text:
Churches & Chapels >
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Parys Mountain Windmill
Parys Mountain windmill, 2006
Melin Llynnon may be the most famous windmill on Anglesey, but the Parys Mountain mill runs a close second. It is also the most visible as it stands on top of Parys Mountain, one of the highest points on Anglesey, at an altitude of 138 meters (450 feet) and can be seen for miles around.
It is also the only remaining industrial windmill. Instead of grinding grain, this windmill was used to pump water out of the copper mine on Parys Mountain. Copper had been mined at a small scale at Parys Mountain as far back as Roman times, but it was in the 1760s that interest in the mineral wealth increased. In 1768 a rich vein of copper ore was found and within a few years it had become the world's largest copper mine.
Parys Mountain opencast
pit & windmill, 2006
At first the mine was opencast, as the ore was near the surface, but as that was mined out, and as mining techniques were improved, deep mining took over and shafts were sunk. These needed to have water removed, which was initially done with buckets and windlass. Steam engines were later used, but these required coal to power them. In order to save on the costs of coal this windmill was built in 1878. It was connected to the same pumping gear as the steam engine and could assist in the pumping when the wind was up.
The windmill was unique on Anglesey, not only for its purpose but for the fact that it had five sails rather than four. The windmill was suited to its purpose and in 1901 a mining survey noted that the windmill was working well at pumping. By this time deep mining had ended and the copper was being recovered through precipitation by pumping water out of the mine and into ponds. Copper production further declined and the mine eventually closed in 1904. By 1929 the windmill was an empty capless shell, which it remains to this day.
See other images of this windmill at:
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Image taken in 1936, from the Donald W. Muggeridge Collection of Mill Photographs, University of Kent, Canterbury
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Copyright © 1995- Warren Kovach, Anglesey, Wales. All Rights Reserved. The photographs and text on these pages may be downloaded and viewed for your own interest, but you MAY NOT distribute them, reproduce them on other web sites, or use them in any form for any commercial purpose without the express permission of the copyright holder.
Last modified 18 December, 2020

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Australian native plants have been used for thousands of years by Aboriginal people. Capturing the essence of our diverse flora, our Native Australian Spice range introduces the rich natural flavours of our Australian land to your kitchen. The spices we use are produced by a group of small family run growers around Australia. The herbs are grown without the use of chemicals and gathered by hand, taking care not to damage the trees and to protect the environment.


text:
Ferdinand II. Aragonski (10. marec 1452, † 23. januar  1516
) imenovan tudi Ferdinand Katoliški, kralj Aragonije(1479-1516) in Kastilje (kot Ferdinand V., 1474-1504), Sicilije (1468-1516) Neaplja (kot Ferdinand III., 1504-1516). Bil je tudi regent kastiljske krone od 1507 do 1516, ker njegova hči, Ivana I. Kastiljska ni bila zmožna opravljati položaja.

Biografija

Otroštvo
Ferdinand, sin Janeza II. Velikega in njegove druge žene Ivane Enríquez, je bil na voljo njegove matere rojen na območju Aragonije.

Pri samo šestih letih je od očeta Janeza II. dobil naziv vojvoda Montblanca ter grof Ribagorza (25.7.1458).

Dedič aragonske krone in poroka z Izabelo I. Kastiljsko
Ferdinand je postal dedič aragonske krone po smrti polbrata Karla, princa Ivana (1461). V mestu Calatayud je bil okronan za Aragonskega kralja. Med katalonsko državljansko vojno (1462-1472) se je seznanil z upravljanjem državne uprave.

Izabela, polsestra Enriqueja Kastiljskega, je po smrti svojega bratranca, Alfonza Kastiljskega (1468) postala znana kot dedinja Kastilje. Ferdinandov oče, Janez II., je hotel poroko
med svojim sinom in Izabelo, da bi združil dve kroni, kar mu je tudi uspelo. V palači Vivero v Valladolidu sta se oktobra leta 1469 poročila Ferdinand in mlada kastiljska princesa. Obstajal pa je velik problem: zakonca sta bila bratranca (njuna dedka sta bila brata.)

Izabela in Ferdinand

Izabela in Ferdinand sta se povzpela na prestol prek Kastiljske nasledstvene vojne, ki je trajala med letoma 1475 in 1479. Šlo je za vojno med privrženci Ivane (poznane tudi pod vzdevkom la Beltraneja) iz rodbine Trastámara, domnevne hčere pokojnega kralja Henrika IV. Kastiljskega in Izabele, ki je bila kraljeva polsestra. Ta vojna je imela dvojni značaj - državljanske in mednarodne vojne. Izabela je bila namreč poročena s Ferdinandom, naslednikom aragonske krone, Ivana pa se je poročila z Alfonzom V. Portugalskim. Portugalsko je podpirala Francija, ker je želela preprečiti, da bi se njen tekmec za nadvlado nad območji Italije združil s Kastiljo. Vojna se je končala 4. septembra 1479 s podpisom Tordesilljske pogodbe. Ivana se je odrekla svojim pravicam in morala do smrti ostati v samostanu. Izabela in Ferdinand sta bila tako priznana kot kraljica in kralj Kastilje.

Ferdinand II. je po dolgih razpravah s kastiljskim plemstvom dosegel podpisati segovski sporazum, ki pravi, da je so-regent Kastilje, z enakimi pravicami kot Izabela. Ferdinand je tako lahko aktivno sodeloval v upravljanju vojske (pomagal je predvsem v bikovi bitki (1476), ki se je po njegovi zaslugi končala s strateško zmago). Od leta 1476 do 1477 je bil upravnik Santiažanovega reda.

Papež Aleksander VI. je Izabeli I. Kastiljski in Ferdinandu II. Aragonskem podelil naziv Katoliška kralja. Njuno vladanje v španski zgodovini velja kot tranzicija iz srednjega veka v novi vek. Z njuno zakonsko zvezo sta se v rodbini Trastámara združili dve kroni: Kastiljsko in Aragonsko kraljestvo. Združitev kron je pomenila prvi korak Španije k razvoju enotne države. 4. septembra 1479 se je končala vojna. Ivana se je s podpisom sporazuma v Alcáçovasu odrekla svojim pravicam in zato morala do smrti ostati v samostanu Coímbra. Izabela I. se je tako spremenila v kraljico Kastilje. V istem letu 20. januarja je Ferdinand nasledil svojega očeta Janeza II. in postal kralj Aragonije. Vendar o trdni zvezi dveh kron lahko govorimo šele od leta 1475, po Segovskem sporazumu (kasneje potrjen tudi v Calatayudskem sporazumu 1481), v katerem piše, da je Ferdinand imenovan za kralja Kastilje kot Ferdinand V. skupaj z ženo Izabelo I.. Vendar pa kraljica Izabela I. ni imela enakih pravic kot Ferdinand V., saj v času aragonske krone še ne moremo govoriti o saličnem zakonu, ki bi to dovolil.

V Aragonskem kraljestvu Ferdinand ni spremenil političnega tradicionalnega sistema, ki je otežil koncentracijo moči v rokah kralja. V Kastilji je predstavil aragonske institucije konzulatov (kot npr. Morski konzulat) in sindikatov s pomočjo katerih je izboljšal kastiljski ekonomski razvoj, predvsem na področju trgovanja z volno.

Širjenje ozemlja
Od leta 1492 dalje se je Ferdinand osredotočil na širitev svojega ozemlja proti vzhodu, preko Sredozemlja, predvsem na območje Italije in severa Afrike. S pomočjo Barcelonske pogodbe (1493), je ponovno osvojil Rosellón in mesto Cerdaña, ki sta bila okupirana s strani Francije od leta 1463. V Italiji ustanovi koalicijo Sveta liga, v katero so vključene Papeške države, Benetke, Švica, Sveto rimsko cesarstvo in Anglija, ki se bori proti Franciji. Zaradi vojaške uspešnosti in znanja kralja so uspeli pridobiti ozemlje Neaplja in Sicilije, ki sta bila prej pod francosko oblastjo. Ferdinandova obramba pred Francijo je vključevala poroke, med kraljevimi družinami z različnih evropskih mest, z namenom, da bi tako osamila Francijo. Njegovi hčeri Izabela (po njeni smrti) in Marija sta se poročili z Emanuelom I. Portugalskim; Janez z Margareto Avstrijsko; Ivana s Filipom I. Kastiljskim (znanim tudi pod imenom Filip Lepi) in Katarina z Arturjem, princem Walesa, in po njegovi zgodnji smrti z njegovim bratom Enriquejem VIII. Angleškim.)

Krištof Kolumb in odkritje Amerike
V Kolumbovih časih je postala Svilna cesta, trgovska pot do vzhodne Azije, nevarna, ko se je končalo obdobje, ko so Mongoli vzdrževali mir. V 1480-ih letih je z brati razvil idejo da bi dosegel Indijo s plovbo proti zahodu. Idejo je večkrat predstavil portugalskemu kralju Ivanu II., a je ta po posvetu s svetovalci zavrnil financiranje. Zato je odšel h Ferdinandu Aragonskemu in Izabeli Kastiljski, ki sta kljub začetnemu nasprotovanju nazadnje popustila in zagotovila financiranje. Tako je Kolumb leta 1492 prečkal Atlantski ocean in 12. oktobra dosegel Ameriko pod zastavo kastiljske Španije. Pri tem Kolumb ni odkritelj samega celinskega dela Amerike; tega je šele leta 1497 prvi dosegel italijanski raziskovalec Giovanni Caboto. Leta 1500 je bil zaradi obtožb o tiraniji in nesposobnosti pri upravljanju odkritih ozemelj skupaj z brati aretiran ter razrešen funkcij, ki so mu pripadale po pogodbi. Nekaj tednov kasneje ga je kralj Ferdinand osvobodil, mu povrnil premoženje in financiral še zadnjo odpravo. Po Kolumbovi smrti so njegovi dediči za uveljavitev pravic sprožili vrsto sodnih postopkov proti Kastiljski kroni, ki so trajali še več desetletij in dobili skupno ime pleitos colombinos (»kolumbovske tožbe«).

V najširši javnosti je še vedno zasidrana ideja, da je Kolumb odkril Ameriko, v resnici pa je njegov zgodovinski pomen zapletenejši. Natančno povedano so jo odkrili predniki sedanjih staroselcev, ko so prečkali kopenski most na mestu sedanjega Beringovega preliva in jo naselili. Kolumb ni bil prvi Evropejec, ki je ugledal Ameriko, bil pa je prvi, ki je ponesel vest o odkritju nazaj do Evrope in s tem prvič vzpostavil trajen stik med prebivalci obeh vélikih kopenskih mas. Leto 1492 velja tudi v stroki za mejnik v zgodovini ameriške celine; tako denimo izraz predkolumbovsko označuje ljudstva in civilizacije na tem območju pred prihodom evropskih (španskih in portugalskih) osvajalcev konec 15. stoletja.

Na podlagi večine njegovih zapisov je možno sklepati, da je bil Kolumb do konca življenja prepričan, da je priplul do vzhodnih obal Azije, ne do povsem nove celine. Po drugi strani je ob odkritju veletoka Orinoko v svoj dnevnik zapisal, da gre za »mogočno, dotlej neznano celino«, vendar je kasneje nenavadna ozemlja interpretiral kot »raj na zemlji«, ki je bil, po mnenju takratnih teologov, na koncu Orienta.

Nasledstvo
Po smrti Izabele (1504), je Ferdinand razglasil svojo hčer Ivano za kraljico Kastilje in prevzel vajeti vladanja v svoje roke. Filip, Ivanin mož, pa se ni hotel odpovedati svoji moči, zato je v Salamanškem soglasju (1505) sklenil skupno vladanje Filipa in Ivane kot kralja in kraljice, Ferdinand pa je bil le še guverner. Ferdinand se je leto po smrti Izabele I. Kastiljske poročil z osemnajstletno Germano de Foix, nečakinjo kralja [Ludvika XII.. Ta poroka je povzročila ogromno razburjenje med kastiljskim plemstvom, ker so si to razlagali kot, da Ferdinand noče, da njegova hči Ivana I. in Filip I. Kastiljski podedujeta aragonsko krono. Z Germano de Foix je v letu 1509 imel še enega otroka, sina Ivana, ki bi postal kralj Aragonije, če ne bi bil umrl kmalu po rojstvu.

Ivana in Filip
Leta 1506, ko sta se poročila Ivana I. in Filip I. Kastiljski, so se pojavili nesporazumi med Ferdinandom II. Aragonskim in njegovim zetom. Filipa je podpiralo kastiljsko plemstvo, ki je ustanovilo skupino el grupo filipista, Ferdinanda II. pa zastopniki mest, ki so ustanovili skupino el grupo aragonés. Vse se je končalo z Villafáfilijevem sporazumom, ki pravi, da se je Ferdinand II. umaknil v  Aragonijo, Filip Lepi pa je bil razglašen za kralja Kastilje kot Filip I. Kastiljski.

Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros
25. septembra 1506 Filip I. Kastiljski umre. Zaradi Ivanine nesposobnosti mora Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros prevzeti odgovornost moči kakor predsednik kastiljskega sveta do vrnitve Ferdinanda II. Ko se je Ferdinand vrnil, je takoj dosmrtno zaprl svojo hčer v Tordesillas. Vladal je kot kastiljski regent, vendar se je posvetil Italiji (bil je del Kambrejske lige (1511), ki je bilo zavezništvo proti Beneški Republiki), zato je pustil kastiljsko vlado Kardinalu Cisnerosu.

Ferdinandova smrt in oporoka

Umrl je 23. januarja 1516 v mestu Madrigalejo, Cáceres. V njegovi zapuščini je posvetil celo posestvo in last svoji hčeri, pod pogojem da ne zasede položaja vladarja Kastilje in Aragonije, v primeru, da to stori, zapuščino dobi Karel de Gante (kasneje: Karel I. Španski ali Karel V. Habsburški). Svojemu sinu Alfonzu Aragonskemu je dodelil položaj regenta Aragonije ter Kardinalu Cisnerosu položaj regenta Kastilje.

26. 4. 1515 je Ferdinand v oporoki zapisal, da določeni služabniki dobijo nekaj njegove dediščin, prav tako njegov sin Alfonz Aragonski, vnuk Ferdinand in njegova žena Germana de Foix. V oporoki je izrazil željo, da bi rad bil pokopan v Kraljevi kapeli v Granadi, skupaj s prvo ženo Izabelo I. Kastiljsko.

Poroke in otroci

Poroka z Izabelo
Ferdinandov oče, Janez II. Aragonski se je na skrivaj domenil za zakon med Ferdinandom in Izabelo (takrat razglašeno za asturijsko princeso). Ferdinand naj bi se bil poročil s hčerjo Ivana Pacheca. Izabela je sicer želela zakon s Ferdinandom, a obstajal je velik problem: Ferdinand in Izabela sta bila bratranca; njuna dedka sta bil brata. Zato sta potrebovala odobritev papeža. Papež pa ni hotel podpisati tega dokumenta, ker bi lahko posledice bile grozne.

Vendar pa je papež hotel to poroko, zaradi koristi, ki bi jih prinesla. Papež je tako imenoval Alejandra VI. (prej: Rodrigo de Borja) kot papeževega odposlanika, da je lahko podpisal ta dokument, in tako omogočil to poroko. 19. oktobra 1469 sta se Ferdinand in Izabela poročila v palači Vivero v Valladolidu.

Imela sta 5 otrok:
 Izabela Aragonska (1470 - 1498), Asturijska princesa (1497 - 1498). Poročila se je z Alfonzom Portugalskim, ko je ovdovela se je ponovno poročila z Emanuelom I. Portugalskim (bratranec in svak pokojnega portugalskega kralja Ivana II.) a je med porodom sina, Miguela de Paz, umrla.
 Ivan (1478 - 1497) asturijski princ. Poročil se je z Margareto Avstrijsko, ki je bila hči nemškega cesarja Maksimilijana I.. Po šestih letih skupnega življenja je Ivan umrl v Salamanci, zaradi hude vročine.
 Ivana I. Kastiljska (1479 - 1555) asturijska princesa (1500-1504). Leta 1496 se je poročila s Filipom Lepim (sin Maksimilijana I. Habsburškega). S tem zakonom je v Španijo vstopila nova rodbina: Habsburžani. Leta 1500 je rodila sina, Karla I., ki jo je kasneje nasledil. Bil je tudi cesar Svetega rimskega cesarstva kot Karel V. Leta 1503 je rodila sina Ferdinanda, naslednika Karla V., kasneje cesar kot Ferdinand I. Po smrti njenega moža, Filipa, jo je oče razglasil kot mentalno nesposobno in jo dosmrtno zaprl v mestu Tordesillas, kjer je tudi umrla štiri desetletja kasneje.
 Marija (1482-1517). Poročila se je z ovdovelim možem svoje sestre, Emanuelom I. Portugalskim, s katerim je imela dva otroka: Janeza III. in Enriqueja I., kardinala.
 Katarina (1485-1536). Poročila se je s princem Arturjem Valižanskim, po njegovi smrti pa z njegovim bratom Enriquejem VIII. Tako je postala angleška kraljica.

Poroka z Germano de Foix
Po smrti Izabele se je ponovno poročil z Germano de Foix, sestrično Ludvika XII. Francoskega. Poročila sta se 19. oktobra leta 1505 v provinci Dueñas.
 Ivan (1509 - umrl je nekaj ur po rojstvu)

Alonza Ruiz de Ivorra
Alonza in Ferdinand se nista nikoli poročila, skupaj pa sta imela dva otroka.
 Alfonzo ali Alonzo (1470-1520) nadškof Zaragoze in namestnik aragonskega kralja.
 Ivana Aragonska (??-??) grofica Castilnova

Toda de Larrea
 Marija (opatinja samostana Nuestra Señora de Gracia el Real de Madrigal )

Juana Pereira
 Marija Esperanza (opatinja samostana, kjer je bila opatinja tudi njena sestra Marija)

Sklici

Viri

 Ballesteros Beretta, Antonio (mayo de 1941).
 Batista González, Juan (2007). España Estratégica, guerra y diplomacia en la historia de España. Madrid: Silex ediciones. ISBN Especial:FuentesDeLibros/978-84-7737-183-0.
 Salvador Miguel, Nicasio,Salvador Miguel, Nicasio, (2008) La literatura en la época de los Reyes Católicos. Pamplona : Universidad de Navarra ; Madrid : Iberoamericana ; Frankfurt am Main : Vervuert, 2008
 Egido, Aurora; Laplana, José Enrique (2014). La imagen de Fernando el Católico en la Historia, la Literatura y el Arte. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico. ISBN 978-84-9911-309-8
 Vicens Vives, Jaime (2006). Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de Fernando II de Aragón. Zaragoza: Institución Fernando el Católico. ISBN 84-7820-882-8.

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Zunanje povezave

Aragonski kralji
Kastiljski kralji
Neapeljski kralji
Nosilci reda podvezice

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


According to a report, Montgomery is one of the 10 cities across the nation most likely to experience a housing crash this year, while Birmingham ranked 12 in the same undesirable metric.
In the study, GoBankingRates analyzed data on 175 of the largest American cities.
Researchers then used key factors, including the percentage of homes with mortgages with negative equity (also known as "underwater"), meaning the home is currently worth less than the total cost of the mortgage, along with the city's mortgage delinquency rate from Zillow's February 2019 index.
The personal finance website's report also calculated each area's homeowner vacancy rate and rental rate using data from the Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey, combined with foreclosure rates from RealtyTrac.
Birmingham was ranked 12 most in danger of a housing crash in 2019, with Montgomery coming in at number 10.
For Montgomery, 28.2 percent of mortgages are underwater.
While not faring quite as poorly, Mobile was also named in the top-40 of most at risk cities.
Coming in at 27, Alabama's coastal city has 16.1 percent of its mortgages underwater.
"Mobile is certainly cheaper to live in than most other cities. However, Mobile's housing leaves much to be desired. One in six homes with a mortgage has negative equity. In the meantime, 11.9% of rental units are unoccupied, giving Mobile the fourth-highest rental vacancy rate in the study," GOBankingRates said.


text:
Q: first login to enter website with username and passwort I have to trying always for Perl, .htaccess and httppd.conf with different Username and Password from LDAP Search. But it  it out of all recognition for username and password. Maybe I am wrong for programmer or what?
Perl:
Package:
use Net::LDAP;
use Net::LDAP::Extension::SetPassword;

Function:
my $ldapserver="ldap.server.com";
my $dn="CN=Company IT,OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,OU=Company IT AG,OU=Prod,DC=server,DC=server,DC=com";

my $ldap = Net::LDAP->new( $ldapserver, debug =>0 ) or die $@;
my $result = $ldap->bind( $dn, password => password );

#$result->SetPassword('user');

$result = $ldap->search(
base => "OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,OU=Company IT AG,OU=Prod,DC=server,DC=server,DC=com",
filter => "(mailNickname="*")"

httpd:
<Directory "/opt/csw/apache2/share/cgi-bin">
    SetEnv LD_LIBRARY_PATH "/opt/csw/apache2/lib:/opt/oracle/product/11.2.0.4/instantclient_11g"
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl .py
    AllowOverride Options
    Options +ExecCGI
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all

    AuthName "Enter Your Network Username/Password"
    AuthType Basic
    AuthBasicProvider ldap
    AuthBasicAuthoritative off
    AuthLDAPURL ldap://ldap.server.com
    AuthLDAPBindDN "CN=Company IT,OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,OU=Company IT AG,OU=Prod,DC=server,DC=server,DC=com"
    AuthLDAPBindPassword password
    AuthLDAPRemoteUserAttribute mailNickname
    require valid-user
</Directory>

htaccess:
AuthName "Enter Your Network Username/Password"
AuthType Basic
Options +ExecCGI
AuthBasicProvider ldap
AuthBasicAuthoritative off
AuthLDAPURL ldap://ldap.server.com
AuthLDAPBindDN "CN=Company IT,OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,OU=compant IT AG,OU=Prod,DC=server,DC=server,DC=com"
AuthLDAPBindPassword password
AuthLDAPRemoteUserAttribute mailNickname
require valid-user

A: AuthLDAPBindDN must be the user to consult the ldap, AuthLDAPURL must be not only the ldap server but the entire LDAP patch Active Directory. Like
AuthLDAPBindDN "userldap@domain"
AuthLDAPURL "ldap://ldap.server.com/OU=Standard Users,OU=Users,OU=compant IT AG,OU=Prod,DC=server,DC=server,DC=com?sAMAccountName?sub?(objectClass=*)"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Updating the corporate site of the bank "Vostochny".
Updating corporate website, improving usability and attracting new clients.
The new user-friendly website has a lot of easy functions. The MST team did analytic, design and front-end. The Vostochny bank did integration and content. The collaboration results in added value for all.
The website got 20% faster. To draw up an online-request is even more convenient now.
According to statistics more than 50% of website visitors are using smartphones or tablets. Therefore, the MST did the new one very adapted for both mobile and desktop versions.
The website menu was redesigned. All key bank products are on the main page now.
It is only through the new navigation system, the site has become even easier and more functional, and the design is open and informative.
«While site updating, we focused on customer's convenience. The interface has been simplified as much as possible and the number of steps required to find and solve problems of the visitors of the www. vostbank. ru reduced. In addition, we have created new marketing tools that increase the visibility of products interesting to customers», — Alexey Kazakov, the director of the department of digital business commented.
The Public Joint-stock Company Vostochny Bank (Vostochny, PJSC CB) is one of the largest Russian banks, leading the financial services market in Siberia and the Far East. It was founded in 1991 in the Amur region. It is a credit institution at the Federal level and a member of the Deposit insurance system (DIS).


text:
Gone Again
Well, I think it's time I put the blog back in mothballs again.
The major problem I'm having with it is that it takes a ton of work to update it — even without keeping to a regular update schedule. It still takes at least two days to write up a book review, and that takes up time I could be using to work on other, more interesting projects.
And not that I don't appreciate all my loyal readers, but doing all that writing for just the five of you is kinda not great.
I still think blogs are a good thing. I think they're a better way to talk to folks, without having to deal with the various poisons we have to deal with in social media. But it doesn't change the fact that I've grown very tired of fighting my brain to think of new posts.
My main regret is that I've still got a tall stack of books and comics I'd love to review for you, and a decent number of RPG characters I think it'd be fun to share. Maybe I'll be back eventually, if the drive to share some of this stuff gets too strong to resist.
But for now, I'm outta here. I'll leave you with these important words to live your life by: THE ONLY GOOD NAZI IS A DEAD NAZI.
April 19, 2021 · Filed under Cancellations, Meta, Stuff about Scott
The Greatest Comic Cover Ever!
Alright, class, let's settle down. Everyone take your seat, thank you. It's time for today's lesson.
Namely, our lesson concerning HOW AMAZING THIS OLD COVER IS!
That's Super Friends #16, cover dated at January 1979, and from the looks of it, art by the impossibly great Ramona Fradon herself!
I've never read this comic, but BAHGAWD, we can talk about what a fantastic cover this is, right?
We're not going to talk about the fact that the old Super Friends art style, based on the old cartoons, is outdated, because the job of the artist was the replicate the limited animation style of the cartoons. No style points are lost here, and anyone who complains is getting their eye poked.
So let's start off with the image that dominates the cover — that amazing superhero trap formed from an Impossible Cube, as imagined by artist M.C. Escher.
I've never seen anything like this in any other comic book, and I'm honestly furious about that. It's such a perfect concept — how do you confine demigods with incredible powers? Well, you put 'em somewhere that has no ups or downs or lefts or rights, somewhere where they can seem to be right next to each other but still be absolutely isolated and alone. It's a mathematical optical illusion — it can't exist. But you make it solid or at least multi-dimensional, and it becomes the best way to capture and imprison four-color superheroes. This should be a way more common superhero trope just because of its glorious weirdness.
The last thing I want us to talk about on this cover is the alien's word balloon. It reads:
"The Earth's greatest super heroes are helpless to stop us… FROM STEALING THE SKY!!"
I think the only time I've seen a similar phrase is from the title of a book in an old Ace Double, namely "Tonight We Steal the Stars" by John Jakes.
I've read summaries of both of these stories, and big spoiler alert — no one literally steals the stars or the sky in either book. How could they? The stars are giant balls of gas millions of light years away, and the sky is, well, it's everywhere. If it's above your head, it's the sky, and you just can't steal that. But what if some villain… figured out how to do it?! You must buy this comic, reader! Or this book! Buy it and read!!!
Obviously, it's a killer hook, and comics and science fiction could both use those kinds of fantastic, irresistible hooks.
So there ya got it. That's a quick look at what may be the greatest comic book cover of all time. No gimimcks, just great art and great imagination.
April 9, 2021 · Filed under Dose of Awesome!, Super Friends
For Mercies' Sake
Here's a little piece of brilliance I just can't believe I haven't blogged about yet. Let's review The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke.
Our setting in this very loose retelling of Beowulf is Vorseland, a generic medieval/fantasy version of the Scandinavian nations. And our lead characters are a small group of teenagers who are members of the Boneless Mercies, freelance mercy killers who roam Vorseland granting quick, merciful, painless deaths to the old and the sick — and sometimes to the healthy and abusive and cruel, if their victims will pay the fee to hire their blades and their poisons.
The Mercies are:
Frey, the leader, is a compassionate girl who has grown tired of the death trade and dreams of better things. She was apprenticed by an older woman named Siggy who died a few years ago.
Ovie, the oldest of the Mercies, maybe 19 or 20 years old. She's also the quietest, and she wears a patch over her lost eye.
Runa, angry, skeptical, independent, the most likely to dissent and seek conflict.
Juniper, at 15, the youngest of the Mercies, comes from the Sea Witches, where she gets her magic skills and her pale, sea-green hair.
Trigve is not a Mercy because he's not a woman. But he travels with them, the most light-hearted in the grim business, with his mind on matters of healing, not death.
But spending your life dealing out death, even if it's welcomed, and spending decades shunned because of your profession — it wears on you, and the Mercies would kinda like to stop being Mercies someday. And when news starts circulating about a monster roaming the jarldom of Blue Vee, slaughtering warriors and innocents alike, and prompting Jarl Roth to offer a generous reward for anyone who can slay the Blue Vee Beast, Frey starts thinking she'd like to try her hand at fighting a monster, being a hero, and grabbing the glory she's always dreamed of. But can a Boneless Mercy become a celebrated hero?
Verdict: Thumbs up. This is a fantastic book, and if you love heroic fantasy, kickass heroines, fantastic characters, cold and snow, and a constant sense of impending doom, this is something you'll want to read.
The book is filled with beautifully realized settings, from the various inns and forests where the Mercies sleep piled together like dogs, to the Merrows, where the Sea Witches live atop their giant witch trees, to the Red Willow Marsh, home of the terrifying Cut-Queen and her fanatical army of murderous girls, to the desolate beauty of the snowbound and horror-stricken land of Blue Vee, to the lonely cavern where the Blue Vee Beast hides.
I absolutely love the characters in this book. Tucholke could've stopped with giving us our five outstanding lead characters and filled the rest of the book up with boring placeholder characters — but she didn't. As the Mercies travel around Vorseland, they meet fellow Mercies like Sasha, Gunhild, and Aarne, facing terrible life-changing challenges; Mother Hush, wise leader of the Sea Witches and weaver of magics; Elan Wulf, the Cut-Queen, an utterly terrifying spell-caster and conqueror, whose power and charisma is contrasted with her surprising youth; Leif and Vital, members of the forest-dwelling archers called the Quicks; Indigo, a fierce, passionate warrior wandering through her life; Jarl Roth, watching over the slowly dying Blue Vee jarldom, strong and proud, but melancholy to find himself surrounded by death; Siggy, who we never even meet, but whose wisdom and kindness is reflected in everything she's taught Frey and the other Mercies; and even the Blue Vee Beast herself, who has secrets no one suspects.
This is a beautiful and sad book, filled with glory and magic and blood. Every page — nearly every paragraph — reads like a lyric from an epic Norse ballad. You will dread the coming end of the tale almost from the first chapter, because quests that end in glory must also end in heartbreaking loss, but you will read the end more than once, and your heart will fill with pride and sorrow every time.
Go get this book, read it, love it. It's going to be part of you forever after.
April 5, 2021 · Filed under April Genevieve Tucholke, Boneless Mercies, Not a Comic Book
Pure Pepper Power
When I heard this book was coming out, I got excited. I pre-ordered it as soon as I could, rejoiced when it finally arrived in the mail, and had to practice a lot of discipline to avoid reading the entire thing in a single sitting. Did it live up to the hype? Let's look at Pepper Page Saves the Universe! by Landry Q. Walker and Eric Jones.
First of all — Walker and Jones — weren't they the creators of Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade? Yes, indeed, they were, and when the team behind one of the most fun superhero comics in ages gets back together, you get whatever they're making. This isn't a pure clone of the Supergirl comics, no matter how much we might like to see that series continue, but it has some fun similarities.
We start out in the distant future where Pepper Page is a lonely 15-year-old orphan. She's an awkward nerdy kid with only a couple close friends, Tally and Zola, and a deep, obsessive love for ancient comic books, especially about the superheroine Supernova.
But she's got angry rivals, particularly the jock Strona, who's furious with Pepper for constantly missing games of Holo-Ball. And she has to deal with an unfriendly teacher, Professor Killian, who's pompous and sneering and maybe a liiiiiittle bit shady. So Pepper just doesn't enjoy school at all. The only thing she wants to do is hang out with her friends and read her Supernova comics.
Things start to go really wrong one night when Pepper and her friends escape Strona and her bullies by hiding out in the school. They soon find Professor Killian in the midst of some sort of strange hyper-tech project — and cruelly experimenting on a stray cat! Pepper tries to intervene, but finds herself — and the cat — caught up in a field of quantum energy. Killian only expresses disappointment that she's ruined his experiment, kinda proving that he's a lot past just kinda shady — and then Pepper vanishes into the timestream.
And things get really weird at that point, what with the blasts of light, the gigantic voice of the cosmos, the furious blobs of evil eyeballs, and the all-seeing glowing heads — which tell Pepper that she herself is Supernova, that she always has been, that she always will be. But that couldn't possibly be true, right? Right?
That's right around the mid-point of the story — and beyond that be spoilers, so we won't get into it.
Verdict: Thumbs up. Such a big thumbs up. This comic is just fantastic from beginning to end. I loved pretty much everything from first page to last.
The plotline is plenty of fun. It starts out with low-stakes, high school melodrama stuff, sometimes even moving downright slowly to make sure everyone gets the idea of how miserable Pepper's life is, and by the time it crescendos up to the cosmic scale, things have gone way beyond high stakes — and it's still a story of Pepper's struggles. It's just her struggles writ on a much wider scale. Plus there's energy blasts and super-powered punches, so that's pretty great, too.
Characterization is excellent, too, though the best developed characters are (obviously) Pepper and Mister McKittens, the hyper-intelligent, utterly droll cat who serves as Pepper's personal sounding board and infodump generator.
The artwork by Eric Jones (and colors by Michael Drake and Pannel Vaughn) is absolutely spectacular. It's got a lot of appealing cartoony qualities, but when it comes time for someone to get rocketed through space, to get blasted by quantum energy, to transform themselves, or to get thunder-punched clear across the city, that's when the art jumps up to another level entirely, full of energy, motion, and power. It turns a thoroughly excellent and fun comic into a joyously, thrillingly exciting one.
Looking for a great comic to share with a younger reader? Looking for a great comic to share with a grownup reader, too? You'll definitely want to pick this one up.
March 26, 2021 · Filed under All-Ages Comics, Eric Jones, Graphic novels, Landry Q. Walker, Pepper Page Saves the Universe
Destination: Lagos
I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to reviewing this, 'cause it's been something that's really stuck with me ever since I read it. Let's take a look at Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor.
Okorafor published this Africanfuturist sci-fi novel back in 2014. The basic premise is: What if first contact between humans and aliens didn't take place in a large, rich Western nation? What if it took place in Lagos, Nigeria?
Our lead characters are Adaora, a marine biologist whose husband's religious devotion is pushing him into abusive rage; Agu, a soldier on the run after he attacked comrades attempting to rape a woman; and Anthony, best known to the world as Anthony Dey Craze, a hip hop superstar from Ghana. These three strangers find themselves on Lagos' Bar Beach one night and end up getting startled by a tremendous sonic boom and then pulled out to sea by a strange wave.
And then a few minutes later, they get pushed back out of the ocean, accompanied by a woman who calls herself Ayodele. She looks perfectly normal — as long as you don't look close enough to fall into the uncanny valley — but she's not human. She's not even biological. Ayodele is more like a collection of shapeshifting alien glass nanites, and her mission is to learn what she can about humanity, make friends, and decide what happens after that. So the four go to Adaora's house, which she shares with Chris, her Christian fanatic husband, and her two children, so they can decide what to do.
It's not long before word gets out. And all hell breaks loose in Lagos. While one bunch of goons decides to kidnap Ayodele, Chris' church members, including the manipulative Father Oke, decide to hold an intervention to either convert her or kill her. And Anthony has announced an impromptu concert at Adaora's house so they can tell everyone in the city about Ayodele and her people. And once a trigger-happy soldier shoots the alien, the biggest riot in the city's history erupts.
Can the trio of humans escape the violence, convince Ayodele not to give up on or destroy humanity, retrieve Nigeria's dying president, placate the monstrous human-eating highway that's been roused to life by the chaos, discover the secrets that brought them together, and survive attacks by the ocean's newly intelligent and upgraded sea life so they can meet with the aliens in person?
Verdict: Thumbs up. Okorafor is the American-born daughter of Nigerian parents, and she's spent much of her life in Lagos. So she knows the city and the people there very well. She knows their strengths and their weaknesses, their nobility and less-than-nobility. She knows what makes the city succeed and what makes it fail. She brings all of this to this novel, giving us a strong but broad overview of life in Nigeria's largest city.
And what we see is something very much unlike what we see in Western nations — except for all the ways it's really, really similar. Yeah, it's a different culture on a different continent. People think differently about life and death, gods and religion, money and jobs, law and crime, government, entertainment, poverty, and more. But it's also been heavily influenced by the West. Nigeria isn't Wakanda, an African paradise untouched by the decadent West — it's a nation that's grown up being told it should be more like the West, even while trying to hold on to the old traditions.
There's also a lot of Nigerian slang and pidgin, which can be a little difficult. You can generally figure out the gist of what's being talked about through context. However, Okorafor does provide a glossary of Nigerian language and slang in the back of the book, which I didn't discover 'til I'd finished reading. So if you find yourself stumped, you can go check the glossary.
I often feel that Okorafor's characters are a little touch-and-go — some of them are very strong, some feel more like they're placeholders. In this novel, Adaora gets the most screen-time, but often feels like one of the least developed characters. Agu is pretty interesting and well-developed, but I most wished we could spend more time with Anthony, who felt like someone with a very interesting story to tell but no time to tell it — we barely even get to hear him rap, fer cry-eye. Ayodele is a mystery from beginning to end — we never learn much about her or the aliens, and often what she says once is contradicted by something else a few pages later.
But many of the best characters are less important ones. Chris and Father Oke are basically strawmen, but they do offer a look into the over-the-top evangelical mindset that seems to rule much of Christianity in Africa. Fisayo is a minor character with a fascinating backstory — office worker by day, prostitute by night, and with the coming of the aliens, a newborn proselytizer about the end of the world. A mute beggar boy gets a chapter of focus, just to make sure you really care about him before he runs into serious trouble.
Once the riots really get cooking, several chapters are devoted to individual Lagosians who witness the chaos and interact in some way with something strange or frightening, and these interludes are some of the best short character studies in the book.
And some of the most fun — and often most tragic — characters aren't human or alien — namely, a furious and dangerously upgraded swordfish, a handicapped but admirably optimistic tarantula, and the most enlightened bat in the world.
And a few deities show up for the festivities, too, specifically Papa Legba, a god of languages and crossroads in a few different cultures, appears in more than one disguise, including a 419 scammer, and Udide Okwanka, an Igbo spider spirit who serves as a trickster, a master storyteller, and the bedrock of Lagos itself. Plus there's the Bone Collector, a highway given monstrous life and an endless appetite for tasty humans.
And the biggest non-human characters in the book are the city of Lagos itself and the ocean — it's the first place the aliens visit, the place where they offer the creatures there all the enhancements they can dream of, the place our heroes must travel through to speak with the aliens.
So is it worth reading? Heck, yeah. It's a rapid-fire thrill ride through science fiction, fantasy, and a real city you've never heard of but probably won't forget. There's lots of action and excitement, short chapters so it's easy to burn through, and a host of cool and weird characters, all wrapped around a crash course in a culture you've probably never experienced. Go check it out!
March 22, 2021 · Filed under Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor, Not a Comic Book
Living After Midnight
It was just a few months back that I reviewed Jane Yolen's story collection "The Emerald Circus," and it was while I was writing that one up that I discovered there was a sequel to that book! (Actually, a couple of sequels, but I haven't gotten the other one yet.) I grabbed it up as fast as I could, and now it's time for a review of The Midnight Circus by Jane Yolen.
If you're not familiar with Yolen, she's one of the most prolific and admired authors around. She's been writing for at least 50 years and has authored at least 400 books, ranging from fantasy and science fiction to children's books, from nonfiction to poetry — and even a few comic books.
While "The Emerald Circus" featured Yolen's short stories that were more fairy tale-focused, this book is considerably darker. Very few outright horror stories, but definitely many more dark fantasy tales.
Some of Yolen's stories in this book include:
The White Seal Maid – A very well-told tale of a man and a selchie.
The Snatchers – Who is the strange stalker following a young man? And what's his connection to a dark corner of Jewish history?
Wilding – When future technology allows young thrillseekers to change their shape, who will be the predators hunting them? And who will be the protectors keeping them safe?
Winter's King – The bittersweet tale of the hard, cold life of a small boy born into hardship and dreaming of his lost people in the snow.
Inscription – A young woman turns to magic to ensnare her love, but doesn't reckon with the toll she must pay.
Become a Warrior – The story of a princess who flees her fallen kingdom for the wilderness and eventually takes vengeance on her enemies.
An Infestation of Angels – A reboot of the Biblical Exodus, complete with a plague of genuinely dreadful angels.
And like Yolen's previous collection, the book is rounded out with a section on "Story Notes and Poems," which include her notes on how the stories were written, along with one of her poems on the same general theme.
Verdict: Thumbs up. It's a really wonderful collection of stories, again holding to a general fairy tales theme, just with a bit more violence, a bit more blood, and a bit more sorrow.
No story collection is perfect, of course. I think I may have preferred "The Emerald Circus" — this edition had at least one story I thought was weird in all the wrong ways. But for the most part, these are thoroughly excellent tales, and they more than drown out the stories I didn't enjoy as much.
Particular favorites of mine included the beautifully sad "Winter's King," the brutally downbeat "Dog Boy Remembers," the twisty "Little Red," the filthy but still powerful "Infestation of Angels," and "Become a Warrior," which lures you in with a princess fairy tale and then jams a hatchet through your sternum.
If you enjoy stories that put the Grim into the Fairy Tales, you'll certainly want to pick this one up.
March 15, 2021 · Filed under Jane Yolen, Midnight Circus, Not a Comic Book
Preacher Comforts
Ah, my wee fair ones, I've been sitting here pondering what I wanted to write about, and there ain't nothing. Truly does the power of absolute laziness hold me in its grip. Shall nothing go on the blog? Shall none of ye wonderful bastiches receive my mad leet wisdoms?
Or shall I, mayhap, just say feckit and post an RPG character?
Aye, my wee fair ones, let's do a GURPS thing.
Before we get too far, let's review the usual GURPS background material.
GURPS is a point-based character system — stats over 10, advantages, and skills cost you points; stats under 10 and disadvantages get you some points back. Quirks are worth a negative point each (and limited to five) and must be roleplayed. Numbers in the square brackets are how many character points were allocated to each item. This is all done in GURPS 3rd Edition, 'cause 4th Edition was garbage.
In GURPS, 100 points is considered a good starting point for beginner-level, unpowered characters, being significantly above the average person, but not strong enough to power through every obstacle. Some campaigns, particularly those dealing with high-level fantasy or superhero games, can be much stronger, up to 500 points, 1,000 points, or even more.
This is Father Frank Franklyn, a Catholic priest.
Name: Father Frank Franklyn
Points: 100 Points
Appearance: White male; Age 32; 5'9″, 195 lbs.; thinning black hair; blue eyes; always wears his priest collar.
ST: 10 [0]
IQ: 13 [30]
DX: 11 [10]
HT: 11 [10]
Speed: 5.50
Move: 3
Dodge: 5/3
Parry: 8
Clerical Investment 1 [5] (Reaction: +1)
High Pain Threshold [10]
Strong Will +1 [4] (Will: 14)
Gluttony [-5]
Overweight [-5] (Extra body weight: 45)
Stubbornness [-5]
Vow (Catholic Priest) [-10]
Quirks: Gets angry with people who litter; Likes big-budget action movies; Loves to talk about philosophy; Tries to get bookish students to learn boxing; Loves to eat Mexican food. [-5]
Skills: Area Knowledge (Detroit)-15 [4]; Bard-14 [4]; Bicycling-12 [2]; Boxing-12 [4] (Parry: 8); Brawling-12 [2] (Parry: 8); Chess-14 [2]; Computer Operation-14 [2]; Detect Lies-13 [4]; Driving/TL7 (Motorcycle)-12 [4]; Exorcism-11 [1]; Fast-Talk-13 [2]; First Aid/TL7-14 [2]; History-12 [2]; Interrogation-11 [½]; Leadership-13 [2]; Philosophy-13 [4]; Streetwise-13 [2]; Teaching-14 [4]; Theology-15 [8]; Writing-13 [2]
Languages: English (native)-15 [2]; Latin-11 [½]; Spanish-12 [1]
Biography: Frank had a rotten life growing up, and had been abandoned by his parents by the time he was five. He grew up in a few better-then-average orphanages and foster homes in Detroit and was eventually enrolled in a Catholic boarding school, which led to a Catholic college education, and by then, he was happy to sign on as a priest. He admits he enjoys being a priest because it's not hard work, and he retains a love for the city and a fondness for hard-luck kids.
Design Notes: Father Frank is a 100-point character. He was designed for modern-day settings, though he can be adapted to other settings and genres with little effort.
Honestly, I feel like he'd fit best in a horror campaign. But there ain't no way he's gonna live to see the final credits. He's almost guaranteed Monster Chow.
March 12, 2021 · Filed under GURPS, Original Fictions, Roleplaying games
Convention Invention
Well, it's been a year of lockdowns and quarantines and Zoom meetings and sourdough bread — and I know a lot of people have been missing going to conventions. So let's take a look at a new novel about sci-fi conventions — with a few twists. Here's The Con by J.D. DeLuzio.
This is the story of a convention. Two conventions, actually, both booked into the same Canadian hotel on the same weekend. One con is a very traditional science fiction convention; the other is a weekend-long meeting of the Jane Austen Society.
And because you can't write about conventions without writing about people, this book is about a large-ish group of people attending one or the other con.
There's Telfryn Tyde, a middle-aged geek with a history of mental illnesses; Brian and Augusta Slesak, married nerds with secrets; Patti Washington and Chelsea Ashe, supergeeks supreme; Thomas and Mark, nerd brothers chasing girls; Denise Moon, frustrated musician; Kate the Athlete, attending a con she doesn't understand solely to chase her love; and Lady Susan Vernon — or rather, the hardcore roleplayer cosplaying as the minor Austen character.
Oh, and also Azogo of Uirtkauwea'ki, who might be someone wearing a stunningly complex costume… and might not be.
The book starts out a bit confusing, as a lot of characters are dropped on the reader in the space of just a few pages, and some of them are more important than others. But soon enough, all the characters get sorted out, aided by short spotlight chapters that let us get acquainted with everyone quickly.
It actually comes as a shock when the plot suddenly barrels onto the scene. Telfryn gets a couple sudden shocks that unexpectedly re-awaken the mental issues he thought he'd conquered long ago, and a chunk of the rest of the cast is enlisted in one way or another in locating him and helping him get back on a more even keel.
The story wraps up as the cast members make new connections, new friends, new relationships, ponder the nature of conventions, cons, and truths, and pack their cars to return to their normal lives.
Verdict: Thumbs up. A slow starter, but a book I came to enjoy a lot.
Far and away the most fun part of this novel is the characters — which was a little surprising because there were a few of these folks who I really disliked! Thomas and Mark, the nerdy girl-chasing brothers, were infuriatingly familiar, at least initially, though they got a lot more bearable as the story went on. And I never got to a point where I liked the Slesaks at all.
Lady Susan Vernon was also someone I had a hard time liking. All of her spotlight chapters were told through Lady Susan's internal voice, which was entirely in-character as a scheming, shallow, seductive, judgmental Regency-era woman — in other words, it's almost exactly as if Lady Susan Vernon were plucked out of Jane Austen's unpublished novel and dropped into a modern sci-fi convention.
And I want to emphasize that my dislike of some of the characters was not in any way a bad thing! They were all fully realized and detailed. They felt like real people — it's just that some of them had personalities I disliked, just like other real people.
The plot itself isn't the most complex one in fiction, but it's well-described, engrossing, even intense. And intensely weird, too, as that's the point where we start to see something that might be science fictional going on — if we can believe our senses, that is.
And outside of the main plot, there are plenty of wonderful moments. The impromptu battlebot tournament in the garage. Kate's meeting with the Doctor Who cosplayer. The genuinely moving, even glorious, Anglican evensong performed by Denise for the Janeites (and possibly a visitor from another planet).
It's a great book about real people, even if they're technically fictional. Go pick it up, okay?
March 5, 2021 · Filed under J.D. DeLuzio, Not a Comic Book, The Con
Time for a Black Superman
So you may have heard the news that there's a new Superman movie in pre-pre-pre-production, with J.J. Abrams producing and Te-Nehisi Coates writing the script.
Details remain sketchy — particularly as there's no director yet, and Coates probably hasn't even started writing — but there are rumors that the Man of Steel may be played by a Black actor.
So the usual suspects — the racist Comicsgate dimwits — reacted the way they usually do when there's a chance for any diversity in comics, film, or any sort of geek-friendly media.
"B-But Superman's white! Superman's always been white! It's a betrayal of the character if he's not white! MY CHILDHOOD IS BEING DESTROYED!"
These people are so very tiresome.
So there are lots of reasons a movie with a Black actor playing Superman should be made. If it's got a good script and good director and good actors, obviously, yes, it'd be a great movie, and that's enough. Wouldn't it be great to tell the story of the Man of Tomorrow and how he deals with the prejudices of yesterday?
But to be honest, I want them to make that movie with a Black actor because it will infuriate the racists.
I'm tired of Hollywood — and the entertainment industry in general — tiptoeing around these racist (and sexist and homophobic and transphobic) creeps like they're actually an important audience. These dudes scream every time there's gonna be a geeky or action movie starring women or Black people or any non-white, non-Christian non-male, and all too often, Hollywood acts like their backwards opinions need to be listened to.
It's not so. They've been wrong about "Captain Marvel" and "Black Panther" and "Wonder Woman" and "Into the Spider-Verse" and more. Their opinions are shit. And Hollywood should relish it when racist dumbwads get angry at them. They're angry, stupid, racist, and impotent, so fuck them and their backwards, moronic beliefs.
So yes, we need a Black Superman (and a Black Batman, Black Wonder Woman, Black Spider-Man, and Black Captain America) because Hollywood (and the comics industry) have been catering to racists for much too long — and because pissing off stupid racists is all the reason anyone should need.
March 1, 2021 · Filed under Movies, Politics, Race Issues, Superman
Fridge Logic
Hey, it's about time we threw down another book review, right? And let's make it a good one — time to take a look at The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne M. Valente.
So this book takes much of its inspiration from a specific bit of pop culture. Way, way back in 1999, comics fan (and future comics writer) Gail Simone, along with a larger group of comics fans, set up a website dedicated to "Women in Refrigerators" — women characters in comic books who got killed off, maimed, and abused solely as a method for giving male superheroes angst and drama. Gwen Stacy, Karen Page, Alex DeWitt — all killed off so the lead character would get a chance to grit his teeth and swear vengeance.
That brings us to this book, published in 2017, where author Catherynne M. Valente introduces us to a group of women, some superheroes, some girlfriends, some a combination of the two, who all end up in Deadtown, filled with dead people and gargoyles, where all the food comes from extinct animals and you never get to change out of the clothes you were buried in. These members of the Hell Hath Club meet and tell the stories that never managed to make it into the comic books.
So we meet Paige Embry, girlfriend of (and accidental creator of) Kid Mercury. She gets between her beau and an angry supervillain and gets thrown off a bridge.
We meet Julia Ashe, massively powerful mutant who gets edited out of the universe because her power scared her teammates and mentor.
We meet Pauline Ketch, high-spirited and psychotic girlfriend of the murderous Mr. Punch.
We meet Bayou, princess of Atlantis, shipped off to an undersea mental hospital because she dared to mourn her child.
We meet Daisy Green, promising actress driven to destruction by her relationship with a hero called the Insomniac.
And we meet Samantha Dane, the newest member of the Club, butchered by a manipulative villain and stuffed into a refrigerator to get back at her superhero boyfriend.
They're all stuck in Deadtown for the rest of eternity, unless some superhero decides to get off his butt and restore them to life, and they're not very happy about that.
Verdict: Thumbs up. The book is wonderfully written and grand fun. It's great to see these characters — who are normally remembered almost entirely as "That One Superhero's Girlfriend Who Got Killed by that One Supervillain" — given the opportunity to tell their own stories, explain their own viewpoints, and vent their own anger about being killed off and forgotten. It's very much like reading "The Vagina Monologues" for the goddamn furious superhero set.
And yes, with enough comics knowledge, you can recognize nearly all the characters in the book as the characters they're supposed to represent from the comics. But that isn't necessary to enjoy the book.
In fact, there are plenty of fun changes made to the personalities. For example, in the Aquaman comics, Mera is an Atlantean of human appearance, fully comfortable with her roles as both a warrior and a queen; Bayou, her counterpart in this book, looks much less human and has a much more punk rock attitude, preferring to escape from her palace so she can raise hell with her band in sleazy Atlantean nightclubs.
If you love superheroes — and especially if you crave an enthusiastically angry and funny antidote to the Women in Refrigerators phenomenon, you'll certainly want to read this book.
Also, they say Amazon Studios is working on an adaptation of this book, to be called "Deadtown," so keep an eye out for that somewhere down the road…
February 24, 2021 · Filed under Catherynne M. Valente, Not a Comic Book, Refrigerator Monologues


Tori was dressed in her new leotard for gymnastics; she has not gone to her gymnastic class since the holidays. She was really excited to start her classes again. The three of us were sitting down for dinner. Her class was about an hour away. Travis took a bite of his dinner and a "lightening bolt" of pain shot through the left side of his face. His eyes got watery and he said that he felt dizzy. He sat quietly for a few minutes but the pain did not subside. Tori grew concerned and offered to skip her gymnastics class so that we could take Travis to the hospital.
Travis went upstairs and called his flight surgeon to let him know what had happened. Tori and I stayed downstairs to clean up dinner. Tori started to cry, she told me that she hates seeing Travis and pain and she is tired of him not feeling well. I explained to her that I felt the same way but that Travis has fought through 2 major surgeries and that he can fight through this new obstacle.
I send Tori upstairs to change into comfortable clothes and suggest that she pack a backpack with a blanket and some things to keep her occupied. I check on Travis who confirms with me that his flight surgeon wants him to go to the hospital. I pack my backpack with one of my textbooks and a highlighter and a couple bottles of water.
We arrived at the hospital and went directly to the CT Scan area to meet Travis's flight surgeon. As always, seeing the flight surgeon brought me a sense of comfort and safety. We spoke with his flight surgeon for a while and he told us to have the radiologist call him after the CT Scan was complete. The three of us waited patiently for about two hours before Travis was called for his turn. Tori tried to get some rest while I studied for my class.
After the CT Scan we headed down to the emergency room. We checked in and took a seat. The ER was FILLED with people, mostly parents with ill babies. Tori found a seat and again tried to get comfortable with her blanket. The waiting room was bright and loud. It took hours for Travis to be called for his turn. When we checked in we gave a detailed description of Travis's medical history and the new problem Travis was having but all the clerk would note was, "patient has headache on left side." We believe that this is the reason that we were left sitting for HOURS in the waiting room of the ER.
When Travis was finally called to go back we left Tori in the waiting room and followed the nurse to the bed. We sat and waited for a few minutes and then was approached by a doctor who asked Travis, "how is your headache feeling?" We explained to the doctor that Travis did not have a "headache". We told him about Travis's medical history and gave him a detailed description of what brought him to the ER. The doctor advised us that Travis could not be helped in that area and that he would need to be moved to another area because of the seriousness of his condition.
All the while, Tori was sitting alone in the ER waiting room. It was now late at night and it was a school night. So Travis gets put into a new bed in a new area of the ER. Another doctor came in to see Travis and ask him what was going on. Travis and I explained to him how Travis was feeling and the doctor advised us that he wanted to do a spinal tap. We were not happy about this because twice before doctors had mentioned doing this painful procedure to Travis and then later decided that it was not needed. So I talked to Travis about it and we decided that if the doctor wants to do it then we should probably let him. Then I ran back to the waiting room to check on Tori and give her an update on Travis. A lady at the reception desk advised me to limit my trips to check on her because the hospital does not like people going back and forth. What was I really suppose to do? We do not have a babysitter for Victoria and we were not comfortable leaving her home alone at night for who knows how long. We did not want her going back to see Travis getting treated because it would have been too traumatic for her to see Travis and other patients being cared for.
So after I check on Tori and tell her that Travis is okay, I return to Travis. This time another doctor is checking on him and asking him questions. This doctor informs us that a spinal tap is not necessary (thank god) and that they wanted to do blood work on him. A corpsman (military nurse) comes in and starts an IV on Travis and draws some blood. Travis sits there for a while and I began feeling very uncomfortable leaving Tori alone in the waiting room so I return to the waiting room and tell Travis to call me on the cell phone if he needs me.
When I return to the waiting room I see Tori sprawled out across three chairs (the chairs had arms) with her blanket over her face. She somehow managed to fall asleep. I sat next to her in the waiting room and stared at her and started thinking.
I am so proud of my daughter for the strength and maturity she has gained from this entire experience. She has also learned about sacrifice. I hate that she had to give up her gymnastics class that night. And I hate that she has had to give up so much because of Travis's brain tumor. The whole thing is really not fair to her. But she has never complained about the sacrifices that she has had to make. Rather, she is always concerned about Travis's well being. I love her so much and I hate that she had to learn these tough life lessons but I am proud of her for the ways that she has adapted and grown through these last two years.
And in case you are wondering what the outcome of the whole ER trip was… We left the ER at about 3:00am, the diagnosis…TMJ. They could not figure out what caused the pain or why it suddenly came on when Travis now bites down or sneezes so they said that all it was is TMJ. Something the we already knew that he had. So the entire 8 hours in the ER was pretty much a waste of time. Luckily, Travis did not have the spinal tap done.
I am happy you can see the bright side of things. I am sad Travis has to go through this. Victoria is an exceptional daughter to the two of you. The reason being she has two exceptional examples leading her. Children do great things when they have great parents. The three of you are unstoppable.


HOUSTON (FOX 26) – "For him to sit there and say 'I'm not going to remove this child,' I was floored," said family law attorney Julie Ketterman.
Ketterman is talking about Harris County Family Court Judge Charley Prine who is allowing a 5-year-old boy to remain in the custody of his dad even after the child tested positive for ingesting cocaine.
"Since he's been born he's always been with me," said Cathy Barnes, the boy's mother.
But in March, Child Protective Services took the boy away from his mother after the boy's dad made allegations against Barnes' boyfriend.
Ketterman says she pointed out to Judge Prine the boy's mother has no criminal history whatsoever. The same thing can't be said about the boy's father.
"Family violence, criminal mischief harassment," Ketterman said.


This project is being executed as a series of distinct research elements intended to improve public communication influence and effectiveness through better understanding of transportation users' expectations and language: 20-24(93)A Public Communication - Public Outreach ($125,000): An activity to assist American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) to update and effectively use research completed under NCHRP 20-24(62); this research is being conducted as Project 20-24(93)C, listed below. 20-24(93)B(01) Public Communication - Management Planning ($50,000) Cambridge Systematics supported AASHTO's Standing Committee on Performance Management planning efforts related to communication of performance management concepts. An action plan was delivered to AASHTO. 20-24(93)B(02) Public Communication - Management Outreach ($125,000) Spy Pond Partners is assisting AASHTO to develop text and graphics to document leading state practices in system performance management. Work is scheduled for completion by Spring 2015. NCHRP 20-24(93)C Public Communication -- Outreach ($125,000) Parsons Brinkerhoff is developing messaging to support AASHTO's efforts to communicate with policy makers and the public on matters of transportation funding, finance, system performance, and economic vitality.