Hubris

This is related to the Senders theme of radioactive contamination of our environment.
mcvoices.info post

Senders roots 6

Sometime in 1992 KTEH transmission changed.  We were no longer able to get channel 54, and didn’t want to take on the monthly payments of cable. No more science fiction nights, no more PBS, no more Sesame Street for my youngest.  However, the era of Bill Clinton was ushered in, and negotiations over the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty began in 1993.  I renamed ditsy me “Jane Malthus” and began my off-the-wall campaign to persuade Bill to support ratification of the “Seedy Bee Tea.”

Senders roots 5

August 30, 1990   (scribbled notation says “mailed 8-22-90″)

George Sampson
KTEH 54
100 Skyport Drive
San Jose, CA  95110-1301
Dear Mr. Sampson:
Hi, it’s me again. OK. This is what I figured out.
If your station is going to be Earth’s official welcoming comittee for beings outside of the Solar System, maybe you can borrow some tactics from

Senders roots 4

But the buzz I got from the first contest stayed with me, and I ran with the concept of communicating with extra-terrestrial beings.  The contests stopped, but I kept writing to George Sampson anyway, and by August of that year had established key characters in the Senders saga:  Maud Clemens, Lucy (Lisa, Lysa, Leeza Meitner), and a ditsy me later to be named Jane Malthus.  I had also established that the Senders were seeking information, and the only way to give them the information was through broadcasting, probably derived from Ray Bradbury’s story about helpless astronauts spinning away from their spaceship, drifting through a “cloud” of Earth’s radio transmissions bearing snippets from a world they would never see again.   My letter to George Sampson in August of 1990 indicates an on-going, one-sided correspondence:

Senders roots 3

My efforts in subsequent KTEH Science 54 Fiction Night contests did not fare as well.  In particular, one contest provided us with an imaginary time machine and asked what we would do with it.  I put together a team of linguistic experts who travelled back to biblical times and used their influence to amend the Bible to include commandments on using birth control.  From comments made by George Sampson’s vacation time stand-in, I gathered that was not a popular response.

Senders roots 2

My t-shirt-winning response to the KTEH challenge was as follows:

Question One:  How can we establish permenant, peaceful, and mutally beneficial communication?

Question Two: Can you provide me with documents written in Earth English which explain in detail your physiological and psychological make-up, the entire history of your species, including the location of your planet, and the physics and mechanics behind your mode of interstellar/interplanetary travel?

Question Three:  Would you like a cup of tea?

Senders roots pt 1

Looking back through the files relating to The Senders of Shaula I’ve accumulated over the years, I came across letters that reminded me of the true origin of the characters.  In 1990 the television station KTEH 54 had a weekly “Science Fiction Night” hosted by George Sampson.  We regularly tuned in for “Dr Who” “Blake’s 7″ “Red Dwarf” and “The Prisoner.”  To increase viewership, George started a series of small contests, in which viewers sent in responses to various instructions.  I was jazzed when I got “First Runner Up” for the first contest (and won a “Prisoner” t-shirt.)  The first contest was “Aliens who land in your backyard will talk only to you and have only enough power to answer three questions. What are your questions?”