overheard in our apartment

[cahn]

From lightgetsin: Ten references I expect my nearest and dearest to get. I did this by making a record of things said in our apartment over the last week, so it's less of a top ten list than it is a random sampling...

1. "Modified rapture!" (Double points for "Oh joy, oh rapture!")
2. "Never trust a god who grins all the time and wears a top hat, that's my motto." "Is it? That's a strange motto."
3. "We have top men working on it now." "Who?" "Top. Men."
4. They departed into their own country another way.
5. "My days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle."
6. "The Horse! I have been asking for nothing else for an hour!" [This may be a conflation of two quotations from the same source]
7. "I don't want all the marbles. I don't want any of the marbles. It's death for me to be caught with marbles in my possession, remember?"
8. "I'm retired!" "As am I, Robert, as am I. And yet... here we are."
9. ...a larj swety slof...
10. She took the point at once, but she also took the spoons.

No one is more surprised than I to find the author for #9 on the list.

Also, because I like to go to 11 for that extra push off the cliff, the email version (D would get neither of these):

11. "Don't you forget me, - -." "I would never."
12. "That girl is slow!"

Comments

[ase.livejournal.com]

#2 may or may not be a Terry Pratchett quote, but #6 is Steven Brust in one of the Viscount books, or I will eat my hat. (I would be hard pressed to say which one, but I believe it's not The Phoenix Guards.) #5 is probably Wash in Firefly, but I would not bet my life or my hat on it.

Oh. Is #9 Nigel Molesworth?

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

You are right about #2, and though we use it in our household all the time, I was actually totally wrong about which book I thought it was in until I looked it up for making the post. You do not have to eat your hat. I suspect #6, or some variant thereof, is in each one of the Viscount books, probably several times. #5 you have the venue right, but the speaker wrong. #9 is right out. I don't even know who Nigel Molesworth is, should I?

[ase.livejournal.com]

I am glad my hat is safe, since it's my last baseball cap, and I am very fond of it.

I'm heroically not going to google, but my second guess on #5 is Mal.

Oh! #10 is Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, after the Party! How did I miss that the first time 'round?

Nigel Molesworth is the protagonist of several children's books set in an English boarding school. I haven't read them, but Nigel apparently sets new high water marks for bad spelling.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

You are right on #5 (for full credit, to whom is he speaking?), and of course #10! (I was happy when that came up yesterday, because I would've felt rather silly making such a list without any Tolkien on it...) I'm also a little surprised you haven't gotten #7 :)

[ase.livejournal.com]

#7 is Miles Vorkosigan, but I would be hard-pressed to say when, and to whom. Ivan? #5 is Mal to... Wash? (It's been a while since I've seen Firefly.)

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

1 is G&S - both. Don't know if my memory will come up with the details. Joy and rapture unforeseen is in the finale of Mikado. Modified rapture is in a lovers' conversation, but I forget now which.

6 - yes, ase nailed it.

4 is in the New Testament - don't recall if it was used elsewhere.

didn't remember 7, but it sounds right.

8 is familiar, but not dredging details

10 - when memory was jogged, yes. Didn't get it at all myself.

ah, well. I'll return for enlightenment.

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

1 - yes! Mikado, indeed. And yup, 4 is KJV.

[janewilliams20.livejournal.com]

Not "nearest and dearest", just someone who likes reading your comments on books, but I can get a few.

1. "Modified rapture!" (Double points for "Oh joy, oh rapture!" )
G&S. In particular, an actor overacted "Rapture" and was told to modify it: he then added the extra word instead. "Oh joy, oh rapture!" makes me think Pirates ("Summon your men and effect their capture"), but I've got an idea the "modified" bit was Mikado.

2. "Never trust a god who grins all the time and wears a top hat, that's my motto." "Is it? That's a strange motto."
Pratchett, but I can't remember which book this is from, or who the speaker is. They're talking about Baron Samedi and zombies.

4. They departed into their own country another way.
Isn't that the Three Wise Men?

7. "I don't want all the marbles. I don't want any of the marbles. It's death for me to be caught with marbles in my possession, remember?"
Miles Vorkosigan, trying not to be caught with a private army in his possession.

10. She took the point at once, but she also took the spoons.
Lobelia Baggins. After reading the label on her present (of spoons, of course) from the Party. I forget quite what it said. "For her very own", or something like that?

[charlie-ego.livejournal.com]

1 - wow, I didn't know that! Now I like the line even better. You are totally right about Pirates.

2, 4, 7, 10 - yes! I don't think the label said anything significant, though.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Ah, after this, I had to go and look. rot13 for possible spoilers, just re: 1.

V jnf gbgnyyl jebat nobhg wbl naq encgher - vg vf va gur svanyr bs Cvansber.

Ohg gur zbqvsvrq vf vaqrrq va Zvxnqb, gur svefg gvzr gur ybiref trg gbtrgure nybar, nsgre Lhz-Lhz fnlf gung nygubhtu fur vf tbvat gb zneel Xbxb, fur qbrfa'g ybir uvz. Gurer vf ynhtuvat fbat naq wblbhf purre va gur svanyr, ohg ab wblbhf encgher.

Ohg gurer vf vaqrrq encgher va Cvengrf, jura gur lbhat ynqvrf ernpg gb gur fhqqra nccrnenapr bs gur cbyvpr, ng gur raq bs Npg VV.