Snow! The snowiest February in the history of the planet. Or since the mid 19th century. Or since 1937. Or some meaningless metric. Then there’s a few days of digging out, which is pointless, because more snow follows. The local mood is exhausted, I think. Oh, we’re used to it, hardy folk, True North Strong or whatever, but we didn’t have a fall, went right to winter earlier than usual, endured the vortex, and now when we can begin to consider the end, it’s clobberin’ time.

I have no idea why I quoted Ben Grimm, but it does make me wonder whether the word is out of vogue. No one clobbers anymore. I don’t expect anyone who say they’ll moider someone, let alone moiderize someone, as the cartoon thugs would say, but clobber was one of those words you didn’t think would fall out of fashion.

Enough throat clearing; on to the pique. A fit of pique. If the pique fits, swear it. And so on.

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

There are no words to describe -

No, that’s a cliche. How about I can’t tell you how uninterested I am in -

Boring. Try again. Say what you feel! Don’t hold back!

GOD I HATE SO MUCH these movies and TV shows about tormented young waify women with super-ultra powers who are grim and determined and have issues but are incredibly special. I had to lie in public about enjoying the second season of Stranger Things, because it was totally awesome that what’s-er-name, Seven? Eleven? had ultra powers that made her capable of defeating Big Tentacled Evil by holding out her hands and assuming the expression of a 12-year-old who just found out the local 21 Forever was closing its doors. Amazon is full of ads for Hanna, which is about some super-ultra kid with powers. Yes, yes, no - I am not the target market. Wish-fufillment, teen fantasy, empowerment, all that. Got it. But the end lesson seems to be that violence is cool if girls do it, because girls are better than boys.

Someone posted this on twitter with the comment “Salt the earth,” or something like that, with "Hashtag cringe." (NOTE: this is a screengrab.)

The video is below; I have to ruin it first.

Why cringe? If you find this annoying you are a fragile toxic fanboy neckbeard who boo-boos about your childhood being ruined. I’m sure there are six or seven characters like that; it’s a big world. Most guys roll their eyes and say sod off with this BS, okay?

Oh so you’re threatened by Strong Female Leia!

(monotone of person who is pretty sure they have not been OWNED or DRAGGED or that SHADE HAS BEEN THROWN) Yes that is exactly it I prefer the pliant, passive Leia of the movies. (real voice) Are you serious? The character was, in your terms, a BADASS in the original movie. Brave and resourceful, and sarcastic towards the less-than-prepared guys who just appeared out of nowhere to rescue her.

Back up before this: one of the most unnerving shots of the imprisonment sequence came before Han and Luke showed up, when we saw a Torture Droid entering her cell, and her expression of fear. If they did this today, she’d probably have the Dreamworks Expression - smile, one eyebrow down, ready for anything. Light up my entire nervous system with unimaginable pain! I look forward to it! Why, I’m so strong and indominable I look forward to losing all bowel control in my white outfit, because you’ll have to clean it up, Lord Vader, and I won’t tell you anything!

When the heroes do show up, they are not infallible. They’re making it up as they go along. This makes them relatable and interesting. When Luke gets into the cell, she gives him a withering look: “A little short for a stormtrooper?” It was amusing, and we loved it, and no one thought why does she have to be a bitch here? She doesn’t know he’s the good guy. When she does, she snaps instantly into practical mode, grasps the situation immediately, and they head out of the cell.

Whereupon they are fired upon by stormtroopers, and they are at a great strategic disadvantage. Concentrated fire is pouring down the hallway. Doing what Leia does in the cartoon is suicidal. In the movie, she grabs a blaster and shoots out the grill that leads to the waste disposal pit - and man, that hall must have stunk - and provides an escape. She also snarked up the house with some lines about the inadequacy of the plans, so the characters could have tension in an already tense situation. Standard stuff, but everyone’s character is reinforced with just a few lines of dialogue.

The new version:

There's also the swinging across the chasm scene. The animated version turns Luke into a goof who can’t figure out string, leaving Leia to do all the work. In the original movie, they’re collaborating.

She’s not cowering in fear in a corner; she’s blasting away.

The end result makes Leia defined by one thing: ANGERY ANGER:

. . . which is equated with strength and character these days, I guess.

At least there are now emojis to put the unimpressed in their place:

 

 

  What's the new emoji for mocking women and socialism alike? C'mon, let's see it. They can take it.
 

 

 

 

 

It’s 1928 in LA. Big front page:

 

Let’s look at that cartoon. The front page always had a cartoon.

Wha? Outlaw war?

That would be the Kellogg-Briand Pact, of course. Eventually, German signed. Fat lot of good it did.

 

   
 

This was bad:

The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people died and thousands were made homeless when flood waters poured over the top of the Thames Embankment and part of the Chelsea Embankment collapsed.

   

But why?

During Christmas 1927, heavy snow fell in the Cotswolds in central England, where the Thames has its source. A sudden thaw occurred over the New Year's Eve of 1928, followed by unusually heavy rain, doubling the volume of water coming down the river. The sudden rise in water level coincided with a high spring tide and a storm surge caused by a major extra-tropical cyclone in the North Sea.

The lasting impact was the reconstruction of the Millbank area, which is why those large government buildings have a unique style. Late 20s in England had a peculiar flavor.

   
 

Oh, no:

18 works were damaged beyond repair, 226 oil paintings were badly damaged and a further 67 slightly damaged. The J.M.W. Turner works on paper stored in the basement were saturated and covered in mud although fortunately their colours hadn’t run.

   

Well, let’s cheer things up a little.

 

Haw haw! Hezy Tate! Haw Haw!

Well, the kid was only 14. And we know that . . . how?

Phil DeLara (1914 - 1973) was a Warner Bros. animator and Disney comics, MGM and Hanna-Barbera artist.

As an animator, he worked on Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck and later on Speedy Gonzales, The Tasmanian Devil, among others. At Western publishing, he was the main artist of Disney's Chip 'n' Dale comics, but also drew Donald Duck, Gyro Gearloose and Uncle Scrooge as well as Mickey Mouse comics for the foreign-market Disney Studio stories.

Another young artist:

What are the odds another kid who submitted a drawing to the paper ended up in the animation field? Especially a goil? Pretty damned good. Ended up at UPA doing Magoo shorts.

What the smart homes looked like:

 

Things were getting a bit crisper, less flouncy. Sharp times en route.

The Arkady:

Yes, it’s still there.

 

The text of the ad talks about walking in the entrance, but you can't do that anymore. It's walled off.

There were, it seems, a million of these guys.

This one merited a bio:

Henry Lee Shippey (February 26, 1884 – December 30, 1969), who wrote under the name Lee Shippey, was an American author and journalist whose romance with a French woman during World War I caused a sensation in the United States as a "famous war triangle.” Shippey later wrote a popular column in the Los Angeles Times for 22 years.

The story of the War Triangle is in the wikipedia entry - or rather, the three stories, since he changed his version a few times.

It appears he wrote the lyrics to a pop song, too.

And there were a million of these columns. I have no idea what the first one means, unless it's a reference to something Lindy said.

 

I have no idea if writing the feature was one guy’s job, or collaborative, or something one guy did in addition to his other jobs, but it was there every day, grinding on and on.

Finally: the Hit Movie of the Year! Or week. And we have a clip.

 

That'll do! See you tomorrow.

Yes, yes Rose Tico, I know. I know.

 

 

 

 

 
blog comments powered by Disqus