Yellow Glad Days - Softcover

The Moralist Party has taken over the political reins of the country. A powerful coalition of minorities is demanding they be allowed to move to Alabama and secede from the United States. Former inmates of Oklahoma Federal Penitentiary are believed to possess the Bomb. Awakening from a nine year alternate reality, Astin W. Wench discovers that nothing has changed. With his two best friends, he attempts to get to the bottom of everything, put the nation back to rights, and find a really good cup of coffee. Part science fiction, part political satire, "Yellow Glad Days" dissects the meaning of happiness in an illogical world.

"Yellow Glad Days" is a science fiction, political satire, the latest work by Sam Bellotto Jr., who is normally known as an author of crossword and cryptogram puzzle books. Bellotto's company, Crossdown, also develops word puzzle computer games and software as well as the puzzles themselves. He operates out of the top floor of his home on Akron Street. Crossdown has garnered the top "People's Choice Award" from the Educational Software Cooperative (ESC) four times between 1998 and 2004. It also won the top award in its category from the Shareware Industry Conference in 2004. Bellotto has been making puzzles professionally since 1979, when he broke into the business by placing his first sale with the Sunday New York Times Magazine under then crossword puzzle editor, the legendary Eugene T. Maleska. According to Bellotto, "You could say I started at the top." Today Bellotto contributes regularly to all the major crossword puzzle markets including Simon & Schuster, The New York Times, and Random House. He also does a weekly crossword feature for a number of high-profile newspapers and has authored several crossword puzzle books. And he is in great demand as a specialist in making topical crosswords, having done individual projects for Xerox, AttorneyYellowPages, and the University of Rochester, to name just a few. Simon & Schuster has called Bellotto one of the top ten constructors in the country. Bellotto's affection for word game puzzles and fondness for science fiction began when he was a high school student in Syracuse, New York, where he grew up. "I was one of those science whiz kids," he recalls, "building rockets, mixing chemicals and peering through microscopes." Bellotto attended Long Island University where he studied journalism, with a minor in music theory. After graduation he took courses in film studies at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. Currently, in addition to his regular crossword features and Internet-based word game software business, Bellotto is working on other puzzle books. He lives in Rochester, NY, in a modest two-bedroom house with his black labrador, Petra, and an impressive animated cartoon collection.