&\& => & general escaping mechanism
&\$ => $
+&\NEWLINE eats the newline and vanishes
&$VARIABLE => $(sub_dir_VARIABLE) or $(TOP_VARIABLE)
VARIABLE is ASCII starting with a letter and matching \w+
Notably
NEWQUOTENEWQUOTE => NEWQUOTENEWQUOTE
NEWQUOTE\NEWQUOTE => NEWQUOTE
+ NEWQUOTE\$ => $
NEWQUOTE:changequote & set escape back to &
&TARGETS_things