Matthew Wayne Selznick

Gadzooks! A few short chapters makes this a mega-episode! Dig in!

Chapter Thirty:

– “…in Mr. Byrd’s third period Algebra class…”

Actually had a math teacher in High School named Mr. Byrd. His son went to the school, too, which had to have been weird for the poor kid.

Chapter Thirty One:

– “I’m taking you out of school.” When I gasped, she said, “You can do the same as Lina, do home study.”

I was on independent study, as they called it at my High School, for an entire quarter of my sophomore year. There were no mad scientists after me; it was punishment for skipping class so much. I was also grounded and on phone restriction, and the drama of that time period would make a whole Young Adult novel of it’s own.

Speaking of which — because the protagonist is a teenager, many folks have been calling “BMR” a Young Adult novel. I didn’t intend it to be… what do you think?

Chapter Thirty Two:

Good thing Nate’s not on phone restriction!

Chapter Thirty Three:

– “Yeah - they’ve got this big long building off the Bendis Parkway exit on the Five. I see it all the time.”

This time the comics nod goes to modern comics author Brian Michael Bendis, who’s characters in Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, and Powers is even more wordy than mine in BMR.

I’m a fan — when I grow up and write comics, I could do worse than be like Mike. Of course, I’m actually a month older than he is, so I’d better get a move on.

– “Lina was in a school play in eighth grade - she played Portia in an abridged version of Julius Caesar.”

I was Julius Caesar in a sixth-grade play. I got to wear a toga with plastic bags of red food coloring taped inside. When I got stabbed… bloodbath! My mother nearly fainted in the audience.

Having Lina play Portia is a nod to the real-life person on whom I based Lina’s physical appearance. If you’re out there, say “hey!”

Chapter Thirty Four:

– “I dug into my wallet and pulled out the tattered, folded sheet that held my phone numbers.”

I carried a folded-up sheet of graph paper with all my phone numbers in my wallet through grade school. As it turned to lint or started to get unreadable, I would re-copy it and start over.

Just to turn curmudgeonly for a second: do kids today even know their friends’ numbers, since they all have cell phones to remember for them??

– “Mel adopted a bad Peter Lorre hiss. “All right, Nick and Nora - fill me in, or hit the road!”

Yeah, yeah. I know — but I wrote it was a bad Peter Lorre hiss, okay? Jeez, at least I don’t sing in this episode.

Chapter Thirty Five:

– “…until the Phil Donahue Show came on.”

Phil Donahue was the proto-Springer, the proto-Geraldo, the proto-Oprah, all rolled into one. His talk show aired from 1969 to 1996, and was the first of its kind.

Chapter Thirty Six:

– “She flexed her arm and made hydraulic noises. “Like the Six Million Dollar Man.”

The Six Million Dollar Man was a very cool super-hero / cyborg / bionic television series that also provided the world with a bionic dog and a bionic woman, who had her own series. The show played fast an loose with the laws of physics, but it was a blast!

– “He ran his fingers through his short hair. “Game over, man. Game over.”

Okay, so by now I hope you’re used to my weaving pop culture references into the fabric of BMR. This is taken from the movie “Aliens,” and the character of Hudson, played by Bill Paxton. He had all the best lines in that flick, which didn’t come out until 1986.

– “I almost said, “Jinx.”

This is a weird schoolyard thing with many derivations and rules. Check this out for way too much information on the subject.

– “That helped… so long as the bear-bum wasn’t still hanging out there.”

Can I tell you, I had to re-take that line about four times to keep it from sounding like “bare bumm.” Maybe it still does.

Ah well. This is one of those things you don’t catch when it’s on the printed page..!