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withak posted:In the cricket game he is playing hurley (Irish field hockey) instead of cricket. From what I could tell the time I tried to figure out what the differences are, Stephen basically ends up scoring an own goal. Beautifully, masterfully.
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Dec 25, 2017 00:16
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For any in search of wonderful anecdotes and quotes, I might recommend the second chapter of The Fortune of War when Jack and Stephen are guests on a ship returning to England. Jack spends his time on educating the youngsters, who pay about as much attention to their studies as students of today; one's mother writes to tell him to brush his teeth up and down, one gets whipped for how he describes Abraham, and one describes the chord of an arc instead of the sine, but doesn't notice his mistake even when Jack asks, "and how is that related to the chord of the arc?". Stephen is forced to transfer "several tons" of minerals and specimens between two ships in 53 minutes, is flustered over his collection flying all over the ship unstowed, has troubles with unhappy wombats, unhappy lieutenants, fails to choose the lesser of two weevils, and gives his usual dinner speeches having to be saved by Jack. There are also a few amusing side characters; the temporary switches to Cockney are quite fun to read aloud. The mirth is so well consolidated I daren't attempt copying it all here.
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Dec 25, 2017 01:00
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:From what I could tell the time I tried to figure out what the differences are, Stephen basically ends up scoring an own goal. Beautifully, masterfully. Is this really what happened?? With my complete American ignorance of cricket I actually thought he surprised everyone by being good at cricket (I basically thought he pulled a Harry Potter and did the cricket equivalent of catching the golden snitch to win) but LMAO if he tanked the game in spectacular style instead.
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Dec 25, 2017 01:07
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Yeah, he pulled a really nice hurling move (game is hurling, the stick is a Hurley), and promptly loses the game for his team because he didn't know the rules and couldn't pay attention enough to the game to figure it out. It's especially funny because his hurling pickup is basically a textbook skill that would be really hard to do with a cricket ball. The earlier payoff too on Stephens "unusual" bat (he just cut his own Hurley) is also a nice joke. I don't know if you'd be allowed to effectively hit the ball twice in cricket, but if you are and Stephen could do a pickup like that he'd be a world class century man for sure. But he has he bugs and hookbills instead.
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Dec 25, 2017 06:38
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:From what I could tell the time I tried to figure out what the differences are, Stephen basically ends up scoring an own goal. Beautifully, masterfully. What Stephen did is spectacularly beyond "an own goal". I thought it was one of the funniest scenes in the books. Lockback posted:I don't know if you'd be allowed to effectively hit the ball twice in cricket You can't. I'm not a fan of cricket, but my dad will happily sit and watch all 5 days of a test match and be excited when nothing happens in a slightly different way from the usual nothing happening which makes up 99.99% of test cricket. But he's the reason I understand how it works. He's also the reason I didn't have to look up (or ask about) most of the sailing terminolgy though. e: If you guys know nothing about cricket, take 5 minutes and watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oPLhskOH4o. If you're reading this thread you've probably looked up what a cross-catharpin was in case you missed a joke, so a 5 minute video probably isn't too much to ask. You could probably even start at 2:40 and watch for a minute or so to understand what Stephen did wrong. Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Dec 25, 2017 |
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Dec 25, 2017 12:17
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CarterUSM posted:In cricket, you are supposed to use your bat to defend your wicket (i.e. the three stumps with loose crosspieces that sit behind the batter). As such, cricket tends to be a defensive game from the batsman's point of view, since you don't HAVE to run unless you so choose. (Imagine in baseball, if a batter could just stand at home plate and decline to run on a hit ball, until he got one he liked) You could literally have a cricket batsman standing up at the wicket for over a hundred pitches. This was an explanation of the cricket match that got posted a while back
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Dec 25, 2017 14:36
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That's accurate enough, yeah. Stephen might not have even ruined the match, except that he was late to the field - being the last batsman, once he was out, the game was over. When I first read it, I couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes. Partly because it's so obviously cricket commentary that I mentally heard it in Richie Benaud's voice: https://youtu.be/1tcAOBbDtfY?t=90
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Dec 25, 2017 20:30
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Lockback posted:I finished that book a week or so back and that was basically my exact reaction. Thinking about it a little more, I now choose to believe Stephen's so good at what he does that he did it when even O'Brian wasn't looking.
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Dec 25, 2017 22:39
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Phy posted:Thinking about it a little more, I now choose to believe Stephen's so good at what he does that he did it when even O'Brian wasn't looking. Maybe I brought this up before, but I never figured out what happened about that duel over a comment about Diana between Jack and Stephen. There was significant practice and preparation, and certainly something else came up, but it never seemed to actually get resolved in the text. Maybe I've been laughing so hard lately that I've forgotten.
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Dec 26, 2017 01:28
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Given the continual supply of biscuits and hams and such that he keeps in his jackets, does he perchance show up later with some hands in jars or anything? I'll keep my eyes sharp when I reach this book. There is a hand in a jar at some point, but I don't think it is on of these hands. quote:Maybe I brought this up before, but I never figured out what happened about that duel over a comment about Diana between Jack and Stephen. There was significant practice and preparation, and certainly something else came up, but it never seemed to actually get resolved in the text. Maybe I've been laughing so hard lately that I've forgotten. As far as anyone can tell they both just silently let it go and never spoke of it again.
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Dec 26, 2017 01:37
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withak posted:There is a hand in a jar at some point, but I don't think it is on of these hands. Essentially, yes - Stephen is obliged to warn Jack of a prospective mutiny, and Jack is half dead of blood loss by the time the crisis and an ensuing action are dealt with. It seems they just resumed the patient-doctor relationship, and subsequently their friendship.
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Dec 26, 2017 18:42
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From what I recall there is a blink and you'll miss it apology.
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Dec 26, 2017 18:46
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Twas a day later and a few score pages past, but I remembered I was going to keep an eye open for the first occurrence, which seems to be The Fortune of War Chapter Eightquote:'I ain't Joe', said Jack.
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Dec 27, 2017 06:27
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:From what I recall there is a blink and you'll miss it apology. Aubrey sends a wonderful apology for calling Stephen a bastard ("a common expression to do with birth, that might have been taken to have a personal bearing") during the build up to the duel. I can't remember an apology for the rest of it though e: found it! I must have blinked ZekeNY fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Dec 28, 2017 |
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Dec 28, 2017 01:47
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quote:... Having drunk a certain amount of champagne he said, "That's very well. But I tell you what, Bullock, just you mix me a glass of bosun's grow, will you?" ZekeNY posted:Aubrey sends a wonderful apology for calling Stephen a bastard ("a common expression to do with birth, that might have been taken to have a personal bearing")
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Dec 28, 2017 08:07
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Sitting in the Red Sea with the sun baking everything, "Will I call for another pot of this admirable sherbet, the only cool thing in creation, perhaps...". So they have a solar powered refrigeration unit onboard? Or they're serving a mint-flavored concoction that has been cooled to "room temperature" (presumably above 100F at this point)? I thought only Willy Wonka could make ice cream that doesn't melt in the hot sun. What is this sherbet of which Stephen speaks? Edit: Whelp it wasn't in Sea of Words, hence my obvious confusion, but it seems wikipedia knows, so I'll go with my guess of "mint-flavored" something or another. PhantomOfTheCopier fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Jan 19, 2018 |
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Jan 19, 2018 10:38
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Beverages were chilled by tying the bottles in a net attached to a rope and dropping them deep under water for a while.
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Jan 19, 2018 12:29
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They could also possibly have used some form of evaporative cooling.
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Jan 19, 2018 15:56
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The Lord Bude posted:Beverages were chilled by tying the bottles in a net attached to a rope and dropping them deep under water for a while. Right, and if I recall they were drinking the Sherbet not in the middle of the Red Sea, but when they were watering off the coast, and I assumed they were drinking it then because the water was actually cool (since they usually drank Claret or something from a bottle, so not made from the cool water thy were taking on). I may be wrong about that, but I believe they were specifically drinking Sherbet because they were just a bit offshore.
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Jan 19, 2018 22:15
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Sherbet comes up a few times in Treason's Harbor, but indeed they were sitting in the barky just after their return march across the dessert. Later it specifically says "chilled", so it either has to be spring water or deep water chilling. Evaporative cooling seems less likely and Venturi cooling wasn't applied before steam engines, afaik. I have to wonder if it was like modern sherbet American, iced, or if it was gelatinous from beef stock, or if it was more like heavy cream. Perhaps the gastronomic companion knows, but I don't have a copy.
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Jan 20, 2018 01:48
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Sherbet does not make an appearance in the gastronomic companion.
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Jan 20, 2018 05:05
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Zoh well, and it's not on the wiki either. The answers here are good enough for me, and deep water cooling is certainly viable. Thanks for bearing with my silly questions. I'm almost done with 10 and still rather excited for the series. When I read this last I was so busy with grad school then jobs and depression that it kinda became a chore to get from 5 to 20, and probably took a year or two. Other than a short break for a week or two, I've been reading straight through this time. Honestly though I'm past the point of remembering much. I remembered the diving bell, marching across the desert, and the guest that liked diving and swimming who got chomped up (but I thought that was Jagiello), and I remembered the chelengk for some reason. I thought the bell lasted a lot longer but maybe there will be another. In 9 they set hawsers up the hill in order to hoist up cannons but it's abandoned. I still remember a similar scenario being carried out in full, with Jack being happy handling that type of 'work' (gambit). I might be conflating it with some caper where they hide on the back side of an island with a cliff, hoist cannons to the top, and pepper the enemy when they sail between that and the adjacent cliff. But sheesh with ten remaining I'm forgetting a lot and looking forward to it! Thanks for listening.
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Jan 20, 2018 18:34
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Quick informal poll -- Are people starting these books because they found this thread, or finding this thread after they've read the books for the first time?
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Jan 20, 2018 18:36
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Books then thread.
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Jan 20, 2018 18:47
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Quick informal poll -- Comedy option - I found this thread and keep meaning to start the books one of these days, but so far have not.
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Jan 20, 2018 20:20
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uPen posted:Books then thread.
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Jan 20, 2018 20:23
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Quick informal poll -- Books then literally googled "Aubrey Maturin Something Awful"
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Jan 21, 2018 02:03
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Movie first; then books, then thread.
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Jan 21, 2018 04:54
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Quick informal poll -- Books -> movie -> thread -> audiobooks
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Jan 22, 2018 16:13
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I haven't watched the Movie yet as I wanted to at least get through Far Side of the World, and now I'm on Yellow Admiral and I sorta might just finish off the series before seeing the movie.
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Jan 22, 2018 17:17
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I read the books because of this thread, so thanks for that.
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Jan 22, 2018 18:54
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Read the books first
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Jan 22, 2018 22:34
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Finished the books before the movie existed. It was time to read them all again from start to finish (instead of the piecemeal I had been doing) so I searched for the thread. Very happy to be reading. I managed to recover my idea of Aubrey and Maturin, which had been somewhat perverted by the movie.
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Jan 23, 2018 01:22
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Finished the books before the movie existed. It was time to read them all again from start to finish (instead of the piecemeal I had been doing) so I searched for the thread. Yeah, the movie doesn't do anything like justice to Maturin. He's pretty much relegated to being Jack's prissy conscience. And also English for some reason.
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Jan 23, 2018 06:41
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I just named my first kid "Jack Stephen". We wanted to go with family names, and those are the names of my wife's grandad and my opa, but... they could only possibly go in that order. My brother's already referring to the kid as Lucky Jack.
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Jan 23, 2018 23:49
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Book -> Thread -> Books, for me.
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Jan 24, 2018 02:52
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Sherbet comes up a few times in Treason's Harbor, but indeed they were sitting in the barky just after their return march across the dessert. Later it specifically says "chilled", so it either has to be spring water or deep water chilling. Evaporative cooling seems less likely and Venturi cooling wasn't applied before steam engines, afaik. Its a different drink from what we think of as Sherbet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharbat
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Jan 24, 2018 08:40
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movie -> books -> thread -> audiobooks
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Jan 24, 2018 17:38
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Polikarpov posted:Its a different drink from what we think of as Sherbet Hard to believe that we're going to need to engage an historian to figure out what sherbet they were consuming!
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Jan 24, 2018 19:31
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Dad obsessing about the books - movie - books - thread.
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Jan 26, 2018 16:02
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