Project Gutenberg's Poppa Needs Shorts, by Leigh Richmond and Walt Richmond

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Title: Poppa Needs Shorts

Author: Leigh Richmond
Walt Richmond

Illustrator: John Schoenherr

Release Date: August 25, 2009 [EBook #29789]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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POPPA NEEDS SHORTS

Given valid data, you can reach completely wrong conclusions. But
given a wrong conclusion, you can still get a right answer!

WALT and LEIGH RICHMOND

Illustrated by John Schoenherr

Little Oley had wandered into forbidden territory again--Big Brother
Sven's ham shack. The glowing bottles here were an irresistible lure,
and he liked to pretend that he knew all there was to know about the
mysteries in this room.

Of course, Sven said that not even _he_ knew all of the mysteries,
though he admitted he was one of the best ham operators extant, with
QSOs from eighteen countries and thirty-eight states to his credit.

At the moment, Sven was busily probing into an open chassis with a hot
soldering iron.

"Short's in here some place," he muttered.

"What makes shorts, Sven?" Oley wasn't so knowledgeable but what he
would ask an occasional question.

Sven turned and glared down. "What are you doing in here? You know it's
a Federal Offense for anybody to come into this room without I say so?"

"Momma and Hilda come in all the time, and you don't say so." Oley stood
firm on what he figured were legal grounds. "What makes shorts?"

Sven relented a little. This brother had been something of a surprise to
him, coming along when Sven was a full ten years old. But, he reflected,
after a few years maybe I should get used to the idea. Actually, he sort
of liked the youngster.

"Shorts," he said, speaking from the superior eminence of his fourteen
years to the four-year-old, "is when electricity finds a way to get back
where it came from without doing a lot of hard work getting there. But
you see, electricity like to work; so, even when it has an easy way, it
just w