BARBARA ANN MILLER Alias Betsy Boobs - a curvaceous student nurse and honours graduate of Sadie Shapiro's Strip Joint. The operating theatre has never been the same since she arrived!

PANCHO HERMANEZ A gifted Balalaika player living in Paris, he had spent his boyhood - would you believe ? -in a Russian Orthodox monastery!

FRANCIS BURNS, M.D. One-time Major in the Medical Corps in Korea, he was now a prosperous practitioner in the field of vasectomology, and was besotted with the Reverend Mother Emeritus Hot Lips.

COLONEL C. EDWARD WHILEY Pillar of San Francisco society, henpecked by his veritable horror of a wife, he was destined to become the first man to pilot a plane under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Other riotous M*A*S*H titles in Sphere Books:

M*A*S*H

Goes To San Francisco

RICHARD HOOKER and

WILLIAM E. BUTTERWORTH

SPHERE BOOKS LIMITED

30/32 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8JL

First published in Great Britain by Sphere Books Ltd, 1977 Copyright © Richard Hornberger and William E. Butterworth 1976 Published by arrangement with the authors' agents

In fond memory of Malcolm Reiss, gentleman literary agent June 3, 1905 - December 17,1975

- Richard Hooker and W. E. Butterworth

TRADE MARK

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Set in Monotype Times

Printed in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd Aylesbury, Bucks

CHAPTER ONE

When Mrs C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley, a rather formidable lady of generous proportions, rolled up to the main entrance of the San Francisco Opera House in her white Rolls-Royce, she was the cynosure of all eyes, which was, frankly, the way she both planned and wanted it.

Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley was the undisputed grande dame of San Francisco society, and she had dressed the part tonight. Her blue hair was topped with a diamond tiara, and she was actually wearing a stomacher, which is a piece of jewelry that hangs about the neck and terminates in a large jewel in the vicinity of the bellybutton.

She descended from the white Rolls-Royce, a 1935 model, the 'Silver Ghost,'* rather regally on the arm of her husband of some thirty years, Colonel C. Edward Whiley, and was followed a moment later by her son, Cornelius E. Sattyn-Whiley, M.D.

Neither Colonel Whiley, a pale-faced chap who would have registered about 125 pounds on the scales if he and his top hat and tails were all soaking wet, nor his son, who took after his mother's side of the family and would have registered about 230 pounds on the scales, bone-dry, looked positively overjoyed at the prospect of an evening at the opera.

Dr. Cornelius E. Sattyn-Whiley had just returned to San Francisco after an extended absence, and tonight was, in a manner of speaking, his reintroduction to society. Cornelius Dear, as his mother called him, had, in fact, just returned from the jungles of the Northeast, where he had been educated,

* One of the reasons Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley was the grande dame of San Francisco society was her wealth. And one of the reasons she was wealthy was that she had four cents out of every nickel she had ever made and/or inherited. She had inherited the 1935 Rolls-Royce from her Uncle Max, and was not, as she told one Rolls-Royce salesman after another, going to buy a newer model so long as this one could be coaxed into life.

Cornelius Dear was an only child, which had prompted his godfather, Dr. Aloysius J. Grogarty, to suggest that marital relations were something else that Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley had tried once, found undignified, and never tried again.*

With her son and husband at her side, Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley marched into the grand foyer, acknowledged with a barely perceptible nod of her blue-haired head those few people whom she felt worthy of that honor, and then proceeded backstage. She felt that her position was such that it behooved her to visit the performers before a performance, to let them know, so to speak, that even if she was in the audience, they should not be nervous.

Most of the time, she was a bit uncomfortable with the singers, because the vast majority of them were not of her social class. Tonight, however, that wasn't the case. Tonight she would visit Madame Kristina Korsky-Rimsakov, who was singing the lead role in Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly.

When Madame Korsky-Rimsakov had been first proposed, some six years before, as the prima donna of the San Francisco Opera - on the board of directors of which Colonel C. Edward Whiley sat - Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley** had been aghast

* Dr. Grogarty had made this comment at Cornelius Dear's second birthday party. Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley had had the upstairs butler show him the door, and he had been persona non grata ever since.

** Perceptive readers may be wondering why it is Colonel Whiley and Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley. This is because Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley had announced after the colonel had proposed to her, that she had no intention of permitting the Sattyn name, which went back all the way to the days of the Gold Rush of 1849 (Ezekiel Sattyn had owned 160 acres adjacent to Mr. Sutter), to die simply because her father's chromosomes had been the wrong kind to produce a son.

'Fifty thousand dollars a year!' she had commented. 'That's an awful lot of money for a singer, Edward.'

'Not for a singer like this one,' her husband had (for once) argued. 'She's been getting that much from the Metropolitan.'

'So what?' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley had responded. 'What else do you know about her?'

'Her brother is the star of the Paris Opera,' the colonel had replied.

'I don't like the French and never have,' she'd said. 'All they think about is sex.'

'I don't think he's French,' the colonel had replied. 'Not with a name like that. Sounds more like Russian.'

'Perhaps,' Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley had said, suddenly struck with an entirely pleasant notion, 'they are both exiled Russian nobility!'

'I don't mean to sound argumentative, darling,' the colonel had then said, quite unnecessarily, 'but I hardly think that's possible. She's only in her late thirties, and the Russian Revolution was over fifty years ago.'

'The children of impoverished noblemen!' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley had cried. With that she'd picked up the telephone and called the San Francisco Public Library's Genealogical Collection. Within a matter of minutes, she'd been informed of the existence of the Grand Duke Sergei Korsky-Rimsakov, Lieutenant General of the Imperial Army, who was known to have fled to the West with his family in 1917.

'You see, Edward?' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley had said. 'I have a feeling about things like this. How soon did you say the grand duchess can join us here in San Francisco ?'

If Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley had been the sort of woman who could admit to having made a slight error of judgement, which she was not, she might have confessed to being somewhat disappointed in Madame Korsky-Rimsakov, at least personally. Not only did she not look like what Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley thought a grand duchess should look like - she looked, actually, like the jolly and well-stuffed workers and peasants one sees in advertisements for travel in Russia - she also flatly refused to even discuss her family tree, other than to inform Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley that, so far as she knew, her only living relative was her brother Boris in Paris.

Worse, several years before, showing a shameful disregard for what Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley thought of as noblesse oblige, Madame Korsky-Rimsakov had married far beneath her. She had married, in fact, a man named J. Robespierre O'Reilly, who was nothing more than a short-order cook who'd made it big. Mr. O'Reilly's considerable fortune came from his chain of fast-food restaurants, which were known as Mother O'Reilly's Irish Stew Parlors.*

About the only kind thing Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley could find to say about Mr. J. Robespierre O'Reilly was that he did have enough common decency, as she thought of it, to secretly donate to the Opera Guild an amount of money equal to that which the opera paid his wife.

Mr. O'Reilly was in Madame Kristina Korsky-Rimsakov's dressing room when Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley, trailed by her husband and son, swept in.

'Good evening, Mr. O'Reilly,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley said. 'Do you suppose that the grand duchess might possibly be gracious enough to grant me a moment of her time?'

'Who?' Mr. O'Reilly replied. 'Oh, you mean Kris!’ He turned his head slightly and called out, 'Hey, pumpkin, you decent?' He turned to Colonel Whiley. 'Hiya, Colonel,' he said.

'Hello, Mr. O'Reilly,' the colonel replied. His wife glowered at him.

Kristina Korsky-Rimsakov, already dressed for her role as Cio Cio San, came into the room.

*Those readers with a burning curiosity to know how a former corporal of the Medical Service Corps rose from dishwashing to command an empire of 2,108 stew parlors, worldwide, and to win the hand of Madame Korsky-Rimsakov, will find all the sordid details related in M*A*S*H Goes to Las Vegas (Sphere Books).

"This your boy, Colonel?' Mr. O'Reilly asked. 'Looks a lot like his mother. Well-stuffed, if you know what I mean.'

'Robespierre!' Madame Korsky-Rimsakov said.

'Gee, pumpkin,' Mr. O'Reilly said, getting his first look at her. 'You look great! If I didn't know better, I'd say you were really one of those geisha girls.'

'Thank you, dear,' Madame Korsky-Rimsakov said.

'Gee, I just thought of something,' Mr. O'Reilly said. 'This opera you're going to sing isn't a dirty opera, is it?'

'Of course not, dear,' Madame Korsky-Rimsakov said.

'Whatever possessed you to ask such a thing ?' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley demanded to know, her intention to ignore Mr. O'Reilly overcome by his violation of all that she held sacred.

'You wouldn't believe the things I could tell you about geisha girls,' Mr. O'Reilly said. 'And I bet you could, too, huh, Colonel ? You went on R&R to Japan, too, didn't you ? Boy!'

'I am sure, Mr. O'Reilly,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley said, 'that the colonel did not patronize establishments of the kind with which you are familiar.'

'Oh, I know that,' Mr. O'Reilly said. 'I'm sure the colonel knows even more about it than I do. They kept the good ones just for the officers. But I heard the officers talk about it. That's about all they ever talked about. Would you believe that they take off everything but their underwear and then walk around on your back ?'

'Robespierre, shut up!' Madame Korsky-Rimsakov said.

'Sorry, pumpkin,' he said. 'If you tell me this opera's not dirty, that's good enough for me.'

'I just wanted to take a moment of your time, Your Highness,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley said, 'to tell you that we're all looking forward to your performance tonight.'

'You know,' Mr. O'Reilly said, 'I checked the box office just before I came in here. It's sold out. I'll bet a lot of people out there think they're going to see something dirty.'

The door to the dressing room was suddenly flung open. A bearded gentleman in full Arabian robes stepped in, and then, as he bowed low, announced in a loud voice, 'His Royal Highness the Sheikh of Abzug!'

Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley's mouth opened wide. A very large Arabian gentleman with a pointed beard swept into the room.

'Hey, Abdullah!' Mr. O'Reilly said. 'You're early.'

His Royal Highness, smiling broadly, bowed to Madame Kristina Korsky-Rimsakov. 'Mud in your eye!' he said. He turned to Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley and bowed again. 'Up yours!' he said. 'Your mother wear army shoes !'*

*What did he say?' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley inquired, aghast.

'His Royal Highness doesn't speak very much English,' Madame Korsky-Rimsakov said, somewhat lamely. 'I hope you misunderstood him.'

'I bring greetings, my lady,' the Sheikh said, switching to French, which Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley understood. 'From your brother. I have just seen him and the baroness** in Paris.'

'Did you ?' Kristina Korsky-Rimsakov said.

'Hey, Abdullah,' Mr. O'Reilly said. 'Ix-nay! Utshay Up-hay!'***

'My brother sometimes doesn't choose his friends with care,' Madame Kristina, whose concept of sexual morality was somewhat at variance with that of the baroness, explained.

'I understand perfectly, Your Highness,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley said. 'The Baroness is beneath your brother.'

'Is she ever!' Mr. O'Reilly replied. 'Every time you turn your back.’

*What few phrases of English His Royal Highness knew he had learned in the company of Mr. Boris Alexandrovich Korsky-Rimsakov in Paris. The details have been recorded for students of Arabian-American socio-economic affairs in M*A*S*H Goes to Morocco (Sphere Books).

**His Highness here referred to the Baroness d’Iberville, one of Mr. Korsky-Rimsakov's very good friends.

***For those whose pig Latin is a little rusty, this, freely translated, is, 'Stop it, shut up !'

Before the conversation could deteriorate further, decorum was restored by the bell announcing that the curtain would ascend in three minutes.

'I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me, Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley,' Kristina said.

'I understand perfectly, Your Highness,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley said. 'Thank you for receiving us.'

She made a double curtsy, first to Shiekh Abdullah and then to Madame Korsky-Rimsakov, and then made her exit, pulling her husband and her son after her.

'And she denies being a grand duchess!' she said, as she walked rapidly toward the Sattyn-Whiley box. 'Well, I'll tell you this, I saw His Highness' picture in the paper today. He's in San Francisco, it said, to visit old friends. And now we know who the old friend is, don't we ? The grand duchess, that's who!'

'I got the impression, Mother Dear,' Cornelius Dear said, 'that he had come to see Mr. O'Reilly.'

'Don't be absurd, Cornelius Dear,' his mother said. 'Whatever would someone of noble blood see in that horrid man ?'

They got to their box just as the conductor entered the orchestra pit and the caterwauling of the instruments being tuned died with an agonized whimper.

Mounted directly above the proscenium arch in the San Francisco Opera is a small electrical device that, when activated, flashes a number on and off. Each practitioner of the medical arts is assigned a number, so that in case of medical emergency he can be summoned from his seat without the necessity of broadcasting his name over the public-address system, thereby disturbing the music lovers.

As the conductor rapped his baton on his music stand and then raised it preparatory to beginning the overture, the electrical device came to life. Number thirteen flashed on, then off, and then on again.

'Cornelius Dear,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley said, 'Mommy has another little surprise for you. Whenever that thing flashes number one, that will be for you.'

'Number one? But Mother Dear, there are hundreds of physicians registered.'

'That's true, Cornelius Dear,' his mother said. 'But their mommies aren't the chairperson of the Opera Guild and their daddies don't sit on the board of directors.'

The music began as the house lights went down. Number thirteen stopped flashing, indicating that healer number thirteen had seen it, and, true-blue to the Hippocratic oath, had left his seat to bring aid and comfort to his fellow man.

There was some Japanese-sounding music, and then the curtain rose. A Japanese gentleman and an officer of the United States Navy were at stage left.

Number one started to flash on and off on the device over the proscenium arch.

'Cornie,' Colonel Whiley said, 'they're flashing your number’

'I wish you wouldn't call him that,' Mrs. Sattyn-Whiley hissed. 'It's undignified for a doctor of medicine, not to mention someone named Sattyn-Whiley.'

'I'll have to go,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley said.

'If I'd known they would call you from the opera,' Mother Dear said, 'I would have gotten you an unlisted number.'

Dr. Cornelius Sattyn-Whiley made his way from the Sattyn-Whiley box down to the grand lobby in search of whoever had summoned him. He had no idea what it was all about, but, truth to tell, he really didn't mind at all being called away from his Sattyn-Whiley box.

'Dr. Sattyn-Whiley?' an usher asked. He was a venerable gentleman whose purplish-veined nose told Dr. Sattyn-Whiley's trained eye that he had for years been rather over-fond of the grape.

'Yes,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley replied.

'Come with me, please, Doctor,' the usher said. He led Dr. Sattyn-Whiley back into the building, through a corridor running parallel to the auditorium, and then held a door open for him.

'Good luck, Doc,' the usher said. 'You'll need it.'

He found himself in a small room containing an octagonal table covered with what appeared to be an army blanket. There was only one person in the room - a tall, red-headed, ruddy-faced chap attired in white tie and tails.

'Do you know who I am, Cornie?' the man asked.

‘Yes, sir,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley replied. 'But only by reputation.'

'At the risk of challenging all that you hold near and dear, Cornie,' the man said, 'there are times when a boy should not listen to his momma.'

'Oh, I don't mean that, sir,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley replied. 'I mean the Bergerhorn-Grogarty Upper-Bowel Bypass*.'

'You're familiar with that?'

'Oh, yes, sir,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley said. 'I've been privileged to learn the technique.'

'That was one of Ferdie's better ideas,' the man said. 'But I wasn't talking of medicine, Cornie. I meant to ask if you know who I am, and what our relationship is.'

'Well, you, sir, are Aloysius J. Grogarty, M.D., F.A.C.S., and chief of staff of the Grogarty Clinic'

'More important than that,' Dr. Grogarty replied, 'I am your godfather. Before your birth, your father and I were the best of friends. There was an unfortunate understanding with your mother ...'

'Don't you mean "misunderstanding," sir?'

'No, I do not,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'Your mother and I understand each other perfectly. But despite that, the fact remains that I am your godfather and have certain responsibilities

* Dr. Sattyn-Whiley here referred to a surgical technique devised by Doctors Aloysius J. Grogarty and J. Ferdinand Bergerhorn for treatment of the chronically obese. Briefly, it consists of hooking the bowel to the upper quarter of the stomach, thus cutting off the lower three-quarters of the stomach from the ingestion-digestion process. The fatties can thus eat all they want, but all they want, following the procedure, is about twenty-five percent of what they wanted, pre-procedure.

'I had hoped, when the time was right, to ask my father to introduce me to you, sir,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley said.

'You would have waited a long time, I fear,' Dr. Grogarty said, his voice level. 'Your father is an obedient husband.'

'Well, in any event,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley said, 'whatever medical emergency has arisen tonight, it has at least given me the privilege of meeting you. And speaking of the medical emergency, how can I be of assistance to you, Doctor?'

'There is no medical emergency,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'You were summoned here tonight, Cornie, for two reasons: first, that you are my godson, and second, that you are rich. It has also come to my attention, via the medical grapevine, that when you were at that establishment on the banks of the Charles, you sometimes whiled away the idle hours at a game of chance known as poker.'

At that moment, the door from the corridor opened and Colonel C. Edward Whiley stepped into the room.

'Dad!.' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley said.

'Hello, Irish,' Colonel Whiley said. 'I hope I'm welcome.'

'How are you, Charley ?' Dr. Grogarty replied. 'Frankly, you look awful.'

'I asked if I'm welcome,' Colonel Whiley said.

'You're welcome,' Dr. Grogarty replied. 'That's a steel door, strong enough to repel even your enraged wife. But what are you going to do about her later?'

'I'll handle that when I get to it,' Colonel Whiley said.

'How did you know where we were ?' Grogarty asked.

'Irish, for twenty-five years, every time the conductor raises his baton to begin the overture, number thirteen has

* As a matter of information, it should be noted that Dr. Grogarty had discreetly used a good deal of his considerable influence to have Dr. Sattyn-Whiley accepted as a surgical resident at that unnamed medical facility on the banks of the Charles River. He had taken this action in the realization that because of his relationship with Mrs. C. Edward Sattyn-Whiley, Dr. Sattyn-Whiley could not serve his residency in the Grogarty Clinic, and the second-best facility would have to do.

flashed on the callboard and you've left your seat.' 'You noticed that, did you?'

'And tonight, when the conductor raised his baton and number thirteen flashed on, followed by number one, I realized that I had a choice to make. Either I could stay in my seat from now on, while you and my son were playing poker, or I could join you. Or at least I could ask to join you.'

'What did you tell the old battle - Caroline ?'

'I told her that I was having stomach trouble,' the colonel said.

'Lying to your wife, I am told, is a sin. But not in this case, Charley, right?' 'What do you mean?'

'You can stay on one condition,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'I want to see you in my office at half-past eight in the morning. I wasn't kidding before. You look like death warmed over.'

"There's nothing—'

‘You see that he's there, Doctor,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'You understand me?'

'Yes, sir,' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley said.

'Two against one, Charley,' Dr. Grogarty said. *What do you say?'

'I'll be there,' Colonel Whiley said.

‘Well, then, sit down. I hope you brought lots of money.'

'Who else is playing?' Colonel Whiley said. 'I haven't played in twenty-five years.'

'I know,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'That's not all you haven't been doing, either.'

The door at the opposite end of the room opened and J. Robespierre O'Reilly and His Royal Highness the Sheikh of Abzug, together with two of His Highness' bodyguards, walked into the room.

'Sorry to be late,' J. Robespierre O'Reilly said, 'but pumpkin always likes me to stay backstage until she goes on.'

'Sit down, Radar,' Dr. Grogarty said, 'and shut up and deal.' He turned to Dr. Sattyn-Whiley. 'Take his pulse, Cornie,' said Dr. Grogarty, indicating His Royal Highness,

His Royal Highness seemed a little confused about having his wrist held and being given the foil-wrapped medication. Radar explained what was going on. His Royal Highness reached up and pinched Dr. Sattyn-Whiley on the cheek.

'What's this ?' Dr. Sattyn-Whiley inquired.

'Oh, from the looks of it, about three carats,' Radar said. 'The one he just gave Kris was a littie bigger.'

His Royal Highness sat down at the table.

'Deal the cards!' he said. 'His nibs is hot tonight!'

CHAPTER TWO

'Spruce Harbor Medical Center,' the switchboard operator of that medical facility said, after she had pushed the appropriate button.

'Dr. Aloysius J. Grogarty of the Grogarty Clinic for Dr. Benjamin Franklin Pierce,' a precise voice announced. 'And please stand by for the transmission of EKG and x-ray.'

Despite what some of its critics alleged, the Spruce Harbor Medical Center was a well-equipped institution, fully capable of both receiving and transmitting, via quite clever and very expensive machines, electro-cardiograms and x-ray photographs. It had, in fact, the very latest and most expensive equipment, which had been presented to the medical center some three months before by Mr. Wayne Lussey, chairman of the board of the Spruce Harbor Building Loan Association, as a small gesture of his affection and respect for Dr. Pierce, the Spruce Harbor chief of surgery, and all the other medical practitioners of the institution.

Mr. Lussey, who had attended a savings-and-loan chief executives' association convention in Mexico City while his wife was off on a three-month around-the-world tour, had returned with a little souvenir of the convention. It was not, however, the sort of souvenir that he would (or could) display on his mantelpiece to recall a happy moment in his life, and certainly not the sort of souvenir he would wish Mrs. Lussey to even hear about.

When his souvenir was first diagnosed by Dr. Pierce, in fact, Mr. Lussey was reluctant to admit that anything of that sort could possibly happen to him.

'Hawkeye,' he'd said, in high indignation, 'you don't mean it!'

'You are speaking, sir,' Dr. Pierce had replied, 'to the former social-disease-control officer of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, fondly remembered as the Double Natural MASH. I know a dose of —'

'Don't say it!' Mr. Lussey had hastily interrupted.

'When I see one,' Dr. Pierce had gone on. 'Whatever are you going to say to Mrs. Lussey when she returns home from her tour of the world's cultural capitals and places like that ?'

'Isn't there anything that can be done ?'

'My diagnosis might possibly be in error,' Dr. Pierce had said. 'You could do one of two things. You could seek another opinion. I know a good G&S man in Bangor . ..'

'G&S?'

'Gonorrh—'

'You said two things,' Mr. Lussey had said quickly. 'What was the other?'

'Well, as I said, my diagnosis might be in error.' 'It might?'

'There's only one way I could tell for sure whether you have what I think you have or whether it's merely an advanced case of athlete's foot.'

'Athlete's foot?

'By an odd coincidence, the treatment for a severe case of athlete's foot, such as you might possibly have, is just about the same thing.... massive doses of penicillin... as it is for that other unmentionable social condition.'

'It is?'

'Indeed. And I recall a case quite clearly where a chap who had both was cured of both at the same time.'

'You don't say?' Mr. Lussey had said. 'I probably caught it at the Spruce Harbor Health Spa. How soon can you start treatment?'

'That poses a little problem,' Dr. Pierce had said. ‘I won't know if it's athlete's foot until I run some tests, and our present testing equipment is so old that I consider it unreliable.'

'Then get some new equipment,' Mr. Lussey had said. ‘I’ll pay for it!' 'I thought you'd say that. I just happen to have some literature here in my desk.' Dr. Pierce had opened the drawer and pushed some four-color brochures across his desk to the savings-and-loan executive.

Mr. Lussey had examined it briefly.

'This doesn't say anything about athlete's foot,' he'd said. 'This equipment is an expensive data transmission system. What sort of data do you have to transmit about athlete's foot?'

'I sometimes like to seek outside opinions on really bad cases of what you have,' Dr. Pierce had said.

'Athlete's foot, you mean,' Mr. Lussey had said.

'We won't know that until we have the equipment, will we ?' Dr. Pierce had countered.

'But it costs $21,750!'

"The G&S man's name is Carter, but they call him Old Blabbermouth,' Dr. Pierce had said. 'He holds office hours every day. I'll give him a call and make an appointment for you—'

Mr. Lussey had gotten his checkbook out and begun to scribble furiously.

'You're a good man, Mr. Lussey,' Dr. Pierce had said, taking the check from him and blowing on it, 'with the interests of your fellow citizens always at heart. Now drop your pants and sort of lean over my desk.'

And so it came to pass that the Spruce Harbor Medical facility had as good a data transmission system as could be expected under the circumstances. And there was no reason why the Spruce Harbor Medical Center in Maine could not stand by for the transmission of x-ray photographs, EKGs, and other medical data from the Grogarty Clinic all the way across the continent in San Francisco. Indeed, the operator immediately pushed the buttons that would permit such data transmission.

The other part of the request, that Dr. Grogarty be permitted to speak with Dr. Pierce, did pose a problem. A little blue light above Dr. Pierce's button on the switchboard was illuminated, signifying that Dr. Pierce was in conference.

Dr. Pierce had, in fact, been in conference since half-past four. With him were Dr. John Francis Xavier Maclntyre, a fellow Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; Esther Flanagan, R.N., chief of nursing services and head operating-room nurse at the medical center, and Miss Barbara Jane Miller, an about-to-graduate student nurse.

It had been a full day in the medical center's surgical suite, with both a heavy load of previously scheduled surgery and an extraordinary amount of emergency surgery.

The operator knew that it was Dr. Pierce's custom in such circumstances to repair to his offices, together with those who had worked with him, to review what had taken place on the operating table, and, as he put it, to 'unwind a bit.' When Dr. Pierce was in conference (the operator thought of it as 'when the warning light was lit'), he did not like to be disturbed. As a matter of fact, he violently objected to being disturbed in any event save the most pressing medical emergency and had frequently demonstrated a rather violent burst of temper when his conferences had been interrupted by what he considered unimportant matters.

Therefore, the operator said to the Grogarty Clinic operator, 'Spruce Harbor Medical Center is ready to receive your data, but I regret that Dr. Pierce is in conference and cannot be disturbed.'

'One moment please, operator,' Grogarty Clinic said. There was a pause and then she came back on the line. 'We are now beginning the transmission of data.' There was another pause, and then the Spruce Harbor operator spoke.

'The data transmission is operating satisfactorily,' she reported.

'Dr. Grogarty advises that in the event Dr. Pierce is in conference and not available, he will speak with Dr. John F. X. McIntyre.'

'I'm sorry, operator,' the Spruce Harbor operator said, 'but Dr. McIntyre is also in conference. I'll have him call when he is free.'

'One moment, please, operator,' the Grogarty Clinic operator said.

And then another voice, a male voice, came on the line.

'This is Dr. Grogarty,' he said. His voice sort of boomed. 'You say that Dr. Pierce and Dr. McIntyre are both in conference ?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Is it possible that they are in conference together?' ‘Yes, Doctor.'

'And is this conference being conducted in Dr. Pierce's chief of surgery's office?'

'Yes, Doctor, it is,' the operator said.

'Well, then, honey,' Dr. Grogarty boomed, 'you get either Hawkeye* or Trapper John** on the line and tell them to put down the gin and pick up the phone 'cause Aloysius J. Grogarty's on the other end of the line and the boozing will just have to wait.'

Stunned that the caller actually knew what was going on in Dr. Pierce's office, the operator pressed the button that caused the telephone to ring on his desk.

When the telephone rang, Dr. Pierce, Dr. McIntyre, Nurse Flanagan, and Student Nurse Miller, still dressed in their surgical greens, were bent over a table in the office. Doctors Pierce and McIntyre each held large hypodermic

* Dr. Pierce's father was a great fan of James Fenimore Cooper, and in particular of his monumental work, The Last of the Mohicans. Although he could not convince his wife that their first-born should be so christened, he had never called his eldest son anything but Hawkeye, and as time passed only Dr. Pierce's mother, the U.S. Army, and the Maine State Board for the Licensing of Medical Practitioners had continued to insist on calling him by the name on his birth certificate.

** While a college student in Maine, Dr. McIntyre had been discovered, deshabillé, as they say, and en flagrante delicto, with a coed in the gentlemen's rest facility aboard a Boston & Maine Railroad train. With shocking disregard for the facts and with her eye on her reputation, his lady friend, the moment the door had been jerked open on them, had announced that he had 'trapped her' in the room. From that moment on, John Francis Xavier McIntyre had been known to friend and foe alike as 'Trapper John.'

syringes with large-size needles, and each was, with infinite care and great skill, depressing the plunger of his syringe. What would have struck the casual observer of this otherwise fairly routine medical procedure was that they were injecting something into the soles of a pair of golf shoes. Therein, as they say, lies a tale.

Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre were, as they frequently admitted, indeed boasted, 'two guys who could certainly hold a grudge.'

One of those against whom the healers, former military surgeons and honorary Knights Commander of the Bayou Perdu (La.) Council, Knights of Columbus, held a longstanding grudge was Francis Burns, M.D., of Hillandale, Ohio.

Their grudge against Dr. Burns was of the active, rather than latent, variety. That is to say, they didn't merely harbor a resentful memory of Dr. Burns, idly hoping for the day when Lady Luck would put them in a position to, for example, let the air out of his tires on a rainy night. No, their grudge was of the active variety, and they gave some thought to and received a great deal of pleasure from zinging Frank Burns whenever possible.

And lest time start to heal the wounds, lest they be tempted to put all that Frank Burns had done to them beyond them, as water over the dam, they kept a sort of a memorial to Dr. Burns in Dr. Pierce's office. At no small cost, they had had a photograph of Dr Burns, taken during the Korean Unpleasantness, converted into a dart board.

It had been Major Burns then - or as the Army insists on putting it, Burns, Francis, Major, Medical Corps (as it had been Pierce, Benjamin F., Captain, Medical Corps, and McIntyre, J. F. X., Captain, Medical Corps.) And therein had been the germ of the problem. Majors are not only permitted but are actually encouraged by the military establishment to give orders to captains. It was not that Captains Pierce and McIntyre had objected to taking orders from their betters. They had, in fact, regularly taken orders from the hospital commander, Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake Medical Corps, U.S. Army.*

What Hawkeye and Trapper John had had trouble doing vis à vis Francis Burns, M.D., when they were all assigned to the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Iron Triangle of Korea, had been accepting the Army's and Major Burns' notion that Dr. Burns was a surgeon. Neither Captain Pierce nor Captain McIntyre, M.C., U.S.A., were very much impressed by Dr. Burns' tailored and stiffly starched surgical greens (complete with insignia of rank on both shoulders).

'It takes more than surgical greens, no matter how well tailored, to make a surgeon,' as Dr. Pierce had said.

'Starting with knowing which end of the scalpel to hold,' Dr. McIntyre had agreed.

In private practice, it had not been at all hard to find out, Dr. Burns had been proprietor of a thriving pediatric clinic, where his surgery had been essentially limited to extracting large sums of money from first-time mothers by agreeing with their every dark and imaginative suspicion regarding their children's health. On those rare occasions when it had been impossible to find a nurse with free time on her hands to remove a splinter from the hand of one of his prepubescent patients and Dr. Burns' personal services had been required, he had proved so inept that - privately, of course - his fellow medical practitioners had referred to him as 'The Bumbling Baby Butcher of Shady Lane.'

How it had come to pass no one knew, but while passing through the Army's school for newly commissioned doctors, Frank Burns had been classified as a surgeon. There were several theories of how this had happened, ranging from a

*Colonel Blake, despite irresponsible reports to the contrary from people who would have known better had they been able to read words of more than one syllable, survived the Korean War and achieved high rank. A rather touching, and certainly splendidly written, account of his faithful service to his country as sort of a medical diplomat (and major general) may be found in M*A*S*H Goes to Paris (Sphere Books). This tome is a real bargain.

Major Burns' surgical ineptitude had been known to Colonel Blake, who had been, in the opinion of Doctors Pierce and McIntyre, a fair-to-middling cutter himself. Wise in the ways of the Army, Colonel Blake had, before Doctors Pierce and McIntyre arrived in Korea, done two things to keep Burns from wiping out the corps of patients. He had appointed Burns his deputy commander, in full charge of such military necessities as giving the 'Why We are Fighting Here' and 'How To Avoid Social Disease' lectures; counting the Hershey bars in the PX; and making sure that all the Jeeps had a wheel at each corner. He was also named the morale officer, the VD-control officer, the officers'-club officer, the postal officer, and the re-enlistment officer.

Colonel Blake had also had a word with Major Margaret Houlihan, Army Nurse Corps, a veteran professional soldier herself and a fine operating-room nurse. Major Houlihan had been told, soldier to soldier, that Major Burns was not to be allowed to perform any surgery of a complexity greater than trimming a fingernail unless every other doctor had fallen hors de combat.*

After the arrival of Captains Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre at the 4077th MASH, other problems developed. Colonel Blake had quickly come to understand that his two new surgeons were (a) splendid surgeons and (b) lousy officers, at least when judged by the standards of Major

* This little G.I. tete-à-tete resulted in a slight misunderstanding at first. Major Houlihan, who, as the senior nurse, felt a firm loyalty to her subordinates, was not fluent in French. 'If your doctors, Colonel,' she said, ‘are fooling around, they're not fooling around with my nurses. Bite your tongue, sir!*

As he frequently pointed out to Colonel Blake, his being referred to as 'Old Bumble Fingers,' 'El Bedpan,' and 'Hey, you!' violated every known canon of military courtesy and discipline.

Forced to choose between maintaining military discipline and providing his patients with the best cutters available, Colonel Blake had flown (perhaps 'flapped' would be a better word) in the face of tradition and appointed Captain Hawk-eye Pierce as chief surgeon of the 4077th MASH and Captain Trapper John McIntyre as his deputy.

With two exceptions this appointment pleased the entire medical staff of the 4077th MASH.

Major Burns was annoyed, of course. It was quite clear to him that since he was a major he knew more about any given subject, including surgery, than any lowly captain, and thus the appointment should have been his. He brought this logical conclusion to the attention of Colonel Blake at his first opportunity, and Colonel Blake responded with the succinct phraseology of command for which the career soldier is famous.

'Shut up, Frank,' Colonel Blake had replied. 'And get your fat ass out of my tent.'

Tears had come to Major Burns' eyes, and as he had marched out of Colonel Blake's tent his somewhat obscured vision had caused him to bump into Major Margaret Houlihan.

Although Major Houlihan was not only a first-class nurse but a professional soldier as well, under her 38D chest beat, of course, the heart of woman, and women, as a class, manifest on occasion an emotion known as the maternal instinct. This maternal emotion burst into full bloom in Major Houlihan's bosom the moment she saw Frank Burns' face with a tear running down each cheek.

She knew that this man, this boyish chap, this tall fellow who alone among the officer-doctors of the 4077th MASH had observed every subde nuance of the correct inter-officer relationship (he had, in other words, always referred to her as 'Major' Houlihan, rather than as 'Nurse,' or 'Hey, you!'), had just suffered some unbearable (and probably unspeakable) tribulation, and that it behooved her as both woman and fellow major to console him in his hour of pain.

Major Margaret Houlihan accomplished this by taking Major Frank Burns to her tent, giving him a couple of belts of medicinal bourbon, and encouraging him, as one officer to another, to open his heart to her.

Possibly it was because he was so distressed by the gross injustice of what had happened to him that Major Burns, in relating to Major Houlihan the story of his life, neglected to mention that there was at home a Mrs. Francis Burns and four little Burnses.

One thing, as they say, led to another, starting with Major Houlihan's professional medical opinion that if two ounces of medicinal bourbon had made Major Burns stop crying, four would probably make him smile. To cut a long and somewhat sordid story short, when reveille sounded the next morning, it found Major Burns and Major Houlihan in flagrant violation of a military regulation themselves. The Army frowns on two officers sharing the same cot, folding, field, wood and canvas, M1917A2, and, in fact, strictly proscribes such behavior.

'This is bigger than both of us, Frank!' Major Margaret Houlihan had cried.

'Not much bigger,' Major Frank Burns had replied. ‘I almost fell out.'

'I mean our love!' she'd said.

'Oh,' he'd replied. 'If you say so, Margaret.'*

* It is not the authors' intention to dwell on the Burns-Houlihan affair. For those with a prurient interest in such things, the details have been recorded in M*A*S*H, which Sphere Books, as their contribution to belle lettres, has seen fit to make available to the general public via the better bus-station, airport, and motorway paperback racks at a very nominal price.

Major Houlihan, just as soon as she got dressed, brought the matter of the unjust appointment of Captain Hawkeye Pierce to the position of chief surgeon up to Colonel Blake.

'As one soldier to another, Colonel,' Major Houlihan said, 'it is obviously a gross miscarriage of military justice!'

'As one soldier to another, Major,' Colonel Blake had responded, 'I am surprised that you have forgotten that basic philosophy upon which the military services function.'

'I beg your pardon, sir ?'

'The colonel may not always be right, Major, but he's always the colonel,' Colonel Blake said. 'Sometimes expressed as "Yours is not to reason why, Major, yours is but to do what you're told to do without sticking your nose in where it's not wanted." You read me?'

Major Houlihan that night was consoled by Major Burns, and vice versa. The next day, which happened to be her day off, Major Houlihan did something she remained ashamed of for the rest of her life. (It had nothing to do, for those with an all-consuming prurient interest who are still with us, with her amoro-biological relationship with Major Burns.)

What she did - blinded both by love and the rest of the half-gallon of medicinal bourbon - was to 'go over Colonel Blake's head.' Specifically, she journeyed by Jeep to Eighth Army Headquarters in Seoul and brought the unjust appointment of Captains Pierce and McIntyre to the positions of chief surgeon and deputy chief surgeon, respectively, to the attention of the Eighth Army surgeon.

As that dignitary chased her around his desk, urging her to lie down and talk about it, it occurred to him that perhaps there was something to what Major Houlihan was saying beyond the fact that her new boyfriend's feelings had been hurt.

For one thing, he knew Major Houlihan to be a fine operating-room nurse. He had personally chased her around G.I. operating rooms from the Panama Canal Zone to Alaska and had seen her at work. For another, it wasn't a good idea to appoint junior officers to positions that should be occupied by more senior officers.

He told her that he would 'look into it.' He looked into it two ways. He telephoned Colonel Blake and just happened to mention it to him. He was shocked by Colonel Blake's response. Colonel Blake, previously a fine officer, told the Eighth Army surgeon that if he didn't like the way he was running the 4077th MASH, the Eighth Army surgeon knew into which orifice of the body he could stuff it.

'I'm overworked and understaffed,' Blake went on. 'And if you want to help me, Sammy, you can get off the phone, get up here, scrub, and grab a scalpel. Otherwise, bug off!'

And with that, the commanding officer of the 4077th MASH hung up on the surgeon of the Eighth United States Army.

Three hours later, the Eighth Army surgeon arrived by helicopter at the 4077th MASH, wholly prepared to relieve Colonel Blake of his command and to place Major Burns, as ranking officer, in command, at least temporarily.

He was informed that the entire medical staff of the 4077th MASH was in the operating room. The Eighth Army surgeon scrubbed, put on surgical greens, and entered the operating room.

At the first table, two surgeons were in the process of removing pieces of shrapnel from the intestinal cavity of a young soldier. The taller of them looked up quickly, saw the newcomer, and then dropped his eyes back to his work.

'I suppose it's too much to hope, Chubby,' he said, 'that you're a surgeon ?'

'As it happens,' the Eighth Army surgeon replied, somewhat testily, 'I am.'

'The term is bandied about somewhat loosely in these parts,' the tall chap said. 'But I'm desperate and have to take the chance. Close this guy up. I've got one waiting that's in just about as bad shape.'

The Eighth Army surgeon realized that he had just been ordered around like an intern by one of his very junior subordinates. But as the junior surgeon stepped away from the table, he stepped up to it.

'What have we got here ?' he asked the other surgeon.

'He doesn't know,' the departing surgeon called over his shoulder. 'That's Dago Red. He's the chaplain.'

'I try to help as best I can,' the man whom the Eighth Army surgeon had thought was a doctor said.

The Eighth Army surgeon bent over the table.

Four hours later, as he finished closing a badly torn leg, the Eighth Army surgeon looked up and found the eyes of the tall young man on him.

'You're pretty good with that knife, Chubby,' he said. 'And we're glad to have you. Come on down to the swamp and have a martini with us.'

Still in his soiled surgical clothing, the Eighth Army surgeon walked to the most disreputable tent he had ever seen in twenty-five years of military service. While a full inventory of the tent beggars description, suffice it to say that the beds showed no evidence whatever of ever having been made, that an anatomical skeleton dressed in a bikini stood in one corner smoking a cigar, and that a still bubbled merrily in another corner.

He accepted a martini, which filled the eight-ounce glass in which it was served, took one appreciative sip, and then slumped into the chrome-and-leather barber's chair the tall young doctor offered him. He took another sip of the martini and found that both young doctors were smiling at him.

'Martini all right ?' the taller one asked.

'Just fine,' the Eighth Army surgeon said.

'Cold enough? Not too much vermouth?'

'Just fine,' the Eighth Army surgeon repeated.

'Been in the Army long, have you ?' the tall one inquired.

'Long enough,' the Eighth Army surgeon replied.

'Would it be safe, then, to presume you're higher-ranking than a captain ?' the tall one asked.

'Yes, you could say that,' the Eighth Army surgeon, who was a brigadier general, replied.

'Maybe even higher than a major ?' the shorter one asked.

‘You could say that, too,' the general said.

At that point, the man whom the Eighth Army surgeon had met at the operating table came into the tent. He was wordlessly offered and wordlessly accepted a martini. He was wearing the insignia of a chaplain, and captain's bars.

'Dago Red,' the tall one said, 'you've met the new guy, haven't you ?'

'Not officially,' the chaplain said. 'I'm Father Mulcahy,' he said, putting out his hand to the Eighth Army surgeon. 'Do you happen to be a Catholic?'

'No, I don't,' the Eighth Army surgeon replied.

'No matter,' Father Mulcahy said. 'Welcome anyway.'

'I didn't get the name, Chubby,' the tall one said. 'You've already met Dago Red, and this is Trapper John McIntyre, and I'm Hawkeye Pierce.'

'My friends call me Sammy,' the Eighth Army surgeon said.

At that point, Colonel Blake, who had been advised by his clerk, Corporal J. Robespierre 'Radar' O'Reilly, that the Eighth Army surgeon was in the hospital area, came into the tent. Because of the merrily bubbling still, which blocked his view, he could not see the occupant of the barber chair.

'I'm going to lay an order on you guys,' the colonel said. 'And for once, you'd damned well better obey it.'

Doctors Pierce and McIntyre immediately dropped to their knees and bowed three times in the manner of Moslems at prayer.

'We hear and obey, O Worshipful Master!' they cried in unison.

'I'm serious,' Colonel Blake said. 'I'm Hawkeye,' said Hawkeye.

'Look, I blew my cool this morning and told the Eighth Army surgeon to stick the MASH up ... you know where.'

'Give the man a martini,' Trapper John said. 'How brave of you, Colonel!'

'And he's here!' Colonel Blake went on. 'I'm in enough trouble without him seeing you. So you guys stay in the tent until further orders. You read me ?'

'What were you being beastly to the Eighth Army surgeon about, Henry?' Hawkeye asked.

'Frank Burns,' the colonel said. 'Somebody told him I had named you chief surgeon over him.'

'Your problems, O Maximum Leader,' Trapper John said, 'are over!'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'The Eighth Army surgeon has finally done something right,' Hawkeye said. 'He sent us a cutter who is actually a cutter, not a refugee from a chiropractor's clinic. This guy is actually a better cutter than me, as hard as you may find that to believe.'

'Not only that,' Trapper John joined in, 'but he's higher in rank than Frank Burns. So you just name him chief surgeon, and the flap is unflapped. It's as simple as that.'

'What the hell are you talking about?' Colonel Blake demanded.

'Sammy, stand up and salute and meet the boss. He's big on G.I. crap like saluting and standing up straight.'

Colonel Blake peered around the merrily bubbling still just in time to see the Eighth Army surgeon rising from the barber chair.

'Nice little place you've got here, Henry,' the Eighth Army surgeon said. 'A little odd, perhaps, but you've got one hell of a fine chief of surgery.'

'I, uh, didn't expect to see you here, Sam,' Colonel Blake said.

'Well, you said that if I wanted to help I should come up here, scrub, and grab a scalpel,' the Eighth Army surgeon said. 'So I did.'

'I gather you know each other?' Hawkeye said. 'That's even better.'

'I've got bad news for you, Slim,' the Eighth Army surgeon said.

'You can call me Hawkeye, Chubby,' Hawkeye replied.

'And you can call me General, Hawkeye,' the general said. 'And as I was saying, I've got bad news for you. You're stuck as chief of surgery here. You can consider it a permanent assignment.' He started for the door.

'You're not leaving?' Colonel Blake asked.

'I have to have a word with Major Houlihan,' the general said. 'And then I'll be going back to Seoul.'

The word he had with Major Houlihan he had in private, of course, and, truth to tell, both Hawkeye and Trapper John had naughty thoughts about what was really going on behind the closed door of Major Houlihan's tent. . .

Speaking as soldier to soldier, the Eighth Army surgeon told the chief nurse of the 4077th MASH that the only reason he wasn't shipping her home in disgrace was because she was a good operating-room nurse and was needed at the 4077th.

'Think what you like about those two clowns with the private still and the barber's chair, Margaret,' he said, 'they're first-class surgeons, and that's the bottom line. I had a moment or two to observe that simpering jackass, Frank Burns, at work on the table, and my first reaction was to have him sent home on the next plane. The only reason I'm not doing that is because he'd love it, and, more important, if I keep him here, he can empty bedpans, sweep the floor, give social-disease shots, and free the enlisted men for more important things.'

'I'm sorry, Sammy,' Margaret said. 'I really am.'

'Soldier to soldier, Major,' the general said, 'you're blinded by love for that jackass.'

‘You really think so ?' she asked, on the verge of tears.

'You can take it from me, Major,' the general said. 'I'm a doctor, and we know all about things like that.'

'What should I do?'

'I thought you'd never ask,' the general said. 'You keep that jackass out of Colonel Blake's hair, and you keep him out of Hawkeye and Trapper John's hair.'

‘Yes, sir,' Major Houlihan said, snapping to attention and saluting. Saluting required that she raise her right hand (with the arm attached, of course) so that the extended fingers touched her eyebrow. As she raised her arm, the pectoral muscles grew taut, lifting those organs contained in what the quartermaster general referred to as 'Container, bosoms, with harness, heavy duty, winter and summer, M1940B4, size 38 D' into a rather spectacular position.

The general's mouth dropped open. It was all too clear what Major Burns saw in Major Houlihan, although what she saw in him he couldn't imagine.

'Carry on, Major,' he finally snapped, and then marched out of her tent, went back to his helicopter, and flew back to Seoul.

Despite her good intentions, Major Houlihan was not able to restrain the emotions in her magnificent bosom. In the operating room, she was as quick as anyone else to block Frank Burns' way whenever it appeared that he might be approaching one of the patients with surgery in mind. But if it wasn't quite literally a matter of life and death - in other words, out of the operating room - her emotions got the best of her. Whenever she laid her soft brown eyes on Frank Burns' bewildered little boy's face, whenever she saw the hurt in his eyes after one of the others (truth to tell, usually Hawkeye or Trapper John) had hurt his sensitive feelings by some masculine cruelty, the desire to wrap him in her arms and comfort him swelled up in her bosom and overcame logic and common sense.

It must be admitted, too, that neither Dr. Pierce nor Dr. McIntyre were entirely blameless in the matter; their conduct was certainly (and admittedly) not that expected of officers and gentlemen of the Army Medical Corps.

An officer and a gentleman, for example, would not dream of rigging the nurses' shower tent wall so that it would come tumbling down while the chief nurse was at her morning ablutions. This happened, to Major Houlihan's obvious discomfiture and the great glee of the ambulatory ward, while said ambulatory patients 'happened' to be walking by.

And it took the exact antithesis of an officer and a gentleman to conceive, much less execute, the foul idea of placing the microphone to the hospital public-address system under the springs of Major Houlihan's cot, so that the entire hospital became privy to the most intimate of discussions between that officer and gentlewoman and Major Burns.*

Major Houlihan and Major Burns remained the best of friends for about six months. (The friendship ended when Major Houlihan became aware that Mrs. Frank Burns and the four little Burnses back in Hillandale, Ohio, were a fact, not just another scurrilous rumor spread by Doctors Pierce and McIntyre. But that is another, somewhat sordid story, on which we will not dwell.)

During that six-month period, Hot Lips remembered afterwards with remorse and chagrin, she was Frank Burns' willing partner in what Major Burns referred to as 'straightening this circus out.'

While Colonel Blake was physically on the premises, of course, nothing toward that end could be accomplished, for Colonel Blake apparently preferred what Major Burns thought of as a three-ring circus to a G.I. MASH. But the moment the colonel's Jeep passed out of sight down the dirt road to the main supply route, Major Frank Burns, by the Army's immutable laws of seniority, became the hospital commander.

And as hospital commander, his powers vis à vis saluting, reveille, shining boots, and performing that quaint choreography known as close-order drill were limitless, at least so far as the enlisted men were concerned - which is why he

* During this incident, shortly before cheers, whistles, and applause announced that they were not quite as alone as they had presumed, Major Burns told Major Houlihan that her lips burned like a holy fire. When Major Houlihan stuck her head out of the tent to ascertain the cause of the cheers, whistles, and applause, Captain Pierce cried out, 'Here she is, gang! Let's hear it! Three cheers for Hot Lips Houlihan!' For some reason, the unfortunate appellation stuck

came to be held in such passionate loathing by Hawkeye and Trapper John.

The very first morning Major Burns found himself hospital commander pro tem, he appeared at the bachelor officers' quarters occupied by Captains Pierce and McIntyre. Major Houlihan had provided him with a brass whistle, which he blew immediately upon entering the tent.

'All right, men!' he cried, in creditable mimicry of the sergeant who had conducted the medical officers' indoctrination program at Fort Sam Houston. 'Let's hit it!'

'You blow that whistle again, pig-eyes,' Dr. Pierce responded, 'and I'll make you eat it!'

'You officers are in charge of this morning's close-order drill!' Major Burns said. 'Hop to it!'

In perfect duet, Captains Pierce and McIntyre suggested that Major Burns perform a physiologically impossible act of attempted self-impregnation.

'What did you say ?' he asked, shocked to the quick.

Both doctors repeated the suggestion, this time pronouncing each syllable with great clarity, so there would be no chance whatsoever that they would be misunderstood.

'You just wait till I tell the colonel what you said!' Major Burns said, fleeing the tent. 'He'll fix you!'

Despite the threat (which he indeed carried out), Major Burns was momentarily frustrated. Under similar circumstances, he would take his problem to Major Houlihan, who, drawing upon her greater military experience, would tell him what subsequent steps to take. But he could not take this defiance of his legal authority to Major Houlihan, for that would mean repeating verbatim what Hawkeye and Trapper John had told him to do, and Frank Burns had been told by his mother never to use language like that in the presence of a lady.

So he himself conducted close-order drill for the enlisted men. This posed an awful problem for Doctors Pierce and McIntyre. While they found the idea of marching to and fro to Frank Burns' somewhat nasal orders repulsive, the idea that the troops should be doing it, with equal reluctance, while they hid behind their officer status and relative immunity, was even more repugnant. So, attired in a blanket (Dr. Pierce) and a silk dressing gown (Dr. McIntyre), Hawkeye and Trapper John, muttering naughty words not very much under their breath, joined the enlisted men.

It only happened that once. (During that night, party or parties unknown burned all of Major Burns' footwear; it being difficult, if not absolutely impossible to march on a rocky field in one's bare feet, close-order drill was temporarily abandoned.) But once was enough, and close-order drill was not the only means by which Major Burns attempted to infiltrate what he thought of as 'soldierly behavior' into the 4077th MASH. Because the enlisted men's mess (which also served as their recreation center) did not meet Major Burns' Pattonesque standards of neatness and decorum, he (a) tore down and burned what Doctors Pierce and McIntyre regarded as one of the finest displays of pulchritudinous art in Korea and (b) suspended the sale of beer.

Providing the troops with a wee drop with which to water down their cares was simply a matter of operating the still on a twenty-four-hour (rather than an eight-hour) basis, but the enlisted men's art gallery was lost forever, and that was obviously unforgivable.

When Colonel Blake returned from his business in Seoul and opposing sides brought what they considered to be statements of misbehavior on the part of others to his attention, the colonel, although his sympathies clearly lay with the troops and Trapper John and Hawkeye, was placed in a somewhat delicate position.

While he did not condone the shutting off of the troops' beer and the destruction of the art gallery, neither could he condone all-night drinking parties in bachelor officers' quarters by the troops. And while he did think that, as fellow officers of the command, Captains Pierce and McIntyre had had every right to give Major Burns the benefit of their thinking vis à vis the enlisted men's morale, he had to agree with Major Burns that being called a 'miserable chicken-bleep son of a blap' by Captains Pierce and McIntyre did go a bit beyond the language permitted for officers when addressing a superior.

What Major Burns thought of as 'the Great Mutiny' died not with a bang but a whimper. The sale of beer was resumed in the enlisted men's mess, and a fresh start made on the art gallery. (The colonel declined, however, an eleven-by-four-teen inch color photograph of Major Houlihan, taken the day the shower-tent wall fell down and offered by Captains Pierce and McIntyre as the first work of art for display in the new art gallery.) And while the colonel continued the 'temporary' abandonment of reveille and close-order drill, he also flatly forbade any further reference to Majors Burns and Houlihan as 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Beauty and the L'il Beastie,' or anything else that suggested their relationship was somewhat unmilitary, not to mention unchaste.

The uneasy truce lasted until the next time Colonel Blake was ordered from the 4077th MASH on temporary duty and Major Burns again took command by virtue of his rank. Possessed of what Hawkeye referred to as a 'weasel-like shrewdness,' Major Burns did not, this time, attempt to enforce his notions of proper military behavior on the male officers, but rather restricted himself to harassing the enlisted men and the nurses.

In the case of the latter, Captains Pierce and McIntyre scheduled professional medical lectures (which had priority) whenever Major Burns' 'order of the day' called for close-order drill, trench digging, or whatever. But this left the enlisted men, again, catching all the nonsense. Hawkeye and Trapper John were always able to frustrate Frank Burns' plans eventually, but it was usually after the fact. And before counter-measures could be put into play, the troops suffered.

Like seven or eight million others who have answered their draft boards' summonses only to find a slimy viper curled round the flagpole, Hawkeye and Trapper John vowed solemn retribution against their viper, such retribution to take place after they had been discharged.

Unlike the others, however, Hawkeye and Trapper John did not let this burning desire for sweet justice flicker out and die when they went home. It is true, of course, they didn't go through with their announced intention to roast ex-Major Burns, À la the Apache custom, upside down over a slow fire, nor did the opportunity present itself to tie Frank Burns' major extremities to four large horses and send the horses galloping off in four different directions.

They eked out their revenge in more subtle ways.

Each March 13, for example, Florists' Telegraph Delivery delivered to Dr. Burns' Hillandale, Ohio, residence one large potted passion flower, together with a card reading, 'Thinking of You on Our Day.'

March 13 was the anniversary of the day Hawkeye and Trapper John had, after slipping Major Burns a strong sedative in his tea, encased him to his neck in plaster of Paris; they took some pleasure in knowing that Mrs. Burns would not know this.

And through the year, as they thumbed through magazines, they carefully tore out, and filled out, in Major Burns' name, all the postage-paid business-reply coupons, offering such things as lifetime subscriptions to the Bee-Keeper's Journal ('Send no money till February!') or a complete record library for only 99 cents down and $18.90 a month for the rest of one's life.

They had met, face to face, just once in all the years that had passed. Dr. Burns had left the practice of pediatric medicine for a specialty that was both inimical to pediatrics and paid better. He was the founder and president of the Burns Vasectomological Institute, where $250 ('Easy Terms Available') bought a fifteen-minute quasi-surgical procedure known in the trade as tube-snipping.

Even physicians engaged in such a noble enterprise as making irreversible contributions toward zero population-growth needed rest, relaxation, and the company of their peers. Dr. Burns had gone to New Orleans, Louisiana, to attend the National Convention of the American College of Tonsil, Adenoid and Vas Deferens Surgeons (more popularly known as the TA & VD Society). By coincidence, Dr. Pierce and Dr. McIntyre had happened to be in the Crescent City at the same time. The press of their duties, however, had been such that no opportunity had arisen to, as Dr. Pierce told Dr. McIntyre, 'Give old Frank what he really deserves.'*

What Doctors Pierce and McIntyre felt that Dr. Burns really deserved cannot be reported in a fine, morally uplifting volume such as this without resorting to the most shameless euphemisms. Suffice it to say that when the telephone in Dr. Pierce's office rang they had just completed phase one of project 'Where Frank Walks.'

Phase one had involved dealing with chemists who worked for the nation's largest herbicide manufacturers. They now had in their hands a product known as Dichlorobichloroalkamkydchlestrolal B13 (short title DCG-B13), .001 cc of which was absolutely guaranteed not only to instantly kill any grass it came in contact with, but also to so contaminate the surrounding soil, for a distance of eighteen inches, that grass would not grow there again for at least three years.

Dr. Burns, when he could spare the time from counting the money the Burns Vasectomological Institute brought in, was a devoted golfer. And Hawkeye and Trapper John had recently learned that, after having been denied admission on twelve separate occasions, Dr. Burns had finally been admitted to membership in the Hillandale Country Club.

So, when the telephone rang, Dr. Pierce and Dr. McIntyre were lovingly injecting one syringe-full after another of Dichlorobichloroalkamkydchlestrolal B-13 into the soles of a brand-new pair of golf shoes. Miss Miller was writing - in a hand obviously female and full of loops, whirls, and little

* The details of the visit of Doctors Pierce and McIntyre to New Orleans have been recorded for posterity, for those with an interest in the extraordinary, in a neatly glued-together volume entitled, M*A*S*H Goes to New Orleans (Sphere Books).

With a little bit of luck, Frank Burns' first round of golf on the Hillandale links would be something that would be remembered for years.

CHAPTER THREE

'If you'll forgive my saying so, Doctors,' Student Nurse Barbara Ann Miller said, 'this is really rotten!' She giggled with delight.

'I should hope so,' Dr. Pierce replied, 'considering what this Dichlorobicloroalkamkydchlestrolal cost us.'

'Fish-eye Frank Burns, M.D., must really be a terrible man!' Miss Miller said.

'You know that professional ethics forbid me to comment adversely on either the professional skill or moral character of a fellow healer,' Dr. Pierce said, 'but you said it, sweetie!'

This was when the telephone rang. Miss Miller grabbed it on the first ring.

'Dr. Pierce's office,' she said. 'Dr. Pierce is in conference and cannot be disturbed unless in case of medical emergency.'

She blushed at the reply and extended the phone to Hawkeye.

'Who is it?' he asked.

'I don't know,' she confessed.

'Did you tell him that I'm not talking unless there's a medical emergency?'

‘Yes, sir,' she said. 'And he said that unless you come on the fine, there will be a medical emergency.'

Curiosity got the better of Dr. Pierce and he reached for the phone. 'Did he say what kind of an emergency?' he asked, covering the phone with his hand.

Barbara Ann Miller nodded her head and blushed.

'Well?'

'He said unless you got on the phone in two seconds he personally would bust your gluteus maximus,* Doctor.'

* The gluteus maximus are muscles inside what is commonly known as the rump. Dr. Grogarty knew this, as most physicians do, and consequently this is not exactly what he said he was going to bust if Hawkeye did not answer the phone.

‘Who the hell is this?' Dr. Pierce said into the phone. 'And who the hell do you think you are, interrupting my conference ?'

The other three looked at him rather fondly as he said this. He was often at his best when telling someone off. What happened next, however, surprised and even shocked die others in the room.

‘Yes, sir!' Dr. Pierce said. 'This is me, sir. I hope you'll forgive me for any delay, sir. If I had only known you would be good enough to call.'

For a moment Trapper John thought that Hawkeye was working up to some masterful sarcastic putdown of the caller, but then he recognized, from the look of pain in his friend's eyes, that Hawkeye was really sorry about something. Curiosity got the better of him, too, and he reached up and punched the button that placed both ends of the call on loudspeakers. He did this in time to amplify the caller's next comment.

'And what about that bum McIntyre? Is he sober enough to talk?'

Nurse Flanagan's mouth, and that of Miss Miller, dropped open in shock.

'Yes, sir,' Trapper John said, coming to attention. 'Quite sober, sir. And how are you, Doctor?^’

'As well, to coin a phrase,' the gruff and hearty voice replied, 'as can be expected under the circumstances, the circumstances being that I celebrated my sixtieth birthday last Thursday.'

'Happy Birthday, Doctor!' Pierce and McIntyre said in duet.

‘I got your presents,' the caller said. 'Considering all the money you two blots on the Hippocratic escutcheon are stealing from your patients, it seems to me that you could have done better than two lousy cases of twelve-year-old Scotch.'

'It's all we could get here, sir,' Hawkeye said. 'We'll do better next time.' 'Next week,' Trapper John corrected.

'Tomorrow!' Hawkeye said.

'How can we be of service, Doctor?' Trapper John asked.

Both Dr. Pierce and Dr. McIntyre had spent (at different times) several years as surgical residents at the Grogarty Clinic. Dr. Grogarty's classroom and operating-amphitheater instruction had been of such high quality that both Hawkeye and Trapper John felt they owed a large part of whatever skill they had to him.

'I need an outside opinion,' Dr. Grogarty said.

'From us, sir?' Hawkeye asked, visibly surprised.

'You mean you actually want an opinion from one of us ?' Trapper John asked.

'This patient's pretty important to me,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'I've already got half a dozen opinions, each one from a surgeon who makes you guys look like first-year residents, but I figured, what the hell, why not ask. Wisdom from the mouth of babes, so to speak.'

'Anything we can do, sir,' Hawkeye said. 'We're honored that you would ask.'

'Don't let it go to your head,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'I've had my girl send some x-rays and an EKG and some other stuff over the line. Are you sober enough to look at it, or should I call back in the morning ?'

'We'll look at it right now, sir,' Hawkeye said. Trapper John was already on his way out the door toward the data room.

The diagnosis did not take long, and the prognosis was not favorable.

'I'm afraid your patient, in my judgement,' Hawkeye said, very formally, 'is in trouble.'

'What I'm trying to find out, Hawkeye,' Dr. Grogarty said, 'is how bad you think that trouble is?'

'There's no question in my mind about the cancerous lung. A two to three pack a day smoker, I'd say. For at least twenty years.'

'You think the lungs are too far gone ?'

'No, I could jerk the right and take out about half the left,' Hawkeye said. 'If I could operate. But not with that heart. That heart's about to let go. The trauma of surgery ...' He left the rest unsaid.

'Trapper John?' Dr. Grogarty asked.

‘I concur,' Trapper John said formally. ‘I don't think he'd last three minutes on the table.'

'Well, think of some gentle way to break the news to him,' Dr. Grogarty said.

'Sir?'

'He's on his way to see you,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'Flying by private plane, and accompanied by his personal physician... who happens to be his son.'

‘I don't quite understand, sir,' Hawkeye said.

‘It's very simple, Hawkeye,' Dr. Grogarty said. ‘I don't have the guts to tell a guy I've known all my life, who has just found out that he's wasted the last twenty-five years of his life, what his life expectancy is. And I think he'd rather get it from total strangers.'

'Jesus Christ!' Hawkeye said.

'His name is Charley Whiley,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'And don't worry about professional courtesy about your bill because of his son. He's loaded.'

'Thanks a lot,' Hawkeye said.

'You're welcome,' Dr. Grogarty said. 'I never thought I'd say this to you two, but I owe you one.'

And with that, the telephone went dead.

Hawkeye pushed the button and shut the telephone off. Esther Flanagan, R.N., a lady of generous proportions, a formidable appearance, and very gentle eyes, went to the martini mixer and from it poured two large fresh martinis.

She gave one each to Hawkeye and Trapper John, and then picked up the telephone and dialed a number.

'Esther Flanagan calling for Dr. Pierce. We'll need a private room for a Mr. Whiley. And call down to the Spruce Harbor Home-Away-From-Home Motel and Barbecue and reserve a room... away from the pool and bar... for a Dr. Whiley.'

Thanks’ Hawkeye said.

'I was about to say "my pleasure,' " Esther Flanagan said. 'What did the x-rays show?'

'An embolism,' Hawkeye said. 'One that could let go any minute.'

'Like now, when he's flying here in his own airplane ?'

'Like now, when he's flying here in his own airplane,' Trapper John said. 'Let's hope that his son is one of those flying doctors you hear about.'

'Whatever was Dr. Grogarty thinking of? Wasn't that sort of playing God?' she asked.

'I think it falls into the category of putting it in God's hands,' Hawkeye said. 'I just figured out who this guy is.'

'Who is he?' Trapper John said.

'There is - or was - a picture of him on Grogarty's office wall. Shows the two of them in China during World War II. He was one of those dashing young men in the silk scarves and leather jackets ... Flying Tigers.'

'I remember the picture,' Trapper John said.

'Maybe Grogarty figures the way he'd like to go is playing birdman,' Hawkeye said. 'Off we go - and keep going - into the wild blue yonder!'

'He may have a point,' Trapper John said. 'I've always thought I'd like to go, at ninety-eight or so, by shooting at the hands of a jealous-with-reason husband.'

'There's no hope at all, Hawkeye?' Student Nurse Miller asked.

'There is always hope,' Hawkeye replied. 'Or that, at least, is the popular folklore.'

'I guess this all seems pretty silly, doesn't it?' Barbara Ann Miller said, gesturing at the golf shoes on the desk.

'How wrong you are, my little chickadee,' Hawkeye said. 'At moments like these, if it weren't for the prospect of wreaking oh-so-sweet revenge on Frank Burns, I would go quite bananas. Where were we ?'

'I was just about to finish the letter. How should I sign it ?'

'Let me think,' Hawkeye said. 'How about "tenderly" ?'

'How about "shyly"?'

'How about,' Esther Flanagan said,' "with shy and tender passion"?'

'You've missed your calling, Flanagan,' Hawkeye said. * "With shy and tender passion" it is.'

Barbara Ann Miller wrote the words on the paper with some difficulty. Her eyes were rather watery.

At this very moment, at the Burns Vasectomological Clinic of Hillandale, Ohio, Francis Burns, M.D., was also in touch with San Francisco, California, also known as 'The City by the Bay,' through the facilities of Ma Bell.*

By bending the truth just a little (he had informed the vice-president for charitable affairs of the Mark Hopkins Hotel that the organization with which he was connected provided care, free of charge, to impoverished orphans, and that his purpose in traveling to San Francisco was to participate in a medical conference), he had arranged for rooms at a great discount,**

'God bless you, sir!' Frank Burns now said to the vice-president for charitable affairs. 'I'm sure our little ones,

* The attentive reader will recall that the time is after six. Since Ma Bell, out of the bottomless goodness of its corporate heart, reduces rates after that hour, it was Dr. Burns' custom to make all of his long-distance calls after six. He had never forgotten the profound wisdom, courtesy of Benjamin Franklin, that he had picked up in the second grade - 'A penny saved is a penny earned.' Unfortunately, each time he called it to mind he was reminded, very painfully, of a chap named Benjamin Franklin Pierce.

** There was a germ of truth in what he said and how he said it. He had innocently dropped the descriptive word 'vasectomological' from the name of his institution, and it was perfectly true that the 'Burns Institute' would offer its services, free of charge, to any impoverished orphan who asked- for them. The hook here was that, because of the nature of vasectomological procedures, it was illegal to perform them upon minors, and Dr. Burns would never knowingly break the law. And he was, indeed, going to confer on medical matters while in San Francisco. He had every intention of conferring with Mrs. Burns, of asking her right out if the aspirin he had prescribed for her headache a week before had been effective in reducing her distress.

Then he hung up and telephoned Mrs. Burns, to whom he referred - depending on the circumstances - as either 'Sweetie-Baby' or 'the little woman.'

'Well,' he said, with just a touch of pride in his somewhat nasal voice, ‘We're fixed up at the Mark Hopkins. All you have to do now is arrange for your mother to care for the kids while we're gone. You get on the telephone and ask her to come. And don't forget to stress the fact that travel by bus is really better than flying for someone her age. It's only thirty-six hours on a nonstop bus from her house to ours.'

Frank Burns, as incredible as it might sound and as difficult as it might be to accept, actually had a devious purpose in going to San Francisco. He had, several months before, while unwrapping some medical equipment he had purchased at a very good price from a dealer in military surplus, come across something in a newspaper (the World War II vintage scalpels and forceps, which were a little rusty but would clean up nicely, had been wrapped in old newspapers) that had set his heart aflutter.

In the old newspaper there had been a photograph of a statuesque lady, dressed in a long gown and a cape, her hands raised in a gesture of blessing. The caption with the picture had confirmed what Frank Burns had thought, with a quickening of his heart, the moment he saw the lady's mammiform protuberances straining against the gown. It was his beloved Margaret!

'God Is Love in All Forms Christian Church Prelate Returns Home to San Francisco,' a line over the picture had read, and beneath the photograph there had been this caption:

San Francisco, Calif. Shown as she blessed the welcoming crowd that surrounded her arriving aircraft this afternoon at San Francisco International Airport is Rev. Mother Emeritus Margaret H. W. Wilson, of the God Is Love In All Forms Christian Church, Inc. The Reverend Mother Wilson and several members of her staff returned home to San Francisco today. The GILIAFCC, Inc., was founded here by the Reverend Mother's late husband, the Blessed Reverend Buck Wilson.

She was greeted at the airport by San Francisco Police Commissioner Boulder J. Ohio, and immediately went by motorcade to the GILIAFCC, Inc. ...

At that point, the story had ended. Some callous and unthinking person had ripped the newspaper, and although he'd searched diligently through all the rusty scalpels and forceps, Frank Burns had not been able to find the rest of it.

He came to realize, however, that what he had was enough. Margaret, his beloved Margaret, his bosom pal of his war years, his fellow field-grade officer and gentleperson, whom he had seen but once (and then all too briefly) since the war, was not only in San Francisco, but also a widow.

While he was, of course, profoundly sorry that whatshisname had kicked the bucket, he could not help but consider that if she was a widow, that meant there was no need to worry about a jealous husband.

Furthermore, Frank Burns knew (from two experiences) that he was very good when it came to consoling widows, and he'd always felt that he could have gotten even better at it had it not been for buttinsky neighbors and relatives who for some reason never seemed to be willing to leave him alone with the bereaved.

The only thing that stood between him and the resumption of what he fondly remembered as a splendid relationship with Margaret was getting to San Francisco. He dwelt on the mental image of what would happen when she saw him again.

'Margaret!' he would say. 'Frank,' Margaret would say. 'Margaret,' he would repeat.

'Frank!' she would say again. And then she would rush into his arms.

And this time, of course, there would be no Benjamin Franklin Pierce or John F. X. McIntyre around to remind Margaret about Sweetie-Baby and the kids.

The only problem, then, was getting to San Francisco - soon, and alone. This proved more difficult than he expected. Sweetie-Baby pointed out that in the long years of her marriage she had been away with him only three times. On their honeymoon, all the way to Chillicothe; to Columbus, when he'd left for the Army; and, j ust two years ago, to New Orleans. None of these journeys had really been pleasant, she pointed out to him. He certainly (she said) could not forget what had happened on their honeymoon, and even if what he said about that happening to a lot of newlyweds was true, he did have to agree with her (she said), that it hadn't been much fun.

And when she'd gone to Columbus with him, to see him off to the Army, that hadn't been much fun for her either. He had cried the night through in the Econo-Cheap Motel. And in New Orleans, he had gotten sick.*

'So I made up my mind, Francis,' Sweetie-Baby said, 'after talking it over with mama, of course, that the next time you leave town, I'm going with you.'

Nothing he said or did could make her change her mind. Finally, in desperation, he decided he would have to take her along and worry about how to get rid of her once he was in San Francisco. He could, he thought, send her out to ride the cable cars - they were cheap enough - while he pleaded a sick headache. Anyway, he would think of something

* In New Orleans, he had modestly informed a newspaper reporter that he had been General MacArthur's personal physician while in the Far East - an innocent little exaggeration He had fallen sick immediately upon learning that Doctors Pierce and McIntyre were also in New Orleans; they had not only been in the Far East with him, but also were about to talk to the same reporter. The details are available, told without fear or favor, and in a style described as 'certainly odd' in M*A*S*H Goes to New Orleans (Sphere Books).