Something a submarine doesn't have also...hmm...what doesnt' a submarine
have...well, feathers, big floppy clown shoes, a merry go round....

This is actually rather amusing. It's going to be *so* obvious when you
see it.

Yes, there will be a botanical area...actually, this is going to be a
*very* special and integral part of the show. It's the Garden, and it is at
the center, lengthwise, of B5. If you've seen the O'Neil station concepts,
you can look straight up to the other side of the rotating section. Lining
the circular wall are fields and trees and greenery and artificial lakes and
the rest. (A shuttle runs through the center of the garden, in the zero-g
section where there is no rotation.) It's going to be an amazing setpiece for
the show.

Funny thing...as with other shows, when you start creating a show in the
future, you have to Create The Future, down to the last detail. I was
thinking about silverware, and utility, everyday items...and we were out at a
store and I saw a *very* unusual set of tumblers/glasses that are almost
freeform sculptures, just gorgeous and very strange looking. I picked one up
immediately, and I suspect that these will be used in the show. Absolutely
utilitarian, but just very different looking.

Spent yesterday sketching out a cool piece of communications hardware for
personal use on the show. Again, trying to think out what might actually be
useful that far down the road, which took me in some directions very different
from the communicators we're used to seeing. I definitely plan on
commissioning the prop guys to make one extra of these gadgets just so I can
have it (one of the perks of running a show).

I begin to see now the process whereby, to quote history, a pair of salt
shakers can become medical scanners....creating the future out of the present.

jms