“An ancient English Cathedral Tower? How can the ancient English Cathedral tower be here! The well-known massive gray square tower of its old Cathedral? How can that be here!”

Thus begins “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” by Charles Dickens. Or does it? What if it read as follows?

“An ancient English Cathedral Town? How can the ancient English Cathedral town be here! The well-known massive gray square tower of its old Cathedral? How can that be here!”

Now unless I am wrong (which is always a distinct possibility) the second example is the version that Dickens wrote, not the first. Yet if you use quotes and Google the first sentence of each, the second and correct version will produce only about three Google pages, and a good percentage of that will be unrelated. But the first version will net over ten pages. This specific error appears in a number of print editions as well but seems to be more rampantly reproduced on the net, which has virtually no editorial control. And yet students, whether they need to or not, are relying more and more on the Internet for assignments.

BoDillon, I hope you get a good grade, because you’ve shown a lot of patient perseverance. But I recommend the print version wherever possible.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Chapter 31,

I picked that one out of a book in my library but didn't photobopy it ... that book infact, so I guess that is the problem here. I couldn't find it anywhere, oh well I got the first part of the assignment in, I will have to get that story later.

thanks

BoDillon,
Dandelion is referring to the collection called “Bradbury Stories” with a hundred stories in it including “A Blade of Grass”. It’s the big red one that’s about the size of the break assembly on a ’59 Mercury. I guess that’s the book and the story you’re talking about. If it takes you twenty years, remember to go back and read that story. And remember what you were doing the day you did it. And then read the story that follows it in the book. You’ll always remember that day.

Ch. 31: Always curious when those vintage cars come up on this site:
http://www.ephemeranow.com/images/JPGs/mer59shop.jpg

fjp451,
I could sit and lose myself in that picture for minutes at a time. What a beauty!

Ch. 31, mine was a candy apple red, white interior, 4-door, 330ci, Olds Cutlass. Smooth!

Hey! Did I catch you comparing turnips to napalm awhile bacK???

fjp451
Chapter
31
:
Okay. A non-Bradbury item...yet, I've often related the 1963 Studebaker Avanti to some of Ray's prose in car-form. This is by far NOT the best photo I could find, and it 'ain't' my favorite color for the car...but it's a good side view of the car. My ultimate favorite car design. (see attachment)

1CIMG0003.JPG (89 Kb, 11 downloads)

Nard, Wow! A Rocket! Let's GO.......!

(What was the car RB discusses when the family went West? It was mentioned in a recent ss collection, I believe. Or was it in Sam W's book? They loaded up and stayed at road side motels along the way. Was the car make mentioned!? We could capture a picture.)

Though my Cutlass was all I could afford then, my druthers would have been:
http://www.mershons.com/view_photo.asp?ID=5670&image=Exterior

(I actually did drive one of these for part of a summer in the mid '70's, with an option to buy! Imagine. Check its value today. Better than those all of those shoe boxes of baseball cards mom threw away!)

fjp451:::

Oh no!
I could not resist replying to this.
'63 Corvettes.

They were the downfall of my early years. I saw one once on a used car lot... 1963 Corvette with a few thousand miles on it. It was 1964. I paid $3,000 for it, a 3 speed (with NO synchro in first...how about that one!!) 250 Horse (mind you the lowest horses available on the Corvette at the time)... with vinyl seats and 'No!' FM radio. Just AM. Basic coupe. Which I managed to wreck just a few short weeks later and my insurance company went bankrupt... (probably over me... one of those fly by night insurance companies that did want to insure a goofy kid with a dynamite machine). This story goes on in length with more repairs, more crack-ups, and my finally ending up with a gold '63 Corvette, this time 4 speed, with leather seats, and a 300HP 327. It finally died a few years later with a bad tranny. All in all, if I had put these two cars in a vault, and sealed it up, I could sell them both and buy a NEW CORVETTE. Or at least a nearly Brand New Avanti. (I got to find a photo of a 2005 Avanti)...

Anyway, I think I wasted about 5 years of my life with those cars. This is what happens when you are a goofy kid blown about by the wind. (I still hear that wind at times...)!!!

((( By the way, I'm sorry this is so far off the track... probably belongs in MISCELLANEOUS))....

The above discussion is tempting me to open a Big Daddy Roth, Rat Fink thread.

Turnips and napalm? I prefer the turnips. I love the smell of turnips in the morning. Especially when grandma is cooking them. Ah, the memories associated with smells.

BoDillon. You still there?

Still have a model of this baby somewhere in storage...
http://www.mrgasser.com/mysterion.htm

CH31: "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning." A line from the movie Apocalypse Now. The character, Col. Kilgore, was based on real-life army Col. David Hackworth - among the most decorated US soldiers ever and possibly the most decorated of the Vietnam war. (Played by Robt. Duval in the classic war movie.)

Nard, yeah, but they sure sounded cool when you started them up, pulled out from the curb, accelerated, and, best of all, passed on the open highway. Now, we only have the whirrrr of a hybrid engine. The time they are a changin'.

Back on RB then. What does Patrick drive Mr. B around in? Not one of the aforementioned, I would bet.

fjp451,
“We few. We happy few.”

Frank,

Ray mentioned to me once that Patrick would drive him in the Jaguar that is in his garage that is about 30 years old.

I believe Patrick owns a car service and probably uses a nice Lincoln or similar.

One of the (probably very few) Bradbury stories that goes into a car in much detail is "To the Chicago Abyss."

Any "Prairie Home Companion" fans here? Garrison Keillor seems to talk about cars a lot.