scoop

Transforms from payloader to robot and back!

AUTOBOT: SCOOP

FUNCTION: FIELD INFANTRY
"Generosity has its own rewards."

A gung-ho fighter who never gives up. Considered the best in the field. Uses cool headed logic and hardened battle tactics to outwit his enemies. Always ready to lend a helping shovel to his fellow Autobots, no matter how dangerous the situation. The kind of soldier you want around when you're pinned down in a slug swamp with no ammunition. Teamed with Tracer who transforms into a twin laser-guided ion blaster, and Holepunch, a former office manager turned military man who transforms into a steel-shattering dual compression cannon.

• Strength: 8
• Intelligence: 4
• Speed: 3
• Endurance: 9
• Rank: 5
• Courage: 9
• Firepower: 9
• Skill: 6

Scoop was a payloader, an orange construction vehicle like his fellow "small" Autobot Targetmasters. Apparently no one told them how strange it looks to have earth-moving trucks with large weapons mounted on them, or how ineffective it is to have one in a combat situation.

Slang in journalism for a news story that some newspaper gets first, much before other newspapers.

A nice example was found in Mauri Kunnas' book "Etusivun Juttu": A king's crown was stolen. A newspaper reporter followed the trail of evidence and found the thief. Next morning, while other newspapers reported, with cat-sized headlines, "The Crown Stolen", the newspaper whose reporter found the king's crown had huge headlines saying "The Crown Found"...

The story draws a lot on Waugh's own inglorious experiences (or inexperiences) as a reporter in Abyssinia in 1935, in the press corps waiting for the Italian invasion. He was fooled by more senior reporters, missed scoops and went on wild-goose chases, and when he did get a scoop, the fact that the Italian minister was leaving Addis Ababa and that therefore the invasion was imminent, for secrecy he cabled it back to the Daily Mail in Latin. So they threw it away.

Among the memorable characters is Lord Copper, the press baron and owner of the The Daily Beast, and based on the real-life Lord Rothermere. His rival was Lord Zinc of the Brute. The staff had a rule for how to tell him things: you said "Definitely, Lord Copper" for yes, and "Up to a point, Lord Copper" when you wanted to say no. This catchphrase is still widely used, at least by journalists who like to refer to one of the classics of their field.

Lord Copper wants nothing but the simple, unadulterated news that the great British reading public expect. Plus victory for the Patriots, which Boot with his stellar record is expected to arrange. The Beast stands for "strong, mutually antagonistic governments everywhere". As it is explained to Boot, after they have left Lord Copper's office:

"I gather it's between the Reds and the Blacks."

"Yes, but it's not quite as easy as that. You see they are all Negroes. And the Fascists won't be called Black because of their racial pride, so they are called White after the White Russians. And the Bolshevists want to be called Black because of their racial pride. So when you say Black you mean Red, and when you mean Red you say White, and when the party who call themselves Blacks say Traitors they mean what we call Blacks, but what we mean when we say Traitors I really couldn't tell you. But from your point of view it will be quite simple. Lord Copper only wants Patriot victories and both sides call themselves Patriots. And of course both sides will claim all the victories. But of course it's really a war between Russia and Germany and Italy and Japan who are all against one another on the Patriotic side. I hope I make myself plain?"

"Up to a point," said William, falling easily into the habit.

Sample page of it: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=story_15-11-2003_pg3_8
How Evelyn Waugh's life shaped his work: http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1069758,00.html

I haven't seen it, but there was a 1987 film of Scoop, with Michael Maloney as William Boot, Sir Michael Hordern as his Uncle Theodore, Denholm Elliott as the Beast's Foreign Editor Mr Salter, Donald Pleasence as Lord Copper, and Nicola Pagett and Herbert Lom.

Scoop (?), n. [OE. scope, of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. skopa, akin to D. schop a shovel, G. schüppe, and also to E. shove. See Shovel.]

1.

A large ladle; a vessel with a long handle, used for dipping liquids; a utensil for bailing boats.

2.

A deep shovel, or any similar implement for digging out and dipping or shoveling up anything; as, a flour scoop; the scoop of a dredging machine.

3. (Surg.)

A spoon-shaped instrument, used in extracting certain substances or foreign bodies.

4.

A place hollowed out; a basinlike cavity; a hollow.

Some had lain in the scoop of the rock.
J. R. Drake.

5.

A sweep; a stroke; a swoop.

6.

The act of scooping, or taking with a scoop or ladle; a motion with a scoop, as in dipping or shoveling.

Scoop net, a kind of hand net, used in fishing; also, a net for sweeping the bottom of a river. --
Scoop wheel, a wheel for raising water, having scoops or buckets attached to its circumference; a tympanum.

© Webster 1913

Scoop, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scooped (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Scooping.] [OE. scopen. See Scoop, n.]

1.

To take out or up with, a scoop; to lade out.

He scooped the water from the crystal flood.
Dryden.

2.

To empty by lading; as, to scoop a well dry.

3.

To make hollow, as a scoop or dish; to excavate; to dig out; to form by digging or excavation.

Those carbuncles the Indians will scoop, so as to hold above a pint.
Arbuthnot.

© Webster 1913

Scoop (?), n.

A beat. [Newspaper Slang]

© Webster 1913

Scoop, v. t.

To get a scoop, or a beat, on (a rival). [Newspaper Slang]

© Webster 1913