The Stand - complete edition, by Stephen King
(from internet transcript)
excerpts, Chapter 34
“Listen to me, Sylvester, and listen very carefully.”
“My name’s not—”
“You don’t have the slightest idea how big a jam you’re in, Sylvester.” Devins’s gaze never faltered. His voice was soft and intense. His hair was blond and crewcut, hardly more than a fuzz. His scalp shone through pinkly. There was a plain gold wedding band on the third finger of his left hand and a fancy fraternity ring on the third finger of his right. He knocked them together and they made a funny little click that set Lloyd’s teeth on edge. “You’re going to trial in just nine days, Sylvester, because of a decision the Supreme Court handed down four years ago.”
“What was that?” Lloyd was more uneasy than ever.
“It was the case of Markham vs. South Carolina,” Devins said, “and it had to do with the conditions under which individual states may best administer swift justice in cases where the death penalty is requested.”
“Death penalty!” Lloyd cried, horror-struck. “You mean the lectric chair? Hey, man, I never killed anybody! Swear to God!”
“In the eyes of the law, that doesn’t matter,” Devins said. “If you were there, you did it.”
“What do you mean, it don’t matter?” Lloyd nearly screamed. “It does so matter! It better fuckin matter! I didn’t waste those people, Poke did! He was crazy! He was—”
“Will you shut up, Sylvester?” Devins inquired in that soft, intense voice, and Lloyd shut. In his sudden fear he had forgotten the cheers for him in Maximum, and even the unsettling possibility that he might lose a tooth. He suddenly had a vision of Tweety Bird running a number on Sylvester the Cat. Only in his mind, Tweety wasn’t bopping that dumb ole puddy-tat over the head with a mallet or sticking a mousetrap in front of his questing paw; what Lloyd saw was Sylvester strapped into Old Sparky while the parakeet perched on a stool by a big switch. He could even see the guard’s cap on Tweety’s little yellow head.
This was not a particularly amusing picture.
From 5/15/1984 ( as Kerry Wayne Burgess I began active service for an enlistment period of six years as a United States Navy enlisted seafarer ) To 7/20/2021 ( ) is 13580 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 1/7/2003 ( premiere USA TV series episode "Nova"::"Spies That Fly" ) is 13580 days
From 5/15/1984 ( Ronald Reagan, 40th President of USA: Proclamation 5194 - Missing Children Day, 1984 ) To 7/20/2021 ( ) is 13580 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 1/7/2003 ( premiere USA TV series episode "Nova"::"Spies That Fly" ) is 13580 days
From 1/19/1956 ( premiere USA TV series episode "Four Star Playhouse"::"Tunnel of Fear" ) To 7/20/2021 ( ) is 23924 days
23924 = 11962 + 11962
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 8/3/1998 ( "Rainbow Six" by Tom Clancy ) is 11962 days
From 5/8/1994 ( premiere USA TV miniseries "Stephen King's The Stand"::miniseries premiere "The Plague" ) To 7/20/2021 ( ) is 9935 days
From 11/2/1965 ( my known birth date in Antlers, Oklahoma, USA, as Kerry Wayne Burgess ) To 1/14/1993 ( premiere USA TV series episode "The Simpsons"::"Marge vs. the Monorail" ) is 9935 days
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/jeff-bezos-launch-himself-space-first-time-next-month-n1269799
NBC News
Jeff Bezos to launch himself into space for first time next month
"On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend," Bezos announced on Instagram.
June 7, 2021, 4:12 AM PDT / Updated June 7, 2021, 5:10 AM PDT By Wilson Wong
Jeff Bezos announced on Monday that he and his brother will join the first crewed spaceflight from his private rocket company on July 20
In his announcement on Monday, Bezos said: “To see the earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with the earth, with humanity — it’s one earth."
Rainbow Six (1998) - Tom Clancy
(from internet transcript)
excerpts, Chapter 8
"How do we proof-test it?" Maggie asked.
"Monkeys. How we fixed for monkeys in the lab?"
"Lots," she assured him. This would be an important step. They'd give it to a few monkeys; then see how well it spread through the laboratory population. They'd use rhesus monkeys. Their blood was so similar to humans."
Subject Four was the first, as expected. He was fifty-three years old and his liver function was so far off the scale as to qualify him for a high place on the transplant list at the University of Pittsburgh. His skin had a yellowish cast in the best of circumstances, but that didn't stop him from hitting the booze harder than any of their test subjects. His name, he said, was Chester something, Dr. John Killgore remembered. Chester's brain function was about the lowest in the group as well. He watched TV a lot, rarely talked to anyone, never even read comic books, which were popular with the rest, as were TV cartoons - watching the Cartoon Channel was among their most popular pastimes.
They were all in hog heaven, John Killgore had noted. All the booze and fast food and warmth that they could want, and most of them were even learning to use the showers. From time to time, a few would ask what the deal was here, but their inquiries were never pressed beyond the pro-forma answer they got from the doctors and security guards.
But with Chester they had to take action now. Killgore entered the room and called his name. Subject Four rose from his bunk and came over; clearly feeling miserable.
"Not feeling good, Chester?" Killgore asked from behind his mask.
"Stomach, can't keep stuff down, feel crummy all over," Four replied.
"Well, come along with me and we'll see what we can do about that, okay?"
"You say so, doc," Chester replied, augmenting the agreement with a loud belch.
Outside the door, they put him in a wheelchair. It was only fifty yards to the clinical side of the installation. Two orderlies lifted Number Four into a bed, and restrained him into it with Velcro ties. Then one of them took a blood sample. Ten minutes later, Killgore tested it for Shiva antibodies, and the sample turned blue, as expected. Chester, Subject Number Four, had less than a week to live not as much as the six to twelve months to which his alcoholism had already limited him, but not really all that much of a reduction, was it? Killgore went back inside to start an IV into his arm, and to calm Chester down, he hung a morphine drip that soon had him unconscious and even smiling slightly. Good. Number Four would soon die, but he would do so in relative peace. More than anything else, Dr. Killgore wanted to keep the process orderly.
- by me, Kerry Wayne Burgess, posted by me: 04:41 AM Pacific-timezone USA Tuesday 04/15/2025
