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

Hi Emmily,

I don't think your first sentence quite does justice to the HUGE popularity of robins on Christmas cards. Also there is a proiblem with punctuation in the second sentence. I would suggest modifying it as follows:

The robin (Scientific Name: Erithacus rubecula) is widely associated with Christmas, and the robin is a hugely popular image on Christmas cards, wrapping paper and decorations. It is difficult to know which came first, the robin’s general popularity or its association with Christmas. This stems from Victorian times when Christmas notepaper showed a robin delivering the Christmas post; which in turn was delivered by postmen nicknamed ‘robins’ or ‘redbreasts due to the bright red tunics that they wore.

Sorry BigAl, but I not sure that the robin is 'hugely popular'.


And I already changed

"This stems from Victorian times when Christmas"
to

"Which stems from Victorian times when Christmas"

as I thought it 'read better' with the other changes. ??

Emmily

Emmily,

I.

Ref the second sentence. It is not grammatically correct to start a sentence with 'Which'. Strongly suggest you use the structure I suggested in my previous post.

Ref the populsrity of the robin, although it may perhaops be an overstatement to say that it is HUGELY popular, it is at least VERY popular.

I used to count the animals depicted on my Christmas cards to decide which were the most popular. This is what I once wrote to a magazine:

"For information, the top four Most Frequent Species in my 1993 crop of cards were, in descending order, : robin, deer, dog and horse. In 1992 the order was robin, horse, unidentifia=ble birds, dog.

Thus the robin, horse and dog featured in the top four for two consecutive years".

Unfortunately, I didn't save the raw data in order to state now precisely just how popular the robin was compared to other creatures (Perhaps you may have stimulated me to count them again this year!)

Ok, Ok I'll change 'Which' back to This' teach But! If anyone advises that I should change it to 'Which' I'll send them your way.

I'll add something else about robin's popularity

I've got an aunt, who likes robins and robin xmas cards, she has loads of them.

Emmily

Emmily. It would've been to have used 'which' in the middle of the sentence (which you originally did), but this made it very long and clumsy. That is why I suggested you start a new sentence, which startsa with 'This'. (The problem was you were using 'which' as a connector between two clauses, which means that it has to come in the middle of a sentence).

Hope this makes sense.

Anyway, it's now - in my eyes at least!

I've added a bit more to this Entry; under the heading 'Competition' near the bottom.

I've also changed the title to 'British Robins' if calling them British Robins is good enough for BBC Scotland, then it's good enough for h2g2

Emmily

It's not good enough for me. BBC Scotland is centred on the UK. h2g2 is a guide to the world. I don't mind you describing things that you only get in Britain as British, but we get robins here in Ireland that are exactly the same as your ones. It would be stupid for me to have to put in an identical entry to your one called "Irish Robins".

But, but, but it seems kinda cumbersome to call it European robins...and I didn't really like that title

I could change it to just 'Robins' ?

Emmily

Why not 'The Robin Redbreast' as I suggested earlier. As I said, this also gives a good excuse for making the iconic connection with the postmen who deliver Christmas cards.

If you changed it to just 'robins' then, logically, it should include the American robins.

It needs to have 's' on the end BigAl, I don't like Robin Redbreasts as title. (Though I can see why you like it )

Suppose I'll change it back to 'European robins' it's only a title, not really that important.

Emmily

Don't be cheeky, Emmily

I don't think it does really need an 's' on the end.

, so why are you arguing about it so much

What about a title that includes the Latin nomenclature? That would solve the Irish problem and the American ones too

Just an idea ...

sorwy teach

It needs the 's' to fit it with; Common Wrens, Magpies and not forgetting Great Tits

Not arguing about le, just 'testing the water'

leaving title alone now, not touching it, never, ever, ever

Emmily

Are you trying to distract me from my lesson planning again, Emmily? Well, it ain't gonna work this time. I've spent the evening at the Language School (which supplies us with foreign students to accomodate -oops, that was nearly a candidate for you to Keep w.r.t. words with the incorrect number of double letters), drinking and eating (well, mince pies anyway). I've returned home and just got grandson to bed. IOt's virtually 10 p.m. and I need to write 3 lessons for tomorrow. (Haven't even heard the Man U-Fulham score) so I flatly forbid the on my left shoulder to allow me to think about 's.

>"Are you trying to distract me from my lesson planning again, Emmily?"

Is my halo slipping again? *readjusts halo* there, I'm an again...

Re - s ~ It's not the on your left shoulder you need to worry about, it's the..............no, we won't go there

Just so that you're abreast of the situation BigAl, PR threads are for discussing the Entry, it's ok to get something off your chest about the Entry, but we shouldn't be lowering the tone of the thread with titillation.

Sorry for the interuption everyone, we will continue this in another thread.

(shoo, shoo to another thread BigAl

Emmily

Hey Emmily,

Did you see the (rare) blue-breasted robin on BBC News this evening?

I arrived in at the tail-end of the bulletin, so didn't catch any further info.

Until a year ago, I lived next to a park, which had lots of birds. I used to get Robins in a tree only 6 feet from my bedroom window. Springtime could be noisey with the dawn chorus.

>"Did you see the (rare) blue-breasted robin on BBC News this evening?"

You don't pay much attention for a teach BigAl I mentioned new Info added in Post #86, near bottom under 'Competition' (Go read it, right now, or else teach )

My nonesense over the title ditracted from that.

(can you spot the two s BigAl?)

Emmily

Emmily. Hadn't got around to looking at the addition to your Entry. I was busy last night. I'll look right now.