A Multi-Problem Story

Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1978), pp. 55-70.

p. 54 is Hloch's introduction to the story as collected in the Earth Book and therefore is an additional page of text.

Although Adzel's name is the first word to appear under the story title on p. 55, the Wodenite does not come on-stage until near the top of p. 64. Before then, on pp. 55-63, the first person narrator, James Ching:

converses by holovid phone with his principal counselor, Freeman Simon Snyder, who hands him the problem of how to devise a Chinese contribution to the Festival of Man without thereby flunking his preliminary tests for the space Academy;

calls Betty Riefenstahl, only to be told by her phone that she will not be available until the evening;

consults Library Central about the historic San Francisco Chinatown;

eats dinner with his well-meaning but insular parents;

flies to the Riefenstahl place in his own aircar, passing en route a bus carrying a Lunarian, an Alfzarian, a spacehand wearing a Brotherhood badge and a League journeyman;

sees the lights and hears the sounds of the round-the-clock replication of the Golden Gate bridge;

learns from Betty that her father, Freeman Riefenstahl, has been handed the problem of organizing a spectacular live operatic contribution to the Festival of Man;

agrees with Betty to visit Adzel who has the problem of keeping his giant body well nourished while studying on Earth.

The three problems - four if we include Jim's problem of how to get into space - will have a single solution.