Drunkard's Walk Forums

www.eclipse.net/~rms/dw2conc.html
Enjoy.

-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

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"" I murmured. ""
Marvin the Martian again, although Doug's intonation is a little less comedic at this point. And again, I can't give a proper attribution. Can someone help?

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.....but it's the title of the cartoon that's escaping me. I'm sure it's in the one that involves Marvin's 'space modulator' and his plan to blow up the Earth and Dehydrated Martians - just add water.
Well it's a pointer.
--Rod.H
"Aaah, run for the hills folks! The Martians are comming!"

>"What else would you have me do?"
You're welcome. I'm glad you took me up on it, particularly since that exchange right there is my effort to crystallize the driving conflict in DWII - the difference in standards between Doug and the Sabers.
Blessed be.
-n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

I should have given you a credit at the end of the chapter, like I did Ed last time. Next time I update the site, I'll do that.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

From the concordance:

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"Beware the honorable man of peace who is forced to war. He will do anything necessary to end the conflict in his favor in order to protect his own and restore the peace." -- Unknown, as paraphrased in "Best Served Cold" by Robert Knighton
This quote has been bugging the hell out of me for a long time. I got it second-hand, and the source -- Robert Knighton -- can't remember where he first saw it. It's a paraphrase of a passage from an SF novel he read some 20 years ago, he said, with cat-like aliens and humans unwillingly drawn into some conflict as neutral observers, but he couldn't remember either title or author. Over the past year or so, no one has been able to identify what book this could be; any reader who can, I'll give a credit to on this chapter.

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I don't know the answer, but I'd suggest asking on the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written. There are people there who can identify SF stories from significantly flimsier information than this.

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but I'd suggest asking on the newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written.

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Already did. No dice. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

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Already did. No dice. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

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Damn. If rasfw can't identify it...
--Mr. F., sorting buttons for the US Army, the sweetest-smelling army in the world!
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

Yeah. Which is why I resorted to a blanket plea in the Concordance. Oh well.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

BTW - Thanks for the "Master of Obscure Detail" award at the end of the chapter and the mention in the concordance. That tickled me no end. ^_^
And yes, do credit the other guy for his input when you get the chance, I think his contribution was far more significant than mine.
I can't help with the quote either, sorry. It almost sounds like something that would have been written for Babylon 5. But I'm pretty sure no such line was ever uttered in the series itself.
-Logan

The worst thing is, I could swear I've read that book before (or, at least, the one-sentence plot summary sounds awfully familiar). I can't think of the title, though.

that Quote could be from one of C.J. Cherryh's books but I'm not sure I have most of them but it's been so long that I'm not sure, I could be mixing it up with a few other stories as well.

After going and not-quite-thinking about it for a while, I'm now wondering if that quote is from the very first of Niven's "Tales of Known Space" stories (also known as Man-Kzin Wars). It fits, but I don't have a copy handy to check.

Robert definitely excluded the Cherryh books from the list of possibilities, so that's out. Man-Kzin Wars? Maybe. That's one which (like the Cherryh books) I've never read, so it's a possibility.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

It's the "humanity as neutral observers" bit that weirds me. I was thinking Kzinti, too, but humanity wasn't exactly neutral in that one...
Then again, it did give us another good quote: "The reason man "don't study war no more" is because he got too damn good at it."
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

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It's the "humanity as neutral observers" bit that weirds me. I was thinking Kzinti, too, but humanity wasn't exactly neutral in that one...

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Yeah, that's the part that confuses a lot of people.
Sadly, whatever transformations Robert's memory applied to the quote have altered it enough that googling on its component parts doesn't help either...

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Hmm...you're right, the "humanity as neutral observers" part doesn't really fit Man-Kzin, but I wonder if this is a bit that got jumbled around. There was a neutral observer race in that series, after all (don't remember the exact name...was it the Slavers?), though it wasn't humanity.

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Hmm...you're right, the "humanity as neutral observers" part doesn't really fit Man-Kzin, but I wonder if this is a bit that got jumbled around. There was a neutral observer race in that series, after all (don't remember the exact name...was it the Slavers?), though it wasn't humanity.

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In the Known Space universe of Larry Niven, there were the Outsiders, a helium-3 based life form that travelled at sub-light speeds (even though they had the secret of hyperdrive) folowing around Star Seeds. They sold information, like the secret of the hyperdrive. At exorbitant prices. (Why did they follow Star Seeds around? That information costs you a planetary economy practically.)
A more manipulative "neutral" race were the Pierson's Puppeteers. Herbivores, racial cowards, and some of the most truly ruthless characters around. Oh... and every single last one of them that any human ever actually met was considered insane by their own species.
The Slavers were long extinct. So were the Tnucpin. Although artifacts from both occasionally showed up in stasis boxes.
Then there were the Grogs. Telepathic in the extreme. But they're pretty much planet bound for the most part.
That's pretty much what I remember off the top of my head.
-Logan

Thanks for the information, Logan...it's been too long since I've read ToKS (must remember to dig those up and read them again some time). I think I was thinking of the Outsiders, but I can't be completely sure without a re-read. Regardless, it looks like there's a few too many races in that series for it to be the one being referred to here.

Thought of another possibility -- Alan Dean Foster's The Damned trilogy.
Catlike aliens, etc, etc. Humans end up fighting for both sides, though.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

Thanks, ECSNorway -- I'll go looking for those and see if anything looks familiar!

-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

They're good books (humanity are THE most warlike species in the universe and it's their only advantage), but I don't think that's the source of the quote. It sounds like something from Subspace Encounter, by EE 'Doc' Smith (the same guy who gave us the Lensmen). As the book was completed after Doc's death by Lloyd Arthur Esbach, I don't know which of them actually wrote the passage I'm thinking of:
"...the deadliest possible performer is not the one whose ordinary life is violence, but a highly intelligent entity who, having coldly and accurately evaluated a situation and having come to a decision, proceeds coldly and ruthlessly to take whatever action is necessary to implement that decision."
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.