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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: Think before you do things ... Rule Two from Brian's childhood was straightforward enough, and a dictum with which it was hard to find fault. That advice had been ignored at the drunken celebration of Brian's twenty-fifth birthday--and now the grad student had to deal with the consequences. As a result of precipitous actions at that party, Brian found himself in possession of unexpected and truly amazing data. It appeared he had made a discovery that could shake sociology--and society--to its roots. Now what should he do about it?

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Analog, 2003
Fictionwise Release Date: March 2004

This eBook is also available in the following bundle(s):

• Edward M. Lerner Bundle

28 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [42 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [44 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [27 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [106 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [30 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [58 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [101 KB] , hiebook (KML) [91 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [61 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [25 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [31 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [59 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [43 KB]
Words: 7830
Reading time: 22-31 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"A very charming story, highly entertaining."--Bluejack Reviews

If one were to mathematically analyze the timing of major life decisions, not that my interests run to quantitative studies, I theorize one would find a statistically significant clustering at multiple-of-five birthdays. (If Dad heard that prediction, he would, without missing a beat, ask if I was referring to integral multiples of five. You can imagine what a trial my childhood was.) The speculation comes to mind because this all began on my twenty-fifth birthday. A quarter century: it had struck me more as a substantive fraction of a lifetime gone than as a cause for celebration.

My friends, however, were of a different mind.

At State U., even in the Soc. department, a Taco Bell run was considered a multicultural experience. I'd ranted about the local ethnocentrism often enough, so I was delighted and touched when my friends surprised me with a Japanese night out. We're all impoverished grad students, so here "out" meant gathering in one of their apartments. How ironic was it that one of the few times they were game to try something not remotely hunk of corn-fed Midwestern beef, they picked my least favorite cuisine? The sushi wasn't a problem, however, as there was plenty of saki with which to swig down the raw eel and yellowfin and squid, not to mention several items I didn't recognize and decided not to ask about.

How different things might have been if only I'd masked the food with wasabi mustard instead of the rice wine.

Everyone had brought foodstuffs in my honor, so I had to sample it all. Japanese etiquette, my hostess gleefully informed me, required downing each cup of saki in one swallow--and she owned water tumblers, not delicate ceramic cups. By my third California roll, I was feeling no pain. Halfway through my gastronomic survey, I was improvising paeans to diversity. No one even tried to match drinks with the birthday boy, but we all got pretty damn mellow.

What came next seemed like a profound idea at the time: very multicultural soc. I remember plopping myself down in front of a computer, and the gales of laughter as I almost toppled off the chair. I remember guffaws at my typos and boisterous negotiations over wording. After a ceremonious clinking, but rather more like clanking, of cheap glassware, I recall clicking send to dispatch our masterpiece. Lost in an alcoholic fog, however, was the exact topic of our enthusiasm.