boyajian@akov68.UUCP (04/03/84)
This talk (or rather inquiry) about who Caspar the Friendly Ghost was before he died (and how he was killed) reminds me of a story in the December 1982 issue of ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE called "The Marley Case" (by Linda Haldeman) A father, attempting to engage his family in a little intellectual play, poses the problem of how Marley (in Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL) was killed; it was never mentioned in the novel. Later that evening (Christmas Eve, or course), he is visited by, wouldn't you know it, Marley's ghost, who whisks him back to the 1800's to investigate the cause of Marley's death. You see, Marley doesn't know, because, until this father posed the question, it was irrelevant. But now that someone has brought the matter up (and the intellectual game proposed that it was foul play), Marley's Ghost cannot rest until he has found the answer. Unfortunately, the story didn't quite live up to the promise of the idea, but it was fun anyway. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard) UUCP: (decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian) ARPA: (decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian@Shasta)