... "Don't Quote Me On That."

Whelp, the best laid plans... go poof.  A couple of hours after I posted the news that our phone, TV, and internet service had been fixed, down went the system again.  Luckily, the Verizon guy was able to come this morning and replace the offending device.  Apparently, the electrical wiring around the gizmo was pretty old, as old as the original part of the house, in fact.  To wit: some of it was made out of cloth.  We'll have to get an electrician to come out here and do some work so that this doesn't happen again.

Bottom line, I'm going to have to postpone the start of "Super DuckTales" until next weekend... when I will also be facing a big stack of test papers to grade.  What fun.

On the positive side, the promised bad weather this weekend has not (yet??) materialized.

Our "Frozen Assets" are Now... Un-frozen!

Well, now, THIS has been a week that even Fenton Crackshell would have found somewhat unsettling.  The snow that wiped out Monday's classes was followed by an ice storm early on Wednesday morning.  Just as Nicky told me that Stevenson would be opening at 11 a.m., a neighborhood transformer blew (or was smacked by a falling tree branch, same difference) and the power failed.  We had no power until Thursday afternoon, so Wednesday night was a chilly one.  At least we were able to preserve (most of) the food in our fridge and freezers by storing it outside in the below-freezing temps.

When the power went down, it apparently did something to the battery in the Verizon router that services our house.  Even after we regained electricity, we lacked TV, phone, and internet service.  I was all set to announce a delay in the posting of the next DUCKTALES RETROSPECTIVE on "Liquid Assets" (which, due to the introduction of new characters, extensive Barks references, and censorship cuts, is threatening to be a monster of a piece).  Nicky, however, just called me at my office to tell me that she bought a replacement battery and managed to fix the problem, so those "assets" may indeed be flowing your way before the weekend is over.  I do have several tests to create, however, so please bear with me.

More Blasts from My Past

OK, they're not "arctic blasts" summoned forth by the "polar vertex."  These are more of the "warming" kind.

The notation on the back of this photo reads "Chris and friend, November 1963."  In case you couldn't tell, I'm the one in the high chair.  Sorry, I have no idea who the "friend" is.

Another picture from my first Christmas, 1962.  Apparently I'm practicing the crawl stroke.

Something a little more contemporary, taken in 1969 when I was seven years old.  It was at about this same time that a charcoal sketch artist at the old John Wanamaker's department store in Wilmington drew pictures of me and my sister Jenny.  The portraits used to hang in the upstairs hallway at home on Bona Road but then were in storage for a long time.  Mom had them reframed and cleaned up and gave them to Jen and me as Christmas gifts several years back.

Post-Sandy Posting

Hurricane Sandy wound up dealing Maryland only a glancing blow, but the residual aftereffects were not trivial.  Stevenson had to cancel classes on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and the campus is still dealing with flooding and leakage issues in certain buildings.  For example, the copier down the hall from my office was put out of commission when a ceiling tile collapsed and fell on it.  Johns Hopkins suffered considerable damage as the cancer research building next to Nicky's building had major flooding problems and power outages, resulting in the deaths of large numbers of genetically engineered lab animals.

No, I don't think they were among the victims.

We're hearing some horror stories out of the New York area, and I hope that my readers in that region are holding up as well as they can. 

"A Bit of a Blow"

Good luck to all in the path of the oncoming storm. Stevenson has cancelled classes for Monday and Tuesday so Nicky and I are just hunkering down, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

Fighting the (Lack of) Power

After the better part of six days, Nicky and I have finally gotten our power back.  We've spent most of the week of the Fourth sitting in our (relatively) cool basement and trying to keep poor, ailing Shasty hydrated.  Last Friday's "hit and run" storm took everyone around here by surprise, but we never thought that we'd have to wait until today to get back online.

I'm pretty pooped at the moment, because I couldn't use my CPAP device to help with my sleep apnea during the outage, and Breathe Right strips are not the most ideal substitute.  I was hoping to get started on the DuckTales 25th anniversary retrospective at midweek, but now I'm going to have to push everything back a week or two.  In the meantime, enjoy the initial installment of Pete Fernbaugh's retro, here.

Comics Review: LITTLE LULU, VOLUME 27: THE PRIZE WINNER AND OTHER STORIES by John Stanley and Irving Tripp (Dark Horse, 2011)

My home computer has pretty much died, so I'm posting this latest review from Stevenson's super-soggy Greenspring campus, aka "Seattle East." (At least the forecast for tomorrow -- and SU's first home football game -- is promising.) My new Kimba post will probably be delayed for a bit until we can get the new home machine set up. I'll still try to post the promised football report using Nicky's laptop, though.

Dark Horse is now combing the corpus of John Stanley's "miscellaneous" LITTLE LULU work. This latest volume collects the entirety of two Dell Giants from 1957, LITTLE LULU AND TUBBY AT SUMMER CAMP and LITTLE LULU AND TUBBY HALLOWEEN FUN. You can read and view much more about the former of these hefty quarter-dollar mags here, and I suggest that you do, since SUMMER CAMP hangs together a lot better than does HALLOWEEN FUN. The structure of Stanley's signature chain of short features is relatively predictable -- kids get ready for camp, kids go to camp and meet new kids, kids scheme and have (mis)adventures, kids go home -- and there's no psychological quirkiness to wade through on the order of Charlie Brown developing a baseball-like rash on his head and becoming "Mr. Sack" or the PEANUTS gang visiting a weird camp for "born-agains," as they did in 1980. The little tales and vignettes link together quite nicely, however, and the sense of completing a satisfying whole is palpable. HALLOWEEN FUN is a bit more erratic; since there are only so many tales you can tell about getting costumes, cadging candy, and holding Halloween parties, we get a few Witch Hazel stories thrown in here and there to help "make weight." One of these last is a rather strained explanation of how Lulu's "poor little girl" character accidentally devised the name of the Halloween holiday. Suffice it to say that it's a surefire groan-inducer. The climactic Halloween-party story, though, is Stanley at his web-weaving best, combining several plots and subplots in a way that leaves you marveling (not to mention smiling) at the end. There are still several Giants to reprint, so we haven't quite seen the last of these Dark Horse collections -- and a good thing, too.

Hatch-Down-Battening Update

Irene is coming and we're hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. Stevenson has already cancelled opening-day classes on Monday; let's hope that's the extent of the disruption. As for losing power, we've got our fingers crossed, but also have an arsenal of lanterns, flashlights, and such at the ready. If you have to deal with this, good luck and be careful!

Get Your Hot Dog Here!

Our air conditioner was broken on Monday and Tuesday. While we sweated it out, Nicky devised the following way of keeping Bengie (the dog most susceptible to hot weather) cool:


The A/C men finally came this afternoon to perform the repair job. Wouldn't you know, the weather today has been so nice that we didn't NEED to turn the A/C on in any case.

The Barats' Sense of Snow -- Second Wave

After the second snowstorm... it took the better part of a morning to get the driveway clean (again).

Even after we had cleared away the dogs' "potty spot," Harry wanted to go exploring. His efforts were futile...

... so we dug a trench and created a crater in the middle of the back yard (OK, it was mostly a place to dump the extra snow, but the dogs don't have to know that).

We're taking bets on when we'll again see green grass that we haven't uncovered ourselves.

The Barats' Sense of Snow -- First Wave

Here are some pictures Nicky took in the aftermath of last weekend's 32-inch snowstorm. We're still digging out from under phase 2 but hope to put up some pics of the aftermath of that trifling little 18-incher once we've made some progress.

A beautiful cake-icing effect on our roof. We decided that safety trumped aesthetic beauty and knocked the overhang down.

The well-insulated Bengie was constantly "underpaw" as we shoveled. We quickly cleared the deck and patio so that he, Harry, and Shasta could transact their business...

... and, just in case a little privacy was desired, we carved out a pathway under the deck.

Implements of war -- or should that be entrenchment? -- stacked under the shadow of Old Glory.

And all traces of this valiant work would soon disappear under yet another blanket of white. Stop eating turkey, already, Junior Woodchucks!

Some "Flakes of Brain-druff" on a Snowy Day

Stevenson finally gave up the ghost about an hour ago and closed the school for the day. When was the last major March snowfall on the Eastern Seaboard? I'm thinking 1993, but I could be wrong. Anyway, here are a handful of notes and comments on the passing scene...

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Gemstone Publishing's Disney comics line appears to be, as Gregory Weagle might say, dead, done, and toe-tagged. The Gemstone web site has removed all references to current comics releases and subscriptions and now offers only back issues. Before you begin to blame the rotten economy, consider the following:

(1) Gemstone's marketing strategy left a lot to be desired from the get-go. If Steve Geppi had trouble (and he has had) spreading the word about Geppi's Entertainment Museum, that well-intentioned but cash-draining white elephant of a glorified "fanboy" project down at Camden Yards, then it's not surprising that the need to actively sell the comics was crippled from the same sort of "publish it and they will come" mentality.

(2) The cancellation of the "standard-format" ...AND FRIENDS comics some time ago made Gemstone products much more of a luxury item. UNCLE $CROOGE and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES were handsomely produced and judiciously edited, to be sure, but they were no one's idea of an entry-level product.

(3) Gemstone made a mistake by cancelling the ADVENTURES pocket-book line, which, with adequate promotion, might well have served as the aforementioned entry-level publication that the company so desperately needed.

(4) The four-year gap between the demise of "Gladstone II" and the debut of Gemstone unquestionably leached away at least some of the fan base that had begun to drift off after the "Disney Comics Implosion" of 1991 and was further alienated by Bruce Hamilton's meddling with the content of the "G-II" comics. Given that American Disney comics was working from a perilously narrow base of support to begin with, all of these "aftershocks" rendered the Gemstone line less likely to survive any period of ill fortune.

Who... if anyone... picks up the American Disney comics baton next? Or is a "last-second reprieve" in our future? Stay tuned.

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I recently encountered "Xibit A" illustrating the sham of the modern-day "anti-war" movement. Traveling north on I-83 out of Baltimore, one passes an art studio called "Xibitz". For several years, the roof of the building featured a large peace sign. The last time I drove by the place, the sign was gone. Sure, the elements may have knocked the thing down, but it seems suspicious that the sign disappeared right after Barack Obama took office. Last time I checked, we still had troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we still will until at least the middle of 2010, if Obama's announced timetable is accurate. Are ongoing wars only palatable if a Democrat is running the show? (The same sort of mindset is at work when homeless people suddenly disappear from the news once a Democrat gets elected.)

Understand, I don't resent real, live, religious-based pacifism of the Quaker/Mennonite/left-wing Catholic variety. My uncle and aunt are anti-war in the "Catholic Worker" tradition, but I recognize and respect the reasons for their views, even though I don't philosophically agree with them. But this sort of ideologically driven pacifism, which we first saw during the Vietnam era, is another matter. What if another 9/11 crops up while a Republican is in the White House, and we are forced to take military action? Are we fated to have to endure active internal opposition anytime this happens, even when military force is supremely justified?

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Tonight, Notre Dame takes on Villanova in a Big East game that will go a long way towards determining the Irish's NCAA Tournament fate. Stevenson's men's and women's teams have long since packed up the ball-bags after another wretched campaign. Nicky and I support SU's teams as best we can, but next year, we need to see SOME evidence that the athletic department takes hoops success seriously. Both current coaches have been on the job ever since the programs began, and, if my student evaluations looked anything like their lifetime won-loss records, I'd be checking out the career Web sites about now.

BTW, for those interested in the progress of my NCAA Tournament book, I'm planning to spend a large chunk of the Summer trying to get as close to finishing it as possible. By August, I should be ready to contact publishers.

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The overall Disney front is as dreary as the outside weather right about now, but here's a cheery note: two days hence will mark a special anniversary for Disney TV Animation fans. Check back for a special tribute.