(urth) The eyes of a clone

[thalassocrat at nym.hush.com]

Roy says:

>Is there another term for boiled leather that can be linked to a 
>named
>character? I don't know; I'm asking.

Google gives me "cuir boulli; the root of the later word cuirass, 
used to describe a breastplate". Not a lot of help.

I dislike the whole clone thing & wish it would go away. AFAIK, 
there's nothing in the text to suggest that Silk or anybody else is 

a clone. The info we have on Silk is that he had, almost certainly, 

a biological father & mother (whose spirits we glimpse on the 
Aureate Path); and that, most probably, his embryo was tinkered 
with to make him more <whatever>. 

(How come Silk is short-sighted? I doubt that Typhon ever had to 
wear glasses. I guess the embryo timkering couldn't catch 
everything. Is there a plausible short-sighted blue-eyed biological 

father or mother anywhere?)