Homecomings

Kung Fu - the Legend Continues

In 1993, a spin off to the 1972-75 television series Kung Fu - the Legend Continues was filmed in Toronto, Ontario. Kwai Chang Caine played by David Carradine is the main character of the series, a shaolin priest and leader of a Shaolin temple located somewhere in California a good 15 years before the series begins. He is also the grandson of Kwai Chang Caine from the 19th century.

In recognition of the controversy from the first series, Bruce Lee was offered the role of the Ancient/Ping Hai an old and mysterious "wise man" who has accumulated much ancient mystic, herbal and historical knowledge, as well as being quite capable of defending himself even in his old age. It is revealed at the end of the series that he was one of the overseeing monks (along with Caine) of the Shaolin temple in California that was destroyed 15 years ago. The Ancient's real name is Ping Hai, though, it is quite easy to arrive at this conclusion after watching only a few episodes of the series and seeing the numerous flash backs which are a regular part of every episode. He plays a significant supporting role throughout the series.

Vanilla Ice	In 2007, editor Mike Resnick published a long-awaited sequel to Alternate Tyrants. The new anthology included the Nebula Award winning short story "If you gotta a problem, yo I'll solve it". Barbara Delaplace presented the story in memory of the late Jack Haleman with whom she co-wrote That'll Be The Day in the first volume.
The story opens with Head Home Boy George W Bush contemplating the invasion of Iraq. "The UN's gonna have a cow, homes. I gotta tell ya', he tells Top Legal Beagle Vanilla Ice, 'I'm not so sure this is going to fly'". Click to watch the Clip

George Wallace	In 1976, in the White House, 37th US President George Wallace is a troubled man. He had struck a Faustian pact with the devil to take the '72 election, and somehow forces were conspiring to frustrate his segregationist plans in the year of re-election. His plans were, after all, simply Standing up for America. Plans that Wallace will continue when he beats fellow southerner, the “Georgia Giant” Jimmy Carter later that year.

In 2000, editor Robert Cowley published Eisenhower Victorious: The D-Day Options. In this set of counter-historical short stories, a number of scenarios are played out in which the Normandy Landings succeed. Perhaps most shockingly is Stephen E. Ambroke's contribution, "D Day Succeeds: Conventional Alternatives in Europe", in which Operation Overlord is pursued without nuclear weapons and Hitler is still defeated. The end is mercifully short, Hitler is assassinated at the Army Headquarters by Generals who detonate a bomb in a briefcase to stop the senseless slaughter.	What If?

Alek	In 1963, a Soviet double named Alek left Mexico City and returned by bus to Dallas, where he looked for employment under the false name of Lee Harvey Oswald. The look-alike was a close match for the murdered US marine, apart from missing a scar that resulted from surgery conducted on Oswald years before.

In 1778, British Captain James Cook anchored in Alaska. Ninety years later, at a price of £10 million Great Britain acted upon Cook's suggestion and completed the Alaska Purchase from Russia. Shortly thereafter, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, began a new engineering “first” - the Fort Sitka-Mexico City railway, the arterial transport link of the North American Union.	Cook