Cast of Characters

crowd and stars

When I began writing these posts as dialogs, I was just looking for a better way to get the concepts across within my self-imposed 700-word limit.  But then the dialog participants turned into people, which made things more complicated but also more interesting.  So here’s a list of the Characters (and a link to their first appearance).  Use the Search widget with someone’s name to find all the posts that involve them.

  • Sy Moire – hard-boiled physicist with an office on the 12th floor of the Acme Building. It’s just down the hall from the office of Garrison Keillor’s hard-boiled detective Guy Noire, who seems to have retired when Keillor did. Sy’s narrated most of the posts since 12 Dec 2016.
  • Vinnie – really bright, missed a lot of schooling but working hard to catch up. Ex-military pilot. He and Sy go way back.
  • Al – coffee shop proprietor and serious fan of Science, which is why he leased the on-campus location between the Physics and Astronomy buildings
  • Anne – traveler through time, space and entropy
  • Dr Cathleen O’Meara – astronomer and faculty member
  • Cap’n Mike – He’s got theories.
  • Change-me Charlie – He’s got arguments.
  • Eddie – “student of applied statistics” and proprietor of the the Acme Building’s second-floor pizza parlor
  • Jennie – an English exchange student and one of Jeremy’s numerous female friends
  • Jeremy – student, baseball player, generally seen surrounded by friends of the female persuasion
  • Jim – one of Cathleen’s grad students
  • Kareem – grad student in Geology. He prefers really old rocks.
  • Lenore – student with a Chemistry background
  • Maria – student in one of Cathleen’s introductory classes
  • Newt Barnes – Astrophysics grad student
  • Old Reliable – the world’s geekiest tablet computer
  • Richard Feder – from Fort Lee, New Jersey. He’s got questions.
  • Robert Tobanu – Computer Science post-doc
  • Susan Kim – Chemistry researcher and a recent arrival on campus
  • Teena – Sy’s niece and the most charming member of the cast
  • Victoria Baird – another traveler, though it’s not clear from where