The Project Gutenberg EBook of Frigid Fracas, by Dallas McCord Reynolds

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

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 ***

Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

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,