just a giggle

[matisamd]

Hi all been scifi lover all my life never thought to visit a forum on it until now, just reading through the forum thought i'd share a tiny silly moment, if anyone knows the the Alibi machine, well being abit dodgy at english i read the entire story as the the Ali-Bi machine thinking it was some made up name that would become clear, it wasnt tell very near the end my brain cell went wait a minute is it ali-bi or alibi oh now it all makes sence...

[steve12553]

Originally Posted by matisamd

Hi all been scifi lover all my life never thought to visit a forum on it until now, just reading through the forum thought i'd share a tiny silly moment, if anyone knows the the Alibi machine, well being abit dodgy at english i read the entire story as the the Ali-Bi machine thinking it was some made up name that would become clear, it wasnt tell very near the end my brain cell went wait a minute is it ali-bi or alibi oh now it all makes sence...

I think Mr. Asimov would appreceate that. He did seem to enjoy a good play on words. A great example is his very short story called About Nothing. It shows up in his Winds of Change collection and is well worth the minute or two of your time it takes.

[dekket]

One of the funniest Isaac Asimov short stories (in which a play on words was central) that I have ever read was "Shah Guido G." from the 1975 collection called "Buy Jupiter and Other Stories, (which is actually one of my father in laws books, I have never seen a copy of it for sale anywhere in Australia. Anyway, it is a story set in Earth's own future, and where Shah Guido G. is the nickname of Guido Garshthavastra, the hereditary S-G of the UN(called "Sekjen" in the story), who is a tyrant who rules all of the Earth from the new HQ of the UN, a levitating island called Atlantis.
The world is split into the (literal) upper class who live in Atlantis, and the lower class people living on the surface.
Philo Plat is an aristocrat (who actually cares for the surface dwellers) and who secretly plots Shah Guido G.'s downfall, and the downfall of Atlantis in general. When he learns that the power stations that power the Sky-Island's anti-gravitational beams are close to critical (he was informed this when asking whether he would be able to build a larger house), Plat convinces Shah Guido G. to order in a division of Waves (female shock-troops) to be ordered back to Atlantis, in order to put down a supposed (invented) rebellion by the technicians (who actually run most the the city).
As Plat suspected, the extra weight caused by the simultaneous landing of all of the Waves' cruisers is sufficient to overload the Sky-Island's power generators, causing it to plummet to the ground and be destroyed, leading into the punch line of the story - that once again, Atlantis sinks beneath the Waves.

Which I thought was pretty funny for a Shaggy Dog story.

[Quokka]

I think there was a few of those in Buy Jupiter I remember a similar one regarding time travel. Buy Jupiter certainly isn't one of Asimov's better collections but it's amongst the first sci-fi I read, finding it in a school library adn it was probably 10 years later before I finally found a copy in a second hand bookshop.

[dekket]

By Jupiter (or Zeus, or any other god people swear by - I'm agnostic so I really don't have an opinion), that is all right then. As I only read the Buy Jupiter collection a couple of years ago, I still have at least 8 years left before I should give up all hope of finding it. I seem to remember it was mostly full of stories based on clever word play, which is pretty evident by its title.

[manephelien]

Indeed, there are quite a few Asimov stories which must be the devil to translate because puns play such an important role in them.

The end of the time travel story involving a criminal who went forward in time to a day after the statute of limitations for his crime had passed was "A niche in time saves Stein"... I groaned when I read that.

[pnerd]

Originally Posted by manephelien

The end of the time travel story involving a criminal who went forward in time to a day after the statute of limitations for his crime had passed was "A niche in time saves Stein"... I groaned when I read that.

I remember another one, "Every crowd has a silver fining".
But unfortunately, I can't remember which story it is from. Can anyone remind me please?

[vivek]

pnerd,

That's the final words from a story in 'Gold'

I think it's "Feghoot and the Courts"

and ya i liked that ending too..it was delightful

[pnerd]

Originally Posted by vivek

That's the final words from a story in 'Gold'

I think it's "Feghoot and the Courts"

Thanks, Vivek.