The world mourns the loss of one of its greatest and most gentle humans with the death of Arthur C. Clarke. He passed away late last night in his home in Sri Lanka at the ripe old age of 90.

If I had to point to any person or persons in my nearly 60 years of living on planet Earth that influenced me the most (outside of my parents) I would have to narrow it down to just two men, humanist and philosopher Joseph Campbell and the renowned, author, scientist, futurist and humanitarian Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

For most Sir Arthur is probably best known for writing the sci-fi novel that set the tone for everything that would be seen on the movie screen in the 20th Century if it dealt with outer space, the revolutionary story of “2001: A Space Odyssey” (originally written in 1948), which was brought to the big screen by a collaboration between him and the legendary director Stanley Kubrick in 1965. To say that the novel and film were eons before their time would be a gross understatement. Relying on scientific fact and the limitless imagination of his genius, Clarke allowed an entire generation of closet geeks to come out and change the face of both the scientific and entertainment community simultaneously. He made us proud to be geeky, smart, and yes, a bit nerdish.

Sir Arthur is reverently referred to as the father of the modern communications age when as early as the 1940’s he stunned the scientific community with the concept of using orbital satellites for worldwide telecommunications. Again, in 1940, he was the first to predict that man would be on the moon before the close of the 20th Century and was the first pioneer and proponent for seeing the need to move into green technology decades before anyone else saw the dangers of global temperature shifts.

What made his sci-fi novels so believable and lasting, so that over the last 60 plus years they have stood the test of time and will live on long after most of us are gone, is how he interlaced his fantastic stories with the harsh realities of scientific fact married to scientific possibility.

There have been many SF and genre-related influences in my six decades of living. Such people as the great Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and the feisty but brutally honest Harlan Ellison, but it is Sir Arthur C. Clarke that will forever hold a unique and special place reserved in my heart and memory. I will miss him greatly and the world is less with his passing.

First, Mary Ann is a naive and sweet girl who obviously doesn’t know that you never drive around in Idaho with your stash in the car and secondly, she’s been stuck on that island for decades and well….she’s sweet!

Last month Wells was sentenced to five days in jail, fined $410.50 and placed on probation after pleading guilty to one count of reckless driving. She had been charged with driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance and having with her some drug paraphernalia. However, those more serious misdemeanor charges were dropped, although, in today’s world, driving under the influence is no laughing matter and should never be treated lightly.

All this stems from being pulled over back in October 2007 when she got nabbed by a Teton County police officer after he noticed that Wells was driving erratically. After watching her swerve, speed up and slow down without apparent reason, the police officer decided to pull the car over. Wells, age 69, was returning home from a surprise birthday party, and SURPRISE, she got hauled off to jail after the officer smelled marijuana in the car and under inspection found a half-smoked doobie and two small empty cases that can be used to store grass in. She then proceeded to miserably fail the administered sobriety test.

For her defense, Wells stated the marijuana wasn’t hers but belonged to a couple of passengers she had dropped off and that she was unaware of it, thought they were smoking a cigarette. Those at the party testified that she had little to drink at that evening’s party. Her lawyer stated that Wells was swerving because she was trying to adjust the heater in her new and unfamiliar car.

The judge took all of this testimony into account, discharging the 3 major accusations but hitting her with the driving under the influence charge which comes with the automatic five days, small fine and six month probation.

See, we told you she was still sweet and innocent.