Weekend Assignment #12: Great Events

 

Weekend Assignment #12: Great Events: Thanks to time travel and invisibility, you can be on the spot for any important event of the last 100 years (1905 onward). Which important historical event do you choose? As a twist, if you actually were at an important historical event, you can't pick that one. Why? Because you were there already. What, you want to be there twice? Think of the paradox!

Extra Credit: Think of a piece of now-dated slang that should be brought back into circulation. Make it reasonably clean slang, please.

 

Dear John,

Tsk, tsk. Forgot to call for fuel. Signs of dementia this early in your life. Are you sure it isn't Crutzfeld-Jacobs Disease? I do know how you liked your steak in a past life (heheheh). So sorry to hear you are freezing your toes off this morning with the empty propane tank and all. I know the feeling. If I misjudge or simply fall asleep without topping off the stoves I awaken to a 40 degree or lower temperature here at La Casa Loca - hard to keep it warm inside when it's near 0°F outside and the joint was built over 150 years ago...

Enough - we'll soon be complaining it's too hot. I just noticed the lawn mower needs repairs. Made a mental note to try to get them done before the end of April for a change, too. Who knows, maybe they'll invent a mask that allows me to mow the lawn without ending up on a respirator in hospital for a week.

I think there are lots of events in history that will attract folk. Sadly, they'll also attract the Temporal Police. I have a profound respect for the capabilities of those dudes and haven't any desire to be hanging around anywhere they are likely to show. So I'm going to opt for something more personal. I have a large portrait of my mother as a young woman, painted by my grandmother. I'd like to be a fly on the wall, so to speak, and listen in to their conversation as mother painted posing daughter. Partially, I am fascinated as both women died before I became an adult, able to differ between the important answers and the mundane. Partially, I'd like to listen in on the expressed thoughts of a young woman, growing up in the middle of the Great Depression. And I suspect there is an element in me wishing to experience a simpler time for myself, before World War Two had destroyed the innocence of this society.

Besides. Highly unlikely the old Time Patrol will be too worried about an old phart watching an artist paint a portrait on the shores of Lake Superior in 1936. Just the time to unleash my wrath upon the world...

Give our best to Krissy and Athena. You are a lucky man -- your women grow more beautiful each day.

Grins and giggles, bacon and eggs,

wil

Extra Credit: 23 Skidoo and Tyler, too! (Yeah, yeah, yeah -- I DO know I mangled this. "23 Skidoo" and "Tippacanoe and Tyler, too" are supposed to be separate phrases. That's why my proposed slang is worth bringing back. It makes sense to me and that is all that matters in my universe.

Each week, ze überblogger John Scalzi challenges all and sundry with his meme Weekend Assignment. You can obtain untainted copies of each week's assignment and leave a link to your reply to John's query in the comments at By The Way.