Sir's childhood

[PJ]

In TMM Charles says that Sir is crabby because he had a "terrible childhood"
Perhaps this is somehow connected to VFD? Perhaps he is the third White Powdered Ladies Sibling?
Perhaps he is some random on the family tree, as we don't know his real name. That name is kinda fishy. It's meant to be funny, but perhaps there is something sinister behind it.
IS he a long lost sibling?
Is he just a random with a terrible childhood?
Did his house burn down, killing his parents and leaving him alone in the world, which has hardened him and made him cruel?
Who knows.
You might, and if you do, please discuss it here.

[Antenora]

Here's a weird possibility to consider: His youth somehow involved a deadly fire--perhaps his parents or siblings died in one. Because of this, he developed a sick obsession with smoke and now smokes all the time, continuously. Or perhaps his face was scarred from the fire and he uses the smoke to hide his deformity.

[Dante]

I think that he was treated cruelly as a child, and so is now taking it out on the world in the same way. And he probably just smokes cigars to indicate authority (I have a friend who says that he won't smoke unless he becomes head of a big company, in which case he'll smoke expensive cigars).

[Flaneur]

He's not completely alone in the world, as many of his cousins live in the dormitory of the mill (page 137, in case it matters). Although admittedly, cousins do not necessarily count.

I wonder how Charles knows he had a terrible childhood? Perhaps they knew each other as children.
One thing that crossed my mind momentarily reading the book was that maybe Sir was in V.F.D. and his terrible childhood occured because of something to do with the organization. Not sure I believe it, but it's a theory. Is Sir a volunteer? Do we know? At least his mill provided the lumber for some of the volunteers' homes.

[Dante]

I think Sir providing "emerald lumber" for volunteer homes and headquarters to be the limit of his association with V.F.D. Of course, there's so little information on him that you really couldn't prove it either way.

[Violet]

He could have simply had a bad childhood. Maybe his parents had a bad divorce, or something.

Maybe him and Charles are siblings, and their third sibling and their parents died in a fire.

Also, what is Sir's last name? I mean, you don't go from saying "Mr. Quy-" to "Mr. Duy-"!

[Antenora]

Violet said:

He could have simply had a bad childhood. Maybe his parents had a bad divorce, or something.

Maybe him and Charles are siblings, and their third sibling and their parents died in a fire.

Also, what is Sir's last name? I mean, you don't go from saying "Mr. Quy-" to "Mr. Duy-"!

Actually, that mistake is concievable, especially if bad handwriting is involved. But how can one get from Duy to Gek to Sho?

It also seems possible that Sir provided emerald lumber to VFD, but that doesn't mean he's affiliated with them. As Dante said, there's not much evidence for Sir's VFD connections.

[Violet]

True, but I can understand how to confuse a D and Q with bad handwriting, but that's just ridiculous.

The only V.F.D. connections Sir has, it appears, is that the lumbermill provided wood for the Snicket, Quagmire, and Baudelaire mansions, which were all probably involved in V.F.D.

[Ennui]

The name of Sir's factory, Lucky Smells, means the same as the name of the VFD horseradish factory, Opportune Odours. Could that incriminate him at all? Some kind of code?

And the History of Lucky Smells Lumbermill was on Nero's banned list. And Sir's in the LSUA index, I think, as laissez-faire. So I'd put him in that faction, which I still believe in...

[PJ]

Interesting. That Oportune thing makes me wonder....
I doubt Sir is VFD though, but he might supply both sides of it with emerald lumber.

[RockSunner]

Do we really know that Sir had a hard childhood? Charles says so, probably because Sir told him so.

In the Dickens novel "Hard Times" there is a factory owner named Mr. Bounderby who constantly tells people he had a hard childhood and brought himself up by his own bootstraps. Later, his mother appears on the scene and reveals there was not a word of truth in it; he had a privileged childhood.

It could be the same with Sir. He seems to have little feeling for the sufferings of others. It may be that he never suffered much himself.

[PJ]

True, but I think it was put in there by Handler for a reason....
I mean, what's the point of making a character spout lies?
No, Handler does NOTHING without reason.

[Dante]

Ennui said:

The name of Sir's factory, Lucky Smells, means the same as the name of the VFD horseradish factory, Opportune Odours. Could that incriminate him at all? Some kind of code?

When did we find out that it was called Opportune Odours?

[Antenora]

The autobio index mentions "Opportune Odors Horseradish Factory" and refers us to one of the pages bearing the map. Hence, we can infer that the factory near Lousy Lane is called that. I also noticed the Lucky Smells connection.

[ChilledCucumber]

Or, he could have been taken by the ankles as a young child, away from his family... and they never brought him back.