Richard V. Rupp

June 26, 2021

Hello everyone. Summer is here, and I suspect it's going to be a summer like none of us alive today has ever seen before.

 

Three years ago, I moved back to the Los Angeles area from Palm Desert (near Palm Springs), and it appears I brought the desert weather with me. The entire West Coast is setting new high-temperature records.

 

I was preparing a comment on the effects of beach erosion in California before the 12-story Champlain Towers South Condo collapse in Florida. I suspect they will find that a significant contributing factor to the collapse was its location on reclaimed wetlands. Something that has been done on both coasts. A 2020 study by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University, indicted "the building was constructed on reclaimed wetlands and had been unstable for some time. It was sinking at a rate of 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s." We need to do more thinking about where we locate our communities. It will be interesting to see what is learned from the Champlain Towers incident.

 

With respect to California's beaches, climate change is taking its toll. An article in the LOS ANGELES TIMES indicates that they "are under threat because they are fed by sediment washed down from mountains. Without rain, shorelines begin to recede. The California coastline has jumped about 60 feet inland in some places in the last 10 years, according to USC research scientist Essam Heggy. 'The coastline — from San Diego to L.A. — is suffering massively from coastal erosion because of the drought, 'he said, adding that expensive beachfront homes also impede sediment from reaching the shore."

 

Based on the articles I have read, it appears that our shorelines are shrinking, and our temperatures are rising. So watch out where you step as there may be no solid ground below you, or your feet are going to get second or third-degree burns. On the other hand, maybe we have too many people and too little space. Yes, that is part of my SKYWARD novel plot.

 

You know my love of words. I was reading an article in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHICS by Victoria Jaggard Science Executive Editor titled "The Big Question: Is there anybody out there?" which started with these opening sentences – " As a high-schooler in the early 1990s, I had a fairly consistent Friday night routine: Come home from school, microwave a burrito, and scare the buttons out of my mom by tuning in to "The X Files." My adolescent brain reveled in the dark and gritty tone, the "monster of the week" formula, and the drawn-out SHIP (yes, this slang term DID arise from "The X Files") between the two lead characters."

 

Yes, I'm an old-timer and was totally, yes totally man lost by what she meant by SHIP. Now that I know the term, I will be using it in my novel SKYWARD. Yes, ship will be encouraged by the Bowman Twins to expand their moon colonies population.

 

In case you were lost like me, here is what it means. And, apparently, there is a question of whether the term originated on "The X Files" or "Star Trek." The term Ship or Shipping is based on the word "relationship." It refers to the desire by fans of pop individuals or media characters (T.V., movies, novels) for two or more individuals or fictional characters to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. The term is often used in internet texts by millennials.

 

My research indicates that the first "ship" that became widely popular and accepted was Kirk and Spock's characters from the television show "Star Trek." This began in 1968 but picked up in the mid-1970s and was often referred to as "Kirk/Spock" and later "K/S," pronounced "K slash S." This is why relationships between two men are now often referred to as "slash."

 

Okay, now there is "slash." Research on this leads me to a genre that I did not know existed – Slash Fiction.  Slash fiction (also known as "m/m slash") is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. While the term "slash" originally referred only to stories in which male characters are involved in an explicit sexual relationship as a primary plot element, it is now also used to refer to any fan story containing a romantic pairing between same-sex characters. In addition, many fans distinguish slash with female characters as a separate genre, commonly referred to as femslash (also known as "f/f slash" or "femmeslash").

 

Actually, many of the shows I have watched recently would be classified as Slash Fiction. The writers seem to have gone off on a tangent. Or, trend.

 

I'm currently binge-watching the new and last season of "Bosch." I love the character and will comment more on the show in my next post.

 

Stay cool and watch where you step.

 

Cheers,

 

Richard V. Rupp, Author

Website – www.richardvrupp.com

Email – rupprisk@gmail.com

Copyright©2021 by Richard V. Rupp