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    Darren

    One of my favourite GK works. Who doesn't love a good road trip tale?

    When this book came out, I was roughly the same age as Artie Geller, so I could relate to it quite easily. I don't know if there's ever been anything like a Juniortours in existence, but I think it's an amazing idea. In reality it may be too logistically difficult and financially prohibitive to pull off, but it would be a heck of am adventure and learning experience for anyone to take part in. I love taking road trips to see new places, meet new people and experience new things whenever I have the time and money to do so.

    This book feels like a slight shift upward in age. If you take Bugs out of the equation, this is the first book with a couple of older characters who are a little bit more than just a foil for the main characters or there to move the plot along. Rob and Dennis are more fleshed out than Chip and his fellow counselors in I Want To Go Home, for example.

    Nice placement of the name with the Vegas Hotel Gunhold.

    I've always loved the mystery of what Artie said to the Road Hogs. To me it's irrelevant if GK had anything in mind for what was actually said or if it was just the ultimate author power of being able to make something happen without having to explain it in detail. I don't even want to know if the words were thought of, I enjoy it for being the mystery it is.

    Artie's schemes are brilliant. Not just the ideas themselves, but the various psychological tricks that make people more willing to part with their money and enjoy doing so. Scores, beating a time, competition --- things that video games make great use of. Gord, did Artie's schemes come easy to you or was there some brain strain required?

  • Reply

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    So help me, your review makes me want to read the book! I'm glad you enjoyed the mystery of what Artie said to the Road Hogs. There are people who hate that feature to this day! As for the schemes for making money, the only one I really remember is Attack Jelly, and that's a pretty straightforward riff off the Pet Rock, whiuch was popular back then. I never said I was too proud to steal.                                                                      --Gord--

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    So help me, your review makes me want to read the book! I'm glad you enjoyed the mystery of what Artie said to the Road Hogs. There are people who hate that feature to this day! As for the schemes for making money, the only one I really remember is Attack Jelly, and that's a pretty straightforward riff off the Pet Rock, whiuch was popular back then. I never said I was too proud to steal.                                                                      --Gord--

  • Reply

    Darren
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    I was going to refer to Attack Jelly as Pet Rock 2.0. It's still a great idea regardless. There's influence and inspiration and independent discovery, all of which can be intentional or subconscious. I always try and make clear that if something reminds me of something else, that it doesn't lessen that thing. There's the old line that there's nothing new under the sun, but taking something and making it feel new and different, presenting it in such a way to elicit surprise and novelty is a great skill, one that you possess.


    As for the mystery, art should make you feel something, even if it's mostly just for entertainment. Frustration is a feeling! I also think about it in musical terms. A suspended chord is one in which the third degree of the scale is raised or lowered (sus4 or sus2) in the chord. What the ear wants to hear is that note resolving to become a major chord. But if you hold that suspension long enough and let it fade out, it kind of resolves itself in that way. I've had 41 years to get used to it being a mystery, haha.


    The other schemes of Artie's: The incredible car racetrack betting set-up near Capitol Hill, the milking station in Nebraska, the Pretzel night club in Denver and the card-counting old man costume in Vegas.

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    I was going to refer to Attack Jelly as Pet Rock 2.0. It's still a great idea regardless. There's influence and inspiration and independent discovery, all of which can be intentional or subconscious. I always try and make clear that if something reminds me of something else, that it doesn't lessen that thing. There's the old line that there's nothing new under the sun, but taking something and making it feel new and different, presenting it in such a way to elicit surprise and novelty is a great skill, one that you possess.


    As for the mystery, art should make you feel something, even if it's mostly just for entertainment. Frustration is a feeling! I also think about it in musical terms. A suspended chord is one in which the third degree of the scale is raised or lowered (sus4 or sus2) in the chord. What the ear wants to hear is that note resolving to become a major chord. But if you hold that suspension long enough and let it fade out, it kind of resolves itself in that way. I've had 41 years to get used to it being a mystery, haha.


    The other schemes of Artie's: The incredible car racetrack betting set-up near Capitol Hill, the milking station in Nebraska, the Pretzel night club in Denver and the card-counting old man costume in Vegas.

  • Reply

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    Ah, yes, "Sheldon, Cow Expert." It's all coming back to me. As I recall, it was a real hoot to write, too.      --G--

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    Ah, yes, "Sheldon, Cow Expert." It's all coming back to me. As I recall, it was a real hoot to write, too.      --G--

  • Reply

    Asher
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    I occasionally introduce myself to other Korman fans as Asher, Cow Expert. If they get it, they get it.

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    I occasionally introduce myself to other Korman fans as Asher, Cow Expert. If they get it, they get it.

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