I’d like to acknowledge …

Well, I’m sitting at RDU on may way to Chicago, and as usual air travel always brings out the best in me.

For example, getting through security. I hate having to take my shoes off. I mean, I’m wearing beat up sneakers, why should I have to take my shoes off? I understand some dude tried to light his on fire once, but it seems silly to do that when I am able to bring a bottle of wine on the plane.

Which is more dangerous? My floppy Addidas sneakers or the three pound glass bludgeon I’m carrying? The whole shoe thing is about “people in authority” wanting to seem like they are doing something, when in fact very little has been done to insure my safety in the air. I heard on CNN a month or so ago that they were going to do away with the shoe thing. One can only hope.

So, let’s move on. I like to get to the airport early, so that I don’t have to worry about missing the plane due to lines at check-in or lines at security. But, it being morning, I also need to schedule my “morning constitutional”. So I go into one of the fine public facilities here at RDU, do my business, and as soon as I stand up, the damn thing flushes. Wait! I’m not finished. There are additional, yet necessary, steps that need to be completed. Being one of those guys who likes a fresh bowl, I attempted to leave the area in better shape than I found it, but the manual flush button was broken, and nothing I could do (wave, plead, swear) would convince the toilet to flush for a second time.

(sigh)

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  I am departing from my usual ritual of traveling with a cheap sci-fi paperback and instead I’m reading Lyle’s Biodiesel Power. I’ve blogged about Lyle in the past, and his efforts to bring the alternative fuel to Chatham County got him a book deal. I’m sure it will be a success, especially due to the Acknowledgements.

Right after his family and Rachel and Leif (his main partners in crime at Piedmont Biofuels) comes this gem:

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I really don’t deserve this, but perhaps it will get me invited to more parties. I missed Tami’s 40th (although I did make a cheesecake) but from the looks of her and Lyle it must have been fun.

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The only other time I’ve had input on a published work was my long collaboration with Harlan Ellison. I met him at the Bookstar on Tchopitoulous Street in New Orleans. He was writing the short story Jane Doe #112. I am a huge fan (if you’re into sci-fi, he needs no introduction, but if not, his work was the basis for The Terminator) and shyly (yes shyly) I introduced myself. He loved my name and wanted to use it in a story some time (hasn’t happened yet to my knowledge) and with our new, lifelong, best-buddies-4-evah bond I watched him work on this short story.

His protagonist was driving a 1977 Toyota Corolla north out of New Orleans, and I mentioned my dad had the same car, and all I remember is the air conditioning sucked. He used that fact in his story. I also came up with the profession of the hero – ATM repairman. It makes the story. Trust me.

Anyway, I bought a copy of Angry Candy and he autographed it for me.

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The story itself appears in Slippage, but alas, I am not in the Acknowledgments. The staff of the Bookstar is mentioned, but I am as forgotten as a daylily in October. But so was George Alec Effinger, a much more accomplished novelist than yours truly and someone who spent a lot more time with Ellison that day. [Note: In looking up links for this entry, it turns out George died in 2002. I am saddened by this]

I’m on the first page of Lyle’s Acknowledgments, though. Nyah.

It’s almost time to squeeze myself into 20D for the two hour flight to Chicago. I’ll update more once I get there.

Last updated on Oct 23, 2005 13:48 UTC




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