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

PR is now really easy to use. I'm very impressed with it. It's much easier to submit entries and once submitted, they can't be recommended before the incubation period has expired. It's much easier to check how long things have been around for. It's made picking entries much easier as well. However, we do need more entries.

Have you tried a test entry in GML?

I did a little thing a week ago called 'ML test horror.
I'm building up to doing a full fledged display piece.
I get a little attached to my prose, so I am afraid of what I will do to an entry that I've already started.
I haven't figured out the Word to site transfer thing yet, so I haven't done the 'translate into the Queen's English' thing yet, either.
Fear and laziness combine often in my life.

I found it a bit difficult when I first started, but I got used to 'topping and tailing', ie making sure I closed an instruction after I opened one. It does get much easier with practice. I'm now up to inserting links without looking at a cheat sheet.

Fear and laziness. Now there's something I know a lot about.

As much as anything, I think that habits tend to lead to these and often it's the habit more than fear or laziness.

As for the Queens's English, as far as I am aware, it's only stuff like:

gray - grey
color - colour/harbour etc
theater - theatre, centre etc
recognise - recognize.

Anything else?

They don't use tyre or kerb anymore?
It has to do with a way of using numbres, too, placement of commas and apparently some interesting spacing and punctuation rules.

Doesn't the way I write look strange to you?

No. I've never been conscious of very obvious differences in the way you write. Maybe either I've been too interested in the content, or maybe you've not tended to use words that are noticeably different.

Does my use of language seem strange to you, then?

I've never been aware of any differences in use of commas, spacing or punctuation rules. Do tell more!

Tyre - tire - I'd forgotten that one. How do Americans write 'kerb' then? Curb? If it is, the to me that is a very, meaning to cut short or to put the brakes on.

Isn't language a fascinating thing?

I grew up reading British authors, Fleming, Christy, Moorcock, Clark, Dahl, Doyle, Milne.

According to a cheap reference book I bought, by Christopher Davies,
spelling differences are found in many words like:

>>>>Brit.............Us........
abridgement........abrigment (actually, I'd argue with this one)
adaptor............adapter
ageing..............aging
Appal...............appall
artefact...........artifact
behove.............behoove
calliper...........caliper
cheque.............check
cosy..............cozy
draught..........draft
fibre.............fiber
enquiry...........inquiry
Gaol...........jail
mould...........mold
pyjamas..........pajamas
programme........program
storey...........story
spelt..........spelled
worshipper......worshiper

among others....

as for punctuation, we call the same thing different names
[] bracket to me is supposedly a square bracket
() Parenthesis to me is supposedly a bracket
/ slash to me is supposedly a stroke or oblique
! exclamation point to me is supposedly an exclamation mark
. period to me is supposedly a full stop
" quotation marks to me are supposedly inverted commas
and according to this Davies fellow, the British use a decimal point that is upwards of the one used in american numbers.

Oh, some of this looks interesting and some of it is wrong, and some of it, we can use either.

I'll have another look at this tomorrow, as I've had a couple of broken nights recently, and I need eight hours straight, if possible.

Let's have a look.

>>>>Brit.............Us........
abridgement........abrigment (actually, I'd argue with this one)
adaptor............adapter - agree
ageing..............aging - agree
Appal...............appall - no - we use appall
artefact...........artifact - we use both
behove.............behoove - agree
calliper...........caliper - we use both
cheque.............check - we use both, but mainly cheque
cosy..............cozy - agree
draught..........draft - agree - draft for us is the military
fibre.............fiber - agree
enquiry...........inquiry - we can use both
Gaol...........jail - we use both
mould...........mold - agree - a mold is something you shape things in
pyjamas..........pajamas - agree
programme........program - we can use both - tend to use programme
storey...........story - as in house - agree - story is a tale
spelt..........spelled - we use both - mainly spelled now
worshipper......worshiper - agree

[] bracket to me is supposedly a square bracket - agree
() Parenthesis to me is supposedly a bracket - we use both
/ slash to me is supposedly a stroke or oblique - we use all
! exclamation point to me is supposedly an exclamation mark - agree
. period to me is supposedly a full stop - agree
" quotation marks to me are supposedly inverted commas - we use both
and according to this Davies fellow, the British use a decimal point that is upwards of the one used in american numbers. *don't under stand this one - what do you mean?*

I think we're closer together than you might think!

The decimal thing is a print convention that I have seen in books.
Instead of the decimal point looking like a period (.), it looks like a dot placed in the center of the line, kinda in the middle of an invisible colon ( : ), see?

Actually, I think the whole thing is a buncha hooey, cause any one who tries to engage in consistency in their writing is a whole lot easier to understand than some of these folks who don't know how to write at all!

No, you got me there! I don't understand.

Quick bit of news. Princess Margaret (the sister of the Queen) has died. She used to smoke 60 cigarettes a day. (The Queen Mother is still alive, aged 101.)

Young 'un is upset because the cartoon he was watching on TV got taken off to bring an extended news report on her death. I have to say, I can't really blame him.

The last time one of the Royals died, it was Princess Di - and I do remember where I was when that happened - in the bath at a friends house, just having come back from a fairly long and very wet camp. She came in to the room crying her eyes out. I had heard her end of the conversation on the phone and thought her parents had been killed - when she said 'Princess Di's dead' - I think I was one of the few people in the country who thought 'Thank God for that'.

Okay, typing slowly. A full stop is at the bottom of the line. The line is the thing that the tail in a 'g' or 'p' or 'q' hangs over, y'know down here_ (or something like that.) In some instances, the decimal point, instead of looking like a full stop, is hovering around here - in the middle.

I thought that whole Di thing was a bit like the Challenger, but I did sit through the coverage for a least the first 20 hrs, until common sense kicked in.

I remember having TV boogered up by the Watergate hearings...yuck.

I started to reply to this and then lost it. So here is the short reply.

Got it! We put the decimal point on the line.

Princess Margaret - it only lasted an hour. Like you, I was glued to Princess Di's news - it was so unexpected and so dramatic.

I've seen both in real life. Margaret kept us waiting for almost 2 hours and then breezed by in five minutes. She looked very tiny. Di was tall and slim and wearing a black skirt with a long blue top and was strikingly beautiful. The next day, she was described as 'fatty Di'. I was disgusted with the papers.

I have trouble imagining what 'journalist's' do for a living, sometimes. You have to have a certificate for a movie or a play, but the papers print anything, including page three... Very confusing.

I remember the beginning of the whole Di thing. I'm glad it didn't turn into a 'Jackie O' situation. Some people people have never forgiven her for marrying Onassis.

How's the Queen Mum taking it?

Oh the Queen Mum is a gallant old stick, although not in the best of health. She's been reported as saying she's determined to be able to make it to the funeral.

Now when she goes, I think people will be genuinely sorry. People feel genuine affection for her. I met her, too, sort of. I trooped past her at my degree ceremony at the Albert Hall, many years ago. Didn't get to shake her hand, though, there were too many of us.

Apparently it's 50 years to the day that the Queen came to the throne.

Going back to an earlier conversation, do you obviously notice that my English is British English?

No. There is no accent online, unless you are an illiterate idiot.
I read a lot. And many of them are British books. I unthinkingly throw British and German and Yiddish and French phrases into my speaking and writing all the time. So I'm not a good one to ask.
There are things I have to ask for definitions of occasionally, because there are many words and phrases that I do not know, having not seen them in books or heard them on recordings.

I love finding out the origins of words or phrases. Language fascinates me.

Do you remember some while ago I was talking about Victoria Wood. My entry's not finished yet, but I thought you might like to see it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A662104

Now where do you think I got the inspiration for the first line?

Yes. I have a thing for obscure definitions, but I have trouble with anything after 1952. It took my a year to find out about 'dissing'.
I already knew about 'sussing', but that was from listening to British groups like Elvis Costello and the Attractions and the Who and Madness and Graham Parker and Nick Lowe and TRB and the Clash and the SeX PiStOls and Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel and Hawkwind and Uriah Heep and Status Quo and Iron Maiden and Dio and Motorhead and Girlschool and Deafschool...and the Jam and Joe Jackson and Hazel O'Connor and Lene Lovich and Eurythmics...
I used to own one of those magnifying glass copies of the Complete Oxford. I keep a College dictionary at my feet.

Ah yes. Know most of those well. My ex used to drool over Kate Bush. What a talented woman. Not heard much from her recently, though.

We went to see the Clash and I didn't enjoy the experience as everyone was spitting.


I also remember going on a camping holiday to the South of France and there being some young puppies who were making life difficult for people on the dancefloor. So four of us started pogoing and arms and legs went everywhere. We kicked them off the dancefloor and then got a round of applause from everyone else! (Me ex was 6'4" - imagine the arms and legs flailing around from that!)

I also have a Concise Oxford Dictionary complete with magnifying glass. Young 'un loves it. It has a tiny light in it.

Bravo for you and ol' whats-his-face!

I've never been much for live bands. Too loud.

Of course, if I'm going to be deafened by an electric guitar, I can always stay home and do it myself.