austin_dern

The Perils Of Pauline Episode Twelve, ``Confu's Sacred Secret'' reveals that Pauline and Warde are not dead, although it's rather a cheat in how they get out of the falling tower.

Trivia: Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Britain returned to her dock on 19 July 1970, the 127th anniversary of her launch. In its time she had been a passenger ship, troop ship, emigrant ship, coal and grain carrier, and storage hulk in the Falkland Islands. Source: Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation, Alan Gurney.

Currently Reading: Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds In The Third Great Age Of Discovery, Stephen J Pyne.

The Perils Of Pauline Episode Ten, ``The Night Attacks'', opens with the discovery that Pauline is not dead, relieving the tension among all people who didn't actually notice she was just fine at the end of last episode.

Trivia: The Dodge Brothers ended their relationship with Ford on 17 July 1913, when Ford rejected buying the company as a subsidary. Source: Henry and Edsel: The Creation of the Ford Empire, Ricahrd Bak.

Currently Reading: Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds In The Third Great Age Of Discovery, Stephen J Pyne.

[ I'm sorry. One more logic-bomb from Coronation Commentary and I might be finished. Dennis points out the hazards of elected heads of state, pointing out how three of the last fifteen United States presidents (as of 1937) had been assassinated, while English monarchs had gone back centuries since the last time. But he also notes the at least five attempts on Victoria's life. I'd like some proof of statistical significance here, is what I'm saying. ]

The Perils Of Pauline Episode Eight, ``Dangerous Depths'', opens with the discovery that Warde is not dead.

Trivia: The Invisible College was reformed on 15 July 1662 as the Royal Society for London for Improving Natural Knowledge. Source: The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest Mathematical Clash of All Time, Jason Socrates Bardi.

Currently Reading: Coronation Commentary, Geoffrey Dennis. So, ah, yeah, in Dennis's opinion as expressed here, monarchies like the British --- pardon, the English --- one are better than republics because Republics give you Hitler. Seriously. Also all the good things that happen in governments are because of English-style monarchs, and when bad stuff happens it would be worse but the monarch moderates the excesses of the people. Like how when Edward the Whichever expelled the Jews from England, that was just what the people insisted on, and he tried moderating some of the worst abuses of the exiled, much the way Hitler tried to dampen the Germans' enthusiasm for abusing Jews of late. Excuse me, ``of late ?!?!!''

The Perils Of Pauline Episode Six, ``Pursued by Savages'', opens with the discovery that Dr Hargraves, Dodge, and Pauline are not dead.

Trivia: From 1884 the Carlsberg brewery began using the principles Pasteur developed for his ``beer of revenge''. Source: Louis Pasteur, Patrice Debré, Translated by Elborg Forster.

Currently Reading: The Kid Of Coney Island: Fred Thompson And The Rise Of American Amusements, Woody Register.

The Perils Of Pauline Episode Four, ``Trapped by the Enemy'', opens with the discovery that Pauline is not dead.

Trivia: Immediately after Millard Fillmore's accession to the Presidency on 10 July 1850, as there was no Senate President pro tempore, the only person remaining in the line of succession was Speaker of the House Howell Cobb of Georgia, who was 34 years old. William R King was made the Senate's President pro tempore the 11th of July. Source: From Failing Hands: The Story of Presidential Succession, John D Feerick.

Currently Reading: The Kid Of Coney Island: Fred Thompson And The Rise Of American Amusements, Woody Register.

The Perils Of Pauline Episode Two, ``The Typhoon of Terror'', opens with the discovery that everybody wasn't killed in the temple explosion/collapse/implosion/whatnot. Sure, they were bombed by an armada of biplanes --- and isn't that quintessentially 1933? --- but none of the player characters were wounded.

Trivia: After 1920 ``walk-off'' home runs, game-winning home runs with men on base, were counted as home runs rather than the minimum hit which would score the winning run. Thus an 8 July 1918 home run by Babe Ruth was counted as a triple; by the modern measure, this would give Ruth 715 home runs. Source: The Numbers Game: Baseball's Lifelong Fascination With Statistics, Alan Schwarz.

Currently Reading: Today and Tomorrow And ..., Isaac Asimov. I wonder what Asimov's 60s-70s writings would have been like if he'd heard of the demographic transition. Also, as ever, predictions about what life Will Be Like in thirty years are hilarious, although he was at least reasonably close to the mark in predicting that ``non-procreative'' sexual acts would be a lot more socially acceptable. On the other hand, that requires thinking of Asimov thinking about ``non-procreative'' sexual acts, which just doesn't compute, and while he's not in the top three quartiles of creepy in science fiction circles talking about how to assign the right to procreate (I don't remember if any of his stories had that as a societal plot point, actually; maybe Pebble In The Sky but that was much more tightly focused on the Sixty) it's still creepy when anybody says it.