CON ARTISTS come in a variety of shapes, sizes, sexes, and IQ brackets, but the one in today's story goes one step beyond into the outer limits of what a con can be in . . .
"Time Bum."
Illustrated by David Stone (ISFDb HERE).
First appearance: Fantastic, January-February 1953.
Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).
Short short story (9 pages).
"Eur Rolfast met’l partz ar solid gold too avoid tairsum polishing. Eur Rolfast beirings are thi fain’st six-intch dupliks di’mondz for long wair."
ACCORDING to Dr. Johnson, con artists shouldn't be regarded as artists at all: "Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive." In other words, the most important component of any con game is the credulous mark's willingness to be taken in, as exemplified in today's tale about an ordinary schmo who bites the hook—hard . . .
Principal characters:
~ Harry Twenty-Third Street ("I just thought of a new con"), Farmer Brown ("There’s no such thing, my man"), Mr. Clurg ("sat down calmly in empty air beside the desk and, of course, crashed to the floor looking ludicrous and astonished"), Walter Lachlan ("People paid by check or in bills. They just didn’t pay in silver dollars. But it was money"), Betty Lachlan ("didn’t want Walter laughing at her again. As it was, he made her buy her science-fiction magazines downtown instead of at neighborhood newsstands"), the Enterprise reporter ("This is a pretty bare-faced publicity grab"), Mr. Morris ("The paper, now, I know. A nice linen rag that Benziger jobs in Philadelphia"), and a big voice ("May it please the court").
References:
- "Damon Runyon"; "Harry the Horse":
To see how influential Damon Runyon's style has been on not only crime fiction but also science fiction, refer to this ONTOS search page (HERE) and follow the links.
- "roper"; "badger game":
Roper: "But what sets a Roper apart from your average schemer? Well, for starters, they're incredibly skilled at what they do. They have a natural talent for manipulation and persuasion, and they know how to use it to their advantage. They're also incredibly patient - they're willing to wait months, even years, to achieve their goals. And perhaps most importantly, they're incredibly charismatic. People are naturally drawn to them, and they know how to use that to their advantage." (Fast Slang HERE).
Badger game: "The term 'Badger Game' is a slang term that describes a type of scam or con game that is often used to blackmail someone into paying a large sum of money. The Badger Game typically involves a woman who lures a man into a compromising situation, such as a hotel room or other private location. Once the man is in the room, another person, usually a male accomplice, bursts in and catches them in the act.
"The woman then claims that the man has been caught in an affair with her and threatens to expose him unless he pays a large sum of money. The amount demanded is usually significant, often running into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the victim refuses to pay, the woman and her accomplices may threaten to go public with the story, which can have devastating consequences for the victim's personal and professional life." (Fast Slang HERE).
- "Uncle Miltie":
He was one of television's first superstars, Milton Berle (1908-2002), hosting the Texaco Star Theater:
"[Berle] was a smash once the new full season began, Texaco Star Theater hitting ratings as high as 80 and owning Tuesday night for NBC from 8 to 9 p.m. ET. And, as the show landed a pair of Emmy Awards in that first year (the show itself, for Best Kinescope Show and Berle as Most Outstanding Kinescoped Personality), Uncle Miltie (he first called himself by that name ad-libbing at the end of a 1949 broadcast) joked, preened, pratfell, danced, costumed, and clowned his way to stardom, with Americans discovering television as a technological marvel and entertainment medium seeming to bring the country to a dead stop every Tuesday night, just to see what the madcap Berle might pull next.
"With Berle at the helm, Texaco Star Theater was largely credited with driving American television set sales heavily; the number of TV sets sold during Berle's run on the show was said to have grown from 500,000, his first year on the tube, to over 30 million when the show ended in 1956." (Wikipedia HERE).
- "Esperanto":
"Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (la Lingvo Internacia), it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication.
"Esperanto is the most successful constructed international auxiliary language, and the only such language with a sizeable population of native speakers (denaskuloj), of which there are an estimated 2,000. Usage estimates are difficult, but two estimates put the number of people who know how to speak Esperanto at around 100,000. Concentration of speakers is highest in Europe, East Asia, and South America." (Wikipedia HERE).
Resources:
- In the past languages changed relatively slowly over time, but nearly instantaneous mass communications have tended to accelerate that change. Who knows? It could come to this: "Nims qarlo clobregnny prite arem aean teaan deao." For a translation see (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).
.jpg)
- The values of precious metals are also subject to change, sometimes radically, as predicted (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE).
- SFFAudio has an impressive collection of C. M. Kornbluth stories (HERE), as do Project Gutenberg (HERE) and Fadedpage of Canada (HERE).
The bottom line:
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No comments:
Post a Comment