"The Martian and the Moron" ~ 1950s tale by Theodore Sturgeon

Thanks to another generous fan of old paperback books at the Internet Archive, you can read or download “The Martian and the Moron,” a 1949 weird tale penned by American science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon as it was reprinted in the anthology Worlds of Tomorrow (1958), edited by August Derleth.

According to the introduction to "The Martian and the Moron" reprinted in Sturgeon's collection Alien Cargo (1984):

"This is one of the first writings after that long period of silence.Oddly enough it comes out as comedy—sheer joyous comedy for itself, with no effort to be metaphor or anything else but itself. The events concerning the cessation of all broadcasts during the near approach of Mars in the 'twenties, did indeed happen; and back in those days of newspaper articles about guys who built crystal sets into peanuts, of 100-foot braided copper antennas enabling you to pick up Chicago all the way from Philadelphia, late at night, of cats-whiskers and variocouplers (anybody out there know what a variocouple is? I mean, was?) back in those days, there was surely more than one radio buff with flanged-up equipment like “dad” built in his basement. As for that girl—I think I met that girl one time at a party. Nov shmoz ka pop!"

Apparently, the phrase "Nov shmoz ka pop" is from the comic strip The Squirrel Cage.