Text differences between different printings?

[Ardub]

The other day, I commented on a certain line of dialog to someone who had just read this book, and got a blank stare. Apparently, like the Manual, different people's copies have different contents :-)

Here's what appears in the "Support Your Local Wizard" omnibus hardcover, that isn't in the current paperbacks or the 20th anniversary edition:


(After Fred asks about the cars crawling into a pile after they died)

(What was that? There are three -- I don't know who those were, but they have them shut up in a box hanging from that long thing.)
(No one you know, Fred. That was a traffic light.)
(It was emitting-- Look, he's trying to say something! Hello! Hello!)
(Fred, you're flashing! Calm down or someone'll see you!)
(Well, I don't know what a nice guy like him was doing in a place like that.)

Anyone know the story behind how this dialog got into some editions and not others? Any other differences people know of?

[Peter Murray]

My copy has the dialogue - that's the 1991 Corgi edition.

In the Corgi 1993 edition of AWAb, Dairine is described as being 10. Apparently later editions say she's 12.

[kk]

I have never seen that thing with fred and the traffic light?! where did u get it?

[Ardub]

Sorry for the, er, delayed response :-)

There's a hardcover omnibus of the first three books called Support Your Local Wizard, no longer in print. I picked one up at a used-book store once.