Things in books that annoy you

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by jj2me

I did before my original post just to be 99% certain, and found nothing (you have to exclude the hits that use your search terms to lure you to their site, and exclude hits for Chrysler Town & Country minivans). I also have been a car nut all my life. Please show me what you found of Supra station wagon and Chrysler Town Car. I'd love to see pictures of such vehicles.

Could it be that the author was thinking of the early (78-80) Supra? They were sort of stretched out hatchbacks. I could see an author calling it a station wagon, especially if the car model was incidental to the plot.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by jj2me

I did before my original post just to be 99% certain, and found nothing (you have to exclude the hits that use your search terms to lure you to their site, and exclude hits for Chrysler Town & Country minivans). I also have been a car nut all my life. Please show me what you found of Supra station wagon and Chrysler Town Car. I'd love to see pictures of such vehicles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Supra
I've heard referrals to the Town Car model (style) all my life. I just can't find a link.

[theducks]

Zodwallop reminded me that our UK friends have a different names for what we called a Station wagon here in the US

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by theducks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Supra
I've heard referrals to the Town Car model (style) all my life. I just can't find a link.

Ducks try Lincoln Town Car.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Town_Car

I know when I was a kid (time of the town car), it was Chrysler/Ford /Lincoln/Mercury.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Ducks try Lincoln Town Car.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Town_Car

I know when I was a kid (time of the town car), it was Chrysler/Ford /Lincoln/Mercury.

I have driven one of those (and a bunch more).

But we are looking for a Chrysler.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by theducks

Sun Microsystems, DEC, Compaq, Atari, Fairchild. Nortel. gone

Some brands got absorbed and the name dropped. Others went belly up.
When they get mentioned in older books, it is depressing.

Nortel is a big one for me. I am (was?) a Nortel certified PBX technician. Nortel got bought out by Avaya (formerly Lucent, formerly a division of AT&T). The Nortel products are now "marketed" (so to speak) as "Avaya Blue." The really irritating thing is that, when Nortel was in trouble, Blackberry (at the time flush) wanted to buy them and not break them up, but the Canadian government squashed that and, instead, let them be bought out by vultures instead (Avaya only got one division).

Of course Nortel bought Bay Networks and basically ran them into the ground earlier so, I guess, what comes around goes around.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by theducks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Supra
I've heard referrals to the Town Car model (style) all my life. I just can't find a link.

In the 1930s Town Cars were cars where the front seat was open and the back seat was enclosed. Several companies made them.

I can't find a Chrysler Town Car, but there were Imperial Town Cars (Imperial was a Chrysler Corporation "brand").

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by theducks

I have driven one of those (and a bunch more).

But we are looking for a Chrysler.

I am thinking the unknown author got her car brands wrong,

[Richwood]

Annoying items to me.

The infamous automatic revolver in detective stories from years ago. There was such an item, the Webley-Fosbery. It was a collectors item by the time the mysteries were typically written. It was from the early 1900s and always quite rare.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webley...matic_Revolver

Also until very recently book mention of safeties on revolvers. A very recent addition to some.

Shifter stories where there is a gain or loss of mass from the shift. Where does the mass go when a 200 pound man shifts to a 100 pound wolf? Per physics it sounds like a hell of a explosion as mass is converted to energy. About like a hydrogen bomb, a big one. The same problem for going the other way. Where does the 100 pounds mass equivalent energy come from? From a physics standpoint only Poul Anderson paid attention to this in a couple of fantasy novels that I am aware of.

How about ancient or medieval stories where at a meal they mention foods that were not known in the location and time. An awful lot of foods common world wide today were unknown in ancient or medieval Europe and North Africa before Columbus. If writing a historical novel, do your research.

[4691mls]

The car discussion reminded me that once I read a book where a character was driving a new Saturn but the book was published several years after Saturns stopped being made.

Speaking of technology, authors don't seem to know about the change in over-the-air TV from analog to digital that happened in 2009 (I know because I had to get a converter box for my old TV). But authors wanting to make a point about how poor a character is or what a dump they are living in will say the character has an ancient TV with rabbit ears with no mention of it having a converter box, which is the only way such a TV could be used now.

Something I really hate in books - when the main character telling the story first-person keeps saying things like "if only I had known then how it would turn out I wouldn't have done it." Please, just tell us what you did and let us read on to find out if it turned out well or not! One cozy mystery I tried to read contained so many of these that I skipped to the end to find out whodunit and didn't try to read any more of the series.

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by Richwood

Annoying items to me.


Shifter stories where there is a gain or loss of mass from the shift. Where does the mass go when a 200 pound man shifts to a 100 pound wolf? Per physics it sounds like a hell of a explosion as mass is converted to energy. About like a hydrogen bomb, a big one. The same problem for going the other way. Where does the 100 pounds mass equivalent energy come from? From a physics standpoint only Poul Anderson paid attention to this in a couple of fantasy novels that I am aware of.

How about ancient or medieval stories where at a meal they mention foods that were not known in the location and time. An awful lot of foods common world wide today were unknown in ancient or medieval Europe and North Africa before Columbus. If writing a historical novel, do your research.

I would suggest you reread the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books as Fritz Lieber deals with the loss and gain of mass in a couple of places. Terry Pratchet does the same in one of the Tiffany Aching books. I must admit though many authors ignore the issue.

[sjfan]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Speaking of technology, authors don't seem to know about the change in over-the-air TV from analog to digital that happened in 2009 (I know because I had to get a converter box for my old TV). But authors wanting to make a point about how poor a character is or what a dump they are living in will say the character has an ancient TV with rabbit ears with no mention of it having a converter box, which is the only way such a TV could be used now.

Broadcast translator stations (aka relays) for remote rural areas were exempt from the transition, and some continue to broadcast analog signals. Low-power and Class A stations were also exempt—after the mainstream stations went digital there was a station in New York that did nothing but broadcast YouTube videos. I thought it was amusing that one of the only stations in the city using analog broadcasts was using them for digital-age content. I’m not sure if they're still around or not.

But those things are almost never what these authors are referencing.

[sjfan]

Originally Posted by rcentros

In the 1930s Town Cars were cars where the front seat was open and the back seat was enclosed. Several companies made them.

I can't find a Chrysler Town Car, but there were Imperial Town Cars (Imperial was a Chrysler Corporation "brand").

We're confusing two meanings of “Town Car”. The original statement was about the model “Town Car”, which was made by Lincoln (never Chrysler). That name was certainly chosen as a reference to the old style of car called the “town car”.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

The car discussion reminded me that once I read a book where a character was driving a new Saturn but the book was published several years after Saturns stopped being made.

Speaking of technology, authors don't seem to know about the change in over-the-air TV from analog to digital that happened in 2009 (I know because I had to get a converter box for my old TV). But authors wanting to make a point about how poor a character is or what a dump they are living in will say the character has an ancient TV with rabbit ears with no mention of it having a converter box, which is the only way such a TV could be used now.

Something I really hate in books - when the main character telling the story first-person keeps saying things like "if only I had known then how it would turn out I wouldn't have done it." Please, just tell us what you did and let us read on to find out if it turned out well or not! One cozy mystery I tried to read contained so many of these that I skipped to the end to find out whodunit and didn't try to read any more of the series.

Not an ancient TV but I can tell you the cheap digital antennas don't work as advertised.
Oh and we do have an aerial antenna for our camper.

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by theducks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Supra
I've heard referrals to the Town Car model (style) all my life. I just can't find a link.

?? I'm confused. All I see on that page is the Toyota Supra two-door sports car. Can you point me to where on that page there's a station wagon?

Of course you've heard of the Town Car. It's the Lincoln Town Car.