The Explorers Club
№ CCXLV - The doomed love of Hero & Leander.







Spy v. Spy
A great heroine has met her demise: B.B.C.-link. I had never heard of Captain Wake before reading her obituary; the loss was mine. For more on the "White Mouse," in quick reference form: Wikipedia-link. I, for one, intend to read her autobiography, The White Mouse; I confess that my knowledge of the secret war during the Second World War is not what it should be. "I have one thing to say: I killed a lot of Germans, and I am only sorry I didn't kill more." Freedom has lost a wily & adamantine champion. Requiescat in pace.



Science!
The branch of Jack "The King" Kirby's epic (in the genuine sense of the word, not the debased modern slang sense) "Fourth World" that was closest to the mainstream D.C. (Comics) Universe was Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen, which involved intrepid cub reporter Jimmy Olsen's adventurous interaction with a secret government mad science research body named the D.N.A. Project. The D.N.A. Project was in the monster business: breeding through genetic engineering bizarre creatures called "D.N.Aliens." Say "Hello" to an honest-to-the-New-Gods D.N.Alien: Dr. Worm-link.

Poetic license requires that something sinister must lurk beneath the surface of this darkest of planets: the Dark Planet-link.

Science!

The Stars My Destination
I envy the B.B.C.'s resident "spaceman," Jonathan Amos, his boundless optimism: the long road back-link. (I know that envy is a grave sin; I trust in the Lord Almighty to spare me the wages of that sin.) I so dearly wish I could believe that Boeing's plans will amount to more than just bluster, but until I recover the ability to hope I must, as Babylon 5's Ambassador G'Kar taught us, foster "the hope that there is hope."

A generalized complaint: sometimes the internet is absolutely useless. What is the point of thousands of websites with information on a given topic if they all have the same, tremendously incomplete information? I am, at present, frustrated beyond all credulity.