Message-ID: <4237@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 17-Jan-85 02:48:19 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.4237
Posted: Thu Jan 17 02:48:19 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jan-85 00:41:15 EST
References: <280@topaz.ARPA>
Reply-To: wildbill@ucbvax.UUCP (William J. Laubenheimer)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 39
Summary: 


> From: Alvin Wong 


>    A friend of mine here is looking for a short story that was
> published in Analog some time ago.  He doesn't know the title or author
> but has described the main gist of the plot to me which follows :

>   The main character repeatly gets drunk and suffers from blackouts.
> During his blackout periods he manages to invent machines.  When he
> recovers from these blackouts he doesn't remember inventing the machines
> and spends his sober periods trying to find out what they do.  All the
> machines serve some useful purpose and sometimes the inventor almost
> kills himself while trying to discover it.  He also makes acquaintances
> during his blackouts and doesn't remember them either when sober.
> There is some comic relief as the main character pretends he remembers
> everything.

>    Any suggestions and/or pointers would be welcomed.

Your friend may be thinking of "The Proud Robot" by Henry Kuttner. I guess
you could say that it was published in \\Analog//, in much the same manner
that my copy of \\What Mad Universe// (a story written in a 1954 time frame)
has the protagonist suggesting that his girlfriend meet him at "Kennedy
Airport" instead of Idlewild.

Anyway, back to "The Proud Robot". Original publication was in 1943 in
\\Astounding Science Fiction//. My reference is \\The Best of Henry
Kuttner// (Ballantine, 1975), and I believe I have seen it in a couple
of other places as well. The protagonist, Gallegher, is an inventor who
can only work while he's bombed out of his skull. During his latest
binge he invented a robot who is not only proud, but unswervingly
egotistical and disobedient. Gallegher is threatened with financial ruin
unless he can get the robot, who may have the solution to his problems,
back on track...  Another offbeat story by a man who wrote lots of them.

                                        Bill Laubenheimer
----------------------------------------UC-Berkeley Computer Science
     ...Killjoy went that-a-way--->     ucbvax!wildbill