It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

July 3rd, 2007

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The Announcement

The Alternate Historian Speaks (again): today, I'm going to present a little something I've been rattling around in my head, then Steve has a few music-themed realities to top off the day's entry. Enjoy!

“Is that really it?”
There was just the faintest light in the western sky as she looked through the telescope. You couldn't make out any details on it, but it was coming closer every day, and soon, you'd be able to read the bumper sticker on it – provided it had bumper stickers.
“Give it another few days and it'll be more impressive, even in our little scope, here,” Andrea said. She adjusted the telescope a bit for her daughter and looked west. She had a pretty good eye and had been observing the night sky for most of her life, but she still couldn't see the probe up there without assistance. “The shuttle's going to be able to pick it up by the end of next week.”
“You'd think they'd send something a little flashier,” Monica said, adjusting the scope slightly on her own, which caused her mother to cringe a moment before restraining herself. The girl has to learn sometime, Andrea thought, calming herself. She's been watching you do this since she was old enough to stand, she's not going to break it. “I mean,” the young girl went on, “you go to all the trouble of makin' a probe to send out to an alien civilization, you might as well do something to make it look like more than a hairball.”
“Well, remember, they are aliens,” Andrea said, chuckling. “And besides, it's been traveling for, what was the estimate? Three million years? I doubt they had current fashion in mind then.”
“At least ours looks like a real probe – it's got antennae and stuff on it. Theirs just looks lazy.”
“I'll be sure to bring your criticisms to the meeting on Monday,” Andrea said. “Now, push off, let me have another look.”
Monica held her mother off with a stiff-arm. “You been lookin' all night. Give somebody else a chance.” She inched the telescope slightly to the east, which made Andrea involuntarily clutch the air. “What star did they say it came from?”
“Wolf 359.”
Monica giggled. “Just like Star Trek. Sweet.” She put on her best Captain Sisko and mumbled, “We met in battle sir – at Wolf 3-5-9!”
“I've raised such a geek,” Andrea said, pityingly.
“It's ok, I'm sure I'll still be able to find a boy.”
“Yes, but what kind of boy? I don't want cheese puff stains all over the house when you start dating.”
“It's prob'ly time to break out the dust-buster, then, mom.” Monica looked up from the telescope and smiled shyly at her mother. “Eric wanted to know if he could come over and get some help with his math homework on Friday.”
Andrea took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She had always thought she'd be excited about her daughter growing up and starting to date, but now that the moment was here, she felt a huge sense of dread. Jesus, the mistakes I made were bad enough. But, of course, one of those mistakes was Monica's father, so she could see where everything turned out all right. “OK,” she said to her daughter. “But, your door stays open the entire time he's here, understand? And no surfing for porn.”
“Moooom,” Monica whined, “I only do that when you're at work, you know that.” Andrea gave her a small whack on the back of the head and they both giggled. Monica put her eye back to the telescope and said, “End of next week, huh?”
“End of next week. Provided we can figure out how to slow it down.”
Monica was silent for a moment, then said quietly, “This is gonna change everything.”
Andrea nodded. “It sure is.”

In 1971, following a potent heroin overdose Jim Morrison expired in the Paris nightclub, Rock and Roll Circus. Drug dealers took Morrison out of the club and into a taxi, returning him to his apartment at 17 rue Beautreillis.	Jim Morrison
Faking a classic way of reviving overdose victims, the dealers placed the corpse in a bathtub with remnants of a trickle of blood coming from his nose. Beyond caring himself, the Lizard King wandered between worlds. His Navajo guide looked up quizzically in greeting; nodding a respectful greeting in return, "Ya'aa'tey" ("It is good") said Morrison to explain his early arrival. Together they wandered into the desert plane. Later, the shaman would screech and make animal sounds – but for now, he cherished the achievement of nirvana.
~ tribute from Steve Payne: the Lizard King, Jim Morrison - American singer, songwriter, writer, actor, and poet .

In 1997, gangsta rapper and producer Dr. Dre discovered a demo tape to Slim Shady recorded by unknown artist Eminem floating around Interscope label president Jimmy Iovine's office.	Eminem
Unable to contact Eminem in Los Angeles, Dre was shocked to discover that the young artist real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III had recently died of a massive drug overdose. Eminem had a one-year-old daughter at home and few commercial prospects. Determined to give the music business one more shot, he recorded the Slim Shady EP and moved from Detroit to Los Angeles. "He had been reaching a boiling point, doing a lot of drugs because he was so depressed," his wife said later. "When Dre called, it was just too late to save his life."
~ entry by Co-Historian Steve Payne

In 2005, on the planet Omega physicist Derek Ironcraft and archeologist Lupe Vargas discover the significance of the Stonehenge Gate. They were to encounter the results of an ancient experiment, Cro Magnon humans that predate the biological uplift project on Earth. And a dilemma regarding the the shape-shifting intelligent metal caretakers of that distant planet. Might the Omegans have anticipated the arrival of humans, perhaps programmed these caretakers with a doomsday override for just such an exigency?

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

In 1974, the death of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band member George Harrison was ruled a misadventure (Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was also cleared of manslaughter charges). At Bonham's twenty-fifth birthday party, Harrison had dumped the entire birthday cake on the drummer's head; Bonham responded by throwing the ex-Beatle into a swimming pool where he had drowned.

~ variant from Steve Payne: extensive use of original content has been made to celebrate the author's genius.

Novel	In 1942, a British terrorist squad struck in Dublin Castle. Assassin Ian Fleming went after Churchill and cornered him on the balcony. There is no hesitation and Fleming appeared to kill Churchill before being killed by the security staff. The deception is then revealed immediately- the American President was actually in ..
.. a secure area of the Castle. A semi-factual account of the assassination attempt was published by the author Jack Higgins in 1975. By then matters were somewhat different, shall we say.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1942, Head of the British Professional Army Sir Alan Brooke met with War Leader Winston Churchill in Downing Street. Together they wrote the executive order for the new Head of British Central Command, Bernard Montgomery. Respected for his strategic brilliance, the General was nonetheless considered a loose cannon. They ..	Monty
.. both felt it was prudent to get something down on paper to be signed by Monty. On both sides.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

Funeral in Vien..	In 1964, Len Deighton published the pseudo-factual novel ”Funeral in Vienna”, later made into a 1966 movie starring Michael Caine. Colonel Stok, a Tsarist intelligence officer responsible for security at the Viennese Wall, appears to want to defect but the evidence is contradictory. Stok wants the English to handle ..
.. his defection and asks for one of their agents, Harry Palmer, to smuggle him out of East Vienna during the funeral of former Hapsburg Chancellor Adolf Schicklegruber.
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

In 1608, on this day Quebec City was founded by Samuel de Champlain. The modern capital of New France is today the centre of this Francophone pocket of culture in North America.	Samuel de Champ..
~ entry by Steve Payne from Counter History in Context - You're the Judge!

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