The Crazy Years by Robinson, Spider -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Praise for Spider Robinson also by Spider Robinson Copyright Contents Introduction The Crazy Years: A Mission Statement Information Overload

Braindrain Wave Says Who? The Mahooha Filter A Tale of Two Charlies And Now the News…

Substance Abuse

Bean Counting Reflections of a Recovering Nicotinic Mugging the Poor for Their Own Good Big Nanny’s New Clothes Terminal Improvement Where There’s No Smoke… Imagination Has Its Downside Science in Fishnet Stockings Buzzed High Zonked Stoned Wasted Flinging Phlegm at the Flim Flam in Flin Flon

O Canada

Citizen Keen Thanks for All the Fish Phone-y Manners Night of the Impolite Canadian

Pull Up a Soapbox

Hail on the Chief There Are No Good Bushwhackers The Opposite of a Great Lie Free Speech Is Worth Paying For I Want a Really Interactive Newspaper Lead Us Not Into Temptation The Process Qui Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? Declarative Sentients

Present Imperative, or Social Mahooha

Burning the Sambuca The Fall-Guy Shortage Seduction of the Innocent You Never Forget the First Time Lay Off the Lady School Will Be Ending, Next Month What Is It With Bankers? “More than enough is-a too much…” Please Don’t Talk About Him ’Til He’s Gone A God Too Old to Change, or Pope Sinks Hope You Just Can’t Kill for Jesus/Allah/Jahweh/Rama/Elvis… Biting the Hand That Leads Us Whatever

Environmental Floss

Loathe Yourself, Fine—But Leave Me Out of It. Some Cats Know Voluntary Poverty Threatens Real Poor People Ain’t That a Shame

Extreme Forms of Argument

Mass Destruction Isn’t Rocket Science What Does It Mean to be Human? The Only Thing We Have to Fear Strapped for Takeoff The Beam Up Mine Own

“His bow-tie is really a camera…,” or The Future Is Not Listening Sting of the Cyber Trifles, or How I spent my winter worktime Compared to What? Don’t Go Toward the Light… Off the Road Got to Admit It’s Gotten Better

The New Idiot Box

Be Less Than You Can Be, or The most important component is the off switch Give It Another Kick, David— Cyberspace Cadets About as Reliable as a Computer… Nuking Themselves in the Foot or, Look out, tech’s press! Devil’s Advocate “Fool, fool, back to the beginning is the rule—” Character Defects

Space

Headline “…still I persist in wondering” The Day It Hailed Columbia The Virgin Next Door Is Wet Starsong on My Desktop If You Can Fry an Egg in Space, Hilton Wants to Talk to You Senator Socksdryer and the Two Million Dollar Boondoggle

Nostalgia for Tomorrow

2001, by God!, or Looking back at the future The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be Futures We Never Dreamed Evil’s Rootkiller, or Brother, can you spare a paradigm? Plus ça Change

Intellectual Property

St. George, We Need You Now! “The worm on the skyhook” They Don’t Make Unreality Like They Used To Recutting the Crown Jewels The Anarchists Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight, or Please don’t shoot the guitar player If You Take It…We Can’t Leave It

Silver Lining

Valmiki’s Third Reality The Ones with a Zero on the End Precious Are the Eggs of the Sturgeon Thanks for the Music Farewell to Nova Scotia Why Pamela Wallin Is Dangerous

Lagniappe

What’s All This Brouhaha? Ha Ha… The Yoomins of Sol III Yoomins Reconsidered

Afterword