Although I think the movie version of Marathon Man was a lot more memorable than the novel, I do wish the movie had included both of Biesenthal's scenes from the novel, rather than just the first one.

No one would pronounce zero 'naught' without also pronouncing Z 'zed'.

Nothing against Meyer's work on IV, but his own Time After Time was the template for the whole center section of IV: people from another time trying to make their way in present-day San Francisco.

Also to keep in mind: Nimoy shared story credit on IV and VI, and Shatner shared story credit on V. I think Shatner's more to blame for co-writing V than for directing it. I still regret paying to see it in 1989.

A Jack Vance novel new to me - Maske: Thaery (1976), one of his Gaean Reach stories - was the perfect distraction to get me through the election and its aftermath. It's so chock-full of footnotes that the longest ones had to be placed at the end as a glossary, to which the reader is directed by footnotes such as "See…

I half-suspect that SyFy will go the route of its own Magicians and Amazon's Man in the High Castle, and completely rework the material so that it can be a continuing series. This would avoid the finale of the novel and could go in many directions as soon as Mike comes into his inheritance. He could "walk the earth"…

The best Heinlein novels were all written around 1955-58, I've long since concluded: Citizen of the Galaxy and Have Space Suit - Will Travel, the last two of his series of 12 "boys' books" (what his YA series was called at the time), as well as Double Star and The Door into Summer, both of which are very concisely…

Check out Kurt Vonnegut's 1990 review of the longer version. The key sentence is "So I say of the restorations, 'Icing on a cake which for people who like that kind of cake was already quite satisfactory.' "

One funny thing about the criticism of high school education in Space Suit: Kip's father is trying to convince him to prepare for college by taking harder courses at good ol' Centerville High, and Kip notices that his current "Family Living" class really is twaddle, taught by "Miss Finchley - unmarried and no kids"…

His final short story in 1959, " 'All You Zombies—'," however, was a great one to go out on. (Adapted for film two years ago as Predestination, which I haven't seen but have read good things about.)

This quote from Verhoeven has to be read with the knowledge that he was widely reported (Wikipedia and other sources) as not even having read the whole novel, only skimming through it and getting bored and/or repulsed.

First time I saw the egg-eating scene wasn't the actual movie, but rather the Mad magazine parody "Blue-Eyed Kook" (wonderfully drawn by Mort Drucker).

Can someone identify the piano music behind the book in the photo at the top?

For many years, I only owned this album on 8-track cartridge. As usual for the 8-track format, the song order was messed with (to yield four divisions of approximately equal length on an endless loop). So I appreciated the songs but was deprived of the "journey" until finally buying the CD.

For many years, I only owned this album on 8-track cartridge. As usual for the 8-track format, the song order was messed with (to yield four divisions of approximately equal length on an endless loop). So I appreciated the songs but was deprived of the "journey" until finally buying the CD.

For many years, I only owned this album on 8-track cartridge. As usual for the 8-track format, the song order was messed with (to yield four divisions of approximately equal length on an endless loop). So I appreciated the songs but was deprived of the "journey" until finally buying the CD.

Lithgow's role in Dealing: Or The Berkeley-To-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues - according to my memories of the novel, which I read more than 40 years ago - was the one straight-laced fellow who wouldn't touch drugs of any sort. So it was amusing to read that everyone including Lithgow was stoned during the making…

Regarding the outcome of the war, the Philip K. Dick novel made it clear that Roosevelt had been assassinated in the 1930s, and his successors didn't prepare for or get involved in the war soon enough; the result was Capitulation Day, in 1947. Perhaps the series gave some detail of this sort too. (Both the novel and…

So, how long until Nick Meyer departs? It's not like he has to do this series; he can surely get writing work outside the Trek realm, if he doesn't want to retire yet.

"I could watch a whole movie of them taking a 90-minute drive."