms described by Trenor in her
statement to investigators. She said that Zeigler accused Riley of
faking when she was unable to stand.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After Riley was killed, beaten so badly that Trenor said Zeigler
complained of it making his shoulder sore, the couple bought a plastic
container, partially filled it with cement, stuffed her beaten body
inside and stored it in a shed for two months. They tried to bury it in a
wooded area north of their home, but when that failed, they dumped it
in Galveston Bay in September.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The seven-woman, five man jury took less than two hours to convict
Kimberly Trenor of capital murder in the slaying of her 2-year-old
daughter. Trenor will receive an automatic life sentence without parole
because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty due to technical
reasons peculiar to Texas law. Jury foreman Randal Rothschild said it
didn't take the panel long to reach a verdict because we had all the
evidence. Apparently the jury felt it was pretty cut and dried. As his
eyes teared up, Rothschild added, "It was a very emotional trial."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Zeigler will be tried for capital murder in a separate trial. No date has been set yet.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The island where the toddler's body was found was officially renamed
"Riley's Island." A wooden cross bearing a plaque with her name was
placed there as a memorial, but Hurricane Ike washed it away on Sept.
13.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A Mr. Miller, who made that cross, said he is making a new one and
hopes that he and Riley's family can place it on the island later.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
"It's sad the cross is gone. But as much damage as the hurricane did,
I was afraid the whole island would be wiped away," he said. "God did
not want that to happen. The cross will be put there again in her
honor."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In Mentor, Ohio, pink balloons were released into the wintry sky
after the funeral for Riley. Some of the balloons had cards attached
with her picture and an address where the finder could return it to her
family in northeast Ohio. The balloon release coincided with similar
releases around the world in memory of the toddler, who had been
nicknamed Baby Grace.</div>
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"People all over the world adored this child. She was loved and
cherished by everyone," Riley's great-uncle, Mike Nebelski, said in a
eulogy.</div>
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"Let's not forget Riley. Let's not forget all the other kids out there who are missing," he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After the service and balloon release, the funeral procession left
for Mentor Cemetery for burial of the 36-inch coffin. Inside was an urn
with the girl's ashes and various other items, including a dress and a
stuffed animal toy.</div>
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Riley Ann Sawyers was with us for 866 days. Her online memorial can be found here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On November 6, 2009, Royce Zeigler was convicted of capital murder
and received an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without the
possibility of parole</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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Lily Belle Burk</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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Soon the donut and noodle people came. The line had grown to over a
block long. I got mine, seven donuts, and I took the soup too, then was
on my way home.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unbeknownst to me, and unknown to me until Monday morning, approximately
and hour and forty five minutes before I secured my 7 donuts, the body
of Lily Belle Burk, age 17, was found near the intersection of Fifth St.
and Alameda, about a block from my box. She was discovered by an
employee of a nearby business, presumably the same gas station where
Paul and I had inflated his dolly's tires a few days previously (see,
Puzzles & Bricks). She was found in her own black Volvo, in the
passenger seat, apparently having been bludgeoned to death and her neck
slashed. There were signs of a struggle.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She had left her home in Los Feliz the day before at about 2:30 to
pick up some papers for her mother from the Southwestern University
School of Law, where her mother worked as an adjunct professor. About an
hour later she made calls to both of her parents asking them how she
might get cash from an ATM machine using her credit card, something her
card was not set up to do. Her parents state that she did not sound
distressed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She did not return Friday night and her parents contacted police and filed a missing persons report.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The next morning her body was discovered. Police estimate she had been dead from 5:00PM the day before.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That Friday at 5:30PM, Charlie Samuel, aged 50, was arrested on
suspicion of possessing drugs and drug paraphernalia on 3rd Street. His
fingerprints were discovered in Lily's Volvo and is now being held on
suspicion of murder without bail. Sources said Samuel had a previous
history of assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, and kidnaping, and if
he did indeed kill that lovely young girl I am ashamed that I am against
the death penalty.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From the LA Times: "The thing we want people to know about Lily is
that she was a beautiful person and that she was looking forward to her
life. She was funny, warm, kind and empathetic. She was deeply and
widely loved," read the statement from her parents, Deborah Drooz and
Gregory Burk, a Times freelancer who writes about pop music.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Burk was supposed to begin her senior year at Oakwood School in North Hollywood in the fall.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She was set to star in her high school's production of a David Mamet
play and planned to volunteer helping the homeless this summer."</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Erin, I hope your heaven is real, and Lily now resides there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My sincere condolences go to her parents, family, and friends.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May she rest in peace.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Update from NBC Los Angeles, May 28th 2010:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Charlie Samuel was sentenced to life in prison without the
possibility of parole for the July 24, 2009, slaying of Lily Belle Burk.
During the sentencing hearing, he apologized to the girl's family.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He pleaded guilty first-degree murder, kidnapping to commit robbery,
second-degree robbery, attempted first-degree ATM robbery, carjacking
and kidnapping for carjacking. He admitted special circumstance
allegations of murder during a carjacking, kidnapping and robbery.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The plea deal saved him from a possible death sentence </div>
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-34270083526958156132017-07-08T18:50:00.000-07:002017-07-25T16:25:18.079-07:00Remembering Marilyn Monroe, Conclusion<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
“I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eDHlgnRuaM">I Wanna be Loved by You</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Picture Legend<br />
<br />
1. “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” poster<br />
2. Marilyn singing “Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend”<br />
3. Marilyn and Jane Russell in Gentlemen<br />
4. Betty Grable<br />
5. Marilyn and Jane Russell at Grauman's, 1953<br />
6. Marilyn, Betty Grable, and Lauren Bacall in “How to Marry a Millionaire” 1953<br />
7. Cover of the first issue of Playboy magazine, December 1953<br />
8. Marilyn’s centrefold, taken from the 1949 Tom Kelly photoshoot<br />
9. Jack Benny, Marilyn, and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, 1953<br />
10. Husband #2 Joe diMaggio & Marilyn<br />
11. Marilyn in “River of No Return” 1954<br />
12. With Robert Mitchum in River<br />
13. In “There’s No Business Like Show Business” 1954<br />
14. In “The Seven Year Itch” 1955<br />
15. With Tom Ewell in “The Seven Year Itch”<br />
16. Kelli Garner as Marilyn in “The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe”<br />
17. Michelle Williams as Marilyn in “My Week with Marilyn”<br />
18. Marguerite Chapman & Tom Ewell<br />
19. Tom Ewell & Carolyn Jones<br />
20. Marilyn and Milton H Greene<br />
21. Milton Green photograph of Marilyn, “The Hooker Sitting,” LA, 1956<br />
22. Constance Collier<br />
23. Lee Strasberg, Marilyn, and Paula Strasberg, 1961<br />
24. Marilyn and Marlon Brando <br />
25. Marilyn and Arthur Miller<br />
26. Arthur O'Connell, Eileen Heckart, and Marilyn in 1956's “Bus Stop”<br />
27. Laurence Olivier & Marilyn Monroe in “The Prince and the Showgirl”<br />
28. Marilyn meets Queen Elizabeth II in October of 1956. Both ladies were 30 years old at the time<br />
29. Donald Sinden<br />
30. In “Some Like it Hot” 1959<br />
31. With Jack Lemmon in “Some Like it Hot”<br />
32. With Tony Curtis<br />
33. Rockhaven Sanitarium for the Copiously Insane<br />
34. Telegram from “Let’s Make Love producer to Marilyn concerning preparations for “Let’s Make Love”<br />
35. Frankie Vaughan, Marilyn, Arthur Miller, and Yves Montand publicity photo for “Let’s Make Love” 1960<br />
36. Marilyn in “The Misfits”<br />
37. And another<br />
38. Crew of “The Misfits” Front row, left to right: Montgomery Clift, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable. Back row, left to right: Eli Wallach, playwright Arthur Miller, and director John Huston.<br />
39. My favorite picture of Marilyn <br />
40. Marilyn’s Brentwood home<br />
41. She lived there for about six months<br />
42. Home<br />
43. ^<br />
44. Marilyn’s bedroom<br />
45. Swimming pool scene from “Something’s Got to Give”<br />
46. Three pictures from The Last Sitting<br />
47. ^<br />
48. ^<br />
49. As she was found<br />
50. The world finds out<br />
51. Joe at her funeral<br />
52. Her final resting place<br />
53. Marilyn’s Star<br />
54. Marilyn<br />
<br />
<br />
“I remember when I was in high school I didn't have a new dress for each special occasion. The girls would bring the fact to my attention, not always too delicately. The boys, however, never bothered with the subject. They were my friends, not because of the size of my wardrobe but because they liked me.”<br />
<br />
I bet they did.<br />
<br />
1953‘s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” was a musical comedy film based on the stage musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” of 1949, which itself was based on the 1925 novel, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady,” by Anita Loos, who was inspired to write the book after watching a sexy blonde turn intellectual H. L. Mencken (who is regarded as one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the twentieth century. He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians and contemporary movements. His satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial", also gained him national and international attention. The character E. K. Hornbeck in “Inherit the Wind,” played by Tony Randall in the original 1955 theatrical production and Gene Kelly in Stanley Kramer’s 1960 film, was based on H. L. Mencken) into a love struck schoolboy (women will do that sometimes. They think it’s funny as hell).<br />
The film was directed by Howard Hawks (“The Big Sleep,” “His Girl Friday,” “The Thing from Another World”), and starred Marilyn, <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2011/03/jane-russell.html"><i>Jane Russell</i></a>, Charles Coburn, Elliott Reid, Tommy Noonan, George Winslow, Taylor Holmes and Norma Varden in supporting roles<br />
The story concerns two show girls looking for love... and diamonds. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yiYZ64DG-E"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of Marilyn getting stuck in a hole.<i><br /> </i>And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qP0Hel_VvrA"><i>here’s</i></a> one with Marilyn, Jane, and Tommy Noonan.<br />
And Marilyn singing “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZJIONVNh8M"><i>Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend</i></a>.”<br />
That last clip pretty much summed up Marilyn’s character, who was looking for love... with economic benefits. <br />
Some say that” Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” established Marilyn’s screen persona as a "dumb blonde," but I didn’t see anything particularly dumb about her character. Lorelei Lee knew what she wanted and knew how to get it... which she did, and at no time, within the framework of the movie, was any criticism leveed at her for her gold digging ways. <br />
The role of Lorelei was originally intended for Betty Grable, who had been 20th Century-Fox's most popular "blonde bombshell" in the 1940s, and pin up goddess to our fighting men during World War II. However Marilyn was fast eclipsing her as a star who could appeal to both male and female audiences.<br />
As part of the film's publicity campaign, Marilyn realized a childhood dream by having her hands and feet immortalized, along with Jane, in wet concrete outside Grauman's Chinese Theater in June of 1953.<br />
“Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” was released the next month and became one of the biggest box office successes of the year by grossing $5.3 million ($48,538,471.91 in 2017), more than double its production costs.<br />
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times and William Brogdon of Variety both commented favorably on Marilyn’s performance, especially noting the film’s rendition of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." According to Brogdon Marilyn demonstrated the "ability to sex a song as well as point up the eye values of a scene by her presence."<br />
Apparently Jane was a a bit of an evangelist, as she tried to convert Marilyn during the filming of the movie. "Jane tried to convert me (to religion) and I tried to introduce her to Freud."<br />
Smart girl.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tiayvPgioI"><i> Here’s</i></a> Jane talking to Sally Jessie Raphael and Susan Strassberg about working with Marilyn.<br />
Jane passed away on February 28th, 2011, of a respiratory-related illness.<br />
Marilyn played yet another gold digger by co-starring with Betty Grable and Lauren Bacall in her third movie of the year, “How to Marry a Millionaire,” which was released on November 5th. She played a naïve model who teams up with her friends to find rich husbands, repeating the successful formula of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” <br />
Made by 20th Century Fox, “How to Marry a Millionaire” was the first film ever to be photographed in the new CinemaScope wide-screen process, although it was the second Cinemascope film released by Fox after the biblical epic film “The Robe” (also 1953).<br />
“How to Marry a Millionaire” was also the first 1950s color and CinemaScope film ever to be shown on prime time network television, though panned-and-scanned (a method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects), when it was presented as the first film on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies on September 23rd, 1961.<br />
Despite mixed reviews, the film was Marilyn’s biggest box office success at that point in her career, earning $8 million in world rentals ($72,339,176.03 in 2017 dollars, against a budget of $1,870,000, $16,909,282.40 today).<br />
“How to Marry a Millionaire” premiered at the Fox Wilshire Theatre (now the Saban Theatre), in Beverly Hills, California. It was Fox's second highest grossing film of that year (with “The Robe” being the first), and was the fourth highest-grossing film of 1953, whereas Marilyn’s previous feature “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was the ninth.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmCNj4i16BU"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
Marilyn was listed in the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll in both 1953 and 1954, which is good for an actress.<br />
According to Fox historian Aubrey Solomon, Marilyn became the studio's "greatest asset" alongside CinemaScope (an anamorphic lens (anamorphic lenses are specialty tools which affect how images get projected onto the camera sensor. They were primarily created so that a wider range of aspect ratios could fit within a standard film frame. CinemaScope’s creation in 1953 by Spyros P. Skouras, the president of 20th Century Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection).<br />
Marilyn’s position as a leading sex symbol was confirmed in December 1953, when Hugh Hefner featured her on the cover and as centerfold in the first issue of Playboy (December 1953). The cover image was a photograph taken of her at the Miss America Pageant parade in 1952, and the centerfold featured one of her 1949 Tom Kelly nude photographs.<br />
Marilyn made her television debut on September 13th, 1953 on “The Jack Benny Show (one of my two favorite comedians, the other being George Carlin),” playing Jack's fantasy woman in the episode "Honolulu Trip." <a href="https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=chr-yo_gc&p=google+marilyn+monroe+jack+benny+youtube#id=3&vid=1f896144002c80d4efa5547019f5acda&action=click"><i>Here</i></a> she is.<br />
Jack died in his home of pancreatic cancer on December 26th, 1974 at age 80.<br />
She filmed “River of No Return” in 1953 and it was released on April 30th, of 1954. The film was directed by actor/director Otto Preminger, who had never made a western, and only did so due to contractual obligations with 20th Century Fox. <br />
Besides Marilyn the filmed starred an old time friend, Robert Mitchum, along with Tommy Rettig, and Rory Calhoun. <br />
Marilyn was accompanied on the shoot with her acting coach Natasha Lytess (a situation that would pop up quite often), who often gave acting advice to her that clashed with what Mr. Preminger wanted done. He actively tried to get Lytess barred from the set. He succeeded once only to have Marilyn complain to Darryl Zanuck, the head of Fox at the time. Marilyn with the success of Gentlemen was now a box office draw, so he let Lytess return much to Preminger’s consternation. <br />
Much of “River of No Return” was filmed in Banff and Jasper National Parks and Lake Louise in Alberta, which is part of the mighty nation of Canada. Preminger also had to contend with frequent rain, Mitchum's heavy drinking, and an injury to Marilyn’s ankle that kept her off the set for several days and ultimately put her in a cast.<br />
That injury occurred when she almost drown when filming a scene in Jasper. She was wearing chest high hip waders to protect the costume she was in when they filled up with water. She consequently slipped and wasn’t able to get up. Mitchum and others jumped in the river to rescue her but her ankle was sprained as a result.<br />
In later years, Marilyn claimed that “River of No Return” was her worst film.<br />
Bosley Crowther again, of the New York Times, continued to obsess on Marilyn’s physicality in his review. <br />
"It is a toss-up whether the scenery or the adornment of Marilyn Monroe is the feature of greater attraction in River of No Return . . . The mountainous scenery is spectacular, but so, in her own way, is Miss Monroe. The patron's preference, if any, probably will depend upon which he's interested in. Certainly, scriptwriter Frank Fenton has done the best he could to arrange for a fairly equal balance of nature and Miss Monroe . . . And that should not be too lightly taken. For Director Otto Preminger has thrown all the grandeur and menace of these features upon the eye-filling CinemaScope screen. A sickening succession of rapids, churned into boiling foam, presents a display of nature's violence that cannot help but ping the patron's nerves. The raft tumbling through these rapids is quite a sight to see. And layouts of Rocky Mountain landscapes are handsome in color, too. But Mr. Mitchum's and the audience's attention is directed to Miss Monroe through frequent and liberal posing of her in full and significant views."<br />
Otto wasn’t happy with Marilyn and spoke bitterly about her in various interviews. It wasn't until January of 1980, when being interviewed for the New York Daily News, that he conceded, "She tried very hard, and when people try hard, you can't be mad at them."<br />
He would pass away six years later, on April 23rd, 1986, of complications of Lung Cancer and Alzheimer's.<br />
No one who knew him liked him very much.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raiyHxFrBqA"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip with Marilyn and Tommy Rettig, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIuUOETxBV4"><i>another</i></a> one with Marilyn and a bunch of drunken cowboys. <br />
Robert Mitchum had a long successful career ahead of him and made 63 more films after River before succumbing to lung cancer and what is now called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on the first of July in 1997.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZKUtW-aDHM"><i> Here</i></a> he is speaking about Marilyn. <br />
One year later, on October 27, 1955, I would appear on the scene in San Jose.<br />
On January 4th, 1954, Marilyn was placed on suspension from 20th Century-Fox after refusing to accept the leading role in a film version of “The Girl in Pink Tights,” with Frank Sinatra, and who can blame her. I mean pink tights... really?<br />
During her suspension, she married Joe DiMaggio and the two honeymooned in Japan, during which she took time to entertain troops in Korea (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDA0084gZWc"><i>here’s</i></a> the clip). <br />
When Marilyn returned to Hollywood, her Fox suspension was lifted, and studio executives offered her a role in the ensemble cast of “There's No Business Like Show Business” as a replacement project for having refused to make “The Girl in Pink Tights.”<br />
Marilyn initially refused to make “There's No Business Like Show Business” until Fox ensured her that her next film would be “The Seven Year Itch.”<br />
“There's No Business Like Show Business,” premiered on December 16th, 1954.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlooRreqEt4"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip from “There’s No Business Like Show Business.” <br />
<br />
Scene from “The Seven Year Itch:”<br />
Richard Sherman: “If Helen sent you to get a divorce...”<br />
Tom MacKenzie: [incredulous] “A divorce?”<br />
Richard Sherman: [continuing] “I absolutely refuse! I'll fight it in every court!”<br />
Tom MacKenzie: [incredulous] “She sent me for the paddle.”<br />
Richard Sherman: [continuing; crazed] “Because I can explain everything: the stairs, the cinnamon toast, the blond in the kitchen.”<br />
Tom MacKenzie: [interrupts; incredulous] “Wait! Wait a minute Dickey-Boy. What blond in the kitchen?”<br />
Richard Sherman: [seething with contempt] “Oh, wouldn't you like to know! Maybe it's Marilyn Monroe!”<br />
<br />
In September of 1954, Marilyn began filming Billy Wilder's comedy “The Seven Year Itch,” in which she starred opposite Tom Ewell as a woman who became the object of her married neighbor's sexual fantasies. <br />
The “Itch” refers to declining interest in a monogamous relationship after seven years of marriage, most often by the male, and apparently is an actual phenomenon as psychologists use it to this day to sanction extramarital affairs. <br />
“The Seven Year Itch” was filmed between September 1st and November 4th, in 1954, and was the only Billy Wilder film released by 20th Century Fox.<br />
The film also starred the lovely and talented actresses Marguerite Chapman, and the future Morticia Addams, Carolyn Jones. <br />
Although the film was shot in Hollywood, the studio decided to generate advance publicity by staging the filming of a scene on Lexington Avenue in New York. In the shoot, Marilyn is standing on a subway grate with the air blowing up the skirt of her white dress, which became one of the most famous scenes of her career. <br />
The Girl: “Oooooooohhhh! This feels just elegant!”<br />
The shoot lasted for several hours and attracted a crowd of nearly 2,000 spectators, including professional photographers, as most of the still pictures you see of this event do not appear in the film.<br />
The scene was shot twice: the first on location outside the Trans-Lux 52nd Street Theater, then located at 586 Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, while the second take was on a sound stage. Both eventually made their way into the finished film.<br />
While the publicity stunt placed Marilyn on international front pages (everybody got really excited about all kinds of stuff back then), it also marked the end of her marriage to Joe, who was furious about the stunt (what a douche. What did he expect when marrying someone like Marilyn? That she’d give up her career, which included being a sex symbol, to wait on him for the rest of her life? What a douche! However, he would remain felicitous toward Marilyn for the rest of her life, and beyond. He sent roses to her burial vault three times a week for 20 years).<br />
DiMaggio, a heavy smoker for much of his adult life, was admitted to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, on October 12th, 1998, for lung cancer surgery and remained there for 99 days. He returned to his Hollywood, Florida home on January 19th, 1999, where he died on March 8th. Joe DiMaggio's final words were: "I finally get to see Marilyn." <br />
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists union (AFTRA) had been troubled from the start by Joe’s jealousy and controlling attitude. Biographers David Spoto and Lois Banner have also asserted that he was physically abusive, as was depicted in the excellent 2015 bio TV picture “The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe,” featuring an outstanding performance by Kelli Garner as Marilyn, the best I’ve ever seen (yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Michelle Williams was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, and earned Best Actress nominations from the Academy Awards and British Academy Film Awards for her portrayal of Marilyn in “My Week with Marilyn,” but as I watched that movie, Michelle (who I love. Who doesn’t love Michelle Williams? Tell me, who?) always reminded me of Michelle Williams, wherein Kelli completely disappeared in her role). <br />
“The Seven Year Itch” was released June 1st, of 1955.<br />
The film was both a critical and financial success earning $12 million at the box office, and $6 million in rentals ($108,508,764.04 and $54,254,382.02 respectively in 2017 dollars) against a production budget of $1.8 million ($16,276,314.61 today). <br />
Ewell won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his work.<br />
Not everybody was happy with the movie though. In the 1970s the co-writer/director Billy Wilder called the movie "a nothing picture because the picture should be done today without censorship... Unless the husband, left alone in New York while the wife and kid are away for the summer, has an affair with that girl there’s nothing. But you couldn’t do that in those days, so I was just strait jacketed. It just didn’t come off one bit, and there’s nothing I can say about it except I wish I hadn’t made it. I wish I had the property now."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxWJ4QT74hA"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCiwEO_6xS0"><i>another</i></a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqsJPtd8Cis"><i>another</i></a>. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1CAYeq0ZRk"><i>Here’s</i></a> a short documentary on the making of “The Seven Year Itch.”<br />
On September 12th, 1994, Tom Ewell died of undisclosed causes. He was 85 years old. He passed away at Motion Picture Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, 26.7 miles via the scenic 101, from where I’m typing this.<br />
When Marilyn finished filming and returned to Hollywood, she hired famous attorney Jerry Giesler and announced in October of 1954 that she was filing for divorce. <br />
“I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.” <br />
She left Hollywood for the East Coast, where she and photographer Milton H Greene founded their own production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions (MMP), which no actress had done before and is attributed to the beginning of the end of the studio system, in which the studios had complete control over their actors and actresses careers. <br />
When Marilyn announced the formation of MMP at a press conference in January of 1955, she said she was "tired of the same old sex roles. I want to do better things. People have scope, you know."<br />
She insisted she was no longer under contract to Fox, as the studio had not fulfilled its contractual obligations, such as paying her a promised bonus for “The Seven Year Itch." This began a year-long legal battle between her and Fox. She won.<br />
In New York Marilyn continued to study her craft by taking acting classes with actress and acting couch Constance Collier, and attending workshops on method acting at the Actors Studio, run by actor, director, and theater practitioner Lee Strasberg, obviously before he was shot to death by Tom Rosqui in “The Godfather Part II.”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CaMx-wrcsc"><i>Here’s</i></a> Jane Fonda talking to David Letterman about Strasberg and Marilyn. <br />
“...Strasberg makes me feel badly [that I was acting out of "fear"]... You must start to do things out of strength... by not looking for strength, but only looking and seeking technical ways and means.”<br />
Yet she became close to Strasberg and his wife Paula and took private lessons at their home, ostensibly due to her shyness (she suffered chronic insecurities regarding her ability to act. Marilyn also experienced pre-performance anxiety that sometimes made her physically ill and was often the root cause of her being late on films sets, which was so extreme that it often infuriated her co-stars and crew. "She would be the greatest if she ran like a watch," director Billy Wilder once said of her. "I have an aunt Minnie who's very punctual, but who would pay to see Aunt Minnie?"<br />
I would love to see Aunt Minnie, but she’s more than likely not available any more (Wilder died on March 27th, 2002 of pneumonia at the age of 95 after battling health problems, including cancer, in Los Angeles and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, Los Angeles, near Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Marilyn’s crypt is located in the same cemetery. Wilder died the same day as two other comedy legends: Milton Berle and Dudley Moore. The next day, French newspaper Le Monde titled its first-page obituary, "Billy Wilder dies. Nobody's perfect," quoting the final gag line in “Some Like It Hot”).<br />
Marilyn gave Natasha Lytess the old boot and replaced her with Paula, and the Strasbergs remained an important influence to her for the rest of her career.<br />
She also began psychoanalysis at Lee’s recommendation, who believed all actors could use some therapy. <br />
I mean it couldn’t hurt, right?<br />
I know I could use some... <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L05TYBXwU3A"><i>Here’s</i></a> a television “Person to Person" interview with Edward R Murrow that occurred on the 8th of April, 1955.<br />
Murrow, a pioneer of television news broadcasting, who produced a series of reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Fellow journalist like Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, Bill Downs, Dan rather, and Alexander Kendrick consider Murrow one of journalism's greatest figures, noting his honesty and integrity in delivering the news.<br />
Given that he sure asked Marilyn some bizarre questions, and of Greene and his wife. Did Marilyn pick up after herself? Did she make her own bed? Geez, might as well ask if she was potty trained. <br />
In this interview one easily sees a shy, vulnerable, almost insecure, delightful girl. Someone I wouldn’t mind knowing. <br />
Marilyn continued to see DiMaggio despite the ongoing divorce proceedings because women generally don’t know what’s good for them. She also dated actor Marlon Brando and playwright Arthur Miller (“Death of a Salesman,” “The Crucible”). The studio people didn’t like that at all. <br />
She had first been introduced to Miller by Elia Kazan in the early 1950s. The affair between Monroe and Miller became increasingly serious after October 1955, when her divorce from DiMaggio was finalized, and Miller separated from his wife. <br />
The FBI opened a file on her as Arthur was being investigated by them for allegations that he was a communist and had been subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee, headed by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. <br />
The people at Fox feared Marilyn would be blacklisted by association and urged her to end the affair. But despite that risk she refused to end the relationship, later calling the studio heads "born cowards."<br />
By the end of 1955, Marilyn and came to an agreement about a new seven-year contract. <br />
It was clear that MMP would not be able to finance films alone, and the studio was eager to have her working again. The contract required her to make four movies for Fox during those seven years. The studio would pay her $100,000 for each movie ($904,239.70 in 2017 dollars), and granted her the right to choose her own projects, directors and cinematographers. She would also be free to make one film with MMP per each completed film for Fox.<br />
Marilyn began 1956 by touting her win over 20th Century-Fox. The press, which had previously ridiculed her for her move toward independence, now wrote favorably about her decision to fight the studio. “Time” called her a "shrewd businesswoman" and “Look” predicted that the win would be "an example of the individual against the herd for years to come." <br />
In March, she officially changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. <br />
Her relationship with Arthur prompted some negative comments from the press, including Walter Winchell's statement that "America's best-known blonde moving picture star is now the darling of the left-wing intelligentsia," as if that were a bad thing.<br />
Marilyn and Arthur were married in a civil ceremony at the Westchester County Court in White Plains, New York, on June 29th, and two days later they had a Jewish ceremony at his agent's house at Waccabuc, New York.<br />
Marilyn converted to Judaism with the marriage, which led Egypt to ban all of her films. The media saw the union as mismatched given her star image as a sex symbol and his position as an intellectual, as demonstrated by Variety's headline "Egghead Weds Hourglass."<br />
How rude.<br />
“Bus Stop” is sometimes labeled a romantic comedy, which was directed by Joshua Logan (“Picnic," “Sayonara," “South Pacific") for 20th Century Fox, and besides Marilyn starred one of my favorite character actors, Arthur O'Connell, with Don Murray, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Robert Bray and Hope Lange.<br />
It was the first movie that Marilyn chose to make under her new contract and was released on August 31st, 1956. <br />
The story revolves around Marilyn Chérie, a saloon singer whose dreams of stardom are complicated by a naïve cowboy who falls in love with her. For the role, she adopted an Ozark accent, chose costumes and make-up that lacked the glamour of her earlier films, and provided deliberately mediocre singing and dancing. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFa8cZR-XLI"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of that singing.<br />
Just awful!<br />
Broadway director Logan agreed to direct, despite initially doubting her acting abilities and knowing of her reputation for being difficult.<br />
The filming took place in Idaho and Arizona in early 1956, with Marilyn "technically in charge" as the head of MMP, and occasionally making decisions on cinematography <br />
Making “Bus Stop," changed Logan's opinion of Marilyn, and he later compared her to Charlie Chaplin in her ability to blend comedy and tragedy.<br />
The film became a box office success, grossing $7.27 million ($65,312,761.19 in today’s dollars), on a budget of $2.2 million ($19,819,044.78 in 2017).<br />
The film received positive reviews from critics, and Marilyn’s performance was highly praised. Despite Murray's Oscar nomination, his performance was poorly received. I took away his character as being way over the top and quite frankly obnoxious.<br />
Marilyn received a Golden Globe for Best Actress nomination for her performance.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOxCP5RXMSI"><i>Here’s </i></a>a documentary on the making of “Bus Stop.”<br />
<br />
“Now don’t pull the Grand Duke with me. You made a pass and I turned it down. That’s all that happened. We can still be friendly.” -Elsie Marina, from “The Prince and the Showgirl.” <br />
<br />
MMP came to the decision that their first independent production, would be “The Prince and the Showgirl,” with Lawrence Olivier, who would also act as director and co-producer. You can read about my favorite non-domestic actor, Sir Larry, <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2015/05/happy-birthday-sir-laurence-olivier.html"><i>here</i></a> and <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2015/07/happy-birthday-laurence-olivier.html"><i>here</i></a>.<br />
Lawrence and his wife Vivien Leigh flew to New York to conclude negotiations for the film. When he arrived at Marilyn’s Sutton Place apartment on February 7th, 1956, Marilyn kept him, his agent Cecil Tennant, and playwright Terence Rattigan waiting for an hour and a half, but Olivier was impressed anyway. ”One thing was clear to me: I was going to fall most shatteringly in love with Marilyn. She was adorable, so witty, and more physically attractive than anyone I could imagine.” <br />
A press conference held two days later at the Plaza Hotel saw the two actors trading compliments. When asked what he thought of Marilyn as an actress, Olivier replied ”She is a brilliant comedienne, and therefore an extremely good actress. She has the cunning gift of being able to suggest one minute that she is the naughtiest little thing, and the next minute that she is beautifully dumb and innocent.” Marilyn summed up her enormous respect for Olivier in a simple sentence: ”He has always been my idol.” On this occasion, however, Marilyn stole the show thanks to the spaghetti-thing strap of her dress snapping in mid-conference.<br />
A costume malfunction that would find it’s way into the movie.<br />
In August of 1956, Marilyn began filming “The Prince and the Showgirl,” at Pinewood Studios in England. It was based on Rattigan's “The Sleeping Prince,” a play about an affair between a showgirl and a prince in the 1910s. The main roles had first been played on stage by Laurence and Vivien. <br />
The production became complicated due to conflicts between Lawrence and Marilyn. He angered her with the patronizing statement "All you have to do is be sexy", and by wanting her to replicate Leigh's interpretation of the role. He also disliked the constant presence of Paula Strasberg, Marilyn’s acting coach, on set.<br />
In retaliation to what she considered Olivier's "condescending" behavior, Marilyn started arriving late and became uncooperative, stating later that "if you don't respect your artists, they can't work well."<br />
Her use of drugs escalated, and according to biographer Donald Spoto she became pregnant and miscarried during the production. She also had arguments with Milton Greene over how MMP should be run, including whether Arthur should join the company.<br />
Despite the difficulties, the film was completed on schedule by the end of the year. It was released in June of 1957 to mixed reviews, and proved unpopular with American audiences. It was better received in Europe, where she was awarded the Italian David di Donatello and the French Crystal Star awards, and was nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8HdgChsYHE"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
In October 29th Marilyn took some time to meet Queen Elizabeth II at Royal Film premiere of war film “The Battle of River Plate,” in Leicester Square, London.<br />
At the time the Queen and Marilyn were both 30 years old. <br />
Years later Olivier still recalled Marilyn as a ”thoroughly ill-mannered and rude girl…I was never so glad to have a film over and be done.” But with the advantage of time, he acknowledged that ”She gave a star performance. Maybe I was tetchy with Marilyn and myself because I felt my career was in a rut…I was as good as could be, and Marilyn! Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all. What do you know?”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmFL0hfLBC0"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of him talking about her.<br />
Sir Lawrence Olivier lived to be 82 years old. He died of renal failure on July 11th, 1989, at his home near Steyning, West Sussex. His cremation was held three days later, and a funeral was held in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey in October.<br />
Donald Sinden, then a contract star for the Rank Organization at Pinewood Studios, had a permanent dressing room four doors from Marilyn's during the filming, although working on different movies. He said "She was still suffering from the effects of The Method school of acting, so one day I had the props department make up a notice that I fixed to my door saying: "Office of the Nazak (Kazan, backwards) Academy. You too can be inaudible. New egos superimposed. Motivations immobilized. Imaginary stone-kicking eradicated. Um's & Er's rendered obsolete. Motto: 'Though 'Tis Method Yet There's Madness In It'." I waited inside and presently heard the usual footsteps of her and her entourage. They paused outside and from the entire group I only heard one laugh—that of Monroe. The door burst open and in she came, slamming the door in the faces of her livid retainers. From that moment on, whenever the poor girl could not face the problems of her hybrid existence—which was frequently—she popped in for a natter and a giggle. Of course as a sex symbol she was stunning, but sadly, she must be one of the silliest women I have ever met."<br />
I enjoyed the film. I enjoy every film Sir Lawrence is in. I’d enjoy a movie of Olivier taking out the trash if it were available, but it was Marilyn’s performance that made the movie work as much as it did. She was just wonderful.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8HdgChsYHE"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
“My Week With Marilyn,” was based on the making of “The Prince and the Showgirl,” with Michelle Williams as Marilyn and Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier.<br />
After she got back to the states Marilyn took a year and a half off to be married to Arthur in Manhattan and an eighteenth-century farmhouse that they had purchased in Roxbury, Connecticut.<br />
She became pregnant in mid-1957, but it was ectopic (a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus), and had to be terminated. She suffered a miscarriage a year later. Her gynecological problems were largely caused by endometriosis (a condition in which tissue that normally grows inside the uterus (endometrium) grows outside it), a disease from which she suffered throughout her adult life. <br />
Marilyn was also briefly hospitalized during this time due to a barbiturate overdose. <br />
During this period, she dismissed Greene from MMP and bought his share of the company as they could not settle their disagreements and she had begun to suspect that he was embezzling money from the company.<br />
“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.”<br />
Marilyn came back to Hollywood in 1958 to work with Billy Wilder again in “Some Like it Hot,” with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.<br />
Her role in the film was a familiar one, a “dumb blonde,” she agreed to do it because Arthur encouraged her to do so, and she got an offer to receive ten percent of the film's profits in addition to her standard pay. <br />
There were a lot of problems during the production of “Some Like it Hot.” Marilyn would demand dozens of re-takes, and could not remember her lines or act as directed. Scenes wherein she had two words to say would be redone 30 to 40 times because she didn’t feel they had been done right (prompting Wilder to say to Lemmon and Curtis, “Guys, whatever take I like and think works I’m going to print.”). <br />
Many of the problems stemmed from a conflict between her and Billy, who also had a reputation for being difficult. Marilyn made him angry by asking him to alter many of her scenes, which in turn made her stage fright worse, and it is suggested that she deliberately ruined several scenes to act them her way.<br />
This will tend to drive a director crazy.<br />
Which it did.<br />
Wilder was committed to the Rockhaven Sanitarium for the Copiously Insane on December 22nd, 1958 and was kept there under heavy sedation until March 25th, 2002, two days before he died in Los Angeles.<br />
Just kidding. Mr. Wilder survived the shoot somewhat intact and continued making many other fine films, like “The Apartment,” “One, Two, Three,” and “The Fortune Cookie.” <br />
When it was all said and done Billy was happy with Marilyn’s performance, stating: "Anyone can remember lines, but it takes a real artist to come on the set and not know her lines and yet give the performance she did!" <br />
Despite the difficulties of its production, “Some Like It Hot” became a critical and commercial success when it was released in March of 1959. Marilyn’s performance earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and prompted “Variety” to call her "a comedienne with that combination of sex appeal and timing that just can't be beat." It’s been voted one of the best films ever made in polls by the American Film Institute and Sight & Sound.<br />
Well, I don’t know about that. I love the movie but feel Wilder didn’t know how to end it. It started out great, with a good and funny premise, but fizzled during the last third of the film. <br />
But that’s just me.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt5hQhWUToo"><i> Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
“Some Like it Hot,” cost $2.9 million to produce ($24,226,740.48 in 2017) and made $40 million in 1959 ($334,161,937.72 today).<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjD4hSN2Efk"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of Jack Lemmon talking to Charlie Rose and some other guys about Marilyn.<br />
Jack died of metastatic cancer (metastasis is the spread of cancer cells to new areas of the body often by way of the lymph system or bloodstream. A metastatic cancer, or metastatic tumor, is one which has spread from the primary site of origin (where it started) into different area(s) of the body) of the bladder on June 27th, 2001. He had been fighting the disease, privately, for two years before his death. He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California, buried near his friend and co-star, Walter Matthau, who died almost exactly one year before him. His gravestone reads like a title screen from a film: "JACK LEMMON IN."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXNmXVBk1Ho"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip of Tony Curtis talking to that other guy about Marilyn.<br />
Tony died at his Henderson, Nevada, home on September 29th, 2010, of a cardiac arrest. He left behind five children and seven grandchildren. His widow Jill told the press that Curtis had suffered from various lung problems for years as a result of cigarette smoking, although he had quit smoking about 30 years earlier.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvUsmxF8xxo"><i>Here’s</i></a> a documentary on the making of “Some Like it Hot.”<br />
Per her 1955 contract with Fox, Marilyn was expected, or required, to make four films within the next seven years. By 1959, she had completed only one: “Bus Stop,” which had been released in 1956. While Marilyn shot “Some Like it Hot” in 1958 (for United Artists), Arthur completed the screenplay for “The Misfits,” which they had intended on being her next film.<br />
Hoping to capitalize on the success of “Some Like it Hot,” 20th Century Fox required Marilyn to fulfill her contract. “The Misfits,” was put on hold and instead Marilyn signed on to star in what was then titled The Billionaire.<br />
The Billionaire, was a musical comedy about an actress and a millionaire who fall in love when performing in a satirical play.<br />
She chose George Cukor to direct (“The Philadelphia Story,” “Gaslight,” “A Star Is Born,” “My Fair Lady”). Several leading men were considered, including Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Rock Hudson, Cary Grant, Charlton Heston, and Gregory Peck. Peck agreed to play the lead, and then Monroe was signed opposite him, even though screenwriter Norman Krasna preferred Cyd Charisse. <br />
Marilyn and Arthur wanted her part of Amanda expanded. Miller worked on the script (although he did not receive credit) to expand the role, then Peck bowed out after the emphasis was shifted to the female lead. <br />
The male lead was eventually offered to the French actor Yves Montand, who had appeared in a French film version of Miller's “The Crucible” (1957) and had received praise for his recent one-man musical show in New York. Monroe and Miller both gave their approval for Montand. The title was changed to “Let's Make Love” and production began in January of 1960.<br />
There was one little problem... Montand didn’t speak English.<br />
So he worked with translators and spoke his lines phonetically... and it worked! It worked real well!<br />
While filming the movie Marilyn was a constant no-show for her scenes. So much so that she added 28 days to the shooting schedule and cost the producers (and by extension, herself) an extra $1 million in production costs.<br />
Marilyn was insecure about her acting abilities, Montand was insecure about his English, and the two bonded during the production. It was rummered they had an affair although Yves later denied it. It certainly didn’t help that their respective spouses left the shoot to pursue their own agendas (Montand was married to the French film actress Simone Signoret). <br />
Whether the two got together or not, the supposed affair was widely reported by the press and used in the film's publicity campaign. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wfMzdlMA00"><i>Here’s</i></a> an audio interview with Marilyn by Georges Belmont for Marie Claire magazine in April of 1960. <br />
“Let's Make Love” was unsuccessful upon its release in September of 1960. Bosley Crowther writing for the New York Times described Marilyn as appearing "rather untidy" and "lacking ... the old Monroe dynamism," and Hedda Hopper called the film "the most vulgar picture she's ever done." <br />
It opened at the top of the box office its first weekend, but made only $6.54 million in total ($53,706,302.04 in 2017 dollars. The production cost $3,585,000, $29,439,922.45 today). It was the first film starring Marilyn to earn so little money on its initial release, although it was the top-grossing musical of the year and one of only two musicals in the top 20 in 1960. It was better received in overseas markets than in the United States.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEJKZAApbf0"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeUqFfYROB4"><i>here</i></a> Montand speaks of working with Marilyn and his troubles with English during the production with David Letterman. <br />
Basically Marilyn’s career began with John Houston in “The Asphalt Jungle,” and it ended with John Houston in her last completed film, 1961's “The Misfits.”<br />
It was the kind of role she always wanted to tackle, a serious dramatic role (one could successfully argue that her work in “Niagara” was just such a role as well, but in that film her part was subservient to that of Jean Peters). <br />
Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay for his wife who played Roslyn Tabor, a recently divorced woman who becomes friends with three aging cowboys, played by Clark Gable, Eli Wallach and Montgomery Clift. Her past co-star, Thelma Ritter, also appeared in the film.<br />
The filming in the Nevada desert between July and November 1960 was again difficult. Monroe and Miller's four-year marriage was effectively over, and he began a new relationship with Inge Morath, an Austrian-born American photographer. They would marry in 1962 after Arthur’s divorce from Marilyn. They would remain married until her death from cancer in 2002. Their first child, Rebecca Augusta Miller, would become an independent filmmaker, screenwriter, film director, and novelist. A classic overachiever. She married the English/Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis, and so can claim the title Lady Day-Lewis, as Daniel was knighted by Prince William in 2014). <br />
Marilyn disliked that Arthur had based her role partly on her life, and thought it inferior to the male roles; she also struggled with Miller's habit of re-writing scenes the night before filming. Her health was also failing: she was in pain from gallstones, and her drug addiction was so severe that her make-up usually had to be applied while she was still asleep under the influence of barbiturates.<br />
In August, filming was halted for her to spend a week detoxing in a Los Angeles hospital. <br />
Despite her problems, Huston stated that when Marilyn was playing Roslyn, she "was not pretending to an emotion. It was the real thing. She would go deep down within herself and find it and bring it up into consciousness."<br />
So like many of the directors Marilyn had worked with, Houston considered the finished product worth the effort it required to work with her.<br />
John provided his own set of problems to the filming of the movie. He gambled and drank, and occasionally fell asleep on the set. The production company had to cover some of his gambling losses. He became addicted to camel racing. He tended to shoot (with a gun) things that didn’t work (Huston's car overheated on the drive up to Virginia City via Hwy 341. He "executed" the car by reportedly firing a stunt gun blank into the radiator)... except Marilyn.<br />
Marilyn and Arthur separated after filming wrapped up, and she was granted a quick divorce in Mexico in January of 1961.<br />
“The Misfits” was released the following month, on February 1st, 1961, but the film failed at the box office. “The Misfits” cost $4 million ($32,406,979.87 in 2017) to make and made $4.1 million ($33,217,154.36 today) on it’s initial release. It has made more money for United Artists since it came out on DVD.<br />
Despite poor reviews and on-set difficulties, Gable, Marilyn, Clift and Wallach delivered performances that modern critics consider amazing. Many critics regard Gable's performance to be his finest, and Gable, after seeing the rough cuts, agreed.<br />
Marilyn received the 1961 Golden Globe Award as "World Film Favorite" in March of 1962, five months before her death. The Directors Guild of America nominated Huston as best director.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0AxlU3tnsg"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESzU5ZRUpZ8"><i>here’s</i></a> a documentary on the making of “The Misfits.”<br />
And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDUp-MUjV8o"><i>here</i></a> Arthur speaks of Marilyn.<br />
Gable suffered a heart attack two days after filming ended and died ten days later, November 16th, 1960, on his 60th birthday. Marilyn and Clift attended the premiere in New York in February 1st, 1961, while Arthur attended with his two children. <br />
Marilyn later said that she hated the film and her performance in it. 550 days later she was dead of an apparent drug overdose. <br />
“The Misfits” was the last completed film for both Marilyn and Gable, her childhood screen idol. <br />
As a child, Marilyn had often fantasized that Clark was her father.<br />
1448 days after Marilyn died Montgomery Clift passed away on July 23rd, 1966, due to an apparent heart attack in his New York City Town house. He was 45 years old. <br />
His last words to anyone other than himself were “Absolutely not!” when asked if he wanted to watch “The Misfits,” on television with his private nurse, Lorenzo James, the night before his body was discovered.<br />
Thelma Ritter died of a heart attack in New York City on February 5th, 1969, nine days before her 67th birthday.<br />
21 years, 2 months and 5 days after Clift’s death, the director of “The Misfits,” John Houston, died on August 28th, 1987, in his rented home in Middletown, Rhode Island, from pneumonia as a complication of lung disease. He had made 8 other feature film since “The Misfits,” and was 81 years old when he passed. <br />
17 years, 5 months and 13 days after Houston died, the screenwriter for “The Misfits,” Arthur Miller, died of bladder cancer and congestive heart failure, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut on February 10th, 2005 (the 56th anniversary of the Broadway debut of “Death of a Salesman”). He was 89 years old. <br />
My point in relating this time line is to point out that all of the major players involved with Marilyn are now dead (with the possible exception of her half-sister, Berniece Baker Miracle) Even good old Eli Wallach passed on 1110 days days ago of “natural causes.” <br />
Sounds suspicious to me.<br />
Be that as it may, Eli was 98 when he went on to reunite with his fellow cast members in what might be heaven. <br />
Marilyn was to return to television in an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's short story “Rain” for NBC, but she insisted that Lee Strasberg direct it and the network didn’t want him, so the deal fell through.<br />
She spent the first six months of 1961 concerned with varied health problems, undergoing surgery for her endometriosis, had a cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder. Who needs a stink’en gallbladder anyway? It just takes up precious space), and spent four weeks in hospital care, including a brief stay in a mental ward for depression.<br />
I’ve done that. Another thing Marilyn and I have in common.<br />
Joe helped her through this difficult time and their relationship turned towards being good friends.<br />
“What good am I? I can't have kids. I can't cook. I've been divorced three times. Who would want me?"<br />
In the spring she moved back to Los Angeles and bought her first house in Brentwood, where all the rich people live.<br />
Marilyn got back to work the following year and began to shoot a new film for 20th Century-Fox, “Something's Got to Give,” a re-make of “My Favorite Wife (1940).” It was to be co-produced by MMP, directed by George Cukor and to co-star Dean Martin and Cyd Charisse.<br />
Days before filming began, Monroe caught sinusitis; despite medical advice to postpone the production, Fox began it as planned in late April.<br />
Marilyn was too sick to work for the next six weeks, but despite confirmations by multiple doctors, the studio tried to put pressure on her by alleging publicly that she was faking it.<br />
Tell me, why would she do that?<br />
She got well enough to do the Kennedy birthday thing. <br />
When she returned to the set she did a nude swimming pool scene. Fox invited the media to generate publicity for the film. Some of these photographs appeared in “Life” magazine. <br />
Had “Something's Got to Give” been completed and released as planned, it would have been the first Hollywood motion picture release of the sound era to feature a mainstream star in the nude. Instead, that distinction goes to actress Jayne Mansfield in “Promises! Promises!” (1963).<br />
When she was again on sick leave for several days, Fox had had enough and decided that it could not afford to have another film running behind schedule when it was already struggling to cover the rising costs of “Cleopatra” (1963).<br />
On June 7, Fox fired Marilyn and sued her for $750,000 in damages.<br />
She was replaced by Lee Remick, but after Dean refused to make the film with anyone other than Marilyn, Fox sued him as well and shut down the production.<br />
The studio blamed Marilyn for the film's demise and began spreading negative publicity about her, even stating that she was mentally disturbed.<br />
Later Fox took another look at Marilyn and reopened negotiations with her in June; a settlement about a new contract, including re-commencing “Something's Got to Give” and a starring role in the black comedy “What a Way to Go! (1964) (eventually made with Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke), was reached. <br />
On June 1st, 1962, Monroe's 36th birthday, she, Martin and Wally Cox shot a scene in the courtyard set. Monroe's stand-in, Evelyn Moriarty, bought a seven-dollar sheet cake at the Los Angeles Farmers Market. A studio illustrator drew a cartoon of a nude Monroe holding a towel, which read "Happy Birthday (Suit)." It was to be used as a birthday card, and signed by the cast and crew. The cast attempted to celebrate when Marilyn arrived, but director Cukor insisted that they wait until 6:00p.m. (the end of the working day) because he wanted to get a "full day's work out of her."<br />
It would be Marilyn’s last day on the set. She left the party with Wally Cox, and had borrowed the fur-trimmed grey suit she had worn while filming that day, because she was to attend a Muscular Dystrophy fundraiser at Dodger Stadium that evening, with her former husband Joe DiMaggio, and co-star Dean Martin's young son, Dean Paul Martin.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0RM9QLLrko"><i>Here</i></a> are her last scenes.<br />
After Marilyn’s death Twentieth Century-Fox overhauled the entire production idea the next year with mostly a new cast and crew and produced their “My Favorite Wife” remake, now entitled “Move Over, Darling,” starring Doris Day, James Garner, and Polly Bergen.<br />
To repair her public image after the barrage of negative publicity Fox had manufactured, Marilyn engaged in several publicity ventures, including interviews for “Life” and “Cosmopolitan” and her first photo shoot for “Vogue."<br />
For “Vogue,” she and photographer Bert Stern collaborated for two series of photographs, one a standard fashion editorial and another of her posing nude, which were both later published posthumously with the title “The Last Sitting.”<br />
In the last weeks of her life, she was planning on starring in a biopic of another childhood idle, Jean Harlow.<br />
“Nothing's ever easy as long as you go on living."<br />
On August 4th, 1962, a Saturday, Nelson Mandela was captured by South African police. He spent the next 27 years in prison.<br />
It is also the date that Marilyn Monroe died.<br />
Marilyn’s agent, Pat Newcomb, stayed over on the Friday before. She says that the actress woke up feeling cranky through lack of sleep, but was excited about a delivery of furniture from Mexico. When her housekeeper, Eunice Murray, arrived at 8:30am, she claimed Marilyn was already up, tiling the floor.<br />
Newcomb awoke at noon, and she and Monroe argued, apparently over Newcomb's ability to sleep in, but it was soon resolved. Pat says they planned to sunbathe by Marilyn’s pool, then maybe join the actor Peter Lawford and his wife Pat for supper.<br />
Some time during that Saturday morning, Marilyn’s mood changed. She was unsettled by the arrival of a stuffed toy in the post with no note. There was a flurry of phone calls. Murray recalls Monroe asking if they kept oxygen in the house, an odd request. Shevey believes that Marilyn had begun to fear for her life, aware that she was a political liability. "John F Kennedy was going to run for a second term, Jackie had to be happy with all of it. They needed Marilyn out of the picture."<br />
Newcomb went out shopping, and said Marilyn was upbeat when she returned. But her psychiatrist, Dr Ralph Greenson, who had arrived for his daily visit, claims Marilyn was in a highly emotional condition.<br />
Greenson asked Newcomb to leave, and then asked Murray to stay overnight with Marilyn. He left at 7pm. Marilyn took the phone into her bedroom and Murray claims she never saw her alive again. Lawford says he rang Monroe at 7.30pm and she sounded depressed and slurred. He claims she said, "Say goodbye to the President and say goodbye to yourself, because you're a nice guy," before her voice faded out. However, his view is contradicted by Joe DiMaggio Jr, the son of her second husband, who says he phoned her at 7:30pm to tell her he was breaking off an engagement she disapproved of. He says Marilyn welcomed the news.<br />
Later that night, Marilyn was found dead. Murray woke up and claims she saw a light under the door. Concerned that something terrible had happened, she called Greenson at 3:30am. They peered into Monroe's bedroom window and saw her naked body. Greenson says he broke in with a fireplace poker, before ringing Marilyn's physician, Dr Hyman Engelberg.<br />
The Los Angeles County Coroners Office was assisted in their investigation of Marilyn’s death by psychiatrists from the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Team.<br />
It was estimated that she had died between 8:30 and 10:30 p.m., the day before and the toxicology report later revealed that the cause of death was acute barbiturate poisoning. She had 8 mg% (milligrams per 100 milliliters of solution) chloral hydrate and 4.5 mg% of pentobarbital (Nembutal) in her blood, and a further 13 mg% of pentobarbital in her liver.<br />
Empty bottles containing these medicines were found next to her bed. The possibility that Marilyn had accidentally overdosed was ruled out, because the dosages found in her body were several times over the lethal limit, in other words she took too much for it to be an accident. <br />
Her doctors stated that she had been prone to "severe fears and frequent depressions" with "abrupt and unpredictable" mood changes, and had overdosed several times in the past, possibly intentionally. Due to these facts and the lack of any indication of foul play, the coroner classified her death as a probable suicide.<br />
Marilyn’s sudden death was front-page news in the United States and Europe. According to American author and professor of history Lois Banner, "it's said that the suicide rate in Los Angeles doubled the month after she died; the circulation rate of most newspapers expanded that month," and the Chicago Tribune reported that they had received hundreds of phone calls from members of the public requesting information about her death.<br />
French artist Jean Cocteau commented that her death "should serve as a terrible lesson to all those, whose chief occupation consists of spying on and tormenting film stars," her former co-star Laurence Olivier deemed her "the complete victim of ballyhoo and sensation," and “Bus Stop” director Joshua Logan stated that she was "one of the most unappreciated people in the world".<br />
Her funeral, held at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery on August 8th, was private and attended by only her closest associates.<br />
The service was arranged by Joe DiMaggio and his business manager Inez Melson.<br />
Hundreds of spectators crowded the streets around the cemetery.<br />
Marilyn was later interred at crypt No. 24 in the Corridor of Memories. <br />
In the decades afterwards, several conspiracy theories were introduced about her death, including murder and accidental overdose.<br />
The murder speculations first gained mainstream attention with the publication of Norman Mailer's “Marilyn: A Biography” in 1973, and in the following years became widespread enough for the Los Angeles County District Attorney, John Van de Kamp, to conduct a "threshold investigation" in 1982 to see whether a criminal investigation should be opened.<br />
Who would have murdered Marilyn? Many theories abound.<br />
She could have been murdered by Robert Kennedy, JFK's younger brother. The idea is that Robert panicked when Marilyn threatened to reveal her affair with JFK, and had her killed by lethal injection. Another theory is that he became her lover, and killed her to protect his career. He insisted he was in San Francisco on the night she died, but there were witness sightings of him in Los Angeles - even entering Monroe's house.<br />
Well there you go! It must have been RFK.<br />
Or could have been his dad, Joseph Kennedy, who was afraid that Marilyn would wreck his son JFK's campaign to be re-elected.<br />
Or a member of the Rat Pack, to protect the Kennedys.<br />
Or the Mafia, to blackmail the Kennedys after JFK declared war on organized crime.<br />
Or right wing nationalists, disturbed by the Kennedys' liberal agenda, or even as punishment for Marilyn’s marriage to Arthur Miller, a Communist sympathizer.<br />
Or the FBI: documents revealed that Marilyn was one of a number of stars the FBI kept files on after applying for Russian visa.<br />
Or Fidel Castro, in retaliation for attempts to assassinate him.<br />
Or the CIA, to get even with the Bay of Pigs disaster (what?!)<br />
I maintain that in most instances the simplest explanation is the one that is correct (Occam's Razor), so it is my contention that aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from, abducted Marilyn leaving a dead clone in her place. They obviously whisked her off to one of Tralfamadore’s satellite moons where they used her mercilessly for their own sick and perverted purposes. <br />
Little alien bastards! <br />
It doesn’t really matter now. She is gone.<br />
So is JFK, RFK, Joseph Kennedy, the Rat Pack, Thomas Eboli, Edwin Walker, J. Edgar Hoover, Fidel Castro, John McCone, and in the distant future the Tralfamadorians and the entire universe due to a Tralfamadorian test pilot experimenting with fuel.<br />
No evidence of foul play has ever been found.<br />
“The nicest thing for me is sleep, then at least I can dream.”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrbgHj0bAL4"><i>Here’s</i></a> Marilyn’s last audio interview in July of 1962 for “Life” magazine.<br />
<a href="http://www.marilynmonroe.ca/camera/mags/life62.htm"><i>Here’s</i></a> the actual article.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGIWNg95t3U"><i>Here’s </i></a>the documentary “Marilyn on Marilyn.”<br />
When she died in 1962, Marilyn had an estate valued at $1.6 million (worth $12,954,913.91 today). She gave most of it to her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, and another large portion to Dr. Marianne Kris, her psychoanalyst. She also left a trust fund to her mother that offered about $5,000 per year.<br />
“You know, most people really don't know me.”<br />
Ahead of her time in many ways, Marilyn was an early convert to yoga. She even took lessons from Swedish-Russian Bollywood film star Indra Devi, who also taught Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson.<br />
“My dinners at home are startlingly simple. Every night, I stop at the market near my hotel and pick up a steak, lamb chops or some liver, which I broil in the electric oven in my room. I usually eat four or five raw carrots with my meat, and that is all. I must be part rabbit; I never get bored with raw carrots.”<br />
Marilyn Monroe has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of the McDonalds restaurant on the 6700 block of Hollywood Blvd. <br />
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/Website%20%20https://marilynmonroe.com"><i>This </i></a>is a link to a website that features Marilyn.<br />
“Fear is stupid. So are regrets.”<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-M8Hi3vNKM"><i> Goodbye Norma Jean</i></a><br />
Though I never knew you at all<br />
You had the grace to hold yourself<br />
While those around you crawled<br />
They crawled out of the woodwork<br />
And they whispered into your brain<br />
They set you on the treadmill<br />
And they made you change your name<br />
And it seems to me you lived your life<br />
Like a candle in the wind<br />
Never knowing who to cling to<br />
When the rain set in<br />
And I would have liked to have known you<br />
But I was just a kid<br />
Your candle burned out long before<br />
Your legend ever did<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-70561320724163982182017-06-23T16:59:00.001-07:002018-11-22T10:47:23.607-08:00Renovation 4<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Picture Legend:<br />
<br />
1. Kyzylkum Desert, south of Dzhangeldy, Uzbekistan<br />
2. Artifact<br />
3. Confrontation<br />
4. LAC-USC hospital in Los Angeles<br />
5. First floor view, main hallway from the front door towards the back of the building<br />
6. First floor view, main hallway at midpoint toward front door<br />
7. First floor view, main hallway from the back of the building toward the front<br />
8. First floor kitchen before renovation<br />
9. Kitchen at a different angle<br />
10 Panoramic view of the garden with Jeannie, Chris, and me contemplating the black monolith<br />
11. Garden ladies Jeannie and Chris<br />
12. Hardy<br />
13. The infamous front stairway from the first floor to the second<br />
14. The infamous front stairway looking down to the first floor from the second<br />
15. Second floor hallway toward the ghostly apparition and the wall that hides the elevator shaft<br />
16. The author lurking in the hallway<br />
17. Hallway to my room<br />
18. Third floor fire escape door<br />
19. Hallway window that can’t be opened<br />
20. Photographer Fatemeh B <br />
21. Third floor janitor’s room where the voices come from<br />
22. My desk. Notice the 31 books required to stabilize to front<br />
23. Third floor shower & rest room. Notice there is no barrier separating the shower from the rest of the room<br />
24. Feet<br />
25. The elevator shaft<br />
26. Carl’s Jr’s objectification of women<br />
27. Beth<br />
28. Beth sandwich<br />
29. Alfred E. Neuman<br />
30. The thing in the bathroom<br />
31. Milana<br />
32. Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple<br />
33. The Hippie Kitchen<br />
<br />
<br />
Photo Credits: Gudrun G & Fatemeh B<br />
Demon Special Effects: Industrial Light & Magic<br />
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<br />
March 18, 2017<br />
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South of Dzhangeldy, Uzbekistan. The Kyzylkum Desert<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The jeep Wrangler rolled over the dirt road kicking up a cloud of dense sand and dust behind it. The driver, a man in his early seventies with drawn features, unkempt blonde hair and mustache, with intense blue eyes, was sweating profusely, a reflection of the the 110 degree heat penetrating the vehicle which lumbered on without the burden of air conditioning. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Kirinan McCalister had lived and worked in the region for many years and was somewhat used to the ambient heat, as used to it as anyone could possibly be. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was the dust though that he disliked the most. The never ending dust which was constantly present and affective despite any effort to mitigate it’s very presence.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dust everywhere. Sometimes he felt he could just choke on it as it filtered through the cloth bandana that he wore across his face, his mouth and nose.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They had spent three months at the present site, producing an abundance of fossils, including several species of early birds, such as the Enantiornis martini and E. walkeri, Kizylkumavis cretacea, Kuszholia mengi, Lenesornis kaskarovi, were also found, as well as the usual examples of ancient tree trunks, pelecypods, beetles, sharks, rays, bony fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles, crocodylomorphs, and the occasional pterosaur. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All very interesting enough but McCalister was not a paleontologist. He was a veteran practitioner of paleontology’s sister branch of science, archaeology, the study of artifacts and remains, usually of human origen.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Muattar met him as he pulled to a stop. They spoke in a mixture of the native Uzbek language and Russian. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“When did you break through?” McCalister asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Last week. They were trying to get through a barrier of heavy rock when they discovered artifacts of a completely different period.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“How old do you think?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Twenty five hundred... three thousand...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Show me.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They walked several hundred yards through the maze of diggers busy at work, until they fell upon an open pit that ran about twelve feet deep.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
McCalister scurried down to the bottom and surveyed the current state of the dig. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Has the sediment been washed at all?” he asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No. We waited for you.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Good.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
McCalister stuck the upper part of his body into the small hole in the side of the pit and began picking around with a rock hammer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Until he saw something.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He dug out a small rock, or piece of rock, with something embedded in it.</div>
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He cleaned away at the piece, removing bits of hard clay until what he had became clear. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What he saw was a face.</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In Tashkent McCalister sat in a small, dirty, cafe. A small cup of bitter brown tea was brought to his table. The male waiter watched as he opened a small pendant full of pills and put one </div>
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into his mouth. He noticed the other’s leathered and work worn hands as they trembled slightly.</div>
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“Something else?” the waited asked. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No thank you,” McCalister replied.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He sat in the office of his colleague as what was found at the dig was being recorded. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
McCalister picked up the rock head he had found.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Evil against evil,” he said </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The man at the table looked confused. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Father...” he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then he noticed a clock’s pendulum had stopped of it’s own accord. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
McCalister stood up and walked toward the clock, looking at it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I wish you didn't have to go,” the man at his desk said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“There is something I must do.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
McCalister drove his jeep up to another, local dig site that had been worked years before. Two security guards rushed out of the lean-to office. McCalister waved to them and they slowly returned to whatever it was they had been doing.</div>
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McCalister walked up a rocky mound to see a statue of the demon Pazuzu, which also had the head of the small artifact he had found earlier.</div>
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He climbed to a higher point to get a closer look. </div>
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When he reached the highest point he was looking at the statue head on.</div>
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He heard rocks falling and turned around to see a guard watching him. Then he heard two dogs savagely attack each other. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He looked back at the statue as the wind picked up, and sand with it, until he and it were lost to waves of dusty obscurity.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Los Angeles</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mar 18</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was released from the LAC-USC hospital at 9am with a curious mixture of cracks, bruises and contusions. </div>
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All I was given for the intense pain was tylenol. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not even tylenol 3, which at least has a little kick to it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned home to my bed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy had turned the light on in the stairwell. All he had to do was flick a switch.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I felt sad.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Mar 20th 8am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was meditating, and just about to reach Nirvana and a true state of enlightenment, which would allow me, Rick Joyce from San Jose, to liberate all sentient beings (birds too!) from the pain and suffering that life bestows, liberate all from an endless cycle of rebirth, from the slavery and dependence of desire and ignorance, to show Trump supporters the errors in their judgment, to which they would actually listen to and accept, when they came.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I knew they were there because they knocked on my door. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The construction workers wanted to check the holes in my walls.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had eight!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They didn’t say they were going to fix or close any of them, they just wanted to reassure themselves that I had some.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Everybody who lives in the Las Americas has holes in their walls.</div>
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It’s an epidemic.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
March 28th 5pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I received one of those mysterious construction notices on my door this afternoon. They would come to fix the holes in my walls tomorrow.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was glad because the rats that live in the walls use those holes to stare at me at night. I can see their beady little red rat eyes glowing in the dark. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Rat surveillance. It exists. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I believe they even has their own form of some kind of rat NSA.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The renovation workers have a new little trick of turning the power off for a second or two without any fore-notice, causing my computer and TV to go out of whack, at which point I have to reboot them. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The workers think it’s funny as hell.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Oh yes, the stairs, which are inherently unsafe to begin with due to a half inch over hang on each riser (which serves no purpose whatsoever other than make it easier to trip on), are beginning to fall apart. Literally. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Parts of the stairs are sloughing off, coming apart altogether, making an inherently unsafe stairway even unsaftyier. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I E-mailed Tommy about it. He assured me he’d have the workers fix the problem.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On April 13th I sent Tommy the following E-mail:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Tommy, on the 27th of this month, Gudrun, one of the Garden Club ladies, is bringing her camera after which we're going to take some pictures of the ongoing renovation process, and we'd like to get some of the basement. Can you ask whoever's in charge of all of this if that would okay? This needs to be documented. Thanks, I appreciate it.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy replied the next morning.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Sorry, Corporate Office say No. Come down and I will explain.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At which point I replied</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Doesn't matter. I don't need the basement. And I can use the fact that the corporate office is involved and has denied me access. Thank you.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What are they trying to hide?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 15th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tax Day! Sleep in until 5:30, which was nice. I was planning on attending the <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-first-march-trumps-taxes.html"><i>Tax March</i></a> at Pershing Square at 10:00, and had many other things to do today, so got up and went to the showers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Only to find a folding table in the bathroom I usually use to shower in. I thought that rather odd as I usually find a regular, non-folding table in there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This wasn’t a small table. Oh no! This was a nice 5 foot by 2 in the middle of the room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, I’ve seen stranger things. I saw a goldfish eat a cat once. So I prepared to shower by turning the water on so it could cycle and get nice and hot... no water came forth in the shower. Water in the sink was working just fine, but nada in the shower.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Okay.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked downstairs to the 2nd floor shower. Hey, no table! Things were looking up.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I knew the lock didn’t work on the door, so anybody could walk in on me as I showered, but at this point I didn’t care. I checked the shower’s water, which came on, on the hand held shower head only. The stationary shower head on the wall was not putting forth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then I noticed that the ledge under the window where I usually place my shampoo and soap was actually smaller than the shower above me on the 3rd floor, so small my shampoo wouldn’t fit on it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Okay.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I endured the awkward process of washing my body and hair while having to hold the shower head.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got through fairly unscathed, then dressed before someone came in, and went back to my room, thankful that the showering process was over.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For today at least.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 16th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Another day has come upon us. Hallelujah! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I used the small “shower room only” this morning at about 4:45am. It’s right next to the restroom with the table in it. A simple rectangular cell like, 4 by 8 tiled room, with no toilet, no sink, no towel rack. No towel rack? Yeah, no towel rack.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is interesting to contemplate what the designers of this place had in mind when they designed it. I suppose they thought those who utilized this shower could at once wash themselves and their clothes, and the towel that they brought with them at the same time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How thoughtful!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I used the lever at the top of the door, the device that helps open and close the door, to hang up my clothes and towel, which worked, for today.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At least the shower was functional. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I left, on a whim, I checked the restroom next door, and behold! The table was gone. I checked the shower, and it was back on as well!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then as I left I noticed the folding table all folded up resting in the corner.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank God someone left it there... just in case it’s needed again. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 17th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They began building the elevator shaft on the second floor today. We had been given notice that residents who lived on the second floor would need to take a circuitous route to the back of the building, climb the stairs to the third floor, then walk to the front of the building to the main staircase in order to leave the Las Americas.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The renovation workers opened up the hallway on the second floor, just about at the half way point, and built a wooden box in which they worked. The hallway, which had previously been a straight forward hallway running through the length of the hotel, from north to south, did not exist anymore. Now, after the renovation workers had their way, one walking from the back of the building to front would encounter that wooden box blocking their path. The hallway had been expanded somehow, and you would need to walk around the wooden box to get to the main staircase. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s all rather exhausting.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 22nd</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wanted to shower before heading off to the<a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-second-march-science-and-cassini_54.html"><i> Science March</i></a>. Entered the bathroom and the table, folded in half, was laying flat on the floor right in front of the toilet. It had been leaning against the south wall all week, but now was flat on the floor. I picked it up and dragged it outside into the hallway and leaned it against the west wall.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That should take care of that!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 23rd</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The table was back in the restroom this morning, folded in half and in the shower. I removed it once again. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My 73 year old neighbor, Arnold came over to chat this morning and told me he attempted to use the shower next to the restroom with the table business, the one without a toilet or towel rack. He could not shower however due to the fact that someone had defecated on the floor. I believe Arnold used the term, “A huge s _ _ t!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I immediately began to wonder how I could blame this on the renovation workers or SRHT management. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m still wondering. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 24th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They began the elevator shaft on my floor today. The third floor. The best floor. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
How exciting!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 26th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of my creditors, Chase Rewards, tells me that they didn’t receive this month’s payment which means I have to pay them a little more than double my monthly bill in May. I called their customer service and they confirmed they hadn’t received it. I told them I would put a trace on the postal money order I had used to make the payment and if it turns out that they in fact did receive the payment and cashed the money order I would expect an appropriate credit to my account, plus the $5.95 it cost for the trace.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now I’ll find out if they got the payment, or I’ll get a refund on the original money order. One way or another I’m not getting screwed. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Of course if they took payments over the Internet like normal companies, and not through the mail, this would have never happened.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I suspect they make more money this way.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I walked to the post office to initiate the trace I left my reading glasses on the desk I had used to fill out the trace form. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is the second pair of reading glasses I’ve lost within the last week.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s as if someone... or something wants to impair my vision for some strange, dark, evil purpose.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After the post office I walked to the VA clinic on Temple and Alameda as they were having the annual Open House. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got myself a free hot dog (with bun and mustard!), some Ruffles potato chips, a small package of Chips Ahoy cookies, a Snack pack cup of chocolate pudding, and a green apple. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s as if some nefarious and evil entity wants me to get fat.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I then went to see my doctor’s nurse to get a vitamin B12 shot. Dr. Garcia, my doctor now that P.A. Brown has retired, had called me yesterday and told me my B12 was low and that I should come in a get a shot, and he would also mail some B12 pills to me. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well the nurse didn’t have any injectable B12 on hand. Neither did any of the other nurses on the floor. I certainly didn’t have any.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You’ll have to go to the pharmacy and get some,” she told me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
F _ _ k! I knew what that entailed. Go down, put in my order, and wait, wait, and wait.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went down, put in my order, and began waiting.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I continued waiting, and after I finished doing that I waited some more.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
More veterans came to the pharmacy and they began waiting. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But nothing was happening. We began to think the pharmacy personnel took off for lunch. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had been told that they would call my name when my B12 was ready (by that I mean picking up a small vial of injectable B12 and placing it in a bag). They never called my name. I could have sat in that pharmacy for the rest of eternity, until the Sun engulfed the earth 5 billion years from now and they still would not have called my name. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I eventually just got up and went to the “Pick Up” window and asked for my stuff and they gave it to me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s as if some one or some thing wanted me to die due to vitamin B12 deficiency. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went back up stairs and had the nurse shoot me up. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then on my way out I stopped by Susana Ochoa LSW’s office to amend my advance directive, or living will. She happened to be in and I made an appointment with her for next Monday to do just that... amend. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I figured that with all the stuff that was happening to me during the renovation process I might not make it to the end, so I thought appointing a person to make medical decisions for me if I were to be incapacitated was a prudent course of action. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did not choose my sister, as she would take me off life support ASAP. I choose my friend Mike instead. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I trusted him more than my sister, and this would give him something to do as he mourned my loss. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Next I’ll need to make a real will, and parcel out my various assets. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And I should do this soon. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t think I have a whole lot of time left.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
April 29th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It wasn’t a particularly hot day, the temperature in Los Angeles reaching 83 degrees (the historical average being 74 degrees for April 29th, which of course proves that global warming does exist), but it was hot enough. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On warm days like this I open the fire escape door, wedging a piece of brick between the back of the door and it’s frame. Since the renovators, in their wisdom, replaced the old hallway windows that could be opened and shut with windows that can not be opened and shut, the fire escape door is the only avenue we have that can be used for ventilation purposes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I opened it, as I have done countless times in the past.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned to my room to do whatever it is I do in there. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
About an hour later I walked down my hallway toward the stairs and noticed that the fire escape door was now closed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Huummm,” I said to myself. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I propped the door open once more and went about my business.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Only to discover it was closed a little while later.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I opened it again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I found it closed again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I opened it and stood around looking at it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It stayed open, so I went to my room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Only to find it closed a few moments later.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Open, closed. Open, closed. On and on. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It went on like this until 5am, at which point I gave up opened it once more and went to bed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I got up at six it was closed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Something decidedly odd was afoot.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May 12th 11am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The renovation workers turned the power off and on twice today, causing me to reboot my computer and TV twice.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The two occurrences occurred about an hour apart, and just to my little section of the building.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The second time it happened the power was out for five minutes. The thing is when this happens, as it does occasionally even when we’re not being renovated, you never know when the power will come back on. It could be a minute, and hour, or several hours. I once lived through a twelve hour blackout. Our rooms can get so hot that without an operating fan they are uninhabitable. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked to the third floor janitor’s room, where Jose keeps his magic mops and where the circuit breakers are located. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There didn’t appear to be any tripped breakers, and I was just about to leave when I heard voices emanating from the walls. Soft voices talking to each other.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I couldn’t really pinpoint where the voices were coming from, but they sounded nearby. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There was a hole on the back of Jose’s room which presumably the renovation workers had created and used. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Perhaps some workers were in there doing some construction business and talking about it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I looked through that hole, into the very depths of the Overloo... the Las Americas Residential Hotel, but did not see anything but the wooden spine of the building, sheet rock and dust, and nothing else. The building’s interior seemed to wind on into infinity, so much so that it made me a little dizzy to keep on looking. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned to my room and the power was back on. I began the computer reboot process for the second time. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May 14 1:33am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was watching David Lean’s “The Bridge on the River Kwai,” this Sunday morning when the power flickered on and off, causing me reboot yet again. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
WTF!? It was one thirty in the morning so this couldn’t have been caused by renovation workers. I attributed the disruption to North Korean hacking and continued to watch William Holding chit chat with Jack Hawkins for about ten minutes when the power flickered on off and on again. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
F _ _ k!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was not good! Any disruption in power around here is not good. I got out of my night gown and cap and put on my clothes to go check Jose’s room. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This time instead of finding disembodied voices I found one of my neighbors systematically shutting on and off all of the breakers two at a time, trying to find the one that controlled her room on the south side of the building, as her power was off. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Granted, most of the residents in the Las Americas were probably asleep, still this person felt little compunction in disrupting the power and lives of everyone who lived on the third floor. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is the world I live in.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At least in this instance the cause of the power disruption was known, and wasn’t caused by a general power outage, ghosts, or Kim Jong-un. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
None of the breakers seemed to be off yet my tenacious neighbor continued her search.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I can’t say as I blame her really. A night without electricity would suck. Not only that, it wouldn’t be very pleasant either.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I bid her adieu and returned to the vast and unforgiving jungles of World War II Ceylon.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May 16 6:12pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was working fiendishly at my desk when someone called me from my doorway. I looked around, as I am want to do on just such occasions, to find the tall young man, John, the SRHT employee who gave me money when the electricity in the kitchen was turned off, at my door.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He handed me a construction notice. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You’re working late,” I told him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes, I know,” he replied. He looked around nervously. “They make me.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Who makes you?” I asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I can’t talk about it. They have my family,” he added hastily before scurrying off. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The notice was dated May 17, 2017. So this was a genuine notice from the future, and would be so until midnight.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If only there was some way I could preserve the notice in it’s pristine, undegraded form. Then I could prove that time travel is possible once and for all!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But I can’t. God damn it! I just can’t. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The notice was addressed to Las Americas - All 2nd & 3rd Floor Units. It was from the mysterious and powerful Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff, whose mystery is only exceeded by their power.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The notice concerned our windows.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Dear Residents, You are being notified that in unit work has been scheduled for your unit for Wednesday, 5/17. The contractor will need access to your unit for approximately 5 to 10 minutes from 8am to 4pm to measure the windows in your unit. You will not need to vacate your unit when the contractor arrives to do the work, but you will need to allow them to enter your unit.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The notice ended with the now infamous epitaph: “Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding the work. We appreciate your cooperation. Sincerely, Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Of course there was no contact information provided, no way to contact the Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff, whoever or whatever they may be.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So, accordingly, after midnight, when the notice reverted to just a simple piece of paper, I began my preparations. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got up at 3:30am, showered and checked my E-mail, then began washing the walls that were a little dusty. While I was at it I washed the ceiling as well. I threw some bleach on the floor and scrubbed every inch, getting my neighbor, 73 year old Arnold who likes to rise early in the morning, to help me move my king size bed to one side as I cleaned the space it had occupied. I washed the window and the medicine cabinet’s mirrored surface. I moved all of the thousands of books off of their shelves and dusted and cleaned there then placed them back again. I vacated and cleaned the other shelves as well. Shelves that held my television monitor, dishes, condiments, candles, my calculator, sunglasses, medicine, flash drives, cell phone, and the water key for the garden. I cleaned the weird desk my computer sits on, held down by the unrelenting force of gravity. I cleaned the night stand that resides below it, and sorted out and adjusted the contents of it’s two drawers. I cleaned the actual computer. I emptied out my refrigerator and dresser and cleaned inside each. I shifted them around (with Arnold’s help) and cleaned the spaces where they normally rested. I cleaned the sink before helping Arnold with his room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then I loaded up all of my clothes, my sheets and pillow cases, packed them up and took the 18 bus into Boyle Heights, to the Laundromat they have on Whittier and Spence St. I washed all of my clothes, then changed into some newly cleaned pants, socks, and shirt, then laundered the ones I had worn to get to the Laundromat. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I ate a humongous breakfast sandwich from the nearby Carl’s Jr., despite the company’s past objectification of women in their ad campaigns. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Yes, I was that hungry. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finished, I took all of my clean stuff back home and stowed them in their appropriate places. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finally I was ready for people to visit my home.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 10am I put my office chair approximately four feet away from my door, which was cracked open to allow air in. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I sat and stared at my door willing the contractors to come, do whatever it was they were going to do, then leave, allowing me to get back to the vital work that I had assigned myself.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At 5pm I got up and put my chair back at my desk, then visited the restroom. I had been holding it in for quite awhile by then.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Southeast 1 Construction Notice</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Date</b>: May 22, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You are being notified that the kitchen will be shut down for construction for approximately one week, starting at <b>8am</b> on <b>Tuesday, May 30th</b>. You will not have access to the kitchen or the lockers during this time. Please remove any food in your locker before Tuesday, May 30th.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You will receive a $64 per diem for each day the kitchen is offline for this work because we realize how difficult it will be for you to eat on site.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A VISA debit card for 7 days’ worth of per diem will be distributed to each resident. <b>You can collect your VISA debit card at Unit #315 at the following times:<br /><br />Tuesday, 5/30 8 - 10am and 3 - 5 pm<br />Wednesday, 5/31 8 - 10am and 4 - 5pm</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
*Please note - you will need a valid photo ID to collect your debit card.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On May 26th we received another construction notice amending the construction notice of May 22nd. It let us know that work on the kitchen would not start until June 5th. The dates we could collect the debit cards changed as well, to June 5th and June 6th. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
$64 a day isn’t enough to make up for the loss of the toaster.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I will morn it’s loss... or buy my own, one of the two. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May 26th</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As I left the building to attend to some chores that needed attending to I was warned by one of my neighbors not to leave my door open. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Why?” I asked him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Big rats are coming up on the second floor, so don’t leave your door open.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Rats are on the second floor now?” I asked. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I prepared my room for a possible rat attack. Moat. Flame Thrower. Barbed wire. Catapult. Concussion grenades. sparklers, the works. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May 28</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The rats are getting bolder. I saw them in the kitchen today during daylight hours.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The walls are filled with the sounds of scurrying.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
May 29 Memorial Day</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At about 1:00pm I stopped writing about Marilyn Monroe to go downstairs to toast some bread. That’s the only reason I use the kitchen these days, ever since I bought my own microwave oven. The less I go down there the less chance the rats have of getting me, and the less contact I have with the new residents of the mysterious new program that Henry manages. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Miracle was down there... cooking away. Meat everywhere for the Memorial Day traditional meat fest. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I would see a meme on Facebook that day which showed a picture of flag draped coffins with the caption: “We don’t need any more “Happy” Memorial Days. We don’t need to celebrate it with hot dogs or mattresses or car buying. We need to stop sending our kids to war.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That would be good.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And my beautiful and esteemed yoga teacher <a href="http://bethprandiniyoga.com/"><i>Beth</i></a> would post a beautiful and esteemed picture of herself from Las Vegas where she was spending the weekend, with this caption: “I insist on documenting my buffet acquisitions. I offered to snap some pics for Sarah and Dasha, but they declined.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Buffet acquisitions.” She’s funny and wise for her young age.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I wondered who Sarah and Dasha were. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My wondering paid off as Beth posted the above picture (A28) a little later. That’s Sarah on the left and Dasha on the right making a sort of Beth sandwich. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I would reply stupidly, saying that so much beauty overwhelmed me and that I may need to commit seppuku to cope, seppuku being the Japanese traditional form of suicide by disembowelment. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A little over the top but one has to keep complimenting these girls as they tend to be insecure in general... just like Marilyn Monroe. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Miracle said she would give me a plate of meat but she never did. I think she had been drinking. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She did manage to utter something about Kevin, the assistant residence manager not being at work over the weekend, making it difficult to get the mail, or get back into to units after being locked out.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Maybe he’s sick,” I offered. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Tommy says he didn’t seem sick last Friday night! And Tommy can’t get him on his phone.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Tommy’s here?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You gonna give him a plate too?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“And nobody’s seen or heard from Kevin since Friday night.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah. That’s when I last saw him.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What was he doing?” I asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Uumm... he was going to the basement I think.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“The basement? By himself?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah. By himself.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I returned upstairs and monitored MSNBC hoping for actual news before the channel switched over to examine the latest trends in prison diplomacy via “Lockup.”. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw commercials for BP telling us how concerned they are for safety in general, and commercials for Trumpcare, telling me what a failure Obamacare was and how Trump’s healthcare proposals are going to make America great again by uninsuring 23 million people.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The oil company and the White House are just blatantly lying to the country through the complacent media. How does this happen?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I felt like throwing up, but continued working on Norma Jean’s transformation into Marilyn Monroe.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At least she was honest. You can say that about her.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 1st 12:37am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had gone to bed early, well, early for me, at 11, because I was tired. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But at 12:37am I woke due to a low frequency humming noise coming from outside my room. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I say noise, but it was more than that. A vibration would be a better description... with a low frequency thrumming, a rhythmic oscillation, a deep trembling, a pervasive resonance that permeated throughout my room and apparently the building beyond. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got up wondering what was going on. I dressed and walked out into the hall.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I couldn’t see anything until I turned the corner and faced the walled off elevator shaft. The noise seemed to be emanating from there. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The sound and vibrating was loud enough to have wakened everyone in the building, but I was the only one in the hall as I slowly approached.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A violet light issued from the holes and cracks in the plywood that housed the shaft which pulsated in sync with the vibrating auditory manifestations.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I looked down at my arms and the hair on them was standing on end. I felt my head and whatever little I had left up there was doing likewise. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I stopped right next to the enclosure, next to the window that looked out onto the night. Everything seemed normal out there... everything looked sane.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The vibrating seemed to increase reaching a marvelous crescendo, then abruptly stopped. The hallway became dark once more. Normality returned. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I went back to bed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 2</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I got sick. I had low level nausea enveloping my poor body. When I looked into my mirror I saw someone who had suffered a tragic sunburn on their face and arms. My nose began to bleed. I would endure severe diarrhea throughout the following week. Every time I combed my hair it would come out in fistfuls. It became difficult to move around and my hands would shake so much it became hard to even drink from a water bottle. I developed a 4mm raised corrugated papule on my right anteriolateral tongue with a flat surrounding leukoplakia. A rash that looked like Alfred E. Neuman manifested itself on my chest. My risk of bacterial, viral, and fungal infections heightened, I could feel it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went back to bed but could not sleep.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 5th </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Work began in the kitchen, and it was no longer available to us residents. It would be locked up at night and the window that looked in on it was papered over.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We still didn’t have a laundry room as well. What I couldn’t wash by hand in my sink I took to the Laundromat in Boyle Heights.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I guess that was okay for the time being. They give away free coffee from 6 to 7:30am!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 12 & 13 </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We were given notice that certain residents on the third floor would need to leave their units on the 12th and 13th so workers could finish up the floors outside of their units. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When a man knocked on my door on Monday the 12th to make sure I knew I had to leave I told him I couldn’t because I was sick.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“But you won’t be able to come out of your room, you know that right?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“That will be no problem.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I spent the day watching “The Paleface,” and Bob and Bing road pictures.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 12 thru 15th </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Work on the kitchen was extended from the 12th to the 15th. We got more money for the extension but I continued not to have access to the toaster.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In my room I watched “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CJ9EDtZ2p8"><i>The Money Pit</i></a>.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 16th 5am </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I felt good enough finally to get up and do stuff, like shower.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked to the bathroom, opened the door, saw something similar to picture A30 near the toilet, closed the door and returned to my room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had somehow lost my disabled bus pass and library card. The library card I could do without but I needed the pass in order to economically go to places in order to get stuff... like food.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I called the MTA’s special number that deals with disabled bus passes and asked them if they could send a replacement.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No. Your pass expired yesterday.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
F _ _ k!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I laid down for a minute and thought about what I had to do.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked north on Alameda to Union Station and picked up an application at the Metro Customer Service office. Then I walked the short distance to the VA Clinic to see my psychiatrist, Dr. Shaw. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Granted I had no appointment, and Dr. Shaw, a short brown man of Indian ancestry, is a stickler for protocol, but hell, it would take about one minute for him to fill out the medical section of my bus pass application, so I went to the mental health department and asked to see him. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Do you have an appointment?” the receptionist asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No. I just need him to fill out my bus pass.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She informed the good doctor I was there and soon I was in his office. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He said it would take a couple of days for me to get the application back.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“ You can’t give it to me today?” I asked. I really needed that pass.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He had me fill out a bus pass application application form and said he would mail it back to me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Mail it back...” I thought a moment. “I’ll be here on Monday for the depression drop in group, could I get it then?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He thought a moment, then said, “I’ll be gone in the afternoon on Monday... can you pick it up at, let’s say eleven?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes, I can do that.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was ready to leave when he asked plaintively, “How is the renovation going at your building?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It goes on and on. Why?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You haven’t seen or heard anything unusual have you?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Now that you mention I...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Forget it. I don’t want to know. I’ll see you Monday.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Ahhh, okay.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What a dick, I said to myself upon leaving, for making me wait. I mean supposedly he’s a good doctor and all, and I usually only have to see him twice a year, but he does suffer from an abundance of dickishness.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked from the clinic to downtown, 5th and Broadway, and bought some pants at the pants store, and some milk and vanilla ice cream from Rite-Aid.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Both of those commodities were treats for me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I felt I deserved a treat. I don’t know why. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Southeast 1 Construction Notice</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>To:</b> All Residents at the Las Americas</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>From:</b> Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Date:</b> June 16, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Re:</b> Kitchen Offline</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Due to unexpected delays, the kitchen will remain closed until <b>Friday, 6/23</b>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Each resident will receive $64 for each additional day of kitchen closure in the form of a VISA debit card. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s true we all would get money due to the construction crew's incompetence, but that’s really not the point... is it?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think I’ll take a vacation to Uzbekistan (birthplace of the lovely and talented<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGgdn4e7Oig"><i> Milana Aleksandrovna Vayntrub</i></a>, of AT&T Lily fame) with my money. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Either that or retire.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
June 18 Father’s Day Sunday</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After spending the morning attending a Father’s Day service and luncheon (turkey sandwiches!) at the world famous <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/search?q=Higashi+Honganji"><i>Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple</i></a> at Third and Central, I returned home. My friend Cliff was talking to some of his friends who were in a car at the curb.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Hi Rick,” he said expeditiously. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Hi Cliff.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I waited inside for him to finish up his business. He sells cigarettes and I wanted to buy some singles. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Why don’t you buy a whole pack,” he asked. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I don’t want that many.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh, I see. You’re tapering off. No problem. Don’t say another word.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We went to his room on the second floor where I bought nine cigarettes for three dollars. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He had been up since four that morning barbecuing various small parts of defenseless animals and ears of yellow corn. He offered me some. I, being the weak individual that I am, accepted.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Father’s Day is our holiday. It’s got nothing to do with bitches [females]. They’ve got every other holiday, but this ones ours.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m not a father but that didn’t seem to bother him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He gave me a cooked rib of some type, a sausage link of some type, and an ear of corn. ( I love corn on the cob, and have done so ever since I was a small child. My parents would feed them to me with some trepidation, knowing full well that left to my own devices I would eat until I threw up... which I had done so on several occasions). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I spent the afternoon writing and watching movies, “The Maze Runner,” being one of them. Around six the power blinked off and on, the second day in a row. This of course screwed up my TV and computer, so I had to reboot both. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s as if the building did this on purpose, just to mess with me, and was chuckling to itself in it’s dark recesses where I couldn’t hear it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I believe this to be true. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Near eight I ate what Cliff had given to me. It was good. A little messy, but good, especially the corn.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Instead of throwing the rib bone and corn cob in my own trash receptacle, I went into the hall to put them in the common garbage. One of my neighbors, a black guy about my age came out of his room at that time. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I opened the trash room’s door, but there was no trash can as there should have been. In it’s place was a rectangular box in the floor, filled with a foul liquid. The stench it gave off was nauseating. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Somebody put a dead dog in there,” my neighbor said before walking away. </div>
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I slammed the door shut and returned to my room. I felt no need to investigate further.</div>
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June 19 </div>
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The dead dog turned out to be some dirty foul smelling clothes emersed in dirty, foul smelling water. It was so bad the steadfast Jose complained to Tommy about having to clean it up.</div>
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I opened the fire escape door to get some clean air in the hallway. Ten minutes later it was closed.</div>
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I retrieved my bus pass application from Shaw at 11 then walked to the Metro Customer Service office at Union Station.</div>
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I took some pictures of myself at the picture machine and turned in the application.</div>
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“You’ll get your pass in the mail within six or eight weeks.”</div>
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“Don’t I get a temporary pass until then?”</div>
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“You’re not eligible when you get this filled out by a doctor.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes.”</div>
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Now how does that make any sense? Am I any less disabled than someone who submits using a social security award letter, or who is on Medicaid?</div>
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Hell no I say! I’m as disabled as the best of them.</div>
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I would take my revenge on MTA regulations by only paying half of the regular fair while pretending to be a senior rather than the youthful individual that I am.</div>
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Did I feel bad about circumnavigating lawful bus regulations.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No.</div>
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</div>
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June 20</div>
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<br /></div>
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I needed to wash my blanket, sheets and some pants, and wanted to get in on that free coffee at the Boyle Heights Laundromat, so left my house at 5:30am and stood near the bus stop at 6th & Central waiting for the next 18. </div>
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Someone was sleeping on the bus stop bench. They soon woke up, poked their head out of their blankets and looked around. It was a pretty, young black girl, early twenties, I’d say.</div>
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She got up and came over to me and asked if I could move.</div>
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“Excuse me?”</div>
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“I need to use the bathroom.”</div>
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I moved away and she proceeded to relieve herself in the trash receptacle they have there.</div>
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As Atticus Finch once said in “To Kill a Mockingbird, “I have nothing but pity in my heart for the chief witness for the state. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance...”</div>
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Well this young woman wasn’t a chief witness, and she probably didn’t have anything to do with mockingbirds, but I had the deepest sympathy for her.</div>
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How had she come to this? I had no idea.</div>
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<br /></div>
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June 22 </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After returning from the <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2009/03/hippie-kitchen.html"><i>Hippie Kitchen</i></a> with a container of lentils, I stopped by the window by the wall that encloses the elevator shaft, the same window I had looked through the other night before getting sick.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I young white woman was crossing Central and walking toward my building. She looked up and waved to me. I waved back. She smiled and continued on her way.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That made my day.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Later that night I heard that ominous humming, vibrating again. Not knowing any better I went out to investigate. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Instead of violet, the light emanating from the walls bordering the elevator shaft was of a deep orange. I placed my hand upon the plywood and felt the vibrations run through me. I walked around and to my surprise found a section of the panel had been removed which allowed access to the shaft. I poked my head in there and found my friend Cliff sitting on the edge of the precipice. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Cliff! What the f _ _ K are you doing in there?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Hey, Rick. Come on in.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I entered and took a seat next to him. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The light and vibration originated from the bottom of the shaft, which you couldn’t see really. If you looked down into it all that could be seen was the light streaming forth.</div>
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“Isn’t it beautiful?” Cliff asked me, a statement rather than a question.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I suppose. How long have you been here?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I don’t know.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Cliff had a glazed look about him, an expressionless expression on his face.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I wonder how deep it is?” he said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Well it can’t be that deep. The basements just two floors down. Let’s see.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I took a piece of brick that was nearby and tossed it in. Cliff smiled.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I looked down into the pit... I mean shaft, and saw the brick falling and falling until it fell from sight. We never did hear it reach a bottom.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I want to go in,” Cliff said. He stood up as if he were going to jump and I hurriedly pulled him away.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No, no, Cliff. You don’t want to do that.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes I do.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No you don’t. Let’s get you back to your room. Okay?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You mean leave here?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah Cliff. It’s time to go.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“But I’ll miss it.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I know Cliff. You can come back later.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I took him to his room and put him to bed. He fell asleep almost instantly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked back outside and returned to the shaft. It continued to pulsate and throw out that orange light, and for a moment, just a moment, I thought that I was looking into the bowels of hell.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2017/07/renovation-5.html"><i>Renovation 5</i></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-83363688727858305392017-06-01T00:54:00.002-07:002017-06-26T19:44:22.017-07:00Remembering Marilyn Monroe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
“Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die, young, but then you'd never complete your life, would you? You'd never wholly know yourself...”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIh6HDeXKGY"><i>A Delicious Breeze</i></a><br />
<br />
<br />
Picture Legend<br />
<br />
1. Marilyn<br />
2. “China Seas”<br />
3. Patricia (Kennedy) & Peter Lawford<br />
4. Singing “Happy Birthday” to JFK<br />
5. Cute Little Stoat<br />
6. That dress!<br />
7. Norma Jean’s birthplace<br />
8. Norma Jeane Mortenson<br />
9. Maternal grandmother Della Hogan holding her new granddaughter Norma Jeane<br />
10. Gladys age 16<br />
11. A Flapper, actress Louise Brooks (1927)<br />
12. Consolidated Film Industries<br />
13. Charles Stanley Gifford<br />
14. Ida and Albert Bolender<br />
15. Norma Jeane and the Bolender’s adopted child, Lester Carl<br />
16. Grace McKee<br />
17. Los Angeles Orphan’s Home with unknown lady standing in front<br />
18 Married with Jim Dougherty<br />
19. Norma Jeane and Bernice finally meet<br />
20. Norma Jeane at the airplane factory<br />
21. Where she made airplanes<br />
22. Early poses<br />
23. ^<br />
24. ^<br />
25. ^<br />
26. ^<br />
27. Marilyn as artichoke queen in Castroville, CA 1947<br />
28. Pageant Magazine <br />
29. Early pin up<br />
30. U S Camera Magazine May 1946<br />
31. And August of 1955<br />
32. June 1946 Laff Magazine<br />
33. More magazine covers<br />
34. ^<br />
35. ^<br />
36. You get the idea <br />
37. Emmeline Snively<br />
38. Marilyn Miller<br />
39. Marilyn in “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!” 1948<br />
40. Acting coach Natasha Lytess with Marilyn<br />
41. Marilyn with Johnny Hyde<br />
42. Marilyn’s May 1949 Red Velvet photo shoot<br />
43. Marilyn in “A Ticket to Tomahawk”<br />
44. With Dick Powell in “Right Cross”<br />
45. With Micky Rooney and somebody else in “The Fireball”<br />
46. Marilyn in “The Asphalt Jungle” 1950<br />
47. Marilyn with Bette Davis and George Sanders in “All About Eve”<br />
48. Dressed to present at the 23rd Annual Academy Awards (her movie was the big winner)<br />
49. Advertising in Collier's 1950<br />
50. Featured in Collier's 1951<br />
51. Marilyn with the Skipper, Alan Hale Jr in “Home Town Story”<br />
52. With Albert Dekker in “As Young as You Feel”<br />
53. With Macdonald Carey in “Let’s Make it Legal”<br />
54. Marilyn makes the cover of Life Magazine in 1952<br />
55. As the Grand Marshall of the 1952 Miss America Pageant parade<br />
56. Marilyn’s 1952 chest x-ray which sold for $45,000 at auction, probably bought by the U.S. Army<br />
57. Marilyn wearing underwear. These bloomers, which she wore in “The River of No Return,” were also sold for $45,000 at auction... again, the Army<br />
58. Publicity photo for “Clash by Night”<br />
59. With Richard Widmark in “Don’t Bother to Knock”<br />
60. In “We’re Not Married”<br />
61. With Cary Grant in “Monkey Business”<br />
62. With Charles Laughton in the “The Cop and the Anthem” segment of “O. Henry's Full House”<br />
63. In “Niagara”<br />
64. With Jean Peters and Max Showalter in “Niagara”<br />
65. Jean Peters in “Niagara”<br />
66. Jean again<br />
67. Marilyn about to be murdered<br />
68. S.E. Cupp<br />
69. What she wore at the 1953 Photoplay awards <br />
70. Joan Crawford<br />
71. In her next movie... something about blondes<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
She fantasized that Clark Gable was her father because she never knew who her real father had been.<br />
Norma’s mom, Gladys, possessed a picture of a man she had once dated on her wall. <br />
"He had a thin mustache like Clark Gable," she remembered. "I asked my mother what his name was. She wouldn't answer." <br />
When Norma was 9 years old she went to see a movie called “China Seas,” starring Gable and Jean Harlow (who would become a role model for her), and from that point onward Clark became "the man I thought was my father." <br />
<br />
“Reds. I took reds for about six weeks when I was a teenager and stopped without having to be prompted. Reds were alcohol in pill form, and I could get all of the effects that alcohol gave to me without having to drink. But it was too easy and sometimes I drank and dropped... took reds at the same time, and I knew that if I continued that crap I’d wind up going to sleep one day and never wake up. Man, reds. I haven’t thought about them for years. Reds... barbiturates... downers.” -Richard Joyce at a Drifters AA meeting, May 20th, 2017<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqolSvoWNck"><i>Happy Birthday</i> <i>Mr. President</i></a><br />
<br />
May 19th, 1962. <br />
It was a Saturday night in New York City’s Madison Square Garden (the third building to bear that name, and the only one that was not near Madison Square, being 3.2 miles uptown. It was demolished in 1968). The temperature that day had soared to 99 degrees, the hottest yet recorded for the fifth month of the year. Some relief occurred between 7:00 and 8:00pm when a thundershower moved through the city, dropping the temperature from 87° to 70°.<br />
The occasion was a fund raising gala for the Democratic Party. The night’s program included a celebration of John F. Kennedy's forty-fifth birthday, ten days before his actual birth-date on May 29th. 15,000 guests attended.<br />
It was the actor and in-law to the president, Peter Lawford, who had arranged for Marilyn Monroe to attend the festivities and to sing to Kennedy. Lawford had once dated her and Marilyn had became close to Lawford’s wife, Patricia Kennedy Lawford, through continued contacts. Peter, most probably, was the last person Marilyn would talk to in life.<br />
It was rumored that the president and Marilyn were in the midst of an affair, quite possibly involving sex of some nature. Some have stated that a full blown liaison had never occurred but that the two probably got together less than two months earlier at Bing Crosby’s house in Palm Springs on March 24th.<br />
What Bing was doing during this is anybody’s guess, although he reportedly spent a lot of time abusing his children.<br />
Marilyn and Kennedy had met at a dinner party in New York earlier that year, in February. Actress Arlen Dahl, who was at the event, recalled that "The President turned around and you could see that he was immediately attracted to her. 'Finally! You're here,' he said, with a big smile." <br />
What a smoothie.<br />
According to National Geographic correspondent Patrick Kiger, JFK was a “compulsive womanizer, whose insatiable urge for sexual conquest was fueled by a complex array of personal traumas – his own father’s conspicuous adultery, a difficult relationship with his mother, anxiety about his own health problems, his brush with death during World War II, and the deaths at a young age of his siblings Joe Jr. and Kathleen.”<br />
As a matter of fact it may have been Kennedy’s propensity for dalliance that contributed to his successful assassination at the hands of Lee Harvey Oswald.<br />
According to Journalist Seymour Hersh, “President Kennedy once told a friend, ‘You know, I get a migraine headache if I don't get a strange piece of ass every day.’ Apparently he didn't have many headaches. His affairs were legion. He even slept with one of his long time lovers in the Georgetown home he shared with his wife and two children the night before his inauguration. <br />
In September 1963, while frolicking poolside with one of his sexual partners, JFK tore a groin muscle. He had to wear a stiff shoulder-to-groin brace that locked his body in a rigid upright position. It was far more constraining than his usual back brace, which he continued to wear. The two braces made it impossible for JFK to bend in reflex when he was struck in the neck by a bullet fired by Lee Harvey Oswald. The president remained erect for the fatal shot from Oswald.”<br />
So it’s been pretty much confirmed that JFK was a huge asshole as far as women were concerned, especially to his own wife, who knew about the affairs, if you can call them that, but tolerated them, adopting the first “Dont’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.<br />
Kennedy was great at getting the ball rolling on going to the moon, and facing down the Soviets, but women, treating them with the dignity and respect that they deserved, not so much. <br />
Accordingly, for JFK Marilyn was just another conquest, or relief valve to be used and discarded. Marilyn, on the other hand, may have regarded her relationship with Kennedy as much more serious that it actually was.<br />
She was used to having her way with men, no doubt due to her pervasive personality. Kennedy was a man. Arguably the most powerful man on the planet, but still a man. And she wanted him.<br />
However, Kennedy’s friend Senator George Smathers believed that Marilyn, well "It wasn't a big thing as far as he was concerned." He told Ms Monroe’s biographer Barbara Leaming. To JFK, Monroe was "like a lot of the pretty girls who had fallen very much in love with the Kennedys, just by being around with him a little bit." <br />
Which precipitated a public rendition of “Happy Birthday.”<br />
Lawford was there to introduce Marilyn. True to form she didn’t show up on the stage until the third introduction.<br />
“I am invariably late for appointments - sometimes as much as two hours. I've tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.” <br />
Peter introduced her when she finally appeared in a spotlight on the stage. <br />
"Mr. President," Lawford says, leaning into the microphone, "the LATE Marilyn Monroe." <br />
She took off her white ermine (stoat (Mustela erminea), also known as the short-tailed weasel. Back in the sixties it was politically correct to kill defenseless little animals who just wanted to get on in the world they found themselves in and be left alone) fur coat revealing the dress she had to be sewn into it was so form fitting, and the audience gasped. <br />
About that dress. It was designed in 1961 by Jean-Louis Berthaulto who is an American fashion designer. It was especially created for Marilyn to attend the president’s birthday party. The dress is decorated with sequins that sparkle like diamonds. The original price was $12,000, but it was sold at an auction for $1.3 million.<br />
The president’s wife, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, had spent the day at the Loudoun Hunt Horse Show riding her horse Ninbrano in Leesburg, Virginia, with her children John-John and Caroline, so Marilyn sang as naughtily and suggestively as she wanted.<br />
Marilyn sang the traditional "Happy Birthday to You" lyrics in a sultry, intimate voice, with "Mr. President" inserted as Kennedy's name. She continued the song with a snippet from the classic "Thanks for the Memory", for which she had written new lyrics specifically aimed at Kennedy. "Thanks, Mr. President, For all the things you've done, The battles that you've won, The way you deal with U.S. Steel, And our problems by the ton, We thank you so much." <br />
Then she was spirited off stage.<br />
It’s hard to hear on the above clip but this is what Kennedy said after Marilyn’s performance: <br />
"I can now retire from politics after having had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome manner."<br />
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy had 552 more days to live, 1 year, 6 months and 3 days, before he was assassinated at age 46, at 12:30pm Central Time, on a Friday afternoon, in a motorcade parade, on November 22nd, 1963, in Dealy Plaza in Dallas, Texas.<br />
Marilyn only had 77.<br />
<br />
She was an L.A. girl, born Norma Jeane Mortenson at a very early age at 9:30am on this day 91 years ago. She was born about ten minutes away (4.6 miles via the mighty I-5 S and I-10) from where I’m typing this feverously on my little computer, at the USC Medical Center, or what is commonly known as the General Hospital, or the Death Palace as I like to call it. <br />
The year was 1926.<br />
She was the third child of Gladys Pearl Baker (maiden name Monroe).<br />
Gladys would outlive her daughter, living until 1984. <br />
Gladys was the daughter of two pre-Dust Bowl migrants from the Midwest who had migrated to California, the land of plenty. <br />
When she was fifteen she married John Newton Baker who was twenty four. She had two children by him, Robert, who died when he was sixteen (August 16th, 1933, probably due to tuberculosis of the kidneys), and Berniece, who as far as I know is still alive at 98 years old. <br />
When she was 19 Gladys filed for divorce. John took the children with him to Kentucky. For a while, Gladys visited them on an irregular basis, then completely lost sight of them.<br />
Three years later, in 1924, Gladys married her second husband, Martin Edward Mortensen, but they separated before she became pregnant with Norma Jeane by a different man and they divorced in 1928. <br />
Gladys was a flapper (Flappers were a generation of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior. Flappers were seen as brash for wearing excessive makeup, drinking, treating sex in a casual manner, smoking, driving automobiles, and otherwise flouting social and sexual norm. In other words, my kind of women) and worked as a film negative cutter at Consolidated Film Industries, which was acquired by Technicolor Inc. in 2000. <br />
In October of 1929 the Hollywood laboratories of Consolidated Film Industries exploded due to the flammable nature of the nitrocellulose film used at the time. One man was killed.<br />
It is not known if Gladys was present for this tragic event. <br />
It is often said that the identity of Marilyn’s father is unknown and that she used Baker as her last name. <br />
However, some speculate that Charles Stanley Gifford, an employee at Consolidated was Norma Jeane’s biological father. <br />
Displaying symptoms of mental illness Gladys was ill prepared to raise another young child. She was able to place her with foster parents, Albert and Ida Bolender, who lived in Hawthorne, about 15.4 miles from where Gladys worked in Hollywood. <br />
The Bolender’s raised their foster children according to the principles of evangelical Christianity (a worldwide, transdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity which maintains the belief that the essence of the gospel consists of the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement (in western Christian theology, atonement describes how human beings can be reconciled to God through Christ's sacrificial suffering and death)).<br />
“When I was five, I think, that's when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn't like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.”<br />
Gladys lived with the Bolenders for a while, driving to work in L.A. In 1927 she had to move back to the city as longer work shifts made it difficult for her to commute, and she saw Norma Jeane only on the weekends, taking her to the movies and places like the La Brea Tar Pits where the ice age mammals came to die, and Grauman's Chinese Theater where Norma would place her hands inside of the cement imprints of famous movie stars.<br />
By the summer of 1933 Gladys felt stable enough, was self aware enough, to have 7 year old Norma Jeane move in with her buying a small house in Hollywood. They had lodgers, an English family, actors George and Maude Atkinson, and their 20 year old daughter Nellie.<br />
“No one ever told me I was pretty when I was a little girl. All little girls should be told they're pretty, even if they aren't.”<br />
Shortly after moving in Gladys was rocked by the news that her grandfather, Tilford M Hogan, had hung himself on May 29th while his wife was out shopping. <br />
Shortly after that she learned that her son Robert had succumbed to his illness and passed away on August 16th. <br />
It has been reported that Gladys first reacted to this news by lashing out at her young daughter who wasn’t fairing so well emotionally herself. Gladys was soon overcome with depression and anxiety, and was continuously unable to care for herself and Marilyn.<br />
Throughout 1934 Gladys’ mental health deteriorated. She was constantly evaluated at the same General Hospital that Norma Jeane had been born in. Her friend, Grace McKee tried to take care of both Gladys and Norma Jeane but it soo became too much for her. She eventually persuaded Gladys to put the house up for sale for $4,500. <br />
Meanwhile 8 year old Norma Jeane spent her time playing with empty whiskey bottles. <br />
“I guess I must have had the finest collection of bottles a girl ever had. I’d line them up on a plank beside the road and when people drove along I’d say ‘Wouldn’t you like some whiskey?’”<br />
Gladys had a complete breakdown in January of 1935. Norma Jeane was in the kitchen having breakfast when she heard her mother yelling and screaming in the hallway while the Atkinson’s tried to calm her down. <br />
When Norma Jeane returned from school that day Gladys was gone. She was told that her mother was very sick, and that she wouldn’t be able to see her for a “long, long time.”<br />
“I figured my mother was really dead and they wouldn’t to tell me because they didn’t want me to cry. I didn’t know my mother was alive for many years.”<br />
Gladys wasn’t dead but might as well have been. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia on January 15th, 1935, and committed to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, about 22.8 miles southeast of Hollywood. <br />
Gladys spent the rest of her life in and out of hospitals, and was rarely in contact with her youngest child.<br />
Norma Jeane stayed in the care of the Atkinson’s until Grace removed her from that home feeling the child was being mistreated and possibly sexually abused. <br />
Always a shy girl, Norma Jeane now developed a stutter and became withdrawn. <br />
Soon after Grace met a man, Ervin Silliman Goddard, and they got married. Ervin (what kind of inhuman being would name their child Ervin?) wanted to bring one of his three daughters from a previous marriage back to live with them. Apparently there wasn’t enough room in the house for both girls and Grace sent Norma who was now 9, to the Los Angeles Orphans Home at 815 N. El Centro Avenue, Los Angeles on September 13th, 1935, where she became occupant number 3463.<br />
Norma Jeane stayed at the orphanage (which would change it’s name to Hollygrove and is now defunct) on and off for a period of almost two years. <br />
It is rumored that the window of Norma Jean’s dormitory, which she shared with 26 other girls, looked out upon the RKO Studio’s water tower and led to her dreams of someday becoming a world famous movie star. <br />
“I used to think as I looked at the Hollywood night, ‘There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me, dreaming of becoming a movie star. But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.’<br />
During her time at the orphanage she was shuttled between 9 to 11 different foster homes. <br />
“Some of my foster families used to send me to the movies to get me out of the house and there I'd sit all day and way into the night. Up in front, there with the screen so big, a little kid all alone, and I loved it. I loved anything that moved up there and I didn't miss anything that happened and there was no popcorn either.”<br />
She left the orphanage for good on June 12th, 1937, at which time she moved back in with Grace where she remained for about a year before being shuttled off to yet another family member. <br />
Two years later Grace brought Norma Jeane back home but Ervin attempted to molest her, and so she went to live with her uncle’s mother, Olive Brunings. Just after Norma Jeane’s 12th birthday she was assaulted by one of Olive’s sons and went to live with Grace McKee’s aunt, Ana Lower. <br />
“At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox [a clumsy, stupid person].”<br />
Norma Jeane was enrolled in Emerson Junior High School and was taken to weekly Christian Science services with Lower. While otherwise a mediocre student, she excelled in writing and contributed to the school's newspaper. After graduating from Emerson, she began attending Van Nuys High School... in Van Nuys, smack dab in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, which made her a bona fide Valley Girl. <br />
Natalie Wood, Norma’s future co-star Jane Russell, Robert Redford, Stacy Keach, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Erika Eleniak, Kim Darby, Tony Dow, Julie Brown, Ed Begley Jr., Diane Baker, Paula Abdul, famous football player Don Drysdale, and many other outstanding individuals also attended Van Nuys High.<br />
Several years later Ana developed health problems and Norma Jeane went back to the Goddards despite Ervin’s past efforts to seduce (if you can call it that) her. There she met a neighbor’s son, Jim Dougherty. <br />
In early 1942, the company that Goddard worked for required him to relocate to West Virginia. California laws prevented the them from taking Norma Jeane out of state, and she was faced with the possibility of having to return to the orphanage. Grace gave her a choice, either return to the orphanage or get married. Norma Jeane didn’t want to go back to the orphanage. <br />
Right after her 16th birthday, on June 19th, 1942, Norma Jeane married Dougherty. <br />
She subsequently dropped out of high school and became a housewife. She later stated that the "marriage didn't make me sad, but it didn't make me happy, either. My husband and I hardly spoke to each other. This wasn't because we were angry. We had nothing to say. I was dying of boredom."<br />
It was at about this time that Norma Jeane visited her her half-sister for the first time in Detroit. Berniece Baker was then Berniece Baker Miracle, having married Paris Miracle in 1938.<br />
In 1944 Jim enlisted in the merchant marines, which in hindsight was a fairly foolish thing to do while the country was at war (a little kerfuffle called World War II), if you wanted to stay alive that is. Take the example of many of our current and past presidents who managed to get out of military service that involved actual combat! It’s the prudent thing to do. <br />
Anyway Jim was called into active service and was initially stationed on Catalina Island, where they used to have a glass bottomed boat. Norma Jeane lived with him until he was shipped out to the Pacific in April of 1944. He would remain there for most of the next two years. After Jim took off Norma Jeane moved in with his parents and began working at the Radioplane Munitions Factory to participate in the war effort and to earn her own income.<br />
The Radioplane Company was an American aviation company which produced drone aircraft primarily for use as gunnery targets. While Norma Jeane worked there the Army sent a photographer, David Conover, to take pictures of women helping with the war effort (the Army was really perverted back then and took every opportunity to take pictures of unsuspecting women). <br />
“The first thing I knew, the lead lady and lead man had me out there having the Army taking pictures of me.They all asked where in the h... I had been hiding... They took a lot of moving pictures of me and some of them asked me for dates etc (naturally I refused!).”<br />
Indeed Norma Jeane was a very attractive girl, and as Marilyn Monroe, would become a world famous symbol of sex of some nature.<br />
Personally, I don’t see it myself. <br />
Norma Jeane wrote to Grace on June 4th, 1945:<br />
“After they finished with some of the pictures, an Army corporal with the name of David Conover told me he would be very interested in getting some color still shots on me. He used to have a studio on "the strip" on Sunset. He said he would make arrangements with the Plant superintendent if I would agree. So I said okay. He told me what to wear and what shade lipstick etc. So the next couple of weeks I posed for him at different times (...) He said that all the pictures came out perfect also he said that I should by all means go into the modeling prof. He also said that I photographed very well and that he wants to take a lot more. Also he said he had a lot of contacts in which he wanted me to look into.<br />
I told him I would rather not work when Jimmie was here so he said he would wait so I'm expecting to hear from him most any time again.<br />
He is awfully nice and is married and is strictly business which is the way I take it. Jimmie seems to like the idea of me modeling so I'm glad about that...”<br />
Conover suggested Norma Jeane apply for a modeling position at the Blue Book Model Agency.<br />
She signed a contract with that agency in August of 1945, and moved out of her in-laws home, against the advice her her in-laws and her husband. <br />
She began to occasionally use the name Jean Norman (or Jean Adair. One of the two) when working, and dyed her hair blonde as apparently gentlemen prefer blondes, and this would get her more work... which it did. <br />
Because she was so... curvy, she was deemed more suitable for pin-up photographs than fashion modeling, and was featured mostly in advertisements and men's magazines. No, not Hustler and Jugs, but wholesome men’s magazines such as Pageant, U.S. Camera, Laff, and Peek (I don’t know about that last one). <br />
According to the agency's owner, Emmeline Snively, Norma Jeane was one of its most ambitious and hard-working models she had encountered and by early 1946, she had appeared on 33 magazine covers. <br />
Norma Jeane was an avid reader, something she and I had in common. She owned 200 books (including Tolstoy, Whitman, and Milton), listened to Beethoven records, studied acting at the Actors' lab in Hollywood, and took literature courses at UCLA in Westwood. <br />
Emmeline arranged a contract for Norma Jeane with an acting agency in June of 1946. After an unsuccessful interview with producers at Paramount Pictures, she was given a screen test by Ben Lyon, from 20th Century-Fox. The head of Fox at the time was Darryl F. Zanuck who was also unimpressed but gave her a six month contract in August anyway so his rival, RKO Pictures wouldn’t get her. <br />
Norma Jean and Lyon selected the stage name "Marilyn Monroe." The first name was picked by Lyon, who Norma Jeane reminded him of Marilyn Miller, one of the most popular Broadway musical stars of the 1920s and early 1930s. The last name was picked by Marilyn after her mother's maiden name.<br />
In September of 1946, Grace arranged a divorce from Dougherty who had been against Norma Jean having a career. <br />
In December of 1947 Marilyn’s first movie was released, “Dangerous Years.” The movie delt with something like Jeff Carter putting an end to his town's delinquency with a boys' club. And then young hoodlum Danny shows up and screws everybody over, like teenagers Doris, Willy and Leo. They hang out at the Gopher Hole, a juke joint where Evie (played by Marilyn) works. Then Jeff tries to stop a robbery planned by Danny, he is killed and Danny goes on trial... on and on. <br />
Poor Jeff. He was only doing what he thought was right.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLry09h8h-s"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
Marilyn also got an uncredited role in “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda-Hay!” a classic love triangle film.<br />
She had one line which was “Hi Rad!"<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrRr3h0GWqQ"><i> Here’s </i></a>James Haspiel, a friend of Marilyn’s, making sure you saw her in the movie. <br />
Yes, the little girl in the clip was a pre-Van Nuys High Natalie Wood, and that was not Marilyn’s film debut, as “Dangerous Years,” came out before “Scudda-Hoo! Scudda Hay!” and Marilyn had a much more substantial role in Years.<br />
Of course you probably recognize the pretty blonde in the film standing next to Natalie as the lovely and talented June Haver. I certainly did. <br />
The lovely and talented Academy Award winning actor Walter Brennan was also in the movie.<br />
I know what you’re thinking but it’s true. The terms "scudda hoo" and "scudda hay," refer to commands used to drive mules, and roughly correspond to “left” and “right.”<br />
I’ll leave it to you to decide why someone would want to title their motion picture after mule commands. <br />
They very well could have been cat commands but the end result would no doubt have been disastrous.<br />
Marilyn’s contract was not renewed in August 1947, and she returned to modeling while also doing occasional odd jobs at the studio.<br />
But she was determined to be a working actress. She continued studying at the Actor’s Lab, and she appeared briefly in a play at the Bliss-Hayden Theater in Beverly Hills.<br />
She visited producers offices and became friends with the gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky, and entertained (if you can call it that) influential males who were connected to the studios. <br />
She became a friend and occasional sex partner of Fox executive Joseph M. Schenck, who in return we’ll say, persuaded his friend Harry Cohn, the head of Columbia Pictures, to sign her in six month contract in March of 1948. <br />
Marilyn took acting lessons with the German actress, writer and drama coach Natasha Lytess, who would continue to work with Marilyn until 1955 (some say, certainly not me, that the two had an ongoing affair for those 7 years. I say “Good for them!”).<br />
Her hairline was raised by electrolysis and what was above that line was bleached even lighter, to platinum blond.<br />
Marilyn was featured as Peggy Martin in 1948‘s “Ladies of the Chorus.” This was her first major part, and besides from getting to sing 3 numbers, her stage persona began to crystallize, the persona of a very attractive, wise woman, with a touch of innocence, vulnerability, and a penchant towards the comedic. The film was considered a “B” picture at the time (until Marilyn became famous, and it was reissued), and disappeared from theaters very quickly. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvzS5i5J2s"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKWAcu3YbYk"><i>here</i></a> she sings in a movie for the first time. <br />
Marilyn’s contract with Columbia was not renewed. <br />
She left Columbia in September of 1948. In 1949, Johnny Hyde, the Russian American talent agent who was then vice president of the William Morris Agency, met Marilyn when she was being photographed by Hollywood pin-up photographer Bruno Bernard at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs.<br />
Johnny took her on as a client and had her undergo minor plastic surgery (a silicone prosthesis implanted in her jaw and a rhinoplasty (nose job). Their relationship became sexual and Hyde proposed to her several times but she refused. <br />
Johnny got her a bit part in a Marx Brothers film, 1950‘s “Love Happy.”<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P9S-N3IV10"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip. Although her part was really small, Groucho (or maybe Harpo, or all four of the buggers) liked her enough to have her participate in the film's promotional tour in New York. <br />
But the realities of a young actress struggling in Hollywood weighed heavily on Marilyn. She didn’t have any money. She didn’t have food and needed to make a payment on her car. <br />
The photographer Tom Kelly approached her about a nude photo shoot, and she turned him down at first, concerned about the potential negative effects that such publicity could bring her burgeoning career. At that time nude photographs didn’t seem appropriate for young actresses. These days the ladies in the film and TV industry can’t seem to get their clothes off fast enough, and no one cares about seeing them nude really except me and Fox Molder. <br />
Marilyn still needed some cash and a few days later she gave in and decided to take the photos signing them, Mona Monroe.<br />
She joked that she was glad she wasn’t eating much at the time because it gave her “a real washboard stomach” in the photos.<br />
“All of her constraints seemed to vanish with her clothes,” Kelly said, and that she seemed to be more “herself” in the nude (actually throughout her life Marilyn was notorious for walking around without clothes on and in front of others... just like me!) <br />
I’ll give you a moment to get the image of me naked out of your head.<br />
<br />
Okay, let’s move on.<br />
Kelly even went as far as to say that she was “graceful as an otter,” otters being known for their wet gracefulness. <br />
Marilyn got $50 for the shoot (about $500 in today's dollars), and despite the pictures gaining massive popularity (Hugh Hefner used some of the pictures to launch Playboy Magazine), she never received any more money or royalties for that job. <br />
1950 also saw Marilyn in an uncredited role in “A Ticket to Tomahawk,” a western musical comedy with Anne Baxter and her old buddy Walter Brennan. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luuA1i9Iy-w"><i>Here’s</i></a> a song from the film about a forward young man. <br />
She also appeared that year in “Right Cross,” another love triangle movie with June Allyson, Dick Powell, and the future Mr. Roarke on “Fantasy Island," and Kirk’s nemesis Khan, Ricardo Montalban. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkLOh9lkBko"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip with Powell, Marilyn and Ricardo.<br />
She also appeared as Polly in “The Fireball.” Here’s Ed Stephan’s synopsis: “Johnny runs away from Father O'Hara's orphanage and becomes a roller skating star with the help of Mary Reeves. He becomes involved with women, including Polly, who only love him because he is a champion, not, as with Mary, out of love for him. Then he gets polio." <br />
What a bummer! Ah man, that sucks. I’ve had polio more times than I’d like to remember and it’s no joke! Poor, poor Johnny (my apologies to the 37 reported cases of Poliomyelitis reported in 2016, and all of those who suffer from this horrendous disease). <br />
The film stars Mickey Rooney, Pat O'Brien, and Beverly Tyler. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VhibI1dMbU"><i>Here’s</i></a> a non-polio clip. <br />
1950 also saw Hyde using his considerable influence to help Marilyn win the role of the gangster’s moll Angela in John Houston‘s “The Asphalt Jungle,” which has since been considered one of the most influential crime films of the 1950s. It starred Sterling Hayden, before he got involved with precious bodily fluids, and was shot in throat by Al Pacino in “The “Godfather.”<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPLWFGi6yI0"><i> Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
The film also starred a pre “Them,” Miracle-Gro and “The Shawshank Redemption,” James Whitmore, and a post “Gunga Din,” and a pre “The Day the Earth Stood Still," and “Ben Casey,” Sam Jaffee, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work.<br />
A review in Photoplay stated: “This brutally frank story of crime and punishment in a Midwestern city was directed by two-time Academy Award winner, John Huston—son of the late Walter Huston. John's pictures are usually grim (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre), but always dramatic and exciting. This time he exposes the behind-the-scenes details of the robbery of a jewelry store... This picture is packed with stand-out performances... There's a beautiful blonde, too, name of Marilyn Monroe, who plays Calhern's girl friend, and makes the most of her footage.”<br />
The director Joseph L. Mankiewicz saw her in “The Asphalt Jungle,” and fell under her spell. He put her in his “All About Eve,” (1950), which starred Bette Davis and Anne Baxter as Eve, along with the future Mr. Freeze, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, Barbara Bates, Gary Merrill, and Thelma Ritter (who Marilyn would work with again in her final finished film, “The Misfits,” in 1961). The story concerned an ingénue (the ingénue is a stock character in literature, film, and a role type in the theater; generally a girl or a young woman who is endearingly innocent and wholesome. Marilyn did not play the ingénue) who insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKhyLCjIpvw"><i>Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
This was Marilyn’s first really important role and the movie was a huge success, being nominated for 14 Academy Awards (a feat only matched by the 1997 film “Titanic” and the 2016 film “La La Land”). It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Sanders), Best Screenplay, Best Sound Recording, and Best Costume Design, Black and White.<br />
It made some money as well costing $1.4 million to produce and made $8.4 million, which was a lot of money back then. In todays dollars that would be like $14,322,237.29 to make, and returning $85,933,423.73. <br />
That’s a pretty good profit for a movie without sinking ships and a tracking shot of people singing and dancing on the Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange (Judge Harry Pregerson is an acting Senior judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. No one knows why this interchange was named after him... not even the judge).<br />
After Marilyn’s relative success and exposure in Asphalt and Eve, Johnny Hyde was able to negotiate a seven-year contract with 20th Century-Fox that December. Just a few days after securing the contract, he died of a heart attack at the age of 55.<br />
Marilyn was devastated as her friend and benefactor was now gone, but she shouldered on. <br />
In March of 1951 she was a presenter at the 23rd Academy Awards (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2V-u9pBjQg"><i>here’s</i></a> the clip), and in September, Collier's became the first national magazine to publish a full-length profile of her.<br />
Then 20th Century placed her in 4 supporting roles in 4 low budget films. They loaned her to MGM for “Home Town Story,” about “After failing to be re-elected, politician Blake Washburn returns home and becomes editor of the local newspaper. When he notices the influence the paper has on the public, he uses it to appeal to potential voters in the next election,” and starring Jeffrey Lynn, Donald Crisp, and Marjorie Reynolds . <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI3vGX7Fv2o"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip with the Skipper. <br />
And three moderately successful comedies for Fox, “As Young as You Feel (the time honored story of a 65-year-old printer who hatches an elaborate scheme to avoid forced retirement. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0o2l9yc0w"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip),” “Love Nest (“Two married New Yorkers purchase an old, run-down building full of colorful tenants,” starring Monty Woolley, Thelma Ritter again, and David Wayne. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0o2l9yc0w"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip),” and “Let's Make It Legal (with Claudette Colbert, Macdonald Carey, Zachary Scott, Barbara Bates, which concerned the nearly-final divorce of the Halsworths which suddenly gets complicated when Miriam's old flame comes to town.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am3vckGe8c0"><i> Clip</i></a>).”<br />
Marilyn’s publicity and popularity were growing. She was now getting thousands of fan letters in the mail a week, some of them with inappropriate suggestions. She was declared "Miss Cheesecake [a display of the female form, probably wearing little clothing, often in photographs] of 1951," a dubious honor bestowed by the Army newspaper Stars and Stripes, reflecting the preferences of soldiers in the Korean War (freaking Army pervs).<br />
She was dating famous men, such as the director Elia Kazan (who never bothered to put her in one of his movies), Nicholas Ray, baldy Yul Brenner, and Lawford.<br />
Gossip columnist Florabel Muir named her the "It Girl" of 1952 and Hedda Hopper described her as the "cheesecake queen" turned "box office smash." <br />
She began a highly publicized romance with retired New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio (nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" by Paul Simon, and "The Yankee Clipper," who was an American Major League Baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15 – July 16, 1941), a record that still stands. DiMaggio was a three-time MVP winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons. During his tenure with the Yankees, the club won ten American League pennants and nine World Series championships).<br />
It is said that on their first date Marilyn told him, “I don’t know a thing about football.”<br />
In April of 52 a scandal broke out when she revealed in an interview that during 1949 she had posed for nude pictures which were featured in calendars.<br />
Fox executives had learned of the photographs some weeks earlier, and to contain the potentially disastrous effects on her career, Marilyn and the studio decided to talk about them openly while stressing that she had only posed for the photos while she was in a dire financial need.<br />
The strategy succeeded in getting her public sympathy and caused a huge backlash toward President Harry S. Truman’s economic polices which were blamed for causing Marilyn to take such drastic measures, and no doubt led directly to his downfall in the General election of 1952... that, and the newly ratified 22nd Amendment.<br />
This so-called scandal had the effect of increasing interest in her films, and in May Marilyn was featured on the cover of Life as "The Talk of Hollywood".<br />
Marilyn was complicit in building her reputation as a sex symbol with certain publicity stunts, such as wearing a revealing dress when acting as Grand Marshal at the Miss America Pageant Parade (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElPcGlCYq8A"><i>clip</i></a>), and by stating to gossip columnist Earl Wilson that she usually wore no underwear (again, like me!) even though it was none of his business. <br />
I find the statement she made to Wilson rather odd as I find pictures of Marilyn in her underwear all the time!<br />
I can understand her self promotion as a symbol. It gave her a degree of power within the industry, and helped to ensure her continued success, or at least her ability to work. <br />
But she wanted more. <br />
In the summer of 1952 she appeared in two commercially successful dramas. The first was Fritz Lang's “Clash by Night,” for which she was loaned to RKO and played a fish cannery worker; to prepare, she spent time in a real fish cannery in Monterey (as did I!).<br />
The film starred Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Ryan, and Paul Douglas, and concerned “Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.” <br />
Oh my!<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXPhLgSxbwo"><i> Here's</i></a> a clip.<br />
Marilyn played Peggy. She received positive reviews for her performance. The Hollywood Reporter stated that "she deserves starring status with her excellent interpretation", and Variety wrote that she "has an ease of delivery which makes her a cinch for popularity."<br />
Both statements were true.<br />
That rascal Darryl Zanuck wanted to test Marilyn’s abilities in an even heavier dramatic role as a crazed babysitter in “Don’t Bother to Knock,” which also featured Richard Widmark, and Anne Bancroft. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_ziEvS4BAw"><i>Here’s </i></a>a clip.<br />
This film was the precursor to the “Insane Babysitter” genre. <br />
Monroe's three other films in 1952 continued with the type casting of her in comic roles that focused on her physical appearance. <br />
In “We're Not Married!,” she starred as a beauty pageant contestant, and according to screenwriter Nunnally (Nunnally?) Johnson the part was created solely to "present Marilyn in two bathing suits."<br />
And a lot of other girls as well (this film was produced by the United States Army). <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MjDlhVdEog"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip. <br />
The movie also starred Victor Moore, Ginger Rogers, Fred Allen, David Wayne and Paul Douglas again, Eve Arden, Eddie Bracken, and Mitzi Gaynor.<br />
Marilyn would work with Ginger Roberts once more in “Monkey Business,” along with Cary Grant. The film concerned out of control drug use among America’s elite.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nYq3QUih88"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip. <br />
“O. Henry's Full House” was a 1952 American anthology film made by 20th Century Fox, consisting of five separate stories by the American short story writer O. Henry (William Sydney Porter. God, I hate pseudonyms).<br />
Recalling Marilyn’s days as a cannery worker wanna be in “Clash by Night," she got John Steinbeck, my favorite writer (“Cannery Row" being my favorite book) to make a rare film appearance in which he introduced the five different stories. <br />
Marilyn appeared in the first segment, "The Cop and the Anthem," along with Charles Laughton and David Wayne... again. <br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temSJCZwUlU"><i> Here’s </i></a>the segment. <br />
Laughton would succumb to renal failure 133 days after Marilyn died. <br />
It has to be said that Marilyn was beginning to gain a reputation for being difficult to work with, which increased over time. She was quite often late, or didn’t show up, or couldn’t remember her lines. She relied on her acting coaches so much that it distanced her from the directors she was working with. <br />
Some say, certainly not me, that wanting to be perfect in her work, low self esteem (like me!), stage fright, and lack of control attributed to her behavior. <br />
Being late, not showing up, not remembering lines, and other aspects of this type of conduct would be more than enough to get most actresses or actors fired from existing projects, let alone trying to find work in the industry in the future.<br />
But Marilyn was becoming a phenomena, and everybody wanted to be associated with her, and she was making the studios tons of 1950's dollars. <br />
So she got away with it. <br />
She began to use drugs to lessen her anxiety and chronic insomnia. She used barbiturates, amphetamines and alcohol, which most addicts will happily tell you does practically nothing to help solve one’s problems. You’ll escape those problems for a little while, but they’ll still be there when you sober up. <br />
And you’ll have an awful headache.<br />
Anyway, Marilyn’s next film was the noir murder drama, “Niagara (in Technicolor!).” It also starred Joseph Cotten, Howard Hughes 2nd wife Jean Peters, and Max Showalter. <br />
Marilyn was given first billing in “Niagara” which elevated her to star status. However, Jean Peters part was longer, meaning she had more screen time than Marilyn, and frankly her part was more interesting than Marilyn’s, so in my humble opinion Ms Peters was the star of the movie.<br />
Full disclosure... I’ve become smitten with Ms Peters and was sad to hear the she passed away in Carlsbad, California (no relation to the caverns) in 2000 from complications with leukemia ( I would have given her my blood if I had known). <br />
FYI, our friend, Journalist, killer of fish, and rampant sex symbol in her own right, S.E. Cupp, was born in Carlsbad, CA. <br />
I especially admired Jean after learning that she was known for her resistance to being turned into a sex symbol, and preferred to play unglamorous, down-to-earth women.<br />
I mean I love Marilyn and all but she was quite a handful. <br />
In any case, according to Sarah Churchwell, author of “The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe (2004),” “Niagara” was one of the most overtly sexual films of Marilyn’s career, as it included scenes in which her body was covered only by a sheet or a towel, which was considered shocking by audiences in 1953. Its most famous scene is a 30-second long shot of Monroe shown walking from behind with her hips swaying, which was heavily used in the film's marketing.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70KVvC4LzFU"><i>Here’s</i></a> that walk. <br />
I’m not only shocked but am appalled as well!<br />
When Niagara was released in January, women's clubs protested that the film was immoral, as it clearly was, but the movie proved popular with audiences and grossed $6 million at the box office ($54,663,849.06 now). While Variety deemed it "clichéd" and "morbid", The New York Times commented that "the falls and Miss Monroe are something to see," as although Monroe may not be "the perfect actress at this point ... she can be seductive – even when she walks".<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7YNDm8jXAs"><i> Here’s</i></a> a non-walking scene.<br />
Marilyn continued to attract attention with her revealing outfits in publicity events, most famously at the Photoplay awards in January 1953, where she won the "Fastest Rising Star" award.<br />
The actress Joan Crawford described Marilyn’s behavior as "unbecoming an actress and a lady" to the press.<br />
She was just jealous. Crawford would look horrible in that dress. <br />
And at that point any publicity was good publicity for Marilyn.<br />
Her next film involved dancing and singing and blondes. <br />
Something about gentlemen preferring them to other forms of females. <br />
That’s just ridiculous.<br />
<br />
To be continued <br />
<br />
<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-28127761883705343932017-04-27T18:46:00.002-07:002017-05-03T23:58:27.697-07:00The Second March, Science... and Goodbye Cassini<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.<br />
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.<br />
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.<br />
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.<br />
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.<br />
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994<br />
<br />
<br />
Picture Legend:<br />
<br />
1.Our home<br />
2. Saturn<br />
3. Cassini<br />
4. Saturn’s rings<br />
5. The Pale Blue Dot. The Earth, as seen from Cassini through the rings of Saturn, 870 million miles distant. This picture was taken April 12th, 2017, 10:41pm PDT. If you look hard enough you can just make out the southern Atlantic Ocean.<br />
6. Titan in natural color. The thick atmosphere is orange due to a dense organonitrogen (any compound in which an organic group is directly linked to a nitrogen atom) haze<br />
7. Being assembled<br />
8. On the launch pad<br />
9. Venus flyby<br />
10. Flyby of the Moon<br />
11. Jupiter<br />
12. The moon Io transiting Jupiter<br />
13. Arriving at Saturn July 1st, 2004<br />
14. Huygens probe descending to Titan’s surface<br />
15. Huygens in the surface<br />
16. Pictures from Huygens, Titan’s surface<br />
17. Saturn’s north pole<br />
18. Hyperion<br />
19. The small moon Epimetheus in front of smog-enshrouded Titan, with Saturn's A and F rings stretching across the picture<br />
20. Iapetus<br />
21. Rhea transiting Saturn from Cassini’s point of view<br />
22. Enceladus<br />
23. The moons Cassini discovered: Methone<br />
24. Pallene<br />
25. Polydeuces<br />
26. Daphnis<br />
27. Anthe<br />
28. Aegaeon<br />
29. And S/2009 S 1<br />
30. Cassini’s picture of Earth taken July 19th, 2013. That’s me on the left<br />
31. Cassini’s last picture of Titan taken April 21st, 2017<br />
32. Like Silly Putty? Thank science<br />
33. Like computers? Thank science<br />
34. Like cell and smart phones? Thank science<br />
35. Like guns? Thank science<br />
36. Inhofe and his snowball<br />
37. Inhofe and his BS<br />
38. Scott Pruitt<br />
39. Thom Hartmann<br />
40. Sun Demon<br />
41. Joyce’s Take correspondent Cara Santa Maria prepares for the March for Science by visiting the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History!<br />
42. Hanging with my girl Lucy<br />
43. “I got to take a selfie from the stage at the March for Science in DC”<br />
44. I am so thrilled to be here at the March for Science with all my fellow science lovers!!<br />
45. Bill Nye, the Science Guy<br />
46. The March... signs Washington D.C. <br />
47. More signs<br />
48. Poets<br />
49. Dancing dinos<br />
50. Alchemists? <br />
51. The rest of the country<br />
52. Signs<br />
53. ^<br />
54. Will, a 10-year-old from Connecticut, told BuzzFeed News he thought Trump's environmental laws are "foul" and "completely awful and totally unfair."<br />
55. Signs<br />
56. ^<br />
57. ^<br />
58. Daisy, a 10-year-old wearing a polar bear sweater and wolf ears, said she was "marching for wolves."<br />
59. Alternative Facts?<br />
60. Signs<br />
61. ^<br />
62. ^<br />
63. ^<br />
64. Brynn, a 9-year-old from Maine, said she came to the New York march because she "believes in science." <br />
65. Signs<br />
66. ^<br />
67. ^<br />
68. ^<br />
69. ^<br />
70. ^<br />
71. ^<br />
72. ^<br />
73. ^<br />
74. 12-year-old John from Buffalo said he doesn't "think it's right that our president should be turning a blind eye or telling outright lies about what is going to happen in our future."<br />
75. Los Angeles<br />
76. ^<br />
77. ^ That’s me on the left<br />
78. Portland<br />
79. Pittsburgh<br />
80. Chicago<br />
81. London<br />
82. ^<br />
83. Germany, Bonn<br />
84. Berlin<br />
85. ^<br />
86. ^<br />
87. Vancouver<br />
88. Barcelona<br />
89. Brazil<br />
90. Calgary<br />
91. Iceland<br />
92. Dresden<br />
93. Melbourne<br />
94. Paris<br />
95. ^<br />
96. Alesund Norway<br />
97. San Diego<br />
98. In Washington, DC,11-year-old Luis Fabish told BuzzFeed News he wants to be a mechanical engineer when he grows up, and that he and his dad are building a car from scavenged parts.<br />
99. Garrett Reisman<br />
100. Reisman driving a battery-powered Hummer at the front of the March for Science satellite rally in Los Angeles <br />
101. A statement to live by<br />
102. Cassini approaches gap between Saturn and rings<br />
103. Cassini’s path<br />
104. Cassini’s last moments<br />
105. About to crash into Saturn<br />
<br />
<br />
Last Saturday, April 22nd, was Earth Day here on the Earth. <br />
Various events were held around the planet to demonstrate support for environmental issues.<br />
Before 1970 there wasn’t any Earth Day because nobody cared about the Earth back then. But in 1970 we started caring about it and we thought up Earth Day as a way to demonstrate our caring attitude about the place where we live. The only place we have lived, the only place we currently live, and the only place we are likely to live for the foreseeable future, as Dr Sagan so eloquently put it above. <br />
Earth Day is an old friend of ours. We’ve talked about here on Joyce’s Take twice, <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-day.html"><i>here</i></a> and <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2015/04/earth-day-2.html"><i>here</i></a>.<br />
This year April 22nd is also the date the Cassini robotic spacecraft made it’s last flyby of Titan, the planet Saturn’s largest moon.<br />
Before December 25th, 2004 Cassini was called the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft because the Huygens lander was attached to it. On Christmas day 2004 Huygens separated from Cassini and began to make it’s way to the surface of Titan, (Titan is 50% larger than our Moon. It is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, after Jupiter's Ganymede, and is larger than the smallest planet, Mercury , if you consider Pluto a dwarf (the term “Little Planet” is actually more politically correct), which I do not).<br />
Giovanni Cassini was an Italian astronomer who discovered the first of Saturn’s moons. Christian Huygens discovered Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. While Cassini saw the bulge around Saturn in his initial observations, it was Huygens who correctly identified them as rings.<br />
This was Cassini’s final opportunity to observe the moon close up, to peer through Titan’s dense atmosphere (the only moon in the solar system to have one) using it’s radar to glimpse the lakes and seas (the only moon to have those) of liquid hydrocarbons that spread across the northern polar region. <br />
The close approach happened at 2:08am EDT, which was 11:08pm last Friday, April 21st PDT, my time. <br />
Cassini passed Titan 608 miles above it’s surface, which is pretty darn close astronomically, at a speed of 13,000 mph, which is faster than a roller coaster.<br />
After Friday Cassini will orbit the ringed planet 22 more times before taking a death dive into it on September 15th, which will mark the end of the mission as there will no longer be a Cassini.<br />
Jonathan Lunine, the director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, who has worked on the Cassini mission since the 1980s, is in denial.<br />
“I think it is too early to eulogize Cassini on the occasion of its death, as incineration is five months away," said.<br />
Don’t worry about him. He needs to go through the five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, parts of the framework that makes up our learning to live with that which we have lost. <br />
The total cost of Cassini was about US$3.26 billion, including $1.4 billion for pre-launch development, $704 million for mission operations, $54 million for tracking and $422 million for the launch vehicle. The United States contributed $2.6 billion (80%), the ESA (European Space Agency) $500 million (15%), and the ASI (Italian Space Agency) $160 million (5%).<br />
The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft was launched on October 15th, 1997 (19 years, 191 days ago) aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40, and entered orbit around Saturn on July 1st, 2004 (the first robotic spacecraft to do so), 12 years, 297 days ago, after an interplanetary voyage that included flybys of Earth, Venus, and Jupiter. <br />
Huygens landed on Titan on January 14th, 2005. There it successfully returned data to Earth, using the orbiter as a relay. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System.<br />
After launch Cassini performed two gravitational-assist flybys of Venus on April 26th, 1998, and June 24th, 1999. These flybys provided the space probe with enough momentum to travel all the way out to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where the Sun's gravity pulled it back into the inner Solar System.<br />
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!" -Cassini-Huygens<br />
On August 18th, 1999, at 03:28 UTC, Cassini made a gravitational-assist flyby of the Earth. One hour and 20 minutes before closest approach, Cassini made an approach of our Moon at 377,000 kilometers, and it took a series of calibration photos.<br />
On January 23rd, 2000, Cassini performed a flyby of the asteroid 2685 Masursky, gave it a little kiss, and then continued on to Jupiter. <br />
Cassini made its closest approach to Jupiter on December 30th, 2000, and since it was already there it performed a whole bunch of science stuff. It took around 26,000 pictures of the solar system’s largest planet, it’s sissy rings (compared to Saturn), and it’s moons during the six month flyby. <br />
Then it moved on to Saturn.<br />
Cassini-Huygens had its first flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, on July 2nd, 2004, a day after orbit insertion.<br />
After a two-and-a-half-hour descent Huygens landed on solid ground on Titan. Although Cassini successfully relayed 350 of the pictures that it received from Huygens of its descent and landing site, a software error failed to turn on one of the Cassini receivers and caused the loss of another 350 pictures.<br />
Huygens had no more than three hours of battery life, most of which was used during the descent. Engineers expected to get at most only 30 minutes of data from the surface.<br />
Cassini continued on with it’s mission, which was extended several times (it’s original mission objectives were fulfilled in 2008). Cassini had several objectives, including: determining the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of the rings of Saturn, determining the composition of the satellite surfaces and the geological history of each object, determining the nature and origin of the dark material on Iapetus's leading hemisphere, measuring the three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior of Saturn’s magnetosphere, studying the dynamic behavior of Saturn's atmosphere at cloud level, and study the time variability of Titan's clouds and hazes, and characterize Titan's surface on a regional scale.<br />
Cassini has discovered 7 moons... and it took a lot of pictures... and still is<br />
On July 19, 2013, Cassini was pointed towards Earth to capture an image of our planet and it’s Moon, as part of a natural light, multi-image portrait of the entire Saturn system. The event was unique as it was the first time NASA informed the public that a long-distance photo was being taken in advance. NASA doesn’t usually do that because it doesn’t want anyone to know what’s it’s up to, but they felt good about this one time, and so they spread the word.<br />
The imaging team said they wanted people to smile and wave to the skies, with Cassini scientist, Carolyn Porco, describing the moment as a chance to "celebrate life on the Pale Blue Dot."<br />
Another picture of our planet was taken this month.<br />
A lot of people wonder why it is we spend so much money on outer space when we have so many problems here at home on Earth. Global warming, over fishing, deforestation, animal and insect extinction, the need for rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, the ridiculous costs of education and pharmaceuticals. On and on. <br />
We’ve got a lot of problems that need to be addressed, that is very true.<br />
But space exploration has proven to be cost effective.<br />
The exploration of space has created new markets and new technologies that have grown our economy and changed our lives in many ways. <br />
Here’s a list of some or the activities space technology has made possible:<br />
Red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are growing plants in space and healing humans on Earth. Infrared ear thermometers which weigh only 8 ounces and uses infrared astronomy technology to measure the amount of energy emitted by the eardrum, takes your temperature the same way the temperature of stars and planets is measured. Artificial limbs: NASA’s continued funding, coupled with its collective innovations in robotics and shock-absorption/comfort materials are inspiring and enabling the private sector to create new and better solutions for animal and human prostheses. Ventricular assist devices: collaboration between NASA, Dr. Michael DeBakey, Dr. George Noon, and MicroMed Technology Inc. resulted in a lifesaving heart pump for patients awaiting heart transplants. Anti-Icing Systems, the cell phone camera, clean energy technology: the company that developed the space shuttle’s main engine is using the expertise gained to create clean energy technology that would decrease carbon emissions by 10 percent, the equivalent of taking 50,000 cars off the road. Scratch-Resistant Lenses, water filtration and purification, CAT scans, hand-held vacuum cleaners, air-cushioned training shoes, fire fighter breathing apparatus, blankets for marathon runners, groove cutting for safer runways, pill transmitters, faster racing cars, the roof of the Millennium Dome, personal storm warning systems, better sunglasses, the potential to preserve priceless art, car crash technology, longer golf shots, plane wing-tips, freeze-dried meals, baby food, warm feet, increased understanding of the beginning of life, anti-gravity' treadmills, hang gliders, straighter teeth, heat-absorbing sportswear, life support for patients, intelligent underwear, detection of forest fires, plant research, chromosome analysis, diminished trash, better skiing, better brakes, improved air quality, a possible end to water shortages, more competitive swimming, the self-righting life raft, home blood pressure kits, hydraulic rescue cutters, satellite television, voice-controlled wheelchairs, mine-clearing technology, long-life tires, eye screening, personal alarm systems, Silly Putty, and literally a couple of other things. <br />
The list above mentions a few of the benefits of just space exploration alone, and does not take into account the many benefits mankind (and womankind) has reaped from science in general... like space exploration and the scientific method which allows us to discover what is true in nature and what is not. Electricity, advances in medicine, eradication of disease such as smallpox, mouse traps, robotic space probes, manned space missions, the International Space Station, weather forecasting, crab fishing, air travel, submarines, hydrogen bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles, telephones, clothes, transistors, Higgs bosons, atomic structures and models of DNA and therefore genetics, lasers, e-mail, refrigeration, vaccines, smart phones, cable T.V., computers, chain saws, garbage disposals, pens, printing presses, telescopes, microscopes, guns, Twitter, whipped cream, radio, sun screen, planes, trains, and automobiles. <br />
I could literally go on for about fifteen minutes.<br />
“Do you prefer one branch of science over another because you think its discoveries will be more useful in coming years? Consider that in hospitals, every machine with an on/off switch that diagnoses your health without first cutting you open, is based on one or more principles of physics, discovered by physicists and chemists who had no specific interest in medicine. This includes the MRI, PET scans, CT Scans, EKGs, EEGs, ultrasound, and of course, good old fashioned X-rays. So if you defund one line of research in favor of another, you thwart the entire moving frontier of discovery. In the end, nature cross-pollinates all sciences, so perhaps we should too.<br />
To reclaim America’s greatness, anyone with business acumen could think of science investments within our various government agencies as the R&D of a corporation called the USA. Science is not a Liberal Conspiracy. It’s not even bi-partisan. Science is a fundamentally non-partisan enterprise that serves us all. Without it, watch America fade from relevance on the world stage, as we gasp for an era of scientifically enlightened governance to rise once again.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson<br />
Despite all of the benefits that science has bestowed upon us we still have global warming, over fishing, deforestation, animal and insect extinction, the need for rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, the ridiculous costs of education and pharmaceuticals to contend with.<br />
If it’s not one damn thing it’s another.<br />
These problems are of worldwide significance and if continued to be ignored, or played lip service to, it is at our own peril. <br />
Part of the difficulty addressing some of these issues is that those currently in power, for one reason or another, refuse to admit they exist, such as the warming of the planet and it’s attendant difficulties, i.e., rising ocean levels, acidification of said oceans, worldwide drought conditions, fires, extreme weather events, etc.<br />
Global warming and climate change are real. The scientific debate about climate change has ended, largely because it's been an obvious, observable reality for decades, and that humans (us) are causing warming global temperatures, and the other problems that come with it. <br />
Our president, Donald Trump, has tweeted dozens of times about how he does not accept the overwhelming scientific evidence that climate change is real. <br />
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” - 6 Nov 2012 (I say prove it!)<br />
“They only changed the term to CLIMATE CHANGE when the words GLOBAL WARMING didn't work anymore. Come on people, get smart!” -14 Jul 2014 (I say prove it!)<br />
“Just out - the POLAR ICE CAPS are at an all time high, the POLAR BEAR population has never been stronger. Where the hell is global warming?” 29October 2014 (This tweet is a testament to bullshit)<br />
“Record low temperatures and massive amounts of snow. Where the hell is GLOBAL WARMING?” -14 February 2015 (He’s confusing weather with climate, a favorite tactic of climate change deniers)<br />
“Russia is on the move in the Ukraine, Iran is nuking up & Libya is run by Al Qaeda, yet Obama is busy issuing ‘climate change” warnings.” -7 May 2014 (Yeah, Stupid Obama is worried about the greatest threat to ever menace man (and woman) kind. What a dumb ass!)<br />
On and on. <br />
Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma thinks global warming is a hoax because he can make a snowball.<br />
“In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, do you know what this is,” Inhofe said to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was presiding over the Senate’s debate, as he removed the snowball from a plastic bag.<br />
“It’s a snowball. And it’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.” <br />
“We hear the perpetual headline that 2014 has been the warmest year on record,” he said, referring to a report from the previous month from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the NASA. <br />
“But now the script has flipped,” he said of the unseasonably cold weather.<br />
Again, weather is much different than climate. <br />
The new Trump administration is proposing drastic cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, NOAA, NASA and other agencies. Information about climate change and environmental protection is being scrubbed from government websites, and scientists are being muzzled. Meanwhile, the government is increasing spending on military and nuclear weapons programs.<br />
Trump’s, EPA Administrator , former Attorney General of Oklahoma, Scott Pruitt, and their allies in Congress have proven their hostility to the role of science at the EPA and their willingness to heed the requests of polluters. Here are the top seven ways Trump’s EPA is attacking science:<br />
Administrator Pruitt rejected decades of science to keep a dangerous pesticide on the market.<br />
The EPA is full of climate science deniers, starting at the top.<br />
President Trump determined that climate change has no cost.<br />
President Trump has proposed drastic funding cuts to the EPA’s scientific research.<br />
President Trump and Congress want to slash the EPA’s scientific expertise.<br />
Rep. Lamar Smith wants to block the EPA from using sound science to set pollution standards.<br />
President Trump has failed to hire scientists throughout the government.<br />
It is rumored that Opendata.epa.gov, the U.S. government's largest civilian-linked data service, storing crucial information on climate change, life cycle assessment, health impact analysis and environmental justice, could face shut-down this Friday (4-28-17), according to people familiar with the plan.<br />
The U.S. House of Representatives voted last Friday to pass a resolution to undo a measure that would cut air pollution, prevent the waste of taxpayer dollars, and curb climate change-causing pollution.<br />
The Bureau of Land Management’s methane waste prevention rule aims to limit venting, flaring, and leaking of methane the main component in natural gas, from oil and gas operations on public lands. The House is seeking to use the Congressional Review Act to repeal the rule, in what many see as a continued escalation of the most significant congressional attack on environmental rules and standards in American history.<br />
Repealing the rule is expected to result in the waste of $330 million in taxpayer-owned gas annually, and reduce direct payments to the public by $800 million over the next decade, analysis shows.<br />
“Those in Congress working to overturn guidelines that will reduce methane pollution would be taking money away from American taxpayers and removing protections for Americans’ health and the environment,” Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society, said in a statement.<br />
“More than $1.5 billion in natural gas has been pointlessly burned and sent into the air since 2013,” Williams said. “It defies common sense for Congress to allow companies to waste our resources and ditch basic safeguards limiting the release of harmful methane pollution.”<br />
By the way, methane traps up to 100 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide within a 5 year period, and 72 times more within a 20 year period. <br />
President Trump signed legislation ending a key Obama administration coal mining rule last March which puts an end to the Office of Surface Mining's Stream Protection Rule, a regulation to protect waterways from coal mining waste. <br />
Environmentalists supported the administration rule, saying it would protect waterways from pollution and preserve public health. <br />
When Trump signed the bill into law he said the regulation was "another terrible job killing rule" and said ending it would save "many thousands American jobs, especially in the mines, which, I have been promising you — the mines are a big deal."<br />
"This is a major threat to your jobs and we’re going to get rid of this threat," he added. "We’re going to fight for you."<br />
“If you want to help miners, then come address their health and safety and their pension program,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said during floor debate on the measure. <br />
Trump’s budget for NASA would be cut from roughly $19.3 billion to $19.1 billion, redirecting funds from the study of our own atmosphere in accordance with his climate change denial policies.<br />
Energy Secretary Rick Perry is wondering if solar and wind development is making the nation’s electricity grid less stable, and has significantly altered its websites on renewable energy, removing references on how clean energy technologies can reduce the nation's reliance on fossil fuels and help lower climate-changing emissions.<br />
The DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, which could face deep funding cuts under Trump's budget proposal, has made "extensive changes and reorganizations" on websites for the Bioenergy Technologies Office, the Wind Energy Technologies Office and the Vehicle Technologies Office, according to the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), a coalition of academics and nonprofits that has tracked changes to federal websites ever since Donald Trump took office.<br />
I would suggest to Sec Perry that what is making the nation’s electricity grid unstable is the grid itself, which badly needs to be overhauled as a matter of infrastructure investment. The grid is also prone to being hacked. <br />
What’s the problem with republicans? Why are they so opposed to fighting climate change and global warming? Don’t they breathe air like the rest of us? Don’t they like clean water to drink? If they don’t breathe air or drink water what about their children? What kind of world will republicans bequeath to their progeny. Why don’t they care?<br />
For those who are nominally human, I suppose money has a lot to do with it. Here’s an excerpt from an article by the Union of Concerned Scientists last January when Pruitt was still a nominee.<br />
“The two dozen nonprofit groups and Senate committee members defending Scott Pruitt, President Donald Trump's nominee for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, have at least two things in common.<br />
Like Pruitt, they're climate science deniers. And, like Pruitt, most of them are funded by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who own the coal, oil and gas conglomerate Koch Industries.<br />
That funding helps explain why they all consistently misrepresent the scientific consensus on climate change. After all, money buys influence and since 1997, Koch foundations have paid a network of think tanks and advocacy groups more than $88 million to spread climate science disinformation—more than twice what Exxon, the second-biggest denier-network funder, has spent. Likewise, Koch Industries has contributed $38.5 million to federal candidates over the last 25 years and spent another $117 million since 1998 on lobbying.<br />
Pruitt has consistently fought for the corporate polluters that have financed his political campaigns, dismantling his office's Environmental Protection Unit, halting efforts to reduce poultry manure in Oklahoma waterways, opposing a wind energy transmission line and suing the EPA 14 times to block stronger air, water and climate safeguards that would better protect Oklahoma families and communities.”<br />
My, my. This doesn’t sound like a viable nominee that will head the EPA if one was serious about protecting the environment.<br />
Just the opposite.<br />
Senator Jim Inhofe has received an astounding $1,671,521 in contributions to his campaign committee and Leadership PAC from the oil & gas industry over the course of his political career, including $489,250 in the 2014 election cycle alone. Among his top contributors are individuals and political action committees associated with... guess who?! Koch Industries!<br />
Murray Energy is also a major contributor. It is the largest underground coal mining company in America, which has sued the EPA multiple times and has an outspoken climate changer denier as CEO.<br />
Oil companies ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, Exxon Mobil, and OGE Energy are also among the top Inhofe contributors over the course of his career. Maybe they like Inhofe’s outrageous claims, such as calling the EPA a “Gestapo bureaucracy”, and saying that “those individuals from the far left want us to believe it’s because we are contributing CO2 to the atmosphere, that’s causing global warming. It’s all about money.”<br />
Well he has that last sentence right.<br />
The elitist radio host, author, entrepreneur, progressive political commentator, and former psychotherapist, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/bizarre-experience-watching-cable-news-america-earth-day?akid=15458.204705.ZJYpu5&rd=1&src=newsletter1075946&t=17"><i>Thom Hartmann</i></a> says, “There are huge profits to be made in poisoning us and our Earth, and the people profiting from that have and are funding politicians, ‘think tanks’ and PR firms, and television networks (via advertising), to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades. The people denying science are doing so because of the cash.<br />
Why the hell won’t anybody say that out loud? <br />
ExxonMobil, we now know, has known about the damage their products were doing to our planet since at least the 1980s. Instead of changing their business plan, they began to directly and indirectly fund climate-change-denying groups in a big way. The Kochs aren’t idiots, yet their network of corporate and billionaire funders is one of the main sources of money to politicians like Pruitt and, presumably, Trump (in the largest sense).<br />
We are being poisoned for profits, and the scientists who are pointing this out are being shut down. And in the case of high-profile scientists like <a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/aaron-huertas/michael-mann-responds-to-misleading-filings-in-climate-change-lawsuit-641"><i>Michael Mann</i></a>, even subject to extraordinary levels of harassment.”<br />
So money is a large motivating factor... direct payments, or in the form of campaign contributions. <br />
Politicians are also vulnerable to good old fashion blackmail. Due to the <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/01/day-democracy-died.html"><i>Citizens United</i></a> decision handed down by the Supreme Court in January of 2010, an unprecedented amount of money can be thrust into political campaigns. This implies politicians can and are bought and sold at the donors whim. They are subject to pressures associated with attempting to be re-elected running against an opponent who is being financed by outside interests due to the fact that they are willing to do the bidding of their donors. In other words, do what powerful interests want you to do, or face being thrown out of office.<br />
There is also a psychological factor involved. When men and women spend so much time and effort in promoting lies and falsehoods due to ideology, they invest so much of themselves into these lies and falsehoods that they begin to merge with them. Their worldview becomes the lies that they tell, and they begin to believe those lies as being the truth. <br />
President Trump being a prime example. <br />
And the attacks continue seemingly unabated.<br />
Other areas of science have been all but abandoned by Trump. The president has yet to nominate administrators for NASA and the NOAA, nor to appoint his own science adviser.<br />
John Holdren, science adviser during Barack Obama’s presidency, said Trump had “shown no indication of awareness of the role of science and the role of science in government”.<br />
“Scientists are understanding that they have to become activists, that they have to speak up, that they have to be heard,” he said. “The message isn’t, ‘Please save our jobs.’ Scientists would be in another line of work if they were just interested in their salaries. If funding for science is slashed, all of society will lose out.”<br />
Several famous voices have joined the cause. <br />
“Science has always been political. Attacks on science don’t just hurt scientists, they hurt scientists’ ability to protect the people. I don’t want science to be partisan,” Bill Nye, a prominent engineer and TV personality, told the Guardian.<br />
“Objective truths have become set aside and diminished and lawmakers are acting like a strong belief in something is as valid as careful peer review.”<br />
Nye said science was in a “dangerous place” but hoped the march would help nudge Trump to a more amenable position.<br />
“The president changes his mind quite frequently,” he said. “We want to influence the people who influence him. That’s our goal for the march.”<br />
What march?<br />
The march for Science of course. Last week we marched for Trump to release his tax returns. Did he do that? No. <br />
Why not?<br />
Who knows? I certainly don’t. <br />
There’s probably nothing illegal associated with his returns or we would have heard from the IRS by now.<br />
But there’s more than likely personal and professional information within them that might be embarrassing for our president, such as his unsavory business ties, and the fact that’s he’s only worth 3.5 billion (according to Forbes Magazine) rather than the 10 billion he’s always mouthing off about.<br />
We’ll find out eventually.<br />
The Tax March was successful in that it annoyed our president to no end, which is a good thing. It prompted him to tweet this: <br />
“I did what was an almost an impossible thing to do for a Republican-easily won the Electoral College! Now Tax Returns are brought up again?”<br />
And<br />
“Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over!”<br />
One has to wonder what winning the election has to do with wanting to see his tax returns... it doesn’t have anything to do with anything!<br />
But in Trump’s mind the two are inexorably linked. I suppose in Trump World he believes that having won the election he can say and do whatever he wants without opposition. <br />
He is wrong.<br />
By the way... I’m still waiting for my marching money. I wish whoever is in charge of paying all of us, 5,000 in L.A. alone, would hurry up about it. I need to do some laundry.<br />
But back to the Science March.<br />
On their website the Los Angeles March for Science states their core issues are :<br />
<br />
MARCH FOR SCIENCE LOS ANGELES CELEBRATES THE CRUCIAL ROLES SCIENCE PLAYS IN DRIVING OUR ECONOMIC GROWTH, PRESERVING OUR ENVIRONMENT, AND PROTECTING THE HEALTH OF OUR CITIZENS. WE UNITE AS A DIVERSE, NONPARTISAN GROUP TO CALL FOR POLICYMAKERS TO CHAMPION AND FUND SCIENCE THAT UPHOLDS THE COMMON GOOD AND TO ADVOCATE FOR EVIDENCE-BASED POLICIES IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST AT LOCAL, STATE AND NATIONAL LEVELS.<br />
<br />
Facts matter<br />
Government that ignores science endangers the world. Legislative decisions must be informed by both constituent needs and evidence-based fact. Policy should reflect our best understanding of scientific issues, adhering to scientific consensus.<br />
<br />
Science costs<br />
Velcro, penicillin, CRISPR… When fundamental research is invested in, discovery and innovation follow. A robust commitment to public science funding is critically important.<br />
<br />
Right to know<br />
Scientific research findings must remain transparent; communicated without omission or alteration. The primary employers of scientists (the tax-paying public) should benefit from their investments.<br />
<br />
Like last week the march was to begin at Pershing Square.<br />
And it’s a good thing too, as when I arrived at exactly 9:00am, there were already four to five thousand people there. <br />
Which pleases me. Folks seem to be much more interested and enthusiastic about science than <br />
Trump’s tax returns.<br />
Buffalo Springfield’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjSpO2B6G4s"><i>For What It's Worth</i></a>,” was playing over a loud speaker as I entered the park from the south. Food trucks lined the west side of Hill Street, and booths were set up.<br />
Again, there were mostly white people there, of all ages and sexes. There were short people there. Long people. People with hair. There were young people as well as old people. There were people there of an indiscriminate age. <br />
Today was supposed to be the hottest day of the week in L.A. which gave most of the young girls an excuse to wear as little clothing as possible (as if they needed an excuse). <br />
“For What It's Worth,” turned into Led Zeppelin’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0NFaQcTJsg"><i>Ramble On</i></a>.”<br />
It literally took me fifteen minutes to make my way from the south end of the park to the northern end, where the stage was located, due to the throngs of people who were blocking my way. <br />
I found a little empty spot near a plastic trash can where I could sit or stand without being bothered by the crowd around me. <br />
It was wonderful.<br />
As I did last week I will go ahead and list some of the signs I saw people carrying, without warning. <br />
So here goes a couple.<br />
“The Oceans are Rising and So are We!”<br />
“There is No Planet B”<br />
There was a “Lost and Found” booth. An “Information” booth. An “Official Apparel” booth.<br />
“Female Arachnologist - I Bite Back!”<br />
“Science not Silence”<br />
“Twitter Wouldn’t Exist Without Science” <br />
It was getting really hot. 90 degrees I discovered later.<br />
But there was no shade and I felt like a bug under a magnifying glass.<br />
I saw sun demons circling above. <br />
I also saw Babysitting and Registration Booths<br />
So one could conceivably drop one’s baby off and forget about it until the end of the day’s festivities.<br />
Pretty cool.<br />
“Trump Should Thank Science... It Created His Hair!”<br />
“Ramble On,” was replaced with The Clash’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN1WwnEDWAM"><i>Should I Stay or Should I Go</i></a>.”<br />
I got a headache due to a man dressed as an American Indian beating a drum. <br />
American Indian’s are very involved in science. many people don’t know that.<br />
“Proud to be for Science - Embarrassed that I Need To”<br />
“Black Matter Lives”<br />
“A Book of Science is Like a Jar of Secrets Behind the Magic of Our Universe”<br />
“Make America Green Again”<br />
“Science is not a Belief System”<br />
“Climate Change is Not Fake News!”<br />
There was a nice Independent Investigation Group booth, where people could go to get investigated.<br />
There was a Students for Science booth for those attending school.<br />
“Science - Knowledge based on facts, Not Opinion”<br />
For some reason I thought about a press conference with Trump’s Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney stating "Regarding the question as to climate change, I think the President was fairly straightforward. We're not spending money on that anymore. We consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that.' So that is a specific tie to his campaign." <br />
I think an increase in military spending is a waste of money. I think corporate welfare is a waste of money. I think Mulvaney’s salary is a waste of money. <br />
But not money for the EPA, the NIH, Meals on Wheels, and school lunch programs. I would gladly pay for those things with my tax money.<br />
“Love of Ignorance is a Cause of Death”<br />
“Science is Only a Threat to Politics if Your Politics Deny Reality”<br />
Many were wearing the official “March for Science” T-shirts, which were green with a picture of an observatory above an atom.<br />
“The Good Thing About Science is That It’s True Whether You Believe In It or Not!” -Neil degrasse Tyson<br />
“I’m on the Side of Science” <br />
Potential marchers kept entering the park. I stood up on a cement wall and looked south toward a sea of humanity and signs.<br />
“Truth, Justice, and the Scientific Method”<br />
“Data is Life”<br />
Later the crowd size would be estimated between 30 and 40 thousand science advocates.<br />
50 thousand had registered, but some didn’t show up.<br />
I would learn that 40,000 people showed up at the main march in Washington D.C., 40,000 in Chicago, 20,000 in New York City, 10,000 in Philadelphia, and 10,000 in London (who knew English people cared about science? I certainly didn’t!).<br />
“Don’t have Smallpox... That’s Science!”<br />
See the pictures above. Most of the people holding signs or marching, have big smiles on their faces. <br />
We are happy science advocates.<br />
“Don’t be Fossil fooled”<br />
“Shut Up and Drink Your Lead!”<br />
A sign with Trump’s smiling face read: “Some People Just Want to Watch the World Burn,” a subtle reference to The Joker. <br />
I watched a television program recently wherein a man, maybe a fisherman, maybe a farmer, who’s livelihood depended on predictable sea levels.<br />
Which were rising. <br />
Yet he rejected the idea that man was responsible for global warming which was responsible for rising sea levels. <br />
He believed that scientists who promoted the idea of global warming were making only educated guesses, and that they had a fifty / fifty chance of being wrong... or right.<br />
A lot of people think that way, especially when it’s to their advantage to do so. When their argument, or point of view is bolstered by scientific opinion, then science is great!<br />
When it opposes their argument or point of view then all of the sudden science is just somebody else’s opinion, and doesn’t mean anything.<br />
That is a fundamental misunderstanding of how science works.<br />
“Politicians Who Deny Science are Like Atoms... They Make Up Everything!”<br />
“Science Rules!”<br />
Science is nothing more than a self-correcting, three step process for finding out what is real and what is not. <br />
That’s all it is!<br />
It doesn’t rely on anybody’s opinion at all!<br />
“Keep It in the Ground!” This is a subtle reference concerning carbon based fossils that environmentalists want to stay in the earth rather than be released into the atmosphere thereby accelerating climate change. <br />
“Peer Reviewed Science Matters!”<br />
That’s right! But that’s the last step. <br />
“Weather Has No Agenda!”<br />
“Capitalism Consumes, Socialism Shares”<br />
The first step in the “Scientific Method,” is to come up with an idea, which I call a hypothesis. <br />
See! Isn’t this fun!<br />
“Make No Mistake, the War on Science Affects You!”<br />
“Science is Not a Liberal Conspiracy”<br />
Okay, you’ve got your hypothesis, which is an idea. Your idea may be right, or it may be wrong in describing how something works, or natural phenomena. So where do we go from there?<br />
“Science Made Me a Cancer Surviver” <br />
“Science is Real! Alternative Facts are √1,” <br />
I'm told √1 is an imaginary number. <br />
You test that idea! How? By experiment! You think of a way to test your idea with an experiment. It better be a pretty good and rigorous experiment because it’s going to be scrutinized by other people.<br />
“Stop Attacks Against the E.P.A.!” <br />
An eight year old boy walked by me with a sign that read “Change the Politics, Not the Climate!”<br />
If your experiment confirms your idea or hypothesis, then you may be on to something. If it does not confirm your idea, if it disproves it, then you have to amend your idea or experiment, or give up on it altogether, no matter how much you are attached to that idea, or invested in it. If your idea is wrong then you have to change your idea. You have to go where the evidence takes you, not where you would like it to go.<br />
“Planet before Profits!”<br />
I saw a Skeptical Inquirer Booth, which is good. Critical thinking is a good thing.<br />
“Fund Science, not war!”<br />
“Fossil Fuel is Not Our Future!”<br />
“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be” Albert Einstein<br />
See! big Al knew all about the scientific method!<br />
So if your idea is confirmed by experimentation then the last step is to put all of your evidence into a big box and give it to someone who works in the same field as you do, a friend or competitor, it doesn’t matter, and have them check it out. If they can’t repeat the same experiment that you performed and get the same results then you’re screwed! Your idea is probably not representative of how nature works, or some aspect of it.<br />
Then you can either have somebody else check it, or start all over again.<br />
This is called peer review. <br />
“May the Facts be With You”<br />
“No Intelligent Species Destroys Their Own habitat”<br />
“Ben Franklin, Scientist and Founding Father!”<br />
And that’s all science is! It makes sense, doesn’t it? I mean you tell me what about this simple method doesn’t make sense. <br />
Please. I really want to know.<br />
Still, this little three part method has changed the world and will continue to do so. Perhaps that is why some people are so afraid of it.<br />
“I’m Here for the π”<br />
Ha, ha, ha. I like that one.<br />
And this one: “Science, Because You can’t Just make This Shit Up!”<br />
“Science is in the Air!”<br />
“π is all of the Irrationality I need”<br />
“Save the Bees!”<br />
“Fuck Golf!”<br />
Several crazed science advocates attempted to take my spot beside the trash can, which I defended vigorously. Afterwards, I thanked myself for the foresight of learning Aikido, Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu, knife throwing, and explosive ordnance when I was in the Woodcraft Rangers as a young boy.<br />
“Science is Fundamental”<br />
At 10:09am a nice lady, one of the marches organizers, came to the stage and spoke over the loudspeaker. She spoke briefly of the future of the environment and health care. She talked about vaccines, and the NIH facing 6 billion in budget cuts. <br />
“Facts are not partisan! Science deals in facts, not ideology!”<br />
She mentioned that the march was a 100% grassroots effort, and she thanked all of the volunteers.<br />
“Grab Them by the Data!”<br />
“Unlike the Trump Administration, Science is legitimate”<br />
There was a barrier blocking off the crowd from the corner of 5th and Olive. We were essentially trapped! <br />
I immediately imagined being hemmed in by deranged Trump storm troopers from the Dept of Homeland Security, mad right wing supporters of the president, and insane ICE agents, moving in from Hill St., surrounding and capturing us to be hauled off to Guantanamo Bay for interrogation, sexual harassment, and solitary confinement.<br />
Fortunately that did not happen. <br />
We were probably photographed and tagged from satellites above though, controlled by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). <br />
“Change the Climate by Voting in 2018!”<br />
“Science>Opinion”<br />
Farisa Morales, an astrophysicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, spoke about the way that science helps to fulfill the idea of the "American dream," both by providing people with the opportunity to pursue their passions, and by producing concrete spinoff technologies that improve people's lives.<br />
Well, we’ve already discussed that, haven’t we.<br />
“As the daughter of unprivileged Mexican immigrants, I never imagined I would get involved with exploration beyond our atmosphere," she said. "But here I am, pioneering discoveries of planets beyond our solar system.<br />
As an active astrophysicist, I am here to tell you that the sky is not the limit," she continued. "When something is important, we need to raise our hand and say, 'Yes, I am here! I want scientific research to continue. I want to learn truths about nature, and my environment, in a self-correcting scientific way, because that is the American way.' Let science be in service of humankind."<br />
“ GOP is the Only Political party in the World to Deny Climate Change”<br />
“Heat Melting Ice is Not Just a Theory”<br />
“Ice has No Agenda, it Just Melts”<br />
“Let’s Make America Smart Again! Vote in 2018“<br />
Other speakers included celebrity seismologist Lucy Jones, billionaire climate change activist Tom Steyer and Oscar-nominated “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_Figures"><i>Hidden Figures</i></a>” screenwriter Allison Schroeder. <br />
I would watch “Hidden Figures,” later that evening and be inspired.<br />
The Trump Administration released a statement insisting his administration was committed to preserving the “awe-inspiring beauty” of America, while protecting jobs.<br />
“Rigorous science is critical to my administration’s efforts to achieve the twin goals of economic growth and environmental protection,” Trump said. “My administration is committed to advancing scientific research that leads to a better understanding of our environment and of environmental risks.<br />
As we do so, we should remember that rigorous science depends not on ideology, but on a spirit of honest inquiry and robust debate.”<br />
Number one, you just know Trump didn’t write that himself as it’s coherent and to the point. <br />
It’s filled with lies of course. <br />
Yesterday Trump signed an executive order calling for Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review national monuments created by Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama. These monuments were set aside as public land under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the power to limit use of public land for historic, cultural, scientific or other reasons. <br />
Why is he doing this?<br />
To open this land up for oil and gas exploitation. <br />
“Today on Earth Day, we celebrate our beautiful forests, lakes and land. We stand committed to preserving the natural beauty of our nation.” Trump tweeted on the day of the march. He is filled to the brim with bullshit.<br />
The television host Bill Maher tweeted this last Friday:<br />
"There is a #MarchForScience tomorrow. Republicans have a competing march for ignorance that's going on." – @BillMaher - 21 April 2017<br />
“Attacks on science don’t just hurt scientists, they hurt scientists’ ability to protect the people, and climate change epitomizes that,” said Dr Geoffrey Supran, an expert in renewable energy at Harvard University.<br />
“When politicians cater to fossil fuel interests by denying the basic realities of climate science and pursuing anti-science climate policy, they endanger the jobs, justice, and livelihoods of ordinary people everywhere.”<br />
“Not since Galileo was condemned by the Inquisition have science-deniers had such powerful friends,” said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Porter Ranch) at a rally before the march began at Pershing Square.<br />
Tom Steyer, president of the environmental advocacy organization NextGen Climate, was even more pointed.<br />
“There is a force coming out of Washington, D.C., called the Trump administration that is out to deny truth and bury science,” he said.<br />
The actor Jim Parsons from “The Big Bang Theory,” got up to speak. Unfortunately, for everyone, a sun demon dived down from the upper atmosphere, swooped him up, and carried him away.<br />
Everyone was suitably shocked. <br />
The march itself began just after 11:00. Like last week’s Tax March it would end at City Hall. <br />
We filed out of Pershing Square to Hill St. It took a real long time due to the amount of people involved. <br />
“Trump Report Card: Golfing C, Drama A, Science F”<br />
“Not a Paid Protestor”<br />
It was pretty straight forward. <br />
We walked north on Hill, Still slow moving.<br />
Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman drove a battery-powered Hummer at the front of the march and discussed his concern for how well humans are taking care of the Earth.<br />
"I'm here because I'm a former astronaut, I'm a former scientist and I'm an engineer, but most importantly I'm a dad," Reisman told Space.com. "I really want to make sure that my 6-year-old son has fresh air, that he has clean water to drink and … that we leave him a legacy of a livable planet. And I want him to grow up and be able to see coral reefs and glaciers, and all the things I was fortunate enough to do in my lifetime. And I'm afraid that we're messing that up.<br />
On my first mission, I looked out at the horizon and what I was really astounded by — what really left a much bigger impression on me than anything else I saw — was how thin the atmosphere was," he said. "When you look at that with your own eyes and you see this tiny, tiny, thin blue line which is all the air we have to breath — I mean it looks incredibly fragile. It looks like a gust of wind could come by and strip it away. It looks so incredibly tenuous. And it was terrifying [to see that].<br />
We think of the planet as this big, enormous thing but it's really mostly a big, dead rock," he said. "The part that sustains us is really much smaller than we believe. And … when you see it with your own eyes, you understand that we can mess it up. It's certainly within our capacity to harm it badly. And in fact we have been doing that for a while, and we have to stop that. This is our spaceship. That’s our life support system. We're the crew, and we really, really, really need to take care of our spaceship. Because if we just trash it, we're all in a lot of trouble."<br />
“Russia cannot Rig the Ozone Layer!”<br />
One person held up a sign with a picture of Carl Sagan via The Simpsons, with the following caption: “If it can be destroyed by the truth it deserves to be.”<br />
“There Are No Jobs On a Dead Planet”<br />
Marchers chanted “Science is the way to go, hey, hey, ho, ho!”<br />
The crowd opened up a bit as we passed 4th St. We continued north until 1st St, at which point we turned right, or east.<br />
“Without Science Federal Prisons Wouldn’t have cable T.V.”<br />
We made a left, or north on Spring to the steps of City hall.<br />
I sat down on a nearby sidewalk and ate a turkey and cheese sandwich I happened to have with me. <br />
“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.” Big Al Einstein<br />
Then I left.<br />
There would be more speakers at City hall, and a science expo back at Pershing Square at 1:30, but I was assured everyone could get by without me.<br />
Yesterday, April 26th at around 2am my time, Cassini began a series of dives into the space between Saturn and its rings. <br />
After using a final flyby of Titan to boost its speed, the spacecraft was flung by the moon's gravity into a trajectory that sent it diving through the 1,200-mile (76,032,000 inches) gap between the planet's upper atmosphere and innermost rings. <br />
Cassini would would make 21 more dives between the rings and Saturn before delving into the dense atmosphere of the huge gas giant.<br />
It would continue to make measurements all of the way down.<br />
<br />
<br />
Addendum: 5-1-17, <a href="http://Finds 'The Big Empty' Close to Saturn"><i>Cassini finds "The Big Empty' close to Saturn</i></a><br />
<i>Addendum: 5-2-17, <a href="http://www.space.com/36692-saturn-cassini-particles-grand-finale-dive-audio-video.html?utm_source=notification">Listen In! Saturn Probe Hit with Very Few Particles in Daring Dive</a></i><br />
<i>Addendum: 5-3-17, <a href="http://spaceref.com/saturn/movie-shows-cassinis-first-dive-over-saturn.html">Movie shows Cassini's first dive over Saturn</a> </i><span class="Apple-converted-space"><a href="http://www.space.com/36692-saturn-cassini-particles-grand-finale-dive-audio-video.html?utm_source=notification"><i> </i></a></span>Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-83555215750876638232017-04-22T05:48:00.000-07:002017-04-22T06:52:33.471-07:00Remembering Marilyn Chambers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Ever since I was a little kid, I've always wanted to be an actress, I was always a performer, a junior Olympic diver, a junior Olympic gymnast. My mother always told me I was a show-off."<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2Tm7Y3XzjI&index=21&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee"><i>Rabid</i></a><br />
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<br />
Picture Legend:<br />
<br />
1. Miss Marilyn<br />
2. At the Girls and Corpses Halloween Party in 2008 (Girls and Corpses? WTH?)<br />
3. Two of her later public photographs <br />
4. ^<br />
5. Marilyn’s daughter, McKenna Marie Taylor<br />
6. Marilyn Briggs at 18, just starting out<br />
7. Young Marilyn<br />
8. Another young Marilyn, just for the pure sweet hell of it<br />
9. And another one!<br />
10. Brother Martin at the keyboards<br />
11. Brother Bill<br />
12. Hillspoint Elementary School<br />
13. Burr Farms Elementary School<br />
14. Long Lots Junior High School<br />
15. Staples High School<br />
16. Reverend Jim "Iggy" Ignatowski<br />
17. Ivory Snow Girl<br />
18. In “The Owl and the Pussycat,” with Robert Klein<br />
19. Roz Kelly<br />
20. “It's A Beautiful Day”<br />
21. Maximizing Marilyn’s notoriety in a 1973 re-release of “Together”<br />
22. Sean S Cunningham<br />
23. Wes Craven<br />
24. Jim and Artie Mitchell<br />
25. Marilyn and Cybill<br />
26. Theatrical poster for “Behind the Green Door”<br />
27. In “Behind the Green Door”<br />
28. Linda Lovelace<br />
29. Georgina Spelvin<br />
30. Constance Money<br />
31. Theatrical poster for “Resurrection of Eve”<br />
32. In “Resurrection of Eve”<br />
33. Key to the City<br />
34. Xaviera Hollander<br />
35. “Inside Marilyn Chambers”<br />
36. 1976‘s "Benihana" <br />
37. Ginger Lynn<br />
38. Traci Lords<br />
39. Season Hubley in “Hardcore”<br />
40. “Rabid” poster<br />
41. Three screen shots from “Rabid”<br />
42. ^<br />
43. ^<br />
44. Susan Roman<br />
45. The Mitchell Brother’s O’Farrell Theater<br />
46. Erica Boyer<br />
47. 1979‘s “Never a Tender Moment”<br />
48. “Insatiable” poster<br />
49. In “Insatiable”<br />
50. Jessie St. James<br />
51. John Holmes<br />
52. “Insatiable II” poster<br />
53. 1983‘s “Up and Coming” poster<br />
54. “Marilyn Chamber’s Private Fantasies”<br />
55. “Marilyn’s Sensual Secrets”<br />
56. Ron Jeremy<br />
57. “Angel of H.E.A.T.” poster<br />
58. Mug shots<br />
59. ^<br />
60. Veronica Hart<br />
61. “Solitaire”<br />
62. Valerie Gobos<br />
63. Steve Miner<br />
64. Still the Ivory Snow Girl<br />
65. Marilyn <br />
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<br />
I’m not a fan of pornography. I’ve never seen a pornographic film, feature, short, or clip. I’v’e never read a so-called adult book or magazine...even Playboy. I believe the practice to be disgusting and an abomination against the rule of God. I believe the pornographic industry demeans and abuses the men and women who perform in it, and the audience who views such material. <br />
You can go blind using this foul stuff, and my eyesight is deteriorating fast enough on it’s own as I get older.<br />
And those who use pornography will surely enjoy eternity in the fiery pits of Hell.<br />
<a href="http://boards.fool.com/james-joyce-description-of-hell-30130532.aspx"><i>James Joyce’s Hell</i></a>. Not that weak Protestant crap.<br />
As a matter of fact I hate sex altogether. Hate it! <br />
It can be very distracting.<br />
However, if I were perchance interested in it, or curious, it would have been around 1973, when I was 18 years old, and I would have taken my young wife to the Ivar Theater in Hollywood to see “Behind the Green Door,” and “Resurrection of Eve,” staring the lovely and talented Marilyn Chambers.<br />
But of course that never happened.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPZ5knJWBnY"><i>Marilyn would have been 65 years old today</i></a>. Unfortunately she passed away probably on April 11th in 2009 of a cerebral hemorrhage following an aortic aneurysm, which means she had a heart condition, and enlargement actually, which ruptured, sending massive amounts of blood throughout the body, and in her case into her brain which caused the cerebral hemorrhage, which is a type of stroke, which in this case killed her.<br />
She was 56 years old when she died, just 11 days shy of her 57th birthday.<br />
At the time of her death Marilyn was working at a BMW dealership here in L.A. and living in a mobile home near Santa Clarita, 34 miles northeast of where I’m typing this in downtown Los Angeles if you’re using the mighty US-101 N and I-5 N, about an hour and fifteen minute drive (49.2 miles) if you’re using the mediocre I-210 W. <br />
“A lot of people didn’t know who she was,” says Peggy McGinn, her friend (who states she’s never seen one of Marilyn’s movies). “She went by Marilyn Taylor. And those who knew didn’t care because of the way she carried herself. She was a classy lady.”<br />
She was making about $1,000 to $1,200 a week from the dealership, Peggy estimated, “not after taxes.” Marilyn also brought in about $12,000 in residuals and about $15,000 making guest appearances at Comic-Con. “She earned enough to get by.”<br />
Marilyn also had a passion for gardening. “Marilyn had beautiful flowers,” Peggy remembers. “The neighbors would say, ‘What a beautiful garden,’ and the next day their garden was planted. That was her therapy.”<br />
Some say she may have liked animals more than people (her daughter remembered with a laugh at one of Marilyn’s memorial services how her mother loved animals so much that their dog Teddy rode in the car's front seat while she took the back), and she was a master of Trivial Pursuit.<br />
One man who showed up at that memorial said he met Marilyn when she volunteered at a dog shelter in Castaic the previous year and didn't know who she was until he saw TV reports of her death.<br />
"I just thought she was really nice," said John Richardson, 38, of Valencia. "Some people strike a chord with you. I think it's sad she died so young."<br />
Shortly before she died Marilyn had flown to New York to audition for “The Deep Throat Sex Scandal,” a play about the making of of film “Deep Throat,” and the obscenity trial that followed. “She killed it,” says David Bertolino, who wrote the play. “I think she knew she could act, but I think she wanted to prove it to the general public. She was phenomenal. I had goose bumps.”<br />
Marilyn was thrilled when she got the part. “She was going to quit the car dealership, but not until the ink was dry and the check was in the mail,” says Peggy, who says her friend spent her last weeks alive memorizing her lines. “It was just a matter of days. She was leaving it all to do the play in New York.”<br />
She was never able to appear in the play, dying while it was in rehearsals.<br />
On opening night in 2010, Bertolino says he placed some of Marilyn’s ashes on the stage as a favor to her daughter. They were held, of course, in an Ivory Soap box. “We actually gave her a credit,” he says. “Marilyn Chambers appears nightly posthumously.”<br />
A coroner’s report found that Marilyn Chambers died on April 12, 2009. But Peggy doesn’t believe that, saying she died the night before.<br />
“She always had one glass of wine and one cigarette before she went to bed,” she recalls. Inside the mobile home the next day were an untouched glass of wine and a burned-down cigarette. <br />
“She never got a sip of wine. The cigarette was one long ash. It was like she didn’t have a puff of it. She died exactly the way we all want to die. She didn’t know what hit her.”<br />
Her body was found on the twelfth by her 17 year old daughter, McKenna Marie Taylor. She was survived by McKenna (what a lovely name), and her sister and brother, Jann Smith and Martin Briggs (keyboardist for 1960s Boston band The Remains. By the way, if you Google Marilyn Chamber’s brother and sister it will display a second brother, Bill Briggs, who is not confirmed in any of the other sources I’ve come across, Bill must have been the brother they kept locked up in the closet). <br />
She was cremated and her ashes scattered to the sea. <br />
<br />
Marilyn Ann Briggs was born at a very early age in Providence, Rhode Island (41° 49′ 25″ N, 71° 25′ 20″ W). She was raised in Westport, Connecticut, 130.6 miles from Providence via the middling I-95 S. <br />
A lot of people thought she was born in Westport, but Marilyn herself confirmed in 2007 that she was born in Providence.<br />
Now that we’ve got that cleared up we can move on.<br />
Marilyn’s dad was in advertising and her mother was a nurse. No one knows what their names were or are, so we’ll respect their privacy.<br />
Marilyn was the youngest of the two or three children. <br />
She attended Hillspoint Elementary School. She didn’t like that one so she scooted over to Burr Farms Elementary School. She naturally progressed to Long Lots Junior High School, and then good old Staples High.<br />
Why do I include pictures of all four schools?<br />
Because education is important my friends, and I have absolutely nothing better to do.<br />
The Reverend Jim "Iggy" Ignatowsk, better known by his stage name, Christopher Lloyd, also attended Staples, but way before Marilyn got there.<br />
Marilyn was a precocious child.<br />
"When I was about 16 I learned how to write my mother’s name on notes to get out of school", she said. "And then I'd take the train into the city to go to auditions"<br />
So we can officially add forgery to her many other accomplishments.<br />
And while still in high school, being so naturally pretty and all, she won some modeling jobs, the most auspicious being a gig with Procter & Gamble, for a photograph of her posing with a little baby for the cover of a product called Ivory Snow soap flakes. <br />
She became the "Ivory Soap Girl" at 17 years of age. The picture would appear on each box of Ivory Snow in about two years she was told (the time needed to phase out the current box cover and phasing in the new one).<br />
The tag line for the advertising campaign being "99 & 44/100% Pure."<br />
She also got her first acting job in a small non-speaking role in the film “The Owl and the Pussycat,” staring Barbara Streisand and George Segal.<br />
While the film was in production Marilyn, who was then living in New York, worked as a model and was dating a man who was the stand-in for George Segal. The man asked if she would like to come down to set one day and check it out. <br />
Much later Marilyn said the producer, Ray Stark, noticed her and asked her if she was an actress. She lied and said she was and Stark brought her to the offices on the set where they were currently casting for the minor role of "Barney's Girl" opposite Robert Klein. They told her she might have to be topless, to which she agreed, and that while the role was small she would be able to get her Screen Actors Guild card. Much to her surprise, she was given the role. <br />
"They said, 'Well, can you start right away?’”<br />
Well yeah.<br />
When the film was released Ray Stark asked Marilyn, who by the way, was inexplicably billed under the name Evelyn Lang, to travel to Los Angeles and San Francisco on a promotional tour for the film. Marilyn agreed and she and Roz Kelly, who was also in the film, first went to L.A. and stayed at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. From there they traveled north to San Francisco where Marilyn said she fell in love with the city.<br />
Well who doesn’t.<br />
Marilyn had trouble finding more acting jobs upon returning to New York, except for the low budget soft-core pseudo-documentary “Together,” released in 1971, the film was directed by Sean S Cunning ham (who would later go on to create the Friday the 13th empire). The film is nominally about teenagers in the wake of the sexual revolution (those silly kids!).<br />
I’m not saying Marilyn got the lead role because she was willing to get naked in the movie, or that she was dating Kevin, Sean’s brother, or that the Briggs and Cunningham families were close. I’m not saying that, but it’s probably the case. <br />
Marilyn said this about the advertising for “Together.”<br />
"Sean told me he wanted to make a documentary with real people. It was about ESP and that<br />
whole genre of films about awareness. Not free sex, but love, peace, couples feeling comfortable in their relationship -- blah, blah, blah. I didn't even get a billing. Sean did something really smart where he made a lot of money with this silly film. He bought advertising time on local television stations, and the ads would announce a special sneak preview at 10 a.m. for all the housewives. They'd see this film with a black man and white woman, and she was holding his huge schlong in her hand. There was another scene where the black man got an erection, but no sex. The housewives would tell everybody about this scene, but when it played its regular run in the theaters, the scene would be cut out. That's the power of advertising."<br />
Wes Craven, who would later be deemed "Master of Horror," by making such films as “Nightmare on Elm Street (and it’s many sequels),” “The People Under the Stairs (they’re illegal immigrants hiding from Trump),” and “The Last House on the Left, (which was produced by Cunningham),” got his start on “Together.” Craven left his lucrative career in porn to try his hand in mainstream and Cunningham hired him to synchronize the dailies from the three- to four-day reshoot, later becoming an assistant producer.<br />
Marilyn said she did not receive any billing for “Together,” but The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) lists her as Marilyn Briggs in this film, her real name. She was reportedly paid $250 for her work.<br />
It was after this that she became Marilyn Chambers.<br />
It is also said that after “Together,” Marilyn packed her bags and with several members of the 1960s rock group “It's A Beautiful Day” drove cross-country to San Francisco.<br />
Because a young girl just needs part of a rock group while driving long distances.<br />
In San Francisco she had trouble finding work in theater or dance groups, and took on a series of odd jobs such as hostess in a health food restaurant, a topless and bottomless dancer (work I’ve had to resort to occasionally... Hey! The money’s good!), working for a dentist (I worked for a veterinarian), and others. <br />
She saw an add in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for what was billed as a "major motion picture," in 1972. She went to the audition and was given a form to fill out. <br />
One of the questions was if she wanted a “Balling,” or “Non-Balling,” role. She thought about that for a while, and decided it must be a typo, and it was actually asking her about “Bowling.”<br />
Well Marilyn was a pretty good bowler so she completed the form. <br />
However, she began to get a weird vibe from the other actors auditioning and her surroundings and began to suspect that the film she was auditioning for, which was to be called Behind the Green Door, might be a tad risque in nature, possibly even racy, or worse yet, provocative. <br />
She wasn’t interested and was leaving when the producers, Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd. They invited her upstairs to their offices and told her the film's intricate plot.<br />
Marilyn hadn’t been interested in doing a pornographic film. Topless was okay, she’d done that, but porno?! No way.<br />
But she was intrigued by certain fantasy elements of the plot, and the fact that this would be a porno with a story, which had a beginning, middle, and end. Up until then pornographic material in the film medium had been 8mm shorts, and stag films, which were about 12 minutes in duration. <br />
She eventually decided to take a chance and accepted under the condition that she receive a hefty salary and 10 percent of the film's gross. She also insisted that each actor get tested for venereal disease. <br />
After the brothers finished laughing, Marilyn took off and went home. Not being in a porno wasn’t a big thing to her.<br />
Jim and Artie however, couldn’t get it out of their heads that they needed her fresh, wholesome, Cybill Shepard look (despite “The Last Picture Show”).<br />
They called her up, went to her place and made a deal.<br />
Don’t take my word for it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntp0vd3fXYs&index=1&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee"><i>Here’s</i></a> Marilyn telling the story herself, by golly!<br />
Marilyn didn’t say one word throughout the movie. So this is one of the first examples of semi-mime porn, semi as the props she uses, or are accurately, are used upon her, are real.<br />
If you’ve ever seen the “Godfather Part II,” wherein Michael and Fredo and others visit a sex club in Cuba, the scene in which Fredo gives himself away (that he had secretly worked with Hyman Roth and Johnny Ola, which allowed an attempt on Michael’s life), that’s pretty much the idea of “Behind the Green Door.”<br />
Gloria Saunders, a wealthy socialite from San Francisco, is visiting a suburb and is kidnaped, hypnotized, and a sexually used on a stage at an elite club.<br />
The movie features a long lesbian sequence with six women ganging up on Gloria, one of the first interracial sex scenes, and one scene utilizing a trapeze. <br />
I know what you’re thinking. Trapeze porn is pretty common these days, but “Behind the Green Door,” was a pioneer in the development of this art.<br />
"Each sequence was a surprise to me," Marilyn said in 1987. "They never told me what was happening next. I just did it as it happened, and it worked. I've always been highly sexed. Oh, my God, I love it! Insatiable is the right word for me."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=semYH6jJY0c&index=30&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee"><i>Here’s</i></a> the opening scene, and a<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-WneixbYGs"><i> longer one</i></a>. I have to warn you now of the graphic nature of these clips, so if you have small children or animals present you may want to have them go into another room briefly.<br />
As “Behind the Green Door,” was about to be released in December of 1972, Marilyn remembered that she was the Ivory Snow Girl, and after remembering that she told Jim and Artie.<br />
“Really,” they said.<br />
“Yeah,” she replied.<br />
She calculated that two years had passed since she had posed for the picture and it should be on the shelves of local supermarkets at that time. <br />
So they went to the local supermarket, and lo and behold, there was Marilyn holding a little baby on hundreds of boxes of detergent.<br />
The brothers ran a PR campaign which billed her as the “99 and 44/11% pure” girl.<br />
Procter & Gamble didn’t like that at all! They were down right shocked <i>and</i> appalled. They dropped her like a hot balloon, and it didn’t take two years either. The advertising industry was scandalized, late night talk show hosts had a lot to make jokes about. “Behind the Green Door” got a huge amount of free publicity, and ticket sales soared. <br />
The movie cost $60,000 to make, and according to World Wide Box Office made $50 million. <br />
I know what your thinking, if the film made $50 million, Marilyn should have made $5 million, at which point she could have retired (other sources state she was paid $2,500 plus 1% of the gross, which would have gotten her the goodly sum of $500,000).<br />
You’re right to think that. I’m right to think that.<br />
Where did the money go? <br />
Who knows? I certainly don’t!<br />
Maybe she gave it to Doug Chapin, her first husband, whom she met while he was playing bagpipes for money on the streets of San Francisco. They married in 1971. She divorced Chapin in 1974 and married Chuck Traynor that same year. He had been recently divorced from one of her contemporaries, Linda Lovelace. He also became her manager and they were together for 10 years. <br />
Anyway, “Behind the Green Door,” made Marilyn a star. Green Door, along with “Deep Throat,” (Linda Lovelace) released the same year, and “The Devil in Miss Jones,” (Georgina Spelvin) ushered in what is commonly known as the Golden Age of Porn (this phrase refers to a 15-year period (about 1969–1984) in which commercial American pornography in the form of sexually-explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the general public. It began with release of the 1969 film “Blue Movie,” directed by Andy Warhol, and the 1970 film “Mona,” which of course was produced by Bill Osco. These films were the first adult erotic films depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. Both of these films influenced the making of movies such as “Deep Throat,” “Behind the Green Door,” “The Devil in Miss Jones,” and “The Opening of Misty Beethoven,” starring Constance Money). <br />
Marilyn chose not to retire, and I don’t blame her. She and the brothers came up with “Resurrection of Eve,” which was released in September of 1973. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyrriCkZDmg"><i>Here’s</i></a> a clip (what you see may shock you, but it will definitely change the way you think about inter-personal relations. You may want to close your eyes for this one).<br />
Eve wasn’t as big of a hit as Green Door, probably because it didn’t have any monkeys in it. <br />
However, it was a hit and cemented Marilyn’s position as a professional porn star, and a big one, who was set apart from her contemporaries Lovelace and Spelvin by filling up the niche of the freaking Ivory Snow Girl, the wholesome, all-American girl next door. <br />
Yet at this point, in 1974, Marilyn split with Jim and Artie in favor of her new husband, Chuck Traynor. <br />
"They were always talking about some half-assed idea I knew wouldn't come off", Marilyn said in 1992. "'Flakes' is a terrible word but they were, in a cute sort of way." <br />
In 1974/1975 Marilyn starred in the dinner theater production of “The Mind With the Dirty Man,” in Las Vegas. The play ran for 52 weeks which was the longest-running play in Las Vegas history then.<br />
The mayor of Las Vegas at the time, who was either Oran K. Gragson, a republican, or William H. Briare, a democrat (who beat Harry Reid for the spot in 1975) gave Marilyn the Key to the City, which she was quite proud of, as she should have been (the "Key to the City," is presented to esteemed visitors, residents, or others whom the city wishes to honor, and symbolizes the freedom of the recipient to enter and leave the city at will, as a trusted friend of city residents. In 1975, if you didn’t have one of these you didn’t get in or out). <br />
She later starred in Neil Simon's “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” in Vegas.<br />
She wrote a memoir “My Story,” and co-authored “Xaviera Meets Marilyn Chambers,” with Xaviera Hollander, whose own book “The Happy Hooker: My Own Story,” I of course have not read. <br />
Jim and Artie were a little, how should I put this... miffed, that Marilyn had abandoned them for Traynor. They still had a lot of unused material from Green Door and Eve, as well as interviews with some of those who were connected to those movies, so they made a documentary entitled “Inside Marilyn Chambers,” which was made without her knowledge or consent. However, when she did learn of it just before it was released in May of 1975, she made a deal with the brothers which got her 10% of the gross as long as she cooperated with the production, provided additional interviews, and promoted the film, on and on. <br />
"I hated the film and I still do," she said later. "It's supposed to be the story of my life, and it's not true. Jim and Art ripped me off. They felt I'd betrayed them ... I felt they'd betrayed me, and for many years, we didn't speak. Only when money was to be made did we start talking again.”<br />
Marilyn went on to do the New York musical stage revue “Le Bellybutton,” an off Broadway show meant to be in the vein of “Oh! Calcutta!” and other edgy adult musicals of the late 1960s and early- to mid-1970s.<i> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z5crCMOiEM">Here</a></i> she is talking about it, and “Inside Marilyn Chambers,” in a 1977 interview.<br />
“Le Bellybutton” ran for 26 performances. <br />
Marilyn can sing!<br />
She sang in and produced a disco single, “Benihana,” in 1976. Billboard magazine said "She...sings quite nicely in a sexy little voice in this catchy disco tribute to an oriental lover man." <br />
The song is played in the background of one scene in the film “Rabid.” <br />
I think she has multiple orgasms near the end, but that's only me. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j3vxOoD5Wo"><i>Here</i></a>, you decide.<br />
Marilyn wrote a sex advice column in the mid-to-late 70s for Genesis magazine called "Private Chambers," which she mentioned in the interview above. She also wrote one for Club magazine throughout the 80s called "State of the Nation." <br />
But her goal was always to work in mainstream films, movies where people weren’t having sex all over the place... and no trapezes! <br />
The problem that so many adult actresses, such as Ginger Lynn Allen and Traci Lords for example, had was the paradox.<br />
"The paradox was that, as a result of Green Door, Hollywood blackballed me," Marilyn said later. " [Green Door] became a very high-grossing film...But, to a lot of people, it was still a dirty movie; for me to do anything else, as an actress, was totally out of the question. I became known as a porno star, and that type of labeling really hurt me. It hurt my chances of doing anything else."<br />
In 1976 the industry magazine Variety announced that Marilyn would star along with Rip Torn in a movie called “City Blues,” about a hooker being defended by a seedy lawyer. It was to be directed by veteran film maker Nicholas Ray of “Rebel Without a Cause,” fame, however, the project never got started for one reason or another.<br />
And she looked too wholesome to be a porn queen, the casting director thought, when she was up for a part in “Hardcore," with George C Scott. "The Hardcore people wanted a woman with orange hair who chews gum, swings a big purse, and wears stiletto heels. That's such a cliche," Marilyn said years later. Season Hubley was cast instead.<br />
When they were just starting out, Canadian film makers David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman (who would later make such films as “Scanners,” “The Fly,” and “Easter Promises.” And “Animal House,” “Ghostbusters,” and “Twins,” respectively) were looking for a female lead for Cronenberg’s second feature film, “Rabid.” Reitman was the producer and musical supervisor. David’s first choice was Sissy Spacek, but the studio suits axed her due to her Texas accent and freckles. This was at a time before actors learned how to create accents other than their own, and before make up was invented.<br />
Ivan had heard that Marilyn Chambers was looking to get started in mainstream films and suggested her to David. Ivan felt that it would be easier to market the film in different territories if a well-known porn star portrayed the main character. <br />
I don’t know why.<br />
David later stated that Marilyn put in a lot of hard work on the film and that he was impressed with her. He further stated he had not seen “Behind the Green Door” prior to casting her.<br />
<a href="http://v=xuhyttzfjbo&list=plmo_szg5q8pgjxnlbfmi23vwndrjogwee&index=9/"><i>Here</i></a> he is talking about the film and Marilyn.<br />
And<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvm-OuKKg8M&index=8&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee"><i> here</i></a> is the Canadian voice actress Susan Roman, who was also in “Rabid,” talking about working with Marilyn.<br />
And <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pS3zt3z2u4&index=38&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee"><i>here’s</i></a> the film’s trailer.<br />
"It was great working with David", Marilyn said in a 1997 interview. "He taught me a lot of things that were very valuable as an actress, especially in horror films. I found it useful in sex films, too!”<br />
“Rabid,” was released theatrically in the United States by New World Pictures in 1977. <br />
It tells the tale of a young woman (Marilyn) who, after being injured in a motorcycle accident underwent an experimental surgical procedure, afterwhich she develops an orifice under one of her armpits. The orifice hides a phallic stinger that she uses to feed on people's blood. Soon, those she feeds upon become infected, whose bite spreads the disease and soon causes massive chaos starting with Quebec and ending up in Montreal.<br />
“Rabid” was a breakthrough movie with international distributors and Cronenberg’s next two horror features gained stronger support because of it.<br />
It cost $530,000 to make and made $1,100.000,000.00.<br />
Marilyn reunited with the Mitchell Brothers in 1979 for two 30-minute features called “Beyond de Sade” and “Never a Tender Moment,” which explored BDSM (The term "BDSM" is first recorded in a Usenet posting from 1991, and is interpreted as a combination of the abbreviations B/D (Bondage and Discipline), D/s (Dominance and submission), and S/M (Sadism and Masochism). BDSM is now used as a catch-all phrase covering a wide range of activities, forms of interpersonal relationships, and distinct subcultures, but no kazoo parades!). The films, which were shot at the Mitchell Brothers Theater, co-starred Erica Boyer in her first foray into pornographic movies.<br />
Excluding the two shorts above, Marilyn’s adult career and reputation and the opportunities she took advantage of due to her notoriety, was based solely on her two films... Green door and Eve. In today’s adult industry, so I’m told, new girls are in 30 to 50 different movies a month, so the industry and the way it’s product is produced and consumed, has changed quite a bit over the years. <br />
But what hasn’t?<br />
After trying for a mainstream career and shedding her image as a porn star, Marilyn returned to the adult film industry with 1980's “Insatiable.”<br />
In the film Marilyn played actress, model, and heiress Sandra Chase, whose appetite for sex is, well, it’s insatiable! I mean she wants sex all of the freaking time! <br />
Sandra is getting ready to make a movie and her manager, played by Jessie St. James, is working on getting some big names to appear alongside her. The story is told in a series of flashbacks which details Sandra's sexual encounters.<br />
"My manager had never really wanted me to do X-rated films," Marilyn said in 1997." He tried to move me out of that, but—seeing as things didn't go that way, and I wasn't getting legitimate projects—it was something that we needed to do. I was known in the X-rated business, and it was the right time. It was a cool story and the budget was going to be a lot higher; there were going to be helicopters and Ferraris. It was going to be very classy. There were some names in it that would be good for the box office, including John Holmes, and that was at a time when X-films were still playing in theaters."<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRqc4oO8Xsw&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee&index=22"><i> Here’s</i></a> a clip.<br />
And here’s a two part interview with Tom Snyder with Marilyn promoting the film. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QDUXvcrk3s"><i>Here</i></a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2bLP9fMuvY"><i>here</i></a>.<br />
“Insatiable” was the top-selling adult video in the U.S. from 1980 to 1982 and it was inducted in the XRCO (X-Rated Critics Organization) Hall of Fame (the XRCO Awards are given by the American X-Rated Critics Organization annually to people working in adult entertainment and it is the only adult industry awards show reserved exclusively for industry members). <br />
“Insatiable” was followed by a sequel, “Insatiable II” in 1984. Another X-rated film, “Up 'n' Coming,” was released in 1983 (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFGID89IrOU"><i>here’s</i></a> a clip of Marilyn singing at the beginning of the film). She also released six direct-to-video features in the early 1980s called “Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies,” in which she acted out her own sexual fantasies alongside with some of the biggest names in the industry. She wrote the scenarios and dialogue for these videos herself. <br />
In 1981 she released a book of sex positions and tips called “Sensual Secrets.” One of the male models featured in the photos with Marilyn was a young hedgehog, er, I mean Ron Jeremy (who co-starred with Marilyn in “Marilyn Chambers' Private Fantasies III”). <br />
In 1983 she appeared in a non-explicit scfi/action made for cable movie called “Angel of H.E.A.T.” Marilyn plays Angel Harmony, a sort of female James Bond, who has been assigned a mission to stop a mad scientist and his team of androids from world domination (my ultimate goal as well). <br />
H.E.A.T., stands for Harmony's Elite Assault Team.<br />
I have not seen “Angel of H.E.A.T.,” and fervently hope to one day, yet I’m told the movie is filled to the brim with karate, mud wrestling, river rafting, and sex with robots. <br />
As one reviewer put it “This is probably the greatest movie ever made.”<br />
Intriguing.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcPgiwJ_EdI&index=13&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee"><i>Here’s</i></a> the trailer.<br />
On February 1st, of 1985, while performing her nude act at the "Cine-Stage" within the O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco, Marilyn was arrested by vice squad officers and charged with committing a lewd act in a public place and soliciting prostitution. <br />
It was alleged by the plainclothes policemen who were in the audience that she allowed audience members to touch her. The show was called “Feel the Magic," after all. <br />
She was released on $2,000 bail and the charges were later dropped. <br />
"I've never been arrested in my life for anything, ever, so this is kind of a big shock for me, not only as a performer but as a human being", Marilyn said at the time. "It's a heart breaker. This is supposed to be a hip city. I really love -- make that LOVED -- this city. These people have been my fans for years, and it's a thrill for them to touch me up close. There's nothing illegal if I'm not taking money."<br />
"The O'Farrell was packed the day after we were arrested," She said. "And they put the mayor's phone number up on the marquee -- 'Call Mayor Dianne Feinstein'...I'm in jail with my fur coat and nothing else on, and [the police officers] want to take pictures. I took a mug shot with every cop in the place, and they're going, 'I'm really sorry we had to do this.' And the next night they were all back enjoying the show."<br />
On December 13th of that year she was arrested again, this time in Cleveland.<br />
She was arrested during a performance at Stage Door Johnny's, a strip club in Cleveland. Police said she was nude except for her shoes and was having sexual contact with an audience member. She was charged with promoting prostitution and was held in jail until she was freed on a $1,000 bond. She denied the charge, saying, "I did the same show I've been doing for the last six years. Police just happened to be in the audience."<br />
In November 2012 the mug shots from Marilyn’s Cleveland arrest sold on eBay for $202.50<br />
In 1984/1985 Marilyn left the adult film business because of the increasing fear of AIDS.<br />
Marilyn’s co-star in “Insatiable,” “Up and Coming,” and adult star legend, John Holmes died in the VA hospital on Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles on March 13th, 1988. He died from AIDS-related complications (according to his death certificate, cardiorespiratory arrest and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) due to AIDS, associated with lymphadenopathy (disease of the lymph nodes) and esophageal candidiasis (an opportunistic infection of the esophagus by Candida albicans... a fungus)). <br />
He was 43 years old.<br />
Marilyn was an addict. Apparently she was addicted to alcohol, cocaine, nicotine and potentially other substances, and she was using heavily when she met her future husband on a blind date, truck driver William Taylor Jr,. She was using so much that many feared for her life.<br />
After that date he called her to say he couldn’t see her anymore due to her drug problem. Marilyn got angry, kicked a wall and broke her leg. <br />
Bill came to see her in the hospital, which was nice of him, wherein they continued seeing each other, and Marilyn sought help with Narcotics Anonymous, which is an indication she was using more than alcohol, cocaine, and smoking cigarettes, as those three are not narcotics. <br />
She worked the 12 Step program well and got sober.<br />
The couple were married around 1991 or 1992 the union resulting in McKenna in 1992. <br />
They divorced in 1994.<br />
On a rainy February 27th, 1991 evening, Jim Mitchell, in response to friends's and associates's demands to "do something" about alcoholic, cocaine-addled Artie Mitchell, drove to Artie's house with a .22 rifle that he inherited from his father and fatally shot his brother to death. O'Farrell dancer Julie Bajo (Artie's lover at the time) immediately called 911, and the police arrested Jim minutes later. Marilyn spoke at Artie's funeral, and he was then buried in Lodi Memorial Cemetery, about 98 miles northeast of San Francisco.<br />
After a highly publicized trial Jim was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Before Jim's sentencing, numerous people spoke on his behalf, including former Mayor Frank Jordan, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, and former Police Chief Richard Hongisto.<br />
Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison.<br />
After he served three years in San Quentin, Jim was released in 1997. <br />
Jim Mitchell died at his ranch in western Sonoma County on July 12th, 2007, from an apparent heart attack. <br />
In 1999, Marilyn returned to San Francisco to perform at the Mitchell Brothers' O'Farrell Theatre. Mayor Willie Brown proclaimed a "Marilyn Chambers Day" for her unique place in San Francisco history, and praised her for her "artistic presence", her "vision", and her "energy". <br />
After Marilyn’s death Brown had this to say: "That wasn't from any personal knowledge. That was all part of the allure of San Francisco. At the time that she was doing what she was doing, it created an interest nationally if not internationally in our city. And people would come here to see if Marilyn Chambers was really dressed in snowflakes."<br />
That same year she returned to adult features (like Ginger Lynn) with a trio of films made for VCA Pictures called “Still Insatiable (1999),” “Dark Chambers (2000),” and “Edge Play (2000),” each directed by former adult actress Veronica Hart.<br />
Veronica and I share the same birthday, October 27th.<br />
She is one year younger than I am.<br />
Linda Susan Boreman, better known as Linda Lovelace, died after sustaining injuries incurred after a automobile accident April 22nd (Marilyn’s 50th birthday), 2002, in Colorado. She was 53.<br />
Three months later, on July 22nd, 2002, Linda and Marilyn’s former husband, Chuck Traynor, died of a heart attack in Chatsworth, California. <br />
Linda's sister, Barbara Boreman, later said in an interview in “Inside Deep Throat” that she was disappointed that Traynor had died before she could kill him. <br />
I detect some animosity between the two.<br />
In the 2004 United States presidential election, Marilyn ran for Vice President on the Personal Choice Party ticket, a libertarian political party. She received a total of 946 votes. <br />
In the 2008 she ran again as a write in candidate with Charles Jay at the top of the ticket in the presidential election. She ran in Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Utah. <br />
If they had just been running against Sen John McCain they may have won.<br />
Unfortunately for them and John, Barrack Obama ran in that election as well.<br />
In 2007, she landed a small part in a low-budget film called “Solitaire,” in which she played a Rhode Island cop in hot pursuit of a group of teenage thieves, but she died before she got to see the movie.<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3K1sAdYDxg&list=PLmO_szG5Q8pGjXNLBfMi23vWNDRJOgWee&index=17"><i> Here’s </i></a>a clip.<br />
At 8:20pm, December 31st, 2009, Amanda Jensen, Erica Boyer's real name, was walking near her home in Panama City, Florida, south on Front Beach Road (U.S. Highway 98) near Second Street, and while attempting to cross Front Beach Road was struck by a 2001 four-door Hyundai being driven by an off-duty officer in the Florida Highway Patrol. She died instantly.<br />
She was 53 years old. <br />
On August 30th, 2015, Wes Craven died of brain cancer at his home in Los Angeles, 4 weeks after his 76th birthday. <br />
In a 2004 interview, Marilyn said "My advice to somebody who wants to go into adult films is: Absolutely not! It's heart-breaking. It leaves you kind of empty. So have a day job and don't quit it."<br />
<br />
“I'm just kind of resolved to the fact that this is it and you might as well enjoy it and reap the benefits of working 30-something years to achieve a name. And life is cruel when you get to be over 40 and nobody wants you, nobody wants to see you without your clothes on. Which is fine with me, because I don't want to take them off anymore.”<br />
<br />
“I think Marilyn was taken advantage of her whole life,” says Valerie Gobos, an agent and producer who owns the rights to Marilyn’s life story. “She didn’t have a good manager or a good lawyer. If she had known better in her youth, she would have been a lot better off financially. She wasn’t real savvy to say, ‘Hey let’s sign a pre-nup.’ I think she never was a good business person.”<br />
“She thought she could cross over to the mainstream, but she couldn’t,” says Gobos. “The studios wouldn’t accept her.”<br />
"She created Marilyn Chambers," McKenna said of her mother. "She was definitely proud of it. It's cool to say my mom was part of the sexual revolution." <br />
McKenna says her mother didn't believe her profession defined who she was. "She didn't regret anything she did," she said. "It wasn't just porn. It was way more than that. People didn't have the right to talk about their sexuality freely back then."<br />
“I don’t think she regretted becoming Marilyn Chambers,” says Valerie. “She did what she felt she needed to do to become a star. She wanted to be famous and she accomplished that.”<br />
But her friend Steve Miner disagrees. He sees her life as a cautionary tale about the adult industry. “Her's is not a story about a victim but a protagonist that makes bad choices,” Miner said. “It paid off in very short terms. It clearly didn’t pay off in the long term. It just seems like the whole porn industry is a road to ruin. Marilyn is the ultimate example for me.”<br />
I don’t believe Marilyn was an example of a life in ruin. She led an exciting one of some notoriety. She pursued her dreams to the utmost of her ability and by some measure of fortunate circumstance became a legend in a field that many disparage while secretly are a party to. She became a legend in a field that many venerate. She was unique in a business that chews and spits out young women like a Dakota wood chipper. She overcame ridicule, and addiction. She had a wonderful daughter. <br />
She was not satisfied with her life near the end, and wanted change, but she always wanted change. She always strove to tackle bigger and more ambitious projects. She took what life handed out and made the best of all things. <br />
My life is better for her having been in it to the small degree that she was in it.<br />
Her greatest accomplishment though, was becoming the person that she was ultimately to become. She transcended all of the bullshit and pain that her profession and it’s attendant necessities put upon her. She turned to drugs for awhile to help her with that, but overcame that particular problem as well. And that’s a big problem, one I’m all to familiar with. <br />
She became the person who gardens, and volunteers at animal shelters. She left the Chambers, Taylors, and Briggs personas behind and was just... Marilyn.<br />
Which was quite a lot indeed.<br />
<br />
Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-46955387033250398902017-04-16T21:31:00.001-07:002017-04-17T04:25:35.887-07:00The First March, Trump's Taxes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Picture Legend:<br />
<br />
1. Julianne Moore<br />
2. Pershing Square, from south to north<br />
3. Pershing Square, area where marchers first assembled<br />
4. John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing<br />
5. Millennium Biltmore Hotel<br />
6. Gas Company Tower<br />
7. Getting started at the corner of 5th and Olive (I’m the one on the left)<br />
8. Our lovely friend and progressive radio personality, <a href="https://www.stephaniemiller.com/"><i>Stephanie Miller</i></a> (on the right)<br />
9. Walking up a big hill on 5th St (I’m still there on the left)<br />
10. Sun Demon<br />
11. One of the many thoughtful signs displayed during the march<br />
12. The multitude<br />
13. Kristina Wong and the Chicken<br />
<br />
<br />
The lovely and talented actress Julianne Moore sent me an e-mail April 13th.<br />
She’s always doing that. <br />
Maybe she’s lonely.<br />
Anyway, this time she wants me to get off my well shaped ass and do something.<br />
This is what she wrote:<br />
“Hi Ricky [she calls me Ricky, just like my mom and sister]<br />
<br />
In 1951, my mother immigrated to this country from Scotland.<br />
<br />
Here, she met my father, a veteran who served our country as part of the 82nd Airborne Division in Vietnam.<br />
<br />
I’m grateful to them for helping to make my dreams possible and for all of the lessons they taught me, including the importance of citizenship.<br />
<br />
Today, as a parent and as a citizen, I’ve had it with Donald Trump.<br />
<br />
I’ve had it with his divisive rhetoric, his dangerous agenda, and his conflicts of interest. And I refuse to remain silent while he wastes hard-earned taxpayer money without sharing the truth about his finances.<br />
<br />
That’s why I’m standing with tens of thousands of Americans during this weekend’s nationwide Tax March. We’re demanding to see Trump’s tax returns -- are you standing with us? Just click here to find a Tax March happening near you.<br />
<br />
Before he left office, President Obama told us that the most important role in a democracy is citizen.<br />
<br />
I have to say he’s right.<br />
<br />
I’m demanding to see Trump’s tax returns because, as citizens, we deserve to know the truth. His conflicts of interest could put our national security at risk and make it harder for each of us to stand up for the issues we care about most, whether that’s gun safety or immigration reform.<br />
<br />
If you’re with me, I hope you’ll find a nationwide Tax March near you<br />
<br />
Thanks for standing up!<br />
<br />
Best,<br />
<br />
Your Honey Bunny, Julianne <br />
<br />
First of all, she’s very presumptuous, assuming I would sign up. But I want to see Trump’s tax returns as well.<br />
I did find a march near me, at Pershing Square, in downtown L.A. at 10am.<br />
The lovely and talented TV news journalist, Rachel Maddow, who never e-mails me, even talked about the marches on her show that evening.<br />
She wished us well. <br />
So I waited patiently for Saturday to arrive in two days.<br />
<br />
Saturday did arrive! I knew it would if I waited long enough.<br />
After writing a little and washing my towel I made myself a nice breakfast buritto of sausage, egg, cheese, and liverwurst, then at 9am I left for Pershing Square at 532 S Olive, smack dab in the middle of downtown Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
Our President has had a busy couple of weeks. On Thursday the 6th he authorized, without Congressional authorization, the attack of a Syrian air base with 59 tomahawk missiles. Granted it was for a good reason. Apparently Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s nominal leader, authorized the use of sarin gas against his own people, which was rather rude as sarin causes suffocation from lung muscle paralysis, hence death, in one to ten minutes. Worse than that, the production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed as of April 1997 by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, and it is classified as a Schedule 1 substance (like Ricin (which you’ll remember from “Breaking Bad”), mustard gas (which Adolf Hitler got a sniff of during World War I), or VX (O-Ethyl S-2-diisopropylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate. Say that three times in rapid succession), so it’s use is a <i>clear</i> violation. <br />
The missiles were aimed at the base that launched the jets that dropped the sarin.<br />
Another example of the power of karma.<br />
The bigger point here is... we’re not at war with Syria. As former Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/robert-reich-were-letting-trump-behave-dictator?akid=15424.204705.HIb3Uq&rd=1&src=newsletter1075502&t=7"><i>Robert Reich</i></a> quite rightly pointed out, number 1, this wasn’t the first time Assad had used chemical weapons. When he did in 2013, Trump advised against bombing Syria in response. <br />
And as I mentioned earlier, where exactly did the Trumper get the authority to bomb Syria? “Assad is a vicious dictator who does terrible things to his people. But U.S. law doesn’t authorize presidents to go to war against vicious dictators who do terrible things to their people.”<br />
The Constitution leaves it up to Congress, not the president, to declare war.<br />
Also, this action was made in haste, without a thorough investigation of the sarin attack, to verify that it actually occurred the way the Trump administration says it did.<br />
To that point, as I write this on the 16th, L.A. Progressive published this<a href="https://www.laprogressive.com/tomahawk-missile-strike/?utm_source=LA+Progressive+Newsletter&utm_campaign=9865df8e88-LAP_News_4_15_April_17_PC4_15_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9f184a8aad-9865df8e88-266187045&mc_cid=9865df8e88&mc_eid=1cc8065ceb"><i> article</i></a> which may provide evidence that, no, it didn’t happen as the Trump administration says it did. <br />
Trump revived the effort to take health care away from millions of Americans by putting that back on his agenda as his first priority. <br />
On Wednesday April 12th, apparently Trump authorized (we’re not sure because when asked if he did authorize it he avoiding answering the question in a clear, unambiguous manner) the Pentagon to drop a 22,000-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB) on people described as “Islamic State forces” in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border, killing about 36 “terrorists.”<br />
As Robert points out “It’s the first time this bomb – nicknamed the “mother of all bombs,” and the largest air-dropped munition in the U.S. military’s inventory – has ever been used in combat.<br />
It’s the largest explosive device America has utilized since dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. (By comparison, U.S. aircraft commonly drop bombs that weigh between 250 to 2,000 pounds.)<br />
Why, exactly? It’s not clear. And what was Trump’s authority to do this? Even less clear.”<br />
There’s some question as to how much just one of these bombs costs. Some have claimed as much as $360 million per unit. Rachel Maddow said on her show the cost was $180 mil. I checked for myself, and the Air Force claims that each costs $160,000. Now that’s a lot of money, but a lot less than the first two estimates.<br />
Still, at a cost of $160,000, let me see... 36 people... why that adds up to, about $4,444.00 bucks per person. <br />
That’s certainly not cost effective! You can kill individual people for a lot less than that!<br />
If it cost that much to kill people there wouldn’t be any murders.<br />
The average cost of a bullet is about 22 cents for Christ’s sake!<br />
And littler bombs are a lot less expensive.<br />
So the only apparent reason Trump used this weapon is 1, see it go boom (which I admit is probably pretty cool), 2, give “<a href="https://thinkprogress.org/fox-news-creates-music-video-to-celebrate-trump-bombing-afghanistan-33b2fb8b08ea"><i>Fox and Friends</i></a>,” the opportunity to make a music video featuring the explosion, and show what dim-witted, blood thirsty assholes they all are, and 3, allow Trump to show how tough he is. <br />
Oh yeah, and he’s almost gotten us into war with North Korea, a nation that has nuclear and chemical weapons, who doesn’t care <i>at all</i> about the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, by threatening to attack it.<br />
All before his first 100 days in office.<br />
He is indeed the eager beaver!<br />
Not too busy though to take an early day off and head to the golf courses of Mar-a-Lago... at tax payer expense. <br />
<br />
Pershing Square is a public park in downtown Los Angeles, California, one square block in size, bounded by 5th Street to the north, 6th Street to the south, Hill Street to the east, and Olive Street to the west. It lies atop a large underground parking garage.<br />
It is named after John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, who was a famous General of the United States Army during World War I. He is most famous as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) on the Western Front, which would be the closest to Germany. He rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated with their armies, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command, although some American divisions fought under British command, and he also allowed all-black units to be integrated with the French army because he didn’t want anything to do with them.<br />
He also participated in one of the greatest acts of genocide ever known by fighting American Indians in the Apache & Sioux Wars. He fought with Theodore Roosevelt at the Battle of San Juan Hill, which was a famous battle of the Spanish American War, which was another war fought to promote corporate interests, and which led directly to the Philippine–American War, which lasted from February 4, 1899 to July 2, 1902. He was an instigator in the Russo-Japanese War, and participated in the Pancho Villa Expedition, which was a part of the larger Mexican Revolution, which raged of for ten years between 1910 and 1920.<br />
He sure did like to fight a lot.<br />
Not like me. <br />
Black Jack (named after a popular card game) is the only American to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies, the highest possible rank in the United States Army, which is quite an achievement, and is why he has so much stuff named after him. <br />
I arrived there at 10:00, as directed. On my way I was thinking to myself, what if no one showed up. That would really be embarrassing, and go a long way into proving Trump’s assertion that nobody cares about his tax returns other than reporters.<br />
As I approached the park on 6th St, a young black woman holding a cardboard support structure with all kinds of buttons on it, told me, “All that hat needs is a nice button on it.”<br />
I was wearing a ball cap, and she was trying to sell me a button. I politely declined as I have way too many buttons already. I need to get rid of some as a matter of fact. <br />
But I love them all!<br />
I entered the block sized park from the south and walked to it’s middle. There were about a hundred people there, some with signs, other people didn’t have any signs at all, one could say they were signless, myself included. <br />
There were some dogs there, most of them attending to their humans. <br />
The crowd consisted for a large part of middle aged, or older white people, a few younger ones. I saw several brown folks, two blacks, one purple. As I write this I will place in quotation marks what was displayed on some of the many signs I observed, like this:<br />
“Show Us Your Damn Taxes,” and “Trump Lies Matter.”<br />
Pay attention now as I won’t give you any more warnings.<br />
I sat down. A man came over to me and asked if I would sign a petition concerning <a href="http://www.caclean.org/"><i>Assembly Bill 14</i></a>, the California Disclose Act, which deals with dark money in politics. <br />
“Sure.” <br />
I did sign it. Later I would get a Tootsie Roll for my efforts.<br />
Not a big one though, a small one.<br />
I would see a lot of people fiddling with their smart phones throughout the march. I was envious as I had forgotten my cell phone and left it at home. At that point I didn’t know what time it was.<br />
“Damn,” I said to myself.<br />
So a lot of people were taking pictures. <br />
One guy sat next to me and opened up this large cardboard contraption which was filled with buttons. He was there to sell them, and he did sell some as I watched.<br />
“Crooked Donald Show Us Your Taxes.”<br />
More people enter the park and began to congregate. Old and young... no bikers though.<br />
“Where Are Your Taxes Fool.”<br />
Someone was holding a flag that had the word “Resist” on it.<br />
More people came by the minute. In the first ten minutes that I was there about 300 potential marchers entered the congregation.<br />
I saw a “Show Us Your Taxes" T-shirt. <br />
“Protest Is Patriotic, Impeach Trump.”<br />
A lady walked by selling “Tax March” T-shirts.<br />
A man sitting on the other side of me was holding a sign promoting a car dealership, and supposedly, by extension, clean energy. “Boycott Exxon, Buy Electric.”<br />
Two ladies across from me, who apparently were with the organizers of the march, began singing, “There’s nothing funny, about dark money!”<br />
That sort of rhymes, doesn’t it.<br />
They tried to get a lot of people to sing along with them but nobody did.<br />
“What Is Trump Hiding?”<br />
“There Will Be Hell Toupée.”<br />
I saw a young girl holding a white bag on the end of a stick with a “$” sign printed on it.<br />
Fairly soon there were somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 people there. <br />
How exciting!<br />
I waited for my friend Storm to show up, but she was busy taking a shower in the Valley.<br />
It’s good to be clean.<br />
She was with us in spirit though, she later let me know, as I knew she felt passionately about the object of the march.<br />
A lot of people that couldn’t be there physically felt the same way, my sister included.<br />
One of the ladies who had been singing, who was wearing a “Resisting in L.A.” T-shirt, told us that the march would begin at 11:00 at the corner of 5th and Olive, and that we would be following a truck with a big inflated chicken that looked like Trump on it. <br />
Well that should be easy enough to find as trucks with big inflated chickens on them that resemble Donald Trump are relatively rare in Los Angeles. <br />
Or at least I haven’t seen any.<br />
The two ladies began to chant “There’s nothing funny, about dark money.”<br />
There were now a good 3,000 people of various shapes, sizes, and sexes there. The place was getting filled up fast.<br />
I now couldn’t see to the north end of the park due to the amount of people blocking my view.<br />
“Read My Pussy Lips, Trump’s A Coward.”<br />
The park cops came up to the button selling guy next to me and told him he had to leave because he was selling buttons on park property. He took his time about leaving but eventually did. <br />
Apparently the T-shirts the “Resist in L.A.” ladies were selling just a few feet away were alright, because they kept selling them. <br />
“When You Say Your Taxes Are Under Audit Are You Putin Us On.” <br />
By this time there were several million there, in the range of 4,000.<br />
People took up the chant “What are you afraid of, show your taxes.” <br />
I detected a medium to high percentage of enthusiasm in the crowd. <br />
I began to mosey over to the corner of 6th and Olive, with the classic Millennium Biltmore Hotel across Olive on the south side of 5th and the giant 52 story Gas Company Tower on the north side. <br />
A couple of girls kept hitting on me but I explained in a kind and patient fashion the seriousness and earnestness of the work I was doing, letting them down as gently as I knew how.<br />
I stopped by the giant chess set which is right next to the giant checkers set, for a quick game. <br />
Won in 2.7 minutes.<br />
Somebody gave me a free poster that showed the hand of a puppeteer pulling puppet strings, with one of the hands having a hammer and sickle tattoo, with the caption “Who’s Pulling Your Strings Trump?”<br />
A big truck was parked on Olive, just at the intersection, blocking the street. I was watching it while a man walked by with a cart which was filled with what looked like sandwiches. He wheeled it over to the grassy area and started to hand them out. <br />
I was hungry by now so I went over and got one. <br />
“These are for the homeless,” a blonde lady called to me.<br />
“I’m homeless,” I told her. “Wanta see my Homeless Card?” <br />
“Yes please.”<br />
I showed it to her.<br />
“Oh, sorry,” she said.<br />
It was ham and cheese.<br />
Music began to emanate from the truck. Loud, rave music, with a pounding and insistent bass.<br />
I stayed as far away as possible.<br />
“Less Lunacy, More Transparency.”<br />
“No! Drive Out The Trump/Pence Regime.”<br />
It was a bright sunny day in Los Angeles. The people I have figuring out the weather for me told me the temperature would remain in the mid seventies, but the sun was beating down on us and it seemed a lot warmer than that.<br />
I walked over toward the middle of the north end of the park and looked at the entrance at 5th and Hill where a steady stream of marchers were entering.<br />
They just didn’t stop!<br />
“What Tax Returns? Putin Paid Cash.”<br />
I noticed that real police were showing up and making an appearance. <br />
“Kiss Our Asses, Release Your Taxes.”<br />
“The Emperor Has No Clothes.”<br />
I’m not sure exactly how that last one has to do with anything. <br />
I walked over to the truck. And an announcer guy got on the P.A. and asked the crowd in the street on Olive to move over as much as they could toward the hotel. <br />
Good, they’ll get things going any minute. It must be 11:00 by now.<br />
Then the announcer guy asked more people from the sidewalk to get on the street.<br />
I moved into the street.<br />
Then he told everybody to enjoy the music.<br />
Oh hell no!<br />
We were packed a tight as sardines in a can and we were supposed to stand there and dance until the truck guys got their act together and started the march! The announcer guy wasn’t down there on the street. What inconvenience did he have to suffer on the nearly empty truck bed.<br />
None.<br />
So I moved back to the park, found a spot and waited for the show to get on the road.<br />
The truck began to play “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”<br />
“Did Putin Forget To Send Your W-2.”<br />
“Stop Putin It Off.”<br />
I detected a certain amount of angst within the crowd.<br />
“Impeach and Imprison.”<br />
Somebody gave a me a free sticker of Trump’s face made up as a clown. I think I’ll put it on my manager’s door. He will have great difficulty getting it off, which will provide a certain amount of amusement for me.<br />
That’s very immature isn’t it?<br />
I agree.<br />
“Oligarchy Is The New Democracy.”<br />
“Where Are Your Taxes At Bitch!”<br />
“The Art Of The Steal.”<br />
“Turns Out We Do Care, Show Us Your Taxes.”<br />
The announcer guy on the truck began a crowd chant.<br />
“What do you wanta see?!”<br />
“The crowd replied, “Taxes!”<br />
“When do you want to see them?!”<br />
“Now!”<br />
He then said that a performance artist was going to perform for them.<br />
Great. It was getting hotter and hotter. Sun demons pummeled us from the sky.<br />
I asked somebody what the time was.<br />
“Eleven thirty,” he said.<br />
The performance guy yelled, “Long live Putin and Trump.”<br />
The crowd responded, “Boo!”<br />
“Long live American Democracy!”<br />
“Yeah!”<br />
I thought for a moment about Trump and wondered at the amount of energy required to be such an asshole.<br />
“We the people we demand, put those taxes in our hands.”<br />
An assistant of Rep Maxine Waters of the 43rd Congressional District, which lies west of downtown and includes Inglewood and part of Torrance, spoke of Trump’s excuse for not showing his taxes, the audit excuse. She pointed out tax experts and even the IRS had said that it was perfectly fine for him to issue his tax returns.<br />
During the campaign the media rarely pressed him on this point, if ever. At one point during one of the debates with Hillery, he admitted that he could show them, and would do so, against his lawyers advice, if Hillery released E-mails or something. <br />
So at that point he was using a lawyer’s advice as the reason he couldn’t release them.<br />
There must be some pretty nasty shit in there.<br />
After the assistant finished they played more music.<br />
Really?<br />
I don’t like to stand around and do nothing for no good reason.<br />
Then an energy person spoke for a while, and he got the people chanting.<br />
“A liar, a cheat, a climate change denier!”<br />
More music.<br />
One last speaker we were told. By this time the whole crowd was beginning to get inpatient.<br />
He spoke about single payer health care, and ended by exclaiming, “Let’s take our country back!”<br />
He also spoke of <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB149"><i>Senate Bill 149</i></a>, which would require those running for president in a California primary to submit their tax returns for the last five years.<br />
I’m all for that.<br />
Then the march began.<br />
We all filed slowly out of the park, following the chicken, up 6th St to Grand, near the US bank Tower and the library. That’s one of the steepest streets in the downtown area. We turned right on Grand which is even steeper. <br />
Maybe we could find a nice moat to swim across soon.<br />
We turned left on Hope Pl to Hope St, at which point we turned right, or north. We turned right onto Kosciuszk Pl, which brought us into a tunnel. <br />
We stopped about half way through and press photographers got a chance to take pictures of the marchers who were up front.<br />
Then we continued on back to Olive turning left, or north.<br />
“Free Hugs.” (“A hug can turn your day around,” says Chuck, of “Pushing Daisies”)<br />
We blatantly ignored all of the red lights we came across in a mighty yet dignified display of social disobedience. <br />
“Fuck Golf.”<br />
We marched to 1st St, made a right to the east, to Hill St, making a left and north again until we reached Grand Park, which brought us to City Hall, our final destination.<br />
The music was playing as I arrived, then a young lady, <a href="http://kristinawong.com/"><i>Kristina Wong</i></a>, began speaking. I listened for awhile, before heading home. <br />
After all, I needed to start writing this.<br />
I recall one good line she had. That on the night of the election, when it became apparent that Trump would win, the only thing that saved her from jumping off the roof of her building was that the line was too long.<br />
I hear Trump is trying to rationalize the various marches throughout the country by tweeting something like this.<br />
<br />
"<a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-investigation-tax-day-protesters-tweets-election-over-n747101"><i>Someone should look into who paid for the small organized rallies,<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #232323; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0.16px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"></span> The election is over</i></a>!"<br />
<br />
Will he release his tax returns? No, he will not. The only way we’ll see those is if Congress forces him to release them, and that won’t happen until Democrats take back the Senate or the House, or both next year. <br />
<br />
But Mr. Trump. It’s not about the election, whether it’s over or not.<br />
We’re going to get rid of your ass one way or another.<br />
For the sake of humanity.<br />
<br />
<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6202777189387946504.post-69696509785776910492017-03-31T04:26:00.000-07:002018-11-21T16:21:47.122-08:00Renovation 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
To RSC Henry N </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
CC Tommy D LaShunda W president@whitehouse.gov</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2-20-2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
4:52am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Henry, </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
About thirty minutes ago I was forced to take a shower in a restroom wherein the toilet was filled with excrement. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As you probably know there are two operational restrooms on the upper floors of the Las Americas, as the renovation crew has spent well over eight months renovating the other four potentially operational restrooms equipped with showers (there are I believe two other shower rooms on the south side of the building which seem to be permanently out of order). To say they are taking their time renovating would be a gross understatement. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The restroom I used this morning is located on the second floor. I could have used the restroom on the third floor as it’s shower is operational (for some reason management can’t seem to get a door fitted onto this shower, as there has been no shower door in this room for months), and I would have, if the light had been working. It was early morning, and dark outside, and I choose not to shower in the dark as that’s an obvious safety hazard. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And that toilet was filled with crap as well.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You might be wondering why I’m bothering you with this rather than Resident Services, AKA Tommy D. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is the problem as I see it. SRHT, in it’s infinite wisdom, has taken the step to fill up, to the brim, a hotel that is still under renovation, with new residents who are involved with some secret program that you manage, a hotel that was barely able to fulfill the needs of the 30 or so residents who were already housed there, and have been housed there throughout this renovation nightmare, for over a year. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Las Americas is currently incapable of fulfilling the basic safety and security needs of it’s residents. Adding more residents just adds to that strain, and the difficulties I’ve mentioned above did not appear as frequently as they are now before the hotel was packed (It appears that the toilet problem manifests itself, like clockwork, every Friday afternoon, just as the janitorial staff is going home for the weekend).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Resident Services is understaffed, as Tommy as his assistant now manage two hotels (the Las Americas & the Olympia). RSC staff is understaffed, as yourself and RSC LaShunda W are working two hotels as well. And as far as I know we only have one janitor, Jose, who is working both hotels. To say that he is woefully understaffed and overworked would be another massive understatement. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Their are other difficulties as well. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Having a hotel filled with residents in two different programs presents inherent problems. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve been a resident of the Las Americas for over 13 years now. Many others in the Shelter Plus Care program have been here many years.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Within one week of arriving the people in your program were equipped with new microwave ovens, and I’ve been told kitchenware and televisions, while Shelter Plus Care participants received absolutely nothing.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To state this is a drain on our moral is another understatement.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I know for a fact that many of the people in your program have sold the things your program has provided for them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve found your people sleeping in the halls, monopolizing the already inadequate kitchen, and as I’ve mentioned, aggravating the overall facilities the Las Americas currently provides.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a safety concern. A health concern. A security concern.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I look forward to your response as to how SRHT intends to alleviate all of the difficulties I’ve mentioned. Please feel free to forward this letter to your supervisors.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I need to know how SRHT intends to attend to these issues before I am forced to report this whole matter to the Housing Authority, who I might add, is already extremely concerned about housing it’s clients in a hotel that is under construction.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you for your time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Richard Joyce</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To Henry N</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
CC Tommy D LaShunda W president@whitehouse.gov Feb 20 at 7:08 AM</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A little while ago I was down in the kitchen making breakfast and one of the female residents told me she witnessed a family of rats in the building on the first floor, something I've never seen in all of my years here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
February 20th, a Monday, was a national holiday, Presidents Day. Who would come to work today? I didn’t know. Hopefully Jose would show up as the building really needed to be looked after. The toilets of course, but most of the waste cans were filled or overflowing and needed to be emptied.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Even if I wanted to, and I didn’t, I, or any other resident couldn’t empty the cans ourselves as the waste bin we would empty them into was locked up.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy did show up. I saw him as I was going downstairs to warm up some coffee in the microwave oven in the first floor kitchen.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Hi Tommy,” I said to him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“People shitting everywhere,” he thoughtfully replied. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Ah, yeah. I wrote you an E-mail about that.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Jose had the day off as he didn’t show up. I didn’t hear from Henry or LaShunda, which told me nothing. Even if they got my message I didn’t expect them to respond, at least right away. Maybe never, depending on how seriously they took my E-mail. After all, I’m just a client... a lowly and powerless resident.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The only thing that was done within the building that day was that someone (Tommy?) taped a blue plastic bag over the affected toilets in an attempt to put a halt to the constant and ceaseless defecating. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The next day, Tuesday the 21st, everybody should have been back to work. Jose, a barely 5 foot tall powerhouse Hispanic, who hardly speaks any English, and who’s really one of the best janitors we’ve ever had, cleaned the Las Americas expertly. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As always.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No word from the RSCs.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I worked like a little demon all day on a birthday tribute to the lovely and talented actress Jessica Biel, taking a break only to go to the<a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2009/03/hippie-kitchen.html"><i> Hippie Kitchen</i></a> to stock up on salad and black beans.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That night, around 7:30 or so, I went downstairs to make some tacos in the kitchen. As I entered the light came on automatically, and out of the corner of my eye I detected movement, and looking down I just caught the sight of the ass end of a rat disappearing into a sideboard. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So now I’d seen them. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Not that I mind rats though. Rats are my friends.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I adore the movies “Willard” and “Ben.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As a matter of fact there’s nothing like a good, fat rat every once in a while.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’m concerned about the other residents though, the older, feeble ones, those who can’t run fast enough to survive a sustained and well provisioned rat attack.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I suppose now that the rats have been independently verified I should float the idea of a “Rat Seminar,” where a rat expert can show us what to do exactly when the little rodent bastards get feisty... plan an emergency exit strategy, how to fight back, how to avoid contracting the Bubonic Plague, etc. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This kind knowledge, along with Rat Drills (practice a rat counter attack), will undoubtedly save lives. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2-23-17 Thursday</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
4:15pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I opened my door and found a notice taped to it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After the the initial shock wore off I took the notice down, backed up into my room and read it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To: All Residents at the Olympia and Las Americas</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From: Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Date: February 24 & February 27, 2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Re: Unit Inspection - Desks</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents, </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You are being notified that in-unit work has been scheduled for Friday, February 24 and Monday, February 27, 2017. The contractor will need access to your unit between 8am and 4pm for approximately 15 minutes to inspect your desk. You will not need to vacate your unit, but you will need to allow the contractor access</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding the work. We appreciate your cooperation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sincerely, Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Do not hesitate to contact us...” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What a laugh! </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
No one really knows who or what Skid Row Southeast 1 staff are or is. Not since Lauren and Alison disappeared. These notices just pop out of the ether every once and a while. Well, actually they are transported to Tommy via electronic wires, wherein he prints and distributes them. Therefore, much like the film “Arrival,” there is a impenetrable wall separating the residents and Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding the work,” yet they provide no contact information. Do you see any contact information in that notice above? An Email address, telephone number, PO Box... anything? I don’t either.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Once at a resident meeting I asked Richard, Tommy’s boss, how are we supposed to contact members of the Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff .</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Just tell your case manager what your situation or question is.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Okay.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did that. I asked Cassandra to pass on a message to the Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff . </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
She hasn’t been seen or heard from since. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“We appreciate your cooperation.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Really. How presumptuous!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What happens if I don’t cooperate? Will I go the way of Cassandra, Lauren, and Alison? One minute here, the next I wake up in some gulag in Siberia, if I wake up at all.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What is it exactly that they wish to inspect I wonder? A week or so ago two guys had come around with Tommy to take a look at it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Remember now, it’s not exactly a desk we’re talking about here. What we’re talking about is a 20 x 35 inch rectangular piece of mahogany looking press board, or particle board, or whatever it’s made of, that is bolted to my wall, 27 1/2 inches from the floor. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I have this piece of pressboard sticking out from my wall at a right angle with nothing supporting the front. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The board itself, and whatever I place upon it, in my case my DVR, computer monitor, modem, several speakers, alarm clock, and 33 pound granite rock, is only supported by the bolts holding it to the wall. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I rest my keyboard on the “desk” to type I can feel the “desk” wobble a little. So I believed the whole thing to be inherently unstable.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whoever it was who made the decision to install these things didn’t really think this through.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It probably looked good on paper, but in practical use, not so much.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My neighbor from across the hall, his “desk’ broke completely off. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy told me this has happened to a few of these “desks.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That’s why I stacked 31 of my books, of various shapes, sizes, thicknesses, and subjects, right next to my new two drawer night stand which is right underneath my “desk,” from the floor to the underside of the “desk,” supporting the front.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now the “desk” is like totally stable. I could dance on top of it if I so desired.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I didn’t dance on it though. That would just be silly.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I did increase the poundage of my rock though to 47.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I was fine with the so-called “desk” now. I was able to type on it and everything. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But Tommy told me he thought that what the so-called inspectors were going to do was to install a support structure to the “desk.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I thought about this for awhile. I didn’t like it. Then I panicked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If they put some kind of support structure on the underside of my “desk,” then I might not be able to fit my night stand under it, which itself supported some speakers. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If that were to happen it would just mess everything up.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And beyond that, they may want me to take all my stuff off of the ”desk” to do the work, including the rock. So once again I might have to take apart my freaking computer!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So I panicked some more. I thought about committing seppuku, the Japanese ritual form of suicide by disembowelment, but thought better of it after a while. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We would see.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
February 24th came. A Friday. I prepared my desk for whoever was to come and inspect it, or work on it, by removing the 31 books and the night stand from underneath it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Around 10 o’clock I heard the inspectors come to other nearby rooms, one just a couple of doors down from me. I waited patiently for them to come to my room. I waited and waited. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They never came.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was a big fake out designed to drive me mad.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I put back the night stand and the books and carried on with my life.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2-23-17 Thursday</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
4:47pm</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
My neighbor Arnold came to my door to let me know about two notices that had been taped to it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To: Las Americas2nd and 3rd Floor</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From: Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff [who ever they are... there is no contact information]</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Date: February 27, 2016</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Re: Electricity Shut-Off</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents, </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You are being notified that the electricity will be shut-off on the 2nd and 3rd Floor from 8am to 3pm on Monday, February 27th.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We are sorry for the inconvenience and we thank you for your cooperation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sincerely, </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The second notice was just like the one above but for the kitchen on Tuesday, the 28th, the electricity would be shut off from 8am to 3pm.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They were specifying a 7 hour shut down, one hour less than required to have an automatic per diem payment set in... $35 for the room, $71 for the kitchen.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And it’s interesting that they assume we will cooperate since they’re thanking us for it ahead of time. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I zipped off an E-mail to Tommy:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy, having read the notice informing us of the electricity shut-off on Monday, February 27, for the 2nd and 3rd floors, and the kitchen on the 28th. I’m a little confused as both notices are dated 2016. Now has this work already been done last year? If that is the case we don’t have to prepare for a shut off, right? Please clarify.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Thank you.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We shall see again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And interesting conversation in the kitchen just now. Or actually, me and my friend Cliff were the objects of existential venting. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the new residents who lives on the first floor, a member of the mysterious 2nd, or new program, and old black lady, I mean old, she must be in her 70s, entered the kitchen to fry some kiełbasa sausage while I was standing in front of the microwave, the one microwave we have that 30 or so people use. I was making some Top Ramen and coffee. Cliff was waiting for me to finish. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And then she started.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I don’t know why they put us in here. Too many people, and this damn too small kitchen, for so many people. I gotta get out of here. Too many roaches and rats. I’ve got COPD and asthma... I shouldn't be around no roaches and rats. No laundry facility. They don’t care about us. People who don’t live here moving around. They don’t care about no homeless people. I gotta leave. I don’t like it here.” She seemed like she was angry and on the verge of tears at the same time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Then why did you move in here,” Cliff asked.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It took awhile for her to answer.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh I had to move out of my house, had to...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It was unclear why she had to leave her last residence.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve seen her at other times. She’s a bitchy old hag. Still I felt sorry for her.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The next day, Friday February 24th, 2017, Tommy Emailed back to me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s being revised.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Later as I was watering the asparagus ferns in the front of the hotel, Tommy snuck up from behind me and said, “I had to contact the staff and have them revise the notice...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You did. Just for the date?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No. I told them they had to do it over again because they didn’t put anything down about the per diem... and I didn’t even notice the date was wrong until I got your Email...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Per diem? I thought that was for eight hours...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“No six. You’ll get seventy one dollars for the kitchen and thirty five for your rooms.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Wait a minute. You’re in contact with the Skid Row Southeast One Staff?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yes. Sometimes.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Who are they? Are they real people... or machines... do they have mouths...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I’m not at liberty to say.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh come on Tommy...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I can’t talk about it anymore.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Why?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“They may be listening.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then he ran off before I could question him any further. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I mysteriously received another notice upon my door.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To: Las Americas: All Units</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From: Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Date: February 24,2017</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Re: Electricity Shut-Off </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Residents,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You are being notified that the electricity will be shut-off in the kitchen from 8am to 3pm on Tuesday, February 28th. The water and gas stove will be operational, but the lights, microwave and all other appliances that need electricity will be shut down until 3pm. You will receive $71 per diem.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We are sorry for the inconvenience and we thank you for your cooperation.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Sincerely,</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Skid Row Southeast 1 Staff </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A second notice informed me that our rooms would be done on Wednesday, March 1st, and that we would receive a payment of $35.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well these second round notices were certainly more to my liking than the first round.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We shall see.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
2-28-17 Tuesday</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
10:45am</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Electricity cut-off for the kitchen day, and $71 per diem day, which was fine with me. They were paying us this money just because the buildings one common microwave would be unavailable for a few hours. Probably not even the whole seven hours that were being called for. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The gas oven and stove would still be operational, so meals could still be prepared. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Just the microwave would be off.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Taking into account that the new people who had microwave ovens already in their rooms were not eligible for the per diem, that would leave about 30 who were. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That means SRHT was shelling out approximately $2,130 for one microwave being out of commission for about five hours. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Now I don’t mind getting this cash, but as an overall policy, this seems a tad wasteful. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then again... not my problem.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tuesday came. I Emailed Tommy and asked when the per diems would be handed out. He Emailed me back and told me he didn’t know, but that they always distributed them from his office (which was on the third floor these days, just about twenty steps from my door). </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At around 10:30 a young man named John came to my door, had me sign a paper, then gave me an envelope with $71 in it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
After depositing the money in my vault, I walked to the Hippie Kitchen and ate there. The lack of the microwave for a little while did not bother me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Pretty much the same thing happened the next day. I received $35, turned off my computer, and kicked back and read from James Clavell’s “Shogun,” for a few hours until the power came back on, at which time I turn my computer back on.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And my TV.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the many problems our building is currently experiencing has to do with it’s fire alarm. It keeps going off for no particular reason. No one knows why, or how to prevent it. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There is also a constant “beeping.” Beep, then 3 seconds pass, then beep again, 3 seconds, beep. This goes on at all times of the day, and can last for hours. No one knows why or how to stop it. We can turn it off temporarily, but it will come back eventually. Some surmise this is a form of Chinese audio water torture designed to drive all of us who live and work here completely insane. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It’s already worked on Tommy, who can be seen babbling to himself, and drooling incessantly from time to time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If it happens when he is around (the fire alarm sounding), or his assistant, Kevin, it can be turned off, because they know how to do it. The problem is when they are not around. Tommy doesn’t live in the building any more, so when he leaves at 5, or when Kevin leaves at 7, there is no one here to turn the alarm off if it is triggered. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is not only annoying for the residents, as little mini-alarms go off in each room when the main alarm sounds, but it also annoys the hell out of the fire department, which is tasked to come investigate why our alarm is sounding for a prolonged period of time. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When the fire department comes out and the building isn’t on fire they get awfully miffed. So much so that they charge SRHT for the visit, I’m not sure how much, but it’s enough for SRHT to hire a security company to have one of their security guys hang out in the building all night specifically to monitor the fire alarm.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Apparently the fire alarm can not be fixed. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ever.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There's other sounds that come out of the alarm system. They're hard to describe. I guess the closest I can come is the sound of a demon grumbling deep inside the pits of Hell. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anyway, I’ll go downstairs at night to heat up some coffee and the security guy will be down there sitting by the front door, usually diddling with their smart phone. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ll say “hi” to him. He’ll say “hi” back. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
When I pass him on my way back I’ll say “Have a good night.” He’ll say “You too.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was once down there when one of the security guards was talking to another resident. The subject of rats came up. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“There are still rats around,” I asked him.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh yeah! Especially in the kitchen. That’s why I stay out here.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Really.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh yeah. Ever since one of our guys disappeared from here, I stay out of there.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“One of you men disappeared?”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Yeah. Ralph. He had a wife and two kids. Came to work last Wednesday... was never seen again...”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“He could have just left, and something happened to him. He could be on a bender somewhere, or, well there are any number of reasons of why he might have gone missing.” </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Maybe. But his last log entry read, “Heard something in the basement. Going to check it out.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“You’re kidding.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Nope.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I looked at the kitchen doorway, then returned to my room.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I think I’ll get my own microwave.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On March 13th Ben and John came back for another resident meeting. They didn’t have a whole lot to tell us, other than moving the completion date for construction back two months, from May to July.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I get the feeling they don’t know what they’re talking about, or that they really don’t have any control over anything, especially the pace at which work is getting done around here. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Henry told them that there had been no workers here at all last Friday, and today, which was a Monday. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ben and John just shrugged. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You see the thing is if there are no workers here working then no work is being done... no joules being expended so to speak. And if there’s no work being done it will be decidedly difficult to maintain the work schedule Ben and John had just laid out, finishing up by July. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This was pointed out to Ben and John. They shrugged.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Food was handed out by Henry and LaShunda. Fried chicken and potato salad. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Of course there was one guy who just wanted to bitch about... everything. He complained that he wasn’t given 24 hours notice before the meeting which is supposed to happen (no one was. Henry was supposed to have placed the notices last Friday, but had taken the day off instead. In any case this guy was the only one who mentioned it). He complained that he wasn’t getting paid for, I don’t know, being alive I guess. He mentioned the inconvenience of having to live here during the construction process. He knew full well what we would be paid for, and what we were not going to be paid for, and he had signed documentation to that affect before the renovation began. He complained that he wasn’t given his chicken fast enough, and threatened to leave the meeting.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I wish he had, but he didn’t. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The residents provided a list of items that Ben and John might be able to help with. My neighbor Arnold complained that there were no towel racks in the bathrooms that had just been completed on the north part of the building, on the second and third floors. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I complained that there were no window blinds.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I mean, I have a great body and all. No doubt about that. But I feel no need to show it off in all it’s glory every morning as I shower. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We asked about the microwave ovens that had been promised to us. Specifically when we would be getting them. They didn’t know. They kept talking about the wiring in the building needing to get finished, then inspected by the Dept of Water and Power.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t know what that has to do with microwaves.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
They also wanted to know who still had holes in their walls.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Everyone. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
About the new finished bathrooms. They’re nice and shiny and all. The only real problem, besides no towel rack or window blinds, is that there are no doors for the showers, just a curtain, a plastic curtain. Which would be fine if there was a bathtub involved, which would catch the runoff shower water. But there is no bathtub, just the floor. This means that every time anybody takes a shower the entire bathroom floor pretty much gets inundated. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is both annoying and unsafe. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Who the hell came up with and approved these ideas?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I saw Hardy one morning as I came down to make some breakfast. He already had something in the microwave so I had to wait for his stuff to finish cooking. We sat near the front door looking out at the dark that was 6th Street.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For almost a year now the common television had been out of use and resting in Tommy’s office, as the construction people were supposedly working and renovating where the common lounge used to be, where the television used to be. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hardy, who is 72 years old now, had used that television as his major form of entertainment, watching shows like “In the Heat of the Night,” “Law and Order,” and “Bluebloods.” He also liked to watch the local news programs. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He had been denied this simple pleasure for this last year, and spent most of his free time just sitting out front on the sidewalk watching the traffic pass by on Alameda and 6th.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I feel sorry for him sometimes and have told him he can come up to my room anytime my door is open and watch TV. He rarely comes though.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He could also walk over to the Produce Hotel, about two blocks away, and watch television there, but no one wants to go to the Produce. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Those who have done so in the past have come back subtly changed. They mumble to themselves and vibrate. Sometimes they stare off into space seeing only the entities and landscapes that they could see.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And their hair has turned white.\</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Anyway Hardy looked tired and haggard. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“What... what day is it?” he asked me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s Monday, Hardy.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“Oh.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On March 16th I noticed that the light at the bottom of the stairs to the first floor was out, which was odd. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I didn’t think anything about it though. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Until it began to get dark.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had started off to the <a href="http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-skid-row-drifters.html"><i>Drifters Meeting</i></a>. I saw that the light was still off, no illumination at all on the stairwell. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Tommy had already left for the day, so I went to the manager’s office to find Kevin to tell him of the situation. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Door locked. No one there.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I left and attended the meeting. When I got back, as expected, no light whatsoever in the stairwell. There were no nearby windows, so no ambient light could filter through. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I slowly grabbed onto the railing and made my way upstairs one step at a time. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of my neighbors was right behind me, the prettiest girl in the building actually, and she said this.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“It’s too damn dark in here!”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I know,” I wittily replied.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“This is dangerous,” she said.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“I know.”</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
We somehow made it to the second floor safely, and went our separate ways. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I went to my room and worked feverishly on finding the exact numerical equivalent of Pi, when I decided to go for ice cream at the nearby gas station, which happens to sell ice cream bars and things of that nature.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then I remembered I’d have to navigate the stairwell again. I didn’t look forward to it as I had already slipped and fell on it twice recently even with the lights on.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I truly believe the stairs are cursed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I walked up to it, and looked down, not able to see anything. Total darkness, like the inside of a black hole (no one knows what the inside of a black hole looks like, not even Stephen Hawking).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I started down the stairs. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I never made it to the bottom.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://joycestake.blogspot.com/2017/06/renovation-4.html"><i>Renovation 4</i></a></div>
<br />Richard Joycehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135777489261683010noreply@blogger.com0