[We will be counting down the TEN DAYS remaining until the HaliCallahanicon of 2012 Masquerade Party with ONE new Frequently Asked Question per day -- so check back -er- frequently, and be sure to refresh your browser when you do so, in order to see the latest version, and not a cached copy of an older one...]
[UPDATE] -- I'm behind on the Frequently Asked Questions -- I'll make an omibus post to get caught up TOMOROW -- PtMHFC'sFAaGF --
Frequently Asked Question #10: Just who IS (well, perhaps it would be better to phrase it "Just who WAS...") the Late and Much-Lamented Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat, anyhow?
The Late and Much-Lamented Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat is (I just can't bring myself to think of him in the past tense) a feline denizen of Hugo and Nebula Award-winning SF author Spider Robinson's novel Callahan's Crosstime Saloon. He is customarily to be found lying prone and belly-up astride the high-piled plate of ham sandwiches comprising the Free Lunch (tm) at that worthy establishment. From this precarious perch he holds forth at length or in brief on a wide variety of subjects... He first made his presence known to the Patronage-at-Large (tm) when one of them (whose name has, mercifully, long been forgotten) made a disparaging remark about Fundamentalist Christians, at one point referring to them as "Fundies." At that very instant the late and much-lamented Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat strode into the bar through its much-patched oaken door (accompanied a pace or two to the rear by his faithful amanuensis and general factotum, a pudgy middle-aged Russian professor answering to the highly improbable name of "Barnstead") and, as a firm opponent of disparagement in all its forms (save when practiced by Himself, of course), instantly remarked:
"Hmmm... Fundies, eh? Aren't they the ones with the highest tithes in the world?"
The roar of laughter that ensued not only blew the disparaging Patron out of the water, but out the much-patched oaken door of the Place (tm) as well, without even the necessity of opening it first, and Mike Callahan, the proprietor, happy to be rid of an obnoxious client, offered Pernicious a free beverage of his choice.
"I'll have a Wedgwood saucer of 32% cream. My faithful amanuensis and general factotum will have a beaker of fayalin -- needless to say, he'll PAY for his... and for the new repairs to the much-patched oaken door," replied the now late-and-much-lamented but in those days the very-much-alive,-kicking,-and-mightily-feisty Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour Farm Cat, who had no intention whatsoever of parting with a single farthing of his own substantial fortune, based on the profits from a small votive candle factory he owned outside of Philadelphia. He had long been of the practice of distributing a portrait of himself (reproduced below) to random canaglia, who, of course, once in receipt of a copy felt an irresistible urge to burn a votive candle or seven in front of it.
And that was how it all began...
The Late and Much-Lamented
Pernicious the Musquodoboit Harbour
Farm Cat
