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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A674057

A poet/songwriter/organizer. Joan Baez sang 'I dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night' at Woodstock in 1969. It was Joe HIll who coined the phrase 'pie in the sky' in a song he wrote in 1911.

So this is your for the Scouts who are going to make the last but not least picks for this year

The sentence 'None of Joe Hill's blood was found inside the store' makes me wonder: the first time that different blood groups were used in a trial was in 1915. I'll assume there wasn't any blood found towards the entry of the store (which could have been attributed to the murderer).

now for the nitpicking...
you're missing an apostrophe here:
... with the shouted (')we've got you now' and the
same sentence:
'and the presence of the day's receipts were still in the cash register' -> either delete 'the presence of' or 'were still'

that the killer looking more or less --> looked
Rio Grand -> Rio Grande (?)
famous, in infamous -> or infamous
one of the Joe Hill song -> songs ?
while the investigated -> they (that's in footnote 3)


Thanks for writing such an interesting entry!

Glad you found it interesting.

The world will probably never know whether or not Joe Hill actually killed anyone in Salt Lake City. The 'politically correct' line is that he was framed. Maybe he was. OTOH, I was present during an informal lecture/discussion with a leftist leader of a national (US) organizing effort in 1977, and his opinion was 'The only way Joe HIll didn't shoot that grocer is if he missed'.

Regarding the blood: My assumption is that the only blood found in the store was in immediate proximity to the two bodies. None of my source material got that specific, though, so I've left it vague.

The nits you found to pick have been fixed.

good entry....very detailed and interesting.... I'm sure this will be snapped up in no time....

Thanks for writing this. I found it really informative and it has filled a load of gaps in my knowledge. Joe Hill was a name I knew, but wasn't really sure why I knew it or its significance. I do now. Cheers

Glad you both enjoyed it. Joe Hill is personally responsible for coining the phrase "pie in the sky." It first appeared in his 1911 song "The Preacher and The Slave."

NBY

Well up to your usual very high standard, NBY! I'd always thought that Joe Hill was pretty much definitely innocent and it was all a famous frame-up, but I suppose that probably reflects the ideological bias of the reading matter I favour! It's certainly interesting to hear the other side of the story.

I spotted a couple of words that are spelled differently in Britain: we write 'travelled' not 'traveled', and 'defence' not 'defense'.

Also, it is interesting that Joe Hill coined the phrase 'pie in the sky', but as far as I can see you haven't mentioned it in the Entry. Perhaps you should, even though it isn't particularly relevant to the story of the murder. Not many people get to invent an phrase that becomes part of the language like that one did!

It's entirely possible that Joe Hill was innocent and it was a frame-up, The biggest question in my mind is how a person can have a bullet pass through his chest cavity, causing an enterence and an exit wound, and not result in his bleeding until he was a block or two away? Any why wasn't the bullet ever found?

OTOH, why didn't either the woman Joe Hill was with that night, or her husband, come forward? Were they so protective of their reputation that they were willing to let an innocent man die and a murderer go free?

Anyhow, traveled now has its second 'l' and defense has lost its 's' and found a 'c'.

After reviewing the thread and seeing that I felt the need to mention the 'pie in the sky' thing twice is less than a week, I decided that I must really want it in the entry, so now it is.

Thanks for the input, Ormondroyd.

I tend towards the same ideological bias as as you, so some of the material in this entry was new information to me, too. Sigh... if only we could do something about this 'balanced' and 'accurate' requirement. I have some wonderfully biased reference material.

NBY

Hi NBY

I have been trying to read and respond to this for a while, but even a short break creates a long backlog.

This is a good entry, informative, and although it is long, it holds the interest. It would be interesting not just to have the 'pie in the sky' quote, but its context too.

And thanks to whoever cleared up the difference between traveling and travelling. MS word seems entirely arbitary with its little red underlines.

All the best, and hope it gets picked soon.

Ben

Hmmmm... I did provide the context for the "pie in the sky" in my Spokane Free Speech Campaign entry.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A634178

It involved the rivalry between the IWW and the Salvation Army for the hearts and minds of the working class. Maybe I could just add a link the the lyrics of "The Preacher and The Slave." The message of the song is pretty clear. "Do you want enough to eat here and now or are you going to wait for that pie in the sky when you die that's being offered by the Salvation Army?"

I want to think about this for a bit. Thanks for the input, Ben.

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'Joe Hill - Murderer or Martyr?'.

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!

Thanks to you, mystery scout who recommended this. Have some .

NBY

Thanks to you, mystery scout who recommended this. Have some .

NBY

Congratulations, this is a really fine entry. Not my pick, unfortunately, but I would have liked to have picked this one.

Well deserved!

I can't raise my hand either because I was running out of picks (as I always do...). But It'll take some time until I run out of

Well, I guess I'll just have to offer all around. That way the mystery scout is sure to get some.