We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.
Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.
Or. Aren't British Thrillers Baffling Enough?’ In a recent British thriller that popped up among TV’s used movies, the detective, pursuing a trail through a crowded drawing room, sidled up to his pretty young assistant and whispered: ‘‘When you hear me say, ‘It’s beyond me,’ look down at my shirt cuff. You’ll find your instructions written there.” Sure enough, the moment arrived when he had his man trapped and, engaging his quarry in polite, clipped conversation, he shot his left cuff to the girl. She glanced at it, waited for a close-up to show the message on the screen, and flew into action. It’s a wonder, how'ever, that this particular culprit ever came to jus¬ tice. The waiting on the shirt cuff, re¬ duced to the dimensions of a TV screen, didn’t look like instructions to act natural, switch on a hidden dicta¬ phone, slip out and call the police, which was what the girl did. It looked more like: “Go to Victoria Station and reclaim my aunt’s parasol.” After years of study, we’ve got the hang of British accents. But in de¬ ciphering the letters they put in their movies, especially if you have a small screen, it’s every Yank for himself. Here are a few basic rules for un¬ derstanding this illegible correspond¬ ence: It is apt to be bad news; other¬ wise the letter isn’t shown. Instead, the character’s face lights up and he says: “I say, Angela is returning my ring! Now I’m free to marry Nurse!” Folded notes found on floors fall into two classes: If found by husband or wife, they are love letters to wife or husband; found on floors inside open or broken windows, death threats. Mail delivered to a police officer always is from the criminal he is trying to catch. It always informs the officer, usually an inspector, that he can catch the criminal by being at such and such a place at such and such a time. This makes the inspector so mad he arrests the mailman. Requiring special attention are close-ups of telegrams or cablegrams. Printed in capital letters, the words usually can be made out, though the TV screen sometimes cuts off words from the left and right margins. How¬ ever, half a message is better than none, so to humane British scripters we say: “Don’t write—^telegraph!”