12:30 PM  FRIDAY 12-12-08

Greeting Loyal Airmen.  As I write this Log Entry, the scene outside is one of a glazed countryside covered with a thin layer of ice.  Most of New England was hit by a severe ice storm during the night and this morning most businesses and schools are shut down as road crews continue to lay down salt and sand over all byways.  Most of the bare trees are bent like ancient stick people, the weight of the ice causing many to break and lots of them have come down over power-lines with obvious, disastrous results.  Fortunately, our area still has power.  With fingers crossed and lots of prayers, it will remain unaffected.  What most non-New Englanders do not realize is how crippling ice is. We are prepared to handle mountains of snow, but a thin sheet of ice simply cannot be managed save for the weather temperatures rising to a melting degree.  So we stay huddled in our homes and wait.

Which is not a bad thing in that your old Air Chief has a few things to cover this week.  One of them being the fantastic model railroad display envisioned and realized by our son, Scott.  See picture above.   Scott, who resides in Bethel, Conn.,  built this layout to be auctioned off for the SCOTTY Fund, at its 7th  Winter's Eve Gala Dinner Dance & Tree Auction Last Friday.   The SCOTTY Fund, Inc.  was established in 1996 in  memory of Scott Anderson.   Scotty was a three year old who lost his life to cancer.  Wanting to do something special for this cause, Scott had the idea to built, from scratch, an entire railroad diorama.  And so for many, many nights, after coming home from work, he would go out to his garage and create this truly beautiful layout.   By the time he was finished, the cost in miniature buildings, landscape, tracks, trains etc. had climbed into the hundreds of dollars, never mind the labor hours involved. When all was said and done, the above was finished and donated.   He has not gotten back to me yet on how well the auction went or at what dollar amount it sold for.  I'm hoping it was in the thousands, as it should have been.  Scott did a magnificent job here and for a truly great cause.  We in the family are all so proud of him and wanted to share his marvelous efforts with all you Loyal Airmen.  Take bow, Number One Son.

                    
                               Forrest J. Ackerman (1916-2008)

When I was about ten years old, I discovered a newstand magazine all about old horror and science fiction movies called FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND.  It changed my life forever.  It was the product of  one man, writer/editor Forrest J. Ackerman.  Every single month it was jammed packed with little known facts about all these classic old films.  Over the years, as I read and collected this super terrific periodical, I realized I was actually getting an education in the culture of the fantastic.  Each issue fired my imagination and the things I learned in FMOF inspired me to want to do cool things, like write comic book and pulps.  And believe me, Loyal Airmen, I wasn't the only one growing up in the late 50s and early 60s who was being shaped by Uncle “Forry.”  George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, John Landis and countless other dreamers were all devoted followers of this amazing magazine.  To say he shaped an entire generations of dreamers would not be a lie.

Beside producing this great magazine, Ackerman also collected film memorabilia from all this great old movies until his California home was so packed with these cinema treasures, it became a real museum and he called it the Ackermansion and would open its doors every Saturday morning to fans.  Thousands walked through its halls and beheld one-of-kind artifacts from classic Hollywood epics.  Uncle Forry was truly one of a kind himself and last week, at the age of 92 years young, he slipped away into that land of eternal dreams.   Some four years ago, while attending a Horror Convention in Baltimore, I finally got to shake his hand and thanking him personally for inspiring me and being such a huge part of my growing up.  Rest in Peace, Uncle Forry.  And one more time, from one of your most devoted readers, THANK YOU.

And speaking of dreams, Uncle Forry would have loved books like our latest release, SECRET AGENT X – Volume III.   A few weeks ago I did up an entire Log Entry on how we devised this awesome cover by Rob Davis and Shane Evans.  Well it is now officially available for sale and I hope all you'll Loyal Airmen will check it out.  It is the third in our on-going series of all new adventures of pulpdom's greatest super-spy.  This collection features stories by John Bear Ross, Frank Schildiner, H.Jarrod Courtemance and Andrew Salmon, every one of them an action packed pulp thriller.  This title should be posted at our on-line store (see dirigible logo to left of this column) by the end of the day.  This book is the last 2008 release from Airship 27 Productions.  We think we're going out with a winner.  It has been an incredible year for Airship 27 Prod. and we now have ten titles in our ever growing catalog.  But believe me, Loyal Airmen, the best is yet to come.  We've got some great new titles planned for 2009, so stick around.  We couldn't do it without your continued support.

Which pretty much wraps up this week's Log Entry.  Valerie and I are packing as we will be flying out to Colorado at the start of next week to spend the holidays with our son, Alan, and his family.  Usually that would mean shutting down Hangar 27, but not so this year.  I'm bringing along our wi-fi laptop with us and will continue to dispatch new entries from the Rocky Mountain state.  So come back next week, if you can spare a few minutes from all your hectic holiday errands.

Till then, stay sane, remember the true origins of this holiday and do something nice to someone.  This is a time of giving, and I don't mean things.

Ron – Over & Out.