Abandoning Condescension in 2010

Yesterday evening, son Stephen called my attention to a brilliant essay on National Public Radio's Monkey See blog. That it is brilliant didn't surprise me; the writer is wordsmith Linda Holmes, whose commentaries have always illuminated their topics while providing delicious (and quotable) phrasing.

The essay opens,

"Familiarity breeds contempt."

Perhaps it is this little saying, or some variation of it, that convinces people that disdain and discernment are the same thing: that the more things you roll your eyes at, the smarter you must be.

Those of us who have spent many hours in following a variety of fields of popular culture have surely run across the phenomenon. "I don't own an idiot box." (I suddenly realize that I haven't recently heard that cliche; at least that phrasing seems to have gone out of favor, though the sneer remains in what amounts to the same thing.) And in comics? Even as the term "graphic novel" actually intimidates some, the humble "comic book" still hasn't achieved the same respect - though they're synonyms.

In any case, do check out Linda's "Let's Resolve" - and join us all in the resolution.

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Working Around, Coping, and Generally Managing

My mother was a master of the work-around in decades past: She could make a Kleenex tissue serve as a coffee filter. She used her freezer to keep from mildew the dampened clothes that awaited ironing during a busy summer. She learned to use plastic wood and screening to patch decaying paneling on our "woodie" station wagon. She figured out that home brew was cheaper than commercially available beer and learned how to make her own.

What occasionally surprises me is that the necessity of figuring out ways of working around problems continues into our 21st century. We are certainly living in a science-fictional age. The grocery-store door opens as we approach. We carry our telephones with us. I have a lightweight tablet that, though newly purchased, lets me carry in one hand the complete works of Mark Twain, the Bible, and 33 novels by P.G. Wodehouse. (I'm in the midst of the introduction of Psmith, one of my favorite Wodehouse characters.) My living room is a theater, complete with Surround Sound and impeccable picture. But that doesn't mean I don't have to go on coping with idiosyncrasies of technology.

My Verizon PocketPC cell phone (Model RAPH500) runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, bought because it has a pull-out physical keyboard and connects to the Internet via dial-up (so I never need a Wi-Fi hot spot), supposedly connected best through "Opera." Except that no one at Verizon could figure how to make the e-mail display properly. After six different consultations, I returned the phone as defective, Verizon sent a replacement - and Opera still didn't work. So much head-scratching. Until someone at Verizon pointed out that I could use Internet Explorer as one of the Windows doohickies, and it has worked just fine. Worked around, coped, and generally managed.

Yesterday, I tried to post two images of absinthe, photographed at my brother's home. One image gave no grief. Two images not only distorted the opening paragraph, they also changed the font. OK, one picture yesterday. One picture today. Had to put it at the start of the post, because it glitched the text when I tried to move it to this paragraph. Worked around, coped, and generally managed.

Airlines are making carrying luggage more and more complicated and expensive. So one box of clothing and such resides at Valerie's home. One box of clothing and such resides at Stephen's home. And I travel with a carry-on and backpack. Worked around, coped, and generally managed.

When we have colonies set up at the North Pole and under the mid-Atlantic Ocean, we'll have solved a lot of problems to do it. But we'll still need to have work-arounds, to cope, and to generally manage.

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Absinthe Makes ...

"Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder" is such logical wordplay that it's even the title of an episode on the Showtime series Californication. So no sense trying to pretend it's a brightly original opening for a brief post on my holiday introduction to the absinthe experience. My brother, Paul, learned that absinthe drinking is legal and began to build a home collection of a variety of that beverage. (He prowled the Internet, turning up such sites as that for The Wormwood Society. That organization notes that there's no law that prohibits absinthe by name but that no drink containing "in excess of 10ppm of thujone" is legal in America. However, "several authentic absinthes are now available for purchase at liquor stores and bars in the US." Clearly, there are restrictions. Also clearly, many kinds of absinthe are OK.)

My curiosity was connected with its reputed attractions for such creative folk as Oscar Wilde and an assortment of Parisian artists and writers. The Wiki writeup seems pretty clear on much of the history and comments that American bottlers resumed absinthe production a couple of years ago.

So Paul has spent the last few days providing me with a different brand of absinthe every evening for a tasting experiment. (The preparation is its own complex process, involving a special absinthe glass, mixing with water, and sometimes adding sugar.)

Absinthe (mixed with water) basically comes across to my jaded tongue as weak, slightly sweet licorice. Some varieties slightly numbed my tongue; I felt no alcoholic effects from any of the doses. After several days, I'm here to report that, while Paul's tastebuds can detect the many differences among the varieties and I was able to note that the super-expensive variety did taste different, I'll stick to my one-dose-per-day cabernet sauvignon or rum and Coke.

But at least now I'll know what some of the literary references are talking about.

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On the Wings of Dreaming Eagles

A month and a half between postings? Life happens -- and my best determination to make this blog a habit hasn't been enough to motivate me.

Until now.

'Cause I belieeeeeeeve in myself!

I am now officially inspired, and it's thanks to American Idol and my son.

As I turned on the radio in my car in the motel parking lot, preparatory to heading to the airport and the plane that would take me to the wonder world of holiday travel, Stephen's voice floated melodically in a message of inflated self-importance.

Understand that Stephen has, over the years, been something of a devotee of certain "reality" entertainments. Thanks to the bonus of commentaries on the Television without Pity website and its brilliant analyzer Linda Holmes, he was sucked into the whirlpool of involvement Big Time. It gave him a perspective that led to the composition of what you will hear on his National Public Radio essay for Morning Edition.

(And, yes, that is Stephen performing "On the Wings of Dreaming Eagles.")

You, too, can fly in the sky!

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Oskar Lebeck of Dell's Golden Age

In the course of researching the origins of the term "graphic novel," I came across information I'd internalized long ago, forgetting where it had originated. Bill Spicer edited a groundbreaking fanzine Back In The Day. Born as Fantasy Illustrated, it morphed into Graphic Story Magazine with #8. In #9 (Summer 1968), Spicer and Vince Davis interviewed creator Dan Noonan (whose work I'd admired since seeing it in the 1940s).

I've been rummaging through Internet postings in search of information about the man who owned personal copyrights to the non-licensed comic books he edited for Western Printing & Lithographing Co. (distributed by Dell) - rummaging without success.

But here, in the Noonan interview, was that information about Oskar Lebeck. In fact, it opened the interview:

"At the time I was working for Oskar, he'd been the prime mover for the Western line of comics; before the war, Lebeck, through association with the Disney Studio and Western, started the Mickey Mouse Magazine and several others. And of course, they met with almost instantaneous success. At the conclusion of the war there was a terrific market for comics, and they were doing a million-dollar business in it. Lebeck then became editor-in-chief for the Western comics division; he was responsible for delivering the package - the material that'd be printed - to George Delacorte, the publisher and distributor.

"Lebeck was a wonderful man to work for, and he was really the only comic book impresario that, in my opinion, ever deserved the name. He was a German, who'd come here from Berlin and had worked with Max Reinhardt and with a number of stage people. He had also done a good deal of design work in New York. Lebeck had quite a flair for design; the Bauhaus was still not so distant in people's minds that it wasn't acceptable, and I think that's where his work might have been influenced.

"He had a wide open mind for ideas; he initiated Animal Comics, a fairy story comic book, and these Raggedy Ann comics at the end of the war. And many other titles that were one-shots. Just about everything he did turned out rather well. He insisted on good stories; he'd buy a good story, and then he'd try to pick the best artist he had for it. But if an artist wrote a story himself, and he liked it, you could go right ahead and illustrate it, if he felt you were capable of doing so. With Oskar the story was the thing, and it didn't make too much difference to him who did the writing. Just so it was good."

Asked about the Lebeck copyrights, Noonan responded:

"I'd imagine that it was some understanding they had - Oskar was responsible for bringing up the sales of their comic book division, and I think this might have been part of his reward; he held these copyrights. And if there was any re-use of the material, he'd receive royalties.

"Anyway, that's my interpretation of it. It wasn't talked about too generally; most companies wouldn't discuss finances with you outside of your own, and I can't say they were unusual in that respect."

He said Lebeck had died the previous year "at his home in La Jolla."

The full fascinating interview (copyright 1968 William W. Spicer) ran six pages and is well worth tracking down. I've not found more information on Lebeck anywhere else.

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