Happy St. Patrick's Day

One of the great things about the Irish is their way with words. Here are some Irish sayings for you on this St. Patrick’s Day. The picture is called Irish Sea.

May those who love us, love us
And those who don’t,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn’t turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles so we’ll know
Them by their limping.

The secret of the Irish is to live a long time without growing old.


The day God created the Irish
He didn’t do another thing except sit down and smile.


May you be in Heaven a half hour before the devil knows you’re dead.


May you live to be a hundred years,
With one extra year to repent.


May God bring good health to your enemies’ enemies.


May your blessings be many,
Your troubles be few.
May the love in your hearts
Forever be true.

May your mornings bring joy.
And your evenings bring peace.
May your troubles grow few.
And your blessings increase.

May your home always be too small
To hold all of your friends.

Dance as if no one were watching.
Sing as if no one were listening.
Live each day as if it’s your last.

Bless us with good food,
The gift of gab.
And hearty laughter.
May the love and joy
We share
Be with us
Ever after.

May your troubles be less
And your blessings be more.
And nothing but happiness
Comes through your door.

May the road rise to meet you;
May the wind be always at your back;
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall softly upon your fields;
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May you live as long as you want;
and not want as long as you live.

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
A full moon on a dark night,
And thee road downhill
All the way to your door.

May the best day of your past
Be the worst day of your future.

May your neighbors respect you,
Troubles neglect you,
The angels protect you,

And heaven accept you.

Science and Science Fiction

“When you hear the splash of the water drops that fall into the stone bowl, you will feel that all the dust of your mind is washed away.” Sen no Rikyu

“The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.” Dalai Lama

“I can believe anything provided it is incredible.” Oscar Wilde

One thing that I inherited from my Dad was a love of reading. To this day I often have two and three books that I am reading at the same time. When I was very young I discovered a new type of book or at least it was new to me. It was in a genre called science fiction. The book that started me on my wild ride into science fiction and fantasy was by Tom Godwin and was called The Survivors. The haunting “Ragnarök calling” from the end of the book when the people who had triumphed over adversity let the people responsible for their fate know that they had survived and were fighting back even now, after all these years, moves me.

I know many adults look askance when their children get involved in science fiction and fantasy and are even more disturbed when they find out that you don’t outgrow it. A love of science fiction and fantasy will stay with you forever. Once you have been exposed to worlds beyond this small planet of ours you can never go back to the way you were.

It was probably fate that made my first science fiction story one where people were fighting against odds to survive. It reached into the part of me that has always been a fighter. For me “equal rights” means equal rights for everyone regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. It taped into a vein of writing that explored that ideal.

My all time favorite writer was the late Arthur C. Clarke. Childhood’s End was my first introduction to the idea of evolved beings. It is a theme that has been explored many times including one of my favorite characters, Q, from Star Trek. I’ve read many of Arthur C. Clarke’s books. I remember staying up until the early hours reading 2010: Odyssey Two. We had Christmas at my house that year and even though it was getting towards midnight by the time everything had been cleaned up I thought that I’d read a chapter or two before retiring. I ended up finishing the book, as I couldn’t put it down.

One of the sweetest people I have ever met was Ray Bradbury. I have his autograph on my copy of The Martian Chronicles. What I love about Bradbury’s writing is the lyrical almost poetical writing. He is a man who really knows the power and beauty in language. I think his book Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of the most chilling books I have ever read. Fahrenheit 451 still speaks today about those people who want to ban books.

I was privileged to know the late Marion Zimmer Bradley. We had met many years ago at a science fiction convention where I was working and she was a guest. One of my favorite quotes came out of that convention. Another guest was Harlan Ellison and after he had made a crude proposition to me and walked away laughing Marion told me “I knew Harlan when he was a snot nosed kid and now he is a snot nosed adult.” Her Darkover novels were an important part of my fantasy reading.

Two of my favorite fantasy writers are Anne McCaffrey and Ursula Le Guin. Anne’s dragon rider books are wonderful. The fact that you have to have the beautiful gold queen dragons to survive is icing on the cake. Her Crystal Singer books speak to the singer in me and to my love of music. Her Freedom series brings me back to my roots in humans fighting to survive and succeeding in spite of the odds. Ursula Le Guin is just a beautiful writer. The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest, City of Illusions, the Earthsea books. Her writing is so lyrical and powerful. She is an incredible writer who should be read more often.

Isaac Asimov’s most famous books are his Foundation and I, Robot series. He was known as much for his science as he was for his science fiction. Orson Scott Card has written some very intriguing stories. I first encountered him in the old Omni magazine with the short story A Thousand Deaths. Roger Zelazny’s Amber books are ones that I have reread many times.

One greatest things that science fiction and fantasy did for me was introduced me to the world of outer space and astronomy. I have followed mankind’s attempt to reach the stars since I was a small child. I will never forget sitting in front the television and watching as Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon or the pictures that came to us from Mars. I took a class in astronomy at our local city college and will never forget looking through the telescope and seeing for the first time a close up look at beautiful Saturn and her rings.

A world that many dismiss as silly is in reality a window to the world of science. I have known many scientists over the years. When I ran my science fiction conventions I always made a point of trying to have science panels and invariably those scientists got started with science fiction. I am willing to bet that more then a couple of the people working on New Horizons and Kepler first started as children reading the science fiction that we still read today as adults. After all once you reach for the stars the mundane just doesn’t cut it any more.

The picture is called Childhood's End.

Latest in Space

“Fear comes from this selfish idea of cutting one’s self off from the universe.” Swami Vivekananda

“What science finds to be nonexistent, we must accept as nonexistent, but what science merely does not find is a completely different matter … it is quite clear that there are many, many mysterious things." Dalai Lama

For someone who has a deep love of astronomy and outer space the fact that we are on our way to distant Pluto is very exciting. The probe New Horizons is currently setting out to give mankind its first look at that distant planet. I haven’t been this excited about our space program since Huygens gave us our best data on Saturn and its moon Titan.

A lot of people think that in times of economic crisis that exploration of space is a waste on money. I am not one of them. Everything that we do in space exploration has created thousands of jobs for people right here. It is a win – win situation. People get employed to build the space probed, people get paid for following them, people get paid for analyzing the data received. Mankind as a whole gets to know more and more about this universe of ours. People get employment and we all learn something new.

I had no idea that scientist were saying that Pluto actually has an atmosphere during its warmer months. You can find out more about Pluto and New Horizons on the NASA website http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/

Have fun exploring. Any day where you can learn new things is a good day. The picture is my latest in the Solar System and shows Pluto from its surface with Charon hanging up in the sky.