Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Zappa or zombie? Purple edition

Hi there, and welcome to today's installment of

Zappa or zombie?

There you are, going about your business, wandering into your recently-painted Juice Room (in honor of your one true love, Juice Newton), when you see it, looming ominously there in it's little crop top thingy. You've only got seconds to decide whether to break out the bong or the baseball bat. What's it going to be?



All Set? Then it's time to play...Zappa or zombie?


Zappa or zombie?
Zappa
Zombie
Zabombie

The Life and times of Xenophon Pearce Huddy

Thanks to resources like the HCFI Library and Google News and Books, it seems as though I'm able to do original research from source materials on a daily basis.

But most of the time, it's only tangential, at best, to the story I'm working on, or proves to be a blind alley of some sort. I don't want to discard all this stuff, nor do I want to print it all out and stick it in a file, or put it on a hard drive somewhere where I'll forget about it. Plus, there's the nagging suspicion that somewhere down the line, I really will need this stuff for a story.

The solution is to put it all in some easily-accessible place, with all the supporting documents and a summary of the research. That describes Wikipedia well, and that's what I did yesterday with Xenophon P. Huddy.

I've run into Xenophon Huddy's name many times over the years, researching for my weekly legislation story. Starting in 1906, he wrote a legislative affairs column himself, for Horseless Age. He was also the author of The Law of Automobiles, the first and seminal text on the subject, which went to at least eight editions in his lifetime. Eventually, it occurred to me to wonder who he was, thinking maybe that was a story in itself.

But for someone with such a high profile--in addition to his often-cited book and other legal writings, he lectured at New York-area automobile clubs--I couldn't find even a thumbnail biographical sketch. Instead, I had to piece together scattered dates and side notes, to come up with a still-incomplete picture of a man who was genuinely formative in today's American automobile law.

The result, such as it is, I put on Wikipedia. I'm hoping somewhere out there the descendant of Huddy, or some scholar laboring in obscurity, will fill in the blanks.

So if you're interested, check out my little biography of Xenophon P. Huddy.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Zappa or zombie?

Hi there, and welcome to today's installment of

Zappa or zombie?

Today's Zappa or zombie is a bit of a trick, because either way, it's equally dangerous, so here's a little hint:
It's still dark in here . . . It's the same as it ever was. Attack! Attack! Attack!

All set? Then it's time to play!





Zappa or zombie?

Friday, August 7, 2009

Zappa or zombie

Hi there, and welcome to a brand new feature on Davestuff, a little game I like to call

Zappa or zombie?

Now it may sound simple, but they can both fool you: Zappa sometimes liked brains, and zombies go in for stunt giutar. Plus, they're both dead, and a zombie was once electied to the Czech parliament!

Ready to play? Let's go!





Zappa or zombie?
Zappa
Zombie
Zapombie
  
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