I finished it, by Jingo!
I just now finished Jingo by Terry Pratchett.
And it was quite the ride. I mean, I usually loathe any type of work written with the intent to critique via parody the insanity of "society" (fiction should be fun and not a lecture). But this...it takes a very skilled author to make a work that contains rather blatant criticism so interesting. Again, it was the characters who accomplished this.
Carrot's effect on people never gets old. I think I have a soft spot for such characters, so I might be a bit biased. It wasn't initiated in this novel (though it was mentioned), but his phrase, "personal isn't the same as important" is extraordinary. If only more people lived their lives like this...This is the first time I've seen the stereotype of how a hero acts when his lover is in distress and there is nothing he can immediately do to help her broken. Instead of, you know, the usual stuff like refusing to sleep or eat while pacing ceaselessly and being generally pissy, Carrot reports immediately to Vimes and, best of all, is the only one who manages to sleep on the ship ride over to Klatch. And his organization of a "football" game between the two sides (rugby? A scrum is mentioned, but I've never heard rugby referred to as football...). So much love for this character.
71-hour Ahmed and the Khufurah were great one-shot characters. Especially Ahmed. It's subtle, but the way he's characterized when he's first introduced is extremely effective at insinuating assumptions of his character into the reader's mind. I mean, I thought he was crazy and barbaric, just as Vimes did. Then, when we meet him again in the desert, he's thrown off his facade and becomes a completely different, yet entirely believable character. The Klatchians (D'regs included) have a complex feel to their culture, and it is a sign of Pratchett's genius that he neither gets bogged down in the irrelevant details of their culture (irrelevant to the plot that is, because let's face it. We're really reading for the Ankh-Morporkian folk) nor sets them up as a boring, 2D cast of characters merely there to further the plot. Pratchett never abandons any of his characters it seems. Like 'em or love 'em, they're gonna get fleshed out (and yet...at the same time, there's so much about the characters that we don't know...).
And Vetinari...oh goodness....Jingo wouldn't have been half as fun without him. I mean, the juggling incident? ("You're dead good at it, sir. Practice often, do you?" "Until today, I've never tried.") Holy GOD. In fact, every interaction he has with anyone is brilliant. Terrifyingly competent at almost everything, unflappable in all circumstances, and the ability to control every situation to his advantage using only his own cleverness (and never overt Might)? Yes, please.
And, the best line of all? "Veni, vici....Vetinari." This describes the political denouement perfectly. In a non-war between Klatch and Ankh-Morpork, who wins? Vetinari, of course.
My overall description of this novel? Brilliant.
So, we didn't have a rugby game today. Why? Well, it's because of the FIVE(ish) inches of snow that accumulated on the ground yesterday afternoon. I don't think I've ever seen so much snow on the ground at one time in a southern state (heck, the only time I've seen so much snow at one time was back in first grade in Pennsylvania during a blizzard). I'm kinda sore that they got a foot of snow back home, though. And it fell Thursday night so school for them was cancelled on Friday. Life is unfair.
I ventured to my car during the downfall at about 7:30 to go to the team dinner, which was a trip in itself. I parked at the bottom of a huge hill (seriously, I'd estimate that it's at least a 30 degree angle of inclination from the horizontal). On dry pavement, the hill is treacherous to descend, but with snow...thank goodness for my practice in going up and down mountain sides in snow in Oregon. Lesson 1: don't stick to the pavement. Go on the grass beside it. Also, I noticed that there were no footprints at all on the hill. I was the only one stupid daring enough to traverse it.
Once I got to my car, covered in 5 inches of snow which I was able to merely swipe off (another interesting experience....usually there'd be ice under it all), and on the road, it was relatively easy to make my way across town since everyone was driving slowly and cautiously. The problem came when I got to the road that I should have turned off of to get to the street that the captain's house is on. The problem being that the snow stuck to everything. Even vertical surfaces, such as street-name signs. So I had no idea which road to turn onto. I ended up just turning around and going home.
We had planned to meet this morning at 11am. I was ready to go at 9:45 and got a text at 10am saying that Georgia Southern had cancelled. I was kinda pissed. So I took a walk and noticed that the snow was rapidly melting. At the time that I'm writing this, the snow (all effing 5 inches of it) has all but disappeared. We totally could have made the trip.