Newbie - Trying to Help a Friend

[Chris Angelico]

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 3:29 AM, Neil Cerutti <mr.cerutti at gmail.com> wrote:
> Many of the main villains in
> the book are hilarious and mean-spirited parodies of
> a series of British children's literature, The Wombles,
> and a British TV show, Steptoe and Son, but the characters work
> fine on their own.

Yeah, that's definitely the best way to do it. You don't need to know
The Beauty Stone to understand that Colinette, in the city of
Lenalede, is trying to get herself appointed as Lord Chief Justice on
the grounds that (she claims) the current incumbent is unfair in his
rulings. But if you _do_ know that obscure 19th century opera, you'll
know there's a line in it "And Colinette from Lenalede, who counts
herself the fairest there". (The opera has absolutely nothing to do
with justice, incidentally. Colinette is entering herself in a beauty
contest. Quite a different meaning of "fairest".)

ChrisA