The Holy Grail Press
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Word of the Every So Often
coracle: (noun) (pronounced: core-ah-kul) a small boat made of wickerwork that is then covered with watertight material, common in Ireland and Wales. Sean was paddling his coracle when he mysteriously disappeared beneath the water. Some say it was the Loch Ness monster. Others say it was just a lousy boat.
Everyday History
On November 3, 1957, Laika, a stray dog “rescued” from the streets of Moscow, became the first living creature launched into orbit aboard Sputnik II. Affectionately called Muttnik, the two or three year old female was trained for the mission, such as being confined in smaller and smaller spaces, being put on a centrifuge to get used to the G-force, and being taught how to eat jelled food. Now that’s a good girl! The official release was that Laika, as planned, survived about a week and then was euthanized with poisonous food before her oxygen supply ran out. In reality, the poor dog died just a few hours into the flight from overheating and, not surprisingly, panic. The bigger reality is that she died because of politics. The Soviets wanted to launch Sputnik II on (or before) the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution (which is on November 7), which didn’t give them enough time to perfect a life support system. Of course, more than all of that, that poor dog wasn’t coming back to earth regardless. Sputnik II, as planned, burned up on re-entry in April of 1958, because the Soviets hadn’t perfected that, either. A small monument to Laika was erected in Moscow in 2008.
Cartoon of the Week
Stuff
The History of the Future: The Sanity Shift
It was the 2030 Census that verified, indeed, that there were now more people in the Untied States who were clinically insane than those who were not. And it was in 2032 that the Supreme Court ruled that, by definition, “normal” was decided by the majority. Therefore, what once was considered to be crazy, was now the norm, and those who once were considered sane should now be considered extremely dangerous. Institutionalization was recommended. Speaking for the majority, Chief Justice Bidwell stated, “Shut up! I’ll kill you all! What are you looking at?”
Few “insane” people were ever locked up, though, because they quickly went underground. After all, it is a lot easier to pretend you’re yelling at somebody who isn’t there than to pretend you’re not. They learned to identify each other with secret signals, and would often meet clandestinely, so, as one member recalled, “We could just sit around and be quiet without anybody yelling at us or trying to take away our socks.”
One of the things that the new majority insisted on doing was driving, which had long been a privilege of the sane. By 2037, mostly because of all the people who had been run over, many of whom where indoors, it was determined that those people who had recently been in the majority no longer were. And once again, the definition of “sane” was revised to the pre-2030 status.
See, as well, the Shift of 2088, 2129, 2173, and 2222.
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