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  #31  
Unread 02-07-2014, 07:26 AM
Graham King Graham King is offline
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Default Is Oldie deadline noon or midnight?

Hi,

I email my entries.
The Oldie brief reads 'Entries... by post... or email... by 7th February 2014.'
The New Statesman similarly tells us 'The deadline is...' and a date.
Only The Spectator specifies 'by midday on...' a date.

Does anyone know whether a midday deadline is universal - implicit, even if unstated?
Or is the curtain for Oldie entries the close of Tessa's working day (whenever that may be)?
Or is the deadline, where unstated, to be taken as a liberal midnight?
Has anyone had entries accepted by NS or Spectator which they emailed after midday?

(One of my Oldie entries for Comp 173 was emailed today, the closing date, at 12:00 noon.)

Last edited by Graham King; 02-07-2014 at 08:27 AM.
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  #32  
Unread 02-07-2014, 09:54 AM
Jerome Betts Jerome Betts is offline
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Graham, on the face of it 'by February 7th' means 'not later than February 7th', so I would have thought you had up till when the date changes at 12 midnight. And then Tessa starts dealing with the whole bunch the next working morning, in this case the 10th?

Last edited by Jerome Betts; 02-07-2014 at 09:54 AM. Reason: Typo
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  #33  
Unread 02-07-2014, 11:18 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
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I'm pretty sure that I've had wins or HMs at the Spectator when I've missed the deadline by several hours. With a noon deadline, those of us in the US really have to submit by the night before unless we get up very early and tend to it. I often forget and send off my entries when it's mid-afternoon in the UK.

I can tell you for sure that Pat Myers at the Washington Post will cut you some slack if you miss the deadline by a bit, or if you want to correct or change an entry the next day or so.
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  #34  
Unread 02-07-2014, 06:16 PM
Graham King Graham King is offline
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Thanks, Jerome and Roger, that's helpful. I entered some by noon and, encouraged by what you wrote, added some more before midnight. The early three:

1.
I voyage as a lawless trader,
Vagrant soul on foreign seas!
Eagerly I plumb life’s nadir,
Most rapacious among these:
Pirates drunken, shrunken, haggard;
Villains, from all nice ways hurled!
Mine’s the wickedness that’s staggered
Gentlefolk of landed world.
Once of noble birth, dark-tarnished
Now, I’m glad I sailed away.
Since, my bloody living’s garnished
By rich merchantmen. Caught, they
Feed me luxuries I’ve eaten,
Treasures lustful eyes regard:
Stolen pleasures ship-life sweeten!
I’m called The Black Fox, Reynard.

2.
I suppose you might call me a trader.
I sail depths of space as my seas;
My scope is from zenith to nadir,
And all that lies in between these.
My furred-and-scaled form may seem haggard -
But think of the light-years I’ve hurled!
And the journey-time would leave you staggered,
To reach from my home to your world;
So no wonder my hull’s warped and tarnished.
(Please, turn your death-lasers away.)
I’ll gladly depart once I’ve garnished
My cargo with local goods. They
Should be stuff not organic nor eaten -
For info, only, I’ve regard:
New cultures the cultured life sweeten,
With knowledge more precious than nard!

3.
I fear each thievin’ trader,
Whose nets invade our seas
And plumb them to their nadir -
I abjure and hate these!
Sea-robbin’s fraught, we’re haggard;
Unlucky ones’re hurled
Through decks to chill holds - staggered
By exposure to your world.
Their scales in death are tarnished;
Their eyes’ light, dulled away…
To be with parsley garnished -
Oh dreadful fate! Then they,
Mere ‘seafood’ now, are eaten.
Instead, please have regard!
Show mercies! Sour lives, sweeten!
I gurn. I’m a gurnard.

[The gurnard, a sea-bed fish, belongs to a family called the sea-robin - hence line 5, with deliberate play on sound/double-meaning.
It is certainly edible, but is considered ugly - hence line 16.]
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  #35  
Unread 02-08-2014, 07:12 AM
Jerome Betts Jerome Betts is offline
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Gurnard are more than 'certainly edible' if properly cooked, Graham, -delicious I would say.

On the other hand . . .

Although allergy-prone, greedy Bernard
Ate too much grilled fish. (It was gurnard.)
The flush on his cheeks
Persisted for weeks
Like a sunset-scene throughly Turnered.
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  #36  
Unread 02-08-2014, 11:32 AM
Sylvia Fairley Sylvia Fairley is offline
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[quote=Jerome Betts;312001]Gurnard are more than 'certainly edible' if properly cooked, Graham, -delicious I would say.

I had a delicious gurnard at a seaside cafe in Minorca. My son caught a red gurnard off the Devon coast which didn't taste quite so good, but I blame the cooking...
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  #37  
Unread 02-10-2014, 11:30 AM
Graham King Graham King is offline
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I have never eaten gurnard myself... and henceforth I think an imaginative compassion shall stay my fork.

Another entry:

A ferry-and-a-trader
Upon Atlantic seas
Met ocean-travel’s nadir,
Encountering one of these:
A block of ice (hard, haggard),
A foe unmatched, which hurled
Its edge through steel hull - staggered
Folks’ steps, and then the world.
“Unsinkable” now tarnished -
More, wholly swept away!
As waves with souls were garnished,
Few lived; late rescued, they.
Sugar is sweet when eaten
But, please, this truth regard:
Takes more than that to sweeten
“White Star”’s sour name, Cunard.


I began writing this mistakenly thinking Titanic was a Cunard vessel. On having recourse to Google, I found it belonged to White Star - of which Cunard was at that time a rival shipping line. However Cunard later bought out White Star and the names were used jointly for a while. "White Star" was later dropped... Whether or not that was because of lingering unwelcome association of that name with the Titanic tragedy, I don't know; but I reckon the facts of the case may justify my last line as I finally framed it.

Last edited by Graham King; 02-12-2014 at 06:25 PM.
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  #38  
Unread 02-13-2014, 09:08 PM
Graham King Graham King is offline
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Default I like to test Comp briefs to destruction!

“Sir Alan Sugar founded Amstrad.” “Er…
Enough about him! Turn right, here.” (Yes, ‘EA’s
Fine in Scrabble… also ‘AE’… No, ‘GRENADIR’
Is not quite rightly spelt). “And now, not North… ESE,
I think’s, our bearing - Look out!” (Splash!) “You hag! ‘Gard
Eh Loo’, you ought to shout, first. Churl!” Ed,
My friend, is soaked in filth! To stagger Ed -
That takes some doing. (“ ‘SWORLD’?”
I challenge; “D’you mean ‘swirled’?”) To tarnish Ed
Is hard - he’s much-stained anyhow. “Aw, ay!”
He calls out, “Jist coaz Ah’m a Scoat, ye’d garnish Ed
Wi’ reekin’ add-oans tae ’s coat? But Hey,
Think oan!” The window-wife draws back, brow-beaten;
Perhaps she’ll choose to use more ‘Gard
Eh Loos’ in future. Ed lifts fierce-clenched hands - wee, ten
Years old! - yells, “Cam oot! Think ye’re muckle ’n’ ’ard?”
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