Home

Fragments of the whole

  • Nov. 3rd, 2009 at 3:10 PM
1973
Well, it's only been, what, ten weeks? I don't have an excuse: I'm just a lazy slug. That and I have too many web pages to update.

The ARTC show the weekend of the 24th went very well. If you weren't at the Academy Theatre, you missed out. (Don't you just hate messages like that?)

Hallowe'en has come and gone, thank goodness. I really hate Hallowe'en, and always have. Did no partying, my children are too old to go trick-or-treating, my porch light is burned out so we had no visitors. Just another quiet evening at home watching NCIS reruns.

The userpic accompanying is a crop from a photo included in a recent (!) publication of Clayton State University, in celebration of their 40th anniversary. It was neither credited nor labeled, since no one there has any idea who those people are. They know it was taken on Clayton campus because of the distinctive "bent tree" in which one of us is sitting. The tree is still a campus landmark even though it was removed to make room for the new library. A plaster replica stands near one of the entrances, but it isn't the same.

The picture was taken in 1973, and is a portrait of the student newspaper staff at the time. I was the editor. The university archives have no publications from that time. I could lie and tell you it was a phenomenally good paper, since no one is in a position to contradict me.

Interesting to be part of the "lost history" of Clayton State. 

Tags:

The Great Price Increase of 1961

  • Aug. 25th, 2009 at 7:34 PM
me

The Great Price Increase of 1961

For most of their history, comic books had been priced at a dime. Oh, there were Nickel Comics, and the annuals were generally priced at a quarter, but these were definitely exceptions to the rule. Not that there hadn't been inflation anyway; that dime bought you a 68-page mag in 1940, a 60-pager in 1944, a 52-pager in 1950, and a 36-page issue by the time the Silver Age started.

Dell Comics made the first move effective with their February 1961 issues:

Although Dell persisted with the 15 cent price for over a year, it's not hard to see that they had troubles, especially as the rest of the industry held out until the end of 1961. First, they began advertising contests on their covers, and eventually, in mid-1962 they dropped their prices to the new standard of 12 cents.

As far as I can see, the other publishers mostly went to 12 cents around the December 1961 issues, but you could see that a change was coming. In the March 1961 issues, DC began putting a box around the price, noting "Still 10c". That was dropped in favor of just "10c" with the August issues, and then in December we finally saw the new price-tag of four-color entertainment:

Archie, Marvel, and other publishers pretty much changed their prices at the same time. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a significant dip in sales. Of the 36 titles reporting sales in both 1961 and 1962, only seven reported increased sales in 1961, and three of those I'm a little suspicious of; the ACG titles Adventures into the Unknown and Forbidden Worlds apparently reported identical sales in both years while their Unknown Worlds book showed a 500-copies-per-issue increase.

What comics did the best? It looks like Archie comics were the most successful at retaining readers, with the flagship title only losing a couple hundred copies per issue and backup titles like Betty and Veronica, Jughead and Archie's Pals & Gals actually picking up a bit in sales. On the DC side, only Justice League of America increased sales, from 335,000 per issue to 340,000.

On average, all titles lost about 8.7% in sales, but the decline was far from uniform. The Superman line's losses ran from about 5% (Lois Lane) to 12.5% (World's Finest). Batman's books other than WF declined from 15.5% (Batman) to 18.5% (Detective). The Silver Age DC heroes fared better with Flash dipping 11.5% and Green Lantern losing 5.9% (from a smaller base).

What really got hammered? Three DC titles dipped by over 20%; Mystery in Space, House of Mystery and My Greatest Adventure. The only DC war title I can find sales for those years, Star Spangled War Stories, dipped by about 4.9%.

Some of these numbers make sense if you think about them. Wonder Woman didn't decline all that badly; down 6.5% in this market was practically up, so the two female-oriented books that we have stats for, Wonder Woman and Lois Lane, both did better than average. Girls that bought those comics didn't find their budget as pinched as might their brothers because they only had two heroines to choose from. It's not surprising that the war stories didn't do as badly as some of the others; they were probably purchased by older readers on average. Sugar and Spike, the only comic on the list designed for very young readers, suffered a pretty steep drop of 18%. Ditto with the monster-oriented issues like House of Mystery and My Greatest Adventure; the kiddies who read them were more price conscious.

What about Marvel Comics? Well, Fantastic Four didn't report sales for 1961 and 1962, but we can see that their two monster titles got crushed. Tales to Astonish slipped by 25% while Tales of Suspense declined by over 31%. So there is certainly ample evidence that Stan Lee's incredible Marvel Silver Age was half inspiration, and half desperation. In 1963 both those titles featured superhero stories and gained back all the readers they had lost in 1962.

Note: Most titles would gain sales over the next few years, although frustratingly, the main publisher (DC) did not report sales for 1963 and 1964, making it hard to gauge the recovery apart from other effects.

posted by Pat at 6:51 AM Comment |

Read the whole thing.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Aftermath of polyp surgery

  • Jun. 3rd, 2009 at 10:46 PM
poster
Oreta is fine.

Surgery took a little longer than expected due to the discovery of a deviated septum -- which Dr Patel went ahead and fixed, while he was in there.

But some of Oreta's sinuses below, behind and between her eyes were all but completely blocked by polyps. Dr Patel is very happy with the outcome, and it should leave Oreta able to breathe better than she has in years. It should also positively affect her sense of smell, which has been missing in action for years as well.

We don't know what the anaesthetic was, but it must have been pretty good. Two hours after surgery, Oreta was still groggy and unable to wake fully.

As of now, she is much more like her old self, and very appreciative of everyone's well-wishes. So am I. Thank you, one and all.

Tags:

Presenting: A numerical film festival

  • May. 28th, 2009 at 2:25 PM
poster
That is, movies whose titles end with numbers that do not designate sequels.

"The Wild One"
"Tea for Two"
"One Two Three"
"Nineteen Eighty-Four"
"Slaughterhouse-Five"
"The Deep Six"
"Return of the Secaucus Seven"
"Dinner at Eight"
"Secret Agent X-9"
"Five and Ten"
"Ocean's Eleven"
"The Dirty Dozen" (So I cheated. Pickin's are slim.)

Tags:

me
Yeah, this is the "Pina Colada" guy. He did more than you remember.
me
A lot of forgettable Broadway shows took lovely music with them when they died. This is from "Let It Ride", originally sung by George Gobel (!).
me
Bluegrass steel drums? Never mind. It's perfect.
me
You young people may not be able to conceive of this situation ever happening, but trust me...

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings Week 323

  • Apr. 7th, 2009 at 10:27 PM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Log :: Lincoln Logs
  2. Plaything :: Toy
  3. Broom :: Roomba
  4. Heels :: High?
  5. Smoke in :: the boys' room?
  6. Guests :: be seated
  7. Attraction :: Magnetic
  8. Shiny :: Firefly
  9. Risked :: Everything
  10. Velvet :: Blue

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings Week 322

  • Apr. 7th, 2009 at 10:16 PM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Road trip :: Beach
  2. Pool hall :: Trouble with a capital T
  3. Extraordinary :: Gentlemen
  4. Jackson :: When Phil Harris was the band leader on the Jack Benny radio show, that's what he used to call Jack.
  5. Heartfelt :: Thanks
  6. Wet :: Pavement
  7. Strangle :: jangle ("It's a strangle-jangle Christmas" by Charles Manson...)
  8. .com :: .org
  9. Touched :: in the haid
  10. Insipid :: flaccid

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings Week 321

  • Mar. 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 PM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Studio :: Ghibli
  2. Meetup :: Didn't we already have a word for that? What makes it different from a "meet"? or a "meeting"?
  3. Ostrich :: Fantasia
  4. Jokes :: Are accordions the American bagpipes?
  5. Estranged :: Lovers
  6. Random :: Association
  7. Slap :: [see below...]
  8. Hotel room :: Did you ever notice that the higher the base price of the room, the more "additional charges" the hotel finds to slap you with on top of that? And the higher those charges are? I think being a paying guest in a hotel should be worth free parking, but most downtown hotels don't seem to agree. I also find it curious that Krystal and Starbucks can afford to give away wi-fi, but Marriott and Hyatt can't.
  9. Inscribe :: Monogram
  10. Polar :: Opposites

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings Week 320

  • Mar. 16th, 2009 at 10:02 AM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Sunburn :: angry
  2. Aquarium :: placid
  3. Otter :: weasel
  4. Awesome :: ARTC
  5. LOL :: this
  6. Accordion :: The American Bagpipe
  7. Hot Pocket :: mouth cauterizer
  8. Grandstand :: football
  9. Shaved :: er, um...
  10. Upgrade :: computer

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings Week 319

  • Mar. 16th, 2009 at 9:54 AM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Mourning :: Misspent Youth
  2. Approval :: Egoboost
  3. Lotion :: Suntan
  4. Perspire :: "Glow"
  5. Language :: Skills
  6. Defection :: [I got nothin']
  7. Play :: Script
  8. Graphic :: Novel
  9. Spicy :: Detective Stories
  10. In love :: Can't Help Falling

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings Week 318

  • Mar. 16th, 2009 at 9:50 AM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Pain :: Nerve
  2. Lego :: my eggo
  3. Trooper :: Super
  4. Flicker :: Candle light
  5. Character :: Assassination
  6. Determined :: [I got nothin']
  7. Wing :: Nut
  8. Control :: Panel
  9. Automatic :: Transmission
  10. Yeah :: Yeah Yeah
I thought this post was lost forever, but it reappeared. Ain't technology grand.

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings, Week 317

  • Feb. 27th, 2009 at 2:01 PM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Carpet :: Bomb
  2. William :: Tell
  3. Oh! :: Klahoma
  4. Board game :: like Monopoly
  5. Sunlight :: Orange juice
  6. Delay :: [I got nothin']
  7. Winner :: takes it all
  8. Concubine :: Nihao my...
  9. Comatose :: 3 a.m.
  10. Satisfy :: Snickers

Tags:

BBC Book List

  • Feb. 20th, 2009 at 12:14 PM
poster
This is, of course, a British literature collection...
Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.
Instructions:
1) Bold those you have read.
2) *Star the ones you loved.
3) Italicise those you plan on reading.
  1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
  2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
  3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
  4. * Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
  5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
  6. The Bible
  7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
  8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
  9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
  10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
  11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
  12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
  13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
  14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
  15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
  16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
  17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
  18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
  19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
  20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
  21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
  22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
  23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
  24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
  25. * The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
  26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
  27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
  29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
  30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
  31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
  32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
  33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
  34. Emma - Jane Austen
  35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
  36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
  37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
  38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Berniere
  39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
  40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
  41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
  42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
  43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
  45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
  46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
  47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
  48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
  49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
  50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
  51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
  52. Dune - Frank Herbert
  53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
  54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
  55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
  56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
  58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
  59. * The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
  60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
  62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
  63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
  64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
  65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
  66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
  67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
  68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
  69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
  70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
  71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
  72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
  73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
  74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
  75. Ulysses - James Joyce
  76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
  77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
  78. Germinal - Emile Zola
  79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
  80. Possession - AS Byatt
  81. * A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
  82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
  83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
  84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
  85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
  86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
  87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White
  88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
  89. * Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
  91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
  92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
  93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
  94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
  95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
  96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
  97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
  98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
  99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
  100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (I heard Orson Welles' radio version, will that do?)
The meme is going around, I can't even find the original source.

So they count the whole Harry Potter series as one book, eh?

Well, 22 out of 100 isn't too bad.

Tags:

Nerd? Geek? or Dork?

  • Feb. 8th, 2009 at 1:47 PM
me


Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test...

Joe Normal

43 % Nerd, 39% Geek, 43% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored less than half in all three, earning you the title of: Joe Normal.

This is not to say that you don't have some Nerd, Geek or Dork inside of you--we all do, and you can see the percentages you have right above. This is just to say that none of those qualities stand out so much as to define you. Sure, you enjoy an episode of Star Trek now and again, and yeah, you kinda enjoyed a few classes back in the day. And, once in a while, you stumble while walking down the street even though there was nothing there to cause you to trip. But, for the most part, you look and act fairly typically, and aren't much of an outcast.

I'd say there's a fair chance someone asked you to take this test. In any event, fairly normal.

Congratulations!

If you enjoyed this test, I would love the feedback!

Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you're interested in any of the following:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Professional Wrestling
Love & Sexuality
America/Politics

Thanks Again! -- THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

Take The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test at HelloQuizzy

Tags:

Unconscious Mutterings, Week 315

  • Feb. 8th, 2009 at 12:46 PM
poster
I say ... and you think ... ?
  1. Cups :: of sugar

  2. Brilliant :: Hue

  3. Disobey :: Authoritah

  4. Abstain :: "No Comment"

  5. Daily :: Planet

  6. You make me :: Feel Like a Natural Woman... (Huh?)

  7. Hurl :: http://www.flickr.com/photos/skasper/1804715451/

  8. Intensify :: Turn it up!

  9. Fuck! :: Allan Sherman used to say that this word is the reason we call all obscenities "four-letter words". It doesn't often show up in my vocabulary, written or spoken -- not because it particularly offends me, but because I'm too literal-minded.

  10. Race :: card

Tags:

Advertisement

Latest Month

November 2009
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom
Powered by LiveJournal.com