Wednesday July 14, 2004
Book 5: The Scrapyard of Insufferable Arrogance — Part III: Handle With Care
Note: That's not a misspelling. The Blintjun-Lapi sled race was originally named "Fools' Rush" from the transplanted bit of English wisdom "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." The biggest problem with that name was that at the speeds the race was run, it wasn't so much a 'rush' as a 'tread' itself, and "Angels' Tread" was all wrong. So it became "Idiots Tread," and by virtue of the fact that half those treading the Idiots' Tread were actual idiots, the name got shortened right through "Idiot Trod" to "Idiotrod," which stuck nicely, since most of the idiots thought it was complimentarily phallic rather than a slight on their intellect.

That the name looks a lot like the 22nd-century's Alaska to New York "Iditarod" sled race is the purest coincidence, not to mention comedic gold.

(This note has been brought to you for the Society For Drawing Reader Attention Away From Continuity Problems [DRAACP].)

Transcript

Schlock: No need for the gun, mister. We're not poachers. We're out practicing for a big umm... sled-race.
Kreely Sentry: What, that Idiotrod thing?
Schlock: I forget the name. 'Idiot' whatsit sounds right, though.
Kreely Sentry: Well, okay, but you sledders need do a one-eighty, and don't come...
Kreely Sentry: ...back?
Elf: While we're on the subject of idiots.