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Tom Francis - SWSports

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:24:35 -0500, wrote:

On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:00:46 -0400, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

On Thu, 1 Oct 2009 19:18:54 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

Heinlein (Stranger in a strange land... I still re-read it)

Which version - unedited or edited.

The unedited version is better and by comparison, the edited version
sucks.

Heinlien was good only up to a point. If he kept within the bounds of
his Libertarian views, he wrote some great stuff. When he started
wandering off the reservation trying to match Silverberg and Dick (who
by the way was a complete and total asshole as befits his name), he
lost it completely. Read "Grumbles from The Grave" sometime - that
will give you a whole new opinion of Heinlien.

Issac Asimov was a good friend of my Father's. They met through
another friend of my Dad's Clifford Simak - another scifi author.

My favorite Asimov story was when I was in high school - I came home
from football practice on my way to my job at the TV store and sitting
in my living room with my Dad was Asimov, Simak and Martin Greenberg
(the publisher, not the anthologist) yucking it up like there was no
tomorrow. :)

What did you Dad do for a living, Tom? Clifford Simak was one of the
early Sci-fi authors that I read (early in my exploration of the
genre). I loved his book "City." I don't think that novel had any
genuine critical acclaim, though. Another book of his that I remember
reading was "The Werewolf Principal." I had read others; but, I'd
never be able to remember the titles. I personally thought he was as
good as Asimov, if not better.

He was a newpaper man - a true blue reporter/editor that had ink
flowing through his veins. He was a USCG Academy grad his first job
was as a PR type, then sea duty eventually commanding a DE in both the
Atlantic and Pacific theatres. After the war ended, he did Master's
work at Marquette University in English and worked for Allis Chalmers
as an advertising executive which led to a job working for Hearst
newspapers - he always said that when he was offered the job at the
Milwaukee Sentinel as Real Estate and Business Editor he had found his
true calling. he eventually became a nationally syndicated columnist
for a few years, then when the Sentinel closed, he relocated back to
New England still working for Hearst up until his death in 1976.

He met Simak at Marquette and that's where they got to be friends.