On 18/11/06 15:00, "Chaswe@AOL.COM" <Chaswe@AOL.COM> wrote:

The long ancestry of the Nobody joke, from Homer to PF, via Carroll, can be filled in a little with these two instances:


One also notes Captain Hawdon who hides under the nickname Nemo in VN’s favourite Dickens’ ** novel, Bleak House. Nemo (the Latin for ‘nobody’) crops up in many novels (notably Jules Verne’s) and manga-comics, usually as a mysterious &/or evil character.

** My editor allows this genitive form over the ugly “Dickens’s!” The Chicago Style guide permits a similar euphony for “Jesus’” and “Moses’.”

Stan Kelly-Bootle

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