Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot
by Reginald Bretnor
Under the anagrammatic name Grendel Briarton, Reginald Bretnor began a series of
pun-terminated short, short stories in the May 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy
and Science Fiction, some of which included time travel. Among others, they were a
hit with Asimov both imitated and republished them in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction
Magazine in the 1970s, and they also appeared in various other magazines. In fact,
they were such a hit that any story-pun now goes by the generic name of a feghoot. But
despite enjoying unforced puns, for me this kind of story is like a cross between that
guy who built the Ark and the yellow part of a banana.
“Marsh in flying sauce oars,” said Ferdinand Feghoot.
“Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot” by Reginald
Bretnor, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
May 1956.