(urth) Home Fires and Chelle ** SPOILERS **

[David Duffy]

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011, Mr Thalassocrat wrote:

> I had the same kinds of question. Plus one other: Why was Rick so determined
> to kill Chelle?

Only just finished reading this (twice, of course ;)).

When Skip asks "I know the information you wanted from Chelle...Have you 
got it", Johnson replies "I've got it, and I won't forget it".  So, he has 
no reason to keep Chelle alive as a witness, and possible source of 
information for the EU.

About the calendar, Day 180 of the financial/fiscal year might still be 
wintery (29th March).  So instead of starting on the 4th July, 1st Oct.
There are still weeks.  Skip's offices are in the Union Day Building, so 
this might be Day 1 of the year.  In the last chapter, we can't work out 
whether Skip's OTC took just 3 weeks, as his description implies; Spring 
was skipped, going straight to Summer.  I'm too lazy at the moment to do a 
time line, but the story would run roughly from March to June.

"five-letter word for jaguar": ounce? "el tigre"?

About Chelle, said "shell", an obvious origin would be as a diminutive of 
Michelle.  Being Wolfe, perhaps the Wikipedian gloss of Michael/Michelle 
as "[in] Talmudic tradition, interpreted as a rhetorical question: 'Who is 
like God?'", and as the military leader of the angels.  Plus, Mick and 
Chelle hook up towards the end.

I wondered too if, just as G Gordon Liddy makes appearances in other 
books, whether Charles C. Blue was somehow Charles Colson?

Albano Alamar: Alamar="to the sea", where of course he ends up.

Even though it's an "easy" Wolfe, there are a few mysteries.  Was there a 
specific reason why Chelle divorced her parents, or was it just that they 
always told her what to do?  Was she genetically modified, like so many 
other Wolfe protagonists?  Should we recognize a particular mythical 
figure with a resurrected mother and tricky father? Are the enemy "O"'s, 
or Bones?  Are the energy and water shortages due to the costs of 
interstellar war, rather than purely overpopulation/resource depletion? 
Who does Charles Blue dress like (striped seersucker suit, white socks and 
wingtips, blue tie with red animal [lion rampant?]?  Is he Colonel 
Sanders?

Just 2c, David Duffy.