(i) "'...let's go eat. We'll need a change of clothes, but it'll be worth the trouble. I know a local saloon, back in the eighteen-nineties, that sets out a magnificent free lunch.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 333-465 AT p. 362.
We can all imagine our own agenda here.
When Sheila and I moved to this district in 1973, the most expensive restaurant in Lancaster was the Portofino. We never ate there although we did eat in other restaurants that later occupied the same building. With time travel, we would be able to eat in the Portofino.
In the 1980s, we bought very tasty baked potatoes with grated cheese and egg mayonnaise from a takeaway placed called Plato's, since closed. We would be able to eat from there again.
A Bank Holiday Charity Car Boot Sale has taken place in Ryelands Park every May for decades. A time traveler would be able to attend more than once each year in disguise, occasionally glimpsing his other selves.
(ii) "You will have the capability of going back and visiting again your beloved dead, but you shall not, for you might feel temptation to fend off death from them, and you would surely feel your heart torn asunder."
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), 1988 A.D., p. 99.
We attended the funeral of a local guy called Kevin. On a timecycle, it would be possible to hover above Lancaster, see Kevin strolling through town on a weekend, then meet him for a casual conversation without divulging that we were from the future after his death.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But the Patrol might well strongly advise against glimpsing from a distance friends and relatives who have died, unless it was only accidental. For the reason given, because of that "tearing asunder."
And I think the custom was, in the days when bars had free lunches, that you had to buy at least one drink before partaking of the food.
Sean
This is also a joke. Poul was a (moderate) libertarian, and one libertarian saying/slogan is "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch", or TANSTAFL, a phrase used in a Heinlein novel.
Yes, you did have to buy a drink -- and if you kept raiding the free lunch multiple times, you'd be expected to buy another.
Typically there would be a buffet-style table with bread, butter, and things like radishes and other vegetables, cheese, and cold cuts. Possibly pastries, and sometimes cooked dishes like soup.
Usually a pint of beer would do: the price would be about 5 cents, equivalent to around $3.00 in 2018 money.
That made it an economical way to get a medium-sized midday meal for a workingman, particularly counting the high food value o beer.
The problem was with those who couldn't stop at a pint, of course.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Ha! I have heard of "TANSTAFL." And besides Heinlein I think Larry Niven used it in some of his Known Space stories.
Thought so! You did have to buy a drink, at least a pint of beer, to avoid abusing the free lunch privilege. Yes, one problem would be men who did not stop with one pint!
Sean
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