ZaSu

When the author of CHEW ON THIS embarked on nineteen-month hiatus back in October 2010, she left behind a list of names on which she planned to do entries. To wit:

Eusebius
Woodville
Otway
Kenelm
Annwyl
Lupu
Dugald
ZaSu

Over a year and a half later, she can remember only what drew her to the last of these.

But where did she come across the others? What about them struck her fancy? Do they share some common element that she, whether she knows it or not, must comprehend, must absorb?

Most, but not all, are two syllables.

Nearly every name on the list has either a u or a w. If we count the m in Kenelm as an upside-down w —or its n as an upside-down u—then, indeed, every name on the list has either a u or a w.

A few are also surnames.

What novels was she reading back then? Her diary tells us In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, The Guermantes Way, Sodom and Gomorrah, Victorine, A Frolic of His Own, A Family and a Fortune. She is afraid to revisit these, for fear of what she might find out.