From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!CAD:tektronix!zehntel!zinfandel!berry Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Title: Re: puns in SF - (nf) Article-I.D.: zehntel.703 Posted: Mon Jan 17 13:21:21 1983 Received: Thu Jan 20 02:34:48 1983 #R:sri-arpa:-22400:zinfandel:10800006:000:851 zinfandel!berry Jan 17 11:29:00 1983 The 'star mangled spanner' is from a story by Arthur C Clarke called 'Neutron Tide'. I believe it was first published in Galaxy magazine around 1970. The supercruiser 'Flatbush', led by Captain Karl van Rinderpest (hero of the final assault on the unspeakable, but not unshriekable, !!Yeetch), was returning from launcing a salvo of probability inverters against the Mucoid home planet with the destroyers 'Lieutenant Kizhe', 'Chutzpah' and 'Insufferable' when they ran straight into the gravity well of a neutron star. They later calculated that the unfortunate 'Flatbush' passed within a dozen mile of the "unthinkable concentration of mass." The tool was the only identifiable fragment found. More complete reportage will involve me in a copyright suit. Berry Kercheval Zehntel Inc. (decvax!sytek!zehntel!zinfandel!berry) (415)932-6900