Cave of the Winds (Re: Gladstone's luck)

[Daniel van Eijmeren]

KRISTIAN PEDERSEN to STEFAN DIOS and DONALD AULT, 02-06-2003:

> [...] a 10-page Barks story in which a question by Scrooge is answered 
> using a contraption by Gyro: alphabet noodles boiled in a pot together 
> with a dictionary. Afterwards, the noodles are poured onto Scrooge's 
> desk and neatly spells out the solution to his problem. [...] 
> Can somebody identify the story?

It's "Cave of the Winds" (OS 1095). On page 3, Gyro writes the problem 
on a piece of paper and drops it in water in which he has boiled an 
encyclopedia. After that, he pours in some alphabet soup mix. And - 
presto! Out comes the answer onto a blotter.

An earlier (IMO better) scene with an automatic question answerer can be 
found in Barks's unfinished Gyro-story "The Pied Piper of Duckburg", now 
known as a story inked and finished by Don Rosa (H89174). The similarity 
is mentioned in Geoffrey Blum article "Versions of a Pied Piper", Carl 
Barks Library, page 6B-375.

--- Daniël