The Reluctant Famulus # 90 November/December 2012 Thomas D
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The Reluctant Famulus # 90 November/December 2012 Thomas D. Sadler, Editor/Publisher, etc. 305 Gill Branch Road, Owenton, KY 40359 Phone: 502-484-3766 E-mail: [email protected] Dedicated to Alan Hunter Contents Introduction, Editor 1 Rat Stew, Gene Stewart 10 The Adaptation of Father Brown, Eric Barraclough 12 Bluegrass Beginnings, Al Byrd 14 Attempts at Utopia, Amana, Leigh James Martin 20 Epanimandias, Alexis Gilliland 23 The Crotchety Critic Michaele Jordan 26 PIBI Sheryl Birkhead 28 Not Another One, Editor 31 Alan Hunter art portfolio 32—38 Letters 39 Artwork Brad Foster Front cover Alan Hunter Back cover #, 19, 50 Al Byrd 14, 16, 17, 18 Alexis Gilliland 41, 47, 55 Sheryl Birkhead 9 Internet 1—6 Spore & ToeToe 39, 45,51 Atom (Arthur Thomson)* 11, 25, 53 # I thought this had been used on an earlier issue of TRF but now I'm not so sure. It may be that, considering my poor organization, I misplaced it and then forgot I had it and so it was never used.. If anyone who kept the back issues finds one with that artwork, please let me know. * About the Atom fillos: I was going through a bunch of fannish publications, by Ken Cheslin and John Berry which included many illos/fillos by Atom. Certain ones in particular caught my eye and I thought they deserved to be seen again. The Reluctant Famulus is a product of Strange Dwarf Publications. Many of the comments expressed herein are solely those of the Editor/Publisher and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of any sane, rational persons who know what they are doing and have carefully thought out beforehand what they wanted to say. Material not written or produced by the Editor/Publisher is printed by permission of the various writers and artists and is copyright by them and remains their sole property. Permission is granted to any persons who wish to reprint material presented herein, provided proper and due credit is given both to the author/artist who produced the material and to the origi- nal publication in which it appeared. TRF maybe obtained for The Usual but especially in return for written materi- al and artwork, postage costs, The Meaning of Life, , and Editorial Whim. Introduction: Some Improbables No more flying saucers (real or other- indicative of high technological advance- wise). No more ghosts or haunted houses. No ment because it stood out distinctly from the more silly laws. We’ll put that all away for background noise of signals from space. The good and forever. Off we go in a slightly signal bore expected signs of potential non- new direction. terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It last- Among my many interests—though prob- ed for a total of 72 seconds and but has not ably not as large a number as some of you been detected since. Seventy-two seconds is faithful readers—is that of strange, unusual, the exact length of time it takes for the Earth odd or what have you events, anecdotes, folk- to rotate the Big Ear satellite through a signal tales, or just plain old rumors. The more from space. The event displayed enormous bizarre the better. Herewith, then, a small strength, and signal’s shape had a strange rise assortment of such items which caught my and fall calculation. Many people have specu- attention while I was wasting—er, spending lated that the Wow signal was sent by an my time online recently. I hope you readers advanced civilization. Strangely, it was find them of at least some small interest. picked up by only one of the scope’s two detectors. When the second detector covered Unexplained Deep Space Recording the same patch of sky three minutes later, it heard nothing. The Universe is claimed to consist of everything that physically exists, including all forms of matter, energy, and momentum. A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system of stars and stellar remnants. It has been estimated that over 100 billion galaxies exist in the observable universe. Back in 1963, Ohio State University began what is called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelli- gence (SETI) project. As part of the project they developed what they called The Big Ear radio telescope. It was used to conduct full sky surveys of outer space in search of extraterrestrial radio sources. On August 15, 1977 The Big Ear telescope recorded a That seemed to indicate that the first strange narrow band radio burst. The event beam had detected something that wasn’t was documented by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman, who there. Or that the source of the signal had scribbled “WoW!” in the margin of the been shut off or redirected in the intervening recorded printout. time. That event remains the strongest and The signal came from the direction of most clear signal ever received from an the constellation Sagittarius. It seemed to be unknown source in space, as well as the most 1 fascinating and unexplainable. Its original dis- first invented. In fact, the longer exposure coverer Jerry Ehman doesn’t care to specu- times of early cameras have revealed more late on its source, and he remains scientifical- than the modern “instant” versions do. But ly skeptical about the incident. People have there are still oddities such as the image cap- made claims that an extraterrestrial race was tured on Google Earth that clearly shows a attempting to contact Earth. The official sci- World War Two bomber flying over Britain. entific explanation of the event is interstellar Is this a time slip or just the folks at Google scintillation of a weaker continuous signal. having a laugh? Or could it perhaps be a The Wow Signal remains a mystery even to reconstruction from an air show? Who can this day say? It is claimed that not all time slips are brief and there have been occasions when Time Slips people have entered a room and been startled to find that they are in a completely different According to Albert Einstein and others, time. time isn’t as stable as most of us think. We For example, a Mr Archie “Racer” humans have adjusted to time and our evolu- Carmichael was driving from Birmingham to tion has established tricks to allow our con- London in 1953 when he stopped for a drink scious minds to deal with it but in reality it’s in a Cotswold village near Borton-on-the- a slippery concept. Time slips occur when a Water. He parked his Austin-Healy 100/4 out- current time (now) interlaces with a previous side the local pub and entered for a drink. He time (then) and can be experienced by the per- was shocked when the he found the people son from the more recent time. The event, inside the bar looked as if they were from an however, is usually unnoticed by the people earlier century. His cautious attempts to com- from the earlier time. What is the evidence municate were ignored and after a few min- for this phenomenon? utes the scene dissolved and Archie found Perhaps plenty if you know where to himself being asked if he was all right by a look. Apparently it is so common that we’ve worried looking barman. It seems that he even built it into the English language. thought he had seen ghosts but was probably Allegedly, when a time slip occurs, people in experiencing a time slip. both realities are able to experience the alter- native reality. But according to most accounts, this usu- ally lasts for only a few seconds and the human brain does its best to filter out these anomalies. This has given rise to expressions such as “I could have sworn that I’ve just seen” or “my eyes must be playing tricks on me” or even “you won’t believe what I just saw”. Over the years people have claimed to have seen old airplanes parked in fields that were once airports or roman soldiers march- ing down their road. In almost all cases the The Mysterious Count Saint Germain person experiencing the time slip blinks, A Possible Traveler in Time? looks again, and is startled to find that what- ever they saw has now vanished. Supposedly, Who was the Count of Saint Germain? however, photography has captured these Was he immortal as some claimed or possi- anomalies from the time that the camera was bly a time traveler? Apart from Saint Ger- 2 main himself, probably nobody even knows became famous for his great wealth and his the truth. But according to various accounts alchemical skills. He himself claimed to have he often astonished his listeners when he found the philosopher’s stone and produce described certain inventions, which were still diamonds, as well as having traveled to the unknown in the 18th Century such as the rail- Himalayas where he had found people who road and the steamboat. One wonders how he “know everything”. Additionally, he added know about them. that “one must have studied in the Pyramids, The Count of Saint Germain is described as I have done it” to trace his secret. He also as a famous adventurer of the 18th century claimed that he had traveled through space. and one who was known “A very long time I flew throughout Europe as “the through space. I saw miracle man”. But nothing globes, the world revolved definite is known of his around me and at my feet.” parentage, and his death is On another occasion he shrouded in darkness. Vol- said:” I traveled through taire, a cynic who was not time and found myself un- easily impressed, described consciously in distant coun- Saint Germain in a conver- tries.” sation with Frederick the The count was Great as “.