Here's a review to cap off the week:

This Aquaman story, from More Fun #75, features the first appearance of the Aquacave (an Atlantean temple), the second appearance of Black Jack the Modern Pirate, and only the third appearance of Aquaman himself. While there are some uneducated stereotypes, the natives in the story mostly come off as intelligent. And the artwork is fantastic! Paul Norris at his prime could give any modern artist a run for their money in the storytelling department. I did finally write back to Mr. Norris, and I hope I didn't overwhelm him with questions.

Tomorrow is the first ever Emerald City ComiCon, so expect not much blogging until it's time to write the con report.

There was another memorable test I took in college. I'm lousy with foreign languages. I would love to become fluent in Spanish or Greek or whatever, but I can't seem to make the final leap into actual understanding. I took three years of Spanish in High School, and I learned the structure of the language quite well. But when I read or hear it, the language still makes very little sense. I have to struggle through it.

Well, when I got to college I was determined to take Latin. I thought it was dumb that Latin wasn't taught in High School. So I was going to get into the Latin course and learn it all. But at Western, starting Latin was only offered every other year, and my schedule didn't allow for it. I had to take the other language they offered, or none at all. So I took Greek.

I did awful. I stuck with it for three years, but I didn't do well at all. I think the teacher and my fellow students were amazed at my stubborness. I passed, but barely. I seem to recall going to pass/fail at some point so it wouldn't continue to drag down my GPA.

Anyway, there was a test in this class, I honestly don't recall what year, that made me laugh for ages afterwards. I guess I stuck with the class because it was so much fun... Toonces the Driving Cat would sometimes show up on the tests or in homework. So "expect the unexpected" was a sometimes mantra for the class.

The first rule of translation is that it must make sense. Most people don't write stuff that doesn't make sense, so when you translate, you work on the theory that the piece you are translating made sense in the original language. Thus, when a test was to translate a few paragraphs, I could usually make sure I was doing it right by whether or not it made sense.

On this particular test, I had no trouble with the first sentence: "Mareen walks down the road." No problem. "Mareen is going to the well." Easy-peasy. "Mareen sees the women gathered at the well." Cruising along, I am. "The women look up at Mareen." Ok. "The women start screaming." Um, huh? At this point, I stop and re-read and re-check, but I'm pretty sure that's what it says. The women start screaming. Ok, next sentence: "The women are looking past Mareen." Um... "Mareen turns around." Right... "There are wolves behind Mareen" Ok, that makes sense!

Of course, now I'm curious. Mareen is the character we've been following in the book for some time. I don't recall her ever having been menaced by wolves before. So I continue: "Mareen turns around and around." Huh? Why would she turn around again? I would think she would run. Man, I'm going to fail this test! Next sentence: "She becomes amazing." Huh? Wait... there's another word there... she becomes amazing woman... "She becomes Wonder Woman"!!! Wahoo! Another hurtle passed! Next sentence: "She defeats the wolves. The women are happy." End of translation.

Of course, now I worry that Mareen showed off her secret identity to the women at the well... And, for the record, I believe I actually passed that particular test (which had more questions than that one translation).

I'll write something interesting later. Honest.

I'm once again borrowing a page from Elayne Rigg's book and putting up my Amazon Wishlist so you can see what kind of nut I am. Or at least, what kind of nut I'd like to be. If you notice a dearth of Aquaman stuff, that's because I've already bought most of it...

I've been scanning eBay for neat stuff, but haven't found much new Aquaman items lately. I have noticed that the limited edition HeroClix of Aquaman is slowly dropping in price as more become available. I hope I can get one someday.

Haloscan went "BOOM!" yesterday, and I thought I'd lost all my comments for awhile there. Luckily, they seem to have returned intact, and I backed them up already onto my archive pages.

Hubby-Eric directed me to an interview with Michael Clarke Duncan, who is playing Kingpin in the new Daredevil movie. From a couple of comments he makes during the interview, he's a bit of an Aquaman fan. Wahoo! I'd like to see him play Cal Durham in the live action Silver Age Aquaman movie.

My mailing list has become slightly active again, after I posted some comments to stir up conversation. This was after reading the lifecycle of a mailing list, and realizing that my list was effectively dead. At the one time it should be teeming with conversation. I mean, there's a new Aquaman series! We should be talking.

No Aquaman in the retailer sneak peek package this week, but I did get to flip through Astro City. Oh, I'm so glad it's back. Another solid book on the pull list.

Ok, time to work.

Spectre #26: This one was a clear attempt to pull together some of the plot strings from the previous 25 issues and show that the new Spectre is having a different kind of impact on the world. While I'm impressed by the effort, the result just didn't do much for me. It's fine, just not overwhelmingly good.

Justice League Adventures #16: I almost saw it coming, but I'd be lying if I said I was sure. Definitely a decent story for this crew of heroes.

Young Justice #54: Wow.

Way of the Rat #10: For some reason, the "I Saw A Dragon" from "Pete's Dragon" keeps going through my head. Um, anyway... this book always reads very fast, and that makes it always seem like it's ending too soon. An interesting installment, but I feel like I didn't get enough bang for the buck.

Next week: Green Lantern, JSA, Powers, Aquaman, and finally Astro City!

Smallville: Rush: This was a cringe-fest. While I'm sure the actors enjoyed the "bad" versions of themselves, the story as a whole left me wanting something different. It wasn't a particularly bad episode (especially not compared to the freak-of-the-week ones last season), but it wasn't especially good.
And again, check out the Ledger and the Torch for more show-related fun. The Torch this week has an article about the character from "Jitters" and one of the articles in the Ledger mentions Maggie Sawyer, the Metropolis Police Officer shown in a recent episode. The main article in the Ledger also has a Dukes of Hazzard in-joke.

Sequential Tart has a couple of things of interest to me as an Aquaman fan this month. First up is an interview with Rick Veitch in which Aquaman is mentioned. I like this line: "And of course, as a writer, the best place to be is getting handed a project no one thinks can ever be a success. The editors are open to new concepts and if you pull it off, the fans will love you forever." He's already got me mostly on his side, and if he does manage to pull it off, I think a "love you forever" isn't out of the picture.

But, while that interview is fun, it doesn't introduce any new concepts. The big surprise came in the interview with Dave Roman and John Green. It's in the second-to-the-last paragraph, talking about a SpongeBob Squarepants comic book special. "We do a parody of comics through the ages featuring SpongeBob and even got golden age Aquaman artist, Ramona Fradon to draw a Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy story." Read that line again... "Ramona Fradon to draw a Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy story." And again... and again. Ramona is drawing Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy!!!! Ok, this is a must-have for any Aquaman fan.

Comments (2)

That is an eyebrow-raiser! I'll have to keep an eye out for that book. Fradon doing MM & BB! Wow.

Johnny B | Email | Homepage | 02.04.03 - 7:31 pm

Hey Laura,
Just wanted to let you know about some bad news. Carol called me today and she lost the baby. She kinda wanted me to let people know so they wouldn't ask anything about it in the store. Awkwardness and all. She's doing ok, considering. :-( I'm sad.

Paige | 02.04.03 - 10:31 pm

There's an article on-line at the Stars and Stripes about Bill Mauldin's funeral. Worth reading.

I added a new link to the Archive section over on the sidebar there, it's called Support This Site and tells you all the nifty things you can do to support myself and hubby-Eric in our internet habit. If nothing else, you should get a laugh out of it.

I was thinking about my college days while woolgathering, and remembered one of my favorite classes. It was taught by Tim Beach and it was standing-room only. The course was human geography, and I lucked into it. I remember being surprised at the way the lecture hall filled up on the first day. I quickly learned that it was because the guy was popular. He was also one of the best lecturers I've ever had the pleasure to listen to. His tests were killer, but his course was so much fun and so interesting that you mostly didn't mind. It was one of his tests that I was recalling the other day. Although the tests were multiple choice (with a class so big, anything else would have been suicidal for grading) they were HARD. I think it was the midterm that I'm remembering. With multiple choice tests, you always read every answer, then pick the best one. You never just pick the first one that sounds right and don't read the rest, because there might be a more correct answer later on. So I'm grinding through this test. Everyone is silent, straining on this thing. And I reach an easy question: "Catal Hyuk and Jericho are?" And the first answer is "A) Two of the first cities." Of course that's right, but I gotta read the rest. I can't remember B and C, it's been so long. But D nearly made me laugh aloud in the middle of that mighty test. That one was "D) Klingon words of affection." I recall stifling my laughter before it got out, and putting my head down for a moment to keep from making any noise. I very nearly marked D just for the heck of it, but I needed a good grade on that test, so I put down the correct answer. It helped, too. I was suddenly feeling much more relaxed. I finished the test quickly and was actually one of the first people to leave. As I handed the test to Dr. Beach on the way out the door I remember asking, "Klingon words of affection?" to which he answered, "Sure! Can't you just hear Worf saying 'Jericho' to someone he loved?" Even now it brings a smile to my face.

Comments (1)

You were not the only one subjected to such an amusing diversion on a test at that school, dear. One of the more intense classes I ever took was about special needs students and how they're mainstreamed into regular classrooms. There were lectures on blindness, deafness, children in wheelchairs, and the like. We even had some elementary students come in from a gifted program to demonstrate what they do. But the majority of the class was about students with more subtle needs -- neurological differences, retardation in many different forms, abuse victims, and so on. Heavy stuff. So the final was a solemn affair -- at first. After a while, however, you could hear chuckles rippling around the room. One page in the middle of the test was not actually part of the test, but how to recognize one more type of child with special needs -- those with head lice! After some of the stuff we'd been working on the previous weeks, it was a nice bit of comic relief. One of the recognition signs of a child with head lice? He opens his pocket to get his comb -- and it comes out when he calls it! (This is not to imply that there's anything funy about head lice. But the way this was presented sure made it seem that way!)

Hubby | Email | Homepage | 02.04.03 - 12:12 am

I know my vote has gotten in to the Squiddies now, even though I still haven't received an acknowledgment. The latest psuedo-nominee list had at least one item that only I am likely to ever have voted for. Of course, that item had a "questionable" status, because the vote-takers couldn't find it on the NCRL for last year. So I dug out my Diamond Shipping List and found the shipping date and sent it along to them. The item? "Lost Tales of Erin", which I reviewed some time back. I even gave it 4 1/2 starfish.

The voting for the Squiddies was extended until February 9th after several people complained that only one psuedo-nominee list had been posted.

Comments (2)

Gah, isn't rac* dead yet? Seriously, if it isn't I think maybe the Squiddies ought to be. Usenet as a whole has dwindled to such a degree of relative irrelevancy that any sort of Usenet-based awards seem fairly meaningless and self-absorbed. As if they weren't when I won Squiddies.

Elayne Riggs | Email | Homepage | 02.03.03 - 10:25 pm

Ah... Usenet will never die. It's the first foundation of the internet, and will be the last to go.

Whether or not the Squiddies have any signifigance is hard to tell... I vote so that there's a little more diversity (and because I still read the newsgroups).

Laura Gjovaag | Email | Homepage | 02.04.03 - 11:19 am

There's not really much I can write at this point. The creative bits of my brain have shut down. I think it's a defense against reality. I spent much of yesterday in an odd dream-state, not thinking. Or, at least, trying not to think.

Hopefully I'll snap out of it soon.

Comments (1)

Give yourself time. We're not automatons, we're supposed to feel bad when horrid things happen. Apologizing for it is, I fear, a sign that you've let the stoic, unfeeling cynics get to you. It's okay to grieve, in fact I think it's highly suspect not to.

Elayne Riggs | Email | Homepage | 02.03.03 - 10:26 pm