“ Popular Mechanics ” first appeared in what We Talk About When We Talk About Love and was reprinted under the title “ Little Things ” in Where I’m Calling From (1988). Asked once about the sense of menace––of impending danger––in his stories, Carver said, “ The people I’ve chosen to write About do feel menace, and I think many, if not most, the people feel the world is a menacing place. . . Try living on the other side of the tracks for a while. Menace is there, and it’s palpable. “*The characters of “ Popular Mechanics ” certainly live on the wrong side of the tracks, in a three-room house heated only by a free-standing stove in the kitchen. For this young couple and their baby, what do you suppose the menace will prove to be?