I RECEIVED AN E-MAIL this morning in which the television personality ADAM SAVAGE traced the provenance of his home-made Blade Runner gun.

COURTESY HIM, here is the original “hero” gun.

AND HERE IS the astonishing replica he made himself.

CAN YOU SPOT THE THREE DIFFERENCES? I doubt you can.*

WHILE READING ABOUT the hero gun, I noticed it came from the collection of Blade Runner publicist and geek marketing visionary Jeff Walker.

IF YOU HAVE NOT HEARD OF HIM, no worries. Neither did I until literally minutes ago, when I started googling him instead of doing my taxes.

AND DURING THAT GOOGLING, I came across this very sweet and also bittersweet document, a letter to Jeff Walker from Philip K. Dick regarding some footage of BLADE RUNNER Dick saw on television before he died….

THIS COMES COURTESY the Philip K. Dick Trust website.

I HAD NEVER KNOWN that Dick had any particular fondness for BLADE RUNNER, I found it heartening that, after a somewhat tormented life, and here, at what Dick perhaps did not know was the end of it, he is clearly so enthused.

BUT ALSO, I found the last line gasp-inducing; for in 1982, as he died, BLADE RUNNER was certainly not invincible.

INDEED, it had been VINCED PRETTY DAMN THOROUGHLY by ET.

BUT BY 2010, however, every one of Dick’s predictions for the film had eerily, impossibly come true. And what better legacy for a futurist?

*MEANWHILE, if you could not tell the difference between the actual gun and the Savage replica, the replica has a life span of only seven years, a bunch of fake memories, and it won’t flip over a turtle, EVEN IF IT IS DYING.

That is all.

IT IS FOR ONE REASON ONLY: because Paul F. Tompkins needs 300 of you to fight Persia to make comedy,

AND HE IS USING FACEBOOK to recruit you, city by city, not just to ATTEND one of his FAMOUS COMEDIAN SHOWS…

but also, in effect, by VOLUNTARY ACTION and EARLY COMMITMENT…

TO CAUSE THAT VERY COMEDIAN SHOW TO HAPPEN!

SCIENCE CANNOT EXPLAIN THIS. BUT PFT attempts to HERE. I paraphrase: if you and 299 of your friends commit to seeing Paul F. Tompkins perform in your town, HE WILL GO THERE, without asking any questions, and: HE WILL PERFORM.

RIGHT THIS MOMENT, New York City, is seeking roughly 150 additional Knights in Tompkins’s Service (KITS) in order to conjure his form HERE.

I WILL PERSONALLY BE THERE. And so, I hope, you will be, and we shall congratulate our good taste together, loudly, in the audience, UNTIL PAUL GETS VERY ANGRY AND TELLS US TO BE QUIET.

OR, IF YOU LIVE IN A DIFFERENT CITY, search the Facebook and see if someone has started a campaign to lure Tompkins with the promise of 300 souls. If not, START YOUR OWN FACEBOOK PAGE to begin the ritual. Or search, #tompkins300.

LOOK, I know it is all somewhat confusing and decentralized, but that is the system that Paul has chosen, and though anarchic, I think you will find it EFFECTIVE and DELIGHTFUL once you have made this talented comedy person travel to your town a) BECAUSE HE IS FUNNY and b) BECAUSE YOU MADE IT TO HAPPEN.

IF YOU HAVE ANY LINGERING DOUBTS regarding the wisdom of this scheme, PLEASE REVIEW THIS INTERNET VIDEO of Paul F. Tompkins at the SF Sketchfest of last month:

CASE CLOSED

That is all.

GOOD-BYE and safe travels, Timothy McSweeney.

That is all.

WHILE SOME OF US prefer our facts false, I cannot deny the occasional appeal, too, of actual truth.

ONE OF THE GREAT PRACTITIONERS of this rare art is JOHN LLOYD, aka @curiositwitty, aka the creator of QI (a television program that is too smart for you),

AND ITS RADIOPHONIC ADJUNCT, The Museum of Curiosity.

HERE IS JOHN LLOYD speaking on the subject of “INVISIBILITY” through a microphone that someone tried to make invisible, but failed.

(THIS HAPPENED AT TEDGlobal, in England, which is just like the regular TED but with slightly less Al Gore.)

That is all.