Smith: Voyagers to the outer limits, ‘Fluffy’ feelings and Dashing Jack

Something spacey happens Wednesday at the Rialto Cinemas in Sebastopol.

The theater will twice show “The Farthest,” starring the twin Voyager spacecrafts launched 40 years ago that now are deeper into space than anything man-made has traveled, and one day billions of years hence could be the only existing remnants of Earth and the human race.

Three remarkable people are coming to speak following the screenings. A question-and-answer session after the 1 p.m. show will feature the married couple of Frank Drake and Amahl Shakhashiri Drake.

Frank Drake is a pioneer in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the creator of the Drake Equation, used to estimate the number of civilizations in the galaxy.

Amahl Drake has a speaking part on the golden records that were placed aboard the Voyagers. The late Carl Sagan oversaw the creation of the records, which contain 115 earthly images, natural sounds, music and greetings in 55 languages.

Amahl Drake was recorded saying in her native Arabic, “Greetings to our friends in the stars. We wish that we will meet you someday.”

Following the 7 p.m. screening at The Rialto, the Drakes will be joined for the Q&A by Frank Locatell, the former Jet Propulsion Laboratories mechanical engineer who worked on the Voyagers as project engineer.

Voyager 1 was launched Sept. 5, 1977 and right now is about 13 billion miles from Earth. Nothing made on this planet has traveled farther.

Voyager 2 was launched 16 days earlier than Voyager 1 and because of a more circuitous trajectory is less than 11 billion miles out.

Neither is ever coming home.

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A LATE-NIGHT CROWD at downtown Cotati’s Redwood Cafe was surprised Friday to have Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias take the stage.

The quite hot stand-up comedian and star of Fuse TV’s “Fluffy’s Food Adventures” had finished up a show at the Green Music Center and still had some gas in the tank.

He told some stories, posed for pictures and left everyone feeling warm and fluffy.

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JAKE & DASHING JACK: It’s not as though Jake Mackenzie hadn’t seen a horse before.

But when the Scotland-born mayor of Rohnert Park appeared Friday at the Sonoma County Fair racetrack dressed in his British Arsenal soccer shirt, he was clearly in unfamiliar territory.

Jake was there because the day’s first race was the Rohnert Park (and also Petaluma) Race. As mayor, he’d been invited to go after the race to the Winner’s Circle and pose with the victorious horse and jockey.

Somebody suggested that since he was there, he ought to place a bet. The look on his face gave away that he knew as much about betting at a track as about measuring the mass of a black hole.

The racing form was Greek to Jake, who was grateful to the helpful somebody who pointed out that horse No. 3, Dashing Jack, was favored in the Rohnert Park (and Petaluma) Race. Jake put $20 on the horse.

And it won! The mayor won $46, some of which was still in his pocket Sunday when he and his wife, Barbara, saw Elvin Bishop at the Green Music Center and he looked to see if he could afford a CD.

Jake now has a favorite horse.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.