Adrian Turnipseed
| Big Mad Drongo | |
 | |
| Name | Adrian Turnipseed |
| Race | Human |
| Age | young |
| Occupation | Wizard |
| Physical appearance | |
| Residence | Ankh-Morpork, lately Pseudopolis |
| Death | |
| Parents | |
| Relatives | |
| Children | |
| Marital Status | S |
| Appearances | |
| Books | Soul Music, Hogfather, Interesting Times, Unseen Academicals |
| Cameos | The Science of Discworld |
Started as a student wizard. Part of Ponder Stibbons' research group working on Hex. Nicknamed 'Big Mad Drongo', a name achieved after drinking a whole pint of shandy. Mustrum Ridcully was rendered speechless on hearing this and no doubt wished he'd never asked the question.
By the time of Unseen Academicals he has moved to Brazeneck College and been given a post as Professor. He is credited with developing Pex, Brazeneck's answer to UU's Hex, which, instead of using ants, uses chickens. A blit effect near the end of the book causes one of the chickens to increase in size by an alarming amount, rampage through the city, and lay multiple eggs of, suffice to say, a much larger than normal size.
Quotes
(From Soul Music)
'You . . . what's your name?'
The student wizard pinned by Ridcully's pointing finger squirmed anxiously.
'Er. Um. Big Mad Drongo,' he said, twisting the brim of his hat in his hands.
'Big. Mad. Drongo,' said Ridcully. 'That's your name, is it? That's what you've got sewn on your vest?'
'Um. No, Archchancellor.'
'It is...?'
'Adrian Turnipseed, Archchancellor.'
'So why're you called Big Mad Drongo, Mr Turnipseed?' said Ridcully.
'Um . . . um . . .'
'He once drank a whole pint of shandy,' said Stibbons, who had the decency to look embarrassed.
(From Interesting Times)
"Only the other day Adrian Turnipseed had typed in 'Why?' to see what happened. Some of the students had forecast that Hex would go mad trying to work it out; I expected Hex to produce the message ?????, which it did with depressing frequency.
Instead, after some unusual activity among the ants, it had laboriously produced: 'because'.
With every one elsewatching from behind a hastily overturned desk, Tunipseed had volunteered: 'Why anything?'
The reply had finally turned up: 'Because Everything. ????? Eternal Domain Error. +++++ Redo From Start +++++.'
Annotation
'Why?' was the question used by Number Six, in an episode of The Prisoner, to destroy a master computer dominating The Village. What are the odds Terry knows this?