Men at Arms: A Discworld Novel:15

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Leonard of Quirm is famous for writing backwards but of course turning the paper around would not reverse the letters.

This is an obvious reference to the 1949 film The Third Man which was based on the novel of the same name by Graham Greene.Removing a piece of ear was a form of warning or punishment by gangs so Pratchett makes the joke work on a number of levels.

Page 99 - 100 - The various lords and ladies and Vimes' thoughts in response, regarding the privilege of being born into the right class and the sense of entitlement it brings, have countless parallels in the Roundworld, whether the privileged position is inherited old or new wealth. DC Comics 1940s creation the Joker led to both the comic book series and the resultant Batman movie . Page 20 - Carrot says to Angua, "But you're a w - " Throughout this section Pratchett hints that Angua is something other than ordinary. Ogham is the name of an existing runic script found in the British Isles (mostly in Ireland) and dating back at least to the 5th century. Page 64 - "Capability Brown, Sagacity Smith, Intuition De Vere Slade-Gore" Lancelot 'Capability' Brown (1715-1783) actually existed, and was a well known landscape gardener and architect.Pratchett plays with the way misinformation and rumour spread and create distrust, prejudice and the threat of violence in the way the various groups describe what they have heard the other groups are doing. Page 138 footnote - " Slumpie, Jammy Devils, Fikkun haddock, Distressed Pudding, Clooty Dumplings, and not to be forgotten, the Knuckle Sandwich.

Croesus was extremely wealthy and his defeat had a major impact on the Greeks, providing a fixed point in their calendar. Readers of other Discworld novels will know that all thieves are members of the Thieves Guild so that theft is regulated and no one person is targetted excessively. Note for UK types: this place was the White Horse Café at Cherhill on the A4 near where Eddie Cochran, the man behind “Summertime Blues” and “C’mon Everybody,” was killed on April 17, 1960 when the taxi carrying him from a show in Bristol, England, crashed en route to the airport in London, where he was to catch a flight back home to the United States.Flint is a a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, Moraine is the rock debris left behind when a glacier retreats.

Bauxite is the name of the red-coloured rock that contains aluminium ore and since all all Trolls except for Sea Trolls are made of stone, this explains the double entendre in the following line where the Dwarf ringleader says to the Troll "Your mother was an ore" Pratchett is playing with the word for prostitute (whore) and the fact that so she is in fact an 'ore'. Lance-constable (in the course of the novel promoted to Acting-constable) Detritus is introduced as a new member of the watch as well, though he had already appeared in other Discworld novels, most notably in Moving Pictures. Page 135 - "cautiously raising a decoy helmet on a stick" The decoy helmet on stick is a reference to the tactic from WW I where soldiers in the trenches would put a helmet on a stick and lift it above the trench line to draw the enemy's fire and thus provide their location for counter-fire.If Vimes understood servants, the upper class and butlers in particular he would know that in real life and in fiction they are never referred to by any other name than their surname. The burden of proof meaning hard facts not circumstantial evidence and the proof of an alcohol like Soggy Mountain Dew - its percentage of alcohol.