Patterico's Pontifications

9/2/2013

R.I.P. Frederik Pohl

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:03 pm



Another (the last?) of the science fiction greats passes on, at age 93.

Pohl was famous for many works, but I think my favorites were his collaborations with C.M. Kornbluth. If you have not read The Space Merchants, do yourself a favor and read it now.

I met Pohl once, at a science fiction convention. I believe I was a teenager at the time. I had read an essay by Issac Asimov, which you can read here, in which Asimov claimed that Pohl had saved the Foundation series from extinction:

However, when I started the second story (on October 24), I found that I had outsmarted myself. I quickly wrote myself into an impasse, and the Foundation series would have died an ignominious death had I not had a conversation with Fred Pohl on November 2 (on the Brooklyn Bridge, as it happened). I don’t remember what Fred actually said, but, whatever it was, it pulled me out of the hole.

As I say, I had read this before I met Pohl, and I asked him about it when we met. What did you say to Asimov that rescued the Foundation series? I asked him. He had no memory of it. He says you were on the Brooklyn Bridge at the time. Nope. Nothing. “You know, I don’t really remember that.”

Even then, Pohl had a capacious pot belly under a T-shirt. As my mom said, Pohl looked like a guy who really enjoyed life. He didn’t necessarily look like he would make it to 93, but I’m glad he did.

That Ain’t Twerkin’

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 4:43 pm



Via Ace on Twitter.

Ace Rants About . . . Something or Other

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:51 pm



tl;dr

John Kerry and Hitler Assad; UPDATE: Pelosi and Assad, Too!

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 2:29 pm



John Kerry with “thug and murderer” Bashar al-Assad, in 2009.

Screen Shot 2013-09-02 at 2.27.47 PM

Via the Daily Mail.

UPDATE: Thanks to Steve57 for this lovely photo of Nancy Pelosi and Assad:

Screen Shot 2013-09-02 at 2.39.38 PM


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0730 secs.