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It works on two levels - firstly, as the name of a racecar driving German superhero, given to very fast pursuits and patrolling the Autobahn to fight crime in a cool sportcar and dark costume.
Secondly, though, it is the closest German translation of Cart Man, providing another level to the character.
Should I ever get the time/win the lottery, that could slot into a DE German tale set in the late 60s/early 70s involving some superheroes and villains, so consider it me planting a potential joke for possible future harvest.
I also like that Chuck Norris being a literal superhero passes without any objection or issue.
October 1: TSR patents a new arcane animation process that converts high quality paintings and pictures to enchanted animated cartoons of exceptionally high quality. The follow-up to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons animated series now under production, itself following on the successful reception of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, is envisaged as being a serial initially focused on Gary Gygax’s Greyhawk fictional world, with a long term vision of encompassing campaign settings now under development at TSR. One of the company’s senior business executive gnomes, upon realising the scope of broader earnings from the patent alone, contracts a firm of construction wizards from the coast to build him a new lakeside tower on the shores of Lake Geneva.
October 8: A young American schoolboy in the San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, having been tutored in the exotic Oriental martial art of karate by his apartment block's handyman, wins the Under 18 All-Valley Karate Championship through the employment of the very advanced Double Crane kick to subdue his opponent. The young tow-headed lad had earlier been subjected to moves that some judges have decried as unethical, including targeting of a previously injured knee, and finds it difficult to stand when being presented with his trophy by renowned karate champion Chuck Norris and his visiting Japanese guest, Master Hamato Yoshi.
October 18: USAF ANG F-104s attempt to intercept a very large UFO over the Great Plains, with the over 2000ft long object seeming to consist of three long cylinders and one offset disk, and capable of climbing at a tremendous rate. One Starfighter, piloted by Captain John Christopher, manages to capture a number of blurry images of the supposed flying object, which are subsequently classified and taken to Washington for examination by the relevant authorities. The event, which is classified to the highest level possible, represents a change in previously observed patterns of behaviour by UFOs, with some authorities concluding that this may have been some sort of different object, possibly the product of experimental magic.
October 25: The reputedly finest soldier in the Ugandan Army, Captain Alexander Kakule, leads a mission which succeeds in penetrating the secret headquarters of the much feared Tiger Brotherhood and killing or capturing its leadership. The Tigers were purportedly associated with the undercurrent of criminal violence and discrimination against Uganda’s ethnic minority populations, which was one of the factors which precipitated the British lead intervention of 1971. During the operation, a mistaken radio message leads to concerns that Captain Kakule had been injured or killed, but these fears are assuaged by the successful end of the raid. The transition from residual Commonwealth military forces, which currently consist of a reinforced brigade of the King's African Rifles, to Ugandan Army control has been largely successful, which some observers ascribe to the core of professional non-commissioned officers in the latter force, who have been very well trained by the British, and the large number of officers and senior NCOs seconded from the British Army and colonial forces.
October 27: Dr. John Smith of the League of Nations U.N.I.T. organisation announces the successful interception and neutralisation of a 250ft wide asteroid that had the potential to come into close proximity with the Earth on its next orbit, with 36 missiles launched from Royal Space Force, USSF, SKS and ARES cruisers near the L4 Lagrange point between Earth and Minerva. Dr. Smith claimed that the operation demonstrates the expanding reach of Earth’s planetary defences, with further installations envisaged under the planned Stellaris Program; this is to consist of a network of twelve enlarged 'deep space' arrays positioned around the L2, L4 and L5 points of the Earth-Luna, Earth-Minerva and Earth-Bellona systems.
October 31: A number of strange things occur over the night of Hallowe'en in the small Indiana town of Hawkins, with a weird luminescent aura akin to Cherenkov radiation spotted around the secretive Hawkins National Laboratory, a strange shower of meat and blood rain akin to that of Olympia Springs in 1876 occurring in the early evening just as children were about to commence trick or treating, and a succession of strange lights being spotted in the sky, which are later ascribed to natural swamp gas. Several children come home quite late, and are chastised for their clearly imaginary (and likely sugar-inspired) tales of time running slower along particular backroads, whilst the Hawkins Police Department is unable to find the older rapscallions responsible for allegedly placing a blue London police box in the town square, although a young man and elderly professor from out of town are issued with a speeding fine for going a little fast down the Kerley and West Cornwallis Road in their Delorean sports car.
(This month has taken a fair bit longer than usual, not due to its complexities, nor anything bad in real life, but through classic distraction. I was dabbling with a piece on DE Computer Roleplaying Games, and searched up 'Gold Box improvements' with reference to the SSI Gold Box AD&D games of 1988-1994. I unfortunately (for my time's sake) found that an enterprising fellow has been remastering these decades old games and subsequently spent most of August plowing through 5 of them in a case of clear nostalgia baiting. I think I've escaped, for now...)
Regarding the interception of the asteroid, I'd love it if you added a reaction a week or so later in which a West German astrophysicist - or even better, a naval officer (maybe my expy?) sardonically explains on a conference, publicly, that he has a much better idea, more elegant: Landing spacecraft on an asteroid that basically are little more than giant propulsion engines and having them angled upward/outward perpendicula to the asterouid's axis to simply push the asteroid off course, explaining that on a cosmic scale, the deviation of roughly 30 meters to the nautical mile per degree of deviation means the difference between impact and a near miss or the difference between a near miss and a yawn. Ending with a comment that the Americans surely love their fahrpahr and spectacle.
I mean, 30,000 kilometers deviation at 1.8 MEEELION *puts little finger at corner of mouth* kilometers distance is nothing to be sneezed at. And interception would likely occur at much larger distances. And the deviation achieved could be even bigger, too.
(Yes, I know that the deviation would more accurately be a very flat curve, not a line, but the linear example is so agreeably more digestible to the mind of absolute STEM imbeciles like me)
An eminently sensible, rational and straightforward approach, which has much to commend it for the likes of our own world.
On Dark Earth, there are more than enough hints and suspicions that threats may be more than simply natural asteroids, although one could hardly call the threat of an asteroid benign or anything like that. There is a growing body of opinion that the Fall of Atlantis must have been due to some sort of large and unexpected bolide impact, and that occurrence may not have been the only time that Earth had been so devastated in the long millenia of prehistory. This is one factor driving the overt interest in planetary defence, with the others including the malign (if pitiful) presence of the Space Nazis and the remote possibility of something coming visiting in light of the 1966 interstellar signal. In light of that background, there is a feeling, not just among the Americans, that having more active planetary defence mechanisms might not be the worst idea; the Soviets in particular have a love of firepower that makes the Americans look a bit restrained and sensible in some respects, the British, whilst appreciating subtlety, aren't averse to solving problems explosively, and the French, well, don't want to feel left out.
That all said, the idea of a German space conference is an interesting one, and I'll try and work something into November involving different positions from North, South, East and West Germans, and something from the young Kaiser, who is an interesting fellow.
Simon Darkshade wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 1:08 pm
An eminently sensible, rational and straightforward approach, which has much to commend it for the likes of our own world.
On Dark Earth, there are more than enough hints and suspicions that threats may be more than simply natural asteroids, although one could hardly call the threat of an asteroid benign or anything like that. There is a growing body of opinion that the Fall of Atlantis must have been due to some sort of large and unexpected bolide impact, and that occurrence may not have been the only time that Earth had been so devastated in the long millenia of prehistory. This is one factor driving the overt interest in planetary defence, with the others including the malign (if pitiful) presence of the Space Nazis and the remote possibility of something coming visiting in light of the 1966 interstellar signal. In light of that background, there is a feeling, not just among the Americans, that having more active planetary defence mechanisms might not be the worst idea; the Soviets in particular have a love of firepower that makes the Americans look a bit restrained and sensible in some respects, the British, whilst appreciating subtlety, aren't averse to solving problems explosively, and the French, well, don't want to feel left out.
That all said, the idea of a German space conference is an interesting one, and I'll try and work something into November involving different positions from North, South, East and West Germans, and something from the young Kaiser, who is an interesting fellow.
My headcanon has Mr. von Jotunheim be an irrepressible nerd in the body of an assault tank (think former naval special forces turned giddy boy playing with very expensive toys, clad in navy blue with broad stripes on his uniform sleeves as head of the Imperial Office for War Technology Research and Acquisition. Maybe an ADHD/AuDHD/latent magic related affinity for technology that leads to regular flashes of brilliance, and even more batshit insane ideas that are quietly shelved by himself as soon as he has smacked the Good Idea Fairy (which he suspects is a real fairy) with his beloved flyswatter he MacGyvered as a boy from a piece of tyre rubber, a resin he cooked up on the fly and a gnarled tree branch to keep entirely too big wasps at bay..
Might as well go all out in a worl where everything is turned to eleven
(The only thing my expy and I have in common is the size and the ADHD (possibly AuDhD, diagnosed last December) and the naval background. Case in point: The whole backstory spontaneously materialized in my noggin in about a second when I read your reply and demanded to be set free)
Whatever the origin, the idea is just brilliant and fab. It not only has my seal of approval, but can play into my future plans for a short story set in Germany. The Good Idea Fairy of course can be a real fairy (with a bit of a penchant for going a tad too hard on the black lotus), who has stuck around with the Konteradmiral since being rescued by him from some sort of dire fate. The only thing such a duo need is some sort of long-suffering secretary/assistant to play off and curb their 'interesting' edges.
Pursuivant to Jotun’s mention of Germany, a few more notes courtesy of my inability to sleep:
- The biggest difference for DE Germany of 1976 is that there isn’t a divided Germany, or at least not in the way we think of it, with the GDR being a strange and perhaps unnatural Stalinist flourish in East Prussia
- The unified nature of the country not only makes for a different demographic, economic and political entity, but a distinctly different social and cultural one as well, with less of a Rhineland/Bonn ‘feel’, if that makes sense
- There are a few more discernible internal differences and quasi tensions betwixt East, West, North and South
- An undivided Berlin lies behind the extensive defensive barriers dubbed ‘The Berlin Wall’, given its proximity to the Oder and the Iron Wall
- Politically, the country is a tad more to the right, which manifests itself in not having a strong Far Left; the RAF, who are still active, complicate things
- There hasn’t been the same need for migrant manpower with the addition of @ East Germany, such that the notion of Gastarbeiter never really emerged, and Germany remains markedly more homogenous; there were some Italians and Austro-Hungarians in 1955-65ish, but without Turkey in the Western Alliance, that population simply hasn’t come to pass, with but a few thousand competed to over a million
- One manifestation of this is suffering street food, with doner kebabs being unheard of, at least under that name and style; there is more of a leaning towards the Greek versions
- There is a Kaiser on the throne, albeit a constitutional one. His Chancellor, to use the traditional wording which has as much practical effect as in Britain, is an interesting chap…
- The German military has a bit of a different look to the Bundeswehr, particularly in respect to uniforms; I’m not 100% committed just yet, but my vision is something of a cross between the Imperial German Army of c. 1900ish and the Bundeswehr dress uniform, with nary a beret to be found
This post was bought to you by the numbers 6 and 7, the word ‘insomnia’ and the letter ö.
Sounds like Captain John Christopher was being very enterprising in catching even a blurred image of the UFO.
I wonder if he will have a son called Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, who will also be in the USAF in the future?
“Frankly, I had enjoyed the war… and why do people want peace if the war is so much fun?” - Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart
Bernard Woolley wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 6:00 pm
Sounds like Captain John Christopher was being very enterprising in catching even a blurred image of the UFO.
I wonder if he will have a son called Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, who will also be in the USAF in the future?
Bernard Woolley wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2026 6:00 pm
Sounds like Captain John Christopher was being very enterprising in catching even a blurred image of the UFO.
I wonder if he will have a son called Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, who will also be in the USAF in the future?
Perhaps becoming an astronaut too.
Westray: That this is some sort of coincidence. Because they don't really believe in coincidences. They've heard of them. They've just never seen one.
Bernard, he was quite enterprising indeed, as the opportunity was quite fleeting; it is perhaps well that his Starfighter wasn't able to get closer to the object, as that may possibly have lead to some form of confusion, as if tomorrow were yesterday.
He will have a son, and he is destined for greatness, as Jem alludes to, but not in the form of a mere jaunt to Saturn or as just an astronaut, as Rocket J Squirrel speculates. As said son is not yet born (but has been conceived in this case, albeit not yet known), he will be coming of age in the final years of the 20th century, and into his prime in the first decade of the 21st. On current projections, it is around that timeframe that the U.S. starship is due to be completed, give or take a few years.
(The largest issue with that project is, naturally enough, propulsion technology, but given the use of Orion from the mid 1960s, NERVA type engines for many NASA and USSF rockets, spaceplanes and shuttles by the second half of the 1970s, and the advent of the fusion revolution, then by the late 80s, there will be the first generation of fusion powered impulse engines capable of doing Earth to Saturn in 120 days, or Earth to Neptune in 240; roughly 0.07c. That is useful for the outer solar system, but not for a starship. For those purposes, something along the lines of the Ministry of Space's Project Daedalus , which is looking at advanced fusion engines and matter/antimatter drives for a target of 0.3 to 0.5c ; similar studies are being conducted in the USA, Soviet Union and China, and greater horizons lie beyond them...)
