Hah, a no-longer-fraudulent Mechanical Turk. Perhaps this one will also be harnessed to defeat a Napoleon (III), as the fraudulent one did.
(For those who don’t know, the Mechanical Turk was a chess-playing “automaton” that was very famous. It appeared to be a mechanical man that could play chess at at least a master level. What was really going on was that a short person was hidden underneath the chess table, where they could observe the board and manipulate the Turk without being seen in turn. Reportedly the Turk bested Napoleon in a game of chess, much to his frustration).
For a fascinating look at the full history of the (original, fraudulent) Mechanical Turk, I highly recommend the graphic novel “Clockwork Game: The Illustrious Career of a Chess-Playing Automaton”: http://www.clockwork-comics.com/
hmmm…. just read the wikipedia article. I guess we, the public, have gotten more sophisticated than when I read about the Mechanical Turk as an impressionable 13-year old in my public library. The accounts *I* read forty years ago, the Turk didn’t merely play a good game– he always won even against the greatest grand-masters of the world. And it wasn’t a variety of fairly short chess masters– it was an anonymous dwarf. I always wondered, mechanical hoax-schmoax, where the heck did they manage to find a dwarf who just happened to be the best chess player in the world whom nobody had ever heard of?
(I guess you could call us the Ripley’s Believe it or Not generation…)
Boilerplate did everything but time travel, before he vanished. Maybe we can add that to the list? Perhaps a benign organization puts heroes in place… the *other* guys put “Sam Starfall” of “Freefall” on 20th Century Earth long enough to get a kid with a stuffed tiger in trouble over some noodles… Kinda like Ziggy and Lothos.
Oooh- are we about to see his big rampage? Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for the mighty menace of the magnificent mechanical marvel…MOUSTACHIO!
And now I’m beginning to suspect that it was not his rampage, and he was just framed for it. After all, he couldn’t deny it if he couldn’t remember it, could he…?
Holy CRAP.
Wasn’t Moustachio built to destroy this event?
And we never asked why, we just assumed it was unspecified Mad Science Motive…
If I’m right about that, then the event description here means he fired the first shots of the Old War, or was at least intended to.
…
Oh god.
That would mean that all those “old war stories” people don’t ask him for are actually Old War stories.
Heh. Guess that talk about custard brains got her hungry…
Is that Boilerplate?
Great cameo.
Hah, a no-longer-fraudulent Mechanical Turk. Perhaps this one will also be harnessed to defeat a Napoleon (III), as the fraudulent one did.
(For those who don’t know, the Mechanical Turk was a chess-playing “automaton” that was very famous. It appeared to be a mechanical man that could play chess at at least a master level. What was really going on was that a short person was hidden underneath the chess table, where they could observe the board and manipulate the Turk without being seen in turn. Reportedly the Turk bested Napoleon in a game of chess, much to his frustration).
There’s a video of a replica Turk at the BBC News Magazine website, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21876120
For a fascinating look at the full history of the (original, fraudulent) Mechanical Turk, I highly recommend the graphic novel “Clockwork Game: The Illustrious Career of a Chess-Playing Automaton”: http://www.clockwork-comics.com/
Yeah, but who couldn’t beat Napoleon III at chess? Now if it had been Napoleon XIV…
hmmm…. just read the wikipedia article. I guess we, the public, have gotten more sophisticated than when I read about the Mechanical Turk as an impressionable 13-year old in my public library. The accounts *I* read forty years ago, the Turk didn’t merely play a good game– he always won even against the greatest grand-masters of the world. And it wasn’t a variety of fairly short chess masters– it was an anonymous dwarf. I always wondered, mechanical hoax-schmoax, where the heck did they manage to find a dwarf who just happened to be the best chess player in the world whom nobody had ever heard of?
(I guess you could call us the Ripley’s Believe it or Not generation…)
Egad! Bpilerplate, forty years early?
Boilerplate did everything but time travel, before he vanished. Maybe we can add that to the list? Perhaps a benign organization puts heroes in place… the *other* guys put “Sam Starfall” of “Freefall” on 20th Century Earth long enough to get a kid with a stuffed tiger in trouble over some noodles… Kinda like Ziggy and Lothos.
Good thing she didn’t spill it on someone electrical.
Oooh- are we about to see his big rampage? Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for the mighty menace of the magnificent mechanical marvel…MOUSTACHIO!
And now I’m beginning to suspect that it was not his rampage, and he was just framed for it. After all, he couldn’t deny it if he couldn’t remember it, could he…?
Sam on 20th century Earth? It’d be a good question if the world would survive.
Or, at least, the world’s pockets, anyway. And possibly its cake reserves.
THE EXPOSITION FAIRY! 😀
Oh man, oh man, Old War backstory.
Holy CRAP.
Wasn’t Moustachio built to destroy this event?
And we never asked why, we just assumed it was unspecified Mad Science Motive…
If I’m right about that, then the event description here means he fired the first shots of the Old War, or was at least intended to.
…
Oh god.
That would mean that all those “old war stories” people don’t ask him for are actually Old War stories.
(Welcome to Garrityville, population: mad)
Old War?
The first rule of the old war is do not talk about the old war
Moustachio video-edits, catalogs, and adds voice overs to his memories?
You don’t? How else do you polish your stories before you tell them to everyone else? You might as well just tell the truth . . .
So, Unity, which is more delicious? Brain pudding, or brains with sriracha? I mean delicious. I mean tragic. A tragic accident.
Is it just me or is Moustachio less… gentlemanly, minus his head? And where else could I have used such a question, but in one of Shaenon’s comics?
New one delayed a little again, huh? Well, catch you in the evening; I’ve gotta travel during the day…