Forty years ago, Samuel R. Delany changed the face of science fiction. He won the field’s highest honors as a young man, and was seen as the most promising writer in a genre struggling to redefine itself. His book, The Einstein Intersection, which won the Nebula Award in 1967, is both action adventure and […]
Culture
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They won’t stay dead: Pure Kona Poetry celebrates 10 years
There are wild mood swings. One minute it’s a somber kid with too much metal in his face. Then there’s a slightly out-of-focus Vietnam vet. Religious nuts, fey singer-songwriters, schizophrenics, jittery college students, even some yuppies. Pure Kona Poetry may be Rochester’s best and longest-standing forum for spoken expression. Norm Davis has been the […]
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Letting go is a Cool Move
A trip to a museum with children is a microcosm of parenting. You want your kids to have fun while they learn, of course. But you don’t want them running all over the place knocking stuff down while they’re at it. So how to maintain control while still giving them freedom? I can’t help […]
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Across the universe
The subjects of Adam Frank’s research are thousands of light years away from the earth; he studies the life and death of distant stars. But his work as associate professor of physics & astronomy, theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics at the University of Rochester, is ultimately about us — how we got here and […]
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A concise handbook of astrology
Is it appropriate for our nation’s leaders to consult astrologers on critical decisions? Should you check your horoscope when buying a car? In this column, I will show why astrology is 99.9 percent bunk. Astrology is confused in some people’s minds with astronomy. The latter is a meticulously accurate body of knowledge that describes […]
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Outside of the box
As soon as an idea shows up as a bumper sticker, you know it’s dying. Certainly “diversity” has become a tired buzz word. Yet, sometimes the old slogans (like “freedom” and “peace”) retain a trace of significance. Flooded with cliché-mongers, the world of literary fiction still occasionally allows a new writer to tackle these […]
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The rockets’ red (white and blue) glare
In the wake of the World Trade Center’s destruction, are celebratory fireworks still OK? More than ever. For one thing, fireworks can be used for Freudian sublimation: Take that, you rotten, sub-human terrorist scum — POW! ZAPP! and BANG!! And just to show that our spirits (of ’76) aren’t dampened, nor our ability to appreciate […]
