First line: "The swearing-in ceremony had taken place on Saturday at Rideau Hall, the Governor General's residence."
I'm not sure that a government has ever been sworn in on a Saturday. The last was on a Monday, as was the one before that, the one before that, the one before that and the one before that. Before that? I can't be bothered.*
Could it be that the Reform PC PM had promised to do things differently? Were I an advisor, I'd have suggested a weekday so as to get maximum media exposure.
Just as well that it was Saturday because by early Monday morning the mess left behind by the unnamed previous government (read: Liberals) threatens to shut down the TTC. How are people supposed to get home?
First use of the word "bastard": page 4
First woman to be referred to as a "bitch": Jane Smith (page 5)
Pages in which a meeting is suggested and/or planned: 4, 5
Pages in which a meeting takes place: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Blank pages: 3 (of 18)
Pages with fewer than five words: 5 (of 18)
Pages featuring charts: 3 (of 18)
Pages featuring diagrams of the Hercules C-130: 0 (of 18)
Age of the "ancient, elaborately carved piece dominat[ing] the conference room located next to the Prime Minister's office": 135 years
Canada's debt in 1993: $445 billion
Canada's debt in 1993 (in Death by Deficit: A 2001 Novel): $485 billion
Canada's debt in 2001: $590 billion
Canada's debt in 2001 (in Death by Deficit: A 2001 Novel): $1 trillion
Flight paths of rockets (in Death by Deficit: A 2001 Novel):
* In Separation Two, the government brings down a budget on Canada Day.
Can I just digress for a moment and tell you how much I love this goofy cover? Here - should there be a reissue - is a pull quote for any publishers out there that want to reissue it with that same image: "Oh no! Canada's drowning in debt. And the seas are getting rough!".
ReplyDeleteSea level rises 170 metres and the Peace Tower leans, and still… What are those? Helicopter search lights? Whatever they are they gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
DeleteIt's a grabber of a cover all right. What does the master tell us about how the author has to make sure he gets to approve everything? Given that nothing happens in the book -- does a single character even go outside? I guess to get on a small plane you have to go outside -- thinking of an exciting cover must have been kind of challenging.
ReplyDeleteI would have gone with a private jet in flight, a Japanese guy rubbing his hands together, and maybe the Governor General, letting the PM look up her skirt.