HE'LL FIRE OFF A SONG THAT'S FILLED WITH LAUGHTER

OVFF -- Randy Hoffman
Originally uploaded by Looly Huheet.

Happy birthday to mrgoodwraith, among my longest-time friends and the one who, with malice aforethought and all that, dragged me into fandom and later filk lo those many years ago (so yeah, he's to blame) and is thus somewhat responsible for my acquaintance with about half of all y'all. Regards o' the day to you, sir.

And belated best o' natal-day-type wishes to peteralway and Rand Bellavia (http://rand.ooklathemok.com/)!

In other news, sad to hear that B.C. creator Johnny Hart has died. (http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070408/NEWS01/70408001) I was never a big fan of the strip -- and despite likely agreeing with large chunks of his worldview, I found most of his more overtly Christian strips in recent years to be heavy-handed and not all that funny -- but every now and then in the strip's history he would come up with something truly groan-inducing (in a good way). Peter David gives a prime example of such in his blog entry on Hart: http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/ Pleasant journey to Mr. Hart, and condolences to his family and friends.

In still other news: Still two-point-something days left to post a guess on Dave's Random Lyrics Quiz: http://ldwheeler.livejournal.com/123364.html. All the Kewl Peepelz are doing it.

Sounds & Images: "Papa Danced on Olvera Street" (Terry Scott Taylor)

TALES FROM A COPY EDITOR'S POINTLESS EXISTENCE

1. Typo I noticed in print in an area newspaper: Ship's captain blames sea currants.

Is that anything like sea cucumbers?

2. Typo I successfully stopped from running in our paper last week: An incorrect URL for the quirky Marshmallow Peeps Web site http://www.peepsshow.com, as part of an utterly innocuous feature-page story on the persistence of Peeps. Fortunately, I check all URLs when I proofread pages; the writer had left a letter out and the resulting URL sent hapless clickers to a porn portal. This is why I make the big bucks. Or why I would if I did.

3. Junk mail my mother received: A subscriber-solicitation envelope from some publishing company called House of Seven Birches.

How my mind read it: Well, I think you can guess.