Time magazine, reporting on a 1989 plane crash, offhandedly mentioned that one passenger had been reading an Arthur C. Clarke novel. Clarke clipped the story and mailed it to Isaac Asimov, along with a note that the unfortunate reader should have brought along an Asimov novel, as it would have put him to sleep.
Asimov’s response? “Oh, no, the passenger should have been reading an Arthur Clarke novel; then death would have been a merciful release!”
My latest post for Barnes and Noble!
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