Analog SF magazine used to (perhaps still does) have an occasional feature called "Probability Zero" -- vignette-length stories with highly improbable setups done for humor value, the humor being dep[endent on either a shaggy-dog sort of pun or spinning an in-joke founded in a famous SF story.

With that in mind, here's an advance look at:

Gay Authors > New Posts > October 24, 2008

In Politics > The Soapbox, Rakuten08 writes:

"The 2 1/2 month old war between Russia and Georgia, allegedly over South Ossetia, took a new turn when forces led by ousted Georgian premier Eduard Shevardnadze staged a coup against the embattled Georgian government. Russian President Vladimir Putin immediately extended diplomatic recognition to the insurgent Shevardnadze regime."

In Hosted Authors > Dan Kirk's Stories, Trebs writes:

"I regret to inform readers that Dreams of a Father will be on an indefinite hiatus. Dan has gone to the hospital for an MRI. He said to tell everyone that if all goes well, he'll be bringing them a new Do Over episode."

Too funny

Huh? That went way over my head...

Spelling out a joke nearly always spoils it, but...

A. Dan Kirk's Do Over stories, hosted on this site, are founded on the concept that it is possible to send one's persona back in time, to occupy one's younger body with memories and experience of what for it is the future. The device used for this resembles a specialized MRI machine.

B. The stories are the best executed "Marty Stu" fiction ever; protagonist of the firrst three stories (and a leading character in the fourth) is "Davey Jones", whose unrevised life (and the unchanged elements of the revised ones) are precisely modeled on Dan's own.

C. The major antagonist in most of the stories is the fictional son of the real Eduard Shevarnadze, who is likewise out to revise history -- in the old Soviet Union's favor.

HAHA!

As a Do-Over Fan, that was a good one D&B.

I agree! That was a pretty good joke. I just read the first one, and I really liked it. Now we just need to come up with some for some of CJ's stories.

*laughs* I liked the first one because I will be the only person to report the Eastern European conflicts, lol. there is no chance that Shevardnadze uses coups to get back his Presidency.