This is the third of eight posts today.

6) SHOW-AND-TELL

For those participating on ZOOM, today, we open the floor to any club members who have “fancraft” projects to showcase—sci-fi scale models, SF/F woodworking or needlecraft, whatever genre-themed, hands-on project it may be that you are working on at present, or have recently completed. 

Those not able to join our ZOOM chat for the show-and-tell may contribute by using this post’s “Leave a Comment” feature to type in a quick description of any such project on which they are currently working.

Or, they may find the following interesting:

7) WHAT THE FUTURISTS OF 1923 PREDICTED FOR 2023!

Surrounding any new year, ruminations on the previous 12 months, and predictions regarding the next 12 are a staple of media features in newspapers, on radio and TV, and on the Internet. Articles about what is to come always fascinate, and we are both awed and amused by reviews of how prescient, or not, were past prognostications.

We came across the following snippets on what those living in 1923 imagined life would be like in 2023. Paul Fairie, an educator and researcher at the University of Calgary, is interested in and collects such material, and we thought to share a few of his examples with club members.

Here, then, is a sampling of what prognosticators in 1923 were suggesting life would be like one hundred years hence, in the astounding year 2023!

• Envisioned for 2023 was a world in which “many varieties of aircraft are flying thru the heavens.” This was not an unreasonable extrapolation in the early years of heavier-than-air flight, only twenty years after the Wright Flyer first flew at Kitty Hawk.
• Aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss thought that “gasoline as a motive power will have been replaced by radio, and…the skies will be filled with myriad craft sailing over well-defined routes.” Radio replacing gasoline? Not quite sure how that was supposed to work!

  

• Watch-sized radio telephones were anticipated by 2023, allowing global communication. Pretty much bang on!
• Newspapers were foreseen to have disappeared by now, with people instead listening to the news rather than reading the morning paper at the breakfast table. Not quite yet, but we do seem to be moving in that direction.
• People in 2023 were expected to live longer than those of 1923—a safe bet—but the estimates of just how long would be the average human lifespan were a tad ambitious: 100 years, with particularly hardy individuals reaching as much as 150 and 200 years old! One scientist of the day speculated that the average lifespan would be 300 years! Not quite.
• Cancer, tuberculosis, polio, leprosy, and other afflictions were expected to have been eliminated by now, necessitating fewer doctors. Yes and no. We have found cures and effective treatments for many diseases in the past 100 years, and we do currently have fewer doctors and other medical professionals, but the latter is the result of poor choices made by politicians and administrators, not because diseases have been eliminated.
• To protect their kidneys, people in 2023 would wear “kidney cosies” in cold weather. Nope.
• Beauty contests would be obsolete by 2023 because pretty much everyone will be physically beautiful! Beauty contests still exist, though are seen as less acceptable, but for entirely different reasons than cited here. And, men and women today are no better or worse looking on average than people were in 1923.
• Curled hair was predicted to be the stylish choice for the men of 2023, shaved heads and blackened teeth all the rage for women! Not particularly and definitely not!
• Automation would have resulted in a four-day work week by 2023, it was thought. Long days of drudgery and toil would no longer be the norm, with some estimating work days of just four hours thanks to the wonders of electricity. Yes, to some degree, but also no, not yet.
• Electricity would ensure that every town was spotless. Not at all!

  

• British scientist/inventor/author Archibald Low, once president of the British Interplanetary Society and a writer of “scientific romances” (early SF) invented a nascent version of television, the first drone, and prophesized that “the war of 2023 will naturally be a wireless war.” Electricity promised endless possibilities, he stated, putting forth an invention of his own that he believed would render artillery obsolete: jets of water highly charged with electricity. “Wireless telephony, sight, heat, power and writing may all play important parts,” said Low of wireless technology. He also predicted department stores, the internet, and speculated that by 2023, civilization may well have advanced enough that mental telepathy might develop as a means of communication. Swing and a miss on that last one!
• Technological and industrial advances would open more of North America to habitation by 2023. The population of the United States was forecast to grow to 300 million, with Canada’s pegged at 100 million. A good guess, the number under the mark by just a little regarding the U.S., and a little more with regard to Canada.

This is post 2 of 8.

5) PRESENTATION: WHERE WE STORE OUR IDEAS

This is a brief history of information storage. In some cases, this meant very hard copy. Humans have this need to record our thoughts. This became institutionalized through religion, bureaucracy, graffiti, Shakespeare, and science fiction. We’ve painted on cave walls, carved on stone, used animal skins, plants, and chopped up trees. Now we’re on the least archival of all: computer storage.

Where will our thoughts be a century from now? A millennium from now? Beyond that? Will our digital media fall apart faster than a pulp science fiction magazine in the hot sun?

Video: Manufacturing papyrus today

Egyptian village revives Papyrus production

Video: Log Driver’s Waltz – Kate and Anna McGarrigle 

Canada Vignettes Log Driver’s Waltz

Video: April 2020 – pulp digester explodes in Jay, Maine
Amazingly – no injuries

RAW See the moment of the massive Jay, Maine mill explosion

This the first of eight posts this afternoon.

1) INTRODUCTION

Welcome to MonSFFA’s first gathering of the New Year; this is our January 2023 e-Meeting!

Mid-winter. -Sigh-

With shovelling snow and scraping ice in the near-future for many of us, post-pandemic anxieties plaguing society, the lingering COVID-19 virus still in the air, and a looming recession… Well, we need a break from all that, if only for a few hours!

So sit yourself down in your most comfortable chair, shake out some potato chips, beer nuts, chocolates, cookies or other such snacks into a bowl, pour yourself a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, tune in the fireplace channel on your TV, and join us for an afternoon of SF/F fun and conversation!

Today, we’ll be examining the means by which humans have recorded and kept information over the centuries. We’ll also have a look at more of those cool cameos in science fiction and fantasy film and TV. And, we’ll hold our annual election—by necessity, online again!—to select MonSFFA’s Executive Committee for 2023, plus a lot more!

Today’s agenda is a busy one, so let’s fire the starter’s pistol!

2) JOIN THIS AFTERNOON’S VIDEO-CHAT ON ZOOM!

To join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours, simply click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA e-Meeting on ZOOM 

If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. From out of town? No problem; find your ZOOM call-in number here: Call-In Numbers

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 860 4368 3500
Passcode: 626294

3) MEETING AGENDA

Here is the agenda for this afternoon’s get-together:

As always, all scheduled programming is subject to change.

4)

MonSFFAdamus Reveals His Amazing Prognostications for 2023!

1) Dubbed Kraken, 2022’s latest and, to date, most virulent COVID-19 variant will dominate in the early months of 2023, only to be supplanted mid-year by Dragon, an even more contagious form, one so infectious that a person may well catch it during one of their past lives! By the end of 2023, Medusa will rise and quickly become the prevailing strain, turning everyone who contracts it to stone!

2) The federal government will inaugurate a cross-country road race to turbo-charge public interest in EVs. The electric vehicles participating will dash, east to west, along the Trans-Canada Highway, symbolically speeding right past gas stations all along the route! Long stretches of the highway in Saskatchewan and Alberta will be lined with angry protesters. Some provincial governments will seize upon the opportunity to reduce overcrowding in hospitals by moving patients out to the middle of the highway!

3) The world’s population reached 8 billion in 2022, and astoundingly, will balloon by another billion or so in 2023, bringing the global population to a near-untenable, “Mark of Gideon”-level of some 9 billion by the end of the year! And Quebec premiere Francois Legault will refuse entry into Quebec to any who don’t speak French!

4) As global climate change intensifies, Montreal will, in late September, experience an alarming EF5 tornado! Not built to survive winds of such force, city landmarks like Place Ville Marie and St. Joseph’s Oratory will be devastated. Office and hotel towers will sustain severe damage, and the cross atop Mount Royal will collapse into twisted wreckage. Thousands will be injured or lose their lives after seeking shelter in the Olympic Stadium when howling winds rip away the retractable roof. In the aftermath, Mayor Valerie Plante will announce that clean-up operations are to begin immediately, starting with the city’s bike paths.

5) On the international front, mounting losses of personnel, equipment, and military prestige in Ukraine will at last prompt Russian army leaders to rebel against leader Vladimir Putin and overthrow him in a successful coup. But Putin will evade capture and retreat into a fortified underground bunker just outside of Moscow. The military will blast through the thick walls of the bunker, only to find a slightly smaller bunker nestled within. Blasting through that bunker as well will reveal a still smaller bunker tucked inside. By year’s end, Putin will not yet have been apprehended.

6) Having called a federal election in 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will invoke emergency measures when a zombie apocalypse suddenly manifests just as the campaign is getting underway. The prime minister will find himself facing not only new Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, but the risen corpse of his own father, who garners enough support to run! Meanwhile, the Freedom Convoy will roll again in opposition to the emergency measures, but this time face two Trudeaus!

7) South of the border, meanwhile, while visiting grade schools, both President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris will, tragically, suffer permanent incapacitation in two separate shooting incidents. Next in line to accede to the Oval Office is newly-elected Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy! What could possibly go wrong?

8) Here in Quebec, in an effort to assuage concerns over Bill 96—now law—the CAQ government will enact legislation specifically guaranteeing the language rights of English-speaking Quebecers, but will define “English-speaking” as limited to mother-tongue-English citizens who are fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs. English Quebecers are to be issued identity cards clipped to a lanyard and imprinted with a large scarlet-coloured letter “A,” for “anglais”—the “maudit” is implied!—so that government workers, shop owners, and others may recognize them as someone with whom it is legal to communicate in English, though only if absolutely necessary. Detractors will dub this legislation the “Scarlet Letter Act,” and the Anglophone population will take to the streets in droves to protest, understandably angry and exasperated. The Leafs! Really?

9) Inflation, fueled by rising interest rates and continuing supply-chain issues will trigger a recession in 2023, pushing the cost of groceries to unprecedented heights for many citizens! A jar of strawberries will cost $150!

10) After a frustratingly futile search in 2022, MonSFFA will finally secure a surprisingly inexpensive function space in which to hold its monthly meetings! Club members will be instructed to gather at the appointed time in front of the Villa-Maria Metro/Bus station in NDG, then, as a group, board the Number 24 Bus and secure seats in the back half of the vehicle. The meeting will unfold as the 24 travels east on its route, arriving some 60-90 minutes later at the Montgomery/Sherbrooke bus station in the city’s center-east Sainte-Marie neighbourhood. Our group will disembark for the mid-meeting break, then catch a west-bound 24 for the ride back to Villa-Maria, during which time the second half of the meeting will take place. Post-meeting dinner at a restaurant in the Monkland Village, or along Decarie Boulevard, and voilà!

11) Montreal’s new REM elevated commuter train, after a delayed launch in 2022, will finally begin operation in 2023. During a heavy snowfall mixed with freezing rain, however, the REM trains will stall when too much ice accumulates on the tracks. Engineers will explain that this breakdown was the result of a chance occurrence, a once-in-365-day weather event! The REM, they are confident, should be able to operate normally in the winter, provided Montreal does not again receive a copious measure of snow and freezing rain!

12) As war rages, prejudices flourish, the climate crisis worsens, the middle-class withers, and democracy falters, and MonSFFA searches desperately for a viable meeting hall, scientists in 2023 will confirm that there is, in the end, no intelligent life to be found anywhere in the universe, this planet included!

Invitation to MonSFFA’s 2022 Christmas Luncheon

The club invites all of its members and friends, and their families, to a buffet-style Christmas Luncheon on Saturday afternoon, December 10, from 2:00PM-6:00PM

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON, FACE-TO-FACE GATHERING TO CELEBRATE THE FESTIVE SEASON!

To download a PDF version of this post, click here: CHRISTMAS LUNCHEON, INVITATION (PDF)

Sandwiches, snacks, and soft drinks will be provided by MonSFFA!

We will also hold our traditional Christmas Fund-Raising Auction, proceeds to benefit the club.

Raffle tickets are $1.00 each; note that Platinum-Level members benefit from a two-for-the-price-of-one special!

Many wrapped gift prizes of cool sci-fi/holiday items will be arrayed under the tree from which winners may chose!

By special arrangement, we are meeting in the “Harmony Room” on the ground floor of an apartment building situated just behind the Plaza Pointe-Claire mall.  Said mall is located at the corner of St-Jean Blvd. and Donegani Avenue/Highway 20 in Pointe-Claire, on the West Island. The locale is accessible by car, commuter rail, or bus, and at between a 5- and 15-minute walk away from the several public transit stops nearby. Commuter train stops: either Gare Pointe-Claire or Gare Cedar Park; bus: 201, 203, or 211 (check STM route schedules).

Because this locale is a private residence which the club is employing by special arrangement, we are curtailing publication of the specific address for reasons of privacy.

However, all members have been e-mailed a special password and upon visiting the “Members Only” section of the club Web site (www.MonSFFA.ca), under “Our Holiday Feasts,” the details can be there found, including address, directions, map, and local parking information, viewable or downloadable as a PDF. If you have not yet received this password, please contact president@monsffa.ca to request it.

This is post 4 of 4, in which we bring to a close the principal content offered in this, our 2022 Virtual Holiday Get-Together. If you’re just now joining us, scroll back to today’s Post 1 of 4 to enjoy the posted content, start to finish.

Thanks are proffered to all who put this e-gathering together, and before we sign-off, here are the answers to the quiz we put up in Post 1 of 4, followed by Josée Bellemare’s 2020 presentation “The Many Ways of Joy,” which we thought a nice close to the afternoon.

Note that while this is the final post of the afternoon, our ZOOM-chat may well continue for a little longer, at the discretion of those involved.

ANSWERS TO TRIVIA CHALLENGE

1) In the atrociously bad 1964 “Yuletide science fiction fantasy” Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, what are the names of the two Earth children kidnapped by the Martians?

ANSWER: Billy and Betty, portrayed by Victor Stiles and Donna Conforti.

2) 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special included an animated sequence entitled “The Faithful Wookiee,” which introduced a new character to Star Wars canon, bounty hunter Boba Fett. Name the Canadian animation studio that George Lucas enlisted to produce this “Faithful Wookiee” cartoon.

ANSWER: Nelvana

Headquartered in Toronto, Nelvana Limited, now Nelvana Enterprises, was founded in 1971 and produces principally children’s programming. George Lucas was a fan of the studio and chose Nelvana to produce the 10-minute short for the Star Wars Holiday Special. The cartoon is widely considered to be the only redeeming part of an otherwise abysmal, embarrassingly unwatchable steaming coil of Bantha poodoo.

3) Rankin/Bass’ 1964 stop-motion animated Christmas classic, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, was filmed in Japan under the direction of animation supervisor Tadahito “Tad” Mochinaga. The voice work and songs, however, were recorded elsewhere; where was the show’s soundtrack recorded?

ANSWER: Toronto, Canada. Most of the speaking roles and songs were performed by Canadian talent, including Paul Soles as Hermey, Billie Mae Richards as Rudolph, Janis Orenstein as Clarice, and Larry Mann as Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snow Monster.

4) What is the clever postal code created by Canada Post for the North Pole?

ANSWER: H0H 0H0

5) The Big Heart, My Heart Tells Me, and It’s Only Human—these were working titles for which classic Christmas film?

ANSWER: Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Set during the Christmas season, the film was originally to be called Christmas Miracle on 34th Street, until its release date was moved to May by studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck, who argued that more people went to the movies in summer!

6) Name the only three Christmas movies to have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

ANSWER: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Miracle on 34th Street, and The Bishop’s Wife (both 1947). None won Best Picture, but Edmund Gwenn, who played Kris Kringle/Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street, was awarded the Best Supporting Actor prize, quipping during his acceptance speech, “Now I know there’s a Santa Claus.”

7) How many ghosts appear to surly Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol?

ANSWER: Four. In addition to the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, a fourth ghost, that of Scrooge’s deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, first appears to Scrooge and foretells of the impending visits by the other three.

8) What is briefly visible on Katrina “Kate” Andrich’s wrist as she rides her father’s cab home in Last Christmas (2019)?

ANSWER: Tattoos of dragons. Actress Emilia Clarke, who played Kate, had the tattoos inked as a memento of her star-making role in Game of Thrones, that of Daenerys Targaryen, the Queen of Dragons.

9) He famously voiced an animated space hero, she made her mark as a scream queen; name these two actors, and the 2004 Christmas movie in which they star.

ANSWER: Tim “Buzz Lightyear” Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis of Halloween fame, who starred as Luther and Nora Krank in Christmas with the Kranks. The film also featured Ghostbuster and Conehead Dan Aykroyd.

10) What former “James Bond” starred as the bishop in Christmas classic The Bishop’s Wife?

ANSWER: David Niven, who appeared as Bond in the spy-picture spoof Casino Royale (1967).

11) What child actress was featured as a young family member in two back-to-back classic Christmas films?

ANSWER: Karolyn Grimes, who at age six, portrayed Zuzu, George and Mary Bailey’s youngest daughter in It’s a Wonderful Life, and the following year, Debby Brougham, Bishop Henry Brougham and his wife, Julia’s, daughter in The Bishop’s Wife.

12) What is notable about supporting player Alvin Greenman, who portrayed young Macy’s Department Store janitor Alfred in the original Miracle on 34th Street?

He is the only original cast member to appear in the 1994 remake of the classic, where he cameoed as a doorman, also named Alfred.

13) In the Lost in Space episode “Return From Outer Space,” against his father’s express orders, young Will Robinson employs dangerous alien technology to matter-transfer himself across the gulf of space and back to Earth, materializing in a small town at Christmastime. His plan is to alert Alpha Control at Cape Kennedy of his family’s location on a distant, barren planet so that a rescue ship might be dispatched. But no one in town believes that he’s a member of the famous First Family in Space, long missing and now presumed dead! In what U.S. state is located the small town to which Will beams himself?

ANSWER: Vermont. The fictional town of Hatfield Four Corners is located in a Quebec-bordering state less than two hours’ drive south of Montreal!

14) Who wrote the book that served as inspiration for the movie Christmas with the Kranks?

ANSWER: John Grisham, known principally for his popular legal thrillers. His comedic novel Skipping Christmas (2001) served as the film’s source material.

15) Gimmel, Nun, Hey, and Shin are the Hebrew letters traditionally inscribed on a dreidel, one on each of the four sides. A dreidel is a spinning top associated with Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. The letters stand for the phrase “Nes gadôl hayah sham,” or in English, “A great miracle happened there.” In Israel, the phrase is modified slightly to read “Nes gadôl hayah poh,” or “A great miracle happened here.” But what are Kimar, Rigna, Stobo, and Shim?

ANSWER: The names of Martian characters in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

16) Because nothing says Yuletide like math, in “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” how many presents are given altogether?

ANSWER: 364. Here’s the breakdown: partridges in a pear tree (1 × 12 = 12); turtle doves (2 × 11 = 22); French hens (3 × 10 = 30); calling birds (4 × 9 = 36); golden rings (5 × 8 = 40); geese a-laying (6 × 7 = 42); swans a-swimming (7 × 6 = 42); maids a-milking (8 × 5 = 40); ladies dancing (9 × 4 = 36); lords a-leaping (10 × 3 = 30); pipers playing (11 × 2 = 22); drummers drumming (12 × 1 = 12). Adding all those subtotals provides us with the grand total of gifts given (12 + 22 + 30 + 36 + 40 + 42 + 42 + 40 + 36 + 30 + 22 + 12 = 364)!

17) Name all of Santa’s reindeer!

ANSWER: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and Rudolph

Clement Clarke Moore’s 1823 poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” or more commonly, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” cites an original eight tiny reindeer. Owing to his bright, shiny red nose, Rudolph, the most famous reindeer of all, joined the team in 1939, bringing the total number to nine. Rudolph was born of a marketing campaign launched by the Chicago-based department store Montgomery Ward to promote the Holiday season.

While most of the team are generally perceived to be male, interestingly, male reindeer lose their antlers in early December once mating season has ended, while the females retain theirs throughout the winter. As Santa’s reindeer are always depicted sporting their antlers, scientifically therefore, one can only conclude that they are all female. Of course, it may be that this particular breed of magical flying reindeer do not adhere to the laws of nature as do their conventional woodland cousins!

18) In It’s a Wonderful Life, a distraught and suicidal George Bailey is certain that his family and friends would have been better off had he never been born, and in a chilling alternate-history sequence, his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, allows him a look at just such a scenario in a bid to convince George otherwise. The two stop for a drink at a bar George finds markedly changed from the friendly watering hole he’d always known. While Clarence considers ordering a flaming rum punch, he finally settles on “a mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon, light on the troubles!” George, on the other hand, asks fo a stiff drink more suited to his current mood; what does he order?

ANSWER: A double bourbon.

19) The rom-com Last Christmas is based on the Wham song of the same name, written and co-performed by British pop star George Michael. Though released in 2019, in what year is the film primarily set?

ANSWER: 2017, which would thus make the titular “last Christmas” December 25, 2016, eerily, the date of George Michael’s unfortunate death.

20) What Christmas song plays over the end credits of Die Hard (1988)?

ANSWER: Vaughn Monroe’s version of “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!”

 

 

 

THE MANY WAYS OF JOY

 

Merry Christmas to All, and to All, A Good Night.

This is the third post of the afternoon. Joe Aspler offers again his presentation “Introduction to Chanukah,” with a few updates.

Dreidel in zero-G

The next post will be up at 4:00PM.

This is Post 2 of 4.

MonSFFA HOLIDAYS SPECIAL

We rerun, here, the “MonSFFA Holidays Special,” a wonderful presentation put together in 2020 by our dear departed friend and club member Sylvain St-Pierre. Where appropriate, simply advance dates by two years.

The next post will be up at 3:00PM.