gammaspectrum:neil-gaiman:neil-gaiman:Crowley & Aziraphale’s New Year’s WishesFrom http://www.ha
gammaspectrum:neil-gaiman:neil-gaiman:Crowley & Aziraphale’s New Year’s WishesFrom http://www.harpercollins.com/author/AuthorExtra.aspx?displayType=essay&authorID=3417Crowley: Resolution #1: I must accept that Super-Gluing valuable coins to the sidewalk and then watching events from a nearby café is not proper demonic activity.Resolution #2: The same applies to rearranging the letters on wayside pulpits.Resolution #3: Try to come up with something as good as cell phone ringtones, following one last stab at convincing Downstairs that cell phone ringtones are right up there in the whole Human Misery stakes. And iPods. Has anybody Down There even said thank you for iPods? Or “Googling yourself?” Frankly, I deserve some kind of award for “Googling yourself.”Resolution #4: I must encourage greedy people to use the term, “Low-hanging fruit,” because that’s just like old times.Resolution #5: This year, I will get a desk near the window.Resolution #6: I will try to understand why Hell is a no-smoking area. I just think it’s ridiculous having to stand around outside the gates, that’s all.Resolution #7: On the orders of Head Office I will encourage the belief in Intelligent Design, because it upsets everyone.Resolution #8: Stop Googling myself.Aziraphale:Resolution #1: Spread peace and love and glad tidings of great joy throughout the world. Also try to get out more.Resolution #2: I will be charitable to people who use the term “core values,” however difficult this may be.Resolution #3: Notwithstanding Resolution #2 (above), I will redouble my efforts to have the utterance of the phrase “core values” classified as a deadly sin. I believe Himself is with me on this one.Resolution #4: I will try to be nicer to the customers. They want to buy books; I want to sell them. It can’t be that hard. (Memo to self: Regular opening hours? Mark prices on books?)Resolution #5: I will try to be polite to Gabriel, no matter what the provocation.Resolution #6: Find out exactly what an “Internet” is.Resolution #7: Really must resume dancing lessons. Learn the “Galloping Major,” the “Gay Gordons,” the “Mashed Potatoes.” Possibly even the “Twist”?Resolution #8: Thwart Infernal Wiles (ongoing).Resolution #9: I will try to understand why Heaven is a non-smoking area.Resolution #10: On the orders of Head Office I will encourage the belief in Intelligent Design – despite the fact that the human airway crosses the digestive tract. Who thought that was intelligent?Resolution #11: Feed the ducks.…PS: If you are a person who wrote Good Omens, do not EVER look at the Tumblr Aziraphale tag to find a nice picture of Crowley and Aziraphale to put into a New Year’s blog. There are things you can never unsee.There are 17 of them altogether. I’d give a prize to anyone who could correctly identify which are mine and which are Terry’s, except there are a few I can’t remember.(Thinks. Goes and finds the original email chain. It’s from December 2005.)Ah. Terry wrote 4 Crowleys and 2 Aziraphales. Then I wrote 2 Crowleys and 6 Aziraphales. Then Terry added another 2 Crowleys and another 3 Aziraphales, including one I would have sworn was mine. So now I know.If anyone can correctly identify whose are whose (and I’ve done a fair bit of the work for you in the numbers above) post it here, and if I notice a correct one, I’ll find something fun and Good Omens related from the edit suite to send you.(This is definitely not the sort of official contest that needs rules and stuff. It’s not the kind of thing you can “win” by picking every combination and posting it, because I’m going to be checking the replies to this, and that’s just going to irritate me. It’s more of a vague curiosity stop.) Artwork above by mizzkatonicAll right, I’m going to take a mostly random stab at this.For Crowley:Terry Pratchett123478Neil Gaiman56For Aziraphale:Terry Pratchett235810Neil Gaiman1467911I’m almost certainly wrong with my guess above, but I went ahead and decided to play with numbers, because I felt like it, and also because I wanted to exercise my math skills, and I wanted to see how many possible combinations there are.By my calculations there are 12,936 possible combinations that fit the criteria Mr. Gaiman outlined.Since I’m a bit rusty at calculating combinations and permutations, I’ll show my work below the cut, if anyone cares to read a little about math or wants to correct me. Keep readingAnd no completely right answers so far. Which makes me oddly happy. -- source link
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