The Cosmic Expense Account
Professor Konrad Leuten, author of the bestselling book Functional Epistemology is on a dangerous mission to undo the work of one reader who has taken his theories a little too far. His defense? Stand on one leg and thumb his nose.
Approx. 8,485 words.
working under the gas tank. This plus the discreditable ability I had shown in starting the stalled car reminded him that he was, after all, a Herr Doktor from a real university while I was, after all, a publisher's employee with nebulous qualifications from some place called Cornell. The atmosphere was wrong for it, but sooner or later he had to be told.
"Professor, we've got to have a talk and get something straight before we find Miss Phoebe."
He looked at the huge striped sign the city fathers of Scranton wisely erected to mark that awful downgrade into the city.
WARNING' SEVEN-MILE DEATH TRAP AHEAD. SHIFT INTO LOWER GEAR. $50 FINE. OBEY OR PAY!
"What is there to get straight?" he demanded. "She has partially mastered Functional Epistemology even though Hopedale Press prefers to call it 'Living on the Cosmic Expense Account.' This has unleashed certain latent powers of hers. It is simply our task to complete her mastery of the ethical aspect of F.E. She will cease to dominate