Posts by David Haywood
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Surely its cover
Apologies -- typing with one hand, while trying to feed toddler with the other...
Good point about font, too. Possibly this book is in need of washing in holy water...
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Ha, we don't quite have the budget of 'Mad Men'. Hence using free fonts that are only "similar".
But I am an enthusiast for fonts myself -- so, by crikey, I like the tone of this discussion! Don't just judge a book by its cover. Judge a book by the font of the sticker on its cover...
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Since a heath is something flat, inhospitable and uncultivated that's been allowed to go to waste, I should have thought the Mental Heath Sector covered most of civilisation and the Antipodes.
This is a good point that I hadn't considered.
I fear that I have now offended a large and powerful international organization. God knows what their powers of evaluation/incarceration will be in New Zealand's largest and flattest province (where, alas, I happen to live). I shall have to flee for the Southern Alps.
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Oops! Yes, well-spotted, Ian -- accidentally dropped the 'birds' from the title! (Now corrected on original post). You read, you preview, you post, you read again, but somehow the mistakes still get through.
Perhaps I subconsciously suffer from Ornithophobia...
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WTF, is that MS Comic Sans?
Disappointed.
If you're referring to the 'sticker' on the front of the book -- no, it's actually 'Comic Sans MS' the free font (it's not a clone, it's an emulation, check your legal dictionary).
I certainly agree that it's easy to overuse this font -- if that's what your comment is suggesting -- but there are times when it sends just the right message. This, I felt, was one of those times. If you look in any 50s or 60s Annual you'll see a similar font (particularly on the front 'sticker').
Apart from the sticker (oh, and the board game), the rest of the book is in 'Bookman' font, which is a very close match to the sort of 'story' fonts they used in annuals from the 30s to the 50s.
If you were to dig out "Our Boys' Yarns" (from the days when people could use apostrophes correctly) and "The Thunderbirds Annual", you'll find that the layout, fonts, drawings, etc. of the RBNZ Annual pays homage to elements of each (again, though, it's an emulation, not a clone).
EDIT: Accidentally dropped a bird from the above! Have corrected 'The Thunder Annual' to the 'Thunderbirds Annual'.
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Toxteth O'Grady, surely
My God, you're right! And I have even seen that episode! But quite unintentional, I assure you -- definitely a case of the subconscious. My God, I hope Jolisa Gracewood doesn't get hold of this...
Oh, too late...
They have detected... [your] brooding, Heathcliffian depths...
That is perceptive. I find that most people don't appreciate how brooding, deep, and Heathcliffian I really am.
P.S. Mind you, the real Carl Crowley has stuck no end of things up his nose, as well as his head between the bars of fence-railings, etc. It's kind of a performance art thing.
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Once you realise that good novelists tend to have lives of misery and torment (whether through mental illness, substance abuse, or small children) then you realise that the Second Law remains unbroken...
A strangely compelling observation, Nat. Curiously (over the last couple of days) I have had emails about the RBNZ Annual -- with speculations viz-a-viz my mental illness(es) and/or substance abuse. No one, until you, has suggested small children...
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Estonia?
It always makes me sad to see the poor people who couldn't afford enough vowels for their names.
Little known fact: pronouncing the name Gschwendtner is really easy.
schw = a french 'j' (as in "Je ne sais quoi")
wendt = 'vent' (as in VENTilation
ner = well, 'ner' (as in corner)
Put 'em all together in just TWO syllables:
jvent-ner
... except that you just do an understated lead-in to the whole thing with a subtle 'G' as in 'Gary'. But still with only TWO syllables.
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Well, I'm pretty sure it was Slovenia. Unless... ahem... it was Slovakia.
I think it was in 2000 (or possibly 2001) in Christchurch. I may have the wrong term in 'international test match' -- I suppose swapping sides is discouraged in a 'proper' international match -- but it was definitely a match against the Slovenians (or Slovakians).
I went to see one of the big games (but can't remember if it was one of the Slovenia/Slovakia ones). All I remember is that the Canterbury players all seemed to have Canadian accents, and one referred to Gschwendtner as 'Mike the Russian'. Presumably in jest.
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I'm with Gschwendtner, I hate entropy
Incidentally, Hadyn, there is a sporting connection with Gschwendtner. He plays ice-hockey and once represented New Zealand in an international test-match (if that's the term in ice-hockey) against Slovenia.
By the beginning of the second period, too many Slovenians had been injured to continue the game. So Gschwendtner volunteered to play for Slovenia -- and so the game was able to go on. Can't be many other sportsmen who have played at an international level for two different countries in the same match.
Of course, the inevitable happened, and the next day he turned up for work with his arm in a plaster cast.
Me: What happened?
Gschwendtner: Entropy.