About the Site
Who is Odd Gonk Shine?
The short answer is that I'm the editor and writer of The Surrealist Worker. (A few pages have now been contributed by others, but they are in the minority.) Odd Gonk Shine is an anagram. Previously I'd always worked on my full name, but recently I realised that if I just used the name everyone calls me by, it produced a much better result. Oh, and yes, I worked out the anagram. I don't cheat with computer programs.
Why Bottom Pineapple Publications?
Back in 1996, I was working at Caldershaw Dyeing Co. Ltd. in Rochdale (Lancashire, NW England) [hi folks] and one of my colleagues there used the expression "top banana". My instant response was "bottom pineapple" and it just stuck. After all, it's no more illogical!
What are the origins of The Surrealist Worker?
The Surrealist Worker started out life as "Nibblers", a school comic, in the mid 1980s. The comic was produced by a group of friends (myself included) and distributed round our school (Haslingden High School, Rossendale, Lancashire.) We broke even. I took over control of the comic (no-one else could be bothered) and started on the second issue. It's still in the preparation stage!
As I grew up (I did, honest) I started developing a parallel magazine - "Nibbles". It was still schoolboy humour, but with fewer pictures! Over the next few years, it developed into "The Surrealist Worker", and the first paper issue is now nearly ready for print. With the advent of the web, it seemed like the natural course to delay the paper version even longer, and produce an electronic version.
I would welcome contributions to the Surrealist Worker. You don't need to write a full article, if you have any ideas I can expand on, send them in to
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Browser compatability and the Surrealist Worker
I can't guarantee that all sections of this site will work on any browser, however I do all I can (within reason) to make it platform independant.
This is a manually written site. I believe in understanding HTML, thus having greater control over the content. The site has basically been entirely coded by myself, though up to issue 7, the JavaScript sections were virtually all cut-and-paste scripts. I've since learned JavaScript, so from issue 7 the scripts are mine.
This site should be viewable on any browser supporting tables and JavaScript, and the design depends on support of CSS, but it is written on a Windows PC using CuteHTML. I check it on Internet Explorer and Opera (and sometimes also Netscape,) but I can't install every browser, nor check it on an Apple. Some of the content doesn't work as it should on non-IE browsers, and I keep tinkering with the coding, but should you have any problems with this site, please send details of the problem, your browser/platform, and any error messages if possible, to
The Surrealist Worker cookies policy
I realise that cookies have received bad press, and are generally mistrusted. Due to this, I will always indicate any page which will require the use of a cookie, and I'll try to give some sort of alternative, though it may mean reduced functionality.
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