The Internet already paid all the best tributes to legendary fantasy/sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, who passed away June 5th at age 91. All I can add are my votes for favorite Bradbury moments:

Favorite movie adaptation: Something Wicked This Way Comes. Sinister carnival comes to small town; ringmaster tries to lure local kids into the exotic carny life…of eeeeevil. I first read about it in Muppet Magazine in a silly movie review section “written” by Statler and Waldorf. Even their crotchety descriptions made it sounds appealing. I caught it on cable TV as a preteen and loved every uneasy minute of it. Young, creepy Jonathan Pryce is all promises and temptations, lording his slithery nefariousness all over Jason Robards and a couple of meddling kids. To this day I’m still a little edgy around merry-go-rounds because of this flick.

Favorite audio adaptation: “A Sound of Thunder”, as part of “Bradbury 13”, a one-time BYU/NPR co-production of radio-drama performances of classic Bradbury shorts. I own six of them on audiocassette, including such suspenseful tales as “Kaleidoscope” (think Cast Away in the vacuum of space, minus hope) and “The Wind” (panicky man terrified by alleged killer weather), but “Thunder” was my favorite of the sextet for introducing me to the now-famous “butterfly effect” concept, and for fun foley-artist dinosaur sounds. Not too long ago the same story was adapted into a full-length made-for-cable movie that I’m afraid to watch because I don’t want to know how much they padded it.

Favorite short story: “The Pedestrian“. In a future where no one takes a walk for pleasure, a man decides to take a walk for pleasure and is branded an unfathomable lunatic. For anyone who’s ever engaged in a simple pastime that no one else gets (collecting Hummel figurines, paint-by-numbers, unicycling, solitaire with real playing cards, blogging), Bradbury knew your discomfort long before you did.

If only the rest of us could live so long, and with even a fraction of his imagination.