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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A555095

This is my own posting, simply because there wasn't one already. I'll need to do Dearborn, Henry Ford, and several other things that could probably be linked from this article, as well.

I've used a map to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada that was already in the pictures database, because it clearly shows where Detroit is. If someone wants to submit a new picture, feel free.

-- Chad

It's a shame this thread was left unnoticed for so long.

Apart from an occasional bit of 1st person style it's an informative and well written entry! Still, it would benefet from another para to go between 'history' and 'life in the city', describing the places you mention (plus others like museums) with a few more words. And what's this cannibalistic thing about? I'm entitled to know because, err...

Thanks... I'm actually somewhat surprised that anyone ever noticed it. It's beginning to seem to me that this incarnation of the guide is rather sparsely and haphazardly edited, and I just stuck my head in, wondering if anyone would ever notice my entry.

Can make the changes/additions you suggest. Don't know what I'm going to entitle the other paragraph... but I can put in links to the DIA and WSU, certes.

What cannibalism thing? We haven't eaten anyone recently, really. That person found in a freezer was just resting.

-- Chad

When I wrote the above posting I wasn't a scout but anyway, as to the slow going around here, my point of view is at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A584246

There's a link to some 'Blitztrinken-Society' which makes me grin. Not that I were a fan of this kind of pastime, but... see the Wheat Beer entry right next door on PR . And no, Bavarians refuse to be compared with Barbarians!


Bossel (recently appointed Scout)

Finished the Detroit update... still a bit too first-person and opinionated, but well, that's my writing style.

Blitztrinken... I didn't mention that on h2g2, did I? You're talking about my real homepage, cannibal.mi.org, right? I don't know too many barvarians personally, but etymology is against them... bloody huns, half crazed visigoths, I mean, Atilla was a Bavarian, wasn't he? Heh. Oh, and personally, I don't even like beer. PR? Prost? Don't see it, but will look.

Oh, I see... Hefe Weisen infidels! Sack them!

hmmm, have you seen the www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/writing-guidelines?
#13 talks about third person style writing...

PR was a shortcut for Peer Review, sorry.

Yes, I followed the links from your space and Attila was a hun (or not-so-prehistoric Mongolian), not a Bavarian, and surely there is no such thing as a Barvarian .


Bossel

I saw the writing guidelines, but surely so long ago that I've forgotten. I tried to remove some first personisms, but generally I find that in professional writing a smattering of it keeps the customer's interest. Please feel free to remove any you don't like... I'd like to find a URL link to the motown museum or something, but other than that, I'm done.

Huns are krauts too, aren't they? I thought they called them that in WW1, and krauts in WW2... goths? (but not the kind that listen to Depeche Mode) Visigoths? Vandals? (singing) I fell in love with Atilla the hun....

Quite appreciated the reference to the bier site, I forwarded it on to the blitz mailing list.

-- Chad

naaah, the 'hun' reference was only to point out the cruel character of us Krauts. The mongol-huns earned their reputation because they really knew how to torture people when they invaded in 300-something and another time later on. The Goths and Vandals are considered ancestors of the Germans, and wrought havoc on the Romans. The Krauts aren't mentioned in any history book

Sorry I didn't have a look at your entry in the mean time, because I'm, errr... doing a bit of research into the qualities of the Weizenbock right now

good for you! I think I'm going to go back and add even more... gack, see what you've done, noticing my entry? Darn you! Enjoy your bier, maybe my date will get here soon and take me away from all this.

-- Chad

Just popping in again to say that it's good looking

Hi Chad,

Generally a great entry, but I have to quibble about whether Ann Arbor should be considered a "suburb" of Detroit. There are certainly people who live in A2 and commute to Detroit for work, but that would be a minority of the population.

That part is just a matter of debate, but the swipe at the University of Michigan is something that should not go in the Edited Guide. Part of the writing guidelines at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Writing-Guidelines says, "9. Try to be well-balanced." You're entitled to your opinion that "UM is an overly large state college which concentrates on sports at the expense of academics," but the Edited Guide is not supposed to be a forum for opinion pieces.

(While you're at it, the abbreviation UM might be too obscure for some New Zealanders or Texans who read the Guide. At least spell out the name of the institution so they know you're not slamming the University of Minnesota.)

If that line were amended or removed, it would be a solid and informative entry on Detroit.

Hey, Chad! Any response to Subcom's excellent comment above?


Mikey

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Detroit, Michigan, USA'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Okay, I deleted the commentary on why the University of Michigan is a second-rate school... I don't have direct experience, since I went to Tulane U. down in New Orleans, but I do know people who went there, and at least the undergraduates seem to have gotten a second-rate education, because the school has such huge class sizes and concentrates on athletics to the detriment of academics. I was rather shocked... they have a whole stadium just dedicated to volleyball! How odd. And there isn't even a beach.

I deleted the bit about A2 being a suburb, but actually, the majority of the population of A2 on a football night is Detroiters going to the game. During the school year it is students (thus the historical laxity of drug laws and their annual "hash bash"). The rest... well, I personally know lots of people who are constantly looking for a job in A2, can't find one, and commute out here to work in Detroit. I know that people who live there hate being called a suburb of Detroit, I have an ongoing debate with a friend who says A2 is acutually a medieval walled city, with the interstates forming the wall. This is the same person whose wife puts up signs during Art Fair saying "Art Fair Parking - this way!" which lead to the interstate on-ramps and out of town.

Considering the fact that I said UM in parentheses after University of Michigan, I rather think anyone could get it... but that's deleted too. Actually, people here call it U of M, but UM took up less space.

cheers,
Chad

Aaaaaargh!

I can't believe I'm too late! I saw this proposed entry a couple weeks ago and printed out a hard copy to take home because there were so many things I found distasteful about it and didn't get around to making my comments. It's now the h2g2 represetation of my hometown and I'm kicking myself for that. I've let down Detroit. Sorry.

Chad,

You may be right about the lack of quality at U of M. It would be great if you could write a separate guide entry about this idea, and we could still discuss it, maybe get other people from the area debating about it. But it's still an opinion piece and still doesn't fit into the criteria of what they'll allow in the Edited Guide.

The issue of whether Ann Arbor counts as a suburb of Detroit might be cleared up with some population statistics, but I can't find a site that shows info about where people commute to work. I suspect the majority of Ann Arbor residents work in Ann Arbor or the surrounding community, not necessarily in Detroit. I found something on the A2 Tourism & Visitors' Bureau website that said U of M employs one in three Ann Arbor residents. The 2000 Census showed total population of Ann Arbor as 114,024, which dips in the summer when 38000 students go home. I can't quite find stats to refute the judgment that A2 is a suburb, or that the majority of residents commute to Detroit, but all kinds of junk about the U of M.

Here's some old anecdotal evidence that supports your claim: according to the Washtenaw County website, "Emerson Greenman, a former curator of the museum of anthropology at the University of Michigan, wrote that [the word] Washtenaw derived from the Algonquin and meant 'Far Country' with Detroit as the Point of reference."

As hard as it may be to believe, some of us live in Ann Arbor, work in Ann Arbor, visit Detroit once or twice a year, and gladly forget about Detroit most of the rest of the time.

Elwood,
Looks like this entry is "recommended" right now, but not yet accepted to the edited guide. Even after being accepted, you can make comments about it, suggest ideas for clarifying or expanding an entry. If you have something to say, it's not too late, and since h2g2 is supposed to be more malleable and live than a normal encyclopedia, there should always be the potential to update or modify entries. (Whether or not you can convince the Editors is another matter.)

Thank you so much Deidzoeb

I didn't mean to sound offended by Chad's entry. I'm glad someone has tried a Detroit entry. It was called to my attention by a British researcher. When I checked it out I found it lacking in a few ways and hoped to have some imput in correcting the flaws in my opinion.

Most of my objections are with his section headed Culture. Of the eight lines devoted to the subject he spends 5 touting Greenfield Village and 2 lines trashing U of M, neither of which is in Detroit. I love GV and have been a season member there and would have it mentioned, but not in such detail to the exclusion of so many other cultural gems the Detroit area has to offer. I have no opion of U of M, but always believed it to be a world class institution and would not have considered it for a Detroit entry, at all!

The history section is skimpy - what about the fire of 1805, or the race riots of 1967. And move the motown comments to the culture section!

The sports section is too randomly specific. What about the Tigers of the 30s, 40's and 80's, or the Lion's of the 50's and the Piston's of the late 80's?

The life in the big city section seems dijointed and could be rearranged for greater effect.

Sorry I seem to have rambled. So do I speak to Whoami or Chad or where?

Hmm, odd, very very odd. I could've sworn I deleted that mention of UM, and it popped up again in the entry.

I just happened to check in here, and saw this.. if there is something you'd like to add to the Detroit entry, please send it to me! I mean, you could say something about Trapper's Alley and the history of fur trapping, the Hudson Bay Company, or whoever originally owned the land... what would you say about the fire and the riots? Sorry, I only moved here in 1989.

Hmm, I wonder how I add your name as a researcher, once you send me stuff? Feel free to drop email to [email protected], I'm likely to read it sooner!

-- Chad

Chad, I remember that you had modified your original entry, but this "edited" copy was created by the sub-editor. So I don't think that change about the U of M carried over to the edited version.

I noticed your name a few months ago when I was searching for "Stilyagi Air Corps" on the web. Are they still holding conventions somewhere around Ann Arbor or Southeastern Michigan?