# Another shot at identifying this short story
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 18, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977 "2016-10-18T20:41:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/1 "2016-10-18T20:41:52Z")
This place has a very good track record for identifying stories, books, movies and actors.
But I stumped you.
In this thread that asked what was the first thread each of us started I found that my oldest thread was asking to identify a short story. Two posters replied and it went no where.
So I’m giving it another try. Maybe someone new will see it and know the answer. More likely the thread will die a quick and painless death.
[Here is the original post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4573041&postcount=1):
> [@](#):
>
> Anyone know this short story and author? I think I may have read it in Analog. It goes like this:there is this guy who is either a scientist or politician. He is depressed because of the short-sightness of the American people when it comes to space exploration. The character is somehow involved in the fight to keep the space program funded and he feels he is losing the battle. The character is at a party when he is approached by a stranger. The stranger convinces the scientist that he is a time traveller. the stranger came back to tell the scientist that his efforts were not in vain and that humans had reached the stars. It ends with the scientist saying something like , “I knew America would raise to the occasion and continue to explore”. The stranger says " I never said it was America." I think it was written about the time of the Challenger disaster. May have been written by Eric Iverson (aka Harry Turtledove). I was thinking about this story when I heard people complaining about the latest proposal to head for Mars.
At the time I mentioned Turtledove because he was one of the most frequent short story contributors to Analog at the time. I’m not at all sure it was him and it probably wasn’t but it did appear around the time he was publishing stories there under his name and under Eric G. Iverson.
So you have one more shot at this. Don’t blow it.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/2 "2016-10-18T21:22:52Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> So you have one more shot at this. Don’t blow it.
Or what, tovarish?
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/3 "2016-10-18T21:52:57Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#):
>
> Or what, tovarish?
Or else I will make you watch the alternate ending of Big on a loop.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/4 "2016-10-18T22:02:18Z")
Hmm… I remember reading one of Heinlein’s later works in which he took a set of predictions he had made decades before and graded his performance. He was pretty on the mark with a lot of things, but missed on the global famine affecting food supplies in the US and his predictions about space colonization. His final point was something along the lines of “I still believe we’re going to make it to the Moon and beyond; it’s just not certain at this point that the colonists will be speaking English.”
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### Author:  [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/5 "2016-10-18T22:58:02Z")
[QUOTE=Bob Dylan]
I don’t know but I been told.
The streets of Heaven are lined with gold.
You ask me how things could get much worse.
What if the Russians should happen to get up there first?
Wowee! Pretty Scary!
[/QUOTE]
…
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/6 "2016-10-19T01:34:35Z")
I’m pretty sure I’ve read that story, maybe in Destinies “Magazine”. No title or author, but if you’ve got any of those around, it would be a good place to start.
And wasn’t future guy lying about being a time traveler?
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/7 "2016-10-19T02:18:51Z")
Likeliest authors, Niven, Pournelle, Sheffield.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [October 19, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/8 "2016-10-19T02:25:35Z")
I was also thinking it sounded like some of Spider Robinson’s earlier stuff, the kind of thing that’d show up in a Callaghan’s Saloon story.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/9 "2016-10-21T15:29:43Z")
> [@E-DUB](#):
>
> Likeliest authors, Niven, Pournelle, Sheffield.
Niven and Pournelle were not frequent writers in Analog during that time period. Sheffield is a possibility. It’s more likely that it was a lesser known author.
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> I was also thinking it sounded like some of Spider Robinson’s earlier stuff, the kind of thing that’d show up in a Callaghan’s Saloon story.
No it didn’t read at all like a Spider Robinson story.
> [@E-DUB](#):
>
> I’m pretty sure I’ve read that story, maybe in Destinies “Magazine”. No title or author, but if you’ve got any of those around, it would be a good place to start.
>
> And wasn’t future guy lying about being a time traveler?
The only magazines I read at the time were Analog and then I started to get into Asimov’s. I’ve never even heard of Destinies. This was one of those short short stories with a quick set up and then a punch line. No need for exposition. No explanation of time travel. No character development. It had a quick point to make and no need to build a world or a fleshed out story.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/10 "2016-10-21T15:46:07Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> Niven and Pournelle were not frequent writers in Analog during that time period.
The description doesn’t ring true to any Niven I’ve ever read, either.
Pournelle may have been that jingoistic, but I don’t think even he would have been that heavy-handed.
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/11 "2016-10-21T15:56:45Z")
I have no idea what this story is, but your description has me really curious about what the tone of the ending it. Is it supposed to be ominous, like “OMG IT WAS RUSSIA THOSE BASTARDS!” or more egalitarian, like it was an international consortium organized by Canada for the good of all mankind?
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/12 "2016-10-21T15:57:47Z")
> [@gnoitall](#):
>
> The description doesn’t ring true to any Niven I’ve ever read, either.
>
> Pournelle may have been that jingoistic, but I don’t think even he would have been that heavy-handed.
How is that jingoistic? It was a criticism of how the NASA manned space program was allowed to fall apart. It wasn’t overly patriotic.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/13 "2016-10-21T16:02:02Z")
> [@delphica](#):
>
> I have no idea what this story is, but your description has me really curious about what the tone of the ending it. Is it supposed to be ominous, like “OMG IT WAS RUSSIA THOSE BASTARDS!” or more egalitarian, like it was an international consortium organized by Canada for the good of all mankind?
It didn’t matter.
I don’t know if you read a lot of short stories. I used to. Sometimes they are meant to make a particular point. They aren’t written to transport you to a different world. If the author wanted to build a world and write a story in it he would have. In this case it was just a lament on the state of NASA and the future of the space program in the U.S.
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### Author:  [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/14 "2016-10-21T16:12:49Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> It didn’t matter.
>
> I don’t know if you read a lot of short stories. I used to. Sometimes they are meant to make a particular point. They aren’t written to transport you to a different world. If the author wanted to build a world and write a story in it he would have. In this case it was just a lament on the state of NASA and the future of the space program in the U.S.
Ah, okay, got it. Yes, I get that short stories often end with a barb or a zinger, so “a commentary on the lack of support for the US space program” answers my question. I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be more of a Cold War thing, that there is no more US and commies control the skies, etc.
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### Author:  [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/15 "2016-10-21T18:04:57Z")
“Destinies” was a “paperback magazine” which came out quarterly around the time in question, later published as “Far Frontiers” and “New Destinies”. Published SF, speculative fact, and was also into space advocacy, so it would have fit as a venue for the story in question. However, now that I’ve got the same bug about finding out the name of this story, I checked my shelves and no story title/author combination pinged my radar. I dumped my old Analog/Asimov’s a while ago, but it does seem to me that the story was accompanied by illustration in a fashion typical of those publications. (Destinies did it, too.)
In an effort to get the answer, I’ve reposted you OP on another board I visit (with all ID removed) where there are a lot of SF fans.
If nobody there knows it, and nobody here knows it, your best bet may be contacting the publications directly or maybe they have websites with forums on them where you could ask. You ever get an answer from any source, put it here so we’ll all know. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/16 "2016-10-21T18:08:47Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> This place has a very good track record for identifying stories, books, movies and actors.
>
> But I stumped you.
>
> In this thread that asked what was the first thread each of us started I found that my oldest thread was asking to identify a short story. Two posters replied and it went no where.
>
> So I’m giving it another try. Maybe someone new will see it and know the answer. More likely the thread will die a quick and painless death.
>
> [Here is the original post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=4573041&postcount=1):
>
> At the time I mentioned Turtledove because he was one of the most frequent short story contributors to Analog at the time. I’m not at all sure it was him and it probably wasn’t but it did appear around the time he was publishing stories there under his name and under Eric G. Iverson.
>
> So you have one more shot at this. Don’t blow it.
I thought we identified this one - it’s “Dreamers” by Rick Cook [Publication: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, February 1988](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?56876)
Discussed (and confirmed) in this thread [SF Book identification - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=506615)
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### Author:  [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/17 "2016-10-21T18:57:16Z")
It does remind me of a comic strip from Epic Illustrated. A professor is testifying to a presumed student about how he’s on the verge of cracking the secret of time travel. The student keeps trying to speak up, but the professor won’t let him talk. Finally, the student interjects with “But professor! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! I come from the future, and we perfected the use of time travel using your notes! I came back to thank you personally!”
The professor looks disappointed and says “I think then, I’ll have to stop keeping notes,” and the student fades away into oblivion.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 21, 2016, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/18 "2016-10-21T19:54:45Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> I thought we identified this one - it’s “Dreamers” by Rick Cook [Publication: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, February 1988](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?56876)
>
> Discussed (and confirmed) in this thread [SF Book identification - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=506615)
Nice. I don’t remember that at all. I didn’t remember the original thread until the new thread I linked to in the OP. I really wish I had kept my old issues of Analog.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2016, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-shot-at-identifying-this-short-story/768977/19 "2016-10-22T11:56:10Z")
> [@Knowed\_Out](#):
>
> It does remind me of a comic strip from Epic Illustrated. A professor is testifying to a presumed student about how he’s on the verge of cracking the secret of time travel. The student keeps trying to speak up, but the professor won’t let him talk. Finally, the student interjects with “But professor! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you! I come from the future, and we perfected the use of time travel using your notes! I came back to thank you personally!”
>
> The professor looks disappointed and says “I think then, I’ll have to stop keeping notes,” and the student fades away into oblivion.
Sounds like Ed Lerner’s more recent story “Grandpa?” (which was made into a short movie, I think).
> [@delphica](#):
>
> I have no idea what this story is, but your description has me really curious about what the tone of the ending it. Is it supposed to be ominous, like “OMG IT WAS RUSSIA THOSE BASTARDS!” or more egalitarian, like it was an international consortium organized by Canada for the good of all mankind?
As I recall, I got the impression that it was Japan that got around to going into space eventually instead of American, but I could be wrong.
> [@Loach](#):
>
> Nice. I don’t remember that at all. I didn’t remember the original thread until the new thread I linked to in the OP. I really wish I had kept my old issues of Analog.
No problem; glad to help, and please keep the story id requests coming.