Blue Armadillo weblog

Friday, February 01, 2002

And in other comics news, long-time Superman artist Kurt Schaffenberger recently passed away. He was never my favorite comics artist -- he was a little cartoony for my tastes -- but I sure read a lot of his stories.
posted by John Heaton 11:40 AM | link

DC Comics has hired novelist Brad Meltzer to write its Green Arrow series once current writer Kevin Smith leaves. Interesting choice. He's never written for comics before, but apparently he's a long-time comics fan.I was not overwhelmed by the one Meltzer novel I read (The Tenth Justice), but I think bringing familiar names into the comics industry is a good idea, and may ultimately attract new readers.
posted by John Heaton 11:36 AM | link

So what happens when a reporter dresses like Carrie Bradshaw on HBO's Sex and the City (i.e. gets "dolled up like a trollop") and visits various blue-collar hangouts in Peoria, Illinois? About what you'd expect. Read all about it in USA Today. (link via Tuesday Morning Quarterback.
posted by John Heaton 10:52 AM | link

Thursday, January 31, 2002

Hey, go read my friend Lori's diary! Her write diary good!
posted by John Heaton 5:47 PM | link

I got a note today from Edwin Danson, author of Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America. He had taken note of my brief mention of his book, which I described as "rather plodding and uninteresting." Damn search engines.

Anyway, I explained to him that what I meant was that parts of it were plodding and uninteresting. Specifically, the parts about surveying. The rest of it, in which he discusses the historical events and political battles that dictated how and where the Mason-Dixon line would be drawn. I can't recommend this book to anyone with a low tolerance for trigonometry, but engineers and mathemeticians would probably get a kick out of it.
posted by John Heaton 12:44 PM | link

I apologize for not posting this earlier in the week, but this FAQ list about January 28 will nevertheless be helpful next year.
posted by John Heaton 12:35 PM | link

Faster than the devaluation of the Argentinian peso! More powerful than SEATO! Able to leap symbolic bridges in a single bound! Look, up in the sky! It's a free trader! It's a multilateralist! It's Captain Euro! (link via Pop Culture Junk Mail)
posted by John Heaton 10:13 AM | link

Wednesday, January 30, 2002

I'm slowly getting back into reading other journals. I loved today's entry by "The Great and Powerful, Almighty Fool" about his encounter with "Chain Smokin Socially Inept Chemical Engineer Man". Stories like this make me glad I don't do customer support any longer.

(NOTE: Since posting this on the 30th, I've learned that The Fool now prefers to be called "The Great and Powerful, Almighty Fool" (don't forget the quotation marks!) so I have edited this accordingly.)
posted by John Heaton 12:14 PM | link

Tuesday, January 29, 2002

Check out rule number seven on this Miss America Pageant contract from 1948. I don't know when that particular rule was rescinded, but obviously it was before 1970, when the first African-American contestant appeared. (Link via TV Barn)
posted by John Heaton 1:38 PM | link

This picture amuses me. Courtesy amy sanders dot com.
posted by John Heaton 1:05 PM | link

Do you love alpacas? Maybe you don't, but that may be because you don't realize that "alpacas are a lifestyle choice with benefits and opportunities for the whole family," or that "unlike the stock market, alpacas are depreciable over five years." Check out I Love Alpacas for more interesting and (in my opinion) amusing facts about alpacas. Thanks to the Food Network for airing the highly entertaining ILoveAlpacas.com commercial.

And if you don't love alpacas, perhaps you would be interested in learning what badgers eat.
posted by John Heaton 12:27 AM | link

Monday, January 28, 2002

My great-uncle Claire Tracey passed away last Friday. Here's his obituary.
posted by John Heaton 4:46 PM | link

Mighty Big TV is now Television Without Pity. But why?
posted by John Heaton 2:56 PM | link

My favorite weblog is Gael Fashingbauer Cooper's Pop Culture Junk Mail. I don't share her fascination with British royalty or her fondness for the 80s, but I've seen way more good stuff featured on her site than bad. So it was fun to see my name, or rather my website's name, mentioned as a source for one of her recent featured links. But then I felt guilty about not having updated the weblog in months.

So this marks the beginning of a concerted effort to update my weblog more frequently. And I guess I'll kick things off with one of my favorite features, Roger Ebert's Movie Answer Man column. Published every two weeks, every column is packed with fascinating movie trivia.

The Movie Answer Man alternates with Ebert's Great Movies series, in which he writes a new review of a classic film. Take a look at the list of films he's reviewed for the series; odds are there will be a few you've never heard of, and a few you can't believe made the list. But he makes a pretty good case for even the unlikeliest candidates.
posted by John Heaton 2:28 PM | link

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