Not really a question about the 'main' generics like Lola and Randolph. In the Well there's all the hustle bustle of the holesmiths, and other (dis)honest artisans and shopkeeps. Is it expressely mentioned where all these people come from? Seeing as there is such interest in Thursday as an Outlander in the Bookworld, I have to assume that most of the characters around are generics who didn't make it into books full time. And what's that about treacle as binding agent LOL



Post Edited (07-06-03 23:46)

I suppose that since they're in the well, and their book are unpublished, the characters in those books can pretty much do what they want, funding their shady activities and lives however they want. Or like you say, they could be generic.s

I don't know, where do cobblers come from in our society?

And don't say 'out of PSD's lips'.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

damn, I was just about to type that, then read the rest of your post.

:-)

Heaven forfend! I'm not sure there are cobblers anymore, didn't they get bought out by Mr. Minit? Trades used to be inherited though. Maybe the Well has a family tradition aspect, "Someday all the amazing alliteration allowed within this shop will be yours, my boy/girl".

What I want to know if why do people who cut keys also having the ability to mend shoes ? I've never understood that one.

The treacle as a binding agent, I think, comes from Alice in Wonderland - I know that the Dormouse tells a story about the girls who live down a treacle well...



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

What I want to know is, where does the money used in the Well come from? After all Jack Spratt had to worry about a budget for plot elements in 'Caversham Heights', Lola went shopping, and when Lola was being auctioned off Randolph "only" had ten pounds... Who sets the budgets for works that are being created in the Well, is it the Council of Genres or some department at Text Grand Central or somebody else? Do new Generics get allowances for buying clothing & equipment that isn't actually written into their existences? Do they just have whatever funds were initially written into them as appropriate, plus anything that they can earn by doing jobs around the Well?

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

I'm sooooo tempted to say "I know a load of cobblers" :)

Gotta confess, that's a good question though Rob. What the heck is the connection between mending shoes and cutting keys? Strange! I'll add that to my list of imponderables to find answers for before I retire, along with "why do they have frosted glass on aeroplane lavatory windows" (etc)

On reading Simon's pondering of the economy of the Well I had a sudden flash of a 'Brazil' like bureacratic department sorting through endless forms and chits and expenses. Gah. Unless Mr Ff elucidates I'm going to stay with that idea :)

Frosted glass on planes - Surely so all those cherubs floating about on clouds can't see you pee as you fly past?

Cobblers - up until about ten years ago there was a local cobbler called Harvey, who wasn't part of any chain, a pleasant young fellow who ordered in bright blue heel dye specially for me. He didn't stop cobbling, he just moved away. Perhaps the expense of having to match all my rainbow of shoes was too much. Mr Minit has just closed down its two shops locally.

I don't know why cobblers cut keys too, something I must ask next time I'm there.

The money question was bothering me too in a different way. Thursday puts a ten pence piece into a WillSpeak but everything else seems to cost pounds, shillings and pence, except something, somewhere costs somethingty2.5p which suggests to me that it's some number of shillings and sixpence. Don't ask me what or where, I'm hopeless at providing chapter and verse. Which brings me onto another point, but I think I'll start a new thread.

MissPrint: The .5p is perfectly valid, as there used to be a half-penny coin which I think was phased out around the mid-to-late Eighties. I can remember using it, I just can't quite remember when I stopped being able to use it.



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"Whisky-wa-wa," I breathed - she was dressed as Biffo the Bear.

I know there were 1/2ps around in 1981 - I have a couple that were given to me by my English teacher (his prize if we handed in a piece of work with no spelling or grammer mistakes in them...)



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

that last post wouldn't have got one then...

nope - just spotted it :) I've always had a problem with grammar/grammer - they both look wrong to me :(



I drink to drown my sorrows. Unfortunately they've learnt how to swim.

The 1/2 p was still legal tender in 1988. The Tiddlywinks Society had the wheeze of charging £4.99 1/2 for membership and had a massive bag of ha'pennies for change. They were barely used and not accepted in most shops by then.

I think MissPrint is getting at the fact that 2 1/2 p is sixpence (2d) in old money. 10p = 2 shillings but you wouldn't really have 10d (ten of old pennies).

There. I think that's as clear as mud.

Jo - and you went to a Grammar school, too!

Old money confuses me, as does Farenheit. I can cope with feet and inches, but I can't fathom poles, rods and furlongs.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Rob's post might be a little clearer if I explain that there were 12 old pennies to a shilling. Sixpence was half a shilling. Pre-decimal 1/2p coins were about the size of a current 2p. The decimal ones were nearer the size of the current 5p.
When decimalization was introducted, old shillings were acceptable as 5p pieces and two-shilling coins were used as 10p, both alongside the new decimal coins. I remember seeing both coins in use, but they must have been phased out by the late 70's.

In 1979, my elderly piano teacher insisted on being paid 2/6 for lessons - that's 2 shillings and sixpence. I used to give her 12 1/2p in decimal coins.

And wasn't it twenty shicllings to the pound?

And then when decimalisation came in people complained about it being difficult to use!



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

Yes, I know the half penny coin was still around at the time, but in combination with 2 pence seemed awfully sixpence-y to me. And later Thursday mentions being able to shoot a 2p piece.

So, is decimilisation in or out? Are they using the two systems in tandem, which would be weird. Or have they just had the changeover we had in '71 in '85?

Rob, you were closest to saying what I meant.

If they're still using pounds shillings and pence the 10p and 2p coins wouldn't exist, and amounts of 52.5p wouldn't be so expressed, it would be 10/6. But just post decimilisation, 52.5p would be a perfectly reasonable amount, but by our '85, it would look a bit strange.

Have I muddled this sufficiently? :-)