"Alfred Bester - Flowered Thundermug, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bester Alfred)

shows are presented. He is often accompanied by his `expense
account,' a phrase difficult to interpret. Dr. David Niven
argues most cogently that it was cant for `a woman of easy
virtue,' but Professor Nelson Eddy points out that this merely
compounds the difficulty, since no one today knows what `a
woman of easy virtue' was.

"Finally, Mr. Jukes returns to his ranch on a `commuters'
special,' a species of steam car, on which he plays games of
chance with the professional gamblers who infested all the
transportation systems of the times At home, he builds a small
outdoor fire, calculates the day's expenses on his abacus,
plays sad music on his guitar, makes love to one of the
thousands of strange women who made it a practice of intruding
on campfires at odd hours, rolls up in a blanket and goes to
sleep.

"Such was the barbarism of that age--an age so hysteric
that few men lived beyond one hundred years. And yet romantics
today yearn for that monstrous era of turmoil and terror.
Twentieth-century Americana is all the vogue. Only recently, a
single copy of Life, a sort of mail-order catalogue, was
bought at auction by the noted collector Clifton Webb for
$150,000. I might mention, in passing, that in my analysis of
that curio in the current Phil. Trans. I cast grave
doubts on its authenticity. Certain anachronisms in the text
indicate a possible forgery.

"And now a final word about your term examinations. There
has been some talk about bias on the part of the computer. It
has been suggested that when this department took over the
Multi-III from Biochemistry, various circuits were overlooked
and left operative, prejudicing the computer in favor of the
mathematical approach. This is utter nonsense. Our computer
psychiatrist assures me that the Multi-III was completely
brainwashed and reindoctrinated. Exhaustive checks have shown
that all errors were the result of student carelessness.

"I urge you to observe the standard sterilization
procedures before taking your examination. Do not scamp your
wash-up. Make sure your surgical caps, gowns, masks and gloves
are properly adjusted. Be certain that your punching tools are
in register and sterile. Remember that one speck of
contamination on your answer card can wreck your results. The
Multi-III is not a machine, it is a brain, and requires the
same care and consideration you give your own bodies. Thank
you, good luck, and I hope to see you all again next semester."