Last evening the power went out. As the power company predicted, they cleared up the problem (fallen trees) in 3.5 hours, just under the deadline for throwing food out of the fridge (for the freezer it’s 24 hours). Only there was a secondary problem affecting a much smaller area, which happened to include us. Missed the deadline by 30 minutes! And no, we don’t chance it — better to sacrifice uneaten food than go to the hospital with food poisoning.
Oh, for tech like Captain Cold’s … instead, we’ll be making a trip to the supermarket today. On the plus side, almost all our cooked food had been eaten during the week — doesn’t always work out that way — and I have powdered milk I can use for tea.
Other than that, this was another week dominated by Jekyll and Hyde and the Local Reporter. I finished rewriting the chapter on silent films, rewatching a couple of them; watched a 2002 adaptation (review to follow eventually) and searched in vain for a 2003 British film (not streaming, not available on US-playable DVD). For The Local Reporter I sat through a four-hour Carrboro Town Council meeting which will provide several stories. Only the first, about the challenge of balancing fire safety and pedestrian safety on older, narrow streets, is up.
Over at Atomic Junk Shop I cross-posted a couple of recent articles and put in one new one, on how DC and Marvel made reprint books a major part of their Bronze Age output. DC Special was an interesting example as it wasn’t tied to any particular character (as opposed to a Spider-Man or Superman annual) so they could do a variety of themes. Wanted was a particularly inspired one, leading to a sequel special, then a reprint series. Even though it’s just a set of Silver Age superhero stories, framing it as supervillain stories made it seem so much cooler.
Away from the computer, I attended this month’s meeting of the local Genre Book Club, which reads a different genre every month. I attended my first meeting in November, but cut it short because Wisp was having some problems. In January I went again but to the wrong place. Now I’ve made it two months in a row and I look forward to going again.
Oh, in case you’re wondering the genre was adventure books, hence my recent reading of Captain Blood.
Covers by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson (bottom), all rights to images remain with current holders.
