Clarkesworld Podcast February 2013:The Wanderers (Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam)

The Wanderers (Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam)

The text version can be found here.

Read by Kate Baker

Powerful but not terribly bright aliens decide to travel to Earth to enslave and then torture the inhabitants, only to be frustrated by the apparent absence of the humans when the aliens arrive.

Two comments:

First: "aliens wander around baffled, making commentary on the human condition in the process" has been done a fair amount and I think you have to do more with the concept now than Stufflebeam does.

Second:

We came to your planet because we knew that you, the peoples of Kill Bill and Saw and Vietnam and Columbine Massacre would understand us.

[...]

Joker and Samara and Alexander Great and Corleone

[...]

“That place was like Iraq War,”

[...]

like Cloverfield.”

[...]
We saw Alien and War of Worlds and Roswell Area 51 Alien Autopsy Revealed.

[...]

Moon Landing and Mars Rover Mohawk Man

These are some seriously America-centric Earth-conquering aliens.



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Escape: A Dream of Armageddon (H.G. Wells)

A Dream of Armageddon (H.G. Wells)

A man of our time (or rather 1901) dreams that he is a 22nd century man, a once-powerful politician, driven from office because of an unsuitable romance. The man of the future is asked to return to power before foolish men can tip the world into war but because he would be required to set his lover aside he refuses. He resolves to simply turn his back on the world that rejected his lover; unfortunately for him, his desire to ignore the world does not mean the world will ignore him.

I thought the romance might be a reference to Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson but the original long predated the radio play.

So the moral of last's night's Bones

Is female scientists should do cheesecake for Science? And this is an acceptable substitute for an award for excellence in their field (or being Angela)?

I wonder who exactly the bikini calender will be inspiring?

The whisper of the axe

I am taking care of a house while the owners are gone. I get to use their kitchen while they are gone; it is much nicer than mine. But in the winter, the kitchen pipes sometimes freeze ( Read more... )

I am not going to say what I will be displaying below my waist at the party tonight

But it's about a quarter meter long and I expect a lot of people to touch it.

What is hanging from my belt

My period costume is "1960s student".