El Lay

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Fri, Sep 30, 2005 at 12:55:16PM +0100, Michael Quinion wrote:
> 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."

This reminds me of "Esseph" in David Lodge's books.

Jesse Sheidlower
OED