tribute: Making Money

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@@ -4530,37 +4530,308 @@ helmet, especially if someone was hitting /you/ with a sword.
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%title Making Money (3)
%title Making Money (17)
# p. 187 (Harper edition -- what's become of Harper Torch?)
%passage 1
Making Money, by Terry Pratchett
'I'm an Igor, thur. We don't athk quethtionth.'
'Really? Why not?'
'I don't know, thur. I didn't athk.'
"I'm an Igor, thur. We don't athk quethtionth."
"Really? Why not?"
"I don't know, thur. I didn't athk."
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 177 (originally transcribed from some other edition; Harper edition
# uses American spelling for "armor")
# [some off-duty Watchman moonlight as bank security guards]
%passage 2
The Watch armour fitted like a glove. He'd have preferred it to fit like a
helmet and breastplate. It was common knowledge that the Watch's approach
to uniforms was one-size-doesn't-exactly-fit-anybody, and that Commander
Vimes disapproved of armour that didn't have that kicked-by-trolls look.
He liked it to make it clear that it had been doing its job.
The Watch armor he'd lifted from the bank's locker room fitted like a
glove. He'd have preferred it to fit like a helmet and breastplate.
But, in truth, it probably didn't look any better on its owner, currently
swanking along the corridors in the bank's own shiny but impractical armor.
It was common knowledge that the Watch's approach to uniforms was one-size-
doesn't-exactly-fit-anybody, and that Commander Vimes disapproved of armor
that didn't have that kicked-by-trolls look. He liked armor to state
clearly that it had been doing its job.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# pp. 108 (passage starts mid-paragraph)
%passage 3
'The world is full of things worth more than gold. But we dig the damn
stuff up and then bury it in a different hole. Where's the sense in that?
What are we, magpies? Good heavens, /potatoes/ are worth more than gold!'
'Surely not!' 'If you were shipwrecked on a desert island, what would you
prefer, a bag of potatoes or a bag of gold?' 'Yes, but a desert island
isn't Ankh-Morpork!' 'And that proves gold is only valuable because we
agree it is, right? It's just a dream. But a potato is always worth a
potato, anywhere. A knob of butter and a pinch of salt and you've got a
meal, /anywhere/. Bury gold in the ground and you'll be worrying about
thieves for ever. Bury a potato and in due season you could be looking at
a dividend of a thousand per cent.'
"[...] The world is full of things worth more than gold. But we dig the
damn stuff up and then bury it in a different hole. Where's the sense in
that? What are we, magpies? Good heavens, /potatoes/ are worth more than
gold!"
"Surely not!"
"If you were shipwrecked on a desert island, what would you prefer, a bag
of potatoes or a bag of gold?"
"Yes, but a desert island isn't Ankh-Morpork!"
"And that proves gold is only valuable because we agree it is, right?
It's just a dream. But a potato is always worth a potato, anywhere. Add
a knob of butter and a pinch of salt and you've got a meal, /anywhere/.
Bury gold in the ground and you'll be worrying about thieves forever.
Bury a potato and in due season you could be looking at a dividend of a
thousand per cent."
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# pp. 22-24 (Albert Spangler is one of Moist Lipwig's aliases;
# 'dyslectic' is accurate)
%passage 4
"Let us talk about angels," said Lord Vetinari.
"Oh yes, I know that one," said Moist bitterly. "I've heard that one.
That's the one you got me with after I was hanged--"
Vetinari raised an eyebrow. "Only mostly hanged, I think you'll find. To
within an inch of your life."
"Whatever! I was hanged! And the worst part of that was finding out I
only got two paragraphs in the /Tanty Bugle/!(1) Two paragraphs, may I
say, for a life of ingenious, inventive, and strictly nonviolent crime?
I could have been an example to the youngsters! Page one got hogged by
the Dyslectic Alphabet Killer, and he only maanaged A and W!"
"I confess the editor does appear to believe that it is not a proper crime
unless someone is found in three alleys at once, but that is the price of
a free press. And it suits us both, does it not, that Albert Spangler's
passage from this world was... unmemorable?"
"Yes, but I wasn't expecting an afterlife like this! I have to do what
I'm told for the rest of my life?"
"Correction, your new life. That is a crude summary, yes," said Vetinari.
"Let me rephrase things, however. Ahead of you, Mr. Lipwig, is a life of
respectable quiet contentment, of civic dignity, and, of course, in the
fullness of time, a pension. Not to mention, of course, the proud gold-ish
chain."
Moist winced at this. "And if I /don't/ do what you say?"
"Hmm? Oh, you misunderstand me, Mr. Lipwig. That is what will happen to
you if you decline my offer. If you accept it, you will survive on your
wits against powerful and dangerous enemies, with every day presenting
fresh challanges. Someone may even try to kill you."
"What? Why?"
"You annoy people. A hat goes with the job, incidentally."
(1) A periodical published throughout the Plains, noted for its coverage
of murder (preferably 'orrible) trials, prison escapes, and the world that
in general is surrounded by a chalk outline. Very popular.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
#p. 71
%passage 5
When he got back to the Post Office, Moist looked up the Lavish family in
/Whom's Whom/. They were indeed what was known of as "old money," which
meant that it had been made so long ago that the black deeds which had
originally filled the coffers were now historically irrelevant. Funny,
that: a brigand for a father was something you kept quiet about, but a
slave-taking pirate for a great-great-great-grandfather was something to
boast of over the port. Time turned the evil bastards into rogues, and
/rogue/ was a word with a twinkle in its eye and nothing to be ashamed of.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 72 ('clacks' is a communication system, here analogous to a telegraph)
%passage 6
He spotted the flimsy pink clacks among the other stuff and tugged it out
quickly.
It was from Spike!
He read:
SUCCESS. RETURNING DAY AFTER TOMMOROW.
ALL WILL BE REVEALED. S.
Moist put it down carefully.
Obviously she'd missed him terribly and was desperate to see him again, but
she was stingy about spending Golem Trust money. Also, she'd probably run
out of cigarettes.
Moist drummed his fingers on the desk. A year ago he'd asked Adora Belle
Dearheart to be his wife, and she'd explained that, in fact, he was going
to be her husband.
It was going to be... well, it was going to be sometime in the near future,
when Mrs. Dearheart finally lost patience with her daughter's busy schedule
and arranged the wedding herself.
But he was a nearly married man, however you looked at it. And nearly
married men didn't get mixed up with the Lavish family. A nearly married
man was steadfast and dependable and always ready to hand his nearly wife
an ashtray. He had to be there for his oneday children, and make sure
they slept in a well-ventilated nursery.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 79 (passage starts mid-paragraph; departed Mrs. Lavish is a bank owner)
%passage 7
"[...] Now what, Mr. Death?"
NOW? said Death. NOW, YOU COULD SAY, COMES... THE AUDIT.
"Oh. There is one, is there? Well, I'm not ashamed."
THAT COUNTS.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# pp. 183-184 (American spelling of 'gray' is accurate)
%passage 8
Moist lit the lamp and walked over to the battered wreckage of his wardrobe.
Once again he selected the tatty gray suit. It had sentimental value; he
had been hanged in it. And it was an unmemorable suit for an unmemorable
man, with the additional advantage, unlike black, of not showing up in the
dark.(1) [...]
(1) Every assassin knew that real black often stood out in the dark,
because the night in the city is usually never full black, and that gray
or green merge much better. But they wore black anyway, because style
trumps utility every time.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 218
%passage 9
"All right, then," said Moist, "/what does it do/?"
"We don't know."
"How does it work?"
"We don't know."
"Where did it come from?"
"We don't know."
"Well, that seems to be all," said Moist sarcastically. "Oh no, one last
one: what is it? And let me tell you, I'm agog."
"That may be the wrong sort of question to ask," said Ponder, shaking his
head. "Technically it appears to be a classic Bag of Holding but with /n/
mouths, where /n/ is the number of items in an eleven-dimensional universe,
which are not currently alive, not pink, and can fit in a cubical drawer
14.14 inches on a side, divided by P."
"What's P?"
"That may be the wrong sort of question."
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 225 (passage starts mid-paragraph)
%passage 10
"[...] I'll talk to Dr. Hicks. He's the head of the Department of
Postmortem Communications."
"Postmortem Com..." Moist began. "Isn't that the same as necroman--"
"I said the /Department of Postmortem Communications/," said Ponder very
firmly. [...]
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 247 (it's a spirit summoned by Dr. Hicks that is describing the risk)
%passage 11
"Necromancy is a fine art?" said Moist.
"None finer, young man. Get things just a tiny bit wrong and the spirits
of the vengeful dead may enter your head via your ears and blow your brains
out down your nose."
The eyes of Moist and Adora Belle focused on Dr. Hicks like those of an
archer on his target. He waved his hands frantically and mouthed, "Not
very often!"
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 269
%passage 12
"If you can't stand the heat, get off the pot, that's what I always say,"
said a senior clerk, and there was a general murmur of agreement.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 264 (passage starts mid-paragraph)
%passage 13
[...] if the fundamental occult maxim "as above, so below" was true, then
so was "as below, so above"...
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 280
%passage 14
"In the Old Country we have a thaying," Igor volunteered.
"A what?"
"A thaying. We thay, 'if you don't want the monthter you don't pull the
lever.'"
"You don't think I've gone mad, do you, Igor?"
"Many great men have been conthidered mad, Mr. Hubert. Even Dr. Hanth
Forvord wath called mad. But I put it to you: could a madman have created
a revolutionary living-brain extractor?"
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 302
%passage 15
There was a saying: "Old necromancers never die." When he told them this,
people would say "... and?" and Hicks would have to reply, "That's all of
it, I'm afraid. Just 'Old necromancers never die.'"
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 336 (passage starts mid-paragraph)
%passage 16
[...] What the iron maiden was to stupid tyrants, the committee was to
Lord Vetinari; it was only slightly more expensive,(1) far less messy,
considerably more efficient, and, best of all, you had to /force/ people
to climb inside the iron maiden.
(1) The only real expense was tea and biscuits halfway through, which
seldom happened with the iron maiden.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage
# p. 361 (Mr. Slant is a zombie)
%passage 17
"Mrs. Lavish, a lady many of us were privileged to know, recently confided
in me that she was dying," said Vetinari. "She asked me for advice on the
future of the bank, given that her obvious heirs were, in her words, 'as
nasty a bunch of weasels as you could ever hope not to meet--'"
All thirty-one of the Lavish lawyers stood up and spoke at once, incuring
a total cost to clients of $AM119.28p.
Mr. Slant glared at them.
Mr. Slant did not, despite what had been said, have the respect of Ankh-
Morpork's legal profession. He commanded its fear. Death had not
diminished his encyclopedic memory, his guile, his talent for corkscrew
reasoning, and the vitriol of his stare. Do not cross me this day, it
advised the lawyers. Do not cross me, for if you do I will have the flesh
from your very bones and the marrow therein. You know those leather-bound
tomes you have on the wall behind your desks to impress your clients? I
have read them all, and wrote half of them. Do not try me. I am not in a
good mood.
One by one, they sat down.(1)
(1) Total cost, including time and disbursements: $AM253.16p.
[Making Money, by Terry Pratchett]
%e passage