Bullet Tooth Web Design (or The Mystery Of Page 196)

Hard Man Dan Cederholm's Bullet Tooth Web Design. There's not a single sleazy gangland villain. No hookers, molls, mafia hitmen, dicks or dirty cops.

I love a good book and nothing helps me relax more than disappearing into a good crime or mystery novel. Mickey Spillane, Elmore Leonard, Colin Dexter, all great story tellers who keep you guessing right up until the last few pages. So imagine how surprised I was when I discovered a mystery in that hard man of web standards (and Jason Statham lookalike) Dan Cederholm's new book, Bullet Tooth Web Design.

Who nicked page 196?

I've been looking forward to Bullet Tooth for a while now, the title alone had me hooked long before the hype, and having met the Hard Man Dan up close this year I was looking forward to something special from the geezer.

Hard Man Dan

Frankly I was very disappointed. There's not a single sleazy gangland villain. No hookers, molls, mafia hitmen, dicks or dirty cops. No murders, shootings, bank jobs or jewel heists. Come on Dan, you can do better than that me old mucker.

In over 200 pages, the only mystery is what happened to page 196. There is 194, 195, 197 and 198, but no 196. Instead we get page 195 twice!

Bullet Tooth Web Design

I can only imagine that somewhere 196 is bound and gagged waiting for a ransom to paid. Maybe it's been drugged and locked in the trunk of a Honda Civic? Maybe it's lying in a gutter, drunk on cheap booze? The truth must be told.

Replies

1. #1 On August 26, 2005 12:02 AM stilist said:

   A nifty and inoffensive way of pointing out a mistake.

2. #2 On August 26, 2005 12:17 AM Andrew said:

   I was very tired while reading this, and it took me a thrice over before my eye's were able to tell that you weren't writing "Hard Me Dan" but were in fact writing "Hard Man Dan."

3. #3 On August 26, 2005 12:19 AM Andy Saxton said:

   I am currently enjoying this book after receiving it today along with my copy of Professional CSS (Complete with Dunstan on the cover).

   Suffice to say I am not quite upto page 195 yet (only on Chapter 6 - Page 129) but it is a good read so far.

   I did like the excerpt from the Big Lebowski as an example of a definition list though. Not quite on par with eating puppies but a nice touch.

   Maybe it's like that Stephen King book "The Plant" on the net where it was released in stages and you pay as you download the chapters?

4. #4 On August 26, 2005 04:07 AM Matt Robin said:

   #Laughs # Andy...I like the way you let your imagination run riot without that much of an excuse!

   But what of the book itself? Worth purchas-ing...or just pinching of a mate sometime? (No, I don't have friends who own books like that!)

   :)

5. #5 On August 26, 2005 04:11 AM Dan Cederholm said:

   The secret of page 196 lies within the brushstrokes of the Mona Lisa.

   But seriously, maybe there's a deeper reason this particular page was omitted. I don't want to stir anything up, but there are some hotels that skip the 13th floor, instead going from 12 to 14. My wife also thinks that financial books should leave out chapter 11.

   As far as the Bullet Tooth mystery, was it an unfortunate printing error -- or an instant collectors item for those that have purchased the first pressing? ;-)

   Mr. Malarkey may be onto something here...
   

6. #6 On August 26, 2005 07:51 AM Matt Robin said:

   (I meant Malarkey...not Andy Saxton in my previous comment)

   Dan: What about the hookers though? No hookers damnit...(you can tell Malarkey's disappointed about that one!) :)

7. #7 On August 26, 2005 08:20 AM Malarkey said:

   @ Hard Man Dan:
   "As far as the Bullet Tooth mystery, was it an unfortunate printing error -- or an instant collectors item for those that have purchased the first pressing? ;-)"

   Does that mean we'll have to buy the Special Edition in a few months? Oh yeh, and what about those hookers?

8. #8 On August 26, 2005 08:51 AM Tim said:

   Forget the Special Edition - when's the Special Limited Two-Disc Collectors Edition (in Limited Edition Tin) available?

9. #9 On August 26, 2005 09:12 AM Martin Smith said:

   At least you got a copy!!! I ordered mine eighteen years ago during a particularly bad bout of food poisoning when my fitfull nightmares merged with flickering premonitions of a future governed by just one book!!!

   31st August is Amazons best guestimate. By that time CSS will have moved on and I will be left floundering in a mire of outdated methods!!!

   Lovee!

10. #10 On August 26, 2005 09:35 AM Malarkey said:

    Peachpit have made (what they say is) 196 available as a PDF

    Mystery solved? Not in my book. Still no hookers.

11. #11 On August 26, 2005 09:43 AM paul haine said:

    Will the Special Edition have an author's commentary that you play while reading the book?

12. #12 On August 26, 2005 12:11 PM Olly said:

    That Peachpit PDF just makes things even more confusing. In my reader it says "Page 181 (1 of 1)"!

13. #13 On August 26, 2005 01:39 PM Bruno Girin said:

    The good thing about ordering it through Amazon is that it took about 5 minutes to fill in the return form when I discovered I had a first edition with 2 pages 195. So I should have page 196 on the way :-)

    @Matt Robin: yes, definitely worth buying! It's quite short (270 pages), very well written and full of exactly the right type of information. Nothing to throw away! Well apart from page 196 apparently.

14. #14 On August 26, 2005 01:49 PM Ethan said:

    Okay, the Dan Cederholm and Jason Statham thing is officially going to drive me crazy from here on out.

15. #15 On August 26, 2005 04:07 PM Rob McMichael said:

    I think you have far too keen an eye and far too much time on your hands Andy ;)

16. #16 On August 26, 2005 06:03 PM Matt Robin said:

    Rob McMichael said

    "I think you have far too keen an eye and far too much time on your hands Andy ;)"

    
    That's why he's the Guv'ner...and I'm just a geezer! ;-)

17. #17 On August 26, 2005 08:29 PM Kim Siever said:

    That is a sweet photo. It looks like Dan is straight out of an action movie. It's like he's a cop or something waiting at the kidnapper's checkpoint (maybe a public market) an the kidnapper just phoned him with more instructions.

    I think someone should make a screenplay base don this one photo. Maybe the film could be called "Hard Man Dan" or something or other.

18. #18 On August 27, 2005 12:41 AM Foamcow said:

    Mystery solved.
    My copy only has lots of page 195's.

    Its a rather interesting diagram, the subject of which explains why it was thought better to omit it from the gaze of hte general public (that's you guys).

    Oh, and it explains the absence of hookers from your copies too.

    Taking bids on ebay ;-)

19. #19 On August 27, 2005 12:44 AM Joe Clark said:

    Are you saying if I buy the book I get a bonus set of photos of Jason Statham?

    With my luck, he'll be clothed.

20. #20 On August 28, 2005 05:02 AM jake said:

    Woo hoo, I won too!! Now I just need to get it signed by Jason Statham and I can sell it on Ebay and be rich. :)

21. #21 On August 30, 2005 05:57 PM David said:

    I've just received my copy of the book, and have been fortunate enough to receive a copy with page 195 on both sides of page 195, and page 196 on neither side of page 196. I find it rather exciting and exhilarating to know I've been fortunate enough to receive such an anomaly since I really like that word, and would like to keep it specifically for that reason. At the same time, I would like to purchase page 196...it could even be printed on both sides of page 196, and have no other pages preceding it so that it would actually be my first page in a new collection of 1....which will be added to a collection of 270 pages with only 269.

    Is it possible to receive JUST page 196? I really don't want to send the whole book back just to get one missing page...I've just gotten to the really good part!
    

22. #22 On August 30, 2005 09:14 PM luxuryluke said:

    @David ^

    "really good part" - you mean the hookers part?