…oh dear! What do you say about the bizarre and profound cultural phenomenon that is Tom Swift. Long before Harry Potter picked up his first magic wand, Tom Swift was off…well…inventing things. He was the first fictional character I’d encountered whose life seemed to revolve around BIG Science. If Captain Kirk kissed a green woman in the most recent rerun of Star Trek…Tom Swift was probably the guy who invented the universal translator (though it probably had a more lurid name, such as: electromegadigital voicelator. If Dr. McCoy had to give Captain Kirk a shot of something to clear up whatever he’d caught from kissing green woman of the week, then Tom Swift (in another medium all together) probably invented the protein synthesizer, or even something more simple than that, though—yeah—he would have called it the: super-antipathogenic extremohelmet…which is just Tom Swiftian for condom. I suppose, that is what comes to mind whenever Tom Swift comes to mind. As a character, this kid has been around since the very early 1900s. In his first incarnation, he was, essentially, a normal guy who just so happened to be very smart. Modeled on the self-made millionaires of his time, he didn’t attend college, but he possessed intelligence, drive, curiosity, and a curious absence of libido. As US-American culture went through changes, so did Tom Swift, though he remained pragmatic, smart, and in many ways, prosaic. He was never a super-hero; he didn’t possess magic, and many of the young boys who enjoyed reading Tom Swift novels went on to become scientists, science fiction writers, or both…many also became engineers, and…career military personnel. I suspect in many ways, young boys who read Tom Swift novels also entered into the pharmaceutical business, which probably explains drug nomenclature. NOT the trade names, but the actual names for whatever fixes what ails you. I found a bunch of Tom Swift novels (Second Series) in a bookstore window on Belmont Avenue. The bookstore in question is a wonderful nook. It smells of oxidizing paper and dust, but the guy who runs it isn’t exactly the most friendly creature on the face of the planet, and his prices are likely to drive him out of business. Ah, but he has Tom Swift novels. Many Tom Swift novels…the ones with the most lurid title and the most pulp-fictioni-ish covers. In short: gems. I’d gained new respect for Tom Swift (not that I’d ever lost respect for him when I learned that the law enforcement aid, commonly recognized as the TASER is a Tom Swift-inspired creation. That’s the thing about the Tom Swift character and mythos: all of his inventions and stories either mirror or inspire true bits and pieces of technology, and the TASER is the most flagrant example of that. Those ugly, yellow stun guns clipped to the belts of police officers (and often misused) are, quite literally Tom Alexander Swift’s Electric Rifle(s). The invention of this quasi weapon also reveals (for the first time) Tom Swift’s middle name. After all, TSER just doesn’t work. There’s so much more to say about Tom Swift, but I suspect this image can probably reveal al lot more than I can, and so I’m going to stop here and simply let this image say a few things on its own. As always, however, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week. My week is in the process of improving as Chicago will have visitors by the time many of you read this! Two special visitors! How cool is that!?!?! I can’t wait.