Dave Mancuso dot Com

I’ve been looking for a web reference to Robert Heinlein’s house for several years. Heinlein designed and built his own house in Colorado Springs just as the ’50s began. Later he designed and built another house called “Bonny Doon” when he moved to Santa Cruz in the ’60s. These houses were full of ingenious features. The Colorado Springs house was featured in the June 1952 issue of Popular Mechanics, and I’ve finally found a reference to it. The article itself is scanned into JPEG files and posted on the site. Now if only I can find more references to the “Bonny Doon” house–the only one I’ve found so far is here. The relevant quote from the site: “The house itself was spectacular: Round, all local redwood, with a bonsai garden under a dome at the center of it. The entire inner periphery was floor-to-celing bookshelves.”

Mike Pinkerton articulated a popular viewpoint about being told that the time is over to protest the war, now get in line behind your country.

I see his point–free speech is a strength of our country, and how dare the government tell us what to think and that “it’s basically too late, so shut up.” That’s bad mojo on the part of the government.

However: I think that most people would agree that we should at least support our troops that are out there even if we decry the reason for their involvement (if you don’t agree, then you may as well stop reading–this post is lost on you). Now, as a soldier in a life or death situation, it is a crushing blow to your morale to hear that people at home hope you’re OK, but they really think you have no business being where you are and doing what you must do. In combat, doubt and hesitation can get you killed. I have no problem that people feel strongly against the war, but I hope that no soldier ever hears of the discord over the war until they’re out of harm’s way. I’ve never been a soldier, but I have the utmost respect for those who put their lives on the line. I hope as few as possible leave this world in battle, and for those who do I hope they know how much their lives mean to us.

This is a great quote from the Scobelizer weblog today (now syndicated thirdhand by me):

“Funny quote: “You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the Swiss hold the America’s Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, and Germany doesn’t want to go to war.” From Terry Farrell in a newsgroup I frequent.”

This is a blog reportedly from a person in Baghdad. Check it out. There are some doubts that the blog is authentic, but this blog says it seems real.

John Robb, yet again. John’s essay on the Bush Doctrine is the most reasoned, balanced article I’ve yet read. A gripping must-read.

I sure hope he’s wrong.

I’ve been reading the accounts of some people who have been in direct contact with Iraqi atrocities. This link is one of the most informative. When I read things like these, our actions seem clear. I hope our troops make this thing happen quickly and without loss.

Do you even believe this? Al Gore has been elected to the Apple Board of Directors. Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story! Did April 1 sneak up on me?

Will he reinvent the Internet again?

I’m now blogging a second site using my friend Brad’s Frequency application and Blogger. You can find the “Digital Frequency” website here. It’ll be interesting to see how things evolve from here–Frequency is a clean, simple program that does what it advertises. Vive La Difference!

It’s hard to name some top ten lists (music, films, etc.), but my top short story is a clear choice. The best short story I’ve ever read is Flowers for Algernon. If you’re ever able to read it, don’t read the extended novel (really novella) version–it’s not as good. The short story version is twenty-six or so pages long, and won the Hugo Award for best short story in 1959. When the Hugo was presented by Isaac Asimov, Isaac cried out “How did he do this? How did he write such a story?” and raised his face to meet the eyes of the giant who created such words. Then he lowered his gaze to see normal-sized Daniel Keyes, who said “When you find out, can you let me know? I want to do it again.”

The movie Charly with Cliff Robertson was made (as I recall) essentially from the short story and isn’t bad at all (Robertson is excellent, but the cinematography makes it very clear at times that this is a ’60s movie). The play was made from the novel version–it’s sometimes popular in high school productions (my own high school performed it during my junior year).

You can find them here.Now I feel compelled to post mine (soon, but not tonight). Mine would contrast greatly with Brad’s, since he is apparently unaware of the genius of musicians like Rick Wakeman, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues, The Alan Parsons Project, and others that people of his generation don’t seem to have the–ahem–maturity to appreciate.

Let the flames begin!