So, all this time it was real. UFOs are seen almost daily by military and commercial pilots. And ETs are here now, maybe... just maybe.

E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982)

No matter how cleverly disguised, there is a growing belief that UFOs exist and ETs (extra terrestrials) may already be here. Ufologists (Those who study UFOs) have seen public sightings rise to more than 7,200 per year.

From The New York Times recently:

"WASHINGTON — American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft, but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military, according to senior administration officials briefed on the findings of a highly anticipated government report.

"The report determines that a vast majority of more than 120 incidents over the past two decades did not originate from any American military or other advanced U.S. government technology, the officials said."

Photo taken by a US Navy pilot

The Pentagon acknowledges that we are seeing unexplainable and incredible things in the sky. And finally admitting, so are they... things so mind-blowing in appearance and performance that we can't yet imagine how that could be.

I personally accept that there could be aliens and UFOs because, why not? The universe is the most mind-blowing actuality that engulfs us... for real. And who can say that we, a tiny speck in unending space, are alone and supreme. That takes some nerve and/or naivety.

 

We've had our fun and movies aplenty in disbelief. If you've seen the 1996 movie Mars Attacks!, you know how dangerous it could be to us humans if Martians choose to ''take over." This movie has the credibility of superstars Jack Nicholson, Glen Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short and Danny DeVito, so would they lie?... unless they were themselves, aliens?

Do Not Panic! I repeat, Do Not Panic! (Just pretend there is a gasoline shortage.) The increase in sightings is not seen as an imminent invasion, but because of covid, more people are looking to the skies and noticing "things."

Which begs the question: What then will we do when we actually make human contact and perhaps, find them among us? That, my friends, is a knotty next step. Fortunately, this has been given some cogent thought by someone more conceptual than me. More on that later.

Do we fight or do we flee... or are they friends? And why wouldn't they be... unless they look as us and see squabbling and differences filled with hate, spite, racism and polarization and decide "Who wants to buy into that?" So how will it all go down?

Most interesting guess so far was a 1959 episode of the then popular TV series, Twilight Zone, titled, 'To Serve Man."

The show was in black and white (that is, before color television) and the opening was solemnly spoken by series originator Rod Serling: 

"Respectfully submitted for your perusal – a Kanamit. Height: a little over nine feet. Weight: in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty pounds. Origin: unknown. Motives? Therein hangs the tale, for in just a moment, we're going to ask you to shake hands, figuratively, with a Christopher Columbus from another galaxy and another time. This is the Twilight Zone."

*THE STORY UNFOLDS: The setting changes to several months earlier, on Earth. The Kanamits, a race of 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) aliens, land on Earth as the planet is beset by international crises. As the Secretary-General announces the landing of aliens on Earth to the worldwide public at a United Nations news conference, one of the aliens arrives and addresses the assembled delegates and journalists via telepathy. He announces that his race's motive in coming to Earth is to provide humanitarian aid by sharing their advanced technology, including an atomic generator that can provide electric power for a few dollars, a nitrate fertilizer that can end famine, and a force field that can be deployed to prevent international warfare. After answering questions, the Kanamit departs without comment and leaves a book in the Kanamit language, which leads to Michael Chambers, a US government cryptographer, being pressed into service.

Initially wary of an alien race who came "quite uninvited", international leaders begin to be persuaded of the Kanamits' benevolence when their advanced technology puts an end to hunger, energy shortages, and the arms race. Trust in the Kanamits seems to be justified when Patty, a member of the cryptography staff led by Chambers, decodes the title of the Kanamit book: "To Serve Man." The Kanamits submit to interrogation and polygraph, at the request of the UN delegates. When declaring their benevolent intentions, the polygraph indicates that the Kanamit is speaking the truth.

Soon, humans are volunteering for trips to the Kanamits' home planet, which they describe as a paradise. Kanamits now have embassies in every major city on Earth. With the U.S. Armed Forces having been disbanded and world peace having been achieved, the code-breaking staff has no real work to do, but Patty is still trying to work out the meaning of the text of To Serve Man.

The day arrives for Chambers's excursion to the Kanamits' planet. Just as he mounts the spaceship's boarding stairs, Patty runs toward him in great agitation. While being held back by a Kanamit guard, Patty cries: "Mr. Chambers, don't get on that ship! The rest of the book, 'To Serve Man,' it's... it's a cookbook!" Chambers tries to run back down the stairs, but a Kanamit blocks him, the stairs retract, and the ship lifts off.

Chambers is in the shipboard room now, and is again offered a meal. He throws it to the floor, but a Kanamit retrieves it and encourages him to eat: "We wouldn't want you to lose weight". At last Chambers, in one of the few instances of the series where a character breaks the fourth wall, says to the audience: "How about you? You still on Earth, or on the ship with me? Really doesn't make very much difference, because sooner or later, we'll all of us be on the menu... all of us." The episode closes as Chambers gives in and breaks his hunger strike.

*Thanks to Wikipedia for this synopsis.

The sad story of Henry Bemis, ironically is the foretelling story all of all us readers of the world. There is a book-saving moral here.

 Henry Bemis

"Witness Mr. Henry Bemis, a charter member in the fraternity of dreamers. A bookish little man whose passion is the printed page, but who is conspired against by a bank president and a wife and a world full of tongue-cluckers and the unrelenting hands of a clock. But in just a moment, Mr. Bemis will enter a world without bank presidents or wives or clocks or anything else. He'll have a world all to himself... without anyone."

That's how creator Rod Serling introduced "Time Enough at Last," one of the most popular episodes of his show, The Twilight Zone, a 1959 sci-fi television series. The show, in black and white back then, was loved for its clever plot twists of incredible circumstances.

You see, due to an H-Bomb explosion while Henry Bemis had locked himself into the bank's vault for a lunch hour of undisturbed reading, the outside world was vaporized, leaving him alone, with all the books of the world and all the time in the world to read them, totally undisturbed.

Sadly, just as he had surrounded himself with piles of books to read, he dropped, then stepped on his very thick eye-glasses, breaking them unfixable. And Henry was almost blind without his glasses. 

Unbelievably, his utopia was gone just as fast as it had come, and all the books in the world were left without readers. 

Now jump to today, all you book-loving Henry Bemis's. Remember Borders, a Barnes & Noble rival, no longer in business? Remember possibly your favorite book store, gone. Remember the libraries of the world, shut down to browsing because of the coronavirus?

LittleFreeLibrary.org

There is, of course, Amazon, where almost everything can be bought, books and all, no matter the virus. Thank you--I think--for that. But really, support your local bookstore if you still have one. They need you but in reality, you need them more.  

And cities like Seattle, and others where culture allows, have dozens... or perhaps hundreds, of neighborhood mailbox-like Little Free Libraries where anyone can take a book/leave a book, never a question asked because readers are like that. (You too can have one of these Little Free Libraries by your house. Click the link to see what it's all about. It is exciting for everyone who dreams books.)

Of course there are books on tape and ebooks but those aren't really books, are they? OK, they are, sort of, but not everyone wants to read on a computer or Kindle. And those who like books to be read to them are no doubt fond of being read to. Maybe it takes them back to the time mom or dad would read them The Three Little Pigs or Cinderella at bedtime. Not my thing, thank you, with the possible exception of a long, boring road trip by yourself.

Give me a book book... in any form, really, or a newspaper (what's a newspaper?). Social media or television is not reading. 

The Strand

How much do we miss bookstores (but are thankful and loyal to those we have) here's a story of true love: One of a most noted bookstores is the Strand in downtown Manhattan. If you've been there, you know you can spend happy hours there with every visit. Sadly, the famous Strand is struggling with revenue during this coronavirus era down 70 percent. "HELP!" it's owner asked... and help it got.

On the following Saturday, it received a single-day record of 10,000 online orders, crashing it's website. In the next 48 hours, the store processed 25,000 online orders (compared to about 600 in a typical two-day period. Employees have canceled vacations and coming in to help with the surge. 

You do know how much readers love their bookstore. 

l"es bouquinistes"

It's not all roses though. If you've ever been to Paris, you most probably totally enjoyed 'les bouquinistes," the 230 or so open air booksellers in carts, tents and tables that line four miles on both sides of Seine in the shadow of Notre Dame. Now THAT is a market to love. Sadly, it seems to be a tragedy in the making as the coronavirus lock-downs and its concerns make this, "a sinking ship," as a good number of the booksellers fear. Sales have plunged 80 percent and survival is in question.

Hey Madames et Monsiers, (Excusez mon francais, or thereabout) have you tried a Strand strategy yet? From all the book lovers in the world, good luck. We need you.

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORES... AND RETAILERS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. WE NEED THEM AND THEY NEED US!

Just set another personal best!

Cute, record-setting me

I woke up this morning and realized that this is the oldest I have ever been, a personal best!

At the stroke of midnight January 1st, I entered my 10th decade of life. Count 'em... the '30s. '40s. 50's, 60's. 70's, 80's, 90's, '00s, 10's and '20s! Being born late in the decade helps but it is up to me to remember... breathe in, breath out, again and again. So far, so good.

That also puts me on track as I move one step closer to

116-year-old Tane Tanaka

infinity. For the record, today's oldest, Kane Tanaka in Japan, is 116 years, 6 months and still looking good.

To put that into perspective, She was born when the Wright brothers flew for the first time ever. So she has been around for the first and every moon landing, cell phones, indoor plumbing, television, twitter and beyond. Watch out Methuselah! 

The verified oldest lived is a French lady, Jeanne Calment, who exited in 1997 at 122 years, 164 days.

 I don't know how to rank Benjamin Button who died after a long life, at zero.

Then there is Henrietta Lacks whose cells will live forever. Really.

But that's not all... and I promise you, this is truly happening now... Silicon Valley billionaires believe they have, with the help of lots of money, science and "the God molecule," found a way to live into the 150s and more. 

And the reward for living forever... well, in an episode of Rod Serling's popular The Twilight Zone scifi TV series in the late '50s and early 60's, the main character, an average man, found a magic lamp which, when rubbed, gave him one wish. He wished for immortality. The very next day he was arrested and found guilty for a murder he did not commit. He was sentenced to life in prison.

History (and God) has a way of dealing with people who think they can beat the system.

It all kinda puts things into a different take on for ever and ever (Amen.) But is that much different than the bottomless cup of coffee some restaurants offer, or Olive Garden's endless bread sticks? Well, yes silly, it is.

In the end, the greatest satisfaction the oldest person must have is the complete absence of peer pressure.