I keep thinking that Bush’s first, best hope of pulling out of this is to find bin Laden. At this point, I’m really not sure what, if anything else, could possibly turn his numbers around. But if they did get bin Laden and he was hauled to the U.S. for trial, you’d see Bush’s numbers skyrocket.
I wonder if he’s going to step up activities in the search for bin Laden.
PAD
Every so often there’s a sudden crash of genre people we all know who pass away within weeks of each other. In what seemed a depressing rush to make the deadline for that part of the Oscar broadcast where they mention every showbiz person who passed away in the preceding twelve months, we lost Andreas, followed by Kolchak, and the Incredible Mr. Limpett. And now, tragically, Octavia Butler, who passed away of a stroke today after she collapsed outside her house.
Our condolences to the families of Darren McGavin, Don Knotts, and Octavia, plus I’m still reeling from the loss of Andreas.
PAD
People have been asking me whether I was in attendance. No. Originally I had no plans to go because I was going to be driving up to Cheektowaga this weekend to bowl in the PBA Pro/Am with Ariel and my brother, Wally, and his kids. But blowing out my right knee made that inadvisable. So I could have gone, but I figured either it was going to be incredibly underattended or incredibly overcrowded. I was pretty sure it was going to be one of those two extremes, and I wasn’t wild about facing either one. So I skipped it. From what I hear, it was the latter.
PAD
At the moment, I’ve got “The Fugitive” on so I can watch Andreas Katsulas in one of his more memorable non-G’Kar roles as the One-Armed Man. Meantime I’m rereading old issues of “The Champions” to refamiliarize myself with that team in order to write a one-shot Hulk vs. the Champions story for an upcoming Hulk annual. Meanwhile I’m working out by hand (because that’s how I always work on novel plots) a revised ending for my “Battlestar Galactica” novel since what I had was too similar to some recent episodes (the episode short descriptions I had for the rest of the season didn’t include several key plot points that overlapped). Furthermore I’m doing knee-flex exercises to help heal my blown-out right knee that I did some dámņëd thing to while I was bowling a few weeks back.
Coming out soon on DVD, speaking of bowling: “The League of Ordinary Gentlemen,” a marvelous documentary about several key members of the Pro Bowling Association. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures and definitely worth watching.
PAD
The Wife Speaks
Well I saw a couple of copies at my local Barnes and Noble so I will take that as a sign that the book has been released. Which is great since I read this as he was writing it and had to hold my tongue all this time. So there maybe spoilers in the comments section and I am warning you before hand that they are there.
So what did you thing of it?
I’m hoping that the Department of Homeland Security is tapping the phones of one G. W. Bush. Because it appears that he’s in cahoots with a company, individuals or country that helped siphon money to the 9/11 hijackers, and is now endeavoring to take charge of half a dozen major ports–the most security-vulnerable means of entry into the country we have. And frankly, if someone is getting calls from people who may have assisted Al Qaeda, I want to know about it and know what they’re saying.
(Considering that even the most avid Bush supporters in Congress are lining up against this, it’s interesting to see that he has truly, finally become the uniter he claimed he was.)
PAD
Farpoint convention is in the process of winding down. Overall a good, if apparently underattended convention. As usual it had a family atmosphere and everyone had a good time.
Fairly good success at the masquerade last night A technical miscue started the music too early on Kathleen’s “mugato” costume, telegraphing the end gag when Caroline comes running out dressed as “Boo” and starts chasing the giant monster. But we had another sketch going as well, and that’s the one that everyone was talking about. Called “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Kal-El Kent,” the gag was simple: Four people in costumes evocative of the “Peanuts” Halloween special, ostensibly Lois, Lana, Clark and Lex discussing their Halloween swag. Lois got a 3 Musketeers bar, Lana got a bag of chips (as in “all that and a…”), and Clark naturally got a Clark bar. They turn to that bald, round-headed kid, Lex, and ask what he got. In a sulking voice, he says, “I got a rock,” and produces a green glowing rock–and Clark promptly collapses like a bag of cement. Black out, end of sketch.
Rotsler’s rules of masquerade: Short is better than long, funny is better than not funny, short and funny is best. The Mugato gag wound up getting most humorous, and Kal-El got best presentation. So everyone was satisfied.
Didn’t really have a chance to see any of the guests, although the only one who really interested me (aside from my writer friends) was Harv Bennett. Saw a fan-made film called Star Wars Revelations. Thought they managed to capture both the visual look and the archly bad acting of a Lucasfilm (not sure if they were aiming for that second part.) Was so tired that I actually dozed through parts, so maybe I wasn’t at my best in terms of viewing it.
PAD
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