Chapter Two
“‘Any colony planet in particular, Mrs. Graham?’”
This question asked by the news reporter implies that there is more than one planet that humans have colonized in the years leading up to Nick and the Glimmung. Beyond this implication, no other planets are mentioned as having been settled by people of Earth, not even a number of how many.
In Galactic Pot-Healer it is mentioned that the USSR still exists in 2046.1 Assuming the timeline of Earth in both books diverges from ours around the mid 1960s, the USA’s and USSR’s arms race exponentially grows beyond nuclear weapons and space travels, both manned and unmanned, to the moon, Venus, and Mars, to even further out, discovering habitable planets with intelligent life.
“‘...so far off.’”
In Galactic Pot-Healer it is revealed that Plowman’s Planet is also known as, according to the Earth phone encyclopedia, Sirius 5, meaning it is the fifth planet from the star Sirius.2 It is a real star found on the constellation of Canis Major, the brightest of that set of stars.3
According to astronomer Todd J. Henry it is 2.6 parsus, or 8.6 light-years from our sun. It is only preceded by the Centuri, Barnard, Wolf, and Lalande systems as the closest.4 By the news reporter’s comment about Plowman’s Planet’s distance, it is likely that most of, if not all, the planets located in those closer star systems have been at the very least visited by space explorers of the USA or USSR.
By the time of Galactic Pot-Healer there are around two hundred planets that are inhabited by either terrestrial or extraterrestrial life.5
Because of the great distance of even the closest star system, it is assumed that sometime before the events of Nick and the Glimmung faster-than-light travel was perfected by both superpowers.
“‘...there will be no newspaper.’”
In both books, statements made by characters and other sources about the nature of Plowman’s Planet and what it does and does not have will not always be reliable. In the case of the news reporter’s claims in the story about the lack of television, newspapers, and to a certain extent “‘lights of other houses’” will be accurate.
“‘...the werj.’”
All of the creatures mentioned here; wubs, printers, trobes, father-things, nunks, spiddles, and werjes will make an appearance in Nick and the Glimmung. All but one of these, the father-things, will be mentioned in Galactic Pot-Healer. A theory to potentially explain this will be brought up as a topic in the speculation outro.
In Galactic Pot-Healer they are all identified as being Plabkians.6 Two of these species will also make appearances in Galactic Pot-Healer whereas the others are merely mentioned. However there is some discrepancy between the two books as to a couple more beings that Nick and the Glimmung will never show nor mention.
“‘...can’t take him till then.’”
Nick’s father, Peter Graham, seems aware of his rights as a citizen. If this were taking place in Galactic Pot-Healer, Peter would have been put under arrest for in that book it is a felony to contradict law-enforcement, as Fernwright is told.7
“‘...shadowy green for Horace to play...’”
If the “‘green’” Peter speaks of is not figurative, then he either misspoke or, as will be discussed later on, is misinformed of the nature, in this case color, of Plowman’s Planet.
“‘...horned klakes on Plowman’s Planet.’”
Though they appear in neither Nick and the Glimmung nor Galactic Pot-Healer, you can see what horned klakes look like in the illustration accompanying Paul Demeyer’s intro for this blog.
1) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 7
2) Ibid, pg. 31
3) https://www.britannica.com/place/Sirius-star (retrieved December 23, 2025)
4) http://recons.org/TOP100.posted.htm (retrieved December 23, 2025)
5) Galactic Pot-Healer (Vintage Books, 1994), pg. 31
6) Ibid, pg. 19
7) Ibid, pg. 36
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