Writing to Tharg 2012 - LETTERSENTERTAINYOU THE ROAD TO 10,000

[Proudhuff]

WEHT Buttonman? 

[Buttonman]

Ooooft this totally passed me by as I was in NYC with Smeato.



The Beast did not sleep and these were added giving a tantalizing total of 9992.

ASHLEY   BEECHING    KENT            M343
ALLAN   BENZIES   EDINBURGH    M343
MABS           AHMED   LONDON    M343
REED           BEEBE   USA            M343
DOUG           BUTLER   USA            M343

Two Progs over the holiday period made us wonder if Tharg has stockpiled his strips meaning that no letters could possibly appear as they would not yet have been written at the time of printing.

Still 8 to go. Whoa! I've got two in the post as it were and a spectacular prize (Subbers Slaine Beanie) has been lined up for the writer of the fabled letter 10,000. Could it be you?!

[Mabs]

Cor! I'm really chuffed to see my name near the summit! I must be number 9990?! Wow. Good luck to the guy/ gal who wins letter 10,000, dead excited! 

[Proudhuff]

who had the 2000 letter in 2000ad?

[Buttonman]

who had the 2000 letter in 2000ad?

The Beast does not discriminate - Dreddlines and 2000ad get equal billing -  the 2000th Beast entry goes to the improbably named :

KEN   TROUSERS   MITCHAM   M160/V3.57     ENGLAND   1999

[I, Cosh]

Hmm. I don't want to call the Beast's accuracy into question but are you really trying to tell us that there were only 2000 letters printed in the first 22 years but there have been (so nearly) 8000 more in the last 14?


I would respectfully suggest that the Beast is arbitrarily sorting entries on a different basis, possibly forename, and the 2000th missive to be wrenched gleefully from Tharg's bulging sack would've been sometime around Prog 417.

[Buttonman]

The question which was not asked was 'who had the 2000th letter in 2000ad' - The Beast wasn't programmed with Progs 1,2, 3 etc. but rather those that were nearest the attic hatch when the Beast was born. Mr Trousers has the 2000th entry on the Beast but the actual 2000th letter will remain a mystery until I manage to tame the Beast and sort the info in the required manner. Cosh, you're an IT dude fancy the task?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

The question which was not asked was 'who had the 2000th letter in 2000ad'

Yes, it was!

who had the 2000 letter in 2000ad?

[I, Cosh]

... the actual 2000th letter will remain a mystery until I manage to tame the Beast and sort the info in the required manner. Cosh, you're an IT dude fancy the task?

Anything to help in this greatest of enterprises. I'll see if I still have that old version you sent me a while ago.

[I, Cosh]

Preliminary findings just in and it seems that my initial estimate was some way out. First a caveat around the data source. This investigation was carried out on a grizzled grandparent of today's Beast, with the last recorded Prog being 1527, so who knows what could be missing? It did, however, corroborate the Ken Trousers theory. Or, at least, it would've if it wasn't for the fact that Buttonman had forgotten to take his header row into account. Ken may be on row 2000, but the 2000th entry belongs, of course, to Rob Hawthorne of USA.

But what of the real deal, I hear you cry. Well, I can exclusively reveal that the 2000th letter to Tharg was the second of four to feature in Prog 591. Based on the assumption that the Paisley Postal Pervert entered the letters in the order they were printed (although photographic evidence would be appreciated) I have great pleasure in awarding this prize to Mr Anthony Bush of Newcastle upon Tyne.

[TordelBack]

Finally BM's tapdancing Castle has found his statistical McWhirter, although hopefully not quite so far to the right. 

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Finally BM's tapdancing Castle has found his statistical McWhirter, although hopefully not quite so far to the right.

Try having a beer with them. The chat is scintillating

[Buttonman]

Cheers Cosh! Nice to have independent verification of the Beast's power. It was Mr Trousers as the question was :

What is the content of the 2000th line of the Beast

I've e-mailed you the current version - you still using that AOL one? - please produce reams of statistical data for my amusement and that of two others.

The Beast always lists the Letter of the Week first and then the letters top to bottom then left to right!

[Trout]

I wish my name was Ken Trousers. Hmmm...

[JOE SOAP]

Finally BM's tapdancing Castle has found his statistical McWhirter, although hopefully not quite so far to the right.

And doesn't play trumpet.