Project Gutenberg 2016-01-14 Public domain in the USA. 422 McKenty, Jack Beck, Charles Beck $1,000 a Plate One Thousand Dollars a Plate Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "$1,000 a Plate" by Jack McKenty is a science fiction short story written in the mid-20th century. The narrative is set on Mars and revolves around the challenges faced by the Mars Observatory due to frequent fireworks displays that disrupt their astronomical observations. The story explores themes of cooperation, creativity, and the unintended consequences of one's actions, particularly as it relates to the dangers of entertainment overrunning scientific endeavors. In the story, Dr. Morton and his team of scientists are frustrated by the annual Marsy Gras celebrations and the resulting skyrocket trails that ruin expensive photographic plates crucial for their research. As a solution, Dr. Morton devises a plan to manipulate the local casino owners into agreeing to halt fireworks displays by offering them horoscopes that predict their gambling success. Initially met with success, their plan faces a setback when they are ordered to cease their unscientific practices. In a twist, they resort to creating their own fireworks, leading to comedic mishaps that include the destruction of a casino owner's home. Ultimately, this unexpected outcome positively affects Dr. Morton's research ambitions while simultaneously enhancing the local gambler’s reputation, culminating in a humorous yet insightful commentary on the interplay between science and entertainment. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories Scientists -- Fiction Mars (Planet) -- Fiction Fireworks -- Fiction Casinos -- Fiction PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 42156 42161 2024-09-21T09:59:28.351961 2023-09-22T07:16:08.706638 text/html text/html 38070 2016-01-14T11:52:00 text/html; charset=us-ascii 185392 2016-01-14T11:52:00 text/html; charset=us-ascii application/zip 206111 2024-09-21T09:59:30.062961 application/epub+zip 205033 2024-09-21T09:59:28.737027 application/epub+zip 73315 2024-09-21T09:59:28.526153 application/epub+zip 237730 2024-09-21T09:59:31.283959 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 230340 2024-09-21T09:59:29.859003 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 98944 2022-09-23T07:04:46.686390 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 35836 35741 2024-09-21T09:59:28.239959 2023-09-22T07:16:08.470646 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 35732 2016-01-14T11:52:00 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 13803 2016-01-14T11:52:00 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 19379 2024-09-21T09:59:31.436943 application/rdf+xml 24713 2024-09-21T09:59:28.594969 image/jpeg 4256 2024-09-21T09:59:28.559996 image/jpeg 186395 2024-09-21T09:59:28.363974 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog