[continued from previous message]   
      
   > and they were black. They didn't want him to have the pleasure of   
   > breaking   
   > this poor schmuck they had pinned.   
   >   
   >   
   > One of the sergeants asked Harlan, "have they read you the Uniform   
   > Code?"   
   > Ellison said that he didn't know what it was, that it hadn't been read   
   > to him.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > This was a good thing. The Uniform Code of Military Justice is   
   > required to be   
   > read to all new servicemen. Until the code is read, a draftee is still   
   > a   
   > civilian and not subject to military law.   
   >   
   >   
   > When the sergeant pointed out that Harlan could not be punished by   
   > conventional military means, the Second Lieutenant was furious. The   
   > sergeant   
   > them suggested that Harlan be transferred out to Fort Benning,   
   > Georgia, to   
   > undergo Ranger training. The Second Lieutenant agreed, hoping that the   
   > rigorous course would break Ellison. Needless to say, it didn't.   
   >   
   >   
   > After Harlan got out of Ranger training, he went home to New York to   
   > visit   
   > his wife (during his first marriage). He was looking forward to seeing   
   > her,   
   > and bought flowers from a sidewalk vendor. He reached his apartment,   
   > opened   
   > the door - and was shocked to discover a sailor's uniform lying on the   
   > livingroom floor.   
   >   
   >   
   > Harlan came in to the bedroom. He found his wife and the sailor asleep   
   > in the   
   > bed. He pulled the sailor out of the bed, threw him on the floor, and   
   > held   
   > him down his his boot on the seaman's chest. He yelled at his wife to   
   > get   
   > dressed. He threw the naked sailor out of the apartment and told him   
   > to go to   
   > the basement to collect his uniform. The uniform Harlan threw down the   
   > airwell so that it would end up in the basement. He and his wife then   
   > had a   
   > most heated discussion. Needless to say, that marriage did not last   
   > long.   
   > What he claimed disturbed him most was not that she was having sex on   
   > the sly   
   > with another man; but that it wasn't even with a member of his own   
   > branch of   
   > the Service.   
   >   
   >   
   > For the sake of brevity, I move on; others can do more justice to   
   > Ellison,   
   > I'm sure.   
   >   
   >   
   > -- Harlan Ellison Reading   
   >   
   > Harlan's reading was early Sunday morning. Before he began two men in   
   > karate   
   > outfits burst upon the stage. They bowed to Harlan, and then presented   
   > him   
   > with a black belt from a national martial arts organization, encased   
   > in black   
   > velvet and with his name printed in gold letters on the outside.   
   >   
   >   
   > Harlan then read his wonderful short story, "Paladin of the Lost   
   > Hour." This   
   > short story was also an episode of the Twilight Zone, starring Danny   
   > Kaye as   
   > Gaspar in his last performance. This story touched everyone who heard   
   > it   
   > deeply, and when it was finished there was not a dry eye left in the   
   > room,   
   > including Harlan's.   
   >   
   >   
   > After the story, Susan Ellison ‹ Harlan's wife ‹ entered the lecture   
   > hall.   
   > "Honey, I cried again," he said. They kissed. Harlan said that she and   
   > he   
   > will have been married for twelve years this year.   
      
      
      
   When in Fort Benning, I often think of   
   Harlan Ellison while driving through the Ranger and Airborne   
   compounds, where Ellison trained back in the late 1950s:   
      
   "I was drafted in March of 1957 and wrote the bulk of the book (Web Of   
   The City) while undergoing the horrors of Ranger basic training at   
   Fort Benning,   
   Georgia. After a full day, from damn near dawn till well after dusk,   
   marching, drilling, crawling on my belly across infiltration courses,   
   jumping off static-line towers, learning to carve people with bayonets   
   and break their bodies with judo and other unpleasant martial arts,   
   our company would be fed and then hustled to the barracks, where the   
   crazed killers who were my fellow troupers would clean their weapons,   
   spit-shine their boots, and then collapse across their bunks to the   
   sleep of the tormented. I, on the other hand, would take a wooden   
   plank, my Olympia typewriter, and my box of manuscript and blank   
   paper,   
   and would go into the head (that's the toilet to you civilized folks),   
   place the board across my lap as I sat on one of the potties, and I   
   would write (Web Of   
   The City)..." -Harlan Ellison, introduction to "Web Of The City"   
      
   I decided to do a Google search "Harlan Ellison Fort Benning" after   
   work last night, and found a wealth of information scattered across   
   Usenet, and thought it might be nice to collect it all in one place,   
   obviously here, at the "official" HE newsgroup [and just in case,   
   through the cruelty of Usenet, this ng gets deleted, as the Orson   
   Welles group was a week or so ago, crossposted to my "home", the   
   poetry ng, to help keep the thing archived]. I personally feel it   
   would be great to develop this newsgroup into as complete an area as   
   possible with info, thoughts, et cetera, of our greatest living   
   American writer. Plus, I'm drinking some great coffee, and having fun   
   with the idea..!   
   Will   
      
   Sashi Alexandra German (sashi@feith1.FEITH.COM)   
   Subject: I-Con Convention Review (Babylon-5)   
   Date: 1997/04/14   
      
   -- Home is Kinda Sorta Where You Make It   
      
   The first event I attended was a panel entitled, "Home is the   
   Strangest Place   
   of All," with Harlan Ellison, Joe Straczynski, Nancy Kress, and Barry   
   Malzberg. Unfortunately, it was not readily apparent what the true   
   topic of   
   the panel was and an explanation was not forthcoming. Harlan remedied   
   the   
   situation by changing the panel topic to "The Most Embarrassing Thing   
   That   
   Ever Happened to Me." He related a tale of his time in the Army <   
   stationed   
   In a small town in Indiana, he was surprised to discover he was the   
   only   
   eligible bachelor for miles around, the town's young men having gone   
   off to   
   work in a shoe factory one hundred and twenty miles away. He enjoyed   
   great   
   successes with the local female populace. One day, a woman friend of   
   his who   
   happened to live nearby invited him to her home, which was a farm. He   
   arrived   
   in his blue Austin-Healey to discover a multitude of horny young women   
   awaiting him. His friend asked a favor of him < would he bring down   
   some cows   
   from a pasture? He agreed. Bare to the waist, his hard torso that he   
   had   
   gained from Ranger training rippling, he mounted a horse and rode up   
   to the   
   pasture. Breaking a branch from a tree and using it as a makeshift   
   switch, he   
   drove the cows down to the barn. Impressing the admiring women   
   further, he   
   dug his heels into the side of the horse, causing it to stand on it   
   hind legs.   
   For a final flourish, he dismounted, did a somersaultS and, in front   
   of these   
   eager ladies, passed gas very, very loudly. Ellison reported that   
   after that   
   he couldn't get a date for six weeks.   
      
      
   Nancy Kress told an embarrassing tale regarding Harlan. Kress and   
   Ellison   
   were at a writer's get-together where the authors critiqued each   
   other's work.   
   Harlan was typing away in his room, the sound of the clicking keys of   
   his   
   Olympia manual coming from behind his closed door. She was taking in a   
   question on writing from another author for his "Ask Uncle Harlan"   
   column as   
   a favor. She opened the door and found Harlan sitting at his   
   typewriter,   
   writing away, completely naked.   
      
      
   Joe Straczynski related another Ellison embarrassment story. They both   
   wanted   
   to purchase a fax machine. Harlan told Joe that they should buy them   
   together   
   in order to get a deal. For several weeks Harlan worked a salesman at   
   a local   
   shop. Harlan was determined not only to get a great price, but a free   
   box of   
   paper as well. Harlan called JMS and said that they almost had the   
   price they   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)