LNH: Alt.stralian Yarns #5: The Climactic Five-Issue Battle

Tom Russell milos_parker at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 14 21:51:20 PST 2007


The Mitch-meister wrote:
> ALT.STRALIAN YARNS #5
> THE CLIMACTIC FIVE-ISSUE BATTLE

Wouldn't that be "the climactic issue five battle"?  Unless this was
just the opening skirmish of a fight that will spread over the next
four issues, as well.

> There was a horrendous cluck[*] of doom, and the cowed cousins turned

I'm of two minds about footnotes.  In fact, I'm of two minds of two
minds apiece about footnotes.

On the one hand, I think they should be avoided because they interrupt
the flow of the story.  But, on the other hand-- I love footnotes!
They're exceedingly awesome and they let the reader know something they
need to know-- so I'm all for them.  When I am, I mean.  Like I said,
two minds.

But the other two minds come down to footnote placement: on the one
hand, I think the footnote in a story without a physical page (i.e.,
any story you'll find on RACC) should be placed as close as possible to
the asterick without being too intrusive.  On the other hand, any
footnote would be intrusive, so they belong at the bottom of the story.
 Except when I feel that they don't.

Because sometimes, you'll forget what the heck the footnote was about
in the first place.  So maybe it's best to put it in there, get it over
with and move on.  But maybe it's not.

Either way, I'd like to whole-heartedly recommend the book, "The
Devil's Details", which is a heavily-footnoted history of footnotes.

> "Buk," declared the hulkhen imperiously. "Buk buk, cluck, cluck cluck
> buk."
>
> BOBFWTLMan paused the yelling and romping, and looked up at his avian
> adversary. "And if I refuse?"
>
> "Cluck," the hulkhen clucked nonchalantly.

Tee.


> "Cluck?"
>
> PIU PIU!
>
> "Ba-kawk!"
>
> Onomatopoeia!

Hee.

> [*] For the record, this is, as far as the Google Groups search will
> tell me, the first time the word 'cluck' has been used on RACC, which
> is both surprising and deeply troubling. However, that also means that
> today truly is a joyous day, so let there be much celebrating, and let
> us forever remember this day, the 15th of January, as Cluck Day.

Today also marks the second use on RACC of the word,
"honorificabilitudinitatibus", in one of my posts.  Which means that
it's no longer a hapax legomenon.  But it is the first time that "hapax
legomenon" has appeared, either separately or adjacent, in all of
RACCdom, so I guess that counts for something.

Hurray for Cluck Day!
>
> [**] And that's the second time I used the phrase 'Do you see?' in this
> story. I don't even know why I bothered to point that out, but it
> seemed significant for some reason or another.

Well, now it's no longer a hapax legomenon for this story.  Which means
that hapax legomenon is, as far as RACC is concerned, no longer a hapax
legomenon.

And that makes me a sad panda.

> Expect Ape Month stories soon.

Happy panda!

> And also heaps awesomely dodgy Possum-Man video game that I spent most
> of this morning boredly poking at. Man oh man, I gotta finish this...
> it takes 'funny because it's not' to a whole new level. I love it. My
> baby. My precious. xoxoxo tic tac toe. Etc.

Ooh!  Ooh!  Wanna play, wanna play! :-)

I've spent most of my free time playing "Joust" and "BurgerTime".
Damn, they're hard.

> ~Mitchell.

A nice, breezy fun read as always, Mitchell.  So, is it safe to assume
they'll find the missus by issue 25? :-)

==Tom




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