On an Alien World

What if an alien planet with life had a solar system with a large, rocky planet between it and the sun? And this planet was so close to the sun that it circumnavigated in only two days? What effect might it have on the lively planet’s temperature (assuming it is quite large)? How might people have adapted?

Discovery of More Planets Gives Alien Life-Seekers Heart

Waking Dream

At some point last night, I dreamed I was awake. Or maybe I actually was awake. It’s hard to distinguish when deep into the sleep cycle. So perhaps I met the point where dreams and reality collide . . . What might a person do when they are awake but think they are still asleep?

I also dreamed about dogs. I dreamed my mom had a chihuahua, and in the dream my mom had died and the chihuahua was depressed. A couple who ran a crematorium under the deck behind my family’s house and also owned many dogs expressed concern to me over the chihuahua as I walked past one day. I took the chihuahua back home with me from their place, along with another one of their many dogs. That dog, a small, round, black thing, bit me with its sharp little teeth, leading me to meditate on the best way to discipline a puppy: punishment or positive reinforcement?

Another dream focused on a big warehouse bookstore. Its owner was anti-Semitic and, thus, refused to either stock books about anything Jewish or hire any Jews. I discovered this when going in with a Jewish friend (whose name I don’t recall) to apply for jobs or possibly because we already were hired and working that day. The owner though was furious upon finding out my friend was Jewish, and he was banished from the store along with a Jewish book that had somehow made its way into the stock. Naturally, I couldn’t let this stand in the dream, and I turned into a traditional sort of trickster, leading the owner in front of a crowd in the store into making admissions that his prejudices were baseless and wrong. I put him in for some serious humiliation over his discrimination in front of his customers and employees, with his wife’s tacit approval (she had been trying to change him for years). Of course, in the dream, my tricky ways led him to be seriously struck by my arguments and to seriously reconsider his beliefs. And of course, I can’t remember what “I” did or said.

Lost in Translation (Clichéd but Cute)

Girl walks down the street carrying her groceries, passing a twenty-something guy shouting over her head in some random language. Then, suddenly, the words switch to English: “Yo guys, what’s up?” She shakes her head with a smile at how multilingual Europeans are.

She walks up to a tobacco kiosk to buy some tram tickets. The clerk sees her approach and asks, “Yes, may I help you?” The girl raises her eyebrows at being addressed in English, but it’s a touristy area and the locals are often good at making her as an American from her clothing’s non-neutral shades.

“Yeah, I need five ten-minute tram tickets, please,” she says.

The clerk looks at her quizzically. “Excuse me?” he asks.

She must not have spoken loud enough. She did tend to mumble. The girl repeats herself, more strongly.

Now the clerk’s face evidences some frustration. “Listen, lady, I can’t understand you; I don’t speak English. Here, point to what you want,” he says, gesturing.

The girl’s eyebrows might have flown away by this point. “But you are speaking to me in English.”

“What do you want from me, girl! Point, point!” he shouts.

“Maybe I can help,” a bystander interjects. “What are you looking for?” he asks the girl.

“I need five 10-minute tram tickets,” she says faintly.

“She needs five 10-minute tram tickets,” the bystander repeats to the clerk.

“Ah, yes. It is no problem,” he responds, relieved. “Tell her it’ll cost 100 with the service fee.”

The bystander turns back to the girl, who’s already digging through her purse, emerging with 100. He looks puzzled. “But I thought you didn’t speak the language?”

“I speak English just fine, thanks,” she mutters.

“I meant our language,” he replies, gesturing from himself to the clerk as she pays.

“I read some, but I don’t do oral,” she answers. “Listen, thanks for the help.”

She hurries away, wondering if it would be possible to ever learn to speak the language now if she’s lost the ability to differentiate. Then, she stops.

Lost the ability to . . . ?