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

Close to what?

Can you give a context? I don't follow.

Why do people say "we rocked up to the (wherever)"? How does one "rock" somewhere?

Why does one "break out" champagne? Is it in prison or something?

Why does the Edited Guide still contain so many unsatisfactory Entries?

Feel free to suggest an update to unsatisfactory entries - read here A87727936 - and if it's a big update, put it into Peer Review when you are done

I have read enough Entries to know that the Guide needs a total overhaul. This was promised many months ago. Is any progress been made to that end?

being made (naturally).

I don't think it's the sort of task that will ever be finished. Updating entries is always going to be needed as long as the guide exists.

No, that was a volunteer project that I tried to get off the ground, but there weren't many volunteers and then I got a job so I couldn't dedicate the time to it. Feel free to take it on, RE.

Problem is, if you have a fixed small number of writers, if their time is spent on updating existing entries, it can't help but impact on the number of new ones coming through.

Why do people say:

"Trust me, I'm Nick Clegg"

?

Who is Nick Clegg, and why would I trust *him* and not the person I'm talking to?

Why do people talk on their cell phones in public as if there was no one next to them listening? I'm sure the Martians who are spying on us think we've all gone bonkers!

True story, from back in the 1980s when mobile phones were status symbols.

A friend of mine was on a train, sitting near a mildly obnoxious guy chatting away loudly on his mobile phone. One of the other passengers, a middle-aged lady was then taken ill, and a few of the passengers went to help. She was OK, but needed to send a message to her husband as a result. They approached Mr Mildly-Obnoxious and asked if he would make a call on her behalf. He then went bright red and said "I'm sorry. It's a toy phone. I pretend to use one to impress people".

Oooh. Urban myth presented as "a friend of mine". Do I get points?

Bel: In this here neck of the woods a "Nick Clegg" is a well known euphemism for a person who reneges on promises and the result of the action of "reneging on promises". Hence the well known phrase "I have been Nick Clegged".

"Problem is, if you have a fixed small number of writers, if their time is spent on updating existing entries, it can't help but impact on the number of new ones coming through."

I'd take quality over quantity any time. It's a pity we don't all seem to see it that way.

That's not what I was saying. Merely that there are two ways to become a repository of outdated information. One is not to update the entries that already exist. The second is for new ones to stop coming.

One way is as bad as the other, it's not a matter of quantity over quality.

"I'd take quality over quantity any time. It's a pity we don't all seem to see it that way. smiley - sadface"

What was your last contribution to the Edited Guide, Rudest Elf?