Time Travelers Never Die

I’ve always had a soft spot for time travel stories-from Groundhog Day to Back To The Future to The Time Traveler’s Wife-I love them all.  So when I saw Time Travelers Never Die it sounded like my kind of book. For the most part Jack McDevitt does a good job with his time travel story, but it has a little too much Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure to it for my taste.  There are endless bits when our heroes have to hop about in time so that they can hide something, retrive something, or just skip waiting in line.  A…

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Stargate Universe-Chevron Three Will Not Engage

When Stargate Universe first started, I had my doubts about yet another show dealing with heroic folks hopping from planet to planet every week.  The whole premise of the series seemed a little silly.  The Ancients wanted to find out the answer to the question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.  Only, wait a minute, didn’t they all becomes gods themselves and find all the answers already? The Syfy channel, which was once upon a network that featured science fiction programing but has lately been fond of wrestling and ghost busting, canceled Stargate Universe and let the cast find out…

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The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

Michael Chabon’s story of a schmuck of a policeman trying to solve the murder of the latest Messiah is brilliant on any number of levels.  First off, the story is set in Sitka, Alaska-where a few million Jews escaped the European Holocaust where about 2 million Jews where killed by the Nazis.  Over the years they have come to think of the place as their own, but now, America wants the land back and wants to kick the Jews out. We are told the details of the past fifty years or so as through the eyes and mouth of Meyer…

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Lift that barge, tote that bail

My dear sainted mother was a big fan of musicals of all forms and sizes. As a result I grew up watching TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Broadway Musicals (Show Boat / Annie Get Your Gun / Kiss Me Kate / Seven Brides for Seven Brothers) and so and so forth. I also got to see such turkeys as The Little Prince and Paint Your Wagon. The last new musical I watched and really loved was Victor/Victoria and that was twenty-five years ago. I might have liked All That Jazz, if they had hired someone who could sing or act…

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