@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/14/97 -- Vol. 15, No. 33
Table of Contents
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in the Middletown cafeteria Wednesdays at noon.
DATE TOPIC (no meetings scheduled) Outside events: The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 908-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 908-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 908-957-6330 rlmitchell1@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 908-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Backissues available at http://www.mt.lucent.com/~ecl/MTVOID/backissues.html
or http://sf.www.lysator.liu.se/sf_archive/sf-texts/MT_Void/.
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
http://www.panix.com/NESFA/hugos96.html. Various recommendations for this year's Hugos. [-ecl]
There was a piece of good news about food this year. It is about time. Usually when science wants to tell you about food you get the distinct feeling you will emerge sadder but wiser. If it tastes good it probably is fattening, carcinogenic, or bad for your heart. Just when I discovered that I liked Fetuccini Alfredo someone had to dub it a "heart attack on a plate." Usually the only good news about food is that the stuff you don't like is also bad for you. And there is little enough news like that. But you do occasionally hear something like liver is full of cholesterol. That one made my day. Even there it is only rare you hear that something you don't like is unhealthy. I mean other than diesel fuel.
Now I wasn't hit particularly hard by the discovery that popcorn like you get in a movie theater may be loaded with saturated fats. But the recent revelation that restaurant Chinese food is loaded with fat really comes as a disappointment, if not particularly a surprise. And if you did not know that restaurant Mexican was loaded with fat, you have not been paying sufficient attention to your plate. As yet I have not heard that Thai food is full of fat, but I am fully expecting it. After waiting for literally years for there to be there to be Thai food in my part of New Jersey, it has finally arrived. I put the leftovers in my refrigerator to take to work for lunch. When I take them out there is a layer of grease on top. Just what I needed to discover. So the scientific food news over the last few years has been less than stellar.
I keep waiting for the discoveries that they told us about in Woody Allen's SLEEPER. They claimed in that that deep fat frying and hot fudge sundaes are good for you. Well, this year we got a little closer to those predictions. Somebody asked the right question. What was the right question? Well, mayonnaise goes rancid about ten seconds after it leaves the jar, particularly on a warm day. That is in part because it is full of fat that oxidizes. Chocolate is full of fat also. One would naturally assume that chocolate would go rancid quickly also. Well, it may go soft, but it does not really go rancid. Why not? Well, there are natural anti- oxidants in chocolate. This is good news. Why? Well, a necessary part of the process of heart disease leading to heart attack is the oxidation of fat buildup in arteries. Anti-oxidants previously showed up in red wine and some grape juice. It was discovered that red wine was actually good for you. There are even more anti- oxidants in chocolate. Well, I just had to run out and buy some medicinal chocolate. Yeah, we got a big bag of chocolate chips and we administer a coffee-scoop-full at irregular intervals as we feel the need. Of course, chocolate is also a psycho-active drug that gives a feeling of well-being. Well, maybe it is just that its combination of sweet and bitter tastes good. Of course, there is cholesterol in milk chocolate; maybe it is better to stick to the dark bittersweet kind. Then again, only the milk chocolate kind comes in timed-release capsules (under the brand name M&Ms). But who knew chocolate was actually good for you? What's next? Prime rib? [-mrl]
by Jerry Jay Carroll (Ace, ISBN 0-441-00368-0, 1996, 330pp, US$12) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
William Bogart Ingersol awoke one morning to discover he had been turned into a giant dog.
Well, maybe not giant, but definitely a dog. This is where the resemblance to Franz Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS ends, unless one considers Ingersol's attempts to deal with his new body as paralleling Gregor Samsoe's efforts. In fact, the rest of the story is a more traditional fantasy, with wizards and magic and such. But the conceit of having the main character a corporate magnate transformed into a canine and transported into a magic world gives this a new level that other such stories often lack. I am not generally a high fantasy fan, but this (in my opinion) walks the line between high fantasy and ... well, it's not low fantasy, but whatever other sort of fantasy one finds. (Urban fantasy, just a bit?) If you're looking for a fantasy that stands out for its originality, I would recommend TOP DOG. [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 908-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
If God created us in His own image we have more
than reciprocated.
-- Voltaire