Any Questions?

[Square12]

There is the tenuous connection to melons in that Om uses them for shade in SG.

 

[=Tamar]

Re: Re:

Hex wrote: +++ Hi Mum Is Testing +++

Some parallels with computer programming on roundworld:

- Hi Mum is Testing -> Hello World, I think.

There was an old version of either DOS or Windows that started up with a high-level memory test and the screen text read "Hi Mem is Testing". Don't ask me what it meant, I never did know.

 

[=Tamar]

Re: Re:

(quoting Jane but the system won't let me nest that many quotes) "Question: What is with those knitted wizards in jars? In Going Postal, they had those Post Humous professors in the Wizards' Pantry. Is there supposed to be a stealth pun hiding in there? Because I don't get it. "

I have to admit that I have no idea about that one. I think - and maybe someone here can confirm, that a Jar Wizard is something to do with computers. I agree that there's probably a joke in there somewhere.

...the first thing that comes to mind when you're thinking about "something to do with computers" is an installation wizard. There's also a Java package called "Wizard" apparently, and when you compile Java programs the result is a ".jar" file. No idea what the "knitting" has to do with it.

Thanks for the computer angle, I had no idea. About the knitting: believe it or not, in the USA some years ago there was a fad for tiny knitted dolls squished into glass jars, dressed in various costumes - housekeeper, businessman, wizard.... It wasn't as popular as the pet rock, but it lasted for a while.

 

[anaid]

Now that I'm rereading Going Postal, I'm running into the same trouble I always have when dialogues are muffled and the written text becomes garbled: I seem to be unable to figure out the original sentences.

In Going Postal, Corgi Books paperback (not sure if that narrows it down enough) page 116 there's a dialogue between Moist and the owner of barbershop Hugo's through a speaking tube:

A voice in his ear, faint as a spider trapped in a matchbox, said: 'Scitich wabble nabnab?'

'So kind of you to assist us, Hugo. It's these missing letters. Five missing letters, to be exact'

'Scrik? Shabadatwik? Scritch vit bottofix!'

He heard the muffled expletive though the floor. Via the speaking tube it became 'Vugrs nickbibble!'

Can someone help me?

 

[Tonyblack]

I'm not sure there's any help to give. This is the equivalent to hearing a one-sided conversation someone is having on a mobile phone. It's not so much what Hugo says as what Moist says - and in particular him pointing out Mr Pump outside.

It seems to me that Hugo very quickly realises that he's either going to hand the letters over nicely or Mr Pump will take them - along with half his shop, one imagines.

 

[anaid]

Oh, okay, so it's not just me
Well, at least I got the "Buggers!" in the last sentence

 

[AgProv]

Wizard dolls in empty jars... "post humous" - the jars used to contain a common Ephebian snack food but are now empty, hence post hummus?

 

[Tonyblack]

Could be - but that's a bit of a stretch even for Terry.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

post humous

Posthumous?

 

[anaid]

I like that one Post hummus..

 

[llanelwy]

Can any of you help be remember which book this is an item from. I have been racking my brains trying to remember.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DISCWORLD-TERRY-PRAT ... 3f235ec529

Maleficos Inheritance Accelerator

Thanks

Steve

 

[Tonyblack]

I'm not sure it actually in any of the books. It's just (I think) a generally Discworldy idea that was approved by Terry (as were all the Clarecraft items). I guess it's a somewhat tongue in cheek way of saying "poison" in the same way that Dibbler's dragon dectors were basically a piece of wood that, if ignited meant you'd found a dragon.

 

[llanelwy]

I swear i remember hearing of it in one of the books even if it was a passing mention. maybe i am wrong

 

[Tonyblack]

It's possible that I'm wrong. Hopefully someone will know.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

Well, I've Googled and Googled and Googled till I'm sick, and I can't find any reference to it!

 

[llanelwy]

That is how I found this site. Trying to google it. I could not find anything either. Wish there was a way of searching my bookk collection lol

 

[Bouncy Castle]

That is how I found this site. Trying to google it. I could not find anything either. Wish there was a way of searching my bookk collection lol

 

[Tonyblack]

You don't happen to like bananananas by any chance?

 

[Tonyblack]

Thinking about it - sometimes these Clarecraft figures came with a little card with the product number and, if I remember correctly, a quote from one of the books to the relevant passage from the book where they appear.

I have this particular item and a Dibbler's compass, that I'm not sure is mentioned in the books either.

 

[Bouncy Castle]

The Clarecraft reference is DW18.

The 18th Book in the series is, apparently, Maskerade, which probably means nothing!