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

I was joking about not being able to go kite surfing during our recent storm because the driver wouldn't allow the kite on his

The following day it turned out that the storm had actually been the worst ever recorded in Denmark!

And another day later I was reading about a wind surfer who had actually been out surfing in the North Sea during that dreadful storm. This crazy chap went out alone without anybody knowing about it! But he lived to tell his tale of adrenaline rush keeping him warm while he screamed and hollered and almost flew over the waves

In other news I totally forgot to celebrate being a journalist for 42 years October 1st

Oh well, it's never too late for

Congratulations!

Congratulations Pierce on your 42 years as a journalist.

I may be retired but I am still a member of the union and I can still w*rk whenever I want to. But they will take away my pension if I earn money so I would be w*rking for nothing - and I can't see myself doing that

congratulations!

42 years? And here I am, thinking that 16 years as a journalist is just too much.

I've seen you face to face dear Cap'n and it cannot possibly be true that you've been a journalist for all those years. But if it is, and you do have the habit of truthfulness, that is certain - then congratulations!!!

I'm not sure what kite surfing is, but I'm pretty sure it would be highly risky in a terrible storm.

Lanzababy, you are too kind

I'm reckoning from the first day I began w*rking as an actual apprentice, Hati. Before that I had only been a school boy, contributing to the paper's "youth pages", writing film reviews and such for nothing. It paved my way to getting the apprentice position. I've been w*rking with nothing else than journalism since October 1st 1971 but I must admit there are four years of journalist school included.

In kite surfing you stand on a board and catch the wind with a kite that actually resembles a parachute more than a kite. The crazy cat in question was windsurfing where you have a small mast with a sail attached to the board.

2. November:

Back in my day I *never* started reading a without finishing it. And I read a lot of s when I was young. Three librarians in your family unit may do that to you, I guess

This habit came to a screeching halt when I started reading a novel by Joseph Heller. I had read his "Catch 22" with ease, finding it both disturbing and funny - and disturbingly funny - but after reading some 50 pages I had to give up on this other novel of his because it didn't go anywhere. Nothing was happening - ever.

The title? "Something Happened"...

Years later a friend needed to weed out his library to make room for new books and gave me a couple of scores of his s

Among them was - you guessed it! So now I have two...

I may give one of them another chance one day. In the meantime I have a lot of other s to catch up on. During my last 26 years before retiring I w*rked as a sub-editor which meant reading for at least 8 hours per day which in turn meant I had read enough for one day when the day was done.



PS: Thanks to Lanzababy, who inspired me to write this

When I was a librarian, I read several thousand book reviews a year. This was like tasting a quarter teaspoon of thousands of different dishes, without getting t try a whole meal of any one of them. I enjoy reading the actual books now.

It doesn't show yet, but I am going to be a grandpa

November 3rd:

A word not included in neither "The Meaning of Liff" nor "The Deeper Meaning of Liff":

Escapessimism: The attempt to escape from reality by starting to read a novel that one has doubts will do the trick