From Soothing Syrup, by Joan Butler:

***

["Shenanigan," singular, dept. (The first of two appearances in the book, by my count. I don't recall whether the second reference is to the same shenanigan.)]

"Everything is planned, and everyone is looking forward to the shenanigan."

***

[Literal Hats dept.]

"Samson has cats--enormous, half-wild creatures that show their teeth at you, and arch their backs, and look as if they'd spit in your eye at the drop of a hat."

"I'll bet they won't worry Adrian."

"Why not?"

"Because he never wears a hat."

***

"You haven't seen Adrian, have you?"

"What's he like?"

"Tall, and rather thin. Black hair, dark eyes. The ascetic type. About twenty-six. Never wears a hat."

"Why not?"

"He says he likes to feel the breeze caressing his scalp."

"What does he do in a flat calm?"

"He still doesn't wear a hat."

"He should buy himself an electric fan, and have a heck of a time."

"I'll tell him that. Have you seen him anywhere?"

"You mean, around here?"

"Yes. I mean around here, just now."

"No. I haven't seen anyone at all."

"Then why couldn't you have said so at first?"

"Because if I had, you wouldn't have described Adrian, and if I'd met him he'd have been a complete stranger to me."

***

[Allusion to Possibly Nonexistent (and Risqué) Limericks dept. (A web search revealed a few people doing "Kentucky" lims, but I didn't, at a glance, find evidence of a canonical one that exactly matched up with what we're given here.)]

"I have a hunch that if I met a spook I'd dig my thumb in his ribs and ask him if he'd heard the one about the young man from Kentucky, who was always extremely unlucky."

"Why was he always unlucky?"

"We won't go into that," Mr. Weston replied austerely. "It has no bearing whatever on the case in hand."

***

"He hasn't actually said so; but I can see it in his eye."

"I hope you're looking in the right eye."

***

"All this is news to me. Who, or what, is the Pageant?"

***

Colonel Sir William Trenchard [had]... a military moustache which had gone white in the wash. He had long arms and large hands, and looked as if he could wrestle a gorilla and like it, even if the gorilla didn't.

***

[Waxing very Wodehousian here!]

"Mind you," he went on, "there are people around here who would put up a poor showing in an intelligence test against a battle-scarred old wart-hog... but it's not my place to list them in alphabetical order. I just mention it in passing."

***

It was obvious... that he had some weighty matter on his mind, squashing it flat.

***

"It's doing my nervous system a power of good."

"I shouldn't have thought you had a nervous system."

"I have a system; but it's not nervous just now."

***

[A few more good taking-it-literallyisms (all from the same conversation).]

"And besides, he hasn't a penny."

"He has. I saw him with one only a few days ago."

 

"I must ask you to break off your affair with him without further ado."

"There hasn't been any ado."

 

"That should make it so much easier for you to send him about his business."

"What business?"

***

"I refer, of course, to that promising young playwright, Adrian Addison, for whom a great future has been foretold by dozens of people completely unqualified to judge."

***

[This joke sounds like it's straight out of The Pleasure Dial, though it isn't. (:v>]

"I'm beginning to understand why he's so popular on the wireless.... It must give people a wonderful thrill to turn him off."

***

"I beg your pardon!" Percy said, momentarily taken aback, but not very far.

***

[More literal-mindedness from Sally (who I think is consistently the one giving us most of the literal-minded retorts).]

"Each and every tick of the clock shortens the few brief hours at our disposal."

"What clock?" Sally asked.

"Any clock," Percy replied briefly.

 

"He seems to think you have all the essential qualifications, and who am I to say he is wrong?"

"I don't know," Sally confessed.

[A Rhetorical Question Answered, as well! I suppose, now that I think about it, RQAs are generally a subset of Taking Things Too Literally.]

***

"As your legal guardian, I forbid you to leave the house."

"As my legal guardian, you can go lay an egg!"

***

Many a yawning rabbit, which had ankled out for breakfast, raised its head....

[I love the image of rabbits "ankling out" like Bertie W.]

***

[More Wodehousian business.]

"That, sir, if I may say so, is an example of scientific deduction at its best."

"Thank you, Potter."

"Not at all, sir."

"I think it's pretty good myself."

"Sherlock Holmes couldn't improve on it, sir. And all without the use of a magnifying glass."

"Or even a sample of cigar-ash," Sir William added modestly.

"Nor, sir, did you play the fiddle all night long."

***

[Not Sally this time, but in her league.]

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tell him to go boil an egg."

"More than likely he hasn't got an egg to boil, sir."

***

[More Wodehousian stuff.]

It was a beautiful morning. The sun shone like the sun on a railway poster, and the flowers threw out their chests and basked in the heat. High overhead, the local larks sang fit to bust their breeches. One of these mornings made-to-measure, and fitting snugly at the waist.

***

"Don't be such a smooch."

"I am not a smooch!" Jeffrey said coldly. "I have no idea what a smooch may be; but--"

[...]

"You're in danger of developing into one.... If you don't want to graduate as a smooch, summa cum laude, now is the time to dig in your heels."

***

"He wants an option on the film rights," Adrian said nonchalantly, throwing out his chest. "With a hey-nonney-no and a yippi-i-ay!"

"With a what?"

"Never mind. That was just a marginal note."

***

"There was such an air of quiet confidence about him that we had to open the window when he'd gone."

***

Percy, after a quick glance at his watch, as if to see if the time was ripe for the operation, mopped his brow.

***

[Adjusting for Inflation dept.]

"If Sam doesn't want an option on my play, some other sucker will. You know what Barnum said--there's one born every minute. And the birth-rate has gone up since his day, too. It's probably nearer one and a half by now."

***

"Ordinarily, I am the most phlegmatic of men, with a double helping of insouciance in my system."

***

[But there's such a thing as imitating Wodehouse TOO closely, imho. (Unless this expression had more general currency than I realize?)]

"Reading from left to right, Adrian Addison in the flesh."

[Along those lines, there's also a minor subplot involving an offstage bonny-baby contest that people do not want to get saddled with judging.]