(urth) Short story 2: The Case of the Vanishing ghost

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com>

> Also, one more bit of word play I neglected to mention.  The introductory 
> material says 
> 
> "The characters of this mystery have become so familiar to the reader that 
> I shall neglect to add the last formalized touch of naming the principal ones. 
> Instead, they shall be referred to by the names every reader uses in his own 
> mind. To call The Great Detective 'Philo Queen'for example, would be a 
> needless waste of time."
> 
> The name "Philo Queen" seems to be a pun on Descartes position that 
> Philosophy is the queen of philosophy and also to evoke the sexuality of the Shu 
> Fli Pi ghost (shoofly pie and filo, common southern desserts).  I am fairly 
> confident there is no intentional parallel with Rex Stout (king-queen wordplay) 
> at this point. 

Was filo really a common southern dessert at the time?

The main sources of "Philo Queen" must be the fictional detectives Philo Vance and Ellery Queen.  I'm not sure how Descartes gets into this, but I suppose there might be some resonance between "Queen" for the detective and pink pants for the UT student.

Jerry Friedman