Treasure Island/Fridge

• In Treasure Island we are told that Long John Silver has a wife, whom he leaves in England while on the treasure hunt and whom he is presumed to reunite with after his Karma Houdini. As she is mentioned in all of three sentences and has no lines I presumed that this character existed only to suggest Silver's larger backstory but it then occurred to me that if Jim knew that Long John would be coming back for her he could tell the police or whatever to stakeout her house but chose not to: it's an example of Jim's character growth.
  • No, when Silver mentions his wife ("What I Heard In The Apple Barrel") he says that he's left her with instructions to sell the Spy-Glass, empty the bank accounts, and meet him at a pre-arranged location which he will not reveal even to his fellow-pirates for fear of exciting jealousy. Jim could not have had the house staked out even if he had wanted to. Silver did this because he knew he would not dare to go back to Bristol after the Hispaniola business, and Dick, the young pirate, had asked how it was that all of Silver's earlier earnings weren't about to be going to waste.
  • Okay, I know how stupid this is going to sound, but.. For a long time, I thought the fast food chain Long John Silver's was simply named after one of the more famous literary pirates in the world. It wasn't until I learned that Long John was the ship's cook in the story that naming the restaurant chain after him made even more sense than before.