War Dodger

Made Sheldon "cry like a little girl." Well, that's the claim, advanced by Doctor Winkle. Maybe, the producers of the television series THE BIG BANG THEORY should consider clearing that particular mystery of the why and how, underlying that clam. If the author this novella may take the liberty of being audacious, he earnestly recommends to those said producers their reading the passage, found on page 128 and under the rubric HOTEL. Besides doing that, the author, namely A Alexander Stella, would hope others, besides those producers, would read the rest of his autobiography. Well, if pressed, he'll acknowledge researchers could be both amused and, maybe a bit put-out, to discover this novella WAR DODGER does contain several passages that are definitely fictional. This novella purports to be my account of my failure to earn a master's degree in the history of science. This happened circa the National Guards incident at Kent State in Ohio. After my active duty in the Naval Reserves on two carriers as a Journalist Third Class, I began my studying for a master's in mathematics at Oregon State University in Corvallis. It wasn't long before I discovered my chances of earning such were non-existent. More in panic than deliberately, I transferred into the History of Science department. During my slow but sure descent into academic failure, I encountered some semblance of "redemption," several "'nam" vets eager to put their experience far behind them, a "bolshie" and fully tenured professor of mathematics, and the young woman who broke my heart. Readers may wonder about the graphics, scattered through out the novella. In truth, I mean them to serve as advertisements for various ideas I've been flogging. By the way, I take some pride in my star-spangled crescent with the "ichthus" infinity. So far as I'm concerned, that particular graphic represents the notion that the moon, yes that celestial body that figures so much in romantic lore, now serves as a monument to American Western infidel technology.