John Stossel recently published a short piece in The Freeman about ideas having sex. This naturally explains the most lucrative business sector ever seen on the Internet: idea porn.

So, when I shared this article on Facebook, and fellow fiction blogger and Star Trek fan Neil Shurley re-shared it, I thought of that Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Timescape.”

(Not really, but it seemed like a good segue.)

Ray Bradbury wrote 65 episodes of a science-fiction anthology series called The Ray Bradbury Theater, from the mid-eighties and into the nineties. I managed to catch a bunch of the episodes when they reran on the Sci-Fi Channel, back when it was still spelled “Sci-Fi.” The Ray Bradbury Theater opened with a shot of Ray Bradbury riding up an elevator and walking into a tiny, upper room, stuffed with junk… and a typewriter.

Bradbury narrates with a voice-over: “People ask, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ Well, right here. All this is mine… I’ll never starve here. I just look around, find what I need, and begin…