The phonetic components often work even in Japanese for the onyomi, although in this case I can’t think of a very useful application of this component. 即 is そく not せつ…
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I just wanted to add, after staring for far too long at the complicated 2nd kanji in the word 猿轡 (さるぐつわ) referring to gag Twenty Faces used on chauffeur Matsuno , I realized it is not so complicated after all！ 轡 (くつわ) is defined as a bit(mouthpiece) for a horse. The kanji looks like a wagon (車）with two strings on either side (糸）connecting to the horse’s mouth (口）
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I’m loving that Kanji mnemonic
I can see it clearly!
… And it makes me wonder what they call the “bit” in half-zombie sister Demon Slayer’s mouth wiki on Nezuko
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I am catching up! These chapters are nice and bite-sized, I can read them before bed 
I had the same feeling as others in the thread where I had a mental image of a gentleman thief type character, and was surprised when he killed the dog and kidnapped the kid! I kind of wanted to root for him, but killing animals is a bit too far, cmon man…
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I noticed an interesting reading while listening to the audiobook while reading along.
左のように was read さのように I looked it up and the closest expression which had the same reading and a similar meaning for the context was:
左の通り さのとおり as follows (literary)
Edit: oh. And then it dawned on me embarrassingly late why ‘left’ is used: because that’s literally where what follows is on the page (in vertical writing)
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I remember reading this and understanding that it directed readers to the subsequent passage. But I had no idea it’s a stand-alone expression to mean “as follows” It sort of reminds me of expressions like “hanging up the phone” where the meaning continues despite the technological change. I am assuming 左の通り is also used in conversation 
(just rambling thoughts here…)
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Only very tangentially related but I was reading a Final Fantasy 8 guide earlier today where the protagonist was described as being 最右翼 and I didn’t have my phone with me so I couldn’t look it up and spent quite a while puzzling over what that could have meant besides “far right wing” (politically).
I finally looked it up and while it can mean that, it’s also:
《旧軍関係の学校では成績順に右から並んだところから》競争者の中で最も有力なもの。「優勝候補の—」
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In connection with @mitrac’s comment, I was just reading about expressions using “left” and “right” and came across “right-hand man.” The meaning of reliable, strongest, etc. is possibly associated with the right because it was one’s sword-wielding hand. So I wonder if that’s the origin here…(more rambling)
(It may be tangentially related, but is the kind of grass along the path（道草を食う) that slows down my already-slow reading pace 
)
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There are definitely strong left-bad/right-good associations in many cultures, presumably because most people are right-handed and it’s therefore their “good” hand.
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I for one am enjoying this 道草を食う discussion. The more I think about it, yes we definitely do have so many right/ left word associations.
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Ah!!!
THANK YOU FOR THESE!
Good use of
out there in the weeds
脱線side trackだっせん
道草を食う(みちくさをくう time-wasting, loitering)
chit-chat
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Caught up to this week!
Thoughts
I was also quite shocked to learn about the dead dog. I am not used to children‘s stories being so blunt… so for a moment I feared for Matsuno‘s life!
Unfortunately the chapter title was such a dead giveaway that it took all the fun out of guessing along 
Maybe I should refrain from reading them going forward.
Wow this is so smart! Thank you for finding out 
It actually reminds me of 下の名前 first name because it’s where it is written 
Wow another great find 
Love it!
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This is fun to be reminded of these phrases again, and I like the one you mentioned. 下の名前 is new to me!
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I also did not know that about 下の名前. I love learning things like this
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