Here is a reference with a twist. I'm not 100% sure where it's from. I think it might be a Simak or Bradbury radio play, possibly X Minus One. It's a common enough story (anybody remember the fun one in Isaac's Magazine about the metal cubes from Titan that evolve and are mail-order toys for kids with a chilling "Questions to ask" list at the end?).

So - how many 'Fungus take over people' stories can people come up with? Pods, or other things that replace the physical body, a la Invasion of the Body Snatchers, don't count. Mind control mushrooms, a 50's staple for awhile.

Here we go, sorry about the lack of posts of late - I have two major projects I'm working on, and one is about to go Beta, meaning I've been working nearly 24 hours a day on it. Blearg.

This is a pretty easy one... name the original book, since the second book is just too easy to name. ;) BTW - nobody has gotten "Double Trouble" below.

Well, this reference does have a certain innate appeal to most members of fandom that I've run across, so we'll include it.

This one is a bit tricky, but should be fairly easy for someone who knows the reference.

It seems that people are nailing the hard ones and flubbing on the easy ones. Here the last easy one for awhile - I'm gonna go back to literary obscura.

This one is an easy reference, although vague enough so that there may be more than one variant of the story.

Okay - the last one was really damn obscure, this one should be a piece of cake: What's the reference?

(And no, I refuse to do any this easy ever again).

Here is the post that actually inspired this journal. This is a *really* obscure one, and I'll be impressed if anybody can get it without Googling.

I'm not sure if I should highlight where the reference is in the post or not. If people start nailing the references nearly instantly, I may just link to the post without actually stating what the reference is.

The past few comments I have made have had some science fiction references in them, and people have played "name the reference". Since I post fairly regularly to Slashdot, I've decided to formalize the contest. The references will be from science fiction, fantasy or other "geek" generes, and be scattered among various media, including movies, television, comics, and pulled heavily from literature, from golden age SF to modern publications.

I have no idea if anybody will play, but it's something that would amuse me, so without further preamble, here is the first article with a partially identified set of references: "I Wish".

(Oh, and I'd suggest that you post here, as posting in the article might be a good way to lose Karma).