Finding the value of tumpty

So this morning I got up, was turning on the computers and changing Andy's diaper, and I don't know what I was thinking about but suddenly the line "Thus ___ doth make cowards of us all" popped into my head.  I couldn't remember what the word was.  It'll come to me, I thought.  I waited a moment.  It didn't. 

I went back to the bedroom to ask Doug,
"What is it that makes cowards of us all?"
"???"
"Thus something doth make cowards of us all."
"Time?"
"No, it's two syllables."
"Ah. Tumpty."
"Yes.  Thus tumpty doth make cowards of us all."

Doug couldn't remember either.  I went to Google to look it up.

One of the many handy things about Google is that you can use an asterisk as a wild card in a search.  So I typed in the phrase like this, in quotes:

"Thus * doth make cowards of us all."

And up popped the answer, right away.  Conscience.  Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.  From Hamlet.  Of course. 

I'm still not sure where that came from.  I'm reading Alcatraz Versus The Shattered Lens,and last night got to the chapter where every line of dialog is a quote from Hamlet, but I don't think that line was in there. Or maybe it was. I'll have to go back and check.

(I should specify that almost every line of dialog in that chapter is from Hamlet--one of the bad guys quotes a line from Macbeth and Bastille kicks him in the groin.)

Tumpty is of course the placeholder for words of two syllables.  Frequently combined with its one-syllable companion tum. Used memorably by Nanny Ogg upon her first encounter with iambic pentameter:

"I suppose you're an expert at theater words?" said Granny sarcastically.  "They'd have to be the proper sort, otherwise people would suspect."

"Shouldn't be too difficult," said Nanny Ogg dismissively.  "I've been studyin' it.  You go tumpty-tumpty-tumpty."

Granny gave this some consideration.

"There's more to it than that, I believe," she said.  "Some of those speeches were very good.  I couldn't understand hardly any of it."

(From Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters)

I love the internet.

Indivisible

This is Peter in his "Indivisible" shirt. I mentioned in this post how Brandon Sanderson described Peter as "incalculable" in the acknowledgments of the first Mistborn book. At my suggestion, Peter got a shirt made with "Incalculable" on it, and wore it to a book signing. Brandon told me he was going to have to come up with a new adjective for Peter in each book. In the third Mistborn book he thanks "the indivisible Peter Ahlstrom."

Peter had been looking for another full-time job since getting laid off at Tokyopop (along with about 40% off the staff). He was able to take on some other work, but it was difficult, especially with housing costs in the Los Angeles area being what they are. Then just a couple of months ago Brandon hired Peter as his personal assistant, so he and his family moved to Provo (Utah). This is a great job for Peter, and from what we hear seems to be going well for Brandon, too.

Warbreaker, recently released, describes Peter as "insoluble."

(Mom: "Meaning...what?"

Peter: "It means I can't be dissolved in water."

Mom: "But why does that refer to you, specifically?"

Peter: "Because I can't be dissolved in water.")

Yep, he's got the "Insoluble" shirt ready too. (I just finished Warbreaker a few days ago. Good story.)

Brandon and the Wheel of Time

We just found out yesterday that Brandon Sanderson (my brother's friend from BYU, who I blogged about here), has been chosen to finish the last book of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This series has been in the works for years, both tantalizing and annoying readers by stretching out through eleven very long books, but the author unfortunately died while working on the twelfth book. His widow-and-editor chose Brandon to complete it, after reading Brandon's work. This may seem like a surprising choice, especially since Brandon just published his first book a couple of years ago, but I think he'll do a good job. I think he's up to the work required, and it will certainly be a lot of work. You can read more about it at Brandon's blog. I've only read the first book of the series, years ago, but I'm excited for Brandon. Congratulations!

Book signing with Brandon

Friday we went up to the University of Washington bookstore again to see Brandon Sanderson and Dave Wolverton, who are doing a book signing tour together. Brandon is a friend of my brother Peter's. He's apparently one of those disgusting people who make aspiring writers green with envy, able to write thousands of words in a sitting. He's been writing unpublished fantasy novels for years, during which time Peter has been a frequent alpha reader and sometime editorial consultant, and he made the break into print a couple of years ago with Elantris. Brandon's particular gift is for long, complex fantasy novels with very detailed and original magic systems. He's also just come out with a YA book called Alcatraz Versus The Evil Librarians, which he describes as "a cross between Lemony Snicket and The Da Vinci Code." I bought a copy and got Brandon to sign it. I'm about halfway through now and enjoying it. It's quite goofy.

Brandon is currently in the middle of a trilogy called Mistborn which I have also been enjoying, though the second book ended with a most dreadful cliffhanger and now we have to wait a year to find out what happens. (Aaaagggghhhh!) Brandon has included Peter in the acknowledgments of all his books, and the first Mistborn book mentions a place called Ahlstrom square. In the second book he thanks "the incalculable Peter Ahlstrom." We spent a while trying to figure out if incalculable was a good thing. I told Peter he should make a T-shirt with "Incalculable" on it. He did, and wore it to a recent book signing in their area. Brandon told me he's going to have to make a point of coming up with unusual adjectives for Peter now. Ha. (Alcatraz also has an internal nod to Peter, in the form of a misspelled Pterodactyl.)

Brandon and Peter met on the staff of The Leading Edge magazine at BYU. This is also where Peter met his wife, Karen. Our friend Fen says that between The Leading Edge and Quark, the science fiction club, they have more inter-club marriages than any other organization at BYU. In fact Doug and I were also both on staff, but not at the same time.