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And so, October 13, 1977; 8:29 p.m. EST became the dawning moment of Year Zero to the rest of the universe.
Barbara Ann has a French postal worker’s sense of divine entitlement when it comes to her hours.
‘The terms of this contract shall apply past the end of time and the edge of Earth; all throughout the universe; in perpetuity; in any media, whether now known, or hereafter devised; or in any form, whether now known, or hereafter devised.’
And even if I turned out to be entirely sane—well then, great, it meant that an alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet. Worse, they were lawyering up.
His Google job was in “business development.” From what I can tell, this is a worldwide backslapping society whose members jet off to conferences, discuss strategic partnerships among their companies, and then race home to ignore each other’s emails.
Pugwash
“And throughout all of that … you’ve seriously, honestly, never encountered anything like the Copyright Damages Improvement Act?” “Not even close. Our top legal scholars have researched it thoroughly. And they unanimously agree that it’s the most cynical, predatory, lopsided, and shamelessly money-grubbing copyright law written by any society, anywhere in the universe since the dawn of time itself.”
was as if hyperintelligent counterparts of Frank Gehry, Alex Calder, Dr. Seuss, and Martha Graham had gotten together, dropped a load of acid, and hit the drafting boards.
“You know New Zealand doesn’t count. It’s like Canada. But to Australia.”
“Trust me on this one. Nothing works better in a story line than infidelity and female bisexuality. It’s an iron law of physics.”
“It makes perfect sense,” Bill Gates said. “I mean, seriously. Now that you think about it, could Windows really be anything but an alien conspiracy?”
