(no subject)
So I was hanging out with a time traveler yesterday (well, "yesterday" -- you know how it is with those folks) and I mentioned the MIT 2005 Time Traveler Convention. And how they only ever needed to have one such convention, since all the time travelers could attend it.
She gave a good-natured laugh and said, "Actually, we already did that in 1893 in Chicago. Sorry."
"How did you avoid wrecking history?" I asked.
She looked a little guilty. "We kind of wrecked history. We weren't supposed to introduce commemorative coins, cream of wheat, cream of what, Pabst Blue Ribbon, pancake mix, Braille printers, electric third rails, zippers, squashed pennies, the Ferris Wheel, dishwashers, phosphorescent lamps, spraypainting, hula dancing, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, switchboards, night football, modern Viking ships, the Parliament of World Religions, or the solar antelope spawnpoint, but we were clumsy with time travel and it kinda happened anyway."
"What about the waffle cone?" I added.
"That was the 1904 World Expo, actually, when we came back to clean up the solar antelope spawnpoint."
"So, what was the future going to be like before we got all that stuff by accident from the Chicago World's Fair?"
She punched me in the arm gently and laughed again. Okay, okay, fair enough.
She gave a good-natured laugh and said, "Actually, we already did that in 1893 in Chicago. Sorry."
"How did you avoid wrecking history?" I asked.
She looked a little guilty. "We kind of wrecked history. We weren't supposed to introduce commemorative coins, cream of wheat, cream of what, Pabst Blue Ribbon, pancake mix, Braille printers, electric third rails, zippers, squashed pennies, the Ferris Wheel, dishwashers, phosphorescent lamps, spraypainting, hula dancing, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, switchboards, night football, modern Viking ships, the Parliament of World Religions, or the solar antelope spawnpoint, but we were clumsy with time travel and it kinda happened anyway."
"What about the waffle cone?" I added.
"That was the 1904 World Expo, actually, when we came back to clean up the solar antelope spawnpoint."
"So, what was the future going to be like before we got all that stuff by accident from the Chicago World's Fair?"
She punched me in the arm gently and laughed again. Okay, okay, fair enough.