Year: 2003

Donald Rumsfeld was award the “Foot in Mouth” award for the following:

“We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

I still think he could have salvaged it if he’d just added, “Yknow?” at the end.

PAD

My response on one of the questions on the Q&A thread has touched off a flurry of discussion over on the Talk@newsarama section at Newsarama.com. Specifically, it was the one asking about a potential new project that Tom Brevoort alluded to, to which I said that yes, something was in development on a character whom I’d written before, but there was nothing definite. This response was reposted over on Talk@newsarama (minus the “But there’s nothing definite” advisory, naturally) and now bunches of people are discussing what they think the new project is. Which is fine.

But I still find myself shaking my weary head when I see people saying stuff like, “Peter David’s comics don’t sell the way they used to.” Putting aside that no one’s are selling the way they used to, this belief only works when one is willing to ignore three little words: “Hulk: The End.” My first Hulk book in years not only outsold that month’s issue of the hotly hyped Bruce Jones “Hulk” (at twice the cover price, mind you), but a retailer at the Big Apple convention told me that he routinely asks $45 for the ones he has for sale, and gets that asking price.

If you write the books with the hot characters, your books sell very well. If you take a character who was once hot and do something new and different with him, your book will sell very well. Years ago I was writing Spider-Man (a perennial hot character), Hulk (with whom I did something new and different), and X-Factor (mutants=hot), and they all sold. None of the books I write now fit that mold, so they don’t sell the same as those I was writing years ago. Not much more complicated than that.

PAD

What if it was learned that telling someone to go to Hëll guaranteed that, upon their demise, that’s where they’d wind up? Would this knowledge set off an orgy of people condemning to perdition other people they didn’t like? Or would everyone start being really nice to each other in fear of reciprocal dámņáŧìøņ?

PAD

So there we were in our “on-camera” seats at the PBA Geico open, on the right hand side of the lane, about four rows back. Understand, it costs extra money to get the on-camera seats. Last year, though, we had seats all the way at the far end, down by the pins, and friends and family who tuned in to see us said they never did. So this year I figured, y’know what, spend the extra money, Ariel will get a kick out of it, you only go around once.

So who did the cameramen spend most of the time focusing on when they weren’t close-up on the pros?

Four blondes in tank tops holding up individual letters that spelled “ESPN.” Where were they sitting? In the cheap seats at the far end down by the pins.

Guess I should have seen that one coming.

The games themselves ranged from blowouts (the guy we were rooting for, Jeff Lizzi, got blown out of the water by about sixty pins in the semi-finals) to squeakers (rookie Chris Johnson was cruising as he opened with six strikes. Then he left a 7-10 split and failed to pick up either pin with his second ball…a costly error when he wound up losing the match by one stick.) The winner was Pat Healey Jr., for those who keep track of such things.

Frickin’ blondes. Bet they had more fun, too.

PAD

Is common sense more common than the common cold? And are either found to be more common in England’s House of Commons? And is it true that the sentence, “Carmen Miranda had a common veranda?” reads exactly the same forwards and backwards if you’re insane? Or illiterate? Or both?

Spent a good chunk of the day at the Big Apple Convention, meeting and greeting fans and signing a ton of comics. Everyone was gracious and friendly, and quite a few had nice things to say about both “Captain Marvel” and, most gratifyingly (considering where it stands in the sales rankings) “Fallen Angel.” Also quite a few said they read this blog, so a big hello to all who do. It was great to see you all.

Won’t be at the convention tomorrow. As noted earlier, if you want to see me, put on ESPN between 1 and 2:30 PM and maybe you’ll spot us at the bowling competition. We’ll probably be wearing our “Pirates of the Caribbean” shirts.

PAD