{"id":33658,"date":"2025-06-22T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T09:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=33658"},"modified":"2025-06-21T21:10:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:10:47","slug":"21jun2025-an-interesting-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/21jun2025-an-interesting-day\/","title":{"rendered":"21JUN2025 \u2013 An Interesting Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent post called \u201cWhere Will We Be in 2,500 AD<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 reminded Ed of an old song from 1969 called \u201cIn the Year 2525<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember this one?<\/em><\/p>\n

In the year 2525, if man is still alive<\/strong><\/p>\n

If woman can survive, they may find<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the year 3535<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>(very long series of verses)\u00a0\u00a0 \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s been ten thousand years<\/strong><\/p>\n

Man has cried a billion tears<\/strong><\/p>\n

For what, he never knew, now man\u2019s reign is through<\/strong><\/p>\n

But through eternal night, the twinkling of starlight<\/strong><\/p>\n

So very far away, maybe it\u2019s only yesterday<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the year 2525, if man is still alive<\/strong><\/p>\n

If woman can survive, they may find<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And that produced this comment by me:<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember it well. I was in the family station wagon heading for Long Beach Island on the Jersey shore for the summer vacation when it came on the radio for the first time. I was reading a science fiction anthology edited by Robert Heinlein called \u201cTomorrow, the Stars.\u201d Life was simpler then.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, of course that got me thinking.\u00a0 As I remembered that was a pretty good anthology.\u00a0 But unfortunately, it was a trade paperback from 1969 so it fell apart about fifty years ago or so.\u00a0 Curses!<\/p>\n

But Amazon.com<\/strong> has some redeeming value.\u00a0 I found a hard back copy (seventeen years older than the paperback I owned but in much, much better shape) and purchased it for a very reasonable sum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And, as remembered, there are several very good stories inside; C. M. Kornbluth\u2019s \u201cThe Silly Season,\u201d Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s \u201cThe Report on the Barnhouse Effect\u201d (I forgot he was the author), Isaac Asimov\u2019s \u201cMisbegotten Missionary,\u201d William Morrison\u2019s \u201cThe Sack,\u201d Fritz Leiber\u2019s \u201cPoor Superman\u201d and several others that I still like.<\/p>\n

So now that will allow me to enjoy some excellent short science fiction from the golden age (or was it the silver age?).<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll need it.\u00a0 I was reading Heinlein\u2019s posthumously published alternate novel to his \u201cNumber of the Beast\u201d alternate universe story; “The Pursuit of the Pankera.“<\/b><\/i>\u00a0 But I just couldn\u2019t read it straight through.\u00a0 Just like in the \u201cNumber of the Beast\u201d the four main characters just talk way, way too much.\u00a0 It was like an endless struggle session to see who could out-Heinlein who.\u00a0 I also developed a strong antipathy for his character Hildy.\u00a0 I wanted a monster to squash her when she started hectoring them.<\/p>\n

I will admit it was better than \u201cNumber of the Beast\u201d but I couldn\u2019t finish that one either.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s me but after his illness in the \u201870\u2019s I don\u2019t think his writing ever recovered the vitality it had before \u201cI Will Fear No Evil.\u201d\u00a0 Or maybe something changed in me.<\/p>\n

But anyway, Heinlein\u2019s picks in the anthology I\u2019ll be rereading show good taste at least in conventional science fiction from the 1950s.\u00a0 Thank goodness he didn\u2019t have access to his continua craft in his old age and could go back and change his story selections for that anthology.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d enjoy them.<\/p>\n

Today I also received my handy-dandy manual chain saw doo-hickey (in the same box as the book).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the chain for a chain saw with carabiners on the ends to allow it to be used using human power.\u00a0 I went back to my downed tree and took a three-foot length from the trunk and it only took about twenty minutes of sawing.\u00a0 Of course, I took another twenty minutes of breaks to restore strength to my tired old arms but still this is a factor of ten faster than it took me to cut the last chunk using the bow saw.\u00a0 My next gambit is to see if I can attach the ends of a chain to the frame of my bow saw.\u00a0 That would make it more convenient to use.\u00a0 Alternatively, I could imagine attaching the chain to the rear wheel of a stationary bicycle and really improving my efficiency.\u00a0 I guess I\u2019m anticipating a future without gasoline or batteries.\u00a0 But I do think strangely.<\/p>\n

Well, it was an interesting day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent post called \u201cWhere Will We Be in 2,500 AD\u201d\u00a0 reminded Ed of an old song from 1969 called \u201cIn the Year 2525.\u201d \u201cRemember<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,3366,1263,237,4,242],"tags":[4946,711,4945,4947],"class_list":["post-33658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-life-in-dunwich","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-clearing-fallen-trees","tag-robert-a-heinlein","tag-the-pursuit-of-the-pankera","tag-tomorrow-the-stars"],"yoast_head":"\n21JUN2025 \u2013 An Interesting Day - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/21jun2025-an-interesting-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"21JUN2025 \u2013 An Interesting Day - Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent post called \u201cWhere Will We Be in 2,500 AD\u201d\u00a0 reminded Ed of an old song from 1969 called \u201cIn the Year 2525.\u201d \u201cRemember\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/21jun2025-an-interesting-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orion's Cold Fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-22T09:00:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-22T01:10:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSC01348-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@orionscoldfire\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"photog\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/21jun2025-an-interesting-day\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/21jun2025-an-interesting-day\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"photog\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d11e80f83f3825ce9fe38a5303eb64d3\"},\"headline\":\"21JUN2025 \u2013 An Interesting Day\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-22T09:00:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-22T01:10:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/22\/21jun2025-an-interesting-day\/\"},\"wordCount\":692,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"clearing fallen trees\",\"Robert A. 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