(no subject)

[nolly]

Can anyone come up with a title and author for the (SF) short story described behind the cut? I read it 15-17 years ago, possibly in a Terry Carr anthology, as I read a lot of those around that time, but could be any anthology.

In this short story, the Local Tyrants had humanoid robot spies, which were very difficult to distinguish from real humans. The revolutionaries had been using an impossible math problem to detects them, because it would make smoke come out of their ears, but the PTBs had improved their design, thus eliminating this flaw. In the story, a group of people are sitting around discussing a new strategy for detecting the robots, and someone suggests "What rhymes with orange?" (might've been the equally-unrhymable "silver", but I think "orange".) And they discuss it, and no one can think of anything, and they turn to the member of the group who has remained silent, and smoke ir pouring out of his ears.

Comments

[davedujour.livejournal.com]

I believe there's an LJ community called "name that book" or something like that for just the situation you've run into. I heard about this several months ago, let me see if I can track it down.

[kshandra]

whatwasthatbook

[hattifattener]

You'd probably get a quick response in rec.arts.sf.written, too.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the story, but Tom Lehrer wrote a rhyme for "orange" just because. It's very silly and very Tom Lehrer.

Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj
Oyment thereof

[postrophe.livejournal.com]

"The four eng-
-ineers
wear orange
brassieres"

[glittercat13.livejournal.com]

Welll, *that* gives a whole new meaning to the term "Traffic Cones"! ;-P

You're alive!

[hazelchaz]

You're out there! I hadn't seen anything posted on your LJ in ages, was worried you'd lost all computer access...

[postrophe.livejournal.com]

..and so does this...

(Is traffic when they're all crowded together?)

[ikkeikke.livejournal.com]

I read that story too! I thought it was from a Boy Scout magazine, although why the f--- that would be in there is now a mystery to me. The guy had a mustache! Because I'm sure that detail will help you with your search!

I have nothing useful to contribute! With exclamation points!

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I used to read my brother's copies of Boys Life all the time, so that's entirely plausible! I remember they had comic adaptations of the Asimov's Norby stories, and instructions for building your own robot, so a SF short story would fit. Doesn't help too much in figuring out who wrote it, alas.