YOUR USER NAME

[jerryd6818]

Two Flowers was a character from the Discworld series of books written by Terry Pratchett. Two Flowers was a naive tourist who had a magical trunk made from "sapient pearwood" that was simply called "The Luggage". The Luggage had dozens of legs and very sharp wooden teeth and followed along behind Two Flowers like a puppy dog. Anyone that tried to mess with The Luggage soon discovered how unpleasant it is to have dozens of feet stomping on your head while your ears are being bitten off. I love all types of science & speculative fiction, especially wild & humorous stuff like Terry Pratchett (Discworld) and Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

Here's a few classic quotes from the books about The Luggage:

"The Luggage had a straightforward way of dealing with things between it and its intended destination: it ignored them."

"The Luggage’s expression could only be described as wooden."

"The Luggage had spent many years trailing through strange lands, meeting exotic creatures and jumping up and down on them."

"The Luggage said nothing, but louder this time."

If I wanted to read one of Terry Pratchett's books, is there any particular one I should read first? I'm a start at the beginning and read in sequence kind of guy. Maybe methodical is the term best used.

[TwoFlowersLuggage]

Sure - I'm the same way - I think it's always best to start at the beginning and work through in order. There is actually a recommended reading order on this website: https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/dis ... ing-order/

And it just so happens the first book is "The Colour of Magic", which contains Two Flowers and The Luggage.

[jerryd6818]

Thanks. I bookmarked that and will probably give one a try when I finish the three I just picked up at the library.

[gypsy jim]

My name is Jimmy and the best black lab it was my pleasure to own was Gypsy. She's been gone a long time now. I'll always have dogs but she was the one. I think all dog lovers have "the one" at some point.

[zzyzzogeton]

My login name comes from the first letter of my last name merged with zyzzogeton, the last word in the Webster's 1913 Unabridged Dictionary. I started using it after I kept getting "already in use" messages when trying to join an online group years ago. Had to come up with something no one else had.

Here's what one of the little beggars looks like.

Side view


And a face only a mother would love

[FRJ]

Yep, it's right there in black and white.

[blackfox1]

I live in a small community in northeast Oklahoma. The name of the town in Cherokee translates to Black Fox. And, several years back was the proposed site of a nuclear power plant, that was known as Black Fox.

blackfox1

[Lansky1]

I've been a woodworker long before I got into knife collecting. I specialized in hand planes & the only reason I was able to go that route is a sharpening "rollerskate" jig made by Veritas - it holds the plane blade at a defined angle and you roll it over emory cloth on glass - they call it the scary sharp method. It makes using bench planes a pleasure.

So, by accident, I came upon the Lansky sharpening jig maybe 20 years ago & it made sense to me - I could get an edge far better than I ever could by hand. The Lansky jig is the single reason I got into knife collecting - the edge it produces is amazing. I've worn out several sets I like it so much.

I guess the bottom line is I like to sharpen anything pointy using modern methods ... so thats why I'm Lansky1

[woodwalker]

My dad was a Lineman all his life and his CB handle was Woodwalker because he used to climb poles and not use the bucket trucks like they use today. So as a tribute to him I use Woodwalker. I still have his climbers. He could truck up those poles like nobody's business!

[tongueriver]

Tongue River is the most important stream running north through my region, out of Wyoming, across the Cheyenne Reservation and into the Yellowstone River at Miles City, Montana. I have lived the most satisfying years of my life in this drainage. My avatar is a buffalo skull, which I suppose you might say is my totem, although I wouldn't be too superstitious about that. I have a great love for this area, and its history, and can't imagine living anywhere else, although I have enjoyed some visits to other parts of our great Country.

[New_Windsor_NY]

Not very complicated, that is where I'm from. But not where I live.
No story to tell.

[zoogirl]

I’m Zoogirl on several sites. I’ve been using it for as long as I’ve been online.
Back in the Nineties, I had my own little zoo. At one point, there were about sixty animals. I had everything! Snakes, lizards, frogs and toads, turtles, tarantulas, a scorpion, chinchillas, a degu, a short tailed opossum, hedgehogs, a meadow vole, squirrels - well, you get the idea! I took them to schools and church’s and gave lectures. Along the way, I kept running into a company called Cinemazoo (now the Surrey Urban Rescue). They not only did what I was doing with the schools but they also acted as an agent for movie and tv animals. So, when I took a job prep course that required a two week work experience, I asked to be placed there. I figured I’d pick up some pointers and maybe see how the pros did it.
You guessed it! The two weeks turned into seven years!
I still have good memories of the place. My departure was financial rather than personal. Anyway, I’m still zoogirl!
These days I’m down to an old cat, two field mice and a wolf spider. The name doesn’t reall fit, but I’m used to it and if anyone from my other sites wanders in, they’ll recognize me. So, zoogirl it is!

[jerryd6818]

Degu --- I had never heard of that one and had to look it up. There must be a story behind that one because I discovered they are endemic to Chile.

[zoogirl]

Mine was a pet store purchase. Sadly, it escaped and ran smack into the ferret. Dammit!

[geocash]

For years I hiked & bushwacked in the mountains of the Chattahoochee & Southern Nantahala National Forests. On a dozen or so of the more remote peaks there would be a bottle of whiskey stashed for emergency use, especially during winter visits. The popular game of geocaching was corrupted with surname, Cash, to refer to these stashes.

[Kingston73]

My name is Jimmy and the best black lab it was my pleasure to own was Gypsy. She's been gone a long time now. I'll always have dogs but she was the one. I think all dog lovers have "the one" at some point.

Mines also dog related, Kingston was the best dog I ever had and probably ever will have. 73 is my birth year.

[Sasquach]

Because I'm tall, have lots of hair, and big feet the nickname Bigfoot has been with me for a long time. It was my handle on the CB radio until too many others started using it and that's when I changed it to Sasquatch. Then when trying to use it as a screen name it was already in use so I dropped the "T" and it was accepted. Since then I have found out the Sasquach is considered a proper spelling of the name. Being a Native American word it can be found historically spelled both ways. So that's how I got my user name.

[JACK OF ALL TIRADES]

I just thought mine up and didn't notice the shouting until I clicked submit.

[samb1955]

It's from my email that they made for me when I got this phone.

[jerryd6818]

I just thought mine up and didn't notice the shouting until I clicked submit.

So it's supposed to be "TIRADES" and not 'TRADES"? Clever.

[JACK OF ALL TIRADES]

Clever would have been picking up knives before now, but thanks

[Dinadan]

I just thought mine up and didn't notice the shouting until I clicked submit.

I think that is what the call a Freudian slip. I just figured you were like a lot of crotchety old men. A good tirade is one of my favorite activities!

[JACK OF ALL TIRADES]

WHO YOU CALLIN CROTCHETY ?

[BatJak]

Any John Wayne fans?

Wayne and producer Robert Fellows founded Batjac in 1952 as Wayne/Fellows Productions. When Fellows left the company several years later, Wayne renamed the corporation after a fictitious trading company mentioned in the film Wake of the Red Witch (1948). The company name in Wake of the Red Witch was spelled Batjak, but Wayne's secretary misspelled it as Batjac on the corporation papers, and Wayne let it stand.

[MT-Vessel]

I enjoyed reading through this thread. So, in an effort to keep it going....
In high school I had a tough, but decent, math teacher who used the writing of “lines” as a consequence of transgressions. He had three sentences that covered most sins:
1. Neither wise men nor fools can work without tools.
2. Procrastination is a thief of time.
3. Empty vessels make the most noise.

I became skilled at speed writing #3.....

My avatar/username is a combo of #3 and my other hobby of remote control sailboat racing.

For what it’s worth, I remain,
MT-Vessel