Selkie

I had a really terrific antiquing find yesterday that excites me to no end. I'm writing a book about Hagen-Renaker collectibles (OK, taking over the fourth edition of a pre-existing book, but still) and was just thinking the other day that there were fewer new discoveries all the time. Oh, there are plenty of known pieces that need to be incorporated in the new edition, but they're nothing that serious collectors weren't already familiar with. The company is based in California so they're reasonably hard to find on the secondary market where I live to begin with, and almost all the genuinely rare vintage pieces surface on the west coast.

After slogging through several shops and a giant flea market/antique sale, and turning up almost nothing either for myself or resale, I stopped in what is a destination city for serious antiquers throughout the Midwest and hit one of the large, heavily hunted malls. I almost fell over when, in a group of miniatures from the late 1950's, I spotted a completely new, never before seen coloration on a reasonably uncommon to begin with piece. Best of all, it cost only $5! Woo hoo!

I would like to have a tail.

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Make that a prehensile tail and I'll take one too please.

While the radiation/mutation/ancient curse/magic/[insert other plot device as appropriate here] is granting me powers, may I request the ability to make copies of myself, a la Jamie Madrox, so I may accomplish the myriad tasks I'm faced with each day? Telepathy would be nice too, so I can stop wasting time with people who are insincere, liars, crazy, or otherwise not worth the effort.

Lou, if you need anything give me a holler. I promise that while I am from Illinois, I'm not an Illinois Nazi.

What IS the problem with eating zoo animals? Are they different from other animals? (I'm assuming the slaughtering is done in a proper and humane way etc)

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Many older and beloved pets and "barn favorite" farm animals are donated to petting zoos specifically to ensure they have a safe and comfortable retirement (so sayeth the woman who donated two horses to public facilities very like petting zoos). I suspect that a decent part of the outrage stems from that expectation that zoo animals are protected in a way that animals bred for slaughter are not. Plus, people feel a connection with animals they've met in person. It's relatively easy to eat meat if you don't have to have a relationship with the animal it came from. Because petting zoo animals have much more contact with the public, again, people feel a sense of connection with those specific animals that they don't with anonymous livestock.

It's official: I have been functioning on too little sleep, in too much pain, and on too much medication, for too long.

Gargoyles are talking to me.

(but if tonight's session continues going well, I'll have a nice sculpture of one of them soon).

Dear Mr. Bradstreet,

I don't post in the Hellblazer forum here often enough for you to recognize my handle, but I've been around. I'd like to add my voice to the chorus of those deeply disappointed by this decision by Vertigo. I've always enjoyed your beautiful and atmospheric covers added a lot of ambience to the title, which is one of the few I'm sticking with at this time in my life when I seem to be buying fewer comics.every month . I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing what the release from your Hellblazer duties frees you up to work on - did I really see Sandman Mystery Theatre listed amongst your upcoming projects?! Sweet.

I'm pleased to hear that you'll be sticking around the boards. You've always demonstrated that you're smart, articulate, and professional person as well as being a phenomenal artist, and your classy good-bye just added luster to your reputation. Best of luck in your future endeavors.

pooka, is there ever a time when we wouldn't want to see kittens?!

That skunk-marked mama cat is just out of this world. Would bring her home in a heartbeat, if only there weren't an ocean and a feisty 16-year old feline in the way.

It's nigh-on impossible to find me via google unless you know the right name(s) to search for. My given name doesn't narrow it down (there are hundreds of Mark Pattersons out there, very few of whom are me), and my forum handle is nicely non-specific.

 

Which is pretty much how I like it, really. I've not got anything to hide, but I'm happier if people can't find my history online without at least knowing me reasonably well, in one form or another...

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What Mark said, except that my name's not Mark Patterson. I'm very easy to find through the book I'm authoring, and if one had the sense to further search for sites that link to that one, then search on the rather odd names of some of those sites, one could find out quite a bit about me. Would take more work than anyone close to me is likely to undertake - and my friends, of course, need only to ask.

Searching by my handle turns up lots of interesting pages, none of them connected with me. Apparently I am a Siamese cat, karaoke singer, and Princeton graduate! (As for the last part, I am ashamed - alums of my alma mater tend to be quite proud of the fact it's the only school ever to refuse an invitation to join the Ivy League).

Charlie, did my massive PM ever reach you or did the board eat it again?

I really enjoyed this trade, but why does the art get SO progressively worse as the series goes on?

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I know the creators' apartment burnt to the ground at some point early in the series, and all of their original art from the first few issues was lost in it. Perhaps desperation and a pressing need to raise money would result in artistic shortcuts in later issues?

Siegel and Shuster based "Superman" on Spiderlegs.

You gonna be back in the area soon? Maybe we can do burnouts on CC's lawn in my mini-van.

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Sounds like fun! After events that transpired a little over a week ago, my schedule went from "difficult to plan" to "impossible to predict five minutes in advance" in the span of a heartbeat. I doubt I'm escaping this place any time soon, but an Elder Goddess can dream....

Red, you're a sweetie, but trust me, you would not want to have seen me out of that costume.

Sorry, Inca, but I'm not letting you off the hook as easily as Charlie is. Now we know who is responsible for enduring the sight of Evander Holyfield dancing. I'm not sure forgiveness is possible for such trauma.

Great. So the autopsy says she indeed had NO CHANCE of recovering from the brain damage and that the husband was indeed right to turn off the life support (which I think we all knew already), which of course makes mr. can't-admit-he-was-fucking-wrong Jeb Bush insinuate she was instead given the brain damage by her evil-euthenasia-loving husband. this shit pisses me off such a tremendous amount. I mean, they don't even try to hide the fact that it's purely vindictive anymore, or does anybody really believe it's a coincedence when this decision is made a couple of days after the autopsy results get out?

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Why would the religious right try to hide these vendettas? They want to make it abundantly clear that anyone who opposes them will be absolutely destroyed in any way they can devise.

sethos, is there any chance of your getting your hands on the documentary "Bush's Brain"? It's worth a watch.

Lou, that's actually a stock photo from a zoo of some SI skinks. The Ghost is much prettier than they are 8-) He's the Brad Pitt of skinks. He gets by on his good looks, and has been pampered from the day he was born (in captivity).

I lost his mate, a truly venerable female named Dax, a couple of years ago. She was Super Skink in every respect, from her physical size (larger than they're "supposed" to get) to her age (wild-caught so we don't know her exact age, but she probably reached double the life expectancy for one of these and maybe more). The day I got her home I had to perform surgery on her with an Exacto blade, sans anaesthetic, and she - at the time a freshly caught wild animal - just sat there quietly like she knew I was helping her. Every two years she gave me babies, although sadly none of them ever lived. They're supposed to have only one offspring every two years - unlike any other lizard, they are placental livebearers - but she always had twins, and protected their little stillborn bodies vigorously like a good SI skink should. In the wild, any threat to one of the youngsters will result in a mass attack by every member of the colony, and with their nutcracker-like jaws I don't imagine many animals press their luck. She never attacked either of the males I put in with her over her long life; in the wild they live in matriarchal colonies that frequently don't accept strange males.

Keeyah, skinks in general are easy to keep but for the most part not very entertaining. They tend to hide a lot, they stress easily, and they throw their tails off at the slightest sense of danger. As you may have gathered from the paragraph above, Solomon Island skinks are completely unlike other skinks, or indeed any other lizard. (Did I mention the monkey-like prehensile tail?!) Although they're easy enough to keep alive, they're still a specialist's reptile. For one thing, they're hellaciously expensive these days due to well-intentioned but ultimately destructive import restrictions. The captive bred babies are even more valuable, and for the most part get passed from one breeder to another in an effort to establish a viable captive population. Their relatively large size (36"-ish) means they require roomy quarters, and tendency of the females to attack the males makes it extremely difficult to establish a breeding colony. Then there's the glacially slow reproductive process. If you're lucky you get one baby per female every two years, and many times the babies don't survive. We assume the reason Dax's babies didn't live were that they were always twins, which are a rare occurrence in these lizards and especially delicate at birth.

Those well-intentioned import restrictions are what will probably doom the species forever, though. The idea is that if they aren't exported, they'll continue happily having little baby skinks in the Solomon Islands for thousands of years and they'll be there forever. Unfortunately, the reason they're becoming so rare isn't so much export for the pet trade as deforestation - so now, ALL the lizards are being left on the islands to die as their trees are destroyed rather than importing at least some for captive breeding. A similar thing is occurring in Madagascar with some very rare Day Geckos - the other area I used to specialize in - which occur in tiny restricted habitats that unfortunately are especially valuable for firewood. Unlike the Solomon Islands, which allow a few skinks out during the non-birthing seasons, essentially all trade in Day Geckos has been shut down in Madagascar. The only species that are permitted to be imported into the U.S. are, sadly, the four dirt common species that already have large, stable captive populations.

Sorry. End of rant.

Selkie, I'm not sure how what you suggest in your final clause above would be possible, because the kids are all (by my recollection) outrageous fantasies.

Fantasies about loser kids stuck in dead-end jobs who graffiti a store that one was fired from? I suppose.

Have heard many great things about Scott Pilgrim and am hoping my library gets a copy of the TPB. Otherwise, probably won't try it.

So, it started out as a cold, slowly developing after last week's Beck concert. it developed into a pretty shitty soar throat but now has managed to get stuck in my ear: the worst fucking ear infection I've had in about a decade. goddamn it, it hurts. can barely swallow any food or water without a feeling probably not unlike somebody wiggling around a very sharp needle in my right ear.

 

I am not having fun.

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Ouch! As a veteran of many ear infections, I can sympathize. Until you can get yourself to a doctor, try putting hydrogen peroxide in your ear. I've killed many small infections that way, and it might make your nasty one more bearable.

I can't point to any one specific thing "wrong", but the whole left me with an overwhelming sense of boredom. I did not care about these people's lives one iota, nor were they at all recognizable as the kind of people I knew (or was) at that age.

John, it's hardly news that I lack a soul! FWIW, I refuse even to watch It's a Wonderful Life. The annual Christmas tradition in this house is finding new and creative ways to avoid catching even a minute of it accidentally.

Her partner ferret missed her and they had a sweet reunion involving licking and snuggles.

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Awww..... glad to hear the toothy predator is back home, safe, sound, and snuggled. Kyrrah sends her love.

Many thanks to everyone for their continued support. I never cease to be amazed how random chance and a love of Hellblazer has pulled together so many great people in one place. It's been one of those weeks where I feel like a bug in a jar that's being violently shaken by a capricious little kid, and there's no sign of an end in sight. When even your best friend agrees that you're living on a Hellmouth, you know the weirdness has reached farcical levels. The fact that recent events ensure I'm not going to be able to get away from the Hellmouth, even for a brief vacation, for the next six months is a just plain cruel twist of fate.

Green, cold, with honey and echinacea.

Though Josh has piqued my interest in Lapsang Souchong....

One of the members of my menagerie is an adult male Solomon Island Skink called "The Ghost." Most of the time he's housed securely in a large reptile cage with ultraviolet lights to simulate his natural environment. All well and good, but unfiltered sunlight's the best thing for them. During those few days a year when it's sufficiently warm and muggy in my area to take him outdoors, I put him in large wheeled cat cage and leave him in the back yard. The instant sunlight touches him he spreads out his body so that every available centimeter is exposed to the light. He usually changes his color, and licks his lips too. To the extent it's possible for a lizard to look "happy", he does.

What most of you don't know is that beneath the cloak she had a black silk kung fu outfit

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Yeah, and you should have seen the bill after getting it rained on! Now we know the real reason you don't see many ninjas any more - they went bankrupt due to dry cleaning costs. Thsoe guys see a "!00% silk" label and start salivating like Pavlov's dogs!

All right, all right, all right. Against my better judgment, here it is. I'm sure there's some way in which I could look worse in that photo, but my creativity fails me as to how.

Glad you enjoyed the write-up. I hoped Lou and you would, since, after all, you were there. It's been quite popular amongst my civilian friends who are trying gallantly to wrap their heads around the idea that not only do I read comic books, I flaunt my alternative lifestyle by attending conventions.

So I guess I'm officially the only person ever to have been bored to tears by this book? I couldn't even make it through to the end of the TPB.... :huh:

What am I missing?

As dire as the quotations from this site are, it is important to keep in mind that (a) the people represented span a fairly large time range, and (b) several of these people are known lunatics who were removed from office by the system just as they should have been.

Mind you, the effect of a page like that is still to push me even further left, and desire to make a goat's head pentagram to wear around town just to irritate the extremeist religious right....