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Striking Sparks  by Lindelea 4 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/28/2005
Yes, the difficult patient. Too bad they don't let Aragorn know once in a while just how hard it is to keep a Took in bed--although, he, too, has faced that difficulty.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/23/2005
éminence grise /%EmIn2Qs "gri;z/
· n. (pl. éminences grises pronunc. same) a person who exercises power or influence without holding an official position.
– ORIGIN 1930s: Fr., lit ‘grey eminence’; the term was orig. applied to Cardinal Richelieu’s grey-cloaked private secretary, Père Joseph (1577–1638).

Author Reply: Aha, interesting! Thanks for scratching that itch. Yup, between them Regi and Ferdi pretty well run the Tooks when Pippin is indisposed, or even when he's not, for they handle all the minute details that would otherwise annoy him and waste his time.

I remember Richelieu from "The Three Musketeers", is that right?


BeruthielReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/18/2005
Heehee. Aunt Reginard.

Pippin could indeed use some quashing. Though I can see why he wouldn't want to be stuck in a room underground all week.

Author Reply: I certainly wouldn't want to be stuck in a room underground all week, either. It has always interested me that hobbits live *in* the earth but don't *stay* there (except maybe to sleep?). And yet I just read a very interesting news story about a man who designed an underground house, lit in daytime by skylights. The rooms are all round! Evidently that's a very strong shape, in engineering terms.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/18/2005
'That's Aunt Reginard, to you,' the Steward said, and left the room, allowing himself to chuckle only after he'd closed the door behind him.


Love that! Reginard is such a superb eminence grise - he can do it all, with one hand tied behind his back, but he doesn't want to be the figurehead. Pippin is VERY lucky to have him. And, of course, Ferdi (MFH).

Author Reply: That is one of my favourite "Regi" lines.

Regi is the perfect "Man Friday" but I don't think he has any aspirations to anything greater. (And one of these days I'm really going to have to read "Robinson Crusoe" and stop relying on second-hand information.)

eminence grise?
eminence = high?

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