[Snake45]

My daughter gave me a NYT bestselling "thriller" for Father's Day, wherein I read this passage:

"...he turned and walked down the street and into the Edsel Deli, going strong since 1954, the sign over the door said, making it far more popular than the dismal car after which it was named."

A bestselling author wrote that. And presumably one or more editors passed it right on through! :roll:

 

[TommyGunn]

Well, that put me to sleep faster than Sominex ....
I assume the author is less clumsy physically than with words ... or he'd trip over himself en route to his word processor. :shocked:


Uh ... how did he get published? :ek:

 

[Snake45]

I assume the author is less clumsy physically than with words ... or he'd trip over himself en route to his word processor. :shocked:

Apparently, it slipped right by you, too.

 

[TommyGunn]

I assume the author is less clumsy physically than with words ... or he'd trip over himself en route to his word processor. :shocked:

Apparently, it slipped right by you, too.

Maybe. I edited the post. But I still why I should even be interested.
There is a phrase used for bad writing like that and it escapes my memory right now.
I hate Friday evenings..

 

[J.D. Langendorph]

There is a phrase used for bad writing like that and it escapes my memory right now.
I hate Friday evenings..

It's not a phrase. It's a term. The term is "Popular Fiction." I imagine you're thinking about "hackneyed."

 

[Al Thompson]

Got one from the library the other day that was so bad I just closed it and took it back. There was zero fact checking done - things like "Ft. Polk Alabama", "Ranger uniform" when referring to Class A/B uniforms, similar goofy crap. :roll:

 

[bearcat6]

It would be kind of hard to name a diner after the Edsel automobile in 1954, because they didn't exist yet.

 

[TommyGunn]

There is a phrase used for bad writing like that and it escapes my memory right now.
I hate Friday evenings..

It's not a phrase. It's a term. The term is "Popular Fiction." I imagine you're thinking about "hackneyed."

It wasn't. But it should have been! :wink:

I should really avoid postings when I am as tired as I was last night . . . . . . :ek:

I suppose I should have ALSO ''got" the point about the Edsel. I don't know what year the Edsel was introduced, but a diner opened then couldn't have had much longevity no matter what. The car's styling sure as "get-out" was 50's, not 40s, 30s, or earlier. :banghead:

 

[guntotin_fool]

The Edsel was a brand of car of the Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years. Due to its disastrous history, the word "Edsel" has become synonymous with failure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel

 

[Snake45]

It would be kind of hard to name a diner after the Edsel automobile in 1954, because they didn't exist yet.

Bingo!

 

[Steve M1911A1]

Agatha Christie's favorite gun gaffe: "He released the safety catch of his revolver..."
She's not alone. Alan Furst also wrote that howler into one of his otherwise-excellent spy novels.
But that's not all. In his The Spies of Warsaw, Furst refers to the "caboose" at the end of a European freight train.

Further, recent editions of The New Yorker harbor enough factual errors to make me believe that their previously sterling fact-checking department is now an empty office space.

What is the world coming to?

 

[guntotin_fool]

The New Yorker is now a political machine, not a source for facts, Ever since Tina Brown was editor, its gone downhill, recently they claim to have rehired some fact checkers, but I question their ability.

The decent can be traced back to when Advanced Media/Publications bought the name.

WHile it has had some issues lately, National Geographic is the one Magazine I know of with impeccable Fact Checkers.

 

[William R. Moore]

Sometime back I watched the opening of a fairly recent spy flick, it's hard to create the image of the ace hard man who searches an apartment with a Sig at slide lock. He's so good he's gonna spot the bad guys a speed load?

Seems to be a universal problem. I've caught W.E.B. Griffin with both factual and continuity errrors in the past couple of years.

 

[Steve M1911A1]

The New Yorker is now a political machine, not a source for facts, Ever since Tina Brown was editor, its gone downhill...

When Brown first became the editor, and began to make the changes that took the magazine far from from Ross's and Shawn's high ideals, I sent her a letter telling her that, "I hadn't meant to subscribe to Cosmopolitan."
I got no response, of course.

 

[bearcat6]

One I always liked was "The air was full of the smell of cordite." I was reading a Robert Ludlum thriller years ago when he described the bad guys weapon as, "The deadly night Luger that could cut through webbed steel and concrete." I threw the book across the room and never read another one of his books.

 

[William R. Moore]

Don't know why I didn't remember Ludlum. I've tried (didn't get very far) reading him a couple of times and can't figure out why he's a best selling author.

 

[Skeptic49]

It would be kind of hard to name a diner after the Edsel automobile in 1954, because they didn't exist yet.

You get some kid who wasn't around when the Edsel was spun off for no good apparent reason from Lincoln-Mercury. Most folks have NO IDEA what the Edsel was like, BUT they know it was a failure and a national joke.

The line in question is a logical outgrowth of the current school of Deconstructive Criticism, as applied to nearly everything with a very negative bent.

May I inquire as to the novel in question?

Geoff
Who notes he finds modern "pop fic" excessively violent, racist and anti-semetic, and I like Donald Hamilton, Mickey Spillane and Richard S. Prather.

 

[Skeptic49]

I've caught W.E.B. Griffin with both factual and continuity errrors in the past couple of years.

Heck, I have read ONE W.E.B.G. and after the first half dozen pages all I did was LOOK for errors!

A 12 Cylinder Jaguar XK-E in 1962!!! ARRRGGGHHH! A Colt Combat Commander in the early 60's. GASP! And the price of a Cessna 310...don't get me started...the pain..the pain!

Geoff
Who isn't even a British Car Fan...sigh.

 

[P5 Guy]

Well the name Edsel did come from Henry's nephew who was around in 1954. Even though I wasn't.

 

[Skeptic49]

Well the name Edsel did come from Henry's nephew who was around in 1954. Even though I wasn't.

Sorry, Edsel died young and was Henry Ford's son.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel_Ford

His son Henry II was running Ford when I was a kid, won Le Mans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans by getting AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney into the same car, despite different sponsorships, and the resulting legal questions. Ford was the 9,000 lb Gorilla in the auto business back then.

Geoff
Who is a Ford guy...why can't they sell me a Fusion with the twin turbo Diesel six they have in Europe?