Yes you’re right, Nulliverse. Some good old snuffs there – some older than others – as starting points. It reminded me of my waffling on earlier about TS Eliot’s poem and the reflexive movements between things present, past and future. I suspect that was/is an important realisation with the practitioners of sorcery, necromancy, alchemy etc. – and of course snuff millers (😂).

That whole area of snuffing within which the dark rappees dwell is a very discrete arena. And the snuff makers who do it well have developed that over the course of decades if not centuries. My initial thoughts, which I kept to myself earlier, was – this is maybe a step too far for Roderick. But then I remembered the idea of a Toque-Otto schmalzler, when my reaction was also “What! Cool yer Jets, matey.” And of course, there it is now, on the market, the excellent Otto Snuff Schmalzler. It IS a schmalzler, and it’s certainly one of my Top Five.