Category: 1

I will be live with the Super Bowl starting tomorrow at 6 PM. Swing by and comment on the only important thing: the commercials.

PAD

I was sitting at my desk at Marvel comics. In those days I was Marvel’s direct sales manager. My phone rang and I answered it.

It was Myra, my then-wife. She was audibly sobbing. Naturally I thought something had happened to Shana. “What’s wrong?”

“The Challenger blew up,” she said, her voice choking. She’d been watching it on TV and had actually seen it blown out of the sky.

I was stunned. So much had been made about the Challenger, including Christa McAuliffe as the first civilian to take part in the space program. And now they were gone? Just like that? I could barely believe it.

Some years later Bill Mumy and I made our own small tribute to her by naming our spaceship “The Christa” in our TV series SPACE CASES. I’ve no idea whether her family was ever aware of it, but I’d like to think they would have appreciated the shout out.

PAD

It is my understanding that authors are supposed to remain silent when it comes to allowing fans to decide which books should be nominated for the Hugos. I have abided by that for the entirety of my life, and it is a life that remains untarnished by science fiction’s highest award. “Sir Apropos of Nothing,” “Tigerheart,” “Imzadi,” my Crazy 8 books, all have not blemished a nomination ballot. I have been a full time writer for nearly thirty years and silence has gotten me nowhere.

Fine.

A book of mine called “ARTFUL” was published last year. Featuring the Artful Dodger going head to head with vampires in a pre-Victorian England, it has received a metric ton of four and five star reviews on Amazon (and a majority of one-star reviews were from people who didn’t actually read it.) I’m very proud of it. And I’m reasonably sure it is eligible for the Hugo, the World Fantasy award, and the Stoker.

I would very much like anyone who read it and loved it to consider nominating it for any or all of those awards.

Thank you.

PAD

I’m putting off watching SUPERNATURAL for this, so it’d better rock.

9:06: He makes his entrance. Let’s see how long it takes to get to the front.

9:08: God, his hair has gotten so gray.

9:09: Three minutes.

9:10: Good Christ, what the hëll has happened to Boehner’s skin? I mean, I know it was darker, but standing next to Biden, he looks like he’s turning into Pinocchio.

9:11: Which is driving the GOP nuts, of course.

9:13: Now if only they’d prosecuted the people who wrongfully sent those brave men and women overseas. You know: his predecessors.

9:15: Will we approach the world fearful and reactive? Depends if we watch Fox News.

9:15: If we get sorted into fractions, I want to be in Gryffindor.

9:18: Eleven million new jobs. Too bad Kath is still unemployed.

9:19: Finish college and go into huge debt because of student loans.

9:20: “Which you guys have tried to take away from them 53 times and still counting.”

9:21: Well, it’s terrible news to the GOP…

9:25: They’re applauding everyone playing by the same set of rules? Isn’t that kind of self-evident?

9:26: I notice Biden stopped standing. Maybe he felt stupid because he was standing and Boehner was sitting. Jesus, Boehner’s not even clapping. What a douche.

9:28: I take it back. Biden was standing. But not Boehner. Still not even clapping.

9:29: Was it always like this? Did the opposing party always sit on their hands no matter what the president said?

9:31: Pay nothing for community college? Well, you get what you pay for, I guess.

9:32: Or you could follow the West Wing plan and make college tuition tax deductible.

9:34: Boehner finally stood.

9:39: Since I have diabetes, I’m certainly all for curing it. I miss chocolate.

9:40: We launched a space craft? Did I miss something? Well, at least Boehner stood for the astronaut.

9:41: I wish he’d stop talking about bipartisanship. There is no bipartisanship. They can’t even all agree to applaud for him, much less pass laws.

9:43: I don’t think Boehner could look more constipated if he tried.

9:44: Right. The first response is to send in drones. Military is the second response.

9:44: We stand united with France except when we don’t show up for their march.

9:47: So he just warned Putin to stay the hëll out of the Ukraine.

9:48: That’s the quote so far: “When something you’ve been trying for 50 years doesn’t work, it’s time to try something new.”

9:51: By all means, respect our kids’ privacy, so they can blab everything about every aspect of their lives on the internet.

9:53: I wonder what percentage of the people in there still don’t believe in climate change.

9:56: Interesting. In his talk on values, the one thing no one applauded for was not condemning all Muslims.

9:57: Dude, you’ve been there for six years and you always talk about shutting down Gitmo. No one is being fooled by this point.

10:01: Nice that he’s behind gay marriage now considering Joe Biden had to push him into it.

10:03: It’s a wonderful vision. Too bad that tomorrow we’ll be right back to the usual BS.

10:07: “I know ’cause I won both of them.” Nice.

10:09: Yes we are.

Very good speech, I thought. Too bad the pundits will explain how much it sucked and how it was filled with self serving lies.

As I’ve done every year. Be sure to swing by.

PAD

So playing at our local movie theater was “The Wizard of Oz” courtesy of TCM. We went to the 2 PM showing.

Featuring an intro and outro by Robert Osborn, it’s always fun to spend a couple of hours with Dorothy and company. But here’s the thing I found most interesting.

Kids were freaking terrified of the witch.

It was remarkably evident that for quite a few viewers, this was the first time they were seeing the movie, and I heard genuine sobbing and whimpers of absolute terror as the witch threatened and menaced Dorothy. When she flipped over the hour glass several kids came close to screaming, managing to choke it off at the last second.

I found that absolutely amazing. With the level of scary things kids are confronted with these days, ranging from TV shows to video games to films to, hëll, the news: Margaret Hamilton in green makeup was still able to reduce kids to tears seventy five years later. Ten years of “Wicked” hasn’t made a dent in the sheer terror that that woman could summon.

I think she’d be thrilled.

That and I STILL think Glinda is a psycho. Why not tell Dorothy the shoes would take her home? “She wouldn’t have believe me. She had to find out for herself.” YES SHE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED YOU, YOU ÃSSHØLÊ.

Jesus.

PAD

Two years ago, I was lying in bed in a Florida hospital, sleeping for the most part, while the doctor was telling Kathleen that she might have to make some tough decisions if my stroke took a downward turn. At this point in time, Caroline was still being protected from the news about her father, but she was pretty much the only one who didn’t know. The internet was alive with word about my condition. Kath’s phone was ringing off the non-existent hook. Fans were buying my books like mad for financial support and the Heroes Initiative was amassing money to be sent to us.

And I was unaware of pretty much everything. I was barely conscious and of my ten day stay in the hospital, I remember perhaps sixty minutes of it. The rest is a complete blank.

Please remain vigilant for signs of a stroke. If your vision is blurring, if you suddenly start losing feeling on one side of your body, if you can’t stick your tongue out straight, get to a hospital immediately. Minutes count.

And if you’re one of the people who pitched in to help me two years ago, thank you.

PAD