I think it's pretty universally recognized that Casablanca is one movie that cannot be "improved."

Ken V.

Oh, I agree, but that doesn't mean someone won't remake it anyway. For a quick, easy buck.

When I finally saw this movie (only a few years ago), I thought it was the closest thing to a perfect movie that I'd ever seen .... whatever that means.

Then, by the heavens above, don't watch "Barb-Wire" starring Pamela Anderson.

I won't!

Unless you like busty topless girls on a swing being hosed down in slow-motion.

I don't.

Ken V.

I have read the various posts about Jack not having, or needing, a Social Security number at birth, going to college, etc.

I recently read something somewhere (possibly on this very forum) that it had pretty much been established that Jack's character's birth year was 1969....

I myself was born in 1965 and I was assigned a SSN at birth..... if Jack was born four years later, he would have been as well.....

according to the YA books, which have Jack at age 14 in 1983..... well, in 1983 I went to college and you had to have a SSN to apply for college unless you were a foreign exchange student.... so at some point he must have had one under his original birth name and whatnot.

So I just figure he never used it, and the reason he can't just start using it now is because the IRS will be like, where have you been since 1988, Jack?

if he had NEVER used it, he would have an easier time beginning to use it, but he MUST have used it for his first year of college, at least....

oh well, just another of Jack's mysteries...

Gina

I have read the various posts about Jack not having, or needing, a Social Security number at birth, going to college, etc.

I recently read something somewhere (possibly on this very forum) that it had pretty much been established that Jack's character's birth year was 1969....

I myself was born in 1965 and I was assigned a SSN at birth..... if Jack was born four years later, he would have been as well.....

according to the YA books, which have Jack at age 14 in 1983..... well, in 1983 I went to college and you had to have a SSN to apply for college unless you were a foreign exchange student.... so at some point he must have had one under his original birth name and whatnot.

So I just figure he never used it, and the reason he can't just start using it now is because the IRS will be like, where have you been since 1988, Jack?

if he had NEVER used it, he would have an easier time beginning to use it, but he MUST have used it for his first year of college, at least....

oh well, just another of Jack's mysteries...

Gina

Hi Gina, welcome to the board.

The first RJ novel -- THE TOMB -- was originally published in 1984, and Jack was 35 years old. Which would make his birth year 1949.

At that time -- and for years later -- one didn't get a Socialist Security card (or number) until they actually started working.

I got mine when I was 13, in 1960. And you may find it interesting to note that at the bottom of my card it says, "For tax purposes only. Not to be used for identification."

It was around 15 years later that Paul wrote the second Repairman Jack novel. (LEGACIES) And since that time, he has slightly modified the RJ books to remove things that would "date" them. (If he didn't, today, Jack would be 61 years old.)

A couple of examples of things that were changed are when (in the original THE TOMB) Nellie Patton says that she watches Johnny Carson on the TV, and in the beginning of the novel when Jack turns off the TV and puts the BetaMax Tape back into its place on the shelf. (BetaMax and VHF -- and VCR's -- have since been replaced by DVD's.)

But Paul left the Socialist Security part alone because it adds to the problem of how Jack would deal with coming back into mainstream society, as Gia wants him to do.

Ken V.

I was born in '81, my sister in '79 and my brother in '71 and our mom took all three of us to get our social security numbers at the same time in '84 or so. Each of our numbers are one digit apart.

So from '71 to '81 you weren't assigned a number at birth, at least in Louisiana. But it is pretty backwards there.

I was born in '81, my sister in '79 and my brother in '71 and our mom took all three of us to get our social security numbers at the same time in '84 or so. Each of our numbers are one digit apart.

So from '71 to '81 you weren't assigned a number at birth, at least in Louisiana. But it is pretty backwards there.

My kids as well(Born in 2005 and 2008), they were assigned a temp SSN at birth but it was up to us to apply for a permanent one. That may have had something to do with the adoption process but it didn't seem that way to me.

I was born in 1965 but never got a SS# until I got my first job at 14. Things were different back then. When my 17 year old son was born filling out the SS paperwork was just another form at the hospital. I think I got his SS card about the same time as his birth certificate. I didn't know you had to have a SS card to go to college (as I never went) but Jack never really had a job I could see his getting away with it.

FPW, being older than me (and as mentioned previously), undoubtedly remembers those days when you didn't need a social security number unless you worked a check-paying job that took out taxes and paid social security fees.