6.0647 Qs: Dickens; Fonts; Calvin & Hobbes (3/63)

Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Tue, 6 Apr 1993 11:17:55 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0647. Tuesday, 6 Apr 1993.


(1) Date: Sat, 03 Apr 93 07:19:27 CST (27 lines)
From: "Eric Johnson DSU, Madison, SD 57042" <ERIC@SDNET>
Subject: Question about Dickens

(2) Date: 04 Apr 1993 09:24:41 -0500 (EST) (12 lines)
From: Prof Norm Coombs <NRCGSH@RITVAX.BITNET>
Subject: Fonts for Word: Hebrew and Greek

(3) Date: 2 Apr 93 18:00:24 EST (24 lines)
From: "David A. Hoekema" <DHOEKEMA@legacy.Calvin.EDU>
Subject: Addendum and query

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 93 07:19:27 CST
From: "Eric Johnson DSU, Madison, SD 57042" <ERIC@SDNET>
Subject: Question about Dickens


I like to name the computer programs that I write after literary
characters, esp. those in Dickens. I wrote a grammar and style checker
that I called WACKFORD (after Wackford Squeers, the disgraceful teacher
in _Nicholas Nickleby_) and later renamed StrongWriter (after Dr. Strong
in _David Copperfield_); like the character in _Oliver Twist_, BROWNLOW
is a program that processes text starting at the top of the page,
"turning over the leaf when" it gets "to the bottom of a page, beginning
at the top line of the next one, and going regularly on" until, at last,
information about the text is collected.

I wrote a program to compute and tabulate basketball statistics. I
named the program after the only athlete I could remember in Dickens
novels: a pugilist called The Game Chicken. Those who used my program
didn't like that name very well, so I changed it to Rabbitt (after
Updike's character).

There must be athletes in Dickens novels other than The Game Chicken
in _Dombey and Son_ that I am not remembering. Can someone tell me some
names and references? Thanks in advance.

-- Eric Johnson
JohnsonE@columbia.dsu.edu
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: 04 Apr 1993 09:24:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Prof Norm Coombs <NRCGSH@RITVAX.BITNET>
Subject: Fonts for Word: Hebrew and Greek

A friend wants oppinions on the best looking fonts to buy for microsoft word re
Hebrew and Greek.

Write to:
nrcgsh@ritvax

Norman Coombs

(3) --------------------------------------------------------------38----
Date: 2 Apr 93 18:00:24 EST
From: "David A. Hoekema" <DHOEKEMA@legacy.Calvin.EDU>
Subject: Addendum and query

Michael Hart notes that my advice to check for a signature block on outgoing
messages by mailing to yourself is poor advice: what you get from your own
mail program may differ substantially from what others see. Instead, mail
to a colleague and ask him or her to tell you whether your name and address
appear at the bottom. Alternatively, make it a practice to type them
manually when writing to newsgroups or persons who are not regular
correspondents. Sorry I overlooked this. (My own mailer program has the
idiotic characteristic that, when set to save outgoing messages, it
helpfully offers a screenful of messages with no information whatever about
their addressees but with the sender, viz., myself, very clearly identified.
Why the programmer thought most users would forget, each day, that
"outgoing" means "sent by me" I do not know.)
He also sent a query I could not answer but launch into the conversation:
can anyone enlighten us on why Calvin and Hobbes are named "Calvin" and
"Hobbes'? (This is not a query about Genevan and English parents but about
certain cartoon characters.)

|| David Hoekema, Academic Dean, Calvin College (Grand Rapids MI 49546) ||
|| tel. 616 957-6442 || fax 616 957-8551 || <dhoekema@calvin.edu> ||