Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably-Priced Love, and a Hard-Boiled Egg

oh man, good omens was such a gr8 book

 

Mark Reads Discworld is up to Feet of Clay, and I was correct in predicting that he was going to fall for every single red herring. It's hilarious. "NO WHAT IT HAS TO BE THE BOOK." I'm just waiting to see how long it takes for him to go "IT'S THE WALLPAPER. IT HAS TO BE THE WALLPAPER."

(Bonus thing that pleases me: the chemistry is so well researched that I can tell you what test for arsenic Cheri is using and how it works.)

 

Moist con Lipvig for life! Going Postal will always be my favorite (followed closely by Mort).

Confession: I just don't like the Watch books that much.

 

Was that typo intentional? I hope it was.

Necro-ing this thread because I got "A Slip of the Keyboard" for Christmas and I've decided that once I'm done that, I'm going to sit down and read my way through all the Discworld books.

 

Oh wow, that was not intentional but man, I wish it had been. Dang.

 

Oh nooo, they did the "keikaku means plan" thing? D:
I can understand not wanting to accidentally change things too much, but uh - sometimes you need to go with the spirit of what was meant, instead of the literal translation. Especially with puns, because going with the literal translation usually skews things a bit, and if you're having to include annotations on "this is why it would've been really funny in the original", then you've...missed the whole point on what you're supposed to be doing there.

I would love to hear you explain that!

 

There's a description of some of the text in her grimoire (it mentions zinc and the reaction producing gas), and from that and what she's looking for (blue-black stain), you can tell it's a version of the Marsh Test. You treat the sample with acid and zinc, and it bubbles up a bunch of hydrogen and, if there's arsenic in the sample, arsene gas (AsH3). You set the gas on fire and put a cold bowl over the flame, and if all there is is hydrogen, nothing much happens, but if there was arsenic, the arsene burns and leaves a metallic arsenic residue. The explosion she had to dodge was probably from the hydrogen getting out of hand.

(This isn't the only well-researched "alchemists blowing stuff up" joke in the series, either- exploding billiard balls are real.)

 

From the forward of (the reprint of) The Colour of Magic
Terry Pratchett, October 1989

 

That's kind of adorable.

 

@Exohedron ikr? I have a PG Wodehouse collection where he wrote a forward, and then an update to the forward ten years later, and I wish Terry Pratchett had done the same with this one. I expect it would have been along the lines of "haha, ten," except wittier and Pratchett-ier.

 

I'm mostly stuck on the "gosh", as if he can't believe that one of his books had been reprinted due to popular demand.

 

new forum icon that this thread might appreciate. that is all. ^_^

 

.......Uh.

I am. Confused.

 

about my icon?

 

it's a tattoo of the summoning dark, right? :D

 

Yes. And as to why you would use that one in particular as an icon. Like... inviting murder rage? Wanting to curse the forum?

 

it is the summoning dark! i have it tattooed because, first of all, i don't believe in curses or that it has any actual power. (i promise i'm not trying to curse the forum.) but i got it tattooed after i was hospitalized for severe depression, in approximately the same place that Sam Vimes has a scar of the summoning dark, to remind myself that i could be as strong as Vimes and face my own inner darkness, and still come out on top. basically, i can stare into the abyss, and the abyss will blink first.

i also have the guarding dark tattooed on the other wrist, but i like the way the summoning dark looks better as an icon.

 

Unless you decide to take it as an invitation for the Guarding Dark too, since afaik Vimes never got his own fancy sigil for that one. :P

edit: ninja'd. (What does the guarding dark look like?)

 

i think it's really cool! :) the meaning makes a lot of sense.

 

discworldemporium had some jewelry with semi-official designs for the Guarding Dark, so that's what i based it off. (edit: big)

Spoiler: tat