The Project Gutenberg EBook of Frigid Fracas, by Dallas McCord Reynolds
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Title: Frigid Fracas
Author: Dallas McCord Reynolds
Illustrator: John Schoenherr
Release Date: January 18, 2010 [EBook #31008]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRIGID FRACAS ***
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Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction March and
April 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
[Illustration: To my loyal fans. Major Joe Mauser]
FRIGID FRACAS
In any status-hungry culture, the level a man is assigned
depends on what people think he is--not on what he is. And
that, of course, means that only the deliberately phony has
real status!
by MACK REYNOLDS
ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN SCHOENHERR
* * * * *
I
In other eras he might have been described as swacked, stewed, stoned,
smashed, crocked, cockeyed, soused, shellacked, polluted, potted,
tanked, lit, stinko, pie-eyed, three sheets in the wind, or simply
drunk.
In his own time, Major Joseph Mauser, Category Military, Mid-Middle
Caste, was drenched.
Or at least rapidly getting there.
He wasn't happy about it. It wasn't that kind of a binge.
He lowered one eyelid and concentrated on the list of potables offered
by the auto-bar. He'd decided earlier in the game that it would be a
physical impossibility to get through the whole list but he was making
a strong attempt on a representative of each subdivision. He'd had a
cocktail, a highball, a sour, a flip, a punch and a julep. He wagged
forth a finger to dial a fizz, a Sloe Gin Fizz.
Joe Mauser occupied a small table in a corner of the Middle Caste
Category Military Club in Greater Washington. His current fame,
transient though it might be, would have made him welcome as a guest
in the Upper Caste Club,
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