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

An exerpt from the guide entry "Buns of Flab":

There are so many options for getting fit, and yet something about the perfectly toned body on the cover of the video attracts the lazy American. While watching the video, something in the back of your mind assures you that if you follow in the rhythmic footsteps of your perfectly built counterpart on the screen, you will achieve muscular perfection.

http://www.h2g2.com/A399585
Please edit or comment on this entry, consider it hereby entered for the edited guide.

Hi,

I've just read the entry about exercise videos.

Could I make a couple of points:

1) I'd try and make the entry less US orientated and more countryless (is that a word?). Thats not a criticism of the US before anyone starts.

2) The link at the bottom will probably be removed by the editors cos it is sort of advertising.

Hope this helps!

- Adam

I suspect the author could only speak for us lazy North Americans. Maybe a better title would be "Americans and Exercise Videos". Do Europeans even have exercise videos?

That said, this entry cries out for a sequel: "Americans and Health Clubs: Guidos at the Gym".

I don't know if this entry will meet the Guide's standards for objectivity, but I enjoyed it.

Europeans do have exercise videos.
Its quite common to find British men firming up with the Cindy Crawford workout video.

Nicely put!

It sounds like maybe Europeans import American exercise videos. Do Europeans produce their own? And isn't "British men firming up with the Cindy Crawford workout video" a euphemism for something?

Yeah! Thanks for the pointers. Actually, I wrote it for my English class, and we were supposed to write about something odd that defines America. Some people wrote about toilet paper, bath fizzies, boy bands, etc. I thought it'd be appropriate for h2g2, and I will edit it to fix! Thanks for reading it!

Spiffy

Hey, I did edit the entry, based on your suggestions, thanks

you're welcome to come back and check it out

I read the article. I like the subject matter, and what it had to say, but I'm not sure whether it fits the intent of Edited material or not. In other words, it seems like an opinion piece more than an information piece, and I don't know how much opinion one is allowed to put into an article.

I do like the article very much. I'll get some other scouts to look at it.

Wampus

What you write applies to all exercise videos. My suggestion is to drop the last paragraph (it contains the frowned upon "I" anyway), drop the picture of the video tape at the top, and rename the piece: Exercise Videos.

Other than that, I like the piece a lot.

Editorial Note: This Conversation has been moved to the new 'Flea Market' Forum.

This is where we move any Peer Review, Writing Workshop or Alternative Writing Workshop Conversations where the original author has *not* posted to h2g2 for three months. This prevents the active Review Forums from clogging up with dormant entries, but in the Flea Market they can be picked up by others and polished off.

Flea Market Clean Out project:

Recommend return to author's space.

It does come across as a bit too specific rather than exercise videos as a whole. I agree - Back to Entry.

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