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[George]

PAGE SEVEN DANCE!!

[George]

The opera takes place in and around the small and poor town of Gibsland, in northwestern Louisiana, as well as at Blow’s alma mater, Grambling State University. The time ranges from Charles’s childhood in the 1970s to his adulthood in the 1990s.

[George]

It deals with Charles being (sexually) abused by an older cousin.

[George]

It's all handled very tastefully, but the opera is really well written and all the performers are really good.

[George]

Of course, they would be...it's the Metropolitan Opera.

[George]

And now, for something completely different...

[George]

THE PRIME OF LIFE by Isaac Asimov.

[George]

It was, in truth, an eager youth
 Who halted me one day.

[George]

 He gazed in bliss at me, and this
 Is what he had to say:

[George]

 "Why, mazel tov, it's Asimov,
 A blessing on your head!

[George]

 For many a year, I've lived in fear
 That you were long since dead.

[George]

 Or if alive, one fifty-five
 Cold years had passed you by,

[George]

 And left you weak, with poor physique,
 Thin hair and rheumy eye.

[George]

 For sure enough, I've read your stuff
 Since I was but a lad

[George]

 And couldn't spell or hardly tell
 The good yarns from the bad.

[George]

 My father, too, was reading you
 Before he met my Ma.

[George]

 For you he earned, once he had learned
 About you from _his_ Pa.

[George]

 Since time began, you wondrous man,
 My ancestors did love

[George]

 That s.f. dean and writing machine
 The aged Asimov."

[George]

 I'd had my fill. I said: "Be still!
 I've kept my old-time spark.

[George]

 My step is light, my eye is bright,
 My hair is thick and dark."

[George]

 His smile, in brief, spelled disbelief,
 So this is what I did;

[George]

 I scowled, you know, and with one blow,
 I killed that rotten kid.

[George]

[End]

[George]

That was written in 1966...the year that I was born!

[George]

Author's remark: "Mazel tov" is a Hebrew phrase meaning "good fortune" and it is used by Jews as a joyful greeting on jubilant occasions - as a meeting with me should surely be.

[George]

Notes : First Published in the Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1966, the original title was ‘I’m in the prime of life, you rotten kid !’. Edward L. Ferman, editor of F&SF, shortened that to ‘The prime of life’. It is also part of a collection of stories by Asimov titled ‘ The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories’.

[bk]

George is here.

[bk]

And  happily has posted up a storm.

[bk]

And yet, I am forced to say I do not care for page seven.