digitalbusker quoted The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal
Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winner Mary Robinette Kowal blends her no-nonsense approach to life in …
"If they produced the transporter that they have been promising since the middle of last century?"
— The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal, Mary Robinette Kowal (Page 305)
I had been vague about the time setting of this book, and initially assumed this bit of magician's patter implied something in the 2100s, but later on we find out it's 2075, so this dingus is literally talking about Star Trek. (Or whatever the Meteorverse equivalent is.) [Edited to fix the date.]