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News Briefs 02-08-2005

How does the 10th planet affect my daily horoscope?

Quote of the Day:

Probably the last sound heard before the Universe folded up like a paper hat would be someone saying, ‘What happens if I do this?

Terry Pratchett

Editor
  1. Terry Pratchett
    Actually, Terry was taking a swipe at stupid, lazy journalists who ask dumb questions and don’t bother researching an article. It wasn’t so much a swipe at J.K.Rowling herself, but rather at the insanely ludicrous hype of the Harry Potter phenomena each time a book or film is released. Terry was taking a swipe at those who perpetuate the hype and make it worse — ie, the media.

    Now I will take a swipe at Rowling. She’s plagiarised Jill Murphy’s classic series of The Worst Witch, and a comic book series called The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman. Without a doubt.

    There’s an Australian kid’s author, Odo Hirsch, living in London, who has publicly taken swipes at the Harry Potter nonsense, even using it for the basis of a kid’s novel.

    First we had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then it was the Power Rangers’ turn, and then we had the Pokemon explosion — Harry Potter was the next big hyped-up fad for kids. And don’t even get me started on The Da Vinci Code, whose characters are more cardboard than the book cover.

    And don’t give me the lame excuse that at least Harry Potter has got kids reading books. What the hell else are they reading besides Harry Potter? Nothing! I worked in the kids section of a bookstore last year and I could not get one kid, nor one parent, to read anything other than Harry Potter. Not even Narnia, or the Worst Witch, or anything by Diana Wynne-Jones, or Roald Dahl (another author who Rowling ripped off). Kids read nothing but Harry Potter, for the simple reason that all the other kids are reading it and you wouldn’t be very cool if you read something that wasn’t Harry Potter, and it’s a f***ing disgrace.

    Ahem. I’m finished ranting for now.

    “Read like a butterfly, write like a bee.” – Philip Pullman

    1. yes yes yes
      Yes she has plagiarised The Worst Witch.I’ve been whingeing about that for years and no one seems to know what I am talking about.
      The characters are exact in some cases.

      Isn’t Terry Pratchett beautiful!
      He’s like a little elf himself.I bet his mama is proud of him.I know I would be if he was mine.

      shadows

      1. The Worst Witch
        Terry was pretty grumpy the last time I saw him, taking a swipe at Peter Jackson and hoping someone films a proper adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings. I told him that PJ didn’t rewrite the books, and he still has those to read. He grumbled in his beard and changed the topic.

          1. He knows 😉
            As for the Worst Witch, I urge all Harry Potter fans to use TDG’s booksearch (topbar menu), or I’ll do the work for you, here are the links for Amazon US or for Amazon UK.

            I’d better shutup now before some snotty little wizard turns me into a newt.

          2. Or worse…
            J.K’s lawyers come a knocking. Better to be a newt I think…
            😉

            Peace and Respect
            Greg
            ——————————————-
            You monkeys only think you’re running things

          3. bad news is good publicity
            It won’t be like all the other threats of legal action over comments made on TDG, Greg … imagine the publicity we’d get if we got sued by J.K.Rowling! 😉

            She gets all her story ideas from us anyway …

          4. LOL I think of Terry as a God
            LOL I think of Terry as a God. I just wish I had not been working when he came here. His books are all that keep me sane at times. Most get read well over three times a year and still remain fresh. I pick up new bits every time I read them.

          5. Turn u into a newt?
            …you’ll get better…

            yer ol’ pal,

            Xibalba
            (This post was brought to you by “Realm of the Dead”)

        1. Isn’t He Always?
          I met Pratchett twice…once at a performance of the play of Mort and once at a talk he gave at an Edinburgh library. He pulls of this sort of cheerful grumpiness. The most interesting part of the talk for me was him on his own favourite reads…No ! being the Flashman books of George MacDonald Fraser.

          Regards, C

          1. I love Flashman!
            Hi”Cernig”,
            I’ve been reading Flashman books for I don’t know now many years now.They’re wonderful.

            Fancy you and Rick meeting him.I am jealous.

            shadows

  2. Pot and potty
    “To their surprise, the team discovered CB1 cannabinoid receptors – which are known to be present in the brain – in the endothelial cells which line the gut.”

    This probably wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read Terence McKenna. What the gut having such receptors tells us is that our ancestors may have used cannabis as a staple food.

    It would be interesting to know if other mammals, especially monkeys, had epithelial cannabinoid receptors as well.

  3. Bob White’s do do
    Has anyone ever seen a photo of Bob White’s do do?
    It seems to me that if it is as strange as the scientists say after their examinations of it, then we may finally have something concrete about the mystery of UFOs.
    This is a great story and I will be interested in hearing more about it.

    Thanks Greg,

    shadows

  4. BBC Corrects Terry Pratchett Article
    Just to let everyone know that the Terry Pratchett article has been changed.

    It’s sly, not publicly admitting to their error as is the norm for ethical journalism. Instead, they sneakily change the tone of the article and pretend nothing ever happened.

    But we all know, don’t we. 😉

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