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Mar 07

Off on a tangentClick for larger image

Good Show Sir Comments: A thrilling novel of two-fisted trigonometry action!

Published 1960

Actually, that cover IS a classical work of art!I would touch it without protective gloves.I've seen worse. Far, far, worse.Interesting, but I would still read it in public.Middlng: Neither awful nor awfully goodWould not like to be seen reading that!Awful... just awful...That belongs in a gold-lame picture frame!Gah... my eyes are burning! Feels so good!Good Show Sir! (Average: 5.19 out of 10)
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21 Responses to “Spacehive”

  1. THX 1138 Says:

    A manly nerd doesn’t need a ray gun, just a pair of compasses.

  2. fred Says:

    A thrilling novel of men who can read and write backwards while talking on a headset and plotting a trajectory after having put down their slide rules because they only have two hands dammit but rest assured they will work on a solution to that problem and he’s only a Sgt so imagine what those officers in space can do you commie bastards.

  3. fred Says:

    Wait a minute. Astronauts…..in orbit….assembling the first spaceship…..
    http://salmongutter.blogspot.com/2007/10/

  4. Francis Boyle Says:

    Well I’m glad they told us that it’s about the first men in orbit. Otherwise I’d have gone with bees. Other than that, I concur with the three star rating. It’s just not that baaad.

    @fred

    But “rocket snipers”. It must have been like a game of Quake 3 up there.

  5. Tom Noir Says:

    I dig the old school retro vibe, so +5 points for that. On the other hand, this reminds me of how deeply trig confused me in high school, so -3 points for that. On the third… hand? having the letters in the tagline randomly change colors is just weird. -83 points.

  6. Bibliomancer Says:

    — I’m calculating the probability of you getting back alive from orbit is 37°
    — Over and out, roger.
    — My name’s not Roger!

  7. Raoul Says:

    (Using Cosby voice)
    “The angle of the dangle is proportional to the heat of the meat …”

  8. Bibliomancer Says:

    — I’ve calculated you need to re-enter the atmosphere at an angle of 81°
    — Roger that!
    — Ooops, I’m on the wrong side of the glass. Make that 18°

    — Hello, are you still there?

  9. Alice Says:

    “Men we have to catch those ‘rocket snipers’ . Time to go on a snipe hunt!”

  10. Tat Wood Says:

    The thrilling tale of those unsung heroes of 60s television who painted just the names of the plot-relevant townships on the big glass maps.

    Bonus points for the unsung hero who painted USAF decals on an RAF Vulcan.

  11. Anna T. Says:

    In order to pass the math test, you must not only correctly solve all these equations and show your work, you must win a fistfight against a polar bear!

    Good luck.

  12. JuanPaul Says:

    When you’re goofing off at work and your boss suddenly walks in the room..

  13. B. Chiclitz Says:

    The quality of today’s posts has me laughing so hard I’ve broken out in a giant Spacehive!

  14. B. Chiclitz Says:

    “OK, I want three-dimensional space roadblocks here, here, and here!”

  15. Bibliomancer Says:

    @B.C. – Obviously quoting Lieutenant Dan Mathews, Space Hiveway Patrol

  16. GSS ex-noob Says:

    Polar coordinates gone wild! None of those sissy Cartesian triangles, it’s radians all the way down!

    (aaand, that’s all I remember about trig.)

    Where did the “hive” part come in, though? This looks like a lot of individual manly men, not some wimpy group mind.

    @fred: You’ve summed (har) it up perfectly. That’s exactly the vibe here. Bravo.
    @Tom: Yes, the mixed color is annoying.

  17. Longtime_lurker Says:

    Tat @10: I was waiting for someone else to say this, but it ain’t a Vulcan (RAF or other). Real Vulcans don’t have tailplanes.The aircraft on the cover isn’t actually of any type known to aviation, as far as I can tell.

  18. Tat Wood Says:

    @Longtime Lurker: so it’s a Soviet knock-off, like the Tu 144, but with USAF markings.

    That’s almost a better plot.

  19. Raoul Says:

    @TW @LL – For your consideration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Vulcan

  20. Tat Wood Says:

    @Raoul: I know most of this – my dad was from Hatfield and I grew up on a council estate not marked on the maps – the Lakenheath/ Mildenhall boys flew low-altitude sorties over a built-up area that they could claim didn’t exist. I saw Phantoms, Harriers and Vulcans in great detail from underneath over most of the late 70s.

    The thing in the cover painting is almost like the shuttle design from Willy Ley’s book, as used in the Disney TV specials and George Pal’s ‘Destination Moon’ and ‘Conquest of Space’. But not as much as it’s like a badly-drawn Vulcan. You can see the book in the titles of ‘Napoleon Dynamite’.

  21. GSS ex-noob Says:

    @Tat: Wow. I grew up where USAF sorties were flown — I remember the sonic booms rattling the windows and Mom’s china, but our house was always on the map. Right under plenty of Phantoms, Delta Darts, Voodoos, B-52s. And the occasional big rumble of an old B-17, which everyone would run out and look at.

    I suspect this is the Unknown Artist’s collage of strategic bombers, possibly drawn from jumbled memories. If it’s going to orbit, it can’t be an air breather.

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