"Chronic Offender" is a science fiction short story by Spider Robinson. It was written as an homage to Damon Runyon, to whom it is dedicated. The style echoes Runyon's, especially in its use of present and future tenses only throughout. It was first published in 1981 in Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine.
Spider Robinson is an American-born Canadian science fiction author.
Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and short-story writer.
A former small time criminal in Manhattan, now an old man living in 1980 in a low-rent apartment, finds a "ghost" burgling his home. The man is "Harry the Horse", a ruthless thug and general criminal who died decades before. Harry recognizes his old friend, declares that he will not "guzzle his joint" (i.e. not rob his home) and tells him how he got there.
Back in 1930 during the Depression, Harry and his two cronies were caught passing counterfeit bills and bailed out by "Judge" Goldfobber, a shady lawyer. Goldfobber told them to pay him back by "chilling" a man up in Harlem and taking a box the size of a phone box from his apartment to Goldfobber's Long Island home. The box turned out to be a time machine built by a stereotypical crazy old professor, Doc Twitchell, who went to Goldfobber to patent it. Harry saw the opportunity to make money by getting stock or horse racing tips from the future, so he killed the inventor and also his two cronies, before using the machine to send himself 50 years into the future, a time when he thinks the Depression should be over.
In the future he finds himself in a derelict building with no power, so the time machine will not function to send him back. Worse, Harlem is not the vibrant multi-ethnic neighborhood he knew and he barely escapes despite being having his trusty "roscoe" (gun). He eventually robs and hijacks his way to the narrator's neighborhood and breaks into his apartment to steal cash. He needs to steal the racing results, which are now on microfilm, and a machine to read them with, from the library.
The two set about getting the time machine working again. The narrator has a friend, "Socket" Twomey, who dabbles in selling marijuana but is also an electrician. They go up to Harlem where Socket routes some wires to restore power, knowing that the city will take days to notice. Socket and Harry steal the microfilm and the reader, and Socket figures out how to work the time machine to avoid it arriving at the wrong time and causing a "pair o'ducks". Harry insists that somebody else has the first try, so the narrator himself goes back to the old days and spends a glorious few hours in the city he remembers. Harry leaves for the past, promising to leave his friends half of his first million dollars at the First National Bank after becoming rich. The narrator tells Socket this will not happen, and Socket replies he knows it, because he removed the light bulb from the microfilm reader to get back at Harry for threatening him. The narrator knows another reason: while he was back in 1930 he made a phone call to Goldfobber telling him that Harry was double-crossing him. He remembers being at the courthouse when a real judge gave Goldfobber the "hot squat", i.e. the electric chair, on account of "his personal revolver matches up with the six slugs they dig out of Harry the Horse".
A paradox is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to an apparently-self-contradictory or logically unacceptable conclusion. A paradox involves contradictory-yet-interrelated elements that exist simultaneously and persist over time.
The SF Site considered the story to be one of "the most memorable" in Robinson's 2005 collection By Any Other Name, [1] while CM: A Reviewing Journal of Canadian Materials for Young People declared it to be "(t)he best piece of writing in [Robinson's 1984 collection Melancholy Elephants]". [2]
SF Site is a science fiction online magazine edited by Rodger Turner. Established in 1996 by John O'Neill, it is based in Canada, but includes contributors from around the world. It publishes reviews of science fiction books, films, and television, and features interviews with authors and fiction excerpts. Contributors include Steven H Silver, Richard Lupoff, Rick Norwood, Victoria Strauss, Mark London Williams, and Rick Klaw.
Sugar Ray Robinson was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. Robinson's performances in the welterweight and middleweight divisions prompted sportswriters to create "pound for pound" rankings, where they compared fighters regardless of weight. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is widely regarded as the greatest boxer of all time, and in 2002, Robinson was ranked number one on The Ring magazine's list of "80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years".
Back to the Future Part III is a 1990 American science fiction Western comedy film and the third and final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis, and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson. The film continues immediately following Back to the Future Part II (1989); while stranded in 1955 during his time travel adventures, Marty McFly (Fox) discovers that his friend Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, trapped in 1885, was killed by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Wilson), Biff's great-grandfather. Marty travels to 1885 to rescue Doc and return once again to 1985, but matters are complicated when Doc falls in love with schoolteacher Clara Clayton (Steenburgen).
The Terminator series is an American science-fiction action franchise created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. The franchise encompasses a series of films, comics, novels, and additional media concerning battles between Skynet's synthetic intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race. Skynet's most well-known products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the T-800, who was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger from the original Terminator film in 1984, and similar units he also portrayed in the later films. By 2010, the franchise has generated $3 billion in revenue.
Guys and Dolls is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also borrows characters and plot elements from other Runyon stories – most notably "Pick the Winner".
Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison, published by Random House in 1952. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African Americans early in the twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity.
Blackadder: Back & Forth is a 1999 sci-fi comedy film based on the BBC period sitcom Blackadder that marks the end of the Blackadder saga. It was commissioned for showing in the specially built SkyScape cinema erected southeast of the Millennium Dome on the Greenwich peninsula in South London. The film follows Lord Edmund Blackadder and his idiotic servant, Baldrick, on a time travel adventure that brings the characters into contact with several figures significant to British history.
Lost in Space is a 1998 American science-fiction adventure film directed by Stephen Hopkins, and starring William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, and Gary Oldman. The plot is adapted from the 1965–1968 CBS television series Lost in Space. Several actors from the TV show make cameo appearances.
A Tom and Jerry is a traditional Christmastime cocktail in the United States, devised by British journalist Pierce Egan in the 1820s. It is a variant of eggnog with brandy and rum added and served hot, usually in a mug or a bowl.
Small Time Crooks is a 2000 American crime-comedy film. Written and directed by Woody Allen, the film's plot is very similar to that of the 1942 comedy Larceny, Inc.. It stars Allen, Hugh Grant, Elaine May and Tracey Ullman.
Meet the Robinsons is a 2007 American computer-animated science fiction comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures on March 30, 2007. The 47th Disney animated feature film, it was released in standard and Disney Digital 3-D versions. The film is loosely based on characters from the children's book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, by William Joyce. The voice cast includes Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Harland Williams, Tom Kenny, Steve Anderson, Laurie Metcalf, Adam West, Tom Selleck, and Angela Bassett. It was the first film released after then-Pixar executive John Lasseter became chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
"The Chronic Argonauts" (1888) is a short story by the British science-fiction writer H. G. Wells. The story concerns an inventor who builds a time machine and then travels in time on it. The story pre-dates Wells's best-selling time travel novel The Time Machine by seven years.
Made in Britain is a 1982 British television play written by David Leland, and directed by Alan Clarke, about a 16-year-old racist skinhead named Trevor, and his constant confrontations with authority figures. It was originally broadcast on ITV on 10 July 1983 as fourth in an untitled series of works by Leland, loosely based around the British educational system, which subsequently acquired the overall title of Tales Out of School. As with many Alan Clarke works, the director attempts to depict English working-class life realistically, without moralising or complex plots. The play features strong language, violence, racism and an anti-establishment feeling. Cinematographer Chris Menges's use of the Steadicam contributed to the fluid and gritty atmosphere of the play.
Green Shadows, White Whale is a 1992 novel by Ray Bradbury. It gives a fictionalized account of his journey to Ireland in 1953-1954 to write a screen adaptation of the novel Moby-Dick with director John Huston. Bradbury has said he wrote it after reading actress Katharine Hepburn's account of filming The African Queen with Huston in Africa. The title itself is a play on Peter Viertel's novel White Hunter, Black Heart, which is also about Huston.
It Ain't Hay is a 1943 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello.
"Market Forces" is the fourth episode of the animated television series The Spectacular Spider-Man, which is based on the comic book character Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. In the episode, Spider-Man is hunted by Shocker, whose suit allows him to fire intense sonic blasts.
Water for Elephants is a 2011 American romantic drama film directed by Francis Lawrence and written by Richard LaGravenese, based on Sara Gruen's 2006 novel of the same name. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Robert Pattinson, and Christoph Waltz.
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 is a 2015 American comedy film directed by Steve Pink and written by Josh Heald. The film stars Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Adam Scott, Chevy Chase, and Gillian Jacobs. It is the sequel to the 2010 film Hot Tub Time Machine. The film was released on February 20, 2015. John Cusack, who played Adam Yates and produced the first film, does not return in the theatrical cut, but has a brief cameo in the unrated version. The film grossed $13 million against its $18 million budget and has a 14% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Batteries Not Included is a 1987 American comic science fiction film directed by Matthew Robbins about small extraterrestrial living spaceships that save an apartment block under threat from property development. The story was originally intended to be featured in the television series Amazing Stories, but executive producer Steven Spielberg liked the idea so much that he decided to adapt it into a film. It is also notable for being the feature film screenwriting debut of Brad Bird.
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy fiction and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with both the database and wiki being open for editing and user contributions. The ISFDB database and code are available under Creative Commons licensing and there is support within both Wikipedia and ISFDB for interlinking. The data are reused by other organizations, such as Freebase, under the creative commons license.
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