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Mark R. Leeper mused on arriving at the future in The MT Void, vol. 19, no. 29:
"Well, we have finally made it to the new millennium. I always pictured that this would be a great futuristic world when the 21st Century came. You know, you would be seeing see ads for people to work in the out-world colonies, that sort of thing. [...] We cannot even go to the moon again much less have out-world colonies and ads for people to work in the out-world colonies. At least, so I thought. Then I was driving near my house and there was an ad for a health club in the neighborhood. And honest-to-mushroom at the top of the billboard it says in large letters:
"Work Out World"
One of the legendary names of the science fiction field had one of his best-known stories serialized this year in the groundbreaking magazine Modern Electrics. Yes, it was Hugo Gernsback's best-known work, Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660. For those who haven't read it, a few blurbs:
"As far as the plot goes, it's got about as many calories as a wilted celery stalk" --Neil Walsh, SF Site
"One of the worst disasters to hit the science fiction field" --Brian Aldiss
"Thoroughly deficient as fiction" --American National Biography
A good year for Confucius: the emperor Zhenzong of the Song empire (in what is now southern China), having forced Buddhists and Daoists in his kingdom to merge, now declared that a new wave of temples to Confucius to be built. For his final act, Zhenzong would then go insane for his last few years, with one of his empresses allegedly ruling instead.
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