Tim Worstall,
Portugal-resident author of 20
Economics Fallacies, expert on scandium (he does 60% of the world’s
trading, according to Theodore
Gray), nephew of a Northland avocado orchardist and a very amusingly
foul-mouthed blogger on economics, writes:
So, I went to Wikipedia to check up on something. And I read what they had to say and thought, yes, that’s about how I would say it was. Only to realise that they were quoting me.
And, you know, I’m not sure I trust a reference source that is getting their information from me.
Quite. Which is why the motto of this blog is: “Friends
don’t let friends link to Wikipedia.”
This week I am mostly editing a book about New Zealand back roads by a great
journalist so he should be correct about everything. He isn’t. As I do even
with fiction I spend more time fact-checking than I do worrying about grammar: there
are loads of Department of Conservation etc websites but books are quicker. To my surprise, the
best book I have handy with which to quickly check place-names is one of mine.
Diana and Jeremy Pope’s Mobil guides are great, but I have to say that the 1998 Reader’s Digest Motoring Guide to New Zealand rules. I did the North Island; Tim Higham did the South Island. I trust Tim's South Island references more than my North ones, but the index is brilliant. It is probably the best book I have ever contributed to.
Diana and Jeremy Pope’s Mobil guides are great, but I have to say that the 1998 Reader’s Digest Motoring Guide to New Zealand rules. I did the North Island; Tim Higham did the South Island. I trust Tim's South Island references more than my North ones, but the index is brilliant. It is probably the best book I have ever contributed to.
1 comment:
"nephew of a Northland avocado orchardist "
Am I? I could well be related to one but not a nephew I think. The link is a bit more tenuous than that. Vernon Griffiths was my mother's uncle, so my great uncle. And it wouldn't surprise me that one of his children (I only know one of them, who lives in London) farms avocados on North Island. But that would make us cousins rather than uncle and nephew I think. Second cousins maybe?
The scandium is a bit out of date too. Market's grown a lot, I do perhaps 10% these days.
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