an under-the-radar name?
Howard Hughesâ favourite film, Cold War techno-thriller Ice Station Zebra, originally had a screenplay by the infamous Paddy Chayefsky. Which, of course, was dumped after the US military objected to it.
Shame; it couldâve been an interesting movie. 
2 Likes
I got the exact same sentence. Age off by two decade, height is ridiculous, and I donât even know what pieces of two months Pisces is.
If this is the current trend in AI, weâre in deep doo-doo.
2 Likes
I think itâs sâposed to be goofy. 
2 Likes
Recently we learned that the word âsentient,â used in much sf and sci-fi to mean intelligent, really means able to feel. Our cat is sentient. What sf people really should use is sapient, meaning wise or discerning, as in homo sapiens.
Of course there are a lot of homo sentiens out there.
10 Likes
I encountered the word sapient as a very young child, because my mom exposed me to a lot of wonderful poetry. I can her this in her voice, she must have read it to me hundreds of times, then I also listened when she read to my siblings, but they were less enamored of poetry than I was as little.
THE DINKEY-BIRD
In an ocean, 'way out yonder
â (As all sapient people know),
Is the land of Wonder-Wander,
â Whither children love to go;
Itâs their playing, romping, swinging,
â That give great joy to me
While the Dinkey-Bird goes singing
â In the amfalula tree!
There the gum-drops grow like cherries,
â And taffyâs thick as peasâ
Caramels you pick like berries
â When, and where, and how you please;
Big red sugar-plums are clinging
â To the cliffs beside that sea
Where the Dinkey-Bird is singing
â In the amfalula tree.
So when children shout and scamper
â And make merry all the day,
When thereâs naught to put a damper
â To the ardor of their play;
When I hear their laughter ringing,
â Then Iâm sure as sure can be
That the Dinkey-Bird is singing
â In the amfalula tree.
For the Dinkey-Birdâs bravuras
â And staccatos are so sweetâ
His roulades, appoggiaturas,
â And robustos so complete,
That the youth of every nationâ
â Be they near or far awayâ
Have especial delectation
â In that gladsome roundelay.
Their eyes grow bright and brighter
â Their lungs begin to crow,
Their hearts get light and lighter,
â And their cheeks are all aglow;
For an echo cometh bringing
â The news to all and me,
That the Dinkey-Bird is singing
â In the amfalula tree.
Iâm sure you like to go there
â To see your feathered friendâ
And so many goodies grow there
â You would like to comprehend!
Speed, little dreams, your winging
â To that land across the sea
Where the Dinkey-Bird is singing
â In the amfalula tree!
Edit to add the author.
7 Likes
I learned that when I was a teenager, from reading the âClusterâ series by Piers Anthony.
2 Likes
This opening, at least, kind of reads like a version of a Rudyard Kipling âJust Soâ story. Maybe just because of the aside stuck in the middle there, butâŚ
3 Likes
They overlapped for about 30 years, between 1865 and 1895 so they were somewhat contemporaries, with Fields being 15 years older. Iâve never read (or been read) much Kipling, though.
4 Likes
My new favorite descriptive term: Science Hippies.
As an example, the opening to âHow the Whale Got His Throatâ (and this may be the specific one I was thinking of, due to the ocean mention and the asides):
In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel.
Not a poem, of course, but the style seemed similar. Kipling does have some problematic writings, but Iâve still got a bit of a soft spot for his childrenâs stories. They had their share of interesting vocabulary, too⌠the whale one has âcetaceanâ and âsagacityâ, for instance.
2 Likes
3 Likes
I find it interesting how language changes over time. A lot of precise language that was âregularâ in times past comes across as high-falutinâ today. I once used the word âardentâ and got made fun of for years, because the other party thought it wasnât an actual word.
4 Likes
I still hold a grudge against an english teacher who dropped the grade of an otherwise perfect assignment because they were absolutely certain the phrase âtry a different tackâ was supposed to use âtactâ. Trying to explain what âtackingâ was, and why it made far more sense than âtactâ in that phrase, didnât help. Of course, only reason I knew what tacking is was because of my reading habits, and I was a kid, but youâd think theyâd at least take the dictionaryâs word for itâŚ
12 Likes
Holy heck thatâs demoralizing.
7 Likes
1 Like
Memories here of being accused by an art teacher of inventing the word âsubdermalâ.
5 Likes
4 Likes
But ⌠wouldnât you need exceptionally precise knowledge of your longitude to make that work? ⌠it doesnât make sense!
2 Likes