]
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>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 17:08:01 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-28-97
More on the chess set:
Hmm. I disagree with you, David; I think that Jinjur would be a good
choice for a villain, since when she was bad she was very, very bad
(even though when she was good she was nice or however the rhyme
finishes).
Octo Pie?:
The English language has been so distorted now that both octopi and
octopuses are accepted, if I recall correctly. I have never heard
octopodes.
--Jeremy Steadman, rambler at large
P.S. You can tell my stomach was getting hungry there :-) .
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 13:07:24 -0700
From: Douglas or Lori Silfen <Duglor@connectnet.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest
Gordon: Aquareine, if pronounced correctly, should be
ak-wa-ren (ren rhyming with hen and you roll the "r")
(reine also rhyming with the Seine river...prounounced
sen)
Douglas
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 17:21:31 -0700
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: The Past Few Ozzy Digests
Robert Collinge:
Toto was certainly not the first dog to live in Oz. Jack Pumpkinhead
encountered a green dog while riding the Sawhorse through the Emerald
City in _Land_. For some reason, Baum often made generalizations about
the Land of Oz, which often contradicted his earlier writing. In
_Dorothy and the Wizard_, he stated that the Sawhorse was the only horse
in Oz, but the Cowardly Lion and Tip are both familiar with horses,
suggesting that there were other horses in Oz. Thompson, Neill, and the
McGraws placed plenty of horses and dogs in Oz.
On a similar note, _Royal Book_ contains a remark that there were no
ferries in Oz, even though there were some in Baum's books, notably
_Land_ and _Lost Princess_. Also, in _Lost King_, it is stated that
there are no stores in Oz, which also untrue. Generally, when an author
states that a certain thing does not exist in Oz, this statement need not
be taken at face value.
David Hulan:
In order for either person to win at tic-tac-toe, one of them must be
fairly unobservant.
I always thought that "octopi" was the proper plural of "octopus." I'm
not totally sure, though.
Earl:
I agree that the Phanfasms did not use much of their supposed power.
Pretty much all of the magic that they worked just created illusions.
Gordon:
Thanks for the compliments on my Ruggedo page.
Regarding Zog:
I've enjoyed reading the discussions of Zog, who is certainly one of
Baum's more interesting villains. Regarding whether or not he is evil, I
would have to say that "good" and "evil" are largely subjective terms,
but I would have to consider someone as sadistic as Zog to be evil.
I wonder how much Zog's "ugliness" (yet another subjective term)
contributed to his evil. I'm sure everyone who has read _Yew_ recalls
the case of King Terribus, whose evil results almost entirely from a low
self-image. I think that Zog, unlike Terribus, would probably have had
the same personality no matter what he looked like.
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 21:06:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozmama@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-28-97
Dave: Thanks for sending the DIGEST to me at AOL. For some reason, this one
made it.
David: Thanks for the "how to." I'm trying it on this message. Ah! It works!
Yes, Jane had sent me the proposal. I just didn't catch the fact that all
programs wouldn't be repeated. I'll have to think about this. Chicago
streets intersecting self? If you're really gonna check, try Ogden Ave.
first. I suspect it's the culprit.
Octopus: Good for you! Your instincts were correct. Greek derivation.
Pl.=octopodes *or* octopuses. Never thought much about it before...have
always used "octopuses," but the "foot" root makes absolute sense. Think
I'll use it in class.
_Sea Fairies_: This is a really neat discussion, y'all. I'm glad we decided
to include it as a BCF (is that the correct acronym?)
AOL: I like it. I hate its address book and its puny little net browser, but
I like the rest very much. Now that I can use it a bit better (thanks again,
David), I even like the e-mail better than my other server's version, which
used PINE. It was frequently cumbersome.
--Robin
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 1997 23:38:43 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
David:
Well, my source was a tour bus guide in New York, so I don't know how
accurate he was, although he claimed to have been born and raised there.
The street he mentioned was Langley. A cursory examination os Shytown was
inconclusive.
It's possible that this occurs in the Emerald City, since the characters
seem to arrive at the corner of Strawberry Street and Banana Blvd. quite
often in the Neill Trilogy.
In Tucson, numbered streets run east to west and numbered avenues run north
to south. This pattern holds true, so while you may find yourself at the
corner of 6th and 6th, you will never be at 5th street and 12th street.
6th and 6th is, IIRC, the only really important double-number intersection.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 07:46:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-28-97
Melody ---
King Anko is _in_ the Oz Kids series? All the FF characters I've ever heard
of being included in the cartoon are Dorothy's twins, Scarecrow Jr, Tin Boy,
the Lion's twins, Frank, Jackie Pumpkinhead, Scrap's Patchwork Kids and Nome
Prince Otto (not including their parents). Who else am I unaware of?
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 10:16:30 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-28-97
Peter H.:
As I mentioned yesterday, the 1970-or-so R&L reprint of _Sea Fairies_ has
the reversed lines on pages 95 and 105 that the first printing did, but
that were corrected in some printings in between. That edition also has a
different DJ, by Lois Axeman, showing Trot (with legs, not a tail) holding
a mirror which a mermaid (probably Aquareine - she's wearing a crown,
anyhow) is looking into while she combs her hair. The figures are B&W, but
multicolored bubbles are scattered over the jacket, including the spine and
the back. I don't know the exact date of this reprint, though I know I
bought it new in 1970 and that the bookstore where I bought it hadn't had
it earlier that year.
Melody:
> Zog would have set himself up for an outright mutiny had he been
>as nasty to his servants as Ruggedo was to his Nomes. The Nomes did not
>exactly miss Ruggedo when he was deposed in "Tik-Tok." (Of course, Zog's
>servants didn't miss him when King Anko did him in, either. Oh well...)
If I recall aright the Nomes were happy to get Ruggedo back when he
returned to the kingdom in _Gnome King_. Or at least, they didn't protest
when he reasserted his rule there. (I guess Tititi-hoochoo's eggs had been
deactivated by that time.)
Gordon:
I've always thought of "Aquareine" as being pronounced "AH-qua-rain", but
since Baum didn't leave a pronunciation guide I guess all of us can decide
how we want to pronounce all the names and do it that way.
And I too have always considered "Mayre" as just a variant spelling of
"Mary" - one that I've never seen elsewhere, though. It's clear from Baum's
spelling when Trot's mother was calling her early in _Sea Fairies_
("May-re!") that Baum intended it to be pronounced as two syllables, and
that would certainly give an approximation of "Mary". Although in
California - at least, if people in California talked in 1910 the way they
do now - "Mary" tends to sound pretty much like "merry", in the Northeast
where Baum grew up I believe the first syllable does have the same vowel as
"may".
Speaking of Trot's mother reminds me that as early as this book Baum starts
establishing that she's something of a shrew. Trot does show concern that
she'd worry about them, but I get the impression that it's as much a
concern about what she'd say and do to them when they got back as about not
wanting her to worry. This becomes almost complete indifference to what
she'll think in _Sky Island_, which makes their lack of concern at staying
in Oz in _Scarecrow_ more believable.
Jeremy:
Having pieces that change their character in the middle of a game would
mean that the game wasn't chess, but some form of fairy chess. Such games
can be legitimate enough, of course.
Tyler:
>IIRC, most of the "tour de Oz" takes place in the Quadling country. The
>drawing of the munchkin-style houses must have been an error.
It's not just a drawing; Baum says in the text that the houses in Rigmarole
Town have the domed Munchkin shape. But there's no indication that I can
recall that houses anywhere in Oz have a different shape. In fact, in
_Land_ Baum states that all the houses in Oz are dome-shaped.
Robin:
I guess this is a cue for me to send the Digests from 9/25 to my "buddies"
on AOL again...
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 14:13:19, -0500
From: NQAE93A@prodigy.com (MR ROBERT J COLLINGE)
Subject: Headland
Can anyone tell me which book "Headland" first appears, and a little
bit about it? On the Oz map it is located in the Northeast corner of
Oz, in the Gillikin country. Thanks for any information. You may e-
mail me privately.
Bob C.
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:22:45 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-26-97
So, Aaron, what was the episode title of _Pinky and the Brain_, for my
filmography research?
David, if "octopus" is second declention, the plural would be "octopi,"
but long is are really pronounced as long es, at least how they taught us
when I took Latin.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 18:52:07 +0600
From: rri0189@ibm.net
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-28-97
David Hulan wrote:
>Any of the language mavens out there know - is "octopi" really the plural
>of "octopus"? I mean, the word looks like an after-the-fact Latinization of
>a Greek "octopos" (because most Greek nouns in "-os" went to a Latin
>"-us"); if it had been Latin in the first place it would have been
>"octopes". I know I have an instinctive urge to make the plural
>"octopodes", but instincts aren't always that reliable.
The word is Greek, but got into English by way of Modern Latin. "Octopodes",
"octopi" and "octopusses" are all acceptable.
// John W Kennedy -- Hypatia Software -- "The OS/2 Hobbit"
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 07:59:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe)
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
In the 9/25 Digest, Ruth Berman says on the subject of "Alice"
chess-sets, <Earl Abbe, who is a member [of the Lewis Carroll Society of
North America], ... can maybe give more details.>
LCNA's "Knight Letter 55" (Summer 1997) contains the following, "Chess
Forum has three lovely chess sets: the 'Alice in Wonderland Hand Painted
Set', 'Alice in Wonderland' in marble and resin, and 'Lewis Carroll'.
219 Thompson St New York, NY 10012 or 1.800.393.4300 or chesform@inch.com
or http://www.rhapsody.com/chessforum/myth.html."
(But attempting to use that URL, I receive a "File Not found" error
message.)
"Knight Letter 54" (Spring 1997) has a brief article on a "Through the
Looking Glass" chess set which is the first one I have seen that actually
seems to follow Carroll's own assignment of characters to pieces.
Unfortunately, it is not (and may never be) available commercially.
Details from Concepts, Etc. 1342 SE 12th Terrace, Cape Coral FL 33990.
941-772-4154 (or if really interested, I will key it in and send it to
you off-line.)
Dave, the hexes were back in the 9/26 Digest.
Earl Abbe
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 18:49:27 -0700
From: ozbot <ozbot@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: My New Email (for Ozzy Digest)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
Starting tommorrow ( 10- 1 - 97) I'll be using my new Email account--
ozbot@earthlink.com
Please don't use my ozbot@ix.netcom.com address, or you'll get it bounced
back!
Thanks again for all your work! I've been pretty much a lurker nowadays,
but I've been too busy and keeping up with two other mailing lists! Maybe
I'll see you at the SWinkies?
Danny
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 97 00:05:15 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
MY ISP:
Correction: Today my transfer rate is 28800. So I have not suffered a
slow-down (But not a speed-up either though).
FAIRY CHESS:
Of course, as Oz is a fairyland, an ideal use for an Oz chess set might be
to play "Fairy Chess" of which there are many kinds.
Zim: I for one believe that my bride [i.e. Glinda] and Ozma should be
"Amazons" -- Those are fairy pieces that move like the queen, except
that they can make a knight's move as well(!)...They are in essence
"super-queens".
BTW, this current wave of "chess fever" I'm currently experiencing is
worse tham I thought...The other day I actually half-contemplated drawing
the Three Adepts as the Polgar sisters. :)
Jellia: Psst! Judit, Zsusa, and Sofia Polgar are the three strongest
women chess players in the world...They are the Three Adepts
at Checkmate.
Aujah: And from what Dave tells us, in this parallel it can be taken that
Gary Kasparov is the Su-Dic... :)
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 2, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
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======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 09:06:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Christine R. Gray" <china@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Ozzie people, I have not read any mail in a while--I am completing a book
and the editor is breathing down my neck. But I did want to mention that a
new book has just been published about Oz and Frank Baum. It's from Univ.
of Kansas Press. The description reads: an excellent intro to America's
greatest children's author. . . . places Baum's books in the context of
his entire career..". The book lists for $30, but can be gotten
through
10/30 from Kansas for $24. Let me know if you want ordering info.
christine
Christine R. Gray, Ph.D.
"You are unique--just like everyone else."
china@wam.umd.edu
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 10:10:50 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
No ferries in Oz?
Almost--only one that I know of offhand, and that would be Ozma, with
others in the Forest of Burzee.
With that comment, I'll shut up for the day. (About time, too, you
might say.)
--Jeremy Steadman, hot air reservoir
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 09:25:40 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
Gordon Birrell: Drawing of Trot holding up a hand-mirror for a mermaid to
see herself in might be influenced by Cluny tapestry as you suggest, but
probably also reflects (sorry) the heraldic tradition of showing mermaids
as looking into hand-mirrors.
David Hulan: On Delva as being from inside Oz -- well, yes, but I was
fudging to get easily identifiable female character among the pieces, and
so was considering countries below Oz as not really part of Oz. The
Mangaboo Princess would be a good alternative if the drawing of her
would photocopy identifiably, but the only picture of her in "Dorothy and
the Wizard" is one of the color plates. As you commented, there aren't
many choices from outside Oz for examples of female villains.
Bob Collinge: I e-mailed you, but will repeat here that Headland is from
"Silver Princess," and is one of the more horrific of RPT's unfriendly small
towns. The Headlanders are disembodied heads, and try to relieve
Randy and Kabumpo of their bodies, too. (Sort of like Baum's No Bodies
in "John Dough," but even more so.) (For placing locales in their books,
it's handy to have the "Who's Who in Oz Appendix" that I did up, as it
includes a gazeteer section.)
Earl Abbe: Thanks for following up with the information on Carrollian
chess-sets.
A very peculiar Oz reference in the "New Yorker" a couple of weeks
ago filled with articles hysterically mourning the death of Princess Diana --
one Simon Schama, in "Critic at Large/The Problem Princess," says,
"Attempting to understand Princess Diana's appeal without taking that
Prime Minister [Margaret Thatcher] into account is like assuming that
Glinda ruled the Land of Oz uncontested." Seeing that Glinda didn't rule
the land of Oz in the first place, it's not really clear what he has in mind
(not to mention that Diana's position put her in conflict with her in-laws,
not with the bureaucracy), but I suppose he's comparing Glinda (as
played by Billie Burke) and Diana as a pair of cheery bubbleheads, and
comparing Thatcher to the Wicked Witch of the West. But for any sense
it makes, it could just as well be the other way round.
Also an odd reference -- Baum in "The Flying Girl" (1911) speaks of
"the late, lamented Sherlock Holmes." Actually, Holmes had come back
to life in 1903, and Baum knew it, he and Emerson Hough having
satirized the Return of Holmes in their 1905 scenario, "The King of Gee
Whiz."
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 11:09:17 -0700
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
David Hulan:
Neither Kaliko nor Potaroo seemed happy about Ruggedo's return in _Gnome
King_, but neither Nome was brave enough to challenge his claim to the
throne. Ruggedo's second reign was so brief that most Nomes didn't get a
chance to respond, but I doubt that they would have been too happy with
Rug's return, although it was mentioned in _Hungry Tiger_ that the
Nomes, especially Guph, were bored with the lack of action during
Kaliko's reign.
BTW, I have been considering writing a story that takes place soon after
_Gnome King_, in which Guph revolts against Kaliko. This would explain
why Guph is no longer Chamberlain by the time of _Wishing Horse_.
Bob C.:
Headland first appears in _Silver Princess_. It is a small community of
flying heads. I know of only one other mention of Headland, and that is
in _Disenchanted Princess_.
Regarding Chess Sets:
Maybe someone should come up with a scrum set. If you recall, scrum is
somewhat like chess, somewhat like checkers, and somewhat like parchesi.
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 10:57:25 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Jeremy:
I don't think Jinjur was very, very bad even when she was bad. She talked
rough when the Scarecrow and company returned to the Emerald City, but she
never really did anything to hurt anyone that I can recall.
Douglas:
>Gordon: Aquareine, if pronounced correctly, should be
>ak-wa-ren (ren rhyming with hen and you roll the "r")
> (reine also rhyming with the Seine river...prounounced
That's how it would be pronounced if it were French. But the mermaids
appear to speak English, and in English it would most likely be ak-wa-rain.
(Granted, pronunciation of English words is much less regular than of
French ones, but the only English word ending in "-eine" I can think of -
"seine", a kind of net - has the long-a vowel.)
Nathan:
Agreed; the Royal Historians had a strong tendency to make generalizations
about Oz that weren't true even in their own books, much less those of
other RHs.
>In order for either person to win at tic-tac-toe, one of them must be
>fairly unobservant.
True, if both players play correctly the game is always a draw. But if O
makes a mistake on the first move X can force a win, and there are even a
couple of openings where O can make a mistake on the second move and X can
force a win. The only way O can win is if X just doesn't block after O puts
two in a row; there's no sequence I know of where O can get two in a row
two ways so that X can block only one.
Sarah:
King Anko and Zog both appear in the Oz Kids video "Journey Beneath the
Sea," which is a pretty close copy of _Sea Fairies_ except for some
character changes and a different introduction.
Bob C.:
Headland's first and only appearance is in _Silver Princess_, chapters 5 &
6. Randy and Kabumpo pass through it on their way from Regalia to the
desert. It's inhabitants are bodiless heads with big ears they can fly with.
Scott H.:
>David, if "octopus" is second declention, the plural would be "octopi,"
>but long is are really pronounced as long es, at least how they taught us
>when I took Latin.
That's how they were pronounced by the ancient Romans. Standard English
pronunciation of the Latin long "i" is the English long "i" - as for
instance in "alumni". (Latin and English pronunciations of "alumni" and
"alumnae" are exact opposites.) As we pronounce "Caesar" "seezer" and not
"kaisar". Generally today we tend to use the ancient Latin pronunciation
for actual quotes from Latin, but the English versions for Latin words that
are sufficiently naturalized into English that they're not italicized, but
not so naturalized that they take the standard English "s" plural.
Also, there are a lot of Latin words whose nominative singular is in "-us"
that are either third or fourth declension, though admittedly the majority
are second.
Dave:
Tell Aujah that if Kasparov is the Su-dic then Big Blue must be Rora.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 09:33:47 -0700
From: Tyler Jones <Tyler@apprentice.com>
Subject: Oz
Oz is everywhere:
I just finished the new Xanth book _Yon Ill Wind_, and it has some
interesting constructs. If you haven't read it yet, skip this.
********** SPOILER FOR YON ILL WIND **********
The plot was very similar to a Thompson Oz book. Observe:
1. A huge storm blows several children (and their family and pets) into
Xanth
2. The pets get the ability to speak.
3. Xanth is in danger of destruction (not conquest, but close)
4. The bulk of the adventure is mainly a tour of Xanth, going from one
place to another
5. There is the mother of all IE's in chapter 15
6. The problem is solved very quickly with powerful magic, with little
or no explanation. It simply no longer exists.
7. They all go back to Castle Roogna for the big party, where (almost)
everybody makes an appearance.
********** END OF SPOILER FOR YON ILL WIND **********
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 16:06:01 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Gordon: "Aquareine" is probably supposed to be "water queen" so the
it shout be pronounced a bit like "ren," but clearly being a French
derivation, that's not exactly right, just as close as I can deliver in
print.
I've always assumed that houses in Oz were traditionally the dome style,
and that those who had one differently (which in Baum's time, I'm sure
they would not), were people who had deliberately decided to go against
cultural style, which I can't imagine that there would not be any of in
modern-day Oz, where I write my stories. As far as having Tip use the
F-word, I'll go back to the alleged Aubrey quote from _Tip of Oz_, where
she replaced it with "freakin' expletive," (the word "expletive" actually
being sounded, almost as if to create a catch-phrase). My acting prof had
us right down good first and last lines for a scene which two people would
improvise through, and I iused this. Unfortunately, Anna changed it to
the banal "flyin' f---," instead.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 18:25:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozmama@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Got it again today, Dave. I wish this made sense...why some days and not
others? Thanks also to Ruth, who sent it as well. --Robin
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 22:00:10 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Sarah:
>King Anko is _in_ the Oz Kids series?<
At least as a guest star. I don't know if he appears in more than one
episode. The episode I saw at the Kentucky Oz convention was an adaptation
of "The Sea Fairies," where Zog gets a more comic treatment than in the
book.
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 22:01:49 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Nathan:
>I wonder how much Zog's "ugliness" (yet another subjective term)
contributed to his evil.<
Indeed, if Zog was such a great magician, why could he not change his
physical appearance? Guess transformations weren't his speciality. :-)
Probably it was envy and his resultant self-hate that made Zog evil more
than his physical appearance--as I said in a previous post, Anko's no more
handsome than Zog, but *he* likes his physical self. Zog could just as
easily have been as proud of his part-mammal, part-bird, part-reptile, etc.
make up as the mermaids were of their part-human, part fish makeup. Or, for
that matter, as proud of himself as some of the "fantastics" of Oz.
Nick: I love being tin!
Scarecrow: I love being stuffed with straw!
Scraps: Whee! There's a gaudy dame! Makes a paintbox blush with shame! I
love my multicolored, cotton-stuffed constitution!
Zog: I hate my ugly patchwork makeup! Blech!
Bungle: Oh, be quiet, you pessimistic malcontent! I love my glass body and
my wonderful pink brains!
Aquareine: We are not part fish, we are all mermaid!
Anko: I am quite lengthy and proud of it!
Zog: I said I hate my part-reptile, part-mammal, part-fish, part-human,
part-everything else body! Yecch! Blah, humbug!
Woozy: I'm glad I'm always square.
Herby: I am proud of my medicine chest!
Zog: I hate my body! You hear me? I HATE MY BODY! I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!
The Wizard: You know what, Zog? Your attitude stinks! (POOF!)
Zog: Hey, look everybody! I'm part reptile, part bird, part fish--just
about every part of the natural kingdom you can imagine! I'm unique! I'm
wonderful! I'm one-of-a-kind!
The Wizard (thought balloon): Too bad this magical attitude change only
lasts ten minutes.
Zog: Look at my marvelous wings, folks! I can water fly! Whoopee.....
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 22:02:19 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Dave (& others who commented on possible Oz chess sets)
>Of course, as Oz is a fairyland, an ideal use for an Oz chess set might be
to play "Fairy Chess" of which there are many kinds.<
For such a set, I once imagined that a witch & wizard could
substitute for bishops. The wizard could change higher pieces into pawns,
and the witch could change pawns into higher pieces.
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 22:43:40 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Bob C:
I generally favor private e-mail for personal things, but Ozzy info is best
when it's shared with all, so I hope you don't mind my answer being public.
Headland made it's one and only appearance in chapter 5 of _Silver
Princess_. It was pretty much a standard IE: characters enter, the citizens
try to forcibly get the adventurers to become just like them, but they
manage to escape.
Headland is a dry, barren, rocky place. Its citizens are disembodied (their
term is debodicated) heads that fly around by flapping their ears. At best,
a minor blip in Oz.
Dave:
Following your chess symbolism, Deep Blue must be Aaron's Magic Machine!
:-)
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 01 Oct 1997 20:04:36 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-28-97
Hi y'all,
I'm just back from a GREAT trip and am going through the Digests
that have piled up. I'm sure that I will have more to say later, but in
reference to the plural of octopus, this is from _Between Pacific Tides_
by Edward F. Ricketts, Jack Calvin, and Joel W. Hedgpeth. Right, Edward
F. Ricketts is the "Doc" that Steinbeck characterized in _Cannery Row_.
His son, Ed Ricketts Jr. is in a birding group that I belong to, one
that meets in the San Francisco area's Marin Headlands every week.
On page 575:
"Class CEPHALOPODA, Octopods (or Octopuses), Squids, Nautilus
The -pus of octopus is from Greek pous ("foot"), and is usually
rendered -pod or -poda in English. The word Octopi, though now listed
in many dictionaries, is an incorrect plural, which apparently arose by
a false analogy of octopus to Latin second-declension nouns (such as
amicus,"friend") whose nominative plurals end in -i."
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 97 11:59:07 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
XANTH:
Tyler, can you (or anyone) tell me more about Xanth? I tried reading
_Harpy Thyme_ but I just couldn't get into it, and I wondered if maybe
it was a lesser one of the books, because Xanth certainly seems to have a
following... Are other books in the series better? Do they all have
un-Ozzy levels of sexual references? And what is this "Adult Conspiracy"??
And what's all this talk about "panties"???
Jellia: Dave asked me just for the record to point out that Ozites'
undergarments are *NOT* an acceptable topic on the Digest... :)
CHESS PARALLELS:
Ozma: Who would *I* be in chess lore?
Dan: Hmmm...How about Elaine Saunders, she was perhaps the greatest
of the women players!
Audah: Oh, and Bobby Fisher is definitely Ruggedo...
Aurah: Beard and all!
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 3, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 08:00:42 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-01-97
Hello everyone,
Well, here I am again after the best vacation that I've had in a
long time. I am feeling quite mellow as a result. One comment about
seafood and El Nino:
> El Nino probably is warming the waters off Oregon, which
> may play havoc with the oyster population there. IIRC,
> oysters are pretty sensitive to water temperature; while
> there are warm-water species, the ones off the Oregon coast
> probably aren't. However, I'm speculating without any real
> data. (So what else is new?)
The problem apparently is that the warmer water allows for the
growth of certain microorganisms in shellfish that might be toxic. As a
result, restaurants are not serving raw oysters (there was also a
warning to avoid raw shellfish posted in the loading areas of the San
Juan Island ferries). As one who feels that when preparing oysters the
less done, the better, this was a disappointment, but I would never turn
down a good oyster stew or Hangtown fry.
> SBM2 is all set up in my computer save for the illos. & I
> need to colorize the cover. And then save up some money to
> get it printed! :-)
Melody, you have whetted my appetite. Please mark me down for a
copy when they are available.
> Although *self* defense is a matter of personal decision,
> defense of family, community and nation are duties. (I have
> been professionally doing my part in the last for going
> on 34 years now.)
Just curious. What has this entailed?
> The restaurant I remember in Portland is one that offered a
> 64-ounce steak, and if you could eat it you could get
> another one free, provided you ate all of it.
Gawd!!
> On AOL: I would be glad to forward Digests to someone on
> AOL, but I don't have anyone in particular in mind. How
> about an assignment?
>
Me too. I can put together a list and forward to all on that list,
but don't know how many AOL would consider too many. Please assign some
AOL'ers to me also.
Now, on to _Sea Fairies_. I will read it today and try to catch
up.
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 12:05:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozisus@aol.com
Subject: Oz Digest post
About the Centennial Convention program: Before debates get carried away,
let me insert that I have -- right now, two+ years before the convention --
something like 140 suggested topical "sessions" that could be presented. I
suspect about 50 can happen with a 4-day schedule because there also needs to
be general sesssions everyone attends, auction time, stuff like that.
At work over a lunch hour, I put together 8 or so sessions from each of the
major topics (biography, books, films, collectibles, the significance of The
Wizard of Oz in literature/culture) and organized it into an agenda Draft
(note the capital D).
My goal was expresssing the concept of this convention and doing it quickly,
since I also wanted to eat. So I didn't try to determine the most-likely-to
succeed sessions, just took some off the top of an unorganized list. I threw
it via e-mail at about a dozen various Oz people asking them to let me know
if they thought it was the kind of program we should deliver for 2000. That
list included Robin, since she's on the centennial committe with me; Dave
because he's a writer and has worked as an OzCon registrar; David because I
needed some help from him surrounding some astronomy-related Oz issues
(There's a campus observatory it might be fun to incorporate as an afterhours
function). Probably some other Digesters; I've already forgotten.
I did not post it on the Digest because you guys get so embroiled in detail
that I figured that would just drag me into debates about who should and
shouldn't speak and in what order. Nothing personal, group, but it's just
too early for me to get session- or speaker-specific feedback while I'm still
trying to get buy-in to the concept, and I expected that y'all would jump to
that level in a heartbeat.
So hang tight for a couple more months. By the end of this year I hope to
have assembled a group of about 25 people each of whom will have a chunk of
responsiblity for pulling this off. At that point, each of us will no doubt
want feedback, suggestions and help for our various areas of responsibility,
and you'll have a chance to provided detailed input about the agenda
specifics. OK? OK. Wisdom, love, courage (and patience!) Jane
PS. If you really want to play Oz chess, forget the board! Go live! Dress
yourselves in costumes, chalk off an empty parking lot, put a coupla players
on step ladders with megaphones and move at their command. Now that would be
a chess game....
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 13:07:48 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Ozzy Digest
Has anyone seen a particular episode of _Moonlighting_ called "Somewhere
Under the Rainbow?" Judging from the show's general nature, I imagine
this was Oz related, but I can't be certain. The episode "The Dream
Sequence Always Rings Twice," which was partly done in black and white
with a prologue by Orson Wellles, has David wake up to say "Auntie Em,
Uncle Henry?"
Other films for the "Over the Rainbow" list include Robert Fuest's _The
Abominable Dr. Phibes_ and _Dr. Phibes Risen Again_ (Michael Gessel
informed me of these) and John Woo's _Face/Off_, which I read in _Film
Score Monthly_ is played during a shootout.
I found out why I couldn't find _The Runestone_ by Mark E. Rogers,
anywhere (which Willard Carroll made into an excellent Nouvelle Vague
style film in 1990). It was privately printed in 1979 by Burning Bush
Press.
When are we starting with _Sky Island_? I haven't read this yet, and I
want to make sure to get in on discussion. I bought a BoW Road to
participate, but never had time to read it. I don't want to encounter any
spoliers or anything, but I'm just so busy!
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 13:29:43 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Oz Over the Rainbow
Anyone know about these? I found them on the IMDb.
_Over the Rainbow_ (France, 1997, 10 min.) written and directed by
Alexandre Aja.
Director of Photography: Alexandre Bugel; Film Editing by Marie de la
Selle; Press: Dominique Segall.
S: Jean Benguigui (Guardian), Jean-Claude De Goros (Florist), Carine Yvart
(Lisa), Anne Zamberlan (First Victim).
It was nominated for the Best Short Film Palme d'or at Cannes.
_Over the Rainbow_ (1993 British Comedy Series)
starring Angeline Ball, Bronagh Gallagher, Eamon Morrisey, Linda Regan,
Peter Sullivan, Ian Taggett, and Roger Walker.
and, a HK-Chinese film
_Ji de... xiang jiao cheng shu shi II: Chu lian qing ren_ (1994)
director unknown
aka _Over the Rainbow Under the Skirt_
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 12:40:39 -0700
From: "A.E. Schaible" <schaible@sj.bigger.net>
Subject: ozzy digest
Eric Shanower and Michael Reilly are having a book signing at BoW on
Satuday October 4, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 19:56:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
Dave, on Xanth:
Er...there's definitely a focus on sexual jokes and references in Xanth, but
it plays a much bigger role in more recent books (the whole panties schtick
wasn't around six books ago, I don't think). You might want to try one of the
earlier ones... the second book (can't remember it's name...help, people!)
and third book ("Castle Roogna") might be especially good ones for you to
try. The first book ("A Spell for Chamaeleon") is excessively boring, or I'd
recommend it to you...I've still not gotten through the whole thing, and it's
been over five years since I first tried.
The Adult Conspiracy, P.S., is sex. That's why it's the Adult
Conspiracy...the children aren't supposed to know about it.
Sarah, whose favorite Xanth books are the
second-book-I-can't-remember-the-title-of and Dragon on a Pedestal ;-)
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 20:08:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
Everyone:
I just did a little searching and here's the URL for the chess page with the
Alice sets (this is not the page for the Alice sets themselves, but for the
theme-based sets, of which the Alices are a part).
http://www.chessforum.com/indexthemebasedsets.html
BTW, I don't really like the Alice in Wonderland set (why are they using
Disney's White Rabbit?!), but the Lewis Carroll one is very nice, if not
perfect.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 20:23:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: CrNoble@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
Tyler and Dave:
At one time I was an avid Xanth fan. I've read all the books through _Crewel
Lye_ (#8). Unfortunately, I felt they were getting too formulaic and even
more excessive than RPT at her punniest. I've haven't bothered with any of
Piers Anthony's books since. Having said that, I would still strongly
recommend _A Spell for Chameleon_, _The Source of Magic_ and _Castle Roogna_
to anyone who enjoys reading fantasy. I also enjoyed Anthony's Apprentice
Adept and Tarot trilogies. BTW Anthony definitely likes to spice his books
with sexual innuendo. At the time (when I was a teenager), I enjoyed it.
It's pretty adolescent in nature and relatively harmless.
Craig
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 21:26:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozmama@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
XANTH: Cute place to visit, but I wouldn't want to have to stay there for
more than a few books. Piers Anthony recycled his stuff unmercifully. He
also relied, as does Asprin, on puns to get him through. After several
books, the series grew boring, although I certainly did enjoy the first few.
They're cute and lively, but then they grow absolutely predictable. Not
character-driven, really, and the plots are strong enough to drive 'em,
either. Too bad, 'cause Anthony does know how to write a good yarn, but the
Xanth series seems to be
"Let's-just-follow-this-convenient-little-formula-and- make-some
money-driven," more than anything else. The series is s'posed to be for
adults--or at least YA's, but it quickly palls.
Melody: Cute stuff about Zog. Thanks!
I'll let the DIGESTS pile up for a coupla days. Heading to Austin tomorrow
to set up for my older daughter's wedding! Might pick up my e-mail there.
Might not!
--Robin
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 21:59:04 -0700
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
X-Authentication-warning: mail2.geocities.com: wht2b6e05.resnet.iup.edu
[144.80.104.94] didn't use HELO protocol
Ruth:
Actually, the No Bodies appeared in _Pirates in Oz_ (which I just
recently finished reading for the first time, meaning that I have
completed the entire FF). They are the inhabitants of Nowhere.
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 02 Oct 1997 19:30:19 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
Howdy,
I just finished Baum's _The Enchanted Buffalo_ which was printed in
the new _Oz Gazette_. I enjoyed it very much, to the extent that I am
going to order his _Animal Fairy Tales_ which includes _Buffalo_.
Reminds me a lot of Kipling, although I haven't Kipled in a while :-)
(sorry). Oh well, back to _The Sea Fairies_.
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 17:18:29 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
To: "Dave L. Hardenbrook" <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Jeremy:
>No ferries in Oz?
>Almost--only one that I know of offhand, and that would be Ozma, with
>others in the Forest of Burzee.
Quite a few others, actually - there's Faleero, and there are the mist
fairies encountered in _Glinda_, and Peg Amy is apparently a "fairy
princess" if Glegg's curse in _Kabumpo_ is to mean anything. There may be
others that don't come to mind offhand. (Polychrome certainly spends a good
deal of time in Oz, though she's not a permanent resident.)
Nathan:
>Regarding Chess Sets:
>Maybe someone should come up with a scrum set. If you recall, scrum is
>somewhat like chess, somewhat like checkers, and somewhat like parchesi.
Sounds like fun; somebody would have to come up with a playable set of
rules, though. Might be like chess in that you have different pieces with
different types of moves, like checkers in that you capture opposing pieces
by jumping them instead of moving into their square, and like parchesi in
that the distance a piece can move is determined by throwing dice.
Something like that. Anybody have any better suggestion?
Tyler:
You had the same idea I had (though with a different result), but you
remembered the name of the IBM chess computer correctly. I inadvertently
used the nickname of the IBM corporation itself. I is covered with rue.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 16:11:01 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
Jeremy Steadman: Apart from the Burzeean groaner, some Oz ferries
include the one Tip couldn't pay for in "Land," and the one with a
ferryman who couldn't understand animals ("Lost Princess"). (And
"Cowardly Lion" Fairyman who protects Notta and Bob in their sleep.)
Melody Grandy: Enjoyed the self-esteem riff on unusual bodies. A
cheerier portrait than Zog of a reptile-bird-fish-what-is-it is Edward Lear's
"The Scroobius Pip" (a nonsense poem that didn't get into his collected
nonsenses somehow, but what published in this century with some other
"lost" Lear nonsense). By the by, this may be over-obvious, but I enjoyed
Baum's naming that makes Sacho of Saccharineolaland an overly sweet
child.
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 16:44:16 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
"Agreed; the Royal Historians had a strong tendency to make
generalizations about Oz that weren't true even in their own books,
much less those of other RHs."
In fact, they made such statements all the time. :-)
"That's how they were pronounced by the ancient Romans."
A serious question here (I do those on occasion): How do we know how
the ancient Romans (or any dead people) said things?
With a quip and a question, I'll buzz off for the day.
--Jeremy Steadman
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 97 14:14:29 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
CHESS:
Jane, I love your idea for a life-sized chess game! This sort of thing
was done in ancient times when Sheiks and Indian Princes would stage
life-sized chess games. Maybe this could actually be done at a convention!
Everyone dresses as Oz characters for each piece and plays through a game.
And thanks to Sarah for the pointer to the chess sets page...
XANTH:
Thanks everyone for the Xanth info...
A REMINDER:
The South Winkies Convention is two weeks off (Saturday the 18th), and the
deadline for registration is Wednesday the 15th. For information call
Louis Rhodes at: (714) 497-1082.
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 4 - 5, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 17:18:29 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-02-97
Jeremy:
>No ferries in Oz?
>Almost--only one that I know of offhand, and that would be Ozma, with
>others in the Forest of Burzee.
Quite a few others, actually - there's Faleero, and there are the mist
fairies encountered in _Glinda_, and Peg Amy is apparently a "fairy
princess" if Glegg's curse in _Kabumpo_ is to mean anything. There may be
others that don't come to mind offhand. (Polychrome certainly spends a good
deal of time in Oz, though she's not a permanent resident.)
Nathan:
>Regarding Chess Sets:
>Maybe someone should come up with a scrum set. If you recall, scrum is
>somewhat like chess, somewhat like checkers, and somewhat like parchesi.
Sounds like fun; somebody would have to come up with a playable set of
rules, though. Might be like chess in that you have different pieces with
different types of moves, like checkers in that you capture opposing pieces
by jumping them instead of moving into their square, and like parchesi in
that the distance a piece can move is determined by throwing dice.
Something like that. Anybody have any better suggestion?
Tyler:
You had the same idea I had (though with a different result), but you
remembered the name of the IBM chess computer correctly. I inadvertently
used the nickname of the IBM corporation itself. I is covered with rue.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 21:11:28 -0400
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: Today's Oz Growls
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Back from vacation with about ten Digests to go through. Whew!
David/Dave - Thanks for taking my share of the AOLers. I'll wait and see
if this is still a problem. If so I am ready to take my share from you.
Let me know.
By the way, the logo of Princess Cruise Lines is unmistakeably "OZ." The Z
has a bar through the center and the two letters are connected but you
can't fool me.
David - The waters off Oregon/Washington have always been "reasonably"
warm. That is if you are a fearless teenager. The Japanese Current
bounces off the coast there IIRC.
Tyler >Ozzy Chess: I'll go along with Nathan's idea of making the good guys
green and the bad guys gray, which would be a good symbology with no racial
statements.
I really want to object to this. I know some really nice people named Gray
and I'm sure they wouldn't want their name/color used as a symbol for the
bad guys.
Congratulations David - I see you have become the "Al Franken" of the
Digest while I was gone.
Dave - Will you consider posting, at the end of the Digest, the date and
title of the next BCF. Reading to catch up I find many who are confused
about the date and even the title. I know you aren't into structures but
it would really help.
Earl >This may be so, but there is no indication that Ozma knew this. She
did
not try that or anything. Something should have been done. The
transportation of a few eggs into the tunnel every day probably would
have cost the Belt little magical energy and could have considerably
slowed the tunnel construction, to give the Ozians more time to prepare.
Or even just to delay the inevitable, if it was truly inevitable. This
was the nadir of our beloved monarch's reign.
It is beyond me why some of you keep pushing this view of Ozma. As far as
I can see, our gracious monarch had things under control and simply chose
the easiest means of accomplishing the disposal of the invaders. Maybe
some are so afflicted by modern cinema that they expected a band of machine
gunners brought in to mow the invaders down like bloody wheat.
I can see "The Sea Fairies" was a real disappointment for many of us as the
discussion so far has revolved around typos and art. Sigh. It left me so
cold I don't have a single comment.
My sister just moved to eastern Kansas. She says the wheat is an
incredible shade of green and folks around there think it was the basis for
the emerald city's color. They also think the "domed" houses in Oz were
inspired by Kansas silos. This caused me to wonder, if Baum was ever in
Kansas and why he chose that state rather than a Dakota? Better yet, were
the artists ever in Kansas?
David - I don't know about a new Oz Collector, but if you want a BOW News
from now on you are going to have to subscribe, at $5 per year. That is
unless you buy something from Issue 91 within 30 days. Since I buy quite a
lot from BOW, this seems a bit peremptory to me but I guess times are hard.
Well, their loss is my local children's book store's gain.
Nathan >Generally, when an author states that a certain thing does not
exist in Oz, this statement need not be taken at face value.
I love it. May we call this the "DeHoff Rule?" I think we can also apply
this to a certain politician finally under investigation.
Nathan again >"good" and "evil" are largely subjective terms, but I would
have to consider someone as sadistic as Zog to be evil.
Did you make this decision based on subjective evidence?
Octopodes - David, you must have forgotten your Beatles.
The great Aquareine controversy. Like David I thought this was
"ak-wa-rain." However, I thought Baum was doing a sort of play on words.
Aqua-reign or she who reigns in water. Jeremy?
He's back....... Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 03 Oct 1997 22:11:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-03-97
Everyone - on the chess -
I've just gotten a brainstorm for a possible four-player chess-like game
(also involving elements of traditional board games and chinese checkers).
Each 'side', naturally, would be an Oz country, and something special would
have to represent the Emerlad City... I'll give it a think-over, and post my
thoughts/plans/results when they come to me.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 10:13:17 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-03-97
My mother-in-law went through some tests on Wednesday and they found no
remaining traces of her cancer. Apparently the radiation and chemotherapy
did their job and wiped it out, at least for the time being. Many of you
had expressed concern when I mentioned the diagnosis back in May, so I
thought I'd share the good news with you.
Jane:
>PS. If you really want to play Oz chess, forget the board! Go live! Dress
>yourselves in costumes, chalk off an empty parking lot, put a coupla players
>on step ladders with megaphones and move at their command. Now that would be
>a chess game....
This was done at least once with Tolkien and Narnia characters at a Mythcon
- in 1971, IIRC. May have happened again since. Doing it at an Oz
convention would certainly be a fun item, although getting that many people
into costume (and very specific ones at that) might be difficult.
Jeremy:
The ancient Greeks and Romans had writers on the subject of phonetics who
discussed how various letters were pronounced in sufficient detail that
it's possible to figure out roughly how those languages were pronounced at
various historical points. Probably not in enough detail to distinguish
between, say, the dental "t" of French and the alveolar "t" of English -
someone who learns the modern version of the Ciceronian pronunciation of
Latin would probably be considered to have a funny accent by Cicero - but
enough that we know generally how the consonants and vowels were
pronounced, and at what point in history, say, the consonantal "v" changed
from a sound more or less like our "w" to one like our "v", for instance.
In many ancient languages, though, we can only make an educated guess on
pronunciation because if those cultures wrote about pronunciation the texts
haven't been found (and may well no longer exist).
The discussion of _Sea Fairies_ has been fun, but it seems to be petering
out now. Shall we go on to _Sky Island_ in another week or so?
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 16:55:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: "James R. Whitcomb" <whitcomb.1@osu.edu>
Subject: For Ozzy Digest
Dear Ozzy Digesters:
I've been meaning to post for quite a while, but have been very busy. This
post may be rather long so I apologize beforehand and hope I don't annoy
anyone.
David Hulan: I also recently received the stained glass ornament that I
ordered from Books of Wonder. I also purchased the one with Nick-Chopper and
Polychrome. I was a little nervous ordering something that expensive without
seeing it first, but I was "extremely" pleased; it's very colorful! Now, I'm
debating on whether to order another one. Your bay window with 4 of them
must be spectacular! Mine is proudly hanging in "my" window which faces the
north so light filters through it most of the day. It's surrounded by my
other stained glass Oz ornaments (much smaller) which I usually put on my
Christmas tree.
Anyone: I recently purchased a copy of "Oz and Beyond" by Riley. Since I
don't even come close to being as knowledgeable about the literary aspects
of Oz/Baum as most of the posters on this digest, I am really looking
forward to reading it. I skimmed it and so far it looks great. I did see
something early on in the book that really caught my attention and that has
to do with the relationship between Baum and Denslow on "The Wonderful
Wizard of Oz" in terms of how the design of the book could have effected the
creation of the story or vice versa. Since I am most interested in the
artistic interpretations/aspects of Oz, I can't wait to explore this area
further. Which leads me to my next question for ...
Jane: Are there any plans to have a session at the Centennial Oz Convention
in which contemporary illustrators of Baum's, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz",
will appear and discuss how/why they decided to illustrate it the way they
did? In the past few years, there have many editions published with varying
styles/techniques of illustration. I think it would be nice to meet some of
the illustrators and buy autographed copies. I have a few, which I bought
via mail, but it would be nice to meet them in person and hear their stories
about Oz.
Anyone: I came across a couple of Oz references recently that I will share,
but they are both movie related. The first is the May/June issue of "Sheet
Music Magazine". The issue is in celebration of Judy Garlands 75th birthday.
It has a nice article, music from some of the songs she sang, and a
beautiful, full-color cover. If anyone is interested in obtaining this, here
is the address: Sheet Music Magazine, 333 Adams Street, Bedford Hills, NY
10507. The cost is $3.95. The second one is an advertisement in the
September 1997 issue of "The Choral Journal" for a choral arrangement of
songs from MGM's "The Wizard of Oz". I am very interested in hearing what
this sounds like. If anyone would be interested in obtaining this issue,
here is the address: American Choral Directors Association, P.O. Box 6310,
Lawton, OK 73506-0310. The cost for this one is $4.00. The issue has
information one where to purchase the choral arrangement.
It was really nice seeing more pictures of posters in the recent issue of
"The Oz Observer". Especially, Ruth Berman, who must know something about
everything! I'm not poking fun, Ruth, I'm just amazed at how knowledgeable
you are! Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.
Jim Whitcomb of ...
Jim's "Wizard of Oz" Website
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6396/
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 22:22:00 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Sarah:
The name of that second Xanth book is _The Source of Magic_. I agree that
it is definitely one of the best of the series.
My three faves are 1, 2 and 8. That's _A Spell for Chameleon_, _The Source
of Magic_ and _Crewel Lye_. I can't imagine how you found the first one
boring. It's very similar in structure to the second, but to each their
own. I loved it, though.
Craig:
Yes, they have definitely been getting formulaic, punny and excessive, but
it's too late for me. Every time I try to get out, Anthony drags me back in
:-)
I noticed an ususual thing about Apprentice Adept. The trilogy was very
good and complete. Suddenly, five years after finishing the trilogy, he
starts it up again, and writes four more that are far inferior to the first
three. Oh,well. At least he hasn't uselessly continued _Tarot_/_Cluster_ or
_Bio of a Space Tyrant_.
Nathan:
Another one completes the FF! Congrats! I was seventeen years in this
odyssey myself, finishing in 1994. You are now a "made" guy.
Department of complaints and gripes:
Some people with ambiguous e-mail addresses are not signing their names at
the end of their posts. This makes it difficult to identify who wrote those
brilliant lines, so please, be proud and take ownership of your eloquence!
:-)
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 19:48:33 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Comments about _The Sea Fairies_ for the Ozzie Digest
Greetings and felicitations,
Well, I just finished _The Sea Fairies_ and, on the whole, find
myself well pleased by it. I suspect that if I had read it initially as
a child it could well be one of my favorites. It's hard for me to make
unbiased judgements in these cases. Suffice it to say that I found it
fairly enchanting.
Following are a few observations:
First, I believe someone had commented earlier on the excellence of
Neill's illustrations in this book. I agree. Among other things, I
found the swordfish on page 47 to be delightful. The USN on their
sides and their belts full of swords (with no obvious ability to use
them) were wonderfully whimsical. My only problem with the
illustrations was Anko. I wish Neill's drawings of him had been as
detailed and graceful as those of the rest of the characters. In
comparison, Anko almost seems a cartoon.
I wonder where the tradition of seamen and wooden legs originated.
Long John Silver, perhaps. Given the hazards of many occupations in the
past, prior to the OSHA regulations that those of us of the more
conservative persuasion decry, I imagine that missing limbs and other
personal bits and pieces were not any more common to seafarers than to
persons of many other lines of work.
On page 42:
> "Why, how old are mermaids, then?"asked Trot,
> looking around at the beautiful creatures wonderingly.
> "We are all ladies of an uncertain age,"rejoined
> the Princess, with a smile. "We don't care to tell."
I thought that the expression was "ladies of a certain age".
On page 49:
> "...Shall we go in?"
> "I'd just as soon," replied Trot, rather timidly...
The above seems awkward to me. "I'd just as soon" doesn't sound
timid, just not very enthusiastic.
On page 50:
> They could not sit down as we do, Trot readily
> understood, because of their tails.
I don't see any problem with mermaids sitting. The "Little
Mermaid" in the harbor in (is it?) Copenhagen seems to do it quite
gracefully.
On page 59:
> "Hurt!" exclaimed the Sea Serpent, groaning at the
> recollection. "My dear, those creatures have been called
> lobsters ever since!"
Could someone please explain this to me? I've tried, but can make
no sense out of it whatever.
On page 78:
> "I've heard tell of codfish aristocercy," said Cap'n
> Bill; "but I never knowed 'zac'ly what it meant afore."
I've never heard tell of this. I still don't know "zac'ly what it
means, just by the context. Help, please.
Later,
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 04 Oct 1997 22:40:18 -0500
From: Jim Vander Noot <jvandern@neosoft.com>
Subject: The Olderman Wedding
Hi folks,
Terry, Emma, and I just returned from LeAnne Olderman's wedding in Austin.
A wonderful, cozy affair in a marvelous old Victorian mansion with exquisite
stained-glass windows. Robin looked very elegant, and LeAnne made a wonderful
bride. Jeff's white beard makes him very distinguished, and for those of you
who missed Rachel at Ozmopolitan a couple years back, she is really
flourishing
too - the Navy is sending her to music school and she will be a vocalist with
the Navy band. It was such a pleasant surprise to see our old Oz friend Hank
Blossom (author of The Blue Emperor of Oz)! It had been several years since
we'd seen him.
Jim
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 18:01:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-03-97
Re the Centennial Convention,
Maybe I'll actually get to that one . . . It's in the summer, right?
Under the Rainbow?
That's also known as being under the weather. :-)
Piers Anthony:
His books are too intentionally funny for me (don't laugh, please;
I'm serious!).
--Jeremy Steadman
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 97 17:27:38 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
Has anyone been following the debate on news.groups on the possibility
of an Oz newsgroup? I would like to know people's thoughts. I would
also like people's input on how I can improve the Digest.
-- Dave
P.S. Also, how do people feel about a name change? The confusion of
"The Ozzy Digest" with Ozzy Osbourne are becoming more frequent...
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 6-7, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 21:29:55 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-03-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Ruth:
>By the by, this may be over-obvious, but I enjoyed Baum's naming that
makes Sacho of Saccharineolaland an overly sweet child.<
On the contrary, encouraging all of Zog's slaves to be happy instead of
wasting time on being miserable makes perfect sense, and also seems a
subtle act of rebellion against mean old Soggy Zoggy! :-) (Hmm. Wonder if
Zog is a pun on soggy? He supposedly doesn't know the mermaid's secret for
staying dry under water.) Actually, you did better than me in catching the
punny reference to Sacho's saccharine name.
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 21:57:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Renames for the Ozzy Digest
Here are a few ideas:
The Munchkin Foghorn
The FF Brigade
Children of the Rainbow (of course, then people would think us to be
cultists)
The Ozmapolitan
The Ozite Informer
Also, everyone, still thinking on the chess thing. I like the 'scrum' idea,
too, and I'm thinking of how to come up with a four player game on a special
'star' shaped board.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 05 Oct 1997 22:01:50 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Hello, Mr. Bear!
>
The great Aquareine controversy. Like David I thought this was
"ak-wa-rain." However, I thought Baum was doing a sort of play on words.
Aqua-reign or she who reigns in water. Jeremy?<
I'm not Jeremy, but I've always pronounced Aquareine the same as you. The
French word, "Reine," is pronounced "rain" and means "Queen". And in
English "reign" means to rule over. So it seems Baum achieved a double pun
here. "Water-queen" and "Water-reign."
David:
My mother-in-law went through some tests on Wednesday and they found no
remaining traces of her cancer. Apparently the radiation and chemotherapy
did their job and wiped it out, at least for the time being. Many of you
had expressed concern when I mentioned the diagnosis back in May, so I
thought I'd share the good news with you.
Glad they zapped your mother-in-law's cancer! Hope with you that it's gone
for good.
> "I've heard tell of codfish aristocercy," said Cap'n
> Bill; "but I never knowed 'zac'ly what it meant afore."
I've never heard tell of this. I still don't know "zac'ly what it
means, just by the context. Help, please.
Indeed! One problem I had with "Sea Fairies" was with the dated material in
it--as when the octopus is compared with a monopolistic oil company. This
is a shot in the dark, Bob, but there is a rhyme that goes, "Here's to good
old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod, where the Taylors talk only
to the Cabots, and the Cabots talk only to God." Could this be referring to
codfish aristocracy? (Peter Pan, in his story, calls the foppish,
aristocratic Captain Hook a codfish.)
Dave:
>P.S. Also, how do people feel about a name change? The confusion of
"The Ozzy Digest" with Ozzy Osbourne are becoming more frequent...
At the risk of being too obvious, you *could* rename it The Wonderful
Digest of Oz.... :-)
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 03:55:44 +0000
From: Scott Olsen <ScottO1440@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
Re: Dave's: "Has anyone been following the debate on news.groups on the
possibility of an Oz newsgroup? I would like to know people's thoughts. I
would also like people's input on how I can improve the Digest.
No, I haven't followed it. In regard to improving the Digest, would it be
possible in the header to include the date of the previous digest? Maybe
something like this:
THE OZZY DIGEST--October 5, 1997
(previous digest October 3, 1997)
This way we'll all know if there was a previous digest we didn't receive.
Although I don't **think** I've missed any, I never can be sure!
Re: "P.S. Also, how do people feel about a name change? The confusion of
"The Ozzy Digest" with Ozzy Osbourne are becoming more frequent..."
Hey, who was here first? That aside, are you saying that simply the word
"Oz" would be less confusing?
Sincerely,
Scott Olsen
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 09:27:56 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
> From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
> Subject: Comments about _The Sea Fairies_ for the Ozzie Digest
>
> On page 42:
> > "Why, how old are mermaids, then?"asked Trot,
> > looking around at the beautiful creatures wonderingly.
> > "We are all ladies of an uncertain age,"rejoined
> > the Princess, with a smile. "We don't care to tell."
> I thought that the expression was "ladies of a certain age".
It is. That is what makes the princess's remark so delightful.
> On page 78:
> > "I've heard tell of codfish aristocercy," said Cap'n
> > Bill; "but I never knowed 'zac'ly what it meant afore."
> I've never heard tell of this. I still don't know "zac'ly what it
> means, just by the context. Help, please.
This is an poser. I have always assumed that the "codfish aristocracy
referred to Bostonian families whose wealth had come from fishing. Note
the old poem:
Here's to dear old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Cabots speak only to the Lowells,
And the Lowells speak only to God.
>
> Re the Centennial Convention,
> Maybe I'll actually get to that one . . . It's in the summer, right?
>
Yes, the summer of 2000.
> From: Dave Hardenbrook
>
> P.S. Also, how do people feel about a name change? The confusion of
> "The Ozzy Digest" with Ozzy Osbourne are becoming more frequent...
>
Leave well enough alone. Keep things as they are.
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 10:45:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
Aquareine:
All right, I'll put in my two nonsenses at last:
1) Aquar-eine--If you find a female chicken that was dropped in
a bucket of paint, you will see the logic in the saying, mad as an
aqua hen.
2) Awk! Warring (is what certain parrots do best).
Now aren't you all glad I was silent about that at first?
-----------------------------------------
Dave:
Re confusion between the Digest and the Osbourne by the same name--
We have just as much a right to our name as he does! Don't back down
(what else would we call it, anyway? The Oz Discussion Group? We'd
turn off more potential members thab we'd gain, as people would
expect a scholarly, high-level dialouge among university professors).
--Jeremy Steadman, an Oz fan, no more (and no less!)
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 10:23:12 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
Bear:
The waters off Oregon/Washington are warmer than the waters off similar
latitudes on the Atlantic coast, true, but I believe El Nino is still
making them warmer. (I know it's doing it off the California coast; I don't
know how far north the effect goes.)
>Congratulations David - I see you have become the "Al Franken" of the
>Digest while I was gone.
That name sounds familiar, but I can't place it, so I don't know if I
should feel complimented or insulted.
>I can see "The Sea Fairies" was a real disappointment for many of us as the
>discussion so far has revolved around typos and art. Sigh. It left me so
>cold I don't have a single comment.
There was also a good deal of discussion of the character of Zog, which to
me was the only really interesting part of the book.
I stopped getting BoW News quite some time ago, probably because I wasn't
buying anything from it; I buy a lot from BoW, but almost entirely through
the Oz Collector. With few exceptions, the items offered in BoW News
weren't anything I was interested in. And now that there's a bookstore with
an excellent selection of children's and YA hardcovers handy to me, I'd be
even less likely to need to order from BoW. For Oz stuff, of course,
they're in a class by themselves.
>Octopodes - David, you must have forgotten your Beatles.
Must have; I don't remember any references to octopuses or octopi or
octopodes in any of the Beatles albums I have. But then I stopped liking
what the Beatles were doing starting with the White Album, so I don't know
their later songs at all well. And probably not all of their earlier ones,
though I think I'm pretty familiar with their better-known songs up to the
WA.
"Reine" is the French word for "queen," which Baum probably had in mind,
though "aqua" is not French for "water," but Latin.
Welcome back, by the way!
James:
Well, _I_ like our bay window with the four Oz stained glass ornaments
hanging in it, and so does my wife even though she's not really an Oz fan.
They certainly announce to anyone passing that Here Lives An Oz Fan...
Mine are also on the north side of the house, though the street is angled a
little to true north so the center panes really face about north by west.
In the summer the left-hand pane (looking from inside the house) catches
the late-afternoon sun, so I chose to put the Ruggedo/Tik-Tok ornament
there because the faceted "emeralds" look best when in direct sunlight.
Bob S.:
I think I've mentioned before that _The Sea Fairies_ was the only Baum/Oz
book that my daughter liked when she was a child. I think this is because
she was much more into natural history than fantasy, so that even though
she knew that Trot's encounters with undersea creatures weren't realistic,
she enjoyed them.
> I wonder where the tradition of seamen and wooden legs originated.
>Long John Silver, perhaps. Given the hazards of many occupations in the
>past, prior to the OSHA regulations that those of us of the more
>conservative persuasion decry, I imagine that missing limbs and other
>personal bits and pieces were not any more common to seafarers than to
>persons of many other lines of work.
I don't know of any statistics, but one-legged sailors are a pretty common
theme in books; Captain Ahab antedated Long John Silver, IIRC, and I doubt
he was the first. Climbing around in the rigging of a sailing ship was
probably more hazardous than most land-based jobs, and in the days before
antibiotics almost any compound fracture required amputation to save the
victim's life.
>> "I've heard tell of codfish aristocercy," said Cap'n
>> Bill; "but I never knowed 'zac'ly what it meant afore."
> I've never heard tell of this. I still don't know "zac'ly what it
>means, just by the context. Help, please.
"Codfish aristocracy" was a term coined in the mid-19th century to refer to
a class of nouveau riche Bostonians who'd made their fortunes in the
codfishing industry, which was a major one in Massachusetts in the 18th and
19th centuries. Wallace Irwin wrote a poem on the subject that was
apparently popular around the time Baum wrote _Sea Fairies_; the first
stanza goes "Of all the fish that swim or swish/ In ocean's deep
autocracy,/ There's none possess such hautiness/ As the codfish
aristocracy." The "codfish" aristocracy were distinguished from the _true_
aristocracy - people like the Lowells and Cabots and Adamses - by being
just rich, not cultured. (This information courtesy of _Heavens to Betsy!_,
a compendium of colorful phrases by Charles Earle Funk, published in 1955.)
Dave:
You're the one running the Digest (or "you da man," as the saying goes in
Chicagoland); if you think changing the name would reduce confusion then by
all means do so. If you just made it the "Oz Digest" you might get
subscribers confusing it with travel in Australia, of course, or fans of
the writer Amos Oz.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 16:40:10 -0400
From: David Levitan <wizardofoz@iname.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
Well, I can fill you in on that, since I am the group proponent. Thje
name has been changed from rec.arts.books.oz to
rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz because of some confusion. This was thought
to be the best name possible. That was the only change when the 2nd RFD
was posted. there was then some debate on a few things, and a lot of
things got changed. First, advertisements about Oz are allowed. Second,
no original fiction is allowed. And third, other books by Oz authors
were allowed. The thire RFD should be posted some time this week, as it
takes some time for the moderator of news.announce.newgroups to post
RFDs. It is possible that there will be an RFD about the end of this
month. I will post a note here when the CFV has been posted
> Date: Sun, 05 Oct 97 17:27:38 (PDT)
> From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
> Subject: Ozzy Things
>
> Has anyone been following the debate on news.groups on the possibility
> of an Oz newsgroup? I would like to know people's thoughts. I would
> also like people's input on how I can improve the Digest.
>
> -- Dave
--
David Levitan Oz Enthusiast
wizardofoz@iname.com Netscape Supporter
Designer of the Wonderful Land of Oz
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9075
Ring Master of the Oz Web Ring
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=ozsites;home
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 16:12:10 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
Did anyone know that Gump Stephen Norrington went on to direct a film
called _Death Machine_, in which the characters are named after cult
horror directors, like Dante, Carpeneter, and Raimi?
Bear: I believe the Beatles song uses a possesive, not a plural.
David: When Rush Limbaugh was talking about the goals of the UPS strike,
he kept mentioning "Yellow Brick Road." As far as him making up facts, he
documents most of them, so if someone is making them up, it's not him.
Scott
P.S.: I figured out how to make WordPerfect type in foreign alphabets.
Could one of our Hebrew speakers tell me the correct way to put _Hakosem!_
and _Haksoem Mae'orchi Hakosem!_ into Hebrew (spelling the letters out in
English) back into the original Hebrew, since I'ver never seen the film?
I'd hate to ask my sister-in-law, just because she's Jewish.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 14:45:43 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
A week or so to begin _Sky Island_ is okay with me too.
Dave Hardenbrook,
I personally have no interest in an Oz newsgroup. Also, I see no
need for a change in the "Ozzie Digest" name, but if others feel it
necessary or desirable I have no objection.
This from Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle:
> In "The Wizard of Oz," you may recall, a tornado touched
> down in Kansas. Other times that happened there include
> June 22, 1969, the day that Judy Garland died.
I would not imagine that the above is a particularity striking
coincidence, but maybe I am mistaken. Any comments?
Also:
> In "The Wizard of Oz,"
All you punctuation professionals, Help! I feel that the comma
should have followed the end quote, not been within the quotation marks.
I come across other occurrences of similar punctuation from time to
time, i.e. periods at the end of sentences being inserted within quotes
when the periods are not part of the original quotation. Am I in error?
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 06 Oct 1997 21:06:39 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Sky Island:
Could we start _Sky Island_ in at least a week or two? That will give me
the time to re-read it.
Sarah:
There is a four-player chess game out there somewhere, although they may
not make it anymore.
Basically, it is a normal board with each player's pieces in two special
rows set back from the board. Therefore, it has 128 squares. The two
players facing each other are allies, and the idea is to capture the other
two kings.
David:
It's good to hear of the lack of cancer though. I'd recommend a stern
vigil, though. Cancer is known to make comebacks.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 08:06:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe)
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
In the 10/3 Digest, Bob Spark asks what I have been doing for the last 34
years to defend my country.
Active duty military/government staffer/contract employee in various
support positions on the Government side of the industrial-military
complex.
Saroz says in the same digest he found that <The first [Xanth] book ("A
Spell for Chameleon") is excessively boring.>
This is not the general reaction. (I thought it was quite good.) The
book did win one of the prestigious awards and inspired the ongoing
interest in the Xanth series.
Dave, I will be off-line Friday, 10/10 through Sunday 10/19. Could you
assign someone else to forward the Ozzy Digest to my designated AOL buddy
-- OZZILEE@aol.com -- for the duration?
Earl Abbe
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 06:35:35 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
Nathan DeHoff: Oops, yes, No Bodies are in "Pirates," not "John Dough."
(Wrong voyage among Nonestic islandry.)
Bob Spark: Those questions you raise on various small points of usage --
I don't know why "an uncertain age" rather than the usual "a certain age"
(maybe parody poking fun at it?), or why creatures that hurt would be
called lobsters (maybe this is the same sort of joke as Mark Twain's
Eve's calling the tiger a tiger because that's what it looks like)? On "I'd
just as soon" and "timidly" -- the phrase itself is not timid, but presumably
it could be said in a timid voice. Problems for mermaids sitting -- they
could bend the tail to sit on the tail as the Copenhagen Little Mermaid
status does, but then it would be hard to "sit down as we do," i.e., in a
chair. "Zac'ly" is Baum stumble-tongue-talk for "exactly." "Codfish
aristocracy" -- Lowells and Cabots, I assume. "I come from the city of
Boston, the home of the bean and the cod, where the Lowells speak only
to Cabots, and the Cabots speak only to God," as the old verse has it.
Robin Olderman: Congratulations on LeAnne's wedding! (And thanks to
Jim Vander Noot for the descriptioning.)
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 97 15:34:36 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
Any more comments on Oz newsgroup/Digest improvements? (I'm currently
leaning towards not changing the name...)
Scott Olsen wrote: <ScottO1440@worldnet.att.net>
>No, I haven't followed it. In regard to improving the Digest, would it be
>possible in the header to include the date of the previous digest?
In the Digest, if a day is skipped the head reflects this, i.e. "THE OZZY
DIGEST 4 - 5, 1997" indicates that the last Digest was on the 3rd.
Earl wrote:
>Dave, I will be off-line Friday, 10/10 through Sunday 10/19. Could you
>assign someone else to forward the Ozzy Digest to my designated AOL buddy
>-- OZZILEE@aol.com -- for the duration?
This may not be necessary...Is anyone still have trouble getting the
Digest directly from me?
How about starting _Sky Island_ a week from next Monday?
Sorry my remarks on the Digest are so brief lately...I've been swamped
with work the last couple of weeks...
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 8 - 9, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 20:17:49 -0400
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz Stuff
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Has anyone heard of a piece of art by Greg Brown called "The Homecoming."
It was used locally in an ad for the CivicBank of Commerce. It is
apparently the artists idea of the Wizard, Dorothy and Toto in a balloon.
The Wizard is waving his hat and Dorothy appears to be strangling Toto.
An article from the San Jose Mercury News Wire Service: Munchkin's 'ego
trip'
In 1939, as coroner of Munchkin Land, Meinhardt Raabe pronounced the Wicked
Witch of the East dead in "The Wizard of Oz." Nearly 60 years later, he's
still a fan favorite.
Raabe was one of 12 original Munchkins who turned out Friday for the 16th
annual Wizard of Oz Festival in Chesterton, Ind., where adoring fans
snapped flash photos and shot home video.
"It's an ego trip," said Raabe, 82, who still gets fan mail. "This is our
reward, the nostalgia." Raabe and the others spent much of Friday
autographing Oz memorabilia--pictures, books, calendars, hats, collector's
plates.
Finally if you are REALLY into Oz ornaments, my wife just received a
"Command Performance" catalog. Item #CM1641 Handblown Glass Ornaments of
the famous four made by Kurt Adler. 1-800-873-8263 They come in a "wooden
keepsake crate." The price......$180.00
New Digest Names - On one hand we want to advertise Oz to those who may be
interested. On the other we want to avoid Australia and Osbourne. Hmmmm.
I'm sure you will get some great suggestions. How about "Emerald City
Digest." Hmmmm we may get people who are interested in Seattle. Hmmm
"Emerald City, Oz Digest?"
David - We are getting 10-11 degrees warmer water here thanks to El Nino.
I'll leave Al Franken as an exercise for you. I certainly don't want to
tout him.
I remember Ringo singing "....in an octopuses garden, by the sea..." I
don't know the album.
There is one thing about putting stained glass in direct sunlight.....it
may fade, depending on the quality of the glass.
Dave >In the Digest, if a day is skipped the head reflects this, i.e. "THE
OZZY
DIGEST 4 - 5, 1997" indicates that the last Digest was on the 3rd.
If that is the case, I missed the 6th of October? However, on scanning,
this Digest has posts from the 5th, 6th and 7th.
Regards, Bear (:<)
Fans of the fantasy classic starring Judy Garland flocked to Chesterton by
the thousands for the festival. License plates in the parking lot included
tags from Minnesota, Arizona, Iowa and Ohio.
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 20:41:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
Earl -
I'm sorry if I said that A Spell For Chameleon is generally accepted as a
horrible book. I didn't mean that. Several people I personally know, however
(including myself), find the book impossible to finish and/or extremely
boring and dry.
I'm sorry if I sounded like it is a frequently-hated book by all...I didn't
mean that.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 19:06:40 -0700
From: Robert Schroeder <mbert@swbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest
Renaming Digest:
I really like the name of the digest as it stands, but then, I
understand the confusion. When I was on AOL I used the screennames
"LostNOz" and "HellofrmOZ", and even now, on IRC, I use "OZinTX", and I
was, and am, always being confused for someone living in Australia. I
never thought of the confusion between Ozzy Osbourne (just assure them
that we DON'T bite the heads off of bats! <shudder>). I did like some
of the names that Saroz came up with, especially the Children of the
Rainbow, but not only would we be confused with a cultist group, but we
could also be thought of either being a gay/lesbian publication or
affiliated with Rev. Jesse Jackson. Yeah, Dave, lets keep it as it
is...
As for improving it Dave, I see no area needing improvement at this
point. I would like to twist your arm and find out what program you use
to make the Digest, as my church is going "high tech" and I have been
asked to lead an on-line cell group, a "cyber church" if you will, and I
would really like to model it after the Ozzy Digest....
Scott:
About asking your sister-in-law about translating things into Hebrew for
you, I don't think that she would be offended. If she is like me (I'm
not Jewish though) I welcome any intelligent request for information
about "my people".
Tornado In Kansas:
It doesn't surprize me that a tornado touched down in Kansas on the day
of Judy Garland's death <respectful moment of silence>. Having lived in
the Texas Panhandle for most of my life, I am well aware of the "Tornado
Alley" phenonomon (sp?). I am also interested in almost anything
surrounding Judy Garland, and some of the events that happened around
her death. It was on the day of her funeral, in New York City, that the
Stonewall Riots began. It is said that many patrons of the Stonewall
Bar (a gay bar in Greenwich Village) were drowning their grief over
Garland's death when the NYPD began its raid on the bar, and those folks
had just had enough and began to fight back. Of course, this is just
part of the legend, and has not been really documented, except for in
the 1996 film "Stonewall".
Dave Hardenbrook..
Swamped with work? How dare you have a life!!!! <g>
Having recently seen the by-line of one of our Digesters, sorry, I
forget the name, but he signs off with ...in Ozlo...let me just say, I
love it!! Been thinking about using ..in Oztin (Austin) myself, of
course, many others could join in, Oz Angeles anyone???
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 21:29:51 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
Scott H.:
Maybe Limbaugh doesn't make up his "facts" himself (or maybe, since he had
a lot of money behind him, he gets his henchmen to "document" them), but he
sure puts out a lot of lies.
Bob S.:
>> In "The Wizard of Oz," you may recall, a tornado touched
>> down in Kansas. Other times that happened there include
>> June 22, 1969, the day that Judy Garland died.
> I would not imagine that the above is a particularity striking
>coincidence, but maybe I am mistaken. Any comments?
There are a number of tornadoes in Kansas most years. It's part of what's
called "Tornado Alley." I read recently that something like 75% of all
tornadoes in the world occur in the US, by the way.
Standard American style puts punctuation inside the quotation mark even if
the quotation didn't include the punctuation. British style, on the other
hand, does it the logical way. That's the sort of thing that's purely
arbitrary (like spelling the possessive "its" without an apostrophe) and
just has to be memorized as one of the vagaries of the language.
Tyler:
>David:
>It's good to hear of the lack of cancer though. I'd recommend a stern
>vigil, though. Cancer is known to make comebacks.
Oh, we're well aware of that. But at least the news is good at present; it
could be worse.
Dave:
>Any more comments on Oz newsgroup/Digest improvements? (I'm currently
>leaning towards not changing the name...)
I see no reason to change the name unless you're getting so many queries
from Ozzy Osborne fans that it's a nuisance for you. If it is, change it!
If it's just trying to be nice to the fans of a mediocre pop singer, who
occasionally waste some time trying to subscribe when they're not
interested, but not in quantities high enough to discommode you, why bother?
>How about starting _Sky Island_ a week from next Monday?
Sounds good to me!
General comment:
I was interested to see so many different versions of the "land of the bean
and the cod" verse, which I'm quite familiar with. The version I remember
was "Here's to the city of Boston,/ The land of the bean and the cod,/
Where the Lowells speak only to Cabots/ And the Cabots speak only to God."
Ruth was the closest to that one.
The Official version, however, per _The Oxford Dictionary of Modern
Quotations_, is "And this is good old Boston,/ The land of the bean and the
cod,/ Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots/ And the Cabots talk only to
God." It's attributed to John Collins Bossidy (who has nothing else
attributed to him), at a Holy Cross College alumni dinner in 1910.
When in was in college, incidentally, the same general phrase was applied
to the two snootiest sororities at Vanderbilt: "The Gamma Phi Betas speak
only to the Kappa Alpha Thetas, and the Kappa Alpha Thetas speak only to
God." That was the first time I ran across the idea.
FWIW
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 23:46:05 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
What's in a name:
All things considered, I'll cast my vote for our name to stay the same. Who
knows? Maybe the name change will bring us some converts. You can never
have too many head-banging metal-mashers around... :-)
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 07:28:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: "James R. Whitcomb" <whitcomb.1@osu.edu>
Subject: For Ozzy Digest
Dave H.:
Here's my suggestion for the re-naming of "The Ozzy Digest" even though I
like "The Ozzy Digest".
CyberOZ : Citizens of OZ on-line discussion group ... moderated by Dave
Hardenbrook, Royal "Cyberspace" Historian of Oz.
Jim Whitcomb.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 08:35:52 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: OZ
> All you punctuation professionals, Help! I feel that the comma
> should have followed the end quote, not been within the quotation marks.
> I come across other occurrences of similar punctuation from time to
> time, i.e. periods at the end of sentences being inserted within quotes
> when the periods are not part of the original quotation. Am I in error?
>
> Bob Spark
Commas should *always* be placed inside the final quotation mark, as
should periods, unless the quotation is followed by a parenthetical
citation, in which case the period follows the citation. A comma or a
period should never directly follow a final quotation mark. The case of
question marks and exclamation points is more complicated.
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 09:48:14 +0000
From: Craig Noble <crnoble@amfor.org>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
Dave:
I agree with those who prefer to stick with "Ozzy Digest." However, if
inquiries from Ozzy Osbourne fans are really becoming a nuisance, a name
change is your prerogative. In that case I would vote for "The Ozmapolitan."
Ozzy ornaments:
They look very nice but are way too expensive for my budget. Peter Glassman,
I've bought almost every Oz and Baum book that you've published, so this is
not meant to be an attack, but do the ornaments really have to cost so much?
-- Craig
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 09:56:39 -0600
From: Richard_Tuerk@tamu-commerce.edu (Richard Tuerk)
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
In the digest for 10/7 Bob Spark asked:
> All you punctuation professionals, Help! I feel that the comma
>should have followed the end quote, not been within the quotation marks.
>I come across other occurrences of similar punctuation from time to
>time, i.e. periods at the end of sentences being inserted within quotes
>when the periods are not part of the original quotation. Am I in error?
Most presses, journals, style sheets, and handbooks in America put commas
and periods within quotation marks, no matter what the context is.
Semicolons and colons come outside quotation marks, no matter what the
context is. Only exclamation marks and question marks move as a result of
context: if the exclamation or question is part of the quotation, the mark
comes inside the quotation marks; if the exclamation or question is not
part of the quotation, the mark comes outside the quotation marks.
Here is the way _Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-Use Reference Handbook_,
second edition (the handbook I'm now using in my freshman English class)
explains the system:
Commas and, with one exception, periods go inside closing quotation
marks. [the exception involves parenthetical documentation.]
Semicolons and colons always go outside quotation marks.
The rule for all other punctuation (such as question mark or
exclamation point) is that if the punctuation is part of the material
quoted, it goes inside the quotation marks; it the punctuation is not
part of the material quoted, it goes outside the quotation marks.
As I understand it, the rules involving commas and periods came into
existence so that typesetters, editors, and proofreaders would not have to
spend time worrying about the placement of each comma and period.
Rich Tuerk
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 21:34:31 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
Dave Hardenbrook: For worry about Ozzy Ozbourne/Ozzy Digest
confusion, rather than changing the name of the Ozzy Digest, how about
just adding to it the subtitle you put at the end of each Digest anyway,
"The Ozzy Digest (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club)"?
Bob Spark & David Hulan: I tried asking about ideas on whether sailors
were more likely to have injuries requiring amputation. My niece Margit
suggested that a factor might be that even smaller injuries were harder to
heal and more likely to get infected, given the nutrition and medical care
generally available on old sailing ships (notoriously "a scurvy lot").
Bob Spark: It's an illogical rule, but commas and periods go inside quote
marks, even when not part of the material being quoted, and the larger
punctuation marks (;:?! and --) go outside (if not part of the material
being quoted). Something to do with protecting the thinnest pieces of
type in the old typesetting sticks, supposedly. Incidentally, most
dictionaries (collegiate or larger) have an appendix on punctuation at the
back to define the (sometimes illogical) rules of usage for them. If you
don't already have a good dictionary lying around the room where you
usually process your words (always sounds like pureeing them, doesn't
it?), it's a useful acquisition.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 08:52:14 -0700
From: Tyler Jones <Tyler@apprentice.com>
Subject: Oz
Spies needed:
Do we have anyone from Staten Island on the digest? If not, how about
elsewhere in the Big Apple?
By that, I mean currently living there.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 21:54:55 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
David:
>Must have; I don't remember any references to octopuses or octopi or
octopodes in any of the Beatles albums I have.<
I'd like to be....under the sea... in an octopus's garden in the shade...
etc., etc., etc. :-)
Wouldn't be a bad musical number for the stage or movie version of "Sea
Fairies."
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 07:36:26 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest ps
It occurred to me that as Melody and Steve and I all quoted versions of the
toast to Boston, it would be nice to look up the precise wording and see
who the author was. "Bartlett's Quotations" explains that it was John
Colins Bossidy, 1860-1928 (who has no other claim to fame, it seems), who
delivered a Holly Cross Alumni toast at a dinner in 1910, with verses on
various places, including: "And this is good old Boston,/ The home of the
bean and the cod,/ Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots/ And the Cabots
talk only to God." His toast was patterned on an earlier one (1905
apparently -- given by a Harvard class of 1880 alum at their 25th reunion),
which said, "Here's to old Massachussetts,/ The home of the sacred cod,/
Where the Adamses vote for Douglas/ And the Cabots walk with God."
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 97 13:26:17 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT:
Oz exists, Ozma exists, Santa Claus exists, the Easter Bunny exists, and
even the Great Pumpkin exists...But there is *no* Digest for Oct. 6. :)
Yes, I slipped up didn't incade this in the header...I'm going to have
to make it automatic...
THE DIGEST NAME:
I think you all are right -- Why change the name just to pander to a rock
star who looks like a Wheeler, sounds like a melting witch, and would keep
trying to bite the heads off of Billina's chicks.
Bear wrote:
>How about "Emerald City Digest." Hmmmm we may get people who are interested
>in Seattle. Hmmm "Emerald City, Oz Digest?"
Jellia: We may get people interested in that new show about that prison...
Ozma: *"Correctional facility"*!
Jellia: Yes, of course -- "Correctional facility"... :)
Locasta: I once suggested "Gilikin Digest" but Dave got messages from fans
of _Gilligen's Island_...
Dorothy: I was all for "Ozma Daily", but guess what? There's a rock group
called "Ozma"!
Scraps: I thought "Scarecrow Times" had a ring;
But it brought fans of a whole other thing --
A crime drama starring a Mrs. King!
Audah: I thought of either "Winkie Times" or "Blinkie Times", but Dave got
messages asking what became of Nod...
Tik-Tok: I--thought--I--had--a--per-fect--name. I--sug-est-ed--we--call--
it--the
Wij&%$hdgb#*&%dnyhd=#<bvW"XfP*vSb!=*CU'%<?dx<nO3Lzjfxm$#%&!...
Then--Dor-o-thy--wound--up--my--think-ing--a-gain...
Zim: I suggested "Glinda Times", but people thought it was for that actress
Ms. Jackson who played Elizabeth R and who is now in the British
Parliament...
Aurah: So it's hopeless!
Aujah: You got it! :) :) :)
MAKE_DIGEST.EXE:
Robert Schroeder <mbert@swbell.net> wrote:
>I would like to twist your arm and find out what program you use
>to make the Digest, as my church is going "high tech" and I have been
>asked to lead an on-line cell group, a "cyber church" if you will, and I
>would really like to model it after the Ozzy Digest....
I use a program which I wrote myself called "Make_Digest"...It's currently
"hard coded" to generate the Ozzy Digest, but I've contemplated making
it capable of generating a Digest of any name, for shareware distribution.
You may have given me the incentive I need! :)
BIG APPLE:
Tyler wrote:
>Do we have anyone from Staten Island on the digest? If not, how about
>elsewhere in the Big Apple?
Jinjur: I was there last week to speak on behalf of the Staten Island
Secession Party -- Does that count? :)
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 10, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 08:56:12 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: Codfish and Lobsters
> From: Bob Spark
> On page 59:
> > "Hurt!" exclaimed the Sea Serpent, groaning at the
> > recollection. "My dear, those creatures have been called
> > lobsters ever since!"
> Could someone please explain this to me? I've tried, but can make
> no sense out of it whatever.
None of my dictionaries solved this one. However, "lobster" was
American slang for a stupid clumsy person, and therefore it might be a
clue.
> On page 78:
> > "I've heard tell of codfish aristocercy," said Cap'n
> > Bill; "but I never knowed 'zac'ly what it meant afore."
> I've never heard tell of this. I still don't know "zac'ly what it
> means, just by the context. Help, please.
I found a book by John Ciardi, _A Browser's Dictionary_ which provided
the answer: The term "codfish aristocracy" was indeed a Bostonian term,
it means the "nouveaux riches" (the newely rich). It was a term
contemptiously used by the old money Back Bay residents for those who
made their fortunes in fishing and then built houses in the Back Bay.
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 18:48:38 -0500
From: rri0189@ibm.net
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-03-97
Jeremy Steadman wrote:
>A serious question here (I do those on occasion): How do we know how
>the ancient Romans (or any dead people) said things?
The details are _much_ too complicated to go into here, and I
don't know them anyway, but a pretty good approximation can
be reached with rules such as these:
1. All western languages use the Latin alphabet. Latin, being the
first language to use that alphabet, was spelled as it sounded.
By looking at the spellings of modern languages, we can work out
the common factors. For example, virtually all languages pronounce
the letter I as in machIne and/or as in It, never as in mIght, so
it is reasonable to assume that that is how the letter was pronounced
originally, especially because it can be traced back to the letter
iota in Greek.
2. Many languages are descended from Latin. Now, some aspects
of the pronunciations of these languages derive from other
languages that have fed them (various Germanic languages in
most cases, Slavic in the case of Rumanian), but a large part
of the process is simple decay over time. A theory can be
worked out that works in all known cases, saying in effect
that the same sound _always_ changes in the same way in a
given line of descent. (If there seems to be an exception
to a rule, it is because the rule is too simple; for example,
perhaps a vowel changes one way in an accented syllable, but
a different way in an unaccented syllable.) A classic case,
is how "ct" in Latin always becomes "tt" in Italian. Some
changes are reflected in writing; others can be worked out
backwards.
The best explanations of the process for laymen (and I am
definitely a layman here) are typically to be found in
textbooks on Old English, because it is traditional to
cover the subject in Old English 101, whereas it usually
doesn't get covered in other subject areas until the
postgraduate level.
Most professionals regard the process as fairly sound, even
though it is, by definition, speculative. It's sort of like
working on a giant abstract jigsaw puzzle; you may have to
do a lot of guessing at first, but when you have all the
pieces put together, and they all fit, then you've probably
got it right.
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 19:43:17 -0500
From: rri0189@ibm.net
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
Tyler Jones wrote:
>There is a four-player chess game out there somewhere, although they may
>not make it anymore.
>Basically, it is a normal board with each player's pieces in two special
>rows set back from the board. Therefore, it has 128 squares. The two
>players facing each other are allies, and the idea is to capture the other
>two kings.
Three extra rows, so that the board is essentially 14*14, with 3*3 corners
cut out. 64+3*(3*8) = 132 squares. Pawns just move back and forth unless
they can reach an opponent's back row by successive captures (so there has
to be a way to know which direction a pawn is heading). When a player is
checkmated, he only loses his turn until his partner can rescue him. To
win, both opponents must be checkmated.
Another variant is very ancient. Each side has a king, an elephant
(ancestor of the bishop -- move is one diagonal or one forward),
a knight, a rook, and four pawns. They are put out swastika-wise
on an ordinary board. Kings are captured, not checkmated. I don't
recall whether it's partnership or free-for-all. No double pawn
move, so no en-passant.
RNEK..PR
PPPP..PN
......PE
......PK
KP......
EP......
NP..PPPP
RP..KENR
// John W Kennedy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 20:16:36 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-09-97
Ozzy place names:
Hmm. Well, at college the nearest city is Rome, GA. I could say all
yellow brick roads lead here, I suppose . . .
Name change?
CyberOZ: I still don't think that'd help any.
Ozmapolitan: I think that's been done.
IF you DO decide to change the name, Dave, how about `Witch Way to
Oz?' ? (I think the name's okay, though.)
Re Tyler's query about Big Applers on the Digest:
That's Staten the situation a bit bluntly, I think.
--Jeremy Steadman
P.S. I'm about to go home for the weekend, so you'll all be free of
my puns until Wednesday! I can feel the excitement build!
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 19:11:56 -0500
From: rri0189@ibm.net
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-05-97
>P.S. Also, how do people feel about a name change? The confusion of
> "The Ozzy Digest" with Ozzy Osbourne are becoming more frequent..
If "Ozzy" is out, so is "Oz" (what with Australia and the HBO prison
series). "Ozmapolitan" is already overloaded, and the obvious
"Emerald City Press" is TMed.
Would "Emerald City Court Circular" be both unique and memorable
enough?
// John W. Kennedy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 09 Oct 1997 21:05:50 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-09-97
>I'll leave Al Franken as an exercise for you. I certainly don't want to
>tout him.
Tyler was kind enough to tell me who Al Franken is. I don't know much about
him, but since Tyler says he wrote _Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot_, I'll
take it that you intended it as an insult and I take it as a compliment. :-)
>I remember Ringo singing "....in an octopuses garden, by the sea..." I
>don't know the album.
Based on Melody's rendition I think that's "an octopus's garden," which is
a possessive, not a plural, and thus is always in "'s" for English nouns.
(I still don't remember that song, though.)
Craig:
Made-to-order stained glass ornaments in the size of the Ozian ones from
BoW are very expensive to do. I'm sure BoW isn't making any huge profit on
them.
Ruth:
You may well be right that even injuries that wouldn't have required
amputation on land might well require it at sea because of the different
conditions and worse nutrition. But I hold to my opinion that the risks to
seafarers were greater than to most landsmen in the days when most ships
worked under sail.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 01:06:19 +0000
From: rri0189@ibm.net
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-09-97
David Hulan wrote:
>That's the sort of thing that's purely
>arbitrary (like spelling the possessive "its" without an apostrophe) and
>just has to be memorized as one of the vagaries of the language.
Not so. You don't put an apostrophe on "my", "mine", "your", "yours",
"his", "her", "hers", "our", "ours", "their" or "theirs", so you
don't want to put one on "its", either.
The basic problem is that English lost the genitive case except for
pronouns, and then gained it back again from an artificial construction.
The apostrophe in "John's" is there because it is short for "John his".
Since the pronouns still have the genitive case, they don't want
or need an apostrophe.
// John W Kennedy
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 08:33:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-09-97
>Tik-Tok: I--thought--I--had--a--per-fect--name. I--sug-gest-ed--we--call--
it--the
>Wij&%$hdgb#*&%dnyhd=#<bvW"XfP*vSb!=*CU'%<?dx<nO3Lzjfxm$#%&!...
>Then--Dor-o-thy--wound--up--my--think-ing--a-gain....
LOL, Dave!
SKY ISLAND -
I'm going to read this book this weekend (tho, sadly, sans illustrations...I
have a 50s/60s Reilly & Lee edition that is orange with Button Bright's
umbrella stamped in blue on the spine...but it has no illustrations), but
before I do, a question. I remembered something while reading a post today
about how the Beatles' "Octopus's Garden" (album "Abbey Road", BTW) would be
a good song for a film version of "Sea Fairies"...in the 1985 book, "The
World of Oz", wasn't it said that a "Sky Island" film was in progress? Was
this just a silly rumour that found its way into the book? Or was it actually
a real project?
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 09:00:25 -0500 (CDT)
From: Robin Olderman <robino@tenet.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-09-97
X-Authentication-warning: thurman.tenet.edu: robino owned process doing -bs
Ozlo, Oztin,LOz Angeles: I guess that means I live in HOzton?
Punctuation with quotation marks: Easiest way to remember periods and
commas is probably to remember that they always go to the left of the
quotation marks, whether open or close quotes. The rule about where the
period goes at the end of an internal quote (single quote within double
quote setup) is changing, thus the confusion. Technically, the period
should go to the left of both single and douoble quotation marks. [ .'"]
Another way to think of when the punctuation goes inside or outside of
quotation marks is to ask yourself whether the punctuation mark would go
inside a cartoon bubble if the quotation were to be drawn. Think of the
set of quotation marks as equivalent to a cartoon bubble. "Help!" cried
Joey. Picture a cartoon of Joey. The exclamation mark would definitely go
inside of the cartoon bubble. I wish I could draw it for you. It helps my
students with question mark and exclamation point punct.
--Robin
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 17:44:17 -0400
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: TODAY'S OZ GROWLS
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
DAVID >Maybe Limbaugh doesn't make up his "facts" himself (or maybe, since
he had
a lot of money behind him, he gets his henchmen to "document" them), but he
sure puts out a lot of lies.
If so, this gives him a lot in common with the current administration since
you have brought up the subject. [Talk about broad generalizations,
appeals to envy of the wealthy, use of inflammatory words e.g. "henchmen,"
and unfounded accusations. You really got up on the wrong side today.]
Love and peace, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 11 - 12, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 19:49:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: JOdel@aol.com
Subject: Ozzy Digest
A little puzzle to play with before we move on from Sea Faries.
We are given to understand that Zog's emotional displays are deliberately (or
just naturally) perverse acording to human observation. Meaning that the
signs he appears to display do not match his actual feelings.
If this is the case, what may we suppose his actual feelings ARE when is out
there LAUGHING at the drowning humans from shipwrecks and saving the lives of
the ones who manage to drift close to him?
May we suppose that Baum didn't really think this one through before he wrote
it...
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:07:13 -0700
From: Robert Schroeder <mbert@swbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest
Jeremy on Ozzy Place names:
I guess you can say, "Auntie Em! There's no place like Rome!!"
<ducking, because I'm sure this one has been done already>
Stained Glass:
uhmm...I wonder if the drawings from the books (Neill) is still under
copyright? I thought about having some bevels etched with
Dorothy/Ozma/Tinman/Lion/Scarecrow/Wizard, then setting them into a
panel that would incorparate the Emerald City image from the MGM Movie,
and a Rainbow (yes....there HAS to be a rainbow). I would like to do
this for a fireplace screen....
And Robin....Hozton...I think we have a problem here...sounds like a
fashion designer!!!
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 00:59:08 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Dave:
I KNEW that the Great Pumpkin was real! I also know that Linus will see him
someday and be vindicated.
Sarah:
I'll admit that _A Spell for Chameleon_ is not quite the wild adventure
ride that many other fantasy books are. That's a plus in my mind, though.
Robert S:
That Ozlo guy is Bill Wright, founder of the Piglet Press :-)
Craig:
I believe that the Oz ornaments are so expensive because they are specially
hand-crafted items and they come in very limited editions.
Will the real "OZ" step forward:
Dave's right. No matter what name we pick, the potential exists for
confusion, unless we call it "The Wizard of Oz Digest", but "The Ozzy
Digest" flows much better. This just proves that we have a lot of work to
do to educate the masses as to the nature of the REAL "Oz". Forward! :-)
Jinjur:
Fascinating. Staten Island is actually considering peeling away from the
Big Apple. WIth you on their side, they'll make it :-)
Notes:
I still think of henchmen as men-at-arms who help D&D characters slay
Dragons.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 11:05:25 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-10-97
John K.:
>David Hulan wrote:
>>That's the sort of thing that's purely
>>arbitrary (like spelling the possessive "its" without an apostrophe) and
>>just has to be memorized as one of the vagaries of the language.
>
>Not so. You don't put an apostrophe on "my", "mine", "your", "yours",
>"his", "her", "hers", "our", "ours", "their" or "theirs", so you
>don't want to put one on "its", either.
>
>The basic problem is that English lost the genitive case except for
>pronouns, and then gained it back again from an artificial construction.
>The apostrophe in "John's" is there because it is short for "John his".
>Since the pronouns still have the genitive case, they don't want
>or need an apostrophe.
You may be right, and certainly I cannot go so far as to say that you are
wrong, but, still, at the same time...
If the apostrophe in "John's" is a contraction for "John his", then the
apostrophe in "Mary's" is a contraction for "Mary his?" I've never taken
Old English, so I don't know what the genitive form in various Anglo-Saxon
dialects was, but the genitives in the closely-related languages Dutch and
German are also in "-s" (without apostrophe), and I'd need a good deal of
evidence for an intermediate "Mary his" form before I'd believe that the
Modern English genitive in "-s" wasn't the actual genitive in one of the
various dialects of Old English and the one that became dominant over the
years.
As for "its", it's the only word in English that forms its genitive by
simply adding "-s" and doesn't use an apostrophe - which is unquestionably
why so many people write it incorrectly. (When I'm in a hurry I've been
known to do it myself.) I understand the rule behind it, but it's still
arbitrary. _All_ spelling and punctuation conventions are arbitrary, of
course, but some deal with rules that affect the way a word or sentence is
pronounced. The rule that a personal pronoun's genitive doesn't take an
apostrophe and a noun's does is, IMHO, arbitrary, since it has no effect on
the spoken language and is just a graphic convention.
Bear:
>DAVID >Maybe Limbaugh doesn't make up his "facts" himself (or maybe, since
>he had
>a lot of money behind him, he gets his henchmen to "document" them), but he
>sure puts out a lot of lies.
>
>If so, this gives him a lot in common with the current administration since
>you have brought up the subject. [Talk about broad generalizations,
>appeals to envy of the wealthy, use of inflammatory words e.g. "henchmen,"
>and unfounded accusations. You really got up on the wrong side today.]
The same side you get up on every day? :-) Aside from appeals to envy of
the wealthy (which would be replaced by allusions to the laziness of the
poor) I did nothing you haven't done frequently.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 11:59:31 -0500
From: Gordon Birrell <gbirrell@post.cis.smu.edu>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
Ruth Berman:
>Gordon Birrell: Drawing of Trot holding up a hand-mirror for a mermaid to
>see herself in might be influenced by Cluny tapestry as you suggest, but
>probably also reflects (sorry) the heraldic tradition of showing mermaids
>as looking into hand-mirrors.
I have to admit that I forgot about the heraldic motif. Still . . . it
seems to me that Neill significantly reconfigured the motif by associating
it with the unicorn image. The traditional figure of mermaids looking into
hand-mirrors reflects the original conception of mermaids as vain, seductive
sirens (like Heine's Lorelei: "Sie kaemmt das goldene Haar . . .").
Neill's cover, on the other hand, modifies the heraldic motif to link it up
with the configuration in the unicorn tapestry: the mermaid, like the
unicorn, is now a fabulous creature characterized by purity and innocence,
and her reflection is supplied by an equally pure and innocent maiden.
This, of course, would reinforce Baum's reinterpretation of the mermaids as
benevolent creatures rather than lethally dangerous cold-hearted temptresses.
The Lady and the Unicorn tapestries weren't discovered until the
mid-nineteenth century (by Georges Sand!) and created a considerable stir in
the art world. Rilke wrote a stunning passage describing the tapestries at
the conclusion of Part I of _The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge_,
published in 1908. All in all, I think there is good reason to believe that
Neill would have been familiar with these images.
If anyone is interested in comparing the 1920's _Sea Fairies_ cover and the
tapestry, I've put both images on my web site at
http://www.smu.edu/~gbirrell/mirror.html
David H.:
I like your suggestions for combining the rules of chess, checkers, and
parcheesi to create scrum:
>Might be like chess in that you have different pieces with
>different types of moves, like checkers in that you capture opposing pieces
>by jumping them instead of moving into their square, and like parchesi in
>that the distance a piece can move is determined by throwing dice.
>Something like that. Anybody have any better suggestion?
Like Parcheesi, too, the figures could move to a "safe" zone in the middle
of the board (the Emerald City??).
Before we leave _Sea Fairies_, I'd like to put in another plug for Melody's
wonderful book, which revisits Aquareine's realm as well as the Mangaboo
land. There are a lot of passages in this book that have really stayed with
me (Vega's rapturous redirection of lightning bolts to create a Picture
Storm; the line "I'm going to live with the Withy Girl!"), but one of the
most memorable is the scene in which the dreaded sea slug menaces
Aquareine's mermaids with his jolting electricity.
* * * * * * * * SPOILER FOR _THE DISENCHANTED PRINCESS OF OZ_ * * * * * * *
* *
It turns out that the sea slug is in fact a good-hearted creature who has no
idea that he is causing such terror; he sees the mermaids going into
convulsions and thinks that the pretty little things are dancing in response
to his electricity. I think this passage sends a couple of very important
messages to the children (and adults) who read the book: first, that you
shouldn't automatically assume that ugly people have ugly motivations, even
if their actions are distressing. Second, those actions may well be the
result of ignorance and thoughtlessness, or even good intentions that are
frightfully misdirected. How many of us have thought we were doing a good
deed when we were actually causing pain?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * END OF SPOILER * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
--Gordon Birrell
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 13:13:24 -0400
From: David Levitan <wizardofoz@iname.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
Hi, I recieved the folowing letter from a visitor to my website. Can
anybody answer it? Please send it to her address, which is below. Thank
you.
> Name: Ariella
> E-Mail: barcohen@trendline.co.il
> Comment:
> I'm desperately trying to find the background story of the writing of
> "The Wizard of Oz." There is a rumor that Baum was telling a story to > a
> sick girl, thereby explaining the fantastical world he created. Do
> you know anything about this? Do you know Baum's impetus for writing
> "The Wizard of Oz?" Thanks in advance for your help.
> Ariella
--
David Levitan Oz Enthusiast
wizardofoz@iname.com Netscape Supporter
Designer of the Wonderful Land of Oz
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9075
Ring Master of the Oz Web Ring
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=ozsites;home
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 16:18:34 -0400
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: Today's Oz Growls
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
OK David, so this wont haunt us. It is "Octopus's Garden." It is in the
blue album, "The Beatles/1967-1970." Written and sung by Ringo.
I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden in the shade.
He'd let us in, knows where we've been, in his octopus's garden in the
shade.
I'd ask my friends to come and see as octopus's garden with me.
I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden in the shade.
We would be warm below the storm in our little hideaway beneath the waves.
Resting our head on the sea bed, in an octopus's garden near a cave.
We would sing and dance around because we know we can't be found.
I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden in the shade.
We would shout and swim about the coral that lies beneath the waves.
Oh what joy for every girl and boy knowing they're happy and they're safe.
We would be so happy, you and me, no one there to tell us what to do.
I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden with you.
In an octopus's garden with you. In an octopus's garden with you.
This appears to be something he composed one time while he was stoned.
Other interpretations are welcome.
Weekend regards, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 16:31:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: JoelHarris@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-10-97
Browsing a book store last week, I came across a children's mystery novel
with the Wizard of Oz in the title. The book is about the disappearance of a
1st edition of Wonderful Wizard from the local library. If anyone would like
the title and author, let me know and I'll go back for it. Or, perhaps, one
of you already knows...
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I would be doing signed/limited edition
children's books. My first book will be ready at the end of the month. It is
called Two Bear Cubs, a Miwok Indian Legend of California's Yosemite Valley.
It is written by Robert D. San Souci and wonderfully illustrated by Daniel
San Souci. It tells the traditional Miwok tale of how a rock grew to become
one of Yosemite's greatest landmarks. It's a GREAT book! If anyone is
interested, please email me privately for more info.
Joel Harris
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 97 23:36:39 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
IN A DIBRANCHIATE CEPHALOPOD'S BOTANICAL CONSERVATORY:
I clearly remember when this song was sung as the finale number in one
episode of _Zoom_ (Any fellow PBS-Junkie Generation-X-ers remember *that*
show? :) ), but I must admit I didn't know it was a Beatles song...
Jellia: Psst! The above subject title was brought courtesy of the
Wogglebug...
THE GAME IS AFOOT?:
Do I detect the seeds of a new, original Ozzy chess-like game?
OZ REFERENCE DU JOUR:
On C-SPAN yesterday they had a speech by the author of _The Wizards
of Media Oz_, who likens the media press to "Oz the Great and Powerful"
and the coroporate executives who control the media to "the man behind
the curtain".
BCF REMINDER:
Is everyone busy reading _Sky Island_? We start discussing it Monday
after next...
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 13, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 08:34:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-12-97
Joel -
The book of which you speak is "Who Stole the Wizard of Oz", I think. I can't
remember who wrote it, but it's a mystery about some kids finding out that
precious books (i.e. Oz, Pooh, Wind in the Willows) are missing from the
library, and trying to find and return them.
I liked the idea of just one piece of everything...I'll work with that. I'm
just trying to figure out what purpose a 'safe' Emerald City area in the
middle would serve.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 12:15:00 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-12-97
Joyce:
I think we can safely assume that Baum didn't work out all the implications
of Zog's reversing normal human expressions of emotion. Baum frequently
didn't work out all the implications of his ideas, which is one reason it's
so much fun to write new Oz stories. (Do you see a lot of people writing
stories in the Tolkien universe?)
Robert S.:
The drawings from the first 15 Oz books are now Public Domain, just like
the text. Later ones, I dunno. The texts of the last five Thompsons and the
two Snows are PD, but Neill and Kramer (or their estates) may have renewed
the copyrights on the illustrations.
But images from the MGM movie are definitely _not_ PD. It's unlikely that
you'd get in trouble using them for something in your own home (unless you
have Ted Turner as a guest :-)), but legally you shouldn't. (Rainbows, of
course, aren't copyrightable, since they're natural phenomena. Unless you
actually use a still from the movie with the rainbow in it.)
Me:
I did a little digging after my last response, and my book on the
historical development of languages says that the "-s" genitive ending on
English nouns, like the "-s" plural, is a direct descendant of the endings
in the masculine a-stem declension in Anglo-Saxon. I suspect that the story
of the "John his" construction is the equivalent of an urban legend
promulgated by some pedant who wanted to make up a justification for why
the apostrophe was used for nouns and not for personal pronouns. (The
apostrophe is also used with indefinite pronouns, e.g. "one's".)
As a further note, "its" is a relatively new word in English; the genitive
of "hit" (the AS neuter pronoun, still used in a number of English
dialects) was "his", same as for "he". "Its," in other words, clearly
formed its genitive by analogy with nouns; it isn't the original genitive
that hasn't changed since AS times. Which is one more reason why it's
arbitrary to omit the apostrophe.
David L.:
I'll E-mail Ariella some information on her request. (Hasn't she turned up
on the Digest before? Maybe she should subscribe!)
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 21:54:51 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Joyce:
Remember, the purpose of deception is to deceive. If Zog always displayed
the opposite emotion than the one he was feeling, people would pick it up
and be able to tell what he is really feeling. Every once in a while, he
shows his true self to trip up his enemies.
Joel:
THe book in question is "Who Stole the Wizard of Oz?". I can't remember the
author, though.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 20:41:54 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-12-97
Gordon Birrell,
I am in your debt for putting the 1920's _Sea Fairies_ cover on
your web site. I have to admit, I was confused by the references to
mermaids and mirrors because my copy (B of W paperback) has a picture of
a bald-headed man with adjacent girls sticking their heads out of the
water. I am unsure of their identities because the bald man has no
beard which I assume rules Cap'n Bill out and I see no evidence that
either of the two girls are Trot. I wonder why B of W didn't use the
original cover picture.
> Before we leave _Sea Fairies_, I'd like to put in another
> plug for Melody's wonderful book, which revisits Aquareine's
> realm as well as the Mangaboo land.
I would certainly like to second that. I have said before how much
I admire _The Disenchanted Princess_ (Book 1 of _The Seven Blue
Mountains of Oz_), but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.
JOdel,
What IS your real name (or an alias)? Every time I see JOdel I am
reminded of Superman's father. At any rate, very perceptive observation
about Zog's emotional displays vs. his actual feelings. I have no
answer, but would like to see this pursued.
Dave Hardenbrook,
Neat reminder about the next book. Very well done.
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 00:22:13 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-12-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
JoDel
>If this is the case, what may we suppose his actual feelings ARE when is
out
there LAUGHING at the drowning humans from shipwrecks and saving the lives
of
the ones who manage to drift close to him?<
Zog: Darn it! Lost another potential slave! Ha! Ha! Ha! Aha! Here's one
that's still alive. (Frown.)
>May we suppose that Baum didn't really think this one through before he
wrote it...
Ah, the Baum slipups that have been chronicled on this Digest...
Baum: There are no chickens in Oz!
Dorothy: But how about the ones I heard back of the palace when I first
came to Oz?
Baum: Eggs are poison to Nomes!
Ruggedo: Then how come I'm not dead, yet?
Baum: Ozma is a little girl just like any other little girl!
Ozma: Then in later Oz histories, you metamorphose me into a fairy with no
adequate explanation.
Baum: The Munchkin Country is in the East!
H.M. Wogglebug, T.E.: Then how do you explain this switched-around Oz map
supposedly accredited to *me*?
Baum: I'll let my fans figure it all out!
Gordon:
Many thanks for the plug and the critique of the undersea episode
of SBM1! :-)
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 97 10:27:03 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
Of course one can continue your list, Melody:
Baum: The Wizard was not only a humbug but was an evil man who handed Ozma
over to Mombi to save his own pathetic gluteus maximus!
Wizard: But I came back and proved myself an honest loyal citizen!
Ozma: We had to wait for Pendexter's _Oz and the Three Witches_ for some
sense made of *that* one!
Baum: Glinda is the Good Witch of the North (_Emerald City of Oz_).
Glinda: *South*, remember?!
GWN: Hello? Does anyone remember *me*??
Thompson: *I* remember you, but you're so ugly you don't deserve to live!
Baum: The Adepts use Krumbic (i.e. mechanical) magic that Coo-ee-oh stole.
Aujah: Then you have us say that our magic is "garnered from *nature*"!
Aurah: Well, it's a little of both, actually...
Baum: Children don't understand romance -- There's no place for it in an
Oz book!
Gloria and Pon: Do you want us to leave the room??
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 14 - 15, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 06:23:58 -0700 (PDT)
From: Eric Gjovaag <tiktok@eskimo.com>
Subject: Question for "Ozzy Digest": Neill (fwd)
Got this stumper in my mailbox. If anyone has an answer, please let Jenny
know directly, as she's not a subscriber.
--Eric Gjovaag
### Visit my "Wizard of Oz" web site! http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/ ###
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 18:13:48 PDT
From: Jenny Kobernik <koberflik@hotmail.com>
Subject: Neill
I have yet to find an answer to my Wizard of Oz question and am hoping
that you either know the answer or someone that does. Here it is. Why
did Jon R. Neill sign all his illustrations Jno?
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 12:19:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: Peter Hanff <phanff@library.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-13-97
Dave,
Here's the full citation to the children's book:
Author: Avi, 1937-
Title: Who stole the Wizard of Oz? / by Avi ; illustrated by Derek
James. New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House,
c1981.
Description: 116 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.
Notes: Becky and her brother use some ingenious clues to identify the
person who stole five children's books from the town's
library.
And for the Sea Fairies group: Books of Wonder reproduced the original
cover paste-down from the first edition; the second state of the book
used as the cover paste-down an image that also was used as a color plate
in the original edition. Neill produced a new painting in the 1920s for
Reilly & Lee (the image with the mirror).
Jor-el was, I believe, the name of Superman's father on the planet,
Krypton (rather than Jodel).
Peter Hanff
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 09:33:07 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: Stolen Oz
Joel commented
> Browsing a book store last week, I came across a children's mystery
> novel with the Wizard of Oz in the title.
> The book is about the disappearance of a 1st edition of Wonderful Wizard
> from the local library. If anyone would like the title and author,
> let me know and I'll go back for it. Or, perhaps, one of you already
knows...
The book is WHO STOLE THE WIZARD OF OZ? by AVI. The stolen book of the
title is not a first edition but an ordinary copy of the book. It an
four other books donated to a library book sale were stolen and the
protagonist was infairly accused of the theft. With the aid of a friend
an investigation was made and discovered the real thief and the reason
for the theft. WOO plays only a very small part in the book, despite
the title. There is a first edition in the story, but it is not of
WWOO.
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 15:56:02 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-13-97
Kind of a thin Digest today.
Tyler:
>Joyce:
>Remember, the purpose of deception is to deceive. If Zog always displayed
>the opposite emotion than the one he was feeling, people would pick it up
>and be able to tell what he is really feeling. Every once in a while, he
>shows his true self to trip up his enemies.
Did Baum ever say that Zog's reversed expressions of his emotions was
intended to deceive? I don't remember that; I thought it was just an oddity
of his.
Bob Spark:
>> Before we leave _Sea Fairies_, I'd like to put in another
>> plug for Melody's wonderful book, which revisits Aquareine's
>> realm as well as the Mangaboo land.
> I would certainly like to second that. I have said before how much
>I admire _The Disenchanted Princess_ (Book 1 of _The Seven Blue
>Mountains of Oz_), but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.
And I'll third that.
JOdel is Joyce Odell of Los Angeles.
General question to anyone who may know (Robin, Steve, Peter H., Jane,
whoever):
What's the status of the Centennial Oz Book Contest? Presumably McGraw and
Payes have had the three finalist MSS for almost three months now; is there
any word from them as to their selections? (I know that only the winner
will be announced; I'm just wondering how much longer it's likely to be
before it happens. As soon as I know I didn't win I can start abridging
_Magic Carpet_ for BoW consideration, but it feels like giving up to start
doing that until I know for a fact that I didn't win. If the Club wants to
hold off announcing the winner until one of the regular publications I can
understand that, but I can't think of any reason not to notify the
non-winners privately that they're non-winners as soon as the winner is
determined.)
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 11:30:18 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
David Hulan: The possessive of "it" has been confusing English speakers
ever since the word came into the language (to replace the Old English
pronoun -- tha, I think -- which had fallen out of use). Possessive
pronouns were adjectives, and took the case of the noun they modified.
So, in OE, "I like her book" would have both "her" and "book" in the
accusative, and "The cover of her book is nice" or "Her book's cover is
nice" would have both "her" and "book" in the genitive (corresponds to
possessive) case. "I like Ruth Plumly Thompson's book," or "I like the
book of Ruth Plumly Thompson," however, would have "Ruth Plumly
Thompson" in the genitive case, even though "book" is still the object
(accusative) of the sentence. For a while, when "it" came into the
language, it wasn't clear to anyone how to use it, and for a while there
was even a possessive with no differentiation at all. ("Of what color is the
crocodile?" / "Of it own color," as the line goes in Shakespeare's "Antony
and Cleopatra").
In the 18th century, scholars tried to make sense of "it," and reasonably
decided that it was a pronoun with an adjectival form "its" corresponding
to "his" ("it is his book"/"the book is his") and "her/hers" ("it is her
book"/"the book is hers"). This system had the advantage of making a
visual distinction between the possessive its and the contraction "it's" for
"it is," corresponding to the difference between his/hers and he's/she's,
even though there was no audible difference. They also tried to figure
out where the possessive 's case for nouns had come from, and guessed
that it was short for "his," as in "Frank Baum, his book." (The absence of
any contracted possessive form for "Ruth Plumly Thompson, her book"
could have given them a clue that this derivation was probably incorrect,
but they didn't spot that problem.) Linguists nowadays believe that the
modern English possessive goes straight back to the Old English genitive
ending -es, and the apostrophe records the omission of the "e."
Shakespeare has a couple of examples of archaic possessives which,
although spelled as in modern English, reflect the full -es pronunciation,
resulting in an extra syllable, as in Puck's pair of 7-syllable lines, "I can
travel ev'rywhere, / swifter than the moon's sphere."
(This is probably more than anyone wants to know about the English
genitive, but oh well.)
Gordon Birrell: As you say, the heraldic mermaid-with-mirror was intended
to be a symbol of vanity (in fact, the pose was specifically referred to as
"the mermaid in her vanity"). I've seen in suggested, though, that the
pose is older than heraldry and could originally have meant something
else, possibly with the round mirror as an image of the world, and the
mermaid as a goddess who sees all that is occurring. (Magic Picture, so
to speak.) I like the idea, but don't know if there's evidence for it beyond
the logical possibility. I think you're probably right that Neill would have
known the Unicorn tapestries and might have intended to suggest the
idea of "purity" in mermaid as in unicorn.
Robert Schroeder and David Hulan: There are some nice Neill drawings
of rainbows, especially in "Sky Island," but also some in various Oz
books. I recently got hold of a not-particularly-good children's book from
1916 called "Georgina of the Rainbows," by Annie Fellows Johnstone,
and am having a pleasant time reading it and admiring the illustrations by
"Ray N. Jackson," as he signed himself for some reason in that book. I
don't know why, since it must have been obvious to any child who read
the Oz books (same publisher) who it was. There aren't very many illos,
though, and (apart from three monochrome illos on plates) they're very
small. Perhaps the lack of display is the reason for the pseudonym. But
the retired old sailor could just as well be Cap'n Bill, and the little
girl he's
devoted to could sort of be Trot (drawn a bit more like Dorothy), and the
boy could just as well be Button Bright. One of the small illos is a nice
rainbow, although so far in the story the rainbows haven't come into the
action. (I'm making it sound more like "Sky Island" than it is overall --
might have been influenced by Baum, but probably isn't a direct
imitation.)
Joyce O'Dell: Probably Baum forgot about the reversed emotions in
describing Zog as laughing at the drowning sailors, as you suggest. Still
-- maybe Zog doesn't always reverse emotions? Maybe in this case the
specific reversal is not from amusement to sorrow but from amusement to
contempt (not exactly a reversal, but not entirely the same)?
Bob Spark: "Sea Fairies" is one of the books where Neill did different
cover illos, as used in different editions. The mirror drawing isn't the
original edition (it's 1920) -- I think the Books of Wonder edition with the
three heads above the water follows the original. I think the figures are
Cap'n Bill (even though beardless -- beard hidden or slicked back by the
water?), Trot and Princess Clia.
Melody Grandy: Baum had lots of slip-ups, of course, but the east/west
reversal on the Munchkin country wasn't really his fault. I suspect from
the fact that he never referred to east or west for the Munchkin and
Winkie countries in the Oz books after the "Tik-Tok" map was published
that he was well aware of the discrepancy between what he'd said and
what the map showed (unless you think of the map as being drawn from
underground -- the compass rose, omitted in b&w copies of the map
published separately in b&w later on, shows east on the lefthand,
Munchkin side). But he didn't want to draw attention to the mistake,
either, evidently. Thompson and the later authors, though, went by the
map as drawn and did refer to the western Munchkin country.
Dave Hardenbrook: On source of Adapts' magic -- maybe Coo-ee-oh's
middle name was Nature? (Well, no, it was Ee. But maybe her last
name?)
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 15:51:58 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: Oz
> From: Bob Spark
>
> Gordon Birrell,
> I am in your debt for putting the 1920's _Sea Fairies_ cover on
> your web site. I have to admit, I was confused by the references to
> mermaids and mirrors because my copy (B of W paperback) has a picture of
> a bald-headed man with adjacent girls sticking their heads out of the
> water. I am unsure of their identities because the bald man has no
> beard which I assume rules Cap'n Bill out and I see no evidence that
> either of the two girls are Trot. I wonder why B of W didn't use the
> original cover picture.
>
B of W did use the original cover. The 1st edition of SEA FAIRIES had
that cover (and that should be Cap'n Bill with Mermaids). The cover
with mirror was from a later edition.
Melody and Dave:
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself
(I am large, I contain multitudes)."
Walt Whitman.
"A foolish consistancy is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 16:06:48 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-13-97
Hi y'all!
A friend, knowing of my involvement in the _Digest_, mentioned a
movie called ZARDOZ which apparently is a contraction of "the wiZARD of
OZ". He didn't do any more explaining other than to deem it very
weird. Can anyone address this?
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 19:22:10 -0400
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: More Oz Stuff
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
It has really been raining items lately.
The Franklin Mint is doing a WOZ musical sculpture in a crystal dome. It
has the famous four and plays "We're Off To See The Wizard." Only $55 and
a limited edition.
Command Performance catalog (1-800-873-8263) has two items.
A snow globe with the famous four in it menaced by an adjacent witch. $85
A limited edition (1939 copies) cookie jar of Margaret Hamilton as the
witch. This item had to be licensed by Turner. Now steel yourself.... you
can pick up this little item for a mere $375. I would be afraid to use it!
Slow Monday regards, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 23:40:26 -0400
From: Lisa Bompiani <bompi@microserve.net>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
Hello,
Wow! It's been awhile since I've posted, but alas, the semester is a killer.
I am working on my Oz illustration project and am trying desperately to find
ways to obtain copies of the pictures since losing my collection a couple
years ago. It's a very costly venture and grad school doesn't allow for
costly ventures! :-) Any advice?
As for changing the name of the Digest, I can relate to Dave and being
confused with a club for Ozzy Osbourne fans . . . I am amazed at how many
people ask me after seeing my tattoo (a simple O-Z design) if it stands for
the bat-biter himself. I didn't know whether or not they were joking, but
seeing as though they are questioning the Digest, I think I should have been
a bit more understanding when explaining the OZ reference. . .
I LOVED the show Zoom! I especially liked the girl who did the wierd trick
with her elbows and when they made up their own little languages but talked
as if they understood the other. It ranks right up there with HR
Puff-n-Stuff, Land of the Lost, New Zoo Revue . . .
The _Who Stole the Wizard of OZ?_ was written by Avi.
As for this whole genitives discussion, UGH! I am taking an "American
English Grammar" course that is actually a Linguistics class disguised as a
harmless little class in diagramming sentences! :) The last tow lessons
were on the formation of genitives versus of-phrases, etc. etc. And, you
know, I really don't feel I can say much about the whole issue! The entire
class is humbling me and making me feel less qualified as an English
teacher! The only things I can think of that may be helpful is this quote
from my text: "We use the Latinate term genitive rather than the common
English label possessive to emphasize the fact that such forms of pronouns
don't necessarily indicate possession" ( Language, Grammar, and
Communication 148). The example following is "her performance" since her
doesn't refer to one she owns, but one she gives. Also, the text discussed
the fact that the nouns don't have two genitive forms like pronouns, ie
her/hers. With nouns, the genitive ending is 's, ie Bill/Bill's. I believe
it has to do with the idea of the genitive function within the sentence --
whehter a 's, s', or pronoun, genitives modify nouns. However, I'm not sure
I can explain why just yet . . .
Hopefully, I'll have better news next time,
Peace & Love,
Bompi
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 12:52:49 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-09-97
> Maybe Limbaugh doesn't make up his "facts" himself (or maybe, since he had
> a lot of money behind him, he gets his henchmen to "document" them), but he
> sure puts out a lot of lies.
Name some, other than what you claim about global warming. Or maybe you
had better not name some, since it's off the topic.
> >How about starting _Sky Island_ a week from next Monday?
>
I hope I get a chance to read it by then... It's on my shelf, but I'm to
bust with school/work!
> Sounds good to me!
>
> Wouldn't be a bad musical number for the stage or movie version of "Sea
> Fairies."
Calling Tom Benedek!
>
> Locasta: I once suggested "Gilikin Digest" but Dave got messages from fans
> of _Gilligen's Island_...
That's _Gilligan's Island_
> Scraps: I thought "Scarecrow Times" had a ring;
> But it brought fans of a whole other thing --
> A crime drama starring a Mrs. King!
Anybody see the one where his partners were code-named "Dorothy" and "Tin
Man." There was a quote about Oz and the Tin Man on last night's
_Suddenly Susan_, which I happened to hear while I was updating a few
things on my filmography. I knew I should have watched for the director
credit when I was at the dinner table. I didn't get the character who
said it either, but I got the quote exact. If I remember correctly, as I
don't have the sheet in front of me, it was "Oz didn't do nuthin' for the
Tin Man that the Tin Man didn't already have." Bad grammar, I know, but I
didn't write it.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 13:39:10 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-10-97
> IF you DO decide to change the name, Dave, how about `Witch Way to
> Oz?' ? (I think the name's okay, though.)
Has anyone seen the film _Which Way to Oz_ starring Kimberly Kates?
> Based on Melody's rendition I think that's "an octopus's garden," which is
> a possessive, not a plural, and thus is always in "'s" for English nouns.
> (I still don't remember that song, though.)
It's on _Abbey Road_, which I don't have.
Sarah:
> before I do, a question. I remembered something while reading a post today
> about how the Beatles' "Octopus's Garden" (album "Abbey Road", BTW) would be
> a good song for a film version of "Sea Fairies"...in the 1985 book, "The
> World of Oz", wasn't it said that a "Sky Island" film was in progress? Was
> this just a silly rumour that found its way into the book? Or was it
actually
> a real project?
Other than Willard's _Journey Beneath the Sea_, which I don't have yet, I
read in _Starlog_ (a magazine for idiots which I was looking in while
researching _Return to Oz_, because it was available bound together at the
university library) that Tom Benedek had written a script that Tri-Star
had planned to produce riding off the success of his _Cocoon_ for Ron
Howard. He also co-wrote Steve Barron's _The Adventures of Pinocchio_
(1996) [which I highly reccomend] with Barron, Barry Berman, and Sherry
Mills, as well as scripting George (Trumbull) Miller's _Zeus and Roxanne_
(1996)
> DAVID >Maybe Limbaugh doesn't make up his "facts" himself (or maybe, since
> he had
> a lot of money behind him, he gets his henchmen to "document" them), but he
> sure puts out a lot of lies.
Out of local newspapers? Okay...
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 13:49:50 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-12-97
Bear:
>
> This appears to be something he composed one time while he was stoned.
> Other interpretations are welcome.
Talk about "bashing our heads on the sea beds!" (That's from a parody I
wrote in ninth grade called "Giant Kraken's Garden"
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 16:54:48 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-10-97 thru 10-13-97
Well, I had a good time during my Fall Break vacation, but now it's
time to get back to business :-)
October 10th:
John Kennedy:
Your explanation of language evolution and how we can determine it
was, to be blunt, fascinating. Perhaps I'll take a course in Old
English sometime.
Likewise with your explanation of posession.
The 12th:
"Mary his"?
No, it'd be Mary hers, I imagine.
Bear:
"Weekend regards" again? You need to keep your strength up!
The 13th:
Ruggedo: Unlucky as always, eh? Those eggs do it to me every time.
--Jeremy Steadman, B.A. (Back again, I've not graduated yet)
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 22:43:28 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz and organized religion
Okay, folks, this is my inaugural message to the Ozzy Digest, so I'm trying
to make it interesting. Here goes...
Organized religion doesn't seem to have a place in Baum's pantheistic Oz
after the Cowardly Lion knocks over a china church in the China Country.
But in Thompson's books there are two significant "christening
gifts"--implying that Christianity had reached across the Nonestic.
One level of fun: Can folks identify those gifts, and who received them?
(I'll be back in a coupla days with my answers, and my pleasure if folks
identify more than I've spotted.)
Second level of fun: How do folks view the relationship between the Ozian
cosmology (especially the pantheon in LIFE & ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS) and
the religious ideas Baum and most of us Westerners were exposed to while
young?
Some see the existence of good witches in Baum's books as signs of
paganism. Others draw parallels between the good immortals who rule Oz and
angels. Eric Shanower's work, for instance, shows how Oz can be allegorized
for a general Christian message. I view those same stories as playing out
moral lessons that transcend any particular faith, or lack of faith.
For those who've been reading SEA FAIRIES, Zog is modeled on the
traditional Western devil (how many cloven hoofs do we need to read
about?), but Anko isn't a deity--is he?
John
J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 22:55:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozmama@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-07-97
To: DaveH47@delphi.com
<< > "We are all ladies of an uncertain age,"rejoined
> > the Princess, with a smile. "We don't care to tell."
> I thought that the expression was "ladies of a certain age".
>>
The French expression, IIRC, is "d'un certain age." Baum may well have been
playing with the "d'un" part of the idiom and deliberately mistranslated it.
I'd like to believe that of him, anyway. --Robin (who isn't always certain
of her age...
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 97 15:19:13 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
THEOZOGY:
John Bell wrote:
>Some see the existence of good witches in Baum's books as signs of
>paganism.
Otherwise known as the "Oz-hater's Syllogism": "Oz is defended by witches;
Satan is defended by witches; therefore Oz is Satanic"...(This is logically
equivalent to "All cats have four legs; all dogs have four legs; therefore
all cats are dogs.")
Eureka and Bungle: (Indignantly) Well! *Really*!
>Others draw parallels between the good immortals who rule Oz and
>angels.
Oh, so *that's* why I'm considered a demonic blob of primal ooze for marrying
off Ozma and Glinda...
ADEPTS OF WHAT??:
Ruth wrote:
>Dave Hardenbrook: On source of Adapts' magic -- maybe Coo-ee-oh's
>middle name was Nature? (Well, no, it was Ee. But maybe her last
>name?)
Aujah: But it was *our* magic to begin with...
Aurah: The truth is, our magic -- while utilizing machinery -- mainly is
garnered from the classical laws of nature, as opposed to what
Glinda, the Wizard, et al do, which utilizes all that
11-dimensional quantum probability stuff that gives us headaches...
ZOOM IMO, OZ:
(Read that, "Zoom In my opinion [and] Oz")
Bompi wrote:
>I LOVED the show Zoom! I especially liked the girl who did the wierd trick
>with her elbows and when they made up their own little languages but talked
>as if they understood the other.
Glad to know another Zoom fan! I was always a Zoom obsessive: I still
remember many of the kids names (When I was about 6 I had a crush on Nancy
from the 1st and 2nd seasons), I still have my copy of the book _The Zoom
Catalog_, and I consider "As the World Zooms" the best-ever soap opera! :)
And BTW, the "elbow trick" girl's name was Bernadette. I definitely
remembered this because of one particular skit from Zoom's 3rd season
(shortly after Nancy left and I went into denial :) ) involving Leon and
Maura as a king and queen, and Bernadette and Jay as their two rebellious
chefs. This Zoom Play evolved into part of my own running childhood play
concerning Oz's sister country, The Land of Im, and eventually became an
episode in my _Locasta and the Three Adepts of Oz_...
Jellia: But this doesn't mean much since there's no one (yet) who has both
read _Locasta_ and is a subscriber to the Digest...But if it makes
you feel better to get it off your chest, Dave... :)
Audah: At least he made a first on the Digest...The first palindromic
subject line!
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 16 - 17, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 00:15:58 -0700
From: "W. R. Wright" <piglet@piglet.com>
Subject: Oz Digest
I have been asked about the relationship between Emma Speed Sampson and L.
Frank Baum. The person who asked reports from an autobiography on Sampson
that she co-wrote the Edith Van Dyne books.
Can anyone shed any light on this??
Bill (temporarily not) in Ozlo
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 10:16:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Tha's all folks?
What is the possessive form of tha? Perhaps it's :-) time to bring
it back . . .
>>A friend, knowing of my involvement in the _Digest_, mentioned a
movie called ZARDOZ which apparently is a contraction of "the wiZARD
of OZ". He didn't do any more explaining other than to deem it very
weird. Can anyone address this?>>
Dear ZARDOZ,
"No one who has both read _Locasta_ and is a subscriber to the
Digest"
Dave, don't you fit into this category?
Until next time,
Jeremy Steadman
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:14:45 -0700
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
X-Authentication-warning: mail2.geocities.com: wht2b6e05.resnet.iup.edu
[144.80.104.94] didn't use HELO protocol
J. L. Bell:
The two people who received christening gifts were Ree Alla Bad and
Prince Pompadore. The gifts were magic rings and Kabumpo, respectively
(although Kabumpo was a gift to the entire royal family of Pumperdink,
not just Pompa). I believe that Ojo's christening was also mentioned,
but I can't remember for sure.
Is Anko a deity? Well, that's an interesting question, and it really
depends on your definition of the word "deity." Some religions maintain
that there is only one deity (God), and that he is omnipotent and
omniscient. Others are more liberal with their definitions of "god" and
"deity," and allow less-than-perfect beings to be gods. Anko is the
ruler of the Pacific Ocean (as well as the Nonestic, if we accept
information in certain Buckethead books), so I guess he could be
considered an ocean god, but this wasn't how Baum referred to him. As
far as I can remember, the only mention of God in the Oz series was by
Cap'n Bill in _Magic_.
The Masters in _Santa Claus_ can certainly be seen as gods, especially
the one Supreme Master who was mentioned, and who might be the Baumish
equivalent of the Christian God.
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 10:23:46 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
> A friend, knowing of my involvement in the _Digest_, mentioned a
> movie called ZARDOZ which apparently is a contraction of "the wiZARD of
> OZ". He didn't do any more explaining other than to deem it very
> weird. Can anyone address this?
> Bob Spark
>
------------------------------SPOILER FOR
ZARDOZ-------------------------------
ZARDOZ by John Boorman is a highly controversial film, definitely a cult
film. Set in the future when most people are brutals, who are
controlled by executioners (one which is played by Sean Connery). These
executioners are visited regularly by a giant flying head called Zardoz
which is their god and there supplier of weapons. A small group of
people are immortals living a pastoral life, who are prevented from
dying by a super machine they had created. Connery's character is
highly intellegent and at one point is led into a library where he is
brought face to face with "The Wizard of OZ" and learns the falsity of
the flying head. It turns out that the whole thing is a plan a get the
executioners to break through the barrier protecting the immorals and
destroying them, because they really want to die. The film is very bad
in a very good way. It is excessive and dazzling. If you like Boorman,
you will like ZARDOZ (maybe), but expect the weird.
_-------------------------------END OF
SPOILER-------------------------------------
>
> Organized religion doesn't seem to have a place in Baum's pantheistic Oz
> after the Cowardly Lion knocks over a china church in the China Country.
> But in Thompson's books there are two significant "christening
> gifts"--implying that Christianity had reached across the Nonestic.
>
> One level of fun: Can folks identify those gifts, and who received them?
> (I'll be back in a coupla days with my answers, and my pleasure if folks
> identify more than I've spotted.)
>
Kabumpo was one, given to King Pompus. However, if Pompus was really
"Christianed" there is no evidence of it. I doubt that RPT thought of
christening as necessarily religious in the books, it could be simply a
term for the naming ceremony. At the end of CAPTAIN SALT IN OZ there is
talk of getting back to Oz for Christmas, but I don't know that this
Christmas was a celebration of the birth of the Christ. There is no
suggestion that the Christmasses in L & A OF SANTA CLAUS were religious
in nature.
>
> J. L. Bell
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 09:09:48 -0700
From: Tyler Jones <Tyler@apprentice.com>
Subject: Oz
All:
Off to my 10-Year High School reunion, so I won't be on the Digest until
probably Monday.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 15:38:17 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Bob, I forgot to mention, in Zardoz, the Ozma-like character Avalow... she
also rides around on her horse topless.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 15:31:38 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Bob,
_Zardoz_ is a 1973 film by John Boorman, which was released in the U.S. by
20th Century Fox in 1974. In it, there is an enormous stone head piloted
by Arthur Frayn, an immortal killed in the opening scene by Zed, an
Exterminator class Brutal. The society is divided between the Brutals in
the Outlands and young, unaging sexless intellectuals called Eternals in
the Vortex. The Vortex is a sort of evil twin of Oz. Although there is
no ruler or official leader, one of them, called Avalow, has heightened
psychic powers and wears double-buns reminiscent of Ozma's poppies. The
Brutals are kept in check by the Exterminators, who pillage and rape towns
in the Outlands (they are the chosen breeders), and Zed, through selective
breeding controlled by Zardoz, the false god of the Brutals, which
supplies grain from the Outside world to the Vortex. Zed has entered the
stone head in secret and ridden it back to the Vortex and leads to the
breakdown of their society. The Eternals are bored with life without sex,
and many wish to be destroyed, and this was all orchestrated by Frayn (who
essentially gives the plot of the picture away in an opening monolgue).
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 15:52:15 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Eric G.:
I'll E-mail Jenny directly, but in case others on the Digest were curious
as well, I thought I'd point out that "Jno." was a common abbreviation for
"John," as "Chas." was for "Charles" and "Jas." for "James," to mention a
couple of others. That practice was, I think, more common back in the early
20th century than it is now. (I know that in the play _Peter Pan_ Captain
Hook's first name is given as "Jas.".) Why "Jno." was the abbreviation for
"John," or why a four-letter name was considered to need an abbreviation at
all, are questions I have no answer for.
Ruth:
Thanks for the more detailed discussion of the genitive of "it." I don't
think the apostrophe on the genitive of the noun can be considered to
reflect the omission of the "e" from the Old English genitive in "-es,"
though; if that were the case there shouldn't be an apostrophe in words
that end in vowels, since there wouldn't have been an extra "e" in the OE
genitive. (E.g. OE "stan, stanas," which became "stone, stone's" in Modern
English - "stanas" was also the nominative plural, and it's no more logical
to put an apostrophe in the genitive singular than in the nominative plural
when both have developed identically in every other respect. Which is why I
call it arbitrary.)
I agree that Neill did some very nice rainbows, but I don't think any of
them include the Emerald City. (The one in _Road_ - which is only a partial
bow - is located in the EC, but the picture doesn't show any of the city.)
It's not strictly true that Baum never referred to east and west with
respect to the Munchkin and Winkie countries after the _Tik-Tok_ map
appeared. There are references to the Winkie country being in the west in
_Lost Princess_ and _Tin Woodman_, and to the Munchkin country being in the
east in _Magic_, at least. (This is the case even though the map in LP
shows the Winkie Country in what we'd normally interpret as the east.)
And in _Kabumpo_ Thompson places the Winkie Country in the west, though in
most if not all of her other books it's in the east. Neill followed
Thompson in placing the Munchkin country in the west, but Snow and McGraw
put it in the east. I'm not sure about Cosgrove.
Bob Spark:
ZARDOZ, as many others will probably tell you, was an SF film from back in
the mid-'70s. The name, and the fact that "Zardoz" itself had the shape of
a giant head, were about the only connection with Oz. It was a pretty good
after-the-disaster adventure film, with Sean Connery as a barbarian leader
who was captured by a group who had retained technology and used it to
dominate the other survivors, who had regressed to about 7th-century
British technology and culture. Some beautiful Irish scenery. A lot of SF
fans thought it should have gotten the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation
the year it came out, because it was more or less serious SF, but it was
beaten by _Young Frankenstein_. (I think I have that right; don't bet money
on it. I remember there was a lot of hate and discontent that YF won when
it did; I _think_ _Zardoz_ was the film some thought should have won, but
I'm not positive of that.)
Bompi:
There are a few uses of the genitive other than to show possession; it's
used as the subject of gerunds, and the object of "of" in some cases (e.g.
"a friend of mine," not "a friend of me", though "take all of me," not
"take all of mine." (The latter locution is possible, but would refer to
taking all of some subset of my possessions, not all of my self.) I haven't
thought out why the distinction, but I'm sure someone somewhere has. Maybe
Ruth will tell us.
The pronouns that have genitive forms both with and without "-s" (your,
her, our, and their - and in Southern dialect, "y'all") use the "-s" when
the pronoun doesn't modify another word - usually as a complement with a
form of "to be," sometimes as the object of "of" - and don't when it does.
"He" and "it" don't have the second form, and "I" and the archaic "thou"
add an "-n" (sound-wise; the spelling is changed more extensively) to the
modifying form rather than an "-s" if there's no object.
Scott H.:
I've promised Bear that I won't make political statements on the Digest any
more if he won't. For info on Limbaugh, you might go to
http://www.igc.org/fair/limbaugh-collection.txt and check it out.
John B.:
Two christening gifts, eh? One is obviously Kabumpo (though strictly
speaking Thompson says he was given to Pompus at Pompa's christening), and
another is/are the magic rings that protect Ree Alla Bad from harm. Are
those the two you had in mind, or is there another?
I don't think there's much connection between the Ozian cosmology and
Christianity. There is, according to SANTA CLAUS, a Supreme Maker, but he
seems more like a deist First Cause than the activist God of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. The vast array of immortals with responsibilities
for various forms of life, with the three Masters in sort of overall
charge, don't really seem consistent with any orthodox interpretation of
angels, though I'll acknowledge that I'm not that much of an expert on
orthodox interpretations of angels. It's interesting, by the way, that the
responsibilities of the three Masters seem to
be divided geographically (woods, fields, and seas - wonder who's in charge
of deserts and mountains?). The lesser immortals don't seem to be under one
particular Master; the wood nymphs are presumably all under Ak, but ryls
and knooks could be under Ak or Kern, and fairies might be under any of the
three.
Anko doesn't act like a deity, but he seems to be a major factor in the
undersea world. Probably he and the other two (IIRC) sea serpents are Bo's
primary lieutenants, as Ak, Kern, and Bo are the Supreme Maker's.
And welcome to active participation! I hope you'll keep it up; you have
some interesting ideas.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 08:35:58 -0500
From: rri0189@ibm.net
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Scott wrote:
>There was a quote about Oz and the Tin Man on last night's
>_Suddenly Susan_, which I happened to hear while I was updating a few
>things on my filmography. I knew I should have watched for the director
>credit when I was at the dinner table. I didn't get the character who
>said it either, but I got the quote exact. If I remember correctly, as I
>don't have the sheet in front of me, it was "Oz didn't do nuthin' for the
>Tin Man that the Tin Man didn't already have." Bad grammar, I know, but I
>didn't write it.
In the first place, what on Earth would the _director_ have to do with it?
In the second place, it's a quotation (more or less) from a popular song of
the 70's. In the original, it's "Oz never did give nuthin' to the Tin Man /
that he didn't, didn't already have," but that episode of SS is residing at
present on our VCR stack, so I don't know what their exact words were.
J. L. Bell wrote:
>Organized religion doesn't seem to have a place in Baum's pantheistic Oz
>after the Cowardly Lion knocks over a china church in the China Country.
>But in Thompson's books there are two significant "christening
>gifts"--implying that Christianity had reached across the Nonestic.
Well, Oz isn't exactly Middle-Earth, so this sort of question, while it
can be fun, is not necessarily going to have any meaningful answer. But
in this particular case, I think it's fair to say that in 20th-century
American society, the word "Christening" has little more religions
significance than "Christmas". (I dare say this is why the older word
"baptism" has been making a comeback in my lifetime.)
>Eric Shanower's work, for instance, shows how Oz can be allegorized
>for a general Christian message.
Please, let us have no abuse of the word "allegory". In the first place,
"allegory" means the intentional use of an extended and consistent system
of symbolism, which is true neither of Eric's work nor, a fortiori, of
the Oz corpus. In the second place, Eric's work is not particularly
Christian. (This is not to say that Eric is not a Christian, nor that
he does not think in Christian terms when he writes -- I know he does --
nor that his work is inconsistent with Christianity. But his works
to date could just as easily have been written by a liberal Jew, by
a Zoroastrian, or by an adherent of the Ba'hai faith.)
>For those who've been reading SEA FAIRIES, Zog is modeled on the
>traditional Western devil (how many cloven hoofs do we need to read
>about?), but Anko isn't a deity--is he?
Well, if I had a brief to reconcile the Ozian corpus with Christianity,
I would reply that if Zog is a devil, Anko can be an angel. (And more
like the real thing than the current Hollywood "angel" that cannot
be distinguished from a Hollywood "good fairy".)
But as a matter of fact, Baum found "the Devil" an offensive doctrine,
why I cannot imagine, unless he was merely being sloppy and said "the
Devil" when he meant "Hell".
// John W Kennedy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 12:26:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Aaron S. Adelman" <adelman@ymail.yu.edu>
Subject: Pantheism in Oz?
John, I just can't see Oz as pantheistic in any, shape, or form. While
Baum clearly isn't trying to indoctrinate anyone, his religious attitudes
would appear to derive from some form of Christianity, tending in most
books towards activism rather than pietism. Paganism doesn't seem to play
any role; even the most wicked magic-workers do not show any evidence of
Satanism, polytheism, or idolatry under Baum. (Though Thompson's Red
Jinn, oddly enough, would appear to be an idolator.) Fairies and other
immortals certainly do not claim godhood; though they may have important
functions in keeping the world running, I have yet to see in an
historically accurate Oz book in which fairies are worshipped or demand
worship. In fact, _The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus_ puts them in
awe of the Creator.
Happy Tabernacles, everybody.
Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman
adelman@ymail.yu.edu North Antozian Systems and The Martian Empire
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 16:12:33 -0700
From: Ken Cope <pinhead@ozcot.com>
Subject: Silly Political Partisanship in Oz
L. Frank Baum's classic Sea Fairies is the opus that Ringo
Starr (not his real name) thought he was composing until he
imagined that Samuel Taylor Coleridge interrupted his revery.
The imaginary Coleridge reportedly nearly banged the door
off its hinges at Ringo's swanky Porlock estate, with nothing
of more importance to report than the news that a mad hashish
eater had kicked his favorite candy machine. When Coleridge
apologetically offered to critique Ringo's composition (the
fragment _Octopus's Garden_ is all that survives), he was forced
to declare that frankly, it could not compare favorably to the
sound of bubbles in bongwater. This gave Ringo a fiendishly
clever idea for a practical joke.
Beatles Producer George Martin (who says he hasn't been to
Oz, but he kind of likes the colors) still tells the story of how
the four lovable lads pulled the wool over his eyes yet again.
For the sound of aquatic ambience to be featured in track 5,
they gave him a recording of actual bongwater bubbles for
him to ping-pong about in the 4-track mixer at Abbey Road
Studios. They convinced him that sound technician Ogg
Oggleby (the genius behind the classic recording _W. C. Fields
Forever_) obtained the sound effects by recording them in a
bathtub. What he didn't know is that they WERE bubbles in a
bathtub, one occupied at the time by John Lennon and Bill
Clinton!
Clinton, on his very first overseas campaign-financing trip,
had just collected a huge check from Apple Corps in exchange
for a promise in future, to promote the hippie agenda, and to
rough up that Steve Jobs fellow while he was at it. Thrilled, he
sought the little boys' room. Although a good friend, Clinton
was no Billy Carter. Had he known the bathroom was
occupied at the time, John Lennon would probably be
performing in the Wings reunion tour today. Mistaking the
hirsute Lennon for Paula Jones, Bill leapt headfirst into the
bath. When John passed the apologetic politician a bong, the
future leader of the free world could not figure out how to
inhale to save his life. Yoko thought his fruitless efforts were
so funny, that she asked Ogg to record his efforts. Bill
struggled in vain for an entire 18 minutes to get a toke, and
lives in mortal fear of the day Janet Reno listens to _Abbey
Road_ backwards.
It's the likelihood of this sort of behavior that has Republicans
urgently struggling to reform campaign financing, while
placing the president under investigation. This sort of thing
would never happen in Oz, since the last American election
Oz attempted to influence led to the defeat of William
Jennings Bryant. Jenny Jump does not want to hear the word
Ozlection.
We were warned of the possibility of this slippery slope by
Richard Nixon's pal Elvis Presley, as related in a memo by an
FBI agent after Presley had visited the agency. Elvis charged
that it was the Beatles that caused the decline of youth in the
1960s and "laid the groundwork for many of the problems we
are having with young people by their filthy, unkempt
appearance and suggestive music."
How do I know this is true? In the summer of 1993, spouse
Gen and I attended a legendary revel at the Richard Nixon
Birthplace and Library in Yorba Linda. ILM and SGI rented
the place and hosted the bar for invited computer animation
professionals, in celebration of the creation of synthetic
dinosaurs for _Jurassic Park_. Pat Nixon's fresh funeral plot was
protected by beefy security guards. It was eerie, legally
holding a free 8-ounce tumbler of scotch (the bartenders had
about 2500 thirsty guests and didn't have time to mix) and
walking through the bedroom in which the man who secretly
bombed Cambodia had been born. At midnight in the library,
Timothy Leary performed a moving oration and exorcism, in
the course of which the entire tale from Bill's sordid past was
revealed. As your mother would know, _Come Together_ was
composed by Lennon as a campaign song for Tim's failed
California gubernatorial bid against Ronald Reagan. While no
politician, Tim was quite a skillful exorcist, as Tricky Dicky
joined Pat in less than a year.
For one of the best eulogies I've ever read, please consult the
following URL:
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm
Hunter Thompson says it so much better than I ever could.
That's about all I have to say about the battles between the
Mommy Party and the Daddy Party, lamenting that the Hey, I
Thought We Were All Adults Party turns out too often to be
the Selfish Brats Party. I think they're all very silly, I mean,
what do you expect from a politician, really. This isn't as
much fun to read and talk about as Oz is. Can you figure out
what discussion about Al Franken appearing on television
nightly for a week, in a bed with Republican Arianna
Huffington, during the last national election conventions,
promoting his non-libelous best-selling book, _Rush Limbaugh
is a Big Fat Idiot_, has to do with Oz? Rush wasn't nearly
clever enough to figure out how to accomplish such a thing.
There isn't a large enough bed available for the purpose,
unless it's a magic bed from Oz. 16x9 aspect ratio TV sets
have only been available recently. Fortunately, there are
newsgroups all over Usenet where discussion of this sort is far
more appropriate, if not quite so satisfying and familial.
Token Oz news item:
The Wizard of Oz DVD contains subtitles in English, Spanish
and French, any of which can be viewed while listening
alternatively or synchronously to the English, Spanish or
French soundtracks. Imagine the language instructional uses
for that type of media, considering that the film is among the
most nearly memorized movies of all time. Not having rented
it yet, I've read that the Kansas sequences appear to contain
far better contrast and detail than do the Ultimate Oz Laserdisc
edition. The Technicolor sequences do not appear to differ
greatly, which says more for the extremely high quality of the
Laserdisc transfer than it does about the high quality one
expects from DVD. The Laserdisc collection is the only place
to obtain all of the supplementary material that does not
appear on the DVD, such as the excellent John Fricke
commentary. Finally, the DVD does not require a pause to
change sides, the way the Laserdisc does, making it much
easier to maintain synch with _Dark Side of the Moon_.
PS
I'm curious, Dave, do you suppose Jellia or Ozma might
accept an offer to escort them to a screening in a real theater of
the spectacular film _Contact_? It just wouldn't be the same if
they had to watch it on the Magic Picture. I'm sure they'd
enjoy it, since the film is about a young woman who isn't
afraid to go to a strange place, very far away, and all by
herself too. The film contains some wry Oz references. I hope
you don't miss a chance to see it properly, in a theater, no
matter what, Dave.
I can't pretend to be
Ken Cope Someone who pretends to be
Ozcot Studios Someone else
pinhead@ozcot.com Or so my pretend friend tells me
--The Rutles
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 14:23:04 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Me again,
J. L. Bell,
> Okay, folks, this is my inaugural message to the Ozzy
> Digest, so I'm trying to make it interesting. Here goes...
Welcome, sir (I guess J.L. is masculine). Interesting concepts, I
would like to gnaw on them for a while prior to any reply.
> "Oz didn't do nuthin' for the Tin Man that the Tin Man
> didn't already have." Bad grammar, I know, but I didn't
> write it.
That's a lyric from a piece of rock music. I have it rattling
around in my brain now (thanks a lot), but can't come up with the title.
I'm sure that someone will.
> Why did Jon R. Neill sign all his illustrations Jno?
I'm not replying directly to Eric's correspondent because I don't
have an answer, but I do know that "Jno" is an archaic contraction for
John. I don't understand the advantage of it, only one letter is saved.
Seeya!
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 21:53:40 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Our Ozzy Correspondence
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Dear Dave:
>Thompson: *I* remember you, but you're so ugly you don't deserve to live!<
FOFL. :-D :-D :-D
In other words, that last line cracked me up, Dave!
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 21:52:51 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-15-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Scott:
>"Oz didn't do nuthin' for the Tin Man that the Tin Man didn't already
have."<
The character quoted a line from the song "Tin Man" by the group "America."
"Oooh, Oz never did give nuthin' to the Tin Man, that he didn't, didn't
already have...." (Yes--'didn't' *was* sung twice.)
Stephen:
One such "foolish consistency" that Phyllis Karr spoke of was how
editors "correct" her spellings of "grey" and "gray" to one or the other,
but not both spellings. Which isn't really necessary--both spellings are
correct, and can be used for effect: "gray" to mean a warm gray, and "grey"
to mean a cool grey.
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 22:13:25 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Subject: Mo' Oz 'n' Zoom
Sender: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
I'm posting this answer to Jenny Kobernik as well: "Jno." was a standard
old abbreviation for "John." A delegate from New Jersey signed the
Declaration of Independence "Jno. Witherspoon," for instance. In choosing
that form for his signature Neill was probably being deliberately
olde-fashioned.
Incidentally, doesn't Neill have two signatures? In his early Oz books he
signs the color plates with a tall, swoopy J, but elsewhere (SKY ISLAND, p.
173, f'rinstance) his letters are blocky and all the same size.
I thought of replying offline about ZOOM, but if our host has joined in...
WGBH-TV in Boston is about to start production on a new ZOOM series. Visit
its Web site ("www.wgbh.org" will kick you to the new place) to find an
announcement of this plan and (if you click hard enough) a brief article on
old ZOOMers. Bernadette reveals that she didn't know how to do the arm
thing until *just a couple of days before that was taped*! [Dave, I'll
match you a ZOOM CATALOG and raise you a DO A ZOOM DO--but does anyone have
the cast album?]
<<JLB: Others draw parallels between the good immortals who rule Oz and
angels.
DHard: Oh, so *that's* why I'm considered a demonic blob of primal ooze for
marrying off Ozma and Glinda...>>
Yeah, that would be about the level I'd start you at, Dave--but you bob way
back up with points for originality.
I think some of Ozma and Glinda's power for Baum came from their virginal
unattachment (cf. Mary, Zixi, Athena, Elizabeth I). He created close
advisors who would be no threat to that status: the Wizard, constantly
referred to as "dried up"; Nick Chopper, who's chopped off his legs
(calling Dr. Freud!); Cap'n Bill, who still has one but it was small; the
Scarecrow--'nuff said.
Significantly, Baum's pairs of young lovers (Pon & Gloria, Ann & Jo)
appear only in books he wrote with a theater audience in mind (a movie
theater audience, in one case). In other books he does seem to hold to his
no-icky-romance rule; in GLINDA, there are no sparks between Aurex and
Ervic. (I expect the Adepts will have something to say 'bout that.)
Then Thompson came along, and ev'rybody had hormones!
John JnoLBell@compuserve.com
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 22:51:40 -0400
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: Today's Oz Growls
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
In 1991 someone named "Avi" wrote a book titled "The Man Who Was Poe."
Does anyone know the identity of this nom-de-plume.
Speaking of books, Stephen King has written a series, "The Dark Tower."
There are now four titles, "The Gunslinger," "The Drawing of the Three,"
"The Wastelands," and most recently "Wizard and Glass." I bought the
fourth on Tuesday and finished it, all 800 pages, on Saturday. They are
really great. King says there will be three more in the series. So why am
I mentioning them? After four books what did I find around page 600?
OZ!!! I won't go into details as that would be a minor spoiler. However,
this is another demonstration that Oz is everywhere.
Bob, Zardoz was a sci fi movie with Sean Connery. One of those after the
nukes type movies IIRC. And Zardoz did come from WOZ. I think they had
the book and part of the title was missing. Something like that. I
probably even have a copy of the movie. It is generally available.
J. L. Bell - How did you email us without the extra Compuserve line?
Anko - The memory he raised for me was a beautiful blue book my mother had
in her collection. It was called "Ching Li and the Dragon." Now, I wonder
what happened to that book?
>>Others draw parallels between the good immortals who rule Oz and angels.
>Oh, so *that's* why I'm considered a demonic blob of primal ooze for
marrying
off Ozma and Glinda...
No, you are only considered amusing for wanting to. Relax. Ozma and
Glinda remain amused with your idea and they are the ones who matter.
Well, I'm off to the land of rain. Otherwise known as Oregon and
Washington. I'll catch up with you all a week from Friday. Sorry to miss
"Sky Island."
Listening to Banco de Gaia, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 08:34:48 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest - rainbow ps
I commented that "Georgina of the Rainbows" was published by the same
publisher as the Oz books. That's wrong -- it was published by the Britton
company (of New York), not the Reilly & Britton company (of Chicago). It
isn't all that common a name, so perhaps there was a connection (maybe the
NY Britton was a son of Reilly's Britton?), but wasn't the same. Neill
(according to the checklist in the "Bugle" several years back) illustrated
four books for Britton, the first two as Jackson, and the later two under
his own name.
Before we leave "Sea Fairies" topic completely -- those on Digest who don't
subscribe to "Baum Bugle" may like to know that the Spring 1997 issue has
some gorgeous color reproduction of "Sea Fairies" art (endpapers as the
front and back covers, and reproduction of the original art for one of the
color plates as inside front cover), plus bibliographical article on the
book including b&w reproductions of the different covers.
Some years back, the "Bugle" published a nice article on "Cartography of
the Borderlands of Oz" by Patrick Maund, discussing the geography of both
"Sea Fairies" and "Sky Island," with a pair of maps by a friend of his as
illos. Other relevant past "Bugle" articles that people might want to look
up are "The Enigma of Button Bright" by Dan Mannix and "The Tribulations of
Trot" by Barbara Koelle. (I don't think the IWOC has copies of these
particular back issues still available. If people want to get the articles
and don't have access to a run of back issues through or a friend or a
library, I'd be willing to make photocopies at cost. Contact me privately,
if interested.)
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 21:48:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozisus@aol.com
Subject: Oz Digest post
Scott, The "Oz didn't give nothin..." quote is from a late 70s-early 80s
song, if you didn't know that. I can hear it in my head now, but can't
recall the name for the life of me. I'll track it down if you don't already
have it.
Bompi, Can you post a specific list of what illustrations you need? Digital
scans, photo copies. B/W, color? Which illustrations, illustrators works are
you after? etc. I'd be willing to do whatever I can to help and I have tons
of stuff, but I have no clue what you are looking for. And what city are you
in? There might be a public collection you could get to.
All: the Club's web site added a link to some information Angelica Carpenter
put together. It's useful, but not pretty -- just a long scroll-through
document. Anyway, it lists alphabetically by state all the Oz collections of
a research variety that she was able to track down doing some recent research
for the centennial committee. Included are the survey respondants remarks
describing the collection, hours, contact names, and the like. I didn't read
every detail, but she may have left in some notes (like, "these people swear
they don't have Oz stuff but Jane and I think they do" at a site where all
they have is one Oz book, but Maud Baum owned it). Check it out if you are
interested. I suspect Angelica and her husband, who got it on the Web for
her, would be willing to consider working with anyone who'd be interested in
dressing up the page with some graphics and interactivity. But hey, at least
the survey part is done....
With great pride I tell you all that my 10-month-old daughter discovered the
Oz books today by her own sweet self. In no time flat she successfully pulled
most of the white-bound Baum series from the shelf to the floor. Guess it's
time to close that door upstairs to the editions that aren't bound in white.
:)
Fast survey time... A question currently giving me ulcers: What do you think
is a reasonable per day price to pay for a particularly lavish Oz Centennial
Convention -- something much more elaborate than what the IWOC can do now,
where you'd have choices about the program options you attend?
I don't want to wind up with a registration fee that will leave you all
sitting at home, but I also want to ensure that we can have at least three
presenters to chose from at all seminar times, theme meals that present
information or entertainment along with good food, general sessions that are
well produced, live performances, exhibits, commemoratives included in
attendance fee, of course the auction and a kids' program. Etc. It'll cost to
pull if off, and setting the registration fee will dictate just how many
expenses we can cover and, in turn, just how elaborate we can get. The
dedicated can arrive Thursday morning and keep busy till late Sunday
afternoon. The sorta-dedicated might put less time into it.
In broad strokes, do I need to scale back and make sure the total
room/food/program daily rate is under $100/day, or can we squeak up to $130
or so without having you all drop like flies? Now do your math. Think four
days. Could you fork over $450-500/adult in addition to your travel costs,
or is that twice what you could budget?
(FYI, kids will be cheap since they stay in rooms with parents free and pay
1/2 price on food. Their cost will be nominal. And we are, as rumored,
talking Bloomington, Ind., where the Lily Library's collection is headed for
a fabulous centennial display and the local film society has agreed to host a
simultaneous Oz film series for us. Bloomington, for those of you who are
going to get carried away figuring your budgets, is a $29/RT shuttle ride
from the Indianapolis airport.)
Sorry to get wordy, but this convention fee issue is one of those potential
dream-killers and need a few opinions other than my own.
Wisdom, love and courage to all, Jane
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 20:11:48 -0700
From: "W. R. Wright" <piglet@piglet.com>
Subject: oz digest
FYI, for those who have not read David Parker's excellent paper on the Oz
Populism theory, the full text is available at our Oz Encyclopedia website.
Look under Oz'n Ends.
Also, the full cast of characters, place names, and other objects from The
Sea Fairies is included in the website's encyclopedia. We invite the
interested surfer to find anything from the book that has not been included.
Just received the following question on where these books can be purchased.
Does anyone know? If so, let Sherry Keath <sakeath@ezonline.com> know.
Dorothy in the ornament rooms...ISBN # 0307625524
Dorothy returns to oz...ISBN#030712553x
Bill in Ozlo
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 22:18:30 -0500
From: International Wizard of Oz Club <oztp@neosoft.com>
Subject: RE: Christmas/Holiday Cards
Cc: 'Dave Hardenbrook' <DAVEH47@delphi.com>
I recall seeing a great Oz card last year, but don't remember the source.
I'll forward your inquiry to the Ozzy Digest, as some of the readers may be
able to help.
Sincerely,
Jim Vander Noot
The International Wizard of Oz Club
-----Original Message-----
From: JDJDJDLH@aol.com [SMTP:JDJDJDLH@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 1997 8:49 PM
Subject: Christmas/Holiday Cards
I'm looking for some Oz Christmas/Holiday greeting cards. Do you know where
I might find them?
Thanks.
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 00:34:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozisus@aol.com
Subject: 'Nuther Oz post
My friend the Music Trivia Master came through:
"America" recorded "Tin Man" in 1974 with Dewey Bunnell singing. George
Martin (the Beatles' producer) produced it.
(chorus) Oh, Oz never did give nothin to the Tin Man/ That he didn't, didn't
already have. / And cause never was the reason for the evenin' / or the
tropic of Sir Galahad.
So please, believe in me / when I say I'm spinning round, round, round /
smoked glass stained bright colors, / Image going down, down, down / soap
suds green like bubbles ooooh, ooooh....
I'll spare you the rest.
Can anyone confirm for me -- by, like, looking inside your "first" edition --
if "Baum's Own Book For Children (the reissue of L.Frank Baum's Juvenile
Speaker) was first published in 1911 or 1912? I had 1912 in the timeline but
Riley's new book's bibliography says 1911.
By the way, I've updated the timeline and Jim's republished it on the IWOC
web site. The 1842-1997 chunk runs about 130 pages now if you download and
print it. I'm sending it off to a sharp-eyed proof reader, but if any of you
notice any I-can-prove-that's-wrong dates or can fill in missing blanks, I'd
love it if you'd drop me an e-mail. I have not yet updated its Bibliography,
Geneology or any other appendix pieces. And I'll no doubt add some more once
I've read it against Riley. Jane
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 10:01:15 -0700
From: Ken Cope <pinhead@ozcot.com>
Subject: ZARDOZ
I've copied the teaser from my laserdisc copy, I should think you'd
have no trouble finding a copy to view. 1974, rated R for (tame
by today's standards) violence and nudity (the most anybody
had seen of Sean Connery on film at the time, as I recall), and
an early edition of the book, _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_, makes
a brief, but pivotal, cameo appearance. Very "artsy," it was
written, produced and directed by John Boorman, after his success
with _Deliverance_.
The tale of a hypocritical Utopia's infatuation with Nihilism?
While certainly not the sort of movie being made these days, it
should continue to hold up as a fairly thoughtful film worth
viewing, its insights more apparent to Oz fans.
The not-quite-a-spoiler LD jacket blurb:
A frightening and nightmarish world of tomorrow is created in an
action-packed movie that evokes the best elements of Planet of the
Apes, A Clockwork Orange, and Fellini films, while maintaining its
own unique and visually breathtaking view of the future. Starring
Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling, the dazzling special effects
and visionary scenario have elevated it to the status of science
fiction classic.
Wlecome to the year 2293, and to a world populated by the inheritors
of a devastated Earth. For the Brutals, ignorant peasants who till
the land, life is harsh and unforgiving. The only meaningful act is
communion with their god Zardoz, who appears once a year as a
gigantic flying stone head, collecting their wheat and dispensing
their laws.
Zed (Sean Connery) is an Exterminator, a warrior class that enforces
Zardoz's repressive, murderous canon on the Brutals. But he is also
a genetically and intellectually superior mutant. In a quest to
learn more about the universe he inhabits, he stows away within the
giant stone head. He is transported to the "Vortex," a protected
Utopian paradise inhabited by the Eternals, a race that knows
neither birth nor death, established by scientists in the past to
preserve the Earth's cultural and technological heritage.
Yet for many of its inhabitants, this paradise is purgatory. Beset
by apathy, devoid of passion, they are doomed to an eternity of
meaningless existence. Zed, now in their midst, is the first
Outlander, the first true mortal, they have seen in years. And
his vitality represents both the only hope of saving their cloistered
community, and its gravest threat.
His fate is in their hands, but his quest for knowledge compels
him to continue seeking the shocking secrets behind their eternal
culture, and behind Zardoz--knowledge which may bring about his
destruction!
Featuring action-packed all-star performances, a complex and
visionary story line, awe-inspiring cinematography and special
effects, "Zardoz" easily rates as one of the most striking sci-fi
fantasy films of all time.
I can't pretend to be
Ken Cope Someone who pretends to be
Ozcot Studios Someone else
pinhead@ozcot.com Or so my pretend friend tells me
--The Rutles
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 97 13:49:50 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
Hi Ozzies! This is the last Digest before the South Winkie Convention.
I will report on it next time...
A WORD FROM OUR QUEEN:
Ozma: I wish to express my supreme pleasure that Bear and David Hulan have
declared political peace on the Digest without my intervention...
( Now if I can only get Jellia under control! :) )
"ALL WE ARE SAYING IS GIVE PERMANENT DIPLOMATIC ANTI-HOSTILE NON-COMBATIVE
PACIFICATION A CHANCE":
Jellia: Actually, Dave is rather concerned...It turns out that when
Nerrum [the parallel-Earth that is a distinct improvement over
ours] was pulled into this universe, it also pulled in another
parallel Earth inhabited by a "little girl" Ozma who finds the
idea that there is another version of Oz, on which she is grown up
and married vile and sick and is threatening us with war! Needless
to say, Milady is not too keen on the prospect of being at war with
herself...So she and Dave wish to make an appeal for peace...Can't
we all just get along, even if we're from different universes or
our allegences are to slightly different versions of Oz?
KEN'S REMARKS:
>It's the likelihood of this sort of behavior that has Republicans
>urgently struggling to reform campaign financing, while
>placing the president under investigation.
Jellia: You mean *looking as though* they're reforming...*No one* in Congress
wants to *really* reform the very system that put them into power, and
to kick away the ladder that they have all ascended -- while they're
still standing on it!
Ozma: No one could kick away *my* ladder -- The Magic Belt would break
my fall! :)
>This sort of thing would never happen in Oz, since the last American
>election Oz attempted to influence led to the defeat of William
>Jennings Bryant.
Ozma: Although Bob Dornan still charges that I sent Emerald City citizens
into California to vote against him for Congress! (I *didn't*!)
>Jenny Jump does not want to hear the word Ozlection.
Jenny: You can say that again!
Jellia: Of course Nixon's kids still say that the Ozlection was rigged
and Thurston Morton is still going around the Oz quadrants in
order to re-weigh Ozites!
>The Wizard of Oz DVD contains subtitles in English, Spanish
>and French...
Quick technical question: Will DVD disks play on a PC that has CD-i player
software?
>I'm curious, Dave, do you suppose Jellia or Ozma might
>accept an offer to escort them to a screening in a real theater of
>the spectacular film _Contact_?
The three of us and other Ozites are all going to see it together Saturday,
after the South Winkie Convention... :)
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 18-20, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
(Previous Digest was on: October 17, 1997)
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 22:25:41 -0400 (EDT)
From: DianaBoban@aol.com
Subject: Ozzy Digest,
Hello everyone,
I have only posted once or twice to the list, but I felt the need again
tonight (hope you don't mind). First of all, all this talk about America's
"Tinman" has convinced me to tell you what my boyfriend did for me as a
surprise. He made a tape from music off the radio and CDs that all had a
Wizard of Oz theme. For instance, some of the songs were "The Ballad of
Dorothy Parker" (Prince), "To Serenade a Rainbow" (PM Dawn), "Witch's
Promise" (Jethro Tull), "Witchy Woman" (Eagles), "Thick as a Brick" (Jethro
Tull), "If I Only Had a Brain" (MC 900FT Jesus), "Rain on the Scarecrow"
(John Cugar Mellencamp), "Tinman" (America), "Heartless" (Heart), "Pinball
Wizard" (The Who), and "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (Elton John). He also
threw in random songs by groups like Kansas, Toto, the Tornadoes, the
Monkees, and music from the Lion King. It was a very cute gift and I thought
I would share with all of you.
Another reason that I decided to crawl out of lurkdom was because I happened
to walk by a discount computer store the other day and noticed acomputer
program called "The Legends of Oz." It was pretty cheap, but I was wondering
if anyone already had it and could let me know if it has anything interesting
on it!
The final straw that really made me post tonight wasBompi's post about her OZ
tattoo. I never get the chance to tell my story to anyone who would care, so
I might as well try you all (most of you are nice enough to humor me anyway!)
Actually, I am amazed that there is another person with an Oz tattoo (I also
have an O-Z design - did you take yours from a book?!) When I went to get my
tattoo, the guy who was at the front desk was covered in tattoos. Upon
closer look, I realized he had some Oz tattoos, so I asked him to have a
look. He took off his shirt and there were four large black and white
portraits of the four across his stomache and sides. On his chest was a
giant, full-color Emerald City. He had a tornado going from his lower right
back up to his upper rightshoulder. He had munchkins and a giant yellow
brick road. He had striped stockings sticking out from under the side of a
house. I was in shock. He was a biker-dude coated in Wizard of Oz tattoos
(he also told me that his girlfriend had the ruby slippers tattooed on her,
well, her rear end to put it politely!) I had thought I would be one of the
few to combine bodily deformation and The Wizard of Oz, but apparently not!
Is there anyone else who has ever scarred themselves Wizard of Oz Wize?
Well, I don't post often, but I sure do babble when I do post! That's all
for now! Take care everyone!
Diane
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 20:33:59 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
Before I forget,
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself
(I am large, I contain multitudes)."
Walt Whitman
Thanks for the above quote. I shall treasure it.
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:09:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Christine R. Gray" <china@wam.umd.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
X-Authentication-warning: rac2.wam.umd.edu: china owned process doing -bs
I wanted to let everyone know of an unusual Oz offering. The current
Barnes and Noble book bargain catalog has the W. Oz movie, which is not
unusual, but it also has listed for $34.95 a set of four silent films
produced and directed by Baum. Music and Narration are added. They were
made between 1914 and 1925. They are His majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz;
The Patchwork Girl of Oz; The Magic Cloak of Oz; and the original Wizard
of Oz, featuring Oliver Hardy. Let me know if you want ordering info.
It's best to email me privately becasue I don't have time these days to
read the entire digest everyday. christine
Christine R. Gray, Ph.D.
"You are unique--just like everyone else."
china@wam.umd.edu
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 00:24:46 -0500 (CDT)
From: Robin Olderman <robino@tenet.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
X-Authentication-warning: Joyce-Perkins.tenet.edu: robino owned process doing
-bs
Bill: Sampson wrote some of the Mary Louse series. She's probably best
known, however, for her "Miss Minerva" series.
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 07:07:48 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
Hi Y'all,
I appreciate y'all's answers to my "Zardoz" question. I have
passed them on to my inquiring friend.
> The pronouns that have genitive forms both with and without
> "-s" (your, her, our, and their - and in Southern dialect,
> "y'all")...
I have always been curious about "y'all". I understand it to be a
contraction of "you all", but if that is the case, what is the
explanation for "All y'all"?
> They convinced him that sound technician Ogg Oggleby (the
> genius behind the classic recording _W. C. Fields Forever_)...
Og Oggilby was a character played by Grady Sutton in W.C. Fields'
"The Bank Dick"
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 07:35:58 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Another reply to the "Ozzie Digest" of the 17th
More to do with W.C. Fields, Og Oggilby, and "The Bank Dick" just
because they amuse the heck out of me:
> Movie Quotes for Bank Dick, The (1940)
>
> Egbert Souse: "Og Oggilby ... sounds like a bubble in a
> bathtub!"
>
> Egbert Souse: "My uncle, a balloon ascensionist, Effingham
> Hoofnagle, took a chance. He was three miles and a half up
> in the air. He jumped out of the basket of the balloon and
> took a chance of landing on a load of hay."
> Og Oggilby: "Golly! Did he make it?"
> Egbert Souse: "Uh...no. He didn't. Had he been a younger man,
> he probably would have made it. That's the point. Don't wait
> too long in life."
The above courtesy of The Internet Movie Data Base
http://us.imdb.com/
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 11:09:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: "W. R. Wright" <piglet@piglet.com>
Subject: oz digest
Ken:
Ref "The Wizard of Oz DVD". Is this real? What does it contain and where
can be obtained?
Bill in Ozlo
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 14:30:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
Shades of Grey/Gray:
I like Melody's explanation. Personally, I think gray is cruder than
grey--but as I said, Melody's explanation makes (perhaps more) sense.
Ozius (a.k.a. Jane):
My own introduction to Oz wasn't quite that dramatic (as pulling the
books to the floor, etc); you may have a prodigy there.
Until next time, whenever that may be,
Jeremy, Punner'o'rhyme, don't you agree?
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 14:28:53 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Item for "Ozzie Digest"
You know, I keep coming across relevant items, so I forward them.
I browse, therefore I am. Remember that Emerson quote: "I am large, I
contain multitudes".
At any rate, in the Mixed Media brochure in this month's Quality
Paperback Book Club mailing there is an offer for a package containing
both the VHS tape for "The Wizard of Oz" and Pink Floyd's CD "Dark Side
of the Moon" for $34.98. They advise synchronizing the two by starting
the CD "at the sound of the third MGM lion's roar".
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 16:37:33 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
Jeremy:
>"No one who has both read _Locasta_ and is a subscriber to the
>Digest"
>Dave, don't you fit into this category?
No, Dave edits the Digest; he doesn't have to subscribe. However, Dave says
he submitted _Locasta_ to the Centennial Contest, and if that's the case
then subscribers Steve Teller and Robin Olderman have read it.
Melody:
> One such "foolish consistency" that Phyllis Karr spoke of was how
>editors "correct" her spellings of "grey" and "gray" to one or the other,
>but not both spellings. Which isn't really necessary--both spellings are
>correct, and can be used for effect: "gray" to mean a warm gray, and "grey"
>to mean a cool grey.
Except that there's no way to be sure that a reader will interpret it that
way, since that distinction isn't, as far as I know, found in any
dictionary or other standard reference. It's analogous to saying that I'll
use "judgment" for the quality exercised by ordinary individuals and
"judgement" for rulings from the bench in court - I can do it that way, but
I can't expect readers to recognize that I'm making the distinction.
John B.:
It's Ozga and Jo Files, not Ann and Jo, just to pick a nit.
Jane:
Speaking for myself, a $450-500 fee plus travel costs (which if I'm still
in Chicagoland wouldn't be much) would be no problem. It's way more than
most Oz conventions have charged in the past, though, and I don't know how
many people would be able and willing to afford it. If it were sufficiently
well advertised, with enough information about the program available to
everyone to really whet their interest, and early enough that they could
plan to save up for it, then it might be brought off, but it would take a
lot of justification at that price. And for some, particularly the younger
members (not children, but college students and twentysomethings), it might
be impossible no matter how appealing it would be.
Dave:
I look forward to your report on the South Winkie Convention. Hope it was a
rousing success, and sorry I couldn't be there myself.
Incidentally, I'll be away from my computer from about midday 10/22 through
the evening of 10/26, in case anybody wonders why Digests during that
interval don't have anything from me.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 20:31:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Estelle E. Klein" <estelle@mho.net>
Subject: ozzy question
I got this question in my email- can anyone help him:
What day of the week and at what time did Dorothy arive in Oz ?
normryan@hoss.rouge.net (Norman Ryan)
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 00:09:14 -0400
From: Lisa Bompiani <bompi@microserve.net>
Subject: ozzy digest
Hello, I am taking a break from more Ozzy writing for school. This time I
managed to connect Oz to Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_. Stranger things have
been done.
For anyone who is interested, I was in good ol' Pittsburgh and Caliban's
book store has a copy of Sea Fairies for $275. I didn't get a close look at
it; I just saw it in the case and asked the price. If anyone is interested,
the number is (412) 681-911 voice and (412)681-9113 fax.
Is there a ZOOM home page for the original show, or is that address for the
new series? Gosh! Maybe it could lead to the rediscovery of the Electric
Company . . .
Jane - I need to get some copies of the FF illustrations in any form,
photocopies would be fine to use for the comparisons to other
representations of the time. I'm unclear about the copyright restrictions
for the Oz illos and don't want to get into any triuble which is why I was
leery(sp) about Xeroxing. I'm in Indiana, PA, so i'm not sure how close how
am to any collections - my inquiries haven't found much.
Well, off to the land of verbal compounds!
Peace & Love,
Bompi
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 07:54:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe)
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
I have returned. Picked up a bad cold in Los Angeles which lasted
through my visit to New Hampshire and still lingers in a cough and
congestion.
In the October 8-9 Digest, Dave Hardenbrook says <SETTING THE RECORD
STRAIGHT: Oz exists, Ozma exists, Santa Claus exists, the Easter Bunny
exists, and even the Great Pumpkin exists...But there is *no* Digest for
Oct. 6.>
This agrees with my thinking. It is good to finally hear from an expert
on the subject. Dave, since I have you on the line, there is an aspect
of this existence thing you may clear up for me: Is the Great Pumpkin
the same as the Pumpkin King in "The Nightmare Before Christmas"?
Earl Abbe
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 11:26:08 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
Jeremy Steadman: I think Dave might plausibly argue that he doesn't
subscribe to the Digest -- he DOES the Digest.
Bill Wright: According to the "To Please a Child" biography of Baum,
Emma Speed Sampson was hired to write the continue the "Mary Louise"
books (which had been coming out under the Edith Van Dyne
pseudonym) after Baum's death. The last few are by her (although
Phyllis Karr is of the opinion that the one with a title something like "Mary
Louise and her Soldier Boy" is too badly written to be by either Baum or
ESS -- and "To Please a Child" says Baum's oldest son had a hand in
that one, so perhaps it was mostly Frank J. B.'s work).
David Hulan: I expect you're right that the use of an apostrophe in the
modern English possessive is arbitrary. It would probably take a
specialist in the history of the language to give a detailed discussion of
the relationship of modern -'s to the Old English genitive ending, but (as
you said), the one descends from the other.
Rainbows -- for Robert Schroeder's purpose of making an image that
combined the Emerald City and an Ozzy rainbow, it probably wouldn't
matter if he could find a Neill drawing that had both, or if he combined
two separate illos. I think Neill's most gorgeous rainbow illo is the two-
page b&w spread in "Sky Island," closely followed by the color plate in
the same book a few pages away.
J.L.Bell: Yes, Neill used different signatures in various drawings. The tall
swoopy J was typical of his early work, and then he seems to have got
tired of it (or maybe he thought it took up too much of the drawing), and
switched to the same-size spelling. Sometimes he just used his initials as
his signature, and very likely there are other variations, too.
Aaron Adelman: Pantheism and Polytheism seem to be represented in
Baum's work by the personified natural powers (mainly in "Santa Claus,"
but also in Polychrome's father the Rainbow and other such figures).
Baum's personified natural forces differ from "gods" in not being
worshipped/not demanding to be worshipped, but in their powers over
and concern with humanity and creation, they might just as well be
considered "gods." You seem to be assuming that "wicked" people
would be more likely than "good" people to believe in multiple gods, but
that assumption seems unlikely to be correct. The people in present-day
India and Japan, for instance, seem about as virtuous overall as other
countries, but most of them follow religions of multiple deities.
Bear: The U of MN library has a listing for Alice Woodbury Howard's
"Ching Li and the Dragons" (NY: Macmillan 1931). You could probably
get hold of it (or maybe some closer library's copy) through Interlibrary
Loan if you'd like to get an adult-life-look at it. Avi seems to have made
his name legally just "Avi," as all of his books that they have are signed
that way, with only the birth-date of 1937 to mark him off from other
people with the same first name. But I just asked at the U of MN's Kerlan
Collection of Children's Books, and found out his full name is (or maybe
was) Avi Wortis -- and he has a twin sister, Emily Ledier, who is a poet.
"Sky Island": this is something I've said before, but I think it's the most
Swiftian of Baum's books. He's never as savage in his satire as Swift,
and he has running throughout his books a comically gruesome interest
in the nature of identity (as in: Is the Tin Woodman the same person after
complete prosthetic replacement? Is Jack Pumpkinhead the same
person after the death of each head? Is Tik-Tok a person?) that is
related to the sorts of themes Swift used. But in "Sky Island" he has the
specific punishment Swift's island-in-the-sky people were considering for
Laputa, of slicing people in two and mismatching the halves back
together. And the perpetual argument between the Sunrise and Sunset
Pinkie tribes as to which is superior recalls the Lilliputian Big-endians and
Little-endians.
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 97 16:07:53 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
Time to discuss _Sky Island_!!! Sorry there was no Digest yesterday, but
all of Sunday I suffered from my annual bout of "Post-Oz-Convention
Depression" which never entirely goes away...Being with other Oz fans in
person once a year just isn't enough for me... :(
Ozma: Notice also that Dave have adopted the advice of one Digest member,
and now the date of the previous Digest will be explicitly given in
each Digest...
"DOROTHY'S HOUSE FALLS INTO OZ, AND YOU ARE THERE...":
Estelle Klein forwards this query from Norman Ryan <normryan@hoss.rouge.net>:
>What day of the week and at what time did Dorothy arive in Oz ?
Jellia: Do you want that in Greenwich time, Oz time, or Kansas time? :) :) :)
THE GREAT PUMPKIN IN OZ??:
Earl asks:
>Is the Great Pumpkin the same as the Pumpkin King in "The Nightmare Before
>Christmas"?
Dunno...You might want to ask on alt.comics.peanuts...
ZOOM PAGE:
Bompi wrote:
>Is there a ZOOM home page for the original show, or is that address for the
>new series?
The URL is: <http://www.boston.com/wgbh/pages/zoom/> This is mainly for
the new series, but there's also some info. on the old show at:
<http://www.boston.com/wgbh/pages/zoom/zoomnostalgia.html>
>Gosh! Maybe it could lead to the rediscovery of the Electric
>Company . . .
I hope so! That's another show I really miss! (I especially loved Rita
Moreno on the show!)
SOUTH WINKIES:
And now the moment you've all been waiting for...My report on the South
Winkies! We started with Show-and-Tell. Our Digest member Danny Wall
showed his designs for the "Oz" comics he's working on. I displayed my Oz
Chess set, printouts from my web page and stills from my computer animation
I'm working on -- _Nonestica: The Movie_. Hopefully next year I will be
able to show the finished product.
Then this years guest, Robin Hess, spoke about his book, _Christmas in Oz_,
which sounds like a good book. After he spoke, we had lunch outdoors (as
usual) and played (not usual) an Ozian form of Bingo called "Ozingo", in
which the bingo grid was colored like an Oz map and each square contained
the name of an Ozite from that region. I didn't win.
After lunch Kurt Steinruck gave a sample of his performance of the WWW
in the stage version of the MGM _Wizard of Oz_, followed by the Oz auction.
As usual, the auction was mostly MGM stuff, but there were a few Oz books,
featuring illios by Neill and Dick Martin...(I have a question: If Ozma is
"a little girl after all", then why do so many Oz illustrators show Ozma
with a height of 5+ feet and give her *breasts*???) Once again, there was
*one* thing I really, really wanted -- A copy of _The Oz Scrapbook_ -- and
again I couldn't afford it (opening bid: $50)! I contemplated bidding on
the Glinda doll they had, but I didn't know where I might find a tiny little
snood to convert it from an MGM to a Baum Glinda. :) After that we went
to the restaurant across the street for more socializing and the best
hamburgers I ever tasted! Everyone was trying to persuade me to go up
to Monterey next year for the big Winkie Convention, and I just might do
it...It depends on whether I can get a "roomie" to share expenses...
Anyway, it was very enjoyable, and in conclusion I want to thank
Robyn Knutson and Kurt Steinruck (who will hopefully will be joining
the Digest soon, if my recruitment efforts were more successful this year)
for chairing the Convention and for keeping it running!
.......
Oh, just one more thing...
Jellia: Yes, Columbo? <giggle>
During my Show-and-Tell presentation, I also talked about my Ozzy writings,
including the infamous _That Ozzy Feeling_, and guess what? Afterward
many people came up to me and declared their excitement and enthusiasm at
the idea of Ozma and Glinda getting married, and they looked very perplexed
and puzzled when I explained to them the Digest members' and Oz publishers'
hostility to the idea. The majority of Oz fans are clearly very anxious and
eagar to read a romantic, "Ozma finds love" story and *don't* see anything
"sacriligious" about it!
Aujah: So deal with it!
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 21, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 21:06:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozisus@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
Bill Wright, Emma Speed Sampson wrote titles under the Edith Van Dyne name
following Baum's death. She wrote (no co- about it; he was in Forest Lawn)
Mary Louise at Dorfield (1920), Mary Louise Stands the Test (1921), Mary
Louise and Josie O'Gorman (1922) then began a new series based on her own
Josie O'Gorman character. Those two books were Josie O'Gorman (1923) and
Josie O'Gorman and the Meddlesome Major (1924). Reilly & Lee publishd all of
them. ('Scuse the self-promoting, but if you get hit with questions like
this and don't have time to turn them around on the Digest, check the
timeline I did for the IWOC web site. I put lots of factual stuff like this
there to provide fast answers...)
And what, if your questioner told you, was the name/publisher of the Sampson
autobiography? I'd love to include it in the Oz timeline when it gets to
1919 and references Ms. Sampson. Jane Albright
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 19:37:00 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Diane,
Of course we don't mind your posting (at least I don't). I thought
that your message was delightful. Your boyfriend sounds both thoughtful
and interesting. Picked a lot of good music, too. As far as a tattoo
being "bodily deformation", I don't know. Times and attitudes have
changed. I have one as a souvenir from my days in the army about 35
years ago. It's not Oz related, but I still kinda like it. Sure caused
a ruckus with my parents at the time, though.
> What day of the week and at what time did Dorothy arive in
> Oz ?
As far as the day of the week, I dunno, but it was probably in the
morning because some of the children were still asleep (in a teacup as I
recall).
I find myself not too fond of _Sky Island_. I already knew and
liked Trot, Cap'n Bill, and Button Bright. I didn't much care for any
of the inhabitants of Sky Island particularly, and if I never run into
Trot's mother again it'll be too soon. What a termagant! I firmly
believe that she was pleasant to Button Bright just to make him feel
indebted to her so she could domineer him too.
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 19:43:36 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Second post, Sorry (I'll try to do better),
In _Sky Island_, on page 14, Button Bright is described as wearing
"a blouse waist". I have no idea what that is. Can anyone help me?
Thanks,
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 1997 23:48:18 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Notes:
WOW! Three digests to respond to after returning from my High School
Reunion.
David:
As far as I know, Baum never said or implied that Zog was attempting to
deceive. I've only read the book once, and I haven't had time to re-read
it.
Hobgoblins:
That foolish consistancy quote of Ralph Waldo Emerson's has been mentioned
before. It is true enough, but not all consistancies are foolish. "A lazy
inconsistancy is the hobgoblin of weak minds".
That ain't real good grammer, nohow:
All this talk on this topic has resurrected an old question of mine: What
in Hippikaloric is a GERUND?
John Bell:
Welcome to the digest! Or at least, your first posting.
IN a later Thompson book, a character has reason to go around disguised as
a monk. Nobody seems to see anything unusual about this, implying that
there are some religious orders in Oz. They don't have to be Christian, of
course.
Earl:
I'm pretty sure that there is no connection between The Great Pumpkin and
the Pumpkin King. The Pumpkin King is a master of terror and fear. The
GReat Pumpkin is a kinder, gentler soul who visits pumpkin patches on
Halloween and rewards faithful children with presents. And someday, Linus
WILL see him! :-)
"If I only knew then what I knew now":
Everybody goes through this, and I'm no exception. Having just returned
from four days of fun in Tucson, I am here to dispense my three points of
sage advice (I'm at the ripe old age of 28) to those of you who have yet to
go to high school:
1. TAKE PICTURES. I cannot emphasize this enough. Become a shutterbug. Take
pictures until you puke. Take pictures of everything and everybody until
people growl at you for hauling out your stupid camera again. Also, don't
just take the pictures and file them away for 10 years. People forget. Turn
those pictures over and write full descriptions of who, what, where, when,
why and how. People will love you for it in 10 years.
2. MAKE FRIENDS. Granted, there is no way for you be intimately friendly
with hundreds (or even over a thousand) people. However, try to get to know
as many people as you can on at least a moderate level.
3. REMAIN IN CONTACT. This is a toughie. People move, get married, go to
college, etc. Make the effort. The long friendships are the treasured ones.
Write letters. Make phone calls. These days, you have an advantage called
the Internet. Use it. Please.
That's all for now.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 07:30:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe)
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
Moving through the backlog slowly...
In the 10/12 Digest, Joel Harris wrote, <I came across a children's
mystery novel
with the Wizard of Oz in the title. The book is about the disappearance
of a
1st edition of Wonderful Wizard from the local library. If anyone would
like
the title and author, let me know and I'll go back for it. Or, perhaps,
one
of you already knows...>
"WHO STOLE The Wizard of Oz?" by Avi, illustrated by Derek James.
Paperback. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1981. It cost $1.95 then.
Earl Abbe
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 15:52:30 +0000
From: Scott Olsen <ScottO1440@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Re: Diane's "Is there anyone else who has ever scarred themselves Wizard of
Oz Wize?"
Well, not me. But I suppose the one advantage to this would be that you'd
have Oz with you always--in fact, for an eternity, I suppose...
Autumn Bugle arrives: There was an unusual occurrence yesterday. The 1997
Autumn Baum Bugle arrived in Autumn 1997! And I was certainly delighted to
see a major article by someone who I consider to be a foremost authority on
Baum and Oz--Ruth Berman. On the other hand, I must admit I never expected
to see a full page photograph or Roseanne Barr/Arnold/?? in the Bugle, but I
suppose its Oz connection makes it okay.
Re: Ruth's "Yes, Neill used different signatures in various drawings.."
Yes, but what it not mentioned is that he didn't even sign most of his later
drawings!
Re: Dave's "I have a question: If Ozma is a little girl after all", then why
do so many Oz illustrators show Ozma with a height of 5+ feet and give her
*breasts*???)"
Were you influenced, perhaps, by the cover illustration on the circa 1935
copy of _Ozma of Oz_ that was on the auction table?
Re: Dave's "Once again, there was *one* thing I really, really wanted -- A
copy of _The Oz Scrapbook_ -- and again I couldn't afford it (opening bid:
$50)!"
If I remember right, the closing bid was also $50.00, or pretty close. There
*were* some bargins to be found at the auction. There weren't that many
books, and the one's there sold fairly low. A 1st of _Hungry Tiger_ with 12
plates was $60.00, and a pretty good 1st of _Scalawagons_ sold for $25.00.
Some very good circa 1960 reading copies of Baum's books didn't sell at
all--which makes me wonder if the BoW reprints are having an effect on that
market....
I remember copies of _The Oz Scrapbook_ being remaindered in bookstores for
about $1.00. That was eighteen (or so) years ago.
It was certainly a delight to again see Kurt Steinruck, who I last saw 5-6
years ago. And it was especially nice to finally meet our esteemed digest
director, Dave Hardenbrook.
Re: Dave's "I explained to them the Digest members' hostility to the idea
[of Ozma falling in love, etc]".
Certainly you meant to say "**some** Digest member's hostility...."
Sincerely,
Scott Olsen
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 15:33:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Diane,
Do _not_ buy Legends of Oz if you want to feel good about yourself ever
again! I bought it three or so years ago, when it first came out (at $60!).
It contains annoying "We're Off To See the Wizard" background music, which
will _not_ stop, character readings (accompanied by recolored Denslow illos)
of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a readable 'book' of The Wonderful Wizard,
about a dozen video clips from the MGM film, Living-Books-like versions of
the SillyOZbul books (with readings and clickable 'surprises'), and a rather
sad little matching game. A very disappointing program, IMO.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 14:42:52 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Bob Spark:
> I have always been curious about "y'all". I understand it to be a
>contraction of "you all", but if that is the case, what is the
>explanation for "All y'all"?
While "y'all" originated as a contraction of "you all," it's now felt as
the second person plural pronoun and a single word; the "allness" has
disappeared. "All y'all," then, is the same as "you all" when they're
pronounced as two separate words, with the order inverted for euphony.
(Although one can say "y'all all" as well; it gives a greater emphasis to
the "all". "I want all y'all to come to my party," has the general feeling
that everyone being spoken to will be welcome at the party; "I want y'all
all to come to my party," conveys more that if anyone spoken to doesn't
come without a good reason, the host's feelings will be hurt.)
Estelle:
>What day of the week and at what time did Dorothy arive in Oz ?
>normryan@hoss.rouge.net (Norman Ryan)
I don't think a day of the week was mentioned anywhere in _Wizard_;
certainly I don't recall it if so. As far as time, we know it was in the
morning, because Dorothy has breakfast after she talks to the GWN and
Munchkins - probably fairly early morning, though well after sunrise. I'd
guess somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00.
Ruth:
Good point on the Swiftian aspect of _Sky Island_. I wonder to what extent
it was inspired by Laputa? Does anyone know if Baum was a fan of
_Gulliver's Travels_?
Speaking of _Sky Island_: As I've said before, this is my favorite of all
Baum's books. It's an integrated story with no Irrelevant Episodes; the
protagonists solve their main problem themselves rather than having a
magical intervention, or even a pure-chance one like Billina's overhearing
the Nome King and his chamberlain saying how to identify the Oz and Ev
ornaments; and on the whole the characters behave in a rational manner.
Probably the travelers shouldn't have taken time to eat lunch when they
first arrived, but it wasn't all that obvious at the time. After that they
act intelligently and even with considerable cleverness at times, such as
when Button-Bright invaded the treasure room.
It's true that it takes Polychrome's intervention to save them from being
thrown off the island, but as Rosalie says, she was sure that something
magical would happen to save them or she wouldn't have voted to throw them
off in the first place. (Incidentally, Polychrome is described in this book
as being powerful - which is consistent with her protrayal in _Tin
Woodman_, and to a lesser extent in _Tik-Tok_, but not in _Road_, where she
seems to have had no magical powers at all. Maybe that adventure persuaded
her that she should learn some magic?)
The Boolooroo is a villain more along the lines of Ruggedo than Zog, I
think - that is, he's selfish, and unscrupulous, but he doesn't seem to
have any particular desire to do evil for its own sake.
I haven't quite finished rereading the book yet, so I'll probably have more
to say when I do.
Dave:
>(I have a question: If Ozma is
> "a little girl after all", then why do so many Oz illustrators show Ozma
> with a height of 5+ feet and give her *breasts*???)
I have a theory about that that I think I voiced (or phosphored, or
whatever one does with the Digest) a year or so ago, but it might bear
repeating. If you look at Neill's drawings of Ozma (and he was the only one
who depicted her for a long time), you'll note that up through _Jack
Pumpkinhead_ he invariably dresses Ozma in such loose, flowing garments
that you can't tell if she has breasts or not. Starting with _Yellow
Knight_, though, he switches to more fitted garments that definitely show
her as no longer a "little girl". (The covers to _Ozma_ and _Emerald City_
showing her in fitted clothing were drawn after _Jack Pumpkinhead_ was
written.) Some subsequent artists have copied the earlier and some the
later version. My theory is that it was in _Jack Pumpkinhead_ that Mogodore
expressed a desire to marry her - and since, for all his faults, there's no
indication that Mogodore was a pedophile, Neill probably concluded that
Ozma must appear of marriageable age and started drawing her more
definitely that way. Mogodore was the first, and as far as I recall the
only, person to express a desire to marry Ozma for her own sake; Pompa's
proposal was reluctant and only to save his father's kingdom.
Some of Neill's early drawings of Ozma make her look very young - in
_Ozma_, for instance, or the one of her sitting in a tree at the beginning
of _Lost Princess_. But in most of them her features look like a
teen-ager's. Of course, so do Dorothy's and Trot's...
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 16:13:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: BOZZYBEAR@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Does anyone know if Jerry Maren (one of the Munchkins from Wizard of OZ)
movie is really sick and in the hospital. Last Sunday .... a feature comic
strip (Jump Start) in the Philadelphia Inquirer ran a story line that
suggested that he was.
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 16:47:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozmama@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Diane: Thanks for sharing that image of the Ozzily tattooed bruiser. LOL!
Judgment/judgement: The former is still the preferred form, but the
latter...because of overuse by poor spellers...has become acceptable. No,
I'm not saying David is a poor speller. Au contraire!
Earl: Go get some vitamin C and chicken soup for that cough!
Dave: If you get the Glinda, I'll crochet a teeny, tiny snood for her. And
do try to go to the WinkieCon. There should be a good chance that Pete can
find you a roommate. You certainly will enjoy it, but I warn you that the
post-OzCon depression may be more severe than usual.
--Robin
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 17:24:23 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
John Kennedy:
I ralize the director would have nothing to do with the quote, but that is
how I assign the films in the filmography, but if the contribution was
clearly that of someone else, I'd try to note that. This was obviously
the writer, and I'd like to have that name to, if you can get it for me.
I've never heard that song. That's interesting, do you know anything more
about it.
Examples (not exact quotations, but close)
Tim Burton's _Pee-wee's Big Adventure_ (1985) [Miss Gulch musical
spoof--Danny Elfman] (Warner)
Peter Greenaway's _The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover_ (11-1-89)
[Portions of people's clothing [Jean-Paul Gautier] change color with
respect to the room they are in] (Vidmark)
My attitude toward the devil is about the same as Baum's. As I understand
from his religiuos beliefs, he would have fit in quite well at the Unity
church, which had yet to become a church during Baum's lifetime, although
it had already started.
Well, it looks like I won't need the info abou the song; it's already been
covered.
Scott
BTW, I'm done translating what I can translate for tape one of _Oz_. Tape
2 is slightly different, and I'm addressing what I can. since I don't
read Japanese at all well without a guide, the only way to really be sure
is to compare it screen by screen, but I don't have the equipment to do
that, as my MVCR cannot pause clearly, and can damage the tapes if you
try. So Jim and Jane, you'll be getting a copy soon. There are some "?"s
where I could not find the character in question. Some may well be wrong,
as some of the cast's correct transliterations, according to English
language sources of seiyuu (Japanese voice-over actors), do not gel with
the guide I am using. One of them, Osamu Saka (who plays Rubert Epstein)
also played Wheeljack, Char, and Metroplex on _The Transformers_ TV show
in its original Japanese version.
Jane, would you prefer the filmography in hard copy or on disk for
WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS? A hard copy will cost $10. If WordPerfect is
comaptible with what you have, the disk shall be complementary: I have
plenty.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 97 15:58:59 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
OZMA:
Scott Olsen wrote:
>Were you influenced, perhaps, by the cover illustration on the circa 1935
>copy of _Ozma of Oz_ that was on the auction table?
Also by _Forbidden Fountain of Oz_, in which I found a Dick Martin drawing
of Ozma where she looks similarly...er, "developed"...
>Re: Dave's "I explained to them the Digest members' hostility to the idea
>[of Ozma falling in love, etc]".
>Certainly you meant to say "**some** Digest member's hostility...."
Well, yes -- It just *seems* sometimes like there's a consensus on the
Digest because the "Dan-haters" are so motivated to state and *re*state
their views on the matter...
David H. wrote:
>My theory is that it was in _Jack Pumpkinhead_ that Mogodore
>expressed a desire to marry her - and since, for all his faults, there's no
>indication that Mogodore was a pedophile, Neill probably concluded that
>Ozma must appear of marriageable age and started drawing her more
>definitely that way.
Well, did Thompson start modifiying her views on Ozma's age, i.e. did *she*
become "misguided"??
>Mogodore was the first, and as far as I recall the
>only, person to express a desire to marry Ozma for her own sake...
Dan: In the FF, that is.
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 22, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
(Last Digest was 10/21/97)
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 19:35:39 -0500 (EST)
From: JSTEADMAN@loki.berry.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Dave:
Many apologies for maligning you--true, you don't just SUBSCRIBE to the
Digest, you do a whole lot more.
I like the previous-Digest notification method you adopted.
More Ozzy material next time. (I hope.)
--Jeremy Steadman, rambler-at-large
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 20:14:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Aaron S. Adelman" <adelman@ymail.yu.edu>
Subject: The Wonderful Tattoos of Oz
1) Diane, while I have a strong distaste for tattoos in general (on both
religious and aesthetic grounds), I must admit admiration for the
unfaltering dedication of that biker with the Oz tattoos.
2) Dave, apparently the Royal Illustrators disagreed with the Royal
Historians and thus drew her as something as other than "a little girl
after all". Probably it was Ruggedo who leaked rumors to the Royal
Illustrators about Ozma aging.
Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman
adelman@ymail.yu.edu North Antozian Systems and The Martian Empire
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 00:49:29 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
David:
I've always thought that Button-Bright's action in going into the treasure
room was one of the bravest and courageous acts that he ever did.
Perhaps the adventure in _Road_ encouraged Polychrome to learn magic much
in the same way that Ozma's adventure in _Lost Princess_ may have
encouraged her to do the same thing.
I've always enjoyed _Sky Island_. It's a good story and has a tightly
contained plot. The end result in the land of the Blues is an unusual
situation for Baum: It's one of the few times that a male ruler has been
deposed and replaced with another male. Of course, Sky Island can be
thought of to represent the masculine (blue) and the feminine (pink), and
in fact the two nations do seem to fit that role, in a stereotypical sense.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 01:06:48 -0700
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
X-Authentication-warning: mail1.geocities.com: wht2b6e05.resnet.iup.edu
[144.80.104.94] didn't use HELO protocol
Tyler:
A gerund is a verb used as a noun. I can't really recall any more
details than that from my eighth grade English class, or give any
examples. A gerund is a type of verbal. (Did I spell that last word
correctly?)
David:
The ring of invisibility that Rosalie gave to Trot could be considered a
sort of "magical intervention." Of course, this invisibility didn't
immediately solve the heroes' problems, but it helped.
The Boolooroo does strike me as being quite similar to Ruggedo. For one
thing, they both have terrible tempers, and they both rave and throw
things when they are angry.
An interesting point in _Sky Island_ is that the Blue Country seems to be
a patriarchy. The only female Blueskins who play any major part in the
story are the Snubnosed Princesses. The Queen is literally one card
short of a full deck, and seems to have very little voice in government.
In the Pink Country, on the other hand, men and women appear to be
equals, and, throughout the course of the book, three females rule the
country. I suppose you could see some relation here to the fact that
blue is often considered to be masculine, while pink is considered
feminine.
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 07:36:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe)
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
In the 10/14-15 Digest, Dave says, <Oh, so *that's* why I'm considered a
demonic blob of primal ooze for marrying off Ozma and Glinda...>
What? Ozma and Glinda are married? I did not realize that Ozma was
Glinda's type.
Dave also says, <ZOOM IMO, OZ:>
Dave, watch out for those palindromes; they sometimes turn on you. And
how will you know when they do turn?
Earl Abbe
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 09:55:23, -0500
From: NQAE93A@prodigy.com (MR ROBERT J COLLINGE)
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-21-97
> What day of the week and at what time did Dorothy arrive in
> Oz ?
David H. wrote:I don't think a day of the week was mentioned anywhere
in _Wizard_;
certainly I don't recall it if so. As far as time, we know it was in
the
morning, because Dorothy has breakfast after she talks to the GWN
and
Munchkins - probably fairly early morning, though well after sunrise.
I'd
guess somewhere between 8:00 and 9:00.
If we cannot find the answer in Baum's books, perhaps the the
questioner is referring to MGM's 1939 movie. When the coroner
reports of the death of the witch, the date on the certificate is May
6th, the same as L. Frank Baum's death.
Bob C.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 09:19:05 -0700
From: "Stephen J. Teller" <steller@pittstate.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-21-97
>
> That ain't real good grammer, nohow:
> All this talk on this topic has resurrected an old question of mine: What
> in Hippikaloric is a GERUND?
>
A GERUND is a present participle of a verb used as a noun: i.e. Running
is fun,
>
> --Tyler Jones
>
>
> I remember copies of _The Oz Scrapbook_ being remaindered in bookstores for
> about $1.00. That was eighteen (or so) years ago.
>
> Scott Olsen
The good old remainder sales. TO PLEASE A CHILD and WHO'S WHO IN OZ
also went that route. Don't we all regret that we did not load up with
copies then.
>
> Diane,
>
> Do _not_ buy Legends of Oz if you want to feel good about yourself ever
> again! A very disappointing program, IMO.
>
> Sarah
>
On the other hand, if Diane can get it cheap, it might be a valuable
collectors item in a few years, especially if she did not unwrap it.
>
> Speaking of _Sky Island_: Polychrome is described in this book
> as being powerful - which is consistent with her protrayal in _Tin
> Woodman_, and to a lesser extent in _Tik-Tok_, but not in _Road_, where she
> seems to have had no magical powers at all. Maybe that adventure persuaded
> her that she should learn some magic?)
>
March Laumer's THE CARELESS KANGEROO OF OZ (which takes place
immediately after EMERALD CITY, and so before SKY ISLAND) concerns
itself largely with Polychrome's education.
>
> David Hulan
>
Steve T.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 10:56:28 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-21-97
Bob Spark:
> I find myself not too fond of _Sky Island_. I already knew and
>liked Trot, Cap'n Bill, and Button Bright. I didn't much care for any
>of the inhabitants of Sky Island particularly, and if I never run into
>Trot's mother again it'll be too soon. What a termagant! I firmly
>believe that she was pleasant to Button Bright just to make him feel
>indebted to her so she could domineer him too.
I found Rosalie quite appealing, and although I didn't _like_ the Six
Snubnosed Princesses I enjoyed the way Baum played with their faults and
gave them their comeuppances. Agreed that Trot's mother comes through as
pretty awful; maybe Baum wrote her that way so that nobody would think it
odd that Trot wouldn't mind staying in Oz if he needed to bring her there
later? _Sea Fairies_ hadn't done too well in sales, and I suspect that Baum
was already preparing to go back to Oz if _Sky Island_ didn't do any better.
I'm not positive about this - I didn't live then and haven't researched it,
but I've inferred it from reading lots of books written in those days - but
I believe "waist" was used back in the early part of this century as being
more or less synonymous with our current terms "shirt" or "blouse",
particularly as worn by women and children. And "blouse" as a verb meant to
constrict a garment while leaving enough loose fabric above it that the
fabric bulged out above the constriction. So I'd interpret a "blouse waist"
as a shirt that was worn outside the pants, with a belt outside the shirt -
something like what we'd probably call a "belted tunic" today. I could
easily be wrong; anybody here an expert on fashion terminology of the 1910s?
Tyler:
>That ain't real good grammer, nohow:
>All this talk on this topic has resurrected an old question of mine: What
>in Hippikaloric is a GERUND?
A gerund is the verb form ending in "-ing" that's used as a noun. It can
have subject and object like a verb, but the subject is in the genitive -
e.g. "My driving him around all the time is getting expensive." "Driving"
in that sentence is a gerund. It looks the same as a present participle,
but has a different function in a sentence. In "Driving along the road, I
saw Dorothy and Trot," "driving" is a participle. (And if Dorothy and Trot
were the ones driving then it's the infamous dangling participle.)
Staying in contact with one's high school classmates isn't that easy unless
you stay somewhere fairly near where you went to high school. I've stayed
in reasonably good touch with one of mine, but that's all. And with none of
my college classmates except the same guy. Of course, I didn't like that
many of them that much, either. (Or presumably vice versa.)
Scott O.:
>Autumn Bugle arrives: There was an unusual occurrence yesterday. The 1997
>Autumn Baum Bugle arrived in Autumn 1997! And I was certainly delighted to
>see a major article by someone who I consider to be a foremost authority on
>Baum and Oz--Ruth Berman. On the other hand, I must admit I never expected
>to see a full page photograph or Roseanne Barr/Arnold/?? in the Bugle, but I
>suppose its Oz connection makes it okay.
I got my Bugle a few days ago myself (Monday, I think). Bill Stillman is
certainly doing a great job of keeping the schedule, and produces an
attractive package as well - though either Charles Santore's photos of his
Dorothy model weren't very good in the first place or they didn't reproduce
well. I'll have to say that it was less satisfactory for my personal
interests than most Bugles, but hopefully that's a one-off. My Ozian
interests are (1) the stories as stories, i.e. "Oz as history"; (2) the
stories as literature, i.e. why did an author write this book in this
particular way; (3) the lives and times of Ozian authors, especially those
of the FF, but later ones would be of interest if anyone ever wrote about
them; (4) the Oz and related Baum books as artifacts (i.e. bibliographical
information). I have relatively little interest in media spinoffs of Oz or
in collectibles, and unfortunately this Bugle was devoted almost entirely
to those aspects of Oz. One good article like Ruth's - which at least
reflects back on the life and times of Baum, if only peripherally - is
fine, and if I hadn't already heard Leonard Swann present his spiel on his
Oz videos twice I'd probably have found that interesting, but basically
there was nothing in this issue that addressed any of my main interests.
Robin:
>Judgment/judgement: The former is still the preferred form, but the
>latter...because of overuse by poor spellers...has become acceptable.
I always use "judgment" myself - why type an extra letter? - but both have
been listed as acceptable spellings in dictionaries for as long as I can
remember. I was just using it as another example of a word with two
"correct" spellings, like "grey" and "gray", that don't have any other
distinction between them that's in any way standardized.
Dave:
>>Re: Dave's "I explained to them the Digest members' hostility to the idea
>>[of Ozma falling in love, etc]".
>
>>Certainly you meant to say "**some** Digest member's hostility...."
>
>Well, yes -- It just *seems* sometimes like there's a consensus on the
>Digest because the "Dan-haters" are so motivated to state and *re*state
>their views on the matter...
It seems to me that it's been a long time since anybody on the Digest said
anything negative about your plan to marry off Ozma and Glinda, other than
your own references to some objections in the past. Of course, you may be
getting private hate-mail that doesn't make it to the Digest...
>David H. wrote:
>>My theory is that it was in _Jack Pumpkinhead_ that Mogodore
>>expressed a desire to marry her - and since, for all his faults, there's no
>>indication that Mogodore was a pedophile, Neill probably concluded that
>>Ozma must appear of marriageable age and started drawing her more
>>definitely that way.
>
>Well, did Thompson start modifiying her views on Ozma's age, i.e. did *she*
>become "misguided"??
I think she must have modified her views on Ozma's age after _Kabumpo_,
because Ozma doesn't act like a little girl and people don't react to her
as they would to a little girl in the later Thompson books. Or, for that
matter, in the Neill or Snow or McGraw books. (Her roles in the
Cosgrove-Payes books are so minor that one can't really tell much about
them.) Whether this is "misguided" or not depends on what you think of
Ozma's apparent age. I'm willing to accept the one firm statement that Baum
made on the subject - that she looked about 14 or 15.
>>Mogodore was the first, and as far as I recall the
>>only, person to express a desire to marry Ozma for her own sake...
>
>Dan: In the FF, that is.
Well, yes. I generally confine historical statements to the FF.
Subsequently there's the Ice King in Shanower's graphic novel, and the Nome
King in Oz Comics, and probably others that I don't know about (or don't
remember) that have been published, not to mention at least one unpublished
book that we all know a lot about. ;-)
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 08:54:39 -0700
From: Tyler Jones <Tyler@apprentice.com>
Subject: Oz
question for all you AOLers out there:
How are personal web pages handled for people on AOL? For example, if my
e-mail address was tyler@aol.com, what my URL probably be?
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 15:32:26 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-21-97
Gerunds:
As others will tell you, I'm sure, Tyler, a gerund is a verb form
used as a noun. [But that's telling, isn't it :-) ? ]
Keeping in touch:
For every of my four moves, I've kept in touch with one friend (or my
parents have), except perhaps New Jersey (a two-year stay my parents
didn't like anyway). Beyond that, I often want to forget the places
I've been (don't ask, you don't want to know). And I am keeping in
touch with one via the internet currently.
Diane's "Is there anyone else who has ever scarred themselves
Wizard of Oz Wize?"
Well, Dorothy was probably scarred stiff of the WWW, if that counts
:-) .
"All y'all" vs "Y'all all":
I've lived in the South for 11 years and I still don't like it--if
"y'all" makes it into the dictionary it'll be over my dead body! (Or
would be if I wrote the dictionary, I suppose.)
Ending on such a happy note, not a hint of morbidity, of course,
Jeremy Steadman, Pessimist at Large
P.S. I'm paranoid too--but everyone already knew that.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 14:52:20 -0500 (CDT)
From: Robin Olderman <robino@tenet.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-21-97
Gerunds:<<All this talk on this topic has resurrected an old question of
mine: What in Hippikaloric is a GERUND?>>
A gerund is a word that starts off life as a verb and ends up acting more
like a noun. It always ends in the letters ING. That makes it a present
participle, but not all present participles are gerunds. Oh dear. Lemme
try to clear it up. Gerunds are kinda half-verb/half-noun thingummies.
(Present participle acting as an adjective)RUNNING water is convenient for
a shower. (Works like HOT water is convenient for a shower.)
(Gerund) RUNNING is hard work. (RUNNING acts as a subject, thus it's
acting like a noun. The verb is "is."
(Gerund) I hate RUNNING. (RUNNING is a direct object, thus acting as a
noun,so it's a gerund.)
(Gerund) A popular exercise, nowadays, is RUNNING.(predicate nominative)
(Gerund) RUNNING a show is hard work. (Odd thing here is that RUNNING is
doing both the noun function of simple subject *and* a verb function
because it has a direct object. "Show" is the direct object of RUNNING.
FWIW, the complete subject=RUNNING a show.)
(Present tense progressive form of verb) The boy IS RUNNING.
More than you wanted to know, right?! --Robin
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 97 13:52:03 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
DIGEST "REFORMS":
>I like the previous-Digest notification method you adopted.
I think I'll take a vote on this: What do people prefer as an indication
of the date of the last Digest? What I used to do, e.g. "Ozzy Digest,
Sept. 20-22, 1997"; or what I've done the last few days with "Last Digest
was on Sept. 20"? Remember, your vote counts!
ONE THING YOU'LL NEVER HEAR SOMEONE SAY IN OZ -- "LET'S DO LUNCH":
Thanks Tyler for the advice on keeping in touch with your peers -- However,
I have found this such a Heculean Labor that I've given up...I don't
know if it's a Southern California thing, but I've found that when
someone says "Let's keep in touch" or "Let's do lunch", that's the
*last* thing they really mean...At least you can depend on frankness
from an Ozite.
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 23, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 15:40:29 -0500
From: Bill Wright <transxinc@earthlink.net>
Subject: Oz Digest
Jane, Ruth....
thanks for the feedback on Sampson. Right now I am on the road and do
not have access to the original email that had the info on the Sampson
autob.
When I get home in several weeks I will send it to you.
Bill in Ozlo
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 16:52:05 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-21-97
> Of course we don't mind your posting (at least I don't). I thought
> that your message was delightful. Your boyfriend sounds both thoughtful
> and interesting. Picked a lot of good music, too. As far as a tattoo
> being "bodily deformation", I don't know. Times and attitudes have
> changed. I have one as a souvenir from my days in the army about 35
> years ago. It's not Oz related, but I still kinda like it. Sure caused
> a ruckus with my parents at the time, though.
No intention of doing this to myself; I find them unappealing, but that's
just my opinion; I also find piercings unappealing, as I see the Body
Accents ad on the _Nuvo_...
Tyler
> That ain't real good grammer, nohow:
> All this talk on this topic has resurrected an old question of mine: What
> in Hippikaloric is a GERUND?
A gerund is a verbal noun. That is, it's a noun in the -ing form. An
example would be the word "running" in the sentence "Running is good
excercise." As the verb is the subject, it is used as a noun. My dad
describes a gerund as annoying noun-verb constructs like "doctoring," but
I do not know if this is a gerund, while the former most certainly is.
It's based on the definition given in a Latin class by a semi-long term
sub when Mrs. Stokesberry had a hip problem. She did not come back to
teach after her husband died (a lot of us expected she was already a
widow, but that was not the case) she was relpaced by Kevin Nally. I
don't know how she's doing or if she is even still with us.
> Earl:
> I'm pretty sure that there is no connection between The Great Pumpkin and
> the Pumpkin King. The Pumpkin King is a master of terror and fear. The
> GReat Pumpkin is a kinder, gentler soul who visits pumpkin patches on
> Halloween and rewards faithful children with presents. And someday, Linus
> WILL see him! :-)
The Pumpkin King is Jack Skellington, aka Danny Elfman. Did anyone catch
the reference to the film version of _The Patchwork Girl of Oz_ in _Tim
Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas_ by Henry Selick?
>
> 3. REMAIN IN CONTACT. This is a toughie. People move, get married, go to
> college, etc. Make the effort. The long friendships are the treasured ones.
> Write letters. Make phone calls. These days, you have an advantage called
> the Internet. Use it. Please.
Definitely the hardest part of the three. I've lost contact with
everybody for all intents and purposes, though sometimes they turn up.
> Re: Dave's "I have a question: If Ozma is a little girl after all", then why
> do so many Oz illustrators show Ozma with a height of 5+ feet and give her
> *breasts*???)"
Baum also described Polychrome as apperaing around Dorothy's age, but it
didn't stop Neill or anyone else from giving her breasts. Of course, all
the comicbook versions give all the girls breasts. This would not work
for any of them in my novel, except if one were to illustrate one of Tip's
dreams.
>
> Ruth:
> Good point on the Swiftian aspect of _Sky Island_. I wonder to what extent
> it was inspired by Laputa? Does anyone know if Baum was a fan of
> _Gulliver's Travels_?
I thought I read in some _Bugle_ that the patching was a parody of
something in the Laputa section of _Travels to Strange Places by Lemuel
Gulliver_ (apparently he actually credited authorship to Gulliver in the
first edition), but I have only read the Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa
segments in excerpt, though I have seen the Juran and Sturridge films. I
think I saw the Fleischer film a long time ago, but that barely had
anything to do with Swift. The satirical, Swiftian elements are quite
strong in both the Trot books, the Fiddler crab sequence in _The Sea
Fairies_ being similar to the Laputa lad who was expelled for only being
able to play his instrument in tune. Interestingly, Swift was not writing
for children, though his work is often classified as such in abridged
(i.e. censored) for kids version. Baum may have thought he was writing
the equivalent as a children's story.
I read this for the first time last Thursday. I think it is one of Baum's
better books, but it is much more conventional, perhaps because of the
large workload Reilly & Britton had been giving him at the time, it could
not be as experimental as his works from early on in the century.
As such, as a story it works extremely well, held together neatly and
tidily. I liked it a lot, though, and much better than _The Sea Fairies_.
Baum neatly sets up a certian amount of ambiguity as he makes note of how
stupid Button-Bright is regarded to be. Baum's only support for this is
that he has poor handwriting. Many genius level people have poor
handwriting. Button-Bright actually seems quite intelligent, here.
Polychrome's appearance was well worked in, but seem a token role after
what I had heard of her appearance, but I can't be like a Roger Ebert
critic that reviews expectations rathwr than what the work actually is. I
have heard Oliver Stone's _U Turn_ raved (which incidentally has an Oz
reference, but I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know what). I noticed in
BoW hardcover edition, presumably just like the original, several major
errors. Most were typographical, but the confusion of Fredjim and Jimfred
(Fredjim is the one they first meet, according to the rest of the story,
but he says he is Jimfred). No one on _Sky Island_ is very pleasant, so
it seems a good thing that it was basically a one-shot deal, though I
think Melody added something to it in Oziana 1983 I believe.
Why do so many stupid films have to have Oz references? I certainly don't
want to sit through Stuart Gillard's _Rocket Man_ for my research. I'd
rather watch the pornOz that Bill has, since the _Rocket Man_ trailer is
not the least bit funny. Obviously, it's just too strongly embedded in
American culture, but...
Dr. Touponce's History of Children's Lit poster had nothing for 1900 or
anything on Baum. Dr. Touponce is familiar with Baum, but he didn't make
the poster, so it's not his fault. Dr. Touponce is probably the only
professor in the world who has shown _Tetsuo: The Iron Man_ in class.
Want to watch a disgusting film? Watch _Tetsuo_. There's a sequel going
around the art circuit of major film cities, which, alas, Indianapolis is
not one of... The filmmaker's name is Shinya Tsukamoto, who gets into a
bathtub, slices his leg and jams a rusty rod into his leg which festers
with maggots. This is just the opening scene. It gets grosser...
According to Phil Hardy, the film was shown in some markets as _Tin Man_.
Therefore, this was not a spam.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 17:35:30 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Christine: I son't know why the manufacturer of the boxed set is
perpetuating the myth that PG and MC were directed by Baum rather than J.
Farrell MacDonald. Baum did, however, write and produce both films.
Grey: this is the British spelling, but I prefer it when not quoting.
Unfortunately: neither _The Runestone_ nor _Return to Oz_ (1964) could be
obtained through interlibrary loan.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 20:38:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: "James R. Whitcomb" <whitcomb.1@osu.edu>
Subject: For Ozzy Digest
Jane Albright: I went to the International Wizard of Oz Website to check out
your "revised" additions to your chronology. When I clicked on a range of
years, I got the following message: "Sorry, the file you requested is not
on the server".(?) Below this message were icons for returning back one page
or for returning home. The same thing happened when I tried to look at the
section "Oz on the Internet" under the new "Resource Section". Has anyone
else tried to access these pages on the IWOC website and gotten similar
results?
Also, I would probably be willing to pay $100.00+ to attend the Centennial
Oz convention. If it's in Bloomington, IN, I would be able to drive there.
Finally, I thought the info in Angelica Shirley Carpenter's website was very
interesting. I don't know how extensive or "special" the collection has to
be to get listed here, but I think that Bowling Green State University
(Ohio) has quite a bit of Oz stuff in their Popular Library Collection
(which is non-circulating). You might want to give them a call to check it
out. Also, Ohio State University's Rare Book Collection, as well as the
Edgar Dale Media Center Collection of Rare Children's Books at OSU has many,
if not all, of Baum's books. I think the same may be true of the State
Library of Ohio. For Ohio, I only saw Miami University mentioned.
Diane: I found your post about the Oz musical references and tattoos very
interesting. I chuckled, though, when I read about the tattoos because I saw
on one of the "tabloid talkshows" quite a while ago, I similar type of
fellow who was covered with Disney tattoos. It was very colorful and
interesting, but not what you'd typically expect to see on the body of a
"biker-type".
To the person who mentioned the Stephen King Oz reference (sorry I forgot
your name): Thanks for this info. I am a "big" SK fan. I have not, however,
read this series yet, but I have read most of his other books. If anyone
else reads SK or other popular writers of horror/supernatural fiction, have
you noticed that many of them make Oz references which tend to have a bit of
a negative connotation? I know that Stephen King, as well as Dean Koontz,
make reference to Oz quite often, but it's mostly as the result of a
character who has just suffered a very traumatic experience or witnessed a
ghastly incident. The Oz reference then appears to suggest a person has
"crossed-over" to the "Land of Oz" as the result of some hallucinatory or
adrenalin-induced state.
To anyone: In the October 1997 issue of "Highways", there is a short article
by Kimberly Winters reporting on the recent purchase by a group of Grand
Rapid's community boosters of the carriage drawn by the "Horse of a
Different Color" in MGM's 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. The sale took place
at Christie's East in New York City, but the price paid for the carriage
wasn't mentioned. In addition to appearing in The Wizard of Oz, the
carriage appeared in more than 200 other films including Jezebel and My
Forbidden Past. Also, this carriage was specially commissioned from Brewster
Manufacturing for Abraham Lincoln and bears the inscription, "A. Lincoln
June 8, 1863." After being on display at various sites around Grand Rapids,
it will be on permanent exhibit at the Judy Garland Children's Museum. You
can call 218/326-6431 for more information. The article has a pic of the
carriage along with a superimposed Judy Garland as Dorothy in front of it.
I heard that Meinhardt Raabe (who played the Coroner in the munchkinland
scene in The Wizard of Oz) was in a "bad" car accident, along with his wife,
Marie. Can anyone substantiate this? I had the pleasure of meeting both of
them a few years ago and they were very kind people.
Jim Whitcomb of ...
Jim's "Wizard of Oz" Website
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6396/
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 21:04:51 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-17-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
>Eric G & David.:
I'll E-mail Jenny directly, but in case others on the Digest were curious
as well, I thought I'd point out that "Jno." was a common abbreviation for
"John," as "Chas." was for "Charles" and "Jas." for "James," to mention a
couple of others. That practice was, I think, more common back in the early
20th century than it is now. (I know that in the play _Peter Pan_ Captain
Hook's first name is given as "Jas.".) Why "Jno." was the abbreviation for
"John," or why a four-letter name was considered to need an abbreviation at
all, are questions I have no answer for.<
Neill probably shortened his sig so it would easier to hide & not
detract or call attention to itself in his artwork. That may not be the
full reason or the reason, but that's why I don't sign my full name to a
pic. It's also probably why some artists sign their work with a symbol,
like Whistler's butterfly, or Denlow's famous Hippocampus. :-)
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 21:04:34 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-22-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Sky Island:
More Neill oddities--although the Pinkies are described as plump,
Neill's color plate of Rosalie has her appear tall and slender. And how
'bout those springs in the Blues' legs! And though Ghip-ghisizzle describes
himself as relatively young, Neill apparently only saw the "60 years old",
not the statement that Blues age more slowly than humans, and makes the
poor guy look ancient.
There *is* one more deux ex machina in "Sky Island"--when
Button-Bright's elephant-head-handled umbrella turns into an elephant that
chases off the fog-bank creatures who call the umbrella "insulting."
One good part is when Trot wins over the pets of the mean
Snub-Nosed Princesses.
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 21:05:15 -0400
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Dave & Earl:
> THE GREAT PUMPKIN IN OZ??:
Earl asks:
>Is the Great Pumpkin the same as the Pumpkin King in "The Nightmare
Before
>Christmas"?<
There was a cartoon in Oziana where Jack Pumpkinhead says, "Tell the kid
with the blanket I'm not the Great Pumpkin!!"
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 21:30:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: JDMurray01@aol.com
Subject: Oz--RPT books...
Cc: JDMurray01@aol.com
I can't find them!!! I've been all over the net, all over the NW
bookstores (new and used), and RPT's Oz books are COMPLETELY out of
circulation. I've been a BIG fan of the series since I was quite young, and,
now that I'm older, would like to complete the set. (Baum's 14 are all over
the place--and then some...). Ruth's, however, are just gone. I remember
reading them in the late eighties when I was in elementary school (and only a
handful of them, then), when Del Rey was publishing them. I've even gone to
Ballantine themselves to ask why Del Rey (a subdivision) cancelled the
series. They didn't seem to really care why I was calling, and just told me
to "look into local bookstores" and basically hung up on me. Anyway, any
reference to where to look or when they'll be published again would be
greatly appreciated. I currently don't own ANY; they don't have to be new (I
don't expect them to be), and they certainly don't have to be collectable or
first editions (I've already found two first editions at $100+), but if I
could find them, or some unknown rinkidink (no pun intended :} publisher that
publishes them, I'd be a happy camper. Thanks.
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 21:37:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozisus@aol.com
Subject: Oz Posts
Heard second-hand today that dear little Meinhardt Raabe, MGMs Munchkin
Coroner and the first of the Munchkins to ever get involved with the IWOC was
killed in a car wreck. If anyone hears more, please post! I'm particularly
anxious to learn if his equally dear little wife Marie is OK.
Scott, I'm using Word on a PC and it's able to translate anything, so stick
with a disk or even an e-mail attachment if that's an option. I just want to
run through it and find stuff to inject into the my timeline. Saw all the
Baum work you did on an information loaded movie site yesterday. I was
cruisin a high speeds and didn't note which URL I was in, but my you got a
lot of good info out there for people to see!
Baby's first steps last night! Three to me followed by two this evening to
David.... Jane
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 21:42:56 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-22-97
Re Gerunds:
I am not positive, but it seems to me that there are gerunds that
don't end in -ing. I can't think of one at the moment, so I am
probably mistaken.
Re Previous-Digest Notation:
Okay, just for the record, I think it makes relatively little
difference in the scheme of things (okay, it makes NO difference),
but I like the combined date method best, personally (I know that
contradicts what I said yesterday, but I've actually thought some
since then).
Until next time,
Jeremy Steadman
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 23:24:38 -0400
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Dave:
I'll second that as an old Californian. When someone says "Let's do lunch",
it's about the same as a guy the morning after saying, "Uh, yeah, gimme
your phone number. I'll... call you. Uh, bye"
I'll vote for the day range. That is, Oct 20-22, for example. This gives us
a visual indication that this digest spans many days and we can see how
many. Also, the collection of headers gives us a running calendar.
Oct 1.
Oct 2 - 3
Oct 4
Oct 5-7
etc. In this manner, you can clearly see that all days are covered.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 23:58:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski <madonajk@alpha.delta.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-22-97
> ======================================================================
> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 08:54:39 -0700
> From: Tyler Jones <Tyler@apprentice.com>
> Subject: Oz
>
> question for all you AOLers out there:
> How are personal web pages handled for people on AOL? For example, if my
> e-mail address was tyler@aol.com, what my URL probably be?
>
> --Tyler Jones
very simple tyler kimmmurphy who runs power star has a web page for power
star and the url is
http://members.aol.com/kimmurphy/private/pshome.html
so yours prolyl will be http://members.aol.com/tyler/
like that
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 06:39:25 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-22-97
Dave Hardenbrook,
Please include me in the "Last Digest was on Sept. 20" camp.
I just had an unpleasant thought. Do you suppose that there is any
relation between Trot's ring of invisibility and J.R.R. Tolkien's?
Should she be looking over her shoulder for Gollum? Is it possible that
she will eventually find herself fading away, feeling stretched thinner
and thinner? Probably not. Probably I'm just in a morbid mood.
Also, I keep looking for some hidden significance to the fog bank
incidents. The frogs, the lizard, the turtle and the land crab are all
huge. The land crab "had the misfortune to tumble out of the Zodiac some
time ago". Do the others possibly have something to do with the Zodiac
also? This whole chapter feels to me like something that Lewis Carroll
could have written.
Morbidly,
Bob Spark
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 24, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 16:06:11 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
Scott Olsen and David Hulan: Thanks for the kind words on my "Wizard
on the Road" article. Haven't seen how it looks yet myself (I'm on the
bulk-mail subscription list), but am glad to know it's coming shortly.
Scott Olsen: Neill's habit of not signing most of his later drawings -- he
didn't sign most of his drawings, at any time. Typically, he signed the
bigger drawings for any one project, but not the smaller ones.
Sometimes he seems to have signed or not out of considerations of the
layout, and perhaps sometimes he was expressing an opinion that a
small drawing had turned out particularly well. Sometimes
absentmindedness may be a factor, too. For instance, in the "Robin
Hood" serial he illustrated for the Philadelphia "Public Ledger" in 1904 (I
reprinted it in two of the "Dunkiton" pamphlets I've been doing annually),
although he did two or three drawings for each episode, only one of the
drawings in the whole serial is signed, and it's one of the small ones.
(Stylistically, it's obvious that all of them are his.)
Robin Olderman: I think "judgement" (like "grey") is the preferred spelling
in Britain.
Jane Albright: Pulling Oz books on the floor, and now walking -- kid's
really growing up!
Bob Spark: No direct relation between Trot's ring of invisibility and
Tolkien's. The connection is that rings of invisibility have been popular
for millennia. About the earliest example known is recorded in
Herodotus. There are also a good many examples in medieval
Romances and in fairy tales.
Ruth Berman
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 17:12:39 -0400
From: David Levitan <wizardofoz@iname.com>
Subject: Oz News Group CFV Posted
Hi,
The Oz Newsgroup CFV (Call for Votes) has been posted. If you would like
to vote (it only takes a second to do so), please point your newsreader
to news.announce.newgroups, find the article called CFV:
rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz, and follow the instructions in the file.
All voting ends at 23:59:59 UTC on November 10.
David Levitan
Propnent of rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz
--
David Levitan Oz Enthusiast
wizardofoz@iname.com Netscape Supporter
Designer of the Wonderful Land of Oz
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9075
Ring Master of the Oz Web Ring
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=ozsites;home
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 20:00:55 -0400 (EDT)
From: CrNoble@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-22-97
From the Associated Press:
PENNEY FARMS, Fla. (AP) - The wife of the dwarf actor who played
a Munchkin in ``The Wizard of Oz'' has died of injuries suffered in
a car accident that critically injured her husband.
Marie Raabe, 82, died late Wednesday at University Medical
Center in Jacksonville, where she was taken after the accident.
Her 82-year-old husband, Meinhart, was in critical condition at
Columbia Orange Park Medical Center, but officials said he appeared
to be improving.
From 1929 to 1932, Mrs. Raabe worked as a member of Rose's Royal
Midgets, the largest midget troupe in vaudeville.
Raabe (pronounced robby) was one of the 124 Munchkins in the
1939 movie classic and one of only nine who had speaking parts. He
portrayed the coroner who pronounced the Wicked Witch of the East
``not only merely dead but really, most sincerely dead'' after
Dorothy's farmhouse landed on her.
Raabe and his wife were injured near their retirement community
of Penney Farms early Tuesday when their station wagon ran into the
back of a van that had stopped to make a turn, authorities said. A
passenger in the van was treated for minor injuries.
AP-NY-10-23-97 1232EDT
-- Craig Noble
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 19:37:58 -0700
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-23-97
JDMurray,
If you will go to the IWOC website and look under publications at
http://www.NeoSoft.com/~iwoc/ozbooks.html you will find all 9 of Ruth
Plumy Thompson's OZ books published by Del Rey in paperback at $6 per
book or $50 for the set.
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 02:45:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski <madonajk@alpha.delta.edu>
Subject: oz news
***
Meinhardt Raabe, the Munchkin who declared the Wicked Witch of the East
"sincerely dead" in The Wizard of Oz, has been injured in an auto accident in
Florida. Raabe suffered a broken ankle and possible broken ribs in the
two-car wreck, and his wife is reported to be in critical condition. After
``Oz,'' Raabe toured the country for 30 years in the Oscar Mayer
''Weinermobile,'' promoting hotdogs as ``Little Oscar, the World Smallest
Chef.''
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 08:11:11, -0500
From: NQAE93A@prodigy.com (MR ROBERT J COLLINGE)
Subject: Ozzy digest
According to yesterday morning's Boston Herald, the munchkin coroner,
Meinhardt Raabe, and his wife Marie, did indeed have a bad accident
in Florida. In this article he was still alive and listed in
critical condition. Does anyone have an update? I have heard also
that he did pass away, but no confirmation.
Sadly,
Bob C.
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 13:31:38, -0500
From: NQAE93A@prodigy.com (MR ROBERT J COLLINGE)
Subject: Ozzy digest
Meinhardt Raabe, munchkin coroner, update:
A complete update of the accident can be found at
http://www.westol.com/~wizardoz
It seems that Meinhardt survived, his wife did not.
My heartfelt condolences.
Bob
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 15:50:15 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-23-97
To: "Dave L. Hardenbrook" <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Jane: I'll get that disk to you. The site you ar referring to was either
the one I have at venues.firefly.com, or it was the Baum filmography on
the Internet Movie Database at us.imdb.com (no www). I still need to get
in there to fix Dan Mannix's date of seath, which it has as the 19, rather
than the 29, whihc is the day Adriana Caselotti died. I hadn't heard
about Meinhardt. We can only hope this is apocryphal.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 97 14:06:50 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
WHERE IN OZ IS CARMEN SANDIEGO??:
Well, the Oz books got a small bit of publicity yesterday! On the PBS
children's show _Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego_ the subject was movies
and they had a question on _The Wizard of Oz_, and the host (I forget his
name) pointed out that the famous MGM movie "was based on L. Frank Baum's
Oz book series", *and* he repeated it just in case someone didn't hear.
At last the Oz books have been acknowledged on Public Television!
Jellia: Now if only _Sesame Street_ would lose the recent disco beat,
Julia Child and Graham Kerr would sign a peace treaty, and _NOVA_
would go back to actually doing *science* programs!
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 25 - 27, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 19:55:05 -0700
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
Scott:
Button-Bright has never struck me as being particularly unintelligent.
In _Road_, he is young and very inexperienced, and, in the later Oz
books, he is rather absent-minded. In _Sky Island_, he probably has the
most opportunities to utilize his intelligence.
Bob:
I don't think that there is any connection between Trot's ring and
Tolkien's Ring, aside from the obvious fact that they both make their
wearers invisible. The ring that Trot wore was presumably crafted by
Rosalie, and had no connection to Sauron or any other dark being.
Besides that, Trot only wore the ring for a brief period of time, which,
even if it had the same effects as Tolkien's Ring, would probably not
have been long enough to corrupt her.
Interesting Observation:
**************MINOR SPOILER FOR _JACK PUMPKINHEAD_**********************
In this book, as you may recall, the secret to Mogodore's labyrinth was:
"Left turn left, and always left." I thought that this key was chosen
arbitrarily, but, just today, I read a story called "The Garden of
Forking Paths," by Jorge Luis Borges. One character in this story says,
"The house is a long way from here, but you won't get lost if you take
this road to the left and at every crossroads turn again to your left."
The narrator later observes, "The instructions to turn always to the left
reminded me that such was the common procedure for discovering the
central point of certain labyrinths." This seems to imply that this
method of solving mazes was not original with Borges, either. Also, I
think that Borges' story might have been written after _Jack
Pumpkinhead_. Is the idea of always turning left an old, traditional
one, or what?
**************END OF SPOILER (and of my message)************************
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 11:11:37 -0500
From: Bill Wright <transxinc@earthlink.net>
Subject: oz digest
I just mailed in my yes vote for the Oz newsgroup.
Since some of the Digest members may have never voted using the
newsgroup technique, it may be of value to provide some instructions.
Would anyone like some coaching on how to do a newsgroup vote?
Bill in Ozlo
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 12:22:41 -0500
From: Gordon Birrell <gbirrell@post.cis.smu.edu>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
Ruth Berman:
You made an interesting point in linking the patching mechanism with Baum's
ongoing concern with problems of identity. It seems to me, though, that
patching is also specifically tied in with a theme that pervades _Sky
Island_: the theme of disjunctive pairs, mismatched halves. The entire
island is marked by divisions: Pinkies vs. Blueskins, Sunrise Tribe vs.
Sunset Tribe, rule by king vs. rule by queen, dictatorship vs. parliamentary
rule (more on that below). In other words, the Great Knife reflects,
perpetuates, and institutionalizes the basic dividedness of the island as a
whole. It is Trot's great accomplishment that she breaks down these
polarities, making herself (temporarily) ruler of both halves of the island;
destroying the Great Knife and turning the patching room into a skating
rink; bringing the Pinks and the Blues into contact so that they can at
least no longer demonize each other; setting up more just forms of
government on both sides and thereby, on the Blue side, eradicating the
hostile division of ruler and subjects.
The nice thing about a skating rink, incidentally, is that it is an area
where a sport is played that doesn't usually involve *teams*. In this
sense, too, Trot is working against divisiveness.
Some other comments on _Sky Island_:
When Polychrome reminds Button-Bright that they last saw each other in Oz,
Trot exclaims to Button-Bright: "Oh! Were you ever in the Land of Oz?"
This is, I believe, the first indication that Oz has passed into general
knowledge within the fictional world of Baum's books. Trot has apparently
read the Oz books!
And speaking of Polychrome: it's amusing that the light-hearted sprite of
_Road_ has become an authoritative, take-charge sort of person with a
decidedly legalistic turn of mind, examining and expertly interpreting the
fine print of the law books of the Pinkies. As a Daughter of the Rainbow
she is also something of an expert on color theory, maintaining that the
homogeneous pink of the country would be heightened by the introduction of a
contrasting color. This is a restatement of the color theory of Ogden Rood
and Eugene Chevreul, who had maintained in the mid-nineteenth century that
colors are intensified by the immediate presence of their opposite: red
becomes redder if it is adjacent to green, and so forth. This theory,
usually referred to as "pseudo-scientific" in art-history books, was
systematically applied by George Seurat and other pointillists and was
widely discussed in art circles at the turn of the century.
The Arch of Phinis: the Arch of Finis (The End)?
A Disney connection?
The bridge to "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" in _Cinderella_ goes as follows:
Salagadoola means
Michika Boolooroo
But the thingamabob that does the job
Is Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.
_Sky Island_ is indeed Swiftian in its political satire. The realm of the
Blues is a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy (everybody votes for the
Boolooroo, but a terrible penalty awaits those who vote the wrong way), and
the Blues' certainty that they are the center of the Universe is a nice jibe
at hyper-patriotism. By the same token, the Pinks' exclusivity ("If you're
not pink, take a walk off the side of the island!") can certainly be taken
as a side-swipe at the doctrine of racial purity, which was becoming a hot
issue in international politics as early as the first decade of this
century. The Pink government is also a parliamentary apparatus (could the
twelve-member advisory panel be a jab at the jury system?) that tricks
itself up with the venerable institution of a royal leader and even
convinces that royal leader that she must forgo all creature comforts
because of the immense power that she wields; but in fact Tourmaline is
simply an instrument of power who carries out the decisions made by
others--she is unwilling even to cast the deciding vote when the two
"houses" reach an impasse in voting on the fate of the outsiders.
Bob Spark:
A friend of mine who knows something about fashion says that the term blouse
waist is related to the more familiar term shirt waist. A shirt waist is a
tailored dress shirt with buttons down the front; it can also be an item of
women's apparel with a pleated skirt attached below. A blouse waist is a
looser-fitting form of the shirt waist, and in the Edwardian period it
typically had narrow cuffs and a broad collar.
--Gordon Birrell
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 16:08:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: "James R. Whitcomb" <whitcomb.1@osu.edu>
Subject: For Ozzy Digest
Re: Wizard of Oz themed Christmas cards. This email should probably have
been sent to the person who wanted this info, however, I didn't keep their
email. So, would the Ozzy Digest poster who originally posted this to the
digest please pass it on. I think it was Jim VanderNoot. Wizard of Oz
Christmas cards, many different designs, are available from: The Best of Oz,
5426 East Central, Wichita, KS 67208, Ph: 1-800-593-5566, FAX: 316-682-5566.
A complete catalog, with new supplement, can be obtained from the previously
mentioned contact for $2.00. Also, there is an artist from Kansas, by the
name of Vicki Vormehr, who has a whole series of Oz cards available,
including Christmas, Birthday, and other themes. I don't have a direct
contact for her, but many of The Best of Oz cards are her designs. Her work
is rather folk-artsy and is very colorful. The characters are based on MGM
movie characters.
For anyone: It has been mentioned several times on the Digest that not all
IWOC members receive their Baum Bugle mailings at the same time. Therefore,
I was wondering if it wouldn't be a good idea to preface
comments/discussions about the Bugle with a spoiler notice such as
**POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR LATEST ISSUE OF BAUM BUGLE THAT NOT ALL IWOC MEMBERS
MAY HAVE RECVD**. I guess I must be one of the people on the bulk mailing
list, which I'm not complaining about. I am very rarely disappointed with
the contents of the Baum Bugle and I like to be surprised upon receiving it.
Therefore, I thought it might be nice to adhere to the same
warnings/etiquette of notifying people if comments/discussions are to
appear. Already, some people have divulged the Autumn 1997 issue's contents
as well as started discussing it when not all members have received their
copies.
Thanks!
Jim Whitcomb of ...
Jim's "Wizard of Oz" Website
URL: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/6396/
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 1997 22:38:13 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Subject: SKY ISLAND's the limit
Sender: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Bob Spark wrote: <<if I never run into Trot's mother again it'll be too
soon. What a termagant! I firmly believe that she was pleasant to Button
Bright just to make him feel indebted to her>>
I always thought Mrs. Griffith[s] was pleasant to Button-Bright because (a)
he was a guest, and (b) he was an upper-class guest. His "rich and
expensive" clothing would have shown her that. Mrs. Griffith[s]'s temper is
mentioned briefly in SEA FAIRIES ("'She'd scold me inter shivers!' moaned
Cap'n Bill," p. 32). It's the best explanation of why Trot and Cap'n Bill
seem to have no regrets about staying in Oz.
Another Spark: <<In _Sky Island_, on page 14, Button Bright is described as
wearing "a blouse waist". I have no idea what that is.>>
A shirt rises straight up from a waist; a blouse is looser and hangs over.
A shirtwaist (as in Triangle __ Factory) is a woman's garment cut along
men's lines, so a "blouse waist" might be a typically female cut on a
boy--another sign of Button-Bright's deceptively delicate look.
David Hulan wrote: <<Polychrome is described in [SKY ISLAND] as being
powerful - which is consistent with her protrayal in _Tin Woodman_, and to
a lesser extent in _Tik-Tok_, but not in _Road_, where she seems to have
had no magical powers at all. Maybe that adventure persuaded her that she
should learn some magic?>>
Polychrome seems to have done a *lot* of growing up since ROAD. That was
her first fall off the rainbow, after all. She's mature and take-charge in
SKY ISLAND, regardless of her powers. I think she regresses temporarily in
TIK-TOK (must be related to forgetting the Shaggy Man).
Tyler Jones wrote: <<Button-Bright's action in going into the treasure
room was one of the bravest and courageous acts that he ever did.>>
He's the first meat person over the whirling mountains in LOST PRINCESS,
but I don't recall him being especially brave elsewhere. A certain
recklessness attends his wanderings, of course, but that's different.
Button-Bright may be the Baum character who shows up significantly in
the most books but never gets his own title or plot. I assume folks have
written new stories with Button-Bright as the hero, however. Usually an
author starts with a protagonist who has a need and steadfastly seeks to
overcome that need. Button-Bright, in contrast, is largely content wherever
he is, as long as he's fed; if he had a larger goal, he might well forget
it within the hour. How have plotters gotten around the challenge his
personality presents?
J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com
======================================================================
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 1997 23:26:21 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Subject: That ol' time religion
Sender: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Excellent work by Nathan Mulac DeHoff, Steve Teller, and David Hulan in
quickly naming the two christening gifts in Thompson's books. They do range
from the elephantine to the tiny--making it difficult to think what would
be appropriate to bring the next time we're invited to one of those
ceremonies. (Since no one in this learned gathering mentioned other
christenings, I assume there are none.)
I agree that Thompson wrote of "christenings" not to inject a religion
into her Oz books but because such ceremonies appear in the European fairy
tales she was jumping off from (versions of "Sleeping Beauty,"
f'rinstance). Nevertheless, she didn't write "naming ceremony"; she wrote,
"christening," which isn't celebrated outside of Christianity (hence the
name).
Those two references struck me because they go against one of the
long-noted trends in Baum's books: secularity. He seemed to travel the
extra mile to create a new supernatural pantheon. In SANTA CLAUS he not
only recast a character distantly derived from a Christian saint into
someone new, but he created a cosmology that (with fairies as an exception)
seems to have few precedents. Who ever heard of the Great Bo before? While
Baum was never so programmatic in other books, he tended to reinvent
(mermaids), redefine (good witches), or respell (Nomes) creatures he
derived from earlier tales. I conclude that Baum wanted to be original, not
beholding to any tradition.
I do wonder how much he was influenced by contemporary spiritualism.
Who's done work on that question?
John W. Kennedy wrote, <<let us have no abuse of the word "allegory".>>
Would you prefer Henry Littlefield's "Parable," JW? For a more "extended
and consistent system of symbolism" linking Shanower's Oz and Christianity
than a BE NICE TO EACH OTHER message, consider the role of Dorothy in THE
GIANT GARDEN OF OZ. She suffers wounds on her hands and feet, is buried,
rises from death (or closer to death than she ever came before), and brings
the dead (ditto) to a paradisical city, sacrificing her comfort so that
they can live forever.
Okay, that Christ metaphor is as big a stretch as Dorothy's growth to
giant size. My point was that, as you say, Shanower does indeed "think in
Christian terms when he writes" Oz stories. He chooses to express ideas
from his belief system in a world whose cosmology is explicitly different.
Yes, others could write similar tales; Christianity has no monopoly on
goodness, thank goodness, or on BE NICE TO EACH OTHER. But what does Eric's
comfort tell us about Oz's relation to religion? Despite its surface
secularity, is Baum's fairyland actually a reflection of one religious
tradition?
Aaron Adelman, your interesting reply seems to put a lot of weight on
religion as what demands worship by mortals. I hadn't considered that
requirement when I wrote of "pantheism." Rather, I was thinking about where
Baum's books depict miraculous powers residing, where they locate
supernatural guardian beings. In his books (especially SANTA CLAUS) that's
throughout the natural world. No, Baum's fairies don't demand worship or
tribute (though Ozma does have those warehouses to fill), but they're shown
as deserving special respect from mortals.
Richard Bauman wrote, <<How did you email us without the extra Compuserve
line?>>
Dunno what you're talking about, Bear. In the latest digest your message
and mine get the same treatment--so whatever special handling my first
posting received (from Dave, perhaps?) has ended.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 14:55:23 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-24-97
Re Munchkins:
Were the midgets exploited in WOZ? (I'd imagine it's probably so,
but have nothing to back up such an opinion.)
Condolences to the Reinhardts. I have little else to say.
--Jeremy Steadman, tongue-tied at last
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 15:34:06 -0600
From: Mike Denio <miked@ti.com>
Subject: For Ozzy Digest
FYI:
The following book;
Fricke, John, Jay Scarfone, and William Stillman. The Wizard of Oz: The
Official
50th Anniversary Pictorial History. New York: Warner Books, 1989.
must have been reprinted in paperback, and recently remaindered (sold in
bulk to discount book distributors). Yesterday, I discovered my local Half
Price book store had a stack of them for $4 or $5.
For those of you who don't yet have this title, you may want to check your
local discount book dealer. Although in wraps, this edition is the same
"coffee table" size as the hard cover edition, and is a good alternative to
it, since the HC sells for as high as $50.
Interestingly enough, the back of the title page still lists the book as
being a first printing from 1989. Does anyone know if the paperback edition
is really from 1989, or has it been recently reprinted?
Mike Denio
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 17:15:14 -0500 (EST)
From: JDMurray01@aol.com
Subject: Ozzy Digest Membership
Cc: JDMurray01@aol.com
Well, Dave, I'm not sure if you had me down as an official member or an
investigator, but I'd like to be counted in! I was just going over the Ozzy
Digest FAQ, and it raises a lot of the same answers and speculation that I'd
already pondered for many years. How big IS Oz? I surmised about what your
average was (I guessed a little larger, but I'm not nearly as familiar with
the WHOLE Oz phenomenon), in addition to wondering "where could Oz be?"
(Assuming the 40 are "historical" and that Oz really DOES exist--somewhere).
Alternate dimension Earth was my theory, too--and only magic or an extremly
rare phenomena could get one into "Baumgea" (I LIKED that one:} Anyway, I'm
glad I found somewhere that other people enjoy the same stories and ask the
same imponderables as I do. Thanks for the time.
Also, BIG thanks to everybody that E-Mailed me to help me find RPT's
books--I think I'll be able to get ahold of "Royal" through "Speedy" in Del
Rey, and the remaining few through IWOC or Books of Wonder. The ONLY thorn in
my side is finding "The Silver Princess of Oz".....but I'll keep
searching...if there are any leads, feel free to drop me a line at
JDMurray01@aol.com I'll also keep my eyes peeled for "Yellow Knight",
which a few people said they were having trouble locating....hey, you all
helped me, and I'd like to return the favor if I could.
Well, I'm not sure how the whole digest thing works, or how to send my
own "FAQs" to you folks (the real experts:), or just plain how to say, "Dave,
what's your take on.....", but I'd be interested in reading your "That Ozzy
Feeling" when it's published. While I tend to think about the whole Ozma deal
like the 40 portrayed her, It'd be fun to read another Oz story that has the
"Baum" and "Thompson" feel to them. While I have to admit that I've always
felt John Neills' drawings were the cannonical "look" of Oz, I'll decide for
myself if the new story is cannonical to my own Oz...the Oz that's in each of
us is a little different :) And please drop me a line regarding membership
in the digest and information on getting ahold of your new book. If it's got
that "Ozzy Feeling" to it, you've got one vote! Thanks.
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 08:23:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe)
Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission
In the 10/21 Digest, Scott Olsen says, <Some very good circa 1960 reading
copies of Baum's books didn't sell at all--which makes me wonder if the
BoW reprints are having an effect on that market...>
Absolutely. Why would anyone buy such a reading copy, when she could
obtain a beautiful BoW edition, color plates and all, for the same or
less money?
Scott also says, <I remember copies of _The Oz Scrapbook_ being
remaindered in bookstores for about $1.00. That was eighteen (or so)
years ago.>
Remaindered _Oz Scrapbooks_ for one dollar? I paid eight dollars for my
copy then. (And worth much more; that book brought me back to Oz after a
hiatus of 25+ years.)
I changed fifteen clocks, watches and other time-keeping devices
yesterday, and still have more to do. I hate these semiannual time
changes!
Earl Abbe
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 11:17:02 -0500
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: Many Days Oz Growls
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Home to 10 days of Digests, leaves me almost speechless. Almost....
Lisa >This time I managed to connect Oz to Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_.
The mind boggles! How did you do this?
Ruth - thank you for the research on Ching-Li and Avi Wortis. I'll pursue.
Dave - The Oz Scrapbook IIRC has been remaindered, so you should be able to
find a copy for less than $50.
>Afterward many people came up to me and declared their excitement and
enthusiasm at the idea of Ozma and Glinda getting married, and they looked
very perplexed
and puzzled when I explained to them the Digest members' and Oz
publishers'
hostility to the idea.
Remember Dave - you were in SOUTHERN California......... :) Hostility
continues..
No preference about the date at the start of the Digest. It would also be
nice if you put the current date after your signature. e.g. Dave
10/27/97 This is for those of us who maintain data files of the Digest.
Struggling to catch up, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 21:38:37 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-22-97
To: "Dave L. Hardenbrook" <DaveH47@delphi.com>
10/22:
Aaron:
>1) Diane, while I have a strong distaste for tattoos in general (on both
>religious and aesthetic grounds), I must admit admiration for the
>unfaltering dedication of that biker with the Oz tattoos.
For the record, what are the religious grounds for objecting to tattoos?
(The aesthetic grounds I recognize; my daughter has one.)
Nathan:
>The ring of invisibility that Rosalie gave to Trot could be considered a
>sort of "magical intervention." Of course, this invisibility didn't
>immediately solve the heroes' problems, but it helped.
Almost any Oz or Oz-related book will have some magical aspect to it. But
the invisibility ring just let Trot use her own ingenuity (or use it
wrongly); it didn't solve the whole problem instantaneously.
Bob C.:
It's very possible that it was the movie that the interlocutor about what
day and time Dorothy arrived in Oz meant. But in that case, I have no
opinion. As far as I'm concerned, the movie has nothing to do with Oz other
than the name.
Steve"
>A GERUND is a present participle of a verb used as a noun: i.e. Running
>is fun,
No, a gerund is a form of a verb that looks like a present participle
that's used as a nound. Gerunds and present participles, while looking the
same, have very different grammatic uses.
>March Laumer's THE CARELESS KANGEROO OF OZ (which takes place
>immediately after EMERALD CITY, and so before SKY ISLAND) concerns
>itself largely with Polychrome's education.
I've heard of this book, but haven't encountered a copy of it yet. I'll
comment on it when I have the chance, if I ever do.
Jeremy:
>"All y'all" vs "Y'all all":
>I've lived in the South for 11 years and I still don't like it--if
>"y'all" makes it into the dictionary it'll be over my dead body! (Or
>would be if I wrote the dictionary, I suppose.)
But you don't, and there are usages that have become quite standardized,
which is what dictionaries are supposed to record.
Dave:
>I think I'll take a vote on this: What do people prefer as an indication
>of the date of the last Digest? What I used to do, e.g. "Ozzy Digest,
>Sept. 20-22, 1997"; or what I've done the last few days with "Last Digest
>was on Sept. 20"? Remember, your vote counts!
I don't really care. Either one works fine for me. I think that the version
that lists the last Digest may be a little easier for you to remember,
based on past Digests where you occasionally seemed to forget to say this
was the Digest for 9/22-25/97, or whatever, but I can cope either way.
Melody:
True that the interevention of the umbrella at the end of _Sky Island_ was
a _deus ex machina_, but it had so little to do with the basic story that I
tend to forget it. Just like Dorothy's intervention at the end of
_Rinkitink in Oz_. They're still two of my favorite Baum books. (Wait till
you read the new serial in the _Emerald City Mirror_ next year. If you
read the ECM...)
JOMurray:
The Thompson books are mostly available. The IWOC (PO Box 266, Kalamazoo,
MI 49004-0266) has the first 9 (Royal Book through Jack Pumpkinhead) for
$6.00 each, or $50.00 for all nine. Or Books of Wonder (800-835-4315) has
Royal Book (and will soon have Kabumpo) in hardcover with color plates for
around $25 each. And BoW has Captain Salt through Ozoplaning available, and
the IWOC has Wishing Horse, Silver Princess, Handy Mandy, and Ozoplaning
available as well. The only Thompsons that are hard to find are Yellow
Knight, Pirates, Purple Prince, and Ojo.
Everyone:
Sorry to see that Meinhardt Raabe had a bad wreck in which his wife died. I
suspect that he was Stewart Kaminsky's model for Gunther in his Toby Peters
mysteries, which are favorites of mine. I still don't really associate the
MGM movie with Oz that much, but I know others do, and I met Meinhardt once
and he seemed like a very pleasant person. I hope he survives, and I regret
that his wife didn't.
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 15:08:59 -0500 (EST)
From: sahutchi@iupui.edu
Subject: Ozzy Digest
To: DaveH47@delphi.com
Those of you awaiting a copy of my filmography, I am really putting the
pressure on Dumpster Bill so I can document the existence of the
pornographic version of _The Wizard ofOz_. It was made in the late '70s,
is not called _The Wizard of Oz_, has extremely bad costumes, and is hard
core. As I said, I am only trying to get the credits at the present time.
Fred Meyer has sent me a ten dollar check, but on top of this excuse, I
don't have enough paper and haven't had a chance to buy any yet.
Scott
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 17:31:34 -0500 (EST)
From: JDMurray01@aol.com
Subject: Oz questions.....the other one was sent prematurely; sorry!
To: DaveH47@delphi.com
Cc: JDMurray01@aol.com
1) How do I (can I?) get a message or comment into the digest? I'd like
to be an active member.
2) How do I go on a book hunt (if I'm trying to find one) or, if I've
found a book somebody is looking for, get the message out? (Kind of ties in
to question 1)
3) Is there someplace I can talk Oz with other members? A chatroom, or a
digest "talk spot" or something?
4) A quick imponderable....in "Land" we learn Mombi disguised Ozma after
"The WIZARD" brought her to Mombi to dispose. In "D/W in Oz", the story the
wizard gives Ozma about the Emerald City's beginnings and his own history in
Oz is very different. (I'd guess Baum was referring to another, earlier
Wizard, not our very own little Wizard :)
5) A big one (and my last one for now:) In "Wizard" the city isn't green
at all; the "spectacles" make everything look green. In later stories,
however, the Emerald City is truly Emerald, and probably the most beautiful
city in existance. What happened in there? It seems I've heard this subject
touched on before, but I can't remember the "cannonical" excuse.
Again, I'm sure you're a busy guy, but Thanks.
======================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 12:06:59 -0500
From: Lisa Bompiani <bompi@microserve.net>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
Hello, First of all, I have to tell everyone about my wonderful day
yesterday! I went to Pitt to do some research and discovered that they have
a collection of Oz books in the Elizabeth Nesbitt Rare Book Room!!!!!!!! I
got to read and hold in my hands a first edition of Oz!!!! It brought tears
to my eyes, and a smart crack from the guy sitting next to me, but alas,
he'll never understand. I spent the whole morning reading through everyone
from Baum - Thompson - Neill - Snow - etc..... I'd have to say, it was one
of the most rewarding experiences of my life. BTW, Jane if you want to send
me the kind of info you want to update your collections list, I'd be gald to
help.
Also, I stoppepd at the rare book store Caliban's that I mentioned before.
The edition of Sea Fairies is the one w/ Capt. Salt and the mermaids on the
front. They also have Ozma of Oz for $165 and Magic of Oz for $300. They
all look like they are in great shape. I bought first edition of Mary
Louise stands the test for 12.00. It doesn't have a dust jacket though;
did it? And, of course, I made the mistake of stoping at Borders on the way
through Monroeville. I did buy another book to help with my illustrations
project. It has a bit more fantastical pictures that remind me of Legend.
Diane: Yes, my tattoo is an O-Z design from a book, but once the money
comes in, I'm going to adapt it to a bit more ornate style. I'm considered
trying to work in a poppy design of some sort. But until it's perfect, I'm
going to wait patiently. The Legends of Oz CD_Rom is worth having just
becasue it's cheap and it's OZ; I do have it and went through it once, but
that's about it. I'm not so drastically opposed to as Sarah, though! :-)
Dave (Ozzy Editor himself): Do you think some of the grumbling about Ozma
and Glinda getting married could be rooted to some jealousy factors rather
than the concern for how it would change the tales altogether? :-)
Hey! I haven't received the Spring Bugle yet! Oh no! Now I'm two behind.
. .
And, if the Great Pumpkin (or punkin as folks around here say it) and Jack
Skellington are involved, where does the Grinch fit in? Has anyone seen
"It's Grinch Night"? Maybe Jack Pumkinhead knows and could clear it all up
for us. . .
Well, off to do some more research in preparation for Thursday.
Peace & Love,
Bompi
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 97 11:07:32 (PST)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
OZ BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY:
I was at the library Saturday, and not only did they have all the Baum,
Thompson, Neil, Snow, and McGraw books they've always had, but they now
have nearly all the Emerald City Press books, including the talked-about-
at-the-South-Winkie-Convention _Christmas in Oz_, which I of course checked
out. But the Huntington Beach Central Library would appear to be one of
the Ozziest libraries in the country! ( Along with Bompi's. :) )
DAN AND ZIM STILL UNDER SIEGE:
Bear wrote:
>Remember Dave - you were in SOUTHERN California......... :)
Aujah: I'm not even going to ask what *that's* supposed to imply...
>Hostility continues..
Of course. After all, what in the world could be more Ozzy than hostility?
Bompi wrote:
>Dave (Ozzy Editor himself): Do you think some of the grumbling about Ozma
>and Glinda getting married could be rooted to some jealousy factors rather
>than the concern for how it would change the tales altogether? :-)
That did occur to me, yes. :)
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 28 - 29, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 21:16:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Ozisus@aol.com
Subject: Oz post
DIgesters: You'll find a nice article about the Raabes at:
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102597/c1raabe_.html
I've learned that services will be delayed until Meinhardt is more recovered.
The helpful person at the paper told me Marie will be cremated and that a
family memorial service will eventually be held in Watertown, Wisc.
Jane
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 21:44:17 -0500 (EST)
From: Saroz@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-27-97
Nathan --
That solution to a labyrinth's puzzle (always left) is also used in Margery
Allingham's "Mystery Mile" (1931). (BTW, that isn't a spoiler, because the
solution is only mentioned in passing and is not part of the plot.) I think
it's a fairly common solution.
Sarah
======================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 1997 22:13:39 -0500
From: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz
Sender: Tyler Jones <tnj@compuserve.com>
Nathan and Scott:
This topic has been around for a while. The people in the books seem to
think that Button-Bright is very stupid, because he either does not say
much or answers "Don't know". It seems to me (and others) that
Button-Bright is actually quite bright. David Hulan explores this a little
bit in his book _Glass Cat_.
JD Murray:
I'm sure Dave can answer better than I, but it is really very easy to
subscribe to the Ozzy Digest. Just e-mail Dave and ask him (if you haven't
already). To post a message to the Digest, just send more e-mail to Dave
with the word "OZ" in the subject line.
As to the Wizard and his history, this is one of my favorite topics, so
I'll sound off... :-)
The two stories in _Land_ and _Dot&Wiz_ are not so much different as they
are incomplete. In other words, they each tell a piece of the story, but
much more remains unsaid.
According to Mombi, the Wizard brought Ozma to her as a baby, but Ozma says
that it was her grandfather who was kidnapped instead. Based on these books
and some non-FF books such as _Oz and the Three Witches_ and _THe Blue
Emperor of Oz_, I have, over the years, pieced together what may have
happened.
1. Ozma's mortal ancestors ruled the Land of Oz until four Wicked Witches
overthrew them. OZma's grandfather (called Ozroar, although there are many
Ozroars in that line). is kidnapped by Mombi, and Ozma's father assumes the
throne.
2. Pastoria is kidnapped by Mombi. Nobody rules in the Emerald City. Ozma,
a fairy born as a mortal to Pastoria and his wife, is hidden by loyal
supporters.
3. Battle of Witches. Locasta defeats Mombi in the North and Glinda defeats
Sringa in the South.
4. Arrival of the Wizard. He assumes control of the Emerald City and gives
up Ozma to Mombi. THe Wizard rules the Emerald City in peace for many
years until the arrival of a little girl from Kansas...
I think we can presume that the Wizard did give Ozma to Mombi's care. Just
what the relationship was between Mombi and the father and grandfather of
Ozma is a little less clear. These events took place over the course of
many decades, so we must assume that Ozma was a baby for quite a while and
aged very slowly after Mombi took her in.
The evidence to date (admittedly from some non-FF sources) seems to
preclude the possibility of another Wizard. Granted, the Wizard that we
know from later Oz books would probably never do that to Ozma, but the
early times in Oz were very different, and the Wizard was not always as
good as he is now...
The pre-Dorothean history of Oz, as we have come to call all events that
take place before _The Wizard of Oz_, is at best very murky and is indeed a
tangled skein of events. I have but scratched the surface of these events
and have not even touched on others. Of course, this is all just my best
guess and who knows what secrets the future may reveal.
As for the color of the Emerald City, someone one came up with an
explanation, but I can't remember what it is.
--Tyler Jones
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 07:44:22 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005@maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: ozzy digest
That's sad to hear of the death of Marie Raabe. Does anyone know if
there is a particular charity where a donation in her memory would be
appropriate?
Nathan DeHoff: I think the "turn left" key applies to the maze at Hampton
Court in England (and Borges, an Anglophile, probably knows that). I
don't know what other examples there are, but a book on mazes would
probably tell.
Gordon Birrell: Interesting comments on "Sky Island" divisiveness and
politics.
Jim Whitcomb: Concern about discussing "Bugle" issue before everyone
receives a copy -- I don't think that knowing the contents of an issue or
an article ahead of time is a "spoiler" in the way that knowing "surprises"
in a plot ahead of time can be?
J.L. Bell: I don't think "blouse" implies "feminine" for Button Bright. I
looked up "blouse" in the OED, and it came into English in the early 19th
century from the French "blouse," which meant the same as "shirt" or
"smock" (I didn't check to see when "shirt" came to apply specifically to
what we would call a shirt, which is not quite the same as what we call a
smock), but was borrowed by people in the fashion field to describe shirt-
style garments for both women and children. So in Button Bright's case
the term implies that he is a child, rather than that he is woman-like. (The
development of the French word in this way in English probably implies a
belief that adult women are childish, but that's fashion for you.) But
"blouse" developed a secondary meaning in English, as a loose-fitting
garment, and the information from Gordon Birrell's acquaintance, that
"blouse waist" meant a specific type of loose-fitting shirt in Baum's time,
sounds likely to be accurate. Interesting comment on the potential
difficulty of using Button Bright as a protagonist.
I think John Algeo wrote an article on Baum's use of spiritualism.
Earl Abbe: The leaves here seem to have a simple rule for daylight
saving: "Spring forward -- Fall off!"
Ruth Berman
postscript on information about mazes: "maze gardens" heading on the U MN
library catalogue includes two books that sound likely to discuss keys:
"Labyrinth: Solving the riddle of the maze" by Adrian Fisher and Georg
Gerstner, and "Mazes" by Fisher and Diana Kingdom. (I don't think I'll try
to look these up myself, as they're in collections I can't conveniently get
at.)
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 11:11:14 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-27-97
Time Changes:
They're just there to confuse us, I think! I arrived at the
cafeteria Sunday to find a line outside the door. Puzzled as to why
it had not opened (it was "12:30"), I broached the question. "You
didn't forget to set your clock ahead, Jeremy, did you?" someone
said. I had. I changed my watch then and as soon as I got back to
my room I changed my clock. Since then, it just gets dark earlier,
that's all.
"Y'all" as word:
<SHUDDER!!>
--Jeremy Steadman
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 10:43:09 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-27-97
Nathan:
I don't know of any ancient rule for solving a maze by always turning left,
but it's true that in most mazes if you always follow a consistent scheme
(e.g. keep your left hand on the left wall) you'll get through it
eventually. It's possible to devise a maze with a closed false path that
this system won't solve, but in most cases it works.
Bill:
Yes, please, if you could give a step-by-step for voting on a newsgroup I'd
appreciate it.
Gordon:
I'm sure that the Arch of Phinis was intended to mean the Arch of the End.
Actually, this was one aspect of Sky Island that I thought Baum should have
done more with - and he may have planned to when he first thought of it,
but found that he'd written a long enough book without it. (And it wouldn't
really have fit with the story as it developed.)
Jim:
Sorry; I'd never thought of the BUGLE as something that could be "spoiled."
I'll refrain from talking about them in the future until there's an
indication that most people have gotten theirs. (I'm a Sustaining Member,
so I get mine First Class.)
John Bell:
> Button-Bright may be the Baum character who shows up significantly in
>the most books but never gets his own title or plot. I assume folks have
>written new stories with Button-Bright as the hero, however. Usually an
>author starts with a protagonist who has a need and steadfastly seeks to
>overcome that need. Button-Bright, in contrast, is largely content wherever
>he is, as long as he's fed; if he had a larger goal, he might well forget
>it within the hour. How have plotters gotten around the challenge his
>personality presents?
I'd say the Sawhorse is probably the Baum character who shows up
significantly in the most books but never gets his own title or plot. (In
the FF; both the Sawhorse and Button-Bright have had non-FF books named for
them.) Button-Bright really appears significantly only in _Road_,
_Scarecrow_, and _Lost Princess_, with marginally significant roles in
_Glinda_ and _Magical Mimics_. I don't think he has a line in any of the
other books. The Sawhorse appears significantly in _Land_, _Ozma_,
_DotWiz_, _Emerald City_, _Lost Princess_, _Wonder City_, and _Scalawagons_
at least, and has a minor role in several others.
Of course, neither Betsy nor Trot has a book named for her, but each is a
lead character in two books, and Trot is important in a third, not counting
the two non-Oz books she stars in.
And Jellia Jamb, Omby Amby, and the Guardian of the Gate probably figure
significantly in more books than Button-Bright, though they're never as
important as Button-Bright is in _Road_ or _Scarecrow_, except for Jellia's
role in _Ozoplaning_.
I've read somewhere that Baum was interested in Theosophy, but nothing
about spiritualism. And nothing in the books seems to reflect spiritualism;
when Baum's characters die (which doesn't happen often, but does
occasionally) they seem to be completely gone. (Maybe to heaven, but
there's no communication with the dead, which was the heart of
spiritualism.)
Mike D.:
Thanks for the info on the remaindering of the Fricke-Scarfone-Stillman
book. Although I'm not all that interested in the movie, at $4-5 it's
probably worth getting; I'll check for it on remainder tables. (We don't
have Half Price Books around here; if only I'd known last Saturday I was in
one in Cincinnati, but wasn't looking for that kind of thing.)
JDMurray:
It would appear that you're already a subscriber to the Digest. Welcome!
My feeling is that Oz is a bit bigger than Dave has it in his FAQ. There's
one quantitative statement in the FF, in _Wishing Horse_; Pinny Penny
states that Oz is 50 times the size of Skampavia, and enough information is
given to let us calculate the area of Skampavia. If you accept that
information as accurate (at least to the extent that "50 times" means
somewhere between 45 and 55 times), and that the proportions of the
Haff-Martin map are correct, then Oz turns out to be about 90 x 120 miles.
When you check the time it takes for travelers to go from one place to
another, this size works fairly well in most cases. (The major exception is
in _Road_, where they make it from the Truth Pond to the Emerald City on
foot in little more than 24 hours, including a stop for the night at the
Tin Woodman's castle. One can only assume that Ozma, who was monitoring
their progress throughout, gave them a magical assist that isn't recorded.)
_Silver Princess_ is actually one of the easiest Oz books to find; if you
have a Borders nearby they carry the BoW edition in PB. Or you can order it
from BoW.
> 1) How do I (can I?) get a message or comment into the digest? I'd like
>to be an active member.
You're doing it. See how easy?
> 2) How do I go on a book hunt (if I'm trying to find one) or, if I've
>found a book somebody is looking for, get the message out? (Kind of ties in
>to question 1)
Mention on the Digest what you're looking for. If you find a book someone
else has said they're looking for, E-mail them directly. (Any member who
posts has his/her E-mail address as part of the header.)
> 3) Is there someplace I can talk Oz with other members? A chatroom, or a
>digest "talk spot" or something?
No Oz chat room. There's a program called "AOL Instant Messenger," IIRC,
that lets any two people on the Internet chat directly with each other. I
don't have it yet because when I first heard about it they didn't have it
for Macintosh, and that's what I use for the Internet most of the time. I
understand they do have a Mac version now, but I haven't downloaded it yet.
These are only good for two-way conversations, though.
But the Digest itself is pretty close to what you're looking for, except
that it isn't real-time exchanges.
> 4) A quick imponderable....in "Land" we learn Mombi disguised Ozma after
>"The WIZARD" brought her to Mombi to dispose. In "D/W in Oz", the story the
>wizard gives Ozma about the Emerald City's beginnings and his own history in
>Oz is very different. (I'd guess Baum was referring to another, earlier
>Wizard, not our very own little Wizard :)
There are various explanations. The one most generally accepted in Oz
fandom is the one in Hugh Pendexter's story "Oz and the Three Witches." The
implication in _Land_ that the Wizard had evil intentions toward Ozma comes
from Mombi, remember, and while she couldn't lie because of Glinda's pearl,
she could mislead and presumably did. In Pendexter's story, IIRC, the
Wizard placed the child with Mombi to protect her from the Wicked Witches
of the East and West, not realizing that Mombi was just about as bad as
they were.
> 5) A big one (and my last one for now:) In "Wizard" the city isn't green
>at all; the "spectacles" make everything look green. In later stories,
>however, the Emerald City is truly Emerald, and probably the most beautiful
>city in existance. What happened in there? It seems I've heard this subject
>touched on before, but I can't remember the "cannonical" excuse.
The Emerald City is largely constructed of green marble, and emeralds are
the primary gemstone used for decoration, and there's no indication that I
recall in _Wizard_ that these weren't the case. The function of the green
glasses was to make _everything_ - the people, clothes, coins, animals,
etc. - appear green.
Earl:
>In the 10/21 Digest, Scott Olsen says, <Some very good circa 1960 reading
>copies of Baum's books didn't sell at all--which makes me wonder if the
>BoW reprints are having an effect on that market...>
>Absolutely. Why would anyone buy such a reading copy, when she could
>obtain a beautiful BoW edition, color plates and all, for the same or
>less money?
I agree entirely, but a number of people on the Digest seem to feel that
the original R&L editions - even ones without color plates - are more
"collectable" than the new ones from BoW (or the IWOC) that do have color
plates.
I'm not fond of semiannual time changes either, though I appreciate not
having full daylight happen at 4:30 AM in the summer, since that usually
wakes me up. Fortunately I've limited the number of clocks and so forth
that I deal with these days; I've only changed six so far and have two more
to go. Fall is worse than spring because some of them only set forward, so
it's necessary to go through 11, or in a couple of cases 23, hours to get
it back one.
Dave:
>OZ BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY:
>I was at the library Saturday, and not only did they have all the Baum,
>Thompson, Neil, Snow, and McGraw books they've always had, but they now
>have nearly all the Emerald City Press books, including the talked-about-
>at-the-South-Winkie-Convention _Christmas in Oz_, which I of course checked
>out. But the Huntington Beach Central Library would appear to be one of
>the Ozziest libraries in the country! ( Along with Bompi's. :) )
Cool! Do they have _Glass Cat_? :-)
(Don't recall if I mentioned it earlier, but the last time I was in the
Naperville Borders they'd apparently sold their last copy of GC. Now if
they'll just re-order...)
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 23:02:12 -0500 (EST)
From: "Aaron S. Adelman" <adelman@ymail.yu.edu>
Subject: Getting out of Mazes in Oz
1) Nathan, I always thought that the left-hand rule was a standard way (if
not THE standard way) of getting out of a maze!
2) J. L., I've assumed for a while that Trot's parents had been killed in
an accident between _Sky Island_ and _Scarecrow_ and was adopted
(effectively if not legally) by Cap'n Bill. Though Trot's mother was a
bit abrasive personalitywise, nevertheless she WAS Trot's mother and
as there is no reason to believe that she was negligent as a parent--and
that she would have chewed out Cap'n Bill for allowing anything bad to
happen to Trot is evidence of caring. In addition, that Trot's mother may
have been socially disfunctional is not evidence that her father was thus.
Therefore, I find no reason to assume that Trot's parents were deserving
of not even a note saying "Hate you. Hate California. Took the
one-legged sailor and left. Trot", and considering this, I find it odd
that if at least one of Trot's parents was still alive (especially her
mother) that Cap'n Bill didn't insist on Trot and himself being sent home.
Hence my belief that Trot's parents were deceased by _Scarecrow_, though
how we may never know.
<generic evil character 1>: They didn't really die. <evil laugh> What
really happened was--
<generic evil character 2>: Don't tell them! You don't want to spoil our
diabolical plan to take over Sacharhineolaland and transform its
inhabitants into sponge cake!
Also: I've had thoughts of exploring religion in the Enchanted Lands,
especially the effect of events in the FF on religion, in Lurline's
Machine, and while the idea of exaggerated beliefs about Dorothy had
occurred to Barry and me, Dorothy-as-Savior wasn't as far as we had
planned to go. (Come to think about it, the idea for Dorothy-as-Savior
argueably might go back as far as _Wizard_, though the Dorothy of _Wizard_
strikes me more as Dorothy-the-Pious.) Though most of my thinking was
trying (unsuccessfully) to work out an unconventional moral system for
Nomes, when I resume work on Lurline's Machine, I will have to give more
thought to the religion of mortals.
n) David, see Leviticus 19:28 on tattoos.
Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman
adelman@ymail.yu.edu North Antozian Systems and The Martian Empire
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 05:39:02 -0500
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: MANY DAYS OZ GROWLS
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
JEREMY >Were the midgets exploited in WOZ? No, they were given jobs.
You sound like Gary Trudeau.
Tatooes are a WWII and 90's thing. My daughter has one too. Fortunately,
it is a tastefully thin band around her upper arm. Sigh. I think the best
thing about tatooes is that they can be removed with a laser later in life
when they loose their cache. At least that is what I heard.
Dave >Bompi wrote:
>Dave (Ozzy Editor himself): Do you think some of the grumbling about Ozma
>and Glinda getting married could be rooted to some jealousy factors rather
>than the concern for how it would change the tales altogether? :-)
That did occur to me, yes. :)
Dave and Lisa - You don't need to bother inputing false motives to me. I
am happy to discuss my view of this issue, since you have raised it again.
What we have is a collision between generations. I am 61 years old, raised
in a different world. In that world sex was more covert, particularly for
children. Currently there is this seeming need to sexualize everything.
Little girls are given training bras, nail polish, and pierced ears. Sex
education is being forced on children in the early years of grade school.
Really little kids "go together." TV drips with sexual images and
activity. Parents rent hotel rooms for kids after proms. Teenage
pregnancy and std have become common. Add your own examples.
Then there is Oz. A place for children. Written "To Please A Child." One
last place in the universe that has not been sexualized, at least in the
FF. Then along comes Dave, with the best of motives, who wants to marry
off Ozma and Glinda. I continue to think that this is completely outside
the spirit of the Oz created by Baum. I think that in adding to his
creation we owe it to him to maintain that spirit. I have the same
objection to "Wicked" and especially "Was." There are an infinite number
of worlds where adult themes can be explored. What do you think?
Regards, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 97 11:39:34 (PST)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS:
Jellia tells me that there is no Daylight Savings in Oz...They just
all year round stay on "God's Time" (as Robert Benchley called it in
his humorous essay, _What Time is It? And What of It??_).
OZ BOOKS AT THE LIBRARY (FOLLOWUP):
I wrote:
>>But the Huntington Beach Central Library would appear to be one of
>>the Ozziest libraries in the country! ( Along with Bompi's. :) )
And David Hulan replied:
>Cool! Do they have _Glass Cat_? :-)
Yes they do. And you'll be glad to know that it was checked out when I was
there! :)
SEX, LIES, AND OZZY-TAPE:
Bear wrote:
>Dave and Lisa - You don't need to bother inputing false motives to me.
Actaully, I didn't mean to attribute jealousy -- which I believe *is* the
motive of some -- to *you*, whose motives by contrast I believe to be
guided by your honest feelings on this issue. That said, I will now
answer your assertions, which continue to be the same misrepresentations
of what _That Ozzy Feeling_ is about that you have made since day 1.
>What we have is a collision between generations. I am 61 years old...
A lot of the people at the S. Winkie Con who expressed their support for
_That Ozzy Feeling_ looked like they were in their sixties or seventies.
>Currently there is this seeming need to sexualize everything.
I'll concede that...But _That Ozzy Feeling_ attempts to sexualize nothing.
>Really little kids "go together."
I'd really like you to name names on this one. As a kid, I had many female
"playmates", but not the "Playboy" kind. :) Once, though, in kindergarten
a little girl I used to innocently frolic with kissed me on the cheek
and the playground monitor had a fit and segregated us. Later, when
my parents protested to this overreaction to my little friend's innocent
expression of affection, the monitor said, "You never know where things
like that may lead!" Apparently the monitor thought I was planning to do
her over in the back seat of my tricycle.
>TV drips with sexual images and activity.
_That Ozzy Feeling_ won't be on TV, and if it were it would be on the
Disney Channel.
>Parents rent hotel rooms for kids after proms. Teenage
>pregnancy and std have become common. Add your own examples.
Everyone on the Ozzy Digest could add their own exapmles until the
Deadly Desert freezes over, but it's still _Ignoratio Elenchi_ -- The
perceived moral decay of society is irrelevant to the morality of _That
Ozzy Feeling_.
>Then along comes Dave, with the best of motives...
I'm glad you concede that my motives are good...There are some who don't...
> ... who wants to marry off Ozma and Glinda.
But that's NOT THE SAME as "sexualizing"! There is NO SEX or even the
tiniest hint of a sexual reference in _That Ozzy Feeling_, any more than
there is in romance-containing family movies like _Snow White_, _The
Little Mermaid_, or _Aladdin_! But then I realize, having just finished
a book about Elizabeth Barrett Browning's father, that some people fail to
see the distiction between "clean and pure" love and "dirty and filthy"
sexual explicitness.
>I continue to think that this is completely outside the spirit of the
>Oz created by Baum.
But what about the Oz books -- _Tik-Tok_, _Scarecrow_, _Speedy_, _Silver
Princess_, etc. -- In which there *is* romance (on a very tame level) and
sometimes even marriage? The romance in _That Ozzy Feeling_ is in the same
spirit as those FF love stories. Or do you think Gloria and Pon's and
Randy and Planetty's relationships are "dirty and filthy" as well?
>I have the same objection to "Wicked" and especially "Was."
I won't let you succeed in this attempt to draw a "Guilt By Association" --
_That Ozzy Feeling_ has nothing whatever to do with such "heretical" works
as _Wicked_, _Was_ and _Barnstormer_, towards which I share your revulsion.
_That Ozzy Feeling_ *is* in "The Spirit of Baum" and in the spirit of
countless fairy tales that end with a wedding.
>What do you think?
I think above all that some people wouldn't be so willing to make me feel
like some kind of Ozian Salman Rushdie if they actually *read* my book
and didn't persistantly go around not just judging it by its cover but
extrapolating the cover into something grotesque that is as far from
the actual content of _TOF_ as _Penthouse_ is from _Jack and Jill_.
Now I recognize that there are some who philosophically maintain that
Ozma and Glinda are somehow "sacred" and that marrying them off is
tantamount to satanism. I can't waste my time ( well, not too much of it :) )
engaging in such "How many Ozites can dance on the head of a pin" debates,
but I will not leave unanswered these misrepresentations of _TOF_ as "dirty"
or "pornographic".
And I'll just conclude (for today) by reminding everyone that I'm not
some lone crackpot..._That Ozzy Feeling_ is co-authored by Melody Grandy,
one of the most respected of all Oz authors. And you can be sure any book
*she* has anything to do with will not only be 100% Ozzy, but will be one
of the most enjoyable reading experences ever!
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************
]
c/ \
/___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, OCTOBER 30 - 31, 1997 ***
|@ @|
| V | \\\
|\_/| | ;;;
\-/ \ ;/
>< ]
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 16:38:59 -0800
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-29-97
Bear,
> Tatooes are a WWII and 90's thing. My daughter has one too.
> Fortunately, it is a tastefully thin band around her upper
> arm. Sigh. I think the best thing about tatooes is that
> they can be removed with a laser later in life when they
> loose their cache. At least that is what I heard.
I believe I mentioned before that my tattoo was acquired while in
the service. I'm 4 years younger than you so my tattoo certainly
couldn't be considered a WWII or a 90's thing. I'm still somewhat fond
of it, Leviticus notwithstanding. It's a small thing, but mine own. De
gustibus non est disputandum, as Mrs. Freeman told me in my Latin I
class in 1954.
> Apparently the monitor thought I was planning to do her over
> in the back seat of my tricycle.
I thought that I'd heard of some awkward positions before, but.....
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 22:54:26 -0500
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Subject: Oz movies and Button-Bright
Sender: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell@compuserve.com>
Of a copy of the Fricke et al. book on the MGM movie, Mike Denio says:
<<Interestingly enough, the back of the title page still lists the book as
being a first printing from 1989. Does anyone know if the paperback edition
is really from 1989?>>
It's possible that this paperback was converted from a hardcover in a
wrenching process called "strip-and-bind." That's not usually done with
four-color books, though.
Scott wrote about verifying <<the existence of the pornographic version of
_The Wizard ofOz_. It was made in the late '70s, is not called _The Wizard
of Oz_, has extremely bad costumes, and is hard core. As I said, I am only
trying to get the credits at the present time.>>
In 1976 someone named Bill Osco proposed filming a soft-core version
of Oz called DIRTY DOROTHY. No one ever got into bed with him, according to
my source. This ain't my area of expertise--I'm even a little ashamed to
have that information--but I can put you in cyber-touch with that source.
Aaron Adelman, your assumption that Trot's parents must have died before
she so quickly chose to stay in Oz is heartening. Alas, SCARECROW says of
Cap'n Bill's accident, "ever since that he had lived with Trot's
mother"--implying no break in Mrs. Griffith[s] presence.
In the same book Button-Bright decides that he no longer has a home in
Philadelphia simply because he no longer has his magic umbrella to get back
there. In contrast to Dorothy in her early adventures, driven by her will
to return home, Baum's later arrivals are eager to stay.
I'd join you in assuming that Betsy's parents were on that boat.
David Hulan, I'd considered whether the Sawhorse qualified as "the Baum
character who shows up significantly in the most books but never gets his
own title or plot." I left him off my list because in many books his role
is so utilitarian; it would be almost like seeing the raft as a major
character in HUCK FINN. (The Sawhorse does share a LITTLE WIZARD STORY with
Jack Pumpkinhead, and comes off well.)
Omby Amby's an interesting addition, though his role in action is
usually minor (OZMA being an exception). The Gaurdian of the Gates indeed
pops up in several books (how many gates does the Emerald City have?), but
he doesn't affect plots much at all.
Two signficant recurring characters neither of us mentioned: Toto and
Polychrome. The latter is actually the person I think rivals Button-Bright
in playing major roles in plots without becoming the protagonist or title
character of her own canonical book.
Button-Bright's lack of his own book seems especially significant
because he's an American child--the sort of character readers almost
automatically identify with. But, with the exception of a couple of
chapters in SKY ISLAND, we're encouraged to view him as an eccentric the
girls have to look after.
More on Button-Bright: On his inteligence, let's remember the
Scarecrow's hilarious response to meeting him in ROAD. And his choice of
how to test the magic umbrella--asking it to fly him to Chicago--doesn't
show much thinking ahead. As a traveling companion, I'd bring Button-Bright
along for one quality: sheer dumb luck. Not, of course, that I'd have him
with me for long.
Finally, in SCARECROW Button-Bright wears a shirt-waist "that had
frills down its front." Again, Baum shows the Von Smiths' governess
dressing their little boy in precious clothing.
J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 00:42:15 -0500
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: That Ozzy Feeling--Post in Digest if you don't object to spoiler
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Bear:
>Then along comes Dave, with the best of motives, who wants to marry
off Ozma and Glinda. I continue to think that this is completely outside
the spirit of the Oz created by Baum. I think that in adding to his
creation we owe it to him to maintain that spirit.<
Even Baum married off characters. Pon & Gloria. Quelala & Gayelette
(no mention made of her losing any of her magical powers simply because she
married.) Ah, and how about Uncle Henry & Aunt Em? And other married
couples we meet in the Oz books? As long as the author doesn't barge into
the characters' bedrooms, Oz books featuring marriage will still be
G-rated.
Zim: That myth about marriage destroying one's magical powers does
have some basis in fact--a magic-worker too caught up in the cares and
reponsibilites of marriage may allow their magical skills to become
rusty...
......Just read Dave's response. He's correct. "That Ozzy Feeling"
*is* G-Rated.Like "Silver Princess," "Scarecrow," "Kabumpo," and others.
The approach to the courtship of the super-mature Zim & Glinda is different
from the usual fairy-tale love-at-first-sight approach. They discuss
"boring stuff" like where they'd live if married, what if children come
along, etc. I don't show a lot of it, but enough to hint to young readers
that there's a need to use one's head when courting. :-) :-)
***SP:OILER ALERT**** And when Glinda, along with others, falls
victim to a certain type of curse----Zim: ,"I like old hags. Did I ever
tell you Maggie turned me down flat?"
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 00:44:30 -0500
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-27-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Scott & Nathan:
Button-Bright does strike me as being more intelligent in "Sky Island" than
he is in the Oz books--but perhaps that's because he is intelligent for
people he likes best. (He really likes Trot & Cap'n Bill!) On the brief
umbrella trip Trot and Button-Bright make to a nearby village, Baum says
the villagers question him, but he does not tell them much. One can easily
imagine him shifting into the " "Don't know" mode he displayed in "Road to
Oz."
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 00:48:31 -0500
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-23-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Scott:
>No one on _Sky Island_ is very pleasant, so
it seems a good thing that it was basically a one-shot deal, though I
think Melody added something to it in Oziana 1983 I believe.<
Technically, all I added were illustrations--the story was by someone else.
In it, Trot revisits Sky Island via Magic Belt and tangles with the wicked
old Boolooroo. Also drew the cover for Oziana featuring a jolly Pinkie
holding up a flower to a slightly surprised Blue. Reread "Sky Island" for
reference. Since it does not mention them, I took the springs out of the
Blues' legs & made the good witch Rosalie look more like the other Pinkies.
(Though Neill pictures her being of normal slender proportions, Baum says
she is only a little taller and more slender than the other
Pinkies--meaning she is likely still short and stout compared to the
average human.) :-)
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 00:45:10 -0500
From: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 10-27-97
Sender: "Melody G. Keller" <harmonyarts@compuserve.com>
David Hulan:
>For the record, what are the religious grounds for objecting to tattoos?
(The aesthetic grounds I recognize; my daughter has one.)<
The Mosaic Law forbade them. There were lots of other laws that
showed that God is a purist who likes things kept pretty much as he made
them--as in also forbidding the Israelite males to shave, forbidding the
weaving of cloth made of a mixture of fibers (so supposedly the Israelites
would never make or wear linsey-woolsey), and forbidding the breeding of
two animals of different sorts (supposedly the Israelites would not have
mules, either.). :-) :-)
Melody Grandy
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 19:36:40 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeremy Steadman <jsteadman@loki.berry.edu>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-29-97
Bear:
I begin to understand . . . (your point of view, I mean--as best I'll
ever be able to, most probably). (No, I'm not referring to the minor
detail of the difference in our ages, just that of our perspectives.)
Dave:
You're not "dissing" the Disney Channel, here, are you? (A very
conservative friend of my sister's recently convinced her that Disney
quality has diminished in recent years. It sounds ridiculous to me,
but who am *I* to say?)
One last, semi-Ozzy thing for today:
I now have a web page up (okay, I've been working on it for quite
some time, but it's now really ready). You can find it at:
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 .
It is by no means professional, nor even complete (it has just text
right now), but it describes my Oz writing, other writing, and other
interests. Soon, I'll perfect it further.
Until my next posting,
Jeremy Steadman
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 16:36:59 -0800
From: Bob Spark <bspark@pacbell.net>
Subject: Question for the "Ozzie Digest"
Okay, you guys, you have titillated me, piqued my curiosity. How
can I possibly align myself with either Bear's or Dave Hardenbrook's
camp without reading _That Ozzie Feeling_for myself (as Dave has
suggested)? I searched Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Dave Hardenbrook's
home page and Buckethead to no avail.
Help!
Bob Spark
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 19:56:47 -0500
From: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Subject: Today's Oz Growls
Sender: Richard Bauman <RBauman@compuserve.com>
Dave - Where would I get _That Ozzy Feeling_. This is the first I have
heard of it :) I'll admit it is much easier to dislike someone/thing you
don't know.
Beyond that I will wait for more dust to settle.
Regards, Bear (:<)
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 01:51:07 +0000 (GMT)
From: David Hulan <davidhulan@ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-29-97
Tyler:
>I think we can presume that the Wizard did give Ozma to Mombi's care. Just
>what the relationship was between Mombi and the father and grandfather of
>Ozma is a little less clear. These events took place over the course of
>many decades, so we must assume that Ozma was a baby for quite a while and
>aged very slowly after Mombi took her in.
As several people remarked when this subject came up on the Digest a year
or more ago, it seems unlikely that Ozma was actually a baby for very long
while she (in the form of Tip) was under Mombi's control. Babies are
high-maintenance creatures, and nothing in Mombi's personality as revealed
in LAND or LOST KING suggests that she had the patience to deal with a baby
over a matter of decades.
As I see it there are two possibilities: (a) Ozma/Tip grew up at a
reasonably normal pace for the first three or four years, after which
her/his aging slowed down; or (b) Mombi farmed her/him out to someone with
a lot more maternal instinct to bring up until she/he was old enough to be
useful around Mombi's farm. I like the latter explanation better; aside
from anything else, it would form the basis of a very interesting story
when Little Buttercup (or whoever Mombi had chosen) turns up in modern
Oz...hmmm, maybe I should think about writing this one; I've been trying to
think of a short story to write for OZ STORY MAGAZINE...
Ruth:
When I was in ROTC back in the days of the "brown shoe" army, the upper
outer garment of the Class A enlisted man's uniform was called a "blouse."
(It was rather like a suit coat, only with brass buttons and a belt.) I
forget if this usage extended to the coat of the green Class A uniform
(without a belt) that I wore when I was actually on active duty and wore
black shoes with it...
(Anybody else in here serve in the Army before about 1959?)
Aaron:
Your assumption of Trot's parents' deaths before the events of _Scarecrow_
could be right, but it isn't very consistent with Baum's statement in that
book that Cap'n Bill had been Trot's mother's "'star boarder' ever since."
Normally "ever since" implies that it includes all the time between the
event referred to and the present. If Trot's mother had died you'd have
expected something more like "...'star boarder' until her death."
>n) David, see Leviticus 19:28 on tattoos.
OK, I think you're "putting a fence around the Torah" with that one, since
the context makes it probable that the law was intended to prohibit certain
signs of mourning that most likely existed in pagan societies of the day,
and not mere decorations, but literally interpreted it could be considered
to prohibit tattoos.
DaveL
>DAYLIGHT SAVINGS:
>Jellia tells me that there is no Daylight Savings in Oz...They just
>all year round stay on "God's Time" (as Robert Benchley called it in
>his humorous essay, _What Time is It? And What of It??_).
Oz seems to be near enough the equator of its world (which may be this one,
though I don't think so) that there's no great difference in the length of
day throughout the year. That being the case, there would be no point in
Daylight Savings Time.
Glad to hear that some subscriber to the Huntington Beach Library was
apparently reading _Glass Cat_!
David Hulan
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 22:52:57 -0800
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <vovat@geocities.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest
[144.80.104.94] didn't use HELO protocol
Gordon:
I enjoyed your analysis of _Sky Island_. I never really examined the
book that thoroughly before.
J. L. Bell:
I wouldn't imagine that elephants and magic rings are traditional Ozian
christening gifts. You must remember that the first was a gift from an
Emperor to a King, and the other from a fairy to a Prince.
Bompi:
Why would Captain Salt be on the cover of _Sea Fairies_? Are you sure
you don't mean Cap'n Bill?
David:
One mention of Heaven in a Baum book occurs in _Santa Claus_. Ak tells
the Awgwas that they have no place in Heaven.
Regarding the Emerald City:
In _Wizard_, when Dorothy asks the Wizard if everything in the Emerald
City is really green, he replies with, "No more than in any other city."
Most cities that I've seen aren't very green at all. Of course, the
outside of the city looked green to Dorothy and her companions, and they
weren't wearing green glasses at that point, so I'm probably reading too
much into the Wizard's comment.
Aaron:
The moral code for Nomes seems like an interesting idea. Kaliko, for
one, seems to have a fairly strict moral code, considering his refusal to
hurt Betsy and her female companions in _Tik-Tok_.
--
Nathan Mulac DeHoff
vovat@geocities.com or lnvf@grove.iup.edu
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/
"I'm having a wonderful time, but I'd rather be whistling in the dark."
======================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 22:03:22 -0500 (EST)
From: JDMurray01@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-29-97
Well, Dave, I appreciate the digest, but I can't read it..... All I get is
a bunch of wierd characters. I think it's still compressed or zipped or
whatever.....And it downloaded TOO fast to have really downloaded...all I get
is a blip on the harddrive, then nothing! I'm not sure if it's me or what.
Thanks.
Jared
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 02:50:44 -0600
From: Bill Wright <transxinc@earthlink.net>
Subject: Oz Digest
David and others who want to vote on the Ozzy Newsgroup, here are some
instructions.
a. The tallying of votes is all done by software, and being not super
intelligent it
requires that one adher exactly to the required format if your vote is
to accepted.
b. Go to the newsgroup named "news.announce.newgroups
c. In the list of messages in that group there is one with subject of
: 2nd CFV: rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz
d. Click on that one to view it, and read the message. Note that the
time is fast running out
to make a vote.
e. Address an email to jjd@primenet.com
f. In the subject line enter "2nd CFV: rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz"
g. Select one of the two following lines to put in the email as the
first line.
I vote YES on rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz
I vote NO on rec.arts.books.wizard-of-oz
This first line of the email must be exactly one of these two lines
(just cut and past from this note is the easiest way to get it done).
h. Add a second line that has exactly the following words (and colon)
followed by your real name (not screen or login name)
Voter name:
i. Send the email
j. You will get an automated reply that tells you how your vote was
recorded. If for some reason it was not recorded correctly,
then you can vote again. Each time you vote you replace your prior
vote. Of course you only have one vote and the last one submitted is
it.
There is a FAQ on voting at http://www.iki.fi/~jpatokal/uvv/ if you want
more details.
Hopefully everyone on the Oz Digest will let their voice be heard and
vote.
Bill in Ozlo
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 10:11:09 -0500 (EST)
From: JOdel@aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-29-97
AOL has discovered a new way to annoy. It now refuses to download the Digest
when it comes in as an attachment. Even going back online and manually
clicking on the download now button I get a message of the download being
aborted. No big deal. I have the flat rate and have the web page bookmarked.
But irritating.
======================================================================
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 97 09:42:47 (PST)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47@delphi.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
Happy Birthday, Betsy Bobbin!
TO JEREMY:
What exactly did your sister's friend mean by Disney's quality diminishing?
If he/she meant the quality of the animation/artwork then I have to concur
(Just look at _Show White_, _Pinocchio_, or _Bambi_ and then compare it to
_Hercules_, _Pocahantas_ or _The Lion King_). But if the implication is
a *moral* decay in Disney's films, I fail to see it.
TO BOB SPARK:
>Okay, you guys, you have titillated me, piqued my curiosity. How
>can I possibly align myself with either Bear's or Dave Hardenbrook's
>camp without reading _That Ozzie Feeling_for myself (as Dave has
>suggested)? I searched Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Dave Hardenbrook's
>home page and Buckethead to no avail.
_That Ozzy Feeling_ is unpublished. I apologize for giving any impression
to the contrary. Melody and I are awaiting the outcome of the Centennial
Contest. In the event that it loses, Melody and I will probably submit
the manuscript to major publisher.
MAGICAL ENTITIES:
FWIW, my "Magic of Everything" grand theory of magic in my Ozzy writings
says that magic is just a hightly sophistcared manipulation of the vectors
of subatomic particles, and therefore is not driven by "spirits".
MORE AOL HEADACHES:
As you can see in todays messages, some people are having problems again
with AOL...If anyone can offer a solution...
-- Dave
======================================================================
<END>
-- Dave
************************************************************
Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com
URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/
Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz,
and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online
fan club)
"When we are young we read and believe
The most Fantastic Things...
When we grow older and wiser
We learn, with perhaps a little regret,
That these things can never be...
WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!"
-- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit"
************************************************************