David'Z RantZ: A Bird in the Hand is Worth U2 in the Bush... Or Something...

(This is only a "David'Z RantZ" post by default, since my proper "Silver Fox" entries are primarily my own writings. But this was too good not to share, fellow babies!)

I don't really care what your politics are, nor how you feel about the USA's former president, George W. Bush. Whether you love him, or hate him, or somewhere in between, you still ought to get a kick out of the following video, which has him "performing" one of the best songs by U2 (IMHO, anyway!)

Thanks for your time.

Something Appealing, Nothing Ap-PAUL-ing...

As I have mentioned constantly on this blog -- so constantly that it's become a running joke -- I used to work at a comic shop and "pop culture emporium" called That's Entertainment in Worcester, Massachusetts. Simply put, the three years I spent there (1985-1988) as a full-time employee and de facto albeit untitled assistant manager provided my first opportunities for amateur and professional comic book publication, and more importantly, acquainted me with a few people who -- in varying degrees -- remain friends to this day.

One of those friends is Paul Howley, the owner of That's Entertainment.

Paul has been serializing his life story on a few internet locations, but unfortunately, these locations have dwindled over time. Therefore, Paul has started his own blog, My Life With Comic Books, which is re-telling his story from the beginning.

Don't let the title "fool" you, however. It is indeed a history of Paul's involvement with comic book collecting and selling, and is crammed with fascinating information about the growth of comic books as a real collectibles business, but as you read each successive chapter, you happily realize that you've been "tricked" into reading an intriguing story about a man and his family, and their friends, etc. That's why I highly recommend it, as I said above, but not only to comic book fans. The blog should provide interesting -- sometimes captivating -- reading for anyone interested in the so-called "human experience."

That may sound like I'm over-stating it, but I have the advantage of having seen over 150 chapters so far. For most of you, the ride is just beginning.

(By the way, in order to read it from the very beginning instead of whatever chapter Paul has most recently posted, you may want to click here instead. This will bring you to Part One.)

Paul Howley... kinda

Thanks for your time.

John Lennon: You Learn Something New Every Day (Almost)!

This post originally appeared on my now-deleted blog, You Learn Something New Every Day (Almost)!

The 29th anniversary of John Lennon's assassination is December 8th. Doing some late-night research, I found a detail I'd somehow missed about his tragic shooting by Mark David Chapman.

John Lennon was shot, four times, in the back.

I'd always assumed he was shot in the chest, because of the probably-apocryphal story that before firing, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon?" which presumably would have made Lennon turn to face him. But apparently, Chapman himself said he never said that.

Well. In the past twenty-four hours, I've written entries for all three of my active blogs. I'm going to bed...

But I'll leave you with Elton John's tribute to his departed friend.

Thanks for your time.

By George!

George Harrison died eight years ago yesterday. (This post was supposed to be finished and published yesterday, but late Sunday night, something inside me demanded "Screw the blogs. Go to sleep, idiot!" And for once, I did.)

In spite of George's impressive and lengthy solo career, the Concert for Bangladesh, his work as a member of the Traveling Wilburys, his "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" associations with the Rutles, and a long list of other accomplishments, he will always be best remembered as one of The Beatles.

But then again, that ain't too shabby!

As I wrote approximately eighteen months ago on my old David'Z RantZ blog, "if you were one of The Beatles, you were one of the coolest people in the universe, ever. Or at least you were cool for a period long enough so that you'll be indelibly stamped in the minds of Earth's citizens as a 'former Beatle,' and nothing you can do -- not even a stint as Mr. Conductor -- can take that away from you. I mean, if Paul McCartney -- I'm sorry, I meant Sir Paul McCartney -- were to be elected Prime Minister of Great Britain, you just know that even if he were assassinated in office we'd read this: 'British Prime Minister and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney was shot today outside of... ' Hell, Ringo could become an astronat and a serial killer, and the eventual news article would read, 'Ringo Starr, former Beatle, astronaut, and accused mass murderer, was apprehended today...' "

Anyway, this is not a full-fledged tribute to George. Basically, all I'm going to say about George and the other Beatles -- at this time, anyway -- is the following:

1. I was seven years old when the Beatles and their music made their big splash on American soil. (A "splash" on "soil?" Am I mixing metaphors there?) Therefore, while the teenage girls mostly chose -- "chose" meaning "had the hots for" -- Paul or John, my favorite Beatle was the comical, goofy Ringo. That changed as the years went by and I entered my so-called adulthood. George became my favorite. For some reason, I identified more with the spiritual, so-called "quiet Beatle" more than the others. (And to anyone who read that and said "You identified with somebody described as spiritual and quiet?"... leave the room, wiseguy.)

2. Although I was shocked and saddened at the fatal shooting of John Lennon in 1980, it was Harrison's death that had a more profound effect on me. Something about the youngest Beatle dying of lung cancer, a disease more associated with older people -- and yes, of course I realize that cancer far too often claims the lives of young adults, and even children -- forced me to face my own mortality.

Although tempted to include, like, 47 YouTube videos showcasing George's singing and/or songwriting skills as evidenced by his solo work, his Beatles contributions, his Traveling Wilburys stuff, et al, I decided on two.

This is the first song George ever wrote. I first heard it when my sister bought the American Meet the Beatles LP.

And this is a lesser-known Beatles tune that I simply love, from the soundtrack of the movie Help!

One final note: Coinciding with the 30th anniversary re-release of the All Things Must Pass album in 2001, George went online to do a webchat. The entertaining transcript of that chat may be found here. I recommend it; George was his usual clever self.

Thanks for your time.

Scooby-Doo: You Learn Something New Every Day!

This post originally appeared on my now-deleted blog, You Learn Something New Every Day (Almost)!

I just learned something that should have occurred to me years ago.

The four human characters on Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! were modeled after the main characters in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis!

Thanks for your time.

David'Z RantZ: Commas

(The following post is an example of the rantz I often did on my old David'Z RantZ blog. You've been warned.)

Did Wal-Mart have a freakin' sale on commas that nobody told me about?

I mean, I'm getting used to the fact that people either don't know or don't care where they use their apostrophes. I often see a word made plural by the incorrect addition of an apostrophe and an S...

Examples?

Correct: Toys.

Incorrect: Toy's.

There's a company in my town called "Two Guy's Trucking." [sic] That would only work if the business were owned by one person, a Native American known as "Two Guy."

Not to mention, "it's" only needs the apostrophe if you're writing a contraction of "it is." If you're using the possessive pronoun, such is not the case.

Examples?

Correct: "It's getting late."

Incorrect: He used the word without knowing it's meaning."

I mean, you wouldn't write things like "hi's" and "her's" instead of "his" and "hers," would you?

Maybe you would. But I digress.

Anyway, I'm seeing an awful lot of people using commas needlessly lately.

Examples?

Correct: My good friend Bob likes to watch television.
Also Correct, Technically: My good friend, Bob, likes to watch television

Incorrect: My good friend Bob, likes to watch television.

If you're not sure whether or not you're doing it correctly, try reading the sentence with a medium-sized pause after each comma. If it sounds odd, it's probably wrong.

Examples?

My good friend Bob likes to watch television.

My good friend [pause] Bob [pause] likes to watch television.

My good friend Bob [pause] likes to watch television.

The second one, although formatted in a pretty-much-accepted way, could cause confusion. Do you mean that your good friend likes to watch television, and that your good friend is named Bob? Or are you telling Bob that your good (but unnamed) friend likes to watch television?

That third one only works (verbally) if you want to build suspense and make us say "Bob does what? Bob does what? What does Bob do?!?"

I'm kidding... kinda/sorta.

End of the lesson.

And thanks for your time.

P.S. -- Anyone who leaves a comment purposely screwing up the usage of a comma, or any other punctuation mark(s), is automatically declared "predictable." And a doody-head.

David'Z RantZ: Blogga, PLEASE!

Short post, equally-short intro...

The following post appeared in shorter forms as 1. part of an introduction to one of my recent posts, and 2. as a comment on -- IIRC -- the Theme Thursday blog at some point. I'm making it an official post in hopes that more people will read it, and take my admittedly unasked-for and possibly intrusive "advice."

In the meantime, those of you who are wondering where the f... I mean, where the heck my fourth chapter of "Old Home Week" is, its lateness is a combination of all the crap going on in my personal life right now and the fact that I'm just not satisfied with Chapter Four yet, as it now stands! Shame, really, as Chapter Five is fleshed out quite nicely in this ol' Silver Noggin.

But... such is life in The Lair of the Silver Fox.

Here's the "offical" post for today, fellow babies:

* * * * *

I have a quick plea for all of other Blogger-bloggers whose sites I frequent -- and I do read your stuff whenever time permits, although time too often has not allowed my usual prolific, wordy comments -- especially the Theme Thursday folks:

If your blog has a music playlist of some kind -- as mine does -- pleasepleaseplease set it so it won't play automatically? (You should very easily be able to set it this way!)

I often open multiple tabs at a time, and sometimes, one -- or worse, more than one -- of the sites I'm visiting has a song playing... usually while I'm trying to watch or listen to something else... and, as I said, your stuff is also playing... and I don't know which of the other tabs is (or are) playing its playlist (or their playlists)... and... and...

AAUUGGHH!!!

Get the picture? Please change your settings, just for the sake of me and whatever is arguably left of my sanity?

Thanks for your time... and your cooperation, if I've swayed you.