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

Entry: The Shelling of Copenhagen - A45719355
Author: Psycorp Six-Oh-Three (This bit goes in the brackets) - U219983

Stretching the use of the word "Shell" perhaps, but this is my entry for The Stretcher (A45546744)

As an aside, I started writing this as a historical piece, but as the conclusion shows it seems terribly modern and relevant.

Fascinating, I never new that.

You know the house style for writing dates, I presume? Oh, and there are curly apostrophes, too.

I notepadded it to get rid of the curly apostrophes! I'm sure I did!

And B'el, the house standard for dates seems to have slipped my mind

Looking at the conclusion again, should I put more emphasis on Britain shelling innocent civilians to eliminate a threat to national security in order to draw parallels with recent events?

Apostrophes straightened (I hope).

<> oh

Um, I'm supposed to read this and (we don't have a tick smiley)


Ms GB

You're quick, I'll give you that!

Not sure it needs more emphasis. I think the conclusion is OK as it stands, but let's wait what others suggest.

tomorrow morning for this one, I think. Too much this evening

Nice one Psy

This line ~ the British butcher’s bill ran to only 42. I'd rephrase this as ~ the butcher's bill for King George only ran to 42.

Nice use of shock and awe

Dresden and Coventry are normally mentioned together, would Warsaw be a good modern example ? Kosovo of course was another bombing campaign.

Good points, I'll change the wording tomorrow.

As for the parallels, I'm really thinking about beefing up that conclusion. I'll let you all know when I've finished it.

Excellent take on the whole 'shell' business, and a sadly topical Entry, 200 years after the event

I couldn't, however, let this go:

"Lord Nelson's famous victory had decimated the French and Spanish fleets..."

Did Nelson really destroy one-tenth of the French and Spanish fleets?

There are also a few places where you start sentences with numbers. I can't remember what the House Style says, but it may look better as, for example, "Five-thousand rounds were fired into the city..." and so forth

Best of luck with the rest of the The Stretcher!

I'll look through all of this tonight.

As for the pedantry - I'll refrain from posting what I really want to say

House Style for Dates:
Curly Apostrophes:
"I'd rephrase this as ~ the butcher's bill for King George only ran to 42.": Bye bye alliteration...
"it may look better as, for example, "Five-thousand rounds were fired into the city..." and so forth": I'm torn on this - I'm inclined to agree but the house style does say use numerals.

I've also tweaked the intro.

I've always heard the Nelson quote as "I see no signal" (Which is not to say that I'm just anally retentive.)

Your quote is from a joke (Eric Morecome ?) "I see no ships ~ only hardships"

Ahh, I always wondered where that came from.

I love this, particularly for the introduction.

Just a few nitpicks I can see

I think that it would be possible to link to Edited Guide Entries
"I see no ships" should be put in single quotation marks not double ones.

<> should be written as 2 September, 1807,

<> should be written with two commas 21 October, 1807,

I'm also curious as to where you have got your information from. You don't quote any sources.

and Keep Writing

I'll sort the tweaks out.

My sources are pretty much the usual - whatever the web can trawl up, a couple of books I have lying around, and the product of my own fevered imagination...

Sorted the tweaks.

Thanks for the read Psycorp - I knew of this beforehand, and without hitting the books, I didn't spot any glaring errors with the content. I liked the way you drew the parallel with the modern day.

(And I knew someone would mention the 'decimated' - but we don't live in the Roman Empire, and I'd argue that usage has made the other meaning perfectly valid since then. )

Other points below.

Vice-Admiral = Vice Admiral (I'm fairly sure...)

Footnote 1 = missing a full-stop.

"Counting only Portugal as an ally on a French dominated continent" - Just a wording suggestion here, but it's your call: I'd suggest

"Counting Portugal as their [or its or her...] only ally on a French-dominated continent..."

"firmly in French control" Suggest 'under French control'/in French hands.

[the fleet was] within Napoleon's grasp - 'in his grasp' implies he already had it. How about 'within Napoleon's reach'?

"France coming into possession of a large, battle-ready fleet of warships" - I seem to recall that Denmark's was essentially a trading fleet. If so, presumably they weren't warships, but the closest thing Napoleon had a chance of getting his hands on.

Køge, South of Copenhagen - small 's'

Footnote 3 - Northern = northern

would never be spoken of in the same awed tones of Wellesley's victories = "...*as* Wellesley's victories" (Unless the battles were the ones speaking in awed tones! )

72 year old general = 72-year-old general

Congreve Rocket - I've a question about this. You say 'gunpowder and high explosive'. Wasn't gunpowder pretty much it? It was still about half a century before TNT, nitroglycerin, and stuff like gun cotton...

"combined with the raging fires tore the" - comma after 'fires...'

modern day Gaza = modern-day Gaza.

Thanks very much for the read, Psy.