SF and F Roundtable

Next Up: August 2019

“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color.”
Natalie Babbitt

When August comes, can September be far behind.

Next Up: July 2019

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."
Henry James

The strawberries are past, the blueberries are here, the peaches are to come.

Next Up: June 2019

"Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent world of contentment, drunkenness, and good humor, to a state of chronic edginess and the perpetual scanning of bank statements."
J. G. Ballard

But June is lovely, nonetheless.

Next Up: May 2019

Spring rain
leaking through the roof
dripping from the wasps' nest.
Matsuo Basho

May day. May Day. See also: Mayday.

Next Up: April 2019

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” George Orwell, 1984

A nicely ominous opening sentence to cast a shadow on bright spring.

Next Up: March 2019

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Ready for summer in the light; enduring winter in the shade.

Next Up: February 2019

"Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?"
William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing

Frost, storm, and cloudiness,
and also Valentine's Day, which does not redeem the first three.

Next Up: January 2019

Happy New Year! And, six light-hours away:

...New Horizons’ performance so far suggests it is ready for the challenge, Stern said. Measurements taken Saturday showed that the spacecraft was within 20 miles of its intended flyby distance from Ultima Thule and that the timing of the encounter will be within 2 seconds of what was expected.

“We’re rendezvousing with something that’s a mountain draped in black velvet in almost pitch-dark conditions, and we’re screaming up to it . . . within 2 seconds of perfection,” Stern said. “You can’t get any better than that.”

Next Up: December 2018

A famous poet said:

When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl,
"Tu-whit, to-who!"—

A merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

It may be the holidays but winter, too, is upon us.

Next Up: November 2018

Autumn, real autumn, begins.