{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/whorl/150",
    "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": "whorl",
  "thread": {
    "id": 150,
    "subject": "Sphigx",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1997-03-07T11:06:28+00:00",
    "last": "1997-03-07T21:22:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0003-0209@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-03-07T11:06:28+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Sphigx",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Quill just prodded me into a new thought:\n\nRemember the little statues of Sphigx for sale in the Viron marketplace, by\nwhich Crane sends his spy messages to Trivigaunte? Well, those statues are\nactually *illegal* in Trivigaunte because of their no-image ruling!\n\n-alga-\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<whorl-v0003-0211@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "m.driussi",
        "address": "m.driussi at genie.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-03-07T21:22:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(whorl) Sphigx",
      "in_reply_to": "<whorl-v0003-0209@digest.urth.net>",
      "reply_link": "subject",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Reply:  Item #4804845 from WHORL at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#\n\nPatrick,\n\nYou are right: cat' and bird get best lines!\n\n(Yes, to the unspoken question: I do think the talking animals are\nalso specially designed god mounts, so that the gods can ride around\nin their emblematic animals.  Sphigx could ride Tick like a wizard\nusing a familiar; Pas, Tartaros, Hierax could use Oreb the same way,\nin a manner not unlike Odin with his black birds.  I don't see any\nevidence that such has happened--though I do continue to wonder what\nmay have passed between Doctor Crane and Oreb when they were alone in\nthe room together--I only offer this as an explanation of how talking\nanimals might fit into the god plan aspect of the mission.)\n\nRe: \"Planet-Breaker,\" yes, I remember that, too (CASTLE OF DAYS, 297).\n(I still think it is especially funny since one could legitimately give\nthat title to THE URTH OF THE NEW SUN.  \"Not that I would seriously\npropose doing so,\" I hasten to add.)  And in this LONG SUN case, it\nactually =was= listed in Library of Congress terms as one of those\nsilly titles.\n\nalga,\n\nRe: statues.  Hey, now there's something.  Somewhere out in the\nbarren desert there must be a pit where the traders chuck the statues\nbefore they get to Trivigaunte.  (\"I guess we could call it a\nsphincter,\" he said, making an ass of himself.)\n\n=mantis=\n\nQuestions or problems to whorl-owner at lists.best.com"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}