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From: "Evelyn C. Leeper" <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com>
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Subject: MT VOID, 05/02/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 44, Whole Number 2378
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THE MT VOID
05/02/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 44, Whole Number 2378

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:
         Mini Reviews, Part 11 (THE POST, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN,
                SPOTLIGHT) (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
         Training AIs (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
         Willy Ley's Ashes Found in a New York City Basement (link)
         WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE by John Scalzi (audio book
                review by Joe Karpierz)
         THE PURSUIT OF THE PANKERA vs. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST,
                both by Robert Heinlein (book reviews
                by Robert L. Mitchell)
         THE BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSE: QUANTA AND FIELDS
                by Sean Carroll (book review by Gregory Frederick)
         THE AMATEUR (film review by Art Stadlin)
         Opera (letter of comment by Scott Dorsey)
         This Week's Reading (SICK CAESARS) (book comments
                by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 11 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)

Three films about investigative journalism:

I recently went on a binge of movies about investigative
journalism, and the one commonality is that all of them (so far)
emphasize that it is not so much glamorous as tedious.

The first is ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976, covering 1972 through
1975).  In this we see Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
(occasionally called "Woodstein" by their editors) going through
stacks of book requests at the Library of Congress to see if
Howard Hunt had requested books about the Kennedys.  Then they
spend endless days visiting everyone who worked in a specific
department; the list has about a hundred people on it.

(As an aside, we learn that among the other differences between
Woodward and Bernstein, Woodward was a two-finger typist, while
Bernstein was a fairly proficient touch typist.  We see this, and
producer Robert Redford confirms it in his commentary.)

Released theatrically 09 April 1976.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074119/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_presidents_men>


Then comes SPOTLIGHT (2016, set in 2001 and 2002), which covers
the exposure by the "Spotlight" section of the Boston Globe of the
sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.  Here we see the
reporters going through years of directories of priests and their
assignments looking for those who were "on sick leave" or
"unassigned".  And there is also the attempts to speak to the
victims, which involved going to dozens, if not hundreds, of
houses in the hopes of finding someone who would speak on the
record.

Released theatrically 20 November 2015.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spotlight>


And finally we have THE POST (2017, set in 1971), which is about
the Washington Post's decision to publish the leaked Pentagon
papers.  In an echo of current relations between the White House
and the press, this got the Washington Post barred from the Nixon
White house (although apparently they were already banned because
one of their reporters "crashed" Tricia Nixon's wedding).  In this
film, we see reporters trying to sort out thousands of pages of
the Pentagon papers that had had the page numbers cut off when the
top secret classification was cut off.

THE POST also has a sub-plot of Kathryn Graham and her progress
from being a socialite who left the running of the paper she
inherited from her husband to the senior staff, to assertive
decision-maker in her own right.  (That the paper had been her
father's, but he left it to her husband rather then to her, tells
you all you need to know about the era.)

Released theatrically 12 January 2018.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6294822/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_post>


[-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: Training AIs (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

Apparently several people have discovered that their papers in the
AT&T or Bell System Technical Journals were used to train AIs.
[-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: Willy Ley's Ashes Found in a New York City Basement (link)

"The basement of the prewar co-op on the Upper West Side was so
cluttered and dark in one area that the staff called it 'the
Dungeon,' and last year, the building's new superintendent
resolved to clear it out.

"For weeks, he hauled the junk left behind by former tenants--old
air-conditioners, cans of paint, ancient elevator parts and
rolled-up carpets--through the winding hallway with its low
ceilings to the dumpster out back.

"About halfway through the job, he spied an old tin can on a shelf
next to a leaf blower. He read the label:

'Remains of Willy Ley. Cremated June 26, 1969.'

"This was not the sort of thing you toss in a dumpster."

Evelyn here:

Apparently the co-op board president has since raised the money
(from Celestis and others) to send the ashes into space.  There is
a GoFundMe at
<https://www.gofundme.com/f/honoring-willy-leys-space-legacy>, but
that is for a scholarship in his name from the AMNH, not the
scattering.

Full article at:

<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/
willy-ley-rocket-ashes.html>

Non-paywalled (but good for only thirty days, I think):

<https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/
willy-ley-rocket-ashes.html?
unlocked_article_code=1.C08.fthy.u6U1zuzJcvBm&smid=url-share>

===================================================================

TOPIC: WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE by John Scalzi (copyright
2025, Audible Studios, ASIN: B0DFMXM1DV, 10 hours and 5 minutes,
narrated by Wil Wheaton) (audio book review by Joe Karpierz)

A lot of people ask me the questions "What are you reading right
now, and what is it about?"  These are usually fairly easy to
answer.  But answering the questions gets a bit tricky when it
comes to John Scalzi's new novel WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE.  I
suspect anyone who is reading this review is already familiar with
the event that sets off the entire story: the moon turns to
cheese.  If I were to lead off with that when describing this book
to anyone on the street who asks, or to a casual reader, I'd most
likely be greeted with derision--or at least the book would.  So,
I thought I'd say something like "A celestial event occurs that is
so unusual and incredible that it affects the lives of every human
on earth (and probably some of the non-human residents as well) in
very different ways.  The novel tells the story of how people on
Earth from all walks of life are dealing with the event.".   I
would then wait for the inevitable "well, just what is that
celestial event?", to which I would reply "the moon turns to
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