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From: Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: (Tears) Mutant by Henry Kuttner & C L Moore
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 09:48:02 -0800
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In article <lpf1moF2ti4U1@mid.individual.net>,
 ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:

> In article <lpf16oF2kstU1@mid.individual.net>,
> Ted Nolan <tednolan> <tednolan> wrote:
> >In article <robertaw-7E8ABC.10115911112024@news.individual.net>,
> >Robert Woodward  <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
> >>In article <lperdhF1tglU2@mid.individual.net>,
> >> ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>) wrote:
> >>
> >>> In article <vgta58$11om5$3@dont-email.me>,
> >>> Tony Nance  <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> >On 11/10/24 8:59 AM, James Nicoll wrote:
> >>> >> Mutant by Henry Kuttner & C L Moore
> >>> >> 
> >>> >> Given time, the Baldies will peacefully supplant Homo Sapiens. Time
> >>> >> is something the Baldies may not have.
> >>> >> 
> >>> >> https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/drink-to-the-course-of-evolution
> >>> >
> >>> >Oh my - mentally preparing for Hogbens would make for some interesting
> >>> >whiplash when reading just about anything else.
> >>> >
> >>> >After reading your fine review, I have been puzzled over why Mutant 
> >>> >doesn't seem familiar. After a search through the letter K[1] in my 
> >>> >collection, it's clearly because I've never read any of the Baldy 
> >>> >stories. Ha!
> >>> >
> >>> >Which I will remedy when I get the opportunity.
> >>> >Tony
> >>> >[1] and M, and O, and P, of course
> >>> >
> >>> 
> >>> If you liked the Hogbens, I believe Leinster wrote a somewhat similar
> >>> series of stories about a rural gas-station owner, technical savant..
> >>
> >>?! I have read a good deal of Leinster, but I don't remember seeing any 
> >>stories like that. Now there was a long running series of stories in 
> >>Popular Science about a "Model Garage" whose owner (Gus Wilson) was 
> >>really good at fixing automobiles, but the best I can tell, the "author" 
> >>of the stories was a house name.
> >>
> >
> >No I recall the "Model Garage" stories, and this was definitely not them.
> >
> >However looking at isfdb, I don't see any likely titles, so perhaps I'm
> >wrong and this is a YASID.
> >
> >As I recall the premise, our narrator was a guy who solved technical
> >problems for a living, and he discovered there was this other guy with an
> >auto-shop/gas station/garage somewhere out in the country who was too
> >lazy to fix things the normal way and could solve any technical problem
> >without realizing it as impossible.  I think one example was an engine
> >that had seized up, and he did something with a battery that neutralized
> >all friction inside the mechanism to get it going again.  I believe
> >there were several stories, and the narrator would bring him problems
> >without indicating that they were important and that nobody else had
> >any idea what to do.
> >
> >If that wasn't Leinster, I'd like to know who it was...
> >-- 
> 
> No, wait a second.  It looks like it's the stories in: _Out Of This World_
> 
> 	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_This_World_(Leinster_book)

(checks the ISFDB) I have never read the Bud Gregory stories which is 
why I didn't recognize your description.

-- 
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
‹-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com