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Post by papaof2 on Aug 3, 2020 6:48:36 GMT -6
Text of the ad is: ------- WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O.Box 1004-1557-4th Avenue, Prince George, BC. V2I. 3K1. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before. -------
OK, there's the premise. Your choice of how far back to go and then you write PAW fiction some years in the future of that past year. Pick 1928 and write about Packard not being in the car business in 1978. Pick 1786 and write about the Civil War. Pick 1820 and write about WWI. Pick 1890 and write about 1929 or 2001. Or make the time frame shorter: pick 1910 and write about the Titanic sinking in 1912.
How do you dress to go back to whatever year you choose? What and how much personal hygiene products can you take back? What kind of money/barter goods? What else would you need? Remember that you can only get ammunition in the firearm calibers of the period (or maybe black powder and hand cast musket balls) and you'd be writing using the tools of that time, whether quill pen and ink (you need a pen knife to shape/sharpen the quills), maybe a typewriter in 1928 or a clay tablet and stylus if you're far enough back in time.
Can you generate the proper skepticism from the people of the time for the things your protagonist is expecting / preparing for in his view of the future? What would he be doing/saying? Where does he say he's getting the information about future events?
I've been thinking about that ad for several weeks but my muse hasn't picked up my thoughts :-(
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Post by hua man on Aug 27, 2020 12:53:17 GMT -6
Being the unknown inventor of some (then) fabulous new invention.
Helping doctors finding that necessary vaccine to say smallpox, plague, or the first to use penicillin.
Nudging future leaders to their respective fields of influence.
Buy shares of stock in then starting companies, and Western Union them to yourself/ family in the future. (Hey, how do you know NOT buying could've hurt the companies?)
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Post by papaof2 on Aug 27, 2020 13:24:20 GMT -6
I've always thought I'd like to go back to the year my grandfather bought his new 1953 Mercury sedan and persuade him to use that money to buy stock in Texas Instruments, IBM and AT&T and later persuade myself to buy stock in Microsoft and Apple as soon as they were available.
Go back to WWI and ensure Adolf Hitler does not survive and take some modern medical care back to keep Wilson strong so Germany does not end up a victim of the extremely punitive version of the Treaty of Versailles that came out when Wilson was too ill to effectively oppose it. That treaty would also have been an arguing point for any other rabble rouser in Germany in the 1930's.
Offer Nasty Pigosi's mother (and a number of others) birth cotrol / abortion.
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Post by willc453 on Aug 27, 2020 20:42:30 GMT -6
Remember Back To The Future where Biff got ahold of the Sports Almanac and what happened afterwards? The problem with time travel is you can change history which could erase you, the time traveler. That's why Ben does so much research before going some where, at least on this planet/time frame. So Hitler gets killed, etc. which means my Dad/grandfather never joined the Army, Dad didn't switch to the Air Force to become a jet engine mechanic and meeting Mom in California. So no brothers and sisters and next question would be would I fade away like Marty's older brother and sister started doing in that photo he had of them in the first movie? Ben wasn't thinking of this in his younger years when he was killing govt. people willy nilly. And there are other means of dealing with people other than killing them....how about a plague which sterilizes all males for example? China's big on having sons and not daughters. What would happen if the men not only became sterile, any woman they had sex with, also became sterile? How much of a population drop would there be over a 20 year period? Think about it...the population is getting older, but NO Chinese kids are being born? Remember when Ben took V to Paris during the 1920's? He used cameras of that period, though he does have some that have been gutted and digital ones used inside of them for different time periods. As far as stock, Ben's had no trouble buying it cheap and selling it at a profit. One of the stories not written up yet is where he spent about 90 years in the U.S. during WW 2. Buying Lockheed/Northrop stock for example before the war broke out, land where orange groves were at, but bought by those companies to expand their building facilities. Day care centers for mothers working the factories where tanks, airplanes, etc. were being built. He also helped build P-38's and B-25's for example. And technology does NOT mean advanced weaponry. To me, it's KNOWLEDGE more than anything else. Look what he did for Sonny and his appendix. Not only that, he was able to explain HOW and WHY he was able to do this to Belloq. And remember those Indians who tried walking on those bed of coals and got burned feet in The Shadow story? Ben KNEW what could help them which is why he conferred with the Indian medicine man to see what he had in his medicine bag. How about lashing a rock to a short tree limb vs someone who's got a tree limb? Sharpen the tip of a tree limb so you now have a sharper tip on it, chip away a rock and lash it to that tree limb so you weapon becomes even more deadly. You got a spear? How about I got a bow? And Ben's happy for two reasons when a war is over. Hopefully, wives see their husbands again, kids see their dads. And let's not forget all that military surplus stuff just laying around. Did you know in 1946, you could buy basically a BRAND NEW P-40 Warhawk for $50?! A lot of planes got scrapped with basically NO air time on their frames. Tanks, jeeps, all sorts of stuff. When Stead AFB, Nevada was closed after the war, many buildings were sold and moved else where in the area, including a church. Then let's not forget the bad guys. Germany and even Japan had LOADS of stuff that was going to be scrapped. How about P-51D's used by the U.S. that were chopped up AFTER draining all the gas that was in them. Nice black market to get into at the time. And let's not forget the IRS and taxes owed on profit. Better have multiple identities that'll drive the IRS crazy in trying to track down. And buy war bonds...lots and lots, which you could turn into any bank for cash, just like todays bonds. This was why The Shadow and Aaron took great pains to make sure no one knew who they were or where all that money really was at. Professional sports, horse/dog races, etc. is where you can make a lot of money, BUT not so much as to need to pay taxes on it. Better to win 10, $1,000 bets and pay no taxes on those winnings than wining $10,000 on one bet. Besides, you also might attract the attention of unsavory characters. Ben believes in cash, but also debit cards. However he makes sure he doesn't use a debit card issued in 1998, but is trying to use it in 1995 for example because the transaction simply doesn't exist....yet. Found the ad pp2 was talking about and there's another. It's a sign on a fence saying time travel meeting last Thursday, 8pm. Attachments:
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