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

{Courtesy}

[GDZ]

I suspect you're right B, I'll be sure to change that thanks Is doublespeak not irony in its usage? Do you get what I mean? I don't think the concept is ironic but the actual execution? Maybe I'm wrong.

Yossarian does complete his tour, but then the number of missions is always upped, voiding his completion. It's what happens to all of them. So I don't think that would be irony would it?

Sorry, Kat, it's been a long day. You're right about doublespeak, though it's an unusual irony in that it hasn't any humour in it (within the story, that is, looking in from outside, Orwell uses a definite dark humour).

Ah, the site's come back. I can post now.

Anyone else get somewhat dissapointed when they reach the end of a good book?

I have just read Thud!. It's a very good book, and I simply could not put it down. I rather think that Pratchett is one of the best novelists out there. I can hardly wait for another City Watch book.

[mr]

Marv, I know that feeling. In fact I put off even starting a book once because I knew that it was the author's last.

Two jobs were profitable today, and the third job will be tomorrow. You know about the 4th.

I get that anticlimatic feeling when finishing a good book too. I often put off reading the last chapter just to postpone it for a day or two.

SAN FRANCISCO MAN BECOMES FIRST AMERICAN TO GRASP SIGNIFICANCE OF
IRONY -

Jay Fullmer, 38, yesterday became the first American to get to grips with the concept of irony. "It was weird" Fullmer said. "I was in London and like, talking to this guy and it was raining and he pulled a face and said, "great weather, eh?" and I thought "wait a minute, no way is it great weather". Fullmer then realised that the other man's 'mistake' was in fact deliberate. Fullmer, who is 39 next month and married with two children, aged 8 and 3, plans to use irony himself in future. "I'm like using it all the time" he said. "Last weekend I was grilling steaks and I burned them to sh!t and I said "hey, great weather!".

No offence to any Americans!

Ya know, after all this irony stuff we've talked about...I'm not even going to the lesson I need it for! All that work and thought! Although technically of course, as it's entirely my own fault that I'm skipping school the work and thought is irrelevant.
I'm skipping because I went early to make an appointment to see the doctor, and by the time I got there I was crying with panic and awfulness and almost jumped in a bush when a group of people walked past. So I decided to stay home, play piano, read books, and generally be pleasant to myself. Yes yes I am very aware that if I get into this so early in the year then I'll keep doing it but I did a week and a half without skipping anything and behaving very normally etc.

I'm always putting off the end of books. I really hate finishing them, partly because then you have to choose what to read next, and it might not be the *right* book. At least when you were reading the previous book you were in the middle of it so of course it was right

Kat

The *right* book? What'd happen if one was to read a *wrong* book - couldn't one simply put it down, never finishing it?

If any USAian is planning a visit to the UK, I noticed that MoG has managed to find a New York (JFK) to London round trip with British Airway, for 386 USD! Seems to be some kind of special they're running right now...

Today I read an interesting article about how to correct nearsightedness without surgery. It seems to be some kind of contact lense (much harder than an ordinary one) that 'squeezes' your cornea(?) into a shape that will correct the nearsightedness. You're supposed to sleep with these lenses, no need to wear anything (lenses nor glasses) during daytime.

Has anyone else heard about this method? I've no idea what the method might be called in English - I read about it in a Swedish newspaper (one not known for its accuracy, rather a tendency to exaggerate and create false rumours).

"What'd happen if one was to read a *wrong* book - couldn't one simply put it down, never finishing it?"


NOOOOOooooo!!! You couldn't do that! Then there would be a book that you had never really bothered with and you wouldn't know what happened. Plus it might be the *right* book at a different time when you were in a different mood, or different season or something had been happening...

Bet you never thought that this reading lark was so complicated

Kat

Even if I'm not enjoying a book I usually soldier on to the end, hoping that there will be something which will make the effort worthwhile.

If it's utter tripe - and there's a lot of that out there - it gets ditched after the third or fourth chapter.
Life's too short to spend time on unnecessary stuff which doesn't please; I'm with Morris on this - if it isn't useful or beautiful, don't bother.

One book - hands over your ears, Librarian friends, annoyed me so much that it was actually thrown in the waste paper bin. It purported to be a historical novel but was so badly researched and written that the reading of it was a form of torture. The thing which grated most was the use of 20th Century idioms - when the characters were in the middle of the 17th Century AAArrgh.

*hangs head in shame
I never got beyond the fourth chapter of War & Peace - and I found the LotR so tedious that I gave up on that one too.

Kat - one day at a time, sweetie

Ahoy there, me shivering mateys, heave-ho!

It be int'national talk like a pirate day! Arr!

Oh, dear... In that case I won't be talking to anyone all day. I simply can't do pirate! Other accents and characters come easily to me, but for some reason, pirate refuses to become part of my repertoire.

Arrr!

Spent the weekend with a few other flat cap and muffler club members in Dublin. Very nice place.

We did go and see a very special book - The Book of Kells. Lovely.
Then the long room of the library there. How many old, old books and shelves and ladders to get the books of top shelves and everything
The Guinness was good as well

[Ag - Arr me haearties etcetera]

{[J'au]}

Titania, it's always been known that wearing hard contact lenses can correct astygmatism in the short term. It certainly stopped mine getting worse. When I switched to soft daily disposables, the astygmatism 'returned' (it had never gone away, just suspended). Not sure that wearing lenses when you sleep is such a good idea, I have done it by accident and my eyes were very dry and sore the next morning. But perhaps the lenses you 've heard about are of a different type than the old hard lenses.

Morning all