Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Cryptoengineer <petertrei@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Re: MT VOID, 02/28/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 35, Whole Number 2369
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2025 18:16:21 -0500
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 163
Message-ID: <vq2os5$1033n$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vq1lg3$poi4$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2025 00:16:22 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="2de0ca65c78669a5994e3a041345a105";
	logging-data="1051767"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18YjpWxUM8UNki6ZtXWQwgROSniWA4EQsU="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:Qn11Xniz3/6dxUGS+Nxj/CbYKYM=
In-Reply-To: <vq1lg3$poi4$1@dont-email.me>
Content-Language: en-US
Bytes: 9121

On 3/2/2025 8:12 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
> THE MT VOID
> 02/28/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 35, Whole Number 2369
> 
> Editor: Evelyn Leeper, evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
> All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by
> the author unless otherwise noted.
> All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
> inclusion unless otherwise noted.
> 
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to
>      evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
> The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
> An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
> <http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.
> 
> Topics:
>          Mark R. Leeper (1950-2025)
>          Middletown (NJ) Science Fiction Discussion Group
>          Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in March
>                  (comments by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
>          Questions and Answers Quotation (letter of comment
>                  by Steve Milton)
>          This Week's Reading (DEATH ON THE NILE) (book comments
>                 by Evelyn C. Leeper)
> 
> ===================================================================
> 
> TOPIC: Mark R. Leeper (1950-2025)
> 
> [I have already sent this sad news to all of you, but I want to be
> sure it is also in an official issue of the MT VOID, so that it is
> archived somewhere.  -ecl]
> 
> Mark R. Leeper passed away on February 22, 2025.  His end was very
> peaceful; one moment there was a breath, and the next there wasn't.
> 
> Mark was born in Chicago in 1950, and has lived in Chicago, West
> Virginia, Ohio, Massachusetts, California, Michigan, and for the
> last 47 years, New Jersey.  He received a B.S. in mathematics from
> the University of Massachusetts in 1972, an M.S. in mathematics
> from Stanford University in 1974, and an M.E. in electrical
> engineering and computer science from Stevens Institute of
> Technology in 1982.  While at Stanford, he had a paper published
> in aequationes mathematicae (Vol.  10, Fasc. 1, 1974) on which he
> had begun work as an undergraduate, “An Odd Solution to the
> Functional Equation P((x+1)/2)=exp P(x)”.  He was employed at Bell
> Laboratories in Holmdel and surrounding locations for 23 years
> until his retirement in 2001.  After retiring he ran a free
> drop-in math tutoring session twice a week for a dozen years at
> the Old Bridge Public Library, and when he had to leave for health
> reasons, it was continued by some of the students he had tutored.
> 
> For many years, Mark had been the longest-running film reviewer on
> the Internet, regularly publishing reviews since 1984, and being a
> member of the Online Film Critics Society since 2014.  His first
> science fiction convention was Boskone VI (1969) and he attended
> dozens of conventions, serving on panels about film, and also
> leading origami workshops at many of them.  In 1978, Mark and his
> wife founded the science fiction club at Bell Laboratories in New
> Jersey, which existed until their retirement in 2001, and then
> continued to produce THE MT VOID, a weekly zine featuring Mark's
> editorials and film writing.  It was published continuously over
> 46 years, with over 2300 issues.  Mark traveled to about five
> dozen countries and published several lengthy travelogues on-line.
> He leaves behind him his wife of 52 years Evelyn, sister Sherry,
> brother David, and many cousins, nieces, nephews, godchildren, and
> friends.
> 
> [-ecl]
> 
> ===================================================================
> 
> TOPIC: Status Report (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
> 
> Clearly my status report in the 01/17/25 issue was tempting fate.
> Mark went to the hospital a few days later with a twisted colon.
> He seemed to be recovering after they operated, but then he
> started having swallowing difficulties (common to Parkinson's) and
> a loss of appetite.  Eventually he was unable to swallow anything
> (even water), and they were unable to insert a feeding tube, and
> he passed away just a month after going to the hospital.
> 
> Thank you to all who sent condolences.  It is good to know he was
> appreciated by so many people.
> 
> As for the MT VOID, I will continue as long as I can (since
> clearly one cannot tell the future).  There will continue to be
> mini-reviews of films, and a book column, but probably not TCM
> picks.  As we say below, after fourteen years, most of the good
> stuff has been picked already.  I will mention if there is
> something wonderful available for the first time, though.
> 
> As for the schedule, I plan to still publish every Friday, and
> neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will stay it
> from its swift delivery, blah, blah, blah.  So far it's managed
> through Hurricane Sandy, a broken hip, Hurricane Isaias, another
> broken hip, several miscellaneous local power outages, and now
> Mark's passing.
> 
> I still have an exit strategy, but it still involves no change for
> the next couple of years.
> 
> Now your letters of comment are even more appreciated, since I
> doubt I can maintain the word-count of the MT VOID on my own.
> [-ecl]
> 
> ===================================================================
> 
> TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Science Fiction Discussion Group
> 
> March 6, 2025: STAR WARS - A NEW HOPE (1977)
>      play: "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope"
>          (2013) by Ian Doescher
>      audio/text:libby: <https://tinyurl.com/doescher-1>
> 
> ===================================================================
> 
> TOPIC: Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in March (comments
> by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
> 
> [This was written before Mark passed away.  It's fitting his picks
> finish with one of his favorite films.  -ecl]
> 
> After doing picks on TCM for fifteen years, it's getting harder to
> find films I haven't already recommended.  This month, I will pick
> John Huston's THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING.  You cannot do much
> better than that.  TCM appears to agree, since they seem to run it
> just about every other month.  I first recommended it in 2012, and
> have mentioned it in passing since, but I'll give it another
> full-blown recommendation.
> 
> I give THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING my top rating of +4 (on the -4 to
> +4 scale).  This was the last film that Allied Artists made.  It
> just did not earn enough at the box office to save the company.
> It is a pity because the film is nearly perfect.  Allied Artists
> could not even pay off its stars, Michael Caine and Sean Connery.
> Yet I would say it is pretty much the best film either of them
> ever made.  And that is going some.  During the age of the British
> East India Company two likable scoundrels, formerly soldiers of
> the British Army and now at loose ends decide to travel north of
> India to Kafiristan where with the aid of army guns they figure
> they should be able to set themselves up as kings.  And the scheme
> almost works.  Almost.  Originally this film was to be made with
> Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart.  It was a project that John
> Huston planned for decades before the film could finally be made.
> THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING is adventure writ large.  This is a
> smart, enjoyable, exciting adventure film, superbly written.
> Christopher Plummer is perfect as Rudyard Kipling.  Also on hand
> is popular Indian actor Saeed Jaffrey.  The dialog between Caine
> and Connery is priceless.  I give this film a very strong
> recommendation.
> 
> [THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, Tuesday, March 25, 5:30PM]

The film is closely based on a novella by Rudyard Kipling of
the same name.

There's a strong thread of Freemasonry in the plot. Kipling
was a Brother, and Masons will recognize various references,
as well as deliberate obfuscations.

pt