The Fredösphere

My buddy Rick, responding to my ritual denunciations of Tom Swift, sent me this link to a tribute to sci-fi author Hugh Walters.  Rick said he read three of Walters' books in grade school, and would have read more if his home town of Marquette, Michigan* had a better sci-fi-books-for-kids delivery system in place.

Walters' aim was to "educate painlessly" and inspire kids to pursue scientific careers.  Unfortunately, the illustrators of his books show evidence of needing some education of their own, and I won't insist it be painless.  And while we are at it, the guy who designed the website needs some schooling in the proper selection of a non-distracting background.

About that "Boy Astronaut" series:  why does it almost make sense?  Obviously no one is going to write a Boy Dentist or Boy Urologist book, but that's mainly because no one wants to read about dentists or urologists, whatever their ages.  But among the high-status positions, being an astronaut is one job subject to a certain -- how do I put this nicely -- let's call them extra-competence considerations.  After all, we've had a teacher astronaut and (I think) two legislator astronauts, so really, it's only a matter of time until we get our woman-psychologist-who-is-also-an-expert-in-boxing astronaut and our talk-show-host astronaut and our antipope astronaut, and yes, eventually, we will get our boy astronaut.  No doubt it will happen during a Take Your Daughter to Work Day.

*We're talking about a seriously remote outpost on the northern shore of the northern peninsula of Michigan.  Get your maps out people, Michigan has a northern peninsula!