# Names, animals and meanings (P2) *The Whorl list — 2 messages, 2 voices, 07 Sep 1998* > 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. --- ### mary whalen *07 Sep 1998, 06:21* This is Sean Whalen (prion). Pike. A long thin carnivorous fish (Esox lucius), also called the northern pike. Also, any species in family Esocidae that resembles the pike. Also the name for a variety of weapons like the spear. Also, the Latin word lupus can mean either wolf or pike. Old augur on Sun Street. Blood's father. Dead. prion --- ### Alastair Reynolds *07 Sep 1998, 13:35 · follows mary whalen* > This is Sean Whalen (prion). > > Pike. A long thin carnivorous fish (Esox lucius), also called the > northern pike. Also, any species in family Esocidae that resembles > the pike. Also the name for a variety of weapons like the spear. > Also, the Latin word lupus can mean either wolf or pike. Old augur on > Sun Street. Blood's father. Dead. > > prion permission to speak... I don't know if this was a phenomenon unique to British readers of the book, but I couldn't read "Pike" without thinking of Private Pike from Dad's Army, probably not quite the effect Wolfe intended...(although, as apparently GW is a Benny Hill fan, who knows?) al ---