h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Excellent.

Great work, Milos!

Hold tight! We're just about to move to the bottom of the updated Entry, which is now in the in-house queue...

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Pizza - Not Just Italian Anymore' to 'Pizza - Not Just Italian Anymore'.

Professional editor weighing in here:

"Six- to eight-inch pizza" or "6- to 8-inch pizza" is the correct form. Yes, it may look strange, but otherwise, the "six/6" does not form a compound adjective with "inch." So you have a "six pizza to an eight-inch pizza" rather than the intended meaning of "six-inch pizza to eight-inch pizza."

I know, most of the world doesn't care about these things. I just happen to be paid to worry about details like that.

You can avoid the whole mess by using the symbols (6" to 8") as suggested. It depends on whether using symbols rather than words for units of measure meets with the standard style.

Oh, and the -ize/-ise thing is one of those British versus American spelling things. Of course, as a Canadian, I can pick either side on the issue. (I tend to lean British on these ones, but house style with my publisher says otherwise.)

Hello there,

Thanks for this. That seems to have been altered now...though it's not reached the final stage of the editing process yet.

h2g2 House Style would make it 'six- to eight- inch pizza' (ie, not units).

And it's obviously 'ise' for us every time!

h2g2 Editors

Good to know about the units. I'll keep it in mind. I also thought that the "-ise" would be the likely ending for the guide, considering the country of origin.

I suppose the quotes are reversed as well (single primary, double secondary) as compared to the North American convention. So I'll make that '-ise' instead.

The following is a non-editorial and utterly pointless observation regarding the fact that 'Americans eat about 100 acres of pizza a day.'

To wit:
100 acres of pizza is about 4 million - 14 inch pizzas. There are about 300,000,000 americans. So at first blush, it would seem that each day, on average, there is one pizza for every 75 americans to share.

That doesn't seem like much, but consider that it is typical that 20 percent of any group is responsible for 80 percent of whatever that group is up to. And, 20 percent of the 20 percent is responsible for whatever that 20 percent is up to, and so on.

So if we apply the 80-20 rule (so-called by very bright people) three times, we arrive at the astonishing result that there about 2 million americans each eating a whole 14 inch pizza every day!

This astonishing result required the use of numbers and so it is scientific and therefore an indisputable fact.

And, by the way, since pizzas in the US are ALWAYS sliced before they are served, you could say that these people have their work cut out for them.

Pailaway, are you all right?

It's astonishing research you've done there, mind!

I'm all right

I had thought that was quite an outrageous number, but found it at several different sources (who all may have been quoting each other).

I can't speak for my fellow countrymen, but I personally enjoyed several 9-inch pizzas in the creation of this entry.

Front page!

Yay!
I was afraid I would miss it.
(and I nearly did!)

Nice Blob

What about the 'trencher' then? A flat breadcake that was used as a plate - hence 'trencherman' meaning one whose appetite was so healthy that he ate the plate too. Wasn't the trencher an English invention? A sort of medieval variation of the Pizza.