AN ARCHIE BY ANY OTHER NAME
The various descriptive nicknames fans have bestowed upon Archie.
The infamous "sapphire bullets"
For a person who originally didn't even have a first name, Archie has acquired some of the most distinctive tags in the whole Hornblower fandom. Here they are: follow the links for the inimitable phrases, their variations, their attributions, their conjectured derivation, and their earliest or at least most influential citations. I wanted to provide actual examples, but it didn't seem kosher to use other people's words without their permission. (Although that doesn't seem to have stopped me in the cases of A&E or the Forester estate ...)
(NOTE: My research on this topic was not as thorough as I would have liked, given that the current A&E message board now has 70,000+ posts, that the old A&E message board archive is on the fritz, and that I'm a lazy sod. And you just can't get decent help these days ...)
SLURP
VARIATIONS: Slurpie, His Slurpness
ATTRIBUTION: SueN.
DERIVATION: onomatopoeic description of coping with excess drooling that results from prolonged exposure to Archie
FIRST CITATION: unknown
MOST INFLUENTIAL CITATION: A&E message board, 7/8/1999 -- from "Titanic with a Twist," in which the inexplicably popular film is more palatably recast with the actors from Hornblower.
HIS BLUE-EYED YUMMINESS
VARIATIONS: N/A
ATTRIBUTION: Sandyclaws (SC)
DERIVATION: offshoot of "His Curly Blond Gorgeousness," a designation for Sam West (Major Edrington's portrayer)
FIRST CITATION: unknown
MOST INFLUENTIAL CITATION: A&E message board, (?) unknown at present. However, the following rallying cry has made regular appearances: "All hail His Blue-Eyed Yumminess!"
(Thanks to SC herself for the info!)
THE CRUMPET
VARIATIONS: Crumpet, Our Crumpet, Crumpeteer (the last designates a fan of Archie)
ATTRIBUTION: SeaSpotRun (SSR)
DERIVATION: a hot sweet treat to sink one's teeth into
FIRST CITATION: A&E message board, 10/11/99 -- from "A Naughty Pellew Fantasy," in which a crew of lusty female pirates have some harmless fun with the Indyboys.
MOST INFLUENTIAL CITATION: HH Fanfic list, 4/18/2000 -- from "All About Major E.," a writing exercise wherein each Hornblower character answered a tongue-in-cheek questionnaire. This can be found on the Horatio Hornblower Fan Fiction Archive.
SAPPHIRE BULLETS
VARIATIONS: Sapphire Bullets of Love
ATTRIBUTION: SeaSpotRun (SSR)
DERIVATION: not much explanation needed here ...
FIRST CITATION: A&E message board, 12/26/99 -- from Chapter 48 "Sapphire Bullets," of SSR's fanfic "Archie and Edrington's Excellent Adventure."
MOST INFLUENTIAL CITATION: HH Fanfic list, 6/17/00 -- from a reposting of "Archie and Edrington's Excellent Adventure." During the course of this story, Archie is hounded by his mysterious resemblance to the heroes from a series of appallingly bad romance novels. At one point he is embarrassed by an excerpt from one such turgid tome, The Bonny Lieutenant, which features this unforgettable phrase. (Without giving away too much, I will say that the mystery ends quite happily for Archie.) This story can be found on the Horatio Hornblower Fan Fiction Archive.