# Help me remember this short story???
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 11, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146 "2010-03-11T19:30:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/1 "2010-03-11T19:30:25Z")
This was a “Shock Short” story at the end of Perry Rhodan “The Pseudo One.” The name was something like “Dwachtwu—Remember?”
The plot as I recall is that that first word was some kind of keyword that would trigger a memory or something. Civilization on Mars had died for some unknown plague or something, and that was \*implanted into various (Earth) people’s brains, who would then get together, help the cause, etc. . . The keyword “Dwachtwu” (or however it was spelled) was presumably of Martian origin.
At least I think it was Mars. Maybe not. I might be conflating that aspect of this story with “Colossus and the Crab.”
I have the book stored away in some unknown box, and don’t have the time in the near future to dig it out. Anyone remember any more of the plot details.
I don’t remember a lot of the details of the story, but I do remember “Skardash Phikrak” and Bishdawk Gratzkal Plawg" or however they were spelled from “The Pseudo One,” but that’s the way it always is: You always make a point to remember the cuss words in a foreign language first.
\*Hmmm. . . more commonly used device than I expected: The Anti-Life equation in Kirby’s Fourth World series, and the “Inheritors” two-parter from the original “Outer Limits.”
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/2 "2010-11-20T19:54:21Z")
Well, I’d like to thank aaaaaall the people who helped me out soooooo much with this miiiiiiiind-boggling question. I found my copy of the aforementioned “Perry Rhodan,” and the story is “Dhactwhu!–Remember?” by Robert A.W. Lowndes and Forry Ackerman.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/3 "2010-11-20T20:34:11Z")
Here’s how to answer questions like this:
Go to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Advanced Search Page:
[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi)
Enter “Perry Rhodan” on the Term 1 line and “Pseudo” on the Term 2 line. You’ll get (after clicking through several webpages) this webpage:
[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?PRRRHDNTHP1974](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?PRRRHDNTHP1974)
And there’s your answer.
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/4 "2010-11-21T03:35:20Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> Well, I’d like to thank aaaaaall the people who helped me out soooooo much with this miiiiiiiind-boggling question.
Your refund is in the mail. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/5 "2010-11-21T08:39:35Z")
“I am mindful that Samuel Johnson enjoined the preachers of his time not to inveigh against those who were absent from church on Sundays by scolding those who were not absent.” --William F. Buckley
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### Author:  [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/6 "2010-11-21T16:13:13Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> Well, I’d like to thank aaaaaall the people who helped me out soooooo much with this miiiiiiiind-boggling question.
“Somebody tell me what 2+2 is! Somebody! Hellllooo? Anyone? Answer me!!?! Well, thanks all you geniuses, apparently from months of research I’ve now determined the answer is 4. I guess you’ve all demonstrated that you aren’t as smart or important as I am.”
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### Author:  [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/7 "2010-11-21T16:22:13Z")
That’s what happens when you pull a miracle out your arse in less than 10 minutes one time. It becomes the new standard you have to meet every time.
I take it Tucker really didn’t mean it like it sounded, and just meant he had the answer. I’m sorry I had to chaff your ass, but you could have worded that better in the end.
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### Author:  [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/8 "2010-11-21T16:25:39Z")
I think that part of what the SDMB is about is teaching people how to do their own research. I don’t mind answering questions for a new person using basic resources, since they won’t have experience in doing research. I think anyone who’s been on the SDMB for a long time though should know how to use Google, Wikipedia, the IMDb, the Speculative Fiction Database, etc. to answer their questions. There are, of course, many questions that the basic resources don’t answer.
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### Author:  [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/9 "2010-11-21T17:22:12Z")
I think the initial mistake was assuming that anybody else in the universe _wanted_ to remember something from Perry Rhodan.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [November 21, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-remember-this-short-story/532146/10 "2010-11-21T23:20:26Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#):
>
> I take it Tucker really didn’t mean it like it sounded, and just meant he had the answer. I’m sorry I had to chaff your ass, but you could have worded that better in the end.
Yeah, ya can’t take anything relating to Perry Rhodan too seriously.