I Don't, Have a CLUE, About The Author ...

But, What The Heck, How About a WAG ...

Harry Turtledove?

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

No, not Turtledove.

Like both Arthur Clarke (White Hart) and deCamp/Pratt (Gavagan's), the author has found the tavern as a good place to set many stories.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Well, as long as it's not Piers Anthony, I'm content.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Goodness, has no one here heard of Callahan's?

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Of course but I simply have no time to come up with a question right now ...

Well ...

How About you Tell us The Answer ...

And Then, One of us, WILL Come Up With The Next Question!

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

No, seriously, SOMEONE must have read the Callahan's Bar stories? The 'Callahan's Crosstime Saloon' collection? 'Time Travellers Strictly Cash'? No?

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

It Raised an Eyebrow, So I Did Some Checking ...

Spider Robinson ...

Not Sure, On The Title, But, Will Callahan's Crosstime Salloon Do?

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If you Ignore YOUR Rights, they Will go away.

I've read them (years ago), but I sure don't own them.

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

Sorry, out most of the weekend.

Yes, author is Spider Robinson. Story is his first novel. A section originally appeared in Analog under a different title. If no one gets it by tomorrow morning I'll turn over the cards and move things along.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

All right, time to move along.

The quote is from the Spider Robinson novel "Telempath". The first portion was originally published in Analog under the title "By Any Other Name". The quote is the thoughts of the main character walking down the empty street in an abandoned city and seeing the marquee of a theater, an RKO.

Since IMO had the oddest response, he canpose a question of his own. Go, IMO.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I'm familiar with them but came across this too late.

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

I did read one. It was in a magazine - almost certainly Analog - and it featured the line, "Go from the sub, Lime, to the Reed occulist." It was a rather clever pun but the build-up to it was very lengthy.

I've read them but for some reason didn't make the connection.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

OK ... what story by whom ended with a "star mangled spanner"? and what was special about the way it was typeset?

'Neutron Tide' by Arthur Clarke. It was in 'The Wind from the Sun', but I don't recall any special typesetting. Perhaps 'The Longest Science Fiction Story Ever Told?' That had an infinitely decreasing font size.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Right ... as originally typeset, one had to turn the page to find the final words "a star-mangled spanner" by themselves at the top of a page. Go to it Mike ...

When I talk in my intro class about black holes I frequently mention this wonderful pun.

Oh, crud. Here I sit with nothing to say...

Um. This from a story I first read as a youngster, maybe when I was 11 or 12, and found very disturbing at the time:

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

"Mimsy were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner)?

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

That's it. Kuttner and CL Moore. The scene where the kids are slowly disappearing and Paradine thinks of the line "And the momy raths outgrabe" was really scary to me.

Over to you, Mr. Man.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.