It was an easy walk to Gwen’s compartment: downstairs to seven-tenths gravity, fifty meters “forward” to her number—I rang. Her door answered, “This is the recorded voice of Gwen Novak. I’ve gone to bed and am, I hope, happily asleep. If your visit is truly an emergency, deposit one hundred crowns via your credit code. If I agree that waking me is justified, I will return your money. If I disagree — laugh, chortle, chuckle! — I’ll spend it on gin and keep you out anyhow. If your call is not an emergency. please record a message at the sound of my scream.” This was followed by a high scream which ended abruptly as if a hapless wench had been choked to death. «The Cat Who Walks Through Walls» by Robert A. Heinlein I’m currently planning to do a vacation, an actual one, not an academic one. And thinking about actually getting some much-needed distance from work (love the university, but I’m beginning to get burned out), I was reminded of Gwen Novak’s doorbell in “The Cat Who Walks Through Walls” by Robert A. Heinlein. There also was an old add that worked similarly, with coins, but the same principle. [...]
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