All of a sudden, I find myself looking back. The other day it was the 49th anniversary of my attending the first Star Trek Convention. This month marks 37 years since I joined DC Comics full-time and 20 since I had my less-than-marvelous year at Marvel Comics. It was late November, if I recall, that […]
Yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the first Star Trek convention, held at New York’s Statler-Hilton hotel. It ran the weekend and today marks my 50th anniversary of being there. I had been commuting into Manhattan for conventions for at least a year by then. Hard as it is to imagine today, my parents were […]
Another year in reading winds down as I finish the 217th book for 2020. Looking back, it was most certainly a varied year, more so than usual, it seems. The year began and almost ended with N.K. Jemisin. I plowed through her Shattered Earth trilogy in one consecutive go, taken by her worldbuilding and interesting […]
Most years, as I look back, it has been a sequence of events without an overarching theme. This year, of course, has been unusually awful thanks to the toxic combination of a global pandemic and the partisan divide during an election year. So, of course, it’s a leap year prolonging the suffering. ’ll be honest […]
Tomorrow I will complete reading my 65th book of the year, which is closer to my normal reading and nearly double what I managed in 2008. As usual, I saw to it I read new authors while indulging in old favorites.Of the 65 read, a higher percentage than usual is Star Trek titles, catching up […]
For as long as I remember, I have had the nervous habit of biting my fingernails. For years, Deb was after me to stop biting them and about five years back, I made myself a New Year’s resolution to stop.Slowly, but surely, I have stopped, almost a finger at a time. About two years ago, […]
Initially the Ryndam was scheduled to make Key West its first port of call. This excited Deb since she always wanted to visit but even before we boarded the ship, we were notified that it had been changed to Cozumel. Apparently, there’s an issue regarding getting water in Florida hence the move.We first visited the […]
We’ve been away the past week, a real honest to goodness vacation. It’s been well over ten years since Deb and I were away, just the two of us, for anything other than a long weekend. And as you know, after the last 24 months, we could certainly use a break from the real world.Since […]
When I first heard about Men of a Certain Age, I was unsure if I wanted to try another dramatic series. But, Deb seemed tickled that the title covered my stage of life, and the reviews seemed pretty positive.We tried the show, thanks to the miracle of the DVR, just the other night and I […]
Some time after joining Starlog in 1980, I began chatting with a freelance writer named Dave McDonnell. Dave was living in Pennsylvania and working part-time at Jim Steranko’s Mediascene, the occasionally published magazine. Dave wanted to write for Starlog and we began talking which led to his doing a few pieces.More importantly, Dave was the […]