Friday, February 23, 2007

The Way-Back Machine


When I was a boy I didn’t miss an episode of The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. If you’ve ever seen it, you know there was a regular segment called Peabody's Improbable History with Sherman and Mr. Peabody. Sherman was a redheaded boy with horn-rimmed glasses, so we instinctively recognize that he is the nerdy, bookish type. Mr. Peabody, who wore a similar pair of glasses, was a dog of superior intellect. No, he didn’t fetch Frisbees with his hind feet while balancing on his nose or tap out the square roots of integers with his paw – he spoke quite fluent English, and he invented things. His most amazing invention was The WABAC (way-back) Machine! Using this marvel to defy all principles of the space-time continuum, Sherman and Peabody would journey back to witness a different famous historical event each episode.

You’ll never believe this (don’t worry, I’m making it up anyway), but I found the original plans for the WABAC machine, and I’ve installed one here at the blog. From time to time we’ll journey back, not to famous historical events but to significant events recorded in my journals through the years. If you like, you can just call them flashbacks, but I prefer to imagine it as a trip in the WABAC. I will label those entries with “The Way-Back Machine”. Stay tuned…

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