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

Wow! I must have really asked something important.

Don't rush. The usual 6 months is fine, it wasn't that crucial.

Hopefully we can push someone to pick this article this month.

Barton

Sorry - my exhaustive research has failed to find any recipe that involves both turtle and molasses. Sounds tasty, though.
Stephen

You've made a simple mistake.

The turtle is used to whip the mollases into a cream.

Do a search on Kitchen, Small Appliances, Requires Feeding

Barton

Hmm... I don't like kitchen appliances that try to bite me.
Stephen

What are you doing sticking your fingers into kitchen appliances?

Barton

Hi Barton,

Just in case I caused any confusion over "urgency" with my comment about articles being picked "straight away"; It's just that articles fall into (roughly) four categories:

This article is great and I know it's finished because I know a little of what it's talking about - I can recommend it now;
This article seems good but it's a topic I know nothing about, so I'll hold off picking it awhile in case one of the other Scouts turns out to be an expert who can fix any factual errors;
This article has promise but needs work before it's pickable;
I wouldn't recommend this article if it was the last one in Peer Review.

For me, Tom Swift fell into the second category. That's all I meant.

GVI

Whatza madduh? Cantcha taka joke?



Barton

Editorial Note: This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review forum because this entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

If they have not been along already, the Scout who recommended your entry will post here soon, to let you know what happens next. Meanwhile you can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Congrats! This entry has been chosen to pass through the gateway of Peer Review and to travel on the path to the Land of the Edited Guide. Along the way, the entry will be polished up by a sub-editor, and then have the honor of being touched by one of the in-house editors. The pinnacle of its journey will occur when it appears on the front page of the guide.

Keep up the good work!

Mikey

There is a Tom Swift fanzine called Blueprint that is in its fifth year of publication. The fanzine features articles on a wide variety of topics - background on the authors who were involved in the series, information on foreign (as opposed to U.S.) reprints that have not previously been reported, details pertaining to negotiations that took place for motion picture, television and theatrical rights to the property, recently discovered sales data, the Swift's inventions, Tom Swift collectibles, trivia, and much more. There is always something of interest for everyone - researchers, collectors and nostalgists alike.

In addition, there is a Tom Swift discussion group on the internet, hosted by Yahoo groups.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, a Tom Swifty is a one-line play on words involving a unintended pun in the way that an adverb describes the action of the speaker or the content of the speaker’s statement. For example:

“Let's go dig up some bodies,”' Tom said gravely.
“I've struck oil,”' Tom said crudely.

Tom Swifties are said to be based on similar puns found in the original series, but this a myth. I’ve yet to spot a single instance of this type of sentence structure in either the original Tom Swift series or the follow-on Tom Swift Jr. series.

It is generally believed that the Tom Swifties craze began in 1963 with a publication put together by a couple of enterprising young men named Paul Pease and Bill McDonough.

Tom Ippolito

The principal author of the original Tom Swift series was Howard R. Garis (1873-1962), the Stratemeyer Syndicate's most prolific ghostwriter. Garis is best known for the Uncle Wiggily series.

Tom Ippolito

People have been "pitching the idea" of a Tom Swift movie as far back as 1914, without success - that is, with the exception of the film Twentieth Century Fox was going to make based on the original series back in 1969. That movie was extensively planned, but the project was abandoned (reportedly due to the box office failures of Hello Dolly and Doctor Dolittle). Several television scripts were written in the mid 50s, and a pilot featuring Tom Swift Jr. was actually produced in 1958 (it never aired because a sponsor could not be found). On 3 July 1983, a pilot for a television series that was to be called The Tom Swift and Linda Craig Mystery Hour was broadcast by ABC. The sixty minute episode, entitled The Treasure Of Rancho Del Sol, starred Willie Ames as Tom Swift and Lori Loughlin as Linda Craig. Ratings were unimpressive and plans for the series
were cancelled.

Tom Ippolito