XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books, rec.arts.sf.misc   
   From: kludge@panix.com   
      
   The True Melissa   wrote:   
   >The interplanetary settings let writers get crazier, though. For   
   >instance, Barsoom no longer had a stable atmosphere, and a single air   
   >factory pumped out enough breathable air for the whole planet. The far-   
   >flung areas don't seem to be aware of this, and nobody ever got around   
   >to creating a backup system -- when the air-maker and his apprentice   
   >happened to die at once, the whole planet started smothering.   
   >   
   >You can't set *that* level of nonsense in darkest Africa or the exotic   
   >Orient.   
      
   Maybe.  But where is the source of the Nile?  It's actually a giant spring   
   turned into a river by a giant pumping plant built by the ancient Egyptians.   
   When the Nile started to dry up in the 1850s, destroying the crocodile   
   purse and shoe industry, Speke and Burton were sent up the dry riverbed to   
   find out what had happened.   
      
   Warning: contains obscene digressions in Burton's footnotes.   
   --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)