Discworld - Death of a Holiday

Hogfather and Jingo came to me directly from Englad for VCR sitting for a friend.  This was back before DVRs, and she was recording "Lois and Clark" and "The X-Files", and so I went over a couple times while she was traveling, and switch out the tapes to keep them grouped properly.

Hogfather is a lot of fun to read as it weaves holiday stories in with the origins of the Discworld's version of Father Christmas, the Hogfather.  The continuing fight against the Auditors of reality is fun as you learn more of the "rules" around the conflict.

Hogfather was made into a live action special on the BBC that was done exceptionally well.  After watching animated adaptations of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters, it was fascinating to see even closer how Pratchett had envisioned his city and world.

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Recurring concepts and characters in this book:

Adrian Turnipseed

Albert

Ankh-Morpork

Archchancellor (Galder) Weatherwax

Arnold Sideways

Bergholdt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson

Bibulous, god of wine
Biers

Binky

Blind Io

Bows and Ammo

Burleigh & Stronginthearm

Cabbage

Carrot Ironfounderson, Captain

Chrysoprase

Coffin Henry

Death

Didactylos

Duck Man

Events in Reaper Man

Fate

Foul Ole Ron

Gaspode the Thinking-Brain Dog

General Tacticus

Hex

Hygiene

Lord Downey, Assassins' Guild

Lord Selachii

Mericet

Miss (Eulalie) Butts

Modo the Dwarf Gardener, UU

Mrs. Gammage

Mrs. Whitlow

Mustrum Ridcully, Archchancellor UU

Nobby Nobbs, Corporal

Offler, the Crocodile-Headed God

Old Man Trouble

Ponder Stibbons

Quoth the Raven

Scrote

Scumble

St. Ungulant

Susan Sto Helit

The Assassins' Guild

The Auditors

The Bursar (Mr. Dinwiddie)

The Campaign for Equal Heights

The Chair

The Dean

The Death of Rats

The High Energy Magic Building

The Lecturer in Recent Runes

The Librarian

The Power of Belief

The Prophet Ossory

The Senior Wrangler (Horace)

The Thieves' Guild

The Unreal Estate

The YMPA

Twurp's Peerage

Unseen University

Violet, a Tooth Fairy

Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets "Washpot", Constable

Windle Poons

There was blood

So I'm sitting at my computer last night, and I have to sneeze. I do and then follow that with a good nose blowing. And then my left nostril just started running... with blood. The inside of my nose has been so fragile and dry with this sickness, it almost overshadows the sore throat. And the only thing I could remember from my first-aid class (only a month and a half ago) was to lean forward and pinch the bridge of my nose. Maybe there's no more to it than that, but that was all I could remember. Through the evening I had three more relapses, one of which I ended up with blood on my pants.

I ended up getting ahead of it and plugging it up safely, but I was nervous before going to bed. I kept expecting to wake up in the night with a big blood stain flowing over the pillow and onto the bed.

So today I am taking it easy... again. I'm tired of being inside. I don't mind being inside normally, but when you have to stay in it's annoying to say the least. So I'm reading.

I just finished Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents which is really fun, and I caught more bad Pratchett in-jokes this time around. So I'm on to the fifth and sixth Kim Harrison book. When I'm done I'll go back to Pratchett and read the three Tiffany Aching books.

And speaking of Terry Pratchett, we watched the English television adaptation of Hogfather this week. That was really amazing. The only two big name stars were the ones who played Lord Downey and Archancellor Ridcully. I'm excited about The Colour of Magic which is actually TCoM and The Light Fantastic. It has Tim Curry and Jeremy Irons in it as well as a huge host of other big names. In fact, just go to IMDB and check out The Colour of Magic.

I am in awe.

And it had better come to the US soon.