Help Contacting Astronautix

Andre Lieven wrote:
On Apr 21, 10:40 pm, Pat Flannery wrote:

Andre Lieven wrote:

That's always a pain in the tuchis.

That's how you spell it?


Well, that's a spelling that I am familiar with. I make no claim that
it
is a definitive English spelling.


No, I checked, that's the correct spelling alright:
http://chutzpah.homestead.com/files/dictionary.html

When I was a kid I assumed it was spelled "tokus" from the way my
mother pronounced it.


Ah.


In the search for tuchis I ran across "tokos"... but that's Greek for
labor during childbirth.
I may have had a few difficult BMs in my time, but I don't think they
rate up with that. :-)


Ever notice a thing about men and basements?


Yes, and I can explain why that is.

When one is in the main floor of many homes, one finds that it
tends to have several traffic flow-throughs. In through at least
one door from the outside (At times, 3, if there is a back door,
and an entrance from the garage.). Unless one has such a
commodious home as to have a family room that sits on one
side of the house (Such that into the house and through the
kitchen traffic flows don't come into/through it.), then a basement
is the most likely space where such a non traffic flow pattern
will be found.

In every house that I have been in, save one, the basement
was a pathway to nowhere but the basement (The one
exception was a townhouse where the door to the below
ground level car park was through one side of the basement.),
thus anyone who is using a room down there will not have
other residents passing through, to disturb their reading,
TV watching, or video playbacking.


That's a pretty good theory, but that implies children running about.
How come single guys or guys with no children also end up there?
I can see getting drunk and falling down while trying to go upstairs to
bed is preferable to falling out of a attic barroom.

Not many homes have dedicated dens or family rooms above
the main floor.


The women head upstairs to set up their place, the men inevitably
seem to head for the basement.


Women tend to like the kitchen, and the master bathroom.


I imagine it's better than the slave bathroom, although my sister's
house has a separate maid's bedroom and even a separate staircase to let
her go directly to the kitchen from it.
Of course that dinosaur has both a basement and a sub-basement as well
as a dumbwaiter and a attic that has around the same floorspace as my
apartment.
It also has a Golden Retriever buried inside of a Samsonite suitcase in
the backyard, but that's another story.*

Also areas that affect main floor traffic flow patterns and uses.


I had a friend who was single and lived alone, and he set up a bar and
den in his basement, despite having two empty bedrooms on the ground floor.
I think this somehow hearkens back to a troglodyte past. :-\


Or, that it provides more comfortable privacy down there.

Also, in such a case, a main floor room would have several windows,
thus precluding placing tall bookcases in front of them. This is not a
problem in most basements.


You never saw my apartment... take a wild guess what's in front of the
living room window?
....the drapes haven't been opened in around a decade or so.
If I want to know what the weather is outside, I do the obvious thing,
and see what ShonerBoner has to say:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/ND/Jamestown.html
Okay, running the living room lights at noon is a little odd, but Isaac
Asimov never liked sunlight either.

The one drawback in most basements is their relatively low ceilings.
Mine has a maximum height of 7' 1", or 2.16 M.

A home theater wall unit that I may be getting, used, shortly, was
intended to go down there, but the latest word that I have is that it
is 7' 2" tall. Thus, if I do get it, it will have to go in the living
room on
the main floor, where there is some 7' 11" (Or, 2.41 M.) of height.
Either way, it's a good unit at a very good price.


Make sure you can get it through the door and into the intended room...
a friend of a friend of mine bought one and after hauling it 100 miles
found out he couldn't get it into his house.
This is a bete noire of mine about housing. Add another half foot,
at least, of height to the basement. More would be nice, then one
could put down a proper sub flooring that will support tiling or
carpeting atop it, without diminishing the remaining clear height.

Take a look at this, and tell me that you want it next to the kitchen:

http://www.reighn.com/
http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/11/16/...-home-theater/


Me, this is what I would like to have right next to the kitchen:
http://www.sprintusers.com/wallpaper...ery_dublin.jpg
....and next to the bedroom for that matter... in fact, maybe we don't
need a house at all...maybe we could live right in the brewery...shar,
and that would be the king's life then, wouldn't it? :-)

*And soon a new puppy arrived as that dog's replacement...and was named
"Samson".
I don't know where _it's_ going up some day, but I hope its replacement
isn't named "Roto-Rooter".


Pat

On Apr 22, 12:09*am, Pat Flannery wrote:
Andre Lieven wrote:
On Apr 21, 10:40 pm, Pat Flannery wrote:

Andre Lieven wrote:

That's always a pain in the tuchis.

That's how you spell it?

Well, that's a spelling that I am familiar with. I make no claim that
it is a definitive English spelling.

No, I checked, that's the correct spelling alright:
http://chutzpah.homestead.com/files/dictionary.html

Well, there you go, I was more accurate than I knew. Thanks. g

When I was a kid I assumed it was spelled "tokus" from the way my
mother pronounced it.

Ah.

In the search for tuchis I ran across "tokos"... but that's Greek for
labor during childbirth.
I may have had a few difficult BMs in my time, but I don't think they
rate up with that. :-)

Perhaps not, though there is the line from Ron White, to the effect
that a really good bowel movement has the power to reduce your
pant size by one size. That'd be... a lot.

Plus, you ever do a BM with an epidural ? g

Ever notice a thing about men and basements?

Yes, and I can explain why that is.

When one is in the main floor of many homes, one finds that it
tends to have several traffic flow-throughs. In through at least
one door from the outside (At times, 3, if there is a back door,
and an entrance from the garage.). Unless one has such a
commodious home as to have a family room that sits on one
side of the house (Such that into the house and through the
kitchen traffic flows don't come into/through it.), then a basement
is the most likely space where such a non traffic flow pattern
will be found.

In every house that I have been in, save one, the basement
was a pathway to nowhere but the basement (The one
exception was a townhouse where the door to the below
ground level car park was through one side of the basement.),
thus anyone who is using a room down there will not have
other residents passing through, to disturb their reading,
TV watching, or video playbacking.

That's a pretty good theory, but that implies children running about.

For married guys, and not a few unmarried ones, that includes a lot
of them.

How come single guys or guys with no children also end up there?

Same issue. Some guys have roommates, or visitors, and so on.

In any case, such a room, at the end of a traffic pattern doesn't have
to be decorated such as to be all things to all visitors.

A lot of single-for-now guys know that getting that wife or live-in GF
often means that she will take over a major part of the house/
apartment.

So, staking out a den in a place that not many women are going to want
to set up as their zones early grandfathers such a thing in.

I can see getting drunk and falling down while trying to go upstairs to
bed is preferable to falling out of a attic barroom.

Well, that, too. Plus, in that case, wifey won't wake him up while
making
morning coffee...

Not many homes have dedicated dens or family rooms above
the main floor.

The women head upstairs to set up their place, the men inevitably
seem to head for the basement.

Women tend to like the kitchen, and the master bathroom.

I imagine it's better than the slave bathroom, although my sister's
house has a separate maid's bedroom and even a separate staircase to let
her go directly to the kitchen from it.

That'd be cool.

Of course that dinosaur has both a basement and a sub-basement as well
as a dumbwaiter and a attic that has around the same floorspace as my
apartment.

I could use that kind of place.

It also has a Golden Retriever buried inside of a Samsonite suitcase in
the backyard, but that's another story.*

What about the secret entrance to the Batcave ?

Also areas that affect main floor traffic flow patterns and uses.

I had a friend who was single and lived alone, and he set up a bar and
den in his basement, despite having two empty bedrooms on the ground floor.
I think this somehow hearkens back to a troglodyte past. :-\

Or, that it provides more comfortable privacy down there.

Also, in such a case, a main floor room would have several windows,
thus precluding placing tall bookcases in front of them. This is not a
problem in most basements.

You never saw my apartment... take a wild guess what's in front of the
living room window?

g You ain't seen my den, before I had to take much of it apart for
the current crisis. Wall to wall bookcases, and even ones that are
arranged such as to stick into the room, to maximise volume.

...the drapes haven't been opened in around a decade or so.

My den has one window. Perhaps 1 by 2 feet.

If I want to know what the weather is outside, I do the obvious thing,
and see what ShonerBoner has to say:
http://www.wunderground.com/US/ND/Jamestown.html

As I'm in Canada, The Weather Network's site works well for
me. It also allows me to view city traffic cams.

Okay, running the living room lights at noon is a little odd, but Isaac
Asimov never liked sunlight either.

Indeed. I have the two volumes of his massive autobiography. I admit
to also sharing a taste for such "underground" habitation, albeit in
some moderation. Plus, less direct sunlight protects book dust
jackets from fading.

The one drawback in most basements is their relatively low ceilings.
Mine has a maximum height of 7' 1", or 2.16 M.

A home theater wall unit that I may be getting, used, shortly, was
intended to go down there, but the latest word that I have is that it
is 7' 2" tall. Thus, if I do get it, it will have to go in the living
room on the main floor, where there is some 7' 11" (Or, 2.41 M.) of
height. Either way, it's a good unit at a very good price.

Make sure you can get it through the door and into the intended room...

It's a two piece item. A low TV bench, with a hutch that stands atop
of
the bench. If I can get full height Ikea Billys into any floor in the
house,
that set will be no problem.

a friend of a friend of mine bought one and after hauling it 100 miles
found out he couldn't get it into *his house.

Well, that was the issue with finding out what it's exact height is.
My
first pick would have been to put it in the basement den, but the
combo
is an inch too tall for that. But, it will work as well in the main
floor living
room.

This is a bete noire of mine about housing. Add another half foot,
at least, of height to the basement. More would be nice, then one
could put down a proper sub flooring that will support tiling or
carpeting atop it, without diminishing the remaining clear height.

Take a look at this, and tell me that you want it next to the kitchen:

http://www.reighn.com/
http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/11/16/...-home-theater/

Me, this is what I would like to have right next to the kitchen:
http://www.sprintusers.com/wallpaper...307guinness_br...

Oh my. Well, that will quench any thirst...

...and next to the bedroom for that matter... in fact, maybe we don't
need a house at all...maybe we could live right in the brewery...shar,
and that would be the king's life then, wouldn't it? :-)

Or, just run a pipe with running Guinness 24/7/365...

*And soon a new puppy arrived as that dog's replacement...and was
named "Samson".
*I don't know where _it's_ going up some day, but I hope its
replacement isn't named "Roto-Rooter".

Or, "Flush", royal or otherwise...

Andre

Andre Lieven wrote:
Plus, you ever do a BM with an epidural ? g

No, but they did do a spinal block on me when they amputated my big toe,
and that's one weird sensation, let me tell you.
You reach down and touch your leg, and it feels like it's made out of
rubber, and you can't feel your hand touching it.

That's a pretty good theory, but that implies children running about.


For married guys, and not a few unmarried ones, that includes a lot
of them.


Luckily, not me. Children, like any wild animal, are best observed from
a distance and certainly are not suitable as pets.


How come single guys or guys with no children also end up there?


Same issue. Some guys have roommates, or visitors, and so on.


Roommates, like any wild animal, are not suitable as pets.
Visitors are there as someone to have a drink with...preferably a drink
they bring with them, and are ready to share. :-)

In any case, such a room, at the end of a traffic pattern doesn't have
to be decorated such as to be all things to all visitors.


It will be a bar for all comers.

A lot of single-for-now guys know that getting that wife or live-in GF
often means that she will take over a major part of the house/
apartment.


Women, like any wild animal...

So, staking out a den in a place that not many women are going to want
to set up as their zones early grandfathers such a thing in.


People live in houses, animals live in dens.
Women and children should live in someone else's houses.
That also goes for dogs and cats.
And plants too.
Ideally, the man should be the only living organism of any sort in his
domicile, except for specific types of mold on his cheese.

Well, that, too. Plus, in that case, wifey won't wake him up while
making
morning coffee...


It would be best if wifey let him sleep into the early afternoon, as was
nature's intention for him.

Not many homes have dedicated dens or family rooms above
the main floor.

The women head upstairs to set up their place, the men inevitably
seem to head for the basement.

Women tend to like the kitchen, and the master bathroom.

I imagine it's better than the slave bathroom, although my sister's
house has a separate maid's bedroom and even a separate staircase to let
her go directly to the kitchen from it.


That'd be cool.


What wasn't cool was when the waterbed in the attic ruptured, and went
through all the floors.
I look at something that size and think...."this is going to be pure
hell to clean and dust".


Of course that dinosaur has both a basement and a sub-basement as well
as a dumbwaiter and a attic that has around the same floorspace as my
apartment.


I could use that kind of place.


I'd like to think that the sub-basement was a wine cellar, but think it
was more likely a combo wine cellar canned vegetable and preserves
storage area.
Around two decades back she decided that she'd take up the carpets,
polish the wooden floor, and put in rugs.
This was when she discovered that the entire ground floor's slats were
birds-eye maple, and the carpenter doing the polishing work told her
that the wood in the floor alone was worth around twenty to thirty
thousand dollars.
(She got the floor so highly polished that it was dangerous to walk on
in stocking feet, and the dogs would come running into one room, try to
stop, and go sliding right through the far door of the room.)
Then of course there are the inch-thick leaded glass windows on the
ground floor with the glass cut into prismatic forms.
Whoever originally built the place obviously wasn't hard-up for cash.
I'm trying to remember how old it is; I think it dates from 1890-1910.


It also has a Golden Retriever buried inside of a Samsonite suitcase in
the backyard, but that's another story.*


What about the secret entrance to the Batcave ?


Haven't seen that yet.

Okay, running the living room lights at noon is a little odd, but Isaac
Asimov never liked sunlight either.


Indeed. I have the two volumes of his massive autobiography. I admit
to also sharing a taste for such "underground" habitation, albeit in
some moderation. Plus, less direct sunlight protects book dust
jackets from fading.


IIRC, didn't Asimov state he did his writing up in the attic?
I still like him being smuggled into the US inside the suitcase.
I picture this pile of luggage at Ellis Island with the sound of
typewriter emerging from it. :-D

Pat

On Apr 22, 9:29*am, Pat Flannery wrote:
Andre Lieven wrote:
Plus, you ever do a BM with an epidural ? g

No, but they did do a spinal block on me when they amputated my big
toe, and that's one weird sensation, let me tell you.
You reach down and touch your leg, and it feels like it's made out of
rubber, and you can't feel your hand touching it.

Well, while I've not had any such parts of myself removed, I have had
dental surgery some years ago, where I was under on gas. I wasn't
completely unconscious, so I could tell that my attempts to move any
given body part were not working, and that that was... interesting.

I've never been drunk, so I imagine that that was fairly close to a
full
out bender's effects.

That's a pretty good theory, but that implies children running about.

For married guys, and not a few unmarried ones, that includes a lot
of them.

Luckily, not me. Children, like any wild animal, are best observed from
a distance and certainly are not suitable as pets.

g Well, it's good that some people have them. Someone will have
to cover your Social Security...

How come single guys or guys with no children also end up there?

Same issue. Some guys have roommates, or visitors, and so on.

Roommates, like any wild animal, are not suitable as pets.

Oh, it's not so bad. I did the roommate thing, often with multiple
ones,
during 1985 to 1995. In a lot of ways, it was rather fun, and with
times
when I was away from home for lengthy periods, it was useful to me
to have at least one other person minding the store.

Visitors are there as someone to have a drink with...preferably a drink
they bring with them, and are ready to share. :-)

There's that, too. :-)

In any case, such a room, at the end of a traffic pattern doesn't have
to be decorated such as to be all things to all visitors.

It will be a bar for all comers.

Bar, TV room, library...

A lot of single-for-now guys know that getting that wife or live-in GF
often means that she will take over a major part of the house/
apartment.

Women, like any wild animal...

Bring a trank-gun.

So, staking out a den in a place that not many women are going to want
to set up as their zones early grandfathers such a thing in.

People live in houses, animals live in dens.

My den is kept quite neat.

Women and children should live in someone else's houses.

After a divorce, that happens not rarely... Well, it becomes not
your house in the process...

That also goes for dogs and cats.

Once we get my wife's paperwork finally done, and we're here
most of the time, she would like a beagle and a cat.

And plants too.

We both have black thumbs in this area. Besides, space that can
hold plants can also hold books and DVDs.

Ideally, the man should be the only living organism of any sort in his
domicile, except for specific types of mold on his cheese.

Hermit much ?

Well, that, too. Plus, in that case, wifey won't wake him up while
making morning coffee...

It would be best if wifey let him sleep into the early afternoon, as was
nature's intention for him.

bg What if you led the pride ?

Mine is pretty good about letting me sleep until I wake up naturally.

Not many homes have dedicated dens or family rooms above
the main floor.

The women head upstairs to set up their place, the men inevitably
seem to head for the basement.

Women tend to like the kitchen, and the master bathroom.

I imagine it's better than the slave bathroom, although my sister's
house has a separate maid's bedroom and even a separate staircase to
let her go directly to the kitchen from it.

That'd be cool.

What wasn't cool was when the waterbed in the attic ruptured, and went
through all the floors.

Ouch. A brief home visit of Victoria Falls...

I look at something that size and think...."this is going to be pure
hell to clean and dust".

It gets easier when it is bookcases all the way around.

Of course that dinosaur has both a basement and a sub-basement as well
as a dumbwaiter and a attic that has around the same floorspace as my
apartment.

I could use that kind of place.

I'd like to think that the sub-basement was a wine cellar, but think it
was more likely a combo wine cellar canned vegetable and preserves
storage area.

That would work for stuff that we don't need to access on a regular
basis.

Around two decades back she decided that she'd take up the carpets,
polish the wooden floor, and put in rugs.
This was when she discovered that the entire ground floor's slats were
birds-eye maple, and the carpenter doing the polishing work told her
that the wood in the floor alone was worth around twenty to thirty
thousand dollars.

Jackpot !

(She got the floor so highly polished that it was dangerous to walk on
in stocking feet, and the dogs would come running into one room, try to
stop, and go sliding right through the far door of the room.)

"Just take those records off the shelf..."

Then of course there are the inch-thick leaded glass windows on the
ground floor with the glass cut into prismatic forms.

Wow.

Whoever originally built the place obviously wasn't hard-up for cash.
I'm trying to remember how old it is; I think it dates from 1890-1910.

Again, wow and kewl. Most of the homes here are far newer. We're
a fairly young country.

You did real good, son.

It also has a Golden Retriever buried inside of a Samsonite suitcase in
the backyard, but that's another story.*

What about the secret entrance to the Batcave ?

Haven't seen that yet.

Look for that bust on the desk. Not her bust...

Okay, running the living room lights at noon is a little odd, but Isaac
Asimov never liked sunlight either.

Indeed. I have the two volumes of his massive autobiography. I admit
to also sharing a taste for such "underground" habitation, albeit in
some moderation. Plus, less direct sunlight protects book dust
jackets from fading.

IIRC, didn't Asimov state he did his writing up in the attic?

Yes, when he was with his first wife, Gertrude, and they were
living in Newton, near Boston. After their marriage ended, in 1970,
he went back to Manhattan, and lived in high rises, where his
writing room was one with no windows and bookcases all but filling
it.

"Asimov was a claustrophile; he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces.
[14] In the first volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood
desire to own a magazine stand in a New York City Subway
station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the
rumble of passing trains while reading.[15]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

I still like him being smuggled into the US inside the suitcase.
I picture this pile of luggage at Ellis Island with the sound of
typewriter emerging from it. :-D

g One part of his origin of birth is that he did not know his
actual birth date. Between Russia/the USSR shifting, finally,
to the western calendar, and very spotty record keeping in a
time of massive civil war, he did not know what actual date
was that of his birth. While he celebrated Jan 2, he was
clear that it could have been a couple of months prior to then.

"In Memory Yet Green. "The date of my birth, as I celebrate it,
was January 2, 1920. It could not have been later than that. It
might, however, have been earlier. Allowing for the
uncertainties of the times, of the lack of records, of the Jewish
and Julian calendars, it might have been as early as October
4, 1919. There is, however, no way of finding out. My parents
were always uncertain and it really doesn't matter. I celebrate
January 2, 1920, so let it be."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

He was a very interesting guy. I had the pleasure of hearing
him speak quite a few times, between 1977 and 1989. Also,
a group that I was in with in the mid late 80s once threw him
a birthday party at a con that was right on the first couple of
days of the new year.

It's weird to consider that he's been gone now for a bit more
than 17 years... If there was a heaven, wouldn't it be great
fun to see a conversation between Isaac, Arthur C., and
Robert ?

Andre

Andre Lieven wrote:

Well, while I've not had any such parts of myself removed, I have had
dental surgery some years ago, where I was under on gas. I wasn't
completely unconscious, so I could tell that my attempts to move any
given body part were not working, and that that was... interesting.

I've never been drunk, so I imagine that that was fairly close to a
full
out bender's effects.


No, in the full-tilt drunk, you will think you can move your body parts
just fine, it's just that the floor keeps swinging up somehow to hit you
in the face. :-D

Around two decades back she decided that she'd take up the carpets,
polish the wooden floor, and put in rugs.
This was when she discovered that the entire ground floor's slats were
birds-eye maple, and the carpenter doing the polishing work told her
that the wood in the floor alone was worth around twenty to thirty
thousand dollars.


Jackpot !


(She got the floor so highly polished that it was dangerous to walk on
in stocking feet, and the dogs would come running into one room, try to
stop, and go sliding right through the far door of the room.)


"Just take those records off the shelf..."


And watch out for the small rugs, as they can take right off from under
your feet when you try to step off of them.
I do have to admit though that watching a dog sliding backwards through
a room while trying to run forwards was a lot of fun, and I think they
were enjoying it also.


Then of course there are the inch-thick leaded glass windows on the
ground floor with the glass cut into prismatic forms.


Wow.


I don't even want to guess how much one of those things weigh, but
actually they were a whole different approach to insulating a window
based entirely on glass thickness, and never frosted up, even on the
coldest days.
The smaller ones consist of around ten separate pieces of glass, the big
main one of around thirty.
The inside and outside doors to the house entryway also have
ovoid-shaped windows of that type set into them, and are so massive that
it actually takes a fair amount of force to open or close them, like
they were steel doors.
I wouldn't be surprised if each of the doors weighs well over one
hundred pounds. The glass alone probably weighs around forty pounds.


Whoever originally built the place obviously wasn't hard-up for cash.
I'm trying to remember how old it is; I think it dates from 1890-1910.


Again, wow and kewl. Most of the homes here are far newer. We're
a fairly young country.

You did real good, son.


Oh, not me, that was my sister and her husband who bought that... and
they got it pretty cheap also, as this was during the gas crisis of the
1970s and the monster was a disaster area in regards to heating bills.
I live in a one bedroom apartment, crowded to the gills with stuff.

"Asimov was a claustrophile; he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces.


That sounds like me; when I was in Moscow and went into the display
Salyut 6 they had in the Cosmos Pavilion, I was surprised to see how big
it looked internally.

He was a very interesting guy. I had the pleasure of hearing
him speak quite a few times, between 1977 and 1989. Also,
a group that I was in with in the mid late 80s once threw him
a birthday party at a con that was right on the first couple of
days of the new year.


He always gave me the impression of someone who would be very outgoing
and a lot of fun to be around, as well as the life of any party.
I used to have a book with a cartoon of all The Hydra Club authors in it
(I've had no luck tracking it down on the web) and it had Asimov
grinning manically and rotating another author on a spit in the fireplace.

Pat

On Apr 22, 12:01*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Andre Lieven wrote:

Well, while I've not had any such parts of myself removed, I have had
dental surgery some years ago, where I was under on gas. I wasn't
completely unconscious, so I could tell that my attempts to move any
given body part were not working, and that that was... interesting.

I've never been drunk, so I imagine that that was fairly close to a
full out bender's effects.

No, in the full-tilt drunk, you will think you can move your body parts
just fine, it's just that the floor keeps swinging up somehow to hit you
in the face. :-D

Well, I was sitting back all throughout that experience. I also very
dimly remember being helped from the dentist's station to a chair
in the waiting area, where a friend was waiting to drive me home.

I don't recall much, if anything, of that drive, either. g

Around two decades back she decided that she'd take up the carpets,
polish the wooden floor, and put in rugs.
This was when she discovered that the entire ground floor's slats were
birds-eye maple, and the carpenter doing the polishing work told her
that the wood in the floor alone was worth around twenty to thirty
thousand dollars.

Jackpot !

(She got the floor so highly polished that it was dangerous to walk on
in stocking feet, and the dogs would come running into one room, try to
stop, and go sliding right through the far door of the room.)

"Just take those records off the shelf..."

And watch out for the small rugs, as they can take right off from under
your feet when you try to step off of them.

Just like home plate.

I do have to admit though that watching a dog sliding backwards through
a room while trying to run forwards was a lot of fun, and I think they
were enjoying it also.

Yeah, but can they block a slapshot from the point ? :-)

Then of course there are the inch-thick leaded glass windows on the
ground floor with the glass cut into prismatic forms.

Wow.

I don't even want to guess how much one of those things weigh, but
actually they were a whole different approach to insulating *a window
based entirely on glass thickness, and never frosted up, even on the
coldest days.
The smaller ones consist of around ten separate pieces of glass, the big
main one of around thirty.
The inside and outside doors to the house entryway also have
ovoid-shaped windows of that type set into them, and are so massive that
it actually takes a fair amount of force to open or close them, like
they were steel doors.
I wouldn't be surprised if each of the doors weighs well over one
hundred pounds. The glass alone probably weighs around forty pounds.

I can surely say that my wife would love a house with such features.

Whoever originally built the place obviously wasn't hard-up for cash.
I'm trying to remember how old it is; I think it dates from 1890-1910.

Again, wow and kewl. Most of the homes here are far newer. We're
a fairly young country.

You did real good, son.

Oh, not me, that was my sister and her husband who bought that... and
they got it pretty cheap also, as this was during the gas crisis of the
1970s and the monster was a disaster area in regards to heating bills.
I live in a one bedroom apartment, crowded to the gills with stuff.

Oh, OK. You might want to consider a more commodious location.

Then again, I'm writing that, as I'm in this place for 11 years now,
and
it isn't exactly dripping with unused spaces, and if some deals for
some re-equipment come through, it will have even less unused
spaces.

"Asimov was a claustrophile; he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces.

That sounds like me; when I was in Moscow and went into the display
Salyut 6 they had in the Cosmos Pavilion, I was surprised to see how big
it looked internally.

I seem to recall seeing an earlier Salyut mockup at Man & His World
(What Expo 67 was called after 1967.) in the 70s.

I also liked comfy closed in spaces. When I was in single digits,
the house my folks had had a short but pretty deep closet up a couple
of feet off of the main floor, elevated such because the stairs
downstairs
ran just below it, on one side. I liked playing in there, with the
small
door closed. It could not latch, so it was perfectly safe.

He was a very interesting guy. I had the pleasure of hearing
him speak quite a few times, between 1977 and 1989. Also,
a group that I was in with in the mid late 80s once threw him
a birthday party at a con that was right on the first couple of
days of the new year.

He always gave me the impression of someone who would be very
outgoing and a lot of fun to be around, as well as the life of any party.
I used to have a book with a cartoon of all The Hydra Club authors in it
(I've had no luck tracking it down on the web) and it had Asimov
grinning manically and rotating another author on a spit in the fireplace..

That sounds right for ol' Isaac. At one of the earliest cons where I
saw
him, he came up and spoke to myself and to a young lady that I was
in the company of (No romantic stuff there, just con-pals.). She asked
for a picture to be taken by myself of the two of them. I took it,
with
a 110 Instamatic. In the shot, his arm is moving behind her, and it is
blurred with the motion. Fast guy. g

Here's a fun memoir of the early days of the Hydra Club by First
Fandom Fan Dave Kyle, who is also a wonderful fellow.

http://jophan.org/mimosa/m25/kyle.htm

Andre

Andre Lieven wrote:
That sounds right for ol' Isaac. At one of the earliest cons where I
saw
him, he came up and spoke to myself and to a young lady that I was
in the company of (No romantic stuff there, just con-pals.). She asked
for a picture to be taken by myself of the two of them. I took it,
with
a 110 Instamatic. In the shot, his arm is moving behind her, and it is
blurred with the motion. Fast guy. g

The Sensuous Dirty Old Man has a reputation to uphold.

Pat

On Apr 22, 4:34*pm, Pat Flannery wrote:
Andre Lieven wrote:
That sounds right for ol' Isaac. At one of the earliest cons where I
saw him, he came up and spoke to myself and to a young lady that I
was in the company of (No romantic stuff there, just con-pals.). She
asked for a picture to be taken by myself of the two of them. I took it,
with a 110 Instamatic. In the shot, his arm is moving behind her, and
it is blurred with the motion. Fast guy. g

The Sensuous Dirty Old Man has a reputation to uphold.

That he did. Still, in one part of the 2nd volume of his autobio, he
relates a tale of being in Times Square in the very early 70s, and
looking at the pics on the exterior of an X rated theater.

A young woman came up to him, and started to talk with him. As
he wrote, this often happened back then, as folks who had seen
him at a convention and were local to NYC, often enough would
run into him on the street, and would remember him better than
he remembered them.

But, in this case, it was a hooker. It took him a minute or two
to get that she was a hooker, and, as he wrote it, once he got
that, he gibbered and ran back to his hotel.

In Joy Yet Felt, pages 459-460.

Andre

On Apr 22, 4:35*pm, OM wrote:
On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:48:42 -0700 (PDT), Andre Lieven

wrote:
Well, I was sitting back all throughout that experience. I also very
dimly remember being helped from the dentist's station to a chair
in the waiting area, where a friend was waiting to drive me home.

...I think you kids all know what I've been through insofar as
operations and amputations go,

Yes, indeedy. Not fun stuff.

but where dentistry is concerned I've
never been knocked out totally. What I have learned is that there's a
new substitute for Novocane that's worth bugging your dentist into
switching to, and it's called Septicane. It's a synthetic opiate that
is to Novocane essentially what Dilauded is to Morphene. It kills
almost all nerve sensation including pain, and when it wears off you
have only about 10% of the "overstretched rubber" feelings in your
face that Novocane usually leaves to about 90% of patients injected
with. In short, it shuts off the nerves rather than just deadening
them, and studies have shown that cessation of pain is actually more
enjoyable than just getting dopes up enough to ignore it.

Ah. That could be worth knowing about, when/if I need another such
procedure. The tale I was speaking of was in early 2003, so I don't
think that the stuff that they used on me was this kind.

...The only drawback is that it lasts only about 3/4 to 1/2 as long as
Novocane, so if you're like me and you *REALLY* have to get doped up
before they start drilling, they need to have an extra syringe cocked
and loaded just in case.

Hmm... One of the reasons that they had me under that time, was
that they had a fair bit of work to do in there.

Still, good to know.

Andre

On Apr 21, 7:52*am, Andre Lieven wrote:
I was reading on astronautix, on the Soyuz 7K-LOK page,
and the main body of text came to a sudden, mid-word end.

"After four days transit to the moon, with two mid-course
corrections, the Block D would fire to place the assembly
into a 175 km circular lunar orbit at 98.5 hours into the
flight. The Block D would shape the orbit to a final 40 km
x 175 km orbit on maneuvers on the fifth and 27th orbits.
The LOK was to conduct photographic sessions of
potential future landing sites on orbit 14, 17, 34, and 36.
After 3.7 days in lunar orbit, the LOK's forward living
compartment would separate and the Block I engine
would fire to put the spacecraft on a translunar
trajectory. Eight minutes prior to re-entry the descent
module would separate, c"

http://www.astronautix.com/craft/soy7klok.htm

So, I looked at the "Contact Us" link, but it neither
gives an e-mail address nor brings up any sort of
form to fill out, to contact Mr. Wade or anyone who
might look after such an issue.

Any ideas ?

Andre

And the great mutual ruse/sting of the century continues, as though
god and all of his kingdom were on the same side of the USSR/USA
coinage.

~ BG