Beatnik Bayou

It is said that if you really want to learn something, you should teach it.

The Bellman

Someone once asked Benjamin Franklin “What possible use are balloons?” He answered with a question, “What use is a newborn baby?” Here are many answers…

In Fading Suns and Dying Moons

Fermi asked of extraterrestrials, “Where is everybody?” Perhaps we might not want to know.

A Christmas Story

The Flying Dutchman

Ever had a hard day of traveling? Not like this.

Truth, Justice and the Politically Correct Socialist Path

An infant who might have become Clark Kent came to Earth in Stalinist USSR, instead becoming Kyril Kentarovsky with Murphy’s Law in overdrive.

Her Girl Friday

(from Steel Beach)

Good Intentions

Politics makes for strange bedfellows. The devil is in the details.

Just Another Perfect Day

You have only today to live — again, and again, and again.

A Valentine

(with PJ Beese)

The Unprocessed Word

Even among creative minds, there may be resistance to change.

Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo

Anna-Louise Bach discovers new meanings to the expression “dog days.”

Press Enter ■

Modern technology is powerful, and that power can be used for good or…

The Manhattan Phone Book (Abridged)

If every picture tells a story, every person could tell even more…

Blue Champagne

No matter the technological wonders that come to pass, it is still a story of human needs and desires that effervesce.

The Pusher

When time does not flow evenly for all, how can romance be sustained?

Options

It is said that to understand someone, you need to see the world through another’s eyes. What understanding would come through another’s sex?

The Barbie Murders

We all want to be part of the crowd, but we all want to be unique. Sometimes the tension can be lethal.

In the Hall of the Martian Kings

Mars will be colonized, but just what might we find?

The Persistence of Vision

What is the difference between looking and seeing? What senses do we need for each?

Equinoctial

We each need another, but what happens when that other truly becomes part of us?

Lollipop and the Tar Baby

Spacetime might not be the only thing that gets warped near a black hole.

Air Raid

Needed: People for repopulating a future humanity. Whom do you get?

This short story was the basis for the novel (and screenplay and movie) Millennium.

Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe

Ever want to get away from it all? Traveling to faraway places is not the only possibility.

Manikins

Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they aren’t after you, and you might be right.

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank

There are many lessons to learn, and many ways to learn them.

PBS turned “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” into a 3-(out of 10)-Star, made-for-TV movie starring Raul Julia.

The Phantom of Kansas

Art can take many forms, some more obvious than others…

Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance

Music and motion — it takes two to tango. Or does it take more?

The Funhouse Effect

Ever been in a situation that kept getting worse and wonder about hitting the bottom? On the way to the sun, there might be more than one bottom…

In the Bowl

What is costly and what is of value? It might take a trip to Venus to truly understand.

The Black Hole Passes

It may be lonely out in space, but when working out in space, you are never really alone.

Retrograde Summer

In the varied landscapes of Mercury, the truths about family might be more fluid than mercury.

Picnic on Nearside

We all change as we grow up, but some changes…

Bagatelle

Ever get so upset that you just wanted to explode? Ever have to deal with someone like that?