""Quid lucrum istic mihi est?"" Topic

Okay. This is a contest.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY FORBIDDEN TO GOOGLE IT!!!
I'll be keeping an eye on you. Pretend this is 1987. No Google.

Where does this come from, and what does it mean?
Provide context.

Well, I thought and thought about this as it seemed vaguely familiar.Baseed on the fact that we both like Emmylou Harris I thought I had a chance. But nada. So I had to Google it and disqualified myself. I hope there wasn't a cash prize!

It's the look on John the OFM face after he passes gas again.

Wolfhag

The opportunist's motto

Let's see now:
Quid – that's money
lucrum – like, ludicrous amounts of
istic – sticking to, or is stuck to
mihi – my
est – I'm hoping that means "hand"

So, either I just won the jackpot or I'm a cheap @!$#^

Okay, to be clear.
Just in case I face the contest, and I'm not saying I do…
What's my win?

…
For old times sake.
Kenny Rogers, The Gambler on Youtube

Quid…as in pro quo…a reward or bribe
Lucrum…maybe the base word for lucrative
istic…part of a contract
mihi….derivation of me
est….going into or going forward

My Guess…
Tell me, what will I get??

I'm with Random. but I have no idea where it comes from.

Which advantage is (brings) this for me?

Never seen the phrase before.
Anxious to see the solution.

Getting very close. I even had a PM with the solution.
It's from the Dortmunder comic crime caper novels by Donald Westlake. The late great Donald Westlake.
Our "hero" is a hardened criminal who is a brilliant planner. But things always go wrong.
He has been played in the movies by George C Scott, Robert Redford and …. Martin Lawrence?
Try Bank Shot, the Hot Rock, etc.

John Dortmunder was an abandoned baby, and grew up in an orphanage in Dead Indian, Wisconsin. It was run by the Bleeding Heart Susters of Eternal Misery.

The motto appears on a coat of arms plaque (that he stole) and adopted as his own.
It means "What's in it for me?"

WOOT!! I wasn't even close! Awesome!
But now I have to look up those guys on the gutenberg project

A few comments.
Dortmunder has nothing to do with Emmylou. Nothing.
Westlake had a policy that once he sold his book to a movie studio, all he wanted was the check, and a nice big one to boot. Interestingly, I can see the movie playing out in every book I read.

For a more hard boiled grim and vicious Dortmunder, read the Parker series. This is the Golden Age of 250 page paperbacks that you could knock out in an evening.

Buy the books. Sheesh. I did. All of them.

Quid = equid or horse
Lucrum = ludicrous, stupid
istic = mystic, unknown
mihi = mahi mahi, the pacific dorado fish
est = move or not move.

So it translates as 'my stupid horse is moving like fish today for no good reason'

Actually, I thought if we shared a music interest it might extend to literature. Not the case, here. Not the case.

But, these books look pretty cool so thanks for the tip!

Actually, the hardened criminal Parker came first.
Westlake was writing a semi-comic book where Parker kept getting frustrated. The Hot Rock.
Now, Parker would have simply killed everyone, and that would have ended the story after 60 pages.
So, Westlake rewrote it with a different sad sack, gloomy but determined "hero". Only 14 novels came from that. Pretty good.

I must confess that I resented it when Westlake died. As much as when George MacDonald Fraser died.
"Now what will I read?!?!?!"
At least I still have some Elmore Leonard left to find and read.

What to read after George MacDonald Fraser ? Well, try Robert Brightwell (https://www.goodreads.com/series/149041-adventures-of-thomas-flashman).

He shows us the uncle of Harry, Thomas Flashman. Not only a kindly spirit (he takes a woman into a dark cathedral in Spain where she awaits the Second Coming (;-)), but also a staunch historian who shows us why Wellington lets his soldiers lie down (Thomas showed him in India) and why Napoleon did not interfere with his marshalls on June 18th, 1815 at Waterloo (something he ate ;-)).

Follow-up for Donald Westlake ? Have you already read everything by Ed McBain and Robert B. Parker (especially his Sunny Randall novels) ?

"He has a wife you know. Called Incontenia."

If you don't use Goggle don't the MIBs pay you a visit ? 🕵️‍♂️🕵️‍♂️

Back in the days of Yahoo groups, I was on one or two dedicated to Flashman appreciation.
Someone on the group was self publishing a novel that dealt with Flashie in the Civil War. The era that we all wished GMF had written. I suspect it was his Giant Rat of Sumatra. He wrote what he wanted to write, damn your eyes.
In my sensitive way, for which I am well known, I called this blasphemy. I said that ONLY GMF should write a Flashman novel. Maybe his daughter, who was also a novelist, albeit a totally different type.

I was roundly condemned by the group, the moderator, the moderator's dog… Surprisingly, the author agreed with me and rewrote it.

Anyway, in my mind, there is only one Flashman. Accept no substitutes.

As for the others, yeah. I've tried them. But not enough to chase down the entire series. Like Travis McGee (I've read them all) once you've read one, you've read them all. I stopped reading the Harry Dresden novels for the same reason. All he does in the later ones is double down on Bad Things Happening. Like Dragonball Z.

I don't remember if Howard Whitehouse indeed wanted to publish a "new" Flashman novel, I do know that he mentioned him picking up two cigars rolled in some piece of paper that he found in the neighbourhood of Antietam. Of course he smoked the cigars after throwing away that paper.

In case I was not clear enough: the adventures of Thomas Flashman start about fourty years before those of his nephew. Since my "fun experience" while reading Brightwell is the same as while (re-)reading McDonald Fraser I decided to mention him (B.) to anyone who already liked GMF.

And about Donald Westlake (who I of course also have read): why don't you try the site goodreads.com. It's a good way of discovering other writers.

Check here to see if you missed any:

bookseriesinorder.com

I have always found the "If you like Zbigniew Muldoon, surely you will like Sargon McLeod!" arguments to be untenable.