Month: April 2008

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Shaaana
Happy Birthday to you.
Love, Dad

Peter’s table in Artist Alley is L7-8. He will be there on Saturday and Sunday when he is not at panels or signing at other booths.
Friday April 18th (events canceled due to family emergency. See Kath’s blog for details)
Saturday April 19th
11:00-12:00 Signing at the Del Rey Booth (1921)
Del Rey is giving out a limited number of copies of Tigerheart at that time
1:00-2:00 Fantasy Panel (More info as we know the details)
Sunday April 20th
11:00-12:00 Signing at Midtown Comics Booth (1541)
4:00-5:00 Signing at the Marvel Booth (1141)

Stan’s da Man!

The “Dark Tower” received multiple nominations in the Eisner balloting for the limited series as well as the work of Jae Lee and Richard Isanove. And the novelization of “Iron Man” landed on the New York Times expanded Bestseller list on #29.
Personally, I’m a little bummed that the Eisners ignored the magnificent premiere edition of “Fallen Angel” that IDW put out. Chris Ryall and the guys did an outstanding job of putting that package together; would have been nice to see that acknowledged in the reprint category.
PAD

On the otherwise harmless, and even charming Disney series “Bunny Town,” there’s one bunny who thinks it’s hilarious to run into the middle of situations and shout, “Underwear!” Because to the target audience of “Bunny Town,” “underwear” is one of the most hilarious words ever.
Caroline, being the target audience, shares this opinion, and for the past month–whenever things around here get slow–starts shouting “Underwear!” This can go on for, literally, an hour or more at a stretch. And I was making it clear that I was getting sick of it.
So one day I come home and, as soon as I walk in the door, Caroline shouts, “Knickers!” I look at Kathleen questioningly. “I got her saying that instead of underwear,” she said proudly, certain that I would be pleased that the underwear scourge was at an end. “At least it’s different, and it’s basically the same thing.”
And Caroline started saying “knickers” over and over again, very quickly.
I turned to Kathleen and said, “Are you insane? If she says that in the wrong place at the wrong time, we’re all going to die. Listen to how it sounds.”
Confused, she did as I said, and as Caroline continued to say “knickers” even faster, Kathleen realized that Caroline’s rapid enunciation was causing the middle “ck” to come out as a hard “g.”
Kathleen immediately said, “Caroline. Say underwear instead.”
“Underwear!” crowd Caroline happily.
Thus was a potential race riot averted. Currently we’re trying to teach her to say “kungaloosh” instead so she’ll be all set next time she goes to the Adventurers Club.
Frakkin’ Bunny Town.
PAD

So Obama is in all kinds of hot water because he said that there was bitterness in the working class of Pennsylvania, saying that workers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who have seen factories shut down “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” These sentiments are generating all manner of controversy, although since my understanding is that the remarks were made in private, I find the violation of confidences to be more alarming.
Clinton is blasting Obama, saying his comments smack of “elitism.” Newsday reported that one Democratic strategist in Washington, asserted, “Mistakes like this make superdelegates nervous. … You cannot be elected president of the United States if you think you’re smarter than everyone. People pick up on that.”
Here’s what I don’t get: Why is that a bad thing?
What’s wrong with a president believing he’s smarter than everyone? Or at least smarter than most people? What’s wrong with someone being elitist? Why shouldn’t the President of the United States be the best and the brightest, and know that he or she is and be proud of that fact? We’ve had a proud dunce for seven years now; does anyone REALLY think we’re better off for it?
It’s no wonder that people are distrustful of politicians, but really, we’ve brought it on ourselves. We have a situation wherein this country’s anti-intellectualism has become so pervasive, so suffocating, that we have multi-millionaire Ivy league graduates trying to pretend they’re just plain folks when clearly they’re not. And people know they’re not. This country was founded by men who knew they were the best and brightest, and the citizenry took pride and comfort in that. But television has put politicians into peoples’ homes, and now we just want someone we’re comfortable with. We don’t want men and women who come across like professors; we want the guy who sat in the back of the class and goofs off, as if life was a sitcom. To put it in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” terms, we should want to elect Mr. Hand; instead we opt for Jeff Spicoli.
PAD