Sometimes I wonder where sanity went.

Vix

You'll wonder where the sanity went
When you start snorting Pepsodent!

Aisle three, the small can in the small can!

Yesssssssssssss

What the heck is Irium?

Vix

A distant ancestor of Gardol and Platformate.

It's a rare, secret chemical extracted from unobtainium.

with all the weird stuff they used to put in things, it's no wonder a good percentage of boomers came down with cancer... I had glow in the dark pajamas when I was a kid and that was when all the Timex ladies contracted the disease from the stuff they were painting on the watch dials...

Vix

Honestly. My Dad lost his best lab technician (and a good friend of the family) to benzene poisoning. The reports came out after she went into the hospital.

I'm glad I live away from the cities and the scary stuff that gets into the water supply. My water comes from a 180-foot-deep well. The only thing in my water that's remotely fear-inducing is an element that occurs naturally in the surrounding rock and soil. It's only a few points over the EPA 'safe' level and 1/300 of what is considered harmful.

A powerful drink favoured in Barsoom Saloons???

I've often wondered whether, if such a signal was sent off by an intelligent, self-aware and sentient race, it was not just sent off by a xenointelligence, but the broadcast was itself the sentient intelligence sent by radio-broadcast medium? Like a meme, a viral lifeform formatted and broadcast outwards.

Might that one way a extraTerran race chose to explore beyond the bounds of its planetary a solar system, if it could code a simulacrum of its DNA into a radio broadcast, like a reduced and compressed upload/download by data stream?

Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice takes on the challenge of a group of scientists who are tasked with determining the nature of what is felt to be one such recording and broadcast. It's one of my very favourite science-fiction novels, even if it can be a bit dry (it's exciting scientifically, rather than an adventure story by genera); it's a story that made me think when I read it, and still does when I've re-read it since.

-2Paw.

I need to find a copy of that Lem novel - love his work. Somewhere I have a late 1940s sci fi story - The Waverlies. Some alien lifeform that roams thru space looking for Radio emissions - feeds on them. They send Earth back to the steam era

The copy of His Master's Voice I have is a 1970's-era 'light-hardcover', a compromise between the heavy hardcovers and paperbacks available in those days and to the present day. It was in a big box of science-fiction and fantasy novels, most or all in that format, a former neighbour put out for freebies while they were finishing up their move away. A whole lot of Zelazny Chronicles of Amber collections, Brian Aldiss and Star Trek hardcover gatherums from the pre-TMP era were amongst them.

I'd never read Stanislaw Lem's work prior to that book, not even a well-known novel like Solaris. It's one of my favourite thinking-deep and philosophical sci-fi novels, and as a reference work it's made up a big part of my writing 'vetting process' when I write a complex, analytical narrative. I can't imagine it's really hard to find now, at least a modern paperback version, but given the age of the novel publishing-wise it could easily be on the obscure side. If you're looking for an older book at a new-copy bookstore and it eludes you, check used bookstores in your area if they're not a trouble to get to. I've found some wonderful treasures at places like Goodwill and Value Village, often in surprisingly-new condition.

-2Paw.

I tend to check Bookman's used books , Halfpriced or Thrift Books on line if the local used book places don't have what I want

When you're looking for an obscure book in a very specific genre, used bookstores or thrift stores are the way to go. If you know a big brand-new bookstore carries the book you want and you'd prefer it to be brand new, along with having enough for the modern price tag of a brand-new book and you'd really prefer a new, unblemished copy then that's a reasonable choice. If instead you're looking for a book that was first published in the 1970s and you'd rather have a copy dating from that era, thrift stores and used bookstores will do the deed marvelously, if you're up to looking carefully.

-2Paw.

Aw, crumbs. I tuned it in, and all they're playing is reruns of Ix and Zaphod. It doesn't matter anyway; there was clearly no intelligent life on the planet from which the signals emanated and the Vogons demolished it.

"Vogons don't break for lunchtime. That is set aside for poetry reading."

-2Paw.

I say torture, you say poetry reading. Tomato, tomato...

"My newest poem is titled 'To The Vegetable Which Is A Fruit, And Don't Plug Your Ears, Sir', and it's very round and listenable."

-2Paw.