Mastodawn

jorgeuriarte Aug 1, 2023

Lauren Weinstein

One of the creepier tech-related incidents I remember was many years ago when I wanted the Sam's Photofacts (a third-party creator of device specs and schematics, etc.) for a very old portable TV. Way out of date, but I was trying to help someone with it.

I mentioned to a friend that I was looking for old Photofacts, but I did not say anything about the TV. He scribbled an address on a scrap of paper, an address locally here in L.A. "Try him," he muttered.

I drive over. It's a small unmarked storefront. I go in, the bell on the door rings. Sitting inside, like the caterpillar in "Alice in Wonderland", is this little guy perched on a stool, with immense stacks of paper surrounding him everywhere. Total mayhem.

I walk up to him -- knowing that this was a waste of time and really wanting to get out of there -- and asked if he had the Sam's Photofacts for that specific very old TV model.

Without saying a word, he reached over to the pile of papers right next to him, took the TOP item off the pile, and silently handed it to me. It was the ancient one I needed. Stunned, I paid him the amount marked on the item, and left with it, not completely sure what had just happened.

When I drove by there a month later that storefront was something else entirely. He was gone.

Todd Knarr Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Encounters with the fae. Or the gremlins, take your pick.

Lauren Weinstein Jul 31, 2023

@tknarr I try not to think too much about that one.

Samhain Night Jul 31, 2023

@tknarr @lauren Clearly

Mycotropic Jul 31, 2023

@lauren
That door wouldn't have opened for anyone else, the bell wouldn't have rung and there wouldn't have been any paper in the room had anyone but you looked through that window.
#WelcomeToNightVale

Lauren Weinstein Jul 31, 2023

@mycotropic Maybe.

Ángela Stella Matutina Jul 31, 2023

I'd still be thinking about this if it had happened to me. You just can't forget.

rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua Jul 31, 2023

This remembers me The Finn in The Sprawl trilogy.

Ben From KC Aug 1, 2023

@GustavinoBevilacqua
Came here to say this.

Nonya Bidniss Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Ok THAT is wild.

Lisa Melton Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Now *that* is a story. Like something out of "The X-Files" or "Fringe." 👏

Winchell Chung ⚛🚀Jul 31, 2023

@lauren
In the satirical fantasy Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, the novel Soul Music mentions Wandering Shops or "tabernae vagantes". They have weird and unique wares, and when you go back they are gone.

https://wiki.lspace.org/Wandering_Shop

Jeremy Kahn Jul 31, 2023

@nyrath @lauren

I've been rereading the discworld books, and Wandering Shops actually show up in THE LIGHT FANTASTIC — book 2 (of 40+!), and indeed I thought of that story when I read this one.

(also I assume that's why so many SF/F writers seem to have congregated at https://wandering.shop/)

The Wandering Shop

Wandering.Shop aims to have the vibe of a quality coffee shop at a busy SF&F Convention. Think tables of writers, fans and interested passers-by sharing drinks and conversation on a variety of topics.

Mastodon hosted on wandering.shop

Jon Jul 31, 2023

@trochee @nyrath @lauren Ah-ha! Thanks for putting that connection together! I'd idly wondered where they got the instance name but didn't ask or search.

Paul Lalonde Aug 1, 2023

@nyrath @lauren nope, never heard of wandering shops.

Tobias 🌒🌕🌘Aug 1, 2023

@nyrath @lauren They were always there. They just weren't always there yesterday.

Ross of Ottawa Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Fixing the TV, you are. Needing a service manual, you will be.

Tim Aidley Jul 31, 2023

@lauren This is wonderful.

Ambient Sponge Jul 31, 2023

@lauren I really hope this is true and you're not spinning a yarn as that is awesome!

Lauren Weinstein Aug 1, 2023

@retrosponge True story. One doesn't forget something like that.

Ambient Sponge Aug 1, 2023

@lauren That's... Magical!

FOSSman Jack Meyers Jul 31, 2023

@lauren So what you're saying is you stumbled into a faerie bazaar

Stevie Ancasta 🏳️‍⚧️⚧️Jul 31, 2023

@lauren
Obviously it was 'one of those shops' :)

https://wiki.lspace.org/Wandering_Shop

veereadstoomuch Jul 31, 2023

@lauren straight outta a spy movie

BunRab Is Old And Tired Jul 31, 2023

@lauren
Perhaps he walked around the horses.

Charlie Stross Jul 31, 2023

@lauren I swear I've read that incident before many times, only it was a book of spells and you were at the start of your journey to become the protagonist of an urban fantasy novel.

Paper Clip Jul 31, 2023

@cstross @lauren

What is a technical manual but a book of spells?

Aviva Gary Jul 31, 2023

@paper_clip @cstross @lauren Still a book? The same way a manual is still one too *shrugs*

Cookiefiend Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Sounds like you stepped into a Daniel Pinkwater novel for a moment.

mokafish Jul 31, 2023

@LPerry2
Sam Klugarsh, am I right?

Cookiefiend Jul 31, 2023

@mokafish @lauren
Yep. Or the Chicken Man. Or...so many others.

Alexander Janßen Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Sounds like it was the Finn from Neuromancer, but working in the Wandering Shop, Ankh Morpork...

That must have really baked your noodle for a while!

By the way, for those mentioning Pratchett, that was an homage to H.G. Wells' The Magic Shop.

#HGWells #Wells

sam Jul 31, 2023

@lauren I ran into this same place except when I found. It I was looking for good Korean food in Nashville and it was a totally empty restaurant which served me the best bibimbap I’ve ever had and when I tried to go back the entire building had been demolished

Nick Stevens Graphics Jul 31, 2023

Clearly a time traveller, keeping this thread of reality as it is meant to be.

Ysegrim Aug 1, 2023

@Nick_Stevens_graphics @lauren Now I wonder what the significance of that TV to the destiny of humankind is. (Was? Will be?)

Will it have prevented an Evil Overlord from being conceived? Will it have allowed a Hero to receive that important newsbit that sets them onto their quest?

Joe Cooper 🇺🇦 🍉Jul 31, 2023

@lauren there used to be little shops like that for everything. Not necessarily magic, but it was usually a passion project and the owner knew more than anybody around about that one thing. I think we lost something when the Internet made that business model obsolete (it's not all bad, lots of those folks found their way online and lots of that wisdom is now a search away, or will be until the AI-generated garbage so overwhelms the search engines that we can't find anything anymore).

KatLS Jul 31, 2023

@lauren that was an npc. You should have asked for advice.

KatLS Jul 31, 2023

@lauren collective consciousness ☺️

WillTootMaybe Jul 31, 2023

@lauren don't feed it after midnight.

Yael Jul 31, 2023

@lauren is this for real life or is this a creepy pasta?

Andrew Lewis Workshop Jul 31, 2023

@lauren circa 2005, A guy walks into our shop and asks for some common valves. We'd had them. Then he asks about some obscure valves for an old tv. I'd JUST done clearance for a retired TV repairer a few of days before and had one. He asks for other unusual old hifi bits, I had them. Jokingly, he says "If you've got the clutch for a 2004 Vauxhall Astra, I can go home!"

The boss leans behind the till, and puts the clutch on the counter. The look on the old guy's face was priceless.

Andrew Lewis Workshop Jul 31, 2023

@lauren it turned out the boss ordered it for his daughter's car and had it delivered to the shop, but he'd ordered the wrong one. It was the right one for the customer though!

MattManToo Jul 31, 2023

@LewisWorkshop @lauren That's absolutely brilliant, thanks for the laugh

Bornach Jul 31, 2023

@LewisWorkshop @lauren
Kryten must have injected that customer with a superdose of the luck virus
https://youtu.be/AOE7qTAK87o?t=2m14s

https://reddwarf.fandom.com/wiki/Positive_Viruses

Mr Flibble | Red Dwarf | BBC Comedy Greats

YouTube

James Jul 31, 2023

It happened once. Are you happy to leave well enough alone? Or would you care to try your luck again?

the Stripey Goodness Jul 31, 2023

@lauren I legitimately aspire to be this particular cryptid

Estarriol, Terrorist Dragon Jul 31, 2023

@lauren one of 'those' shops huh.

Drexer Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Needful Specs apparently.

Madagascar_Sky Jul 31, 2023

I swear I read

"...is this little guy perched on a stool, *smoking away*, with immense stacks of paper surrounding him everywhere."

Strfnurfn Aug 1, 2023

@Madagascar_Sky @lauren Holy cow, I swear I'd read that too! I had to scroll back to see what it really said. I guess it was power of suggestion from the caterpillar allusion... or glammourie, who can say?

DanaBlankenhorn Jul 31, 2023

@lauren My first "job," in grade school, involved filing the Sams Photofacts that came into my dad's TV repair shop. I also stocked resistors and tubes.

It was fun. This was in the early 1960s

Phil Landmeier Jul 31, 2023

@lauren This is a creepy one. I like it.

Nowadays you can probably find that exact publication in the Internet Archive.

Atomic Fox Jul 31, 2023

This is entirely in agreement with my experience with gnome-like elderly men in buildings with filing cabinets full of mouldering Sam's Fotofacts, which is, if not strictly extensive, significantly non-zero.

Biggles Jul 31, 2023

Guessing that specific model was both popular in the day and is one of a very few that still have a chance of working, so he gets asked for that doc "frequently".

That or witches. Just sayin.

Allan Jul 31, 2023

@lauren you were lucky you didn’t have to turn your jumper inside out to get out of there again.

Paul Church Jul 31, 2023

@lauren I WANT TO BELIEVE

Bytebro 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Jul 31, 2023

@lauren Erm, did you ever read _Needful Things_? 🤔

Subscribe to my OnlyFangs @ FE Jul 31, 2023

@lauren I love this so much.