Well, it frakkin ended.

[--Pete]

Hi,

A little quirk of mine is that when I think about "history" as I learned it, not as I lived it, everything dates from about 1985 or so unless I recalculate it. :)

I know exactly what you mean, except that for me, the 'magic' year is 1964. Anything prior to about '57 is 'history'; from Sputnik to Nov. 22, 1963 is 'current events'. But anything following that day is just plain 'life'. I suspect we all have our own calenders, and just because Billy Idol is 'recent' in mine doesn't make it wrong:)

So when I said over half a century, my mind was thinking 1935ish. Which is still over a decade off from the first use of the word robot and still nearly half a century off if my memory is right about the concept of mechanical creations taking over humanity being put into print. :)

Didn't really mean to 'correct' you -- I just mentioned R.U.R. because it came to mind. It was one of the few sf things we studied in high school literature, and I still remember discussions from that time. I had discovered Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and other such sf gods and found myself defending the value of sf to people who thought of it as 'trash' with half naked women and space ships on the covers. Besides, it's a good story, worth reading even though it's a screen play (though I'd love to see a good college production o it).

--Pete