the dog-boy of Carnies Past

Roy C. Lackey · 07 Aug 2002, 16:58 · from urth-v0208.mbox · original

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From: "Roy C. Lackey" <rclackey at stic.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) the dog-boy of Carnies Past
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2002 11:58:27 -0500
Message-ID: <urth-v0208-1544 at digest.urth.net>
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Robert B. writes:

>The dated aspect of clothing and hairdo, plus the sepia tone of the
>pictures, suggests to me that both pictures are from a much earlier
>time--and clearly predate the Golden Year, when supposedly the encounter
>with Charlie Turner takes place.

A quibble: the Golden Year is the year Den met Lois and Sherry, when he was
about 45, and before he became president. His meeting with Charlie took
place a few years later, after he was president.

> Moreover, the second male figure in the
>photo is described as being not "really very tall," implying rather he is
>simply tall. Roy has suggested that this mystery figure may be Julius
Smart,
>but Julius Smart is so small he has to buy boy's shoes for his tiny feet,
>whereas Den, as we know from his medical checkup, is 6 feet tall.

Smart isn't all that small; he's "just under average height" (114). Miss
Hadow underestimates Tom's true height (7' 6") by eight inches, mostly
because the other man is so much shorter--two feet shorter, if he's Smart;
she's not used to seeing such relative disparity. Another possibility, if
Smart is the shorter man, is that the photo is a few years older than the
one of Candy, and that Tom hadn't reached his full height yet.

[snip]

>And
>if the second picture is a snapshot of Tom and Den--taken after the latter
>possibly checks out the carnival as potential home for his illegitimate
>child, or after having trysted with part-time hooker Candy--this might
>explain why Charlie sent it to him.

Either I'm seriously misreading you, or this last sentence of this paragraph
contradicts the first (quoted above). If "both pictures are from a much
earlier time--and clearly predate the Golden Year", and if the two men are
Tom and Den, then you have Den looking for a home for a teenage daughter he
begot on a 16 year old Sherry he hasn't even met yet!

-Roy

--=20

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