Dreary Tuesday Tidbits

Well, a quick variety pack to start off this post-Championship Tuesday.

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The team that should not have been in the playoffs won the college football championship.  That does not mean that I think it justifies their inclusion.  Might does not make right.  The playoffs should have been against conference champions. 

In that regard, Alabama should send a thank you note to the Wisconsin Badgers.  Had the Badgers defeated OSU, Alabama would be looking at this from the outside.  In other conferences, one loss could take you out - not so in the SEC.

The game was well in hand until Alabama suddenly remembered that they had the highest rated quarterback prospect in the history of mankind sitting on their bench.  It's like halfway through the Super Bowl, Atlanta suddenly realized they had Joe Montana in his prime just sitting on the bench.

M. Brown of Alabama may be the meanest player I have ever seen.  And I don't mean in a good way.

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The musical, The Addams Family, is going to be a struggle for me, at least in the dancing portion. But I don't want anyone to give up on me.  I am going to do everything I can to do things right.  It won't come easily to me, but I am determined to pull my weight (which, trust me, is quite a bit of weight to pull).

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I am trying to help an event take place with an organization that I belong to, but I have never been more discouraged in my life.  Everything I try to resolve creates more problems.  It's like the many-headed Hydra - cut off one head, and ten more heads take its place.  It's exhausting and humiliating, and I feel like no matter what I do, I'm going to lose.

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I have to go to work today.  This year starts an "on-call" schedule, and I've gotten the call.  This may not work too well.  One of the reasons I'm in the South is because back in Michigan, the only job I had was as a substitute teacher.  And I could not get used to waking up and not knowing whether I would be called in or not.  I'm not good at last-minute schedule changes.  Since I left my home state in part to avoid an "on-call" job, I'm not sure how well this current plan is going to work out.

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I've felt that even though our current politics are dark and disastrous, that in time a Progressive Majority will emerge and move us towards a golden age, with universal health-care and other vital progressive measures. My hope for this is wavering.  The Trumpeteers are not waking up, regardless of how foul and destructive Trump and his allies are.  I fear we will lose our freedom of expression and our vote restricted and hampered before we can achieve anything.   

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The snow has melted off.  The higher temps are returning.  And so will the gnats.

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I'm doe tidbitting for now. 

2017 Year In Review: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Apocalyptical

Everything about the political year of 2017 stems from one thing - the thin electoral college majority put together by the popular vote loser in the 2016 Presidential election.

The good?

There has been a resistance formed that has been more effective than anyone imagined.  Beginning with the women's march right after the inauguration, those opposed to the Trump agenda have spoken loud and clear.  Much of the proposed legislation by the Republican majority has not materialized.  The travel ban and other executives have been successfully challenged, or modified, by courts that believe some of the actions of the administration are unconstitutional.   The impossible has occurred also, in that now that the American people see more clearly what the alternative is, Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) has achieved record popularity.  At the same time, tax reform bill, normally a surefire thing, polled as the most unpopular tax bill in American history.

Thanks to the efforts of some extraordinary and brave women, sexual harassment in the workplace is finally a front and center concern.  Executives. television personalities, and even a few politicians, have all paid the price for their terrible behavior.  Alabama rejected an alleged pedophile in favor of a prosecutor of those who would bomb children (although by a very slim margin - still, a win is a win).

We have seen many people volunteer and help other Americans hit by severe weather and misfortune.  Whenever we get outside of our fierce tribalism, we can be a kind, generous and understanding people.

The bad?

The tax reform bill will not accomplish much in the way of simplification, or in relief to the middle class and working poor.  It will reduce the revenues coming into the government, and it will cause a sharp rise in deficit spending.  The only suggestions to balance this is to sharply cut programs benefitting the middle class, including Medicare and Social Security.

The judiciary nominees coming in are of a very ideological bent, not even especially experienced jurists.  They will help ensure that even when Progressives take over, that much of their legislation will be overturned and rejected.  The idea from the Christian right is that they will overturn Roe V. Wade, and impose Christianity as a sort of national religion.  The reality is that they will consolidate corporate power and wealth.

Regulations are being attacked indiscriminately, disregarding whether it is warranted or not.  Things that help protect us are being jettisoned with as equal vigor as nuisance regulations.  They just have to be called Obama-Era regulations, and that is supposed to be sufficient. This is how something like net neutrality gets abolished, even though the overwhelming majority of Americans want to keep it.

The ugly?

Our whole culture and civic responsibility are being threatened and challenged.  We have become coarser by a President who rules by tweet, insulting and demeaning our institutions and private citizens.  Things we would not tolerate from any other President have become commonplace, and have been accepted by far too many of us.

We are also becoming increasingly divisive, with racism and prejudice not fading but growing.  We have a President who thinks there may be good Nazis, a President who wants to treat urban areas like foreign war zones, who behaved as if Puerto Ricans were second-class citizens who did not deserve the help that places like Florida and Texas got.

The apocalyptical?

We are careening towards greater conflict, as we have abandoned diplomacy, reason, our own intelligence services, in favor of getting in schoolyard language fights, and acting like we are going to resort to military options first.  And it is so easy to trick this President.  He is susceptible to flattery and can be buttered up by anybody, even those who have no commitment to democracy.  China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Philippines - his favorites are a who's who of the world's most tyrannical leaders.  I swear, all North Korea has to do to get on his good side, is slap Trump's image on the side of a building and start composing praise songs in his name.

And worst of all, we have turned our back on global warming, denying its existence, even adopting policies that will accelerate it.  We have little time to reverse it.  It is already affecting the world, with the average global temperature rising, with extreme weather events increasing in frequency, with chunks of the Arctic and Antarctica and Greenland all falling away and causing the sea levels to rise.  As parts of the planet become uninhabitable, the future refugee crisis will make our current refugee situation look like pretty small potatoes.


Will 2018 be a better year?  I don't know.  Can we become a nation that bridges the divisions between us and works to make it a better country and planet for all of us?  Probably not.

But I'm not ready to give up hope.

A Once Every Two Decades Event

The first realization that some of the snow falling might stick, and not melt off the minute it hit the ground.

By northern standards, it was a fairly modest event.  A light dusting, a minor nuisance, the kind of early snowfall that could occur briefly in September by October.

By Southeast Georgia standards, it was a snowpocalypse, an unprecedented tsunami of snow and ice that had last occurred in Blackshear on Christmas Day 1989.

It was preceded by several hours of freezing rain, creating a slick layer of true danger.  We didn't think it would turn, even though the forecast said that it would.

But by around 11 AM, the rain began to turn to snow.

This is the front of my house at peak snow.  Yes, it wasn't enough to completely cover the ground, but it was definitely there.  It didn't melt the instant it hit the ground,  It actually stuck and stayed.

And a day later, much of it is still there!

Surprisingly, the small lake (big pond?) near our home did not freeze over.  No need to break out the ice skates, or the ice fishing hut.

Snow to Honda:  I have come to bury you!

Yes, I will wait until it melts off before I go anywhere.

1989 to 2017.  28 years between snowfalls.  Will the next wait for the next snowfall be that long?

I'm betting not. 

Why?  Because of the changing weather patterns caused by global warming.

Yes, because of global warming.  I know that's confusing to my Trumpeteer friends, but it's true,

Usually the rare Arctic blasts we get are composed of dry air, and not accompanied by moisture.  But with global warming, that is changing.  The clouds accumulate more moisture, and rain/snow events, when they happen, drop more moisture, causing floods and blizzards.

Global warming equals climate change equals more extreme weather events.

And we now have an administration whose response to global warming is to not just ignore it, but to accelerate and supercharge it.

Sigh.

Maybe I'll have to break down and buy an ice scrapper.

The March to 1,000

It was November 1963.

When I visited my Grandma & Grandpa Martin at their lakefront cottage, I would get a handful of change, walk a few cottages down the lane to a little grocery store, and there I would spend my money on a variety of things.  Candy, gum, science fiction magazines, and most especially, comic books.

I stumbled across a new issue featuring one of my favorites, Superman.  He had gotten himself into another fix trying to protect his secret identity, Clark Kent.  This time he was baled out by the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, who posed in the disguise of Clark Kent at a crucial time.  He promised to never reveal Superman's secret identity.  And if you couldn't trust the President, who could you trust?*

It was not long after the comic was released that JFK was assassinated.  It was on the stands when the assassination occurred.  That is what that comic, Action Comics #309, is known for.

Action Comics #309.  When the collector's boom of the 90s hit, no one would touch a comic with that high of a number.  People speculating on the value of a comic would only be interested in #1's, and the introduction of new characters.

Not me.  Not in 1963.  I was fascinated by that high of a number.  Action Comics began in 1939 and had been published continuously, on a monthly basis.  I dreamed about the opportunity to go back and get the earlier stories, but mostly I imagined what it be like to see that number grow and grow and grow, someday hitting #1,000.  I knew that would take a long, long time, but I was patient.  It was something to watch approach, and anticipate someday seeing.

Then comic companies lost their minds.  As sales fell, the only thing they could think of was to flood the markets with #1s.  If that meant starting their older titles with new number 1s, pretending (I guess) that they were new titles so they would get a temporary jolt in sales.

I sold comics in the 90s, and I remember kids coming in excited, wanting to sell their treasured Spider-Man #1.  But it wasn't The Amazing Spider-Man from 1962.  It was a re-launch of the title in the 90s.  I had to explain to them, in an attempt to sell to speculators instead of readers, they had flooded the market with millions of copies, and they were worth at best cover price.


The madness continued to grow and infect more and more comics.  Eventually, even the mighty Action Comics fell and was renumbered at #1.  My dream of seeing issue #1,000 was shattered.  And most comics didn't just renumber once.  Many did it, again and again, rebooting every few years.  Marvel got so bad, they did it almost every year, frightened to death over having a comic that went over the issue #12.

I complained.  I wanted the return of what I called legacy comics.  Other fans would scoff at me, claiming numbering was irrelevant.  I was even banished from one comics book group that I was participating in.  No one wanted to hear me complain about it.

Comic sales continued to plummet.  Comic bookstores were becoming as rare as, well, near mint issues of Action Comics #1.  Even as movie sales based on comics soared, the comics they were based on crashed in sales.  Decades ago, the most successful comics sold in the millions.  Now, only a handful break 100,000 in sales.

Then, a couple of years ago, with DC's most recent reboot, they decided to restore the numbering on two of its legacy titles, Action Comics, and Detective Comics.  I was back in the hunt!  Just as I was finally giving up comics, they drew me back into the game!  Not only that, the stories were improved, restoring the vitality of the entire Superman family.  Superman was married to Lois again, and even had a young child, with powers, a kind of SUPERBOY!

And in just the last few months, Marvel has restored the original numbering on virtually their entire line of comics!  Amazing Spider-Man approaches #800, Captain America #700, Daredevil #600.

I couldn't be happier!

And now, Action Comics has hit #991, and #1,000 is just right around the corner.

What I dreamed about happening way back in November 1963 is about to happen!

Woohoo!



*offer now void.

2017 Year In Review: The Part's That's All About Me!

2017 was a year of change, for myself, my country, and the planet.

For this post, I will focus on family, friends and community.

This has been a great year for acting alongside my son. Benjamin.  Starting with a great turn as Peter in The Diary of Anne Frank (to my role as Mr. Frank), it was followed up in the Fall with our appearance as the Costozuela brothers in the female version of The Odd Couple.  

I have experienced many grand things in the theatre, but nothing quite as special as performing side by side with my son.  He has marvelous acting instincts, and great comedic timing.

But there's more!  Benjamin and I  have both been cast to feature roles in the WACT presentation of The Addams Family!  I will play Uncle Fester and Benjamin Pugsley.

He goes off to college in the Fall of 2019, so I am treasuring as many of these opportunities as I can.

Writing was a mixed bag in 2017.  I did get my book into the local libraries, a long process that took several months.  History of the Trap sales have been small but steady locally, and I only sell ebooks during promotions - on its own it does nothing.  I published my autobiographical short stories in a paperback edition of Here Comes Tommy, to little notice or fanfare.

I completed My Europa, a science fiction story that remains unsold.  I put A Christmas With Pegasus on my blog, and it has received higher than normal page views.  I hope to have en ebook version of it soon.

Crowley Stories: Swamp's Edge remains completed, and I hae done nothing with it, still overwhelmed with Hamletesque indecision as to self-publish or try to get an agent.

I hope 2018 will be a greater time of focus.  In addition to promoting the projects I hae completed, I hope to finish the second volume of History of the Trap, and complete my NanoWriMo project of The Extra Credit Club.

The biggest thing would be to get into a routine of writing at lease some fiction each and every day.  Wish me luck.

Alison had an outstanding year at work, including winning the award for Best Nutrition Staff Support for the WHOLE STATE OF GEORGIA!!!

Soccer became a new THANG in 2017, thanks to my son Doug , and the fantastic inaugural season of Atlanta United!  I saw two games with him, one at Bobby Dodd Stadium (Georgia Tech) and one at the new Mercedes Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta.  Alison and I are both becoming enamored with this great sport!

We took a very special trip this year, to the cities of Vancouver and Portland.  Above is a river view of Vancouver, a wonderful city, filled with diverse and interesting people.  We took a number of walking tours, and got to know its in an honest and refreshing way.

The other city on our trip was Portland.  Yes, Portland is weird...but in a fun, delightful way.  My favorite was this sidewalk sculpture.  I called  it....Pigs With A Blanket!

It was the year to say goodbye to my old office, my man-attic, as Higginson & Paulk movved to a new location.  I had to take down my Wall of Plays, and this was my last camera shot before cleaning it out.

One of the most momentous and important decisions of my life was to step down from full-time accounting and only do it on a part-time basis.  

I am so happy that I prepared carefully and was able to take this step.  I am disappointed that I was not able to plan well enough to retire from accounting altogether.  I hae not developed adequate sources of income to completely replace.  I'll keep working on it, and hopefully something will break through in 2018.

2017 was also the year I got my unofficial "semi-retirement" dog.  Another foster failure, once I got attached to him, I couldn't let him go.  Boss-A-Man is a papillion/chihuahua mix of unknown age, who is as devoted to me as Pixie is to Alison.  I love being able to be home more with Boss-A-Man.

2017 as the year that Benjamin stepped forward even more in his church responsibilities.  He ushers.  He is now a lector, doing a New Testament reading once a month.  He has joined the choir.  

I am proud of my son.  Not only is he a good actor, a bright student, kind and understanding, he is also a faithful and deoted Christian, and an integral member of our parish at Grace Episcopal.

In the midst of the horrors of Trump and watching the nation make one bad decision after another, I am happy to be surrounded by such a happy and loving group of family and friends.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas in the Way Back Machine

I love Christmas.

It's not so much the commercial aspect.  And yes, the religious part is important, but there were other parts as well.

And that was just being a part of being a loving family.

My mother was big on making Christmas a very special occasion.  We had lots and lots of presents.  Many of them were not very expensive.  She would wrap up socks, or put small things in big boxes.  She just liked us opening a lot of stuff.

There would be one or two presents that would be more substantial.  Carol's kitchen set.  My James Bond attache case.  One year I got a bicycle, and it was the only year where we had no snow on the ground and I could actually ride it!

Carol and I would wake up very early, and anxiously await for Mom and Dad to wake up.  Then we would open stockings which might take as long as an hour, as the overstuffed stocking would be opened one little present at a time, each person getting a turn in the rotation.  Fruit, gum, candy, coins, combs, pencils - every little item would be gushed over.

We would then have breakfast.  I'm not saying that was overwhelming - it might be scrambled eggs, oatmeal, or it might just be cereal and toast. I really didn't know how special breakfast could be until I moved South and discovered sausage 'n' cheese biscuits.

After breakfast, we would open a gift at a time, with either Carol or myself acting as "Santa", distributing each round of gifts.  Occasionally my mother would intervene and say, "Don't open that one yet - save it for later", wanting to build up to the "major" present.  We never stopped to ask how she knew which present Santa had set up as the "major" one.

This whole process could take to noon.

I don't remember much about the hundreds of presents we received over the years. 

What I remember was bonding with my family, and the sense of joy, celebration and love we experienced.

With my parents gone, and my sister in Michigan, I cherish the memory of these Christmases past, and carry on as many of the traditions as I can with my own nuclear family.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

The Invasion of the Episcopalian Carolers!

It's early!

By Episcopalian standards.

Nevertheless, last Sunday, we gathered together in the Parish Hall to prepare for our Annual Caroling journey.

We wear hats, seasonal clothing, and have bells that we can ring.  Dayton Lang provides the guitar, and this year, for Jingle Bells, Benjamin provided the kazoo.

Rather than going door to door in one neighborhood, we carpool and visit many of our parishioners who are unable to attend regular services.

This includes some private residences and some nursing homes.

One of my favorites is the assisted living residence in Baptist Village.  We visit our long-time parishioner, Jo Stafford, the lovely lady in the pink sweater.  There are many others there as well, and in this picture,  we see Edwin Herrin greeting one of them.

It is also the residence of my friend and superstar writer, Grace Lee.  Grace started writing in her mid-eighties, and will be celebrating her 90th birthday very soon.  She really comes out and enjoys our singing, and sings right along with us.

Our last stop is always with a very special member of the Grace Church family, Kathy Kontos.  Kathy had been a member of the choir for decades, and really enjoys us coming out to see her and her sister, Anastasia.  She was thrilled to hear that Benjamin had joined the choir, and had made his first appearance as a choir member that Sunday morning.

Thank you, my fellow Grace Episcopal parishioners, for a wonderful annual tradition, that for me, launches the true Christmas season.  It has been a joy for Alison, Benjamin, and myself, to participate.