As the last U.S. Space Shuttle mission EVA winds down, former astronauts and cosmonauts are clamoring to release the first “kiss and tell,” behind-the-scenes autobiography of what really took place during the 30-year span of Space Shuttle missions.

Meanwhile, I rarely lose bets and ever more rarely admit it.

Today is an exception.

A journalist friend of mine bet he could prove how banal most people’s lives are by finding an obscure murder trial where the defendant was obviously not guilty and turn the trial into a circus, causing thousands, if not millions, of people to expend emotional energy over the results of the trial.

I told him that people had important lives and would not let themselves be so easily manipulated.

I’m sorry to report I lost.

Now, back to writing the book of the Book of the Future.