Ahead of his time? He was researching or living next to the sand dunes in Oregon and decided to write a novel about a planet of sand. Peopled with ... Arabs. And I assume that his nearest sandy beach had worms wriggling around; if he had instead been learning to hang glide on the sand dunes near Kitty Hawk, his…

No doubt. And you could also say that now his water scarcity theme is looking to be as real a threat as oil.

"Blizzard is kinda already dead since 1998."

Dead since 1998? Are you for real?

That's the thing I don't get. I grew up in the third world. It wasn't H/G level and we weren't by far the poorest people I knew of but the difference in daily life when you have no running water or modern amenities is staggering. I would never go back to that or voluntarily have my kids grow up that way. This a…

Not to mention significantly higher levels warfare. Even with our technological capacity to murder on a grand scale, humans today are far less likely to die of violence than the members of the tribal communities this man so admires.

I've heard this one before. They'll point you to studies of modern H/G tribes. They'll ignore the obvious and massive downsides of living in such tribes (infant mortality, drastically shorter lifespans, rigid social structures, small populations, drastic consequences to even seasonal variances in the environment.)

Don't forget (white and delightsome) racist and murder apologist, among other noble character traits.

Being the introvert that i am, i can only hope that i never do something wonderfull that would turn me into a celebrity. This looks like hell to me.

There are bunch here in Toronto. :)

I've seen the giant Sweet Tarts here in Canada, but usually at sweet shops. Might be British imports.

I have a small box of stuff from when I was a kid, and I swear I have a giant sweet tart from 1974 in there, but I just looked and couldn't find it. Dang. (I was born in '58.)

Wonka Bottle Caps!

Do you mean the giant, chewy ones? Because you can still get those. They are one of my favorite "once in a blue moon" treats.

I swear there are so many awesome candies from my youth that don't exist any more but I can't think of them.

The Sunshine State is Florida.

Shades of Chinatown.

Umm, Mister Hyperlink don't work.

That's not true.

I think that's all a false dichotomy. We should be researching space AND the deep oceans. They're both important. It's like saying biologists should study plants instead of animals, or bacteria instead of viruses.