PARSEC Meeting Schedule November 2004 Date: November 13th 2004 - 2 PM Topic: Book Sale and final nominations for 2005 officers Location: Allegheny Branch of the Carnegie Library, North Shore SIGMA The Newsletter of PARSEC * November 2004 * Issue 224 December 2004 Date: December 11th 2004 - 2 PM Topic: Holiday Party Location: Ann Cecil's house in Dormont In This Issue: January 2005 Eric Davin Goes to Rod Date: January 8th 2005 - 2 PM Serling's Hometown Topic: Art Show and Tell Location: East Liberty Branch of Carnegie Library Please note that the November Parsec meeting is at the Allegheny Regional branch of the Carnegie Library. Allegheny Regional is approximately 1 mile north of Downtown Pittsburgh. Situated in Allegheny Center in the Central North Side neighborhood, Allegheny Regional lies just behind Allegheny Center immediately beside the old Buhl Planetarium. For Directions please refer to the Parsec web site: http://www.parsec-sff.org/meet.html PARSEC The Pittsburgh Area's Premiere Science-Fiction Organization P.O. Box 3681, Pittsburgh, PA 15230-3681 President - Kevin Geiselman Vice President - Kevin Hayes Treasurer - Greg Armstrong Secretary - Bill Covert Commentator - Ann Cecil Website: http://www.parsec-sff.org Meetings - Second Saturday of every month. Dues: $10 full member, $2 Supporting member Sigma is edited by David Brody Send article submissions to: sigma@spellcaster.org View From the Top Geiss - continued from page 2 for new books. The President's Column - Kevin Geiselman I'm also taking the sifting opportunity to upload books into my computer database. I purchased a software package from Collectorz.com that works with a Acres of Books bar code reader. I scan in the bar code, it searches Amazon.com (or several other When I was young, my grandfather wanted all his locations) and loads the book into the database along with cover art. It won't scan grandchildren to read Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. every book (such as my pre-bar code first edition print of Garrett Serviss' Conwell. Conwell was a lawyer, Baptist minister, dec- Edison's Conquest of Mars. (#553 of 1500)) but it will allow me to move fairly orated Civil War officer, and founder of Temple quickly through the thousands of books that I have. University. Robert Shackleton took inspiration from After we bought our house, my parents came over for a tour before we Conwell and wrote a biography of him. Acres of moved in. I showed them the living room, dining room, kitchen and so on. Diamonds is the text of his oft-repeated lecture on the ". . . and this is going to be the library." virtues of earning money through honest, hard work. Christian Capitalism. "What do you need a library for?" However, I actually remember nothing of the book itself except the title and the What, indeed. $20 my grandfather paid me to read it. To my grandfather, reading was something This is also a reminder of the other administratia that will be going on at the you did to gain knowledge. I never knew him to read for pleasure and certainly November meeting. The second round of 2005 officer nominations will take never saw him read any fiction. place. So far, it's me for President again, Sarah-Wade for VP, Joan for Secretary, I also remember that at the same time I also read Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Greg for Treasurer again and Ann for Commentator again. There is absolute- Space Odyssey and it's precursor, "The Sentinel". I remember it was hardcover ly no competition for any position at this time and it could turn out to be a bor- with that clear plastic the libraries put on to protect them. I remember the cover ing election. Not that it's a wholly bad thing but it would be good to have some art. I remember sitting on the back porch while reading it during a warm week- choices. end afternoon. Also, there will be the vote for the new by-laws. By now, everyone should My freshman year at college, I borrowed some books from my father. A stack have received a copy and had a chance to read over it. You may notice a few sim- of James Bond novels by Ian Fleming and The Tracker, a non-fiction book by ple errors, typographical or syntactic in nature that are already being worked on. Tom Brown. Oakland had something I was not used to seeing in my hometown Otherwise, the vote is to accept or reject these by-laws IN THEIR ENTIRETY. of Irwin; used bookstores, so I hit on the idea of not only building a complete col- No nitpicking; yea or nay. Having carefully read over them myself, I find them to lection of Bond books for myself but completing my father's collection. I also be comprehensive and appropriate and thus recommend that they be approved. accidentally lost The Tracker and spent months combing the bookstores attempt- We will then be able to move on to the next stage in our quest for 501c3 non- ing to replace it. profit status. Both when I presented the complete James Bond collection and the replace- ment Tracker, my father said, "No, you can keep them." Davin - continued from page 8 How did I end up so different from my family? To them, a book is a transient "Requiem for a Heavyweight" 1956, and "The Comedian" 1957. And in 1959 he thing, to read and then discard. Even my grandfather didn't actually own a copy launched a new TV anthology series he'd dreamed up, "The Twilight Zone," for which he of Acres of Diamonds for us to read. But somehow I developed a different atti- was contractually obligated to write the bulk of the stories. tude towards books that had me keeping them. Some I would go back and read He began churning out stories. And the fifth of the stories he wrote for that first season again and again. The Lord of the Rings and War of the Worlds were those that I was "Walking Distance. Serling had gone very far in a very short time. He was only 35- would read at least once a year. And they would collect. Dozens. Hundreds. years-old and only 16 years out of high school. But, he was already a veteran of a world war. Thousands. Filling boxes, bookcases and just about every horizontal space avail- And he was a success at the profession he had thereafter pursued with much passion. He able. was an award-winning writer and was honored with his own TV show, which he also host- My book collection has taken on the characteristics of a gas; expanding to fill ed. He was at the beginning of his greatest fame, writing stories for millions of viewers each its container. And for as much as I love and respect books, this growth cannot be week and for which he would soon win three Hugos between 1960-62. allowed to continue. So, I will be weeding some of my books and bringing them But was this young man, not that far out of his twenties, already nostalgic for his "warm to the next meeting. It's a good bet you will be doing something similar. I hate to and comfortable" boyhood, which he remembered as a time of such "well-being"? Given see them go but I take some comfort in that their sacrifice will be making room the autobiographical details of "Walking Distance," it is hard not to consider this possibility. continued on page 11 Be careful what you wish for. You might get it. Page 2 Page 11 Second concern - What are the thing that hits us made of? Comets are ice, Reviews and burn up, but asteroids are metallic rock. Henry talked about the hypothesis that there is a brown dwarf in the Oort Cloud, causing a rain of comets through Books the solar system. Some of the other possible explanations involve interactions The Adam Strange Archives Vol. 1 between the plane of the galaxy and our somewhat eccentric orbit. reviewed by Matt Urick Are objects being replenished? And by what? We don't know. Now that I really think about it, my first expo- There is plenty of evidence that we do get hit. Moon missions: Moon rocks sure to science fiction would be the reprints of the showed that almost all the craters are from impact. And they go from miles wide Adam Strange series in Strange Adventures in the to microscopic. Every fly-by has shown impact craters on Venus, Mars, asteroids. late 60's. I would have come in around the last few Above-ground nuclear testing helped to identify shapes of a comet impact. Levy stories included in this volume. (author of Comets) used his experience there to identify impacts. (This is the is DC Comics started to produce extremely hand- the Levy of Schumaker-Levy). some hardback reprints of their comics (Superman, Batman, Justice League of Now that we know what to look for: we have identified 200 impact craters America, and others) about 1990. After a few years the market for them dwin- on Earth. dled. A rebirth of interest in the late 90's saw the inclusion of some more of the Most craters are really old. Is there still danger? Earth collects tons of dust minor heroes. The popularity of the archives continues today and allows for daily, most of which falls through and lands on your windowsill. some of the more unknown but worthy series to be collected. Henry then went on to list the sizes, frequency, and effect of various objects Given the chance due to the rising popularity of sci-fi, the late Julius hitting us, such as Shooting Stars, Fire Balls, Bolides, and bigger, up to Schwartz used his knowledge as one of the earliest agents in science fiction to aid global/mass extinction sized-objects. He talked about the possible impact in the in the creation of a classic. Paleontologist Adam Strange had his life (and of us Yucatan that they think extinguished the dinosaurs. The rings of the impact can readers) changed forever the day he was hit by the Zeta Beam and transported to be seen in satellite photos. the planet Rann circling the star Alpha Centauri. Thrust into an adventure more June 30, 1908: Tunguska in Siberia. It was recorded on seismographs around epic than Indiana Jones ever experienced, Adam saves the planet from invading the world, and all of Europe could see fires in the sky. There was widespread aliens only to find himself returning to Earth. Adam is determined to be at the damage but no crater. Current thought is that a stony asteroid detonated in the spot where and when the Zeta Beam will strike Earth again to return to defend atmosphere and caused the damage which was equivalent to a 100 megaton bomb his adopted planet and save his new love Alanna. explosion; hundreds of acres were devastated. The following five years allowed Gardner Fox to write some of his best puz- On February 12, 1947, there was a smaller event in Siberia. On August 13, zle stories and Carmine Infantino to draw the best alien landscapes (and the most 1930 in the Amazon basin of Brazil: either three closely spaced objects (or one beautiful Alanna). Yes, at times the stories were impossible as anybody with a that broke into 3 pieces). little scientific background would know, but if you let yourself get caught up in Question of deaths from impacts? Depends on what you classify as an impact them they were lots of fun. And they don't make 'em like that anymore. event. Example: Chicago Fire - that same night there were fires in several places in Michigan, Wisconsin - in surrounding tri state area. Example: 1490, city in Movies China, stone falls like rain, 10,000 people killed. Fire on the moon being wit- The Day That Should Have Come After the Dawn: nessed by monks not experts, so discounted. 1992, October, Peekskill NY, car Shaun of the Dead hit by meteorite, case with video. 1994 during Gulf War spy satellites detected reviewed by William Blake Hall event in Micronesia. During an 8-10 years period with satellite observations, There's really not much to say about Shaun of the Dead, except that it's a there were 250-300 explosions in the atmosphere of good-sized objects (equiva- zombie horror comedy and is solid fun. You'll laugh a lot, you will sometimes lent to nuclear events). become extremely worried, and there are even moments of high dramatic pathos A project called Space Guard is watching for things coming our way. Goal is stuck in, rounded out by outright satire at the very end. Obviously, it is inspired to detect 90% of the asteroids that are big enough to cause continental catastro- by Romero's Dawn of the Dead and turns out better than Romero's own Day of phes, track and identify by 2008. System called Linear automated is ahead of the Dead. Shaun Simon Pegg is a London shop clerk who pretty much sleep- that. This is named for Clarke's group in Rendevous with Rama. walks through his life, but is required to become somewhat heroic when zombies Meeting broke up at 4:30. Approximately 8 went off to the Sharp Edge after take over -- even though he himself considers "the zed word" silly. Near the end the meeting. Page 10 Page 3 Shaun complains "I think killing my flatmate, my girlfriend and my mother is a October Minutes bit much for one evening" -- and if that line alone doesn't convince you to go, then I can't help you. And now if you'll excuse me, I need to shamble around, twist Ann Cecil my mouth, and gurgle "Grr" intermittently. Your Commentator was late to the meeting, but it was reported that David Brody won the raffle and took Inexplicability Isn't Always Good: Mike Arnzen's booklets. Identity, Secret Window, The Forgotten Andrew Plotkin proved himself a worthy new reviewed by William Blake Hall member, by bringing fresh-baked delicious cookies. Inexplicability: a quality that can evoke reactions ranging from fascination to Nominations for next year's slate of officers were exasperation. It can be a tool, but it can also be a crutch. In figuring out which made: is which, you need to do only two things: be sure you're not unfairly prejudiced, President: Kevin Geiselman VP: Sarah-Wade Smith and then trust your instincts. Two simple steps, and yet we get lost while taking Treasurer: Greg Armstrong Secretary: Joan Fisher them all the time -- and hack producers count on that. Commentator: Ann Cecil Take the inexplicable ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Arthur C. Clarke The new By-laws all 14 pages were distributed. These are the by-laws that tries valiantly to explain it all in his novelization, but he's not persuasive.) The should impress the IRS into granting us true non-profit status, allowing us a break ending is arcane, but on a level so ambitious and diverting that it successfully on postage, taxes, and other such incentives. We will need to file taxes, unfortu- communicates the idea that an advanced alien supercivilization might not be very nately. Those not present at the meeting will receive copies of the by-laws in the comprehensible to us at first. That ending by itself sets 2001 far above Disney's mail, along with a ballot (one for each member or associate member in the house- The Black Hole or Brian De Palma's Mission to Mars. It is an inexplicability that hold). Sarah Wade pointed out two omissions: Two classes of members (full and seems to carry its own internal logic, and that is crucial. I worry, though, that associate) were not explained (oops), and limit of membership for those over 18 many an audience can't tell that crucial difference, and can be tricked into respect- to those who pay dues should be explicitly stated. Agreement was that those ing junk while snubbing jewels. changes will be added to the by-laws mailed, and could be noted on the copies of The Forgotten is the sort of movie I dread, because of the infuriatingly those present. sneaky way movies like it can go on keeping science fiction cinema ghettoized Henry Tjernlund presented a talk on "Asteroids, Comets, & Meteorites, Oh for eternity. We imagine we can tell a bad SF movie purely because of an obvi- My". He started by lining up his impressive set of 5 reference books: Target ous cheesiness: its superobviously bad science, its cheap sets, its bad actors, the Earth, Comets, Asteroid, Rain of Iron and Ice, and Cosmic Pinball. unintentional hilarity of its lines. Yet The Forgotten is also a bad movie, even Initially, he talked about the hazards; in order to estimate the hazards, we though there is not that much technically wrong with it. Its tone is consistent, the have to know what's out there. He listed, on the blackboard, the census of the mystery is okay, there are some genuinely startling moments, and the acting, led solar system that was taught when he was young. Now we know about a lot more. by the ever-luminous Julianne Moore, is in earnest. Vulcanoids a series of asteroids between Mercury and the Sun. No, the problem with The Forgotten is that IT HAS NO PREMISE (capitals NEOs (near-Earth Objects), asteroids orbiting us, fall into 3 groups: ATEN, intended, good editor). It gives away nothing to say that someone mean takes small, inside Earth's orbit; Apollo, mostly outside Earth's orbit, and Amont, away Moore's boy and that by the end of the movie she gets him back. That's it. entirely outside Earth's orbit. That's the whole movie. That's all you'll learn from it. The movie dances around Trojan asteroids - Around Jupiter at stable LaGrange points. any outright verbal statement that demigodlike aliens are behind the kidnapping, Pluto - Which probably should not have been called a planet. but it might as well, because that giant detail scarcely matters. Kuiper Belt - A super-sized asteroid belt; source of a number of comets and There are so many directions you could take an idea like this. You could other objects; planet-sized objects, still in the plane of the solar system, in a tou- compare the aliens to gods of ancient mythologies, moving human beings around rus like chessmen according to their whims; you could have fun investigating destiny And more theoretical: The Oort Cloud: a sphere around the solar system and free will. Or, you could use this as an exploration of the UFO abductee sub- Why is all this important? The Kuiper Belt objects tend to be easier to see. culture. Or, you could use the aliens as a metaphor for humans experimenting on They come in on orbits matching the existing objects planets, whereas objects animals. Indeed, such possibilities were what I was hoping for as I watched this, from the Oort Cloud are not as predictable. Impact is related to velocity squared and I am a "mere" audience member. Henry put the equation on the blackboard. So objects going the same way we Nope. Uh-uh. No, they're just gratuitous Mean Mad Scientists From Outer do have less velocity than objects going against us. Page 4 Page 9 Our Hero finds his hometown all as he remembers it, including the boys playing in the Space, and all Moore has to do is really, really, r-e-a-l-l-y want her boy back. park just as he played in the park as a kid. He finds the familiar old gazebo where he remem- That's it, that's all. bers, as a boy, carving his initials into one of the pillars, and he looks for them. (So did I. Fact is, this could have been much better as non-SF, as a perfectly "mundane" According to local lore, Rod Serling carved his initials into the gazebo as a boy, just as Our Earthbound thriller. What non-extraterrestrial reasons could there be for so insis- Hero did.) The initials are not where Our Hero remembered them to be. (Nor was I able to tent and pervasive, and hideous, a conspiracy? Now, that could have been inter- find the initials "RS" anywhere on the gazebo.) esting. Our Hero then walks a few blocks down the street to his boyhood home. It looks much But they went with aliens. And why? Because, it would appear, ALIENS the same. On impulse, he rings the doorbell. And, of course, his long-dead father, looking DON'T HAVE TO BE EXPLAINED. (Yes, good editor, I still want my capitals.) just as remembered, comes to the door. It seems the frazzled businessman has walked into They wanted a Bad Thing happening and then, stuck with an actual explanation, his past.Our Hero excitedly tells his father that he is the son, grown up. The father (and moth- decided, "Oh, palm it off as science fiction." er) think the adult stranger at their door is a lunatic and drive him away with threats to call There have been infuriatingly flimsy movies before, movies that aren't even the police. SF but might have been salvaged by a truly clever SF concept. In Identity, we are It is now twilight and Our Hero dejectedly returns to the park. He notices one of the left to wonder what is happening to poor John Cusack, and then we learn that boys playing in the park woods. The boy approachs the gazebo and begins to carve his ini- poor John Cusack is a complete personality trapped as a player-character in a tials into one of the pillars. Our Hero goes nearer and sees that the boy is carving Our Hero's madman's brain. In Secret Window, we are obliged to wait all movie long to be initials into the post. The boy is Our Hero at a younger age! Our Hero accosts his younger told that John Turturro is an imaginary alter ego of Johnny Depp -- ahh, but this self, frantic to tell him the most important discovery he has learned in all the years since he isn't handled nearly as well as in Fight Club. These are, in short, movies with carved his initials into the park gazebo: These are the best years of your life! Treasure them! barely any premises to work with. It's bad enough when they're "psychological" Don't be in a hurry to grow up! -- but when I'm expected to give them a passing grade because they're "SF," then The boy thinks the old man is a dangerous loon and runs away. In sadness Our Hero I have to protest. returns through the gloom to his boyhood home, not knowing what else to do. His father is Why must such nothing movies be ground out? Is it purely to keep furious- sitting on the front porch smoking a pipe. The old man notices Our Hero and motions him ly filling up screens, solely to deny those screens to the movies of competing stu- to approach. Our Hero had blurted out such intimate details in their previous encounter that dios? Or is Hollywood openly admitting that it is really and truly desperate for no stranger could have known them. Perhaps, through some miracle, the stranger really is ideas, or even half-ideas? I look at the interminable ending credits of these things the old man's son, all grown up. and wonder "Can't any one of these individuals have stood up and said 'Guess They talk. They share intimacies. The old man declines to ask about the future. But what, we can make an actual story out of this?'" he tells Our Hero that he doesn't belong in "this time." He should return to his own time, It's bad enough when science fiction is gotten wrong, but that's only half the knowing what he now knows, and let his younger self grow up in his own way, making his problem. When stumped mystery hacks say "Ohhh, make it science fiction, own mistakes. because science fiction needs no explanations," that doubles the problem. The Our Hero realizes the wisdom of his father's advice and they part, having reached a sort Forgotten is not that bad a movie to sit through; that's not the point. The prob- of understanding. Our Hero returns to his commuter train, now repaired and ready, and looks lem is that it should not have been attributed to science fiction -- or any catego- wistfully back down the road to his past, sadder but wiser. His hometown may be within ry, for that matter -- until such time as it finally addressed an actual idea. "walking distance," but his past no longer is. That is the way of the world and he accepts it. Stuff There is so much about this story which comes directly out of Serling's life: the neigh- borhood, the house, the park, the carousel, the gazebo with the initials carved on it. It is * Mary Soon Lee, author and PARSEC member, and Andrew Moore are the tempting, therefore, to think that the emotions and attitudes also came out of Serling's life. proud parents of Lucy Mairead Lee-Moore. She was born at 8:04 AM on Sept. After graduating from Binghamton's Central High School in 1943, Serling joined the 13th and weighed 7 lbs. and 2 oz. army. He became a paratrooper in the Pacific Theater, preparing to jump into Japan in the * Please note that the photographs used in the cover of the October issue, were Big Invasion which was cancelled after Nagasaki. Not long after he returned from the war, courtesy of Laurie Mann. Thanks Laurie! he moved to New York City to try to make it as a writer. He scuffled along writing for radio * From Alan Irving: My CD Goldilocks and Company, a collection of tradition- shows and then the nascent medium of television. He worked hard, wrote a lot, and soon al folktales and legends for younger kids, has just won a NAPPA (national par- began to have some success. He won six Emmies for such teleplays as "Patterns" 1955, enting publications) Honor Award for Children's Resources, and my latest CD Blood on the Moon, the story of the French and Indian War in Pennsylvania and the Ohio River frontier has just been released. continued on page 11 Page 8 Page 5 Bennett Street. His father was a wholesale butcher, which means he did not stand behind a A Visit to the Twilight Zone counter in a bloody apron chopping single steaks for local matrons. Rather, he sold large Eric Leif Davin quantities of meat to schools, hospitals, and other such local institutions. Consequently, he In early May, 2004, I stepped into the Twilight Zone. Actually, I drove to Binghamton, did very well financially, thank you, even during the Great Depression of the Thirties. in upstate New York, just over the Pennsylvania line. For Anita Alverio, who accompanied Perhaps this was one reason Rod Serling remembered his childhood as one of "warmth, me, the attraction was the Roberson Museum and Science Center, home of the world's largest comfort and well-being." and most eclectic collection of vintage carousel horses. Additionally, the town hosts six addi- Certainly the old Serling home still looks warm and comfortable. It sits on a quiet, mid- tional wood-carved antique carousels at local parks, making it, as it likes to boast, "The dle-class, tree-lined residential street. In May the trees were just in blossom and their bril- Carousel Capital of the World." All six are listed on both the New York State Historic liant blooms made me think of the suburban neighborhood from the "Twilight Zone" Register and the National Register of Historic Places. episode, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," which Serling wrote for the first season For myself, however, the attraction was the fact that Binghamton was the boyhood of his TVseries. The house is white, wood-frame, two-storied with a front cupola for a room home of Rod Serling, the creator of the pathbreaking early TV show, "The Twilight Zone." in the attic. There is an enclosed entry way topped by a widow's walk. The house is two We drove by the Binghamton Central High School, close to the downtown business district, spacious rooms wide and seems to be three rooms deep, for a total of at least 12 rooms, not from which Serling graduated in the war year of 1943. Ahistorical marker stands on the tree- counting the attic rooms and the basement. There is a one-story garage which seems to have studded campus of the old school, noting its most famous graduate. Not far from Serling's been recently tacked onto the side of the house. The front yard has several trees in bloom high school is the Forum Theater for the Performing Arts, on Water Street, which houses and handrail-lined steps lead up to a small front porch containing stacked white chairs. "Day of a Playwright," a permanent exhibit of Serling memorabilia. (If you visit and wish Unfortunately, no one answered the doorbell, which I was gauche enough to ring, so I have to view the photos and items in this exhibit, call 607-778-2480 first and ascertain its hours of no idea what the interior of the house looks like. operation.) While I was taking pictures of the house and street, the next door neighbor came out to However, like so many Rust Belt cities, Binghamton is a declining industrial town. investigate. When I told her why I was there, she said I was part of the tradition. When her Once a thriving shoe manufacturing center at the confluence of the Susquehanna and family first moved onto the street, they had no idea they were living next door to Serling's Chenango Rivers, it lured tens of thousands of Southern and Eastern European immigrants boyhood home. They wondered why there was a fairly regular stream of cars gliding slow- around the turn of the twentieth century. But Binghamton no longer attracts workers, as it ly past the house, with cameras clicking. Sometimes people would get out and walk around, seems to have little work, the shoe factory having long since folded. On a Saturday morn- taking pictures. That's how they discovered they'd moved into the Twilight Zone. ing we wandered around the downtown business district and had difficulty finding an open But, it doesn't bother her or her family. They enjoy the brush with fame. Her teenage store, while there were many boarded up storefronts. daughter had never heard of the Rod Serling or the "Twilight Zone" when they moved in, However, we weren't there Binghamton's for ethnic or industrial heritage. We were but has since done extensive research on the man and the show and has written a paper on there for Rod Serling and the carousels. The Roberson Museum's carousel exhibit has an both for one of her high school classes. example of every conceivable type of carousel animal. Horses, of course, predominate, both I asked about the family that lived there now. They seem pleasant enough, she said, but plain and elegant, but other "jumpers" and "prancers" include such farm animals as pigs, she doesn't really know them. They keep to themselves. It sounded like modern suburbia. dogs, and giant roosters, as well as camels, elephants, gorillas pulling chariots, and fantasti- Perhaps it was different in Serling's day. cal mythological beasts of every description. In addition to the Roberson, there are six still- Back at the park we spent some time at the carousel and the bandshell. The latter resem- working antique carousels in the "Triple Cities" (as the locals call Binghamton, Endicott, and bles a large Greek gazebo, with Doric columns supporting a domed roof. Think of a small- nearby Johnson City). er version of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. In the middle of the gazebo's floor, The carousel which interested me the most was the one in Binghamton's George F. in place of a statue of Thomas Jefferson, is a circular bronze plate flush with the concrete in Johnson Recreation Park on Beethoven Street (many of the surrounding streets are also which it is embedded. Carved onto the plate is: "Rod Serling, Creator of The Twilight Zone, named after classical composers). Installed in 1925, it includes 60 jumping horses, four- 'Walking Distance.'" abreast; chariots; and the original two-roll Wurlitzer Military Band Organ -- with bells! The The latter is a reference to the 1959 first season "Twilight Zone" episode of the same original carousel house cupola has recently been restored. name, which starred Gig Young and which was inspired by this park, this carousel, and this Recreation Park itself is large, with copses of mature trees and small ground undulations gazebo. In the story (this is all from decades-old memory, so I may have the details wrong), here and there, perfect for small boys to roll down. It is also Rod Serling's neighborhood Gig Young is a typically-frazzled businessman on a commuter train which breaks down in a park, in which he played most nights as a boy, weather permitting, and where he rode the rural area. He is told it will take some hours to make repairs. He asks the conductor where then-new carousel for free -- providing he brought a piece of litter. they are and is told that they are only a mile or so from his own hometown! It is certainly Rodman Serling b. 1924 was raised just a short walk away from this park at 67 within "walking distance," so he decides to walk down the road apiece. Page 6 Page 7