The Index Card

[reilloc]

At the Cato Institute, in 2010, lecturing, Bill Patterson claimed that
Heinlein left an index card in a safety deposit box to be opened after
his death, saying (in summary) that people who identify SST, tMisHM and
SiaSL as his "best works" are the people who "get" what he was trying to
say. Hockey puck.

TEfL, NotB and tSBtS are what he was trying to say and everybody knows
it. The former three are patently mental masturbation while the latter
make no bones about importance of the real thing.

It was always EForFF (and usually, FF) and only BSorFF to pay the bills.

LNC

[MajorOz]

Hmmm....

Apparently, the slackening of the Kansas drought has allowed the local weeds to germinate.

[quietcat]

I suppose Patterson could provide proof of this, i.e. the card? If not...well, he's full of shit.

[Will in New Haven]

You should probably have asked him that while he was alive, asshole.

--
Will in New Haven

[reilloc]

Bill was always full of shit but (1) that was Bill; (2) who isn't from
somebody else's take on them; and, (3) whether the card exists is
irrelevant to my premise.

LNC

[Chris Zakes]

In two or three of his letters (which can be found in the Virginia
Edition) Heinlein specifically says that Starship Troopers, the Moon
is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land are his most
significant works, and that you have to "get" all three of them. He
also says that they're talking about the same thing, only from
different perspectives.

So, I''d say that it's *you*, not Robert Heinlein, who doesn't
understand Heinlein.

-Chris Zakes
Texas
--

GNU Terry Pratchett

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[a425couple]

"Chris Zakes" <dont...@gmail.com> wrote in message...

> caused reilloc <rei...@gmail.com> to write:
>>At the Cato Institute, in 2010, lecturing, Bill Patterson claimed that
>>Heinlein left an index card in a safety deposit box to be opened after
>>his death, saying (in summary) that people who identify SST, tMisHM and
>>SiaSL as his "best works" are the people who "get" what he was trying to
>>say. Hockey puck.
>>
>>TEfL, NotB and tSBtS

A pox on those who write in shorthand! "Time Enough for Love",
? The Number of the Beast, & ? To Sail Beyond the Sunset = ok

>> are what he was trying to say and everybody knows
>> it. The former three are patently mental masturbation while the latter
>> make no bones about importance of the real thing.
>>It was always EForFF (and usually, FF) and only BSorFF to pay the bills.

?
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111224053413AAyy5Pv
much other digging, perhaps one is "Farnham's Freehold" ?
BSorFF ???
Screw it, understanding this, is not worth the trouble.

> In two or three of his letters (which can be found in the Virginia
> Edition) Heinlein specifically says that Starship Troopers, the Moon
> is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land are his most
> significant works, and that you have to "get" all three of them. He
> also says that they're talking about the same thing, only from
> different perspectives.
> So, I''d say that it's *you*, not Robert Heinlein, who doesn't
> understand Heinlein.
> -Chris Zakes

Thank you Chris, for a very clear statement.

[a425couple]

"reilloc" <rei...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:mqte89$q5c$1...@dont-email.me...

> At the Cato Institute, in 2010, lecturing, Bill Patterson claimed that
> Heinlein left an index card in a safety deposit box to be opened after his
> death, saying (in summary) that people who identify SST, tMisHM and SiaSL

> as his "best works" ----
> TEfL, NotB and tSBtS are It was always EForFF (and usually, FF) and only

> BSorFF to pay the bills.

Dear "reilloc",
iaLC&CW,
FYatHYRIO.

[Rhino]

Would it kill you to write out the actual titles? I am very familiar
with Heinlein and even I can't think of what half of these acronyms
stand for.

I know SST is Starship Troopers, tMisHM is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
SiaSL is Stranger in a Strange Land, TEfL is Time Enough for Love but
I'm blanking on what the remaining ones are.


--
Rhino

[Chris Zakes]

"EF or FF" was a line in Time enough for Love--when Lazarus and Dora
are going across the prairie before they get to the mountain pass.
General consensus is that it meant "eat first or fuck first?". BS,
presumably, is bullshit.

What Collier *means* by this nonsense is anybody's guess.

-Chris Zakes
Texas
--

GNU Terry Pratchett

Mind how you go.

[MajorOz]

Attempting, as usual, to establish personal worth by denigrating others.

[John David Galt]

>> On 2015-08-17 4:05 PM, reilloc wrote:
>>> At the Cato Institute, in 2010, lecturing, Bill Patterson claimed that
>>> Heinlein left an index card in a safety deposit box to be opened after
>>> his death, saying (in summary) that people who identify SST, tMisHM and
>>> SiaSL as his "best works" are the people who "get" what he was trying to
>>> say. Hockey puck.
>>>
>>> TEfL, NotB and tSBtS are what he was trying to say and everybody knows
>>> it. The former three are patently mental masturbation while the latter
>>> make no bones about importance of the real thing.

The whole idea of only a few of his works having "messages" he was
trying to impart seems silly. Most of them did, even if the messages
were pretty basic (which they were, in some of the juveniles at least).
I can think of only one or two that I would say had no point to impart
beyond the story itself. Of course, after "To Us, The Living" was
rejected, he had to learn to make his points less directly.

But if I had to pick one or two of his stories that had the most
*important* points, my #1 would be "The Long Watch", and #2 would be
"Solution Unsatisfactory". One *must* have *some* absolute principles
for life itself to be meaningful.

(His *best* stories? That's a very different question.)

>>> It was always EForFF (and usually, FF) and only BSorFF to pay the bills.

> On Sat, 29 Aug 2015 19:57:35 -0400, an orbital mind-control laser
> caused Rhino <no_offline_c...@example.com> to write:
>> Would it kill you to write out the actual titles? I am very familiar
>> with Heinlein and even I can't think of what half of these acronyms
>> stand for.
>>
>> I know SST is Starship Troopers, tMisHM is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
>> SiaSL is Stranger in a Strange Land, TEfL is Time Enough for Love but
>> I'm blanking on what the remaining ones are.

NotB has to be [The] Number of The Beast, and tSBtS has to be To Sail
Beyond The Sunset.

On 2015-08-29 19:01, Chris Zakes wrote:
> "EF or FF" was a line in Time enough for Love--when Lazarus and Dora
> are going across the prairie before they get to the mountain pass.
> General consensus is that it meant "eat first or fuck first?". BS,
> presumably, is bullshit.

I wondered about that one. Thanks!

[John David Galt]

> On 2015-08-17 4:05 PM, reilloc wrote:
>> At the Cato Institute, in 2010, lecturing, Bill Patterson claimed that
>> Heinlein left an index card in a safety deposit box to be opened after
>> his death, saying (in summary) that people who identify SST, tMisHM and
>> SiaSL as his "best works" are the people who "get" what he was trying to
>> say. Hockey puck.
>>
>> TEfL, NotB and tSBtS are what he was trying to say and everybody knows
>> it. The former three are patently mental masturbation while the latter
>> make no bones about importance of the real thing.
>>
>> It was always EForFF (and usually, FF) and only BSorFF to pay the bills.

On 2015-08-29 16:57, Rhino wrote:
> Would it kill you to write out the actual titles? I am very familiar
> with Heinlein and even I can't think of what half of these acronyms
> stand for.
>
> I know SST is Starship Troopers, tMisHM is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
> SiaSL is Stranger in a Strange Land, TEfL is Time Enough for Love but
> I'm blanking on what the remaining ones are.

NotB = (The) Number of the Beast
tSbtS = To Sail Beyond The Sunset