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Groups > rec.arts.sf.written > #492350
| From | D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | rec.arts.sf.written |
| Subject | Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story |
| Date | 2018-05-22 16:32 +0000 |
| Organization | A noiseless patient Spider |
| Message-ID | <20180522b@crcomp.net> (permalink) |
| References | <pdv55c$dv4$1@dont-email.me> <pdvfjk$kbt$1@dont-email.me> <28b00bcb-1d62-4bf0-8902-0c37d3c59d8e@googlegroups.com> |
Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> wrote:
> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>> > From another site:
>> >
>> > "Many years ago I read a story by Spider Robinson, can't remember the
>> > title or the plot but ONE thing has stuck in my memory these many
>> > decades. The protagonist was suicidal because he did a home brake job on
>> > his wifes car and neglected / overlooked an item causing the brakes to
>> > fail killing his wife and young son."
>> >
>> > Any ideas ?
>>
>> Another person there answered this:
>>
>> "The Spider Robinson story you're thinking of is "The Mick of Time", I
>> believe. Originally published in Analog, later collected in "Callahan's
>> Secret" (1986). Wherein Jake Stonebender, narrator and demon guitarist,
>> finally discovers the exact cause of the accident that killed his wife
>> and child, and which he had, until then, believed was caused by his
>> faulty brake repairs. "I saved 20 bucks, easy". This revelation involves
>> time travel (a recurrent theme of the "Callahan's Place" stories) but
>> not by Jake."
>
> I think it was first mentioned in the story "Fivesight" first published
> in OMNI and collected in _Time Travelers Strictly Cash_. I don't know
> that Jake is suicidal, but it is an anniversary of their deaths, and he
> is pretty depressed, and wishing he had fivesight, which he figures
> would have been even better than foresight.
The original, nonretconned version of the story appears in the July 1979
edition. Here's an excerpt of the pertinent passage:
"Five years and one day ago I had a wife and a two-year-old
daughter. And I had a /Big Book of Auto Repair/. I decided I
could save thirty dollars easy by doing my own brake job. I
tested it myself and drove maybe a whole block. Five years
ago tonight all three of us went to the drive-in movie. I woke
up without a scratch on me. Both dead. I smiled at the man who
was trying to cut my door open, and I climbed out the window
past him and tried to get my wrists on his chainsaw. He
coldcocked me, and I woke up under restraint."
Addendum:
The retconned story appears in the May 1986 issue of _Analog_. In this
rendition a time traveler named Mary sleuths out that the rear brakes,
the set that Jake repaired, actually worked properly, but were
subsequently damaged by the crash itself.
A dealer repaired the front brakes that failed and caused the crash.
The insurance investigator who investigated the crash was related to the
dealer by marriage and used Jake's own guilty self-condemnation to cover
for his in-law, the dealer.
✍
Thank you,
--
Don
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YASID: Spider Robinson story Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-21 14:03 -0500
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) - 2018-05-21 19:06 +0000
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-21 12:29 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll) - 2018-05-21 19:29 +0000
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-21 17:01 -0500
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> - 2018-05-22 05:07 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-22 16:32 +0000
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2018-05-21 19:17 -0600
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> - 2018-05-21 23:42 -0300
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2018-05-22 01:23 -0600
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-22 09:41 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-22 12:27 -0500
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-22 10:44 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-22 14:58 -0500
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-22 15:10 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2018-05-22 22:59 -0600
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2018-05-23 12:43 -0500
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Jack Bohn <jack.bohn64@gmail.com> - 2018-05-24 05:22 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story peterwezeman@hotmail.com - 2018-05-23 18:55 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-05-22 12:30 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Joe Bernstein <Kdeurama@gmail.com> - 2018-05-23 19:47 +0000
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2018-05-23 13:36 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-05-24 01:55 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-24 05:04 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-24 18:53 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-05-24 19:55 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-24 20:06 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-25 04:46 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Robert Carnegie <rja.carnegie@excite.com> - 2018-05-25 05:34 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Peter Trei <petertrei@gmail.com> - 2018-05-23 13:38 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-23 13:48 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2018-05-23 21:13 -0600
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2018-05-23 21:43 -0400
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Greg Goss <gossg@gossg.org> - 2018-05-23 21:08 -0600
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Steve Dodds <sdodds@nova-optical.com> - 2018-05-22 13:48 -0600
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story news{@bestley.co.uk (Mark Bestley) - 2018-05-26 17:39 +0100
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-26 13:41 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2018-05-26 17:25 -0400
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2018-05-26 15:21 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story J. Clarke <jclarke.873638@gmail.com> - 2018-05-26 18:32 -0400
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-26 16:53 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Dimensional Traveler <dtravel@sonic.net> - 2018-05-26 20:11 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-27 05:00 -0700
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story D B Davis <g@crcomp.net> - 2018-05-27 13:41 +0000
Re: YASID: Spider Robinson story Kevrob <kevrob@my-deja.com> - 2018-05-27 11:26 -0700
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