<HTML>Chapter Four
p.31; Dodo; now, we all know dodos are extinct, right? Proverbially so, in fact. Here is some more information re dodos you may not know. (Stop me if I’m boring you). They lived on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and were flightless, so wings wouldn’t have been much use to Pickwick anyway. They were quite large birds, weighing up to 23kg (50 pounds), so one wonders about their suitability as house pets. They probably ate roots and leaves. Dodos were not noted for brains; the name comes from the Portuguese doudo, meaning simpleton (one for Bea there). I cannot ascertain whether the call of the dodo was in fact plock-plock or not.
p.31; Thylacine; marsupial carnivore, aka the Tasmanian Wolf. Almost certainly extinct.
p.32; Stella Seacow; as the Upgrade says, this should be Steller’s Sea Cow. Bloody huge herbivorous sea creature, related to manatees, and of course extinct. Would only make a pet if you had your own lake.
p.32; should have used dove; amazingly, dodos were in fact members of the pigeon family (the sort of relative nobody ever talks about, presumably).
p.32; pukey and quarkbeast; I don’t know what a pukey is, but it sounds messy, while a quarkbeast is a thing made up by Jasper (see [
www.jasperfforde.com]).
p.33; Pontiac; it may not register with American readers that car makes such as Pontiac, Chevrolet and Studebaker are in fact very rare in Britain. Is this a symbol of the total domination Goliath has over Nextian England? Or is it just because Jasper likes big old American cars?
p.33; Jeyes fluid; bleach.
p.34; Filbert Snood; a filbert is a kind of nut, and a snood is a very naff women’s garment with a hood.
p.35; Styx; is, of course, another river in Hades. And an unspeakably vile American rock band.
p.37; Biros; ballpoint pens, from the inventor of same, Hungarian Lazlo Biro.
p.39; Baconians; Baconians exist in our world, too, and while they don’t knock at doors or fight in the street they are as mad as pants and a pain in the arse. Unsurprisingly, the Bacon cult was founded by one Julia Bacon, who was no relation to Francis, but may have thought she was, she being completely barmy. The conversation between Thursday and Capillary gives a very fair summary of the case for and against, and Jasper also provides an elegant demolition of the Bacon case at [
www.jasperfforde.com]. Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare; Colonel Next said so.
p.42; cavalry sabre; odd sidelight on Nextian warfare here. They have tanks (or at least APCs) but use sabres. Hmm.
p.42; Cheltenham Gold Stakes Handicap; in our world the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a very important horse race.</HTML>