Mystery Solved

A while ago I asked whether anyone knew why Lorrie Moore would have named a character in a short story "Daniel Handler" (better known to some as Lemony Snickett). You people are no help to me whatsoever, by the way.

While the question hasn't exactly been keeping me up at night, it does turn out that it was more than mere coincidence. The San Francisco Chronicle's Leah Garchik (she's the kind-of gossip columnist) mentioned it a couple of weeks ago:
"Word for Word performed Lorrie Moore's "Which Is More Than I Can Say About Some People" at the Cowell Theater last week, after which novelist Daniel Handler moderated a Q&A with the author. Handler said he is such a fan of Moore's that last year, he placed the winning bid in an eBay auction -- to raise money for a First Amendment cause -- to have a character in a Moore story named after him. The story, "Paper Losses," appeared in a recent New Yorker, and the Handler character was a masseur.

P.S.: In other news of fandom, The Chronicle's Keay Davidson informs me that Betty Hutton, who died last week, was idolized by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein."

So, a propos of nothing, there you have it. I'm a sharp reader, I am.