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

Hi there

Hope you're well? I've subbed Planxty (or should I say proof read, because it didn't need a great deal more) and it is now ready to go back to the Editors. The subbed version is here A87842442

The only sentence I touched was this one, my version being:

"
Fairly soon after that a new Irish harp was invented, with gut strings as on the concert harp, and played in a similar manner, without engaging the fingernails. "

If this has altered your meaning, please let me know and we can work out a better phrase.

Has Tavaron asked you if you've any suitable subjects for a photograph for this Entry?

Thanks Lanzababy! Sorry to take so long replying, just got back from abroad.

That looks fine to me! If I may slip in a correction, the date by which all the old harpers had died was actually 1816 rather than 1800, and attempts were made to keep young players learning, if unsuccessful ... so if I could say:

By 1800 or soon after, the old-style Irish harp, with brass strings plucked using the fingernails, was out of currency.

--that would make it right.

And the next sentence should read:

Fairly soon after that a new Irish harp was invented, with gut strings and a mechanism for altering semitones, as on the concert harp, and played in a similar manner, without engaging the fingernails.

On rereading, I think the word 'attacked' in the final sentence is too violent, and should be replaced by 'struck'.

Many Thanks!

Hello Lanzababy!

Looks good! Excellent picture choice.

Small gripe: I see too much space under the blockquote (in Pliny; it looks perfect in Brunel).

Any chance of the last two corrections (the two posts above) -- mentioning the semitone mechanism on the ladies' harp and replacing 'attacked' with 'struck'? The semitone mechanism put the instrument into an entirely different tradition, and is not a trivial alteration.

Congratulations! Your Entry is on the Front Page today

Thank you!

And thank you Lanzababy for incorporating those last alterations. Looks good!

This is (may I say it) a much better article than the current entry in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planxty which, apart from misleading guesses as to the meaning of the word, contains a few howlers such as "during O’Carolan’s time, it was illegal to write anything at all in Gaelic."

True, the Penal Laws were in force (if not enforced very assiduously) attempting to suppress Catholicism, but one of the archbishops responsible for enacting the penal laws also actually published an Irish translation of the Old Testament. There may once have been laws suppressing Irish Gaelic, but they belong to a much earlier date, that of Elizabeth I.

Hmm, another Entry or two brewing ...