Thread: F.r.i.t.z.

I found it amazing that Barret Oliver hasn't maintained a carreer in acting since Never Ending Story, D.A.R.Y.L. and Cocoon. Was he in anything else? I found a reference that he worked as a location manager for the filming of a so-so bank heist genre film with Scott Foley...supposedly its setting was right in my town of Eugene, Oregon, named after a cool bar on the edge of the college campus, Rennies Landing. The film ended up using another name, which I cant recall at the moment. Anyways, trying to keep the references pre 2004 and look at parallels. D.A.R.Y.L. was an artificial intelligence military computer in the form of a child robot and F.R.I.T.Z. is just a boy, but appears on a computer instrument panel on the 9th floor that supposedly has an artificial intelligence robot butler named Betamax. Betamax was at one time thought to be the next generation of video tape standard. I tthink it had a good chance and was likely to work with Japan backing it, but somehow it lost out to the VHS style (again, thats just from memory...i'll google the history later). Anyways, this reference is a good start in considering that a film reference might be critical to solving this case and that has been the basis of most of my logic since sitting through a viewing of Cannon Ball Run II...ugh.

The greek symbol for beta looks much like a letter B which is what the book opened looks like.

This FRITZ acronym might serve as an example that an acronym/acrostic method is at work. I've outlined a highly suspicious correlation where various words might be bookended to form new words. In this case FRITZ might become RITZF or ZFRIT, neither of which make sense, but if you take some other examples, like TELES = STELE, or ARC = CAR, or TONES = STONE, then you might start seeing some interesting outcomes. Ladies Home Journal is a good example as it shortens to LHJ which according to my theory becomes HJL or JLH. I believe we are looking for a name that fits, my first suggestion is Jennifer Love Hewitt.

I'm still working out the kinks in my Bruce Springsteen idea...I wonder if there's a spoonerism at work, Spruce Bringsteen? A "steen" is a clay or stone vessel. "Spruce bring steen"? Pupkin's blackboard shows a large tree in the background with a steen/urn in the foreground. Is that a spruce tree?

Fritz = Frith

I really want to fall back on the idea that Fritz is about Barret Oliver, but I think I have this licked, it's not about Fritz at all...that's just filler. It's about "never born" = "Just Born" the maker of Mike and Ikes.

Originally Posted by erexere

I really want to fall back on the idea that Fritz is about Barret Oliver, but I think I have this licked, it's not about Fritz at all...that's just filler. It's about "never born" = "Just Born" the maker of Mike and Ikes.

Whoops, I'm getting forgetful, mixing the "Gideon was never born" clue with "Fritz is just a boy". My bad. I can't even remember where that Gideon clue came from...

The answer in my best and final view is that Fritz does well to represent a few things, 1) yes, Teplin's son's name as if its an easter egg type reference to be ignored and therefor giving it subtle cover, 2) with the acronym format and computer context ala HAL 9000, it supports an A.I. subject forcing a connection to a list of heavy lifters in the AI movement like Asimov or Turing, 3) it represents a short circuit or "fizzling" in an electroic device such as a "Moth" in a super computer such as the one discovered by Grace Hopper.

Originally Posted by erexere

Whoops, I'm getting forgetful, mixing the "Gideon was never born" clue with "Fritz is just a boy". My bad. I can't even remember where that Gideon clue came from...

Tuesday, May 4 (first year, the initial publishers' promotional tour at bookstore signings)
OAKLAND, CA
"Gideon was never born"