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11:47 AM Tue, Apr 08, 2008 | Permalink
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April 2008
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Everyone had a grand time the last time I posted something that made fun of bad book reviews. Well, in private e-mails to me, at least. So let's try it again: as noted on Critical Mass, the Old Hag blog is looking for "the best word or phrase to describe when a reviewer commences with a personal anecdote, generally of dubious relevance, that just-so-happenstancedly manages to contain certain tangential and ill-concealed references to the reviewer's own achievements/successes. (See: "At the end of our freshman year at Harvard, my roommates and I...") " Would love to hear your suggestions. This blogger should definitely not be casting stones through the walls of this glass house (he said, while relishing last night's overtime victory by the National Champion Kansas Jayhawks.) But I do know of a term that's sort of related. I assume it's something we use only in this newsroom, and possibly only in certain departments. But a writer who manages to get one of his favorite topics mentioned in a story repeatedly is said to have scored "a Waldo." I believe this comes from the children's book character with the striped shirt who is always hiding in unlikely places. So, for example, a writer who mentions his alma mater's basketball team for the third time in two days in a blog that is supposed to be about books and literature scores "a Waldo." If he works in, for the seventh or eighth time in the space of six months, a mention of a his home state of Colorado -- perhaps noting that a regular blogger here is scheduled to visit The Tattered Cover soon, and he is looking forward to the report -- he has scored a "double Waldo." And if he works in a mention of one of his favorite books from when he was a child -- say, "The Phantom Tollbooth," there you have it -- a "triple Waldo." This kind of thing is simple on a blog. I know people who can do it in print, regularly, though. They are the true masters. |
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Comments
Posted by Joy Tipping @ 6:23 PM Tue, Apr 08, 2008
So if I mention that I used to live in Albuquerque (just one state south of Colorado and the Tattered Cover) ... and then I somehow work in a mention of "To Kill a Mockingbird" while I'm blogging from the Tattered Cover ... that's a Double Waldo? (I want to make sure I'm computing my Waldos correctly ...)
Posted by Michael Merschel @ 9:52 AM Wed, Apr 09, 2008
Yes. And if you worked in an Anne Rice reference. perhaps, it would be a triple.