In effect, he is trying to trick Gramps into again again so that the older man will die. He hears a gurgling noise, and opens the bathroom door to find his great-grandnephew Morty Schwartz diluting Gramps's anti-gerasone with water, after having apparently poured half of it down the drain. Later, Lou takes a nap on the mattress, and is awakened when someone steps over him to get to the bathroom. That means Willy will be able to sleep in the daybed, while Lou and Em will be relegated to the worst sleeping position, on a mattress in the hallway right by the bathroom. He scribbles an alteration to the will, writing Lou out of it and naming Lou's father Willy Schwartz as the new favorite. Hitz at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital.Īt one point, Lou imitates Gramps under his breath, but the older man hears it and demands Lou fetch his will, which he alters regularly to reflect his new preferences. One story announces the birth of Lowell H. Gramps commands that everyone else watch in silence. In response to nearly every news story, Gramps claims, "We did that a hundred years ago!" or "We said that a hundred years ago!" (321). The entire family is watching the news on television. He regularly claims he will let himself die when a certain occasion has come, but then chooses a later occasion, so that the family does not believe him. In contrast, Gramps looks seventy, his age when anti-gerasone was invented. In their conversation, Em forcefully suggests that they try to facilitate Gramps's death by diluting his anti-gerasone - this would eventually bring on his natural death.Įm and Lou return inside to face Gramps and the rest of their extended family, all of whom appear to be in their late twenties or early thirties due to anti-gerasone. Gramps will not die until he decides to, meaning that people like Lou and Em will never have a chance to progress to greater comforts. Lou and Em recall the days when people were exploring space now, escaping Earth is too expensive to be feasible. Thus, most people must eat processed seaweed and processed sawdust. All the earth's supply of metal and gasoline has been used up, and there is no more arable land for growing crops. Through Lou and Em's conversation, we learn that few people are dying of natural causes because all the diseases have been cured. At the time the story starts, Lou and Em are enjoying that comfort. Exploiting his seniority, Gramps decides who gets to sleep on the only other comfortable piece of furniture - a daybed - based on who is currently in his favor. Lou and Em live in a crowded apartment with their entire extended family, crammed onto mattresses in the hallway, while Gramps keeps the only private bedroom for himself. It is made from mud and dandelions, and is readily available to people of all ages. Lou is 112 years old and Em is 93 they and everyone else on Earth have been taking a drug called anti-gerasone that stops the aging process. Old English used suna sunu ("son's son"), dohtor sunu ("son's daughter").Lou Schwartz and his wife Em Schwartz stand on the balcony of their New York apartment, discussing their frustrations with Gramps. The inherited PIE root, *nepot- "grandchild" (see nephew) has shifted to "nephew niece" in English and other languages (Spanish nieto, nieta). The extension of the sense to corresponding relationships of descent, "a generation younger than" ( grandson, granddaughter) is from Elizabethan times. Spanish abuelo is from Latin avus "grandfather" (from PIE *awo- "adult male relative other than the father " see uncle), via Vulgar Latin *aviolus, a diminutive or adjective substitution for the noun. The French formation also is the model for such words in German and Dutch. Other such words in European languages are formed with the adjectives for "old" or "best" (Danish bedstefar) or as diminutives or pet names (Greek pappos, Welsh taid). 1200, in Anglo-French graund dame "grandmother," also grandsire (late 13c.), from such use of Old French grand-, which perhaps is modeled on Latin avunculus magnus "great uncle." The partly-Englished grandmother, grandfather are from 15c. A special use of grand (adj.) in genealogical compounds, originally with the sense of "a generation older than," first attested c.
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