Thoughts-0-Dave

Hey dave or can i call u -0- as i know u both in cyberspace and on terra firma. i wanted to post this in t-0-d science section, but could not find a way to do it so i’m posting it in this thread. I was suprised to read that a.c. clarke, who died several days ago, had written the short story “9 billion names of god.” i remember being almost as moved by that (not so much ‘moved’ as intrigued with some sort of emotional experience) as i was by Asimov’s “The Question” (at least as much as one can be moved by a short scifi story) . I somehow thought that R. Bradbury had written 9B Names. Finding out recently that Clark was a devout athiest and that according to what I have heard he would actually excoriate and humiliate those who professed religious belief in front of him (clark) makes my incorrect memory and clarke’s authorship of 9B Names pleasantly ironic. Today’s NYT has a piece about a.c.clarke. i’ve read part of it and it looks good, so here’s the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/science/25essa.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
if the link is no good, u can find the essay in the 3/25 science section
enjoying your blog.
Peter

Thanks Peter! You can call me whatever the hell you want. You’ve earned that right. I’m tempted to try and move your comment to where you wanted it, but I guess I’ll leave it here since you’re the only person I actually know to leave a comment on my “About” page. FYI, the easiest way to find an old post is to use the little search thingy that very quietly appears near the bottom of the column right. Enter “science fiction” and click the little arrow. Wa La.

Anywho, thanks a bunch for the link to the Overbye essay. I wish it had been a longer piece. I love that guy!

Dave.
Stu here (recumbent trike ) Just connecting, thought we could possibly get together for a ride some time. I am approaching 200 miles since I saw you. Not bad?!

Hi Stu! Thanks for connecting. Good going on the 200 mile mark. I’m taking this weekend off because I sliced my right hand trying to remove my new bike pump from its packaging. But I hope to run into you sometime soon since I bike through Henniker often.

I have a burning question for Dave…

You may or may not remember posting a message nearly two years ago, but you probably remember the subject matter…

A commercial for soda on black and white television that somehow allowed you to see color…

It came up in discussion recently, and I was curious. I searched the internet in vain only to find two other pages that seemed to talk about the commercial in question. One site had you bringing up the commercial, but not being able to remember all the details:

http://lifewithbuck.com/2007/12/18/qa-sunday-decorations-that-are-awful-and-painful-soda/

Have any luck remembering in the past two years? I’m dying to find out more, but keep running into dead ends.

The other page had a guy mentioning the commercial too (and yes, I bugged him about it as well). If this helps, he seems to think it was during “Rat Patrol”.

I’ll keep an eye on this page to see if you answer. Thanks!

Thanks for your inquiry ynot4tony2. This is a bit frustrating for me too. I have also done some fruitless searching. My recollections are that it was a one-syllable brand name, like Crush, Wink, Squirt, or something like that. It surely was in the 60s too, probably the late 60s, and I lived in South Florida for a couple of those years, so it could have been there that I saw this commercial. It was a stroboscopic effect that was probably dangerous to anyone with seizure disorders, and made an illusion of color. Sorry I can’t remember more. Please let me know if you discover anything else, and I will do the same.