Or maybe I can't! Check out the "reward" in this trivia contest held by the AOL Star Wars Fan Club in 1994:

http://www.uncleowen.org/trivia/fri940923.html

Yes, that's me as "OtterPop 1" cleaning up against all trivia challengers like some fearsome Viking, if Vikings were into science-fiction trivia and not beheading people. And yes, that's me proudly accepting the grand prize of two free hours of AOL time.

It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode where some criminals steal gold bars and seal themselves up in a cave inside of a suspended-animation machine. When they emerge hundreds of years in the future they all kill each other, and at the end of the episode some future people happen upon the scene. "Hmm... he's holding that gold bar like it's something valuable," says one future person. "Too bad he doesn't realize we learned to synthesize gold long ago. That bar is worthless!" (In the background of the scene you can see a glint of light, which is actually the sun reflecting off a discarded AOL CD offering 100,000,000 free hours.)

(Sorry if I seem to be on a bit of a nostalgia bender lately. I can't seem to get the Delorean out of 1994.)

Dan
(writing projects and current releases)