• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
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    1 year ago

    There was a short story I read ages ago in some collection somewhere I’ve been dying to find. I think it was from the 60s or 70s, but a scientist brings a man from the future and the man is just a normal guy, so he can’t explain anything to the scientist’s satisfaction and the scientist gets more and more exasperated.

    The dialogue was like:

    “What is the dominant mode of transport in the future?”

    “Oh, we fleem.”

    “Fleem? What’s fleem?”

    “It’s a kind of garbol but with more slimp.”

    “Okay, never mind. How do you do it?”

    “Oh, that’s easy, you simply merfingle the blem and you’re fleeming away!”

    “WHAT IS THE BLEM?!?”