#ask36

[buwheal]

Is getting our emails anything like getting letters from fans like back in the day?

[enderkeyba]

[A black horse] - *approaches the enderman* *put his head down for a calm pat on the head*

Keyba is open for questions and interactions!

>Hello World

[snicketsleuth]

Do you know who the Baudelaires might be named after? In book 13 chapter 13 page 309 Kit asks the Baudelaires to name her child after one of their parents because it's family custom and Sunny mentions it is a custom in their family too. I wasn't sure whom their names might belong to and I was hoping you might have an idea?

Specifically, the custom in the Snicket & Baudelaire families is to name the children after somebody who’s already passed away. A lot of Jewish families have a tradition of naming the children after a dead relative, incidentally.

The Baudelaires are named after the protagonists of the infamous von Bülow affair: rich American heiress Sunny von Bulöw was put into a permanent coma because of an insulin overdose; her husband Claus was found guilty of murdering her to get hold of her inheritance. However the State Attorney General, Arlene Violet, managed to re-open the case and Claus was found innocent in a second trial.

So it seems that the Baudelaire parents named their children after the von Bulöw case. It’s a case of dramatic irony since their names reference a nefarious plot to steal an rich heir’s fortune and a wrongful accusation… Fitting, indeed.

Kit is not being entirely truthful about the tradition, however, since her own name is a reference to Kit Reed, who’s still alive at the time I write this answer. Kit Reed is the person who taught Daniel Handler creative writing at his university.

[askbonerfoy]

Or should I go lower?

I assume you have already appreciate the front side of my body, but I have a good back too, non?