Early version

Back in the 80's, we had occasion to visit a friend of my wife's in Milwaukee. Elis was revamping an old meatpacker's mansion that had seen better decades and many students when it was divvied up into small apartments. (An owner had painted over marble.) He was a skeletal type already, and sometimes had fun standing by the highway from Illinois at night in a black cloak with a scythe--Illinois had a higher drinking age at the time.

He had gone to a con dressed in one of his inimitable outfits, but his prop was his pride. He'd programmed a chip to generate random numbers, which induced switches to turn on different colored lights in the top of what he called his "Arcturian stop light." It was simple, so in a few hours the patterns would repeat. Apparently people had fun with it.

Pity he didn't try to patent the idea. We went to this year's Gleam show at Olbrich Gardens, and random light changes were everywhere there--everybody does them now. Some of the best exhibits were simple: firework-style lights over a reflecting pool, or color changing floods on flowers in the conservatory.

Elis' housemate was wrapping up a degree in herpetology, and had several snakes (some hot) and a large snapper in the basement, together with a most-of-the-time secure mouse colony to supply them with food.

We lost track of Elis some years back. Kids' needs and activities tend to fill the calendar.