Silly Site o' the Day

Via Jesse Taylor at Pandagon, more fun with LEGO®, this time in the form of famous social theorists. (Once again, David Oakes, take note!) If I knew who any of these people were I'm sure it would be hilarious. Update: More LEGO® madness, courtesy of Anil Dash - it's the German site LEGO® Goes to Hollywood!

Maintenance Note

I'm currently subscribed via Bloglines to all the weblogs on my blogroll which have RSS feeds. I've put an asterisk next to all the ones which don't (if you're one of them and obtain an RSS feed, please let me know!); eliminated the categories for Stand-Up Comics and Journalists; and separated the longer portions of each section (except the LC one) for easier readability. For some reason, it works nicely if I put an extra space in every 13 names. Changes are most likely still in process, but that's all I wanted to accomplish right now in conjunction with setting up my Bloglines newsreader.

Ms. D's Milestone

Happy belated birthday to Ms. D, back from her vacation with ten pithy observations!

Celebrating Women - 18 March 2004

I'd been meaning to display this earlier during Women's History Month; hope it works:


It's from the Breast Cancer Site, so in case the direct button doesn't work you can go there and click it.

The 4th European Breast Cancer Conference has been going on this week in Hamburg, and today a leading South African cancer doctor, Professor Justus Apffelstaedt, has attacked his country's government for wasting money on "luxuries" such as defence while failing to implement a basic breast screening policy that could prevent many women dying from cancer. My kind of guy, who correctly characterizes "investment in such major war machinery" as a luxury when put ahead of women's basic health needs.

Here are some worthwhile breast cancer informational sites:

Susan Love MD

Phenomenal Women of the Web Breast Cancer Awareness Network (warning, screwy popup that tries to install something on your computer)

Women's Informational Network Against Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer.org

MAMM Magazine

Avon Breast Cancer Crusade

To My Sisters... A Gift for Life

National Breast Cancer Centre (Australia)

Kim, this one's for you, wherever you are...

Obligatory Canadian Comics Content

It's International Dave Cockrum Day at Tony's Online Tips, and Tony Isabella was kind enough to mention this blog's efforts in helping spread the word about Dave's situation vis a vis his health, the tribute book and auction being handled by Cliff Meth, and the talks with Marvel. You can see my previous posts about Dave, chronologically, here and here and here and here and here and here and here and, finally, the Marvel news last night. Also, Robin informs me that Dave's wife Paty does regular updates here at the NightScrawlers Forum.

Also, via the Comicart Yahoo group (where I first heard about the Marvel thing during last night's chat) comes a link to this NY Times article about novelists who now are writing comics. Good coverage of Michael Chabon, Brad Meltzer and Greg Rucka (I must confess I had no idea Rucka wrote in other venues besides comics!).

Maintenance Note

As I get more into reading my blogroll via Bloglines rather than from my sidebar, I expect said sidebar to undergo some gradual changes. The first thing I've done is eliminated the TTLB-supplied Javascript for the Liberal Coalition and manually coded in those bloggers' names, since a few LC members and contributors still don't have RSS feeds (and therefore can't be on Bloglines yet) and I need to keep track of who they are via asterisks so I don't neglect their entries. (I've also eliminated duplicate entries for LC bloggers.) The second thing that'll probably happen is elimination of the Must View Daily (MVD) section and re-integration of those folks into News+Views, since the reason MVD existed in the first place will have been taken care of by Bloglines. I may or may not integrate Journalists into News+Views as well, as the line between professional journalists with blogs and journalistically-inclined bloggers becomes ever more fuzzy. Over time I expect the blogroll portion of the sidebar to become something more for my readers' convenience than my own, but I'm not counting any unhatched chickens just yet. Update: MVD section reintegrated; Budgie rejoices.

Silly Site o' the Day

Big debate on Atrios' blog Eschaton as to whether this site is for real. I'm coming down on the side of those who think truth is far, far stranger than fiction. Also, it's worth considering that just because someone's of an evangelical bent doesn't mean they can't be clever as well.

News Aggregators Explained

Like Laura and Andante, I've also fallen in love with a news aggregator called Bloglines. I wrote yesterday about the confusion that is RSS. I think I have it figured out now. A news aggregator is like a Usenet newsreader, only instead of message threads it reads blogs and lets you know which ones have new entries. I didn't realize this until I started playing around with Bloglines; had someone taken me aside, slapped me upside the head and said "Dummkopf, it's like reading Usenet only with blogs instead," I'd have nodded sagely that much earlier. :) Anyway, you need to be set up with an RSS feed in order for Bloglines to work on your blog, which Laura explained is pretty easy for those of us on Blogger - "if you are using blogspot to blog, setting up a site feed is really pretty simple. Go to your blog settings, click on the Site Feed tab, and set it to Yes." One more feature I never knew existed until I needed it! So for the moment I've only gotten through subscribing to about a third of my blogroll, and am putting an asterisk next to everyone who doesn't yet have an RSS feed, to remind myself that I need to check 'em off my sidebar instead of the newsreader...

Marvel Settles with Dave Cockrum

Great news! From the Silver Bullet site: "Marvel has stepped in to help Dave Cockrum, and it is clear that he and his family are satisfied with Marvel's actions, and appreciate its assistance in this matter. While the terms are confidential, Marvel is pleased that it could help Dave and his family, and wish him a speedy recovery and the very best." That's from Eli Bard, Senior Litigation Attorney, Marvel Enterprises Inc. Here's the page that goes into more detail. Cliff Meth, feel free to elaborate even further in the comments section if you so desire!

"Scene from Hell"

This evening in Baghdad, a powerful explosion, apparently from a car bomb, went off around the 5-story Mount (Jabal) Lebanon Hotel, killing 28 people (at last count) and wounding at least 41. A huge crater around 20 feet across and 10 feet deep was blown out of the road outside the hotel (home-away-from-home to a lot of foreigners), and a nearby apartment building were also severely damaged. The White House reaction? Pretty much a shrug.

Spread the Meme

Dave Johnson lives up to his blog's name Seeing the Forest by reminding us, of the radical rightists now in power, that They Just Lie. I agree with him that this cannot be repeated enough times in enough ways.

Doctor, I Have These Dreams of Flying...

Danny Fingeroth has posted on the Jewish Comics Yahoo group about his new book, SUPERMAN ON THE COUCH: What Superheroes Really Tell Us about Ourselves and Our Society, and the publication party being held at MoCCA next Thursday, March 25. It's from 6-8 PM and there's no admission price listed so I'm guessing it's probably gratis. From what Danny excerpted in his post, the book's gotten pretty good reviews from the Library Journal and Publisher's Weekly so far.

Silly Site o' the Day

Via Len Cleavelin, a handy-dandy Online Palm Reader!

Celebrating Women - 17 March 2004

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today I thought I'd celebrate Irish women, with some ancient Irish women in mythology and early history, a nice women's studies/Irish studies bibliography, the website for last year's Women in Irish Society Project exhibition at NUI Cork (part of their Irish Women's Movement Project), a tip o' the hat to Irish women writers, and a salute to Women on Waves and their ongoing struggle for freedom of choice in a land where women have to travel out of the country to have abortions. Update: Via Melanie Mattson, according to a historian St. Pat himself apparently thought very highly of women.

Another New Life!

Congratulations to my buddy Ann Lewis and her husband Joe on the birth of Raymond Allen Lewis, born on 03/15/04 @ 9:05 PM, 6 bls 9 oz. Says Joe, "Mom and baby are fine. Dad did not pass out." I can hardly wait to visit!!

Today's Must-Reading

Excerpts from Craig Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud on Salon.

Dave Cockrum Moves Again

Back into extended care (the step before being sent home). Here's Mercy Van Vlack's latest update:

Ken Gale, Arthur Lewandowski, and I went to visit Dave Cockrum at the V.A. hospital Sunday. He was having trouble with his oxygen count, so they whisked him back into the horsepital last week, into another room. When Arthur and I got up to the room we immediately saw him sitting up and eating pizza Ken had brought. There was a mix-up getting the pizza, (Fumble in the Bronx!) so Ken went ahead and Arthur and I followed and said, "There you are!" Dave hadn't had a slice of pizza since last year and missed it.

Dave was chipper and cheerful and we had a great chat about Legions old and new. I brought a page of the Legionnaires stickers and we played; "Who the $#%@ is that?!" He got most of them, and really likes Sneckies's exotic new reptile look in the current comics (he has had a lot of reptiles as pets). Movie music, Monty Python, astronomy, old monster movies, Warner cartoons, Aurora models all grist for a comics community conversation. The language in the room got a little blue, after all, these guys were in the armed forces, and like to cuss, but one of Dave's roomies told the other roomie to cool it: "There's company!" Funny guyz.

The doctors keep threatening to send Dave home: "As soon as…." He's deemed fit enuff, really. Right now they're worried he's not getting enough oxygen in his blood, that his lungs aren't getting enough air. But on March 15, 1004, they moved him BACK to the Extended Care Nursing Home, and when he gets better he can go home. There's also talk about moving him to a South Carolina horsepital so as to be nearer his family and macaws, but only if his condition gets better. He'll get a lot more physical and occupational therapy in the extended care section. His blood oxygen has been normal today, but Dave feels the same whether it's normal or not, so he has to be monitored carefully.

The guy in the next bed was complaining that "visiting hours are over!!"… at 7:45 but he was quiet at 8:30 when we left Dave to get some rest.

Driving Directions: Arthur was kind enuff to drive us up to da Bronx for a visit with Dave, and the route we took was a bit impeded by the Third Ave. bridge out coming back to Manhattan, but we got there no problem (Fordham Rd. exit of the Deegan). Busy Sunday night traffic not too bad. Dave has gotten used to Diet Ginger Ale at the hospital and asked that people bring that instead of Diet Coke. I wish more folks would go visit him in the Extended Care Nursing Home. I hope they don’t put him back in with the screaming man. I hope he gets to go home soon.

As it turns out, Dave ended up in the same room he was in before, but the "screamer" is in intensive care. The other roomie there, whom Dave liked talking with so much, was sent home. Dave is pretty friendly and makes friends easily so I'm sure he'll get to know his new roomies.

He would really appreciate visits, as that helps the nurses give better care and gives Dave a break from the monotony of the Horsepital and the television. Soon he may be going to South Carolina and it's harder to get there on the NYC subway, so all you locals, go visit him! Some of the great artists out there need to know they are still cared about! We took the 4 train uptown to Kingsbridge Road, walked West past the armory several blocks, and entered at the left at the parking lot on Webb Ave., and he's in the second building wing on the left beyond the main entrance. Easier to get in without all the airport detectors that the main horseportal has.

Dave Cockrum
Extended Care Nursing Home, NA1A
Bronx Veteran Affairs Medical Center
Floor 1A, Room 10D
130 W. Kingsbridge Road
Bronx, NY 10468

Dave at hospital - 1-718-741-4303 Visiting hours are 10 AM – 8 PM

I hope our apartment hunting is over soon so I can go back and visit Dave. He's really an amazing guy.

Laura's Challenge

Can you recommend for Laura Gjovaag's aunt five comic books or graphic novels that would dovetail with her reading preferences of historical fiction, sf and spy novels, but be pretty G or PG-rated (i.e., nothing that would get it an R-rating if it were a movie, such as excessive violence or harsh language or nudity)? I cheated, of course, by consulting the Sequential Tart recommended reading lists organized by genre, and here are my five:

Dignifying Science (fact-based historical fiction)

Astounding Space Thrills (science fiction adventure)

Xeno's Arrow (also science fiction adventure)

Terminal City (antique futurism; here's the Amazon link)

Tales of the Cherokee (Indian mythology)
Hope that helps, Laura!

Remembering Rachel

Killed by a bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier, a year ago today, while attempting to prevent a home from being demolished. Here's her memorial site. Here are her cousin's thoughts.

"But three million voters arose essentially from disenchanted abstentionists to nail them. And almost all of these voters supported the Socialist Party, the main opposition group that had spoken openly against the Iraq war and was also denouncing the media manipulation."

From a letter written to Tom Tomorrow about the Spanish elections. I wish more progressive bloggers would reject the whole "Al Qaeda won" scenario being pumped so hard by the right-wing media. When the party controlling your government takes you to war against the express objection of the majority of your population, and then further insults your intelligence by calling your demonstrations against war and terrorism "anti-democratic" - well, to me voting that party out of power doesn't say "terrorists and warmongers have won," it says to me very clearly that they've lost. And that's important to remember - terrorists and warmongers are two sides of the same coin. When White House Communications Director (and Karl Rove buddy) Dan Bartlett is interviewed on the Today Show and says, straight-faced, that the world and the country are safer then in the next sentence talks about stepped-up Al Qaeda activity, and he's not even questioned about the discrepancy between his two consecutive statements, it's high time to realize Americans are facing the same situation as Spaniards - an administration that has, since it took office and in complicity with a bended-knee media, belittled and marginalized and mocked and ignored any opposition while lying its way into disaster (both foreign and domestic). And if (when) this administration is defeated in November, it will be no more a matter of "terrorists winning" than the Partido Popular's defeat in Spain was - it will be a matter of ¡Basta, Bastardos! here as well.

P.S. Is it just me (and Robin), or did anyone else feel that the Steven Colbert segment on last night's Daily Show was a bit inappropriate, joking about terrorists when the bodies in Spain haven't even been buried yet? Particularly when very much the opposite happened right after 9-11, there was an unspoken moratorium for at least a month as I recall...