Penguin Modern Stories 11 [antikvár]

Too Much Trouble Whenever Simpson takes a trip into the future in the tiopepe*,he gets through his official business as quickly as he can. He notes down the required information about political developments, scientific advances and the like, and then investigates the drinking habits of whichever age the authorities have had him sent to. It so happens that everybody on the time-project is keenly interested in that side of life: not only the Director (an expert on port), but Rabaiotti, my Assistant Engineer (chianti), Schneider, the Medical Officer (hock), me (beer), and Simpson himself (claret). Most of the unoffícial information gained in this way has proved to be of little more than academic interest. For instance, any serious wine-drinker would give his ears to sample the products of the New Grape, robonucleonically bred as a result of a chance discovery in an obscure Queensland vineyard and agreed by experts to be virtually identical with the basic, pristine strain attacked by phylloxera, the vine-louse, in the later nineteenth century and thought to have been wiped out for ever. But few of us would have the self-command necessary to keep us at the top of our tippling form in 2022, the year when the first New Grape wines will appear for sale. Just once or twice, on the other hand, Simpson has come back with something of vitai importance. * Temporal Integrátor, Ordinal Predictor and Electronic Projection Equipment.