The old saw about the early bird just goes to show that the worm should have stayed in bed. (Heinlein 1973)
More like this
More SF indulgence, excuse me: Gary Farber has been reading Heinlein's rediscovered "first" novel (brief summary: it's very bad), and
Peter Suderman asks, Is Robert Heinlein Our Best Pulp Novelist? I suppose this hinges on what you mean by "best," but it seems like Heinlein is probably at the front of any list.
While I was out, John Scalzi had an interesting post about the changing economics of short story writing. Back in the day, Robert Heinlein made a living selling stories at a penny a word:
Over in LiveJournal land, nwhyte just finished reading all the Hugo-winning novels, and provides a list of them with links to reviews or at least short comments.
Heinlein was very good for common sense quotes like that one.
I agree. I think my favorite one was from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long:
"Budget the luxuries first."
About 15 years ago I had an interesting exchange with a corporate vice-president about the worm thing. I don't remember the circumstances, but I quoted one of my favorites (apropos of my being s hardcore night person):
"The early worm has a death wish."
He responded with:
"You could say that every worm has a death wish."
My reply:
"And when you're dead and buried, who's going to eat you, huh?"
That shut him up.