We had some rain in eastern Massachusetts last weekend. OK, it was a lot of rain. On top of ground that was already saturated. I’m glad now that the leak around the water pipe happened a couple of weeks before, because the repair I made with Loctite epoxy putty worked perfectly, and Sumpy did his job, so we’re OK.
Dennis, sorry to say, didn’t fare as well at his house. He is living every collector’s nightmare. Fortunately, no valuable comic books were lost. If it had been me, an inch of the water would have come from my tears.
“My collectibles, books, records, etc., that aren’t salvageable are probably a total loss. Just the Whitburn books are over a thousand or more — the Bruce Spizer Beatles Book — that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I am saving stuff as best as I can that has sentimental value. It’s ruined as a collectible, but it means something to me.”
Monday’s ‘The Colbert Report’ had a special moment between Stephen and his guest Tom Hanks, who was 2/3 of the show. It starts at 2:15 into this video.
Mr. D.F. Rogers, B.A. History and WWII buff, watched this segment, and had these comments to make:
Hanks mentioned that much of the new show ['The Pacific' on HBO] is based on the [Eugene] Sledge book. I’ve had it for years and I brought it with me to read on the train to NYC, but instead I read a book by a B-17 pilot. I guess I’ll have to read the Sledge book next! Plus, the companion book for the series is by Ambrose’s son, so I assume that is what the father was working on when he died.
Hanks also brought up a point that I have found interesting and feel is very much forgotten and not written about. The events that happened AFTER the war finished. As mentioned, like Colbert’s Uncle Eddie, THOUSANDS of guys died in the months after the war in strange accidents and non-war related incidents.
It was very chaotic, and the U.S. troops were also saddled with going from fighting in fierce battles to being administrators and security guards almost overnight. There were millions of displaced persons from all over Europe, hundreds of thousands of surrendering troops, POW’s, starving civilians, retribution from freed slaves and workers, etc. Plus, hundreds of thousands of young American males suddenly let loose once the fighting stopped, doing what young men always do, participate in various untold “risky” behaviors of all kinds — driving cars too fast, getting blind drunk, riding horses, climbing mountains and hunting, etc.! Things had to be reined in after a few weeks of that, and the officers had to gain control again. There was some semblance of military order and duty, of course.
Without the support of John Lasseter at Pixar, I doubt Hayao Miyazaki’s animation would be as well known as it is in America. Miyazaki’s latest movie, ‘Ponyo’, looks fantastic on Blu-ray from Disney. The story is obviously based somewhat on ‘The Little Mermaid’. Maybe I can talk Eric into adding some comments. Here’s a sample.
Obsessive tech note: This clip was converted from Blu-ray’s 24 fps to 30 fps, and from composite video to S-video,using a passive Y/C filter, so the quality suffers a bit from my usual. The subtitles read fine in HD, but they’re hard to make out here.
Some years back, Panasonic had an ISP business in Japan called hi-ho. They had a series of bizarre, addictive, animated commercials that Eric and I enjoyed watching. I remember Eric wasn’t even a teenager yet, so it had to have been a while ago. This one has a winter theme.
