YASID: Simak Story Of Thinking Appliances

I know pretty much everything but the title.  Newspaperman gets
re****ts of an appliance (sewing machine, I believe) that starts
to roll down the street of its own volition.  He starts to write
a humorous "silly season" story on it, briefly leaves, and finds
that his typewriter is editing and fini****ng the story.  Other
such incidents ensue.

At the end of the story he realizes that he was chosen as
a test case to see how humanity would react to "awakened"
machines.  Unfortunatly, he's not the sort to react one way
or the other, so they'll have to find a different test case.
Which unfortunately means they'll have to remove him.

I belive the final line has him facing an assembly of machines,
holding a bat, and saying, "Ready, gentlemen?"

-- 
	-john

February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.