Humorous disease names

[Mark Mandel]

On Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 5:02 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky
<zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
> On Jun 4, 2008, at 1:39 PM, Jim Parish wrote:
>
>> I recall a reference to "slitting someone from guzzle to zorch" in
>> one of
>> Piers Anthony's Xanth novels.
>
> you might be sort-of-remembering the threat of the Cold Duke of Coffin
> Castle in James Thurber's The 13 Clocks (1957):
>
> "And if I fail?" asked Zorn.
>
> The Duke removed his sword from the sword-cane and ran his glove along
> the blade. "I'll slit you from your guggle to your zatch, and feed you
> to the Todal."
>
> [disgusting description of the Todal follows]
>
> arnold

Thank you! I've been thinking of that quote for the past three weeks
(since my wife's emergency surgery -- she's recovering quite well,
thank God), and we've both been trying to remember where it was from.

--
Mark Mandel

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