s ago. Not aloud, of course, because he had only taken
one year of French, and would never have trusted his accent. But chacun
a son gout, anyway.

"The television set," Mr. Rapp said, translating. "Oh, yes." He went to
the closet door and opened it. Reaching inside, he brought out an
imposingly large TV set, mounted on a wheeled table. The bearded
repairman whistled.

"In the closet," the repairman said, admiringly. "Crazy. You go in there
to watch it, or you let it talk to itself?"

"Oh. Well, I don't exactly watch it at all," Mr. Rapp said, a little
sadly. "I mean, I can't. That's why I called you."

"Lightning's here, have no fear," the bearded one said, approaching the
set with a professional air. "Like, in the closet, hey." He bent over
the set, appraisingly. "I thought you were a square, Pops, but I can see
you're.... Hey, this is like too much. Man, I don't want to pry, but why
is this box upside down?"

"I wish I knew," Mr. Rapp said. He sat down, and leaned back, sighing.
This was going to be difficult, he knew. He had already had to explain
it to the last three repairmen, and he was getting tired of explaining.
Although he thought, somehow, that this young man might understand it a
little more quickly than the others had.

"I've had a couple of other repairmen look it over," Mr. Rapp told the
bearded one. "They ... well, they gave up."

"Dilettantes," commented the beard.

"Oh, no," Mr. Rapp said. "One of them was from the company that made it.
But they couldn't do anything."

"Let's try it," the repairman said, plugging the cord into a wall
socket. He returned to the set, and switched it on, without changing
its upside down position. The big screen lit almost at once; a pained
face appeared, with a large silhouetted hammer striking the image's
forehead in a rhythmic beat.

"... Immediate relief from headache," a bland voice said, as the
pictured face broke into a broad smile. The repairman shuddered, and
turned down the sound, staring at the image with widened eyes as he did
so.

"Dad, I don't want to bug you," the repairman said, his eyes still on
the screen, "only, look. The set is upside down, right?"

"Right," said Mr. Rapp.

"Only the picture--" the repairman paused, trying to find the right
phrase. "I mean, the picture's flipped. Like, it's wrong side up, too.
Only, right side up, now."

"Exactly," said Mr. Rapp. "You see, that's the trouble. I put the set
upside down because of that