| Tuesday, July
31, 2001
Home and ready to write the column, work on my books, and
keep the world going...
John McCarthy sent this:
An Israeli view of the attack, which claims to
correspond also to the results of US Congressional and military
investigations in given in the Spring 2000 issue of the magazine Azure
published in Jerusalem. The URL of the article by Michael Oren is
http://www.shalem.org.il/azure/9-Oren.htm
It is in fact a strong defense of the Israeli position that
they were incompetent rather than malicious in the attack on the Liberty
during the 6-day war. They don't put it that way, of course. In
my judgment, if you take this account as absolutely true, the
torpedo boat skipper who attacked a crippled ship and machinegunned life
boats should have been dealt with more severely. Two of the
most astute men I have ever known, Stefan Possony and General Daniel
Graham, believed there was considerably more to the incident than ever
came out and that none of it was to the credit of Israel. General Graham
as chief of DIA would have had access to all the US documents. He would
not necessarily have had access to any Israeli documents; and nothing he
told me contradicts the account given above. I find the
title "Case Closed" extremely irritating. Otherwise I know
nothing to contradict this version of the incident.
I just spent some time on the telephone with Greg Bear,
Poul Anderson's son in law. Poul has had a rather nasty form of prostate
cancer for some time. It looks as if it's about to finish him, sooner
rather than later. I first met Poul about 1960 and we have been close
friends off and on and good friends all that time. He and Gordon Dickson
and I were a fairly constant trio at SF Conventions. I think I have missed
my chance to be at one last convention with Poul.
A few views from our Seattle trip.
First, an official visit to Microsoft: 
This
is the "New" campus, a few blocks from the old. They keep
expanding. 
Product
managers:Kelly Weadock of Microsoft FrontPage, and Chandler Myrick of
"PC Experience" which is the user interface stuff that's part of
Windows XP. We also met John Montgomery, old friend and former colleague
and technical editor of the old BYTE, who is lead product manager for the
.NET framework. Unfortunately my pictures of him are too dark: I did
something wrong. When you meet and talk with these people
you find that, as I have always known, they mean well: Microsoft is not a
vast conspiracy to take over the world, or make life miserable for their
customers. I'll have more on that in my August column. It
is probably true that with Steve Balmer in charge it is going to be a
considerably more hardball company: if you thought it was ruthless before,
wait until you see what happens with Balmer and the legal eagles in
charge. Previously Gates was naive about politics and thought he could
ignore it. Now they know better, and since Bill hasn't the stomach for
what's coming, the bulldog is in charge. That is another Clinton legacy,
along with the current Microsoft stock prices... I will
have a good bit about my visit in the August column. And a
visit to Mount Vernon. Allan Susia was my room mate and friend in college
days, and built my two boats, one a midget ocean racing sailboat that Poul
Anderson and I took many places back when we were both younger. Allan and
I explored Catalina and the Channel Islands in that boat. He was also best
man at our wedding more than 40 years ago... 
Allan
and Judy sold their house on Green Lake in Seattle and bought this. From
Judy's photos it wasn't a lot when they got it: it's sure nice now. Even
the old shed looks interesting. Mount Vernon isn't quite the end of the
Earth but it can't be too far away. They like it up there... 
And
the Hollywood Bowl concert we went to Tuesday evening.
This was sent to a different forum, but I think
it applies here:
Friends --
It's with a heavy heart that I write that my father,
Poul Anderson is receiving hospice care at home and is not expected to
live more than a week. I know that some of you are fans of his work, and
if you would care to send an e-mail direct to my parents house ( trigonier@earthlink.net
) expressing what it has meant to you, he would be very appreciative. I'll
be going down there myself tomorrow (they're in the Bay Area), so will not
be getting mail here for a few days.
Astrid Bear
Poul died at midnight, Tuesday.
This aye night, this aye night, Every
night and all, Fire and fleet and candlelight, and
Christ receive thy soul.
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