Originally published October 28, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1093
There are many theories about time travel and the effect that such theoretical activity might have on the world around us.
Let’s say you’re a time traveler, and you go into the past and change things. What effect will that change have? Well, maybe:
For those not watching it, it was billed as a three day battle between man and machine: Two champions (Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter) square off against an IBM-created supercomputer called Watson that’s supposed to be better, smarter and faster than any human.
Except that’s not what I’ve been watching. I’ve been watching an extended infomercial for IBM, and it’s starting to annoy the hëll out of me. I didn’t mind an initial five minute background about how Watson was developed, but this endless plugging of IBM is wearing thin. It took two days to play a single game of “Jeopardy!” because we basically had a cumulative half hour of extolling IBM’s greatness.
Continue Reading “Am I the Only One Getting Annoyed by the Jeopardy Challenge?”
Originally published October 21, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1092
Assorted stuff:
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I never know what’s going to get a reaction from one week to the next. But one of the biggest reactions I got was when I blew off Native American concerns over Peter Pan. Some people seem to regard me as insensitive.
Caroline’s been watching the old “Batman” TV series on the Hub. She’s only a year or so younger than I was when I was watching it the first time around, so it’s been interesting to see it from her point of view. I have to tell you, her POV is way more advanced than mine was, and possibly is.
We were watching a third season episode featuring Catwoman (Eartha Kitt). Now Catwoman is hands down Caroline’s favorite villain. She was not the least bit put off by the fact that Catwoman had not only changed actresses but skin color; in fact, she thought it was hilarious when she recognized the voice as being that of the villainess in “Emperor’s New Groove.” As the plot unfolds, it’s revealed that Catwoman has not only gotten involved in crimes in the fashion world, but her ultimate goal is to snare the prized Golden Fleece, valued at–as Doctor Evil would say–one millllllion dollars.
And Caroline impatiently says, “This is wrong. It’s all wrong.” I said, “What do you mean?” She said, “Catwoman only cares about cat crimes. She doesn’t care about fashion. She doesn’t care about a golden fleece. She just only does things with cats.” I realized that she was absolutely right. Batman and Robin routinely would try to anticipate her next move in past episodes by seeing what cat-related events or treasures happened to be in Gotham that might be a target. The golden fleece would hold no allure for Catwoman, as portrayed in the TV series, whatsoever. So I told her, “Well, complain to the writers.” To which Caroline replied, “Who are they? Where are they?” I said, “Well, honestly, by this point, probably dead.”
Turns out I was right. The episode in question was written by one Stanley Ralph Ross, who passed away in 2000. It’s kind of a shame. Because if he were still with us, he would have been the recipient of a letter from an angry eight year old informing him that he had totally screwed up in an episode of “Batman” written forty-five years ago.
The thing is, not only had I not realized just how wrong the story concept was when I was a child, I didn’t even realize it now. Not until Caroline pointed it out. She’s got chops, this kid.
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And then the people shouted “Let my Egyptians go!!” And the ruler, not wanting to make the same mistake twice, stepped down and let it be so. I am so hoping I don’t have to eat more matzoh because of this.
–Ariel David
Having just gotten over being sick, I pushed myself to my bowling league since I don’t like to leave my team down.
Although I wasn’t bowling my best, fortunately my opponent that particular night wasn’t having much better luck. Consequently, in the 10th frame of my first game, all I needed to do was get a mark (a strike or a spare) to lock up my point. But I made a poor shot, missing my target inside. Although the ball was in the pocket, the angle was flat, and the result was a disastrous and rarely seen split: the 7-8-10. For those who don’t know the numbers off hand, the 7 and 10 are the two pins on either far corner (referred to when left alone as “goalposts”) and the 8 pin standing next to the 7 like the groom on a wedding cake. Unless I could clean up my mess, I was leaving the door open for my opponent. It wasn’t like this was a major game with a lot on the line, but it was still a matter of pride.
Originally published October 14, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1091
Marvel wants us to know that its plans for the mutant books in 1995 (which involves a murderer disrupting the fabric of time and causing bizarre shifts in reality) is not at all a copy of Zero Hour (which involved a murderer disrupting the fabric of time and causing bizarre shifts in reality).
In a way, Marvel is correct. It’s not Zero Hour precisely. First, it’s got “X’s” in it. (X-Posse? Factor-X? Please X-cuse me while I X-pectorate.)
Secondly, Zero Hour is itself a copy of something else, which was a copy of something else in turn. Which would make this latest X-citing development a copy of a copy of a copy. No, not X-actly Zero Hour.
More like “Xerox Hour.”
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