Though I don’t speak of it as often as I once did, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool fan of Star Trek: I grew up watching syndicated reruns of the classic series, and it is because of Star Trek that I developed an interest in what was to come later--Space: 1999 and eventually, the entire Star Wars saga. More importantly, I discovered Star Trek novels: many of which weren’t entirely good, but they were good enough to lead me in the direction of written Science Fiction in general. I’ve since moved far, far away from the Star Trek Paradigm, in terms of the species of Science Fiction that I commonly write (and read) but something of Star Trek remains with me. Maybe it’s Lieutenant Uhura and Yeoman Janice Rand in those red miniskirts and black, space-babe boots. Maybe it’s Ensign Pavel Chekov…even as a child watching Star Trek on a black and white television, I thought that The Russian was the cutest, most interesting character, and even as a child, I was immensely displeased with the fact that Chekov went through every scene on board the Enterprise without ever once taking off his shirt! How unfair!!!! The stories within the Star Trek universe were as much of a draw as the aliens they sometimes they featured: the horta, after all, is the most alien thing to ever come out of Hollywood. It wasn't some guy in a costume. Thy stories were adult, despite the miniskirts and behive hairdos. There were intriguing parallels between real life and the United Federation of Planets. The Klingons flew around in the coolest ships to ever grace the screen and Klingon cruisers are still my favorite space ships. They’re graceful…they’re kinda dangerous. I mean—their photon-torpedo launch tubes are huge and well…Kingons are really good at blowing stuff up with big, glowing torpedoes. I’m a guy, I like it when stuff goes boom and flashes all sorts of pretty lights on screen. I bring all of this up, because of a walk I took a few nights ago. As is my part-time custom: I walked around the downtown Chicago area after work. Such a habit allows me to discover odd things, like walls made out of sewing machines, beautiful things, like church walkways, and…Star Trek type things like this sculpture. It’s nothing like a Star Trek-ian bit of set dressing, but it made me think, instantly of The Guardian of Forever…that odd, irregular donut-shaped thing that talked and sent you to any part of time and space you wanted to go to. The Guardian of Forever was featured in one of the better episodes of Star Trek: an episode bearing my favorite Trek title: “The City on the Edge of Forever.” In that episode, we meet a giant, irregularly-shaped steam-breathing donut that talks. We see Joan Collins. We learn that people in the 23rd century have no clue as to who Clark Gable is. Captain Kirk falls in actual love and meets with authentic tragedy. Chekov, disappointingly, keeps his shirt on. But hey, there was a talking, steam-breathing donut that allowed time travel to occur through that supreme Star Trek invention: the temporal slide show…though these days it might be best described as the Temporal PowerPoint Presentation…hmmm…is alien technology even Window-Compatible? I thought of this as I took this picture. I wondered what would happen if I stepped through this sculpture. Would I have met Edith Keeler, looking suspiciously like Joan Collins? Would I stumble, accidentally—of course—into Ensign Chekov’s quarters, just as he’s stepping into the sonic shower? Would I meet Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and learn just what it takes to be the telephone operator on a spaceship? One can only wonder. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and THANK YOU for the wonderful birthday greetings and dedications.