I am certain, however, of a few things in my understanding of my faith. God commands Christians to a few standards of action and belief from which there can be no deviation or question: Christians must be modest, must refrain from judgment, and must love all people as though Christ were present in that person.

At the age of 15, Rick, who had always been an avid sports fan, decided he wanted to participate in a five-mile run in support of a lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, who was not a runner at the time, agreed to push his son for the five miles in his wheelchair.

The Wastrel looks forward by looking back -- at old campaign commercials from better/worse days.

For all the great advances we’ve seen in the last 100-or-so years, we now risk simply resting on our laurels. Women can vote, African Americans aren’t segregated, we have fairly effective social welfare structures, environmentalism is on the march, and we as a society are being pulled increasingly towards equality.

I needed to feature a palette-cleansing story to calm my violent urges after reading pages of ignorant rhetoric spouted by proponents of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and here it is: introducing PaperPhone, in all its high-tech, futuristic glory!

But this is 2030 and Tokyo, where tragedy in one’s personal life is the missing ingredient to unlock science’s great mysteries. The now-inspired scientist finally completes his greatest work: a human robot. He names it Toby, but we know him better as Astro Boy.

Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Next Generation ran from 1987-1994—the formative years of my childhood. Watching TNG was a family ritual during these years (what else did I have to do in the evenings? I was eight!) I was a somewhat willing victim of the exposure and, let’s face it, so were you.

Then there are the societal oddities. It’s not clear why Callenbach thought that a progressively ecological society would bring with it so much sexual liberation that not only would polyamory be encouraged, but monogamy discouraged.

2026 – The population of Prince Edward Island balloons to 25 million after the debut of Anne of Green Gables on CCTV. Cantonese becomes the official language of the province two years later.