Bad Machinery by John Allison for May 09, 2023

If he doesn’t snatch himself from history at exactly the same time every day, he’ll break history. I hope never catches a cold or Calvin may escape back without Calvin be snatched away. Double Calvins can’t be good.

I’m not sure whether Mildred’s dismay is over the course of events, or the implausible science.

SQUIB / ( skwɪb) / noun a firework, usually having a tube filled with gunpowder, that burns with a hissing noise and culminates in a small explosion a firework that does not explode because of a fault; dud a short witty attack; lampoon an electric device for firing a rocket engine verb squibs, squibbing or squibbed Dictionary.com

That’s one of the better diagrams explaining time travel I’ve seen. A lot of TV shows and movies could have used that!

A mixture of predestination and the need to maintain a chain of events, Lottie—he didn’t think to do that the first time at the start of this temporal charade, so now he’s doomed to keep doing so forever after, because to do otherwise would change events in the timeline.

And as already demonstrated, it doesn’t take much to change events.

Lottie is really enjoying Grumpaw’s story. Expecially the part about nuclear radiations and explosions. Mildred, on the other hand…

The story about squibs and explosions would be Little Claire’s cup of tea,