String Theory Explained (with Zombies)

A few years back, I mentioned reading an anthology called The Mammoth Book of New Jules Verne Adventures, citing Molly Brown‘s “The Selene Gardening Society” for particular praise. Brown recently got back in touch, telling me about the short film she and a group had friends had made to take part in a “48-hour film challenge.” Each team in the challenge, she explained, was assigned a title, a line of dialogue, and a required prop, then given two days to make a movie incorporating all three elements.

Brown’s team was told to make a film called “THIS IS…” that included a map of Europe with three red circles drawn on it, in which somebody said, “The floor dropped away from me before I started to follow it.” And here we are—

That’s Brown as the housewife— “who bears a remarkable resemblance to my mother!” she adds.

29 April 2009 | uncategorized |

Happy 59th Birthday, Helen Sweetstory!

Ms. Sweetstory is the author of the The Six Bunny-Wunnies series of books for children, which includes The Six Bunny-Wunnies Go to Long Beach, The Six Bunny-Wunnies Make Cookies, The Six Bunny-Wunnies Join an Encounter Group, The Six Bunny-Wunnies and Their Layover in Anderson, Indiana, and the notorious The Six Bunny-Wunnies Freak Out, which became the subject of controversy in 1972 when a California school board attempted to ban the book from the school library.

You can learn more about Helen Sweetstory in The Complete Peanuts: 1971 to 1972, which also covers the turbulent relationship between Patricia Reichardt and Charles Brown (who was still infatuated with a red-haired girl who had moved away some time previously), the resistance of young Patty to her school’s dress code, the “Thompson is in trouble!” adventure, and the construction of a six-story parking garage on the original site of the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. And plenty more besides.

5 April 2009 | uncategorized |