Puff Guts (DD4, Chapter 2, pages 78-82)

The Provveditore has returned to Archipoli, and Alexandra (on a rooftop, conferring with a Winged Wisdom-Keeper) is in the perfect place to overhear his interaction with Nikos. The caped blowhard seems thoroughly perturbed by the presence of a British sailing vessel in his bay.

This sequence features one of my favourite choices: please take care to note that the Provveditore is always (okay, mostly) composed together with the horse's ass. This I think is what professionals call "telegraphing."

Last week I mentioned the Provveditore's swearing habit. "Puff guts" is my other favourite of his epithets. It's a term that was apparently in real-world use, meaning "a fat man," (here's a Project Gutenberg link) but it has such a good sound that I figured Vignelli would use the term more liberally, outside its strict definition. Does it make sense to give English street slang to a Mediterranean "noble?" No, of course not, but I'm not about to pass up rum lingo like "puff guts."

Other hits from The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue include…

• "cribbage-faced" (Marked with the small pox.)
• "dry boots" (A sly humorous fellow.) (I had heard a similar term on the video game podcast Idle Thumbs, where "sly boots" had become an in-joke for some reason. Perhaps the reason is that "sly boots" is a funny thing to call someone.)
• "Dutch concert" (Where every one plays or signs a different tune.)
• "Fermerdy beggars" (All those who have not the sham sores or clymes.) (Highlighted here for the joyful uselessness of the definition.)
• "flummery" (Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also compliments, neither of which are over-nourishing.)
• "gravy-eyed" (Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running humour.) (Eew.)
• "guzzle guts" (One greedy of liquor.) (A little sing-songy for my taste but still pretty good.)
• "lully triggers" (Thieves who steal wet linen.) (What?)
• "potato trap" (The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent.)
• "pudding sleeves" (A parson.)
• "scaly fish" (An honest, rough, blunt sailor.)
• "shifting ballast" (A term used by sailors, to signify soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board.)
• "slattern" (A woman sluttishly negligent in her dress.)
• "square toes" (An old man: square toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men.)
• "timber toe" (A man with a wooden leg.)
• "vice admiral of the narrow seas" (A drunken man that pisses under the table into his companions' shoes.)

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue is fun to take a spin through. There are more than a few terms which, according to their definition, sound like they're supposed to be pejoratives, but they're too sing-songy or too wordy to have any tooth (e.g., "back-biter" or "foot wabbler"). Elsewhere, there are terms that pop up and feel so commonplace that it's strange to think of them being novel (e.g., "sweet heart" and "straight-laced," both of which mean what you think they mean). 

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Meanwhile, my County Work continues as I hammer chapters three and four into shape. I'm doing them simultaneously since they lean pretty heavily on each other. I feel like I know exactly what is going into Chapter Three, the only challenge is keeping it lean and fun. And I know my start and end for Chapter Four, but the details are a lot trickier between points A and B.

Since Chapter Four feels intimidating, I want to form a strong image of it in my mind now so that it can "simmer" while I'm drawing Chapter Three. That is, during the time-consuming process of drawing Chapter Three, Chapter Four will be in the back of my mind, where connections will mysteriously form themselves and as long as I can catch them and integrate them, the whole thing will be tighter as a result. I'm trying to turn hindsight into foresight. Most people have had that moment when you finish a project and deliver it and then think, "ahh! I should have done X instead!" I'm trying to do that, but before I deliver the project, and the "simmering" helps that along.

As a bonus, during this process, I think I discovered the end-note for this story. I had one ending in mind already, and a whole bunch of different alternatives, but I think I found the "right" ending.

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Next week is the final installment of finished pages from Chapter Two! Yay slash awww. 

Thinking about the short-term future, friends have suggested they would be interested in process videos. At first I thought, "who would watch that," but then I remembered about Bob Ross. So I'm thinking, like, "here's my process for turning the writing into thumbnails" and actual page-drawing videos; that sort of thing.

What say you? Do you have any feelings one way or another?

I'll probably make at least one (if I can summon the nerve for it), because for reasons I do not fully understand, I am currently obsessed with video production tech. Unless I can get sanity to prevail, I might just have to work it out of my system and learn whether or not it's something I want to spend more time on, if only so I can get this monkey off my back and move on with my life.

Your trusty Word Pecker,

TC