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

A raptor is a bird of prey.

The Latin name for a song thrush is turdus philemos and the third word (although you will need to check it in the Urban Dictionary) can be found at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flange_%28disambiguation%29

You had already made it clear that you knew what a raptor was, and all the words in question came from the same source but not in the same message. Another poster simply echoed those words, this is his choice of words ... all of them.

Suspect that the word that actually got modded was actually

http://homepages.inspire.net.nz/~murphinator/

(In order not to get modded, am trying to find alternative sites for an entry in the Urban Dictionary.)

Until the cryptic post the other day, and last night's comments, it was not clear whether it was a locally specific or general comment but the original usage was in the singular.

I see. Was it a statement of intent?

There is now a reply to this to supplement the apology you pointed out was rightly needed. After a traumatic day, it was almost certainly my error judgement to even choose to go online at all; this is not any defence of what you see as hypocrisy btw, but it is a contributory factor.

Well, like I said, I hope things get better for you soon. Drop seemed fairly contrite anyway and nobody needs to fall out I'm sure.

Not his fault he chose to reappear last night ... after the day I'd had, I was quite pleased to see him, at first. Things, by the way, changed unexpectedly and irrevocably yesterday; maybe closure earlier than was anticipated too.

Hypocrisy is not an admirable quality in anyone, and may I ask why you thought I was so? There was nothing tongue-in-cheek or insincere about my apology btw, but if I have a lesson to learn a little guidance would be helpful.

Hey I'd be the last one to presume I could teach you anything about anything.
I don't know what was originally said, how encoded or slang it was and nor how personal it was. I know you have been having a tough time and I am fairly sure that this whole thing on the message boards is trivial.

When I mentioned hypocrisy I was not being too serious and was not referring to the original exchange between the submariner and yourself. I was just pointing out that since you had admonished me for posting in the wrong place and I had said sorry, you might reflect that I was posting there because that was the thread where you had dealt with the incident and it had come to my attention in the first place.

I do hope you find some equilibrium soon, my thoughts are with you.

Aargh, I left the irony switch off, didn't I ... now no-one will know what I was making what I thought was a fulsome apology for, except that - mea culpa - you probably did hit a nerve and the law of unintended consequences swung into effect (although I sense you are backing off, as you enumerated two posts specifically).

Separate sorry backatchya if I came across as a bit too terse. It may be evident to some or all, but not at all clear to me, that I need to first get myself grounded and then find my equilibrium.

Thanks for the good thoughts, and for the drink last night ... catch you later, as I think I need a little down time starting right now.

Well, I had just imagined that you had indulged in some ornithological terminology in return and were mistakenly apologising for that.

Don't worry about being terse but I'm still mortally wounded by your abject mockery of my being bad at words.

Stop it, I really do need to go away with a box of tissues and now you've made me snork.

No, I posted nothing at the time but realised where the Russian had been whilst out of radio contact; hence my reference to retracing footsteps (some imagery adjustment required now). I was and am a little concerned that some of the recent postings suggest that I am less needful than the Kapitan. To which end, I left a message, in case Red Oktober returned to the same place, and even a musical link ... which inevitably has not a jot to do with anything nautical (YouTube Cash Hurt, actually).

May I offer you a medicinal malt to stem the pain you are in? What, do you think, are your chances of making any recovery, let alone a good one?

\___/ Psi, sorry, Psi, to deny you your nightcap, the shoulder and then inflict grave injury is a woeful setback for the day before April Fools. Cannot think of any other way to suitably make amends, you see

Fear not, I think the Shoulder has healing properties.
If you want to borrow any depth charges, just let me know.

Thanks for the malt, always welcome.

'Hurt' is a very powerful track. I've shown a few people how to play it.

That's what I always thought the shoulder was about, healing ... you will pull through then, or at least your head will!

For the time being, I shall not take you up on your kind offer of depth charges. Aren't they rather like tissues, in that no-one borrows a depth charge and I don't recall ever seeing a used depth charge being returned, not even in the most fantastical movie. (movie, spelling error???)

And I have still not quite recovered from my eye-boggling disbelief that time when I said 'Psi, do something' which led to an elephant being torched. Psi, polemicist and occasional arsonist iirc

I found Hurt the wrong way round ... I started with the Christy Moore version, went backwards to the Johnny Cash version (if only I'd known about YouTube, I could have saved myself from a bidding frenzy on eBay) and later found the NIN and NIN with DB versions. If I'm not mistaken, you're talking about the Cash version? What is it (in any version) that makes it so powerful? I am a little puzzled because I get the feeling that the power of this song (and the Elvis Costello song, too to some extent) derives from lyrics which stand as poetry in their own right combined with an emotive melody; to this gets added an arrangement which combines understatement until it builds and subsequently releases tension. Struggling very hard with words here as I cannot technically define the effect so am carefully bypassing musical terms, and ordinary language is a pathetically inadequate alternative. Please expand, if you can bear to.

I think you did just fine with words there.

The song was written by Nine Inch Nails guitarist Trent Reznor as you probably know,and in retrospect the decision of Cash's producer to choose it is one of those 'anybody could have thought of that but one guy actually did' decisions. Since Cash was clearly near death the song gains a resonance and authenticity that you can't get by production technique or marketing. I could expand on your musical analysis but I think you nailed the important elements. Ordinary language cannot really capture music, this is not your deficit.

Only talking to you would I have found the parallel between tissues and depth charges.

I must find the right shoulder now.

Until tomorrow.

Hmm, am wondering whether you meant the right shoulder or the right shoulder ... moving carefully on, hope overnight essential healing happened under the most benign of natural anaesthetics.

Have been pondering hurt and harm; harm and self harm; self harm ... and so on. Just getting to grips with it, thought I had captured it and then I fell asleep; can't recall the later part of the thought process now. I believe I read somewhere that part of the impact of JC's Hurt was that it changes perspective when it becomes an older man's song; certainly it changes the focus from an emotional precipice accessed by the excesses of a rock and roll lifestyle, to the final rite of passage that the survivor of any lifestyle approaches. It sits well within the repertoire of despair that we talked about some time back; still trying to find an alternative to 'despair' as the word doesn't deliver some of the qualities I want it to express.

I fear you may never be able to look a depth charge in the eye again, but how do you feel about tissues now

Only talking to you would have enabled me to find a parallel between Peggy Lee and Mahler.

I think you have captured the source of the added poignancy of the Cash version well. It almost gets me reaching for the depth charges, no sorry, I mean tissues, when I hear it. Being male I think it would be unseemly if I were actually to blub.

'Despair' doesn't quite do it I agree but I sense a phrase rather than a word might have to do. I'll see if I can come up with anything.

I think it was more than the knowledge that Cash was in his final months, and the voice that was clearly past its' best (and even that added to the poignant quality) but also that notes got changed here and there to bring out the melody line, and empowered the song even further. What's wrong with cry(ing) like a man, anyway? Dan Penn managed it and produced another song in the same untitled genre.

I think the French word desespoir may be closer to the word or phrase that's needed, but not even that carries the sense of hopelessness at being utterly crushed by life ... the answer almost certainly lies within earlier tracts so the ball is firmly in your court for the time being.

I can't fault you on the Cash analysis.

As I said, it would be unseemly.

I think we have a slightly different idea of the repertoire, I think we have touched on this before. I don't think 'despair' is quite right because I don't think it captures the 'so let's kick back and party' aspect, whereas you don't think it is quite right because it is not bleak enough.

Psi,now, please ... depth charges

Consignment on route to you now.

You got a reading on the sonar then? Be careful, drop is wily.

Or did you mean tissues? Has contemplating the utter absurdity and abject futility of it all tipped you into the existential abyss again?