Good, um, Morning

Missed SpongeBob yesterday after getting called in to work a 14-hour day, and missed it this morning because I couldn't wake up in time. Ah well. My boss was nice enough to tell me last night that I should sleep in today as long as I needed, and come to work when I felt like it... ah, bliss...

Here's another brainteaser, this one is a classic, so you all probably know the answer already. Arrange four "8"s using any mathematical symbols into an equation that equals 100. No tricks with this one, it's pretty straightforward, I think.

This is the fourth morning in a row (since I started counting) that I haven't eaten any hamster eggs for breakfast.

The Seattle Mariners have announced who the new manager is going to be, and it's *surprise!* someone I've never heard of. Since I follow only one team, I don't know a lot about most baseball people outside of the Mariner's organization. A quick peruse of the front page of The Seattle Times tells me that he is a former catcher and bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. This guy has his work cut out for him, as Lou Pinella was well-loved in Seattle.

Of course, it doesn't help that the poor guy is being referred to as Melvin in news articles, and all I can think of is the cover to Mad #1 whenever I read that. "It's Melvin!" *sigh*

I found the editorial cartoon in today's Seattle Times to be very interesting:

The whole "war on terror" thing has just taken a turn for the worse, apparently. I'm just tired of it, and this cartoon pretty much captures that whole feeling.

Politics in Seattle just got interesting, according to this article in the Seattle Times. A secret note, apparent threats from the Mayor's office... tsk tsk. Somebody has been bad.

My current hometown football team has been making waves for once. After reading this article in the Times, I was just flabbergasted at their previous record. 22-68 for the ten years prior to the current coach's run, and 24-6 with the current coach. Not bad, coach!

That news made me go look up my old high school's football results for this year. 5-5, ouch.

And to end on a happy note, Paris is apparently has its share of people with a sense of humor. The Seattle Times reports that fake plaques have appeared in several spots in Paris, that commemorate various non-events. One says, "On April 17, 1967 — nothing happened here." I gotta put some of those up in Seattle.

Random Thoughts

First off, PAD has updated how the Retailer Poll is going in his daily blog, and I must say that there really is no surprise there. I'm still looking forward to the final results, and I hope that PAD can get a majority of retailers responding (there are ways to check, I'm sure).

My lateral-thinking brainteaser I posted last Thursday got no response, possibly because it was too easy: "A powerful and rich king had three magnificent and valuable rings that he kept in a gorgeous and ornate box. As he grew older, he decided one day to give each of his three daughters one of the rings. After the giving was done, a single ring still remained in the box. Can you tell me how?"

The answer, of course, is that he also gave the box to one of the daughters. Which begs the question (that is never answered in questions like this) as to why one of the daughters deserved both a ring and a box to keep it in. Did the king give other boxes to the other daughters, or was the one ring left in the box less ornate or valuable than the others? Was he fair to the daughters, or was there something else going on? Ok, so maybe I'm the only person in the world who worries about that... I'll try to make the next puzzle more interesting.

Random Thoughts

No one has responded to my brain-teaser about the King with three daughters, but I'll still post the answer... in a couple of days. The question is in November 7th's Random Thoughts.

Hubby-Eric and I have turned in our order form for November 2002. Aquaman and the Aquaman Archives are both on it, which made me unusually happy. Add in the Super Friends Aquaman/Black Manta action figure set (which retails at $49.99!) and the checkbook is now officially screaming in agony.

Other stuff was as expected: all three Elseworlds (I'm a sucker for them), Gotham Adventures, Birds of Prey, Supergirl, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hawkman, JLA, JLA/Spectre, JSA, Ten-Cent Superman, Justice League Adventures, Spectre, Titans, Young Justice, Power Company, Green Lantern/Sinestro Super Friends set, Powers, Usagi Yojimbo, Girl Genius, Futurama Comics, Snapdragons, the Cardcaptor Sakura trade, Ruse, Way of the Rat, Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, and Truth...

We're also getting Crossovers #1 because we can't resist the idea of genres mixing. We hope it's as good or better than the previews make it out to be. And Interman is also on the list thanks to the preview at Jeff Parker's site.

And lastly, because Hubby-Eric got more work at the comic shop for credit, we added JLA/JSA Virtue and Vice. We wanted to get it before, but couldn't justify the cost.

Speaking of costs and justifying them, I really wanted to go to the Seattle Comicard Convention tomorrow, but even the admission is a little high after paying for our comics. While the cost in money is nasty, I'm also worried about the cost in my energy levels for work. I still haven't adjusted fully to working retail after sitting at a desk all day for years, and I'd rather go to work fully rested on Monday, especially since I know next week is going to be hard, with all the stock for the holiday shopping season coming in. So I probably won't make it...

Remember that book I told you about some time ago, the one with the 8-page preview that my retailer put in my box? It's called The Witch and the Jackal, and I ran into the creators at my comic shop today. They've been doing some serious legwork, hitting every comic shop within driving distance of their home in Victoria BC, Canada, and giving out free samples as well as delivering the first issue in person. Since they were there, and I was impressed, we bought the first issue right away. I will review it within a day or two.

I'm looking forward to seeing the last of the first season of Justice League tonight. So it doesn't have Aquaman and that sucks, at least it's a decent show otherwise. And I know Aquaman will be reappearing in season two.

I read this morning, on Elayne Riggs' blog, that Hilary Bader had died of ovarian cancer. There's a lot I want to say about this, but I can't at the moment. I'm pretty upset. She was a very cool person, and I'm glad I met her.

Random Thoughts

It started raining here again this week. It was like the whole city let out a giant sigh of relief. Sure, it's wet, but the air is clearer and the plants no longer look wilted. We'd gone without long enough that newcomers and visitors were starting to say, "The weather isn't that bad in Seattle!" which is the worst thing that can happen. We don't want more people moving here only to complain that they actually saw that "sun" thingy where they used to live. And to be honest, I was really uncomfortable seeing the sky that unnatural shade of blue instead of its normal gray/white.

The newest link on my site is to David Allen Jones' Blog AKA "The Johnny Bacardi Show". Thanks to the fantastic linkback feature that Elayne Riggs introduced me to, I was able to discover he linked to my blog, and actually implied that I'm fun and interesting, to boot! That brings my readership up to two and a half (my hubby, David, and my retailer who sometimes visits).

There's a great, short, interview with Ramona Fradon by Heidi MacDonald at Comicon's Pulse. I'm a BIG fan of Ramona. My favorite piece in my Aquaman collection is an original Ramona Fradon watercolor my husband surprised me with for Christmas 1997. Having Ramona's work be the majority of the new Aquaman Archive coming out made my month, and it's good to see her getting recognition on a major comic news site.

I'm thinking I ought to do some reviews of older books. The sugar-coated bee story (see Monday, Nov 4th's first blog) made me pull out Clan Apis and reread. Perhaps I should at least make an occasional reference to other great series I've gotten over the years. Heck, since I'm already talking about Jay Hosler, I'll mention that Sandwalk Adventures, his latest effort, has been very good so far. And educational too!

The news that Stan Lee is suing Marvel took me by surprise. While Stan seems to have the biggest ego in all of comics, he never seemed like a guy to go against company lines. Then again, I don't know the details, so maybe I'd better just shut up and watch how it goes.

And for my final thought this evening (unless I post another one later on tonight): A powerful and rich king had three magnificent and valuable rings that he kept in a gorgeous and ornate box. As he grew older, he decided one day to give each of his three daughters one of the rings. After the giving was done, a single ring still remained in the box. Can you tell me how?