Old Time radio

[likethebeer]

The Whistler:

Wait a minute - there's a problem because they couldn't find the body in your "perfect" murder?

Well, now I'm just completely confused.

X-Minus One: "The Roads Must Roll" 1/4/56

by Robert Heinlein.

The entire country is connected through conveyor belts, because all cars have been outlawed (traffic jams were hell). You step on a belt, then keep going to faster belts until you're going 100 mph.

I'm a little confused as to how people can just stand there and go 100 mph w/out constantly getting their faces smeared w/bugs. And what do they do in rainstorms?

Anyway, the plot is about a bad union man who plans to shut down/blow up a section of the road as blackmail.

At the same time, there's a visitor coming from another country who wants to see how it all works: they have people picked to go through the engineer's academy who have all been chosen to be loyal and mentally/emotionally stable. During the course of the story, the main engineer supersedes the authority of the city's mayor & contemplates calling the President.

Interested in the sci-fi; freaked out by the social & political implications.

And, of course, "The roads must roll" reminds me of Dune & "the spice must flow." In fact, someone says at one point, "Those who control the roads, control the country!" ["He who controls the spice, controls the universe!"] Seems like Frank Herbert had heard Robert Heinlein. I'm not surprised.

The Shadow

I don't know who's playing The Shadow right now, but he doesn't sound like any actor I've ever heard playing him. Maybe Orson Welles had a bad cold.

Comments

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

Anyway, the plot is about a bad union man who plans to shut down/blow up a section of the road as blackmail.
Sounds like Ayn Rand read a little Heinlein too (or vice versa).

Ayn Rand & Heinlein

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

I could see that. The work by him that I've read often brings up self-determination. Although the folks in his books seem nicer than hers.

Re: Ayn Rand & Heinlein

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

I heard that Paul Ryan has distanced himself from Ayn Rand lately. Maybe it has something to do with her support of abortion rights and free love. Heck, she might even have said gays and lesbians could marry, as long as she didn't have to pay for dependent benefits.

[brianlee.livejournal.com]

I heard this one sometime ago and enjoyed it. In the same program, I heard another one about cops on a future highway. The cars were atomic powerd and went 200 mph. The big problem was kids would soup up cars but not shield them rpoperly which created crazed and erradiated manic teen drivers.
Very amusing.....

Crazed teen drivers

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

And irradiated. Slow Darwin Awards.