Well, that "Network solutions" thing no longer comes up, but clicking on "message board" brings up a blank - unless it's a picture of an albino cat drinking milk in a snowstorm...

It�s an illusion brought on by our powerful thirst.

[This message has been edited by Chapter 31 (edited 03-10-2006).]

Yes, but now we've come back to our own dear Ireland from wasted years across the wintry sea.

And what is Ireland but 40 shades of green? And where is most of the green from but the grass?

I think you all know where this is going....

I think we may be missing a few passengers here, I think I see a speck on the horizon. It looks like the Imskipper, or my gosh, is that a biplane. Are we rescued? Is that a Dandelion in the water? Oh Nard help us all.
Blast, this salt isn't helping my circuitry.
I think I've gotten delirious. I see my dear friend, Robinson Robot, and isn't that the Jetson maid, Rosie? Come here dear. Braling II, come join us for wine and orange sodas. Mr. Dark, may I take that oar for a while? Its getting choppy out here and my foam lips are so parched I can hardly utter the words to ask Chapter 31, may I have a glass of milk and some pi.

[This message has been edited by Robot Lincoln (edited 03-11-2006).]

Onward, towards the light! Umm... do lighthouses blink?

[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 03-11-2006).]

Lighthouses blink as well as poker chips watch.

They that go down to the sea in chips...hmmm....

It's now been 5 billion seconds since I have not been forwarded to the Ray Bradbury Message board and I have worn this poor mouse out clicking"here". I woke up dreaming that someone has done this on purpose. Are we...Exiles?

A Groupee LabTech sent me this: "It looks like they are in the process of transferring over to the new board. If you go to http://www.raybradbury.com/ubbcgi/Ultimate.cgi then you can access the board."

Let's *hope* it works and PRAY it doesn't result in the creation of THREE dissimilar boards! This looks like the beginning of a very bad Science Fiction plot--with the thing continually cloning itself, resulting in more imperfect copies each time....

I was barely up to comparing two boards--to make sure all messages from board ONE really made it to board TWO--now that there's been time to really add to board TWO--I have to worry that everything from THERE makes it to board THREE--can't they get a robot to do this? One that isn't all rusty?

Oh, dear. That wasn't funny. I hit that link and it shot me back to THIS board. I'll inform the tech this is the OLD board!

I told Groupee about that and they gave me the domain name owner's name, which was NOT HarperCollins but someone at Authors on the Web! I emailed that individual with all that you already know, concluding with this:

Now the board has disappeared completely! NO ONE can access it, including technical support at Groupee, and I have NO contact at HarperCollins! Groupee supplied me with your name. I hope this reaches you and you are able to assure us that the Ray Bradbury board on his official site will return, and that I may be put in contact with someone with the technical ability to restore all the missing posts. I'll be glad to go back to before the split and check the numbers, but I'm not doing it unless assured someone with the ability to fix it will work with me on that. Thank you very much for your attention to this!

I'll post here any reply I receive.

�The falcon can not hear the falconer.��W. B. Yeats

Thanks for being there, dandelion!

Thanks for thanking me.

I beleive everything, I beleive nothing. I suspect everyone, I suspect no one.

It's all part of life's rich pageant.

Every time I attempt to access the new board I am confronted with that damned white screen (reminiscent of some whales I�ve heard of (�From hell's heart I stab at thee...Thus, I give up the [mouse]!�)�the wrath of Chapter 31. With that in mind, I offer the following old verse:

�Ef you strike a thorn or rose,
Keep a-goin�!
Ef it hails, or ef it snows,
Keep a-goin�!

�Tain�t no use to sit and whine,
When the fish ain�t on yer line;
Bait yer hook an� keep a-tryin�-
Keep a-goin�!� � Frank L. Stanton

With a tip of the hat to Henry Gibson.

[This message has been edited by Chapter 31 (edited 03-12-2006).]

Do you remember Richard Hayden? Great voice and great character actor. "Clyde Crashcup"'s voice was modelled on his. Anyway, as best I can recall (and if you can picture him or hear him reading, it helps) this is a poem he used to recite - something about "Courage"
(ahem)

A giant came to my house,
He was big and he was strong.
His legs were thirty inches thick,
His arms were twelve yards long!
He stamped, he frowned, he shook the ground!
I trembled through and through!
But I looked that giant in the eye and said,
"Who cares for you?!"

and he hit me!