Monthly Archives: June 2014

Fathers, Bullying and Borrowed Authority

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ProfJohnRWhen I was growing up, John Robinson was my favorite fictional father. Like my Dad, he was a scientist. Unlike my Dad, he never shouted (except with enthusiasm, or, y’know, when he had to be heard over the wind from a cosmic storm.) He was religious, so he understood there was a difference between good and evil beyond what some book of rules said, but, unlike a fire-and-brimstone preacher, if you really screwed up, he patiently told you what you did wrong, and then moved pleasantly on to the next topic. This had to be the most compassionate man alive. After all, he let Zachary Smith live for at least three seasons!

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Review – Something Wicked This Way Comes – The Book, The Movie, The Graphic Novel

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Okay, I’m a journalist, and journalists put the most important fact in the first sentence: I cried listening to the last chapter of this book. Not because it was sad. Because it made my soul soar. Because it made me cry out, “Yes! This is what a story should be!” Because it grabbed me by the emotions–my happiness, my insecurity, my fear, my memories of and hopes for triumph–and it didn’t let go until I was weeping in an ecstasy of satisfaction.

This is the book I want to read out loud at cons when they’re crazy enough to give me a slot to read… not my stuff! This.

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Review – Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Two in One Volume One

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2in1-05Marvel Two-In-One. The title kinda says it all, doesn’t it? You buy this book, you’re getting two for the price of one. In this case, two super-heroes. On a smaller scale, it’s the logic that, in the 1940s, led National Comics and All-American Comics to create the Justice Society, or, later, DC Comics to create the Justice League. It’s like this: Some kid has only one dime, and doesn’t know if he wants to read The Flash or Green Lantern. Hey, kid, suppose you could get both for one thin dime? And a bunch of other characters besides? Wow! It’s like getting free super-heroes!

And of course, what you don’t say to the kid is that you hope he’ll get hooked on the “free” super-heroes, and, instead of one thin dime a week, start spending five or six dimes a week, so he can keep up with all those new characters he’s been introduced to. It’s the same principle by which drug dealers give away free crack. (I infer. Do drug-dealers give away free crack? I’ve never met a drug dealer. That I know of.)

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No New Blog This Week…

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Actually, I drafted two blog entries for this week, but neither was finished in time. And sometimes I look at the list of stuff I have to do and realize that I won’t get it done, um, EVER. And I stress out and melt down. It’s not pretty. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen often. When it does, though, it leaves me looking at all the people around me whose lives probably suck way more than mine does, and wondering, “How are they so CALM?”

Yeah, I suck at handling stress. I’m much better at finding solutions to things that stress out OTHER people. So, yeah… you people over there… stop stressing and junk. I’ll come fix your problems when I’ve reshaped myself out of the puddle of glop that I’ve currently devolved into.

There, don’t you feel better? I know I do.

Talk to you next week.