jeff1@garfield.UUCP (Jeff Sparkes) (06/19/85)
In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that I'm not aware of? Jeff Sparkes garfield!jeff1 Welcome to the Iceberg California....
gjerawlins@watdaisy.UUCP (Gregory J.E. Rawlins) (06/23/85)
In article <3139@garfield.UUCP> jeff1@garfield.UUCP (Jeff Sparkes) writes: > > In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly >chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it >about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little >strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that >I'm not aware of? > > Jeff Sparkes I took the joke to be that no name is "especially inconspicuous" - i think that is amusing in itself. I mean, how seriously can you take a book with statements like "the ship hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't" and "the liquid tasted almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea", and situations in which the protagonist presses a mysterious button only to have the button light up and say "please don't press this button again". This is not material to be taken lightly! By the way i recommend this trilogy (of _four_ books!) to all who find the following piece of dialogue amusing: Alice: "..that's not what that word means!" Humpty Dumpty: "Words mean what i say they mean - i pay them extra". (None of these quotations are exact - my books are at home - but i hope i've captured the sense correctly... which reminds me of another Carrolian twist - "take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves"). ..these people are so amazingly primitive they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea. :-) Greg. -- Gregory J.E. Rawlins, Department of Computer Science, U. Waterloo {allegra|clyde|linus|inhp4|decvax}!watmath!watdaisy!gjerawlins
barnett@ut-sally.UUCP (Lewis Barnett) (06/25/85)
> > In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly > chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it > about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? > > Jeff Sparkes > garfield!jeff1 The Ford Prefect was apparently a hideously popular auto marketed by the Ford Motor Company in Great Britain. I'm not sure where I heard this, but it may have been the interview with Douglas Adams in a recent MacWorld magazine. Lewis Barnett,CS Dept, Painter Hall 3.28, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX 78712 -- barnett@ut-sally.ARPA, barnett@ut-sally.UUCP, {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!barnett
jwl@ucbvax.ARPA (James Wilbur Lewis) (06/26/85)
>>>From: jeff1@garfield.UUCP (Jeff Sparkes) >>Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers >>Subject: Ford Prefect >>Date: 19 Jun 85 12:36:33 GMT >>Organization: Memorial U. of Nfld. C.S. Dept., St. John's >> >> >> In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly >>chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it >>about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little >>strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that >>I'm not aware of? >> >> >> Jeff Sparkes >> garfield!jeff1 I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Ford Motor Company used to sell a model in Great Britain called....you guessed it...the Ford Prefect! -- Jim Lewis U.C. Berkeley "Sorry for the inconvenience..."
jcjeff@ihlpg.UUCP (Richard Jeffreys) (06/26/85)
[ DON'T PANIC! ] >>> In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly >>>chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it >>>about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little >>>strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that >>>I'm not aware of? >>> Jeff Sparkes > I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Ford Motor Company used to > sell a model in Great Britain called....you guessed it...the Ford Prefect! > -- Jim Lewis "Prefectly" correct Jim. Ford UK did produce the model known as the Prefect, but it was (I belive) discontinued way back in the early sixties. I never liked the design of them anyway. I liked them even less, when one decided to turn right, just as I was overtaking it. They were quite solid and tended to cause quite a mess when they collided with Toyotas. My father wasn't too happy; it was his Toyota :-( -- [ It's not the end of the world....no it's not; If it's the end of the world, well so what ? - Marti Webb ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ || From the keys of Richard Jeffreys ( British Citizen Overseas ) || || employed by North American Philips Corporation || || @ AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville, Illinois || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ || General disclaimer about anything and everything that I may have typed || ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alan%DCT.AC.UK%DUNDEE.AC.UK@ucl-cs.ARPA (06/26/85)
From: Alan Greig <CCD-ARG%dct@ucl-cs.arpa> A Ford Prefect was a rather famous car ! I suppose it was never released by Ford in the USA ? Alan -------
davidl@orca.UUCP (David Levine) (06/26/85)
The joke is that the Ford Prefect is a British AUTOMOBILE! (Imagine if his
name had been Ford Escort instead...) I believe the Prefect was sold in the
U.S. under another name, but I don't know what it was.
David D. Levine (...decvax!tektronix!orca!davidl) [UUCP]
(orca!davidl.tektronix@csnet-relay.csnet) [ARPA]bruce@stc.UUCP (Bruce Munro) (06/27/85)
In article <3139@garfield.UUCP> jeff1@garfield.UUCP (Jeff Sparkes) writes: > > In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly >chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it >about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little >strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that >I'm not aware of? It's a type of car, Ford Prefects were around in the 50's and 60's I think. What I could never work out was how Zaphod Beeblebrox knew Ford was called Ford as he hadn't seen him since before Ford arrived on the Earth. -- Regards, Bruce Munro. <bruce@stc.UUCP> {root44, ukc, datlog, idec, stl, creed, iclbra}!stc!shimell
okie@ihuxi.UUCP (cobb) (06/27/85)
> In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly > chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it > about the name that makes it overly conspicuous...? Ever read "Brave New World?" One of the major characters in that book is a man named Ford Prefect... B.K.Cobb ihnp4!ihuxi!okie AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
yrdbrd@bmcg.UUCP (Larry J. Huntley) (06/28/85)
In article <3139@garfield.UUCP> jeff1@garfield.UUCP (Jeff Sparkes) writes: > > In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly >chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it >about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little >strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that >I'm not aware of? > > > Jeff Sparkes > garfield!jeff1 > "Ford Prefect" is the name of an automobile built by English Ford. Choosing this for a name has the same effect as an American author naming a character "Chevrolet Malibu" or (as in Frank Zappa's case) "Studebaker Hawk." 'brd -- Larry J. Huntley Burroughs Corporation Advanced Systems Group MS-703 10850 Via Frontera San Diego, CA 92128 (619) 485-4544 "Just call, and tell them how you feel about muffins...pumpkins... waxed paper...Caledonia Mahogany Elbows...and Green Things in general...and soon -- a new rapport..." -Francis Vincent Zappa
fritz@phri.UUCP (Dave Fritzinger) (06/29/85)
> > > > In Hitchhikers, it says that Ford Prefect had mistakenly > >chosen his name to be "especially inconspicuous". What is it > >about the name that makes it overly conpicuous? It's a little > >strange, but not THAT strange. Is this some British joke that > >I'm not aware of? > > > > Jeff Sparkes > It is-the Ford Prefect used to be a very common (and inconspicuous) car in England Dave Fritzinger PHRI NYC allegra!phri!fritz
friedman@h-sc1.UUCP (dawn friedman) (06/30/85)
> I took the joke to be that no name is "especially > inconspicuous" - i think that is amusing in itself. I mean, how > seriously can you take a book with statements like "the ship hung > in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't" and "the And I thought I wasn't going to answer anything today... I can't resist pointing out that this particular line is not only valuable as an inversion of the expected, but as an extremely (at least to me) vivid simile. The picture of bricks hanging in the sky instantly appears in the mind, despite its non-correspondence with reality, and conveys clearly the image of the impossible Vogon ships. It was when I found this line, in fact, that I realized that the author was NOT just a smug, self-indulgent weirdness apostle, but quite a good writer. I realized that I could go on with the book without the fear of reaching the end but not the point. I think the analogy with Carroll is well taken, precisely because of this element of artistry as well as insanity. dsf (Dawn Sharon/the Speaker) I forgot the first analogy that comes to my mind: Oscar Wilde's "Her hair went quite gold with grief" is different from Thurber's indictment of typosetters, "A stitch in time saves none" because the inversion is also a meaningful statement about society (not a very deep one) as opposed to a statement created for the sake of the inversion alone. (Or a statement unintentionally created, like the one that set Thurber off in the first place: the misprinting of a line of his so that it became, "The gates of Hell shall now prevail". But I digress, or didn't anyone notice?) dsf
royt@gitpyr.UUCP (Roy M. Turner) (07/01/85)
OKAY! O-bloody-kay! So Ford Prefect was the name of a car! Can we
*puh-lease* move on and not mention it again!?!
T'anx.
--
The above opinions aren't necessarily those of etc, etc...but they
should be!!
Roy Turner
(a transplanted Kentucky hillbilly)
School of Information and Computer Science
Georgia Insitute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
...!{akgua,allegra,amd,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!gitpyr!roytSR.KAUFMAN@MIT-SPEECH (07/25/85)
From: SR.KAUFMAN@MIT-SPEECH Poking around in a bookstore last night, I saw that Harmony books has put out an "Omnibus Edition" of the first three Hitchhiker's books, with "A New Introduction by Douglas Adams". The introduction describes and in part explains how the HHG saga started, and where all the story lines branch off from each other. There is also a comment about Ford's name: Adams explains that Americans did not get the joke, because the Ford Prefect was only sold in England, but that Ford had "simply mistaken the dominant life form". Share & Enjoy, Qux Qux@MIT-Goldilocks.Arpa Kaufman@YaleCS.Bitnet ..!decvax!yale!kaufman