Maybe Escape Artist should start a “humor pod” or “frivolity pod” for these kinds of things. Maybe Pseudopod should go to bi-weekly or fill the occasional gap with readings of some older public domain titles.

And, yes, no need to get into the genre shell-game but this, to me, was pure sci-fi with an unhappy ending. And, since I’ve already (finally) listened to next week’s, that one was as well.

I appreciated the shout-out to “The Immortal” television show, though.

Thanks for listening

“The Underground marks its disdain for The Mainstream by referring to it in feminized terms” Peter Shapiro from “Club Culture” review, The Wire # 143, January, 1996

Eh, I still enjoyed the story, though. I knew all politicians were 60 year old bums. ;)

Not scary in the slightest. Although I’m a bit out of date, the last one that creeped me out was Votary, which I disliked because of how gross it was while at the same time noticing some interesting workmanship.

As far as your misogyny comment, GrimGnome, I really didn’t see it that way. I certainly agree that if someone was offered the choice to think the situation through, and was presented with the choice in the words you use, it would be pretty crazy, and probably sexist, to turn it down. But to look down and suddenly realize your penis is missing would be a pretty traumatic thing for a guy, even worse if he thought fast enough to realize that he could probably not turn back, and at least one or two first ladies had already been killed.

The sex scene was clunky and implausible.

The twist ending was extremely obvious. I kept hoping that he’d have to portray a presidential pet, like Nixon’s Checker’s the Dog.

And OK, isn’t the whole premise just a teensy bit silly not to mention misogynistic that a man would prefer being a homeless alcoholic to being a rich and powerful woman?

But heck, I’m still a HUGE Ben Phillips fan. And honestly, I still a pretty big Pseudopod fan.

“This isn’t even bad science fiction. It’s below that level.” — Paul Toland, The Wild Y

And the kind of nit-picky stuff that I hate seeing on forums, but I’ll do it anyway: My math says there would be only a little over 100 people on the planet with this gene if it effects 1 in 30 million males. I think that puts 5 of them in the United States. What are the odds that those 5 people are having their blood undergoing testing that the government could get to?

And this was a silly movie when it was called “Dave”.

The non-sequitor sex scene was totally awkward.

Enough kvetching… maybe something a little more thoughtful. Horror has not been my bag, but Pseudopod is making it increasingly so. (Do take that as the large compliment it was intended to be.) But this story seems to suffer from the problem that SF and Fantasy seem less prone to — an over-reliance on the twist ending. I don’t think it’s inherent to horror, but I’m beginning to suspect that short horror is maybe more hamstrung by the shortness aspect than the other genres, and so has a more limited list of techniques for making a good story. I don’t even have anything against twist endings. It just seems that they get used a lot more in this genre than others. Having said that, I actually hated this story less once I got the twist ending. And furthermore, the story is a heck of a lot better than the zero short stories I have ever written, so let me just go on record as saying that Teej Grant totally kicks my butt. :)

This would be a good segue into the pigeon-holing argument over whether this was more of a horror story or an SF piece. Except that I find that whole line of thought incredibly uninteresting.

Okay, I promise the next time I post, I will be less snarky. I’m still a huge fan. And like Mari, I think Alasdair is the K-Raddiest.

The idea behind the tale is not remarkable fresh but the ride nonetheless enjoyable.

The read was perfect!

I liked the ending comments as well. Alasdair is always a delight. To me he looks like a dirty blonde Mel Gibson, but younger and less of a Christian drunk. It’s his playful nature that I find compelling. Although he sounded a tad under the weather.

There was a book about the subject of many personalities not being uncommon, but in fact something we all do. I wish I could recall the title

Although I can see why the new guy have the physical features of the president but why would have all of the same bad habits. I think a great many of them are because of the events we have gone through.

Well written, Interesting, but a little too predictable at the end. Of course, I’ve been guilty of the same thing at times…