(I have a bunch of different K&E slide rules, as well as some of the detailed books explaining how to use them. Very high quality. One quirky variant, made by another firm, was used from the 1940s to the 1970s to calculate how to load certain types of bombers for the USAAF and USAF, depending on fuel, crew, bomb load, &c. K&E overall had some lovely products.)
Hackenschmidt waxed nostalgic. “I remember that era well, when a lot of those firms spent enormous sums on assorted tchotchkes. High quality, too; some have outlasted their sponsoring firms by 25 years.”
Yakamoto looked wistful. “In all seriousness, they have pitted practitioners of abacuses against skilled mechanical adding machine operators, and the ancient implement users almost invariably won.”
Hackenschmidt chuckled. “Obviously, he has much to learn. There is the posture in which you lean slightly forward, with the thumb and forefinger of your dominant hand supporting your eyebrows, as if deep in concentration and not sleep. A day to master, a lifetime of catnapping on the sly.”
Yakamoto scratched his head. “Would this make Rita an Amazon Prime?”