El Lay

[Michael Quinion]

Bill Lemay wrote:

> There was a science fiction writer who used the term Ellay (no space) in at
> least one of his stories.

That was Larry Niven, in a story called "Intent to Deceive": "So I took
him to lunch at the Herr Ober, which was a few blocks from the old Police
Headquarters Building. Herr Ober was the first all-automated restaurant in
Ellay. The only human beings involved were the maintenance crew, and they
only showed up once a week."


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Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org