"I know you have questions."

Abraham “Burnside” Oliver

Due to his arsonist streak, his recklessness usually finds himself at Crawlings’ side in hairy situations. However, Burnside still has both of his eyebrows.

The Ten Men are sophisticated in their violent duties, so sending Burnside is a sign of either two things. 1: Send a message. 2: Desperation

Burnside and Garrote get along fine due to the lovely bolo tie choke weapon

Do not sniff out the air for cologne, rather, be wary of smoke from a cigar, lit from a dragon blowtorch lighter.

Burnside is also highly independent, finding work from other people that need something reduced to cinders. Like alternative energy plants or even magic shops if it pays well.

He has a Bowie knife that is able to be heated up from the pocket lasers.

He has a wife and son. Mentioning it gets you deleted via heat

I only even found out about this because of GoodReads! In addition to TMBS and The Secret Keepers, there are two other books attributed to TLS on GR: Flood Summer and The Black Madonna Shrines and Grotto and Other Stories. Flood Summer I can get through an ILL request from the Library of Congress, so I'm not as worried about that, but only One copy of the thesis paper exists and it's. presumably the one that was actually turned in and signed by his college professor. Check this out:

I only even found out about this because of GoodReads! In addition to TMBS and The Secret Keepers, there are two other books attributed to TLS on GR: Flood Summer and The Black Madonna Shrines and Grotto and Other Stories. Flood Summer I can get through an ILL request from the Library of Congress, so I'm not as worried about that, but only One copy of the thesis paper exists and it's. presumably the one that was actually turned in and signed by his college professor. Check this out:

Thinking about the scene after she falls off the cliff - or, more importantly to Kate, her bucket falls off the cliff and into the water. Thinking about the tentative hand on her shoulder, unsure if he's allowed to offer her this comfort. The understanding etched on his face - I lost my bucket, what will I do without my bucket? - you keep going. It's the only thing you can do.

Thinking about how the instant he hears the bucket clatter against the rocks, he's striding over, picking it up and holding it out to her. Watching her face as she reunites with her beloved bucket. Taking in the joy and relief and the calm on her face - and he looks a little lighter, somehow, in that moment.

Thinking about them in the books, too, because of course Milligan's love for his daughter crosses every universe. Thinking about how amid the clamor of the Institute shutting down and the children's mission ending, the governmental tangle they must've been dealing with - not to mention the sudden return of his last ten years of stolen memories - Milligan goes back to the island and recovers Kate's most precious items from her lost bucket. Her spyglass, her Swiss Army knife, her magnet, her flashlight. He helps her start anew with the rest.

Thinking about how when he suggests a utility belt instead, and Kate shoots that down, he doesn't push or insist. He says, Alright, Katie-Cat. How about we build a flip-top together so your items don't fall out of your bucket?

(Was that their first project together? In their farmhouse, so new and yet so familiar, saying we're a family now. I'm in this with you; I'm here for you now. Let's work on your bucket.)

Thinking about how Milligan loves Kate so quietly, so softly, through caring for the bucket attached to her hip. (It's just an extension of Kate herself, really.)

Thinking about how Kate doesn't hesitate to throw her precious bucket in order to save her father from his would-be killer, four stories above the ground on the roof of an abandoned prison. Thinking about how when she finds the bucket later on the ground below, it's bashed in and mangled and almost completely ruined. She belts it to her hip anyway.

First of all, I would like to open by presenting a quote from book One.

This account is significant for three reasons. It tells us that

Reynie has most likely read The Art of War

Mr. Curtain has most likely not read The Art of War

Book One very likely takes place before the year 2001

The first two arent overly significant, but personally I find them extremely funny. But as for the third point, let me explain.

In 2001, The Soprano’s made a reference to The Art of War, and the book became popular and more mainstream as more people started to read it. Before this, people didn’t really know it the way they do today, and it’s doubtful you’d find regular people quoting it to each other. This could explain Curtain’s unfamiliarity with the phrase, since as we know, he doesn’t read much (both in the books as well as the series. His office is described as being pretty barren, and he never leaves the island because he’s so busy so he doesn’t make library runs or anything. Though he probably used to read more).

At first I argued against myself by saying that he might’ve just been giving Reynie an opening to see how he would respond to his grievances about Constance (and as we know he was sort of gauging Reynie during that entire conversation) but I also kept thinking that admitting he didn’t know something isn’t something Curtain would do. It’s not really in his character for him to make it known that someone, let alone a child, had given him new information or told him someone he didn’t already know. I think he’s too proud for that.

So assuming he really hadn’t heard the expression before, we know that book one takes place at least later than 1910 (when the first copy was translated into English) and earlier than 2001 (when the book became popular and therefore more frequently quoted) based on this conversation alone.

So actually this has been a pretty helpful rabbit hole! 2001 as a max limit is slightly more information than I was working with before. 1983 is my current working Absolute Earliest point (the year cell phones and computers first became available for use by the public) but I’m leaning more towards the early ‘90s because lets be real, they were pretty inconvenient to use when they first came out lol. Nicholas wouldn’t have been so worried about signals from the Whisperer piggybacking off of cell phones if most people didn’t use them. He also lumped cell phones in with radios and televisions, which were both established to be widely available in the books, so that leads me to believe cell phones were in a similar position by this point.

OH MY GOD the “where is Stonetown” game is also my favorite!

For years I thought it had to be Boston because it’s a major port city on the east coast that gets plenty of snow. Also the name “Stonetown” reminds me of the brownstone buildings that Boston is rather well-know for; Boston seems to have more of the “old charm” that Stonetown does vs the hubbub of NYC.

But then in the fourth book Riddle of Ages, when Reynie asks about the transportation methods out of Stonetown, Kate says that “both major airports” as well as Grand Central are compromised. Since Grand Central Station is in NYC (and it has more than one airport) that makes me think Stonetown is supposed to be NYC.

But it could be just as likely that Stonetown is supposed to be some mixture of NYC and Boston, or just a stand-in for any major northeast port city.

I definitely agree that it's either supposed to be NYC or is in the general vicinity. It's definitely in a north-east state at least! I would say no farther south than New Jersey but NYC definitely makes the most sense going by how Stonetown is described.