A duly scheduled challenge match against a ten-year-old Hal

timeline_event

texture · 1 April, Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad

When: 1 April, Year of the Tucks Medicated Pad
What: In the professional-conversationalist scene, ten-year-old Hal cuts the interview short because he has a ladder obligation: a duly scheduled challenge match against Schacht, in like twelve minutes. A single passing line of dialogue, but the earliest datable Schacht fact in the book — placing him at E.T.A., already Hal's challenge-ladder peer, in YTMP. How this squares with the fall-YTSDB arrival of event 2 depends on the subsidized-year order, which the book does not give (see Dating notes).