I enjoyed this story a lot, although I too figured the wife as the time traveler early on, the origins of the femur was a nice twist. I kept thinking “he’s trying to fool me into thinking the femur is Stu’s but it can’t be” and then it all clicked.

As time travel stories go this is no “All you zombies” but most of it works and it’s lots of fun, thanks.

My thoughts exactly!

I don’t know, maybe it’s my own slightly dysfunctional upbringing, but it really kind of bothered me that Stu’s son apparently spent all of his life obsessive trying to fulfill his father dreams. I mean, to me it doesn’t sound like a very healthy relationship if his driving force in life is “fulfill my father’s (kind of crazy sounding) dreams and wishes”.

The same idea was used in Michael Crichton’s “Timeline” where the characters dig up a sarcophagus type thing from the middle ages of a man missing an ear. Of course this later turns out to be the remalns of the guy who dug it up.

I guess if there’s one thing about the time/space continium, it isn’t without it’s sense of irony.

Yes, but a lot of people are supposed to be a lot of things, and momentous events–especially ones that are seemingly impossible–have ways of reaching into the psyche much deeper than a Ph.D does. That’s not to say that they make everyone leap out of their skin and abandon their previous modes of thought altogether; it’s just that being a scientist isn’t a vaccine against human irrationality.

I did feel that the “guess what, I’m really a time traveler!” thing is a bit hackeneyed, but it also lent to the feeling that this story was truly classic. In any case it was excusable due to the overall quality of the tale.

I generally prefer my sci-fi a bit darker and a bit funnier, but I still really enjoyed this one.

I also found the transformation of the female paleontologist to be a weak point of the story. Considering the overall lack of physical description, her piercing and purple hair stood out like a sore thumb, existing only so they could be changed to signal not-so-subtle character transformation.

I think the character’s reaction to the discovery was very much so a side issue to the rider. I think the character who goes changes into the biblical scientist would be a difficult character to analyze, and would take the story off into an unneeded tangent.
She changed into a conservative and the other guy went nuts because of the femur. Stu became obsessed with time travel.
The story was about Stu, the other two characters were like light decorative border around a wedding invitation. Nice, complementary, bring out the purpose of the invitation not the art.

I don’t know, it just seems like this story is a elegant woman. She shows just enough skin.

Let me put it this way, when the story ended, I did a “happy dance” because I loved it so much.

Good story thought, I’m glad it ended the way it did.

Still stands that they had the wrong head for the animal…

http://www.unmuseum.org/dinobront.htm
“To add insult to injury, the poor Brontosaurus not only got a name change, but it was discovered that he had the wrong head, too. One item that was not found in the excavation with Marsh’s Yale skeleton was a skull. Marsh mounted a head found at a different location to complete the exhibit. For many years scientists suspected that Marsh had gotten the wrong skull, but it wasn’t until 1970 that two scientists, John McIntosh from Wesleyan University and David Berman of the Carnegie Museum, proved it. The head that Marsh had mounted was from another sauropod named Camarasaurus. The proper Brontosaurus/Apatosaurus skull actually had a slightly longer snout and looked a lot like the skull of another sauropod called Diplodocus.”

The whole dinosaur/paleontologist tie in added something I’ve not seen before in a time travel story. And of course the idea that a time traveler falling in love with a paleontologist in the very
era that she has come to study that was a good plot device to add.

What makes me go “Hum?”
She knew already that her son would be the one to make the time travel device. That seems a bit on the paradoxical side, if not a self fulfilling prophecy.

Looking at the debate with an open / critical mind, BOTH sides seem to spew forth more dogma than open minded science. And few are brave enough to open their minds and honestly explore the thinking of the other side. (Which is what true science is about – looking at both sides.)

The mantra is, “But the Great Politically Correct Ones say that man in the center of the universe. If you voice disagreement, you must be lying.” True now and in Galileo’s time.

Perhaps the truth of origin is something completely different. Like Douglass Adams suggested – the universe is something accidentally sneezed out of the nose of an intelligent being.

The sound at 26:44 was that of a Brontosaurus (a rose by any other name is still a rose) stepping on a human or a time machine whizzing by.

It was great to experience the original broadcast of this story; I will now return to November 19, 2023.

I liked the story, though I saw the general shape of the ending coming. Not the final twist, though. A nice little tweak right at the end.

“Brontosaurus (pronounced /Àåbr…ínt…ôÀàs…îr…ôs/), meaning “thunder lizard” (from the Greek brontƒì/Œ≤œÅŒøŒΩœÑŒ∑ meaning ‘thunder’ and sauros/œÉŒ±œÖœÅŒøœÇ meaning ‘lizard’), is a deprecated genus of sauropod dinosaurs…. though it was recognized as a species of a previously-named genus, Apatosaurus, in 1903.”

So if he went back he wouldn’t see one.

I agree, yet another Stu as a scientist… but I haven’t seen many Stus as scientists…

There is also 26:44-27:04 there is a sound of a plane or something in the background.

Other than that I like this story, it’s well done.

Good work guys

Would have liked to have a little more physical description and more process to the other scientists judgments–the cultural short hand in having the woman go from a purple haired be-studded punkish type to a mousy brown haired creationist was a bit too pat given the high quality of the rest of the writing. Both she and the annoyo-boy felt they were just there to prove a point and be flung into the path of Stu–like the writer didn’t like being inside their heads enough to make them fully fleshed out and that’s a shame. I think would have made the story richer.

I also enjoyed the subtle themes of love and patience. It gave me warm fuzzies because it was more of an undercurrent that avoided being saccharine or smarmy.

And the ending was sweet, and cyclical. All in all it was enjoyable.