| "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Author | Harry Turtledove |
| Publisher | Tor.com |
| Reprinted | No |
| Collected | No |
| Illustrator | Red Nose Studio |
| Series | State of Jefferson Stories |
| Genre(s) | Alternate History, Science fiction |
| Publication date | January 8, 2020 |
| Preceded by | "Always Something New" |
"Tie a Yellow Ribbon" is a short alternate history work by Harry Turtledove published online at Tor.com and in e-book form on January 8, 2020. It is part of a series of stories featuring Bill Williamson, the Sasquatch governor of the state of Jefferson.
In February 1981, hostages are returning from Iran. Among them is Mark Gordon, a Jeffersonian sasquatch. While the Hostage Crisis played out in essentially the same manner as in OTL, there is a small twist. We learn that a large number of exiled yetis of Tibet, alluded to in the series' first installment "Visitor from the East," were granted asylum by the Shah, thus the Iranian zealots had some context to work with in dealing with a hostage who was not quite human.
In the story's second half, a new subplot introduces one more hominid species into the series' cultural mix. Homo floresiensis ("hobbits"), a diminutive people believed to have died out in OTL around 50,000 years ago, survived to modern times and have weathered the successive Portuguese, Dutch, and Indonesian dominations of their homeland. One member of this species lives in Jefferson in a semi-official diplomatic capacity.
The story title comes from the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," which is directly referenced in the story itself.
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