Planet Rugby Forum

Chuckles1188 wrote:Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably-Priced Love! A Hard-Boiled Egg!

Knock: Bit of a to do, sir. Had a break-in last night.
Vimes: Really? What did they steal?
Knock: Did I say they stole anything, sir?
Vimes: Well, no, you didn't. That was me jumping to what we call a conclusion. Did they steal anything, then, or did they break in to deliver a box of chocolates and a small complimentary basket of fruit?

What did I tell you about Mister Safety Catch?' said Vimes weakly.
When Mister Safety Catch Is Not On, Mister Crossbow Is Not Your Friend,' recited Detritus, saluting.

Vimes: Detritus, you can't fire that off in here! This is an enclosed building!
Detritus: Only till I pull dis trigger, sir.

His movements could be called cat-like, except that he did not stop to spray urine up against things.

Chilky wrote:Completely agree - easily Pratchett's best & I'd argue one of the best novels of the last 20 years.

“He wanted to go home. He wanted it so much that he trembled at the thought. But if the price of that was selling good men to the night, if the price was filling those graves, if the price was not fighting with every trick he knew…then it was too high.”

Sam Vimes has to be one of the great heroes of our time.

In no particular order after - Small Gods, Lords & Ladies, Mort, Jingo, The Fifth Element & I have a soft spot for Hogfather.

Chilky wrote:Completely agree - easily Pratchett's best & I'd argue one of the best novels of the last 20 years.

“He wanted to go home. He wanted it so much that he trembled at the thought. But if the price of that was selling good men to the night, if the price was filling those graves, if the price was not fighting with every trick he knew…then it was too high.”

Sam Vimes has to be one of the great heroes of our time.

That's a nice song,' said young Sam, and Vimes remembered that he was hearing it for the first time.
It's an old soldiers' song,' he said.
Really, sarge? But it's about angels.'
Yes, thought Vimes, and it's amazing what bits those angels cause to rise up as the song progresses. It's a real soldiers' song: sentimental, with dirty bits.
As I recall, they used to sing it after battles,’ he said. 'I've seen old men cry when they sing it,’ he added.
Why? It sounds cheerful.'
They were remembering who they were not singing it with, thought Vimes. You'll learn. I know you will.

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

“The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked: Yo, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear? And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select.”

DAC2016 wrote:My favourite TP:

“The Monks of Cool, whose tiny and exclusive monastery is hidden in a really cool and laid-back valley in the lower Ramtops, have a passing-out test for a novice. He is taken into a room full of all types of clothing and asked: Yo*, my son, which of these is the most stylish thing to wear? And the correct answer is: Hey, whatever I select.”

*Cool, but not necessarily up to date

It's like the old saying: give a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life

Raising the flag and singing the anthem are, while somewhat suspicious, not in themselves acts of treason.

Nolanator wrote:On the futility of revolutions, was chatting with a friend about Pterry's observations on popular uprisings in Interesting Times.

Can't find the quote, but where the peasant states that what he'd really like in life is a longer piece of string, while the Red Army are busy having no clue what the peasants want is brilliant.

Chilky wrote:"YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED."

Death is also pretty damn good

Chuckles1188 wrote:f**k it I'm going full quote-mine

Knock: Bit of a to do, sir. Had a break-in last night.
Vimes: Really? What did they steal?
Knock: Did I say they stole anything, sir?
Vimes: Well, no, you didn't. That was me jumping to what we call a conclusion. Did they steal anything, then, or did they break in to deliver a box of chocolates and a small complimentary basket of fruit?

Chuckles1188 wrote:

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

It's almost irritating how casually Pterry was able to brilliantly encapsulate this stuff in basically a throwaway line of narration. And I think you would need to be British, or at least from a member of the current or former Commonwealth, to be able to balance that kind of satirical observation with gentle sarcasm so well.

GNU Pterry

Chuckles1188 wrote:Reg is a brilliant little subplot to that book, as is Lady Meserole and Dog-botherer

Benthos wrote:

Chuckles1188 wrote:

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

It's almost irritating how casually Pterry was able to brilliantly encapsulate this stuff in basically a throwaway line of narration. And I think you would need to be British, or at least from a member of the current or former Commonwealth, to be able to balance that kind of satirical observation with gentle sarcasm so well.

GNU Pterry

The Gambia? Zimbabwe?

Sorry for the threadjack - just that I see this a lot, and most times it's not what people think it means

Turbogoat wrote:"A lie can run around the World before the truth can get its boots on"

Grew up with Pterry, and yeah, NW was his masterpiece.

Chuckles1188 wrote:

Benthos wrote:

Chuckles1188 wrote:

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn’t that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.

It's almost irritating how casually Pterry was able to brilliantly encapsulate this stuff in basically a throwaway line of narration. And I think you would need to be British, or at least from a member of the current or former Commonwealth, to be able to balance that kind of satirical observation with gentle sarcasm so well.

GNU Pterry

The Gambia? Zimbabwe?

Sorry for the threadjack - just that I see this a lot, and most times it's not what people think it means

I mean people who are have potentially been exposed to a large amount of British or heavily-British-derived culture.

Benthos wrote: Right. So we're clear, that's your definition of 'the former Commonwealth'..? Or did you just mean 'Commonwealth', as the number of countries that are no longer formal members of the Commonwealth, but who used to be pink on the map, is precisely 2. A few more of the formerly pink jobs never actually joined the Commonwealth, e.g. the US, Sudan, Ireland *ducks*.

I don't want my pedantry to derail the TP love-in, but your amended definition works perfectly well in my view - people often say 'former Commonwealth' when what they really mean is the ex-pink countries, and it's one of the very, very few things I know owt about, so having nothing to add on the subject, desperately seeking a distraction from calling my ex wife to argue about money, and lacking the energy to have another one of the real wanks that such situations normally demand, my pedant pants were puckered at your sentence, so I frotted out a quick fact-wank instead.

If it's any consolation, the ensuing self-loathing is much the same as if I'd stained the carpet (again) under my desk. As you were.

Nolanator wrote:Guards! Guards! as a gritty movie (not full on Christopher Nolan, though) with elements of film noire and cool dragon effects would be very good.

A series based on the City Watch could work very well. Have it following the general evolution of the characters and events of the books, but it would allow for some great character development and would let the writers pace it appropriately so that the best parts are fairly well spaced throughout.

Chilky wrote:Vetinari - Jeremy Irons
Carrot - Chris Hemsworth
Colon - Stephen Fry
Nobby - Tony Robinson
Vimes - Bronn from GoT / Ripper St.
Lady Sybil - A younger Penelope Keith