[The opening paragraph of Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball by Donald Hall, New York, 1976] Baseball is a country all to itself. It is an old country, like Ruritania, northwest of Bohemia and its seacoast. Steam locomotives puff across trestles and through tunnels. It is a wrong-end-of the-telescope country, like the landscape people […] Read more

Any desire of the heart is there for you to discover and manifest. Whatever inspires you is an aspect of yourself. Be precise about what you admire in someone and find that part in yourself. If you have the aspiration to be something, it’s because you have the potential to manifest what you are seeing […] Read more

Fourteen year-old Tom is walking along the lane thinking spring happens whether you’re paying attention or not; it happens beneath the snow, beyond the walls—spring happens while you dream—when Ruby Hornaday steps out from the weeds. She has a shriveled rubber hose coiled over her shoulder and a swim mask in one hand and a […] Read more

From the spaceport gates, exchanging brief greetings with the guards, I took a last look at the Kharsa. For a minute I toyed with the notion of just disappearing down one of those streets. It’s not hard to disappear on Wolf, if you know how. And I knew, or had known once. Loyalty to Terra? […] Read more

Art class was over but Vashti sat glued to her chair. Her paper was empty. Vashti’s teacher leaed over the blank paper. “Ah! A polar bear in a snowstorm!” she said. “Very funny!”, said Vashti. “I just CAN’T draw!” Vashti thought for a moment. “Well, maybe I can’t draw, but I CAN sign my name.” […] Read more

#1: Origin of Space and Time From Einstein’s work on general relativity came the recognition that there must be an origin for matter and energy. From Penrose, Hawking, and Ellis’ work came the acknowledgement that there must be an origin for space and time, too. With the knowledge that time has a beginning, and a […] Read more

#2: The Earth as a Fit Habitat About a dozen more parameters, including several atmospheric characteristics, currently are being researched for their sensitivity in the support of life. However, the twenty listed in Table 12.1 in themselves lead safely to the conclusion that much fewer than a trillionth of a percent of all stars will […] Read more

At the time of his death, Eddie was a squat, white haired old man, with a short neck, a barrel chest, thick forearms, and a faded army tattoo on his right shoulder. His legs were thin and veined now, and his left knee, wounded in the war, was ruined by arthritis. He used a cane […] Read more

At the time of his death, Eddie was a squat, white haired old man, with a short neck, a barrel chest, thick forearms, and a faded army tattoo on his right shoulder. His legs were thin and veined now, and his left knee, wounded in the war, was ruined by arthritis. He used a cane […] Read more