Footnotes Snuff

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where the clientele tended to open their bottles with their teeth.*

Or, perhaps, somebody else's.Snuff, p. 435
He [Acting Captain Haddock] says he's getting on fine, sir, and really enjoying the avec.'*

The exchange scheme with the Quirm gendarmerie was working very well: they were getting instructions on policing a la Vimes, while the food in the Pseudopolis Yard canteen had been improved out of all recognition by Captain Emile, even though he used far too much avec.Snuff, p. 14
in the old fashioned but endearing belief that a husband should be the one doing the owning.*

And thenceforth would be glad to get a gentle second place in almost every domestic decision. Lady Sybil took the view that her darling husband's word was law for the City Watch while, in her own case, it was a polite suggestion to be graciously considered.Snuff, p. 18
a bridge that would not have been out of place back in the city.*

Apart, that is, from the line of artistically naked ladies along its parapets. They were holding urns; urns is art.Snuff, p. 24
This offended Vimes to his shakily egalitarian core.*

It was tricky; to Vimes all men were equal but, well, obviously a sergeant wasn't as equal as a cpatain and a captain wasn't as equal as a commander and as for Corporal Nobby Nobbs . . . well, nobody could be the equal of Corporal Nobby Nobbs.Snuff, p. 32
dropping items into a glass shaker.*

Metal, in the circumstances, would not be appropiate . . . or safe.Snuff, p. 33
Sir Samual Vimes and Commander Vimes and His Grace the Duke of Ankh*

Not to mention Blackboard Monitor Vimes, a figure of note in dwarfish society.Snuff, p. 39
The batman did not turn his back on Vimes, which was a relief.*

Willikins was an excellent butler and gentleman's gentlemanwhen the occasion required it, but in a long career he had also been an enthusiastic street fighter, and knew enough never to turn his back on anybody who could possibly have a weapon on them.Snuff, p. 42
They never had any truck with philosophical conundra.*

Later on Vimes pondered Willikin's accurate grasp of the plural noun in the circumstances, but there you were; if someone hung around in houses with lots of books in them, some of it rubbed off just as, come to think of it, it had on Vimes.Snuff, p. 51
just in case it was a murder in disguise,*

More than once watchmen had found handwritten suicide notes which on carefull examination weren't in the right handwriting.Snuff, p. 61
play a hand of saddle pork*

Saddle pork was invented some time around the Year of the Stoat by Reverend Joseph 'Causality' Robinson, rector of All Saints and Three Sinners in the parish of Lower Overhang. As far as can be determined from notes made by his contemporaries, the game may be considered an amalgam of spillikins, halma and brandy. No known rules exist, if, indee, there ever really were any.Snuff, p. 63
All long term couples have their code. ... he is becoming exposed in the crotch department.*

See Dr Bently Purchase, The Vicar is Coming to Tea and One Hundredand Twenty-seven Other Warnings of Social Embarrassment (Unseen University Press).Snuff, p. 120
hobby of stink-collecting,*

It was all a mystery to Vimes, who was absolutely sure that it was impossible to tell the difference between a chicken fart and a turkey fart, but there were those who professed to be able to do so, and he was glad that such people had chosen this outlet for their puzzling inclinations rather than, for example, fill their sink with human skulls, collected in the high street.Snuff, p. 148
and the fragrant Emporium of Bewilderforce Gumption.*

The fourth Gumption to run the tobacco house and snuff mill felt that his surname lacked prestige, and for some reason chose the name 'Bewilderforce' - which did indeed prestigious owing to the succes of his tobacco enterprise, which was extremely well thought of by the gentry and others. And thereafter there was at least one Bewilderforce in every generation of th eline (although girls were generally named Bewildred).Snuff, p. 164
There was a tinkle and a glint*

A glint is, in fact, a visual tinkle.Snuff, p. 179
that writers spent all day in their dressing gowns drinking champagne.*

This is, of course, absolutely true.Snuff, p. 219
Mrs Colon sent a note around by a boy as soon as she got back from work herself.*

The Colons had survived a long and happy marriage by having as little to do with each other as possible. This was achieved by the expedient of his working the night shift when she was working days, and vice versa. They had agreed this on the basis that anything else would have spoiled the romance.Snuff, p. 229
if she could pluck up the courage to ask him if he was actually male.*

Strictly speaking, the sexuality of any given dwarf remained a secret between him, or, as it might be, her, and his or, as it might be her mother, until they decided to tell someone else about it, although generally you could work it out by observing dwarfs closely and spotting the ones who were drinking sherry or light white wine. Regrettably, this didn't always work with dwarf policemen, because like all policemen everywhere they would drink anything strong enough to help them forget what they'd had to deal with that day.Snuff, p. 232
the goblins don't believe in Tak,*

According to dwarf lore thge universe was written into being by Tak, who also wrote its lores. All writing is sacred to the dwarfs.Snuff, p. 232
the goblin equivalant of 'Oh my dear, you look fabulous'.*

However that might be rendered in a laguage that at its best sounded like a man jumping up and down on a very large packet of crisps.Snuff, p. 238
a place where you don't lie awake at night listening to the mice fighting the cockroaches - hooray!*

Regrettably, Constable Upshot was overly hopeful: in Ankh-Morpork the mice and cockroaches had decided to forget their differences and gang up on the humans.Snuff, p. 260
traffic hold-ups in the city*

Which were, in fact, a permanency in any case.Snuff, p. 302
and began to eat a piece of the single hardboiled egg and two-inch slice of bread that were his rations for the trip,*

Wee Mad Arthur was, as a Feegle, a very economical watchman to have, given that, size for size, he ate in a year what human watchmen ate in a week, although it had to be admitted he could drink, size for size, more alcohol in a week than any human watchman could drink in a year.Snuff, p. 304
According to the Omnians it [murder] was the third crime ever committed!*

The first two being common theft and public indecency.Snuff, p. 309
Zoons*

A race of freshwater mariners found everywhere in and around the Sto Plains. They are said to be incapable of lying, although this piece of information has been provided by the Zoons themselves, causing, as it were, a philosophical conundrum. Certainly it is maintained that they find the concept of a lie so difficult to understand that the few among them who have mastered the technique are venerated and given high office in Zoon society.Snuff, p. 330
a damn slam*

Technically, the violent surge of water in Old Treachery was written down in technical manuals as a Dam Slam, but anyone who has experienced one learns to swear, hence the subtle change of the name.Snuff, p. 344
'Hareng!*

Constable Haddock's immediate nickname when he joined the force was Kipper, because policemen's minds worked that way.Snuff, p. 387
he could see the Queen was already heaving two*

Or three or four, as far as Vimes the landlubber was concerned.Snuff, p. 395
that which is guaranteed to frighten away all nightmares, to wit, a cup of tea.*

The sound of the gentle rattle of china cup on china saucer drives away all demons, a lttle-known fact.Snuff, p. 410
the three disgraces.*

The Three Disgraces were apparently the daughters of Blind Io (but you know how people talk); they were Nudicia, Pulchritudia and Voluptia.Snuff, p. 417
a lot of the power of a copper consists in looking like a copper.*

That is to say, something bigger than he in fact is, which will turn very nasty if you think you can give this copper in front of you now a seeing-to because you are afloat to the tonsils on beer.Snuff, p. 419
so that the periwinkles tasted of salt and vinegar rather than periwinkles, which would be a disaster.*

For those unfamiliar with them, periwinkles, like cockles and whelks, might be considered the snot of the sea.Snuff, p. 440
Lady Sybil took a deap breath, which caused several elderly gentlemen near the front of the audience to very nearly burst into tears.*

It had been said by someone years before that to see Sybil Ramkin's upholstered bosom rise and fall was the understand the history of empires.Snuff, p. 451

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