The dangers of memory

 I just noticed a fun letter in Synapsia magazine, summer 1991, about the imminent first World Memory Championships (which had just been moved from Rome to London and dropped all mention of $10,000 prize money). From one Caro Ayre, it says:

I fear that there is a danger that some contestants in these events will devote too much time and effort perfecting a particular feat, to the point where "normal life" ceases. Will they become famous? Probably. But will they live fulfilled and rewarding lives, or will they be stuck with a shallow self promoting existence, which will preclude emotional fulfilment? No doubt there will be some with a well rounded disposition who will use their skills outside the competitive field. But there will be others for whom winning will become of such importance that failure could destroy them.

I hope I'm one of the well-adjusted, emotionally fulfilled ones, but since I make a point of not using my skills outside the competitive field, I think I must be one of the others. So I hope everybody's going to let me win in memory competitions from now on! Failure could destroy me!

Wordle 2 - the sequel

 You see, this is what happens when an evil corporation like the New York Times takes over a thing like Wordle - they start to destroy the competition!

I've been playing the originally-named Wordle2 since quitting while I was ahead with the real Wordle - Wordle2 is exactly the same, but better in every way because it has six-letter words instead of five, and you get to play it twice a day instead of once. But the similarities were obviously too much for the evil New York Times to tolerate, so today Wordle2 has changed its name to Word Hurdle and added an extra little announcement to the top of the page:

This game is not associated with The New York Times. We will soon be moving to www.wordhurdle.in

I'm sure that will help them hide from the evil world-dominating New York Times corporation (who in my only other experience of them wrote that really nice article about the Extreme Memory Tournament). I've played "Word Hurdle" 64 times so far; I'll quit when I get to 72, for the golf-themed reasons I talked about in February, so the evil New York Times can go ahead and destroy it in another four days.

Even more space

 Here's another book I looked up while I'm in the children's sci-fi frame of mind - Space Trap, by Monica Hughes!

I didn't remember the title, or the writer - I thought it might possibly have been another Nicholas FIsk, though it's not entirely his kind of style. Luckily, I remembered that there's a slightly tetchy robot called Mr Isnek Ansnek, so it was easy to google. All books should be so convenient - I'm still drawing a blank with "the one with a talking dog, possibly called Bob, and a plot involving the hole in the ozone layer"...

But Space Trap comes with a description on Open Library saying "When twelve-year-old Valerie and her brother and sister fall through a space trap and are transmitted to an alien planet, they seek ways to return to the thirty-second century." - which isn't exactly what happens. They're still in the thirty-second century, they're just on a different planet. And really, it's all about seeking the one unique way to get back to the planet they started out on, but that's just being pedantic.

Blame it on the weatherman

 Taking a break from reading old Nicholas Fisk books, I decided to branch out into Peter Dickinson, and read The Weathermonger...

I hadn't read this one since I was a teenager, but thanks to that wonderful resource, Open Library, I learned something entirely new - the American edition is strikingly different to the British one! Not just in the usual changes of spelling and understandable adjustments like changing the colloquial "Nigromancer" for "Necromancer", but the whole Merlin plot at the climax of the book was completely rewritten, removing the whole morphine addiction idea and replacing it with, well, something a bit incoherent, really.

There's an interview with Peter Dickinson here, in which he says that the rewrite was an improvement, but then he was talking to Americans there. Having read them both, I think the British original is a lot better - the American version isn't really clear about to what extent Mr Furbelow is still contributing to Merlin's condition, or exactly how Geoffrey and Sally resolve it. Be like Merlin - stick with England and ignore the rest of the world!