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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Geez Steve. Benet!!!!!!??????????. I cut my eye-teeth on John Brown’s Body and Civil War studies at the age of 12, in the 7<sup>th</sup> grade. Do you remember Melora Vilis and the hay loft? Lot’s of buzz when we got to that passage. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>You’ld think I would have remembered, therefore, if it was Benet I had read. My present theory is that somebody reupped it in the fifties and I read it then.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Thanks, Steve, for connecting up two fragments of my past. Gosh, for somebody who sometimes plays a libertarian redneck on TV, you sure do know a heluva lot of STUFF about a heluva lot of STUFF! <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Hat’s off!<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Nick <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>Nick Thompson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"><span style='color:#0563C1'>ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</span></a><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> Friam <friam-bounces@redfish.com> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Steve Smith<br><b>Sent:</b> Monday, August 2, 2021 2:33 PM<br><b>To:</b> friam@redfish.com<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [FRIAM] Science fiction query?<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p>Perhaps <span style='color:black;background:#FAFAFA'>Stephen Vincent Benét's <a href="https://poets.org/poem/metropolitan-nightmare">Metropolitan Nightmare</a>, a prose poem published in 1933, just 4 years after his Pulitzer Prize winning <u>John Brown's Body</u> ?</span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span style='color:black;background:#FAFAFA'>These being the closing lines:<br><br></span><o:p></o:p></p><p><span style='color:black;background:#FAFAFA'><br><br></span><o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><pre style='background:white;box-sizing: border-box;margin-bottom:1rem;white-space:pre-wrap;font-variant-ligatures: normal;font-variant-caps: normal;orphans: 2;widows: 2;-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;text-decoration-thickness: initial;text-decoration-style: initial;text-decoration-color: initial;overflow:auto;word-spacing:0px'><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'> <i> "Say, buddy," he said,<o:p></o:p></i></span></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'>"You'd better look out for those ants. They eat wood, you know,<o:p></o:p></span></i></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'>They'll have your shack down in no time."<o:p></o:p></span></i></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'> The watchman spat.<o:p></o:p></span></i></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'>"Oh, they've quit eating wood," he said, in a casual voice,<o:p></o:p></span></i></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'>"I thought everybody knew that."<o:p></o:p></span></i></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'> —and, reaching down,<o:p></o:p></span></i></pre><pre style='background:white'><i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'>He pried from the insect jaws the bright crumb of steel.</span></i><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#343434'><o:p></o:p></span></pre></blockquote><p><o:p> </o:p></p><p><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On 8/2/21 8:25 AM, <a href="mailto:thompnickson2@gmail.com">thompnickson2@gmail.com</a> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal>Does anybody remember a science fiction phantasy concerning a summer so hot in New York that the termites started eating the steel? <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>n<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Nick Thompson<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><pre>- .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. .<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam<o:p></o:p></pre><pre>un/subscribe <a href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>FRIAM-COMIC <a href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a><o:p></o:p></pre><pre>archives: <a href="http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/">http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/</a><o:p></o:p></pre></blockquote></div></body></html>