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

A few things here:

1. No mention of Plymouth Argyle???
2. Obviously nobody thought of mentioning Swilly, or any of the many dodgy residentual areas here.
3. There are no morris dancers in Plymouth!
4. This city is overpopulated with skids and yobs and drug addicts and god knows who else.

There is more to Plymouth than the sea front, but it doesn't make good reading for an approved entry. You don't want to hear about the schools getting smashed, granny-bashing and those goddamn Argyle fans*!

Sure you'd get people like these in every city, but this entry tries to make out Plymouth as a massive tourist centre. I'll be damned if it is!

*Argyle fans are the worst behaved in division 3, so don't mess!

Actually, I'm a Bristol Rovers fan, but I live in Plymouth so I know more than any of you lot about this place!

It's not censorship; it's merely making use of what's available. Your point of view is just as valid as the one presented in the Official Entry; why not submit it for later inclusion.

JTG

As a Plymothian of 50 years, maybe I know more than you Mike. I understand your point of view but the
original article was intended to help prospective visitors around a difficult problem when you visit a new
place for the first time. Namely, 'where do I park the Roller or Reliant Robin'. The Argyle are only one very
small part of Plymouth and their badly behaved followers are in a small minority even among the general
football fans of the city. There are many other good points about Plymouth as, indeed, there are many
other bad ones. I'm sorry, but my main interest is in promoting the good points and helping non Plymothians
to enjoy them with as little hassle as possible.

I live near Plymouth and regularly visit. I would just like to say that despite all the problems u list with it, it is still the best city in this area. Torquay sucks really, although Exeter is ok its no where near as nice.

John da Gardener:
>why not submit it for later inclusion.
Hey, how does that work?

Heh, me and my mates went to Exenter with Plymouth Argyle shirts and scarves. We had kids walking behind us shouting "Scum!" and whiny little uns saying "Argyle are crap!" Sort of mentality of the people around here.

Ok, my mate's school had all it's windows smashed by this kid. It was a revenge attack by this kid, as his mates had been grassed up by their headmaster for stealing a motorbike.

We have our fair share of beatings in our school. We have frequent complaints of us smashing up our vending machines, stealing from local shops and payphones, gobbing off at teachers. We even had an old lady have £200 stolen off her.
And we're the clever ones!

Argyle fans a minority? That's still a good couple of thousands of them. And there are a lot of them about. It's not a good idea to be out after dark.

But am I just recalling all the horor stories that are applicable to every built up area? I just wish I knew what Plymouth's good points where. I mean real good points, not just the ones applicable to every city.

Mike - What you should do is submit an Entry describing something about Plymouth that isn't currently expressed in the Official Entry. The same standards will apply as are used to judge any other submission: it has to present a reasonable point of view and be essentially factual (and not crap ).

A word of caution: ranting will be rejected. What you have to say has to be constructive as well as useful, and hopefully interesting, to the general reader. Cheers.

JTG

Heh, thanks for that.

How can you constructively say: "Don't go here here here, or come to think of it anywhere cos you'll be mugged".
Ok, just kidding. I just need to touch my style a bit. Methinks I'm too radical for the folks here .

"Methinks"?... You didn't get mugged in the Plymouth Dome, I hope.

JTG

As an Argyle supporter living in Plymouth I think your generalisation of the fans is a little off centre. There are worse fans than the Plymouth ones in Div 3, it's just that because Argyle has such a large catchment area there is a bigger fan base than most other (note Most, not all) Div2/3 clubs, which, by the law of averages, mean a little more trouble from those who want to spoil it for the rest of us.

Anyway, Plymouth is really becoming a great city, what with the multi-million pound Warner Village development, the largest in the country, and a lot more money being sunk into the city.

I lived in Plymouth for a few years in a previous life - I actually lived in the Citadel, as my father was in the army. I enjoyed reading the article, as it brought back a lot of happy schoolboy memories. (I think that both schools I attended have now gone - Martins Gate down by the barbican, and Public in Coburg Street)
One small omission - it might be worth mentioning the name of the famous rocks upon which the Smeaton Tower sat before being shifted!!!!

If anything needs to be added then it's a mention of Plymouth Argyle!

And I still don't get the morris dancers...where can I find them?

There are morris dancers. My girlfriend is one, and we live in compton, a villagey part of plymouth. You won't see them until the summer though.

We used to see them in Nottingham in the summer too. It's probably too dangerous for morris dancers in Nottingham now.