That Game from Outer Space is a 1983 children's book by Stephen Manes, illustrated by Tony Auth. A scant 57 pages (and large print at that), it tells the story of Oscar Noodleman, a boy of ten-ish and a strange arcade game that appears outside Pete's Pizza Palace. He helps Hughie (the owner of the joint) bring it inside where it stands out among the rest of the collection, and as thanks Hughie provides the necessary dollar to play the first game. Oscar ends up playing a few more games before finally achieving victory, whereupon the aliens who inhabit the game/spaceship come out and say cool, we trust you now, fix our ship for us please kthanks seeya!

It's a short story that takes place almost entirely in the Pizza Palace (with a brief stint at the ATM across the street), and we only see five characters in all: Oscar (the hero), Hughie (the only obstacle Oscar faces beyond video game enemies), Mandy (the villain, by which I mean she's obnoxious and has all the high scores in the…

As dictionaries explain, ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, what exists and what can or cannot exist. It’s one of the metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that tries to sort out the first principles of things, the ultimate roots of life, the universe and everything. What could be more basic than ‘being’ itself? Indeed, ontology is also known as ‘first philosophy’.

Until very recently, the word ontology has been known to and used by a most…

my dead hands will dig you up out of the ground
they will carry you from your slumber without a sound
anonymous and confidential,
I will open your fullest potential
and release you into the destiny upon which you were bound

my dead hands will…