The Guardian is having a crack at making tiny trains run on time

And a little reminder about Donald Trump’s strategist and his revolutionary inspiration.

A slight derailment, as described on avclub.com on Thursday:

In this new era of fake news and alternative facts, writers are desperate for any sort of poignant phrase or literary reference to sum up the helplessness they feel looking at the world around them. One of the most common books inside people’s in-case-of-dystopia-break-glass emergency reference box is often George Orwell’s 1984 ... However, if you’re going to run around quoting a book that’s about the dangers of pointed misinformation, you’d better make sure it’s a real quote and not somebody’s hilarious bit on Twitter. This is precisely what happened in an article published by The Guardian (Australia) on Wednesday that ended with the following supposed excerpt from Orwell’s novel in which the book’s protagonist, Winston, is given a harsh lesson on the subjectivity of truth and the size of trains: “Big Brother smirked, ‘Facts are whatever I say they are. For example, trains are small. Really small. You could fit a train in the palm of your hand.’ ‘That’s not true,’ spluttered Winston. ‘I was on a train yesterday. It’s the biggest damn thing I’d ever seen.’ ‘No!’ boomed Big Brother. ‘It was small! Welcome to Tiny Train World, Winston. Enjoy not being able to catch a train on account of their being too small, you idiot!’ ”

All’s well that ends well. Avclub.com again:

If you only have a passing knowledge of 1984 — or books in general — you may think Tiny Train World is a completely plausible phrase to appear in a world-famous piece of literature. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. This passage comes directly from the mind of cartoonist and Twitter phenom @PixelatedBoat, who was more than delighted to see these ridiculous words in print.

George Orwell in Inside the Whale (1940):

It seems therefore that for a creative writer possession of the “truth” is less important than emotional sincerity.

Donald Trump’s strategist Steve Bannon, quoted in The New York Times on Thursday:

The media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.

Listening. Ronald Radosh in The Daily Beast on August 22, 2016:

“I’m a Leninist,” Bannon proudly proclaimed. Shocked, I asked him what he meant. “Lenin,” he answered, “wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

On The Sydney Morning Herald website yesterday:

My name is Liam Mannix, and I’m genuinely sick on the day after Australia Day. And the day after Australia Day may be the worst day of all of to be sick. Hundreds of thousands of Australians will be chucking a sickie today. According to the Australian Chamber of Commerce, 180,000 people will skip work today in South Australia alone … Well, live it up, chums, I say. And thanks for ruining it for the rest of us.

Nearby on the same website:

It would be shockingly irresponsible of me to encourage you to throw a sickie today. But the fact remains, a lot of you will be staying indoors, sleeping off the ravages of a lingering Australia Day. How many? Employers are expecting to see a jump of 42 per cent compared to the average, with a cost to the national economy of some $54 million. Of course, if you want to stay home (or go to the beach), you should take annual leave. Prepared at least a week in advance. However, if you are going to throw a sickie, you should at least come up with a halfway plausible excuse that will satisfy the boss …. What excuse will you be using to get out of work? Tell us in the comments section below.

By last night, number of comments:

Zero.