Ferd Vermith's name and claim to fame are references to Frederic Wertham.

Wertham was a pop psychologist who pioneered the "blame the media for our rotten children" meme that now gets recycled through the news every eighteen months or so.

Ferd's peculiar emphases are my attempt to replicate a Southern preacher's eNUNciAtions. The "god of fandom" idea actually has some philosophical merit, though: it's a paraphrase of a speech from one of my more respectable pastors.

The headlines on the wall say "DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN," "CLARK KENT IS SUPERMAN" and "METEOR TO STRIKE EARTH." I think they're just there to cheer up employees.