ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan) (02/07/84)
Yes, folks, Douglas Adams DOES have a new book out. His co-author
is John Lloyd, and the title is.....
THE MEANING OF LIFF
That's LIFF, not life.
Let me quote you the preface (in its entirety)
"In Life *, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings,
situations and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for
which no words exist.
On the other hand, this world is littered with thousands of spare
words which spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on
signposts pointing at places.
Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts
and into the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can
start earning their keep in everyday conversation and make a more
positive contribution to society.
Douglas Adams
John Lloyd
*And, indeed, in Liff. "
So, what we have in this book is a number of place names, most of
them from Britain, but not all of them, to which have been assigned
definitions.
I'll give you a few of them, but to really find the meaning of Liff,
you'll have to find a copy of the book.
"Abilene (adj.)
Descriptive of the pleasing coolness on the reverse side of the
pillow."
"Goole (n.)
The puddle on the bar into which the barman puts your change."
"Massachusettes (pl. n.)
Those items and particles which people who, after blowing their
noses, are searching for when they look into their hankies."
A slightly expensive little paper back, but good enough and rare
enough to grab up if you actually find a copy.
Ariel (I just reviews 'em) Shattan
..!tektronix!orca!ariels
p.s. the book is narrow, black with gold lettering, and has a large
orange sticker on the front which declares "THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE
YOUR LIFE". perelgut@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (02/10/84)
THE MEANING OF LIFF
I flipped through the book quickly and couldn't imagine spending even
$.02 for such a piece of garbage. Those of you who read this electronically
can get better entertainment by typing "fortune -o". None of the examples
I read were funny. I even searched for humour or satire or semantic content
and didn't find any at all.
Don't bother buying this if you find it, just wait for it to be remaindered
at $.09 at some discount bookhouse. Then you can pass it up and feel really
smug.
My Rating: .5 out of 5
P.S. The "real" Adams books all rate 4.0+ out of 5. Go spend your money on
another copy of those.
P.P.S. I suspect Adams' towel wore out and he sold LIFF to get the money to
buy a new one. Either that or he had too many GargleBlasters
--
Stephen Perelgut
Computer Systems Research Group University of Toronto
Usenet: {linus, ihnp4, allegra, decvax, floyd}!utcsrgv!perelgut
CSNET: perelgut@Toronto