Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.
***
And now for a post that needs no introduction.
So, it's not getting one.
Apart from this one.
That'll teach it.
And Nitro keeps blowing everybody, himself included, to smithereens.
To be honest, when your dad keeps maliciously exploding, you should, at least, have the objectivity to realise he might be a super-villain.
Also, this issue, if the cover's to be believed, the Hulk's fighting the space monsters, which is a bit vague. That's basically every other Hulk story that's ever been printed.
In the days before he was a Defender, Nighthawk was a villain and here he is, doing his villain thing, as he sets out to supplant Daredevil in the public's affections.
But it's all a cover for his attempts to be a one-man crimewave.
I have no doubt the man without fear will soon put a stop to his duplicitous schemings.
Meanwhile, the Black Panther's facing jungle terror in his Wakandan paradise, which can't be good news, especially as Wakanda can hardly be called a paradise.
I am intrigued by how the covers of this book love to boast of its stars' moodiness. Is moodiness expected to be the next big thing in UK comics?
Why? It's not that bad, is it?
What is bad is fighting Ego - and that's what the Fantastic Four are doing.
I'm sure that the people Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and the Dazzler are fighting are pretty bad too. But I don't know who those people are, so I can't say just how bad.
Just a quick note that the Number One on this week's UK singles chart was Japanese Boy by Aneka, while Number One on the album chart was ELO's Time. Both fine and stirring records indeed.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the chart website wasn't working when I wrote the post and, so, I couldn't include the info in it.
Phew, thanks for the added info Steve - my evening would have seemed somehow incomplete without knowing Aneka was #1.
ReplyDelete-sean
I had to watch the Aneka "Japanese Boy" video...
ReplyDeleteThis was b/c I had a brain stall and was getting confused by Japan's song "Quiet Life."
No chance of that every happening again!
For some reason... this must have been Sean's recommendation some months back... I keep getting visions of some weird french video that falls in line with Aneka. Sean? Sorry brother... my brain ain't so sharp today!
I could see Aneka on a Boney M video for sure, though.
I don't think "recommendation" is the word you're looking for there, Charlie.
ReplyDelete-sean
Japanese Boy is indeed a fine and stirring song but Aneka was actually Scottish so nowadays she'd be condemned for "cultural appropriation". No such worries in 1981 though.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about that Colin - what would Aneka even be appropriating? Theres not really any Japanese culture in "Japanese Boy"!
ReplyDelete-sean
Sean - as my memory goes stronger, it was the lanky dude from Belgium, mostly a one-hit wonder. I think he was dressed all in white?
ReplyDeleteDon't leave me hanging.
Colin - Aneka's song was just weird to look at on the "official video" with the sticks in the back of her hair. I felt like I was looking at "My Favorite Martian" Uk-Japanese style.
Sean, are you serious??? I've just been watching Aneka's performance on Top Of The Pops and it's a total stereotype of Japanese culture! That would be more than enough to be condemned for cultural appropriation nowadays!
ReplyDeletePerhaps she had a Japanese grand parent.
ReplyDeleteI remember her on Top of the Pops being noticeably older than the average performer. Wiki suggests she'd have been around 34 at the time, which now seems impossibly young to a quinquagenarian...
DW
John Byrne's casual treatment of Ego irritates me to no end. One issue? And he was that easily defeated? Even Blastarr got more respect.
ReplyDeleteShabby treatment for an entity who's taken on Galactus and caused the Rigellian Empire to quake in fear.
Ego's supposed to be a big deal. He's a living planet for crying out loud. He deserves an arc.
Two issues at least.
You can't just stick a rocket on his ass and send him into the sun.
Kurt Russell even played him in a mediocre movie!
That damn Byrne. Trying to deconstruct everything.
How many original ideas did he come up with?
M.P.
I am being serious Colin - a British person presenting a rather peculiar idea of the Japanese as entertainment could be accused of a number of things, but I don't think cultural appropriation is one of them.
ReplyDelete"Japanese Boy" is a bit dodgy, but Aneka's drawing on a history of British/western stereotypes rather than actually appropriating anyone else's culture imo.
Some might argue that it wasn't intended maliciously... but I don't think thats much of a defence. There were quite a lot of Japanese stereotypes around at the turn of the 70s into the 80s, which played into a kind of curiosity mixed with an unpleasant paranoia and resentment that was a reaction to their economic success at the time (the first "non-western" country to achieve full modern industrialization).
Ok, I'll stop there before I get too boring.
Or get on to the subject of Plastic Bertrand (there you go Charlie - happy now?)
-sean
Japan was respected in the early-mid 80s, because of...
ReplyDelete1.) Shogun - an outstanding slice of entertainment!
2.) The Betamax video - a glorious failure
3.) The Sony Trinitron - a great TV (Anyone remember Sony shops on the high street?)
4.) Datsun/Nissan Cherry/Stanza/Bluebird - better quality & value than BL
5.) 'Big in Japan' - Alphaville - This last one's a joke!
The paranoia came earlier - c.f. "Aren't American cycles (pronounced 'sickles') good enough for ya?" to Elvis in 'The Roustabout':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K98R2VWHCM
Phillip
The single isn't a joke - melancholic 'synthish' sounds being a hallmark of 80s nostalgia - but it's obviously not Japanese!
ReplyDeletePhillip
Well, cultural appropriation or not, 'Japanese Boy' is rather catchy and definitely an earworm.
ReplyDeleteMister, can you tell me
Where my love has gone
Oooh, I miss my Japanese Boy...
In the '80s I had a book called 'The Guinness Book Of British Number One Hits' which claimed that Aneka chose her name from the Edinburgh phone book because it sounded Japanese (which sounds suspiciously like cultural appropriation but don't tell Sean).
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to Japan anyway? In the '70s and '80s they had a booming economy and they were in the same position as China occupies today (Asian country that scares the West) but around 1990 they went into a sort of permanent recession. Their economy is still in the Top 5 but they are hardly the powerhouse of yore. And Japan also has a chronic ageing crisis, a demographic timebomb that will hit the West too but Japan got there first. It's become so bad that Japan has started encouraging immigration, reversing their long-held policy of keeping immigrants out (the exact opposite of the Brexiteers in fact!)
ReplyDeleteSean - The mind is a terribly strange thing... I went to bed last night just after asking you who was that "belgium guy." I awoke a few hours later (thank you mr. prostrate) and suddenly the name Bertrand popped into my head. And then, voila, you have the answer! Merci bien!
ReplyDeleteI too wonder what the interest was in Japan /China stuff in the early 80s by the Brit groups? Though hardly a landslide, and to be sure we must distinguish between Japan and China and not lump them together for whatever reason, I don't recall any UK groups singing about Mongolia or Indonesia? So...
- Bowie with China Girl (why China? Japan too many syllables?)
- The group Japan to include songs like Visions of China
- Aneka with Japanese Boy
- Turning Japanese by The Vapors
Can the list go on?
Philip - Japan was simply more efficient at manufacturing. And they listened to customer demands / wants.
ReplyDeleteThey came on board when the US, et al. were resting on past laurels... fat, dumb, and making money b/c they had not been destroyed in WW2 and had no problems selling their stuff whether folks really wanted it or not.
Then the more efficient guys come along, combined with truly emerging international markets, and "bam." No one really wants to buy a POS Chrysler, Ford, Chevy anymore. I mean, Toyotas had cup holders fer crying out loud!
And in the end, water seeks its own level. Japan makes a butt-load of cars in the USA now as does BMW, Mercedes, Honda... US car makers started installing cup holders...
Chim!
ReplyDeleteI loved Die Fantastischen Vier! I even had an autographed photo of the lads for decades that I had on display.
I mean, classic rap lyrics like "Der Udo, der Udo, Ich bin der Udo... Ich mache kein Karate und ich mache keine Judo!"
And that song "Die Da!" Now that was an ear worm in itself and I wore out the CD playing it!
I don't know why but I always got a slight whiff of Beastie Boys when I played them? Anyone else?
Plastic Bertrand - 'Ca Plane Pour Moi'. One of the few hit songs sung in French which became big in the UK. Others include 'Je T'aime, Moi Non Plus' by Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg and 'Joe Le Taxi' by Vanessa Paradis.
ReplyDeleteCharlie, China will soon become the world's biggest economy which, I assume, will cause much angst and despair in America - because obviously America is God's chosen country and deserves to be #1 always. In 1989 the first President Bush declared that America had "won the Cold War" - the whole world was now ripe for American domination but things didn't turn out quite as expected. And now millions of Americans want to return to the good old days of the '50s and '60s - Let's Make America Great Again!
Charlie, Bowie was also in Merry Xmas Mr Lawrence with Ryuichi Sakamoto (who took the piss out of that western ellision of Japan with China in the Yellow Magic Orchestra), and had been interested in Japanese music since at least Stomu Yamashta got the soundtrack gig on The Man Who Fell To Earth.
ReplyDeleteI think possibly the British had a more pronounced reaction to the rise of Japan because they represented an economic challenge in a way - unlike China now - they couldn't to a country like the US.
Also, interesting to note that the Japanese are an island people somewhat suspicious of nearby continentals, and have an arcane class system with social manners that outsiders don't really understand.
Possibly at a subconscious level the Brits sort of recognized themselves a bit...?
-sean
There was a point in the late 1980s when Japanese corporations were so flush with cash that they began buying up properties all over the US . For whatever reason, the fact that golf courses especially were being snapped up really seemed to freak out the folks on the right. Overwrought Nippon-phobia inspired at least two huge bestselling thrillers: RISING SUN by Michael Crichton and DRAGON by Clive Cussler. The Cussler book was especially shrill and paranoid — the Japanese super-villains were outlandish caricatures, just shy of being outright Yellow Peril stereotypes. I’d always detected a streak of reactionary xenophobia in Cussler’s books, but this one was so blatant and unpleasant that I stopped reading his stuff altogether.
ReplyDeleteb.t.
Charlie, there was also Madame Butterfly by Malcolm McLaren.
ReplyDeleteAnd there was also Japanese Tears by Denny Laine but that takes a fair amount of willpower to sit through.
Colin! Joe le Taxi! That was one great tune! I cue it up now and then! (Hint: My first name is not actually Charlie, lol.)
ReplyDeleteIn the USA there are 4 strengths of Kool Aid.
No sugar - I don't care who won the Cold War
Lite - USA won the Cold War
Normal - Ronald Reagan won the Cold War
Extra Sweet - Ronald Reagan's genius decision to launch "Star Wars" won the Cold War
We are a large and a very isolated country.
E.g., You guys get 4 teams in the World Cup and we only get 1. You play your Cricket "ashes" tournaments with India, Australia, etc. You play Rugby with South Africa, New Zealand, France, Italy... You have Cod wars with the French and the Iceland. You have to contend with other countries in your day-to-day way more than we do.
I just have to contend with Indiana or Wisconsin, lol. They speak "red neck" but it's close enough to english so I don't have to learn foreign tongues. A gross simplification for sure... but we are simply isolated in our day to day.
An American band who did a Japanese-themed song around that time were the Beach Boys, with Sumahama.
ReplyDeleteOn the American cultural response to Japan in the 80s, its a bit of a surprise names like Frank Miller and Chris Claremont haven't been mentioned yet.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of whom, is that Spidey & He-Hulk cover by fearless Frank?
(Thought I'd actually comment about one of the comics in the post!)
-sean
"What happened to Japan anyway?... they went into a permanent recession"
ReplyDeleteThey really are just like the British!
Can't believe I missed that question earlier (sorry Colin).
-sean
It's true, with Britain's 1970s power cuts, rampant inflation, the 3-day week, rubbish piling up in the streets, the country bust - and 3 million unemployed - the British people, with their great sense of economic superiority - whilst lighting their candles - must have felt "Japan represented an economic challenge to Britain". Yes, that was definitely foremost in their minds. I also imagine the unemployed miners between 1984 & 1985, living from hand to mouth, were also feeling "challenged" by Japan's economic rise.
ReplyDeleteOur recognition of an "arcane class system and social manners" - between glassing each other in pubs every weekend - is an equally accurate observation. In fact, it's probably the most brilliant piece of social commentary I've ever read. Pure genius!
Phillip
Charlie, in the late '80s some over-excited British Conservatives claimed that Margaret Thatcher had won the Cold War. And one right-wing UK newspaper said that when Ronald Reagan left office he'd handed the baton of leadership of the West to Thatcher! And Thatcher probably believed it too as she was totally demented by this point, insisting she would go "on and on" in power and considering herself to be invulnerable and indispensible.
ReplyDeleteSome other Japanese things from the '80s:
ReplyDeleteThe TV series 'Monkey'.
The 'Battle Of The Planets' cartoon.
Those crazy Japanese game-shows which Clive James was so fond of.
Colin - Yes! "Endurance" was the name of that game show Clive James featured every week.
ReplyDeletePhillip
Can I ask a cultural question?
ReplyDeleteHave any of you watched this UK show called "Gone Fishing" which is approaching Season 4?
Talksport was interviewing the 2 hosts yesterday and it sounds quite good?
Do I detect a note of irony there Phillip?
ReplyDelete-sean
IF you guys like reading about the Cold War I do recommend the following.
ReplyDelete"Decline of an Empire" written in 1978 by Helene Carrere d'Encause (French foreign policy intellectual) and translated into the English in 1979.
She discusses why the USSR would decompose in about 10 years which was quite accurate.
Do NOT pay the $900 sale price on Amazon, or even the $70. I got mine last year for like $5.
There is a subsequent book by here around 1993 discussing the break up. But I find something especially interesting in the fact she foretold this and Reagan and Thatcher hadn't even been elected yet. So...
Charlie, I've never even heard of 'Gone Fishing' let alone watched it!
ReplyDeleteBut I have just been watching 'Ca Plane Pour Moi' by Plastic Bertrand and one of the comments says that it reached #47 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978.
Charlie - 'Gone Fishing' is good. It features Paul Whitehouse, from 'The Fast Show' (he's in all the funny clips I post for you!) However, it's a more poignant, wistful show. One recent episode also featured Fergal Sharkey as a guest.
ReplyDeleteVery slight, Sean - very slight.
Phillip
I rarely watch TV nowadays which explains why I've never seen Gone Fishing. But Phillip's mention of Paul Whitehouse makes me realise that I have heard of it after all, Charlie. I think there's a book too.
ReplyDeleteHello, oh my brothers. Hope all is well with you and yours.
ReplyDeleteCharlie brought up Kool-Aid, and that instantly reminded me of when Pillsbury tried to enter into the drink mix arena with FUNNY FACE. Did anyone of you folks across the pond experience those packets of wackiness? I was a big fan.
Each flavor had a cartoon mascot. Goofy Grape (w/ a Napoleon hat, guess to portray him as crazy. He was my favorite.), Lefty Lemon (a tough kid), Rootin' Tootin' Raspberry (a hillbilly). Jolly Olly Orange (a laughing moron), Loud Mouth Lime (a yackety-yacker), and the problematic Chinese Cherry.
Pillsbury made changes to the line, changing Chinese Cherry into Choo Choo Cherry, a train engineer. They also got rid of Loud Mouth Lime to create Lefty Lemon-Lime. My dad was angry cuz he considered Funny Face's lime flavor was superior over Kool-Aid's.
It was pulled from the market because the mix contained toxic ingredients. My sister's and me loved the stuff. We had the cups that you had to send-away packets for. They're collector's items now.
After the Mar-Vell's death, I can't even see or think about Nitro without getting angry or nauseous.
KD - We've never had Kool-Aid 'over the pond'. I first heard about it either on Family Guy, or that cult suicide thing - 'drink the Kool-Aid'.
ReplyDeleteCharlie - Is Keren still of interest to you? She was on Saturday Live, this morning:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000z5dz
Phillip
Phillip- Haha! Yeah! The Jim Jones religious cult, were he made his followers "drink the Kool-Aid" that had poison in it. That's what coined that phrase.
DeleteMarvel actually did a comic featuring "Kool-Aid Man" back-in-the-day.
Guess if you folks didn't have that drink mix then you didn't have Funny Face. I just remembered Pillsbury also had another racist character, outside of Chinese Cherry, called Injun Orange.
Back in the 60's Kool-Aid was a cheap substitute for soda. It only cost roughly 5 cents a pack. We usually only had lime, because that was my father's favorite.
ReplyDeleteKool-Aid had a mail-away for packets promoted by the Monkees & Bugs Bunny. It was for a glow-in-the-dark frisbee. Man, that thing blazed! Wonder if it might've been radioactive. It was great for nighttime summer fun, though.
KD - In the UK, on one brand of jam (jelly in US lingo), there was a racist golliwog, as a mascot/character. Thankfully, it got banned!
ReplyDeletePhillip
While I can understand that people can be offended by interpretations of the past, they really should be used as an earmark of how we've progressed socially.
DeleteCase-in_point:
My hillbilly sister used to collect "picaninny" (blackface like the old school minstrels/Al Jolson) clay/ceramic figures. I was dating a black girl at the time, and stopped at my sister's house.
When we walked in, my sister freaked!!! Adrian (my black girlfriend) just laughed and found my sister's collection cute.
She told me her mother had many of the same figures.
Guess there was thicker skin back in the 70's.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSDC - come for the comics and stay for anything and everything else! It fills a real niche IMHO. Truth is I and I think most of us enjoy the cross-cultural exchange!
ReplyDeleteWho else am I going to ask about Season 4 of "Gone Fishing" premiering tomorrow in the UK?
How else would I have know the Go Gos didn't even chart in the UK?
Where else am I going to get expert color commentary on snookers, bog diving, conkers, pie eating?
Why else would I hang out at any other comic blogs besides here and Red's Back in the Bronze Age which also really goes well beyond Marvel comics?
Cross Culture question:
ReplyDeleteVanessa Paradis (French) hit #1 in UK, France with Joe le Taxi at age 14.
Michael Jackson (with the Jacko 5) hit #1 in the USA probably aged 10 or less. (I don't think a young Stevie Wonder hit #1 here.)
Is there a UK equivalent of a youngster hitting #1?
Charlie, Helen Shapiro hit Number One in Britain with You Don't Know when she was just 14. That was back in 1961.
ReplyDeleteFuture Doctor Who star Billie Piper hit Number One, at the age of 15, with Because We Want To, in the late 1990s.
Also, St Winifred's School Choir hit the UK Number One spot in 1980, with There's No One Quite Like Grandma.
They'd also been uncredited backing singers on the 1978 UK Number One Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs by awesome one-hit-wonders Brian and Michael.
ReplyDeleteSDC - Thanks for the tip on Shapiro.
Ole Charlie figured she must've performed with the Beatles.
Helen Shapiro with 3 Beatles! They seem to have been a supporting act for her!!! Absolutely lovely!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrSRfYKieUQ
Now, now, Charlie, oh my brother.
ReplyDeleteSteve DOES state that his site houses "blatherings from the backyard of nostalgia".
If we kept it strictly comics, we wouldn't have had such interesting discussion on topics like movies, pop culture, British sports, WWI & WWII, military armaments, Stonehenge, and of course....nipples.
Sorry Charlie, oh my brother. Missed the meaning of your post, which was basically mine. I claim that brain-damage was the fault. That and a few pints.
ReplyDeleteNeil Reid was only 12 years old when his album called 'Neil Reid' reached #1 in 1972.
ReplyDeleteHe also reached #2 with the single 'Mother Of Mine' but the youngest person to have a UK #1 single was 9 year-old Jimmy Osmond with 'Long Haired Lover From Liverpool' at Christmas 1972.
Charlie, a young Stevie Wonder DID hit #1 in the US - his song 'Fingertips' was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963 when Stevie Wonder was only 13 years old.
ReplyDelete(And I didn't need Wikipedia for that info - in the '80s I had a book about the Billboard Hot 100).
Speaking of Kool-Aid, when I was 12 or 13 I used to try and hustle up a little folding money mowing lawns for people. This proved to be barely worth it. It was then that I picked up a life-long habit of using way too much profanity.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, one of my customers was this miserable, stingy old mean-ass b--(ahem) nice old lady.
Anyway, one hot summer day I'm mowin' her yard and I'm dyin' like a dog out there in the heat, and Granny Goodness brings me a tall icy glass of Kool-Aid. Ice cubes and everything. "Welp, maybe she ain't so bad", I thought and took a long drink, gagged, and spat it out all over her half-mowed lawn.
She hadn't put any sugar in it. Kool-Aid without sugar apparently tastes like industrial solvent. Maybe it is. I'm not a scientist.
Simple ice water would have been perfectly acceptable.
But she did make some kinda gesture, I guess.
M.P.
M.P. - Maybe it was Granny Goodness's plan to use the unsweetened Kool-Aid to poison you, a la Jim Jones!
ReplyDeleteColin - As regards 'The Good Life', have you watched 'Ever Decreasing Circles'? Richard Briers considered it his masterpiece - and I totally agree! I watch 'Ever Decreasing Circles' every time it's repeated, and each time it gets better & better. The contrast between Paul (Toby Mears, from 'Callan'), who's incredibly relaxed & laid back - and Martin, who's on the brink of a nervous breakdown, continuously, makes for exquisite situations.
Also, 'Ever Decreasing Circles' examines how anxiety relates to control - or so it seems. As Martin's such a control freak, whenever Anne puts the telephone on the receiver, Martin lifts it off, and turns it the opposite way round.
Eventually, as Martin spirals out of control, he starts this procedure, even after he himself has placed the telephone on the hook!
In short, to me, 'Ever Decreasing Circles' is a comedy masterpiece, with the episode when Anne leaves Martin to cook for himself (soaking the chili beans) as a standout!
Phillip
I meant to write "NOT soaking the chili beans" !
ReplyDeletePhillip
Phil, I certainly remember 'Ever Decreasing Circles' but Martin really irritated me because he was so different from Tom in 'The Good Life' - I found it very difficult to think of Richard Briers as such a different character from Tom Good (yes, I know that was stupid of me!)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the cool, perfect neighbour was played by Peter Egan.
And Penelope Wilton was on Radio 4 just recently in a documentary about the late Jonathan Miller's decline into dementia in his final years.
Colin - Yes, Peter Egan. I think Martin being such a totally different character shows Briers' talent. Some comedy actors just trot out the same performance, over & over again.
ReplyDeleteWas Penelope Wilton in 'Shillingbury Tales', too - or was it another similar actress? I'll have to look it up!
Phillip
Yes, being able to play completely different characters certainly demonstrates acting talent!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember 'Shillingbury Tales' but I do remember 'The Shillingbury Blowers' from 1980. I didn't actually watch it but I remember the name - it was one of the first new programmes of the '80s on ITV.
Colin - Turns out it was Diane Keen! Maybe 'Shillingbury Tales' was a spin off from 'Shillingbury Blowers'. It had a pleasant sounding theme tune (at least to a kid):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbpPm-5lyyM
To more cynical adults, I suppose it might sound a bit "twee"!
Phillip
Phil, I didn't know that Richard Briers considered 'Ever Decreasing Circles' to be his masterpiece. With your praise too I'll have to reconsider my opinion of that series. If it becomes available on iplayer I'll give it a watch.
ReplyDeleteAs for now I'm off to iplayer to watch the final two episodes of 'Nighty Night' from 2005. I watched one episode of this 12-episode series when it was originally broadcast in 2004 and 2005 but thanks to the amazing iplayer I've been watching the entire series over the last week.
By the way, do you remember the ITV sitcom 'The Cuckoo Waltz' starring Diane Keen?
ReplyDeleteI love the blatherings of backyard nostalgia!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see KD is back! Send us a picture of the restored car!
MP - They fed Unsweetened Kool Aid to Al Qaeda in Guantanamo to get them to talk! That combined with constant playing of Aneka Japanese Boy on the loud speakers got them to talk.
Charlie is just PO'd because the Belgium Grand Prix is rain delayed! Charlie smells another victory by Max Verstoppen over Hamilton!
MP- I had an old lady on my paper route who would tip me $.10 every two weeks around 1973. Most folks just gave me $2.00 for the $1.80 biweekly fee. She had exactly $1.80 and then with great ceremony gave me the dime. I thought it was hilarious, though a bit on the frugal side. But hell, at that time, I coiuld buy a comic book for 20 cents so...
I love the blatherings of backyard nostalgia!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see KD is back! Send us a picture of the restored car!
MP - They fed Unsweetened Kool Aid to Al Qaeda in Guantanamo to get them to talk! That combined with constant playing of Aneka Japanese Boy on the loud speakers got them to talk.
Charlie is just PO'd because the Belgium Grand Prix is rain delayed! Charlie smells another victory by Max Verstoppen over Hamilton!
MP- I had an old lady on my paper route who would tip me $.10 every two weeks around 1973. Most folks just gave me $2.00 for the $1.80 biweekly fee. She had exactly $1.80 and then with great ceremony gave me the dime. I thought it was hilarious, though a bit on the frugal side. But hell, at that time, I coiuld buy a comic book for 20 cents so...
Colin - Strangely, I don't remember 'The Cuckoo Waltz' at all. Then again, alongside Penelope Wilton, I remembered John Alderton in 'Shillingbury Tales'. In reality, neither of them were in it - so my memory's getting worse!
ReplyDeleteLast night I was listening to a podcast about the Hopkinsville goblin, to send myself to sleep. I was going to send you the link (c.f. Usborne UFOs book!), but it seems there are dozens of podcasts about the said goblin. You could take your pick!
Charlie - Why are you now 'Unknown' - is this a new persona? ; )
Phillip
Phil, I've never listened to any podcasts at all, ever. I suppose I really should!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading the latest issue of 'Fortean Times' which mentions the village of Pluckley in Kent, supposedly the "most haunted village in Britain". I first read about Pluckley and its' many ghosts in the Usborne book 'Mysteries Of The Unknown' but Fortean Times claims that most of the ghosts were invented by DJ Desmond Carrington (of Radio 2 for many years) in an interview for TV Times in the 1950s!
Charlie, as Phillip says - why are you Unknown??
I am unknown because I got permanently booted from a local site called "nextdoor.com" I said one too many things they didn't like about trump, the vaccine, whatever and got the permanent heave-ho.
ReplyDeleteHad to create a new gmail account to infiltrate.
I am now fighting a proxy war merely adding to the remarks of my fellow progressives rather than stating original material, lol.
M.P. - This afternoon, BBC Radio 4 said a much loved Dutch children's story ('Letter to the King') has now been translated into English. Have you ever heard of this famous Dutch book?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Haunted Generation references a Dutch tv show (De Zevensprong), maybe in the spirit of 'Robin of Sherwood':
https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/
Charlie (or 'Unknown'), there's plenty of German stuff on that page for you to sink your teeth into, too!
Phillip
Cover of the Week: Marvel Super Adventure. Not the best art, but I just love that strapline- 32 Pages of Brilliant Moody Action. Makes me expect to see Daredevil in a huff, or Black Panther sitting alone in his bedroom listening to The Smiths.
ReplyDeleteHim, Dave. It really does create the impression that you're about to experience 28 pages of the most low-energy super-hero activity ever.
ReplyDeleteThat should, of course, have read, "Hi, Dave." Not, "Him, Dave."
ReplyDeleteNo problem Steve- I've often come a cropper using predictive text on my phone!
ReplyDelete