From nobody Sat Aug 3 22:03:56 2002 Path: central.thestarport.org!not-for-mail From: steve@theStarport.org (Stephen R. Savitzky) Newsgroups: alt.callahans,alt.kalbo Subject: TOAST: Amethyst Rose -- 11 Date: 05 Aug 2001 00:00:34 -0700 Organization: Grand Central Starport Lines: 77 Sender: steve@moseisley.thestarport.org Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: moseisley.thestarport.org X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.7 Xref: central.thestarport.org alt.callahans:513345 alt.kalbo:4323 "The usual?" Mike asks. He doesn't even wait for the answering nod, just pours a glass of genever and takes a dollar from the Mandelbear. It's late evening on August 4th. The bear takes a few large sips and walks to the chalk line, to stand there with a half-empty glass in his hand. He takes another sip. "Eleven years ago. Iraq had just invaded Kuwait, and the US and its allies set off down the path that would lead, a few months later, to the brief bright bloody violence of the Gulf War. Poul Anderson, Gordy Dickson, MZB, and many others were still alive, my father and my mother-in-law among them. Nobody outside a research lab had heard of the World Wide Web. Linus Torvalds was an obscure grad student, and his announcement of what later became Linux was still a year away. Phrases like 'dot-com' and 'Y2K' were yet to be coined. "And in the cold, dark hours before dawn on August 4th, 1990, our second daughter, Amethyst Rose, was stillborn. I came here; I dreamed a grove of petrified trees, where a rosebush of stone with leaves of jade and obsidian thorns bore blooms of purple amethyst. They're still there, for those with the eyes and memory to see them." He gestures vaguely at a little X window in a dusty corner. "Many of the things I meant to do since then I haven't done. Little of the writing, none of the recordings I meant to make. The end of the 1900's and the start of the Third Millennium have come and gone, and the world's no better for it. The stock that looked for sure like it would put both my kids through college is worth a quarter of what it was two years ago. A Russian grad student is in jail right now, away from his two little kids, because of what he dared to publish. He's in _San Jose_, damnit, not five miles down the road from here, for writing a program that breaks the pitiful encryption on Adobe eBooks. "I wrote a song around the end of last year; part of it goes ...So here's to an age that's departed, And to pictures we drew in the sand; All the dreams that I had when we started Have crumbled to dust in my hand... "Sorry, I'm just feeling a little down right now. Oh." He looks at the glass, seeming slightly befuddled to see it still there in his hand. He licks a little spilled gin off his thumb, and raises the glass. "Amethyst Rose!" He hurls the glass into the fire where it shatters with a satisfying crash; blue flame flickers around the shards. "Um, ah, maybe I should go now." He turns and walks through a small door that opens onto a starlit desert; past the stumps of a petrified forest, cold and shattered in the sand. Faint in the distance, a swirl of gypsy music comes to him on the wind. At length he comes to a campfire in the shelter of a dune; there are music here, and stories, and pale green tea in a wood-fired clay cup. He looks up at the stars that glitter, hard and uncaring in the depths of the desert night. The Milky Way is a white pathway slanting across the black dome of the sky; it's easy to imagine the Egyptian goddess Nut with her dark wings gliding along it, peace and forgetfulness dropping like dew from her feathers. The night is a good place; sand and stone, the moon and the pale stars, the red glow of the fire and the cold wind's quiet whisper along the crest of the dune. The Earth is a small place, after all, and all our troubles smaller still, under the Night's vast velvet tent. It's nearly midnight now; tomorrow is a new day -- good food and joyful music, the noise and bustle of life going on regardless. Ah, well; time to bid the desert goodnight. The Mandelbear wraps himself in an old, green woolen blanket and goes to sleep under the stars and the swirl of the Milky Way. Steve Savitzky bids his teenaged older daughter goodnight, and lumbers off to bed. -- / Steve Savitzky \ 1997 Pegasus Award winner: best science song--+ \ / http://theStarport.com/people/steve/ V \ \ hacker/songwriter: http://theStarport.com/people/steve/Doc/Songs/ \_ Kids' page: MOVED ---> http://Interesting.Places.to/Browse/forKids/ _/ From nobody Sat Aug 3 22:04:01 2002 Path: central.thestarport.org!samba.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!bug.rahul.net!199.245.73.68.MISMATCH!rahul.net!a2i!news.mainstreet.net!sanjose1-snf1.gtei.net!paloalto-snh1.gtei.net!paloalto-snf1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!enews.sgi.com!newscon06.news.prodigy.com!newsmst01.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr30.news.prodigy.com.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3B6D1A76.3F6C07F2@swbell.net> From: Jai Rose X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.callahans,alt.kalbo Subject: Re: TOAST: Amethyst Rose -- 11 References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 4 NNTP-Posting-Host: 65.66.216.160 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr30.news.prodigy.com 997006212 ST000 65.66.216.160 (Sun, 05 Aug 2001 06:10:12 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 06:10:12 EDT Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com X-UserInfo1: FKPO@MC@@S@QBSLYGROZ__@@USXHQD\MNPWZKB]MPXHNDQUBLNTC@AWZWDXZXQ[K\FFSKCVM@F_N_DOBWVWG__LG@VVOIPLIGX\\BU_B@\P\PFX\B[APHTWAHDCKJF^NHD[YJAZMCY_CWG[SX\Y]^KC\HSZRWSWKGAY_PC[BQ[BXAS\F\\@DMTLFZFUE@\VL Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 10:10:12 GMT Xref: central.thestarport.org alt.callahans:513375 alt.kalbo:4324 ********CRASH******** Jai From nobody Sat Aug 3 22:04:05 2002 Message-ID: <3B6DEF33.BD17D54C@abs.net> Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 21:13:23 -0400 From: Bill Gawne Organization: abs.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.callahans,alt.kalbo Subject: Re: TOAST: Amethyst Rose -- 11 References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Host: pm3-s46.dial-up.abs.net X-Trace: news.itconsult.net 997060403 pm3-s46.dial-up.abs.net (6 Aug 2001 02:13:23 GMT+0000) Lines: 38 X-Complaints-To: abuse@itconsult.net Path: central.thestarport.org!samba.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!bug.rahul.net!wasp.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!HSNX.atgi.net!headwall.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.abs.net!news.itconsult.net Xref: central.thestarport.org alt.callahans:513530 alt.kalbo:4325 [followups please note the crossposting] The Mandlebear: > "And in the cold, dark hours before dawn on August 4th, 1990, our second > daughter, Amethyst Rose, was stillborn. I came here; I dreamed a grove > of petrified trees, where a rosebush of stone with leaves of jade and > obsidian thorns bore blooms of purple amethyst. They're still there, > for those with the eyes and memory to see them." He gestures vaguely > at a little X window in a dusty corner. At the end of the bar, Bill nods quietly. He's seen that place, once each year, kind of like Brigadoon appearing out of the mists. [.....] > "Sorry, I'm just feeling a little down right now. Oh." He looks at the > glass, seeming slightly befuddled to see it still there in his hand. He > licks a little spilled gin off his thumb, and raises the glass. > > "Amethyst Rose!" He hurls the glass into the fire where it shatters > with a satisfying crash; blue flame flickers around the shards. Followed by the crunch of Bill's coffee cup, as it lands in the parabolic reflector. > "Um, ah, maybe I should go now." He turns and walks through a small > door that opens onto a starlit desert; past the stumps of a petrified > forest, cold and shattered in the sand. Rising, Bill nods to a few friends, and follows the Mandlebear out to the Nomads' Camp. Maybe the clean desert air will be good. -- Bill Gawne, in Callahan's as in real life. Astronomer at Large - Retired Master Sergeant USMCR - Nothing I post represents an official position of any organization. On the web: http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~gawne From nobody Sat Aug 3 22:04:13 2002 Path: central.thestarport.org!samba.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!bug.rahul.net!wasp.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!HSNX.atgi.net!news-was.dfn.de!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-peer1.tiac.net!posterchild2.tiac.net!not-for-mail From: edschweppe@hotmail.com (Ed Schweppe) Newsgroups: alt.callahans Subject: Re: TOAST: Amethyst Rose -- 11 Followup-To: alt.callahans Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 03:27:31 GMT Organization: or lack thereof Lines: 17 Message-ID: <3b6f3777.8908328@news.tiac.net> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: p64.block3.tc1.rnktel.net X-Trace: news-central.tiac.net 997154379 8244 65.90.44.64 (7 Aug 2001 03:19:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@us.inter.net NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 03:19:39 +0000 (UTC) X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.21/32.243 Xref: central.thestarport.org alt.callahans:513677 On 05 Aug 2001 00:00:34 -0700 in message , steve@theStarport.org (Stephen R. Savitzky) wrote: >"Amethyst Rose!" He hurls the glass into the fire where it shatters >with a satisfying crash; blue flame flickers around the shards. <> Merlinvin's empty follows that of the Mandelbear into the flames ... as thoughts and hopes for comfort and healing follow the Mandelbear into the desert. -- Ed Schweppe (mailto:edschweppe@hotmail.com) Blissfully free of official opinions.