Chasing WandaVision 3

 Okay, so I've now watched the first eight episodes of WandaVision and I'm still not impressed.

Spoilers ahead:




When did Agatha Harkness become a "bad witch"? In the comics she has always been portrayed as a bit mysterious, as keeping things to herself, but never outright evil. She may always have her own agenda, but she's neither a murderess nor a torturer.

OK...the sit-com parodies were meant to establish part of Wanda's backstory...but four or five of them? Wouldn't two have served the purpose and gotten the story moving a bit more quickly?

Neither Wanda nor Pietro are shown to have powers as kids (unless what Wanda almost does to the Stark device that destroyed their home was meant to indicate that), and Wanda doesn't manifest anything until she contacts that Infinity Stone...so where do Pietro's powers come from?

Finally, if Hayward's concern about Vision is that he was a sentient weapon, how does making him less human make things any better? Or is it that Hayward doesn't want an android with human emotions and prefers one that is simply a machine he can order to do as he wishes? You've got two episodes left guys, it's time to start explaining your villain's motives and aims.

As I've said, if a movie or a book took this long to make sense, we'd stop reading or watching. The only reason I've stayed with this is because so many people keep telling me how wonderful it is and how it's going to end up a masterpiece.

I'm not convinced.

Grocery Shopping

 No, this isn't about the relative safety or risk of shopping in a pandemic. It's about the things that bug the hell out of you in a supermarket.

Number one on my list: There's a line of three or more people at the deli counter and only one employee waiting on customers. The other three are making pre-wrapped sandwiches for later in the day, or stocking shelves with the pre-packaged product. Meanwhile, the line keeps getting longer. As someone who used to work the customer service counter in the same store, I know the manager would have had my head if he saw that situation in my area.

Number two: Employees or vendors who block the entire aisle with the product they are stocking. If the pallet you are bringing out to stock is that big, break it down into a smaller load. Yes, you might have to make two trips, but you won't inconvenience the customers.

Number three: Customers who mosey up the aisle (just to prove it's not just employees who bother me). They're not visibly looking for anything, they just move like they're in the slow lane of the highway with their flashers on.

What bugs you in the supermarket?

Eating Out

 For the first time in months, Jill and I went out for breakfast this morning, to the local Panera. I would not say it was "busy"--certainly not the way it would have been a year ago at the same time of day--and it was appropriately social-distanced. Half of the tables were marked as unavailable, there were floor markings for distancing at the registers. Everyone wore masks, except when eating or drinking.

I felt perfectly safe being there. I'm not sure in what other restaurants we used to frequent I would feel the same way. The local Applebee's seems to be fairly active when I go there to pick up take-out, but I wonder about dining in in places that serve alcohol...the inhibition-reducing effect is a concern.

Commission Commitment

 My best friend, Rich Kolker, asked this morning who could be named as chair of a commission to investigate the events of January 6 who would be acceptable and respected by all sides.

My first thought was George W. Bush. I think it would be difficult for any Republican--save for the hard-core Trumpies like Hawley and Boebert--to object to the only living former President who is a Republican (Trump, obviously, is out of the question). Bush is on good terms with all the Democratic former Presidents, and with the sitting President, Joe Biden. I don't think even the far left wing of the Democrats (AOC, Sanders, etc.) would oppose his being named to the post.

And, though Rich didn't ask about this, I think Pelosi has to give up on the idea of weighting the other members to the Democrats. The general public will see that as unfair, let alone the Republican members of Congress....however, I do think none of the commission members should be current sitting office-holders or likely candidates in the next four years. And a few experts on intelligence and security wouldn't hurt, either.

Comics--Why Dialogue Matters

 There's an ongoing controversy, thanks to a new biography of Stan Lee, about collaboration in comics--who is primarily responsible for the creation of new characters and concepts (and their commercial and esthetic success), especially in the so-called "Marvel method," where the artist works from a rough plot (either supplied by the writer, worked out by the writer and artist together, or done entirely by the artist) and then the writer fleshes it out with dialogue and narration after the art is done.

There's a large part of the comics fan community that supports the idea that the artist is the primary mover...the "real writer and creator" of stories and characters. But, to my mind, this suggests that plot is more important than characterization and that visual appearance is the primary source of success. Let me give an example of where I think that supposition is dead wrong.

It is generally accepted that Stan Lee's plot for the famed "Galactus Trilogy" (Fantastic Four ##48-50) did not include any character like the Silver Surfer, that the Surfer was added visually by Jack Kirby. I do not disagree--visually, the Silver Surfer was entirely Kirby's idea. But is it solely the visual image--striking as it may be--that made the Surfer such an immediate success?

I think not. What made the Silver Surfer a great character was the dialogue Stan Lee wrote for him, the inner dilemma the Surfer confronted between his loyalty to Galactus and his new-found admiration for the human race. While some of that may be reflected in Kirby's art and his notes thereon, it is Lee's putting it into words that makes it real, that makes the Surfer into an interstellar Shakespearean tragic hero.

Looking at Kirby's own attempts at writing dialogue, on the New Gods and other "Fourth World" material, as an example, you can see that, no matter how much emotion and pathos he tried to convey in his art, he could never bring it to full life with dialogue that matched.

If plot were all that mattered, then Kirby would have been a masterful writer; but characterization, as created by dialogue, is just as important...maybe more important. It has been said, after all, that there are only three great plots in all of fiction: Man against man, man against nature, and man against himself. It is the characters and what they do in those situations that make great writing.

Tabula Rasa

 Literally, for the first time since I started this blog in May of last year, I find myself with nothing to say. No political thoughts, no pop culture thoughts, not even any really interesting events in my own life.

Maybe tomorrow.

Party of Three?--Part 2

Today on Morning Joe, there was a discussion of the possibility of a viable third-party in the United States. They proceeded from the premise that about two-thirds of registered voters are independents and would, therefore, welcome a third choice in our elections.

But, IMO, they ignore an important point: Not all of those independents would welcome the same third choice. I figure about a third of them would want a party strongly to the left of the Democrats, another third would want a party strongly to the right of the Republicans, and the remainder would want a party midway between the two existing parties.

IOW, there is no more than about 22% of the electorate that is in favor of any one kind of political party as an alternative. There are around 214,000,000 registered voters in this country...and in the election with the highest turnout in decades in 2020, only about 160,000,000 of them (or about 75%) actually voted. (In most presidential years, the turn-out is more like 60% and in "off-years," often below 50%.)

So, if a third party existed and even all of its registrants voted for its candidate, the best that candidate could hope for is 47,000,000 votes. And if each of my imagined third parties did the same, they would get around the same, leaving 71,000,000 for the Republicans and Democrats to split. In recent years, that split has been virtually 50-50, so each of the two "established" parties would get around 36,000,000 votes. No one would have a majority of the popular vote.

Of course, this ignores that some Democrats and Republicans might vote for one of the third-party candidates. Still, I think a third party--of any political stripe--has a tough row to hoe.

Comics--Past and Future 6

 Continuing this discussion, the last part of which was here. 

 It could be that the two major comics publishers, DC and Marvel, could accomplish some of what I suggest is needed--expanding their readership beyond the current base of superhero fans--simply be reactivating some projects and properties they already own.

At DC, there are three that come immediately to mind:

Blackhawk. This international team of pilots could be portrayed as a sort of flying A-Team, a group of specialists for hire. Or, if you prefer, a variation on Britain's Thunderbirds. Stories could range from warfare to espionage to covert anti-crime missions.

Sugar and Spike. Chances are no one could handle these pre-verbal tykes as charmingly as their late creator, Shelly Mayer, so why try? DC has several decades worth of the originals to reprint. These are the model for successful series such as Rugrats and Muppet Babies...why not re-present them now?

Amethyst, Princess of Gem World. When DC first published this title in the 1970s, I argued it was custom-made for marketing to pre-teen girls, complete with an animated adaptation and a line of toys. But I guess nobody at DC back then was smart enough to see what they had...even after properties like Sailor Moon and Jem and the Holograms showed them the way. Is anyone there (or at their corporate owners) wise enough to see it today?

Marvel has fewer of these types of titles to pick from, as even in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, they were less diverse than DC. But there are two I think could work:

Millie the Model. Recast it as the beginnings of Millie's career, not the heights of it. Shows like Project Runway and America's Top Model demonstrate a public interest in the fashion world; all that's needed is a writer and artist with the ability to translate that world to comics.

Patsy Walker. This was Marvel's attempt at an Archie copy...but even in the 1950s, they played it as less of a cartoon than its more successful rival. Since Riverdale has indicated that teen love and angst still has an audience, why not see if you can bring that audience to you?

None of these should be produced as monthly periodicals, either....but as a series of graphic novels, with some continuing storylines from book to book, probably published on a quarterly basis and kept continually in print.

Your thoughts?

Who Knows?

 "Nobody knows anything."

That was how screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride, All the President's Men, among others) described the situation of predicting success in Hollywood. I've come to believe the same is true of the future of the pandemic.

On the same day President Biden predicted a return to at least "near normal" by the end of this year, a doctor made the prediction we'd be at herd immunity by the end of the spring. They can't both be right (nor can the pessimists who insist we will never conquer COVID). Frankly, I'll take what comes.

And I'll do, for the most part, what the experts recommend. I say "for the most part" because there are some things I do that they may not feel are safe. I do not feel the need to wear a mask if I am outdoors, largely on my own, including walking in the park. I have no problem with dining indoors at a restaurant I can tell is maintaining social distancing, masks (except when eating), etc. 

I do not live in fear of my life in the pandemic, but I understand that others do.

The Mess With Texas

 The Lone Star State prides itself on its rugged individualism: "We don't need help from anybody...." Well, sometimes you do--and it's much better to be prepared for those times than not.

Decades ago, to avoid federal regulation, Texas decided not to connect its power grid with those of neighboring states in a cooperative arrangement, as literally every other state in the union has done. (Hawaii is the obvious exception, but even Alaska has tied its grid with the Canadian system.) But exempting itself from the regulations that come with interstate commerce, Texas also exempted itself from the ones that demand generation and distribution facilities be able to withstand extreme weather conditions--so its power companies didn't bother. Why not? It's cheaper not to insulate and winterize your fuel lines, right, and how often does Texas get temperatures well below freezing, anyway?

Well, based on this chart, of days when Dallas hit extreme temperature, more often than you'd think

32 °F 0 °C	Year	70 °F 21 °C	90 °F 32 °C
11	2020	261	108
19	2019	244	118
26	2018	244	125
8	2017	287	111
16	2016	277	114
25	2015	262	120
36	2014	243	100
29	2013	257	119
17	2012	278	121
27	2011	258	131

Wouldn't you think you'd want to be prepared for something that can happen as often as 20 or 30 times each year? (And that's just Dallas--other parts of the state, such as the Panhandle and the western hill country, can get much colder more often.)

Oh, and naturally, if you've refused to cooperate with your neighbors under normal circumstances, don't be surprised when they are not quick to offer assistance in an emergency. Normally, in this kind of crisis, we'd be seeing news reports of electric crews from other states--as far away as New York or California--coming to help get the power up and running in the affected area. Haven't seen any stories like that this week. I wonder why.

https://www.currentresults.com/Yearly-Weather/USA/TX/Dallas/recent-annual-dallas-temperature-precipitation.php 

Martian Chronicles

 Believe it or not, there are three exploration vehicles from Earth currently orbiting Mars--one from the United States, one from China, and one from the United Arab Emirates.

The UAE mission, launched from in cooperation with Japan, was the first to reach the red planet. It is currently orbiting to test atmosphere and other conditions on the planet. The Chinese orbiter recently completed maneuvers to put it in a polar orbit, as it searches for likely landing sites, with a plan to put a vehicle on the surface by May or June. The US mission will land its "Rover" later today, using the same "sky crane" technology that successfully put its sister vehicle on the surface in 2004.

It would appear humankind's desire to explore the final frontier has not yet waned.

Nothing Trivial

 I'm very disappointed. Last year, my son got me involved in an online trivia contest called Learned League. I enjoyed playing and did pretty well, coming in the top five (out of 26) in my section. I was looking forward to starting the new season today.

But the administrators (wisely, I think) decided to postpone the beginning of the season until next Monday, because of the wide-spread power outages around the country. Oh well, five more days to go then.

Party of Three?

 Since the 2020 election and its aftermath, there's been a lot of talk about "third parties"...mostly centered around the idea of the centrist part of the Republican Party breaking off from what has become a personality cult and forming a new coalition.

Usually, the example given is the end of the Whig party in the middle of the 19th Century and the founding of the Republican Party. But the original GOP didn't just form out of disaffected Whigs...it also included anti-slavery Democrats who refused to support the Democratic Party's Southern-dominated leadership. Essentially, the more radical wings of both parties coalesced into a new organization--and it required prominent members of both parties to declare themselves as Republicans.

I don't think there's much chance of anything similar happening in the next five to ten years. It would have to be the centrist Republicans joining with conservative Democrats...and there just aren't that many of the latter, certainly not any who are as disaffected with their own leadership as the centrist Republicans are with theirs.

Could it be done by enticing independents, the folk not aligned with any party? I don't think so. There are only two independent members of the Senate (and none in the House), both are from New England, and both not only caucus with the Democrats but they are more liberal than the majority of the Democratic members.

A third party? Not unless some prominent Republican steps forward and makes the move.

Comics Past and Future--Part 5

 Continuing this discussion, the last part of which was here.

Naturally, there's more to making the comic-book industry viable again than just improving the story-telling in the superhero titles. We need to expand beyond those concepts...and I don't just mean in publishing other "fan-favorite" genres and titles, like science fiction, including licensed properties such as Star Wars or Doctor Who.

The industry has to have, as it once did, material specifically aimed at girls and women, at children under the age of 12, or even at adults with interests beyond science-fiction, fantasy, and superhero adventure. Well into the 1960s, the best-selling comic-book in the United States was Dell/Gold Key's Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. Given the immense audiences for current Disney material--Frozen, anyone?--why are there no comic-book adaptations and continuations of those properties?

And other modern animated properties seem to me made to order for comic-book stories: Where is the comic-book version of Minions?

Why isn't anyone attempting a comic book with characters reminiscent of Jack Ryan or Ethan Hunt? Why are there no comic books with a rom-com feel or theme? Why not a costume drama along the lines of Downton Abbey or Bridgerton? Surely there is somebody who knows how to write this kind of material for comic books.

Until we have people working at the publishers who have an interest in telling stories, and not just in superheroes, this industry is on a path to extinction.

Ice Ice Baby

 Well, it was a break from the snow....

Yesterday afternoon, about two, we started to get a misty rain...and I mean misty. It never actually felt like it was falling from the sky, just sort of hanging there. By nightfall, it had begun to freeze on surfaces--notably cars and railings. I had put salt on my driveway to attempt to forestall the freezing and it worked for a while. At 9 o'clock, only a few patches were slick...but when I checked at 11, the whole driveway could have been used to play hockey. I figure the ice was about an eighth of an inch thick.

I had a commitment to be at church at 10 this morning. At 6:30, I got up, dressed and went outside to throw salt around. Things must have warmed some already because, while the ice was still slick, it was clear that some melting was beginning. By 8, the driveway, although not clear of ice, was driveable. By the time I returned from church at 11, you'd never have known there was an ice there at all.

Just rain tonight they say and warmer weather by Tuesday--48 degrees for the high--but possible snow again Thursday night into Friday.

It's already the snowiest February in Philly on record.

Vote-ee-Oh-Doh

 I'm not going to comment on the arguments made by Trump's defense team yesterday for two reasons:

1. I didn't watch all of them.

2. From what I have seen, there was little there to comment on.

I am going to make a sort-of prediction, though. First, what should happen: There should be a unanimous vote to convict. After all, 98 of the jurors were actually witnesses to the events in question. (The two Senators from Georgia had not yet been seated on January 6.) But we cannot reasonably expect that outcome.

What I'd like to have happen: I'd like to see Trump convicted by a vote of around 70-30. I can't honestly expect more than about 20 Republicans to vote with the Democrats.

What will happen: Trump will be acquitted by a vote of around 40-60. I think there are 10 Republican Senators who, allowed to vote their conscience, will vote to convict. Which ones? I think we can count on Collins, Murkowski, Romney, and Toomey. I think Cassidy and McConnell are possibles. I leave the other four to your choices.

Comics--Past and Future 4

 Continuing this discussion, the last part of which is here. 

Let me be clear: I am not suggesting a complete return to the comic books of the 1950s and '60s. Even the kids of today would not accept that. But I am suggesting that a good look at what made those publications far more successful--both commercially and aesthetically--than today's comics is worth doing.

The first thing, I think, is denseness of story-telling. I know that I can pick up any mainstream superhero comic book published in the last decade and finish it in under 10 minutes, in many cases, probably in five minutes. But if I go back to a comic book published even 30 years ago, when the direct market was in its infancy, I could expect a 20-minute read at least. And I could expect,  even in an ongoing serial storyline, a substantive chunk of the plot to be included. I could close the book feeling that I had had a complete experience...not just a snippet.

There's a reason that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons chose to use a nine-panel grid on nearly every page of Watchmen, to use just one example. They knew they had a massive story to tell, and they had to give themselves the pacing to tell it. There was no room for full-page "money shots"--every square inch of the page had to be given to the plot.

Now, I'm not saying every comic-book story needs to be that detailed, that dense. But it should give the reader at least a feeling of having seen the equivalent of television episode or a short story in prose...and not just the part that falls between the commercial breaks or what would fit on a page or two of prose.

And there's nothing wrong with telling a story that doesn't need to be continued from issue to issue for a year or more. In one sense, writing "short" is harder, I know. But if you insist that the reader must stick with you virtually forever to get a complete story, you're in the wrong business--go write for a TV soap opera.

More on this soon.

Snow Big Deal Again

 Damn! I thought I was done with posts on this subject for a while.

We got about 2 inches of light fluffy snow overnight. I was able to clear the driveway and the sidewalk in about 30 minutes. I'll clear off the car later this afternoon.

Real problem is that it's not over yet. There seems to be some virtual "train line" sending snow and ice this way for what looks like the whole month of February...some form of precipitation every two or three days at least through the next ten days. Next round is Saturday night into Sunday, then again on Tuesday.

Fortunately, nothing predicted in the foot-or-more range yet.

Not Exactly Perry Mason

 I dipped in and out of the coverage of the Senate trial yesterday, so I didn't see the entirety of any one lawyer's presentation, but parts of all of them. And while I think the House managers put on a case that would have done Law & Order's Jack McCoy proud, Trump's defense team was an embarrassment to every trial lawyer in the country.

There's an old saying in defense law: "When the law is against you, pound the facts; when the facts are against you, pound the law; when the law and the facts are against you, pound the table." Well, Trump's team nearly broke the table pounding on it yesterday.

"This trial is unconstitutional, because Mr. Trump is no longer in office." Of course, the only reason the trial is being held after he left office is because Mitch McConnell, who was in charge of scheduling, refused to hold it before Trump left office. It could have begun as early as January 14, because the House approved the article of impeachment on January 13. And, anyway, to argue that Trump is now immune from facing charges made before he left office is tantamount to saying the embezzler cannot be tried for his crimes if he is fired before the trial begins (even if the charges are filed before that happens).

It is clear to me that even if the Republicans win in the trial (as it currently appears they will), they have lost in the court of public opinion. 

Volunteering

 I keep trying to find ways to keep myself busy during the pandemic...and the recent weather has not made that any easier.

My church is one of the places I am increasing my activity. I am now a member of the technology committee--something that a year ago I doubt anyone in our parish would have thought we needed. But we've been recording and live-streaming services on an almost daily basis, as well as holding meetings that way. (Our annual meeting, required by the by-laws and canons, was held by Zoom this past weekend.)

To facilitate all this, we had a streaming camera installed in the nave of the church in December and this afternoon I have a training session on how to control it. This is in preparation for a funeral service this Saturday, which will be live-streamed, because the live attendees are limited to the immediate family mourners.

Has your volunteering increased in the past year?

Comic Books--Past and Future 3

This is a continuation of the discussion I began here: 

 At the end of the first part of this discussion, I said that other media could tell violent stories about people with superpowers better than comic books can....and the proof is in the huge success of the Marvel films and even the somewhat lesser success of the DC movies and TV series. The audiences for these alleged "spin-offs" from the print versions of these characters and concepts are orders of magnitude greater than the readership of the comic books (even if you take the readership of all the comics as a whole).

Most people, if you say "Captain America," will picture Chris Evans, not a drawing by Jack Kirby or one of the more recent artists to handle that character. If you say "Superman," they will picture Christopher Reeve, not Curt Swan's elegant drawings of the Man of Steel. I'd wager a significant portion of the audience for these movies has never even picked up a comic book, let alone read one. This does not bode well for the publishers of those comic books--especially since they are now owned by the companies that make the movies.

It didn't and doesn't have to be that way. Yes, the direct market--the individual comic-book stores and the distributors who service them--rescued the industry from near-certain collapse when the newsstand system that had sustained it fell, hit by recession, changing demographics, and a shift from a mass transit commuting style to the individual car (among other things). But the direct market should have been only a "stopgap" maneuver, a way to keep things going until a different distribution system evolved. Such a system did evolve for the rest of the magazine industry: They found their way into bookstores and supermarkets, in part by changing their price points and packages, making their product as worthy of sales space as breakfast cereals and canned corn.

But the comics industry fell in love with the "confirmed sale" that the non-returnable direct market represented. A sale to a comic-book store was final; the retailer didn't return the unsold product, he put it in his "back-issue" stock. Of course, in time, that actually meant diminishing sales. The retailer didn't have space for lots of back issues of every title...so he started ordering only what he knew he could sell...and the title that was selling 100,000 copies per issue was soon selling only 40,000. (Eventually, the retailer might cut back all the way to only his "subscription" sales on many titles--ordering only for those customers who had told him they would buy every issue of that series.)

So now, with few exceptions, the only place you can find monthly periodicals of comic-book material is in a comic-book store. And if you aren't actually looking for comic books, you have no reason to go there. The idea of comic books as something you'd pick up while strolling through the grocery store, or waiting for the bus, was lost.

And with that was lost the idea of comic books for a general audience...now they were only for fans.

More on this later as well.

It Was 40 Years Ago Today....

Forty years ago today, I was in Silver Spring, MD, getting married. It's hard to believe it's been so long...but the proof is most evident in two wonderful, successful sons in their 30s. There have been rough spots--we have both had periods when we were out of work (never, thankfully, at the same time); we've had arguments, sometimes very loud ones; for the first half of the marriage, we lived in some not-so-great places (a dinky apartment in Amsterdam, NY, my mother's house, a cramped flat in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and an even more cramped one in Staten Island). But for the last 20 years, we've owned our own home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. And we've had friends: Rich, who was my best man and remains an "uncle" to our boys; Cat, undoubtedly Jill's closest friend; the many people we've met through science-fiction fandom, church and theater. The past twelve months have been tough, of course, as they have been for everybody. We've lost family members in addition to the pandemic problems. But, paraphrasing a Sondheim song, "We're still here." Happy anniversary to Jill!

Comic Books--Past and Future 2

An exchange on Facebook yesterday reminded me of exactly how I went from being a comic-book reader to being a comic-book collector. When I was growing up on Staten Island, there was a place called the Farmer's Market, a big open space under corrugated steel walls and roof, divided into stalls, that were rented out to various merchants. It was only open on weekends--Friday to Sunday. Most of the renters sold food of one kind or another, as the name "Farmer's Market" would imply. But some dealt in what now would be the stuff you find at flea markets...and one of them sold old comic-books. Not really old ones, though the proprietor did deal in those by mail, but issues from the past six months to five years, roughly. I discovered this place when I was 16, in 1968.

The owner was Bill Morse and his helper was Dave Kaler, a name I knew because he was a sometime-comics writer, notably on Captain Atom for Charlton. For about a year, I went there every Saturday (the market was about a 15-minute walk from my home) and picked up a few dollars worth of comics. (Back then, most of his recent back-issues--those about two years old or less--sold for 35 cents each; cover price in '68 was 12 cents.) Business was slow, though, so sometime in '69, Bill closed up shop.

He returned to running the business from his home....and I became one of his helpers. Every Saturday, I spent two or three hours sorting comics and keeping them in order. I got paid in comic books--three dollars worth for every hour I worked, as I recall. In 1971, Bill rented a storefront in another section of the Island, along a stretch that had become known as "antiques row". I worked there as well every weekend. Eventually, he moved the operation to Manhattan, in Greenwich Village. I continued to work for him until I finished college.

Through Bill, I met a number of young professional comic-book writers and artists, among them Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and Paul Levitz. Those acquaintances became important about ten years later when I started writing about comics for a living.

Apology Not Accepted

 "Apology accepted, Captain Needa." That line, delivered as the captain drops to the deck, dead via Force attack, came to mind yesterday as I listened to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's non-apology on the House floor.

I wish that Speaker Pelosi could have responded as Darth Vader did...and with more reason than Vader had--because Needa's apology was at least honest. Greene's speech was little more than a litany of excuses. "I was allowed to believe...." Really? Who "allowed" you to put faith in the Qanon claptrap, other than you, yourself? You are not a teenager, brought up to believe nonsense in a cult family; you made a conscious decision that absurd, asinine conspiracy theories--related to everything from 9/11 to school shootings to the 2020 election--made more sense than the obvious truth as reported by a myriad of reputable sources.

That 95 percent of the Republican members of the House accepted that "apology" and voted against removing her from her committee appointments is a disgrace...and, perhaps, an indication that they are more dedicated to their constituents who agree with Greene than they are to their oaths as members of Congress.

Comic Books--Past and Future

 I spent half of my adult life as a writer, writing on a variety of topics, from office supplies and equipment to jewelry to comics and film/TV. That last was my real passion.

Oddly enough, some of that passion has waned in the past 20 years, as the nature of those two media has radically shifted--especially comics. When I first got interested in comics, as a teenager, they were truly a part of the "mass media". You could find them sold in the same stores as newspapers and general interest magazines like Life and Time and Newsweek--often on the same racks as those publications. Around the time I began writing about them professionally, that all changed: Comic books became a "specialty" product, sold (for the most part) in "boutique" environments to fans. They had moved from an impulse, casual product to a "destination" product; you no longer picked them up while you were doing other shopping, you went to a specific place to make a specific purchase.

At the same time, comics reached the culmination of a trend that had begun two decades earlier. In the 1960s, comic books were written, drawn, edited and published by people who largely had been doing that for 15 or 20 years. It was a job; for many a job they loved, but they had no real emotional attachment to it...they were journeyman craftsmen. Beginning around 1970, that changed, as people a bit older than I was, who had grown up as comics fans started to find work in the business. By a decade later, they were virtually running the business, as their predecessors retired or found that their work was no longer desired by the changing audience. It had become a medium in which fans were creating for fans.

From the beginning of my time writing professionally about comics, I found that kind of comics lacking....precisely because it was all aimed at the same target. Humorous comic books no longer sold well. Even superheroes with a "light touch" were outsold by their grim and violent counterparts. Comics were becoming "adult," it was said. I disagreed--they were becoming, to my mind, adolescent...the print equivalent of the explosion- and chase-filled movies of the same period.

I kept thinking it couldn't be sustained...that other media told such kinds of stories better. Turns out I was right. More on that another time.

Snow Big Deal 3

 With any luck, this is my last posting on this topic for a while.

By noon yesterday, I had cleared enough of the driveway, that I was able to get the car out on the road. We live on a main drag, so it was clean to the pavement and even the back streets in the neighborhood were in good shape. Later in the afternoon, I went to Home Dept and brought home another 50 lbs. of rock salt. I also cleared a path on our sidewalk and by nightfall it was still in good shape.

This morning, with temps predicted to be above freezing and the sun beginning to show, I spread some of that salt on the remaining snow and ice on the driveway, so that the combined heat, sun, and salt would melt and/or soften it all.

Later today, I'll go for another drive, probably to pick up lunch.

 

Snow Big Deal 2

 So, yesterday at noon we had 2 inches of snow in the backyard and it had stopped coming down. It started again about 2 PM and by 5, we had 4 inches. It snowed until sometime around midnight, best as I can figure, and this morning at 8:30 we had 6 inches. It's snowing lightly again now.

I went out to clear some of the driveway with the snow blower, but the bottom layer of snow is packed enough that the blower couldn't clear to the pavement. I'll have to use the shovel on that later this afternoon or tomorrow. But the driveway is clear enough that I'll be able to get the car out should the need arise.

Fortunately, the plows didn't block the entrance to the driveway too badly, and their leavings are still soft, but heavy. I'm pretty sure I can get the car through it without having to shovel immediately.

Snow is supposed to end this afternoon, with warming temps over the next few days.

One good thing: There's absolutely no way any groundhog in the Northeast (Punxsutawney Phil or Staten Island Chuck) saw his shadow this morning. Early spring anyone?

Snow Big Deal

 Yesterday, as the storm was beginning, I put down a layer of salt on my driveway; it kept things clear for a few hours, until it got dark, I think. This morning, there was about an inch of snow on the driveway, but about two inches on the sidewalk I didn't salt.

Two inches isn't enough to bother with the snow blower--and the snow is pretty light and fluffy--so I got out the shovel and with little lifting and a lot of pushing, I cleared most of the driveway to the pavement, and the sidewalk almost to the pavement. Then I threw more salt on the sidewalk, to help that along.

Sure, I'll have to do some of this again tomorrow--and maybe use the blower--but getting through four or five inches of snow is a lot easier than getting through six to eight inches.

Updates tomorrow.