This evening, I watched the final episodes of That 70s Show, after beginning the series almost two months ago. (I only watch episodes of old series while I'm exercising, generally watching one episode in the morning and another in the afternoon, so it takes about a week per season for half-hour sitcoms.)
From the very beginning, I found the shows little elements of 1970s life to be appealing. I continually found little set elements that reflected our own life at the time, from the macrame plant hangers and spider plants to the addition of cable tv to the first VCR. The addition of so many spot-on decade-appropriate references made the series particularly engaging for me.
The kids themselves--well, they could have been students of mine. I started teaching high school in 1975, so I taught a senior class that graduated the same year as the Point Place kids. I have fond memories of my students of those years--Steve Callaway and Debbie Marsh and Bill Schroeder and Scott Prince and Leanna Leithauser and Edith Anderson and Jodi Crim and so many others who shared one character trait or another with Hyde, Eric, Donna, Fez, Jackie, and Kelso. So I found myself both empathizing with the characters as their experiences reflected my own, and viewing their experiences through the eyes of one who saw real-world high school students come of age at the same time.
The show's humor works so well for me because it blends timely cultural references, ensemble-cast interaction, cleverly written dialogue, endearing characters, and just enough physical slapstick to season the series without overwhelming it. None of the other elements would have mattered were it not for the endearing characters, however; for a show to succeed (in my eyes, at least), I have to like the focal characters. I not only liked Eric and Donna in particular, I actually cared about them and what happened to them. That's a relative rarity for television. I like the cast of Seinfeld and How I Met Your Mother and The Middle and Rules of Engagement and 30 Rock, but I don't care about them; I don't find myself wondering at the end of an episode what might happen to them next, or how their lives might be made better or worse by what happened to them in that episode. By the end of Seinfeld or Malcolm in the Middle, I was ready for them to move on. At the end of That 70s Show, I actually hoped that the lives of these fictional characters would continue in the way that I felt that it should.
Friends was the last sitcom whose characters made me care about them. And like Friends, I found myself thinking that I'd like to know if life continued to treat these characters well... if they found happiness, if their lives became what they hoped they would be, if they remained friends for years more. That, to me, is the sign of a well-crafted work of fiction; the characters, born from the imaginations of the writers, become real enough that the audience truly wants to think that their lives continued beyond the end of the fictional work.
If there were any one element of That 70s Show that I didn't like, it was the strong emphasis on marijuana use. I went through the 70s (and in fact, through my entire life) without using marijuana or other illegal drugs, and I sort of resented the implication that drug use was such an inherent part of the decade that every person who came of age during that decade just naturally used the drugs, regardless of gender or background or social or religious standing. However, I like the characters enough that I can empathize with them in spite of the drug use--and when you consider my personal anti-drug militancy, that's quite an accomplishment on the part of the writers.
The last season--most of which struggled along without Topher Grace (who left at the end of season 7) and Ashton Kutcher (who left a few episdoes into season 8)--was weak, to be sure. The plots weren't awful, by any means, but the interpersonal chemistry was missing. Donna, Hyde, Jackie, and Fez remained interesting, but not interesting enough; the disgruntled alienation of Hyde needed the reckless exuberance of Kelso to balance it, and the serious strength of Donna relied on the mercurial, ineffectual whimsy of Eric to give it direction. The addition of new characters like Randy and Sam was detrimental, because it forced the ensemble cast to act out of character in order to make room for the newcomers.
The series ended on a high note with the return of both Kelso and Eric to Point Place on New Years Eve, 1979. That 70s Show and those 70s came to an end at the same time, and with just enough optimism for the future that I can believe that Eric and Donna finally found happiness with one another. If you think otherwise, don't tell me--I see the entire show as building to the point where they not only accept the intertwined nature of their lives (they did that early on, in spite of several stumbles), but that they embrace it and walk into their futures together as a couple. Life gives us far too many missed opportunities; for me, this show, from the very beginning, was the story of a love's fits and starts as it searched for its true course.
Sure, it's a lot of burden to put on a sitcom. The fact that it stayed the course and delivered an ending that these characters deserved proves that the series and its writers were up to the challenge.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Re-Kindling My Interest
I really don't think I'm the right customer for a Kindle.
Oh, I have one--Amazon literally made me one of those offers I can't refuse.
The problem is, I absolutely love books.
Certainly, a Kindle allows me to enjoy the text of a book--but no matter how I try, I can't think of it as a book. It is, at best, akin to a galley proof, a review copy. Problem is, every time I got a galley proof of a book that I really liked, I had to procure a copy of the book as well.
I thought, "Well, I can use the Kindle to enjoy classic literature." There are a lot of books now in public domain that I can download through the Kindle.
Didn't help. Whenever I really enjoy one of those classics, I find myself tracking down a handsome copy of the book to add to my library.
So I've finally come to the realization that a Kindle is actually the electronic equivalent of one of those Brodart library book jackets (you know, the clear plastic sleeves that protect dust jackets from smears, smudges, tears, and wear). It's a great way for me to read a book without damaging my physical copy.
Okay, I know that's not the plan they had in mind... but as long as I think of it that way, I can enjoy a Kindle a lot more. And you know, every now and then I find a book that I don't like that much, so I don't have to buy a copy of it.
But that's far less common than I would have hoped...
Oh, I have one--Amazon literally made me one of those offers I can't refuse.
The problem is, I absolutely love books.
Certainly, a Kindle allows me to enjoy the text of a book--but no matter how I try, I can't think of it as a book. It is, at best, akin to a galley proof, a review copy. Problem is, every time I got a galley proof of a book that I really liked, I had to procure a copy of the book as well.
I thought, "Well, I can use the Kindle to enjoy classic literature." There are a lot of books now in public domain that I can download through the Kindle.
Didn't help. Whenever I really enjoy one of those classics, I find myself tracking down a handsome copy of the book to add to my library.
So I've finally come to the realization that a Kindle is actually the electronic equivalent of one of those Brodart library book jackets (you know, the clear plastic sleeves that protect dust jackets from smears, smudges, tears, and wear). It's a great way for me to read a book without damaging my physical copy.
Okay, I know that's not the plan they had in mind... but as long as I think of it that way, I can enjoy a Kindle a lot more. And you know, every now and then I find a book that I don't like that much, so I don't have to buy a copy of it.
But that's far less common than I would have hoped...
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Flaky Weather
This year, the weather forecasters have been particularly focused on the "mention every possibility and hope one of 'em is right" school of prognostication. Last weekend, they were saying that we had a chance of 1/2" to 1" of snow on Wednesday night/Thursday morning. As the week progressed, the same forecasters backpedaled, reducing the totals to 1/10" to 1/4" of snow. This afternoon, Atlanta's meteorological Cassandra, Glen Burns, backpedaled even further, claiming that the snow was turning into a light rain event instead, with virtually no snow predicted for metro Atlanta.
Well, the snow began at about 10pm, and as of right now, we have about 1/4" to 1/2" of snow on the deck, with the yard lightly covered in snow as well (it's too warm for it to stick to the road, thankfully). So you can be sure that come tomorrow morning, Glen and crew will tout the fact that they had predicted this a week ago... ignoring the fact that they modified that prediction to the point of total inaccuracy by this afternoon.
It's sort of like giving a darts player a hundred darts, then letting him paint the target where he wishes after he's thrown all the darts. That's one way to ensure that one of 'em hits the bullseye...
Well, the snow began at about 10pm, and as of right now, we have about 1/4" to 1/2" of snow on the deck, with the yard lightly covered in snow as well (it's too warm for it to stick to the road, thankfully). So you can be sure that come tomorrow morning, Glen and crew will tout the fact that they had predicted this a week ago... ignoring the fact that they modified that prediction to the point of total inaccuracy by this afternoon.
It's sort of like giving a darts player a hundred darts, then letting him paint the target where he wishes after he's thrown all the darts. That's one way to ensure that one of 'em hits the bullseye...
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
So Long, FedEx Ex-Warehouse
This was the first week that Diamond Comics Distributors sent my freight shipment to the new FedEx Freight hub in Smyrna, GA (formerly a National Freight hub, I believe, prior to the merger of the two). Prior to that, we've been driving 45 miles one-way to the South Atlanta hub in Conley, GA. We didn't ask to make the change, and in fact were willing to keep on driving to Conley in a while, but as someone at Diamond explained to us, "It's like having the USPS open a new post office in your neighborhood. That's your post office now; you don't get to keep getting your mail delivered from the old post office."
I had wonderful experiences with the Conley warehouse and the wonderful crew who worked there--Tommy, Chris, Don, Barry, and the rest of the crew there always went out of their way to give us unprecedented service, and I really appreciated them. But now that the switch has been made, I have to admit that there's something good about an 18 mile drive that never takes me out of Cobb County (where my store is located). I figure it's going to save me more than 5000 miles a year, as well as saving me at least an hour on the road each week.
The folks at the Smyrna hub were very friendly and helpful today, and I think the transition is going to be a smooth one. It's going to take a little getting used to, though!
I had wonderful experiences with the Conley warehouse and the wonderful crew who worked there--Tommy, Chris, Don, Barry, and the rest of the crew there always went out of their way to give us unprecedented service, and I really appreciated them. But now that the switch has been made, I have to admit that there's something good about an 18 mile drive that never takes me out of Cobb County (where my store is located). I figure it's going to save me more than 5000 miles a year, as well as saving me at least an hour on the road each week.
The folks at the Smyrna hub were very friendly and helpful today, and I think the transition is going to be a smooth one. It's going to take a little getting used to, though!
I'm an Equus-trian
I forgot to mention after my post on 12/28 that Ed Voyles Hyundai came back with a very aggressive offer, made up for the shortcomings of that initial experience, and ultimately made the Equus irresistible.
The problems with the vehicle's shortcomings still exist, of course--but I've become all too aware that there is no perfect vehicle for me. I've driven a BMW, a Mercedes, an Infiniti, a Lexus, an Acura, a Cadillac, a Lincoln, an Audi, a Volvo, a Jaguar, a Range Rover, a Bentley (okay, I never even for a moment considered buying it, but they were willing to let me drive it, so why not?...), and a Porsche as well as the Equus, and there isn't a single one of them that doesn't have problems and shortcomings. Let me pick and choose features from each and I could build the perfect car... but that's impossible, so I have to determine the best combination of features, performance, comfort, and price.
The Equus ultimately won out. At the price they were originally asking, the shortcomings made it an unacceptable vehicle--but at the revised price, complete with a full ten-year extended warranty, the positives outweighed the negatives. So I now have a black-on-black Equus Ultimate, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Between this car and the Acura MDX, I think I have the best combination of price/features/performance/comfort available.
The problems with the vehicle's shortcomings still exist, of course--but I've become all too aware that there is no perfect vehicle for me. I've driven a BMW, a Mercedes, an Infiniti, a Lexus, an Acura, a Cadillac, a Lincoln, an Audi, a Volvo, a Jaguar, a Range Rover, a Bentley (okay, I never even for a moment considered buying it, but they were willing to let me drive it, so why not?...), and a Porsche as well as the Equus, and there isn't a single one of them that doesn't have problems and shortcomings. Let me pick and choose features from each and I could build the perfect car... but that's impossible, so I have to determine the best combination of features, performance, comfort, and price.
The Equus ultimately won out. At the price they were originally asking, the shortcomings made it an unacceptable vehicle--but at the revised price, complete with a full ten-year extended warranty, the positives outweighed the negatives. So I now have a black-on-black Equus Ultimate, and we've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. Between this car and the Acura MDX, I think I have the best combination of price/features/performance/comfort available.
Getting a Job IS a Job
I own a business. As a result, I routinely hear from people who wonder if we're hiring. Problem is, most of them don't have the slightest idea how to search for a job, and as a result they do it quite wretchedly.
Some of the lowlights include:
•The person who walked in, looked around, said, "They still make this shit?" And then in all seriousness came up to the counter and said "Are you hiring?"
•The fellow who asked "Are you hiring? My parole officer said I need to get a job."
•The surly young man who said, "You wouldn't hire me, would you?"
•The flighty young woman who came in with her coterie of friends (all of whom rearranged merchandise for us), asked if we'd hire her, and then said, "If you do, all of my friends will come in with me every day!"
Here's the basic fact, folks: If you're applying for a job, you need to realize that you already have a job, and that job is selling yourself. If you don't make yourself as desirable an employee as possible, you've already failed at your first job.
Try dressing for the job. Don't come in wearing dirty clothes, offensive clothes, trashy clothes, exercise clothes, wifebeater shirts, baggy shorts, risque clothes, or with garish piercings or tattoos evident. It says, right off the bat, that you value your comfort and your personal statement more than any job.
Tell me what in the world you have to offer that might make you worth cash. A business isn't a charity; I need to know how I'm going to make money on my investment in you.
Have some idea what we do.
Don't make demands prior to even being given an interview. "I don't work weekends" is an exit strategy, not a entrez into a job interview.
Don't assume that telling me I have the best comic shop on earth is going to get you a job or even an interview.
Identify yourself. Sending me an email with an address like perv3000@hotmail.com or bigsexy@yahoo.com isn't going to win me over. It's even less likely to win me over when that email is my first contact with you, and you don't even fully identify yourself in the email.
Another hint: I don't ever hire from an email.
If you're not following these rules, it's no wonder you're not finding a job.
Some of the lowlights include:
•The person who walked in, looked around, said, "They still make this shit?" And then in all seriousness came up to the counter and said "Are you hiring?"
•The fellow who asked "Are you hiring? My parole officer said I need to get a job."
•The surly young man who said, "You wouldn't hire me, would you?"
•The flighty young woman who came in with her coterie of friends (all of whom rearranged merchandise for us), asked if we'd hire her, and then said, "If you do, all of my friends will come in with me every day!"
Here's the basic fact, folks: If you're applying for a job, you need to realize that you already have a job, and that job is selling yourself. If you don't make yourself as desirable an employee as possible, you've already failed at your first job.
Try dressing for the job. Don't come in wearing dirty clothes, offensive clothes, trashy clothes, exercise clothes, wifebeater shirts, baggy shorts, risque clothes, or with garish piercings or tattoos evident. It says, right off the bat, that you value your comfort and your personal statement more than any job.
Tell me what in the world you have to offer that might make you worth cash. A business isn't a charity; I need to know how I'm going to make money on my investment in you.
Have some idea what we do.
Don't make demands prior to even being given an interview. "I don't work weekends" is an exit strategy, not a entrez into a job interview.
Don't assume that telling me I have the best comic shop on earth is going to get you a job or even an interview.
Identify yourself. Sending me an email with an address like perv3000@hotmail.com or bigsexy@yahoo.com isn't going to win me over. It's even less likely to win me over when that email is my first contact with you, and you don't even fully identify yourself in the email.
Another hint: I don't ever hire from an email.
If you're not following these rules, it's no wonder you're not finding a job.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Why I'm not driving an Equus today...
First off, I wasn't allowed to drive it. Since they had only this one for sale and had not gotten a demo car yet, I could only sit in the parking lot and test out various aspects of the vehicle. I've never bought a car that I wasn't allowed to drive at all prior to purchase, so that was off-putting, to say the least. Perhaps if I had insisted, I would have been able to drive the car, but I definitely go the feeling that it would have taken some pushiness on my part to get that car moving off the lot, and I didn't feel like being pushy... wasn't really sure that I should have to, either. It goes against the customer-oriented luxury nature of the vehicle.
I did get to test out the driver's seat, passenger seat, and rear luxury seat. The driver's seat was fine (although a headrest angle adjustment would be nice... all it has now is a headrest elevation control), although the massage feature was less soothing than aggravating--almost as bad as having someone slowly pressing on the seat from behind. Didn't do anything for me.
The passenger seat does have height adjustment as well as angle adjustment and forward/backward movement (there was some rumor out there that the height was fixed), but it does not have lumbar adjustment or leg support adjustment.
The rear "luxury seat" is, to be kind, an absolute disaster. Unless you earn your living pointing at the sky and saying "zee plane, boss, zee plane!" or questing for the one ring to rule them all, then this seat is entirely too cramped to be of any comfort with the legrest elevated. I tried pushing myself as far back into the seat as possible, but even with the front seat moved forward to its maximum, I either had to bend my feet sideways or press them against the back of the front passenger's seat and leave dusty footprints. Even then, it wasn't at all comfortable. The features are nice, but the seat simply doesn't work in the space allotted for it unless you're about 5'2" or less.
The iPod control is improved but I'd only give it a B-. You can connect an iPod, then say "iPod" and "random songs" to randomize on the fly. However, if you change input to anything else (XM, FM, etc.) and come back, you have to randomize again. The DIS displays an iPod symbol and the track number on the center of the dash when you're in iPod mode--not the title, mind you, but the track number, which tells you nothing. And as is the case with the Genesis, if you leave the iPod display (to go to map, for instance) and come back, it no longer shows you the artist/album/song info about the current track playing--you have to go through a cumbersome system of finding the playlist once again, then looking at the screen for the track number and maneuvering your way to that track. Since I was randomizing an 800 song playlist when I was testing it, I found that the track being played was 534, and it would have taken way too long to maneuver my way through that many tracks.
The bass seems stronger and punchier than on the 2009 Genesis--but conversely, the treble seems a little more subdued, giving it almost a Bose-like sound quality (and I'm aware that Bose isn't well respected by a lot of audiophiles, but I"m not saying that as a negative--I don't mind the Bose sound in the Acura RL, for instance--but I didn't feel that this system had the full resonance of the Lexicon in my 2009 Genesis). Surround separation and processing was superb except for one little glitch. I have an Acura TL demo disc that begins with a Doobie Brothers Song--first in two-channel sound, then in 5.1 surround DVD-A sound. That disc plays fine in the Acura, plays fine in the 2009 Genesis, plays fine in the 2011 Genesis they had loaned me at one point... but on the Equus, it would NOT play the stereo track. It went dead silent on that track, even though the timer was counting down. Once it got to the 5.1 version, the sound came right back on. Led me to wonder if I might have similar problems with other discs.
No A2DP streaming bluetooth audio--an odd omission that underscores the general impression that the audio, NAV, and DIS tech is years old. It contradicts the contemporary, cutting-edge luxury attitude that Hyundai seems to be trying to convey with its iPad owner's manual and other touches.
The doors definitely do not have auto-closing feature, as I had been warned would likely be the case. That's a shame; they actually had to remove this feature for the American market, since it's included in the Korean version of the car.
Nav system looked like the Genesis system--although since I couldn'td drive the car, I didn't get a chance to put it through its paces. I also didn't have time to check out voice commands in the manual to determine it destination entry is any easier. Wish that Hyundai would include that part of the manual in their iPad app--the audio and DIS/NAV system section is totally missing, however. I'd need more time to explore the NAV interface, and that would require being able to drive the car. Right now, the NAV interface in the Genesis is so cumbersome that it's almost unusable.
Front camera had a good field of vision; I could see objects well not only in front, but off to each side. Not sure how useful this would be, since I've never had a driving situation that led me to think, "Boy, I wish I had a little camera mounted on the snout of my car."
Coolbox is very compact; I suspect it would hold a six-pack of canned beverages, but didn't have anything with me to test it out. There are two storage compartments between the two rear seats that seem a bit too high to be comfortably accessible, but they're still nice to have.
The rear DVD has to be moved into position manually--an oddity in a field where most DVD screens automatically raise and lower themselves. All in all, the picture was fair to adequate--but the display on various Acura, Honda, Toyota, and Nissan vehicles I've sampled with rear-seat DVD screens was brighter and more vivid.
Motorized rear sunshades worked nicely, but that's not a feature that means much to me. If it's important to you, you'll be happy.
Fit and finish quality seemed very respectable; at first I thought the paint had an orange-peel look, but that turned out to be the play of light off the heavily-metal-flaked paint finish.
What led me to pass on the Ultimate? Well, not driving it was a big factor. Having to wait for a half an hour to see the car after having made the appointment five days earlier was an inconvenience since I was on a tight schedule, but not a deal-breaker; I do hope that the vehicle prep team can keep to schedule a little better in the future, though, because it's always disappointing to wait a half an hour when you have a specific appointment time.
Ultimately (no pun intended) I just didn't feel that there was $65K+ of car there. Since the stereo system/DIS system is under a 3 year warranty, it would cost from $689 to $1700 to extend that to 5 or 10 years--and with the many problems that DIS has had for Genesis drivers, I wouldn't feel comfortable without that extension. (Woodstock Hyundai threw that in at no charge on my 2009 Genesis.)
The price differential was made even more noticeable by a very low trade-in offer on a 2009 Genesis with 10,500 miles. The car has been garaged continually when not driven and is in impeccable shape, but the offer came in at almost $5000 under Kelly Blue Book trade-in value.
The absence of a Hyundai Circle discount (which was once rumored, but was confirmed by Hyundai as NOT being offered for the Equus after all) left me in a situation where I was going to have to write a check for almost $10K more than I would have hoped. And even at the price I had originally hoped, I just didn't feel that I was going to get my money's worth. I could not have seen myself closing this deal unless the drive-out price after trade-in had been $10k less than what was offered to me, including a warranty on the DIS. That sounds like I'm pipe-dreaming, but bear in mind that if I had been offered Kelly Blue Book trade-in value and had the Hyundai Circle pricing been offered as many of us thought it was going to be, I would have had the car for $10,000 to $11,000 less than what was quoted to me at Ed Voyles.
I haven't cancelled my deposit with Ed Voyles; I've asked them to let me know when they have a Signature edition that I can actually drive, and then I'll see how I feel about it. But right now, The Equus strikes me as a missed opportunity; had Hyundai actually designed a luxury car for the American market rather than shoehorning a Korean car (with Korean-buyer-focused features) into the American market, it could have been a real winner.
(One more piece of advice, Hyundai: you might want to avoid announcing improvements to the Equus and the Genesis even before the current Equus is available. I saw the announcement that the Equus would get a 5.0L V8 and an 8-speed transmission even before the first Equus went on display in November; I saw just last week a report that the 2012 Genesis with the same engine and transmission might be available as early as the first quarter of 2011. It makes your very expensive flagship car seem tired and lackluster out of the gate when buyers are already told that both the Genesis and the Equus will have improved engines and transmissions but no, there will be no Hyundai Circle discount or other incentive to encourage early adopters to buy, drive, promote, and support the line.)
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Spin Is Job One
Comics have reflected political viewpoints pretty much as long as there have been comic books (Little Orphan Annie strongly reflected the Rooseveltian Depression-era politics of the 1930s, books such as Captain America captured the patriotic fervor of the war years, Superman always supported the American ideal). For the most part, though, the comics existed to tell an entertaining story, while the politics were secondary.That's not the case with Erich Origen & Gan Golan's The Adventures of Unemployed Man. The raison d'etre for this book is entirely political: Origen and Golan want to present a very left-slanted view of current economic conditions, and everything else is secondary. They're not telling a superhero story--they're presenting propaganda clothed in superhero tropes.
The result is a book that is so ham-fisted and unyielding in driving home its one-sided points that it fails to entertain. Even energetic artwork from such creators as Ramona Fradon, Rick Veitch, Michael Netzer, Thomas Yeates, and Shawn Martinbrough can't salvage a story whose only purpose is to perpetuate one-sided political views. The tone is overly strident throughout, and any opposing views are set up as paper tigers designed to be immediately knocked down.
In the hands of someone skilled at combining wit and history (Larry Gonick, for instance), Adventures of Unemployed Man might have had a chance. As it is, this is a book that can only appeal to those who agree with its politics--because ultimately, that's the only content that matters for the book's writers.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
A Man of Letters
It's no secret that I have been a comic book fan almost my entire life. Problem is, comic book fans are pretty widely scattered. While I knew people in West Rome who read comics (Gary Steele, Bobby Wear, Phil Patterson, John Ball, to name a few), few of my fellow comic book readers were as addicted to the medium as was I. Soon, though, I realized that many of those letters in the comic book letters columns had names and addresses attached, and I began writing to a few of those letter-writers whose opinions intrigued me. Even better, they wrote back.
By the time I was 13 years old, I had at least a dozen regular "pen pals" across the country with whom I exchanged letters regarding comics that we both enjoyed. These correspondents helped introduce me to the world of fanzines--amateur fan magazines published in small quantities for sale or trade to fellow fans. Many of those fanzines would send a free copy to anyone who wrote a letter that was published in the fanzine, so I began writing even more letters.
By 1968, it seemed like I was getting more mail at my parents' house than they were; rarely a day went by that I didn't have at least one or two letters in the mail. I even remember my amazement and excitement when, in 1969, I actually received a Sunday mail delivery from a correspondent who was so eager to get me a sample of his artwork that he paid huge sums to have some artwork and a letter delivered via whatever was 1969's precursor to Express Mail.
I would get very frustrated when I didn't get any mail at all, because the letters I wrote and received had become very important to me. One day, I became so aggravated that a letter I was awaiting had not arrived that I punched the door to my room--and imagine my chagrin when I discovered (the hard way) that the doors in our house were hollow! Lo and behold, I had punched a hole in the door! I tried to put a sticker over the hole to cover it up, by my sister Kimberly saw the hole before I covered it, and she poked a hole in the sticker to ensure that my parents saw the hole in the doorway. (My nephew and his wife now live in the house where I grew up; when they replaced the interior doors, they cut out that door panel with its hole and sticker fragments and gave it to me as a relic of my childhood).
Through the remainder of the 1960s and into the 1970s, I was a voluminous letter writer (or should I say "letter typist," since I always preferred to type letters rather than handwrite them). After Susan and I were married, we both continued to correspond with science fiction and comics fans, and remained involved in fanzines. As a result, we were pretty much on a first-name basis with the staff at the post office--not a surprise, considering how much of our disposable income was spent on postage!
Many of the fellow fans with whom I corresponded in my younger years have gone on to become professionals in the comics and/or SF field nowadays; it's surprising to realize that many of those correspondence friendships have outlasted a lot of my in-person friendships!
I write very few letters nowadays, though, preferring to use email. I still have a tendency of rambling on in my emails as if I were writing a regular letter, though; I never got the hang of short, pithy emails, I guess. Old habits die hard, though: I still rush to see what came in the mail each day (and thanks to my role as editor and publisher of a newsweekly in the comics field, I still get a lot of mail), and I spend too much time sorting through the 150-250 emails I get each day. Like regular mail, about half of those emails are junk or ads, but the others serve as a link between me and many of my correspondents!
I don't think that too many people today understand how important letters were in the pre-internet days; they served as my link to a much larger world made up of people who shared my interest, and helped me to feel a lot less isolated than would have otherwise been the case.
By the time I was 13 years old, I had at least a dozen regular "pen pals" across the country with whom I exchanged letters regarding comics that we both enjoyed. These correspondents helped introduce me to the world of fanzines--amateur fan magazines published in small quantities for sale or trade to fellow fans. Many of those fanzines would send a free copy to anyone who wrote a letter that was published in the fanzine, so I began writing even more letters.
By 1968, it seemed like I was getting more mail at my parents' house than they were; rarely a day went by that I didn't have at least one or two letters in the mail. I even remember my amazement and excitement when, in 1969, I actually received a Sunday mail delivery from a correspondent who was so eager to get me a sample of his artwork that he paid huge sums to have some artwork and a letter delivered via whatever was 1969's precursor to Express Mail.
I would get very frustrated when I didn't get any mail at all, because the letters I wrote and received had become very important to me. One day, I became so aggravated that a letter I was awaiting had not arrived that I punched the door to my room--and imagine my chagrin when I discovered (the hard way) that the doors in our house were hollow! Lo and behold, I had punched a hole in the door! I tried to put a sticker over the hole to cover it up, by my sister Kimberly saw the hole before I covered it, and she poked a hole in the sticker to ensure that my parents saw the hole in the doorway. (My nephew and his wife now live in the house where I grew up; when they replaced the interior doors, they cut out that door panel with its hole and sticker fragments and gave it to me as a relic of my childhood).
Through the remainder of the 1960s and into the 1970s, I was a voluminous letter writer (or should I say "letter typist," since I always preferred to type letters rather than handwrite them). After Susan and I were married, we both continued to correspond with science fiction and comics fans, and remained involved in fanzines. As a result, we were pretty much on a first-name basis with the staff at the post office--not a surprise, considering how much of our disposable income was spent on postage!
Many of the fellow fans with whom I corresponded in my younger years have gone on to become professionals in the comics and/or SF field nowadays; it's surprising to realize that many of those correspondence friendships have outlasted a lot of my in-person friendships!
I write very few letters nowadays, though, preferring to use email. I still have a tendency of rambling on in my emails as if I were writing a regular letter, though; I never got the hang of short, pithy emails, I guess. Old habits die hard, though: I still rush to see what came in the mail each day (and thanks to my role as editor and publisher of a newsweekly in the comics field, I still get a lot of mail), and I spend too much time sorting through the 150-250 emails I get each day. Like regular mail, about half of those emails are junk or ads, but the others serve as a link between me and many of my correspondents!
I don't think that too many people today understand how important letters were in the pre-internet days; they served as my link to a much larger world made up of people who shared my interest, and helped me to feel a lot less isolated than would have otherwise been the case.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Things Are Different There...
Yesterday, I found myself in the area of Phipps Plaza in Buckhead. How long has it been since I last went to Phipps Plaza? Well, the last time I was there was when Susan and I joined Lanny, Brett, Charles, and some other friends at the showing of the Tim Burton Batman film...
Where most malls hosting auto shows have a new Cadillac or Lexus or Chrysler or the like in the mall area, Phipps' display of autos for possible gift-giving included a Bentley, a Lotus, an Aston-Martin, and a Maserati. That pretty much underscored the idea that this isn't a typical mall.
Then, at one end of the mall, I saw a familiar store: Belks. So I wandered in--and the first thing I saw was a shoe display. And that, too, underscored the fact that everything--even Belks--is different at Phipps Plaza.
No, that's not a cage-match fighting shoe--it's a fashion heel from Belk's shoe display. And yes, those are solid metal conical spikes all over the outer edge and the heel of the shoe. And yes, they hurt if you tap 'em against your hand--I checked.
I found myself wondering if the fashion-conscious woman who buys those shoes has the same tendency I have to occasionally scuff one's ankle with the side of one's shoe when walking. When I do it with my Rockport shoes, it's a minor annoyance. For the unfortunate wearer of these shoes, though, it could be a debilitating mistake...
I was looking for one item at Belks--a quilt that was featured in their most recent ad. I asked someone about it. "We don't carry home goods here," the sales staffer said with more than a little disdain. "We're not that kind of store."
And apparently I'm just not the right clientele for Phipps Plaza...
Where most malls hosting auto shows have a new Cadillac or Lexus or Chrysler or the like in the mall area, Phipps' display of autos for possible gift-giving included a Bentley, a Lotus, an Aston-Martin, and a Maserati. That pretty much underscored the idea that this isn't a typical mall.
Then, at one end of the mall, I saw a familiar store: Belks. So I wandered in--and the first thing I saw was a shoe display. And that, too, underscored the fact that everything--even Belks--is different at Phipps Plaza.
No, that's not a cage-match fighting shoe--it's a fashion heel from Belk's shoe display. And yes, those are solid metal conical spikes all over the outer edge and the heel of the shoe. And yes, they hurt if you tap 'em against your hand--I checked.
I found myself wondering if the fashion-conscious woman who buys those shoes has the same tendency I have to occasionally scuff one's ankle with the side of one's shoe when walking. When I do it with my Rockport shoes, it's a minor annoyance. For the unfortunate wearer of these shoes, though, it could be a debilitating mistake...
I was looking for one item at Belks--a quilt that was featured in their most recent ad. I asked someone about it. "We don't carry home goods here," the sales staffer said with more than a little disdain. "We're not that kind of store."
And apparently I'm just not the right clientele for Phipps Plaza...
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