That Drood Dude
@thatdrooddude.bsky.social
Founder of The Spike that Intervenes Theory of ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ (published in the summer 2024 edition of ‘The Dickensian’). Author of ‘Solving Drood’ and ‘Hollywood Clones’.
I asked AI about one of my books, and though it’s accurate when conveying back cover information, there comes a point where I can tell AI never read my story, so it starts fudging (like a middle schooler fudging a book report in front of class).
November 20, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I asked AI about one of my books, and though it’s accurate when conveying back cover information, there comes a point where I can tell AI never read my story, so it starts fudging (like a middle schooler fudging a book report in front of class).
Our bougainvilleas are in bloom here in Florida.
November 18, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Our bougainvilleas are in bloom here in Florida.
Did Dickens initially have Charles Collins draw Rosa looking back at Mr Tope and his spike, then thought it too obvious, so brought on Luke Fildes to correct “the tell.” The new placement still toys with readers by having the figure on top of the stairwell pointing to Mr Tope and his mace.
November 16, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Did Dickens initially have Charles Collins draw Rosa looking back at Mr Tope and his spike, then thought it too obvious, so brought on Luke Fildes to correct “the tell.” The new placement still toys with readers by having the figure on top of the stairwell pointing to Mr Tope and his mace.
Dickens may have changed Mr Tope’s position on the cover because Rosa is tipping off readers by looking back at him and his mace (the spike that intervenes), so Dickens had Charles Collins (or Luke Fildes) move the verger next to the arch instead.
(Be sure to fully open pics.)
(Be sure to fully open pics.)
November 15, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Dickens may have changed Mr Tope’s position on the cover because Rosa is tipping off readers by looking back at him and his mace (the spike that intervenes), so Dickens had Charles Collins (or Luke Fildes) move the verger next to the arch instead.
(Be sure to fully open pics.)
(Be sure to fully open pics.)
Rosa may have made that “great black scarf” for Jasper and given it to him on Christmas Eve. Note below that as Miss Twinkleton censors stories for her pupils, she reveals that her students are learning embroidery, tambour, and crochet.
November 6, 2025 at 8:32 PM
Rosa may have made that “great black scarf” for Jasper and given it to him on Christmas Eve. Note below that as Miss Twinkleton censors stories for her pupils, she reveals that her students are learning embroidery, tambour, and crochet.
The Omni Parker House Hotel is also famous for inventing Parker House rolls (a tradition at our house every Thanksgiving) and the Boston Cream pie (yummers!).
November 3, 2025 at 5:19 PM
The Omni Parker House Hotel is also famous for inventing Parker House rolls (a tradition at our house every Thanksgiving) and the Boston Cream pie (yummers!).
I visited the Omni Parker House in Boston last July, and the Press Room has Charles Dickens’ handwritten manuscript for ‘A Christmas Carol’ printed into its carpet. The door to Dickens’ room where he stayed in 1867 is also on site, as well as the looking glass he practiced ‘A Christmas Carol’ in.
November 3, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I visited the Omni Parker House in Boston last July, and the Press Room has Charles Dickens’ handwritten manuscript for ‘A Christmas Carol’ printed into its carpet. The door to Dickens’ room where he stayed in 1867 is also on site, as well as the looking glass he practiced ‘A Christmas Carol’ in.
Speaking of Freud, Dickens used a Dickensian slip before the Freudian one became popular:
[Princess Puffer] “Has he a calling, good gentleman?”
[Datchery] “Calling? Yes. Sings in the choir.”
“In the spire?”
“Choir.”
(That ‘spike that intervenes’ and ‘thorn of anxiety’ crop up everywhere.)
[Princess Puffer] “Has he a calling, good gentleman?”
[Datchery] “Calling? Yes. Sings in the choir.”
“In the spire?”
“Choir.”
(That ‘spike that intervenes’ and ‘thorn of anxiety’ crop up everywhere.)
November 1, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Speaking of Freud, Dickens used a Dickensian slip before the Freudian one became popular:
[Princess Puffer] “Has he a calling, good gentleman?”
[Datchery] “Calling? Yes. Sings in the choir.”
“In the spire?”
“Choir.”
(That ‘spike that intervenes’ and ‘thorn of anxiety’ crop up everywhere.)
[Princess Puffer] “Has he a calling, good gentleman?”
[Datchery] “Calling? Yes. Sings in the choir.”
“In the spire?”
“Choir.”
(That ‘spike that intervenes’ and ‘thorn of anxiety’ crop up everywhere.)
Freud was 14 years old when Dickens died, so don’t believe all that gobbledygook about Jasper being psychologically tormented like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (which was written 16 years after Dickens’ death).
The villains in ‘Drood’ are easy to see, if one simply uses parsimony.
The villains in ‘Drood’ are easy to see, if one simply uses parsimony.
November 1, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Freud was 14 years old when Dickens died, so don’t believe all that gobbledygook about Jasper being psychologically tormented like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (which was written 16 years after Dickens’ death).
The villains in ‘Drood’ are easy to see, if one simply uses parsimony.
The villains in ‘Drood’ are easy to see, if one simply uses parsimony.
The Dali Museum
September 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM
The Dali Museum
I love the wrapper on the Anniversary edition of ‘The Dickensian’—so beautiful (Great articles too!) Definitely a collector’s issue!
September 2, 2025 at 9:07 PM
I love the wrapper on the Anniversary edition of ‘The Dickensian’—so beautiful (Great articles too!) Definitely a collector’s issue!
In The Lost Weekend, Billy Wilder shows us how many shots Don Birnham drank by allowing us to count the circles on the bar; in The Apartment, Wilder shows us how many martinis C.C. “Bud” Baxter drank if we count the toothpicked olives on the bar, incorporating his recurring theme of “the circle.”
August 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM
In The Lost Weekend, Billy Wilder shows us how many shots Don Birnham drank by allowing us to count the circles on the bar; in The Apartment, Wilder shows us how many martinis C.C. “Bud” Baxter drank if we count the toothpicked olives on the bar, incorporating his recurring theme of “the circle.”
After all, Dickens already made sure his artist(s) gave Mr. Tope and his mace top billing on the cover’s background, with the figure on the spiral staircase (whom cover designer Collins said was Jasper) pointing directly at the Chief Verger and Showman. It was too soon to reveal “the spike” in text.
August 20, 2025 at 7:12 PM
After all, Dickens already made sure his artist(s) gave Mr. Tope and his mace top billing on the cover’s background, with the figure on the spiral staircase (whom cover designer Collins said was Jasper) pointing directly at the Chief Verger and Showman. It was too soon to reveal “the spike” in text.
It looks like Dickens didn’t want to reveal the clue of Mr Tope in procession with his mace too early (left pic), so he decided to give us another clue instead (right pic), one that is just as telltale as his deletion of the mace. He calls Jasper “the living waters”, likening him to Jesus.
August 20, 2025 at 6:57 PM
It looks like Dickens didn’t want to reveal the clue of Mr Tope in procession with his mace too early (left pic), so he decided to give us another clue instead (right pic), one that is just as telltale as his deletion of the mace. He calls Jasper “the living waters”, likening him to Jesus.
To your left, the original Peter Piper nursery rhyme; to your right, Dickens’s cryptic Peter Piper passage. Note how Dickens changed the plural “peppers” to “pepper,” since Mr. Tope is “picking” just one person, the pickled [drunken] Durdles (who tells Jasper he thinks it was a ghost).
August 18, 2025 at 6:39 PM
To your left, the original Peter Piper nursery rhyme; to your right, Dickens’s cryptic Peter Piper passage. Note how Dickens changed the plural “peppers” to “pepper,” since Mr. Tope is “picking” just one person, the pickled [drunken] Durdles (who tells Jasper he thinks it was a ghost).
One of my faves is Alun Armstrong as Flintwinch.
August 18, 2025 at 12:57 PM
One of my faves is Alun Armstrong as Flintwinch.
“Mr Bazzard with a frowning smile at the fire, put a hand into his tangled locks, as if the thorn of anxiety were there; then into his waistcoat, as if it were there; then into his pockets, as if it were there.”
If you look closely, the thorn of anxiety is on the cover, and Mr Tope is holding it.
If you look closely, the thorn of anxiety is on the cover, and Mr Tope is holding it.
August 16, 2025 at 11:05 PM
“Mr Bazzard with a frowning smile at the fire, put a hand into his tangled locks, as if the thorn of anxiety were there; then into his waistcoat, as if it were there; then into his pockets, as if it were there.”
If you look closely, the thorn of anxiety is on the cover, and Mr Tope is holding it.
If you look closely, the thorn of anxiety is on the cover, and Mr Tope is holding it.
More than any other novel, Dickens is toying with us via nursery rhymes and childhood games and Shakespeare and Bible quotes, like Princess Puffer toys with Jasper in the passage below:
August 13, 2025 at 10:34 PM
More than any other novel, Dickens is toying with us via nursery rhymes and childhood games and Shakespeare and Bible quotes, like Princess Puffer toys with Jasper in the passage below:
Dickens leaves us not only clues with nursery rhymes, but with childhood games as well. Is Dickens connecting the stranger Datchery in the passage on the left to (whom we come to know as) Tartar the stranger in the passage on the right?
August 13, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Dickens leaves us not only clues with nursery rhymes, but with childhood games as well. Is Dickens connecting the stranger Datchery in the passage on the left to (whom we come to know as) Tartar the stranger in the passage on the right?
