From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Take that Darth Vader, thwack! , was  Sith and  before
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 11:45:33 -0400

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 1:38 AM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Take that Darth Vader, thwack! , was Sith and before

> At 10:25 PM 6/15/05 -0400, Ted White wrote:
> >
> >It's a Proud And Lonely Thing to have been right about STAR WARS.
>
> You were?  Hmmm...
>
> >It's as stupid today as it was then, full of misused words (like
"parsec")
> and plot frauds.
>
> When did they misuse "parsec"?  Are you talking about the "Kessel run"
> thing in the first movie (#4)?  If so, that's easily explained...the FTL
> drive they use just warps space you see, so "Making the Kessel run in
under
> xxx parsecs" is just a way of bragging about how *much* it could warp
> space, and thus shorten/speed the trip.
>
> Since we are making up the entire universe along with the drive, we might
> as well make up a bit more so it all fits together well, right?
>
> >People say to me, "But it was great to see all those neat space
> >fights onscreen!"  And I agree with them, humoring them the way I will
any
> >deranged person whom I don't wish to excite, saying, "Yes, and what a
> >relief to discover that sound really *does* travel through the vacuum of
> >space."
>
> Who said it did that?!?  I've seen all but the latest movie, and the only
> one who's ever been out in the vacuum of space during a fight was R2D2,
and
> I don't think he's ever given any indication that he was hearing anything
> while out there.

I'm not going to turn this into another long pointless argument.  You're
right, Mike:  Sound really *does* travel through space.   And in the first
STAR WARS movie they blew something (the Death Star?  It's been almost 30
years, now) up Real Good, and bigolly you could *hear* it Real Good.

--Ted White