Where Whores Go (maybe)

[Sandy Clegg]

According to a reply from a fan question by George, we will one day find out where whores go.

Westeros.org clip

Now, this post is not actually concerned with identifying any of the possible locations of Tysha (nor of any particular ‘whore’ that George may have had in mind when he made that confirmation). Whatever George intends for the ‘where do whores go?’ revelation and how it ties in to Tyrion’s story, I’m sure it will be compelling.

Just like Valyrian steel, however, I think that some of the mysteries presented to us in the books have been folded over several times, with more than one interpretation rippling within. Generally speaking, of course, we encounter literal mysteries/solutions, relating solely to the surface plot of ASOAIF. ‘Who provided the catspaw dagger?’ for example. ‘What was Tywin doing writing all those letters?’ is another. And then there are the countless unsolved plot threads. That’s probably 99% of where, as a fan community, we focus our energy.

Here, I’d like to examine ‘Wherever whores go’ from a different perspective. One that ejects us from the world of the text entirely, before plunging us back with a plop. And it begs a question that I have asked before on this forum: to what extent is George having fun in his writing, in his use of imagery and of wordplay in the English language? And how might that sense of playfulness feed back into the mysteries of ASOIAF, if at all?

So, to the meat of the pie.

Variations on the phrase - “Where do whores go?” / “wherever whores go” - are found ten times in Tyrion’s first ADWD chapter alone, enough to embed it permanently in the reader’s mind. It’s arguably one the most-analysed features of Tyrion’s chapters - the aftershock of Tyrion’s act of patricide, an echo not just of his guilt but of his hatred. The thread that joins two of the most character-defining moments in Tyrion’s life: from the rape of his wife, to his murdering of his own father. It’s a phrase that haunts Tyrion throughout much of the book - and a psychologist could write their own book on it, perhaps. Still, it’s not the focus of this post.

Ten times it is mentioned - George is drawing our attention to this, and how. Yet he is also quick to have Tyrion dismiss the idea that it is some kind of riddle:

Quote

The girl could not grasp the question. "Is it a riddle, m'lord? I'm no good at riddles. Will you tell me the answer?”

No, he thought. I despise riddles, myself. "I will tell you nothing. Do me the same favor."

Tywin was not a man given to riddling and japes. His last words were a spiteful, dismissive afterthought. We’re told very explicitly - no riddle. And so it would seem - at least, not one that Tyrion Lannister would recognise as such. So let’s leave him out of it entirely, and imagine that this particular riddle is one being posed from author … to reader.

*Side note: non-native English speakers among you should know that this is all based on a fairly broad knowledge of George’s mother tongue - nothing that would be unfamiliar to people born in English-speaking countries. That being said, we will be looking at some specialised vocabulary.

Riddles are all about the reading. How, then, should we ‘read’ this riddle? Well, there is one particular way of parsing the words of “Where do whores go?” which may prove enlightening - if we treat it is a semi-riddle, semi-joke in the real world, that is, not the world of ASOIAF.

When you tell someone “I need to go” there is one meaning that all of us have been instinctively aware of since we were toddlers. Remember being in the car on those long family road-trips? Yup. When you gotta go, you gotta go. Doesn’t matter if it’s a rest room or behind the nearest tree, or a ditch in the side of the road. Needing ‘to go’ is the universal English call sign for ‘I have to pee’. Or, you know - the other thing. Twosies. The one with the best-selling emoji plushy. The brown trout manoeuvre.

Seems like a stretch? Well, not if you do cryptic crosswords. In fact, it came up twice recently in just The Times. There’s one mentioned here at 11 across: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uihGnhV7ZRg&t=8s

The phrase “where girls may go” as part of the clue is meant to conjure up the word LADIES, which is of course a toilet where “girls” might “go” in both senses of the word. All very euphemistic, and perfect for designing clues (and by implication riddles).

This brings us back to our riddle-but-not-really-a-riddle: “Wherever whores go”. We should assume that the answer will rely on wordplay as much the question, in order to be a satisfying one. So let’s forget about ‘go’ as in ‘travelling’. We need to lower ourselves to the gutter. ’Ladies’ again might spring to mind, except it hardly fits the theme of ‘whores’ - full apologies to all sex workers who are just out there making a living, naturally. So, not ‘ladies’ in this case.

But there is a word that connects ‘whores’ and ‘toilets’ of course, and that word is “JOHN”. From Chambers dictionary:

John

1. A male proper name

2. (without caps) a lavatory (informal, esp. US)

3. A prostitute's client (informal)

Prostitutes famously need Johns, just as a hotel needs guests. And the word ‘john’ is even more well-known, in its US slang form, as a word for ‘toilet, restroom, lavatory’, etc. Even in the UK - where we more typically use slang such as ‘the loo, the lav, or the bog’ - we have been exposed to enough US television to know that across the pond they run to ‘the john’ whenever they desperately need to go. Australians will likewise dash to the dunny. In the army you’d be sprinting to the latrines. In my dad’s time, it would have been a trip to the khazi. Not to mention everyone’s favourite expression: ‘sitting on the throne’ …

Perhaps the most telling clue here is that Tywin utters the famous line while sitting on the privy. Hidden in plain sight. All of which brings us crashing back into the world of ASOIAF, and Jon Snow.

Could one purpose of our famous phrase be simply …  to get us to make this connection between the name John/Jon and its euphemistic meaning in real-world English? Both in the sense of a privy (as Tyrion would call it) and as one who frequents brothels? The idea is not as ridiculous as it seems. And we have some textual evidence that seems to suggest that George has sprinkled (pardon the pun) the books with references to ‘toilet slang’ which often have connections to our Lord Commander Snow.

But before we get to those, let’s see if we can spy George having some subtle fun in the Tyrion chapters on the theme of toilets. Several times, ‘where whores go’ is mentioned in conjunction with the image of his father on the privy itself, so there’s that. Then we get this early on:

Quote

The cabin boy wet his brush and scrubbed on manfully. "Have you ever visited the pleasure houses of Lys?" the dwarf inquired. "Might that be where whores go?" Tyrion could not seem to recall the Valyrian word for whore, and in any case it was too late. The boy tossed his brush back in his bucket and took his leave.

A brush and bucket serve as a subtle nudge to the reader. In fact, he asks both a washerwoman and a cabin boy - two people who would possibly have to deal with privies in their daily work. Further on we get this image:

Quote

"Magister Illyrio said that I am to scrub your back and warm your bed. My name—“

"—is of no interest to me. Do you know where whores go?”

She flushed. "Whores sell themselves for coin.”

She ‘flushed’. Well, there’s George having a giggle, for sure. Then in his fourth chapter the question comes up once again:

Quote

He thought of Tysha and wondered where whores go. Why not Volantis? Perhaps I'll find her there. A man should cling to hope. He wondered what he would say to her. I am sorry that I let them rape you, love. I thought you were a whore. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? I want to go back to our cottage, to the way it was when we were man and wife.

‘Cottage’ just happens to be, you guessed it …

cottage

1. a small simple house, esp in a rural area

2. US and Canadian a small house in the country or at a resort, used for holiday purposes

3. US one of several housing units, as at a hospital, for accommodating people in groups

4. slang: a public lavatory

The sense of John as in ‘client of prostitutes’ is highlighted in the next iteration of the riddle:

Quote

And the whores were out. River or sea, a port was a port, and wherever you found sailors, you'd find whores. Is that what my father meant? Is that where whores go, to the sea?

Not the sea, but the W.C, perhaps … sorry. Sailors are the stand-in for clients here, as the modern-sounding ‘John’ is obviously not used as slang in the world of ASOIAF. Yet George is nudging us, in his subtle way; nudging us towards thinking about the language of ‘Johns’. Another toilet nod comes in Tyrion VI:

Quote

"Do you need a woman so badly, Yollo?”

"A man grows weary of having no lovers but his fingers." Selhorys may be where whores go. Tysha might be in there even now, with tears tattooed upon her cheek. "I almost drowned. A man needs a woman after that. Besides, I need to make sure my prick hasn't turned to stone.”

The Halfmaester laughed. "I will wait for you in the tavern by the gate. Do not be too long about your business.”

Here, I suspect it’s the double meaning of ‘doing your business’ that is leading us to the privy. And yes, OK - I’m aware that this is all getting a little bit gross, even silly perhaps. We’ve come to expect all sorts of things from George’s writing and silliness isn’t really among them. But this has always been a book series that is willing to dive into the muck and filth of medieval life. Shit is as much a feature of ASOIAF as dragons, swapped babies and beards dripping with juice.

The penultimate time Tyrion utters the phrase, he has just slept with a brothel girl in Volantis.

Quote

"Do you know where whores go?" She did not answer that one either. Her back was crisscrossed by ridges of scar tissue. This girl is as good as dead. I have just fucked a corpse

After which he promptly chugs down a whole flagon of wine and searches for a chamber pot - the ‘john’ equivalent for common folk in ASOIAF - to be sick in. There is none, so he instead retches on the carpet.

Quote

When he was done he tossed the empty flagon aside and half-rolled and half-staggered to the floor, groping for a chamber pot. There was none to be found. His stomach heaved, and he found himself on his knees, retching on the carpet, that wonderful thick Myrish carpet, as comforting as lies.

As comforting as lies, that Myrish carpet. And here Tyrion’s position, or station, is on his knees. Well, it may be no surprise to some of you that ’comfort station’ can indeed be used as a synonym for toilet, where one would (hopefully) usually prefer to do one’s retching:

comfort station (N American)

A (public) lavatory

Phew. This is turning into one of those posts which needed a disclaimer at the beginning saying: ‘Do not read this just after lunch’. And we haven’t finished yet!

So, we have some language clues that revolve around toilets, or ‘johns’ whenever Tyrion mentions that famous phrase ‘where do whores go?’  Which, to me, seems to reinforce this notion that George wants us to make the connection for ourselves. John/toilets. To what end, though? Well right now we’re using ADWD as our source, so let’s remember the first words of A Game of Thrones and take them to heart: ‘we should start back’. Have there been any other ‘John’ clues which we may have missed?

Way back in the first book, a key fact is established regarding Jon and Catelyn: she is not his biggest fan. In fact, it’s not an understatement to say that she dislikes him intensely. It’s the defining feature of their relationship, you might say. Let’s take a look at this passage from ACOK now, and think about wordplay on toilets:

Quote

Fourth, the queen will command her father Lord Tywin to release those knights and lords bannermen of mine that he took captive in the battle on the Green Fork of the Trident. Once he does so, I shall release my own captives taken in the Whispering Wood and the Battle of the Camps, save Jaime Lannister alone, who will remain my hostage for his father's good behavior.”

She studied Theon Greyjoy's sly smile, wondering what it meant. That young man had a way of looking as though he knew some secret jest that only he was privy to; Catelyn had never liked it.

Well, firstly we have the word privy, which is already a ‘john’ synonym. And the first paragraph essentially describes one of those famously ‘amusing’ expressions for shitting: ‘releasing the hostages’. George doesn’t even need to wink comedically at us to let us in on the joke - he has Theon for that, with his ’sly smile’ at the ‘secret jest’. (I’ve always maintained that Theon + smile = clue.)

What brings it into focus, however, is the grace note which comes after the word privy: Catelyn had never liked it. Just as she has never liked John - here she somehow dislikes the ‘john’ wordplay embedded in the text. Join the dots ...

A Cat/Jon clue also features in the previous book, when Ned visits the brothel where Littlefinger has stowed his lady wife. The ‘brothel client’ meaning of John is being alluded to here, perhaps:

Quote

Ned was lost. "Then how? Why are you here, my love? What is this place?”

"Just what it appears," Littlefinger said, easing himself onto a window seat. "A brothel. Can you think of a less likely place to find a Catelyn Tully?" He smiled.

Cat famously has an aversion to Jon, so she would naturally avoid a place where ‘Johns’ go, in our 'riddle sense' of the word. And again, the smile.

There are other references, more sly clues, but I don’t want to get into them all in this post. I will probably revisit this idea in future. For now, I’ll just give one example of how we might be able to use this new type of John/Jon encoding. So let’s end with the man himself, Jon Snow. Because while it’s all jolly good fun trying to spot toilet words and expressions, there must be a method to this madness. It’s Jon who all this leads to. One of the ‘big five’ characters - some might say one of the main duo, along with Dany.

Well, we’ve seen that having a knowledge of words and synonyms that relate to ‘toilets’ can come in useful. Here in the UK we have one - lav, short for lavatory - which should immediately strike us as useful, because we have a character whose name is a complete reversal of that: this is of course Val, the wildling princess. But why the reversal?

Take this description of Val from ADWD:

Quote

"Did you follow me as well?" Jon reached to shoo the bird away but ended up stroking its feathers. The raven cocked its eye at him. "Snow," it muttered, bobbing its head knowingly. Then Ghost emerged from between two trees, with Val beside him.

They look as though they belong together. Val was clad all in white; white woolen breeches tucked into high boots of bleached white leather, white bearskin cloak pinned at the shoulder with a carved weirwood face, white tunic with bone fastenings. Her breath was white as well … but her eyes were blue, her long braid the color of dark honey, her cheeks flushed red from the cold. It had been a long while since Jon Snow had seen a sight so lovely.

"Have you been trying to steal my wolf?" he asked her.

Dressed in white, as Jon is in black. Ghost by her side, as if they belong together. He male, she female. And her name: a reversal of a ‘John’ word: Lav / Val. In every aspect, she is a mirror image of Jon here. George is not presenting Val as a possible love interest for Jon. Rather, through her, he is presenting us with a vision of what Jon will soon become. All in white, blue-eyed. But with Ghost still at his side at least. And Jon finds it all such a lovely sight …

PART 2 here

 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Sandy Clegg

[Evolett]

1 hour ago, Sandy Clegg said:

Now, this post is not actually concerned with identifying any of the possible locations of Tysha (nor of any particular ‘whore’ that George may have had in mind when he made that confirmation). Whatever George intends for the ‘where do whores go?’ revelation and how it ties in to Tyrion’s story, I’m sure it will be compelling.

Brilliant. Awesome. Great stuff and throroughly good read  

[Sandy Clegg]

15 hours ago, Evolett said:

Brilliant. Awesome. Great stuff and throroughly good read  

Ha, and thanks for not going down the easy route and calling it a shitpost  

It's a weird one, though. Even as I was researching it I thought 'this is all preposterous', but a lot of the language clues just add up too neatly. Of course, this could all just be symptomatic of my warped brain. I have a part 2 incoming, with some other oddities related to Jon/John. It gets even sillier ...

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

17 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

But there is a word that connects ‘whores’ and ‘toilets’ of course, and that word is “JOHN”. 

Brilliant

[Angel Eyes]

I just think that Tywin meant to throw Tyrion off completely; since whores are everywhere, there's an inordinate amount of places she could be.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

46 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

It's a weird one, though. Even as I was researching it I thought 'this is all preposterous', but a lot of the language clues just add up too neatly. Of course, this could all just be symptomatic of my warped brain. I have a part 2 incoming, with some other oddities related to Jon/John. It gets even sillier ...

I believe that the authors works in uncomfortable areas deliberately.  The story's greatest mysteries are probably wrapped around Sam's pink mast. There's no way that all of the references that you've collected here are accidental or a reflection of something subconscious in the author, this is a concerted effort to tell us something and then distract us from what he's putting right in front of our faces.

 

 Looking forward to number part 2!

[LongRider]

2 hours ago, Sandy Clegg said:

thanks for not going down the easy route and calling it a shitpost  

Damn you!  

1 hour ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

this is a concerted effort to tell us something and then distract us from what he's putting right in front of our faces  feces.

Fixed it for you, and for @Sandy Clegg too.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

2 minutes ago, LongRider said:

Damn you!  

Fixed it for you, and for @Sandy Clegg too.

How did I miss that?

[Hippocras]

While I fail to see how Tysha could possibly connect to Jon Snow, there are a few other Jons to consider.

The first is Jon Arryn, who Jon Snow was named for, and who was Hand of the King when Tysha and Tyrion had their ill-fated marriage. It was only 3 years after the Rebellion and Jon was trying to secure peace. Provoking Tywin would not have been desirable. But maybe Jon Arryn found out about what Tywin did and helped resettle Tysha in some way. Seems possible. Tyrion may find her in the Vale.

Another is Jon Connington. This is a Jon that Tyrion is directly in contact with in the story, however hard to see how or why JonCon would have met or done anything for or with Tysha.

Jon Unber seems irrelevant, but who knows.

[Aejohn the Conqueroo]

8 minutes ago, Hippocras said:

Jon Unber seems irrelevant, but who knows.

From Wikipedia:

Umber is a natural earth pigment created by mixing iron oxide, manganese oxide, and hydroxides to make a brownish color that can be combined to vary between shades of yellow, red, and green.

Looks like something that ends up in the john to me.

[Sandy Clegg]

2 hours ago, Hippocras said:

While I fail to see how Tysha could possibly connect to Jon Snow, there are a few other Jons to consider.

Sure. I don’t think Jon Snow will necessarily have anything to do with Tysha, although it would turn out to be somehow fitting now … possibly?

We can treat the two ideas as completely separate I think. “Where do whores go?” can happily lead a double life as an ‘in-world mantra’ for Tyrion, and as a John-signifying clue for readers.

The fact that Tysha might intersect with Jon’s story never occurred to me and I have no real leads or clues to indicate that, so I’m focusing on the Jon/John motif for now.

[Sandy Clegg]

2 hours ago, LongRider said:

4 hours ago, Aejohn the Conqueroo said:

this is a concerted effort to tell us something and then distract us from what he's putting right in front of our faces  feces.

Fixed it for you, and for @Sandy Clegg too.

 

Very good, yes. Before this all hits the fan (ahem), let’s try and restrain ourselves with the poo-poo jokes, folks. We’re better than that! Also, George does it more elegantly

[Hippocras]

13 minutes ago, Sandy Clegg said:

Sure. I don’t think Jon Snow will necessarily have anything to do with Tysha, although it would turn out to be somehow fitting now … possibly?

We can treat the two ideas as completely separate I think. “Where do whores go?” can happily lead a double life as an ‘in-world mantra’ for Tyrion, and as a John-signifying clue for readers.

The fact that Tysha might intersect with Jon’s story never occurred to me and I have no real leads or clues to indicate that, so I’m focusing on the Jon/John motif for now.

Ok, but what is is a clue for? Why are we getting clues about Jon Snow in moments about Tysha?

[LongRider]

@Sandy Clegg   as you wish.   

[Sandy Clegg]

3 minutes ago, LongRider said:

@Sandy Clegg   as you wish.   

Nah keep up the filth it’s ok. I just hope I don’t become known forever as ‘the Toilet Guy’

[Angel Eyes]

Or maybe Tywin had Tysha's throat slit and dumped her corpse in a privy.

[LongRider]

I'm trying to connect the idea of a privy to Tyrion and remember that privies drain, and Tyrion was given charge by Tywin of the cisterns and drains of Casterly Rock just before his 16th birthday.  Don't know if there is a connection, though, but Tyrion would have had occasions to see not just where whores go, but all go and what they produce.   

[csuszka1948]

I believe the actual answer is Braavos, with Tysha being the Sailor's Wife.

It's interesting that GRRM said that in Winds, Dany and Tyrion are both 'coming home':

“Well, Tyrion and Dany will intersect, in a way, but for much of the book they’re still apart,” he says. “They both have quite large roles to play here. Tyrion has decided that he actually would like to live, for one thing, which he wasn’t entirely sure of during the last book, and he’s now working toward that end—if he can survive the battle that’s breaking out all around him. And Dany has embraced her heritage as a Targaryen and embraced the Targaryen words. So they’re both coming home.”

and what is Dany's 'home'? The 'house with the red door. I am pretty sure that Tyrion would also call Tysha and her daughter home. The disappointment will come at the end of the book, when they both find out that the home they have searched for doesn't exist anymore (about the Sailor's Wife: 'her love is dead'). This will be their lowest points in the series, after which the war against the Others will help to put them on a more positive path.

 

Obviously, I might be wrong, but otherwise I don't see what Tyrion's character arc in Act 2 (books 4-6) is about. He starts out by trying to find the place 'where whores go' and finds it out, but his actions towards Tysha have irreparably destroyed any chance their relationship has.

[Seams]

49 minutes ago, LongRider said:

I'm trying to connect the idea of a privy to Tyrion and remember that privies drain, and Tyrion was given charge by Tywin of the cisterns and drains of Casterly Rock just before his 16th birthday.  Don't know if there is a connection, though, but Tyrion would have had occasions to see not just where whores go, but all go and what they produce.   

I think this is part of the motif - Tyrion's work to clear the drains. And that probably connects back to the Rains/Reynes of Castamere and Tywin drowning the entire family by sealing up their castle and mines - plugging the drains - and diverting a river into the structure. We know that he was motivated to do this by his disdain for the Reyne-Tarbeck widow of his uncles, whose family had finagled gold from Tywin's father and then refused to repay it. Lady Ellyn might have been a whore, in Tywin's eyes.

Tywin's father, Tytos, also took a mistress who was the common-born daughter of a candlemaker. When Tytos died, Tywin forced her to take a walk of atonement through Lannisport. So there is a pattern of Tywin persecuting women he perceives as unworthy or greedy.

Here are some shit-related motifs that might help to enrich our understanding of the whores ---> john symbolism.

Jon Arryn oversaw the moon door. Moon doors are associated with outhouses in the bygone days before plumbing in the U.S.

Jaime has shit for honor, he tells Catelyn. On the spot where Jaime knelt to take the oath for the Kingsguard, there is now a privy.

Jaime was once betrothed to Lysa Tully, who flies out of the Moon Door.

Sweetrobin throws a chamber pot at Maester Colemon. 

The bloody flux, also called the pale mare, is the name for dysentery in ASOIAF. The character called Nurse might have died of this or might have died from mushrooms administered by Tyrion.

I believe there may be privy / viper wordplay, linking Jaime to the Red Viper, Prince Oberyn.

Tywin Lannister shits gold and there is a lot of descriptive language tying him to bad smells. He dies on a privy.

In The Mystery Knight, there is a (SPOILER ALERT)

Spoiler

key scene where a dwarf climbs up the shaft of a privy to obtain a dragon egg. I believe this is part of a larger "chutes and ladders" (in Europe, apparently "chutes and dragons") game. 

In the cabin he ends up sharing with Penny, Tyrion becomes covered with pig shit from Pretty Pig, the acorn-eating mount for the mummer jousting act.

People have speculated that Edd Tollett has a toilet connection. Since he is close to Jon Snow, this could reinforce your theory of Jon and the toilet connection.

Craster lives on a midden heap that looks as if it is made of shit. 

Maybe anagram wordplay: Tysha = A Shyt?

So there is a strong association between Lannister men and shit, although the relationship does not appear to be exclusive. 

I would also note that trebuchets may have a Lannister connection. The ones at the Red Keep during the Battle of Blackwater are nicknamed The Three Whores. Tyrion has the City Watch use them to launch wild fire grenades but Cersei lets Joffrey use them to launch Antler Men at Stannis. 

There are probably others I have forgotten.

[Sandy Clegg]

Welcome aboard the toilet train, @Seams Good to see you 'mucking in' ... it's not really a thread till you arrive.

11 hours ago, Seams said:

Maybe anagram wordplay: Tysha = A Shyt?

Might have guessed you would go down the anagram route!   

This one made me chuckle, but ... gosh, I think even George might have his limits when it comes to all this 'shit' wordplay - (turdplay? eww no). Hang on ... isn't Oppo an anagram of POOP? Dammit, you've got me doing it now ...

11 hours ago, Seams said:

Jon Arryn oversaw the moon door. Moon doors are associated with outhouses 

Can't thank you enough for this! Of course. Wow. Here in the UK we don't see these 'moon carving' outhouse doors much, but the image now seems so familiar to me, from reading The Far Side cartoons. Here's a good link:

https://dustyoldthing.com/outhouse-moon-myth/

I had been thinking of moon door as a metaphor, since 'mooning someone' involves showing them your butt. But this means I can add the Eyrie and the Moon Door to my revolting research. Great catch.

11 hours ago, Seams said:

Jaime has shit for honor, he tells Catelyn. On the spot where Jaime knelt to take the oath for the Kingsguard, there is now a privy.

I had also missed this tidbit. And believe me, I have been reading about privies for some time now.  

I'm now thinking of the coin left in Varys' chamber pot (a privy substitute). Hmm. Coins are called 'honors' in Volantis (although Varys' coin was an old House Gardener one). I'll check this out further for sure.

11 hours ago, Seams said:

I believe there may be privy / viper wordplay, linking Jaime to the Red Viper, Prince Oberyn.

I'm partial to anagrams as you know, but less partial to partial ones. I feel like this one might be a dead end? Sorry. I'm a stickler for all letters being present and correct!

11 hours ago, Seams said:

In the cabin he ends up sharing with Penny, Tyrion becomes covered with pig shit from Pretty Pig, the acorn-eating mount for the mummer jousting act.

Stay tuned for my Part 2, where I'll be looking at pennies and pigs in some detail (or at least pig boys).

11 hours ago, Seams said:

People have speculated that Edd Tollett has a toilet connection. Since he is close to Jon Snow, this could reinforce your theory of Jon and the toilet connection.

I have a solid bank of Edd theories, and for me TOLLETT and TOILET are close but ... sufficiently distinct I think? I dunno. He is close to Jon, it's true. I just have an alternative parsing for his name, and I'm not quite ready to discuss it here. Who knows, it may be a multiple-parsing. I'll keep an open mind.

EDIT: on re-reading this, I just realised I wrote that Edd is ‘close to’ Jon. And that TOLLETT is not the same as TOILET - but hey, it’s close. D’oh. Looks like I may have missed a clue staring at me right in the face …

Thanks a lot!

Edited June 3, 2023 by Sandy Clegg