From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   Cryptoengineer   wrote:   
   >On 12/5/2025 6:44 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:   
   >> What is most incredibly dated are the original Tom Swift books, and they   
   were   
   >> incredibly dated when I read them in the sixties.  Swiftboats that are   
   >> propelled by electromagnets that repel the earth's magnetic field!  Flying   
   >> machines that operate by electrical repulsion!  This is the world I was   
   >> hoping to someday live in.   
   >   
   >I read those too, but remember, this is Tom Swift    
      
   No, the Tom Swift Jr. books are far more up to date, with spaceships and   
   so forth instead of high powered river craft and long distance radio.   
   They didn't seem anywhere near as interesting as the originals to me as   
   a kid because the originals predicted future technology and got it all   
   so wrong.   
      
   >The original Tom Swift appeared in 1910, with "Tom Swift   
   >and His Motorcycle".   
      
   Yes.  As the former owner of a Moto-Guzzi let me say that the motorcycle   
   offers just the kind of freedom that Mr. Appleton predicted, but at a   
   cost he did not forsee.   
   --scott   
   --   
   "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)