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

Hi there,

I'm subbing your entry on Rainbows Ends (A954759 for my copy). I very much enjoyed reading through this, and so am not going to make any major changes, other than inserting a few links and tidying up the punctuation a bit.

Any changes you'd like to see made before it enters the final step of editorialism (), let me know.

B

Master B -- delighted to hear from you!

I have made some changes to A908147 and I'm happy for it to go out in its present form. I took out the "apalling vista" as that phrase has sad connotations I would not like, on reflection, to revive.

I feel a chill when I read you are planning to tidy up the punctuation a bit. If this means putting caitals after the two question marks that are followed by lower-case, I plead with you, don't do it!

This is a piece of poetry (of a sort) and the lower case is there on purpose. It's how it is to be read.

Well there you go.

~AR

Leaving punctuation aside for the time being, can I ask you not to make any more changes to A908147 please. My version (A954759) is the one that will go forward to the Edited Guide, so I would prefer any more updates to be made through me, or the Editors later if necessary.

If you could outline in detail the changes that you've already made, I'd be happy to implement them, though.

B

Oh yes and I corrected the spelling of "withheld". A double h! Who'da thunk it?

Gosh there's quite a few -- do you want a list or could you not just paste in A908147?

I'll do a list if you really want . . .

I suppose I could just paste in, couldn't I?

I just get a bit nervous doing that sometimes, because my computer crashed with somebody's entire entry still on my clipboard and I had to go back and ask for another one...

B

1 replace "a little man" with "an imp"

2 after "crock of gold." insert "This is in fact no less than the truth."

3 replace "The shape of the source droplet-group" with "The shape of the reflecting droplet-group"

4 put into quotes "along its barrel"

5 delete "simply this" so that it reads "and therefore the rainbow's shape in three dimensions is: conical. Part of a cone."

6 insert "Stiff-necked" before scientists with a small s

7 replace "such a decision opens a truly apalling vista" with "such a decision is damningly short-sighted"

8 delete "Because" before "They hide their true shape"

9 replace the last sentence with "The sprite is our own consciousness, labouring away half-shod, and a crock of gold is a poor enough name for the boundless riches it holds in store."

This is now my preferred version ~AR

Classic cross-purposes there. No harm; longest way round may be the shortest way home. and all that jazz

Excellent. I'll do that tomorrow

B

Hello again B and Happy Valentine's Day -- also my 55th birthday

I see the changes are still pending, so here's a few more:

1 replace "less" with "more" (say "no more than the truth"; I think the truth is if anything more than the story)

2 don't forget the double h in withheld

3 last sentence should read "The sprite at the rainbow's end is consciousness, labouring away half-shod; and a crock of gold is a poor enough name for the boundless riches stored there."

Alternatively cut & paste A908147

~A

The last sentence should *really* read:

There sits your sprite, working up designs to ease life's rigours, and master of such boundless riches that a crock of gold is a poor enough name for it.

Seems each time I go to sleep I wake up with a new last sentence.

I'm very happy with this one.

It's a good sentence.

I will get round to doing this today, I promise. NIce to have such a keen author.

B

OK...done, at least the primary stages. Please take a look.

I've tweaked it to a more Guide-friendly format (single quotes, stops at the end of footnotes, and _only one space after full stops_). You have no idea how much subbing time would be saved if people paid attention to that one. I've also tried to cure a bitter of your colon-itis (Dilbert joke: "They remind me of you sir").

Just awaiting some feedback on focused/focussed (both acceptable, I want to know which one the Towers prefers), and maybe digging out a few more links.

B

I would say focussed in UK, focused in US (cf traveled).

Truly sorry about double spaced fullstops; I thought that was good practice, and also that GuideML automatically drops them.

'The Towers' --

The Towers = The h2g2 Editors = TPTB (The Powers that Be) = Ashley, Anna, Jimster, Mina, Abi, Sam and Natalie

The double-space thing seems to be a hangover from people who were taught on a typewriter (or taught by people who had been taught on a typewriter). It seems to be disturbingly infectious around here at the minute.

I have to say 'focused' looks better to me, but I'm still waiting for more feeback on this one.

B

Thanks B. Just had a look, and I have some problems.

'you are looking along the page's 'barrel',' is not what I am saying at all. The page or the screen has no barrel, they are truly 2-dimensional. You are looking along the rainbow's barrel, so there's no 'likewise'.

I prefer to say "'along its barrel'" than "along its 'barrel'", because 'along the barrel' is a phrase used about rifles, and transferred to violin bow making (the gun-barrel view is the most revealing). I would also beg you to delete 'or' before 'part of a cone' if you could bring yourself to do this.

We really absolutely need a 'but' before "'seeing double' is a pathological state".

It is not 'For the sake of argument' that we side with common usage. This is where I put my foot down; it is the point of the whole exercise. Philosophical hair-splitting leaves us in blind ignorance, is the message.

Footnote 4 needs a fullstop

Footnote 5 may want single quotes.

You might like to put a link from 'cloud illusions' to Joni Mitchell's song 'Both Sides Now'; I think the album was even called 'Clouds' (1969)

Points taken. I think the problem with some of my additions is I felt that the original text was not conveying a clear enough message, which is often the problem with a lot of the Guide. I've tightened it up (within your guidelines ) now. I knew what you meant with the page and the drop, I just got my worms mixed up.

B

Oh, and you've been over-ruled by TPTB - they've just gone for 'focused'.

B

AND...if you've got no more changes to make, I'd like to send this back to the Editors. I'm trying to clear my 'To Do' list.

B

Thank you B! Much better, though I still can't digest the 'likewise'. Best in my opinion is to say:

you are looking 'along its barrel', and therefore the rainbow's shape in three dimensions is simply conical. Part of a cone.

I know you don't approve of sentences without a verb, but I do urge you and the Towers to consider its conversational tone.

If that is really too bad, then ::sigh::

you are looking 'along its barrel', and therefore the rainbow's shape in three dimensions is simply conical; it forms part of a cone.

And yes another night has passed and another last sentence looms. The 'rigours' are a tad off-thread, so let's say:

There sits your sprite working up designs for life, master of boundless riches for which 'a crock of gold' is a poor enough metaphor.

To this I give my imprimatur and I won't bother you again if this goes through. Honest!

Thanks again ~A