The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Glory of Ippling, by Helen M. Urban

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Title: The Glory of Ippling

Author: Helen M. Urban

Release Date: October 24, 2007 [EBook #23185]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Galaxy_ December 1962. Extensive
research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on
this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical
errors have been corrected without note. Subscript characters are
shown within {braces}.

_He brought them life and hope.
Why wouldn't the fools take it from him?_

By HELEN M. URBAN

THE GLORY OF
IPPLING

There's an axiom in the galaxy: The more complicated the machine, the
bigger mess it can make. Like the time the planetary computer for
Buughabyta flipped its complete grain-futures series. The computer
ordered only 15 acres, and Buughabytians had to live for a full year off
the government's stored surplus--thus pounding down the surplus, forcing
up the price, eliminating the subsidy and balancing the Buughabytian
budget for fifteen years--an unprecedented bit of nonsense that almost
had permanent effects. But a career economist with an eye for flubup and
complication managed to restore balanced disorder, bringing Buughabyta
right back to normalcy.

Or like the time a matter-duplicator receiver misread OCH{3}CH{3}OH, to
turn out a magnificently busted blonde sphygmomano-raiser with an
HOCH{3}OH replacement, putting a strain on the loyalty of a billion
teen-age girls dedicated to Doyle Oglevie worship. Doyle-she insisted
she was Doyle-he, as it took quite a while for her hormones to overcome
the memory of his easy, eyelash-flapping, tone-torturing microphone
conquests. Put a strain on his wardrobe, too.

No machine, of course, can compare for complexity with any group of
humans who have been collected into machine-like precision of
operation.