Writer

Biography and Origins

While there exists no doubt that Arthur S. Halsey, Jr. (ASHjr) is a current, and secretive, writer, there are distinct questions concerning his identity, most notably a general confusion as to his absolute time spectrum. Reports have indicated that ASHjr “attended schooling” in the 1980s and is a member of Generation X, having been born in the early 1970s. This would put him in his late 30s (summer 2010), and the general consensus is that ASHjr is a current author, writing contemporary to now. (In fact, much of his material is concerned with the interaction of the 21st century networked world with that of the recent past, especially various pinpoint moments of the 20th century.)

However, there are other contradictions in the historic account. Arthur S. Halsey was known for developing a “bomb rack and control” in 1933, and his appearances had been briefly documented in both Great Britain and New England at various points in the early 20th century. It has been proposed on at least a few occasions that the real ASHjr, a visionary, had written his entire oeuvre in the past and the work is only surfacing now due to delayed agency release. This proposition does not seem likely. Other speculations indicate that some of these references are actually to ASHjr’s father, or to other persons of no apparent relation. Whatever the case, the secrecy and confusion has only elevated Halsey to cult status as a writer.

Online “disappearances”

Inexplicably, there were occasions when it appeared that Halsey had all but disappeared from the Internet. This phenomenon has not been explained and cannot be caused by brief network outages as the actual references in the links appear to have been cut, but appear later in a future time. The “disappearance” has an uncanny connection to actual situations and themes in his work, as will be shown.

Writing style and work

ASHjr is primarily known for a new fiction style described by readers and critics at times as “extraordinarily fun,” “cinematically vivid,” “extremely strange and frightening” and “thrilling.” This style appears concerned with exploring lost and contemporary ideas of history, the paranormal and the unknown in a literal “fabulist” manner, heavily atmospheric in an often noir mode, and his material (often literary in style while blatantly commercial in character and design) is sometimes described as paranoir, a genre that seems exclusive to him. A characteristic ASHjr piece involves “timebending” and “time splicing” (varous events occuring at two separate moments in time and connected, or two distinct scenes at different times occurring at the same location, or a linear scene whose principles or narrators are operating in regular time but are cutting through time and space at a different speed, or multiple isolated moments — distant in time and space — that are conjoined in the narrative to reveal plot motion and meaning); elevation or reduction to different mental states involving experimental psychology, psychotropic pharmacology and NLP; the use of stylistic and atmospheric elements from vintage commercial genres (film noir, espionage, true crime, western and classical mystery); “lost” legends, secret histories and paranormal tropes; a thematic obsession with the loss or breaking-away from reason; popular scientific models and cultural artifacts as they exist not at the narrative present but from some different time (1910s Egyptology accounts, implications of 1930s cosmic ray theory, long descriptions of rare 1967 acid rock vinyl, unsigned memoirs of 1990 Manchester “acid house” scene, Sony Discman hacks, Palm Pilots, Ray-O-Vac 9v battery flashlights as a handheld “electric torch”) juxtaposed in or on top of other eras; breakdowns of character, “character molding,” and alternate or subconscious views of the same person; “constant themes of disappearance, obscurity, resurgence and bilocation” (Hapsburg 2008); cut-up dialogue or description; philosophical puzzles or logical paradoxes that are what he calls his characters’ “barriers to entry.”

The Agency

Little has been revealed about the “agency” that ASHjr has been associated with; it is unclear if this agency is a writing group, a sponsor or benefactor, or some other type of organization who are working to develop the ideas presented in his fiction. It is known that the agency operates online and consists of a great many writers, possibly in the upper hundreds. It has been speculated that the agency exists or was formed as a counter to the prevailing postmodernism. But the precise origin and even name of the agency is not known; ASHjr fans have at times referred to it as “The Agency.”

Published fiction and excerpts

Information on published material by ASHjr has been difficult to obtain, as apparently much of his early work had been published on small press broadsides and distributed via local channels and have yet to be properly catalogued or collected. However, as of this writing (Aug 2010) there appears to be a new resurgence of his work.

“The Dreamreapers,” a new story, has been collected in The Lifted Brow no. 7 (Aug 2010); it chronicles the work of agent Arthur Munfrey and has been noted as part of a larger “story-cycle”; the unnamed “agency” that Munfrey is or has been employed by is thought to be a fictitious parallel of the secret agency that Halsey works for.

Various quotations have been attributed to ASHjr, most notably the early phrase “Become who you hate,” but the original context of this quotation is not known.

Other quotation-graffitis that are known as ASHisms:

• TAKE OFF THE LOGIC CHAIN

• MOVE BEYOND REASON

For futher reference

In development.

 1921-2009

King of the DIY HOW-TO writers — Gladstone was a prolific writer, photographer and ideaman for Popular Science and later was the home-workshop columnist for The New York Times for over 30 years. [more]

Was also a boater and a WWII veteran who had enlisted in the Army in 1942, finally discharged after sustaining injuries in the war.

Retired to Bradenton Florida. Died Jan 29, 2009 in University Park Florida. At the time of his death, he was survived by daughter Robin, his second wife Sandra Zalbowitz, four stepchildren. He was also a grandfather.A funeral service was held on Monday Feb 2 2009 at 11 a.m. at Toale Brothers Funeral Home. [NYTimes obit] [Paid notice from Ruth] [Guestbook (behind paywall)]

Career

Wrote for Popular Science as a teen and soon worked up to editor — commuted to Manhattan from his Long Island home — lived there in late 40s with his wife and children and had one of the first bamboo-laden postwar basement tiki bars, with Kentile flooring (including shuffleboard court) plus other side for laundry, clothing storage closet (painted with cedar paint to deter moths and with an indicator light on outside to show if light was left on), and a photographic darkroom.

Also wrote for Mechanix Illustrated.

Later went on to be a popular and syndicated columnist for The New York Times and retired in 1991, but continued to work freelance from home and file stories for several years until retiring to Florida.

Gladstone was the author (or editor) of many DIY books such as The Complete Home Guide to Furniture Finishing and Refinishing and The New Boatkeeper: Motorboating & Sailing’s Authoritative Guide to Maintenance, Repair and Improvement.

Articles etc

Wrote hundreds and hundreds of short articles on home handyman projects as well as collections of hints and tips. Many of his Popular Science articles were collected and repackaged into paperback books for the handyman and do-it-yourselfer.

• How to Install a Live Well
• The Right Way To Choose And Use Solvents
• Plaster ‘bridge’ repairs wall cracks
• Insulate attic door to prevent cool drafts
• Smoke and Fire Alarms (scroll down midway)
• Pros and Cons on Reel and Rotary Lawn Mowers

For further reference

ad
 Advertisement.

add
Copy to be added to a story already written.

advance
1. A preliminary story describing a future event. 2. To move a story
up in priority (“We’re advancing the scandal story to the front
 page.”)

angle
The aspect emphasized in a story.

assignment
The task or story a reporter must cover.

background
1. A story that is not assigned a deadline. (See also “backgrounder.”)
2. Any information that is given to reporter not specifically for a
quote, but for general information on a subject.

backgrounder
A story that details the background of a subject. (“I’m assigned to do
a backgrounder on the new company.”)

bank
See deck.

banner
A headline that extends across the page or screen.

beat
The area or subject matter that a reporter regularly covers.

blind interview
An interview which does not give the name of the person interviewed.

blurb
Short phrase issued by a publisher to promote the sale of a book.

BOD
“Book-on-demand”; method of book printing where each book is produced
as it is ordered.

boil down
To reduce in size.

break
1. The time when a story has been published. (“When did that story
break?”) 2. The first news source to report a story. (“An indie
Web site first broke the scandal.”)

brief
A brief story.

bump
1. To move something ahead or behind schedule. (“We’re going to bump
this story up to Tuesday.”) 2. To increase or decrease. (“We’ll bump
your payment up to compensate you for the extra work you did.”)

byline
The author’s name at the beginning of a story.

caption
The descriptive text for an illustration; often credits the name of
the photographer or artist who made the illustration. Also “cut line”
or “cutline.”

casebound
See “hardbound.”

clip
A collection of a writer’s previously published work, used to show the
talent and interests of a writer. (“Can you send me some clips on the
 subject?”)

codex
A book made of bound pages.

copy
The text of a story.

copyreader
One who edits and gives headlines to news stories.

cover
To research and put together a story.

credit
Acknowledging the source for a given fact.

cub
A beginning reporter. Also “rookie.”

cut
Remove a portion of a story.

cut line
See “caption.”

daily
A publication that publishes every day.

deck
Part of the headline which summarizes the story. Also “deck copy,” “bank.”

dog watch
See “lobster shift.”

editorialize
To inject the opinion of the writer in a story.

filler
Short news stories or tidbits used to fill space.

flak
A low-position spokesperson for a company.

flash
Short news summary of an event.

follow-up
A story that gives new developments about the subject of a previously
published story.

folio
Page number.

foto
 Photograph.

fotog
 Photographer.

freelancer
One work works for himeself, and is not employed by the publisher; a
freelance assignment is one given to a writer not employed by the
publisher. Also “free-lancer.”

fyi
For your information.

get
A very good, or exclusive, interview.

graf
 Paragraph.

hardbound
A codex book whose cover material is hard and not flexible. Also
“hardback” or “casebound.”

head
See “headline.”

headline
Title of a story.

inset
1. Correcting copy inserted into a piece that is already typeset. 2.
Any material inserted into something larger: pages, copy,
illustration, advertisements. (“The corrections in the book’s new edition were made
with inset copy — you can see that the typeface is slightly
 different.”)

journo
1. Journalist. 2. Journalism.

kicker
The first sentence or first few words of a story’s lead, set in a font
size larger than the body text of the story.

kill
To delete copy; to remove an item from the publication schedule (“In
light of the airplane tragedy, the editor decided to kill the airline
humor story.”)

kill fee
Fee paid to reporter for a killed story; usually a percentage of the
normal fee.

lead
The lead paragraph or sentence in a story.

lede
See “lead.”

leg man
A reporter who gathers news.

library
A publication’s private collection of files, clips, illustrations,
prepared bios/obits, etc.

lobster shift
Working in the hours after a publication has gone to print.

masthead
The page of a publication that gives its staff and editorial information.

morgue
See “library.”

mug shot
A head-and-shoulders picture of an individual.

net sales
Number of actual sales of a book (ie, not counting copies sent to
distributors and later returned).

nut graf
Paragraph in a story containing the “meat” details of what the story
is all about, often directly following an anecdotal lead.

obit
 Obituary.

on spec
Submitting a piece on the “speculation” that the editor will accept
it, a practice more new free-lancers

op-ed
“Opposite editorial” — features page usually printed opposite a
newspaper’s editorial page, often containing pieces presenting a
position on an issue which is the opinion of the author and not
necessarily (or usually) the opinion of the paper. Also “O&E.”

orphan
A single line of text beginning a paragraph or section of text and
appearing at the bottom of a page.

pad
To make longer.

paste-up
A page’s individual elements assembled in its layout on a board
(usu. by _pasting_ or taping); used to make the photographic plates
which are then printed.

pic
Picture or illustration.

pitch
Story idea sent to an editor by a reporter.

pix
 Pictures.

play up
Emphasize. (“Why don’t you play up the infidelity angle?”)

pork
Material held for later use, if needed.

POD
“Print-on-demand.” See BOD.

pull quote
A quotation from an article, sometimes edited for brevity, displayed
in larger type as a figure to the body of the article. (Also
 “pullquote.”)

puff
Editorialized, complimentary statements in a story.

puff piece
A news story that contains a lot of puff.

query
A pitch, usually for longer, editorial or magazine pieces.

redletter
Exclusive, breaking news coverage of a major news event, printed in red type.

retraction
A publication’s withdrawal of a previously-published story or
fact. (“The _Times_ retracted their comments on the man.”)

revision
A re-written or improved story, often with additional quotes or facts.

rookie
See “cub.”

run
1. To put an item on schedule for publication (“Let’s run this item in
the gossip column.”) 2. A reporter’s beat.

sacred cow
News or promo material which a publisher or editor demands be
published, often for personal reasons.

scoop
1. An exclusive or first-published story. (“That story you did was a
nice scoop.”) 2. A synonym for “tip.” (“I got another great scoop from
 her.”)

sell-through
Percentage amount of net sales for a book.

short
See “brief.”

source
An individual whose statements are used for material in a story.

spec
See “on spec.”

stet
Proofreader’s mark for “restore to condition before mark up.”

street edition
The edition of a newspaper that comes out first and is available “on
the streets” such as at newsstands.

subhead
A smaller one-line headline for a story.

TK
Proofreader’s insertion mark for data “to come”; also “TKTK.”

take
A section of a running story.

tie back
See “tie in.”

tie in
Part of the story that reiterates past events in order to make recent
developments clear. Also “tie back.” (“Your piece is good, but the
tie-in is weak.”)

tip
Information about a potential story that has not been broken.

top heads
Headlines at the top of a column.

trim
To reduce the length of a story.

vet

weekly
A publication that publishes once a week.

widow
A single line of text ending a paragraph or section of text and
appearing at the top of a page.

For more, see “Glossary of Printing and Allied Terms” in the third edition of Words into Type (pg. 535), in print for more than a quarter-century and still unparalleled.

The Herter’s Catalog

The motto of Herter’s, Inc. showed up on every printed page of their annual catalogs: Where wildlife cannot live, humans cannot survive. Back in the day, the company’s products were used and cherished by hunters, fishermen, trappers, boaters and outdoorsmen of all persuasions. If you spend enough time on fishing forums today, you’ll run into the older folks reminiscing on their youthful days perusing through a Herter’s, such as these nostalgic thoughts and memories of the 1974 Herter’s catalog. The catalogs liberally included Herter’s essays and advice, which were heeded by them all — such as his informative and quixotic “How to Buy an Outdoor Knife.” [full text, scroll down]

Pages from the Herter’s Catalog

While no entire catalogs have been digitized and put online, you can catch tantalizing glimpses of some of the catalogs online if you know where to look. Try here for images of some pages: a page from the 1955 Gun Accessory Catalog,
a full-page scan of the Herter’s minibike (the “Herter’s Hudson Bay Hunter, Fisherman, Beach, Tundra, Trapper and Camper Bikes”), a box for the “world-famous tiger tail” (scroll down), and
a color cover.

The various goods and products themselves were of generally high quality, and are sought-after collectibles today. [search]

Herter’s, Inc. was nominated as part of the MN150 exhibit, (150 people, places and things that shape the state of Minnesota): Whether you were 10 or 100, a pilgrimage to Herter’s captured every young sportsman’s imagination through the latter half of the 20th century.”

http://discovery.mnhs.org/MN150/index.php?title=Herter’s%2C_Inc.

While the Herter’s showroom is gone, vestiges remain; GLH made arrangements so that Cabela’s would now handle distribution of their products and to this day Cabela’s continues to handle the world famous herters.com Internet domain. You can browse the remaining inventory, which at this wrigin includes outdoor camouflage clothing and world-famous life-size duck decoys.

Herter’s books today

Some books were written and published in conjunction with his wife, Berthe E. Herter. George Herter enjoyed talking about his associations with Ernest Hemingway, and in fact he made thousands of original claims. He claimed to have the true knowledge of the Martini cocktail and its originator, who (claimed Herter) also invented another “world-class” cocktail, the Martini Verboten, whose second ingredient is apple cider vinegar.

While Herter produced large quantities of his books, some titles can be difficult to obtain. Collectors hoard and cherish their copies. Many remain in the possesion of individuals who first purchased them, or passed on to their families, but some are finally beginning to become available. Check eBay [search] and Amazon, where many of the important Herter titles can still be obtained at reasonable prices:

• How to make the finest wines at home in old glass or plastic bottles and jugs for as little as 10 [cents] a gallon has little about old bottles and jugs but much entertaining reading on beer, wine, cocktails, recipes and home-brewing.

• How To Get Out Of The Rat Race And Live On $10 A Month

• Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices is GLH’s Masterwork and could be the oddest most insane cookbook ever written. First sentence: “I will start with meats, fish, eggs, soups and sauces, sandwiches, vegetables, the art of French frying, desserts, how to dress game, how to properly sharpen a knife, how to make wines and beer, how to make French soap and also what to do in case of hydrogen or cobalt bomb attack, keeping as much in alphabetical order as possible.” Huge! Profusely Illustrated! [more] Note that some editions also contain Herter’s descriptions and information concerning the various and most important Famous Restaurants and Night Clubs of the World!

• European and American Professional Sourdough Cooking and Recipes is charmingly illustrated and would make a fine holiday gift for any occasion.

• Professional guide’s manual

• George the Housewife and How to Diet and Never be Hungry contains Herter’s unique approach to dieting, a method and technique quite possibly not used by any other program ever devised. Does not produce hunger!

• PROFESSIONAL FLY TYING, SPINNING AND TACKLE MAKING MANUAL and MANUFACTURERS’ GUIDE

• George The Housewife …

• Secret Fresh and Salt Water Fishing Tricks of the World’s Fifty Best Professional Fisherman (Plus The Professional Secrets of Fishing Rods and How Fishing Rods are Made). Completely Illustrated. Fantastic thoughtful and uniquely “retro” gift for the sport fisherman or outdoorsy type guy.

• How to Live with a Bitch. A practical guide on marriage. Personal advice and tips, based on Real World Experience.

• Herter’s Professional Course in the Science of Modern Taxidermy (with Myron E. Barrie).

• Condensed Professional Loading of Rifle, Pistol, and Shotgun Cartridges Including Pressures and Velocities and Reloading Data for Gun and Ammunition Manufacturers Professional and Amateur Target Shooters, Game Hunters and Guides (with Jacques Pierre Herter).

• Professional and Amateur Archery Tournament and Hunting Instructions and Encyclopedia (with Russell Hofmeister).

Reminisces and articles

“The greatest cook book writer in history” — so begins Mark Gelbart’s 2005 article on The Bull Cook.

Also that year, Stephen Bodio posted a GLH reminiscence that discusses some of the books. Bodio points out a few Herterisms, including this gem, from 1963’s The Truth About Hunting in Today’s Africa: “Most people don’t realize that being eaten by a hyena doesn’t hurt very much.”

Bob Zimmerman wrote an essay on his memories of the Herter’s catalog back in the 1960s.

The article “Classic Cookbooks Create Some Wild Conjecturing” contains a recipe for Steak Aflame.

Don’t miss Out Your Backdoor’s memories of Bull Cook and the Herter’s catalog — he talks about how it contained silk, gems, cured salmon and maple syrup (!) and postulates that Herter’s began to decline once the ban on selling guns through mail-order went in place.

From Guns Magazine, April 2005: “… in my youth their catalog was the wish book for all things outdoors.”

George Campbell’s 2007 reminiscence of a boyhood poring over the Herter’s catalog, “Remembering Herter’s — An Iconoclast’s History” (scroll down) reminds us that George Herter was a master marketer.

In 2008, Herter was profiles in the New York Times (Dec 7 2008).

More reminisces and memories of the Herter’s store…

For further reference

A concise, no-nonsense guide to getting up and going with Google AdSense

Absolutely anyone can make a penny with AdSense. It’s not hard to make a dime, either. A few dollars are possible. But the big bucks? As Harry J. Misner says, it’s all about making dollars, not cents — see his explosive new book on strategizing, The Best Damn GOOGLE ADSENSE Book.

You want results? The first thing you have to do is keep up with Google AdSense developments. Do that through the official Adsense blog … and The Unofficial AdSense Blog. You’ll also want to study Eric Giguere’s site, which is loaded with AdSense tips and ideas. There’s also Problogger’s long tips for AdSense.

Does it really work? In 2005, USA Today describes how, for some DIY bloggers and webmasters, Adsense is a total bonanza. Of course, it’s not without work.

Quick, quick intros

There’s a lot to take in, so if you still need the “AdSense 101” introduction, see this short article on how to monetize your blog.

That tells you what it’s all about. When you’re ready to strategize, you need Joel Comm’s guide, The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense.

Go to the experts

You have to keep up and one of the best ways to do that is to participate in online forums. Google provides its own help forum for AdSense; go there first. Another good forum where plenty of hte “pros” hang out is the Google AdSense forum at Webmaster World.

When you’re up and going

The most important thing you can do, once the design is done and your site is up and going out of beta, is get more traffic. Here’s 21 tactics to do so. Also take time to study the many articles in this newsletter archive; while one article shows 77 free ways to get traffic, there are a lot many more in these archives.

You can also try to apply Sitepoint’s 12 killer ways to make extra income on the web.

Online book, Kochbuch für LaTeX (Deutsch) is full of prewritten “recipes” for various typesetting jobs and situations.

“LaTeX: It’s Not Just for Academia”: part one and two

Fonts and Typefaces

The TeX Font Guide is a readable online book filled with advice (and examples).

“Using TrueType fonts with TeX (LaTeX) and pdfTeX (pdfLaTeX)” by Damir Rakityansky

“Using TrueType fonts with TEX via Postscript Type1 format”

“Adding Postscript fonts to teTeX 0.4”

“Making a PostScript font available”

big directory of zipped tex/latex fonts

long readme with step-by-step instructions on installing fonts

more hints and tips on installing fonts from simaril consultants

available fonts

mftrace - Scalable Fonts for MetaFont

fonts and symbols, metafont info and links for creating your own fonts and simple drawings with metafont

What happened to Thomas Dunbar’s METAFONT and Linux: A Personal Computing Milieu? (Published as a compressed PostScript file, early 90s)

TeX and LaTeX groups and publications

The UK TeX FAQ (searchable)

comp.text.tex

PracTeX Journal: practical TeX, “how to get things done” with TeX

NTG: Dutch language oriented TeX users group

TrueTeX Software: TeX for Windows

The “Five-Foot Shelf of Books” and companion 20-volume Shelf of Fiction

Assembled and edited by Dr. Charles W. Eliot in 1910, what he called “all the books needed for a real education.” [more] [ToC with commentary] [google] [wiki]

The entire HC series is online at Bartleby. You can also buy the complete set of books.

“Eliot’s Elect: The Harvard Classics, 1910”

Attempts at reading the entire series

List of current attemptors (46 in 3/09)

A comedy writer took the year 2008 to try and do it

Blogs aren’t newspapers and they can’t replace newspapers. But blogs sort the content of many newspapers and other media outlets, like an editor, giving an edited view (with commentary) on the news (which itself is reported and published elsewhere). Unless a blog is reporting news, it’s just linking to another news media outlet.

You can start a blog on any topic and as long as you have the dedication to keep up with the news on that topic and keep linking it, working at it constantly, obsessively, which is not the same as reporting on a topic (Matt Drudge edits the news, by linking to stories he likes with titles he writes, but for the most part he isn’t a reporter himself), you can eventually attract enough insider info and tips to begin breaking news stories (rarely, Drudge), and certainly being among the first to link to a particular story that is reported and broken elsewhere.

Brian Stelter made a name for himself while a 20-year-old college kid by running the TVNewser blog at Mediabistro.com, covering the network and cable news biz. His story as reported in USA Today (Jul 10 2006). He eventually broke more news instead of linking to others and today the TVNewser blog is mostly original Mediabistro content, or links to other parts of their site.

For further reference

Originator of the “Great Books” series. Pagan-turned-Catholic, student of angelology, philosopher. [bio] [more] [google] [wikipedia]

Center for the Study of the Great Ideas

The Mortimer J. Adler Archive

For further reference

“Great Books — Texts and Fully Searchable Concordances” [concordance.com, gone but still archived]

OCLC’s memorial article (illustrated) is worth reading. [PDF]

[quotes] [google] [wikipedia] [NY Times obit] [OCLC announcement]

Books and articles

His writing on library automation and book publishing had a great influence on my own outlook and ideas.

Most important is his book, The Evolution of the Book (Oxford University Press 1998). Fantastic history of the book with ideas for the future.

The Collected Papers of Frederick G. Kilgour, great reading, once online in scanned GIF files (!), are apparently now offline. [archive] [buy]

“Interlibrary Lending Online,” Dr. Kilgour’s entry to the Pioneers of Information Science Scrapbook (Oct 1998) by Dr. Bob Williams. [more]