Brain,
Yay! Stuff looks =great=! "Scrape out" and "Sweatin' ken,"
excellent!
Re: "Card in a cart," this is used in regard to Orchid's proposal for Silk to have recreational sex "on the house" (er, free of charge):
"We're closed Hieraxday, so not then either. But come in any other day and I'll give you a pass. How's that? . . . You know what I mean, right, Patera? Not me [whom you will dally with]. I mean with any of the girls, whoever you want. If you'd like to give her a little something for herself, that's all right. But you don't have to, and there won't be anything [paid] to the house." Orchid considered again. "Well, a card in a cart, huh? All right, that's a lay [i.e., a shag <g>] a month for a year."
So maybe all she is saying is that the total value of the gift is one card? "A card in a cart" being a fragment of some whorlish phrase like "A card in a cart is worth two in a bush" (if you know what I mean and I think you do, nudge-nudge, wink-wink)?
Re: Dimberdamber nanny nipper. Okay! "Adroit coat-cutter thief" looks very good, especially as a coat-cutter thief must be pretty adroit to begin with.
Re: "Pure keg." Agg! The volume numbers are switched! The two citations should be (III, 115.7) and (II, 213.3).
"All right, she [Scylla] said it [about looting the wealthy quarter]
and I believed it, and now I [Auk] got to let her know I'm the pure keg, too" (II, 213.3).
In this case the sense seems to be "one who acknowleges the favor of another with a favor in kind."
Bustard speaking in Auk's mind: "Give me the pure keg, sprat. You want me to winnow you out? If I'm going to help, I got to know" (III, 115.7).
In this case the sense seems to be "the absolute truth."
Brain good!
=mantis=