Bruce Portzer wins Award

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Bruce Portzer wins Award

Postby jon » Thu Aug 07, 2008 12:51 pm

Legendary Seattle DX'er, Bruce Portzer, and friend to many of us teenage Burnaby radio geeks of the '60s, has won a literary award. I'll let you read the details here: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/scott.rice/blfc2008.htm

Here is his winning entry, for worst opening sentence of a Romance novel:
Carmen's romance with Broderick had thus far been like a train ride, not the kind that slowly leaves the station, builds momentum, and then races across the countryside at breathtaking speed, but rather the one that spends all day moving freight cars around at the local steel mill.

Bruce Portzer
Seattle, WA


Yes, the award is named after the same Lytton for whom Lytton, B.C. is named.
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com
He began a novel with those immortal words "It was a dark and stormy night;..."
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Seattle Times article

Postby jon » Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:35 am

The Seattle Times is covering the contest. And the three Seattle area winners:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... er07m.html
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Postby Dan Sys » Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:26 am

Good going Bruce! How are things? (I'm assuming you check this site out every now & then).

Hey Jon.....Bruce was also a friend to many of us teenage Vancouver radio geeks of the '60s too (not to mention that legendary geek of all geeks in North Surrey).
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Postby Glen Livingstone » Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:49 am

Dan Sys wrote:Bruce was also a friend to many of us teenage Vancouver radio geeks of the '60s too (not to mention that legendary geek of all geeks in North Surrey).


I don't think I get the discredit that I so richly deserve for introducing you all to you-know-who.

I think you should all get together and purchase a commemorative plaque with my name on it and erect it on the site of the old Star Market on the King George Highway.

How about it fellas?
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Postby jon » Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:51 am

You're right, of course, Dan.

Help me out with some other Vancouver names, especially spelling:
- Len Mack
- Larry Killack
- Bill Wilson

And there was Dwight Morrow in White Rock.
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Postby jon » Sat Aug 09, 2008 10:57 am

As for Bruce, he had this to say, when I mentioned his achievement in another public arena:

Jon overstated my achievement just a bit. I actually only won a dishonorable mention in the Romance category. There were plenty of other entries worse than mine, spread out over several genres. You can read the whole lot of them at http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/ [a direct link to this year's results is http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/scott.rice/blfc2008.htm]

One thing I learned from the contest - anyone can write really badly without even trying, but it takes a lot of effort to write intentionally bad prose and have it be amusing or entertaining.
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Postby Dan Sys » Sat Aug 09, 2008 7:36 pm

A few years ago Larry Killick was teaching English at Gladstone Secondary in Vancouver. We tracked him down and invited him to the Radio Freak GTG held in my backyard at the time, but he was a no-show.

I tentatively recall hearing many years ago that Len Mack had passed away. I recall visiting his little suite on Abbott Street in the 60's which was about the worst possible location for an AM DX'er to be based out of.

No idea what happened to Bill Wilson or Dwight Morrow. I ran a Google search on the latter and came up with this page from a ham radio convention (#34 on the list). Probably the same guy, now residing in Kamloops.
http://www.bcdxc.org/registered_guests_2006.htm

You didn't mention Brian Williams, Doug Pearson, or Theo Donnely. Brian and me have maintained a great friendship through the decades. We usually hit the pub every couple months and reminisce. I also see Doug every now and then, usually with Brian. Theo resurfaced at the above mentioned backyard GTG and also attended the most recent Radio West gathering at the Marine Pub.

Pluto.....I can't thank you enough for introducing me to "you know who" way back then. He has provided me with an untold amount of entertainment through the years. Your idea for a commemorative plaque with your name on it is great! I think it should also include the old "round radio" from Henry's car and an honourable mention to Twinkles (who so tragically left the planet far too early with cancer).
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Postby jon » Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:54 pm

Yes, Dwight Morrow moved to Kamloops a few years ago, and still does some DX'ing. He contacted me nearly 10 years ago, and I get his Christmas e-mail each year.

Abbott Street was truly terrible as a DX location because of the trolley (electric) bus lines going right by. As a result, Len generally confined his DX to 1-5am when the buses weren't running. I'm not sure the power was turned off, but it would likely have been clean enough, from an RF perspective, to allow some DX.

Len moved into Veterans Affairs housing at the end of the 1960s, but he likely needed care because of declining health. He had served in the Korean War and never recovered from the Malaria he got during that time. Apparently, it kept recurring over the years, and undoubtedly seriously shortened his life.

Only funny story that I can relate about Len is how Paul Lotsof, a visiting DX'er from Buffalo, freaked out in the very old elevator in Len's building on Abbott. Yes, it was that creapy.

Showing my age to forget Brian Williams and Doug Pearson. But my excuse for Theo is that he will always be a New Zealand DX'er in my mind.

Glad I'm not the only one who remembers Bill Wilson. Believe that he was doing a Masters degree at UBC. And then moved to Ontario to get his PhD. Was it Physics he was majoring in? Bright guy, as I remember him describing how you could combine the signals from two identical receivers, out of phase, one very sensitive and the other set to be not very sensitive, both set to the same frequency, say 1130 KHz, and the result would be whatever stations were "under" CKWX. Remember, this was the 1960s!
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Postby Glen Livingstone » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:59 am

The winning entry in the 2008 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been announced - and it's a good one.

Pluto


SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- A grotesque comparison of a steamy love affair to a New York City street has won a Washington man this year's grand prize in an annual contest of bad writing.

Garrison Spik, a 41-year-old communications director and writer, took top honors in San Jose State University's 26th annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest with this opening sentence to a nonexistent novel:

"Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was open 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros., Piscataway, N.J."'

The contest is named after Victorian novelist Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, whose 1830 novel "Paul Clifford" famously begins "It was a dark and stormy night."

Entrants are asked to submit bad opening sentences to imaginary novels. Awards are given for many categories, including awards for "purple prose" and "vile puns." The top winner receives a $250 prize.

Other noteworthy submissions:

"'Toads of glory, slugs of joy,' sang Groin the dwarf as he trotted jovially down the path before a great dragon ate him because the author knew that this story was a train wreck after he typed the first few words."

-- Alex Hall, Greeley, Colorado

"Like a mechanic who forgets to wipe his hands on a shop rag and then goes home, hugs his wife, and gets a grease stain on her favorite sweater -- love touches you, and marks you forever."

-- Beth Fand Incollingo, Haddon Heights, New Jersey
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