His saucer was parked in the woods, and Mr. Steariot (from Venus) was parked in the lobby.... Short Snorter by Charles Einstein, that’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

What does Willie Mays, Curb Your Enthusiasm, stuntman Super Dave Osborne and the 1991 movie Defending Your Life starring Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep and Rip Torn have to do with today’s story?

Charles Einstein, the author of today’s story was an author and sportswriter. He was born in Boston is 1926. He was a newspaperman, specifically a baseball writer and his 1979 book, “Willie’s Time: Baseball’s Golden Age,” telling of Mays’s career and the events in American society when he starred for the Giants, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Einstein had two younger half-brothers, Bob and Albert. Bob Einstein was an actor, comedy writer and producer. He created and performed the character Super Dave Osborne and appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development. His brother and our authors half-brother was born Albert Lawrence Einstein, also known as Albert Brooks. The 1991 romantic comedy-fantasy film Defending Your Life, one of my favorite movies, was written, directed and starred Albert Brooks.

There was a lot of talent in that family. Charles Einstein wrote several novels including, The Bloody Spur, on which the 1956 film While The City Sleeps, directed by Fritz Lang of Metropolis fame, was based.

Charles wrote 5 short fiction stories in the late 1950s and early 60s. Look for his first short fiction story Tunnel 1971, written in 1957 in a future episode.

Discover the third of Einstein’s 5 stories on page 77 of If Worlds of Science Fiction in August 1958, Short Snorter by Charles Einstein…