Talk:Venting

Wasn't that Dame Slightly, as mentioned in Samuel Vimes? --Old Dickens 20:21, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Shi'ite! Was it? There may be nothing like a dame but, by the Five Moons of Nasreem, which one? I only tried to undo the faintly ridiculous previous edit. Who was Venting then? --Knmatt 20:30, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Hmm. In The Fifth Elephant (I have a Harper Torch paperback), Vimes mentions Dame Venting when talking about being a blackboard monitor with Inigo. However, yes, it's "Slightly" in Thud!. Anyone else want to go digging through different editions of The Fifth Elephant to see if there's an internal consistency problem here? TC01 21:38, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Maybe she vented slightly? Some kind of gaseous problem? Am I helping? --Knmatt 21:43, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Worser and worser: on the Teacher page, she's called Dame Sprightly... --Knmatt 20:11, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

I noticed that already, but I still can't find a mention of any of them (especially in The Fifth Elephant, which I've been through pretty carefully now). I can believe either Sprightly or Slightly; I don't remember Venting at all. Any clues to a reference? --Old Dickens 22:53, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, here's the passage in TFE. I had trouble finding it at first too. In my Harper Torch paperback, it's page 163, but that may not be helpful to you, so- it's right when Vimes gets to the Embassy, and when they find all the stuffed heads on the wall. Igor answers Vimes as "Your Excellency" (well, "Your Exthelenthy", actually), and Vimes says...

"I'm an Excellency?" said Vimes to Inigo.

"Yes, Your Grace."

"And still My Grace as well?"

"Yes, Your Grace. You are His Grace His Excellency the Duke of Ankh-Morpork, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes, Your Grace."

"Hang on, hang on... His Grace cancels out the Sir, I know that. It's like having an ace in poker."

"Strictly speaking that is true, Your Grace, but great score is set by titles here and it is best to play with a full deck, mmm."

"I was once blackboard monitor at school," said Vimes sharply. "For a whole term. Would that help? Dame Venting said no one could clean a blackboard like me."

That's the mention. TC01 23:05, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Damn! Just went over that without seeing the last bit (p209 of the Corgi). Now, where's the other one? --Old Dickens 23:43, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Well, the mention in Thud is when Vimes is attempting to get Ardent to let him speak to the senior grags after Vimes has gone down to investigate Hamcrusher's murder...

"Why would anyone but a troll strike down the grag?" said Ardent.

"Good! You're asking questions!" Vimes leaned across the desk. "If you really want answers, unlock those doors!"

"No! You cannot go down there, Blackboard Monitor Vimes!"

The dwarf could not have put more venom in the words "child murderer."

Blackboard monitor. Well, he had been, in that little street school, more than fourty-five years ago. Mum had insisted. Gods knew where she sprung the penny a day it cost, although most of the time Dame Slightly had been happy to accept payment in old clothes or firewood, or, preferably, gin. Numbers, Letters, Weights, and Measures; it was not what you'd call a rich curriculum. Vimes had attended for nine months or so, until the streets had demanded he learn much harder and sharper lessons. But, for a while, he'd been trusted to hand out the slates and clean the blackboard. Oh, the headdy, strutting power of it, when you're six years old!

There's the mention in Thud... TC01 00:20, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Well done, that man! No Sprightly, then. --Old Dickens 00:38, 4 December 2009 (UTC)