Ghyll talk:Opoudelian Starker

I quite liked this one. --Morbus Iff 20:19, 24 Jan 2005 (EST)

All those names

The names given for the Starker are garblings of names actually used for the Wandering Jew or the Flying Dutchman. Some versions of the Wandering Jew legend do make him a Roman centurion, though I made up the name, which is a fusion of Marcus Aurelius the Roman Emperor and the Norwegian (and Nobel-Prize-winning) author Henrik Pontoppidan. "Vanderdecken" is the usual name for the Flying Dutchman; "Vandervecken" is a variant used AFAIK only by Larry Niven, as an alias for Jack Brennan in Protector.

The references to philosophunculism and amphigory are allusions to Stranger in a Strange Land. "Hezu or Alvu" is "Jesus or Elvis" with a Spanish accent. As for the Jhrool, it's a lump of blue fluid in a jar somewhere in Nick Turner's house -- or is it?

--John Cowan 13:51, 31 Jan 2005 (EST)