She says I’m always “Apollo 13 this” and “Lunokhod that”
October 20, 2014 6:44 AM   Subscribe

Tom Hanks, somewhat of an authority on going to the moon, wrote about it in The New Yorker. (You, too, can write like Tom Hanks!)
posted by emelenjr (19 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
I didn't realize that was fiction at first, and was so confused. Tom Hanks hangs out and drinks beer on his patio with people who work at Home Depot?
posted by procrastination at 6:49 AM on October 20, 2014 [4 favorites]


Tom Hanks hangs out and drinks beer on his patio with people who work at Home Depot?

To be honest, I wouldn't put it past him....
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:50 AM on October 20, 2014 [7 favorites]


I wouldn't have believed it, but that was a fun little piece. Tom Hanks just gets awesomer and awesomer.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:21 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


reëntry

i'm happy Hanks coöperated with the style guide.
posted by carlodio at 7:23 AM on October 20, 2014 [6 favorites]


I wouldn't have believed it, but that was a fun little piece.

A potential disaster averted, you might say.
posted by fairmettle at 7:29 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


That was great! Nice contribution to the build-your-own rocket ship genre. (A personal favorite.)

I'm also really happy with the simulated typewriter application: those screenshots totally gave me an olfactory memory featuring the heady odor of ink ribbons.
posted by TreeRooster at 7:30 AM on October 20, 2014


That was friggin funny. Well played Tom Hanks. I am just surprised he didn't take a volleyball with him.
posted by 724A at 7:38 AM on October 20, 2014


reëntry

I love the diæresis, eps. when it shows up in zoölogical. It is annoying, though, that it is for all intents also an umlaut, which while not important in English, is absolutely critical in other languages. In German, bruder is "brother", and the plural is brüder. Zahlen means "to pay", zählen means "to count". In German, ü ä and ö are actually separate letters, in Swedish, å ä and ö are.

So, I kind of get that it's someone confusing to use the diæresis, but I still like it. Esp. when you remember that it has a ligature, which, at one time, meant something in English, but that was long ago. (Æ, in particular, comes from the Scandinavian languages. Danish, Icelandic and Norwegian still have it, Sweden uses Å instead)
posted by eriko at 7:45 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


diæresis

Not even the New Yorker has the gumption to use the Æsc.
posted by dis_integration at 8:23 AM on October 20, 2014 [2 favorites]


Got the same little thrill reading this story as I did watching Salvage One as a kid.
posted by JoeZydeco at 8:51 AM on October 20, 2014


"—" would be an excellent rap/punk-rock name.
posted by The Tensor at 9:50 AM on October 20, 2014


Guys, if you subscribe to the electronic edition, you can hear him read it! I'm going to try that on the commute home tonight.

(This is absolutely the best part of the electronic subscription to the NYer - nearly all the fiction is read by the authors.)
posted by newdaddy at 10:16 AM on October 20, 2014


Pretty great Kerbal Space Program fanfiction.
posted by 256 at 10:46 AM on October 20, 2014


It is annoying, though, that it is for all intents also an umlaut

The diæresis and the umlaut are distinct diacritical marks that just happen to be visually identical.
posted by kenko at 10:59 AM on October 20, 2014 [1 favorite]


The diæresis and the umlaut are distinct diacritical marks that just happen to be visually identical.

It's also a tsere that has migrated to the wrong part of the letter in the wrong alphabet.
posted by maxsparber at 11:14 AM on October 20, 2014


You can listen to it from the linked page as well - there is a SoundCloud link a few paragraphs in.
posted by mikepop at 11:55 AM on October 20, 2014


Somehow I didn't need to hear Hanks read the story to hear it in Hanks' voice. The man is never not charming.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:06 PM on October 20, 2014


...it is for all intents also an umlaut

The diæresis and the umlaut are distinct diacritical marks that just happen to be visually identical.


There's still a lot of disagreement about this issue within the linguistics community.
posted by Flashman at 5:11 PM on October 20, 2014


There's still a lot of disagreement about this issue within the linguistics community.

Really? How is that possible?
posted by kenko at 11:22 AM on October 22, 2014


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