Talk:Paul Neil Milne Johnstone

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Does anyone actually know anything about Johnstone? It'd be nice to have at least one sentence actually about him... --Spikey 13:20, 9 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Be careful what you wish for. (See April.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.177.21.167 (talk • contribs) 19:23, 7 May 2004

What do you mean? I feel it's a bit belittling if a person's wiki site tells nothing about the person himself even if that's know what he's known of. --Sigmundur (talk) 13:11, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

The IP address was probably referring to this April 2004 edit, though I don't see what's wrong with it, unless it's vandalism. Anyway, if you have notable information about him, feel free to add it (preferably with a citation). -kotra (talk) 16:58, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

The article implies that the poem linked to, and viewed in the TV series, was actually written by Johnstone. Looking at the link, the site says only that it is the poem used in the TV series. Given that it reads like someone trying to make up a bad poem, and not someone actually trying badly to write a good poem, I think that's unlikely. Does anyone know differently? DJ Clayworth 17:01, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings

Should it be mentioned in the article that the picture of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings in the TV series is a picture of Douglas Adams drawn as a woman? I'm not sure of any online source, but I think it is mentioned on the "behind the scenes" subtitles on the BBC DVD. JP Godfrey (Talk to me) 21:01, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

removed the poem

The poem to which Douglas Adams indirectly referred in the original radio series (and directly referred in the television series) is as follows:

The dead swans lay in the stagnant pool.

They lay. They rotted. They turned

Around occasionally.

Bits of flesh dropped off them from

Time to time.

And sank into the pool's mire.

They also smelt a great deal.

The poem can also be viewed here.

I removed the poem until somebody can demonstrate -- with a source -- that it was in fact written by Paul Neil Milne Johnstone, and not something made up for the TV series. - furrykef (Talk at me) 02:05, 24 February 2007 (UTC)

In Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitch-Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy by Neil Gaiman, Adams is quoted as saying Johnstone "used to write appalling stuff about dead swans in stagnant pools". This is, of course, not proof of anything; if that's what DNA associated with Johnstone's work, it's what he'd put in a parody of it. Daibhid C 18:08, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

This might be the work of PNMJ that DNA spoofs:

The crippled swan slowly easing his stiffened wings, feebly trying

To discourage death's stalking shadows with whispered hiss;

(published in "Broadsheet")

From [1] linked from [2]. Not really a source to warrant adding this to the main page, but perhaps a clue to follow - if Broadsheet issues still exist. If the semicolon is correct, then it's prolly extracted from a longer poem that may have been about something other than dead swans. Citizenpmc (talk) 21:46, 2 September 2018 (UTC)

What about biographical information?

Something is not right here. There's a page about this guy on Wikipedia and not hardly one word about him. It's all about this one time he got made fun of. Shouldn't there be something about him?

24.22.24.208 08:09, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Yes, something definitely is NOT right here. I am beginning to think this was a fiction of Douglas Adams... So far I have been able to find no mention of him at Cambridge. Furthermore, the cause of death, "pancreatic failure" is a strange and rather ambiguous diagnosis. Generally one would list cause of death as a more specific "pancreatitis" or specific complications of diabetes mellitis. Pancreatic failure of itself would have been treatable at the time of Johnstone's death (listed as 4 years after Douglas Adam's own death in 2001)--both by use of digestive enzymes and injections of insulin and, if needed, surgery. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 0xc0w (talk • contribs) 03:37, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

The above is wrong. Paul Johnstone studied English Literature at Emmanuel College, Cambridge - 1971 - 74. I was there at the same time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:C7F:AE9A:AB00:D153:3357:4DA1:AB7C (talk) 15:02, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

At the Brentwood School Page in Essex, UK, I do find that there was a famous "Old Brentwood" listed as having attended the school from 1959 to 1970. http://www.brentwoodschool.co.uk/old-brentwoods/famous-obs

This is, so far, the closest I have come to an independent source of this person being real. 0xc0w (talk) 03:53, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

Ancestry.co.uk shows a Paul Neil M Johnstone who died 2nd quarter 2004 in Tower Hamlets, birth date 23 Dec 1952. Steve Fox (talk) 12:19, 19 March 2017 (UTC)