January Leaving

 January is leaving.

I swears it just got here.  How could it be leaving already?

Church is already talking about Lenten schedules.  Didn't we just finish advent?

I wasn't sure what would happen once I became unmoored from the constant deadlines of my former career.  They came one after another, hurtling me through the calendar.

The first two months of full retirement were during the lightest season of the CPA firm.  I didn't feel really retired yet.  I thought January would hit, and I would feel the change of schedule, thinking back to what I was doing for the last three decades.  

But I really haven't thought about it much.  I'm enjoying my retirement way too much.

Most days are pretty relaxing- doing what I want to do.  I have worked a lot on my comic book project.  Each day is enjoyable, and I find my own rhythms and challenges.

But my consciousness of the calendar is dim.  Without the deadlines, I take each day one at a time and then only look up once in a while, see the calendar, and go, "Holey Moley!  How did we get to that day?"

Time passes quickly.  But I still am taking the time to smell the roses.  Well, not the roses.  More often, it's freshly cooked soups, turkey burgers, the odors of a kitty litter box.  Ok, that last one is not too nice.

I still look forward to events in the future.  Benjamin has only three semesters to go before graduating from college.  Alison and I are planning trips.  And I have a special reason to look forward to April, which I will explain more about later.

February is almost here.  The Winter Olympics (love curling!), Valentine's Day, the return of Last Week with John Oliver, the beginnings of a new MLS season with Atlanta, and then before you know it - it's March and Lent!

Happy Days Everyone!

Maus In the Haus: Saturday Political Soap Box 282

This is Volume 2 of Maus. It is my copy. In my Haus. I believe we have Volume 1, but I wasn't immediately able to find it - my collection is in a bit of a reorganization effort right now. It may be that Benjamin has it.

Maus is the Pulitzer Prize-winning Graphic Novel written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. It tells of his family's experience with the Nazis and the Holocaust. It is not pretty, but it is exceptionally well and powerfully told. It uses the allegory of Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats.

If you follow my blog, you know I am an avid reader of comic books and graphic novels. So, when I tell you that, of the tens of thousands I have read, Maus ranks at the very top, that should carry some weight.

To me, the idea that the Tennesse School Board is banning this book is utterly horrifying. This critical and seminal book, which effectively shows the horrors of the Holocaust, particularly to young readers, is being banned from the places where it could do the most good. Its banning effectively either silences or trivializes this important event. An event that must be seared in all our brains so that it CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

In some ways, this is just another salvo in the idiotic culture wars this nation has to endure. The authoritarian side of the ledger (I'm sorry - it's hard to even call them Republicans anymore - they've gone so far off the bend beyond simple advocacy of conservative principals) is constantly bringing up distractions to get us to ignore the real needs in this country - universal health care, climate change, the income gap, fighting COVID, adequate and affordable child care, racial inequality.  

Now, led by Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, they would like to quash the teaching of anything that remotely discomforts white people. Can't dwell on slavery being bad. Can't point out how our laws and legal systems reinforce racial inequality. Can't talk about how our genocide of indigenous peoples was one of the inspirations and templates used by the Nazis for the Holocaust.

And, yes. I know these culture war issues are brought mainly to gin the rest of us up. They love our outrage and feed off of it. Then, they use it for fundraisers and to further divide us.

So, congratulations,  It worked. I'm ginned up and angry.

But you won't win. I already have Maus, and Benjamin can read it anytime, again and again. Maus is now #2 on the Amazon Best Seller list. That's of ALL books, not just graphic novels. I'm sure more young readers are seeking this out more than ever before.

Of course, this is not the only time that a Tennessee School Board has acted out in a censoring, moronic fashion. In the 1920s, they tried to ban the teaching of evolution. This led to one of the most famous courtroom trials of all time, the Scopes Monkey Trial, prosecuting a teacher for even mentioning the possibility of evolution. The trial featured the rhetorical skills of the most successful defense lawyer of that time, Clarence Darrow, and three-time Presidential candidate and devout fundamentalist, William Jenning Bryan.

I know about this because, in 9th Grade, my Drama class did an in-class one act from the play based on the trial, Inherit the Wind, where I got to play the Clarence Darrow part. To this day, it is hands down my favorite play. It's been my great white acting whale to play one of the two lawyers in a community theatre production. In the late 70s, when I lived in Cartersville, Georgia, they performed the play. I tried out and got the part of Scopes, the Tennessee teacher. Odd, playing a part with a distinct Southern accent when I was a Yankee that had just moved to the South. But, hey, I'm a good actor. What else can I say?

I've waited patiently for another theatre to perform it, but it does not look like that will happen. Too many male parts. Too controversial. And what does that say about the time that now Inherit the Wind is too controversial to perform?

Come to think of it, I don't know if a school system would be allowed to use it in the current environment. After all, one of the characters uses the word damn. And it could be seen as critical to fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity (although the play is much more balanced than you would think). So, if I were a student in school now, I might not even know about the Scopes Monkey trial.

Not that the time I was educated was perfect. I didn't even know about the Tulsa massacre until recent years. Much of the Civil Rights era was skipped over*, and even living up North in Michigan, the teaching of the Civil War was infested by Lost Cause mythology and a diminishment of the importance of slavery as a cause.

In the end, Maus will survive. Censorship of something this important will backfire.  

But I am so tired of the culture wars. So, so tired and angry.

FIND MAUS.

READ MAUS. 

REMEMBER WHAT IT TELLS YOU.

DON"T LET THEM ERASE HISTORY.

*it was skipped over in part because it was still ongoing when I was in school.  They tended to run out of time in American History class and tried to squeeze in the last twenty to thirty years into the last week.

 

Getting Out of Gear

 

The summer between my Junior and Senior year of college, my third job was at Saginaw Steering Gear, a General Motors plant.

Like my previous two jobs, I think my father arranged it for me somehow. I didn't interview. The first interviews I remember was trying to secure a teaching job after I graduated from the University of Michigan. I know. Networking? Probably, on my Dad's part. White Privilege? Not sure. My Dad was definitely white, connecting with white employers. My hard work in promoting myself and seeking a job? Hell, no.

The picture above is one I found on the interwebs. I don't remember if this is the Saginaw plant from the 70s, if it looked exactly like that, but I think it is generically correct.

I remember the parking lot. It was vast. A lot of people worked there. Some in my generation assumed that they would work there, just as their fathers and/or other family members or friends did. But that proved to be elusive. The auto industry was soon in decline in our area.  

Once again, like my work at the pickle factory, it was a night shift job. I was a "floater." I filled in for different workers who were taking their vacations. This meant that every week I was doing something different. Some I did okay. Some I was awful.

Most of the jobs consisted of taking parts from one operation to another. Much of what happened was automated, and I guess we were doing what the machines could not do yet. Most of the jobs were very routine and boring.  

There was often significant downtime between cycles of the machine processes. During these significant gaps, I noticed that some workers were reading. Well, you don't have to tell me twice about finding an opportunity to read. So I brought a paperback and started to fill in the time with my first love.

That was the wrong thing to do. The supervisor called me and blessed me out for reading on the job. I can't remember whether I brought up that others were doing it. There must have been a difference between a full-time unionized employee and a college fill-in like myself.

Not everyone gets to live out a true situation comedy legendary moment. But I did.

One day they decided to let me work on a conveyor line where I was supposed to do something to these small parts that came whizzing down the line.

Within minutes it became clear I could not keep up. And, unfortunately, I could not eat what was coming down the line like Lucy did.

I rendered almost the entire plant to a standstill in less than half an hour.

It wasn't funny. It was terrifying. And it did nothing to enhance my popularity at the plant.

When the summer was over, I was again called into the supervisor's office. He told me that my career there was over and that I would never work at a General Motors plant again.

My first job, Dixie Tool, ended in a meh. My second job, Vlasic Pickles, ended with them wanting me to come back and be in management.

Sad to say, the way the Saginaw Steering Gear job ended became more the norm rather than the exception.

It's hard for me to tell for sure, but I think Saginaw Steering Gear closed, maybe in 2001? Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find clear Googled information about it.  

I did make good money there, probably four times as much per hour as I had made at the pickle factory. I made enough to buy my first car, one I could use at college to get back and forth from my student teaching assignment. It was a 1976 (or 77) Honda Civic, and it cost a whopping $3300. And yes, friends, that was a NEW car!

That's just a picture of a 1977 Honda Civic. It's something I found on the interwebs. All I remember is that it was blue. I like blue. What am  I driving today? A 2012 gray Honda Civic. I can't always get blue, I guess.

That completes my memories of my third job. But, as usual, memory is a tricky thing, and I'm sure others will not hesitate to correct me where those memories go astray.

Cat & Dogs Sleeping Together

 Cat & Dogs!

Sleeping together!

Looking at this, you wouldn't think that we had a half-dozen dog/cat beds scattered throughout the house.  Or a plethora of sofas and chairs.

But this morning?  For whatever reason, this is the one three of them chose to cram into.

Maybe because it's the dog bed closest to where I work on the computer and with my comic book project?

Maybe they're huddling for warmth?  It's cold by southern standards here, but still, it's 49 outside but 68 in the house.

Anyhoo, it's a cute way to start the morning.  One of the perks of retirement.

Back to the comic book grindstone!

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

Phase Five Begins

 

Yes. My comic book project continues. I know. It's been a long time. It's taking a lot of time and concentration. But I'm finally on Phase Five, which is quite far along.  I'm refining what I want my core collection to be, the ones I retain after the mass sale.

The comic above is fairly recent and is the first issue introducing Naomi, whose origins and powers bear some similarity to Superman. A CW show about her started two weeks ago, and it's pretty good. It's produced by the outstanding Director and Creator, Ava DuVernay (she made one of my favorite movies, Selma, and the Oscar-nominated Documentary, 13th). I'm enjoying the program, despite its only 4.0 rating on IMDb.*

I've had to hold this comic book out of my mass sale because its value is hard to figure out.   It's been published since my August 2021 guidebook, and values from other internet sources have been all over the map. I have about a half dozen comics in this position.

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The numbers of COVID cases in the two counties, Ware and Pierce, where I spend my time, have skyrocketed to their highest levels. Even people who have behaved reasonably throughout this have come down with the Omicron variant. My immediate family has escaped it to this point, but there is no guarantee that will continue. Public schools around here have been terribly lax, and a good number of the new cases I know about come from them.

And as the cases rise in our area, the percentage of mask wearers is plummeting. Outside of some retail personnel, it looks to me like only 5 to 10% of people are wearing masks.

----------------------------

It is clear to me that Democrats have given up on doing anything to protect schools. The public polling is all against them, and they don't have the courage to challenge it.

I don't want schools to be shut down,  But to do that, you have t have teachers and as many students as possible vaccinated. In addition, you have to require mask-wearing.

But a significant minority won't allow that. They want schools open. They want little or no precautions taken.

I get it. Schools are not about education. It's about warehousing kids so you can go to work, sort of free daycare.

The hard truth is that many are prioritizing their ability to go to work over the safety of children and the community.

Again, I don't want schools closed. I want precautions taken. But even that seems a step too far for many.

------------------------

I was ecstatic to see Georgia beat Alabama in the National Championship. Their great underdog quarterback, Stetson Bennett III, comes for our town of Blackshear - indeed, his family is in our neighborhood. I don't know them, but Alison has at least a passing acquaintance with the family. They are good people, and his emergence is one of the best sports stories of recent times.

I was disappointed that it was not Michigan beating Alabama for the championship, but that did not take away from their extraordinary season. First, starting unranked and then finishing Number 3 in the nation! Then, beating Ohio State! Finally, winning the Big Ten Championship! Awesome year!

To my former co-worker, a big Bama fan- be patient. You'll most likely be back next year. The Wolverines? I hope not, but it may be another 25 to 30 years in the wilderness. 

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Well, I guess I better get back to my comic project. The sooner I finish, the sooner I can get started on something else!

Occasionally yours,

T. M. Strait

*there is a large contingent of right-wingers, particularly right-wing comic book fans, who swarm Imdb and downgrade any show that dares to be diverse.  They especially hate what they call SJWs (Social Justice Warriors), a concept that  I see as a positive and this group sees as a negative.  To fully address it here would require tripling the word count of this post.  I did address it in other posts and will address it more in the future.

No More Pryde!

 

Yes, it's true.

I've read tens of thousands of comic books.

When I'm asked who my favorite DC character is, I answer without hesitation - Superman.

The same is true with Marvel Comics. Spider-Man? Wolverine? Iron Man?

No, it's none of those.

It's Kitty Pryde, also referred to as Shadowcat (also briefly known as Sprite, but I won't go down that rabbit hole). Currently, she is referred to as Kate Pryde, giving her a more age-appropriate name.

I don't care. It's all the same character to me.

She started in Uncanny X-Men in 1980, a young teenager with a lot of enthusiasm and moxie. She is very intelligent, a computer whiz. She is Jewish, one of the earliest characters identified as such. Her powers centered on a phasing ability - to become intangible and pass through objects and people.

She is similar to Peter Parker - a very human and realistically envisioned individual. She has her ups and downs, makes mistakes, cares deeply about others.

She has a companion, a small dragon named Lockheed. You can see it walking beside her in the picture above,

Unlike most female characters of the 80s and 90s, she was usually drawn much more realistically - shorter, not as curvy.

Like most comic characters, she didn't age at the same rate as me. Her current portrayal would suggest she's ten to fifteen years older than her introduction 42 years ago. Me? No such luck,  I'm a full 42 years older. And more and more, it's beginning to feel like that.

But now, I'm having to make some tough decisions. I am preparing my comic books for a mass sale. I have specific goals in mind, a dollar number I'm trying to get to. I've gotten 40 boxes ready, over 6,000 comics, and I sense I'm falling short of my goal.

So, I've decided to part with the vast chunk of my Kitty Pryde collection because achieving this goal is so important to me. I have hundreds of comic books that include her.  

She was always my most interesting collecting challenge - unlike some other heroes, like Superman and Spider-Man, she did not have her own title (except for a few mini-series). She went from one X-Men team to another. You had to stay alert as to where she would appear next. Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, X-treme X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Wolverine First Class, Wolverine and the X-Men, the Marauders - these are just a few of the major ones.

Now that I am in Phase 4 of my project - going through the core boxes of my collection - the decisions are getting harder and harder.

But to paraphrase Spider-Man's Uncle Ben, "With great comic books comes great responsibility."

And  I want to be responsible. The goal of what the mass sale could do is more important than the collection itself.

The Newest Marvel/DC Blockbuster! Omicron vs. Southeast Georgia!

 IT'S HERE!

(probably).

When I heard the name of the latest variant, I thought, "Man! That sounds like a Marvel Super-Villain!"

Close!

There was a Hydra base by that name. in the comic 2020 Rescue. The base was infiltrated by Pepper Potts, and she succeeds in destroying a good part of the base. Pepper Potts is a secretary and love interest for Tony Stark (AKA Iron Man AKA Robert Downey, Jr.). In the movies, Pepper Potts is played by Gwyneth Paltrow.

So, yes, in a way, in the Marvel Universe, the world was saved from Omicron by Gwyneth Paltrow. Who had that on their Bingo card?

It's also interesting to note that Hydra is a long-running evil organization in Marvel, with the mantra,  Hail, Hydra! Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off one head, two more shall take its place! 

Yeah. That's a pretty good description of COVID, don't cha think?

Not to be outdone, DC has an actual villain named Omicron! He appeared in World's Finest Comics #296 - 300 in 1983. World's Finest was a comic that featured both Superman and Batman, so this dude must have hated both of them. I'm still researching what his powers are - kinda sounds like our COVID Omicron! It's doing something, but we're not quite sure yet what.

Omicron has torn apart most of the country. Has it got to Southeast Georgia yet?

Well, cases have gone up recently. As a result, our color-coding has gotten darker. But the state system has broken down, and I haven't seen a County update since Wednesday 1/5!

But y'all know how well-behaved this area is - I'm sure we'll all stay safe!

Ok. probably not. I'm just praying that it continues to be milder than earlier waves. It is much more contagious, so I fear that everyone who lives around here will get it. Hopefully, many cases will be asymptomatic to extremely mild.

In the Marvel Universe, the Omicron base did not survive long (and was beaten by the Goop lady!) In the DC Universe, Omicron terrorized mankind for five issues and then was written out of existence.

May we be as fortunate!