Bananas.

I have mentioned before that I have been to three concerts in my life, the last one in 1977. For the next three weeks I will embed one video from each of the performers. Harry Chapin is one of my favorite singers. He did not get much radio play other than his song Cat's In The Cradle. For the most part his songs were too long for radio.

Today is the National Rare Disease Day. I have mentioned before that My Lady has neurofibromatosis. According to the website of NORD, the National Organization for Rare Disorders, there are over 7000 rare diseases and over 30 million Americans affected by them. Those of us with good health sometimes take it for granted. If you are not effected you should count your blessings. My Lady does not let her condition get her down. It is part of what makes her unique and what I love about her.

Somewhat Bad News.

I got some news at work last night that makes me feel like these guys. It concerns inventory at Wal-Mart. I have discussed before, here and here, just how much of a thrill I get at inventory time. I look so forward to this time of the year. The only thing comparable would be Black Friday. Just the thought of working the night before, when most of the night is spent just straightening the counters to get it ready for counting is so exciting. The bad news is this year inventory takes place on March 18, which is a Thursday morning. That is my regular day off so I will miss out on all the fun of preparing for it. I am so depressed. I thought about jumping out the window of my apartment, but I'm on the ground floor. Sticking my head in the oven wouldn't work because it's an electric oven. I tried taking a bunch of pills, but they turned out to be M&M's. Oh, well, I guess I will just have to be brave and suffer through. Now if any of you actually bought any of that I deserve this.


Not only am I off, My Lady is too. Since it is a payday, we will go out and eat. We will try very hard not to laugh at our co-workers who are stuck in the store getting ready. I find straightening like that to be one of the boringest things that can be done in retail. It is a necessary evil, like enduring Black Friday. The work is not hard, but the night seems to go so slow. This is the first time in the five years that I've worked at Wal-Mart that I have missed an inventory. I promise not to celebrate too much.

A Million Dollar Comic Book?

I remember in the '70's a young man bought a copy of Action 1, the first appearance of Superman, and paid the then-shocking price of $1800. The fact that he paid that much was known because he basically called up a reporter and bragged about what he had done. His 15 minutes of fame also got him an appearance on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder. I had not thought about him in years until this story caught my attention.

The story claims that someone has bought a copy and actually paid a million dollars for it. I have not looked into it much yet, but I am a little skeptical of this story. First of all, the buyer and seller are both anonymous. Granted, if I paid a million dollars for a book I wouldn't want much publicity. Of course, if I did it the first question the authorities would have for me is where did you get the money. Secondly, the person quoted in the article is affiliated with the Comic Book Collecting Association, an organization that has been active all of 24 hours. I may be wrong, but I smell a publicity stunt. Tonight I will look closer into this story and will say a little more about it tomorrow.

Retail For Dummies.

I have mentioned before at Wal-Mart we periodically take what we call CBL's, which is short for computer based learning. They cover everything you need to know to do your job properly. Wal-Mart is instituting a new program that I am calling retail for dummies. I took it over the weekend. It starts by asking you, have you ever not been sure what to do? For me, no. I have a total of 21 years retail experience. I have been a department manager and an assistant manager. I have always believed that anyone who works retail and claims they have nothing to do doesn't want to do anything.

Basically what this new program is doing is creating a checklist for each job. The list will be broken down into times and by a certain time you should have certain tasks done. This will effect first and second shifts more than third. For me it is not necessary to have that list, but it really is needed to keep others focused. I have seen a lot of wasted time where the general attitude is let someone else do it. This checklist makes them more accountable, which is a good thing. Too many people have the attitude that retail is easy work. I have mentioned before that my mother-in-law kept asking my wife why didn't I go to a factory and get a real job. I enjoy working retail more than anything else that I have done. hopefully this new policy will get some of the other shifts doing more and make our jobs a little easier.

Hungry Mascots.

There seems to be an epidemic going on.

Fables.

Last week I mentioned one of the 10 things that makes me happy is comic books. Al asked me what my favorite title was. I should have mentioned it in the post but obviously I didn't. My favorite book is Fables. If you aren't a comic book fan you have probably never heard of it. If you are and you haven't read all of them be warned that I am going to reveal some surprises that have come out in the course of the book. Fables is published by DC Comics under their Vertigo line. The Vertigo line is for a mature audience. If we were using a movie rating system most of the books would be an R.

The premise of Fables sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone. Imagine a neighborhood in New York City that looks like any other neighborhood except for the fact the residents are story book characters. They call the neighborhood Fabletown. When the series started the mayor was Old King Cole. He was replaced by Prince Charming. We have met, among others, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, The Frog Prince, Rose Red, and Boy Blue. I have not mentioned several because I will get to them shortly. They are living in New York City because they were all chased from their home worlds by someone who was called The Adversary. The book ran for awhile before they decided to battle The Adversary, who was revealed to be Gepetto. These aren't the Disney versions of the fairy tale world. They can die, but the better known they are the harder it is to kill them.

What about the Three Little Pigs, the Three Blind Mice, and the other animal Fables? Except for one they obviously couldn't pass for human, and if people saw talking animals they would get a little suspicious. There is a farm in upstate New York where they stay. How come no one hasn't stumbled on it? The witches have placed charms so that no one sees anything unusual.

I selected four of the Fables to show you.



This is the one I mentioned who started out in animal form but has developed a human looking appearance. Meet Bigby Wolf, as in the Big Bad Wolf. If he needs to he can assume the wolf form. One of the reasons that he has taken human form is none of the other animals trust him. If you have trouble understanding why, just ask the Three Pigs. Bigby has reformed, for a while was the sheriff of Fabletown, has taken a wife, and has six children. Who would marry Bigby you ask?


Meet Snow White. Don't ask about the dwarfs. It seems that they weren't as nice to her as Mr Disney would have had you believe. She removed them from the picture. What about Prince Charming? Well he was a charming individual, but not a very faithful husband. Besides Snow he also married Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. So how did Snow White and Bigby get together? They were hexed and had amnesia. They were then pursued by an insane assassin, Goldilocks. While on the run they found time for a diversion, which resulted in their children. The six are sextuplets. Bigby and Snow still appear periodically, but they are no longer center stage as they once were.


This lovely lady is the Fables super spy, Cinderella. When things need to be found out she is the perfect one for the job. She also owns a shoe store in Fabletown, called The Glass Slipper. Currently she is involved in a mini-series called From Fabletown With Love. Someone is selling magical items to ordinary people and she is investigating it. Assisting her is Aladdin. The mini-series runs six issues and there is one more to go to wrap it up.


The last one I am mentioning was given his own title. Meet Jack of Fables. Jack has had many incarnations, the beanstalk, the giant killer, Jack Frost, etc. Jack cares only about one thing in the world, and that is Jack himself. His tales are more comical than the Fables title.

ABC has put Fables in development for a series, but I don't have a lot of faith in it. Fables was created by Bill Willingham, but he is not being involved with the series. I can see it being messed up, if it is ever made. They announced the development deal in December of 2008 and I have not heard anything more about it.

In a future post I will discuss the other comics that I read regularly. I am reading a lot less than a few years ago and I will talk about that at that time.

Eating At Your Desk.

Before I get to the desk, I was going to talk about my favorite comic book, Fables, today. I decided I want to have plenty of visuals for it so I will do it tomorrow. Tuesday mornings are always busy for me. I go to Dalton, Georgia to pick up my comic books. Calhoun doesn't have a comic book store. When I first moved here there were three. One of them was a branch of the store I go to now, Fantasy Factory. They decided to close the Calhoun store and concentrate their business in Dalton.

If you have a spare $5500 you can own your very Han Solo in carbonite desk. This is one of the many things you can get from Tom Spina Designs. He does custom work so if you have any ideas, and plenty of money, you get something made. If you have a little extra time, check out his site. It is a lot of fun. Now if you have a desk like that and you deside to eat on it, there is only one proper thing to have.


If you want to see some other weird pizzas, go here.