Greetings! The other day I did a journey that usually takes me an hour and three quarters in four and a half hours. The first 75 miles took me 90 minutes. The remaining ten miles took three hours. That was all because of massive traffic jams due to blocked roads caused by flooding. As it was I had to drive through puddles so large I thought I’d been transported to the Great Lakes. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, except that I thought you might enjoy a brief glimpse into the life of Lord Terry.
Terry, thank you for demonstrating the correct posture for playing harmonica, and for all your other helpful musings!
If you ever crack the code of how to get noticed by Substack Reads, please do let us know. I cry inside every time I see that someone who just started writing on this platform a few months ago has been featured.
"...Although a casual perusal of Linkedin might disabuse you of that notion." 🤣
I had no idea that you'd mothballed the moniker 'Dr Tel' - how did I not know that it was related to your harmonica-playing career? I think I've been using 'Lord Terry', 'Dr Tel' and 'Johnny Sax' interchangeably - I apologise profusely for not apportioning them to the correct Terry characteristics!
And Terry, I was too shy to ask for your autograph. I am awed to my own detriment by the celebrity of others... 👀 *bows* *scrapes*
So glad you're not capitulating with regards to playing the sax! And thank you for pointing us towards other great writers too. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with using a conjunction to start a sentence 😊! Also, I'd forgotten that the French word "griffonage" is allowed in English, which now makes me want to add its cousin "gribouillage" (doodles usually nesting within careless writing) to my vocabulary...may I?
Brave man sharing those photos. Grin. (The startling white socks! I guess they were the equivalent of the ‘no socks’ stuff they seem to like these days. Shudder.) As my writing is restricted to journaling and commenting these days, I can thankfully not worry about the rest. (And reading? A lot more short stuff these days. A sign of the times.)
A very thoughtful and useful breakdown! We must be careful what we complain about. My occasional “I hate my phone” etc etc is usually drowned out by the reality do the freedom of sharing my work it has afforded! And also discovering work like yours. 😍
Flattery will get you everywhere, Kathleen 😁 Thanks very much. I agree: it was much harder to discover other work although I suppose the reality was that there were no blog posts, and books could be discovered in the library. I'm glad to have discovered yours too :-)
Really?? Oh no. Will Labour make a difference? My mother in law used to have reading groups and things at her local one...seems the pandemic was an excuse to stop that. Really hurts the community
Oct 23, 2023·edited Oct 23, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman
This cracked me up: "Communication was much slower. I had to send my copy and illustrations on a disk through the post." Oh, how old I am. My first four published books were written on an IBM Selectric typewriter. I sent paper manuscripts out in the snail mail. I wrote my next three books on a tiny state-of-the-art MAC Plus. It was about as big as a shoe box on end. God, I loved that little word processor! ALSO, I was glad to see these important words again: "Most people still believe that self-praise is no recommendation, so having others sing your praises carries much more weight." Absolutely true, Terry. And especially hard for us writers who do not subscribe to social media of any kind. But I have gained thirty subscribers just this month -- nearly all from reader recommendations. Those mentions, those "restacks", those votes of confidence mean SO MUCH to me and so I try to do the same for other new writers. I thank you, Terry, for your help in this way. You have been very generous. PS: Those photos! Rock on!
Oh well, join the club! My pre-paid-for submissions were sent as print-outs. And you've reminded me that for my first book I had to print and send the MS because I'd written it on an Atari and the publisher only had PCs😆 I still have my Atari, and despite the fact that it would be nigh impossible to print from it now, much less connect to the internet, I decided to set it up again a few months ago. However I discovered that, for some unknown reason, I didn't store the leads with the hardware. As I never throw anything away, they are no doubt festering in one of the myriad boxes in the loft, which I have neither the time nor the inclination to rummage through. Such a shame.
Thanks for kind words, and glad my recommendations are useful.
Hm. "Griffonage." A new one for me, and I had to look it up. I will stick it in my treasure chest with another I've come across recently -- "wayzgoosing" -- and try to find a natural use for it.
I saw it in the context of printers and having a good time together, abundant food around of course. I imagine it's in the OED, so I'll have to pull out mine to see the earlier uses. As I recall, it was supposed to be a bastardization of other expressions. But, yes, food has something to do with it.
Yes, you're right. I just looked it up in the OED. Here's what it says:
An entertainment given by a master printer to his workmen around St Bartholomew's Day (24 August), marking the beginning of the season of working by candlelight. In later use: an annual festivity held in summer by the members of a printing establishment, consisting of a dinner and (usually) an excursion into the country.
Thanks, though I only mentioned 1990 as a way of indicating that I've experienced writing both before and after the internet came along, it wasn't intended as a means of self-promo.
The quality of the instrument makes all the difference I think.
Terry, thank you for demonstrating the correct posture for playing harmonica, and for all your other helpful musings!
If you ever crack the code of how to get noticed by Substack Reads, please do let us know. I cry inside every time I see that someone who just started writing on this platform a few months ago has been featured.
I think one has to be recommit to Substack, like in reply to this: https://substack.com/@substack/note/c-43188047?utm_source=feed-email-digest
"...Although a casual perusal of Linkedin might disabuse you of that notion." 🤣
I had no idea that you'd mothballed the moniker 'Dr Tel' - how did I not know that it was related to your harmonica-playing career? I think I've been using 'Lord Terry', 'Dr Tel' and 'Johnny Sax' interchangeably - I apologise profusely for not apportioning them to the correct Terry characteristics!
And Terry, I was too shy to ask for your autograph. I am awed to my own detriment by the celebrity of others... 👀 *bows* *scrapes*
So glad you're not capitulating with regards to playing the sax! And thank you for pointing us towards other great writers too. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with using a conjunction to start a sentence 😊! Also, I'd forgotten that the French word "griffonage" is allowed in English, which now makes me want to add its cousin "gribouillage" (doodles usually nesting within careless writing) to my vocabulary...may I?
never heard of that -- sounds great! And thanks for the rest of your lovely comment
Brave man sharing those photos. Grin. (The startling white socks! I guess they were the equivalent of the ‘no socks’ stuff they seem to like these days. Shudder.) As my writing is restricted to journaling and commenting these days, I can thankfully not worry about the rest. (And reading? A lot more short stuff these days. A sign of the times.)
A very thoughtful and useful breakdown! We must be careful what we complain about. My occasional “I hate my phone” etc etc is usually drowned out by the reality do the freedom of sharing my work it has afforded! And also discovering work like yours. 😍
Flattery will get you everywhere, Kathleen 😁 Thanks very much. I agree: it was much harder to discover other work although I suppose the reality was that there were no blog posts, and books could be discovered in the library. I'm glad to have discovered yours too :-)
True. I guess my German would have come a lot further by now for library access 😂
The government closed loads down in England. How shortsighted is that?
Really?? Oh no. Will Labour make a difference? My mother in law used to have reading groups and things at her local one...seems the pandemic was an excuse to stop that. Really hurts the community
It started in 2010, as part of so-called austerity measures. I lived in the library when I was a child. Labour? Maybe.
Me too. My mom was a librarian 🩵
This cracked me up: "Communication was much slower. I had to send my copy and illustrations on a disk through the post." Oh, how old I am. My first four published books were written on an IBM Selectric typewriter. I sent paper manuscripts out in the snail mail. I wrote my next three books on a tiny state-of-the-art MAC Plus. It was about as big as a shoe box on end. God, I loved that little word processor! ALSO, I was glad to see these important words again: "Most people still believe that self-praise is no recommendation, so having others sing your praises carries much more weight." Absolutely true, Terry. And especially hard for us writers who do not subscribe to social media of any kind. But I have gained thirty subscribers just this month -- nearly all from reader recommendations. Those mentions, those "restacks", those votes of confidence mean SO MUCH to me and so I try to do the same for other new writers. I thank you, Terry, for your help in this way. You have been very generous. PS: Those photos! Rock on!
Oh well, join the club! My pre-paid-for submissions were sent as print-outs. And you've reminded me that for my first book I had to print and send the MS because I'd written it on an Atari and the publisher only had PCs😆 I still have my Atari, and despite the fact that it would be nigh impossible to print from it now, much less connect to the internet, I decided to set it up again a few months ago. However I discovered that, for some unknown reason, I didn't store the leads with the hardware. As I never throw anything away, they are no doubt festering in one of the myriad boxes in the loft, which I have neither the time nor the inclination to rummage through. Such a shame.
Thanks for kind words, and glad my recommendations are useful.
Glad you like the pics! Chortle.
I look forward to Rebecca’s rebuttal 😃
So am I -- er, I think 😱
My favorite bit from today:
"Rebecca has also written about her meeting with me. It isn’t always the case that one gets to meet their heroes, so obviously Rebecca is very lucky."
Regarding those pictures; Is that really you rocking out like that?
I wonder if Rebecca will feel the same way! It is indeed, or rather my alter-ego, Dr Tel
Thanks for sharing my post, Terry! And thanks for your hilarious comment on it too
a pleasure!
Hm. "Griffonage." A new one for me, and I had to look it up. I will stick it in my treasure chest with another I've come across recently -- "wayzgoosing" -- and try to find a natural use for it.
Is wayzgoosing a printers' works outing or loving good food? I found both definitions online
I saw it in the context of printers and having a good time together, abundant food around of course. I imagine it's in the OED, so I'll have to pull out mine to see the earlier uses. As I recall, it was supposed to be a bastardization of other expressions. But, yes, food has something to do with it.
Yes, you're right. I just looked it up in the OED. Here's what it says:
An entertainment given by a master printer to his workmen around St Bartholomew's Day (24 August), marking the beginning of the season of working by candlelight. In later use: an annual festivity held in summer by the members of a printing establishment, consisting of a dinner and (usually) an excursion into the country.
You know, the OED is really a marvel, especially when you think of the work it took, sans computer!
I agree. There's a new book out about it called The Dictionary People. I haven't read it, but would like to one of these days
Thanks, though I only mentioned 1990 as a way of indicating that I've experienced writing both before and after the internet came along, it wasn't intended as a means of self-promo.
The quality of the instrument makes all the difference I think.
Oh I see. I always include links to my own for the benefit of people who missed them. I think there are more links to others' articles than my own.