Mike Hodel's Hour 25

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December 2002

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Index to our previous shows

  • December 25, 2002 - Holiday Readings
  • Shows from November, 2002
  • Shows from October, 2002
  • Shows from September, 2002
  • Shows from August, 2002
  • Shows from July, 2002
  • Shows from June, 2002
  • Shows from May, 2002
  • Shows from April, 2002
  • Shows from March, 2002
  • Shows from February, 2002
  • Shows from January, 2002
  • Shows from December 2001
  • Shows from November, 2001
  • Shows from October, 2001
  • Shows from September, 2001
  • Shows from August, 2001
  • Shows from July, 2001
  • Shows from June, 2001
  • Shows from May, 2001
  • Shows from April, 2001
  • Shows from March, 2001
  • Shows from February, 2001
  • Shows from January, 2001
  • Shows from November - December, 2000
  • Shows from September - October, 2000
  • Shows from July - August, 2000
    •

    This Week - Happy Holidays

    On Wednesday - December 25th, 2002 - Hour 25 brought you some readings of holiday stories with a twist of the fantastic.

    The winter holidays are a wonderful time of year, a time for reflecting on time gone by and the possibilities of a new year, a time for getting together with friends and a time for showing your loved ones just how much they mean to you.

    A couple of days ago Suzanne and I were putting up our Christmas tree while a recent remake of "A Christmas Carol" played on the television. I couldn't help but agree when one of the characters in that story said, "When happiness comes to a party, be sure to give it a comfortable seat."

    And now, on to the stories.

    		    Our Christmas tree - Picture Copyright © 2002 by Suzanne Gibson.
    The Goblin and the Sexton   "The Goblins Who Stole a Sexton" by Charles Dickens. Gabriel Grub was a church sexton who went out one Christmas eve to dig a grave and along the way showed a great disdain for those who honored the holiday spirit. But when the King of the Goblins and his minions take Mister Grub on a journey to the underworld he learns the true meaning of Christmas.

    Not as well known as "A Christmas Carol", this story - which originally appeared in December 1836 as a part of "The Pickwick Papers" - shows that few people can capture the spirit of Christmas quite as well as Charles Dickens.
    Spaceships on the Moon - Copyright © Bonestell Space Art, All Rights Reserved. Click on this picture to go to the Bonestell Space Art Web Site.
    Copyright © Bonestell Space Art, All Rights Reserved.
    "John Harper Wilson" by Allen Steele, is a tale set in an alternate history and deals with a moral choice faced by the first man to set foot upon the Moon. In this story the space program developed along the lines described by Von Braun and others, with multi-stage transport rockets leading to a wheel shaped space station and moonships built in Earth orbit. But unlike our universe, in this fictional universe, the military leads the way into space. John Harper Wilson is not only slated to be the first man to set foot on the Moon but is also ordered to claim it for the United States. However, a Christmas broadcast from a spaceship orbiting the Moon causes him to have second thoughts about what he is supposed to do.

    This is one of my very favorite stories. Enjoy.

    For more information about Allen Steele, be sure to go to his web site. Be sure to listen to our next interview when Ron Miller will talk about the space art of Chesley Bonestell. And shortly after that, Allen Steele will be our guest on Hour 25.

    Earthrise
    It seems like only yesterday, but it was 34 years ago this month when humans first reached the Moon. On Christmas Eve 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 orbited that cold gray world and saw the Earth hanging over their horizon like a bright blue ornament plucked from a Christmas tree. Their Christmas greeting to the world was one of the most moving moments from the Apollo Program, no matter what your particular religious views might happen to be.

    And from all of us at Hour 25, we wish you the very best for this holiday season. May all your dreams come true in the coming year.



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    • Click here for the show's opening. {3:14}
    • Click here for my thoughts about Hour 25 and the Holiday season. {2:16}
    • Click here for the Charles Dickens story "The Goblins Who Stole the Sexton". {28:24}
    • Click here for the Allen Steele story "John Harper Wilson". {35:27}
    • Click here for a Christmas greeting from the crew of Apollo 8.{2:01}
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    If you enjoyed this show and would like to know when other interviews are uploaded to the Hour 25 web site, then send an email to me at wwjames@earthlink.net and I will add your name to the free Hour 25 Newsletter mailing list. That way you'll get a brief notice in your email every time a new show gets uploaded to the web.


    The Great Hour 25 Disk Crash of 2002 - On-Going News

    As a result of our recent hard disk crash the Hour 25 newsletter mailing list has vanished into the digital darkness. It would be very helpful if subscribers to the Hour 25 Newsletter would resend their email addresses to me {wwjames@earthlink.net} so I can reconstitute the Newsletter mailing list. {If you have done this "post-crash" then I have your email address and you don't need to do anything.} New editions of the newsletter will start coming out "real soon now".

    In the same vein, if you previously sent in an entry for the Karen Willson Five Word Challenge, now would be a good time for you to fish around in your "sent mail" folder and resend your entry. Or come up with a new one and send it in. {And please put "Five Word Challenge" or some approximation thereof in the subject line of your email to make it easy for me to keep track of your entry.}


    Links for more information relating to this week's show

    For On-Going Updates on Space News
  • The Reusable Launch & Space Vehicle News web site web page that is part of the Hobby Space web site is a really good place to watch for news about, well... Reusable Launch Vehicles and related subjects. I check it out just about every day and often find news there that doesn't show up anywhere else. Give it a look. {And while you're there be sure to check out some of the site's other pages. Wow! Is there a lot of information there.}
  • The Space Today web site is a great place to find space news from all over the 'net.
  • The Spaceflight Now web site carries real time information about current space missions and presents a lot of space and astronomy news. This is the place I go to when I want up to the minute information about current space missions. Do I need to say more?
  • The NASA Watch web site is another great place for getting information about current space missions. Check there also for news about other 'goings on' within NASA. Highly recommended.

    ISS News
  • The Florida Today web site has a very interesting report about the causes of the ISS budget problems and their impact on the space program. It makes very interesting reading.
  • Click here to view the press kits for various ISS missions.
  • Check out the NASA International Space Station web page or the Boeing web page to learn more about this project.
  • A great source of news about Russian space activities, including their work on the ISS, can be found at the Russian Space Web.
  • Do you wonder where the Space Station is right now? You can use your browser to view real time maps showing the location of the ISS by going to this link at the NASA Space Link web site or here at the Johnson Spacecraft Center. Please note that your browser must support Java to make use of this satellite tracking software.
  • You can find out when the ISS - or many other spacecraft - can be seen from your location by going to this NASA web page. Please note; your browser must support Java for this application to work.

  • Click here for information about the audio files used for Hour 25 and for information about configuring your browser and downloading audio players.

    Please note web pages from external sites will open in a separate browser window and that Hour 25 Productions are not responsible for the content of any external Web Sites.

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