"Charging indoors without dark-adapted pupils would be sheer tomfoolishness. Also dickfoolishness, harryfoolishness..."
-A Circus Of Hells, CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
For the historical Tom Fool, see Today. Poul Anderson links Tom Fool to "Tom, Dick and Harry," meaning "everyone," the equivalent of the French "Pierre et Paul." In the midst of the action, we can pause on almost every detail of language.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I remember that epitaph for Weston, but not the "tom fool" bit. Curious, what the mind can remember or not.
And that use of of Tom fool was not limited to Lewis and Anderson. I recall how Stirling used "tom foolery" in THE TYRANT, one of his REFORMER books.
And of course it was CORRECT of Flandy to close his eyes for a few seconds to adapt them to the darker interior of a building.
Ad astra! Sean
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