Month: February 2006

Note: in the comic strip tradition all the words in the strip are in capitals, but for readability, I’ve deigned to write in standard English. Also the words that are in bold in the strip are in red in this text.

“Mother Eartha”, a 4 page response to “Mary Worth”

Page 1:

Page 2, Panel 1:
Young woman: Oh, Aunt Mother Eartha, my husband has been out of work for months – with no job in sight…
Page 2, Panel 2:
(Shot of the coffee pot, young woman’s hand pouring java into Eartha’s cup)
Young woman: – our unemployment checks stopped coming, the welfare payments are low, our bills keep climbing-

Page 3, Panel 1:
Young woman: -my son’s lost heart and is fighting the system – taking dope rioting….
Page 3, Panel 2:
Young woman (on sofa, in background): – my daughter’s pregnant again and her husband lost his job- oh – oh –ooh

Page 4 IS MISSING FROM THE BOOK! How does this end? I wish I knew! Anyone near the library at Michigan State University want to tell me how this concludes?

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Dark Racey, a 4-page take on “Dick Tracy”.

There is no table of contents, or for that matter, pagination, the only reason I know the name of the next story is from the citation at MSU. Of course, page 1 of this story is missing as well.

Page 2:

Page 3, Panel 1:
Racy: -Perhaps you suspect someone on your own police force?
Sheriff: This boy’s seen too many movies?
Page 3, Panel 2
(Sheriff firing gun: Bam Wam Fam Jam

Page 4:
(Racy on the ground in a pool of blood, three holes in head and shoulder, word “holes” with arrows pointing to them. Another cop stands at attention.)
Sheriff: See that the murderer gets to the morgue…

This is obvious a take on “In the Heat of the Night”, yet another Sidney Poitier movie, but with a…different outcome. Disturbing, believable, but not particularly funny.

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“King Coal”, a 4-page retort to what I believe was called “King Cole”, a strip not in the Toonopedia, though I do vaguely remember it.

EDIT: The strip was called The Little King, and it IS in the Toonopedia.

Page 1

Page 2, Panel 1
The crowd: Long live the King of Liberalia!
The photographer (in foreground talking to a man in a hat): How magnificent! A black king!
Page 2, Panel 2:
Man in hat: That’s because Liberarians are a grerat liberal people!

Page 3, Panel 1:
Photographer: Where is the king of Liberalia’s castle?
Man in hat: Over yonder kill.
Page 3, Panel 2:
Photographer sweats up the hill.
Page 3, Panel 2:
Photographer: !

Page 4:
King entering decrepit castle with clotheslines running from crooked turrets to adjoining building and a couple with a baby in clothes with patches.

If you thought taking shots at liberals was a recent activity, think again. A real “gotcha” strip, which I liked all right.

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“Charcoal Chin”, a 4 page reply to “Charlie Chan”. Was this ever a strip, or just a series of movies?

Page 1:

Page 2, Panel 1:
Charcoal (to son)” – And, as it is added in the great proverbs – “We are all blacks…”
Page 2, Panel 2:
Charcoal (looking at bullet):…we are all Orientals, we are all Eskimos…

Page 3, Panel 1:
Charcoal (to son):…we are all Parisians…we are all New Yorkers-
Page 3, Panel 2:
Page 3, Panel 2:
Son: -And, I suppose, Pop – we are all whites?
Charcoal: Taxi!

Page 4
Taxi driver gives Chins the raspberry. Logo- Bigot & Redneck Taxi Corp. Rates .45 ½ mile.
Charcoal: – To every rule, my son – there is an exception – and, like Confucius say, boy, have you found it!

1. If you’re old enough, what do you remember about the Beatles on Sullivan? If you’ve seen it on video or DVD, what’s your impression of it now?

2. Why were the Beatles such a big deal? Talent? Luck? Timing? Many historians peg the JFK assassination and a national need for something “frivolous” as part of the reason. Do you agree?

3. The JFK funeral, the Beatles on Sullivan were American community events. As more media outlets become available, there’s been a lack of that “American community”, except probably 9/11. Is this a good or bad thing, and why? Or does it not matter?

http://www.therememberingsite.org/ Sharing our collective memories. Friend Sarah’s little passion project.

LET”S GO TO THE VIDEO

An Okie I knew sent a link to a video of PURE DC doing a little guerilla belly dancing at NCOR. “Like one of our drummers said, we anarched the anarchists!!! I’m in there , way in the back of the line in the processional and pretty visible in the circle.”

http://www.funnyplace.org/ Source of the “funniest videos.”

NEWS

National Grid Surcharge: Don’t want my utility company to suffer because January was so warm. (9 degrees F above normal in Albany.)

The great “Grampa” Al Lewis age controversy here and here (Feb 8).

TECHNOLOGY

How Invisibility Cloaks Work

If you’re tired of dealing with IVR (interactive voice recognition) systems rather than humans when what you need is actual customer service, check this out.

Top 10 Net Hoaxes / Urban Legends of 2005

On voting:
BradBlog.com: truly the best up-to-the-minute coverage on electronic voting
BlackBoxVoting.com: another excellent site that provides insight into electronic voting
BlackBoxVoting.org: a non-profit organization also focused on electronic voting irregularities
Article about Ranked voting: Less money, more turnout

Periodically, Mark Evanier posts something called “There’s No Such Website!” He lists five preposterous-sounding websites, four of which are actually legit. Usually, I find the bogus one on the third pick, but this week, for the first time, I got the fake one on the first pick! Check back through his site for other examples of this game.

Friend Daniel writes: “Let me know if this works, OK? And be sure to hold that cell phone real close to your head….”

Is your internet connection slower than a snail? These guys actually tested to find out.

Cyberpal Chris “Lefty” Brown used to have his blog here on Blogger, but it somehow got taken over by other forces (and not very interesting ones at that). So now he’s here on Blogger until he can be at his own site here. All of which got me wondering if I should get MY own URL. Ponder. Ponder.
Oh, and the term “cyberpal”: don’t know what else to call the man. I’ve never met him, never heard his voice. I read what he writes (and apparently, vice versa), we e-mail back and forth, and I’ve participated in his music exchanges. I care for his well-being (and that of his wife Kelly, who’s recovering from surgery to – it is hoped – relieves her chronic pain). So what DO you call someone who fits that description?

Lefty may relate to this one: Effects of Domain Hijacking Can Linger

RELIGION

Lefty may also appreciate this:

Jesus Radicals aspires to be a resource for those who believe that the Christian Gospel is primarily a message of love and peace, and that militarism, capitalism and the state are idols that stand in stark contrast to the rejection of power by Jesus in favor of a personalist way. If you are questioning the church’s involvement in these idols and wonder if there is a better way to follow Jesus:

You are not alone.

American evangelical Christians tackle global warming

CENSUS

I’ve discovered this website: http://www.epodunk.com/ – it’s a good collection of data about a place. I’ll particularly use the link to religious adherents by county, greatest concentration of ancestries, and some of their surveys indicating the places that are most liberal, best home town (stability in population), most Starbucks-addicted place, most friendly town when you’re gay and 50, and much more.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1551127
Changing Census Rules in Prison Towns: currently, prisoners are counted in the prison towns. What would changing that formula mean?

Historical Census Statistics on the Foreign-Born Population (#81) and others

2004 State Government Finances – Alaska traditionally leads the country in per capita revenue and expenditure. Whether that trend continues can be found in this latest report for the 50 state governments. Detailed data is revealed on revenue by type and source, such as taxes, charges and federal aid; expenditures by function (e.g., police, fire and education); and cash and security holdings.

http://www.fcw.com/article92079-01-24-06-Web
The U.S. Government Printing Office last month introduced a new database called the Registry of U.S. Government Publication Digitization Projects at its GPO Access Web site. The database “will serve as a locator tool for identifying federal document
collections that are being digitized.”

POLITICS

Another item sent to me by a former comic book artist:

The 23rd Qualm

I didn’t have the Vee Jay album Introducing The Beatles (’63) or
or the A Hard Day’s Night (’64) on United Artists album quite possibly until 1969.

It’s obvious (as I think back on it) why I didn’t have them earlier: I belonged to the Capitol record club! With the money from my paper route, I entered the world of the LP. My first album was Beatles VI, and I worked backwards and forwards, including The Beatles Story. So I had Something New relatively early and the similar HDN relatively late. I remember getting Meet the Beatles in STEREO, which was a problem, because I only had a mono player! (I didn’t play it for weeks, then I did, and it SEEMED to play OK…) I also got Daydream-Lovin’ Spoonful, Pet Sounds-Beach Boys, Herman’s Hermits’ Greatest Hits, and, of course, BIG HITS FROM ENGLAND AND USA: one side two songs each from BEATLES, BEACH BOYS, and PETER & GORDON, the other side, 2 songs by NAT KING COLE and CILLA BLACK, plus “Tears and Roses” by AL MARTINO. I probably still have it upstairs in the attic.

My father did go out and buy us an album in 1964. Unfortunately, it was this one:

My sister Leslie and I tried to hide our disappointment, but in fact were horrified that he had made such an obvious error. Later, I learned that lots of parents in America made the same mistake.

The first LP I ever bought not from the club was “Yesterday”…and Today for $2.99 at the Rexall. Probably the second album I bought at a store was Sgt. Pepper, for the outrageous cost of $3.67, at W.T. Grant. (Why do I remember these amounts? I don’t know.)

Thrice a year, I play all of my Beatles CDs, in February, June and October, which, not coincidentally are the birth months of Messrs. Harrison, McCartney and Lennon, respectively. I also play the solo artists in their respective months. But what of poor Ringo, you ask? Well, his birthday is in July, terribly close to Macca’s, so during that month, in addition to solo Starr, I listen to Beatles cover albums. I love Beatles cover albums. I have quite a few.

***
Friend Fred noted a source of some downloads recently. For the record (as it were), I have owned Bill Cosby doing the title song from Sgt. Pepper for decades on vinyl; it appears on the Hooray for the Salvation Army Band album. It also includes Funky North Philly and other parodies, and I believe is scheduled for rerelease on CD this year.
***
Don’t know how long this 1968 LA Times article about the Beatles getting cheated at the Grammys will stay up.
***
Johnny B. has news about the health of Beatles sideman Billy Preston.

Then, for Fred Hembeck’s tribute to Black History Month last year, he did an extensive and interesting piece on the the comic book adaptation. I learned a great deal from it. Read it now – go down to February 25. I’ll wait.

But the reading created more questions. Specifically, I was even more confused about one aspect – why is the term “Uncle Tom” pejorative? For it was really Sambo and Quimbo who were what would later be called “Uncle Toms”. So, why is Uncle Tom such a derisive term? Seeking to shed a little light on the subject, I found a National Geographic article that I hoped would shed some light. Quoting it:

Meanwhile, the public persona of Uncle Tom was undergoing a dramatic change. Instead of the symbol of a strong, spiritual man, whose disobedience to his master caused his death, Uncle Tom became a metaphor for a submissive, weak black person who wanted to be white.
By 1919 prominent African-American leaders began using “Uncle Tom” as a pejorative term to stigmatize blacks who betrayed the cause of their race, said Stephen Railton, an English professor at the University of Virginia. Railton maintains an exhaustive online archive dedicated to the book’s role in U.S. culture.

By the time the civil rights movement was marching along, the term Uncle Tom easily overshadowed the reality of the book.

But this still doesn’t explain WHY. It’s VERY interesting how the meaning of terms change over time, but this metamorphasis I found most peculiar.

My theory, and it’s only that, is that it has to do with Josiah Henson, the model Harriet Beecher Stowe used for her 1852 book. Henson was born in 1789. He and his mother were sold to Isaac Riley about five years later. According to an Associated Press story, “In his 1849 autobiography, Henson recalls how his mother pleaded with Riley to purchase both her and her child, and was beaten by Riley as she clutched to his legs.”

Eventually, Josiah Henson became manager of Riley’s farm. When Riley fell into debt, he had Henson lead a group of slaves to his brother’s Kentucky farm, passing through the free state of Ohio, but Henson decided against running away to keep his word to Riley. Stowe cited this action not to flee as some of her fodder for the dutiful slave Uncle Tom.

However, when Riley reneged on HIS promise to free Henson, Henson and his family escaped to Ontario, Canada in 1830 through the Underground Railroad.

Recently, Uncle Tom’s cabin, or more specifically, Josiah Henson’s, was for sale, and was purchased by Montgomery County, Maryland, lest it become a dentist’s office.

In any case, check out the National Geographic article link, for it describes the decline the book’s sales. Thus, I was fascinated that Julie Hembeck’s class was reading the book last year. Surprised, and oddly pleased. Information, rather than supposition, is a good thing. Guess that means I have to go out and read the book…