What Is Going On?

Russia

If you are reading this in the middle of the night or very early in the morning you a sharing it with a large number of Russians!  For the last several months our Russian readership has been growing steadily and now exceeds our American readership by 25%.  If this continues I am going to have another visit from from two FBI guys.

Back in the 60's when things were really nervous between us and the the USSR I was writing and producing educational filmstrips for Encyclopaedia Britannica Films and had done a very popular chemistry series of 30 entitled "Experiments In Chemistry."  It was captioned as tape soundtracks were not yet popular in that medium and I thought it worked better as a teaching tool if the teacher did the narration as he, or she, could account for differences in their lab or procedures.  Each film presented an experiment, step-by-step and the set got great reviews, selling very well. 

Britannica had a "Marketing Meeting" every spring with wall-to-wall Ph.D's, but in 1965 they invited me because my set was selling so much better than theirs!  Dr. Al Baez, Ph.D. Physics, Joan Baez father represented the company to me; oversaw my scripts and a regular at this meeting.  We were seated together as "...our only Mexicans," announced the Editor-in-Chief so I said to Al, "Should I keel him, Pancho?"  They made me "Doctor for the day." 

At the meeting it was announced Britannica had sold "Experiments In Chemistry" to the Soviet Union and they had 25,000 high schools compared to our 17,000!  I was getting about $25 per set so this was

going to net me $625,000!  Need I say, it was a happy meeting.

Back in California months later with no big payday, I started asking questions only to learn that the USSR had bought one set, made copies for all their schools so I got $25!  "They do not honor copyrights!"  That was the day my politics crystallized.

I got many letters from Soviet teachers regarding some aspect of the films and each response took about $3 return postage so I was soon in the hole on this deal.  Then, came the "last straw:"  Two FBI men were on my doorstep one afternoon.  They wanted to know why I was getting all these letters from the USSR?  I explained it to them and they seemed satisfied, but those guys never say, "OK," they just go away quietly after saying darkly, "We'll see you later...."

Over the years I have had several such calls:  One for the piece I wrote for SKIN DIVER entitled, "Timing Waves To Enter or Leave the Sea," and a battlefield simulator I wrote for the Apple IIe computer.

In the first case I had taken my inspiration from Richard Bascom's "Waves and the Sea," which is highly mathematical so I simplified it to make what has become a chapter in a US Navy Seals tactical operations manual.  That netted two guys from some agency I had never heard of, but they were classic "G men" in hats and a four door Plymouth.

The FBI came to call again when I released a "Battlefield Simulator" for the Apple IIe in my own distribution company.  They instructed me to take it out of my catalog and give them a list all buyers.  I learned I had replicated a system a bureau had spent $4 million for and I was selling for $9.95.  I am sure that was the whole issue.

I am waiting for two guys wearing hats in a four door Plymouth and have no idea why this blog is so popular in Russia!

Adrian Vance

PS -  I have also been called on by lady FBI agents regarding former students who are getting government jobs or promotions.  They are always pleasant, wear shoulder holsters and drive better cars.  AV