04.05.02

Your editor is too excited by the first finished copy of his Discworld quizbook The Wyrdest Link (Gollancz, 25 April) to think of a witty opening paragraph this week…

The Philip K. Dick Award for best original US paperback of 2001 went to Richard Paul Russo's Ship of Fools.

Ray Bradbury had his name inscribed on the 2,193rd paving-stone star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 1 April. This mighty honour, accessible to those not famous enough for the Grauman's Chinese Theater forecourt, had previously gone to Lassie and Rin Tin Tin.

George Lucas is at the nasty end of a $140 million libel suit following his attempt to suppress the naughty film Starballz, 'an explicit sex parody of outer space adventure movies'. Lucas's claim that this misused Star Wars intellectual property was thrown out of court by a federal judge in January. The countersuit arises from a Lucas spokeswoman's remark implying that Starballz 'is directed to children', outraging the adult pornographers at its production company Media Market Group…

British SF Association Awards presented over Easter: Novel Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds; Short 'The Children of Winter' (Interzone 163) by Eric Brown; Nonfiction Omegatropic by Stephen Baxter; Cover Art the Omegatropic cover by Colin Odell.

Dudley Moore (1935-2002), British actor who died on 27 March aged 66, was one of the original 1961 Beyond the Fringe quartet and is also remembered in sf/fantasy circles for his roles in Bedazzled (1967) and The Bed-Sitting Room (1969).

Twenty Years Ago. Brian Aldiss hit the big time: 'Am boning up to be on "Desert Island Discs" — the Seal of Respectability which will alienate all self-respecting fans. Beethoven's Ninth or I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate? It is a problem.' (Ansible 25, April 1982)

Thog's Masterclass. Dept of Talking Posh. 'He abluted, accoutred, ate and arrived downstairs in the communal vestibule in good time to be picked up by Hans.' (James Lovegrove, 'Piecework' in Hideous Progeny, 1999).

David Langford is a writer, editor, physicist, bon vivant, and software consultant. His monthly SF newsletter, Ansible, is the essential SF-insider sourcebook of wit and incongruity. He lives in Reading, England with his wife Hazel, 25,000 books, and a few dozen Hugo awards.