I have to admit, when I saw you go back to the 19th Century for subject matter, it made me want to envision a steplet based on The Peterkin Papers by Lucretia Peabody Hale, written beginning in the late 1860s.
For the benefit of anyone who never read them, the Peterkins were a family of basically pleasant, energetic people (you certainly couldn't call them lazy) with a kind of ingenuity -- but a total lack of common sense. They would often go through various Rube Goldberg sort of measures to accomplish something, failing dismally, and then think to consult "the lady from Philadelphia," who was visiting their small town and known to be very wise. Upon hearing them out, she'd promptly suggest the common-sense solution that would've occurred at once to any normal person who was mature enough to understand the problem. Spoiler: That horse isn't going to pull the buggy anywhere until you untie him from the hitching post. (In fairness to the Peterkins, everybody else in their town seemed to be equally afflicted, as is clearly shown in the very first story, "The Lady Who Put Salt in Her Coffee.")
The problem with a Peterkin steplet is that the solutions are so obvious; there'd be nothing -- nothing reasonable and sensible -- for the Loon to do that the lady from Philadelphia couldn't do at least as well. Still, I kind of like the idea of him working for her during his stay in that world. Being so wise, she has of course discovered his secret ... and perhaps once in a while her sense of humor makes her consider letting him add his wackiness to the Peterkins' latest dilemma rather than fixing it right away. Not that she'd ever do it, but she thinks about it from time to time. This wouldn't be a particularly active steplet, but might be worth a snicker.
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Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
For the benefit of anyone who never read them, the Peterkins were a family of basically pleasant, energetic people (you certainly couldn't call them lazy) with a kind of ingenuity -- but a total lack of common sense. They would often go through various Rube Goldberg sort of measures to accomplish something, failing dismally, and then think to consult "the lady from Philadelphia," who was visiting their small town and known to be very wise. Upon hearing them out, she'd promptly suggest the common-sense solution that would've occurred at once to any normal person who was mature enough to understand the problem. Spoiler: That horse isn't going to pull the buggy anywhere until you untie him from the hitching post. (In fairness to the Peterkins, everybody else in their town seemed to be equally afflicted, as is clearly shown in the very first story, "The Lady Who Put Salt in Her Coffee.")
The problem with a Peterkin steplet is that the solutions are so obvious; there'd be nothing -- nothing reasonable and sensible -- for the Loon to do that the lady from Philadelphia couldn't do at least as well. Still, I kind of like the idea of him working for her during his stay in that world. Being so wise, she has of course discovered his secret ... and perhaps once in a while her sense of humor makes her consider letting him add his wackiness to the Peterkins' latest dilemma rather than fixing it right away. Not that she'd ever do it, but she thinks about it from time to time. This wouldn't be a particularly active steplet, but might be worth a snicker.
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Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.