Gene Kranz is the most famous of NASA’s Flight Controllers, having led Mission Control on both the Apollo 11 first Moon landing, and the Apollo 13 crisis. This, his insider memoir of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo years, was published in 2000. As an Apollo buff, it’s odd that it has taken me fifteen years … Continue reading Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option
sɪθ Sith: Since With the imminent release of a new Star Wars film, I couldn’t resist offering up this word. No, it has nothing to do with Sith Lords. Sith is an archaic word. Like its cousin since, it can act as an adverb, a preposition, or a conjunction. And like since, it has meanings … Continue reading Sith
I awoke to the shrilling of greenshank and the loud piping of oyster-catchers. My holiday had indeed started. Not a breath of wind stirred and the green hills around me were overdrawn by a grey line of settled clouds. There was no knowing what the day would bring forth, so I had a leisurely breakfast, … Continue reading The Lost World of Loch Mullardoch
When you have more than 4000 books scattered around the house, it gets difficult to find the one you’re looking for. Especially if you’re hunting for a short story and you can’t quite remember which book you read it in. This used to happen a lot, chez Oikofuge. But not any more. Book Collector is … Continue reading Book Collector
I started computer programming on punched tape and IBM 80-column punched cards, using Fortran, back in 1974. One of my first teachers was a young woman who could read the program directly off the punched tape, and debug it using a hole punch and some sticky dots. I fixated on her utterly, like a baby … Continue reading Software: Introduction
Poul Anderson (1926-2001) was a prolific American science fiction and fantasy writer. His name is Danish (pronounce it “pole”). He wrote hard science fiction adventures and puzzle stories, which is how I came to start reading his work. I’ve come late to his fantasy work, since I don’t generally have much taste for that genre. … Continue reading Poul Anderson: Three Hearts & Three Lions / The Broken Sword
When I was a solitary, bespectacled and distinctly oikotropic child growing up in Dundee, I seemed to be the only person in my class who brightened up when our English homework assignment was an essay. I liked writing. The first time I actually (sort of) sold a bit of writing was in 1977. Punch magazine, … Continue reading Writing: Introduction
But any ground that is not quite flat is of some interest to a mountaineer and the humblest hill is not to be despised, least of all by a mountaineer long past his youth. H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman in Mischief Among the Penguins I chose “Walking” as the label for this category after rejecting “Climbing” (which … Continue reading Walking: Introduction
This one is pure nostalgia. There are much better Sea King kits around, but this is the one I built as an Apollo-obsessed child. It’s about 40 years old—a chance find on eBay. The instruction sheet really did get that yellow, inside a sealed box. A sticker on the lid gives its original price as … Continue reading Airfix 1/72 Sikorsky SH-3D Sea King: Part 1
It is a quality of Venice that everybody who sets foot there is impelled to share their experience either by writing about or making pictures of the city. J.G. Links, Venice For Pleasure To Venice, in November. Nice time of year for it—the streets are pretty quiet, and that strange pearlescent Venetian light is very … Continue reading Venice