FEET Of CLAY...

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:06 pm

Feet of Clay

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+ [title] Feet of Clay

The original working title for this book was Words in the Head.

"Feet of Clay" is a biblical reference. The Babylonian king
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which he saw a statue whose head was made
of gold, but lower down the statue the materials got progressively more
base, until the feet were "part of iron, part of clay"; the statue was
shattered and destroyed by being struck on the feet, its weakest point.
Hence, colloquially, the expression "feet of clay" has come to mean that
someone regarded as an idol has a hidden weakness.

+ [frontispiece] The mottoes and crests are mostly explained in the book,
but for completeness they are:

<blockquote class="stanza">Edward St John de Nobbes: "capite omnia" -- "take it all"

</blockquote>
<blockquote class="stanza">Gerhardt Sock (butcher): "futurus meus est in visceris" -- "my future is in the entrails"

</blockquote>
<blockquote class="stanza">Vetinari: "si non confectus non reficiat" -- "if it ain't broke, don't
fix it" (a saying popularised by Lyndon B Johnson, though
possibly older)

</blockquote>
<blockquote class="stanza">Assassins Guild: "nil mortifice sine lucre" -- "no killing without payment"

</blockquote>
<blockquote class="stanza">Rudolph Potts (baker): "quod subigo farinam" -- "because I knead the dough"

</blockquote>
<blockquote class="stanza">Thieves' Guild: "acutus id verberat" -- "sharp's the word"

</blockquote>
<blockquote class="stanza">Vimes family: "protego et servio" -- "I protect and serve". In the centre of the crest is the number 177, which -- we learnt in Men at Arms -- is Vimes' own badge number.

</blockquote>

+ [p. 7] "WE HEAR YOU WANT A GOLEM."

The font used by the golems in the UK editions is clearly designed to
look like Hebrew lettering. For some reason, the font used in the
American editions is not.

The golem itself is a creature from Jewish mythology, a man made of clay
and animated by Kabbalistic magic. The one thing it cannot do is speak,
because only God can grant the power of speech. There is a brief summary
of the legend at <http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6960/golem.htm>

+ [p. 8] "'Yeah, right, but you hear stories ... Going mad and making
too many things, and that.'"

One episode in the life of the golem of Prague -- the best known of the
mythical creatures -- tells that the golem was ordered to fetch water,
but never told to stop, thus causing a flood. This is very similar to
(and may be borrowed from) the classic children's story The Sorcerer's
Apprentice (Der Zauberlehrling, a German poem by Goethe), also used in
Disney's classic animated film Fantasia. A spell used to animate a
broom to speed housework gets out of control, leading to a frightening
procession of hundreds of brooms bringing water from the well. The French
composer Paul Dukas based the music on Goethe's poem. A more direct
reference appears on p. 99, and elsewhere as a sort of running joke.

+ [p. 17] "[...], he says Mrs Colon wants him to buy a farm, [...]"

'Buy the farm' is military slang for 'die'

+ [p. 17] "[...] I am sure I have told you about the Cable Street
Particulars, [...]"

See the annotation for p. 247 of Maskerade
.

+ [p. 19] "I AM DEATH, NOT TAXES."

It is said (after Benjamin Franklin) that in life only two things are
certain: Death and taxes. However, the line before this kicks off a
running gag that demonstrates than this is really one certainty too many.

+ [p. 22] "'Cheery, eh? Good to see the old naming traditions kept up.'"

'Cheery' would fit in very well with the names of the Seven Dwarfs in the
Disney Snow White film. Grumpy, Dopey, Sleepy, Bashful, Happy, Doc and
Sneezy.

+ [p. 23] "'I want someone who can look at the ashtray and tell me what
kind of cigars I smoke.'"

One of the first things Sherlock Holmes tells Watson, when they first
meet, is that he has written a treatise on this subject. This contrasts
oddly with Vimes' distrust of 'clues' in general (see the annotation for
p. 142).

+ [p. 24] "'Where the sun doesn't shine'"

A running gag from Lords and Ladies: the place where the sun does not
shine, on the Discworld, is a valley in Slice, near Lancre.

+ [p. 25] "Clinkerbell"

Tinkerbell via 'clinker', which is one type of mining by-product.

+ [p. 26] "Slab: Jus' say 'AarrghaarrghpleeassennononoUGH"

Echoes the anti-drugs campaign slogan 'Just say no', championed most
famously by Nancy Reagan in America.

+ [p. 26] "T'Bread Wi' T'Edge"

A long-running series of British commercials for a certain brand of bread
emphasised the Yorkshire origins of the manufacturer. This slogan is in a
parody of a Yorkshire accent, presumably for similar reasons.

+ [p. 30] The shield design described is the Ankh-Morpork coat of arms, not
shown in the front of the book (but on the cover of Streets of
Ankh-Morpork).

+ [p. 27] "'[...] he's got a loaded wolf.'"

Possibly a reference to the Australian story of The Loaded Dog.

+ [p. 29] 'Daphne's ancestors came all the way from some islands on the
other side of the Hub.'

See the annotation for p. 9/9 of The Colour Of Magic
, but specifically
referring to the brown owls of New Zealand, which, to a British
viewpoint, are 'some islands on the other side of the world'. Thus the
morpork could be compared to the New Zealand brown owl.

+ [p. 30] "'Croissant Rouge Pursuivant'"

The names of the heralds are adapted from terms used in English heraldry.
'Pursuivant' is simply the title for an assistant herald. English
pursuivants include the Rouge Croix (cf. Terry's Croissant Rouge) and
Bluemantle (Terry gives us the 'Pardessus Chatain' or 'Brown Overcoat').

Senior to the pursuivants are the kings of arms, although none really
corresponds to 'Dragon'. This has been linked with 'Dracula' -- the most
famous vampire of all -- which is itself a title meaning 'little dragon'.
It also harks back to Guards! Guards!, in which a dragon actually
became king of Ankh-Morpork, albeit briefly.

+ [p. 35] "'There are plenty of kosher butchers down in Long Hogmeat.'"

Kosher butchering involves a special method of bleeding the animal, which
would ensure that there was plenty of spare blood around. The name 'Long
Hogmeat', however, is a bit more disturbing: apart from the question of
how 'hogmeat' could be kosher, it also sounds suspiciously like 'long
pig', which is pidgin for 'human flesh'. (See also the annotation for p. 239/180 of Soul Music
.

+ [p. 36] "Commander of the City Watch in 1688"

1688 AD in England was the date of the 'Glorious [bloodless] Revolution'
when the Catholic James II was deposed in favour of the Protestant Willem
van Oranje, Stadholder of the Netherlands. He married Mary Stuart and
became William III. "Old Stoneface", on the other hand, is clearly
modelled on Oliver Cromwell, who ruled the Commonwealth (Republic) of
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland from 1652 to 1658, at one point
refusing Parliament's offer of the crown. Among his many reforms, he
championed religious freedom and tolerance, extending even to Jews, who
were welcome in England for the first time since 1290.

+ [p. 36] More Latatian.

"Excretus Est Ex Altitudine" -- Shat On From a Great Height; "Depositatum
De Latrina" -- Chucked Down The Toilet.

+ [p. 38] "'The butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker.'"

From an old nursery rhyme:

<blockquote class="stanza">Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub
And who do you think they were?
The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker...

</blockquote>

+ [p. 41] "Commander Vimes, on the other hand, was all for giving criminals
a short, sharp shock."

"Short sharp shock" was coined in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado as a
euphemism for 'execution'. In 1980s Britain, Tory home secretaries used
the phrase to refer to the brief-but-harsh imprisonment of young
offenders.

+ [p. 44] "'Delphine Angua von Uberwald,' read the Dragon aloud."

Uberwald (on The Discworld Mapp spelled with an umlaut over the U) is
'Over/beyond the forest' in German. In Latin, that's "Transylvania" -- a
part of Romania traditionally associated with the undead (most
prominently, Count Dracula).

+ [p. 45] "Men said things like 'peace in our time' or 'an empire that
will last a thousand years,' [...]"

"peace in our time" -- Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, in
1938.

"an empire that will last a thousand years" -- Adolf Hitler, on the Third
Reich.

+ [p. 46] "Constable Visit was an Omnian, [...]"

Read Small Gods for much more information about Omnia. Brutha seems to
have taken a religion devoted to violent conquest and turned it into
something closely akin to modern evangelical Christianity.

+ [p. 54] "'Oh, well, if you prefer, I can recognize handwriting,' said
the imp proudly."

The original Apple Newton was the first PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)
capable of doing this, and was even supposed to improve its recognition
of the individual owner's writing with practice. In practice, it didn't
work too well. Hence the joke:

<blockquote>Q. How many Newton users does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. Foux! There to eat lemons, axe gravy soup.

</blockquote>

+ [p. 55] "Lord Vetinari had always said that punctuality was the
politeness of princes."

In our world, the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations attributes this
saying to Louis XVIII.

+ [p. 55] "It is a pervasive and beguiling myth that the people who design
instruments of death end up being killed by them."

This myth may have been started by William Makepeace Thackery, who asked
in his novel The Adventures of Philip on His Way Through the World:
"Was not good Dr Guillotin executed by his own neat invention?". As Terry
notes, he was not.

+ [p. 56] "'Can you paint a picture of his eye, Sydney?' [...] 'As big
as you can.'"

This idea has been used in many detective stories, but most famously in
Blade Runner, where the main character is able to blow up a reflection
in a photograph far beyond plausible limits.

+ [p. 63] "[...], or dribble some in their ear while they slept."

A curious method of administering poison, most famously mentioned in
Hamlet.

+ [p. 64] "'Crushed diamonds used to be in vogue for hundreds of years,
despite the fact that they never worked.'"

Crushed glass would theoretically work as a means of killing someone,
because it forms jagged edges, but in practice the pieces are always
either too big to go unnoticed or too small to have any effect. Aqua
fortis is nitric acid, a very fast-acting poison if ingested...
Cantharides is Spanish Fly, better known as an aphrodisiac, but quite
poisonous in large doses.

+ [p. 65] "And that seemed about it, short of stripping the wallpaper off
the wall."

The most obvious red herring. One of the most popular theories regarding
Napoleon Bonaparte's death is that he suffered arsenic poisoning from the
green colouration in the wallpaper of the bedroom of the place in which
he was being held. It has been suggested that microbes, present in the
humid conditions of St Helena, could absorb the poison from the
wallpaper, then be inhaled by the prisoner, giving him a small dose every
day. The wallpaper is green, and the pigment involved is copper arsenite,
known in Napoleon's day as "Paris Green".

+ [p. 68] "'But... you know I'm in the Peeled Nuts, sir...'"

The equivalent in England today is called the Sealed Knot.

+ [p. 70] "Vimes's Ironheads won."

A conflation of "Roundheads" and "Ironsides", two names for the
Parliamentarian soldiers of Oliver Cromwell, clearly the model for
Suffer-Not-Injustice Vimes.

+ [p. 71] "Twurp's Peerage"

See the annotation for p. 191/138 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ [p. 72] "But kill one wretched king and everyone calls you a regicide."

There's an old joke about Abdul, who builds roads, raises cities,
conquers nations, but is forever remembered as Abdul the Goat Fucker as a
result of a youthful indiscretion.

+ [p. 73] "Vimes put the disorganized organizer back in his pocket."

Posts made to USENET have a header field labelled 'Organization:'. Terry
Pratchett's own posts give this as 'Disorganized'.

+ [p. 75] "... when I took you to see the Boomerang Biscuit exhibition."

Curiously, Carrot seems to have taken Vimes to the Dwarf Bread museum
before treating Angua to it.

+ [p. 77] "'Ah, h'druk g'har dWatch, Sh'rt'azs!' said Carrot."

Littlebottom, in dwarfish, is "Sh'rt'azs". In British slang, 'shortarse'
is a vaguely affectionate term for the vertically challenged.

+ [p. 81] "Igneous the troll backed away until he was up against his
potter's wheel."

Igneous' shop has several parallels with a shop in the Sherlock Holmes
story of The Six Napoleons.

Holmes encounters a pottery/stonework shop staffed mainly by Italians,
who were also hiding out from the law and various other enemies, and is
eventually asked to leave by the back door to avoid bothering the staff,
which is locked with a large padlock. The figurines were also being used
to conceal contraband.

Terry comments: "My flabber is ghasted. I really did think I made that
one up. I mean... I had the pottery already in existence from previous
books, and I knew I'd want to bring it in later so I needed a pottery
scene now to introduce it, and Igneous already had a rep as an 'ask no
questions' type of merchant, and I needed somewhere clay could be stolen
and the golems would have had to break in, the padlock replacing the lock
they'd busted. And I knew that I'd need a way for the Watch to put
pressure on Igneous; 'hollow items' for drugs and other contraband is a
cliché, which ought to mean that his staff are somewhat outside the law.
In other words the scene is quite a complex little jigsaw piece which
slots into this plot and the ongoing DW saga in various places. I'll just
have to pretend I knew what I was doing..."

+ [p. 84] "'It hasn't really got a name', said Angua, 'but sometimes we
call it Biers.'"

The perfect name for an undead bar. Puns on "beer", which you would
normally associate with a tavern, and on "bier", which you would normally
associate with being dead. Also puns on Cheers, the fictional Boston
tavern in the long-running US TV comedy of the same name.

+ [p. 85] "'But sometimes it's good to go where everybody knows your
shape.'"

The theme song of Cheers contains the line "sometimes you want to go
where everybody knows your name". See the annotation for p. 84, and the
annotation for p. 298/225 of Soul Music
.

+ [p. 86] "'That's Old Man Trouble,' said Angua. 'If you know what's good
for you, you don't mind him.'"

From the Gershwin song 'I Got Rhythm': "Old Man Trouble, I don't mind
him".

+ [p. 89] "'[...] sunglasses tester for Argus Opticians... [...]'"

A very appropriate name. Argus "the all-seeing" was the name of the
many-eyed watchman from Greek mythology, who was tasked by Hera to
keep an eye (so to speak) on Io, a human priestess who, after her
seduction by Zeus, had been transformed into a cow in an attempt to
keep Hera from getting suspicious. No such luck.

+ [p. 90] "'These words are from the Cenotine Book of Truth, [...]'"

There have been a number of suggestions for the derivation of this name.
The root "ken" in Hebrew means "honest, truthful, correct". "Cenogenesis"
is a biological term meaning the development of an individual that is
notably different from its group (such as happens to Dorfl in the book).
Alternatively, for the atheists, there's the "ceno" in "cenotaph", from
the Greek "kenos", meaning "empty".

+ [p. 91] Magazine titles.

Unadorned Facts and Battle Call are plays on The Plain Truth,
published by the Worldwide Church of God, and War Cry, published by the
Salvation Army.

+ [p. 92] "'[...] Mr Dorfl.'"

All he golems' names are Yiddish, and Dorfl is no exception, although I'm
not too sure what his means. It could be a pun on "Stedtl", which means
"ghetto" -- Stadt is German for "town", Dorf for "village". In Austria,
'Dorfl' is indeed a word used to denote a small village.

+ [p. 93] "'Feeding the yudasgoat?'"

Or in English, 'Judas goat', named after the disciple who betrayed Jesus.

Judas goats are used by slaughterhouses to lead sheep to the killing
floor. The sheep cannot easily be driven, but the herding instinct will
make them follow the goat.

+ [p. 94] "'I'm going to read your chem, Dorfl.'"

"Chem", pronounced "shem", is Hebrew for "name".

One common euphemism used by Orthodox Jews for "God" is "Ha-Shem",
literally: "The Name", which ties in to that part of the Golem legend
which involves writing the name of God on the Golem's forehead (the other
variant has the vivifying word being "Emet" (Truth)).

+ [p. 95] "NOW THREE HUNDRED DAYS ALREADY. [...] WHAT WOULD I DO WITH TIME
OFF?"

Ending sentences with "already" is a common mannerism among
Yiddish-speaking Jews in Anglophone countries. Rhetorical questions
are another mainstay of Yiddish conversational style.

+ [p. 99] "HOLY DAY STARTS AT SUNSET."

Jewish holy days do, indeed, run from sunset to sunset. Cf. Genesis 1:5:
"The evening and the morning were the first day."

+ [p. 109] "The Rites of Man"

Thomas Paine wrote a justification of the French Revolution entitled The
Rights of Man

+ [p. 110] "[...], licking his fingers delicately to turn the thin pages."

Another red herring. Putting poison on the pages of a book, so that it is
self-administered to the reader in this way, is an idea famously used in
Umberto Eco's medieval mystery The Name of the Rose.

+ [p. 115] "You came with me when they had that course at the YMPA.'"

See the annotation for p. 88/88 of The Light Fantastic
. The YMCA runs
summer courses for children, and presumably for adults as well.

+ [p. 120] "'Nobblyesse obligay,' [...]"

See the annotation for p. 235/206 of Reaper Man
.

+ [p. 123] "'It's "a mess of pottage", [...]'"

Another Old Testament reference.

Esau sold his status as Abraham's firstborn son to his brother Jacob
(Genesis 25:29-34) for a bowl of stew (pottage). Hence, a mess of
pottage is the proverbial price of a birthright. This phrase was
parodied by CS Lewis, who accused H. G. Wells of selling his
birthright for "a pot of message" (that is, abandoning the purely
imaginative books he did so well to push his political ideas).

+ [p. 123] "'Who streals my prurse streals trasph, right?'"

Iago would rather be robbed than slandered in Othello, act 3, scene 3:

<blockquote class="stanza">Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him
And makes me poor indeed.

</blockquote>

+ [p. 124] "[...] he had got only six weeks to retirement [...]"

The copper within days or hours of retirement has become a police movie
cliché; traditionally, anyone who starts talking like this is likely to
die within the short time left. Two examples occur in the films Lethal Weapon 2 and Falling Down.

+ [p. 129] "'[...] ole Zhlob just used to plod along, [...]'"

Another golem name: "Zhlob" is Yiddish for "boorish glutton" (or
gluttonous boor). Probably Slavic in origin.

+ [p. 130] "As her tutors had said, there were two signs of a good
alchemist: the Athletic and the Intellectual."

Terry used this joke in a talk at the Australian National University in
Canberra in 1994, but he was talking about a shift charge engineer in a
nuclear power plant...

The standard analytical technique to prove arsenic in chemical mixtures
involves mixing the sample with zinc and adding sulphuric acid. If
arsenic is present, this produces arsenic hydride as a gas; burning the
gas, and holding the flame against a cool porcelain surface, leaves a
black precipitation of metallic arsenic.

+ [p. 132] "'It's nine of the clock,' said the organizer, poking its
head out of Vimes's pocket. "'I was unhappy because I had no shoes until
I met a man with no feet."'"

Refers to the regrettable trend among software producers to inflict a
happy Thought For The Day on their users each time they open the
software.

+ [p. 135] "One had a duck on his head, [...]"

See the annotation for p. 272/204 of Soul Music
.

+ [p. 136] "'Buggrit, millennium hand and shrimp!'"

See the annotation for p. 324/233 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ [p. 138] "'Dibbuk? Where the hell are you?'"

A dybbuk, in Jewish mythology, is a demonic spirit that possess the body
of someone living.

+ [p. 140] "'We're all lyin' in the gutter, Fred. But some of us're lookin'
at the stars...'"

From Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, Act 3. Although it can't be
easy to see the stars through all that fog.

+ [p. 142] "He distrusted the kind of person who'd take one look at
another man and say in a lordly voice to his companion..."

Terry is challenging the Sherlock Holmes school of detection as being "an
insult to the glorious variety of human life." P G Wodehouse does the
same in one of his PSmith stories, in which Psmith observes the local
plumber sitting in his garden, dressed well because it's Sunday and
reading Shakespeare because he likes it, while Psmith is studying the
"How To Detect" booklet that says a plumber is unlikely to dress
well/read Shakespeare.

+ [p. 143] "It wasn't by eliminating the impossible that you got at the
truth, however improbable..."

Another dig at Holmes, who said precisely this.

+ [p. 145] The description of Vetinari's drawing matches the cover of the
original publication of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, possibly the most
influential work of mainstream political theory.

The book argues that for people to come together in a society, they
cannot help but create a structure larger than themselves, which must
have a controlling intelligence of its own, i.e. some sort of governing
body. Hence, although political power derives from the common people, it
must be superior to them.

+ [p. 147] "[...] you might as well accuse the wallpaper of driving him
mad. Mind you, that horrible green colour would drive anyone insane..."

See the annotation for p. 65.

A number of people also wrote to say that they were reminded of Charlotte
Perkins Gilman's story The Yellow Wallpaper (1892), about a woman who
is indeed driven mad by wallpaper.

+ [p. 148] "'We're known for rings, sir.'"

Alberich the dwarf forges the Ring that is the centrepiece of Wagner's
interminable Ring Cycle, based on Norse legend. Tolkien uses the same
source, and his One Ring is not unlike Alberich's.

+ [p. 150] "Drumknott delicately licked his finger and turned a page."

See the note for p. 110.

+ [p. 153] "It was called the Rats Chamber."

This is another multidirectional pun. First, in German, the word for
'council chamber' is Ratskammer. Second, it's an anagram of Star Chamber,
a special civil and criminal court in England. Created by Henry VII in
1487, abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641 following abuses under
James I and Charles I. The court took its name from a star-shaped
decoration in the ceiling.

The decoration in the ceiling of the Rats Chamber -- a group of rats with
their tails tied together -- is called a rat king. According to Maarten
't Hart, in Rats (translated from the Dutch), some 57 rat kings have
been found since the 17th century, although several are of dubious
authenticity. They are often found alive, and can contain as few as three
or as many as 32 members, although seven is the commonest number. Members
are of both sexes, and almost always of the same age group, which may be
young or adult. Rat kings are generally formed of black rats (Rattus
rattus), although there is one occurrence of field rats (found in Java)
and several of squirrels. No-one knows quite why they form, although one
theory is that black rats (which have longer and more pliable tails than
other breeds) get something sticky on their tails, and get tangled up
when they groom each other, or while playing or fighting.

Apparently, a modern artist decided to make a work of art depicting a
rat-king, and even put it on the internet. See Katharina Fritsch:
Rat-King (Rattenkoenig), 1993
<http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/fritsch/ratking/> (which also has an
essay on the rat king through history).

+ [p. ???] "[...] Mrs Rosemary Palm, head of the Guild of Seamstresses
[...]"

See the annotation for p. 121/119 of Equal Rites
.

+ [p. 155] "'Remember when he made his horse a city councillor?'"

Caligula, Emperor of Rome from 37 to 41 AD, famously appointed his horse
Incitatus as Consul to show his contempt for the Senate.

+ [p. 158] "'Genua wrote to Ankh-Morpork and asked to be sent one of our
generals to be their king [...] The history books say that we sent our
loyal General Tacticus, whose first act after obtaining the crown was to
declare war on Ankh-Morpork.'"

Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, 1763-1844, was a French general who
became King Karl XIV John of Sweden and Norway. The youngest son of a
French lawyer, Bernadotte joined the French army in 1780, becoming an
officer in 1792, during the French Revolution. Recognising his brilliance
in the field, the Emperor Napoleon eventually elevated him to the rank of
prince. In Sweden, where Gustav IV had abdicated (1809) and been
succeeded by the childless Karl XIII, Napoleon supported Bernadotte as
heir to the throne. In August 1810, he was elected crown prince as Karl
John. In 1813 he joined the allies against Napoleon.

+ [p. 162] "Constable Visit had told him the meek would inherit [the
world], [...]"

Another parallel between Omnianism and Christianity. See Matthew 5:5.

+ [p. 165] "'you've got to have the noses poking through the pastry...'"

Similar to Stargazy pie, a Cornish dish that has fish heads poking
through the pastry all around the edge of the dish.

+ [p. 177] "'... push off back to the Yard, job done and dusted.'"

This phrase relates to the act of distempering a wall -- another oblique
hint at the wallpaper theory.

+ [p. 181] "'Now we're cooking with charcoal!'"

The expression "cooking with gas" dates back to an advertising campaign
designed to persuade people of the advantages of gas over electricity.

+ [p. 189] "*'She feels the need,' [...] 'Yeah, the need to feed.'*"

In the movie Top Gun, the pilots boast that they 'feel the need; the
need for speed.'

+ [p. 190] "That horrible green wallpaper."

By the time Vimes has this idea (see the annotation for p. 65), he
already knows enough to dismiss it in fairly short order.

+ [p. 195] "'Then there's this one about the Klatchian who walks into a
pub with a tiny piano -- '"

The joke as adapted by thee goode folkes of alt.fan.pratchett goes like
this:

This Klatchian walked into a pub carrying a small piano. He puts in on
the bar and has a few drinks. When it comes time to pay up he says to
the publican, "I bet you double or nothing I can show you the most
amazing thing you ever saw."

"Okay, but I warn you, I've seen some weird stuff."

The Klatchian takes out a tiny stool, which he sits in front of the
piano. He then reaches into his robes and pulls out a box, about a
foot long, with tiny air-holes in it. He takes off the lid and inside
is a tiny man, fast asleep. As the lid opens he wakes up. Instantly he
jumps to the piano and plays a perfect rendition of 'The Shades of
Ankh-Morpork'! Then, as everyone in the bar is clapping, he jumps back
into the box and closes the lid.

"Wow!" The publican says, and wipes the slate clean. "If I give you
another drink, could you do it again?" The Klatchian agrees. This time
the little man plays the Hedgehog song, to thunderous applause.

"I gotta ask, where did you get that?"

"Well, a few months ago I was travelling across the deserts of Klatch,
when I suddenly came across a glass bottle. I picked it up and rubbed
it and lo and behold, out popped a Genie. For some reason it was
holding a curved bone to his ear and talking to it."

"'Genie,' I said to him, 'I have freed you, and in return I ask only
three wishes.'"

"'Huh?' The genie said, looking at me for the first time. 'Oh, OK, three,
whatever.' He then started talking to the bone again."

"'Genie, I would like a million bucks!' I said to him."

"Did you get it?"

"Not exactly. The genie kept talking to the bone and he waved one of his
hands. Instantly, I was surrounded by a million ducks. Then they flew
away."

"What was your second wish?"

"I said to him: 'I want to be the ruler the world!' the Genie was still
talking to his bone, but he waved his free hand and a piece of wood
appeared, with inches marked on it."

"Oh, a ruler. It sounds like the genie wasn't paying much attention. Did
you get your third wish?"

"Let me put it like this: do you really think I asked for a twelve-inch
pianist?"

+ [p. 196] "'Send Meshugah after him, ah-ha.'"

Another Yiddish name, from Hebrew, meaning 'crazy'.

+ [p. 196] "[...] sometimes people inconsiderately throw their enemies
into rooms entirely bereft of nails, handy bits of sharp stone,
sharp-edged shards of glass or even, in extreme cases, enough pieces
of old junk and tools to make a fully functional armoured car."

Most correspondent feel that the "extreme cases" are exactly the kind
that the heroes of the television series The A-Team for years
encountered on an almost weekly basis.

+ [p. 203] "[...] the crowd opened up like a watercourse in front of
the better class of prophet."

Moses parted the sea to allow the Israelites to escape the pursuing
Egyptian army, who were then all killed when the seas collapsed on top of
them... (Exodus 14:21-30)

+ [p. 217] "'"My name is Sam and I'm a really suspicious bastard."'"

Parodies how people introduce themselves at meetings of Alcoholics
Anonymous.

+ [p. 222] "'I thought the damn thing smashed up...' [...] 'Well, it's
putting itself together.'"

The monster breaking into pieces and then reassembling itself is probably
best known from Terminator 2 (see also the annotation for p. 364/275 of Soul Music
), but there are earlier references. In The Iron Man by Ted
Hughes (1968) the iron man/robot falls over the edge of a cliff and
breaks into many pieces. The fingers put the hands together then they
pick up an eye and start putting the rest of the body together.

+ [p. 226] "It is not a good idea to spray finest brandy across the room,
especially when your lighted cigar is in the way."

...unless, of course, you want a small fireball. This trick is used in
the 1959 film The League of Gentlemen.

+ [p. 230] "'I wanted to buy a farm!' moaned Colon. 'Could be,' said
Arthur."

See the annotation for p. 17.

+ [p. 234] "'This candle even weighs slightly more than the other candles!"

Although there are a few fictional uses of this method of poisoning,
Terry himself explains that his source was an "attempt on the life of
Leopold I, Emperor of Austria, in 1671, which was foiled when the
alchemist Francesco Borri checked up on the candles. He found the candles
in the bedchamber were heavier than similar candles elsewhere and found
that two and a half pounds of arsenic has been added to the batch."

+ [p. 236] "'Hello hello hello, what's all this, then?'"

Catchphrase from the Dixon of Dock Green TV series. See the annotation for p. 60/55 of Guards! Guards!
.

+ [p. 245] "'That's Mr Catterail, sir."

... whose letter Carrot read way back on p. 108, where he gives his
address as Park Lane. Kings Down is a short walk away along Long Wall.
Presumably they are on the same beat.

+ [p. 252] "'"Today Is A Good Day For Someone Else To Die!"'"

Contrary to popular belief, the saying "Today is a good day to die!"
was not invented by Klingons. It's a traditional Siouxan/Lacotah
battle-cry.

+ [p. 258] "He landed on the king's back, flung one arm around its neck,
and began to pound on its head with the hilt of his sword. It staggered
and tried to reach up to pull him off."

In Robocop 2, our hero (Robo) jumped on the back of the 'Robocop 2' and
tried to open its head.

+ [p. 260] "'They gave their own golem too many, I can see that."

The way the king golem is driven mad by the number of rules in its head
reminded many people of a scene in Robocop 2, where Robocop is rendered
useless by programming with several, partly conflicting rules. This
slightly tenuous connection is reinforced by several further similarities
between Dorfl and Robocop.

Never mind Robocop, however: one correspondent has posited that the
entire candle factory sequence is a clever amalgam of the endings to
both Terminator movies. I will let him explain this to you in his
own words -- I couldn't bring myself to paraphrase or edit it down:

"The candle factory itself, with all the candle production lines is
reminiscent of the robotics in the automated factory that Reese
activates to confuse the Terminator. Throughout the candle factory
scene, Carrot is Reese, Angua is Sarah Connor, the king switches
between the original T-800 when fighting Carrot and the T-1000 from T2
when fighting Dorfl, who is the 'good' Terminator from T2.

Carrot is shot early on and has to be dragged around initially by
Angua, much like the injured Reese has to be supported by Sarah. The
following fight between Dorfl and the king is similar to the big T2
confrontation between the two Terminators, in which one of the
combatants is able to 'repair' himself and thus has an advantage. When
Dorfl is 'killed', his red eyes fade out just like a T-800s, but he is
later able to come back to life. The T-800 achieves this by rerouting
power through undamaged circuitry; Dorfl does it by getting the words
from elsewhere (heart as opposed to head).

In T1, Reese finds a metal bar and tries to fight an opponent he can't
possibly beat -- exactly as Carrot does. When Angua finds herself
facing the injured king, it is similar to the scene in T1 after
Reese's death, when the torso of the Terminator pulls itself along
after the injured Sarah, grabbing at her legs (which the king also
does to Angua). Then, Detritus' shot at the king, which has no effect,
is like Sarah's last stand against the T-1000, when she runs out of
ammo just at the crucial point. When it appears that the seemingly
invincible king has survived everything and is about to finish the job
and kill Carrot, the thought-to-be-dead Dorfl makes a last-gasp
interjection which finally kills the king -- much like the resurrected
Arnie appears just in time to kill the T-1000 in T2. Oh, and finally,
the molten tallow that Cheery almost falls into is, of course, the
molten metal at the end of T2."

+ [p. 260] "'We can rebuild him,' said Carrot hoarsely. 'We have the
pottery.'"

From the 70s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man: "We can rebuild him.
We have the technology."

+ [p. 272] "'Undead Or Alive, You Are Coming With Me!'"

Another echo of Robocop.

+ [p. 278] "'He's just made of clay, Vimes.' 'Aren't we all, sir?
According to them pamphlets Constable Visit keeps handing out.'"

Another parallel between Omnianism and Christianity. See Genesis 2:7. (In
fact, the idea of God as a potter and humans as clay is a recurring
metaphor in the Bible. See, e.g., Job 33:6, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 18:6.)

+ [p. 279] "'The thought occurs, sir, that if Commander Vimes did not
exist you would have had to invent him.'"

Parallels a famous saying of Voltaire (1694-1778): "If God did not exist,
it would be necessary to invent him."

+ [p. 280] "'To Serve The Public Trust, Protect The Innocent, And
Seriously Prod Buttock.'"

The first two of these were also the first two of Robocop's prime
directives.

+ [p. 283] Dorfl's plan to liberate his fellow golems seems to take a lot
for granted (e.g. that they will all decide, once free, to join him).

Terry himself describes what he envisages happening next:

"While I wasn't planning to feature this in another book, I suspect the
sequence of events, given Dorfl's character, would run like this:

<blockquote>1 Dorfl saves up to buy the next golem
2 Golems suddenly become very pricey
3 Dorfl does extra shifts and go on saving
4 Price of golems goes up
5 Several merchants recieved a friendly visit from the Commander of the Watch to discuss matters of common interest
6 Golems available to Dorfl at very reasonable prices.

</blockquote>
I want more golems on the city payroll. How else can they resurrect the
fire service?"

The names of the golems, again, are Yiddish. "Klutz" -- a clumsy clod or
bungler (from German); "Bobkes" -- beans, but only metaphorically;
something worthless or nonsensical (from Russian); "Shmata" -- a rag, or
piece of cloth; used both literally and to describe a person of weak
character (from Polish).

+ [p. 285] "'Not a problem, me old china,' he said."

Rhyming slang: china plate -- mate, friend.

+ [p. 285] "'Somewhere, A Crime Is Happening,' said Dorfl."

Another Robocop line.

+ [p. 285] "'But When I Am Off Duty I Will Gladly Dispute With The Priest
Of The Most Worthy God.'"

However, Dorfl has just told Vimes that he will never be off duty...

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:13 pm

Author: Terry Pratchett
Title: Feet of Clay
Publisher: Victor Gollancz
Date: 1996 (June)
ISBN: 0 575 05900 (Hardback)

Blurb:

<blockquote>

A Discworld Howdunnit

Who's murdering harmless old men? Who's poisoning the Patrician?

As autumn fogs hold Ankh-Morpork in their grip, the City Watch have
to track down a murderer who can't be seen.

Maybe the golems know something - but the solemn man of clay, who
work all day and night and are never any trouble to anyone, have started
to commit suicide...

It's not as if the Watch hasn't got problems of its own. There's a
werewolf suffering from Pre-Lunar Tension. Corporal Nobbs is hobnobbing
with the nobs, and there's something really strange about the new dwarf
recruit, especially his earings and eyeshadow.

Who can you trust when there are mobs on the streets and plotters in
the dark and all the clues point the wrong way?

In the gloom of the night, Watch Commander Sir Samuel Vimes finds
that the truth might not be out there at all.

It may be in amongst the words in the head

A chilling tale of poison and pottery.

</blockquote>

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:20 pm

The Unseen Theatre Company Presents
Sir Terry Pratchett's

MONSTROUS REGIMENT

Adapted by Stephen Briggs
Directed by Pamela Munt

Women of the world unite! A call to arms that will have you laughing
your socks off! John Knox (well known Protestant Reformer of the 16th
Century) is turning in his grave! His view that women are "weak, pale,
impatient, feeble, foolish, inconstant, variable, cruel and lacking the
spirit of counsel and regiment" is about to be exposed for exactly what
it is - MONSTROUS!

It may have taken five centuries since Knox wrote his essay entitled
"The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of
Women", as well as the enormous satirical wit of Sir Terry Pratchett,
for Unseen Theatre Company to blow its own first blast of the trumpet,
but here we are, ready to do battle with our own Monstrous Regiment, led
by - you guessed it - a girl!

Polly Perks has to become a boy in a hurry. Cutting off her hair and
wearing trousers is easy. Learning to fart and belch in public and walk
like an ape takes more time… but nothing is going to stop her enlisting
in the Borogravian Army to search for her lost brother. The fact that
there's a war on and their side's coming off worse doesn't scare her.

Polly and her fellow recruits are suddenly in the thick of it,
without any training. All that the bunch of new recruits has on their
side is the most artful sergeant in the army, a vampire with a lust for
coffee, a troll, an Igor, and a readiness to fight dirty. As they take
the war to to the heart of the enemy, they will need all the resources
of the Monstrous Regiment.

Preview Night and Free Tickets (for holders of Health Care Cards):Friday 17 September 2010.Opening Night for Media: Saturday 18 September 2010.

Season continues Wed to Sat until 2 October 2010. All shows at 8pm.

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:20 pm

Book:I Shall Wear Midnight

], the [[Pictsies]]"]] book"]

I Shall Wear Midnight

Publisher	Doubleday
ISBN	0385611072
Main characters	Tiffany Aching, the Pictsies
Series	Tiffany Series
Annotations	View
Notes	The fourth Tiffany Aching book
All data relates to the first UK edition.

I Shall Wear Midnight is the fourth Tiffany Aching novel, published September 2, 2010.

The title is loosely based upon the poem "When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple" by Jenny Joseph. This is the title that most people would recognise, however it is interesting that the correct title for her poem is "Warning". You can see it here [1].
Despite a superficial similarity, there is no evidence to link the two
works. The most senior and junior witches look set to have interesting
times together!

The title is also a capsule of the thought process of the
character Tiffany in regards to her wearing colorful clothing despite
being a witch.

If the aging tradition of the Tiffany books continued (every book leaps 2 years: in Wee Free Men Tiffany is 9, in A Hat Full of Sky, 11, and in Wintersmith, 12 and 13) then Tiffany should be 15 in this book; however it established by the character Preston that she is 16.

Contents

[hide]

1 Synopsis
2 Main Characters
3 Cameos
4 Locations

Synopsis

A man with no eyes. No eyes at all. Two tunnels in his head ...It's
not easy being a witch, and it's certainly not all whizzing about on
broomsticks, but Tiffany Aching - teen witch - is doing her best. Until
something evil wakes up, something that stirs up all the old stories
about nasty old witches, so that just wearing a pointy hat suddenly
seems a very bad idea. Worse still, this evil ghost from the past is
hunting down one witch in particular. He's hunting for Tiffany. And he's
found her…. A fabulous Discworld title filled with witches and magic
and told in the inimitable Terry Pratchett style, "I Shall Wear
Midnight" is the fourth Discworld title to feature Tiffany and her tiny,
fightin', boozin' pictsie friends, the Nac Mac Feegle (aka The Wee Free
Men).

Main Characters

Amber Petty
Tiffany Aching
The Cunning Man
Jeannie
Deirdre Parsley, lately Lady Keepsake / The Duchess
Letitia Keepsake
Nac Mac Feegle
Roland
Eskarina Smith

Cameos

Members of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch
- Nobby Nobbs
- Captain Angua von Überwald
- Carrot Ironfoundersson
- Sam Vimes
- Haddock
</li>
Death
Magrat Garlick

Locations

Ankh-Morpork
The Chalk
Keepsake Hall

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:25 pm

Pictsies

Pictsie
By Kit Cox
Race	Pictsie
Occupation	stealing, fighting, drinking
Physical appearance	small but very strong
Residence	Ramtops, hubward Sto Plains
Books	Carpe Jugulum, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight
Cameos	Monstrous Regiment, The Celebrated Discworld Almanak

Pictsies or Nac Mac Feegle are six inches tall,
red-haired, and blue-tattooed. Some of their number have taken to
wearing skulls of small animals as helmets. In size they resemble gnomes, but pictsies often protest (violently) if they are called such.

Contents

[hide]

1 Habitat
2 Personality and habits
3 Dialect and language
4 List of known pictsies
- 4.1 Chalk Hill Clan
- 4.2 Long Lake Clan
- 4.3 Clan unknown

Habitat

Pictsies live and operate as members of huge warrior clans. They have
a hierarchical structure similar to bees, with one queen and hundreds
of males (but without female "workers".) Pictsie clans live in rural
areas, and make their living through stealing cows, sheep, eggs, and
other things from barns and farmers. Pictsies are secretive, disguising
their underground tunnels as rabbit holes or in burial mounds. We have
encountered only a few clans so far:

The Chalk Hill Clan. This is the clan to which Tiffany Aching was temporarily Kelda. It is home to the most well known pictsies, such as Rob Anybody, Daft Wullie and Big Yan.
The Long Lake Clan. The Kelda is Big Aggie, and her daughter, Jeannie, came to marry Rob Anybody.
Although it is not specifically mentioned, there is a clan up in the mountains, presumably the Ramtops, that William the Gonnagle is from.

No pictsie clans have been reported to operate in cities. However,
some members of other species do know about the existence of pictsies:
the Lancre witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, for example. Pictsies occasionally do business with other people; one time, Corporal Buggy Swires, the gnome Ankh-Morpork Watchman paid a pictsie clan a crate of whiskey in exchange for Morag, a highly trained buzzard (in Monstrous Regiment).

Personality and habits

All pictsies share one unusual belief. They believe that they are all
already dead, and are in a sort of paradise world, where they are free
to do whatever they please. By their own cheerful admission, the
favorite activities of the feegles are: fighting, drinking, and
stealing. They are fierce fighters, but somewhat lacking in intellect,
as it is well known to the Feegles that one female has the brains of 100
males. They will fight anyone and anything, and one of the ways to
select a group for a mission is simply to set them all fighting, and
taking the last 50 or so still standing. They distrust the written word,
believing that if your name is written down you can go to prison. In at
least one clan, the pictsies' swords glow blue in the presence of
lawyers. However, some clans, such as the Long Lake, have taken to
writing, using their tiny scripts to "legally" get what can't be
achieved by fighting or stealing. The Keldas of a clan also have unusual
powers, called the "Hiddlins". It is partially because of this that
they are given so much respect. Each clan also has a gonnagle, a sort of battle poet who makes noise so bad that it causes enemies pain.

Dialect and language

Feegles talk with a strong mountain brogue. Some of the more unusual words, and their equivalent meanings are:

Big Wee Hag - Tiffany Aching
Bigjobs - human beings.
Big Man - chief of the clan (usually the husband of the Kelda).
Blathers/blethers - rubbish, nonsense.
Boggin - to be desperate, as in 'I'm boggin for a cup of
tea.(you would be gaggin for a cup of tea) REAL MEANING(this food is
boggin = this food tastes really bad)
Bunty - a weak person.
Carlin - an old woman, witch or not.
Cludgie - the privy
Coo- Cow
Crivens! - A general exclamation, ranging in seriousness and severity. Used in place of swear words.
Dinnae/didnae - do not/did not.
Dree your/my/his/her weird - Face the fate that is in store for you/me/him/her.
Eldritch - weird, strange. Sometimes means oblong, too, for some reason
Geas - An oath of sorts, an obligation. Not a bird. REAL MEANING ->(give me that)
Hag - Witch
Hag o' Hags - A head witch or great witch
Haggins/hagglins - What a witch does.
Hiddlins - secrets
Ken - Know.
Midden - combination of dump, cesspit, dunnikin.
Mudlin - Useless person.
Offski - To leave or depart quickly. (Run away.)
Pished - Tired....or so we are told. tired translates as
knackered. pished = really drunk (we all gt pished - we all got really
drunk)
Scunner - A generally unpleasant person.
Scuggan - A really unpleasant person.
Ships - Wooly things that eat grass and go baa. Not to be confused with sailing or boats.
Spavie - See Mudlin.
Waily - general cry of despair.
Special Sheep Liniment - Probably moonshine whiskey

In the Long Lake clan, the dialect is much stronger and harder to understand.

List of known pictsies

This list does not include honorary members of clans, for example Horace the Cheese, but only "true" feegles.

Chalk Hill Clan

Big Yan - biggest feegle.
Daft Wullie - second in command.
Fion - the old Kelda's daughter.
Hamish the Aviator - scout and messenger.
Rob Anybody - big man of the clan.
No-As-Big-As-Medium-Jock-But-Bigger-Than-Wee-Jock-Jock - younger, apprentice Gonnagle.
Old Kelda - Mother of Rob Anybody, Wullie and Fion, among others. Died after 70 years in charge.
William the Gonnagle - old Gonnagle.
Wee Dangerous Spike - a younger, inexperienced Feegle.
Wee Bobby
Not-Totally-Wee Georgie
Slightly Mad Angus

Long Lake Clan

Awf'ly Wee Billy Bigchin - very small gonnagle.
Big Aggie - Kelda.
Jeannie - New Kelda of Chalk Hill, married to Rob Anybody.

Clan unknown

Wee Mad Arthur
- Carried off by a hawk as an infant, he was raised by gnomish
shoemakers. His inherent Feegleness prevented him from fitting in,
however.

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:27 pm

Book:The Wee Free Men

The Wee Free Men

Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	May 2003
ISBN	0385605331
Pages	318
RRP	£12.99
Main characters	Tiffany Aching Nac Mac Feegle Toad Miss Perspicacia Tick
Series	Tiffany Series
Annotations	View
Notes	Book #30
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Contents

[hide]

1 Blurb
2 Main characters
3 Secondary characters
4 Notes
5 Also see
6 External links

Blurb

There's trouble on the Aching farm
– a monster in the river, a headless horseman in the driveway and
nightmares spreading down from the hills. And now Tiffany Aching's little brother has been stolen by the Queen of the Fairies (although Tiffany doesn't think this is entirely a bad thing).

Tiffany's got to get him back. To help her, she has a weapon (a frying pan), her granny's magic book (well, Diseases of the Sheep, actually) and—

'Crivens! Whut aboot us, ye daftie!'

—oh yes. She's also got the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men, the fightin', thievin', tiny blue-skinned pictsies who were thrown out of Fairyland for being Drunk and Disorderly...

A wise, witty and wonderfully inventive adventure set on the Discworld.

Main characters

Tiffany Aching
Wentworth Aching
Granny Aching
Perspicacia Tick
Nac Mac Feegle
- The Chalk Hill Clan
- Rob Anybody
- Daft Wullie
- William the Gonnagle
- The Kelda of the Chalk Hill Clan
</li>
Toad

Secondary characters

Dromes
Granny Weatherwax
Grimhounds
Headless Horseman
Jeannie, new Kelda of the Chalk Hill Clan
Jenny Green-Teeth
Lawyers
Nanny Ogg
Queen of Fairyland
Roland de Chumsfanleigh
Travelling Teachers

Notes

The working title of this book was For Fear of Little Men.
This book is the only Discworld Novel so far that does not feature Death.

There are plans to make a movie according to the BBC website.

Also see

The Illustrated Wee Free Men

External links

The Wee Free Men on the Annotated Pratchett File

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:28 pm

The Wee Free Men

Annotations
| Information
| Quotes

+ [title] The working title of this book was For Fear of Little Men. See
also the annotation for p. 287/207 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ The Nac Mac Feegle appear to be very Scottish in nature. Terry says:

"Um. The Nac Mac Feegle are not Scottish. There is no Scotland on
Discworld. They may, in subtle ways, suggest some aspects of the Scottish
character as filtered through the media, but that's because of quantum."

+ [p. 15] "They call it the Chalk."

The Chalk has many similarities to the English Wiltshire region, where
Terry himself comes from. He says:

"[It's] based wherever there was something I wanted. But probably mostly
on the southern Chalk, it's true. It's what I know.

The term 'the Chalk', by the way, is not from Kipling as suggested
elsewhere. It used to be, and may still be, a general term for, well, the
chalk country. I actually do have a copy of an old book called Wild
Flowers of the Chalk..."

+ [p. 24] "'I can't do,' said Miss Tick, straightening up. 'But I can
teach!'"

As the old insult says: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach". The
UK government at one time used "Those who can, teach." as an advertising
slogan to try and get people to train as teachers.

+ [p. 29] "Jenny Green-Teeth."

Lancashire folk stories tell of a kind of spirit or boggart who lived
underwater named "Jenny Green-Teeth". Her presence was indicated by the
growth of duckweed, which thrives in still fresh water.

+ [p. 32] "'You're very yellow for a toad.' 'I've been a bit ill,' said the
toad."

So, clearly, what we have here is a yellow sick toad. See also the
annotation for p. 159/132 of Moving Pictures
.

Terry says: "I just happened to note a toad had a skin which had had
unfortunately gone a bit yellow because it had been ill, Far be it from
me to make a pun. You did that:-)"

+ [p. 41] "Yan Tan Tethera"

This is indeed the ancient counting language of shepherds in Northern
England. It was also used by the Nac Mac Feegle themselves in Carpe
Jugulum.

+ [p. 42] "[...] especially ones strong enough to withstand falling
farmhouses."

A Wizard of Oz reference. See also the annotation for p. 139/122 of Witches Abroad
.

+ [p. 51] "[...] she climbed to the top of Arken Hill [...]"

The legends concerning Arken Hill are similar to those of Dragon Hill,
Oxfordshire (where some people claim St George fought the dragon) and
Silbury Hill, Wiltshire (alleged burial of a knight in gold armour, or
possibly the forgotten King Sil, whoever he might be). Both hills are
flat topped, like Arken Hill, and believed to be artificial.

+ [p. 67] "'It's a' gang agley.'"

"It's all gone wahoonie-shaped". One of the best known bits of Scots, due
to it being what the best laid plans o' mice and men do in the poem "To a
mouse" by Robert Burns.

<blockquote class="stanza">But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

</blockquote>

+ [p. 74] "The headless man would catch her on the flat."

From The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving -- and many other
similar folk tales.

+ [p. 75] "'[...] yer bogle [...]'"

'bogle' is Scots for ghost or apparition.

+ [p. 75] "'[...] courtesy of Big Yan!'"

Glaswegian comedian Billy Connolly (who, at least to my Dutch ears,
speaks very much as I imagine a Nac Mac Feegle would) is known as "The
Big Yin".

+ [p. 83] "'Ach, see you, pussycat, scunner that y'are!' he yelled. 'Here's
a giftie from the t' wee burdies, yah schemie!'"

'Scunner' is a Scots word for something or someone to which/whom you've
taken a strong dislike. A 'schemie' is a pejorative Scots term for
someone who lives in a Housing Scheme, i.e. a nasty concrete housing
estate built as replacement for slums, but rapidly becoming slums
themselves.

+ [p. 92] "'[...] it means our kelda is weakenin' fast, [...]'"

'Kelda' is a Scots word derived from the Old Norse 'kelda', meaning
origin or source (in the spring/well sense).

+ [p. 93] "'See their swords? They glow blue in the presence of lawyers.'"

In the The Lord of The Rings books, various weapons glow blue in the
presence of Orcs and other evil creatures.

+ [p. 107] "There were odd carvings in the chalk, too [...]"

Chalk figures like the Rude Man of Cerne or the horses (such as the
Uffington White Horse) that you find all over the chalk areas of Britain.
See also the annotation for p. 302/217 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ [p. 113] "'Onna black horse.'"

The Elf Queen rides a black steed in the ballad of 'Tam Lin'. See also
the annotation for p. 141/103 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ [p. 116] "Grimhounds!"

There are various Hellhound/Devil Dog legends in Britain. Specifically,
the "grim" part of the name and the reference to them haunting graveyards
suggests the Kirk Grim, which hangs around churchyards to protect the
dead buried there from evil spirits or the devil.

There are many Devil Dog legends in Sussex, most of them on, yes, the
Downs. Most of these creatures are described much as the grimhounds, and
to see them is a portent of death: presumably if they're visible to you,
then you need their protection (and so are or will soon be dead).

+ [p. 123] "'You live in one of the mounds?' Tiffany asked. 'I thought they
were, you know, the graves of ancient chieftains?'"

In folklore, Bronze Age Burial Mounds are supposed to be the homes of
fairy folk. On the Disc, of course, they're both.

+ [p. 135] "When a well-trained gonnagle starts to recite, the enemy's ears
explode."

A reference to William Topaz McGonagall, Scotland's Worst Poet (he was to
rhyme and meter what B.S. Johnson was to bricks and mortar, as my
correspondent puts it), and also a slight exaggeration of the abilities
accredited to bards in Celtic tradition. Note that the gonnagle turns out
to be called William.

William McGonagall's most famous poem is probably The Tay Bridge
Disaster which recounts the events of the evening of 28 December 1879,
when, during a severe gale, the Tay Rail Bridge near Dundee collapsed as
a train was passing over it. The first verse reads:

<blockquote class="stanza">Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

</blockquote>

+ [p. 138] Tir-far-Thiónn

In actual Gaelic, I am told that this means "Land over word that does not
exist". "Land Under Wave" would be "Tír-fa-Tonn", and there is in fact
such a place in Irish mythology, a sort of Gaelic Atlantis.

+ [p. 149] "He's got a bo-ut for chasin' the great white whale fish on the
salt sea. He's always chasing it, all round the world. It's called
Mopey."

Puns on the classic "Moby-Dick; or, The Whale" (this is in fact its
original title) by Herman Melville.

+ [p. 152] "He spoke differently too, [...]"

While the other Nac Mac Feegle sound like people doing Rab C Nesbitt
impressions (Nesbitt is a well-known Scots character (of the dirty,
foul-mouthed, sexist drunkard kind) from a BBC comedy series), William
has the sort of exaggerated Ayrshire burr you might hear folk put on when
reciting Robert Burns (the famous Scots poet, who wrote 'Auld Lang
Syne').

+ [p. 153] "'We'll dance the FiveHundredAndTwelvesome Reel to the tune o'
"The Devil Among The Lawyers"'"

There are Foursome, Eightsome and Twelvesome Reels, which involve
exchanges of partners between two, four or six couples. 512 is eight
cubed, so presumably it's more complicated, but basically the same. "The
Devil Among The Lawyers" is possibly a reference to Burns' "The Deil's
Awa' Wi' The Exciseman", or to 'The Devil Among The Tailors', a
well-known folk-dance tune (which is in fact, I'm told, the original tune
for an Eightsome Reel).

+ [p. 159] "Trilithons, they were called, [...]"

'Trilithon' is the technical term for any group of three stones arranged
so that one sits flat atop the other two.

The mention of stones arranged in circles suggests Stonehenge and the
Avebury circle (which isn't far from Silbury Hill; see the annotation for
p. 51). Although they seem to have been erected for much the same reason
as the Dancers in Lancre, there is no mention of them being magnetic,
certainly the frying pan gets through without trouble.

+ [p. 168] Nac Mac Feegle battlecries

"They can tak' oour lives, but they cannae tak' oour troousers!" This is
"They can take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom", from the
movie Braveheart.

"Bang went saxpence!" is of those punchlines everyone's forgotten the
joke to, reflecting the alleged meanness of the Scots. It comes from a
Punch cartoon in which a Scotsman complains about the expense of London.
"Mun, a had na' been the-erre abune Twa Hoours when- Bang went
Saxpence!!!"

"Ye'll tak' the high road an' I'll tak' yer wallet!" is based on the
refrain of 'The Bonny, Bonny Banks of Loch Lomond': "Ye tak' the high
road, and I'll tak' the low road".

"There can only be one t'ousand!" is still based on the "There can be
only one" quote from Highlander, as already seen in Carpe Jugulum.

"Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willnae be fooled again!"
echoes the sentiments of The Who's song 'Won't get fooled again'.

+ [p. 173] "'Cloggets are a trembling of the greebs in hoggets,' [...]"

I have no idea what cloggets and greebs ('grebes' are a particular type
of 9 inch long duck -- I doubt whether Terry had them in mind) are, but a
hogget is the term used to describe an adult female sheep before she has
had any offspring.

+ [p. 180] "'"The King Underrrr Waterrrr"'"

Possibly a reference to the Jacobite toast "The King Over the Water".

+ [p. 192] "'If ye eats anythin' in the dream, ye'll never wanta' leave
it.'"

Various legends (including Childe Rowland and Burd Helen, see below)
mention that eating fairy food is a sure way to get trapped in
Elfhame/Fairyland.

+ [p. 199] "'..oooooiiiiiit is with grreat lamentation and much worrying
dismay, [...]'"

Exactly the sort of thing McGonagall wrote. Although the "oooooo" bit
seems to have crept in from Spike Milligan's William McGonagall: The
Truth At Last.

+ [p. 204] "Tiffany looked up at a white horse. [...] And there was a boy
on it."

In the ballad of 'Tam Lin', Fair Janet is told she can recognise Tam when
she goes to rescue him, as he is the only rider on a white horse.

+ [p. 204] "'This is my forest!,' said the boy. 'I command you to do what
I say!'"

More 'Tam Lin': see the annotation for p. 141/103 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ [p. 204] "'Your name is Roland, isn't it?' she said."

Roland's name suggests the ballad 'Childe Rowland and Burd Ellen', about
a young boy who has to rescue his sister (and the brothers who had
previously failed) from the King of Elfland. Of course, the DW version is
worse than useless.

Terry had no connection in mind, however:

"I chose Roland because it's a) old b) a solid kind of name, suggesting
the kind of boy he is and c) probably, because I used to live next door
to a Roland when I was a kid."

"['Childe Rowland and Burd Ellen'] doesn't mean anything to me, I'm
afraid, but it's eerie, innit? I think I might start pretending I had
that in mind all along:-)"

+ [p. 206] The ballroom scene reminded many people of a similar scene in
the movie 'Labyrinth'.

+ [p. 210] "'[...] pretend ye're enjoying the cailey.'"

Usually spelt "ceilidh" , this is the Scots Gaelic word for a party.
These days used almost exclusively to signify Scottish Folk Music
Festivals.

+ [p. 212] "She cut Roland's head off."

Rowland had to cut off everybody's head but Ellen's in order to break the
spell on her.

+ [p. 215] "'Crivens!' (She was sure it was a swear word.)"

Like Truckle the Uncivil, it's possible that, in the mouth of a Mac
Feegle, anything's a swear word, but in fact "crivvens!" translates
into Sassanach roughly as "good grief!". It's now a bit of a joke, used
only by Sunday Post cartoon characters "Oor Wullie" and "The Broons", and
"I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue"'s Hamish and Dougal.

+ [p. 225] "'Well, there was this fine lady on a horse with bells all over
its harness and she galloped past me when I was out hunting and she was
laughing, [...]'"

Tam Lin was captured while hunting, although the circumstances were
different. When Thomas the Rhymer (see the annotation for p. 174/126 of Lords and Ladies
] met the Queen "At ilka tett of her horse's mane/Hung
fifty siller bells and nine".

+ [p. 285] "'[...] ye bloustie ol' callyack that ye are!'"

"Callyack" is probably meant to represent the Gaelic 'cailleach', old
woman, which is actually pronounced 'kyle-yak' (with a good hard cough on
the k).

+ [p. 287] "'[...] once I was a lawyer.'"

As has been strongly foreshadowed throughout the book. In addition, once
you know, a glance at the cover shows the swords of the Feegle
immediately surrounding him are glowing blue...

+ [p. 287] "'Potest-ne mater tua suere, amice.'"

"Vis-ne faciem capite repleta" ("Would you like a face that is full of
head?") is translated on p. 289. Similarly, this means "Does your mother
have the ability to sew, friend?"

+ [p. 289] Nac Mac Feegle legal battlecries.

"Twelve hundred angry men!" comes from the film title Twelve Angry Men.

"We ha' the law on oour side!" This phrase, OTOH, has been used so
often that if there was ever an original source (which there probably
wasn't), it's long gone. Chalk it up as a cliché.

"The law's made to tak' care o' raskills!" is an almost verbatim quote
from The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot, who spelt "rascals" like
that all the time. Note that in that book "take care of" means "deal
with". The Feegles seem to be using it to mean "protect"...

+ [p. 292] "The Queen... changed shape madly in Tiffany's arms."

Another commonplace of folk tales, where the hero(ine) has to keep a
tight grip on the villain(ess) whatever (s)he becomes. In particular,
there's Tam Lin again, and the battle between the Queen of Elfland and
Fair Janet although in that case it was Tam himself Janet had to keep
hold of.

+ [p. 298] "The broomsticks descended."

There was some confusion on afp as to the place where The Wee Free Men
fits in the Discworld chronology. With Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg
flying to the Chalk, is the third witch left holding the fort in Lancre
Magrat or Agnes?

Terry says:

"As for the chronology, it's 'now' -- or at least, after Carpe Jugulum.
Since Carpe Jugulum a clan of NMF have been living in Lancre, too."

"The Wee Free Men was doodled around the time of Carpe Jugulum, but
with a young male hero and set in Lancre. It evolved for all kinds of
good and vindicated reasons, but among them was the realisation that it'd
be too damn hard to keep the witches from taking a major role.

That's one of the constrictions to writing a long-term series like this.
If something big, bad and public happens in Ankh-Morpork now, it will
have a terrible tendency to become a Watch book. It's not inevitable,
given the palette I've got to play with, but it is a consideration."

+ [p. 317] "'[...] that big heap o' jobbies that just left [...]'"

'Jobbies' is a modern Scots word for solid excrement.

+ [p. 318] "For ever and ever, wold without end."

From the Christian prayer 'Gloria Patri': "As it was in the beginning, is
now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen."

Note that the 'wold' in the text is not a misprint -- a wold is an area
of high, open, uncultivated land or moor.

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:32 pm

Cunning Man

The Cunning Man was, a thousand years ago, an Omnian witch-finder, who had fallen in love with a witch.
That witch, however, knew how evil the Cunning Man was. She was
eventually burnt to death - not coincidentally by his co-religionists,
but as she was being burned she reached through her bars and held him to
her, trapping the Cunning Man in the fire as well. The Cunning Man
became a demonic spirit of pure hatred, able to corrupt other minds with
suspicion and hate.

This spirit seems to do a perpetual tour of the Multiverse,
appearing at random intervals of a few human generations to spread fear
and loathing, hatred and mob violence against targets of convenience
like Witches. There may actually be many versions of him, as each world has its own Death, for example, although this is strictly non-canonical speculation.

On Discworld
he appears as a man (or humanoid shape) dressed in black clothing with a
wide-brimmed black hat. There are no eyes in the featureless black
face, only holes that lead all the way through to the back of the head,
and the black-clad black body casts no shadow in direct sunlight. When
he encounters the objects of his aggression, he attacks them with
fulminating vituperation¹, otherwise, he operates in the
subliminal domain, persuading the general population toward suspicion,
hatred and violence against the objects of his rage: Witches. The
Cunning Man functions as a demonic spirit of pure rage, specifically
against witches. He hates them simply for existing, and infests others
with his hatred. His presence in the vicinity can be detected by those
with knowledge of magic by his smell (for lack of a better description).
His hatred is so intense that it surrounds him like an aura and the
minds of others, not knowing how to classify it, catalogue it as a foul
stench of rot, powerful enough to turn the stomach.

Rather like the Hiver,
the spirit of the Cunning Man is capable of occupying a human body to
carry out his agenda. It searched out the malicious as, in the words of Mrs Proust, "poison will go where poison's welcome". In I Shall Wear Midnight, he takes the body of the depraved killer Mackintosh from the Tanty in Ankh-Morpork and drives it to the Chalk in search of Tiffany Aching.

Poisoning people against witches is quite easy to accomplish as
they, by their nature, focus on doing the right rather than the popular
thing, and are thus always at risk of a backlash. The Cunning Man’s
poison complicates Tiffany’s dealings with the dying Baron of the Chalk,
his son Roland and Roland’s new fiancée,
and many other people whose respect she has come to take for granted.
Despite the fact that the vitriol stirred up against her leads to her
imprisonment (in the dungeon of the castle, with the goats) she manages,
with (or perhaps despite) the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, to face the Cunning Man, without requiring the help of veteran witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg.

Tiffany, fortunately, knows why the hare runs into the fire; the Cunning Man's cunning does not go that far. As Granny Weatherwax did many years before, Tiffany destroys the latest manifestation of the Cunning Man; he will, sadly, be back.

¹ North American readers may recognise some Fox News commentators here, as well as orators from the "Christian" right.

Annotation

The Cunning Man is possibly based on the Roundworld historical figure Heinrich Kramer, a German Inquisitor, although there has been a long tradition of the phrase "Cunning folk"
in parts of England and Wales. Certain Christian theologians and Church
authorities believed that the cunning folk, being practitioners of "low
magic", were in league with the Devil and as such were akin to the more
overtly Satanic and malevolent witches. Partly due to this, laws were
enacted across England, Scotland and Wales that often condemned cunning
folk and their magical practices, but there was no widespread
persecution of them akin to the Witch Hunt, largely because most common
people firmly distinguished between the two: witches were seen as being
harmful and cunning folk as useful.

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:37 pm

XXXX

Pronounced "EcksEcksEcksEcks", or "Fourecks", if and when people
on the main continent bother about this mysterious continent of XXXX.
It is so named because rumours have long held that a landmass exists in
such-and-such a position in the oceans, but no explorers ever made it
there to learn its proper name and then come back to tell of it.

The continent indeed exists. Its people are characterized by an
easy-going attitude and an absolute refusal and incomprehension of the
phenomenon of rain, until the events chronicled in The Last Continent.
The Ecksians have a very colourful language with many complicated
colloquialisms. They have learnt to live with the almost exclusively
poisonous nature of their flora and fauna.

The continent of XXXX sports a tangled space-time continuum, in
which a story to fool foreigners at one location becomes a reality some
miles away; for example, on one ranch, the drop-bears were stories to scare foreigners, but some miles away, a traveller (Rincewind)
was indeed attacked by drop-bears. There are also "places where
there's very little time, and times when there's hardly any place." As
the Trickster, alias "Scrappy" (Hoki?,
whose name is uncannily similar to that of the eponymous star of the
Australian children's television series, "Skippy"), says, "imagine the
last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, only the piece is a bloody great
continent which has got to be turned through about nine dimensions"
until it finally slots into place.

XXXX is also called the Terror Incognita. Almost all animals and plants in XXXX are dangerous; when Death
requested a book about the dangerous creatures of XXXX from his
library, he was subsequently hit by a large pile of books consisting of
the various volumes of "Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians,
Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees,
Mosses and Lichens of Terror Incognita", the total books going up to Volume 29C Part 3, while a request for information about the harmless
creatures merely produced a note saying "Some of the sheep". The land
is inhospitable because the flora and fauna all hate you and there is
never any rain. It is a baking-hot land of red sand. The Ecksians
generally dig into the ground to get water. The continent is surrounded
by a permanent anticyclone. Even in the direction that people can get
their boats out into the ocean, they have to remember not to go too far
out, because the edge of the Discworld is very near.

Known locations include the major city Bugarup with its magical university and Dijabringabeeralong.

Since the events of The Last Continent, XXXX has supplied most of the Disc's bar staff.

Annotations

XXXX resembles the Australian continent in a great many ways,
quite a few of them subtle. Thus, the full significance of a number of
its 'in-jokes' is likely to be missed by non-Australians (e.g. the
provenance of the name 'Scrappy' and the significance of his role as a
friendly, helpful kangaroo who can communicate in 'kangaroo language';
the annual regatta held in the waterless 'river' using 'boat-shaped
boats'; the naming of desserts after opera singers; the armoured
character 'Tin-head Ned'; the phenomenon, transvestite aspect, and
naming of 'the Galah'; the naming and travels of Darlene and co; the
cave wall paintings of hand 'negatives'; the 'backpackers' on the
Bugarup docks; Rincewind's easily-doffed footwear; the shape of the
Opera House; the chasing of a herd of horses led by a very special
'colt',and the significance of the name 'Snowy' in the scene; the
'drop-bears'; Rincewind's accidental creation of a dire substance which
closely resembles Vegemite; the crowds of colourful, talkative little
birds; the 'creature' in the waterhole; the prominence of simile in
Ecksian slang; etc., all of which, amongst many others, have Roundworld Australian counterparts in real life, literature or mythology).

The letters XXXX themselves form the name of a famous Australian
beer brewed and drunk in the vast, hot, sub-tropical to tropical
North-Eastern state of Queensland, whose inhabitants are traditionally
regarded by denizens of some other states as being 'backwards'. The
time-worn joke about the name of the Queensland-brewed beer is that,
"it's spelt XXXX because Queenslanders don't know how to spell BEER".
Unlike most authors, TP has got past the well-known and overdone
stereotypical Australian icons and really done his homework on
Australia, thus gaining a wealth of material to render into the weird,
wild and wonderful Discworld continent of XXXX in all its venomous,
dessicated glory.

Terror Incognita = Terra Incognita - the Unknown Lands.
This is a term used in cartography for regions that have not been mapped
or documented. Often used instead of Terra Australis, the "land of the south", which was a hypothetical continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th centuries.

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:43 pm

Death

Death
Death Illustrated by Christopher Stryjewski a.k.a. whtmnk
Name	Death
Race	Anthropomorphic personification
Age	As old as the death of the first living thing
Occupation	Releasing the spirits of dead beings
Physical appearance	Tall, not what you'd call fleshy, Talks like this
Residence	Death's Domain
Death	Nearly, in Reaper Man
Relatives	Susan Sto Helit (Granddaughter)
Children	Ysabell (Adopted Daughter) Mort (son-in-law)
Marital Status	Never Married
Books	Mort Sourcery Reaper Man Soul Music Hogfather Thief of Time
Cameos	Every Discworld book except The Wee Free Men

Death is the anthropomorphic personification of death on the Discworld. He appears as the traditional Grim Reaper, with a skeletal body, a black robe and a scythe (or sometimes a sword for royalty) and talks in unquoted small caps
. Death appears for the first time in the first novel, The Colour of Magic (though it is suggested that his first appearance was actually that of his 'stand-in', Scrofula), and reappears in all of the stories that take place in the Discworld universe, with the exception of The Wee Free Men, a Tiffany Aching young adult book .

Death is fascinated with humans in general, and as a result
attempts to emulate their behaviour, if only to better understand them.
However, as an immortal skeletal who does not have to pay heed to
fatigue or even time, he seems to lack comprehension of some human
concepts, such as detective novels. He is also described by Susan
as someone who would solve world hunger, not by changing socioeconomic
forces, but by giving everyone a good meal. While his job and anatomy
cause a lack of emotions which he displays in his hollow voice
, Death can be quite passionate about life in general and in some cases, actively defends it against the depredations of the Auditors.

Death had an apprentice named Mort and an adopted daughter named Ysabell, who later got married and left him to become the Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit. Sometimes he visits Susan Sto Helit, his grand-daughter through them. When not out and about, Death lives alone in Death's Domain with his manservant Albert and, since the events of Reaper Man, the Death of Rats. Also members of the household are the famed pale horse, named Binky, and at times Quoth the talking raven.

He is fond of kittens, Binky, Susan, Albert, curries and life (without which he would be useless). He strongly dislikes the Auditors, whose machinations against life he considers to be cheating, and at times has seemed to resent Rincewind's
unpunctuality, though at other times he has seemed more amiable toward
him. He sticks by his duty and very rarely interferes in human affairs,
because of The Rules. He has, however, been known to persuade
Susan to act in his stead, not always by straightforward means; she
occasionally reflects that he may have learnt a bit more about human
behaviour than he lets on.

While of course in a sense he is there for every death, he
need only personally attend to relatively few in order to keep things
running. Death is however a caring individual and likes to keep an eye
on things he does not necessarily need to, and he gets quite upset when
people (mostly those freshly severed from their bodies) accuse him of
killing them. He argues that he simply allows them to leave this world
and enter the next, and empirical evidence (such as the results of his
various voluntary and involuntary sabbaticals) seems to bear this out.
His jurisdiction, so to speak, appears to be Discworld itself; he is not
Death in the universal sense.

Every living individual has a book in the great Library of Death, and an hourglass-shaped lifetimer
in a cathedral-dwarfing room that exists solely for the purpose of
housing them. The look of each one seems to be personalised, and they
keep on writing themselves or pouring sand through until the associated
person dies. The books remain; the lifetimers apparently pop out of
existence and new ones appear in their place, as a new life begins.

Death also introduces individuals to The Desert
from time to time. Each soul has to walk the desert - to what end,
Death refuses to be drawn. There is no justice, there is only him.

While Death himself cannot be seen by most individuals, (with the
exceptions of cats, children, wizards and other anthropomorphic
personifications,) unless he wants them to see him, he is unable to see
immortal beings, as they are not subject to his "power". As they
cannot die, he has nothing to with with them and thus cannot see them.
This reflects that most humans cannot see him, as they naturally do not
think about dying.

He was there when the first proto-life faded, and has been given
his general shape by the belief of humans - of all creatures the most
afraid of dying and the most likely to have evolved an agrarian culture
in which scythes feature. He is also still there at the end of all
things, as evidenced by his appearance at the end of time and space when
Astfgl arrives to destroy Rincewind.
Death is just about to metaphorically turn the lights out in the
universe when he sees a new one germinating. Eventually, he thinks,
there will be life. And therefore death. He will be needed. He can wait.

Death is a servant of Azrael,
the 'Death of Universes'; an entity of enormously unthinkable scope and
size, "the Ultimate Reality". Azrael is the Being from whom all
lesser-Deaths are mere reflections or aspects.

Appearances

Death

In Reaper Man Death is forced to retire by the Auditors, who fear he has become too human. He assumes the name Bill Door and finds work on Miss Flitworth's farm as a farmhand. When the New Death is formed, it comes to claim Bill: he outwits it and destroys it, then resumes his role as Death.
In Hogfather we find that Mr. Teatime
has devised a plan to kill Death, though no details are given, and he
is skewered by Susan with a fireplace poker before he has a chance to
execute it. His dialogue in the Tooth Fairy's castle suggests that he
intended to strike Death with his own sword, which is reputed to be able
to cut anything.

He has one of what Albert calls his 'fancies' during the events of Soul Music, and tries to join the Klatchian Foreign Legion where he is called Beau Nidle,
fails in his quest for forgetfulness, and repairs to Ankh-Morpork to
drink too much, all to forget what he is and has to do. He ends up as a
member of the Canting Crew, with the unusual moniker of 'Mr Scrub'. Beggars seem just as invisible as anthropomorphic personifications.

Death has a major role in Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather and Thief of Time. As a member of the Four Horsemen of the Apocralypse, he plays an obligatory role in Sourcery and Thief of Time.

Annotation: the birth of Death

The knight offers Death the choice of playing black or white in the game of chess.

In the Richard Dimbleby lecture, broadcast on Monday 1st February
2010 on BBC1, Terry revealed that at the age of four at his
grandparents' house, he got to see the classic Ingmar Bergman film The Seventh Seal
and therefore one of his earliest childhood memories is the defining
game of chess between Bergman's death and the knight whose soul is in
limbo: "...the Grim Reaper did not seem so terribly grim...the image has remained with me ever since."

Categories: Discworld characters | Leading characters | Serial characters | Supernatural entities

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:47 pm

Susan Sto Helit

Death's Granddaughter
Susan in her teacher days by Kit Cox
Name	Susan Sto Helit
Race	[Mostly] Human
Occupation	Governess (Hogfather) Teacher (Thief of Time)
Parents	Mort Ysabell
Relatives	Death (Grandfather) Lezek (Grandfather)
Marital Status	Single, possibly dating Lobsang Ludd/Jeremy Clockson
Books	Soul Music Hogfather Thief of Time

Susan Sto Helit is the daughter of Mort and Ysabell. Ysabell was the adopted daughter of Death and Mort was, briefly, Death's apprentice. They leave Death's domain and become Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit. Susan is their only child.

Despite her lack of a genetic link with Death, she has inherited
certain of his abilities: she can "walk through walls and live outside
time and be a little bit immortal." She also has a birthmark of sorts
that shows only when she blushes, or when she is angry (these days she
is seldom embarrassed and often angry). It takes the form of three faint
lines on her cheek, and is a souvenir inherited (as it were) from an
event in Mort involving her father and grandfather.

She is attractive, in a skinny way, and upon meeting her one gets
an odd feeling that she is older than she looks. She has strange hair.
It is pure white with a single black streak, which while initially
uncontrollable, now seems to alter itself according to her mood. This
could be a tight bun, ponytail, or any other style that seems to fit the
occasion. On the occasions that she has covered for her grandfather
she has worn a black lace dress in the manner of a healthy yet
necronerdic woman wanting to look consumptive.

Her most obvious character trait is being sensible, an attribute
carefully cultivated by her parents as a counterbalance to the influence
of her grandfather. Initially, this manifested itself as a refusal to
admit the supernatural side of the world (beyond basic magic) even
existed. Latterly, however, she accepts she is part of the same world as
the Hogfather and the Tooth fairy. She just wishes she wasn't. She can
be relied upon to keep her head in a crisis, something she tends to view
as a character flaw.

She is first introduced as a sixteen year old pupil at the Quirm College for Young Ladies in Soul Music,
shortly after the death of her parents (who, unfortunately, Death
couldn't spare; his offer to let them live out eternity in his Domain
was refused). She was good at sports which involved the swinging of
some sort of stick (hockey, rounders, lacrosse etc) and was academically
brilliant, if a little disconcerting to her teachers (she has a way of
making herself, if not invisible, then inconspicuous to the vast
majority of people who choose not to see what is really there; a
definite family attribute). It is interesting to note that her only two
friends while at school were a dwarf and a troll, both in some way
'outcasts' of the received school society.

Though Susan was previously in love with rocker Imp y Celyn (Soul Music), as of Thief of Time, Susan is rumoured to be in a relationship with Lobsang Ludd, the new anthropomorphic personification of Time.

In the Cosgrove Hall
animation of Soul Music, Susan is voiced by Debra Gillet. In the Sky
One adaptation of Hogfather she is played by Michelle Dockery.

Contents

[hide]

1 Occupation
2 Possible sources
3 Trivia
4 Also See

Occupation

After graduating -- and despite being technically the current Duchess of Sto Helit -- she began a teaching career, first as a governess, working for Mrs Gaiter in Ankh-Morpork (but not like that;
she promised herself that if she ever began dancing on rooftops with
chimney sweeps or sliding down banisters she would beat herself to death
with her own umbrella) in Hogfather, and then as a private school teacher (in Thief of Time). She proves to be quite good at handling small children, a skill that is attributed to her sensible and practical nature.

This could also be due to her approach to children's problems.
When a child complains about a monster in the cupboard or under the bed,
most parents would go to great lengths to carefully explain to the
child that there is no monster. Susan, on the other hand, simply hands
the child a suitable weapon (such as an axe or broadsword) with which to
assault the monster, or goes and does it herself. Monsters from a wide
area have come to dread the fireplace poker she uses for this task,
although as word of Susan has quickly spread among the city's resident
monsters, she lately has only needed to deal with newcomers.

Her approach in other areas is also unusual. For example, in her
role as a governess she has found that her charges' reading progress has
been greatly enhanced by using interesting books which are slightly too
difficult for them, and which therefore present something of a
challenge. Parents may, however, have reservations about her choice of
General Tacticus's
Campaigns as a reader, since it may be argued that the ability to spell
'disembowelled' is not necessarily needed by children under ten.

As a schoolteacher she is sufficiently successful to have parents
clamouring to have their child included in her class. Her approach to
history and geography, often subjects which children find rather dull,
has particularly captured her class's attention. The occasional need to
remove from their children's clothing dried-in bloodstains or ground-in
swamp mud is generally seen by parents as more than compensated for by
the broad education being received - a child's description of one of the
classic battles from Ankh-Morpork's long history, for example, might be
sufficiently vivid and detailed to make the parent think that the
description could not have been improved upon if the child had actually
seen the battle firsthand.

It is worth pointing out that Susan's choice of career has
benefited her as well as her students. Her heritage has placed her into
frequent contact with elements of a world outside, and often
disconcertingly at odds with, the normal and conventional. Dealing with
bad spelling and mistakes in toilet training provides a strong grounding
in reality. And having Susan as class teacher also does wonders to
reform the Jasons of this world, which benefits everyone.

Possible sources

The first Doctor of Doctor Who,
played by William Hartnell, was a tall, thin, personage not bound by
the usual restrictions of time and space, and was possessed of a nominal
granddaughter named Susan. His spaceship, the TARDIS, has different
dimensions on the inside to the outside; in Hogfather, Susan says she is used to things different on the inside to the outside: her grandfather's house is like that.

Trivia

The motto of the Sto Helit family is; Non Timetus Messor, which is translated in the article concerning links with the Roundworld heavy rock band Blue Öyster Cult, whose biggest hit record on Roundworld was....
After the appointment of Susan's father, Mort, as the new Duke of Sto Helit, the Sto Helit family coats of arms is, mysteriously, (due to their ties with Death,) a shield with pair of scythes crossed against it, and a hourglass where the scythes cross.
Due to her heritage, Susan can arguably be described as a natural Knurd, like Samuel Vimes.
Susan's personality and mental setup are not unlike fellow characters like Samuel Vimes and Granny Weatherwax:
They are all effectively 'good' characters who nevertheless secretly
fear the darkness inside them, and constantly strive to control the
darker side of their nature.

Also See

Susan Sto Helit's Entry on Wikipedia

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:48 pm

Carrot Ironfoundersson

Carrot

Name	Carrot Ironfoundersson
Race	Human (by birth) Dwarf (by upbringing)
Age	20-something
Occupation	Captain in the (City Watch)
Physical appearance	6'6" - Very, very muscular, a full head of orange hair
Residence	Ankh-Morpork
Parents	Family (presumably) attacked by bandits near the Copperhead mine. Raised by the king of the mine and his wife.
Marital Status	Courting (Angua)
Books	Guards! Guards! Men at Arms Feet of Clay Jingo The Fifth Elephant The Truth The Last Hero Night Watch Thud! Snuff
Cameos	Going Postal Making Money I Shall Wear Midnight

Technically Carrot Ironfoundersson is a dwarf, for he was adopted and raised by dwarfs, even though he is biologically human. This made growing up difficult, especially since dwarfs are smaller than the typical human (Nobby Nobbs, as always is an exception to this rule) and Carrot is taller than the typical human. Carrot's adopted father sent him to Ankh-Morpork to join the Ankh-Morpork City Watch in Guards! Guards!.
He is an exemplary policeman, but can be seen by others as too polite.
In anyone else it would be suspicious; with Carrot however it is
sincere. He has an old but extremely strong and sharp sword, and a funny
birthmark.

Carrot is the most consciously and conscientiously law-abiding
citizen in Ankh-Morpork. When he arrived, he brought with him the book The Laws and Ordinances of the Cities Ankh and Morpork,
a very old book that once belonged to a retired Ankh-Morporkian
Watchman. Having been brought up in dwarf culture, Carrot takes
everything literally (throughout his appearances, he develops a fuller
grasp of figurative language) and believes in obeying rules. The old
Watchman's descendant told Carrot about upholding justice, so Carrot
enthusiastically enforced the laws as detailed in the old book, the
contents of which were unknown to everyone, even old-time Watchmen. This
got him into some trouble with the city government, starting with his
arresting the head of the Thieves' Guild. Yet, somehow, he managed to bring morale to the Watch just as Lady Sybil Ramkin did. Carrot is now Captain of the combined Ankh-Morpork City Watch; formally he would be called "Captain Ironfoundersson", but most people call him "Captain Carrot".

"Most people" can be taken to mean both "most people who know
him" and "most people in Ankh-Morpork". Carrot walks the patrol routes
even on his days-off, he talks to everyone and remembers everyone's
name, face, family, business, and so on. It is said that he reads the
register of taxpayers, for fun. Sometimes a tax-evader makes claims, in
Carrot's presence, about having paid his taxes and therefore entitled to
the Watch's protection, Carrot will respond by saying that he hasn't
seen the name in the taxpayers' register, perhaps the good citizen has
been too busy and forgotten to fill out tax forms, and Carrot would
bring some along soon. Carrot genuinely thinks everyone, even the boy
thugs in the street gangs, is decent and good underneath all the
Ankh-Morpork prejudices and violence. For some strange reason, probably
what Sgt. Colon calls krisma,
people find that they want to meet Carrot's expectations and do what he
says. It is a good thing that Carrot wants what's best for everyone,
and has far fewer prejudices than most people; otherwise, he might
become a ruthless despot forcing his ways on others. He also knows the
cultures and languages of many immigrant groups in Ankh-Morpork, and
politics and geography of places as far as Überwald.

Carrot is not completely without prejudices, or perhaps
quirks. A legacy of his upbringing by Dwarfs, who are reticent on some
matters, is that he finds it very, very, difficult to talk
about...er... gender-related issues. He therefore found the desire of some Dwarfs to openly differentiate themselves as female
to be very difficult to accept, and this prudish, conservative, streak
caused one of his first real rows with Angua. Carrot also had red-faced
difficulties with the consumer product manufactured by Wallace Sonky. During a conversation with Angua in Men at Arms
he reveals that he has a prejudice against the undead, saying "I just
don't like them", although he has most likely overcome this
discrimination against the "differently alive", seeing as he is now
dating one.

Carrot is currently in a relationship with Angua. His previous romantic affairs include the dwarf Minty Rocksmacker back in the mine, and the seamstress Reet, who he rescued from a street thug when newly arrived in Ankh-Morpork.

At the start of Snuff,
he has been elevated to Acting-Commander of the Watch so that Sam Vimes
can be sent, at crossbow-point, on holiday. Although it isn't
necessarily Vetinari who is holding the crossbow.

Rumours

It is rumoured that Carrot is the last remaining descendant of the kings of Ankh-Morpork,
but it has never been voiced too loud. He gets on with people well, he
slays dragons, sort of, and is generally liked by a lot of people.
Carrot wants no claim to any throne, he likes being in the city watch
and Lord Vetinari
governing works very well. Occasionally, and in the privacy of the
Oblong Office, Carrot does make suggestions that Lord Vetinari finds
hard to refuse. Following the events of Men at Arms,
it is generally implied that Carrot is actually fully aware of his
regal status, but a conversation with Vetinari where he was offered
command of the Watch after Vimes's brief retirement included Carrot
declining the offer on the grounds that people should obey the rules
because they are the rules, and not because Captain Carrot is good at
being obeyed. It is obliquely hinted at the end of Jingo
that Vimes' elevation to Duke of Ankh had something to do with Carrot's
unclaimed status, since only the King, not the Patrician, can create a
Duke. He takes advantage of it once more in The Fifth Elephant, noting that the retired, sacked and otherwise deposed men of the watch had sworn an oath to the king, and using this to recall them all before Vimes returned.

Annotation

Discovered in complete serendipity, I'm really surprised nobody else has found this. Offenbach's 19th century light opera Le roi Carrotte (King Carrot), in which a humble Carrot first becomes human, and then becomes King, deposing a hated tyrant in the process...

See here:- [1]

According to Pratchett himself, the origins of the name are more
mundane: he once had a technician come over to his house with a tall
red-haired assistant referred to by the elder professional as "Carrot",
and presumably this name stuck. When we are first introduced to Carrot
in the books, however, the author takes time to note that young Carrot
have gotten his name not because of the hair, "which his father
has always clipped short for reasons of Hygiene", but for his
broad-shouldered "tapering shape".

Categories: Discworld characters | Serial characters | Supporting characters | Human characters | Dwarf characters

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:51 pm

Book:The Last Hero

]"]]"]

The Last Hero

Illustrator(s)	Paul Kidby
Publisher	Gollancz
Publication date	October 2001
ISBN	057506885X
Pages	160
RRP	£17.99
Main characters	Cohen Rincewind Carrot Ironfoundersson Leonard of Quirm The Librarian
Series	Rincewind Series
Annotations	View
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Contents

[hide]

1 Blurb
2 Characters
- 2.1 Main characters
- 2.2 Minor characters
3 External links

Blurb

He's been a legend in his own lifetime.

He can remember the great days of high adventure.

He can remember when a hero didn't have to worry about fences and lawyers and civilisation.

He can remember when people didn't tell you off for killing dragons.

But he can't always remember, these days, where he put his teeth...

He's really not happy about that bit.

So now, with his ancient sword and his new walking stick and his
old friends – and they're very old friends – Cohen the Barbarian is
going on one final quest. It's been a good life. He's going to climb the
highest mountain in the Discworld and meet his gods. He doesn't like
the way they let men grow old and die.

It's time, in fact, to give something back.

The last hero in the world is going to return what the first hero
stole. With a vengeance. That'll mean the end of the world, if no one
stops him in time.

Someone is going to try. So who knows who the last hero really is?

Characters

Main characters

Cohen the Barbarian
Carrot Ironfoundersson
The Librarian
The Minstrel
Rincewind
Leonard of Quirm

Minor characters

The Dean
Evil Harry
The Luggage
Hughnon Ridcully
Mustrum Ridcully
The Silver Horde
- Caleb the Ripper
- Mad Hamish
- Truckle the Uncivil
- Boy Willie
</li>
Ponder Stibbons
Vena the Raven-Haired
Havelock Vetinari

External links

The Last Hero Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:53 pm

Cohen the Barbarian

The Barbarian
Cohen the Barbarian Illustrated by Michael Collins a.k.a. puggdogg
Name	Cohen the Barbarian
Race	Human
Age	90 something
Occupation	Barbarian
Physical appearance	Old, crab like
Residence	Discworld
Children	Conina
Books	The Light Fantastic Interesting Times The Last Hero Troll Bridge
Cameos	Jingo Mention in Moving Pictures and Sourcery.

Also known as Ghenghiz Cohen, Cohen the Barbarian is the last and greatest of the barbarian heroes.
He is over 90-years-old (or 87 in 'The Light Fantastic, in which he
declares "If I wash twenty yearsh younger...I'd be shixty sheven"),
which just goes to show how good Cohen is at not dying. Known to be
leader of the Silver Horde,
a small group of similarly elderly barbarian heroes, many of whom have
served with Cohen for numerous years. Like Cohen himself, the Silver
Horde is very good at not dying in a line of work where insane
risks and life-and-death gambles are relatively routine (note we say
'and' instead of 'or' - this is intentional, as *someone* tends to die
in the instances).

In the book The Light Fantastic
he commissioned a dwarf to make a set of special dentures made from the
diamond teeth of Old Grandad, an ancient troll. It is speculated that
he may be the only person on the Disc who can actually get away with
this without drawing excessive retribution from trolls, mostly because
he's sort of a force of nature. Rincewind
describes the effect in the following way: "Once they've been around
him for a while, people start seeing the world the way he does. All big
and simple. And they want to be a part of it." Cohen's charisma is
powerful enough for him to have attracted the Silver Horde, despite the notoriously individualistic nature of barbarians.

He is of a wiry build and wears just his loincloth even in the snow.

The best things in life according to him are "hot water,good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper"

He has at least one known daughter (and is assumed to have many more children, most of whom he does not know). Her name is Conina. She is the daughter of a temple dancer.

Cohen married Bethan
who was a sacrificial virgin (at least back then she was) with a tanned
perfect body, and a knowledge of chiropody - a perfect complement to
Cohens age-warped back. It is presumed they broke up at some point.
According to Rincewind, Conina and Bethan are about the same age.

He wrote (or got somebody to write) the book Inne Juste 7 Dayes I wille make you a Barbearian Hero!. However, it is suspected that CMOT Dibbler could have some responsibility for that.

Cohen served a brief stint as Emperor of the Agatean Empire,
after the Silver Horde stole the entire Empire. However, he soon grew
bored of a life bereft of constant adventure and peril, and when Old Vincent
choked on a cucumber (a decidedly un-heroic way to die), he led the
Horde on a final mission - returning fire to the gods in the form of
Agatean Thunder Clay.

Cohen, over the course of his long career, has been everywhere
and done everything, sometimes twice. After learning of the man's
exploits, he views himself as similar to Carelinus, the greatest conquerer in the history of the Disc, only "not as cissy, obviously".

During his final adventure (on the Disc, at least), Cohen joined the very small group of people who have successfully cheated Fate
by rolling a 7 on a 6-sided die. Of course, he did this by cutting it
in half while it was up in the air, so that both the side showing 6 and
the side showing 1 landed face up, but everyone agreed that it was a
fine stroke and certainly a very barbarian-like way of solving the
problem.

He, and most of the rest of his horde, was last seen taking his leave of Dunmanifestin,
the home of Gods, on stolen Valkyries mounts, after a mission aimed to
blow the place to smithereens. Whether or not they were actually dead at
the time is left to speculation, but as Cohen said, they didn't think
they were dead and they'd never cared what anyone else thought.

Once bought an apple.

Annotations

The name Ghenghiz Cohen is a clear reference to Ghengis Khan,
a barbarian who became the founder and Emperor of the Mongolian Empire
in the 11th century (or Conan the Barbarian). Like Cohen, he was also
said to have fathered a large number of descendants.

David Bradley (the caretaker; Argus Filch; in the Harry Potter movies and the gangster Stemroach in Ideal) plays Cohen in the Sky One adaptation of The Colour of Magic.

true lilly Fri Oct 28, 2011 11:56 pm

- "What is it that a man may call the greatest things in life?"
- "Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper."

-- Cohen the Barbarian in conversation with Discworld nomads
(Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic)

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:02 am

The Light Fantastic

Annotations
| Information
| Quotes

- [title] The Light Fantastic

The book's title comes from the poem L'Allegro, written by John Milton
in 1631:

<blockquote class="stanza">Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful Jollity
Quips and Cranks, and wanton Wiles
Nods, and Becks, and wreathed Smiles
Such as hang on Hebe's neck
And love to live in dimple sleek
Sport that wrinkled Care derides
And Laughter holding both his sides
Come and trip it as ye go
On the Light Fantastic toe.

</blockquote>

- [p. 6/6] "[...] proves, whatever people say, that there is such a thing
as a free launch."

The reference is to the saying "there ain't no such thing as a free
lunch" (also known by its acronym 'TANSTAAFL', made popular by science
fiction author Robert Heinlein in his classic novel The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress, although the phrase was originally coined by American
economist John Kenneth Galbraith).

- [p. 8/8] "[...] the sort of book described in library catalogues as
'slightly foxed', [...]"

"Slightly foxed" is a term used primarily by antiquarian booksellers to
denote that there is staining (usually due to Ferric OXide, hence
'FOXed') on the pages of a book. This does not usually reduce the value
of the book, but booksellers tend to be scrupulous about such matters.

- [p. 8/8] Many people have commented on the last name of the 304th
Chancellor of Unseen University: Weatherwax, and asked if there is a
connection with Granny Weatherwax.

In Lords and Ladies, Terry supplies the following piece of dialogue (on
p. 224/161) between Granny and Archchancellor Ridcully as an answer:

"'There was even a Weatherwax as Archchancellor, years ago,' said
Ridcully. 'So I understand. Distant cousin. Never knew him,' said
Granny."

- [p. 8/8] "[...] even with the Wee Willie Winkie candlestick in his hand."

This is one of those candlesticks with a flat, saucer-like base, a short
candleholder in the middle and a loop to grip it by at one side. 'Wee
Willie Winkie' is a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, and traditional
illustrations always show Willie going upstairs carrying a candle.

<blockquote class="stanza">Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs, in his nightgown.
Rapping at the windows, Crying through the lock,
'Are the children all in bed? For it's now eight o'clock.'

</blockquote>

- [p. 9/9] "[...] the Book of Going Forth Around Elevenish, [...]"

The title the ancient Egyptians used for what we now call the Book of the
Dead was The Book of Going Forth By Day. Note that in the UK until a
few years ago the pubs opened at 11 a.m.

If you try really hard (one of my correspondents did) you can see this as
a very elaborate joke via the chain: Around Elevenish -> Late in the
morning -> Late -> Dead -> Book of the Dead. But I doubt if even Terry
is that twisted.

- [p. 10/10] Dandelion Clock

Amongst English (and Australian) children there exists the folk-belief
that the seed-heads of dandelions can be used to tell the time. The
method goes as follows: pick the dandelion, blow the seeds away, and the
number of puffs it takes to get rid of all the seeds is the time, e.g.
three puffs = three o'clock. As a result, the dandelion stalks with their
globes of seeds are regularly referred to as a "dandelion clocks" in
colloquial English.

- [p. 10/10] "'To the upper cellars!' he cried, and bounded up the stone
stairs."

The magic eating its way through the ceilings with the wizards chasing it
floor after floor vaguely resonates with the 'alien blood' scene in the
movie Alien, where the acidic blood of the Alien burns through
successive floors of the ship, with people running down after it.

- [p. 24/24] "[...] when a wizard is tired of looking for broken glass in
his dinner, [...], he is tired of life."

See the annotation for p. 193/158 of Mort
.

- [p. 26/26] "I WAS AT A PARTY, he added, a shade reproachfully."

When someone on the net wondered if this scene had been influenced by
Monty Python (who also do a Death-at-a-party sketch), Terry replied:

"No. I'm fairly honest about this stuff. I didn't even see the film until
long after the book was done. Once again, I'd say it's an easy parallel
-- what with the Masque of the Red Death and stuff like that, the joke is
just lying there waiting for anyone to pick it up."

The Masque of the Red Death is a well-known story by Edgar Allan Poe,
in which the nobility, in a decadent and senseless attempt to escape from
the plague that's ravishing the land, lock themselves up a castle and
hold a big party. At which a costumed personification of Death, of
course, eventually turns up and claims everyone anyway.

It is perhaps also worth pointing out that the quoted sentence looks very
much like a classic Tom Swiftie (if you can accept Death as a shade). Tom
Swifties (after the famous series of boys' novels which popularised them)
are sentences of the form "xxx, said he zzz-ly", where the zzz refers
back to the xxx. Examples:

<blockquote>"Pass me the shellfish," said Tom crabbily.
"Let's look for another Grail!" Tom requested.
"I used to be a pilot," Tom explained.
"I'm into homosexual necrophilia," said Tom in dead earnest.

</blockquote>

- [p. 30/30] "[...] the only forest in the whole universe to be called --
in the local language -- Your Finger You Fool, [...]"

The miscommunication between natives and foreign explorers Terry
describes here occurs in our world as well. Or rather: it is rumoured,
with stubborn regularity, to have occurred all over the globe. Really
hard evidence, one way or the other, turns out to be surprisingly hard to
come by. As Cecil Adams puts it in More of the Straight Dope: "Having
now had the "I don't know" yarn turn up in three different parts of the
globe, I can draw one of two conclusions: either explorers are incredible
saps, or somebody's been pulling our leg."

- [p. 34/34] "Twoflower touched a wall gingerly."

Speaking of Tom Swifties...

- [p. 34/34] "'Good grief! A real gingerbread cottage!'"

The cottage and the events alluded to a bit later ("'Kids of today,'
commented Rincewind. 'I blame the parents,' said Twoflower.") are
straight out of the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale by the brothers Grimm.

If you have access to the Internet, you can find an online version of the
original fairy tale at the URL:

<ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/Fairy.Tales/Grimm/hansel.and.gretel.txt.Z>

- [p. 35/35] "'Candyfloss.'"

Candyfloss is known as cotton candy in the US, or fairy floss in
Australia. It's the pink spun sugar you can eat at fairs and shows.

- [p. 35/35] "He read that its height plus its length divided by half its
width equalled exactly 1.67563..."

A parody of the typical numerical pseudo-science tossed about regarding
the Great Pyramid and the 'cosmic truths' (such as the distance from the
Earth to the Sun) that the Egyptians supposedly incorporated into its
measurements.

The remark about sharpening razor blades at the end of the paragraph is
similarly a reference to the pseudo-scientific 'fact' that (small models
of) pyramids are supposed to have, among many other powers, the ability
to sharpen razor blades that are left underneath the pyramids overnight.

- [p. 37/37] "'Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper.'"

From the first Conan The Barbarian movie (starring Arnold
Schwarzenegger): "Conan! What is good in life?" "To crush your enemies,
drive them before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women." This
quote, in turn, is lifted more or less verbatim from an actual
conversation Genghiz Khan is supposed to have had with his lieutenants.

- [p. 45/45] "'Of course I'm sure,' snarled the leader. 'What did you
expect, three bears?'"

Another fairy tale reference, this time to Goldilocks and the Three
Bears.

- [p. 46/46] "'Someone's been eating my bed,' he said."

A mixture of "someone's been eating my porridge" and "someone's been
sleeping in my bed", both from the Goldilocks and the Three Bears fairy
tale.

- [p. 47/47] "Illuminated Mages of the Unbroken Circle"

An organisation with this name is also mentioned in the Illuminatus!
trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson.

+ [p. 57/57] "The universe, they said, depended for its operation on the
balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion,
uncertainty and bloody-mindedness."

The four fundamental forces that govern our universe are gravitation,
electro-magnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

The word 'charm' also resonates with the concept of quarks, the
elementary quantum particles that the strong nuclear force in fact acts
on. For more information see the annotation for p. 133/97 of Lords and Ladies
.

+ [p. 62/62] "'In the beginning was the word,' said a dry voice right
behind him. 'It was the Egg,' corrected another voice. [...] '[...] I'm
sure it was the primordial slime.' [...] 'No, that came afterwards. There
was firmament first.' [...] 'You're all wrong. In the beginning was the
Clearing of the Throat--'"

The bickering of the spells is cleared up somewhat by the creation
passages on pp. 103/85-119/99 from Eric. It is quite clearly stated
that first the Creator did an Egg and Cress (for Rincewind), then He
Cleared His Throat, then He Read the Octavo (that's the word then), which
created the world and finally the primordial slime came into being
because Rincewind couldn't eat the Egg and Cress Sandwich and just
dropped it on the beach. The Creator subcontracted for the firmament, so
it isn't quite clear when that came to be.

"In the beginning was the word" is of course also a biblical allusion to
John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God."

- [p. 82/82] "'Anyway, I don't believe in Caroc cards,' he muttered."

Caroc = Tarot. See also the annotation for p. 110/90 of Mort
.

A minor inconsistency, by the way, is that on p. 24/24 there actually is
a reference to Tarot cards.

- [p. 88/88] "[...] what about all those studded collars and oiled muscles
down at the Young Men's Pagan Association?"

A reference to the Young Men's Christian Association, YMCA. See also the
annotation for p. 14/14 of Pyramids
.

In our world the YMCA somehow became associated with the homosexual scene
(I think quite a few people singing merrily along to the Village People's
disco hit 'YMCA' would have been very surprised to learn what the song
was really about), hence the "studded collars and oiled muscles" bit.

- [p. 93/93] "'Only when you leave, it's very important not to look back.'"

It's always important never to look back if you're rescuing somebody from
Death's domain. The best known example of this can be found in the tragic
legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus went to fetch his departed loved
one, talked Hades (the Greek version of Death) into it, but had to leave
without looking back. Of course he looked -- and she was gone forever. A
contemporary retelling of the Orpheus legend can be found in Neil
Gaiman's Sandman series.

A few people have written and suggested a reference to Lot's wife in
Genesis 19:26 (who was turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back
when they left Sodom and Gomorrah), but the fact that we're talking about
Death's domain here indicates clearly to me that the Orpheus reference is
the one Terry intended.

- [p. 104/104] "Rincewind wasn't certain what a houri was, but after some
thought he came to the conclusion that it was a little liquorice tube for
sucking up the sherbet."

A houri is actually a beautiful young girl found in the Moslem paradise.
For more information on sherbets see the annotation for p. 122/111 of Sourcery
.

- [p. 105/105] "[...] homesickness rose up inside Rincewind like a
late-night prawn birani."

A birani is an Indian rice curry.

- [p. 128/128] "'Man, we could be as rich as Creosote!'"

This is the first mention of Creosote, whom we will later meet as a fully
developed character in his own right, in Sourcery. See also the
annotation for p. 125/113 of Sourcery
.

- [p. 133/133] The idea of a strange little shop that appears, sells the
most peculiar things, and then vanishes again first appears in a short
story by H. G. Wells, appropriately called The Magic Shop. A recent
variation on the same theme can be found in Stephen King's Needful
Things.

When an a.f.p. reader mistakenly thought that this type of shop was
invented by Fritz Leiber (see the annotation for p. 9/9 of The Colour of Magic
), Terry replied:

"Actually, magically appearing/disappearing shops were a regular feature
of fantasy stories, particularly in the old Unknown magazine. They
always sold the hero something he didn't -- at the time -- know he
needed, or played some other vital part in the plot. And I think they
even turned up on the early Twilight Zones too. You're referring to a
Leiber story called Bazaar of the Bizarre or something similar, where a
shop appears which seems to contain wonderful merchandise but in fact
contains dangerous trash."

The Leiber story is indeed called Bazaar of the Bizarre. It features
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and can be found in Swords Against Death.

- [p. 171/171] "'Do not peddle in the affairs of wizards...'"

See the annotation for p. 183/149 of Mort
.

- [p. 209/209] "The young turtles followed, orbiting their parent."

My herpetological correspondent tells me that in our world no known
turtles give any sort of care to their young. They just lay the eggs and
leave the hatchlings to fend for themselves, which incidentally helps
explain why sea turtles are becoming extinct.

It can be argued that Great A'Tuin is in fact a kind of sea turtle
(admittedly, a somewhat unusual sea turtle), since only sea turtles
have flippers in place of feet and spend most of their time swimming.

- [p. 213/213] "'They do say if it's summa cum laude, then the living is
easy --.'"

Substituting "graduation with distinction" for the Latin "summa cum
laude" gives a perfectly unexceptional sentiment, but it is, of course,
also a reference to the song 'Summertime' from the Gershwin
opera/operetta/musical Porgy and Bess: "Summertime, and the living is
easy".

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:05 am

Book:Interesting Times

], [[Twoflower]], [[Cohen the Barbarian]]"]

Interesting Times

Publisher	Victor Gollancz
Publication date	November 1994
ISBN	0552142352
Pages	351
Main characters	Rincewind, Twoflower, Cohen the Barbarian
Series	Rincewind Series
Notes	Book #17
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Contents

[hide]

1 Blurb
2 Characters
- 2.1 Main characters
- 2.2 Minor characters
- 2.3 Cameos and Mentions
- 2.4 Concepts, Items, Etc.
3 Locations
4 Roundworld references
5 Annotations
6 External links

Blurb

Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy).

The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays.
Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes.
Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading
through the ancient cities.

And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for everyone is:

Rincewind the Wizzard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ...

Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ...

...and a very special butterfly.

Characters

Main characters

Rincewind

Twoflower

Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde:
- Boy Willie, the only member of the horde under 80
- Caleb the Ripper
- Ronald Saveloy, or "Teach"
- Truckle the Uncivil
- Old Vincent
- Mad Hamish
</li>

Lord Hong, head of the Hong family, and the Emperor's Grand Vizier

Red Army (both as an army of mostly children [some named below], and as an army of nameless golems):
- Four Big Sandal and Three Maximum Luck, slaves rescued by Rincewind and Cohen
- Pretty Butterfly, also Twoflower's older and wiser daughter
- Lotus Blossom, also Twoflower's younger and more naive daughter
- Two Fire Herb, traitor
- Three Yoked Oxen, who is tortured
- One Favourite Pearl, a young girl whose parents were killed by the feuding warlords
</li>

The Luggage

Minor characters

Gods
- Fate
- Offler
- Blind Io
- The Lady
</li>

Feuding families, whose heads form the Serene Council:
- Hongs
- Sungs
- Tangs
- McSweeneys
- Fangs
</li>

Quantum Weather Butterfly (Papilio tempestae)
Havelock Vetinari

Wizards
- Mustrum Ridcully
- The Dean
- Chair of Indefinite Studies
- Lecturer in Recent Runes
- Librarian
- Ponder Stibbons
- Hex
- The Bursar
- Senior Wrangler
</li>

Death
War and his family
- Terror, War's son
- Panic, War's son
- Clancy, War's daughter-- not quite a horseman, but a member of the Pony Club
</li>

Emperor of the Agatean Empire
Cut-me-own-Throat Dibbler
Mr Boggis, Thieves Guild instructor
Wilkins, Thieves Guild student
Imperial Guard
Captain Three High Trees, inadvertently dispatched by Rincewind
District Commissioner Kee
Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala
Five Tongs, District Commissioner of Bes Pelargic
Two Little Wang, the Emperor's Master of Protocol
Six Beneficent Winds, Deputy District Administrator and Collector of Revenues for the Langtang district
One Big River
Four Big Horns, who is promoted to Lord Chamberlain

Horsemen of Panic:
- Misinformation
- Rumour
- Gossip
- Denial
</li>

Cameos and Mentions

Ly Tin Wheedle, philosopher
"Bloody Stupid" Johnson (mentioned)
Drumknott, Vetinari's clerk
Reader in Woolly Thinking (mentioned), faculty position at Unseen University
Coin (mentioned, as are the events of Sourcery)
Adrian Turnipseed (mentioned)
Modo
Mad Lord Snapcase (mentioned)
Spooner Boggis (mentioned)
Thog the Butcher (mentioned), a barbarian hero who wasn't invited to join the horde due to his incontinence
One Sun Mirror, first Emperor of the Agatean Empire
Mr Whu, a dead person
Nine Orange Trees
Four White Fox, guard captain who is killed by Cohen
Bruce the Hoon and his Skeletal Riders (mentioned), Truckle compares Cohen unfavorably to this barbarian hero/leader
Noodle Jackson, trouble-making wizard from Rincewind's youth
Seven Lucky Logs, a lucky peasant
Leonard of Quirm (mentioned)
P'gi Su, former Emperor, who had a famous Talking Vase, and whose name sounds like the English name "Peggy Sue", perhaps a reference to the Roundworld song of the same name
Sung Ts'uit Li, who had a famous Jade Head
Mad Bishop of Pseudopolis, bathed by 15 naked maidens, killed by Boy Willie
Schz Yu, who had a legendary Diamond Coffin, and whose name sounds a bit like "says you".
Three Solid Frogs, a painter
Jade Fan, concubine and model for Three Solid Frogs
Two Streams, Peach Petal, and Jade Night, ladies at court of the Emperor
Green Necromancer of the Night, harmed by Cohen
Lord Nine Mountains, dies from the poison intended for the Silver Horde
Famine and Pestilence (mentioned, but absent from the proceedings)

Horsemen of Common Cold (mentioned):
- Sniffles
- Chesty
- Nostril
- Lack of Tissues
</li>

Horsemen of public holiday:
- Storm
- Gales
- Sleet
- Contra-flow
</li>

Corporal Toshi, member of the Imperial Army
Three Pink Pig and Five White Fang, Privates (approximately) in the Imperial Army
Fafa, dwarf who made Boy Willie's sword
Mr Schism, member of alchemist's guild who blew himself up (non-fatally)
Voltan the Indestructible (mentioned), dead barbarian hero
Immortal Jenkins (mentioned), dead barbarian hero
Hrun (mentioned)
Crowdie the Strong, barbarian hero eaten by Terrible Man-eating Sloth of Clup
Organdy Sloggo, dead barbarian hero
Slasher Mungo, presumed dead barbarian hero (only his head was found in Skund)
Gosbar the Wake, barbarian hero who ironically died in his sleep
Big Nurker, dead barbarian hero
S'ang Dynasty, former Imperial family
Captain Nong, killed by the Luggage

Concepts, Items, Etc.

God games (many refer to Shakespeare plays)
- Mad Kings, reference to King Lear
- Star-Crossed Lovers, reference to Romeo and Juliet
- Tempest-Wrecked Mariners, reference to The Tempest
- Floods and Droughts
- Mighty Empires, game played in this book
</li>

The many meanings of Arghh!

Pointless Albatross, bird that flies back and forth between Ankh-Morpork and the Agatean Empire for no compelling reason

dried frog pills

Hex's peripherals:
- Phase of the Moon Generator
- Unreal Time Clock, parodying the real-time clock most computers have
</li>

Basic Firemaking, course taught at Unseen University

Rowing Brown, award won by Ridcully

Century of the Fruitbat, current century (Ankh-Morpork calendar)

Silicon Anti-Defamation League (mentioned)

pig's ear soup, peasant dish

Art of War, a doctrine penned by either One Tzu Sung, Three Sun Sung, or possibly some unsung genius. It consists of five rules and nine principles (and perhaps other things).

What I Did On My Holidays, revolutionary book

Hunghungese dishes popular in Ankh-Morpork:
- Dish of Glistening Brown Stuff
- Dish of Glistening Crunchy Orange Stuff
- Dish of Soft White Lumps
</li>

Shibo Yangcong-san, game played in Agatean Empire that literally translates to Cripple Mister Onion

rhinu, unit of currency

The Ankh-Morpork Dream, parody of the The American Dream

Ying, an Agatean holiday

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Discworld version of Roundworld concept with the same name, but this one was invented by Sangrit Heisenberg, a wizard

Guilds (mentioned)
- Engravers' Guild
- Assassins' Guild
- Plumbers' Guild
- Alchemists' Guild
</li>

Golden Rules, legal code for the Agatean Empire
Singing Sword of Wong
tsimo wrestling, parodying Sumo wrestling
Battle of Koom Valley (mentioned), Hamish was a mercenary
Flume's Third Equation and Turffe's Law, used by Ponder to explain Hex's foul-up in returning Rincewind

Locations

Circle Sea
- Ankh-Morpork
  - The Unseen University
    - Room 3B (mentioned)
    - Uncommon Room (most universities, of course, have a "common room")
    - Tower of Art (mentioned)
    </li>
  - Sator Square
  - Brass Bridge (mentioned)
  - Broad Way (mentioned, as Broadway)
  </li>
- Ephebe (mentioned)
- Tsort (mentioned)
- Omnia (mentioned)
- Klatch (mentioned)
- Quirm (mentioned)
- Howondaland (mentioned), Ankh-Morpork imports tea from there
- Al Khali (mentioned)
- Skund (mentioned)
</li>

Counterweight Continent
- The Agatean Empire
  - Hunghung
    - Forbidden City
      - Summer Palace, where the Emperor lives during the summer
        
        Throne Room
        
        </li>
      </li>
    - Imperial Square
    - Hung River (mentioned)
    </li>
  - Winter Palace, where the Emperor does not live during the summer
  - Sum Dim, city where McSweeney has 30 rebels executed
  - the Great Wall, which surrounds the Agatean Empire
  - Bes Pelargic (mentioned)
    - Street of Heavens (mentioned), main street is Bes Pelargic
    </li>
  - W'ung (mentioned), a district
  - Bhangbhangduc (mentioned)
  - Tingling (mentioned)
  </li>
</li>

XXXX

Ee, lost city

Start (mentioned), had Mad Snake Priests

The Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine (mentioned)

Nadgers, mountain range near the hub (in addition to being a body part reference)

Clup (mentioned)

Rim Ocean (mentioned)

Trob (mentioned)

Roundworld references

Direct references to Roundworld:

Noh theatre

Esperanto, an invented universal language

Pass the Parcel, a children's game

fuzzy logic, a mathematical paradigm

Annotations

"'So they'll sort of be in charge of themselves, will they?',
[said Rincewind]. 'Indeed,' said Lotus Blossom. 'By means of the
People's Committee,' said Butterfly [...] 'My word,' [Rincewind] said
[...] 'I had this sudden feeling [...] that there won't be all that many
water buffalo string holders on the People's Committee. In fact... I
get this kind of... voice telling me that a lot of the People's
Committee, correct me if I'm wrong, are standing in front of me right
now?' 'Initially, of course,' said Butterfly. 'The peasants can't even
read and write.'" - the Red Army's plans sound a lot like the Bolshevik revolution

"[21] Much later, Rincewind had to have therapy for this. It
involved a pretty woman, a huge plate of potatoes and a big stick with a
nail in it." - This footnote appears fairly early in the book, and sort
of gives away that Rincewind will at least survive the battle, since
the therapy occurs "much later".

[Harper PB p177] "So...this is the new Great Wizard
of...whom we have read so much, is...it?" I suppose it's wishful
thinking, but the Japanese film Gamera features the line "Maybe it's the
flying saucer that I...heard them...talk...about...so
much...late...ly?", which mercilessly mocked in the 1991 season of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 and was used as a callback in several other
episodes.

[Corgi PB, p195] The exchange between the sisters Pretty Butterfly and Lotus Blossum, debating the non-appearance of traitor Two Fire Herb.

Lotus Blossom innocently says "You mean he had been caught already?"

This echoes Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984, when in prison he is brought beore O'Brien, who he innocently thinks is another dissident. In fact O'Brien is an agent provocateur whose role is to draw out sedition by pretending to be a rebel.

"O'Brien! You mean they got you too?"

O'Brien smiles unpleasantly and says "Oh no, Winston. They got me a long time ago", leaving the awful truth to dawn...

External links

Interesting Times Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:07 am

CLANCY OF THE OVERFLOW - A.B. "Banjo" Paterson

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just "on spec", addressed as follows: "Clancy, of The Overflow".

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written in a thumbnail dipped in tar)
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
"Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are."

In my wild erratic fancy visions come to me of Clancy
Gone a-droving "down the Cooper" where the western drovers go;
As the stock are slowly stringing, Clancy rides behind them singing,
For the drover's life has pleasures that the townsfolk never know.

And the bush hath friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars.

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy
Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,
And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city
Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle
Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,
And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,
Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me
As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,
With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,
For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

And I somehow fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy,
Like to take a turn at droving where the seasons come and go,
While he faced the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal -
But I doubt he'd suit the office, Clancy, of "The Overflow".

The Bulletin, 21 December 1889.

Return to the A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson page.
FEET Of CLAY... Red_left_s

Return to the Children's Treasury page.
FEET Of CLAY... Red_left_s

Return to the Banjo Paterson's Poems of the Bush page.

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:11 am

Editorial Commentary

In the ballads and poetry of Banjo Paterson are captured the spirit of
the Australian Outback, and the essences of the bushmen and women who
pioneered it. The vast distances, the droughts, the floods, the flies,
the heat ... and the harsh and beautiful places of
Outback Australia were brought to the city people of the late 1880's
through the writings of Andrew Barton Paterson.
A true folk poet, a recorder and publisher of Australian Bush Songs,
Banjo brought the legendary magic of the Australian bush into the
household, the schools and the government. His mythical ballad Waltzing Matilda
would be described as Australia's unofficial national anthem, and there
is no doubt he contributed much to Australia's heritage.

The Man from Snowy River, tells the story of a young mountain lad,
mounted on a small mountain pony, who rides out with the experienced
stockmen in pursuit of a runaway horse. Because of his size, and the
size of his pony he is first rediculed, but when the wild bush horses
take to the wild and rugged mountain tracts, he and his pony grow in
stature ....

It was this poem which served as the basis for the recent Hollywood film - of the same name.

PRF Brown
BCSLS {Freshwater}
Mountain Man Graphics, Australia
Southern Summer of 1995

The Man from Snowy River

Banjo Paterson

There was movement at the station,

And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast,
He was something like a racehorse undersized,
With a touch of Timor pony -- three parts thoroughbred at least --
And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.
He was hard and tough and wiry -- just the sort that won't say die --
There was courage in his quick impatient tread;
And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye,
And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.

For both his horse and he are mountain bred."

I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen."

For never yet was rider that could keep the mob in sight,
If once they gain the shelter of those hills."

No man can hold them down the other side."

And alone and unassisted brought them back.

And the stockmen tell the story of his ride.

[Clancy of the Overflow]
[Been There Before]

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:17 am

A BUSH CHRISTENING - A.B. "Banjo" Paterson

On the outer Barcoo where the churches are few,
And men of religion are scanty,
On a road never cross'd 'cept by folk that are lost,
One Michael Magee had a shanty.

Now this Mike was the dad of a ten-year-old lad,
Plump, healthy, and stoutly conditioned;
He was strong as the best, but poor Mike had no rest
For the youngster had never been christened,

And his wife used to cry, "If the darlin' should die
Saint Peter would not recognise him."
But by luck he survived till a preacher arrived,
Who agreed straightaway to baptise him.

Now the artful young rogue, while they held their collogue,
With his ear to the keyhole was listenin',
And he muttered in fright while his features turned white,
"What the divil and all is this christenin'?"

He was none of your dolts, he had seen them brand colts,
And it seemed to his small understanding,
If the man in the frock made him one of the flock,
It must mean something very like branding.

So away with a rush he set off for the bush,
While the tears in his eyelids they glistened-
"'Tis outrageous," says he, "to brand youngsters like me,
I'll be dashed if I'll stop to be christened!"

Like a young native dog he ran into a log,
And his father with language uncivil,
Never heeding the "praste" cried aloud in his haste,
"Come out and be christened, you divil!"

But he lay there as snug as a bug in a rug,
And his parents in vain might reprove him,
Till his reverence spoke (he was fond of a joke)
"I've a notion," says he, "that'll move him."

"Poke a stick up the log, give the spalpeen a prog;
Poke him aisy-don't hurt him or maim him,
'Tis not long that he'll stand, I've the water at hand,
As he rushes out this end I'll name him.

"Here he comes, and for shame! ye've forgotten the name-
Is it Patsy or Michael or Dinnis?"
Here the youngster ran out, and the priest gave a shout-
"Take your chance, anyhow, wid 'Maginnis'!"

As the howling young cub ran away to the scrub
Where he knew that pursuit would be risky,
The priest, as he fled, flung a flask at his head
That was labelled "Maginnis's Whisky!"

And Maginnis Magee has been made a J.P.,
And the one thing he hates more than sin is
To be asked by the folk who have heard of the joke,
How he came to be christened "Maginnis"!

The Bulletin, 16 December 1893.

Return to the A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson page.
FEET Of CLAY... Red_left_s

Return to the Children's Treasury page.
FEET Of CLAY... Red_left_s

Return to the Banjo Paterson's Australians page.

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:20 am

Book:The Last Continent

], Mrs. [[Whitlow]]"]]"]

The Last Continent

Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	May 1998
ISBN	0552146145
Pages	416
Main characters	Rincewind, Mrs. Whitlow
Series	Rincewind Series
Annotations	View
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Contents

[hide]

1 Blurb
2 Characters
- 2.1 Main characters
- 2.2 Minor characters
- 2.3 Cameos and People Mentioned
3 Locations
4 Concepts, Items, Events
5 External Links

Blurb

This is the Discworld's last continent, a completely separate creation.

It's hot. It's dry... very dry. There was this thing once called
The Wet, which no one now believes in. Practically everything that's not
poisonous is venomous. But it's the best bloody place in the world, all
right?

And it'll die in a few days. Except...

Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Champion sheep
shearer, horse rider, road warrior, beer drinker, bush ranger and
someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober? A man in a
hat, whose Luggage follows him on little legs, who's about to change
history by preventing a swagman stealing a jumbuck by a billabong?

Yes... all this place has between itself and wind-blown doom is
Rincewind, the inept wizard who can't even spell wizard. He's the only
hero left.

Still... no worries, eh?

Characters

Main characters

Rincewind
Mustrum Ridcully
The Librarian
The Senior Wrangler
The Dean
The Bursar
The Chair of Indefinite Studies
The Lecturer in Recent Runes
Ponder Stibbons
Mrs. Whitlow
Creator of XXXX
God of Evolution
Trickster, also known as Scrappy and Snowy

Minor characters

Strewth, a miner whose name is the Australian expression for "God's truth"
Hex
Death
Mad, a dwarf
Crocodile Crocodile, a barman aka Dongo
The Luggage
Petunia the Desert Princess, transvestite group, consisting of:
- Letitia
- Darleen, who sings Prancing Queen, a parody of ABBA's Dancing Queen
- Neilette, an actual woman
- Noelene, Neilette's brother, who dropped out after trying to surf in a ball gown
</li>
Bill Rincewind, Archchancellor of Bugarup University
B. Smoth, Dean of Bugarup University

Cameos and People Mentioned

McAbre, the head bledlow
Doughnut Jimmy (mentioned)
Swallett, wizard who led expedition to find Lost Reading Room
Professor of Recondite Architecture and Origami Map Folding
Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography (mentioned), a title later held by Rincewind
Wally Sluvver, a wizard who gave lectures post-mortem (no one noticed)
Lecturer in Creative Uncertainty, the Discworld equivalent of quantum mechanics
Sir Roderick Purdeigh, explorer who searched for XXXX and claimed it didn't exist (but also once got lost in his own bedroom...)
Death of Rats
Albert
Bewdley, former Archchancellor with a magic hole in his boots
Medley, a medical kleptomaniac (mentioned)
Hoki, god (mentioned)
Creator of the Disc (mentioned)
Ossory (mentioned in an expression)
Hollowlog Joe, drinker in bar
Queen Zazumba of Sumtri (mentioned)
Daggy, sheep shearer
Remorse, a man who owns a fast colt and purchases Snowy
Clancy, a stock man who works for Remorse and helps invent XXXX-ian slang
Tinhead Ned (mentioned), famous escape artist, parodying Ned Kelly
Fair Go Dibbler
Duncan, friend of Fair Go's, who explains "Duncan's me mate", from the Slim Dusty song Duncan
Greg and Vince, troll-like gaolers
Larrikin Larry, criminal whose head flew off like a cork when he was hanged
"Dicky" Bird (mentioned), wizard particularly sensitive to high magical fields
Dibblers around the Disc (mentioned; most of these do not appear in any other book)
- Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (several books)
- Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala (from Interesting Times)
- Al-Jiblah
- May-I-Never-Achieve-Enlightenment Dhiblang
- Dib Diblossonson
- May-I-Be-Kicked-In-My-Own-Ice-Hole Dibooki
- Swallow-Me-Own-Blowdart Dlang-Dlang
</li>
Ly Tin Wheedle (mentioned)
Charley, a cook depressed at the concept of naming a dessert after famed opera singer Dame Nellie Butt, especially since his father created the Orange Ormulu in honor of Dame Janine Ormulu
Nunco, who invented the Strawberry Sackville for Dame Wendy Sackville
Imposo, who created the Apple Glazier for Dame Margyreen Glazier
Lisa Delight, retired opera singer
Ron and Sid, opera house chefs
Ronald Pants aka "Really" Pants (mentioned)
Farter Carter (mentioned; probably not his real name)
Trusset, a wizard with good hair, contemporary of Ponder Stibbons
"Rubber" Houser, wizard who invented the Graphical Device
Cartwright, an XXXX-ian wizard
Salid, an artist (possibly a wizard artist?)
Clive, Shirl, and Gerleen, XXXX-ers who wish to emigrate to Ankh-Morpork
Germaine Trifle, opera singer
Bluey, XXXX-ian watchman

Locations

Ankh-Morpork
- The Unseen University
  - Museum of Quite Unusual Things (mentioned)
  - High Energy Magic Building (mentioned)
  - Library
    - Lost Reading Room (mentioned)
    </li>
  - Room 5b (mentioned)
  </li>
- Moon Pond Lane (mentioned), Librarian's birth street
- Opera House
  (mentioned; when stranded on a deserted island, the Dean wishes to
  listen to the music there), not to be confused with the Bugarup Opera
  House mentioned below
</li>

XXXX
- Dijabringabeeralong
  - Semaphore Hill (mentioned)
  </li>
- Bugarup
  - Bugarup Gaol
  - Berk Street (mentioned)
  - Bludgeree (mentioned), area of town(?) where Fair Go Dibbler was born
    - Treacle Street (mentioned), Fair Go Dibbler's birth street
    </li>
  - Opera House
  - Grurt Street (mentioned)
  - Bugarup University
  </li>
- Pastoral Hotel (mentioned)
- Cangoolie (mentioned), parodies Kalgoorlie
- Worralorrasurfa, Neilette's home town
</li>

Mono Island, an island near XXXX similar to New Zealand

Slakki and Purdee Island, nudist islands

Quirm (mentioned)
- Kiddling Street (mentioned)
</li>

Klatch (mentioned)

Omnia (mentioned)

NoThingfjord (mentioned), Mad's home town

Sumtri (mentioned)

Bhangbhangduc (mentioned), a place whose name parodies "bang! bang! duck" (ie, telling someone to duck after bullets have been shot)

Quint, city destroyed by God of Evolution

Concepts, Items, Events

slood (mentioned)
Ceremony of the Keys, parodying the Roundworld events with the same name.
L-Space
Weezencake's Unreliable Algorithm
How to Dynamically Manage People for Dynamic Results in a Caring Empowering Way in Quite a Short Time Dynamically, a truly hideous book from another universe
droit de mortis, killing senior wizards to speed promotion
Old Tom, university's tongueless clock
Wasport's Lives of the Very Dull People, a book
Wrencher's Snakes of All Nations, a book
Dangerous
Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects,
Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses, and Lichens of Terror
Incognita, an encyclopedia with at least 29 volumes (probably many
more, as the volumes are further broken down by letter and number, eg,
"29c, part 3")
drop-bears
Principles of Thaumic Propagation, a studious book that turns into The Omega Conspiracy, a frivolous book
Theoretical frivolous books working along the same general lines:-
- The Gamma Imperative
- The Delta Season
- The Alpha Project
- The Mu Kappa Pi Caper
</li>
dwarf bread
the Triangle, a constellation
The Small Boring Group of Faint Stars, a constellation
thunder lizard,
animal that killed Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography,
but later turned into a chicken. A literal translation into Greek of the
term "Thunder Lizard" is Brontosaurus.
Roo Beer, a light sparkly (but still quite alcoholic) beer
Sapu tree, a carnivorous plant
Sledgehammer Plant of Bhangbhangduc, a carnivorous plant
Pyramid Strangler Vine, a normally vegetarian plant
Two Up, game, parodying the Roundworld game of the same name
Tie My Kangaroo Up, a song parodying Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
squid,
unit of currency (probably parodies 'quid', slang term for British
pound) The pound (£AUS) was the unit of currency in Australia until
supplanted by the dollar ($AUS) in the 1950's.
Mugroop's Syndrome, symptom of high magical field
meat pie floater, XXXX specialty cuisine
Peach Nellie, a dessert
The Galah, celebration of alternative lifestyles, parodying the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras,
Australia's largest gay/lesbian event. Probably the reason why the
University doesn't enforce Rules One, Three, Five and Seven.
Funnelweb, a type of beer, parodying Redback Beer (both named after spiders)
Maxwell's Impressive Separator and Bonza Charlie's Beaut Sieve, two similar spells that can separate two things (eg, salt and water from saltwater)
HW chromosome, something wizards lack (HW = housework?)

External Links

The Last Continent Annotations - The Annotated Pratchett File

Discworld geography (WikiPedia)

Discworld Series

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Jingo

Next book
Carpe Jugulum

Rincewind Series

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Interesting Times

Next book
The Science of Discworld

TV and film adaptations

(Redirected from Featured Article)

Despite his (deserved) scepticism, several of Pratchett's books
have been adapted as television series or specials, and movies are being
planned.

"The difference between me and Neil in our attitude to movie
projects is that he doesn't believe they're going to happen until he's
sitting in his seat eating popcorn, and I don't believe they're going to
happen."
—Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

Contents

[hide]

1 Aired
2 Planned and speculated
3 Not happening, postponed to unknown date
- 3.1 Mort
- 3.2 Good Omens

Aired

Wyrd Sisters, an animated series by Cosgrove Hall
Soul Music, as animated series by Cosgrove Hall.
Truckers, an animated series by Cosgrove Hall.
Johnny and the Bomb, a three-part TV series on the BBC.
Hogfather, aired by Sky One, Christmas 2006 as TV film.
The Colour of Magic, aired by Sky One, Easter 2008 as TV film.
Going Postal, aired by Sky One, Easter 2010 as TV film.

Planned and speculated

The Wee Free Men: the BBC reports that Sam Raimi is going to direct it.
Troll Bridge is planned by Snowgum Films and will begin in earnest very soon, following a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise money from fans.
Unseen Academicals: airing in 2012
Sourcery:
Terry Pratchett has stated that Sourcery will be the fifth discworld
novel to be adapted for Sky One, although he initially wanted to adapt
Making Money. However, he thinks it may work better as a film and he can
have fun with characters like *Nijel the Destroyer.

Not happening, postponed to unknown date

Mort

Mort
was the first book rumoured to be put on the big screen, and already
subject of talk in 1992 on alt.fan.pratchett. Even then the prospects
weren't too good:

"A production company was put together and there was US and
Scandinavian and European involvement, and I wrote a couple of script
drafts which went down well and everything was looking fine and then the
US people said 'Hey, we've been doing market research in Power Cable,
Nebraska, and other centres of culture, and the Death/skeleton bit
doesn't work for us, it's a bit of a downer, we have a prarm with it, so
lose the skeleton.' The rest of the consortium said, did you read the
script? The Americans said: sure, we LOVE it, it's GREAT, it's HIGH
CONCEPT. Just lose the Death angle, guys.

"Whereupon, I'm happy to say, they were told to keep on with the medication and come back in a hundred years."
—Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

In 1998, an update was posted about Mort, the Movie:

"...is looking like it won't happen now, despite months of development work.

"Without going into lots of detail, it's hit the familiar Hollywood iceberg (the one which would've set Good Omens
in Indiana without the Four Horsemen). People suddenly grow an extra
head and say things like "we have to make this relevant to the American
teenager". And it's at times like this I get very glad that control has
not been completely relinquished, because people are going to start
suggesting really dumb things. There's still some UK involvement, but I
really cannot see a purely UK movie made. Mort isn't
fashionable UK movie material – there's no parts in it for Hugh or Emma,
it's not set it Sheffield, and no one shoves drugs up their bum..."
—Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett

Good Omens

Production on Good Omens
started in 2000, but due to lack of funds the movie has been postponed
to an unknown date. Although both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman have
never publicly said it isn't going to happen, chances are slim. As Neil Gaiman said:

"Personally I don't really think the Good Omens movie is
dead. I think of it as lying in a glass coffin with white lilies on its
chest and with mournful dwarfs all around it, all of them waiting for a
prince to ride up on a big white horse, carrying with him about sixty
million dollars."

Pratchett said:

"I currently regard it like all other film projects – it's not absolutely certain that it won't happen..."

The movie is no longer listed on IMDB.com.

It appears that the film could be back on as Prime Focus have confirmed that will be their first project for their new Productions section of their company.

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:23 am

Dijabringabeeralong

Dijabringabeeralong is one of the bigger towns on the continent XXXX.
Instead of a welcome billboard, the sign on a windmill by the roadside
upon entering the town says: "Dijabringabeeralong: Check Your Weapons"
(ie 'Check that they work.').

Seemingly something like the "one-horse" towns of the old
American West, the town seems to consist mainly of a street with houses
that would probably be described as "vernacular" architecture on the
Disc. It also has a bar.

It lies on the Lassitude River, where an annual Regatta is held
that attracts a lot of attention. Usually consisting of a race of
wheeled boats pulled by camels on the sand, it was cancelled during the
events of The Last Continent. It was felt that a river full of water made a mockery of the whole event.

Annotation

Just say it real slowly...

The argument between Wally the wombat and Rincewind has overtones of Eric Idle's Australian Wino Society sketch.

"Old Smokey 1968 has been compared favourably to a Welsh claret,
whilst the Australian Wino Society thoroughly recommends a 1970 Coq du
Rod Laver, which, believe me, has a kick on it like a mule: eight
bottles of this and you're really finished. At the opening of the Sydney
Bridge Club, they were fishing them out of the main sewers every half
an hour.

Of the sparkling wines, the most famous is Perth Pink. This is a
bottle with a message in, and the message is 'beware'. This is not a
wine for drinking, this is a wine for laying down and avoiding.

Another good fighting wine is Melbourne Old-and-Yellow, which is
particularly heavy and should be used only for hand-to-hand combat."

Category: Discworld geography

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:50 am

The Last Continent

Annotations
| Information
| Quotes

"When it's time to stop living, I will certainly make Death my number one
choice!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

- "I think there may be one or two steps in your logic that I have failed
to grasp, Mister Stibbons," said the Archchancellor coldly. "I suppose
you're not intending to shoot your own grandfather, by any chance?"
- "Of course not!" snapped Ponder, "I don't even know what he looked like.
He died before I was born."
- "Ah-hah!"

-- The faculty members of Unseen University discuss time travel
(Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

In the fetid fleapit of Rincewind's brain the projectionist of memory put
on reel two. Recollection began to flicker.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

Daggy stepped forward, but only comparatively; in fact, his mates had all,
without discussion, taken one step backwards in the choreography of
caution.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

PEOPLE'S WHOLE LIVES DO PASS IN FRONT OF THEIR EYES BEFORE THEY DIE. THE
PROCESS IS CALLED 'LIVING'.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

"Nulli Sheilae sanguineae"

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

"All bastards are bastards, but some bastards is bastards."

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

They say the heat and the flies here can drive a man insane. But you don't
have to believe that, and nor does that bright mauve elephant that just
cycled past.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

Ridcully was to management what King Herod was to the Bethlehem Playgroup
Association. His mental approach to it could be visualised as a sort of
business flowchart with, at the top, a circle entitled "Me, who does the
telling" and, connected below it by a line, a large circle entitled
"Everyone else".

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

"When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators, Today Is the First Day of the
Rest of Your Life."

-- Management slogan, Ridcully-style
(Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

Rincewind had always been happy to think of himself as a racist. The One
Hundred Meters, the Mile, the Marathon -- he'd run them all.

-- (Terry Pratchett, The Last Continent)

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 12:59 am

Jingo

Annotations
| Information
| Quotes

+ [title] Jingo

"By jingo!" is an archaic, jocular oath, of obscure origin, used in
Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. The word -- with derived forms
such as 'jingoism' and 'jingoistic' -- became associated with aggressive,
militaristic nationalism as a result of a popular song dating from the
Turko-Russian war of 1877-78, which began:

<blockquote class="stanza">We don't want to have to fight,
but by Jingo if we do
We've got the ships, we've got the men,
we've got the money too.

</blockquote>
Interestingly (in the light of the circumstances of this particular war),
it is also the name of a warlike Japanese empress of the 2nd/3rd
centuries, credited by legend with the power of controlling the tides.

+ [p. 8] "'Whose squid are they, dad?'"

Fishing rights have been a frequent cause of dispute between the UK and
neighbours, most dramatically in the 'Cod Wars' between the UK and
Iceland (1958, 1973, 1975), in which ships from the two countries
sabotaged each other's nets.

+ [p. 11] "There was a tradition of soap-box speaking in Sator Square."

London's Hyde Park Corner has a very similar tradition.

+ [p. 11] "'Who's going to know, dad?'"

In the 1963 comedy Mouse on the Moon, the Duchy of Grand Fenwick
competes with the USA and USSR to put the first human on the moon. The
Fenwick rocket gets there first, but someone points out that this doesn't
matter -- the glory will go to whoever gets home first. The Americans
and Russians quickly make their excuses and leave, pausing only to enter
the wrong capsules before sorting themselves out.

+ [p. 13] "'His ship is the Milka, I believe.'"

One of Christopher Columbus' ships was named the Pinta. A UK
milk-marketing slogan from the 1980s exhorted people to 'Drinka pinta
milka day'.

+ [p. 16] "'I believe the word "assassin" actually comes from Klatch?'"

In our world, it does. See the annotation for p. 126/114 of Sourcery
.

+ [p. 17] "'Have you ever heard of the D'regs, my lord?'"

See the annotation for p. 109/82 of Soul Music
.

+ [p. 18] "'It's about time Johnny Klatchian was taught a lesson,'"

"Johnny Foreigner" is a generic, disparaging term used by Britons of --
well, foreigners. During the First World War, the more specific term
"Johnny Turk" appeared.

+ [p. 20] "'It is no longer considered... nice... to send a warship over
there to, as you put it, show Johnny Foreigner the error of his ways. For
one thing, we haven't had any warships since the Mary-Jane sank four
hundred years ago.'"

In the latter part of the 19th century, the phrase "gunboat diplomacy"
was coined to describe this British method of negotiating with uppity
colonials. The gunboat in question would not normally be expected to do
anything, merely to "show the flag" as a reminder that, however
vulnerable it might appear on land, Britannia still Ruled the Waves, and
could make life very difficult for anyone who got too obstreperous.

The Mary-Jane is a reference to Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose,
which (most embarrassingly) sank, in calm seas, immediately after being
launched from Portsmouth in 1545. The ship was recovered in the 1980s,
and is now a tourist attraction.

+ [p. 21] "'Very well then, by jingo!'"

See this book's title annotation.

+ [p. 22] "'We have no ships. We have no men. We have no money, too.'"

See this book's title annotation.

+ [p. 22] "'Unfortunately, the right words are more readily listened to if
you also have a sharp stick.'"

Theodore Roosevelt famously summarised his foreign policy as "Speak
softly, and carry a big stick."

+ [p. 23] "'Let's have no fighting, please. This is, after all, a council
of war.'"

Echoes the movie Dr Strangelove. See also the annotation for p.156
of The Colour of Magic.

+ [p. 25] "The Artful Nudger scowled."

A character in Dickens' Oliver Twist is called the Artful Dodger.

+ [p. 26] "'Wib wib wib.' 'Wob wob wob.'"

Carrot has formed Ankh-Morpork's first scout troop. This salute parodies
the traditional (but now discontinued) Cub Scout exchange "Dyb dyb dyb."
"Dob dob dob.". The 'dyb' in the challenge supposedly stands for "do your
best", the 'dob' in the scouts' response for "do our best".

+ [p. 27] "'I had this book about this little kid, he turned into a
mermaid,'"

This sounds very much like the story of young Tom the chimney sweep's
transformation, told in moralistic Victorian children's tale The Water
Babies, written in 1863 by Charles Kingsley.

+ [p. 28] "'But after the big plague, he got press-ganged.'"

Press-ganging was the 18th-century equivalent of conscription. A ship's
captain, finding himself short-handed while in a home port, would send a
gang of his men round the port, enlisting anyone they could find who
looked like a sailor. Often this involved simply picking up drunks, but
it was not unheard-of for men to be taken by force.

+ [p. 28] "'They invented all the words starting with "al".'"

In Arabic, "al" is the definite article, and it is joined to the word
that it defines.

+ [p. 29] "'[...] the Klatchians invented nothing. [...] they came up with
zero.'"

The idea of treating zero as a number was one of several major
contributions that Western mathematics adopted from the Arabs.

+ [p. 30] "'[...] it is even better than Ironcrufts ('T'Bread Wi' T'Edge')
[...]'"

See the annotation for p. 26 of Feet of Clay
.

+ [p. 31] "'This is all right, Reg? It's not coercion, is it?'"

Carrot's apparently uncharacteristic (dishonest) behaviour in this scene
has caused a lot of comment on alt.fan.pratchett. Terry explains it thus:

"I assume when I wrote this that everyone concerned would know what was
going on. The thieves have taken a Watchman hostage, a big no-no. Coppers
the world over find their normally sunny dispositions cloud over when
faced with this sort of thing, and with people aiming things at them, and
perpetrators later tend to fall down cell stairs a lot. So Carrot is
going to make them suffer. They're going to admit to all kinds of things,
including things that everyone knows they could not possibly have done.

What'll happen next? Vetinari won't mind. Vimes will throw out half of
the charges at least, and the rest will become TICs and probably will not
hugely affect the sentencing. The thieves will be glad to get out of it
alive. Other thieves will be warned. By the rough and ready local
standards, justice will have been served."

+ [p. 34] "'Hey, that's Reg Shoe! He's a zombie! He falls to bits all the
time!' 'Very big man in the undead community, sir.'"

Reg Shoe first appeared in Reaper Man as the founder of the Campaign
for Dead Rights (slogans included "Undead, yes! Unperson, no!"). Possibly
Vimes has forgotten that he personally ordered zombies to be recruited
into the Watch, towards the end of Feet of Clay.

+ [p. 35] "'That's Probationary Constable Buggy Swires, sir.'"

Swires was the name of the gnome Rincewind and Twoflower encountered in
The Light Fantastic. Given that gnome lives are described in that book
as 'nasty, brutish and short', it seems unlikely that this is the same
gnome. Possibly a relative, though.

+ [p. 35] "[...] the long and the short and the tall."

A popular song from the Second World War had the lyric:

<blockquote class="stanza">Bless 'em all, bless 'em all!
Bless the long and the short and the tall!
Bless all the sergeants and double-you o-ones,
Bless all the corporals and their blinkin' sons.

</blockquote>
The phrase was also used as the title of a stage play (filmed in 1960) by
Willis Hall, describing the plight and fate of a squad of British
soldiers in Burma.

+ [p. 40] "Right now he couldn't remember what the occasional dead dog had
been. Some kind of siege weapon, possibly."

In the Good Old Days(tm), besieging armies would sometimes hurl the
rotting corpses of dead animals over the city walls by catapult, with the
aim of spreading disease and making the city uninhabitable. So in a
sense, a dead dog could be a siege weapon...

+ [p. 44] "It looked as if people had once tried to add human touches to
structures that were already ancient..."

Leshp bears a resemblance to H. P. Lovecraft's similarly strange-sounding
creation, R'lyeh -- an ancient, now submerged island in the Pacific,
inhabited by alien Things with strange architecture, which rises at very
long intervals and sends people mad all over the world. For full details,
see Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu.

+ [p. 47] "'Oh, Lord Venturi says it'll all be over by Hogswatch, sir.'"

"It'll all be over by Christmas" was said of the First World War by
armchair strategists, in August 1914. Ironically, the phrase has become a
popular reassurance: more recently, President Clinton promised the
American public in 1996 that US troops in Bosnia would be "home for
Christmas".

+ [p. 55] "'I go, I hcome back.'"

Ahmed's catchphrase is borrowed from Signior So-So, a comic Italian
character in the famous wartime radio series It's That Man Again
(ITMA).

+ [p. 55] "'Doctor of Sweet Fanny Adams'"

The original Fanny Adams was an eight-year-old girl in Alton, Hampshire,
whose dismembered body was discovered in 1867. About the same time,
tinned mutton was first introduced in the Royal Navy, and the sailors --
not noted for their sensitivity -- took to calling the (rather
disgusting) meat "Sweet Fanny Adams". Hence the term came to mean
something worthless, and finally to mean "nothing at all".

Many correspondents point out that these days "Sweet Fanny Adams" is also
used as a euphemism for "Sweet Fuck All" (still meaning: absolutely
nothing), but that is definitely not the original meaning of the phrase.

+ [p. 55] "The Convivium was Unseen University's Big Day."

Oxford University has a ceremony called the Encaenia, which also involves
lots of old men in silly costumes and a procession ending in the
Sheldonian Theatre.

+ [p. 56] "It was an almost Pavlovian response."

The Pavlovian experiment in our world involved ringing a bell before
and during the feeding of a group of dogs. After a while the dogs learned
to associate the ringing of the bell with food. A part of them was
essentially programmed to think that the bell was the same thing as food.

+ [p. 61] "'And many of them could give him a decent shave and a haircut,
too.'"

Refers to the fact that, for many years, surgeons used to double as
barbers, or vice versa.

+ [p. 61] "'The keystones of the Watch.'"

The Keystone Cops were a squad of frantically bumbling comedy policemen
from the silent movie era.

+ [p. 62] "'A lone bowman.'"

The "lone gunman" theory is still the official explanation of John F.
Kennedy's assassination, despite four decades of frenzied speculation.
Conspiracy theorists like to claim that Someone, Somewhere is covering up
the truth, in much the same way as Vimes and Vetinari are conspiring to
cover it up here.

+ [p. 62] "'[...] it is still law that every citizen should do one hour's
archery practice every day. Apparently the law was made in 1356 and it's
never been --'"

In 1363, in England, Edward III -- then in the early stages of the
Hundred Years' War with France -- ordered that all men should practise
archery on Sundays and holidays; this law remained technically in force
for some time after the longbow was effectively obsolete as a weapon of
war.

+ [p. 65] "'An experimental device for turning chemical energy into rotary
motion,' said Leonard. 'The problem, you see, is getting the little
pellets of black powder into the combustion chamber at exactly the right
speed and one at a time.'"

In our world, an early attempt at an internal combustion engine used
pellets of gunpowder, stuck to a strip of paper (rather like the roll of
caps for a cap pistol). I understand that the attempt was just as
successful as Leonard's.

+ [p. 70] "'I have run out of Burnt Umber.'"

Burnt umber is a dark, cool-toned brown colour. Umber is an earth pigment
containing manganese and iron oxides, used in paints, pastels and
pencils. The name comes from Umbria, the region where it was originally
mined and adopted as a pigment for art.

+ [p. 71] "'So he was shot in the back by a man in front of him who could
not possibly have used the bow that he didn't shoot him with from the
wrong direction...'"

The live film of JFK's assassination, allegedly, shows similar
inconsistencies with the official account.

+ [p. 72] "'[...] he thinks it'll magically improve his shot.'"

The official account of JFK's assassination describes how a bullet moved
in some very strange ways through his body. Conspiracy theorists
disparage this as the "magic bullet theory".

+ [p. 76] "'It looks like a complete run of Bows and Ammo!'"

See the annotation for p. 126 of Hogfather
.

+ [p. 77] "'Bugger all else but sand in Klatch. Still got some in his
sandals.'"

When the First World War broke out, Britons were much comforted by the
fact that the supposedly unstoppable "steamroller" of the Russian army
was on their side. Rumours spread that Russian troops were landing in
Scotland to reinforce the British army, and these troops could be
recognised by the snow on their boots. Ever since, the story has been a
standard joke about the gullibility of people in wartime.

+ [p. 79] "'[...] that business with the barber in Gleam Street.' 'Sweeney
Jones,'"

Legend tells of Sweeney Todd, a barber in Fleet Street, London, who would
rob and kill (not necessarily in that order) solitary customers,
disposing of their bodies via a meat-pie shop next door. The story is
celebrated in a popular Victorian melodrama, in a 1936 film, in a musical
by Stephen Sondheim (1979), and in rhyming slang ("Sweeney Todd" =
"Flying Squad", an elite unit of the Metropolitan Police).

The story was the most successful of a spate of such shockers dating from
the early 19th century. Sawney Bean, the Man-Eater of Midlothian was
supposedly based on a real 13th-century Scottish legal case; also
published about this time were two French versions, both set in Paris.
All of these were claimed to be based on true stories -- but then, this
pretence was standard practice for novelists at the time. The "original"
version of Sweeney Todd was written by Edward Lloyd under the title of
The String of Pearls, published around 1840.

+ [p. 81] "'He was shot from the University?' 'Looks like the library
building,'"

Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from the Texas Schools Book Depository, on
the fifth floor.

+ [p. 82] "'Carrot, it's got "Mr Spuddy Face" on it.'"

Mr Potato Head is a child's toy based on putting facial features on a
potato. Nowadays, Mr Potato Head, produced by Hasbro Inc, has a plastic
body and has achieved great fame by starring in the Toy Story films.

+ [p. 85] "'He just kills people for money. Snowy can't read and write.'"

In later editions of the book, this sentence was altered to 'Snowy can
barely read and write' -- presumably for consistency with the Clue about
the notebook (p. 106).

+ [p. 87] "'Dis is der Riot Act.'"

The Riot Act was an old British law that allowed the authorities to use
deadly force to break up crowds who were gathered for subversive
purposes, such as trade unionists or Chartists. It was an unusual law in
that it had to be read out to the crowd before it came into force --
hence the significance of Detritus' attempt to read it -- and the crowd
was then supposed to be given a reasonable time to disperse. However, it
was wide open to abuse, and was associated with some very nasty
incidents, such as the Peterloo Massacre in 1818. It was not finally
abolished in the UK until the mid-20th century, when the government
decided that it would not be an acceptable way to deal with the regular
riots then taking place in Northern Ireland.

+ [p. 93] "'"Testing the Locksley Reflex 7: A Whole Lotta Bow"'"

Named after the most famous archer of English mythology: Robin of
Locksley, AKA Robin Hood.

In our world, there really do exist 'reflex bows': they are a type of
bow that will curve away from the archer when unstrung.

+ [p. 98] "'Good evening, Stoolie.'"

"Stoolie" is sometimes an abbreviation for "stoolpigeon", a police
informant. Of course, a stool is also something you might find in an
Ankh-Morpork street...

+ [p. 99] "'That one had plants growing on him!'"

It has been pointed out -- and I feel bound to inflict the thought on
others -- that Stoolie is technically a grassy gnoll. (And if that
doesn't mean anything to you in the context of political assassinations
-- be thankful.)

+ [p. 100] 'Rinse 'n' Run Scalp Tonic'[...] "Snowy had cleaned, washed
and gone."

Two references to the shampoo 'Wash and Go', a trademark of Vidal
Sassoon.

+ [p. 104] "'Hah,' said the Dis-organizer."

See the annotation for p. 73 of Feet of Clay
. According to legend, Dis
is also the name of a city in Hell -- particularly appropriate to a
demon-powered organiser.

+ [p. 111] "'Apparently it's over a word in their holy book, [...] The
Elharibians say it translates as "God" and the Smalies say it's "Man".'"

One of the most intractable disputes in the early Christian church was
over the nature of Christ -- to what extent he was God or man. In 325,
the Council of Nicea tried to settle the question with the Nicean Creed,
but the dispute immediately re-emerged over a single word of the creed:
one school said that it was "homoousios" (of one substance), the other
that it should be "homoiousios" (of similar substance). The difference in
the words is a single iota -- the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet
-- and the schism (between Eastern and Western churches) continues to
this day.

+ [p. 115] "Why play cards with a shaved deck?"

"Shaving" is a method of marking cards by trimming a very, very thin
slice from one edge, perceptible only if you know what to look for.

+ [p. 118] "'Prince Kalif. He's the deputy ambassador.'"

Caliph was the title of the leader of the Muslim world, from the death of
the Prophet in 632 onward; although the title has been divided and
weakened since the 10th century, it was only officially abolished by the
newly-formed Republic of Turkey as recently as 1924.

+ [p. 119] "'War, Vimes, is a continuation of diplomacy by other means.'"

Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz (1780-1831), a Prussian general who
fought against Napoleon, wrote a standard textbook On War (Vom
Kriege, first published 1833), in which he said that "war is simply a
continuation of political intercourse, with the addition of other means".
If you want to understand Lord Rust's mindset as expressed by someone
with a working brain, read Clausewitz.

+ [p. 119] "'You've all got Foaming Sheep Disease.'"

When Jingo was being written, there was much speculation about whether
"mad cow disease" had first been transmitted from sheep to cattle, and
whether it could be transmitted from cattle to humans. Both ideas are now
widely accepted.

+ [p. 120] "'The Pheasant Pluckers.' [....] 'We even had a marching song,'
he said. 'Mind you, it was quite hard to sing right.'"

Many British army regiments have, or had, nicknames of this sort, based
either on some historical event or on some idiosyncrasy of their
uniforms. The marching song is a famous old tongue-twister: "I'm not a
pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's mate/ I'm only plucking
pheasants since the pheasant plucker's late." (Another variant
substitutes "son/come" for "mate/late".)

+ [p. 121/122] "'he stuck it in the top pocket of his jerkin [...] whoosh,
this arrow came out of nowhere, wham, straight into this book and it went
all the way through to the last page before stopping, look.'"

Apparently there are "well-documented" cases of this sort of miraculous
escape, but it has become a much-parodied staple of Boys' Own-style
fiction. One well-known occurrence comes at the very end of the
Blackadder III television series. Another can be found in the 1975
movie The Man Who Would Be King, starring Sean Connery and Michael
Caine.

+ [p. 126] "'[...] the moon rising over the Mountains of the Sun'"

Medieval Arab legend identifies the source of the Nile as being in "the
Mountains of the Moon".

+ [p. 128] "'My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is
pure.'"

A direct quote from Tennyson's poem Sir Galahad:

<blockquote class="stanza">My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.

</blockquote>

+ [p. 130] "'The Klatchian's Head. My grandad said his grandad remembered
when it was still a real one.'"

There's a pub in Bath called "The Saracen's Head", which supposedly has a
similarly colourful history.

+ [p. 138] "'VENI VIDI VICI: A Soldier's Life by Gen. A. Tacticus'"

'Veni vidi vici' ('I came, I saw, I conquered') is a quotation attributed
to Julius Caesar, one of several great generals who contributed to the
composite figure of Tacticus. For more on Tacticus, see the annotation for p. 158 of Feet of Clay
.

There are similarities between Tacticus' book, as expounded later in
Jingo, and The Art of War by the Chinese general Sun Tzu.

+ [p. 142] "'It is always useful to face an enemy who is prepared to die
for his country,' he read. 'This means that both you and he have
exactly the same aim in mind.'"

General Patton, addressing his troops in 1942: "No bastard ever won a war
by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard
die for his country."

+ [p. 143] "'[...] this note will self-destruct in five seconds[...]'"

From the beginning of every episode of the television series Mission:
Impossible.

+ [p. 143] "[...] extending from the cylinder for all the world like the
horn of a unicorn [...]"

Historically, the tusk of the narwhal has sometimes been taken for that
of a unicorn.

+ [p. 145] "'But usually I just think of it as the Boat.'"

Das Boot (The Boat) was an epic German film, made by Wolfgang Petersen
in 1981, telling the story of a German submarine in 1941.

+ [p. 150] "'[...] which kills people but leaves buildings standing.'"

Said of the neutron bomb, which delivers a very heavy dose of radiation
but relatively small explosive power or fallout. Mind you, it could
fairly be said of most crossbows.

+ [p. 152] "'Just me and Foul Ole Ron and the Duck Man and Blind Hugh
[...]'"

Inconsistency alert: on p. 74, Carrot told Vimes that Blind Hugh had
'passed away last month'.

+ [p. 154] "'I thought that was for drillin' into the bottom of enemy ships
--'"

The first working submarine was a one-man, hand-propelled vessel called
the Turtle, designed to use an augur to attach explosive charges to the
hulls of enemy ships, the enemy in this case being the British during the
American War of Independence. The Turtle attacked HMS Eagle in New York
Harbor on 6 September 1776, but the hull was lined with copper and the
screw failed to pierce it.

+ [p. 158] "D'reg wasn't their name for themselves, although they tended to
adopt it now out of pride."

This has several parallels in our own world, most notably the Sioux, who
adopted that name from their neighbours and habitual enemies the Ojibwa.

+ [p. 165] "'That's St Ungulant's Fire, that is!'"

The description matches St Elmo's Fire, a corona discharge of static
electricity sometimes seen on highly exposed surfaces (such as ships)
during thunderstorms. In our world, it's supposed to be a good omen. For
more on St Ungulant, see Small Gods.

+ [p. 167] "'According to the Testament of Mezerek, the fisherman Nonpo
spent four days in the belly of a giant fish.'"

According to the Bible, the prophet Jonah did much the same (Jonah 1:17).

+ [p. 174] "'The Sykoolites when being pursued in the wilderness [...] were
sustained by a rain of celestial biscuits, sir.'"

The Israelites, while fleeing from Egypt, were sustained by a divinely
provided rain of bread (Exodus 16:4).

+ [p. 175] "'Fortune favours the brave, sir,' said Carrot cheerfully."

Another Roman saying, coined by Terence (c.190-159 BC): "Fortune aids the
brave."

+ [p. 180] "The motor of his cooling helmet sounded harsh for a moment
[...]"

For the story of Detritus' helmet, read Men at Arms.

+ [p. 181] "'"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on
fire and he's warm for the rest of his life."'"

The original proverb is "Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day,
teach him to fish and he can eat for the rest of his life."

+ [p. 183] "'those nautical stories about giant turtles that sleep on the
surface, thus causing sailors to think they are an island.'"

One of the many adventures of Sinbad, in The Thousand and One Nights.

+ [p. 192] "'"If you would seek peace, prepare for war."'"

From the 4th/5th century Roman writer Vegetius: "Qui desiderat pacem,
praeparet bellum" -- "Let him who desires peace, prepare for war."

+ [p. 204] "'"Gulli, Gulli and Beti"'"

The troop of entertainers that our heroes become is modelled on the old
time Music-Hall team of Wilson, Kepple and Betty, whose act included 'The
Sand Dance'. There's also a nice resonance of names with the Paul Simon
song 'Call Me Al':

<blockquote class="stanza">And if you'll be my bodyguard,
I can be your long lost pal,
And I can call you Betty,
and Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al.

</blockquote>

+ [p. 210] "'[...] I thought that a flying column of guerrilla soldiers
--'"

Since getting into his flowing white robes, Carrot appears to be fast
turning into Lawrence of Arabia. See also the annotations for pp. 259 and
264.

+ [p. 215] "'Egg, melon! Melon, egg!'"

Vetinari's patter seems to be based on that of the fez-wearing British
comedian Tommy Cooper.

+ [p. 223] "'En al Sams la Laisa'"

This is, as Vetinari later translates, almost-Arabic for "where the sun
shines not".

+ [p. 224] "'Oh, I've got a thousand and one of 'em.'"

One of the best-known (in the west, at least) works of Arabic literature
is The Thousand and One Nights. Several classics of children's
literature -- including Aladdin and Sinbad the Sailor -- appear in this
collection. Nobby's version would appear to be rather more PG-rated.

+ [p. 224] "'Especially the one about the man who went into the tavern with
the very small musician.'"

See the annotation for p. 195 of Feet of Clay
.

+ [p. 227] "'Donkey, minaret,' said Lord Vetinari. 'Minaret, donkey.' 'Just
like that?'"

Another Tommy Cooper reference (see also the annotation for p. 215).

+ [p. 229] "'He had a city named after him...'"

The most famous example in our world is Alexandria, built by Alexander
the Great.

+ [p. 230] "A statue must have stood here [...] Now it had gone, and there
were just feet, broken off at the ankles."

A reference to Shelley's sonnet Ozymandias. See the annotation for p. 271/259 of Pyramids
.

+ [p. 243] "We were going to sail into Klatch and be in Al-Khali by
teatime, drinking sherbet with pliant young women in the Rhoxi."

British officers in the First World War, when encouraging their men to go
over the top, would quip that "We'll be eating tea and cakes in Berlin at
teatime." (Captain Blackadder observed irritably that "Everyone wants to
eat out as soon as they get there".)

+ [p. 245] "'That's "Evil Brother-in-Law of a Jackal",' said Ahmed."

See Pyramids for the Discworld convention on the naming of camels.

+ [p. 246] "'That is a reason to field such a contemptible little army?'"

In 1914, the Kaiser apparently made a similar observation of the British
Expeditionary Force sent to oppose the German advance through Belgium.
The soldiers later proudly adopted the name 'Old Contemptibles'.

See also the annotation for p. 158.

+ [p. 249] "'That's a Make-Things-Bigger device, isn't it? [...] They were
invented only last year.'"

Judging from the name, this could be one of Leonard's creations -- but
actually we've learned in Soul Music (p. 137) that this particular
invention was the work of Ponder Stibbons at Unseen University.

+ [p. 257] "'And Captain Carrot is organizing a football match.'"

There's a famous but true story of how, on Christmas Day 1914, troops
from British and German units came out of the trenches and played
football in No-Man's Land.

+ [p. 259] "'Why don't you take some well-earned rest, Sir Samuel? You are
[...] a man of action. You deal in swords and chases, and facts. Now,
alas, it is the time for the men or words, who deal in promises and
mistrust and opinions. For you the war is over. Enjoy the sunshine. I
trust we shall all be returning home shortly.'"

This speech is very similar to the end of the film Lawrence of Arabia
(David Lean, 1962). Prince Feisal tells Lawrence: "There's nothing
further here, for a warrior. We drive bargains, old men's work. Young men
makes wars and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage
and hope for the future. Old men make the peace and the vices of peace
are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution."

+ [p. 264] "'The trick is not to mind that it hurts.'"

Early in the film Lawrence of Arabia, Lawrence is sitting in an office
drawing maps and talking to his compatriot about the Bedouin attacking
the Turks. Another man joins them and Lawrence lights a cigarette,
putting the match out with his fingers. The newcomer tries the same
trick, but drops the match with a shout of "it hurts." To which Lawrence
replies: "The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts."

+ [p. 268] "'Say it ain't so, Mr Vimes!'"

'Shoeless' Joe Jackson was the star player of the Chicago White Sox
during the 1919 World Series. When it emerged that he had (allegedly)
accepted bribes to throw the series, the fans' collective reaction was
of shocked incredulity: the line "Say it ain't so, Joe!" became the
canonical form of begging someone to deny an allegation that is too
shocking to accept, but too convincing to disbelieve.

+ [p. 282] "'It is a far, far better thing I do now [...]'"

At the end of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton,
good-natured layabout and occasional drunk, goes to the guillotine in the
place of his beloved's beloved.

The book's famous last line is not a direct quote from Sydney (since he's
already dead by then), but rather what the narrator feels he might have
said: "If he had given any utterance to his [thoughts], and they were
prophetic, they would have been these: '[...] It is a far, far better
thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that
I go to than I have ever known.'".

The APF is maintained by Leo Breebaart and Mike Kew,
who always welcome corrections, questions or new annotations.

The L-Space Web is a creation
of The L-Space Librarians
This mirror
site is maintained by A.H.Davis

true lilly Sat Oct 29, 2011 1:06 am

Sourcery

Annotations
| Information
| Quotes

He did of course sometimes have people horribly tortured to death, but this
was considered to be perfectly acceptable behaviour for a civic ruler and
generally approved of by the overhelming majority of citizens. [footnote:
The overhelming majority of citizens being defined in this case as everyone
not currently hanging upside down over a scorpion pit]

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

There were a few seconds of total silence as everyone waited to see what
would happen next. And then Nijel uttered the battle cry that Rincewind
would never quite forget to the end of his life. "Erm," he said, "excuse
me..."

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

Of course, Ankh-Morpork's citizens had always claimed that the river water
was incredibly pure. Any water that had passed through so many kidneys,
they reasoned, had to be very pure indeed.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

The subject of wizards and sex is a complicated one, but as has already
been indicated it does, in essence, boil down to this: when it comes to
wine, women and song, wizards are allowed to get drunk and croon as much as
they like.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

The vermine is a small black and white relative of the lemming, found in
the cold Hublandish regions. Its skin is rare and highly valued, especially
by the vermine itself; the selfish little bastard will do anything rather
than let go of it.

-- Discworld wildlife
(Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

"It's going to look pretty good, then, isn't it," said War testily, "the
One Horseman and Three Pedestrians of the Apocralypse."

-- The Four Horsemen of the Apocralypse encounter
unexpected difficulties
(Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

It wasn't blood in general he couldn't stand the sight of, it was just his
blood in particular that was so upsetting.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

"I'm not going to ride on a magic carpet!" he hissed.
"I'm afraid of grounds."
"You mean heights," said Conina. "And stop being silly."
"I know what I mean! It's the grounds that kill you!"

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

It became apparent that one reason why the Ice Giants were known as the Ice
Giants was because they were, well, giants. The other was that they were
made of ice.

-- (Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

"I meant," said Iplsore bitterly, "what is there in this world that makes
living worthwhile?"
Death thought about it. "CATS," he said eventually, "CATS ARE NICE."

-- Death is obviously not a dog person
(Terry Pratchett, Sourcery)

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