In the first half of the 80s, when I was in high school, I read a short story with the following plot in an SF anthology. A spacecraft on its way to the moon lands in rural America. One of the local farmers replaces a member of the crew. The moon begins to wane, and his wife refuses to accept that it isn't actually shrinking. (Spoiler Warning) On the arrival of the New Moon she declares he's dead and marries a man called Jefferson Time Machine. When the farmer returns he chases them back to the Middle Ages. Would anyone know the story? I'd like to know who the author was.
I'm still looking for another story I've asked about previously (more than once, too, so forgive me the repetition), which I read in a different SF anthology in the same period and was written in the form of a piece of retrospective journalism. In a big American city a movement for banning dogs develops. The city becomes polarised. Anti-dog legislation is passed, but when the police start trying to enforce it a riot results. After the riot the polarisation remains and there is potential for a new explosion. I remember the tale as a really smart depiction of the processes of community polarisation and radicalisation. Does anyone else remember it? My guess is it was written some time after the Watts Riots. Any guess as to who the author could have been would be helpful, as I don't have a clue.
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Sorry, Luke those don't ring a bell to me at all.
Although I think Jefferson Time Machine would be a great name for a Jefferson Airplane (Starship) cover band.
I found the moon story, through the ISFDB and the title. It was "The Return of the Moon Man" by Eric Malpass. I misremembered the name of the second husband; it's Llewellyn Time Machine.
I've been trying to find the other one the same way - guessing at elements of the title, checking possible anthologies - but it still eludes me.
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I'd like to throw in a similar question. Having read several Harlan Ellison books and short stories, I vividly remember an aside in one of them. It's very short and may be in several fragments within a generally unrelated story. Because it's so unrelated I can't seem to find in which book it appears:
The only character in the short piece is a woman who takes into account every possible bad thing that could happen. She becomes more and more withdrawn from the world and finally decides that "the safest thing she can do is die, so she does."
Can anyone tell which Ellison story contains this?
I finally found the dog story. It's "Do It for Mama! by Jerrold J. Mundis. Baen has put it online, so it can be read here. I found it through a comment thread post on a real world dog issue that Google found for me.
Sorry I can't help you with your story, Richard. I'll remember to look for it.
Mr Satanism described a story he wanted to find here. I've long wondered if it might be something by L. Sprague de Camp. It just occurred to me it's also in the style of Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series. However, the older books in the series were novels.
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I found it, via a Jonah Hex blog. The comic was Jonah Hex #90 (1985), the third-last issue. The sequence is the only encounter between the characters, but not a separate story.
This thread reminds me of the first Saturday morning cartoon show I had ever seen. It was called "Here Comes the Grump". I remember having seen it once, and only once, when I was obviously very young. In fact, over the years I came to doubt that I had actually seen this show, or that it even existed. I'm an old guy, and the internet didn't become generally available to me until many years later; so, research was not as simple as it is today. It turns out, this was a real cartoon staring Rip Taylor as the Grump! I'm proud to say that the basic plot line of the episode I recalled was accurate as well.
Another long forgotten memory I have has consistently sparked debate with coworkers who are older than me. On more than one occasion, I've told that I could not possibly remember having seen the Ed Sullivan Show on TV (I was just too young when he went off the air). But, I did see his show at least once. It was the fourth of July. My grandparents pointed out that the town fireworks display, which could easily be seen from their back yard, would begin after Ed Sullivan (I was being allowed to stay up late and watch the fireworks, so my focus of course on Ed getting off the air that night). Thanks to modern technology, debates with my coworkers now end with proof that I did indeed see what saw.