Letters to Holly

Friday, April 7

Babble

Your Sister made baked salmon and mangos last night. It’s the second time she’s made it for us, and it really is a good dish. I still haven’t made any real advances in eating seafood. I like stir-fry shrimp, but mostly I taste the lemon juice. The she-crab soup at Jason’s (which catered our wedding) is pretty good, but you mostly taste the cream of potato. I’ve had a curiosity about lobster lately, but I don’t see us running to a local fish camp for that.

The local paper is a shameful fishwrapper. Not only do they misspell “tobacco” in a headline on the front page (not two lines removed from the article’s use of the word), but they stated that, when seeing a wild turkey run “amuck” in downtown, “laughter erodded [sic] from cars.” What third-grader is writing this junk? Your Sister saw an article about an Irish group playing next Friday in Asheville and asked me to get tickets. She’s gone performance crazy. This will be her fourth show since last month and the second in April. In March we saw Nine Inch Nails, she caught A Doll’s House a week later, we’re seeing the Irish group and, two weeks after that, They Might Be Giants. She has left hibernation behind. The fishwrapper also announced a program to help the library move into a new building. Citizens are asked to check out 2 boxes of books and keep them at home until late May. Instead of returning them to the old library, you turn them in to the new one. We’ll be able to house four boxes of books. We’re such nerds; we think this will be fun, like taking care of pets.

Valerie, the French guest, emailed us late last night. She writes English better than I speak French, but I think we’ll be able to communicate alright once she gets here.

The NFL released the season schedule. The Panthers have the typically division-heavy program against Atlanta, New Orleans, and Tampa Bay, but also play Dallas, Pittsburgh, Philly, the Giants, Minnesota, Baltimore, both Ohio teams, Washington, and St. Louis. No Green Bay or Arizona this year. I think they have a good chance at making the playoffs again this year.

Picture of the Day
A gathering of Ultramen, the Japanese live-action monster fighting robot dude. I used to watch this through static on a rabbit-ear TV.


In the news
The New York Sun, a recent startup publication, reports that former Cheney aide Scooter Libby testified that his boss gave him classified (and bogus) pre-war WMD intelligence to release to the media. The permission to release the packet is alleged to have come from Bush. But Cheney said late last year that both of them have the right to declassify any information they deem fit. It remains to be seen if there’s a legal basis for that claim or the ability. Libby says he gave the info to former NY Times reporter Judith Miller. Her notes of the meeting state this was when Libby told her Valerie Plame’s name, who at the time was an undercover CIA agent. The outing of Plame is seen as retribution for her husband (Joe Wilson) writing a report denouncing the Nigeria-Iraq nuclear material theory. What this means in the short term is that, if true, the White House has lied like a rug about the administration’s knowledge and dissemination of the Plame identity all along.

Will anything come of this? Hard to say with a GOP majority in Congress, but there has been pressure from Republicans to distance themselves from the administration over bad policies. Democrats (notably Russ Feingold of Wisconsin) seek a bureaucratic hand-slap over the Iraq war hard-sell.

Oh, a new poll finds Bush’s approval rating at 36%. That’s little more than a third of the country. A third.

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Yet another mosque attack in Iraq. There was also one yesterday.

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Hamas might recognize Israel after all.

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When speaking to a House judiciary committee, Alberto Gonzalez said the president might expand the warrantless wiretapping program to include calls that take place solely in the United States. Currently (depending on who you ask), the program only can be used if one half of the call originates from another country.

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ABC’s Bob Woodruff, the anchor injured in Iraq, has left the hospital.

Thursday, April 6

Insurance is Fun

One of The Big Talks spouses have concerns how much medical insurance they want to pay for. Such a conversation happened last night, and it didn’t go so well. Your Sistr is offered what’s called supplemental insurance through the state; this isn’t medical insurance, but a kind of “income insurance.” If you can’t work, this supplies you with money for living expenses. Medical is supposed to cover just the costs associated with getting healed up right proper.

Aflac, for instance, sells supplemental insurance. You pay a certain amount of money out of each paycheck, and they promise to pay you back a certain amount plus some. But many consider it a kind of injury lottery. If you’re lucky enough to have an accident, you make a profit. Your Sister was asking me what I thought of such deals from a philosophical perspective while at the same time not tipping her hand about how she regarded them. But her questions pointed to the same focus: What do you want me to do with this? I didn’t want to tell her how to spend her money. This lead to raised voices. And a bit of consternation. Here’s an example of how I got frustrated:

Her: (cute, sincere, inquisitive) What do you think of these kinds of deals?

Me: (loving a soapbox, smart as a whip) It’s a crap shoot. How likely is it for you to either stub your toe or lose all your limbs? How much do you want to pay for the likelihood of either? How much can you afford to pay in hopes of winning an injury lottery?

Her: (playing her cards close to the vest) I don’t know what you mean.

Me: (baffled, confounded, mind exploding) … I can’t be more clear.

Us: (transforming into Godzilla and Rodan) RAWR! GRR! YOU IS THE DUMB!

We hammered out our plan on dealing with it finally after we had to calm down enough to clarify our positions in the most formal words possible. This is how we fight. Then it we inevitably discover we’re saying the same thing in different ways. Always happens. We have the exact same stands couched in distinct terms. So we’re not getting the state’s insurance plan. While it can help pay for everything from cough drops to crutches, that’s all coming out of your money. It doesn’t give you any more group money for those items. The insurance acts as a savings plan with no interest. When you run out of your money, there is no more to draw from. The kicker is that at the end of the year, you don’t get back the remainder of what you didn’t spend. That goes to a state account to spend as it wishes. So, no, North Carolina, screw that noise. We’ll handle our money, spend it as we need to and not lose any if we manage to stay healthy. That’s what the plan is: A self-regulated health tax.

All is well at Stately Geek Manor. I made honey-glaze chicken alfredo (mixing up Dijon mustard and honey myself) and watched “Lost.” Without spoiling anything, one of the actors from the last third of “Sex and the City” debuted in a new role and had a major role last night.

I started the third Harry Potter book last night, and it feels twice as long as the second book. (I just checked Amazon, it actually has more pages, but less than 100 of them).


Picture of the Day
The stuff you find online…

In the news
Giving nuclear technology to Eastern nations is bad. Unless it’s India. Which of course gets along with everyone and wouldn’t possibly make weapons.

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The jury in the Moussaoui sentencing phase will hear the cockpit recordings from Flight 93. I’m not sure how that can possibly prove whether he killed anyone directly. It’s going to be highly emotional material to hear, yes, but how does this prove anything? Does someone in the cockpit shout “thanks Moussaoui?” Also, the producers of the Flight 93 film have to love this kind of free publicity. Former mayor Giuliani is set to testify in another move made to play off the emotions of the jury. Moussaoui deserves to die. I’ll argue for that any day. But this parade of claptrap is more than a little disturbing. It’s an attempt by the prosecutors to get mainstream press exposure and make people forget they nearly botched this case. Speaking of 9/11, NY construction workers are still finding body parts.


Inadvertent Second Consecutive Star Wars-Related Video Link of the Week
A 1979 drunk-driving PSA based on the cantina scene.

Wednesday, April 5

Goodbye, Carrie

Last night, after about a year of running the entire series, TBS broadcast the last episode of HBO’s “Sex and the City.” I assume they’ll start all over next week, but we won’t follow it as closely as we did this run-through. Portraying a writer is generally considered one of the hardest things to do for an actor; all the great activity is perceived to be mental. Her columns are compiled into a book that sells poorly in America, but makes great business in France. (All of this based somewhat on Candice Bushell, who wrote such a column and turned it into a book.) The show didn’t convince us that Carrie Bradshaw was a wrier as much as she was a diarist. She just happened to publish her diary in print once a week.

For example, in the last episodes of the show, she moves to Paris with her new artist boyfriend. Her paper decides not to run her column anymore, so she lands in Europe with no job. For the weeks we see her struggle through what amounts to an awkward French vacation, at no time does she write down her thoughts. She documents nothing. For someone who spent the past six years writing once a week, this lack of journalism is baffling. Here’s a great idea for a new book: A sex essayist moves to the City of Romance to keep her man. What does she do with her time instead? Shops, smokes, pines for her busy honey. Very disappointing for us. We thought she was more independent than that.

Otherwise, the show ended great. The supporting cast had their moments to shine, and one feels as if there was true progress made with them. Sara Jessica Parker (Carrie) in many ways reminds me of Your Sister in a Bizarro-world, chain-smoking emotionally distorted way.

With “S&TC” gone, our Tuesday couch-time threatened to loom like a giant void. That is until Your Sister realized we had missed FOX’s “House” all this time. The series was programmed into our TiFaux as soon as we got off the phone with you last night.

Picture of the Day

Told ya he looked like Your Brother. Chris Masters, WWE muscle guy, has improved in the ring almost every week. He’s very young (maybe 22), and he’s got the bad-guy attitude down pat. He also sells the opponent’s offense well, taking slams and hits broadly enough to convince the crowd he’s taking a beating. He’s fun to watch.


In the news

One of the sure signs of a second presidential term is the eruption of scandals. The newest one came yesterday as Brian Doyle, deputy press secretary for Homeland Security, was busted for soliciting who he thought was a 14-year-old girl online. It was a cop. He had sent “her” porn video clips and photos of himself, some taken in his office. One reports states,” Doyle was so obsessed he gave her his DHS office and cell phone numbers, and his instant messaging address.”

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A funny, short video: Japanese police vs. Darth Vader. Place bets now!

Tuesday, April 4

Comics

Now, I’m starting to feel the effects of switching the clocks. I drag a little bit. But it’s nice to see the sun at 7:30 p.m. again.

I got my monthly haul of comics yesterday, and I mention this only because DC Comics (the Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman folks) are rebooting their comics once again to make it easier for new readers to jump aboard. Superman, for one, has within the space of two issues, become my favorite comic again. The talent strata of comics is clearly defined, and until recently, DC has been content to give their most prominent titles to b-list creators. The reboot signals a renewed commitment to make the most popular heroes also the most enjoyable to read. Marvel Comics (X-Men, Spider-man, Hulk) already do this, but they hand over so many title to such a small group of writers. I don’t think it’s far off to say three guys write a dozen Marvel titles. It stretches their skills thin. This makes DC’s reboot also well-timed; they offer stronger, fresher takes on established characters right as the Marvel gang seems stale.

Here -- sit you down, and let me ramble:

Since I moved to Mayberry, my comics have been shipped to me from my old comic store, The Tangled Web. I shopped from that store since I was in college (my math is bad, but that’s at least three weeks ago). The owner has always taken care of me as a customer, and I don’t think there’s ever been an item he hasn’t been able to get for me once I requested it. Great customer service all around.

Because comic distribution is essentially a monopoly, the store owners are often over a barrel when it comes to ordering comics. They can’t send back leftover issues, and if they short-order a hot title, they’ll run into problems getting any later on. Worse, they might get copies from subsequent printings, and those are less valued by collectors. They have to guess what the demand for comics will be so to minimize overstock and wasted money. To take some of the guesswork out, comic stores often give discounts if customers provide a list of what they want. I’ve had a pull list with this location going back to when it was owned by someone else and operated under a different name.

The current owner, Daniel, came in and made a smooth transition for the customers. If you never bothered to look the employees in the eye – a possibility with some comic fans – you’d never know there was a change. But Daniel has since turned a simple comic store into a significant hub for pop-culture lovers. He caters to fans of card games, Japanese products, videos, and collectors of models and various licensed memorabilia. It’s clean, well-lit, and organized for easy access to everything. I love the place. I miss being in there. It was a weekly highlight to walk to the store, take in the ambience, talk shop with Daniel, and trade reviews with other readers. There are a lot of comic stores out there that are gloomy, dirty and generally unwelcoming. I’ve been in stores in Michigan, Charlotte, and Columbia, S.C. where I wasn’t even addressed by an employee. Not that comic stores only have crappy service, but given that they are generally mom-and-pop (or rather nerd-and-geek) businesses, they literally can’t afford to drive off new customers. Compare that to stores in Tennessee, Boston and Greenville, N.C. where the owners have bent over backward to help me find something without crossing the line into creepy, space-intruding pests.

When I moved, we set up a deal where I get my comics shipped to me once a month and then I mail a check. I could shop at the local store in Asheville, but it’s unimpressive. You’ve seen it, I think. It’s leaning toward the gaming crowd, but it does boast a nice variety of comics and trades. It’s not a bad store, and the owner remembers my name even as his never sticks in my head. But it’s not home cooking. It’s not Tangled Web. Daniel’s earned my loyalty as a customer, and I think we’re friends. As a friend, I’m supporting his business. Just so happens my friend offers the best option. Win-win for all.

Anyhow, I wanted to give you an overview of what kind of stuff I read and hopefully display the variety available to readers. Your Sister is still reading all the Elektra material I have, and I hand her random comics that are accessible for casual comic readers. One has to beware of excess reliance on backstory -- a tenet publishers still don’t remember.

She-Hulk: What started as a straight-forward character spin-off of the Incredible Hulk – Bruce Banner gives blood transfusion to wounded lawyer cousin; she makes with the green and angry – has morphed into a cheesecake wink at comic conventions. Her original by-the-numbers title gave way to another heavily influenced by the “Moonlighting” TV series; she often talked directly to readers as she struggled to make sense of pig-costumed space truckers and villains with bells for heads. The character realized she could become tall, green, and strong without being a giant angerball and for a long time stayed in that form instead of her original mousy persona. Her current title sees her as a defense lawyer for supervillains in a comic that revels in comic absurdity while providing genuinely funny and touching stories. Marvel Comics likes to compare it “Ally McBeal.” As if anyone remembers that show.

New Avengers: Marvel established a superhero group to compare to DC Comics’ Justice League, more popularly known as the Super Friends. The Avengers now includes Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and others. A new creative team jumpstarted a new series run and changed up the membership. This is simple superhero comics. No innovations of storytelling in art or writing. But it’s bright, kinetic, and witty.

Solo: DC Comics is printing this title which lets an artist have an entire comic to draw whatever he wants. The initial run has been stellar in variety and quality. It’s a textbook in techniques and storytelling. Of course, it’s going to be canceled soon.

JLA Classified: The DC version of Avengers, except this title hands the team over to different writer/artists teams to tell one story and then pass it on. It’s the classic membership: Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, etc.

Astonishing X-Men: Marvel gave the writer of “Angel,” “Buffy,” and “Firefly” his own title to write Marvel’s mutant franchise. He’s knocking it out of the park, referring back to decades-old continuity and introducing new angles. He’s made this the best of the many mutant titles, by far.

Fantastic Four: This is Marvel’s flagship title, the one that started their superhero universe and the touchstone for the Marvel elements of cosmic weirdness, internal conflict, arrogant villains, and big ole monsters. I drop the title and pick it up every few years as creative teams arrive and run out of steam. The recent film got virtually nothing right about the comic except for its flavor.

Uncanny X-Men: The first title of the mutant franchise, and this is by the writer who made the X-Men the comic book for years and years. X-Men was the Harry Potter of comics in the ‘80s and remains my touchstone for involving comic book drama. He’s lost a step in the last few years, and his clichés have become crutches. But it still sparks the same emotional chord it plucked when I was barely a teen.

Ultimates: Here’s a prime example of how comics get confusing. Marvel wanted to make its properties more accessible to new readers coming in, hopefully, from the many recent movies. But Marvel will enrage their loyal customers if they just drop all stories and reboot. Instead, they keep the current titles and continuity and start a new line of comics with their own shared universe. New costumes, new personalities and stories. They keep the names and costume themes. Ultimates is the newer, alternate version of the Avengers, not to be confused with the old-continuity title called New Avengers. I told you it’s confusing. Whereas New Avengers feels like a well-done superhero comic, Ultimates feels like a well-done action movie.

Nextwave: This is a comic that doesn’t take itself seriously yet provides all the big comic action and attitude. It’s written by an often-drunk Scottish misanthrope who loves cutting edge technology. A group of minor heroes fights a terrorist group using monsters to attack America. A recent story featured the team fighting Fin Fang Foom, a giant lizard who wears purple underwear.

Hellboy: Here’s a horror action comic reliant on world myth, Edger Allan Poe, and H.P. Lovecraft. I mean, come on, this is right up my alley. The movie got a lot right but shoehorned in a needless love story. Hellboy is not about love; it’s about fighting predestination. The hero is a demon who is crucial to a prophesied Armageddon, but he fights for the good guys and stomps the nasty monsters.

Ex Machina: In this alternate history title, a former NY superhero becomes mayor. It’s very mundane, dealing with political and bureaucratic policies much like ”West Wing,” but the mayor uses his weird super power to smooth things along. Most notably, his presence alters 9/11 and the city’s reaction to it.

Tom Strong: A science-based superhero in the style of Buck Rogers and Doc Savage protects Millennium City from a host of cartoonish threats. This is a comic book unafraid to be a comic book. It doesn’t try to lure readers with trendy angst and headline-ripped subplots. It’s just good comics.

Planetary: In this world, the Fantastic Four are bad guys and control the dissemination of technology and super powers. A secret group investigating global weird archaeology decides the bad guys have controlled the world long enough. It’s both a world-spanning adventure and a personal story of redemption and vengeance. It’s cool and smart, written by the aforementioned drunk creating Nextwave.

Superman: As DC readies for the new movie, they are reviving a character that gets surprisingly dull every few years. The obvious point here is that he’s been around forever and can do anything. Given that attitude, yeah, it might be hard to write Superman comics. But all one has to do is look at the unique properties of the comic – superhero lives undercover married to a fellow newspaper reporter in a city economically dominated by his archenemy, fights threats from bank robbers to cosmic invaders, vulnerable to rocks from home planet and magic, is seen as the lynchpin of the superhero community, dotes on adopted farmer parents – and I can give you two years’ worth of stories in an hour. That’s a fundamentally ripe orchard for comic stories.

That’s what I read, apart from random miniseries and independent-publisher graphic novels.

Picture of the Day
Joy of joys. My current favorite wrestling gimmick, the evil male cheerleader Spirit Squad, won the WWE tag team belts last night. Even typing that makes me smile like an idiot. Did I mention they cheat with help of a mini-trampoline? And they really can’t cheer worth a damn?

In the news
Tom DeLay won’t seek re-election. It’s not that surprising. He’s been a non-factor since stepping down as Majority leader, but he did just win the GOP primary for the Congressional seat. His departure separates his tarnished image from the party before the November elections. He hurts them in a few ways:
a) his top aide just plead guilty to charges stemming from the Abramoff lobbying scandal;
b) he’s fighting the campaign corruption charges in Texas over gerrymandering and laundering;
c) he reminds people that the GOP is willing to chuck aside the party platforms of state sovereignty and individual privacy, as it did over the Schaivo case.

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Saddam is being indicted under additional genocide charges, including gassing Kurds.

Monday, April 3

Hot Damn.

WrestleMania, despite its so-so build-up, was a [Arnold voice] FUHNTAZTIC show [/Arnold voice]. Chicago delivered a hot crowd that turned on the good-guy champ like he shot their dog, and he still won. We got back from the grocery store with ten minutes before the show started, and we had a ball watching it. Well worth the $50. Get the replay if you have even the slightest interest. DirecTV did their best to give me the Hulk Tantrum by giving me the run around Sunday. I used the remote to order the PPV Saturday night and called them Sunday to confirm. The customer-service operator says her computer is frozen, and she can’t confirm my order. She sends me to the website. I go there, set up an account, and check my PPV order status … and it tells me to call customer service. I do but use the automated system to put in another order, and it tells me I already have. Confirmation. Huzzah. And I don’t have to kill anyone.


The weekend was fun. Your Sister didn’t do squat and spent most of Saturday reading. I finished up the second Harry Potter book (so much better than the film) and sketched a bit. We ate that night at Juan’s and I enjoyed a grande Dos Equis. We flip around the TV channels and find Monty Python on BBCAmerica. And Your Sister finally got the see the Spanish Inquisition and Spam sketches. Now she is truly a woman.


Sunday, after turning our clocks ahead, we grabbed some KFC and ate on rocks in the Pisgah Forest streams. The weather was just great for it.

I had three coffee drinks this weekend, including two yesterday. There was concern that it would drop me over in a coma before the PPV, but I seemed fine. Slept OK and woke up this morning even with the end of daylight savings.


The flu bug may be gone, but now it seems we are beset by pollen allergies. Suddenly, all the valves in my head stop up at once, and I can’t breathe. It’s very disturbing. I tried some of Your Sister’s antihistamine and DayQuil.


Sketch Day
OK, we’re gonna get the Star Wars picture done. I’ll start off this week posting the more polished versions of the pose thumbnails, and each week I’ll post the progress.

In the news
The Supremes passed on a chance to rule on the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects. I listened to some of the oral arguments on the case involving Osama’s driver, and the judges were giving the government lawyer a hard time for his interpretation of war powers.

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Studios will being selling online versions of theatrical films this week. They can be burned to a DVD but only for play on a PC authorized by your sales contract, much like you can only authorize five copies of iTunes under your user name.

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Wal-Mart lost its standing as the top Fortune 500 Company to Exxon. Since the list began, there have only been three companies to head the list. GM is the other one.