Reject

  * Author's note

  Folklore loved technology and took a portable dictating machine with him on his annual American Tour so that he could read his observations into it directly. He posted the tapes ahead as they became filled up so that his secretary could begin work on the famous American Report even before his return. He never played them back to himself (he might not have worked out how to do so, even) and he never proof read the completed report so that it had a few stylistic weaknesses which detracted from the content and had as soporific an effect on the reader as the original tapes had had on his secretary.

  At its peak, it reached 225 pages and it was not unknown for seventeen successive paragraphs to begin with the phrase

  'Turning to the subject of...'. He must have been popular in the States, because, for each of the factories he visited he always included a paragraph describing the enthusiastic reception he was given. Over the three weeks of visiting, in a style not unlike a presidential election campaign trail, he made something approaching 60 visits. Reading the report to the end took one right along with him, in spirit, at least.

  When in doubt, move a pawn."

  B.J. 1970