FROM THE TEXT:
Not long ago in a large university town in California, on a street called Orchard Avenue, a strange old man ran a dusty shabby store. Above the dirty show windows a faded peeling sign said: A-Z - Antiques - Curios - Used Merchandise.

Nobody knew for sure what the A-Z meant. Perhaps it referred to the fact that all sorts of strange things--everything from A to Z--were sold in the store. Or perhaps it had something to do with the owner's name. However, no one seemed to know for sure what his name actually was. It was all part of a mysterious uncertainty about even the smallest item of public information about the old man. Nobody seemed certain, for instance, just why he was known as the Professor.

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