Frederik Pohl's Blog, page 8

  Philip A. Contos liked riding his 1983 Harley-Davidson motorcycle but didn’t like to be told he had to wear a helmet. So he joined a mass protest on July 1 — 550 bikers demonstrating against New York State’s compulsory helmet law at Onondaga, New York. Unfortunately, Contos hid a bad spot and lost control [...]

  1404 Cross Bay Boulevard (View Larger Map) When I say I grew up in Brooklyn, those who are aware that Brooklyn is nothing grander than just one of the five boroughs of the megalopolis called New York are likely to have a mental picture of a six-year-old dodging trolleys for his life and never [...]

The thing is, to return our country to a normal two-party system we need to start by recognizing that GOP no longer resembles an American political party. In organization it is much more like a modern army at war. Its declared enemy is just one man, President Barack Obama. One in the Supreme Court, reliably [...]

Herbert George Wells was born in 1866, way in the middle of the 19th century, but he began living in the 20th, or in the even later Nth, before he was much more than 20 years old himself. The way he got there was the way so many of us who came afterwards did, by [...]

  “Much of the world is already in water crisis, and that crisis will only continue to grow.” —Jeffrey Sachs

The East-West Homegoing crossing, from the Bay of Naples, down around Sicily and its somber dark-red-lit volcanic peaks and out into the stormy Atlantic, was a lot more exciting than the voyage out, even though we weren’t scanning for the snorkels of enemy submarines from the time of departing Port of New York to arriving [...]

  Remember how much fun it was to “Occupy”? Want to have some more of that kind of fun, and give the National Rifle Association a quick kick in the breech-loader while you’re about it? The cops are unlikely to give you much trouble, even in California. Here’s all you need: Adult Person: 1 Subadult [...]

  “There are two possible outcomes. If the results confirm the theory, then you’ve made a measurement. If the results contradict the theory, then you’ve made a discovery.” —Enrico Fermi

I was appointed squadron historian without a written history to work on. There had been one, though incomplete, at one time. It’s just that no one could find it. And the man who had been writing it, an early arriver, had had one of the longest lists of campaign badges in the squadron. The more [...]

In earlier posts I’ve mentioned the Hydra Club, but haven’t given many details. Well, I’ve just turned up an old press release that explained Hydra. Here’s what it said: The Hydra Club was founded in 1947. A New York club, it was founded in Philadelphia, at that year’s Worldcon, when Lester del Rey said to [...]