New to the forum.
I've loved Ray Bradbury since I was a boy. I had the privilege of hearing him speak and meeting him. One thing one is left with after the talks he used to give is a greater love of whatever one loved before, as well as a greater appreciation of others and of life in general - not a bad legacy.
Good job moderating, by the way!

OK - You may be a Ray Bradbury Fan if, while scanning the library shelves and a couple of Sue Grafton titles catch your eye, you think, "wait a minute - that's not what "R" is for!" (or "S" for that matter)

Cheers


[This message has been edited by Braling II (edited 07-02-2004).]

You refer to events in Bradbury shorthand.

The other day while watching a show in which a bad guy was menacing a woman and the woman reached for a sharp pair of scissors, I said, "She's gonna pull a Lavinia Nebbs on him!" (In another episode of the same show, I was most amused that a character was named "Jim Dark.")

One of my favorite NPR programs, "This American Life," ran a bit about a company which built a brand new, state-of-the-art sausage factory, only to find the sausages weren't turning out as good as the ones in the old place! They had to wrack their brains to discover "the missing element" and get things as they should be. I said, "They sure pulled an Aunt Rose on themselves."

Even my mom says she can't hitch up her trousers before sitting down without thinking of "The Fox and the Forest." Sometimes on a warm summer night with people all out on their porches, she'll say, "It's a real Ray Bradbury night."

You're a Ray Bradbury fan if

- you insist on confronting innocent bystanders with your brandnew Rorsach shirt;

- your family doctor is called M. Munigant;

- you grow your own mushrooms in your cellar;

- you occasionally retreat to a convenient cistern to meditate;

- you still feel like a 12-year old boy even if you're pushing 50

...yor dog doesn't know how to fetch...
...your afraid of the wind...
...you never go out when it's exactly 92 degrees outside...
...you question your spouses origin...
...you never want to have a baby...
you admire liitle people...
...you never rubberneck...

...if you are willing to poke your eye out just to be popular...

Being new to computers and the internet I was almost reduced to tears upon reading some (most!) of the postings on this bulletin board. There's so much despairing rubbish in the media (if that's how you'd describe this?) that stumbling across all your thoughts reminded me of a wonderful sunny holiday in 1976 when I found a book full of stories about killer kids and their holographic lions and the conversations of astronauts tumbling from an exploded rocket. I remember almost believing I could smell the veldt, even though I was so young I could barely pronounce the word. I remember the emotion a few years later after reading The Pumpernickle and The Lake. I haven't read anything by Mr. Bradbury for many years, but am inspired to seek him out in my local library (the greatest resource on Earth!). I hope I don't sound pretentious, but I want to thank all of you for your intelligent discussion which has helped bring some sunshine through the rain that's been falling constantly for the past week. My named dogs and I are off for a walk in our boots and slickers with fond thoughts of our wonderful world. Hoping this message gets through - thank you all again!

You may be a Bradbury fan if.....
You earned a degree in Art while doing workstudy in the University Library, and have not left the Library for the last 15 years currently looking up materials in Interlibrary Loan/Media.
You might be a RB fan if you had double ordered the "Cats Pajamas" 1st at the school bookstore, but already checked it out and read it by having it put on reserve at the county library. You also might be up at all hours 4:29 am when a deranged cat jumped up onto where you were sleeping, this scares the yelp out of you, and I have to get up, and clean the scratchs on my legs. So I can write to the other pixilated Bradburites out in the ether.

At least you weren't flying a plane...heh heh...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5660005/?GT1=4529

Perfect "Friday the 13th" story. Just wonder if the cat was black, like most of RB's cats? Maybe this one took after Ray in being freaked by flying?

Yes we do have a black cat, but she is the one that squeezes through a hole in the screen in our bedroom, her name is Smokey. It was most likely our cat Sprite that gave me the start, and I was the invader of her nightly roost. The front room was pitch black dark, and from the two scratches one on the right foot, and one on the left calf it had to be her. She has the claws on all four feet.
I did'nt swear, but I sure hollered, I think the experience scared her just as much. We have three cats,
Sprite, Smokey, and Squirt, one dog named Guy, and a dwarf hampster named Dude. Along with a 80 gallon fish tank full of fresh water fish. I may be a Bradbury fan if as soon as an angel fish died we would make prints with the fish, by painting them then pressing them with newsprint paper. I also froze 3 angel fish in the freezer, and my wife threw them out 2 years later. I might be a Bradbury fan if I have strange things in alcohol in two jars in my musty basement.


[This message has been edited by uncle (edited 08-14-2004).]

Yeah, I had a cat on ice for two years before I could arrange a proper funeral. But I'd had the cat twenty years and I'm not a person who lets go suddenly or easily.

I hope you didn't mix up the cat with some sirloin or anything like that...
Cheers, Translator