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On strange bedfellows


What do these three people have in common, starting with stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen above?

Then me:


And finally Hugh Hefner, seen below posing with some attention-seeking blonde woman:


Answer: our names are listed consecutively in the 'Acknowledgements' section of Sam Weller's Ray Bradbury biography.

I happen to know Sam, and this in no way influences my opinion that he wrote an exceptionally good book about Bradbury's life, and his influence on American culture. I'm a bit mystified as to why I am in that list (for it is indeed I to whom he is referring to). But by coincidence, Sam linked together two very important people in my early teenage life. I was a huge fan of the stop-motion animations of Ray Harryhausen, particularly the Sinbad films. This might have been at the back of my mind when I made my own stop-motion animations as part of an installation a few years ago. And I, let us say, 'put to good use' my stolen copies of Playboy magazine - stolen because no local newsagent would have sold them to a minor, and also because I couldn't have afforded to buy them anyway.

Thank you, Sam, for bringing back the sweet times . . .

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