1976 was a great year for Galaxy Magazine

As I entered my teen years my periodical buying switched from comics to science fiction magazines. I bought them all. Analog was clearly the leader in the early 70s, having the best production values, the best cover artists and the best authors. But by mid decade Galaxy was really pulling hard, or else my taste in fiction was changing! 1975 and 1976 issues of Galaxy gave us plenty of John Varley and Larry Niven. And 1976 had something worthwhile in each and every issue:

January--look at that awesome Rick Sternbach cover!  This issue introduced us to Niven & Pournelle's MOTE series, a SF favorite. Also a short story by Spider Robinson- It's a Sunny Day.

February gave us more Larry Niven--"Down and Out", the first part of  the novel "A WORLD  OUT OF TIME", which was continued in the Smoke Ring novels.

March 1976--stories by Spider Robinson and Fred Saberhagen. Not top of the heap stuff, but I did like the Stephen Fabian cover.

They skipped April, but May 1976 had one of my favorite John Varley stories-Overdrawn at the Memory Bank. This was made into a movie starring Raul Juila.

July's issue had Varley's "Gotta Sing Gotta Dance", a much overlooked story in my opinion. Fabian did the cover representing said story.

September's issue began Niven's  "The Children of the State" which was the bulk of his novel A WORLD OUT OF TIME. Rick Sternbach cover.

October not only had part 2 of "The Children of the State" , but another John Varley story . Fabian cover.

November- The first UPC code defacement of the front cover was an omen of the decline of the SF magazine genre in the next few years, But this issue had not only the conclusion of Noven's novel, but the beginning of Fredrick Pohl's Gateway, the start of his multi-volume HEECHEE series. I think that this is the first Vincent DiFate cover I'd seen depicting people and real objects. I liked his abstracts better.

The final issue of 1976 continued Gateway, and also had a science article by Robert Forward.

B-9 Be Mine

Space Age Valentines

for us kids of the 50s & 60s.......

Comic Book Short Story- Casey Jones "The Great Mail Race"

 Long before he skippered that famous three hour tour, Alan Hale Jr was in charge of The Cannonball Express. "Casey Jones" ran fro 32 half-hour episodes in 1957 and '58.

  There was a one shot tie in published by Dell. Four Color #915 (July 1958) was drawn by Bill Ziegler with writing by Robert Schaefer.

Here are the 2 "infopages" for this issue

British MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E story

Not published in the US, here is the four page MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E story from the 1966 Lady Penelope annual from the UK

artist unknown. Looks like a few photos were traced in, to me.

Fiesta Ware

candle holder

Fiesta is a line of ceramic dinnerware glazed in differing solid colors manufactured and marketed by the Homer Laughlin China Company of Newell, West Virginia.

When it was introduced in January 1936 the decoration of dinnerware and kitchenware ceramics was still inspired by the Victorian era, based on full, predetermined sets of dinnerware, all decorated with the same decal designs. With its solid color glazes and mix-and-match concept, Fiesta represented something radically new to the general public.

The original colors were ivory, yellow, light green, turquoise, dark blue, and red-orange.

Fiesta was sold until 1973, although the colors and selection had dropped since the late 50s.


Laughlin began producing Fiesta again in 1986 with these colors, none of which match the original 1930s colors...


Rose (true pink) (1986-2005),
Black (slightly chocolate under bright light) (1986-),
Cobalt (dark navy blue) (1986-),
White (bright stark white) (1986-),
Apricot (pale pinkish tan) (1986-1998).
Yellow (pale custard/butter) (1987-2002),
Turquoise (more greenish than vintage Turquoise) (1988-),
Periwinkle (slightly lavenderish-blue) (1989-2006),
Sea Mist (pale mint green) (1991-2005),
Lilac (soft purple) (1993-1995),
Persimmon (brownish-orange) (1995-2008),
Sapphire (medium bright blue like faded denim) (Bloomingdale's exclusive 1996-1997),
Chartreuse (brighter and greener than vintage Chartreuse) (1997-1999),
Pearl Gray (warm light gray) (1999-2001),
Juniper (dark bluish-green) (1999-2001),
Cinnabar (brownish-burgundy) (2000-2010),
Sunflower (bright yellow) (2001-),
Plum (deep dark purple) (2002-),
Shamrock (bright deep green) (2002-),
Tangerine (bright orange) (2003-),
Scarlet (deep true red) (2004-),
Peacock (bright blue) (2005-),
Heather (dark reddish-purple) (2006-2009),
Evergreen (dark bluish-green) (2007-2009)
Ivory (egg shell/off white) (2008-)
Chocolate (rich brown) (2008-)
Lemongrass (yellowish chartreuse) (2009-)
Paprika (dark rust) (2010-)
Marigold (yellowish-orange)

Harlequin, often confused with Fiesta, was made exclusively for Woolworth by the Homer Laughlin Co., It is lighter in weight. The rings are separated from the edge by a plain band. Pointy handles and cone shapes characterize this pattern, the Art Deco collector’s delight.

Harlequin pitcher

1944 ad for commercial air conditioning