This Is Framingham

This Is Framingham
Life in the ‘ham

Earth to Framingham…

November 14th, 2006

A few weeks ago I found a book online titled “Sam Weskit on the Planet Framingham”. 

I checked the spelling couple of times, thinking I must have misread the title, but it is actually about this guy’s adventures on planet Framingham (??)

The plot:  Sam Weskit, the V.P. of a toy company is kidnapped by his boss and their chief engineer, a genius 12 year old Harvard graduate, to travel via spaceship to the planet Framingham because it has no taxes.

Apparently there is no information about the author, or what his connection with Framingham is. I’ve googled and googled to no avail. 

I’d love to know why he chose Framingham, as far as I know, we’re the only Framingham there is.  Is this a witty satire, a loving tribute or total coincidence? 
(And how does that bicycle work with square tires?)

I just got it in the mail today so I haven’t started it yet, but if anyone is interested I’ll write a little review when I’m done.

Posted in What the Framingham? |

6 Comments »

  1. Michelle- there’s a Framingham somewhere in Australia. But given the Harvard graduate thing, it doesn’t sound like anything to do with Australia nor a coincidence.

    I know I never lived in Framingham as an adult, and wouldn’t know firsthand about taxes. But isn’t the town still in Taxachusetts? :)

    Comment by Jeff — November 14, 2006 @ 4:42 am

  2. This reminds me of the early 80s cartoon Gilligan’s Planet where the entire cast of Gilligan’s Island gets marooned on a planet.

    Comment by Hummingbird Goetzl — November 14, 2006 @ 5:22 am

  3. Definitely write a review! I’m intrigued.

    Comment by Eileen — November 14, 2006 @ 2:25 pm

  4. Hi,
    I did a little searching and found there is a Framingham winery in New Zealand but no actual town with the name.

    They say they named the winery after Framingham, England but according to the information at this lecture I went to, there is only a Framlingham, England and “Framingham” is basically a result of misspelling Framlingham.
    BUT-wouldn’t the winery know this? I’m sure the speaker at the lecture (who is the trustee of the museum at Framlingham Castle) would have mentioned if there was both a Framlingham and Framingham England.
    Kind of weird.

    Here’s the post on the lecture incase anyone is interested: http://thisisframingham.com/?p=119

    Comment by michelle — November 14, 2006 @ 2:44 pm

  5. Here’s what I found: an obscure review from the Penn State Science Fiction Society, apparently from the early 90s as reposted by a like club at Carnegie Mellon U.:

    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/roboman/www/sigma/review/samweskit.html

    Interestingly, there is an East- and West Framingham split in the story at the heart of a sociopolitical battle.
    Johnston appears also to be the author of the Get Smart series, among other television stories; and of Klute.

    Comment by Matt — February 1, 2007 @ 7:58 pm

  6. This was one of my favorite books from my childhood. In fact, something reminded me of my childhood so I decided to “Google” the title, and that’s how I found your blog.

    I recommend the book highly if you’re interested in humorous science fiction. Watch out for “Go Go,” though.

    I’m still looking for my own Zippo belt.

    Thandarr

    Comment by Thandarr theWizard — March 28, 2007 @ 12:03 am

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