Daphne Eftychia Arthur, guitarist+. Read.
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vvalkyri at 01:20pm on 2025-06-04mrs_sweetpeach at 11:43am on 2025-06-04 under project 52
mellowjducoeur at 10:09pm on 2025-06-03I just found out that Peter David, one of the legendary writers of the comic book field (and novels, and TV, and other stuff, but I knew him first and foremost from comics) passed away last week.
For posterity, here's my comment on the locked post where I found out about it. (The Kickstarter "blog" for The Babylon 5 Preservation Project, which ran a long obit.) Also includes a few extra footnotes in italics.
Damn -- I had missed that Peter had passed. Not a surprise under the circumstances [he's been quite sick for quite a while], but he'll be much missed. He was one of my favorite writers for most of my adult life.
I was at that "Three High-Verbals" talk at MIT [in Kresge, October 6, 2001], which was the second time I got to meet him. (The first having been after Universicon at Brandeis University, many years before. We wound up commandeering my living room for the after-party, resulting in Peter sitting in my easy chair for hours, telling stories to about two dozen college students sitting around him on the floor.)
Anyway, that was one heck of a memorable talk. Peter read his beautiful, sober But I Digress column about 9/11. Neil read "My Crazy Hair" (demonstrating that yes, Neil could read the phone book and people would happily listen). And Harlan picked a fight with the audience about how the Internet was destroying society, and proceeded to argue with them for half an hour. It seemed very true to each.
Once it was all over, we got to the signings, and I came up to Peter with a Trek fanzine that my wife had picked up at a NY convention in the mid-70s. [This was Jane's first-ever SF convention -- she wheedled her father into taking her into NYC for a Trek con when she was a teenager. I don't remember exactly how old she was at the time, but I vaguely remember it being '74.] Peter's eyes practically bugged out, and he yelled for Caroline [his wife] to come look. Turned out that his piece in there was the first thing he'd ever had published anywhere, and he hadn't seen a copy of it in decades.
That signed zine is buried somewhere in my stacks; I've been looking for it since his heart attack. I still rather regret not having just given it to him at the time...
boredsorcyress at 04:26pm on 2025-06-02minoanmiss at 09:27am on 2025-06-02
distressedminoanmiss at 08:49am on 2025-06-02
determinedvvalkyri at 11:48pm on 2025-06-01twistedchick at 11:46pm on 2025-06-01
minoanmiss at 05:07pm on 2025-05-31 determined
thoughtfulThis week I'm trying something I haven't done in ages on my humor blog: letting Robert Benchley write it. I like this. He's got a pretty solid comic voice. Here's what you might have missed if you weren't reading it day-by-day:
With that having got you moderately amused now please enjoy the end of our stop-in at Cedar Point last July, as photographed:
This is not the Space Age ride mentioned as a rotation point. This is a ride in Planet Snoopy, a completely separate kids area on the other side of the Coliseum from the Kiddie Kingdom.
And this is a small performance area in Planet Snoopy that I think we've never been around when it was in use.
Walking over to something or other (Iron Dragon) we saw a pack of musicians performing in front of the Coasters Diner. Also someone who bought a seagull backpack, that's nice.
Also you can see a mother who does not have the time for people in poodle skirts dancing.
And here's Iron Dragon, always a favorite, although in its last season before the indignity of a fast-pass line-cutting lane was installed.
Meanwhile the griffin, now gold, stands proudly there and refuses to explain why it vanished for a few years and why it's in front of Iron Dragon instead of the griffin-themed GateKeeper.
Now here is the turnstile outside the Cedar Downs racing carousel. I photograph this just because I'd never paid any attention to the manufacturer of the turnstile before, so here we go.
The afternoon light flatters the horses here.
The lights inside not being on improves the composition here. I should have centered the center area, though. If I ever get the chance I'll have to re-photograph this right.
Tilting the camera this severely emphasizes how the horses are racing, moving back and forth in those slots, so that some look like they're leaping ahead of the pack.
Cedar Downs is next to the Cadillac Cars, last remaining tracked car ride.
And that's our drop-in done. Here's a look to the front of the park from Cedar Downs on the right and in the concrete you see how much has been done to dry up the rain already.
Trivia: On the fourth flight day of Gemini 4, the astronauts found themselves unable to turn off the computer (to conserve spacecraft power). Even after switching the unit to off the computer light stayed on, with no malfunction light. Source: Gemini 4: An Astronaut Steps Into The Void, David J Shayler.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 63: The Abdominal Snowman, Ralph Stein, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle. There's a lot of energy going into this story, especially after the four thousandth college football story by Sims and Zaboly.
More of not having time to write anything so please enjoy Cedar Point as on the day we dropped in last July.
Resting in the Kiddie Kingdom as it might have rained. We had always thought this building had to have been the station for a train ride or something like that, before its long use as a lost-persons center. Turns out no, it never was. When the Kiddie Kingdom used to be enclosed this was the way you entered and exited, though, which is why it's a substantial building without any particular entertainment value.
The Kiddie Kingdom motorcycle ride where you go around in a small vehicle and hit a buzzer lots.
And the control panel for the station, including the note about what ride an operator here should go to next (Space Age).
Enough of the Kiddie Kingdom; we're back at Blue Streak and ready for a front-seat ride! Soon.
I got to see the sign with the text to read in case of service interruptions, but I couldn't get my camera to take a clear photo of it.
The lift hill and the queue area that normally seems over-ample for Blue Streak. It fills up a bit come Halloweekends.
And here's Cedar Point's Windseeker! Will this be the time I finally ride it?
Yes. Despite the recent rain the ride was going and I chose to take this moment for a ride that proved pretty normal, compared to getting stopped up top like at Kings Island.
Here's what the ride looks like at full height from under the queue's covering.
And I liked this picture of a guy almost trapped between the fence railings up front. Tighten this up and you have a good album cover.
Yeah, like that! Now you have the whole image of the guy not knowing he's confined to a narrow column, and that in-between fences behind and in front of him.
Windseeker exits on this nice view of the back of the Wild Mouse's lift hill, and so you can see the back of the cat who's reaching for a mouse car.
Trivia: On Gemini 4's third day of flight Pat White, wife of astronaut Ed White, besides talking with her husband also passed along some capcom notes to adjust some dials, and the flight surgeon's instruction to drink more water and get more rest. Pat McDivitt, Jim McDivitt's wife, repeated the drink-more-water instruction. Source: Gemini 4: An Astronaut Steps Into The Void, David J Shayler.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 63: The Abdominal Snowman, Ralph Stein, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle.
You know what we did after that Kennywood visit and that Pinball event? If you guessed ``went to an amusement park, probably Cedar Point'' good news, you get to see pictures of exactly that event now:
Traditional establishing shot, proving that both my car and Cedar Point were in view at the same time.
The entrance, looking not as grand as it did during the eclipse but still, nice. Note the electronic sign warns that Top Thrill 2 will not open today; it could have said, all season.
Boardwalk Nights! The Cedar Point 150 sign turns out to be a good spot to put signs for all kinds of temporary events.
Blue Streak, standing firm despite the threatening clouds.
And here's Raptor, again with clouds that look like they don't want any fun going on.
Of course even a short visit to Cedar Point will see carousels, such as the Kiddy Kingdom one here.
We spent a little time looking around the Kiddie Kingdom rides, mostly out of a sense that someday they're going to renovate them otu of existence and we'll feel bad about that.
Though a lot of the Kiddie Kingdom rides are like this, a toy vehicle going in a circle with a buzzer the kid can press to make noise.
There's the carousel. The armored horse on the left is a fiberglass replica; the original is, last anyone confirmed, gathering dust in the art department for some reason.
Back to rides, like the spinning tubs one here that was closed lest the rain you see there make it unsafe to operate.
Here's two of the rabbits on the Kiddie Kingdom carousel. At the end of the season an operator claimed they had names, although we're not sure we believed the claim and I'm not sure I remember them. They were straightforward ones like you might make if you weren't trying very hard, like, Snowball and Caramel or something like that.
Kiddie Kingdom Carousel, some flat kiddie ride or other, and one of the domes of the Coliseum.
Trivia: On the second day of its flight Gemini 4 astronauts surpassed the total duration record of all eight previous United States astronauts combined, as well as the duration record for a multi-crew spacecraft set by Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov on Voskhod 2 three months earlier. Source: Gemini 4: An Astronaut Steps Into The Void, David J Shayler.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 62: WEE vs I.O.U., Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle. Yep, that sure was another college football tale, although this one at least introduces the element that Olive Oyl eats a lot of olives, thereby justifying one element of this one Gene Deitch-made 60s Popeye cartoon.
(PS: there is no significance to the subject line, a lyric from Sparks's ``Tips for Teens''. I couldn't think of a good song to use and this was playing. Pay it no mind.)
twistedchick at 01:59am on 2025-05-31austin_dern at 12:10am on 2025-06-03 under women's international pinball tournamentNow to close out pictures of the Women's International Pinball Tournament, as again, no time to write just now.
Pinburgh championship banners seen from the first floor, near where they keep all the Long Croquet Mallets on the wall.
A break in the action. This might have been lunch or just the time before the scheduled next round.
The waiting area, waiting around.
I went over to this little side balcony where I got an extreme shot of the previous WIPT champion banners.
And over there they had the original King Kong! Hi-Deal is one of Bally's last electromechanical games, but don't worry, it's another collect-the-playing-cards game.
From by Hi-Deal you get this view of the tournament organizers area, with all the people wearing STAFF shirts and plastic crates of stuff.
Here I got up real close to the top-four-finishers plaques and you know what I discovered about how they're held up?
Yeah, it's all done with cans of soda pop! Only the first place finisher gets a Diet Coke, everyone else has to accept Regular Sprite.
This is just side art from a bouncy-ball crane game that, I don't know, there's something appealing even though the kangaroo face was drawn kind of weird.
Disused PAPA call-a-tournament-official-over station; you push the button and they get word that someone should be over. They had a couple of these off hidden behind things. Anyway I don't know what the winged, horned pinball is supposed to mean.
Later in the day the bagels were replaced with lots of popcorn.
And at the venue we saw Labyrinth for the first time, playing it enough to understand there's cool stuff going on here, not enough to understand how to do any of it on purpose.
Trivia: Capcom Gus Grissom gave Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White the go-head for his spacewalk one hour 33 minutes into the flight. Source: Gemini 4: An Astronaut Steps Into The Void, David J Shayler. They would try opening the hatch at just under four hours into the flight.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 62: WEE vs I.O.U., Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle. Noelle observes it's the last Tom Sims-penned story so of course it's another college football tale.
austin_dern at 12:10am on 2025-06-02 under women's international pinball tournamentI don't have the time to really write anything up right now, so please enjoy pictures of the Revived Women's International Pinball Tournament, 2024 edition.
bunnyhugger discovering how much of Total Nuclear Annihilation she's lost touch with.
A look across the lower level of the movie theater. It was before noon so that's why the lower level isn't busy enough to be dead. Later, the smell of movie popcorn would dominate things.
And here's the trophies for the top four finishers! bunnyhugger would not be among them, but she didn't do badly.
Waiting area and lounge set up for players in the middle of the floor, along with a projection screen that would show whatever they thought deserved it. On the side you can see a Genesis, conceivably the one of my long-departed glory days at Pinburgh.
People gather together to hear opening announcements and play the Pinball National Anthem (the high-score theme from Space Station).
And gathering for the group photo, with both real cameras and cell phones!
bunnyhugger joins in the Pledge of Pinball Allegiance (liberty and just a wee bit more margin on the ball save timer for all).
Round one! Tragically, bunnyhugger's tournament would begin with Paragon. The format was the same as the WIPT of 2019, at least.
And here she faces up to, ugh, Paragon.
Sometime later she writes down scores (probably) for one of the other games that bank. Feels like Aladdin's Castle to me, but no way to know for sure. Or she's just setting the pen down.
Meanwhile with nothing else to do I got some time in on blob-themed game Quicksilver, in the free-play area.
Not sure I'd ever seen the airbrushed side panel art on a Quicksilver before. Turns out this melty blobby game manages to find room for silhouetted nipples.
Trivia: Albrecht Dürer, after receiving one of Martin Luther's works as a gift from Duke Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony in 1520, wrote (Duke Frederick's secretary and court chaplain) that he would draw Luther's portrait and engrave it in copper, ``if God helps me to come to'' him. Dürer would never meet, nor draw, Luther. Source: Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance, Lisa Jardine.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 61: King Bee and Queen Bee, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle. And after an intriguing start the characters just decide to leave. It's a choice that kind of makes sense but it should have been used as a stronger punch line.
austin_dern at 12:10am on 2025-06-01 under pinball, women's international pinball tournament I mentioned in passing the Zen Tournament, the traditional end-of-the-pinball-season match where teams of players try to win a double-elimination contest. We had that Tuesday night and once again bunnyhugger and I were a team. The format was, apart from the teams-of-people-playing, the same as we used in league finals, best-of-three matches and a team eliminated only after losing a second round of that.
The surprising thing, especially given we hadn't practiced at all. On our very first game against the team of PCL and DG, Black Knight: Sword of Rage, we lost, but after rallying from an enormous gap, and losing by only a couple hundred thousand points. I felt great for that; bunnyhugger felt the opposite. On Dungeons and Dragons we learned that there was a brand-new code update just that day that made Dragon Multiball, the thing everyone goes for, more difficult to reach. We won anyway but it was luckier than it should have been. We lost on the last game, though, and went into the Second Chance Bracket.
But once there we were we started doing well again. This included some really dominating games of Tron, The Beatles --- I think we had a million points plus on the first ball, and that's where you'd hope to be after two balls --- and in the next round, had a game of Pulp Fiction where we made up a half-million-point gap on one ball. I count myself lucky when I get a half-million points a whole game of Pulp Fiction, never mind on one ball and splitting flipper responsibilities. If that weren't enough we managed to beat the team of DMC and RED --- my pick for the team of destiny here --- in three games, winning on Tales of the Arabian Nights thanks to a killer first ball, and squeaking out a win on Jaws on the bonus of the last ball.
So this put us into finals, against the team of PCL and DG again. They beat us on Godzilla, like we kind of expected, although we didn't do badly. On The Addams Family it took us a little while but we finally got the rhythm of the skill shot, and shooting the ramp, and shooting the chair to start modes and that gave us a very easy win. Then they picked Jurassic Park, which we never play, and rarely play well, and we just couldn't do anything. We even failed to get the T-Rex Multiball started, so the game was a loss. And with that, we lost the tournament, but we got far closer than we were expecting, We should have expected; bunnyhugger had been counting on using down time during the tournament to get some work done so naturally she would have no time.
For the side tournament --- there's always a side tournament --- bunnyhugger brought in her All-American Girl toy machine, The Flip Side, figuring there was no way this could be such a long-playing game as to make the tournament drag on. In this she was correct. She did not foresee the possibility of someone beating her long-held high score on her own table, and while RED did not beat her high score, he came closer than she was comfortable with. We also streamed this on PCL's rig, which was very funny because the rig is set up for a pinball game of normal dimensions, not something small enough for a squirrel to be able to play. I don't know that this is the first time anyone's streamed The Flip Side for an actual sanctioned pinball tournament but it's a rarity at least. So if anyone caught the stream, they got to enjoy that oddness too.
Coming up now on the photo roll: the Women's International Pinball Tournament, the thing we really went to Pittsburgh for. This used to be held the day after Pinburgh finals, but with ... well, there was a revival of Pinburgh. Without the backing of ReplayFX and the dispersed collection of games from PAPA headquarters it can't command the Anthrocon convention center, but after all, the important thing in a tournament is the playing, right? So here's how that looked ...
The new location of Pinburgh! Which we almost drove right past because we ... were expecting some kind of dedicated sports-event facility, not the upper level of a multiplex.
But here it is, the revived Women's Intergalactic Pinball Tournament. Also something held there for the first time, the pre-Pinburgh Bash At The Burgh tournament that we didn't get to.
They had the rights to the name as well as the banners from Previous Pinburgh, including the ones that reflected the 2019 champions that would have debuted at Pinburgh 2020.
And ... there's the venue, the mezzanine level of the multiplex here. You can totally date these photos to this year because there's Yet Another Alien Movie among the posters.
Players warming up. Also filling up, since they provided bagels! If we'd known I probably would still have eaten so many eggs from the hotel breakfast but still, that's nice seeing.
Spanish Eyes! And still featuring its Pinburgh 2019 bank sign, so there's a good chance I played this literal table for something that counts before. Also look at that art; it's a pity that artist didn't do more games.
Trivia: One of the Sanskrit words for 'Friday' was 'Sukravara', honoring Venus and meaning 'bright, resplendent'. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, EG Richards.
Currently Reading: Lost Popeye Zine, Volume 61: King Bee and Queen Bee, Tom Sims, Bela Zaboly, Editor Stephanie Noelle.
When last I reported about my lost camera and Motor City Furry Con we'd had established two important things. First, they had my camera! Second, it was in storage so who knows when they'd find the chance to recover it?
Well. I could manage going to Pinball At The Zoo without a camera and even the handful of things we got to in May without. Mostly local pinball stuff, although this might be the first time I don't have a proper ``what we compete for'' picture of the plaques at pinball night. But we are coming up on things I must have a camera for, and while yes, my iPhone is probably adequate for most purposes I want a camera that's a proper camera.
So I went looking and found a used Panasonic Lumix camera, one very close to the camera I had before my misplaced camera. And I finally have all the pieces I need for it together --- camera, memory card, battery and spare battery, charger, and the data/power cable that connects it to a computer or USB power supply! I even found that my old camera bag, the one used for the previous camera, fits this new one just fine. It lacks a strap --- I'd transferred that to my Samsung camera so that's in the Motor City Furry Con Lost And Found Storage Locker right now --- but the important thing is I can take good pictures and plenty of them. And the zoom on this doesn't --- yet --- get jammed up partway through, putting it ahead of my Samsung.
Now, of course, I just have to explain what I need to take pictures of that made me spend money on this.
We close the month now with something I bet you'd never thought you would see: the end of Kennywood pictures from our trip last year! And what comes up to follow this? Hm. There's so many possibilities ...
Oh yeah, we rented a locker for the second time ever and had to get stuff out of it. Do you see our locker number? Well, it was easy to remember since it was 1054 and I need hardly remind you what an important year that was.
Super Kaleidoscope, the charming circular-shaped building up front with the candy shop inside. It just looks good. You can make out the Old Mill's frontage in the background.
The Goodnight heart, last thing you see before entering the tunnel to leave Kennywood.
They've painted the tunnel with all kinds of Kennywood memorabilia and items, including a replica ticket from nearly a century ago and the reminder to gentlemen after using the washroom.
Looking back at the park from the parking lot.
And here's a panoramic view at the end of the night, to match the one had at the start of the day.
Trivia: The pancreas's name reflects its label as ``pan'' (all) and ``kreas'' (flesh), an organ of all flesh. The name may reflect early lack of knowledge of what it did and was simply there. Source: The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human, Siddhartha Mukherjee.
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
This week my humor blog has seen a lot being made out of the fact Wikipedia has a list of notable soups. But there's also other stuff, no less weakly motivated. For example:
Now something that never needs motivation, the sharing of pictures of Kennywood. Enjoy!
Here's a picture of some of the horses from the inside of the carousel, showing off the less-elaborately-carved sides.
This is the band organ, a Wurlitzer something or other model.
Here's that carousel tiger scaring off some riders.
And someone so delighted she's clapping and leaning back. (Yes, I know, she's taking a picture and not stepping back a little.)
Is that the night already? Vending booths all closed up here.
The traditional picture from the bridge of the Racer and midway games and Jack Rabbit. That tree on the right's obscuring the logo almost completely now.
It is the end of the night! Grand Carousel with all the lights off, and people being quietly but insistently pushed toward the exit.
So here's another quick picture of the lake, looking over towards Steel Curtain so there's none of that pesky nature obscuring the buildings.
The waters were quite still and the reflection of Steel Curtain looked great.
And here's Jack Rabbit where you can see the neon logo and the parts of the legs that still aren't illuminated.
Refreshments continues to be one of bunnyhugger's favorite pieces of neon.
And here's the Kangaroo. The rainbow-lit roo is part of a lights animation, the extra brightness and colors jumping from right to left.
Trivia: During World War II, Japan had 99 motorized farm tractors. Source: The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food, Lizzie Collingham. (Given the typical size and landscaping of rice paddies it's not obvious that more would have helped much, and in any case, fuel and oil were short.)
Currently Reading: The Harvey Comics Companion, Mark Arnold.
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