Donation makes fantastic story
Huge sci-fi collection goes to Alberta
Winnipeg
Sun ~ October 6, 2007
Science fiction enthusiast Chester Cuthbert (right),
with son Raymond, is donating 60,000 books to the University of Alberta.
Even the size of a Winnipeg man's science fiction collection pushes the
boundaries of reality. Now Chester Cuthbert wants his collection to enrich
young people's minds as it has done with his imagination for decades. He's
donating his entire treasure trove of science fiction -- an estimated 60,000
books and magazines compiled since the 1920s -- to the University of Alberta.
"They've provided me with instruction and entertainment," said Cuthbert,
who turns 95 in a couple of weeks. "It's important to stimulate the imagination.
Reading fantastic literature has been a joy to me, and I hope that other
people enjoy it too."
The senior's astonishing accumulation includes periodicals,
some of his own published fiction and piles of letters to and from other
sci-fi buffs. And virtually all of it had been in boxes stacked in his
Mulvey Avenue house. "You name it, my dad has it," Raymond Cuthbert, the
aficionado's son, said of the collection that started when his father read
a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs as a youth. "From that point on, he became
interested in fantastic literature and began seeking it out. There was
no such term as science fiction when he began collecting. That came later."
Chester Cuthbert said one of the reasons he's parting
with his books is that his eyesight is "deteriorating quite badly," making
reading difficult. During a decades-long career in Winnipeg's insurance
industry and while raising five children, Cuthbert collected a wealth of
reading material.
REPUTATION, CAPACITY
Following his wife's death last January, Cuthbert decided
to part with his treasure and selected Edmonton's University of Alberta
to take the materials -- valued at up to $1 million -- because of the institution's
literary reputation and capacity to care for it. "There is no equivalent
institution here that can handle this volume of collection," explained
Raymond Cuthbert, 52. "The public library, University of Manitoba or University
of Winnipeg would be incapacitated with a donation of this size. They just
don't have the people or the space to deal with it."
Randy Reichardt, a former Winnipeg resident, is one of
two U of A library officials charged with organizing the books and magazines
-- including westerns and other genres of fiction -- for shipment west.
The work for him brings back memories of his youth in the '70s, when he
came to know Cuthbert and relished his stuff with other teens. "He opened
his house to us, and his wife always had cookies and drinks. It was just
an amazing place," said Reichardt. "He would pull gems out, and we'd sit
there with our jaws on the floor."
Dateline Jasoom Podcast: Episode 41
www.panthanpress.com
Trailer for Tarzan and the Great River, thanks to ERB
fan Henrik Hellburg's YouTube site.
Also, a Filmation Tarzan cartoon YouTube site.
Interview with ERB fan Don Gray. Dial P for Pulp promo.
Bobby Williams' Tarzan song.
Braingle
Word of the Day site:
vi-ra-go
noun :: A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and
courage; a woman who has the robust body and masculine mind of a man; a
female warrior. Hence, a mannish woman; a bold, turbulent woman; a termagant;
a vixen.
"His own woman was of the party--a veritable giantess,
a virago of the first magnitude--and she was evidently the only thing in
the world of which Usanga stood in awe." -- Burroughs, Edgar Rice
TARZANA AIRSHIP UPDATE
Unique airship hybrid defies easy categorization
AIN
Online ~ September 25, 2007
The Tarzana, Calif.-based company– which has been building
airships for the past 20 years–unveiled a scale model of the Aeroscraft
ML866 prototype air vehicle it plans to begin flight testing in 2010. “It’s
not a blimp and not an airship or dirigible; it’s a new category,” said
Edward Pevzner, Aeros business development manager. Pevzner said the design
uses a hybrid of buoyant and aerodynamic lift in a vehicle capable of performing
vertical takeoffs and landings and cruising from 20 to 120 knots with a
range of up to 3,000 miles. The flying prototype will be powered by two
Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 engines. A rendering on the Aeros Web site
(www.aerosml.com) shows two turboshafts
with six-blade propellers mounted on each side of the craft. “This is not
a lighter-than- air vehicle,” Pevzner continued. For the ML866, he said,
“We envision private uses, business or executive transport as a flying
office and short-haul commuter service on routes such as between Los Angeles
and Las Vegas.” Pevzner predicted wide usage for low density bulk cargo
to areas with limited infrastructure. The aeroscraft design would operate
as high as 12,000 feet. More>>>
Tarzan's Appeal Endures After 85 Years
Joan
Monahan ~ The Ledger ~ September 25, 2007
Long before Superman, Batman, James Bond and others of
that ilk, there was Tarzan, the real hero of my youth. I'm not sure what
the universal appeal of Tarzan, the Ape Man, is. But this strong man dressed
in a loin cloth, swinging on vines in the jungle, companion to apes and
subduer of lions was popular around the world from his first appearance
in a pulp magazine in 1912. The magazine sold for 15 cents. More>>>
See next week's ERBzine Motes & Quotes for the article
reprint.
Dateline Jasoom podcast Episode
40 from www.PanthanPress.com
Carson Napier calls OnStar for turn-by-turn directions.
Venus artist Richard Hescox tells the Dum Dum banquet
audience
how Edgar Rice Burroughs inspired him to be a professional
illustrator.
THE CAVES
OF BARSOOM
NASA
~ September 21, 2007:
NASA's
Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered entrances to seven possible caves
on the slopes of a Martian volcano. The find is fueling interest in potential
underground habitats and sparking searches for caverns elsewhere on the
Red Planet. Very dark, nearly circular features ranging in diameter from
about 328 to 820 feet puzzled researchers who found them in images taken
by NASA's Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor orbiters. A montage image
of the "Seven Sisters"--seven dark openings into cavernous spaces on the
slopes of Arsia Mons. Researchers have nicknamed the features Dena, Chloe,
Wendy, Annie, Abby, Nikki and Jeanne.
[Left] A montage image of the "Seven Sisters"--seven
dark openings into cavernous spaces on the slopes of Arsia Mons. Researchers
have nicknamed the features Dena, Chloe, Wendy, Annie, Abby, Nikki and
Jeanne.
"Whether these are just deep vertical shafts or openings
into spacious caverns, they are entries to the subsurface of Mars," said
Tim Titus of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff. "Somewhere on Mars,
caves might provide a protected niche for past or current life, or shelter
for humans in the future." "These are at such extreme altitude, they are
poor candidates either for use as human habitation or for having microbial
life. Even if life has ever existed on Mars, it may not have migrated to
this height."
More>>>
NASA
Science
What would we do without the insightful,
well-written reviews by bloggers:
The hell with tarzan - Tarzan Reviews
tarzanri.blogspot.com
~ September 2007
I HOPE THAT TARZAN BURNS IN HELL THAT MOVIE IS A DISGRACE
AND NEVER DESERVED TO BE MADE INTO A MOVIE ITS ABOUT A GOD DAM BOY THAT
ACTS LIKE A APE WHO THE HELL CAME UP WITH TARZAN I FELL BAD FOR THEM THIS
MOVIE WAS WROSE THAN SPY KIDS AND THE ADVENTURES OF SHARKBOY AND LAVA GIRL
TARZAN SUCKS!
Booooooooooo - Tarzan Reviews
it sucked lol reeally really bad gosh it was bad this
thing has to be 30 freakin words um.... i give a ....F
"Cheetah" joins the Dolphin Games
Dolphin Watch: Horsetails: A game or something else?
Tampa
Bay Weekly ~ September 27, 2007
Horsetails are mangrove seedpods. The dolphins have been
throwing them around all month. Like people play Horseshoes, dolphins do
something we can call Horsetails. . . . Like P the night before, N tossed
and caught a horsetail several times as he traveled through the soft morning
light alongside bulls DD2, BB, Cheetah and LA Cheetah. Cheetah is named
after the endearing chimp actor in Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan movies.
LA Cheetah is a Cheetah Look Alike, hence LA.
Later that morning, Cheetah and LA Cheetah meandered with
females JJ and Rim past sandbars dotted with shorebirds poking for breakfast.
Two more bulls came up. One of them started tossing horsetails. After two
more bulls came barging in and out, breaking up the action, the first four
returned to their meanderings. More>>>
Chicagoans can tour Edgar Rice
Burroughs' home
Chicago
Tribune Local Calendar ~ Oak Park
The Historical Society of Oak Park & River Forest
will present "Hometown Legends," a guided trolley tour of the homes of
people who left their mark on America and the world. Two-hour tours begin
at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday from Pleasant Home, 217 S. Home Ave., Oak
Park. The cost is $35. Some of the notables include Ray Kroc, Edgar Rice
Burroughs, Ernest Hemingway, Percy Julian, Jane Hamilton, Cubs Hall of
Famer Joe Tinker and entrepreneurs who founded Mars Candy, Jay's Potato
Chips and inventors of the Twinkie, yo-yo and Eskimo Pie. Call 708-848-6755
or register at www.oprf.com/oprfhist.
Dial P For Pulp is a podcast for anyone
interested in any aspect of the pulps.
Show No.1 features a book review (Hardboiled Cthulhu),
an interview with illustrator Tom Roberts about his work on Doc Savage:
The Lost Radio Scripts of Lester Dent and also a reading of the first part
of Red Shadows a Solomon Kane story by Robert E. Howard. Contact: David
Drage: dialpforpulp@googlemail.com
The first show is available for download at:-
http://www.dialpforpulp.com
or you can subscribe to the RSS feed at:-
http://dpfp.libsyn.com/rss/podcasts
TARZAN VIDEO BITS ON YOUTUBE
King
of the Jungle World Videos on YouTube
The
Many Movie Tarzans
Gordon
Scott Tribute: A series of stills
Tarzana,
CA: October 2, 2007
Edgar
Rice Burroughs' well-known vine-swinger, Tarzan, stars in the
newest children's production from Live Theatre Workshop, featuring an original
script, music and choreography. The quirky cast of lions, zebras and gorillas
will be entertaining for kids and adults, says LTW executive director Kristi
Loera. Adapted for the stage by director Megan Patno, and with original
music by David Ragland, the performance is sure to have kids and parents
clapping and singing along, says Loera. "The show is amazing," she says.
"We really have taken our children's theater up quite a level." The characters
come across many challenges, including escaping poachers and the difficulties
separating the primitive and modern worlds. Loera is also part of the cast.
She plays the part of Lyonitae, a leopard who, with a zebra named Zebunindi,
travels with Tarzan and Jane through their many adventures in the jungle
in search of Tarzan's gorilla mother. [Ed: Tarzan is played by Eric
Schumacher - see photo]
Angelic’s
Head of Production, Bruce Pobjoy says, “Not only is this screenplay a major
milestone in the lifecycle of this project, but it is a fantastic amount
of fun. It is our intention to be loyal to the integrity of Burroughs’
writing, while at the same time updating, and modernizing the story for
today’s sensibilities, and sophisticated movie audiences. The film is going
to be quite a ride.”