With sincere apologies to Matthew Broderick.

We've recently added a new administrative assistant at my workplace, and last week she asked if I'd seen the Sex and the City sequel.  I responded that I had in fact missed that one, and explained for the most part I only see movies that contain aliens or explosions.  (There's a rider on the rule that allows elves to substitute for aliens when necessary.)  There have been some exceptions over time, but for the most part, it's a pretty good guide to my viewing habits, and I more or less took it on faith that SATC2 didn't make the cut.

Then I had a look at the poster for the movie, and you know, it's possible that I've missed the boat on this one.  The longer I look at Sarah Jessica Parker, the more likely it seems that she's not originally from this planet...

- Sid

P.S. For the trivia fans in the crowd, the font used for Ms. Parker's name on the poster is called Aurebesh, it's the typeface used for displays and signage in the Star Wars universe. (And now everyone reading this pauses for a moment and thinks, "Hold on...can I remember any printing in the Star Wars movies...?")

"Fhtagn!!"

As I've previously indicated, I don't generally keep a close watch on currents events - again, if I found real life to be all that interesting, I probably wouldn't read science fiction and fantasy.  However, the larger an event, the more likely that sheer osmosis will bring it to my attention, and the current problem with BP and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is getting the sort of massive coverage that makes it impossible to miss.

Presumably BP is exploring every possible avenue in their attempts to resolve this problem as quickly as possible, but just in case they need some more motivation, perhaps they should consider what you might call the bigger picture...

- Sid

P.S. Today's cartoon is from one of the more unusual webcomics:  Goomi's Unspeakable Vault of Doom.  UVOD, written and illustrated by French artist Francois Launet, draws upon the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft for inspiration.  If you're familiar with the Mythos, it's funny - if you're not...well, as the author suggests, perhaps you should just go to Dilbert.com instead.

"Good news, everybody!"

One of the inevitable problems with writing science fiction is that it's actually quite easy to predict the future and be wrong.  Science fiction is full of errors and anachronisms:  breathable air on Mars, dinosaurs on Venus, space ships crossing the gulf between stars based on calculations made with a slide rule, or as per my posting on a moon ship whose computer is filled with vacuum tubes.

However, every once in a great while the balance falls in the other direction.  I'm currently reading Crashing Suns, a collection of Edmond Hamilton science fiction stories that were originally published in the late 1920s.  My version, published in 1965, contains the following apologetic note from editor Donald A. Wollheim regarding the various references to our solar system being governed by The League of Eight Worlds:

...the astute reader will also note that in those year the Solar System had only eight planets, Pluto not yet having been discovered.

Ha, well, good news. Thanks to the idiosyncratic 2006 decision by the International Astronomical Union to strip Pluto of its planetary qualifications, if they decide to do another edition they can leave that part out.

- Sid