Harry Eberhardt is a busy man. He’s supposed to be helping to catch a homicidal demon which has possessed one of his colleagues. Another of his colleagues has just been stabbed by Harry’s latest love interest. You’d think this would be an action-filled chapter coming up, with Harry taking decisive steps to resolve his problems. You’d be wrong. For the world may demand action, but it runs on conversation. And in chapter 8 of Magician’s Misfortune, everyone is “Chatting with Harry.” Because why not? And yet this chapter has it all, from a drunk doctor to a strip joint parking lot. Though it does not have a quagga. So I’m remedying that deficiency right here.

Quagga painted by Jacques-Laurent Agasse (1767 – 1849)

While millions mourned the demotion of Pluto to a minor planet, hardly a tear was shed when the extinct quagga was demoted from a distinct species to a subspecies of the plains zebra. On the other hand, there’s a project to recreate the quagga, while no one’s suggesting adding mass to Pluto to restore its status as a planet. So there!