Is It Safe?” ~ Laurence Olivier, Marathon Man It was a terrifying scene that haunts to this day anyone who saw the film. Thomas Levy (Dustin Hoffman) is strapped into a chair by the evil dentist Dr. Christian Szell (Laurence Olivier) who hovers menacingly with his dental tools. “Is it safe?” Szell asks. The […]
Category Archives: darkness
“Science fiction’s appeal lies in combination of the rational, the believable, with the miraculous. It is an appeal to the sense of wonder.” – David Hartwell per Wikipedia I’m a sci-fi fan and have been aware that there are two types of sci-fi: hard science fiction and speculative fiction. According to Wikipedia, it seems that […]
I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me. I talk to the stars, but they never hear me. The breeze hasn’t time to stop and hear what I say I talk to them all in vain. ~ Pardner (Clint Eastwood) in Paint Your Wagon She was crooning to her Wandering Jew, […]
Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer Lead us lest too far we wander Love’s sweet voice is callin’ yonder Shine little glow-worm, glimmer, glimmer Hey, there don’t get dimmer, dimmer Light the path below, above And lead us on to love* The fireflies blinked as we slid silently through the close, […]
“Ah yes, I remember it well. It was on a night not unlike tonight …” The tip of his cigarette glowed in the darkness, briefly revealing his features when he took a puff. Mostly he moved back and forth across the small outdoor stage spinning his yarns in the night to the expectant kids and […]

As instructed, I lay on my back and wiggled into the narrow opening. It was tight, and my headlamp did little to light up the darkness beyond the gap. Scraping through, I took a deep breath, and my chest pressed against the massive rock above me. Stuck! Fighting panic, I breathed out and wriggled the […]