Saturday, June 30, 2007

My Review of the New iPhone

I'm not getting one.

• Posted at 10:24 PM · LINK

Heeding Henrietta

This is an overdue update on my relationship with Henrietta, which is what I've named the voice that emanates from my Magellan Roadmate 2000 Global Positioning System. Since I wrote this report, I've had her officially installed on a bracket on my dashboard, and I've experimented further. Here is what I've learned...

Basically, it's that she works great if you don't use her as a substitute for knowing roughly where you're going. You can't follow her instructions mindlessly but she sure helps me get around, even on semi-familiar turf. I'm learning the names of local streets I only vaguely knew and every so often, even when I know how to get where I'm going, I ask her to plot a route and it's sometimes a clever suggestion.

The following experience pretty well defines for me how one should treat these devices. Carolyn and I were recently in Virginia, whizzing around in a Hertz rental equipped with their Neverlost® System, which is pretty much the same as my Henrietta, voice and all. In Arlington, we were in a section where there is major road construction that includes reversing a great number of one-way streets. There, Henrietta was of no help, as she was constantly telling me to turn left onto a street where I could only go right and vissie-versie. Still, seeing where she was trying to send us helped me a lot to figure out my own path.

Then we drove from Arlington to Warrenton. I printed out Mapquest directions and had them along but allowed Henrietta to chart our course. For about the first 30 miles, the two routes were identical...but then we came to a point where Mapquest said to go straight and our destination would be 15 miles ahead, whereas Henrietta wanted us to turn off that surface street, hop on a freeway and then drive another 25 miles on it to get to Warrenton.

I decided — and I hope you'll someday forgive me for this, Henrietta — not to listen to her. I ignored the turn-off, stayed on the same street...and the minute we crossed the boulevard where she wanted me to turn off and I didn't turn off, Henrietta recalculated the route and agreed with Mapquest. Her estimate of mileage and time remaining instantly dropped from 25 miles and 30 minutes to 15 miles and 20 minutes. So even she didn't really think that freeway was a good idea.

But the point is that would have worked. It would have gotten us there. And if I'd strayed from the Mapquest route or it was unduly congested, I might have been happy to try it her way. That's one of the great things about a Global Positioning System. No matter how you wander or change course, it changes right along with you and shows you the way to go. On several occasions, she's saved me from some time-consuming misdirection...and in strange territory, she's invaluable for letting me know when the turnoff is coming up and reassuring me I'm on the street I think I'm on.

Another handy service: The night we got in to Arlington, it was late, all the restaurants seemed to be closed...and we needed a meal. We stopped in a 24-hour CVS Pharmacy for some items we needed and Carolyn asked the clerk if she knew of anyplace nearby that was open and serving edible food, which is not always what you get at that hour. The lady said, "There's a place called the something-or-other diner that I hear is good." But she couldn't tell us exactly what it was called or how to get to it...which was a job for Henrietta. Henrietta displays Points of Interest and I asked her for the names of restaurants in the vicinity. One had the word "diner" in its name and she showed us how to get there. It was open and pretty decent and we'd never have found it without her.

So I'm glad to have her. She's not perfect and I suspect that the few folks who wrote me that they junked their personal Henriettas made the mistake of expecting them to know everything. She doesn't...but for $219.99 at Costco, she knows enough. I just need to know when not to listen to her.

• Posted at 9:36 PM · LINK

Correction

I am informed that Radioactive Man no longer has his own comic and that the story by Batton Lash and Ramona Fradon will actually be appearing in a Simpsons Super-Spectacular.

Also, my old chum Gary Brown reminds me that Ramona did break her vow once before. She did at least one story for Nick Mag Presents, the Nickelodeon publication, in which SpongeBob SquarePants encountered characters who were not unlike Aquaman and Aqualad.

But other than that, I got everything right.

• Posted at 7:33 PM · LINK

Ramona's Back!

Ramona Fradon was one of the great DC comic artists in the fifties and sixties. From around 1950 until the early sixties, she drew Aquaman in her colorful and energetic style. Then she launched a new character called Metamorpho. Then she left comics to devote full time to her family. Then for a time in the seventies, she came back to it, and later drew the Brenda Starr newspaper strip for a time.

When she gave up Brenda in '95, she told everyone that she had drawn her last script; that while she still enjoyed drawing, she would only do single illustrations and would never again draw an actual comic book story for anyone for any amount of money. We are happy to report that she has not kept her word. The issue of Bongo's Radioactive Man that comes out next week (I think) has an actual story drawn by Ramona and written by Batton Lash, in which R.M. battles a character who looks suspiciously like Metamorpho. It's a pretty clever tale and if you aren't regularly buying Radioactive Man, you might want to break yourself of that habit. Also, if you see Ramona at the Comic-Con International in San Diego (or anywhere), you might want to tell her what a joy it is to see her back drawing one panel after another. She's really good at it.

• Posted at 1:24 PM · LINK

Today's Video Link

Here's a great moment from The Tonight Show from May of 1975. As the story was later told around the office, one of the Talent Coordinators, Craig Tennis, found a guy named Bob Speca who did something amazing with dominoes. Tennis fought considerable opposition from other staff members to book the guy...and Johnny Carson, who had the last word on everything then, went along with it less because he liked the idea than because (a) he trusted Tennis based on past experience and (b) he figured that if the bit was a flop, he could rescue it by ridiculing the whole booking.

Anyway, Mr. Speca went on with his dominoes and was a tremendous sensation. Special kudos should go to the nameless cameraman who managed to shoot the whole thing. There was no way to do a camera rehearsal and the guy, whoever he was, did a great job.

I also heard — and this may not be true — that right after Speca's first appearance, Carson wanted to book him again a.s.a.p. to do a more spectacular demonstration. Mr. Speca, however, asked for an even more spectacular paycheck and The Tonight Show balked...so Carson just reran the first appearance on a later show. This clip is from that later show. Three years later, Speca did appear again with a truly amazing domino demonstration...and he still does them for commercials, promotions, industrial shows, etc. There were a lot of domino-toppling imitators around for a while, and I guess there still are, but Speca is still said to be the best.

• Posted at 3:15 AM · LINK

Joel Siegel, R.I.P.

Ken Levine remembers his pal, writer/critic Joel Siegel.

• Posted at 3:13 AM · LINK

Soldiering On

My old pal Wayne DeWald calls my attention to this website. It's about those old ads in comic books that sold sets of toy soldiers. Even as a kid, I was suspicious that those ads never showed you what the toy soldiers actually looked like. If you ever saw the toy soldiers, you know why.

• Posted at 2:13 AM · LINK

July 1, 2007 • Current • June 29, 2007