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In a little while, Tracy and I will be heading out to spend a couple of days in a cabin on a lake
Enjoy!
TIP: If you see this guy, consider going to a different cabin:
"I went to Camp Crystal Lake and all I got was this lousy hockey mask."
---Jason V.
Jeff of Earth-J said:
In a little while, Tracy and I will be heading out to spend a couple of days in a cabin on a lake in celebration of her 50th birthday.
She's just a little kid!
Hope you both have a great time.
Have a good trip, guys. And Happy Birthday to Tracy.
We're back, and I have just enough time to post to this thread before my weekly trip to the LCS. I will pass your well-wishes along to Tracy. She's a Junior Crimestopper and doesn't post photos while we're away, but she'll probably post a few to Facebook in a day or two.
ACTION COMICS #325 - "The Ugly Duckling teacher of Stanhope College"
I don't plan to spen a lot of time on this one because it's dated and sexist. Miss Blane, the best chemisty teacher at Stanhope (and the prettiest!) is resigning... to get married. Telegrams of congratulations pour in (from the dean and from the psychology teacher, Mark Hilary, who's on leave, to name two. When her replacement, Miss Elizabeth Sparrow, is introduced, two of tghe "campus big-wheels," Ken reed and his girlfriend Ronnnie Barr take an immediate dislike to the plain-looking young woman and set out to make her life miserable. "Miss Sparrow!" Ken stage-whispers. "That means she's an old maid!" Later. Linda Danvers chastizes them, buit to no avail.
The next day Miss Sparrow receives a special delivery envelope during class. It is an unflattering caricature of her, but before the other students can see it, Linda uses her super-powers to create some harmless fumes driving everyong from the room. After that, Ken and Ronnie plan to humiliate Miss Sparrow, one of the chaperones, at the school dance by making sureno one dances with her. First I wouldlike to say, I've never been to a school functiojn at which the chaperones danced, and second, Stanhope has an odd custom of having one dance in whihc the students ask their favorite teachers to dance, and I've never heard of that, either. Linda uses her heat vision on a metal chair to bring one young man to his feet to "volunteer." Ken also happens to be the bandleader, so he plays "The Frug" hoping to embarrass her. Just then, Linda swiches to Supergirl (who was supposed to appear, anyway), and she takes over playing each instrument at super-speed. She plays a waltz, which Miss Sparrow can dance to, but her partner waives a $5 bill behind her back for another student to cut in. Miss Sparrow overhears thier conversation andleaves in tears.
Then Linda takes it upon herself to "fix" her. She invites herself over for special tutoring and interviews Miss Sparrow about her past. Next Saturday is the Molly Sawyer Day (Stanhope College's version of Sadie Hawkins Day) in which the girls ask the boys for dates to the picnic. Linda suggests that she attend, but Ken and Ronnie have that fixed, too. First they set her clock back, making her late to ask anyone. Then they pay a hobo $10 to hang around campus and turn her down when she invites him to lunch. She asks, he refuses, but she gives him her picnic basket anyway.
Being turned down by a hobo is the ultimate huniliation. Miss Sparrow resigns and takes a bus back to her hometown. But Linda is still determined to get her to "mend her shy, backwards ways." Taking inspiration from a local performance of My Fair Lady, Supergirl causes a landslide blocking the bus (and anyone else) from entering of leavingtown by that route. Miss Sparrow decides to go shanks mare, but ends up accidentally (?) falling from a bridge. "Going down... can't swim... haven't the will to fight! Maybe it's better this way." Supergirl was delayed helping the bus make up lost time, but luckily Lori Lemaris telepathically detected Miss Sparrow's distress and brought a "rescue bubble" to save her.
Supergirl accompanies them back to Atlantis where Miss sparrow has, essentially, a "makeover." Now she's hot. Supergirl suggests that she go to the junior prom that night and she agrees. To everyone's surprise (including my own), Miss Sparrow is elected "Campus Queen." There's some else I have definitely never heard of: a faculty member being crowned queen of the prom! The mind boggles. Now Ken is all hot for Miss Sparrow and dumps Ronnie. Oh, and that hobo from the picnic? He ends up being the psychology professor who sent to congratulatory telegram to Miss Blane. He's been on leave researching a book on the psychology of a hobo and, when he ditched her, he really did have another appointment... or so he said. Just when you think this story can't get any more sexist, he admits "you cooked the best chicken dinner I ever tasted."
He has brought along a copy of the book she wrote for her to autograph, we are left with the impression that there'll be wedding bells in their future, and I have spent much more time summarizing this story than I intended to.
She's a Junior Crimestopper and doesn't post photos while we're away, but she'll probably post a few to Facebook in a day or two.
I'm told there were ducks.
If anyone is going away, it's not a good idea to post the fact that you're not home while you're not home. Better to post it all when you get home.
Thought I had more time. Blew it! Catching up. First this one:
Jeff of Earth-J said:
ACTION COMICS #324
"The Black Magic of Supergirl!"
All she has to do is not use the magic ring. She closes the box and the storm stops.
Having no intention of ever using the ring, she still puts it in her cape-pouch. Writer’s fiat causes her to do this and also causes her to encounter no-win situations that would have been resolved by assistance from another super cast member in another story. Superman is forever going to the future, a distant planet or another dimension. Superhorse isn’t really a horse, but he’s always “romping” with the other super animals who don’t have his level of intelligence.
The next day, a howling snowstorm is in danger of wrecking a bridge unless Supergirl does something fast to save it.
A howling snowstorm would endanger humans, but a bridge? For whatever reason, I have the impression that winds that strong would only occur with rain, not snow.
The cliché is for condemned prisoner on death row to await a last-minute from the governor to save his life, but this state's governor is much more "hands on" and is travelling to the prison to pardon an innocent man in person. Now he's caught on the bridge. The storm has taken out the telephone lines, and cell phones haven't been invented yet.
It’s hard to put our minds in that time period. If the phone lines closest to the prison were down, this would explain the governor traveling there. Thinking about it a little more, if the warden knew that the phone lines were down he should have made the moral decision to postpone the execution until he was sure that the governor wasn’t trying to call.
At work in the 1980s I experienced a problem I had never heard of before. Things called “trunk lines” could be overwhelmed by too many calls coming in locally. Numerous phones could be sitting there pretty as you please, not ringing. To make it worse, the people calling were not hearing a busy signal, but the sound of a phone ringing and apparently being ignored!
The next day, Supergirl (now "She-Devil") witnesses a bank robbery, but uses her black magic to help the thief escape.
The “City Trust Company” had (little finger to corner of mouth) one million dollars in cash easily accessible. The million dollars cash somehow fits in a very tiny satchel the thief is carrying. Today the largest bills are $100. Before we had common electronic ways to move money, there were $500 and $1,000 bills. Even if they were all $1,000 bills I don’t think they would have fit in that tiny satchel.
Then “She-Devil” has him sprout leathery wings. His reaction? “Wow! All of a sudden I’ve sprouted wings! The cops will never catch me now! Ha Ha” Is this the writer’s way of showing he’s lost his mind? A normal person would be rolled up in a ball, babbling.
Superman arrives on the scene and causes a pair of skeletal hands to appear, blinding him (see cover). Even his x-ray vision cannot penetrate the magic, and Superman panics.
Superman panicking, losing control and splintering trees isn’t a good look and is out of character. If anyone but Supergirl was close by they would have been killed.
Back on Earth, Supergirl resolves to round up the bank robber she helped escape and Superman speculates that "perhaps that's why superstitious people burned witches... they were trying to drive out the demons which possessed them."
I don’t think they were that altruistic. We now are more aware that accused witches in England and North America were hung, not burned. In mainland Europe (and its colonies?) they were burned.
My favorite factoid on accused witches is that they would be thrown in a well. If they floated, they were witches and hung. If they sank they were not witches and drowned.
Today the largest bills are $100. Before we had common electronic ways to move money, there were $500 and $1,000 bills. Even if they were all $1,000 bills I don’t think they would have fit in that tiny satchel.
At one time, the U. S. government also printed $5,000-bills (President James Madison was the portrait) and $10,000-bills (Chief Justice of the U. S. Salmon P. Chase was the portrait). They were primarily used for bank transactions, and they were discontinued by the Treasury Department in 1969. So they were still available at the time of this story.
There was also a $100,000-bill (President Woodrow Wilson's portrait), but they were not for public circulation. Rather, they were used for transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. This denomination was also discontinued in '69.
Discounting the availability of the Wilson bill, it wouldn't be impossible for a million dollars in $10K bills, or even $5K bills, to fit inside the crook's satchel.
Discounting the availability of the Wilson bill, it wouldn't be impossible for a million dollars in $10K bills, or even $5K bills, to fit inside the crook's satchel.
I assume that said crook would have a way of disposing of these bills, since he'd probably arouse suspicion if he tried to pass one at Tedeschi's or something.
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