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astronomical clock, candidate, Caroline Furness Jayne, cat's cradle, CFJ, CFJ Wallingford, Doug Dorst, Eric Husch, FXC, Horace Howard Furness, Jen Heyward, JJ Abrams, string figures, VM Straka
On page viii of the forward, FXC mentions that one of the candidates for V.M. Striker’s identity is the Canadian adventurer C. F. J. Wallingford. And while one of the in-story reasons for using this name may be related to Jen’s comment about the clock Eric is racing, the actual source of the name might be much simpler. Author Doug Dorst admits that his fascination with the Shakespearean author controversy was inspirational in his creation of “S.” And the name “C. F. J. Wallingford” happens to point us directly to the most important American Shakespearean scholar of the 19th century: Horace Howard Furness. Horace Howard Furness lived, wrote, and died in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. He had four children. The last, a daughter, is Carollne Furness Jayne (CFJ). When Furness would write to his daughter from his home, he would begin the letter like this…
And, as if we didn’t have enough rabbit holes to chase, Caroline Furness Jayne wrote the best-known book on string figures, String Figures and How to Make Them: a study of cat’s cradle in many lands, 1906.
Interesting how one simple name choice for use in “S” takes us back to handwritten words between two people who love each other.
Thoughts On "S" 
Good find. Wow.
Here’s a phun phact: “Caldeira” is Portuguese for “boiler.” A boiler is a lot like a furnace. Or a Furness.
There’s also the name of a region in England http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furness
Google Translate offers this:
English “furnace” = Portuguese “a caldeira de calefação”
caldeira is not the furnace, but the boiler itself.
An alternate spelling for the family name “Xabregas” is “Jabregas.” With this spelling, FXC would be FJC.
Dang, Mystimus, you might have shown that Caldeira was Straka.
The Ch.7 cipher encodes “SUM LOSING HOPE…” “Sum” is Latin for “I am.” But Latin had no letter U, using V instead. So, SUM would actually be SVM.
SVM = I am
SVM = Straka, VM
CFJ = Caldeira, FJ
There’s also the possibility that “sum” means “add.” Adding all the Roman numerals in the cipher (including the V & M) = 1207. For what it’s worth.
I don’t think you can pronounce it Jabregas, where did you get that information!?
Google “jabregas.” Anyway, how do you pronounce it? “Ksabregas?” In Spanish and Portuguese, “X” is often pronounced as an “H.” Oaxaca. Mexico.
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