{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2152",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2152,
    "subject": "The Terrible Clone Trio",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2000-03-13T19:54:32+00:00",
    "last": "2000-03-13T19:54:32+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0028-0840@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Nigel Price",
        "address": "nigelprice1 at compuserve.com"
      },
      "date": "2000-03-13T19:54:32+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Terrible Clone Trio",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "And while I'm back in contributory mode again, however, briefly, I thought\nthat you might like this pleasantly inane extract from my recent\ncorrespondence with my faithful friend Jeff in Minneapolis, who - *gasp!* -\nhas *met* Gene Wolfe several times.\n\nI should explain that I had told Jeff about John Clute's wonderful line,\nthat Wolfe is a bit like Aslan as played by Sgt Bilko, and that I had added\nmy own comment that in the photos I'd seen, Wolfe actually looked a bit\nlike Bilko, as played by the great Phil Silvers.\n\nAnway, this was Jeff's reply:\n\nThe latest set of shelves are now up, \nand, in sorting out the books, I came \nacross a copy of a nice volume called \n\"The Faces of Science Fiction\"; it has \nphotos and short interviews with quite \na number of authors. Since I had been \nsort of bemused by your comment on \nGene Wolfe reportedly looking like the \nlate, lamented Phil Silvers, I took a \nlook to see if the description matched. \nI should also mention that one of the \nmovie channels we had been getting \na free preview of over the weekend \nran \"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World\" \n- which had Phil Silvers as one of the \ncharacters.\n\nI'll have to concede that they do look \nlike siblings - Mr. Wolfe is a bit more \nportly and respectable, while Phil \nSilvers always seemed to look a bit \nleaner and hungrier. Curiously enough, \nAmericans visiting Tibet have been \narrested for wearing T-shirts with \nPhil Silver's likeness on them - the \nlocals think it's the Dalai Lama! If \nyou want my opinion, Gene Wolfe \nlooks more like the Dalai Lama than \nPhil Silvers does - aside from the \nstrikingly similar face, they both \nhave a sort of friendly, avuncular \nlook about them. Sort of the \n\"Kris Kringle\" look, I guess.\n\nI'm not sure if this means anything - \nperhaps all three are really siblings, \nand part of some vast netowork of \ngurus in glasses... Oh, where are \nMulder and Scully when you really \nneed them?\n\nIt's curious; I don't remember noticing \nthe resemblance in person. Gene \nWolfe always seemed to radiate \nbonhomie, rather then that \"used \ncar salesman\" attitude that Sgt. Bilko \nhad. Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser, \nsaid Alice!\n\n\nWell, there you have it, fellow Lupines: Bilko, Gene Wolfe and the Dalai\nLama - clone triplets, bespectacled geniuses, genetically engineered by\nsome mysterious alien entity and put here on this earth for a purpose that\nyou and I can scarcely dream of...\n\nYeah, right!\n\nNigel"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}