Buggers misspelled my name.

They also misspelled "PhD" and "Civil War," and I suppose you could toss "Naval" in there since we're talking about a paticular Navy, so I guess we can chalk it up to general braindeadedness.

Congrats anyway.

Posted November 27, 2006 8:09 AM by Aconite

They also added an extra "The" to the title of the book.

Ah, well. Listen to the show anyway.

Posted November 27, 2006 8:10 AM by James D. Macdonald

Luck to you and Doyle, Jim. You'll knock 'em dead, I'm sure.

Figuratively speaking, of course. Unless they mess up your name some more.

Posted November 27, 2006 8:35 AM by Mac

Oh -- as long as I'm doing the "author promotion" thing (that the scammers assure us that all authors have to do), you can read the first few chapters here: Land of Mist and Snow

Posted November 27, 2006 8:50 AM by James D. Macdonald

"He's a former naval officer, she holds a PhD in literature..." They Fight Crime!
Those may not be the traditional credentials for superheroes, but it'd be interesting.

Posted November 27, 2006 8:52 AM by Cassie

As Mac points out, they have capitalization issues in general. It's odd though that your name is the only case where it's wrong because it's upper case.

As for the title, I think speakers of English like using articles in titles. e.g., the proper title of the Handel oratorio which includes "Hallelujah!" is _Messiah._ I've heard at least one public radio interview where someone is taken to ask for referring to it as "The Messiah." I've also heard one where the interviewer very carefully refers to it only as _Messiah._

Hope you and Doyle have fun in the interview. I will be travelling to choir rehearsal then, so I'll have to catch the archived version. I may show up at your signing at Pandemonium Books on Thursday though. (My schedule for the week is still fuzzy.)

I note that Pandemonium books also gets your name wrong, but gets the title of your book right.

Posted November 27, 2006 9:04 AM by JC

Oops, not Mac, it was Aconite. I humbly apologize...

Posted November 27, 2006 9:05 AM by JC

"He's a former naval officer, she holds a PhD in literature..." They Fight Crime!
Those may not be the traditional credentials for superheroes, but it'd be interesting.

As for myself, Cassie, I am reminded of the Kentucky Fried Movie skit where they advertise a made-up action movie about the exploits of a married couple, she a gun-toting Pam Grier kind of lady, he a rabbi.

Posted November 27, 2006 9:22 AM by Serge

Thanks for all the kind comments. We've updated our website to include some of your suggested edits. Sorry about the typos.
--Andrew Walsh, NHPR

Posted November 27, 2006 10:07 AM by Andrew Walsh, NHPR

Out of idle curiosity, is there a story behind the lower-case "d"? I usually go the other way, and mis-capitalize anything starting "Mac" -- like MacHine.

Posted November 27, 2006 10:38 AM by John Houghton

Inconsistency is the bane of automated capitalization of proper names. That one bit me in the butt many times when I was writing databased directory publishing software back in the early 1980's, because most of the ha ha "databases" I worked on were all upper case. I did a lot of hand edits because of that.

Posted November 27, 2006 12:42 PM by Earl Cooley III

Jim Macdonald: It's a pity I'm a wee bit out of range of New Hampshire Public Radio. It sounds as if it will be an interesting programme.

For my part, I'm in favour of having people who misspell my name horsewhipped.

John Houghton #10: Of course it should be spelled 'MacHine'... Why do you think so many engineers are Scots? And as for Scottish politicians, we should look no further than MacHiavelli....

Posted November 27, 2006 12:46 PM by Fragano Ledgister

John at #10: The story usually goes that names of Highland Scot ancestry use a lower case letter after 'Mac', dirty Lowlanders use a capital letter, and the Irish drop the 'a', making it 'Mc'.

Of course, I could be wrong ...

Posted November 27, 2006 1:14 PM by Duncan J Macdonald

Fragano @12

I apologised already!

Posted November 27, 2006 1:55 PM by abi

Abi #14: I know and you're forgiven.

Posted November 27, 2006 4:06 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Fragano @15:

Well, that's a relief.

Posted November 27, 2006 4:09 PM by abi

Abi #16: That's the least I could do for a fellow British object.

Posted November 27, 2006 4:12 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Fragano @17:

This may be the first time I am glad to be objectified.

Posted November 27, 2006 4:13 PM by abi

Duncan @ 13: I've always heard that Mac and Mc were both Scottish, and the Irish usually went for O'.

Posted November 27, 2006 4:30 PM by shadowsong

Abi #18: :-)

Posted November 27, 2006 4:34 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Gee thanks, Jim. The book looks like an utterly shameless waste of time. I am definitely going to have to read it.

Posted November 27, 2006 4:39 PM by TomB

Shadowsong #19: Those are both urban legends. Most Highland Scots patronyms involve a Mac. But it can be written Mc as well, and I've seen it abbreviated as simply M' (for both Irish and Scottish names).

As for the Irish Mc vs Scottish Mac (and whether the Irish use only O' as a patronymic), you might find yourself challenged on that by members of the Irish family of Macnamara. Not to mention their band.

Posted November 27, 2006 5:18 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Can I be the first to mention the Scots Irish? And maybe also the Picts? And Duns Scotus? And Fionn MacCughaill?

Thanks.

(Me? Half-Irish, half-Cornish, born in Wales, English - but ultimately French - surname...)

Posted November 27, 2006 5:57 PM by candle

I thought Mac was "son of" and O' was "descendant of" or some such thing. That comes from researching Irish names back in the early 90s when I was in my teens, and may be totally misremembered. But I do know the Irish use both and they mean slightly different things. Don't remember a Mc vs Mac explanation though.

Posted November 27, 2006 6:41 PM by Sara G

candle, I think that's Fionn macCumhail (his dad was Cumhal).

shadowsong, that O is misspelled O', but it's actually Ó—that is, a long o. And it's not a patronymic. More like a great-grandpatronymic. It means 'descended from'.

Posted November 27, 2006 7:00 PM by Xopher

It's common for people to misspell my name. My high school class ring. My dad's tombstone. The nice people who print checkbooks. Lots of people want to "correct" it, even when extensive notice is supplied well in advance.

Posted November 27, 2006 9:29 PM by James D. Macdonald

BTW, I think the show went pretty well on average. I sounded stupid but Doyle did great.

Posted November 27, 2006 9:31 PM by James D. Macdonald

All I have to say about the name issue is that the only place I've ever seen them get the spellng of Macdonald's name right the first time without any prompting was in Inverness.

Posted November 27, 2006 9:39 PM by Debra Doyle

I'm having visions of Jim's high-school class ring. I can't help but think there's something squamous on it, and that the school motto is not in Latin. And that they threw hair and toenail clippings and Other Things in with the metal when they cast it.

Posted November 27, 2006 11:25 PM by Aconite

Oops, thanks Xopher. That will teach me to attempt to show off. For a while, anyway.

Posted November 28, 2006 5:25 AM by candle

That's okay, I used to spell your name wrong all the time in exchanges with Duncan J. on Usenet.

Posted November 28, 2006 1:16 PM by Jamie Bowden

"Mac" is actually sometimes a matronymic (as in Conchobar mac Nessa.)

Posted November 28, 2006 1:56 PM by Laurence