Lewis Barnacles and the German Restaurants

Ask. Ask. Punch.

I figured it was time for another check into the Bellairsia question box. For the uninitiated, this is where I review the site’s search logs and offer commentary, clarification, or ol’ fashioned snark about what people search for on the site. Sometimes I discover people trying to remember scenes with vague memories; other times, I find people randomly entering text in hopes the results are mildly interesting.

Here’s an example of the former. Someone entered trim and the thrum. I like this; it sounds like a band name, like the Portuguese Men or Taim Melampi. Or a poorly-titled Bellairs title. In the Hebrew Bible, the Urim and the Thummim were elements of the breastplate worn by the High Priests of Israel, with many scholars suspecting the phrase refers to a set of two objects. In The Revenge of the Wizard’s Ghost (1985),  they are ancient artifacts presented as two old stickpins –

“the kind that men used to wear in their neckties”: One had an opal on the end, and as the professor turned it back and forth in the lamplight, it seemed to change: One moment it was all blue shimmers, the next all fiery orange depths. The other stickpin was less dramatic: It simply held two small, cloudy rock crystal knobs with brass bolts stuck through them. The knobs swung from a little hook on the end of the stickpin. 

Here’s an example of the latter. Walk. Walk. Punch. What am I supposed to do with this?  What were you going to get out this?

One of the funnier typos I’ve seen in recent years is Lewis Barnacles, an excellent name for some pirate-themed adventure yet-to-be-written.

German restaurants is a rather non-descript search term. I assume someone wanted Riefschneider’s, the Wisconsin restaurant on the other side of the Mississippi River from Hoosac. Anthony Monday and Miss Eells have eaten here a couple of times. You know the place has to be pretty good to feature in two books. Bellairs was known to eat at another German restaurant, the Bergoff on Adams Steeet in Chicago. The Bergoff opened in 1898, and we were told he ate there occasionally when he was a student at the University of Chicago. Bratwurst, Jäger schnitzel, and apple strudel are on the menu there – and I’m just sitting here getting hungry.

Eat. Eat. Punch? Until next time.