Taking the Wife Along

roger

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

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It was just before 5 a.m. The apartment Demetrius borrowed from its owners had a view of the Brooklyn Bridge if you didn’t mind the house plants and tattered shades. Real estate was so expensive here.

“Will you kill him?” The hologram of his wife projected from a chip in his brain haunted him like Jiminy Cricket.

“If you must know, the reward is dead or alive with a bonus if he’s still breathing.”

“What about the family who lives here?”

“Once he gets home, they’ll be set free, okay?” She was just as annoying dead as she was alive.

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Movie Review of “M3GAN” (2022)

megan

© James Pyles

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Last night (as I write this), I watched the 2022 horror film M3GAN.I normally don’t watch horror films. I’m not overly fond of being terrified and calling it “entertainment.” However, I do have an interest in AI and humanoid robots. So a few days ago, when I saw the Blu-Ray at my local public library, I decided to give it a whirl.

The disc gave me the choice of watching the theatrical version (PG-13) or the unrated version (anything goes). Naturally, I selected the latter.

The story begins with a little girl (Violet McGraw as Cady) in a car with her parents going on a ski trip. The girl is playing with an advanced robotic furry doll run from her tablet and invented by her aunt. Snow in the ground, icy roads, fog, and a snowplow out of nowhere, and the parents die in a car crash.

Meanwhile her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams) who is supposed to be developing a better, cheaper furry AI doll with her team Tess (Jen Van Epps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) are actually working on a prototype “child” android named M3GAN (Model 3 Generative Android).

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The End of the Punisher

knights

© James Pyles

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Although I’ve heard of the Marvel comic book character The Punisher (Frank Castle) over the years (He first appeared in Spider-Man #129 in 1974), I’ve never been a fan. I don’t know why. I guess I prefer the more traditional costumed superhero. Some guy running around shooting people doesn’t appeal to me.

Sometime later, the character and his symbol (a stylized skull) came into controversy when said-symbol was adopted by a number of law enforcement units. Essentially these officers were aligning with an ultra-violent vigilante which understandably made a lot of people nervous.

Marvel went so far as to change the Punisher’s logo to dissociate the character from the officers and others who had adopted the older symbol and Castle’s vendetta against criminals.

As an aside, it should be noted that very briefly in the 1970s, Marvel changed the name of their landmark character Black Panther to Black Leopard because they didn’t want T’Challa associated with the black militant group The Black Panthers.

Recently, Marvel announced they were ending The Punisher, not only by not publishing comics featuring the character, but having him commit suicide.

What? Why?

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Unbreaking Chains

table

PHOTO PROMPT © Rowena Curtin

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“There’s no going back.” Leonard sat on the metal chair opposite her, casually running his index finger across the symbols etched on the tabletop. It was a public garden, quite lovely. The summer morning was humid but still cool.

“I didn’t say anything about going back, just reliving the experience with a different outcome.”

“It’s a fantasy. I wouldn’t be able to save them.”

“But you’d be able to see that their deaths were not your fault.”

“And this disc will do that for me?” He waved his hands over the table’s surface.

“Let’s begin the ceremony and find out.”

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This Isn’t Me

resized

PHOTO PROMPT © Lisa Fox

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How did I end up like this?

Look at this. A baby walker, little kiddie motorized truck, and the worst of it, a mega-propane barbecue.

This isn’t me. It was never me. I guess that’s the point, though.

“Alan? Can you come in and help me change the baby’s diaper?”

“Yeah, Hon. In a minute.” I sound just like some stupid suburban husband. I mutter, “The name’s Ricco.”

I shrug my shoulders and start trudging up the back steps. Diapers. Married. Barbecues. It’s not me, but then the mob won’t be looking for a hit man turned state’s evidence here.

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Haunting Jack

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PHOTO PROMPT © Ted Strutz

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The loud rock music and fireworks were perfect to cover up her last screams. All Jack had to do was dump her corpse into one of the cheap seats and walk away. Anyone noticing her would think she’s stoned. He’d be on a plane to his next job before her death was discovered.

He hated the weird ones, but that’s what he got paid for. Jenny called herself a witch or a medium or something. Who cares why someone wanted her dead.

Jack’s fingers were on the door handle of his rental car when he saw her bloody ghost inside.

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Visiting Heaven

amanda stairs

PHOTO PROMPT © Amanda Forestwood

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The gate at the top of the stairs was open. God again allowed mortals to have visiting hours in Heaven. She could see Mom once more. How long since the last visitation? God saw when He first allowed this, it turned into a disaster. No one visiting wanted to leave the bliss of the world to come.

Of course, they were still alive so they had to go. But then came mass waves of depression and suicide. God cut off visitations but that was worse. Now an entire world had come to faith, but only if they could see Heaven.

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Book Review of “Ancillary Justice” (2013) by Ann Leckie

justice

Cover of Ann Leckie’s novel “Ancillary Justice”

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I first heard about An Leckie’s flagship novel Ancillary Justice by reading an article at Tor called Power, Responsibility, and Revenge: Ancillary Justice Ten Years On by Adrienne Martini. The book is now ten years old, but I’ve never been known as being on the bleeding edge of whatever’s new and fresh in science fiction.

This part of the article got my attention:

In that early scene, Leckie efficiently sets up one of the key features of this world: the Radchaai language doesn’t gender people. Breq defaults to she/her pronouns for everyone unless she is speaking the language of the colonized. We only know Seivarden is a “he” because a bartender on Nilt refers to him that way. Frequently, Leckie shows Breq struggling with finding the right pronouns for the languages that require them.

Oh, good grief. If there are two words associated with this novel that are bound to set my teeth on edge, it’s “justice” and “gender,” both of which have taken on rather magnified meanings in the 2020s, at least in social media.

Martini gushes glowing praise upon Leckie’s book. In fact, her debut novel has the distinction of having won a Hugo Award, Nebula Award, BSFA Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, and Locus Award for Best First Novel. That’s some novel.

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Comfort Food

Liz Young

PHOTO PROMPT © Liz Young

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“What’s this?” Aaron viewed the cutting board with dismay.

“You wanted to know how to cook. This is your first lesson.”

It was his third date with Melissa. He’d been divorced for two years. He didn’t want to at the age of 63, but his friends pushed him into that dating service.

“What are we making?”

“Something healthier than what you usually eat.” She pressed in behind him. He felt the not-so-subtle push of her breasts as a motivator. It wasn’t enough.

“Where are you going?”

He grabbed his phone and headed for the door. “Out for a burger. Bye.”

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The Galaxy Coloring Book

coloring

PHOTO PROMPT © Jennifer Pendergast

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I stoked the fireplace while contemplating the unusual coloring book I bought at the Flea Market last Sunday. I was referred to the vendor rather mysteriously. She suggested that I would find this particular book especially interesting.

I thought I’d reserved my “coloring between the lines” behavior for playing with my grandchildren, but this wasn’t a child’s plaything.

I had retired from my career in astronomy years back, but my childhood fascination with the universe never left me. If I colored the lines according to instructions, Earth’s gateway to a people and their far distant star would finally become known.

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