Allamagoosa by Eric Frank Russell

Allamagoosa by Eric Frank Russell • Word count: 4665 • Page count: 11 "Allamagoosa" is an award winning 1955 science fiction short story by Eric Frank Russell. It is about the crew of the spaceship Bustler, and their attempts to make everything spic and span prior to an official inspection. "Allamagoosa" follows Captain McNaught as he learns that Rear Admiral Cassidy is coming to their spaceport to inspect the stores of the ship. With very little time to check everything, the Captain orders his crew back from shore leave and immediately begins painting the ship and checking its contents. Things get stressful when they can't find an item called "offog." After looking everywhere for it they decide on a plan that will get them off the hook - only to find out later that maybe it wasn't such a good idea. This story, which takes its title from the part where the captain refers to the missing inventory item as "some sort of scientific allamagoosa", won the 1955 Hugo Award for Best Short…