Comments | lower_tadfield: Dick Turpin

charon47 in lower_tadfield

Dick Turpin

Jun 23, 2005 19:25

Good evening all ( Read more... )

newt, book discussion, meta, the wasabi

Comments 15

(The comment has been removed)

charon47 June 23 2005, 18:46:33 UTC

Me: *two short planks*

Yes, I wondered why it kept turning up sushi bars on google! Thanks for the info anyway. :)

kerrypolka June 23 2005, 18:37:58 UTC

I think it's just a joke on the relatively recent trend of Japanese-import cars being the "quality" cars to buy. US-made cars were "quality" all through the 70s/80s, and Newt bought his Japanese-import car on the day the (hypothetical) "switch" was made from US to Japan. So, even though his car is Japanese-import, it's crap. I seem to remember a lot of sushi jokes in machine names, like the whaling ship Kappamaki.

IOW, it's not supposed to be anything more than the sauce. :)

charon47 June 23 2005, 18:44:20 UTC

D'oh. *headdesk* Thanks for the information! I blame my obtuseness on never having eaten sushi *blushes*

kerrypolka June 23 2005, 18:56:56 UTC

Don't worry about it -- sometimes it's hard to pick out what type of joke, exactly, they're making! ;)

chelonianmobile June 23 2005, 19:28:18 UTC

Kappamaki is a cucumber roll, and Nigirizushi (the home of the last living Wasabi agent) is an actual type of sushi, according to http://www.ie.lspace.org/books/apf/good-omens.html
I have no idea if this is entirely accurate, since I picked up all my Japanese from fanbrat lingo on messageboard I used to lurk. (Super kawaii! *wince* I can't believe I just typed that.)

Thread 8

Credit where it's due, please redbird June 23 2005, 18:54:30 UTC

At the risk of sounding like a nitpicker: PTerry and Neil, please. I know it's easy to credit the author whose work you otherwise know and like--and I'm more of a Pratchett than a Gaiman fan myself--but the book is a collaboration.

Re: Credit where it's due, please charon47 June 23 2005, 19:08:25 UTC

Eep! *corrects* My bad. I haven't yet read any other Neil Gaiman books, though I intend to, so I am indeed more used to referring to PTerry. Thank you for pointing that out!

anonymous June 23 2005, 19:37:12 UTC

I love sushi, so it was the "Dick Turpin" reference I didn't get. a superhero or something?

chelonianmobile June 23 2005, 19:53:16 UTC

Dick Turpin was a famous English highwayman in the 1600s (or 1700s, I forget which). He was a real person, but a lot of myths grew around him, so people think he was some Robin Hood figure when actually he was a vicious murderer.

Hence Newt's reason for calling his badly-made, lousy-handling car Dick Turpin; "Because everywhere I go, I hold up traffic."

bunny_of_steele June 24 2005, 04:47:12 UTC

omg, thank you! I've been trying to figure out what that was a reference to for ages. I thought it was a pun i wasn't getting or something.

mariko_neko June 30 2005, 22:25:52 UTC

I get that joke now. *giggle* They're really quite funny.