Every Inchie Monday: Monkey

Hello Folks, 

Well I have found  my copy of HHGG and so can tell you where this week's word, Monkey, (for every Inchie Monday) comes from, although some of you may remember, as I did.  After they are pushed out of the Vogon Constructor ship they get caught up by the improbability drive of the Heart of Gold, the travelling duo see many odd, improbable, things, including "an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to [Ford and Arthur] about this script for Hamlet they've worked out." (Chapter 9)

. Now the monkeys typing Shakespeare is a mathematical idea - - "The infinite monkey theorem [which] states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare."  (Wikipaedia).  OK...

On to the inchies.  First up is the Chinese character for Monkey because 2016 is the Year of the Monkey.

I have two quilled monkey ideas:  One, the monkey:

and two, something for him to eat - because my monkey doesn't quite fit into one inch.

Hope you are having a good year of the Monkey.  See ya'll next week.

Every Inchie Monday: Big

Hi Folks

My Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy has gone walkabout so I don't know where this week's word (at Every Inchie Monday), BIG, is from.   I do know Marvin the robot complains about having a big Brain, the size of a planet. and the universe is describe as being mindbogglingly big, but I don't know the exact reference. [edit "Space," the book says, "is big.  Really big.  You just won't  believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is...."  Chapter 8]

I used to draw elephants all the time when I was a kid, so it seemed appropriate to use one to depict Big as opposed to the small mouse.

And my quilled inchie just shows the difference between big and small:

Looking forward to see what everyone comes up with this week.

Every Inchie Monday: Poetry

Hello Folks,

This week''s word at Every Inchie Monday is poetry.

I think the Vogon Poetry segment is my favourite part of all the Hitch Hiker's books, closely followed by the discussion of how to use verb tenses with the advent of time travel.

I've spent  good portion of my life studying and teaching poetry.  Using Poetry Appreciation Chairs to impose excruciating pain somehow tickles my fancy, as I am well aware that poetry seems like a form of punishment  to some people.   When marking (often bad) essays on poetry I would hear the phrase "counterpoint the surrealism of the underlying metaphor" circulating through my mind.

Now how to depict poetry?  Not easy.  I chose to use the first words of Wordsworth's famous, and easily accessible, poem from the Romantic Era (1804):

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.  

And because the poem features daffodils, and mine are just 

peaking their little heads out, I thought I would quill one:

I wish I could teach everyone to love and appreciate poetry the way I do, but it is, unfortunately, a daunting and probably unattainable task.  Poetry, however, is NOT TORTURE!

Every Inchie Monday: Fish

Hello Fellow Inchers,

Now this week's word for Every Inchie Monday, fish, is an easy one.  What better device for an author to use than to have an object that translates every language in the universe.  Of course, being Douglas Adams, he makes it a Babel fish, 'small, yellow and leech-like," that is inserted into the ear.

My first offering is about fish, but of the gaming variety:  Big Fish is a company that sells internet games for your computer.   They are quite cheap and a lot of fun.  It was the first thing I thought of trying to get away from the more literal interpretation of the word.

My quilled fish, is, well, a fish.  It is, however, pink rather than yellow because I don't like the colour yellow and I made it before I began my trek to find all the words in the book.  I  put it on some blue paper to resemble water.

Have and lovely week and I hope you don't have to do anything like insert a slimy fish into your ear.

Every Inchie Monday: Grandmother

Hi Follks,

Grandmother is this week's word at Every Inchie Monday.   I think I deserve a prize for finding this one in The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Assuming we are still near the beginning of the book, the reference I found is in chapter 5 in the Book's description of the Vogon Constructor Fleets.  To describe how nasty these creatures are the book warns: "They wouldn't even  lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblaster Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters."  Now that's obscure, but I'm really quite enjoying trying to find the words.

I usually like to vary the idea for each inchie but this time,, I couldn't think of two things.  I wanted to find a photograph of my grandmother, but my family photos are upstairs on a high up shelf (in a spot quite like where they post road planning information in HHGG) and it seemed to painful an endeavour to undertake, so here is a drawing of a generic grandmother:

And a quilled grandmother:

Have a good week everyone and be kind to your elderly relatives (unfortunately that's me in my family!)  I'm not a grandmother but I am a Great Aunt.

Every Inchie Monday: Peanuts

Hello Folks,

Everyone who has read The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy knows that peanuts (this week's word at Every Inchie Monday) are an essential food for travelling in outer space.  But like a lot of others, I chose to go the comic strip route -- I mean is there anyone who can resist Snoopy and Woodstock?  Even my 90 year old grandmother, in her tiny apartment, had a stuffed Snoopy dog she held as very precious.

I did try to quill an actual peanut in the shell:

Hope everyone who celebrates Easter had a happy one.  See you all  next week.

Every Inchie Monday: Door

Hello Folks,

Gotta love the doors (this week's word at  Every Inchie Monday) on the spaceship 'The Heart of Gold'.  As the sales brochure for the ship says: "All the doors on this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition.  It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done."  Of course, Marvin, the depressed Robot, hates them and their "pleased little clicks and whirrs."  


Lots of different ways to go with door.  My first thoughts went to the Dormouse from "Alice in wonderland" (Tenniel drawing).  It's a little difficult to see the mouse between the white rabbit and the mad hatter, but I find these drawings so much more satisfying than the Disney version.

The words this year have been rather difficult for me to quill and once again my skill level couldn't cope with a door.  So instead, I made an opening door out of paper.  The paper on the outside of the door actually has a woodgrain pattern on it and there is a bead for a handle.   Not sure, however, what is on the other side!  Does it look happy?

Hope you run across many doors of opportunity this week.  Thanks for dropping by.