Lamb on the Run: Will Mars send a space ship here?

”War of the Worlds” revisited…

How many of you were around Oct. 30, 1938, when CBS Network broadcast (on radio, there was no TV then) the “Mercury Theatre on the Air” aired “The War of the Worlds?”…

Mercury Theatre, with Orson Welles as its chief, broadcast a supposed landing of a space ship from Mars…It was based on the novel by H.G. Wells…

…But thousands of people took it for real…Instead of landing in England as in the book, the Martian spaceship landed near Grover’s Mill in New Jersey…

…The show started with a series of news bulletins, which radio listeners of the time, were familiar with…The bulletins interrupted a purported program of music…

…The story was that a meteorite, actually a space ship from Mars, landed and the occupants used special weapons to incinerate curious onlookers who had come to see the crash site…

…Other space ships followed…Supposedly, government spokesmen in Washington D.C. went on the air trying to calm the citizens…

…A supposed newscaster in New York described how “great machines” were wading across the Hudson River to invade the city…

A recounting of the “attack” in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia says probably only a few listeners actually were frightened, but hundreds did call the police and other agencies seeking clarification…

…Hundreds did flock to Grover’s Mill, N.J., and police were sent to the area to help control the crowds…

…Eventually, calm returned to the parts of America where “War of the Worlds” was heard on the radio…

…One of the questions asked about Sunday’s planned landing on Mars is why the lander is named the Phoenix…Couldn’t they call it the Tucson, where the University of Arizona and its astronomers and space scientists are located?…

Things to read while on the road, license plates … “BYNBYE” … “HSKRPWR” a Nebaska Cornhusker fan? … And from a list sent by friends … “NVRMND” … “10 PIN” … “PAY 4 IT” … “PSSSST” …

Maybe you can judge a book by it’s cover…Wife Ann brought home a $1 book from the White Elephant thinking it was another good picture book about Manhattan…But the picture of the mayor, William J. Althaus, didn’t quite click…

… “He’s a pretty good looking guy, how come I never heard of him?” she asked…

…A little closer examination of the book showed pictures of the pig races at the county fair and the “final inspectors” at Dentsply, maker of artificial teeth…

…And there were pictures of the Susquehanna River, but not the Hudson or East River…

…Turns out the book was “York City 250 Years 1741 - 1991”…Not New York City as we first believed…

…Anyway, York City is a beautiful 250-year-plus city in southcentral Pennsylvania…

…And when I lived in Pennsylvania, we just referred to it as York, not York City…

From a friend…“What’s the definition of a will? (It’s a dead giveaway”)…“The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered”…“When a clock’s hungry, it goes back four seconds”…“The short fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large”…

Jim Lamb’s a reporter for the Green Valley News, and he’s not planning to be outside looking skyward Sunday when the Phoenix is supposed to land on Mars. Anyway, the Flaundrau Science Center at the University of Arizona will hold a celebration 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday. It’s free.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749