Babbage's Disease
Birch, Edwin
Edwin Birch coughs up an (slightly fictionalized) autobiographical novel on Charles Babbage--inventor of the Analytical Engine, father of the Computer Age--& his diminutive friend, Jiffy:
"Hello Jiffy, " Babbage murmured, utterly bewildered and transfixed by the strange entity on his lap. "What were you doing in my throat?" he managed at last. It was a reasonable question, and it received a reasonable answer:
"I don't know. What's a throat...