THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 1, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 09:46:30 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: How to ILL and other things As per Dave's request for information on this, here's the basics of ILLing (interlibrary loan) books: 1) First of all, figure out what you want to ILL. At the very least you should have a title and author. They love it when you also have publisher and date of publication, and rumor has it they will kiss your feet if you have the international standard book number (ISBN). Be sure if you have not memorized this information verbatim to have it written down somewhere with you when you go to the library. 2) At the library, go to the reference desk and ask for ILL forms. Once you fill in all the information they ask for, wait around until they send you a postcard telling you that the one library that has the book won't lend it or is near Alpha Centauri and they don't want to pay the postage, or, if you are lucky, they call you and tell you your book has come in. 3) If you do get the book, keep it in a safe place and be sure you turn it back in. Getting photographic evidence to this effect may help your case if they declare that they can't find the book and the home library is going to bill you an inordinate amount of money for losing their one and only copy of _The Bloodsucking Goatherds in Oz_. In ILL, librarians send each other requested books or copies of articles as they have limited funds to buy books and journals and if they had to buy them all themselves, it would cost a lot more. The problem, of course, is when the books you want are not in a library or the only library that has them is not lending them out, which is the one reason why I haven't read more Laumer books than I've tried to ILL at this point. I don't know if putting the name of a library on the form helps. I've tried this before with ILLing some arcane material and I got copies from a different library. Given that there should be plenty of libraries which have FF material and even some non-FF material, I wouldn't worry about it. Does anyone out there have the address for Vanitas Press? I stupidly forgot to copy it out of the front cover of _The Underground Kings of Oz_ when I ILLed it and I have a feeling that I will have to write and probably purchase some of Laumer's books in order to read them. I suspect, despite how everyone what everyone believes, that the deadliness of the deadly desert is exaggerated. The stories about it were probably spread by the Ozites themselves to keep invaders out. Obviously Glinda and Mombi were not turned to dust by walking on it. As for the changing characters of the fumes, perhaps they are not so much toxic as allergenic, and some people are a lot more allergic to them than others. Has anyone (other than Baum, of course) written a book which takes place in the Baum universe but is clearly not (nor labeled) an Oz book? I have an idea for a story which is supposed to take place in Quok (which is on the map) and has nothing to do with Oz except maybe the presence of a public-domain character or two who has also turned up in Oz. Would one of the dedicated Oz publishers be interested in such a work? By the way, will someone who actually knows tell me what Dorothy's doctorate in the Laumer books is in? ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 11:32:14 -0500 From: DIXNAM@aol.com Subject: Oz stuff Robin O, Yes!! I sure was frustrated when, as a young lad, I came across a reference to someone or something from an Oz book I hadn't read. I was introduced to Oz at age 10, by my 4th grade teacher, who read "The Wonderful Wizard" and "The Marvelous Land" to our class. I was hooked. Then my parents found a number of Baum's Oz books at an estate sale for next to nothing (some were first eds, but all were in fair to poor condition). I read them in copyright order, but became frustrated by references to stuff from the books I was missing. I looked forward to birthdays and Christmas's, when "Santa" brought me a missing piece of the puzzle. :-) General question Last Spring in the Ozian Times, Oz Centennial products were listed, along with sale prices, and it was indicated that funds raised from these products were necessary as working capital for the upcoming big shindig. Did anyone order and receive any of these items? Dick Randolph (DIXNAM@aol.com) ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 12:32:17 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest For some stragne reason, my post did not get posted in yesterdays digest, so here it is again, along with todays stuff. Also, happy belated Leap Day. Mike Turniansky: Didn't the Heelers live on the Deadly Desert? I agree that, in general, the Deadly Desert is NOT livable without strong magic, based on tradition. It would be much better if these creatures lived UNDER the desert and only every once in a while emerge. The Deadly Desert is an unknown quality. It's there, but almost no action takes place in it. It may be that in selected areas, magical spells allow people to survive temporarily. As Eric pointed out, Volkovs "Oz" is not called Oz, but the Magical Land and Volkov implies that it is somewhere in North America. On sales of the FF: I had heard that by the end of the Thompson administration, sales were levelling off. Continuing sales of earlier books depended on the success of new books, and from I have heard, Reilly and Lee was not promoting the new books as much as they used to. Thompson had many many ideas for advertising, but they were all rejected by the new leadership. Another reason that the Oz books trickled off is that, with the death of John R. Neill, we lost the author AND the illustrator at the same time. John White: On further reflection, I should have given DINAMONSTER three stars or possibly only two. It was written very differently from other Oz books, and I read it a very long time ago. I stand by my five-star rating for DISENCHANTED PRINCESS. "It's cool. It's so cool, it rules the school!". McGregor Boyle: Yes, there is some sequential continuity within the Thompsons, so I suggest you read them in order if you can. The first Thompson book I read was KABUMPO, and I had no idea who Sir Hokus was. Dave commented on other books a little, but I'll weigh in anyway. It's a little hard to compete with someone who can answer posts on the same day, but that's the perk you get when you run the digest! :-) The so-called "other books" are non-FF books written by a variety of authors over the decades. Some are very good, some are rock-bottom, and many are in-between. Since most of the later FF books are still copyrighted, the vast majority of other books do not mention people and events in them except for (at best) very vague hints. For the most part, you would only need to have a working knowledge of the first nine Baum books to be able to read and understand most of the other stuff. Baum did not introduce any new major characters after that (at least those who became permanent fixtures in Oz), and most authors have only read a few of the Baum titles anyway. The two largest publishers of Oz books are Books of Wonder and Buckethead. Books of Wonder can be reached at 1-800-345-6665 and they will be more than happy to send you a catalog. Bucketheads address is 1600 Arnold Palmer Loop Belen, NM 87002. Bear in mind that Buckethead is a non-profit organization, so please include $1.00 for a catalog and also include a SASE. for a list of FF books that are not chronologically out of order, go to my Web Page and look at the HACC. You will see books that only mention early Baum events and you will not be lost. My web page is: http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones The :80 thing may or may not be necessary. I have to differ with Dave Hardenbrook here and say that I really did not care for MASQUERADE all that much. It is OK, although I liked DISHPAN much better. Any of BOWs books would be fine, though, and I recommend them all, with the possible exception of SPECKLED ROSE. Aaron Adelman: I said this "yesterday", meaning earlier in todays post, but my theory was that Ozmas character fluctuated EARLY ON, just after her change. Once she settled down after about a year, her character was fairly constant, at least from author to author. I agree with you on this one, though, the Neill characters (old and new) were ridiculous. As far as I know, the father of Re Alla Bad is never named. He was the one- time ruler of Seebania and probably most of the southern Munchkin country. Robin Olderman: I too was frustrated during my first reading of ROAD. I was a little better off than you, though. I already had JOHN DOUGH AND THE CHERUB and QUEEN ZIXI OF IX. I had no clue who the Candyman and the Queen of Merryland were, though, and I was very suprised at all of Santas servants! David Hulan: I agree with your assesment of Dorothy, that she was just repeating what she THOUGHT was the case with viewing the Deadly Desert. As far as I am concerned, the falling-through-the-earth stuff has been resolved. My opinion of DINAMONSTER may be fuzzy with memory. When I get that summary project going, maybe I will remember better. Dave Hardenbrook: I have no idea how to ILL books, but I am sure that your local librarians will be happy to assist you. --Tyler "Two Posts" Jones ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 13:30:00 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest 2 Some last-minute quick thoughts: In my opinion, the title of "Royal Historian of Oz" can no longer be conferred on anybody. The Famous Forty, as it exists, is the cornerstone of Ozian history and all other books are simply branches from the tree, including the IWOC books, so even if Daves book wins the contest (which I'm SURE it will :) :) :), it should not be considered any more official than any other non-FF book. The February Digest is available if anybody wants it. Here are some stats: DECEMBER 1995 296K JANUARY 1996 484K FEBRUARY 1996 911K --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 13:32:45 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Dinamonster of Oz Yesterday, while my computer was having a memory card installed, I went back to the Strand Bookstore. There I found that all of the Oz books I mentioned previously as being there were gone except for The Royal Book of Oz, but under "Fairy Tales" I found several others: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Road to Oz (a nice hardcover BOW edition), Dot and Tot in Merryland (BOW censored edition), Twinkle and Chubbins, The Book of Hamburgs, Queen Zixi of Ix, American Fairy Tales, and Kenneth Gage Baum's The Dinamonster of Oz. The last one I proceeded to buy, and having read it, it strikes me as weird for an Oz book. The main premise of the book is that the Nomes have adopted modern science and have created a gigantic humanoid robot with cranes for arms and a three-story office building for a head called the Dinamonster, which they use to steal the Metachron (a device which creates time in Oz) and several important people in Oz (Dorothy, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wizard). The Dinamonster is unaffected by magic. As Ozma is off in her mountain retreat (the first I can remember her having one), Glinda, the Scarecrow, and a boy named Tripp (who arrived in Oz via rocket-plane) pursue the mechanical monster across the Deadly Desert, passing along the way the customary nonhistorical creatures, and eventually entering the tunnels of the Nome King himself. Problems: K. G. Baum does not understand science. He has captive lightning powering time in Oz, and does not understand that if Oz had no time then nothing would happen at all. He has the Nomes attack Oz with colored lights, as if that would do anything. More distressingly, he fails to notice that in Oz there is no sharp boundary between science and magic. Dr. Nowitall, a scientist, performs a magical feat of magnifying a wogglebug, while Glinda, a magic-worker, routinely performs experiments. The placement of this book in the HACC in 1940 is rather difficult. As no characters (other than those created by K. G. Baum) from later than Ozma of Oz appear, it may argueably have taken place early, probably right after The Emerald City of Oz, which would make the unnamed Nome King Ruggedo. On the other hand, the end of the book claims that Oz is going to be changing over from magic to science. This has not happened in books currently placed afterwards. In fact, since this is a book which was intended to be the beginning of a series in which Oz changes over from magic to science, it arguably is just as heretical as Sir Harold and the Gnome King and hence should be kicked out according to those who say "No post-turning point books in the HACC!" Probable informant: A small child (approximately five years old) living in the Emerald City. This book seems very cartoonish, and, given the ridiculously short travel times given for the Nomes, the informant has no understanding of how large Oz is. This would also explain the design of the Dinamonster, which must step on its victims in order to capture them, thereby pushing them through a trap door in its foot. As the Dinamonster is not designed so that the operators can see anything that can be stepped on, it would be amazing that they could step on anyone without injuring them. The use of cranes for arms is also a design flaw; the Dinamonster is unable to lift anything higher than its chest, and such arms are useless in shielding the head from attack. Indeed, Tripp's rocket-plane flies straight through one of the windows in the head unobstructed. Probably the worst design flaw in the Dinamonster is that it is bipedal, for bipedal creatures must of necessity have high centers of gravity and hence are liable to fall over or be tripped up. It's a wonder that Kabumpo and a few of his relatives didn't start pushing at the Dinamonster's legs and knock it over, rendering it harmless. Interestingly enough, the Dinamonster does resemble the gigantic humanoid robots found in American children's television, and hence is likely to be a childish fantasy. Consistency checking status: Assumed to be a child's fantasy which was mistaken by K. G. Baum for actual Ozite history. Also: Dave, The Woozy of Oz is more likely to be the 41st official Oz book. (: Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 15:49:00 -0500 (EST) From: David Bedell Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-29-96 Bill Wright: Don't know that this qualifies as a tourist attraction, but: The Land of Oz headshop in my hometown, North Haven, Conn. David Bedell, University of Bridgeport, CT, USA ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 01:33:30 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-29-96 Hello all you Digest readers! I'm a first-time poster here, but some of you have met me before, and I'd just like to announce that I'm back in the Oz scene! I just need to apologize to Jane for a couple of unanswered letters... Eric, I read "Queen Ann" and liked it (I bought it too, so at least you have my royalties...) also, somewhere under piles of unnatended business on my table is an envelope with your name on it and a couple of photos of you and Laura at the Winkie convention in it, I hope I get around to sending it soon! Robin, there's one for you too. And to all those who don't know me: my name is Gili, I am 21 years old and presently the only IWOC member in Israel - soon to be joined, I believe, by a girl who contacted me and asked me for the club's address. I am a student at the Tel-Aviv university, majoring in Theatre. Two of my stories have been published in "Oziana". Starting on Monday, I will be attending a course at TAU entitled: "The Wizard of Oz - an intertextual analysis". I have no idea what the professor intends to talk about, but I can guarantee that he didn't count on me being in his class! I don't know whether to be really exited about this course, or filled with dread. I'll keep you all informed about the contents of the course. Have any of you ever read a book called "The Amazing Land of Wew", by John G. Kaufer? It was written in the early fifties, and the author was evidently highly influenced by the Oz books - some of the adventures described in the book are borderline plagiarism. One of the interesting aspects of the book is that the hero, an ordinary American boy, has read about the fairyland of Wew in a series of books, but didn't believe it was real till he finds himself there. Kind of like some of RPT's characters - except the Wew cannon is fictional, unlike the Oz books! If anyone is interested, I'll write about some of the similarities between this book and the Oz books at some later date. Anyway, Kaufer comes up with an interesting solution for the aging problem in his fairyland. It appears that near the border of Wew, the enchantment is weaker, and people actually do age. Families with babies move there for a few years at a time, till their children have reached an agreeable age. Till next time - |\ _,,,---,,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili Bar-Hillel, |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' avigailb@zoot.tau.ac.il '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat (c) by Felix Lee ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 17:48:33 -0700 From: estelle@usa.net (Estelle E. Klein) Subject: Collectibles Sharon and Chris Arkala, Wasn't sure if I should write to you privately or on the digest. You're right, what started to be a hobby when my daughter was a few years old (she's now 13) has turned out be be an obsession-particularly over the last few years. Even my mother had this hidden obsession that just emerged! Anyway, to make a long story short, by chance, I met this recent transplant to Colorado, Jan Campbell, whose mother, Alla T. Ford, was apparently an avid oz writer and collector- I bought numerous "older" collectibles, including 50th anniversary items, from her. I wished I could have afforded other things she had (including old books). So I managed to acquire older collectible items, obviously all referenced to the movies (glasses, puppets, music boxes, etc.). And of course, the three of us, whether together or not are always on the lookout for items- picked up some interesting items in a Florida flea market. We also have many dolls. Let's keep in touch, privately if you like! ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 23:57:41 -0500 From: RMorris306@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest Hi! I think I must be overdue for renewing my membership in the IWOC, because I haven't received and Baum Bugles lately. But Michael Turniansky (the brother of my best friend from college) just told me about the Ozzy Digest, and I've lost myself in the two I've got already, recognizing other names in the process. (Most notably David Hulan, with whom I shared a membership in Apanage, a paper apa devoted to children's fantasy, for a number of years, along with a delightful assortment of other people including Famous Pros Jane Yolen and Diana Wynne Jones, plus others like Sherwood Schwartz and Bruce Coville who seem to be Famous Pros now, though they weren't then.) David shared the first few chapters of THE GLASS CAT OF OZ with us, but I'd dropped out due to time constraints, so now I might finally learn how it call came out! (Tell me, David, is there any chance of our seeing an end to NO DRAGONS, PLEASE, WE'RE CALIFORNIANS? Or is it about as likely as Bruce Coville's dusting off ARGYLE THE WINDMAKER?) But we're supposed to be talking about Oz, aren't we? Like a lot of people, I read the books in the order I saw them--at least I started with THE WIZARD OF OZ, the most famous and easily obtainable (and was probably one of the few people of my generation to read it before seeing the movie), but my second was THE MAGIC OF OZ, which confused me no end. Why was Dorothy now living on Oz? Why was the Wizard back, and how come he could do real magic when he'd been a humbug before, and why was Oz now ruled, neither by him nor the Scarecrow, but by someone called Ozma? And who were the Shaggy Man and the Patchwork Girl and Trot and Cap'n Bill and--sorry, David--the Glass Cat? But I read the other books, and gradually I filled the information in (typically reading as one of my last books THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ, which revealed why Dorothy and her family had moved to Oz). As for THE ROAD TO OZ, I never even realized the other guests at Ozma's party had appeared anywhere else (aside from Santa Claus, of course, but even in his case I didn't know Baum had used him before) and it didn't hurt the story in any way, since I was used to Oz books being full of unique characters and places. My librarians (who happily did stock the books) naturally looked for the books and others under "Baum," so I rarely saw anyone else's Oz books. I did get to read some of Baum's other books (and especially liked THE ENCHANTED ISLAND OF YEW) that have long since gone out of print, though the most obscure ones (like FATHER GOOSE, HIS BOOK) I had to track down in obscure places like college libraries and private collections. I've never been a real collector and had a good memory, so my goal had always been to read all the books, not necessarily own them. David helped me there (it was in his collection in 1984 that I finally read the Snow books), as did a British collector who first introduced me to THE ROYAL BOOK OF OZ and the related YELLOW KNIGHT. I do own all the Thompson paperbacks from Del Rey, but my first Thompson book was one I read in the second grade. Once, while my mother was talking to my teacher, I noticed to my delight two books on the teacher's shelf at school related to fantasy characters I knew. I read one of them through at one fell swoop: JACK PUMPKINHEAD OF OZ, and was halfway through the second, which was PINOCCHIO (a story I'd previously known only through the Disney movie and its Little Golden Book adaptation) when the conference was over. My teacher kindly let me borrow the book, which I read and reread several times before returning it. In the next two decades I regretted many times not having started with PINOCCHIO (which wasn't all that difficult to find other copies of) so I could've read JACK PUMPKINHEAD OF OZ more than once...but that just delighted me all the more when I finally got to reread it, and now I have my own (Del Rey) copy. Regarding characterization, I think it was also David who noted in Apanage that, in some ways, Thompson's good guys (and gals) were more ruthless than Baum's. That's particularly true of Ozma: compare THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ, in which she refuses to use violence against the Nomes and their allies even when they're invading her country, with THE LOST KING OF OZ, in which she unhesitatingly carries out Dorothy's suggestion of destroying Mombi (who hasn't really hurt anyone) by melting her. (That Ozma might want revenge for what Mombi did do to her and her father is arguable, that Dorothy of all people would make such a suggestion--remember, she'd only killed the Wicked Witches of the East and West by accident--is odd indeed.) She also shows little compunction in turning the Nome King into immobile forms like jugs and cacti and leaving him that way, whereas under Baum she was unwilling to let him stay permanently as a walnut.... Well, I can at least congratulate our own people, and the others I've seen, for some excellent Oz books from Books of Wonder. I've liked Eric Shanower's Oz graphic novels, so I knew I'd like GIANT GARDEN (which I did) and I've read enough of GLASS CAT in the Apanage days to eagerly await the rest. QUEEN ANN IN OZ was also excellent (right down to explaining the unique Oogaboovian nomenclature!) and FATHER GOOSE IN OZ rectified an omission I never knew existed! You see, as a child I'd read the lists of other books by Baum contained in some of the Oz books, so I'd know which ones to look for. I'd thought FATHER GOOSE, HIS BOOK was a fantasy like THE MAGICAL MONARCH OF MO, not realizing it was (as I might've guessed from the title, but might not...even Mother Goose was identified with French "contes" like those of Perrault and d'Alunoy before she became synonymous with nursery rhymes) a collection of poems, bearing the same relationship to THE WIZARD OF OZ (in regard to content, writer and artist) as A.A. Milne's WHEN WE WERE VERY YOUNG and NOW WE ARE SIX had to his two Pooh books. So bringing Father Goose to Oz was almost a century overdue, especially as he was one of the few Baum characters slighted by Ozma at her aforementioned party... I guess I have more to say about Oz than I thought, but it's getting late! Hope to have more later... Rich Morrissey (RMorris306@aol.com) ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 23:59:12 +0000 (EST) From: jnw@vnet.net Subject: MOPPeTs "Aaron S. Adelman" writes: > [Lurline's] attempted deenchantment of Pastoria seems to have been > little more than a token effort; I doubt it was even that. Lurline may have decided to leave Pastoria enchanted until Ozma was firmly entrenched as ruler. Also, I think she decided that continuous direct intervention was a bad idea. That isn't to say that she never intervened, however. After all, what was the probability that a falling farmhouse would just "happen" to fall on the Wicked Witch of the East? Who arranged that little "accident"? Then there's that storm in OZMA. The wind just "happened" to blow loose the securely tied chicken coop just as Dorothy reached it. Then the storm mysteriously abated. Mighty suspicious, that. And then Dorothy arrived in Ev in time to meet Ozma, with the one thing that could defeat the Nome King--an egg laying hen. I suspect that Lurline was behind all that. But she didn't want anyone to know it. > ... and Tititi-Hoochoo giving Ozma the Magic Picture is just plain wrong. >(See the Shaggy Man of Oz, where it says that Ozma created the Magic Picture.) I don't think Ozma knew much magic until she was motivated to learn by the events in LOST PRINCESS. Thus, she couldn't have made the picture herself. I agree, though, that the explanation in MC is just plain wrong. My Own Personal Pet Theory [MOPPeT] is that the picture had originally been created by a band of bored fairies, like the magic cloak in IX, but eventually it fell into the hands of a paranoid two-bit dictator of some remote kingdom of Oz. This dictator used the picture to spy on his subjects, and he punished them if he suspected them of plotting against him. The people dared not rebel, as the dictator pretended to be a powerful wizard, with his ability to magically spy on them as proof. Then some adventures befell one of the subjects, leaving him outside the kingdom. He didn't dare return, fearing that the dictator would suspect him of being up to something. So he decided to travel to the emerald city and appeal to the great wizard who was rumored to rule all of Oz. Alas, the ruler turned out to be nothing but a little girl named Ozma. When Ozma heard of the dictator, however, she decided to raise an army and then go and fix things. First she advertised for solders, then she assigned ranks to the applicants and told them to find uniforms. None of the uniforms matched, but that didn't bother Ozma. Then, with the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman (who Ozma put in charge of the army) they began their journey. The dictator had a list of the names of all his subjects, and he routinely asked to see each one so that he would know what they were up to. Thus, he discovered that one of his subjects was coming with a whole army, undoubtedly to conquer him. So he carefully made plans to trap them. He would pretend to welcome them warmly, and to show them to lavishly decorated rooms, but once they were in the rooms he would lock the doors so that they could not get out. His plan works. The army is safely locked up, and the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman are locked in one room while Ozma is locked in another. Once the Tin Woodman realizes this, he tries to open the door with his ax, but the door turns out to be iron with a thin decorative veneer of wood. However, the Scarecrow squeezes out the window and falls to the ground. Ozma also realizes that she is locked up. Her window is especially high. But she had recently been a tree-climbing boy, so she makes a rope out of the sheets and drapes. This rope isn't long enough to reach the ground, but Ozma is able to swing to a tree and to climb down from there. The dictator discovers Ozma's escape when he asks to see her in the Magic Picture, and he orders his guards to hunt her down. They don't immediately find her, so the dictator runs back to the picture to see where she is hiding. The Scarecrow, however, had entered the room and was looking for the keys to release Ozma and the Tin Woodman. He hides when he hears the dictator coming, and thus discovers the secret of the Magic Picture. Meanwhile, Ozma has boldly stepped forward and called upon the guards to obey her, and to capture the dictator when he returns. The guards hate the dictator, but fear his supposed power. Nevertheless, they cannot refuse the beautiful princess Ozma, and they rush the dictator when he returns. The dictator flees in terror, but when the other inhabitants of the kingdom see this they forget their fear of him and join the chase. The dictator is soon captured by the great mob of people. The subject who brought Ozma becomes the new king. Naturally he can't keep the picture, since his subjects would worry that he was spying on them like the dictator did. So he gave it to Ozma. How's *that* for a MOPPeT. :-) :-) :-) -- jnw@vnet.net (John N. White) ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 22:34:08 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Eric asked (with amazement :-) >>The only two Oz theme parks that I was aware of is one in Aberdeen, >> SD... >There IS??? Yup....One of my audiobook customers went thru there last summer and sent me some pictures of it. As you might guess, it is quite modest. But they do carry our Ozzy audiobooks now. Their tourist season there is basically a summer thing. Not too many tourists going to S. Dakota this time of year. Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Friday 01-Mar-96 00:12:42 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Various BOOK CONTEST: Tyler wrote: > ... so even if Daves book wins the contest >(which I'm SURE it will :) :) :) ... :) :) :) > ... it should not be considered any more official than >any other non-FF book. Not to play the devil's advocate against my own magnum opuses :), but I think I have to agree -- The "officiality" of a new Oz book would then be determined by a select few (the contest judges), an that hardly seems fair. The IWOC books *SHOULD* be on equal footing with other non-FF books, but no one has yet told us whether the winning book *WILL* be deemed "official" or not... JOHN WHITE'S THEORY ABOUT THE MAGIC PICTURE: A "MOPPeT"? Looks to me like we've got a new book here. :) DIGEST SIZES: Tyler gives the file sizes for each month of the Digest so far: >DECEMBER 1995 296K >JANUARY 1996 484K >FEBRUARY 1996 911K Hmmm...Getting larger, aren't they? :) ( But just to make sure: You've got all the Digest archived, so I can delete mine and free up some hard disk space? :) ) Well, that's the Digest for the first of March folks! For those of you who can't pick up your E-mail on weekends, have a nice weekend! :) -- Dave "The worst thing about weekends is that I can't send E-mail to Tyler" Hardenbrook :) :) :) ============================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let me know if it got through this time. :) -- Dave THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 2, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 15:21:22 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-96 Hi again! Rich and/or David - please tell me how I can join Apanage, it sounds fantastic. Diana Wynne Jones is one of my very favourite authors. One of her books is pretty Ozzy, too: "Howl's Moving Castle", which I highly recommend. The heroine, Sophie, is described as being grey when all her surroundings are colorful - the exact opposite of Dorothy in the first chapter of "The Wizard of Oz". On her way to meet the wizard Howl, she meets a dog, who later figures in the plot, and a scarecrow, who later becomes animated and plays some important roles. Howl is a real Wizard, not a Humbug, but like Oscar Z.P.I.N.H.E.A. Diggs, comes from a non-magical country (Wales). But most significant of all as an Ozzy reference, the baddy is called "The Wicked Witch of the Waste"! One thing I've learnt, unfortunately , because of Diana Wynne Jones, is never to lend people books that I really like. I lent two of her books to a girl I babysat for while her family was in Israel for a holiday, and they never returned the books, nor did they leave me any means to reach them in the U.S. (The also left owing me money...) The books are now out of print in the U.K., have never been available in the U.S. or Israel, and I would really like them back! Bye! |\ _,,,---,,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili Bar-Hillel, |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' msmaya@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat (c) by Felix Lee ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 09:09:16 -0500 (EST) From: "Nathanel J. Barlow" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-96 David Bedell: > The Land of Oz headshop in my hometown, North Haven, Conn. Tell us more (or at least me). When not at school (as I am currently), I'm from Connecticut. I pass through North Haven every so often but have never seen this place. Whereabouts is it? Nate RociNate -- wiz@CMU.EDU * Red Sox, Patriots, Steelers, Celtics -- nb2b@andrew.cmu.edu * Bruins, Whalers, Pens, UConn, FRINGE ___________________________________________________________________________ |"I've got a bad feeling about this."|"Don't ask me, I'm just improvising"| | --(Take your pick) | --Rush, _Presto_ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- O N T H E E D G E ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 10:48:45 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Magic Picture of Oz John, it says in The Shaggy Man of Oz, a book easily available through BOW or ILL, chapter 25, page 250, "But he forgot that the Magic Picture is my own fairy creation, and I understand its magic better than anyone else." Since The Shaggy Man of Oz is a FF book, and uncontested on this point by any other FF book, it carries much more weight than any other source. I think the best you could hope for is to claim that either Snow's informant was completely unreliable, but I haven't heard any evidence of that. You might be able to argue that a bunch of bored fairies collaborated with Ozma in making the Magic Picture, though. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 14:55:37 -0500 From: RMorris306@aol.com Subject: Re: Lurline, Billina et al Hi everyone! Good to see my first message made it in all right. Today's Ozzy Digest introduces several other interesting points, and I echo the suggestion that John turn his ideas about the origin of the Magic Picture into a book. And the more I think about John's theory about Lurline, the more it makes sense. It also explains another anomaly in OZMA: why is it Billina can talk in the first place? Dorothy assumes she can talk because she's in an enchanted kingdom like Oz. But Ev ISN'T Oz, where all animals, natives and visitors, can talk if they want to. The other chickens in Ev can't talk (Langwidere expresses surprise that Billina can). The Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger can, but they're natives of Oz (and Oz animals can talk ANYWHERE: in the Royal Historian's own VISITORS FROM OZ and THE WOGGLE-BUG BOOK, he had the Woggle-Bug, the Sawhorse and the Gump talking even in America). Quox could talk in TIK-TOK, and he wasn't from Oz. But not only was he from another enchanted country, but he was also a dragon, and dragons can often talk when more conventional animals can't (even with more conventional fantasists like Tolkien). And to top it off, when the Wizard encounters the talking goat Bilbil in RINKITINK (in the Nome King's caverns beneath Ev, where Billina continued to talk) he realizes something is wrong (since Bilbil isn't from Oz and has never been there) and correctly concludes that he's a human being under an enchantment. No, Lurline clearly recognized Billina as an unusually intelligent and resourceful hen, and not only saw to it that she and Dorothy ended up in the right place, but also gave Billina the ability to talk (which became permanent once she settled in Oz). I suspect she may also have had something to do with Dorothy finding Tik-Tok, and maybe even updating his memory (why, it's been asked, does he know what happened to the King of Ev after he was locked up in the cavern? On the other hand, maybe the King simply told Tik-Tok what he intended to do before locking him up.) But after that, I suspect she just sat back to see if those she'd brought together were up to the task of freeing the royal family...and when they were, she let Ozma take charge for herself. On another subject, the marriage of the Scarecrow and the Patchwork Girl in one of the "Books of Wonder" novels was a nice touch, picking up on a largely neglected Baum idea. (At one point I suggested writing an article on love and romance in Oz for THE BAUM BUGLE and they responded positively, but I never got around to it. I might still like to do so, unless someone's beaten me to it.) Which underscores one of the hazards of reading the books out of order: having first encountered the Patchwork Girl in later books, I mentally considered her (since most of the other heroes of the Oz books were children) to be physically around the same age as Dorothy or Trot. So the idea of her entering a marriage with a physical adult like the Scarecrow never entered my mind, and the image stuck even though the evidence of her first novel was that, created to be a servant, she would have been a physical adult. Still, I wonder if this might not confuse modern-day readers even more, now that the once-common practice of referring to an adult woman as a "girl" is relatively rare? Rich Morrissey ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 13:26:03 -0800 From: Bob Shepherd Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-96 This showed up in our newspaper the other day......thought everybody might get a kick out of it. These are car "vanity" license plates. For Dorothy's aunt: NTM NTM For Dorothy: YOY CNT I For the Wicked Witch: TOTO 2 For the Witch's castle guards: O E O I'll be the wonderful imaginations of the Ozzy Digest's members can come up with more! Tonight's the night - "We off the see the Wizard of" Oz on Ice. Can't wait! ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 17:00:01 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Heelers By the way, what is a Heeler anyway? I know they appear in a Neill book, but I can't remember what they look like. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 17:29:08 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Barry Adelman: Hopefully this weekend, I can browse through the Laumer books and find out the secret of Dorothys Doctorate. To my knowledge, only Baum and Thompson have written "Non-Oz Oz books". That is, a book that takes place in the Oz Universe, but does not enter Oz. Thompsons lone contribution was THE CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA, but that may not have taken place in the Ozzy Universe, since the Santa that we see there is very different from the one in Baums story. Quok was, I believe, originally mentioned in one of Baums short stories. I can look it up, unless someone already knows about it? Dinamonster must be worse than I remembered. Ignore my rating for it. Maybe it is not true to the FF after all. I suspect Chris put it in the HACC only because of the last name of the author. In general, Ozma was more apt to punish people in Thompsons books than in Baums books. One unusual exception was in COWARDLY LION, when Mustafa of Mudge apparantly did not get punished at all. Maybe Lurline uses the same philosophy as the Second Foundationers from Isaac Asimovs series: "Do nothing until you must; and when you must act, hesitate". I am sure that was behind the scenes a couple of times. John White: So, at last we learn the truth of the magic picture! A more humdrum theory has been that Ozma found it hidden in some secret place in the Emerald City, or that Lurline gave to her without anybody elses knowledge. Of course, your theory opens up the way for someone to write a whole new Oz book! On the "Officialness" of the contest winner: The winning book will be published by the IWOC and thus it should be placed on the same level as the other IWOC books. I used to consider the IWOC books as a half step below the FF and a half step above everything else, but I no longer believe so. Daves book, as great as it will be, is just another one of many. This goes for WOOZY as well, and for my book, if I can every get around to it. Dave Hardenbrook: I have all the digests stored in three files: One for each month. The first December one is called "December 5-7". I have it stored on the Network drive at work, on my hard drive at work and at home. Also, the network drive gets backed up to tape, so I am of the opinion that the data is fairly safe. Dave, be of good cheer! I am even now working on trying to get my CIM software to recognize my modem com port so that I can log in on weekends! :):):):):):):) --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 02:31:34 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-96 Hi guys! second posting today... I only started getting the digests about a week ago (Thanks to Tel-Aviv university's draconian e-mail policies for undergraduates) and only now had time to read them all. so I have a couple more things to say ... A. Is anyone out there willing and able to trade me a tape of the "wizard on ice" for some Ozzy artifact from Israel? I'd be glad to send a list of what I have available. B. someone once told me about a six-minute version of "The wizard of Oz" narrated by Bobby McFerrin, almost complete movie text including songs, except at lightning speed. Have any of you heard of this? Do you know how I could get a copy? C. John White: I too have noticed a general tendency to describe cats in Oz in a negative light. I am a cat-lover myself, and one of the ideas that lead me to write my story "Pigmentation" was the idea of showing some of the more positive sides of the Ozian cats' purrsonalities. Did'ja hear the one about one of Baum's sons, who once threw the family cat out of a second story window (presumably to check if it would land on its feet)? Maud Baum reacted by dangling her son out of the same window by his legs, till he repented. BTW - David, how can I get a copy of "Glass Cat"? D. The South winkie convention will be held on my 22nd birthday... E. Here's a bit of trivia you might enjoy: the Israeli production "Hakosem", a musical based on "The Wizard of Oz", is listed in the latest edition of "The Guiness Book of World Records" (possibly only in the Israeli edition?). It appears they put on 37 shows in nine days. And survived. F. All this talk about copyrights - nobody ever tried to sue Volkov for what must have been massive infringements on copyrights. Nobody sued the producers of "Hakosem" for using "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" without even acknowledging Harburg and Allen (but then that may not have reached the attention of any copyright holders. They do deserve to be sued though, for this, for lack of truth in advertising, and for snubbing me.) I guess us non-Americans take our liberties where we can. Bye now! |\ _,,,---,,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili Bar-Hillel, |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' msmaya@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat (c) by Felix Lee ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 22:39:21 -0500 (EST) From: swarkala@cris.com (Sharon Warkala) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-96 Estelle K.: No need to contact us privately we can keep our discussions in the digest. Nice to see that you and your daughter are part of the "obsessed collector" group. We also like to go to flea markets,antique shows, and collector's shows looking for Oz items. Later this month we are going to Atlantic City for a huge antique and collectible show held at the convention hall where they have about 1200 dealers from all over selling everything you could imagine including alot of Oz items. A few people we know in the IWOC have us look for items they would like for their collections so we always are keeping a sharp eye out but if you need anything to help in one of your collections let me know and we'll look for you. Prices at this show tend to be all over the place but are always negotiable. We have gotten deals here but most dealers know the value of what they have. David Bedell: A headshop? I thought they went by the wayside in the 70's. And to name it The Land of Oz? Cool!!! Chris Warkala ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 20:16:21 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: David Bedell said: >Bill Wright: >Don't know that this qualifies as a tourist attraction, but: >The Land of Oz headshop in my hometown, North Haven, Conn. David...........I'm exposing my ignorance here,......but what is a headshop?? The name conjures up a lot of images; for example, is this where Princess Langwidere shops?? Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 20:29:39 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Gee......it was very interesting to see that after all the email chatter about the upcoming Oz on Ice TV show last Tuesday, almost no one had anything to say about it afterwards. My reaction was: 1. it was nice, but you lose a lot of the imagery of lites, color, costumes, etc on a tv screen. It would have been a bunch better live in person. 2. with the live Ozzy ice show making the rounds of the country, I can't help but wonder why they put this special on tv. Any thoughts, anyone? Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Friday 01-Mar-96 23:37:58 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: VANITY PLATES Here's my contributions: The Scarecrow: 2ND ABE The Tin Man: TOOTOOT The Cowardly Lion: FI WR KNG The Wizard: < Anything but his last seven initials :) > And also these bumper stickers: For Dorothy: "American by birth; Ozite by choice" For Glinda: "My other car is drawn by swans" For Betsy Bobbin: "I my mule" For the Nome King: "Don't blame me, I voted for Jenny Jump!" For a Scalawagon: "I AM my other car!" For the Wogglebug: "If you can read this, thank a little white pill" -- Dave ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 3, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 05:14:44 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-29-96 Cripes, I've been so busy lately that now I have THREE issues to respond to. (Now, Eric, don't complain, at least you're working and making money, yes?) Anyway, before I plunge in, did anyone see the season premier of "Sliders" last night? (Sorry, Gili, I don't think you'd have seen it in Israel yet...) Four travelers in a strange, magical world must undertake a dangerous journey to get help from a great sorcerer after angering a powerful villain. The sorcerer sends them on a quest to get something from the villain, but when they return it turns out that the sorcerer is just an ordinary man hiding out in a back room. Hmm, this sounds VERY familiar... > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Wild Personality Fluctuations in Oz > > 2) Eric, do you mind if my coauthor and I use your real name for the > Shaggy Man in Lurline's Machine? Aaron, this question REALLY has no business being in this Digest whatsoever, since it doesn't really affect anyone else on this list. There is such a thing as private e-mail, and in case you don't have it, my address is tiktok@eskimo.com. > From: Robin Olderman > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-96 > > Bill (Piglet"): I think you're the one who asked about the Oz theme park > in N.C. It was called Banner Elk and died quite a while ago. I thought it was IN Banner Elk, but the park was called The Land of Oz Park or something like that... (What do I know, I never got to go there...) > Greg Boyle: Why not buy Mac some of the DelRay paperbacks from the Oz > Club? They're cheap. Or try some of the Club's hardbacks. Would be hard to do with "Ojo in Oz," since it's not currently available in either form... > From: DavidXOE@aol.com > Subject: Ozzy Digests, 02-27&28-96 > > Eric Gjovaag: > Can the Club afford to publish a new book every year? Probably not, but I can dream, can't I? --Eric Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 05:41:02 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-96 > From: Tyler Jones > Subject: Ozzy Digest > > The two largest publishers of Oz books are Books of Wonder and Buckethead. > Books of Wonder can be reached at 1-800-345-6665 and they will be more than > happy to send you a catalog. Hey, don't forget the International Wizard of Oz Club! They may only have five original novels available, but they're all by established Royal Historians (or in ne case, Royal Iconographer), and the overall quality of their line is quite good. They also have printed numerous reprints, and not just of Oz stuff, and several invaluable non-fiction works as well. Their current address is The International Wizard of Oz Club, PO Box 10117, Berkeley, CA 94709-5117. (BTW, anyone in the know, how's Fred doing?) > From: Gili Bar-Hillel > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-29-96 > > Hello all you Digest readers! I'm a first-time poster here, but some of > you have met me before, and I'd just like to announce that I'm back in > the Oz scene! GILI!!! Hi, how ya doing? Hey, you didn't tell everyone about what may be your biggest Ozzy accomplishment, namely winning the Billie Burke impersonation contest at the Winkie Convention last year by doing it in Hebrew... > Starting on Monday, I will be attending a course at TAU entitled: "The > Wizard of Oz - an intertextual analysis". I have no idea what the > professor intends to talk about, but I can guarantee that he didn't count > on me being in his class! I don't know whether to be really exited about > this course, or filled with dread. I'll keep you all informed about the > contents of the course. Will our comments make it into your class as well? > |\ _,,,---,,_ > /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili Bar-Hillel, > |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' avigailb@zoot.tau.ac.il > '---''(_/--' `-'\_) > Cat (c) by Felix Lee Cool cat! > From: RMorris306@aol.com > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest > > Hi! > I think I must be overdue for renewing my membership in the IWOC, > because I haven't received and Baum Bugles lately. No, that's par for the course. If you received the Autumn 1995 issue ("Return to Oz" special), you're up to date. If not, er -- I did print the current Club address up there a little earlier, didn't I? > From: jnw@vnet.net > Subject: MOPPeTs > [Lurline being behind everything theory snipped] > I suspect that Lurline was behind all that. But she didn't want > anyone to know it. Why would Lurline have to be the one behind all this? Could just as easily be Glinda, IMHO. Or it could just all be coincidence. (While particular coincidences are coincidences, coincidences in general aren't, since they're happening all the time.) (Did that make sense?) And yes, you should write up your theory for how Ozma got the Magic Picture, it sounds like great fun. Don't worry about it conflicting with Snow, this is the same man who combined the Guardian of the Gate and Soldier with the Green Whiskers into one character (and married him to Tollydiggle), and forgot that Baum filled the Nome King's tunnel. (Hey, in "Who's Who" he even spelled the title of Thompson's seventh Oz book as "The Nome King of Oz," despite it clearly saying "Gnome" on the cover...) > From: "W. R. Wright" > > Eric asked (with amazement :-) > >>The only two Oz theme parks that I was aware of is one in Aberdeen, > >> SD... > > >There IS??? > > Yup....One of my audiobook customers went thru there last summer and sent me > some pictures of it. As you might guess, it is quite modest. But they do > carry our Ozzy audiobooks now. Their tourist season there is basically a > summer thing. Not too many tourists going to S. Dakota this time of year. Okay, who on this list lives out that way, and can go there this summer and do a write-up for the "Bugle"? > From: Dave Hardenbrook > Subject: Various > > I have to agree -- The "officiality" of a new Oz book would then be > determined by a select few (the contest judges), an that hardly seems fair. > The IWOC books *SHOULD* be on equal footing with other non-FF books, but > no one has yet told us whether the winning book *WILL* be deemed "official" > or not... No, the officiality is up to the individual reader. I personally consider the IWOC books and "Runaway" to be almost-but-not-quite as official as the FF, a step above any other book. Others consider just the FF, or just the Baum books, to be official, while others consider ANY book with the word "Oz" in the title to be official (or at least most of them). Folks, YOU DECIDE FOR YOURSELF! Nobody can decide for you, no matter who they are or what they say. So don't sweat it. --Eric "Those other books are nearly-official because of who wrote them, I might add" Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 06:10:00 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-02-96 > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: The Magic Picture of Oz > > John, it says in The Shaggy Man of Oz, a book easily available through BOW > or ILL... ...or the International Wizard of Oz Club. Rich Morrissey wrote: > Still, I wonder if this might not confuse modern-day readers even > more, now that the once-common practice of referring to an adult woman as a > "girl" is relatively rare? Sssssssh! Don't let Peter Glassman see this, or he'll think about reissuing it as "The Patchwork Woman of Oz," starting that whole "debate" up again... > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Heelers > > By the way, what is a Heeler anyway? I know they appear in a Neill book, > but I can't remember what they look like. They are in "The Wonder City of Oz" -- and we never really get a good look at them, since it takes place at night, and so Neill never drew a picture of one! It was one of the few times he used just words, and it was actually pretty effective. Tyler, I tend to concur that "The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa" is not an Oz or Oz-related book, since Thompson's Santa lives at the North Pole, and none of Baum's background for him is brought up. > From: Gili Bar-Hillel > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-96 > > B. someone once told me about a six-minute version of "The wizard of Oz" > narrated by Bobby McFerrin, almost complete movie text including songs, > except at lightning speed. Have any of you heard of this? Do you know how > I could get a copy? I saw McFerrin do his "Oz" thing -- it's hilrious! -- on a Garrison Keillor special on PBS once. But I have no idea if it's available anywhere... > From: "W. R. Wright" > > Gee......it was very interesting to see that after all the email chatter > about the upcoming Oz on Ice TV show last Tuesday, almost no one had > anything to say about it afterwards. Well, I just haven't had a chance yet! So, here's some quick reactions I had while watching it: * It's not a terribly good title. It should probably be called "Highlights from The Wizard of Oz on Ice," since it went by so fast. I suspect the real show is not quite that truncated. * Not that either one of them will make anybody forget Judy Garland, but do you think that since the public-at-large has now seen both Jewel (in "The Wizard of Oz in Concert") and Oksana Baiul as Dorothy, people are now going to be much more accepting of a blond Dorothy? As in Neill's pictures? * I REALLY liked Bobby McFarrin's narration. He does a KILLER Margaret Hamilton impression. * What was the costume designer THINKING of with those BIZARRE Munchkin costumes? (And those for the women of the Emerald City as well.) How could anybody SIT in anything like that? * Is it just me, or was Victor Petrenko wasted as the Scarecrow? (And I Thought that guy skating the Lion should have been the Scarecrow, he had the fluidity that would have made it memorable. But I liked his attitude as the Lion.) * Why didn't Toto have skates on? * Cool "Smithsonian Moment," who here DIDN'T get the answers to those questions? * The poor guy playing the Tin Woodman, when he first appeared all I could think of was him saying to himself, "Uh-oh, I'm about to skate with two of the most famous skaters in the world, I hope I don't mess up." And later, when he was saying good-bye to Dorothy, "Oh please, oh please, don't let me drop her, I'll never hear the end of it if I drop Oksana Baiul..." * I liked the Winkies number and the jazzed-up version of "The Jitterbug." * McFerrin's Wizard probably should have tied his hair back, since it seemed to be getting in his face and bothering him a bit. But otherwise, as the only character who actually spoke, he did well. * Yeah, a lot was lost showing it on TV, I'm sure the lighting and effects are MUCH more spectacular. Still, as an advertising tool for the tour (which I'm sure it's meant to be), it's not bad. But aren't people going to be disappointed when it comes to their town and Oksana Baiul and Victor Petrenko AREN'T in it? * I'm real glad McFarrin didn't sing "Over the Rainbow," Shaniece did a good job with it. But I'd have preferred to see less of her and more of Oksana skating . Anyway, if it ever does come to Seattle (or maybe even Vancouver), I do want to see it, it looks like fun. Now, before I wrap it up, I have a warning for Dave and everyone else here: Expect a big influx of members in the near future. Someone just sent me a "Talk to Tik-Tok" question about Oz online, and besides giving him the URL's for a number of WWW pages, I told him about this list and how to subscribe. So when Jane publishes that issue of "The Oz Gazette," we're probably going to get a big influx of new readers. --Eric "THEN maybe we can start talking about an Oz newsgroup" Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 12:33:51 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Oltz Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-02-96 >Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 02:31:34 +0200 (WET) >From: Gili Bar-Hillel >Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-28-96 >B. someone once told me about a six-minute version of "The wizard of Oz" >narrated by Bobby McFerrin, almost complete movie text including songs, >except at lightning speed. Have any of you heard of this? Do you know how >I could get a copy? This is on an album called "For Our Children: The Concert". it was put out by Disney to raise money for pediatric AIDS research. There was a live concert benefit, and both a video and an audio recording were put out of it. There are songs by various pop artists, and the segment you mention is the longest. I wouldn't say it's the "complete movie text" but he does hit the highlights of the plot very fast. IMO, it's very funny and worth the price of the whole album. I was not able to find the order number of the recording on the net... ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 12:57:22 -0500 From: David A Gerstein Subject: Re: VANITY PLATES Here are some contributions to the vanity plates: For Prof. Wogglebug: HM TE For the Glass Cat: PNK BRNS For Langwidere: DBL HDR ("double header") And a bumper sticker for Scraps: "I Hate Dignity -- And Traffic Jams" (or some such) Another one for Prof. Wogglebug could be "What did the Woggle-Bug Drive?" ... but it would be plainly obvious, so maybe that's a real lemon. David Gerstein <96dag@williams.edu> ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 14:31:36 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: The Land of Quok Tyler, Quok was mentioned in one of the short stories in Baum's _American Fairy Tales_, and was probably the best of the collection. It was mentioned as being a kingdom bankrupted through the king's "riotous living." (I won't spoil any more for those who haven't read it yet; you can get it through Dover or download it for free.) One of the characters in _The Woozy of Oz_ (whose name has already been leaked to the Digest) is Quentin the Kiwi of Quok, one of Aaron's creations. Since that book (or at least the present draft) doesn't mention much about his past, I began to have some ideas about his origins and why he ended up as he did. It has so far resulted in bout 2.5 chapters of interesting material, none of which takes place in Oz and briefly mentioning only one character Baum created. Since most of the action I am thinking of will take place in Quok and I am not planning for any Oz characters to play any significant part, I don't think it could be legitimately called an Oz book, though it will take place in the same universe. (And I am not leaking any more onto the Digest...) Gili, I taped "Wizard of Oz on Ice", and like most things I tape intending to watch them later, I haven't gotten around to it yet. A trade sounds interesting (though I suspect the shipping would be horrendous), but what sort of Ozzy things do they have unique to Israel? ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 20:38:06 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Yellow Hen of Mo Perhaps Billina could talk in Ev because she really wasn't from the Outside World, but was actually the Yellow Hen of Mo. (See the part of The Magical Monarch of Mo where the Wise Men are trying to figure out who stole the King's plum pudding and they come up with ridiculous suggestions.) Also: It is very hard to believe that people can still argue over the origin of the Magic Picture after it is proven that Ozma created it. The position on this my coauthor and I take in The Woozy of Oz is that not only did she create the Magic Picture, but that gave her a severely skewed impression of her own magical abilities. Hence Ozma went into Ev to save the royal family of that country with practically no force to back her up, thinking she had enough magic to rely on. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 02 Mar 1996 18:50:47 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: There has been musings in recent postings about the ability of animals (non-people characters) to talk in the various regions of the Ozian world. I did a quick check of my Encyclopedia Oziana and came up with the following. In the Baum 14 there are 23 non-people characters (including AKA's). Of these only 5 cannot be shown to be talkers, of of these 5, 2 are only mentioned and never actually appear. The implication is that from a talking capability there is no difference whether one is from Oz itself or the outlying lands. I have created a web page that lists all the non-people in Baum's 14, by region and by type critter (total of 165 names), and indicated whether they are a talker or not. The url for this page is: http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/ozites/ozite6.htm If anyone can find a name I missed, please let me know. Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Saturday 02-Mar-96 23:24:17 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Oz on Ice, &c. OZ ON ICE: Eric wrote: >But aren't people going to be disappointed when it comes to their >town and Oksana Baiul and Victor Petrenko AREN'T in it? Yeah, me!!! :( Barry Adelman wrote: >Gili, I taped "Wizard of Oz on Ice", and like most things I tape intending to >watch them later, I haven't gotten around to it yet. A trade sounds >interesting ... What video format do you have in Isreal, Gili? If it's not NTSC, but PAL or SECAM, a tape conversion will be necessary to get you a copy... MORE BUMPER STICKERS: Tik-Tok: "Worn gears happen" Jinjur: "Be all you can be...Join the needle-and-thread brigade" Reera: "Leave me alone" Unc Nunkie: "Hi!" The Ork: "If you can read this, you're too close to my propellor!" Button-Bright: "Don't follow me...I'm lost" Planetty: "Have a netiful day!" Bungle: "Phenominal Glass Cat of unspeakable loveliness with a ruby heart and lovely pink brains that you can see work on board" -- Dave ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 4, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 10:49:48 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 Hi. Thank you to all the kind people who offered to send me the ice-skating video, Dick Randolph was the first to offer so I have written him privately. Thanks for your concern, Dave - the standard in Israel is in fact PAL, but there is a dual system VCR and TV at my mother's house. I'll keep it short today, it's not a good day in Israel. |\ _,,,---,,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili Bar-Hillel, |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' avigailb@zoot.tau.ac.il '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat (c) by Felix Lee ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 11:38:30 -0500 From: RMorris306@aol.com Subject: Re: Billina, Lurline, and Tattypoo Hi again! An excellent suggestion about Billina being the Yellow Hen of Mo, though how she got into a chicken coop on a mundane vessel going from America to Australia is a story in itself. I think I see the hand of one of the powerful fairies or sorceresses nonetheless in that, and perhaps in the way Dorothy's house destroyed the Wicked Witch of the East. True, it wasn't necessarily Lurline--it could just as easily have been Glinda, or even (as Volkov specifically maintained in the matter of the Witch's demise) Tattypoo. I'm inclined to suspect it wasn't either of the two Oz witches in the case of the Wicked Witch of the East, or they'd have likely done it before, not to mention the fact that Glinda didn't seem to pay much attention to Dorothy until she came to seek her aid. Which reminds me of a few anomalies in the movie...how come the most powerful witch in Oz (or at least *one* of them, keeping in mind that the movie's "Glinda" is actually the less powerful and more scatterbrained Witch of the North, Tattypoo) doesn't even know what Kansas is, but the newborn Scarecrow knows who Lincoln was? I suppose it could've been a vestigal memory from his earlier life as Chang Wang Woe, the underground emperor, whose people did seem to know at least something of the surface world. But there again, the movie doesn't necessarily incorporate all the details of the book (quite aside from the implication that the adventure was Dorothy's dream, which wouldn't *have* to be self-consistent). On talking animals in general, I still can't think of any native to Ev, nor any visitors aside from those I've mentioned. Neither do animals talk in Pingaree or Rinkitink (in both of which the enchanted Bilbil was an exception), nor in Noland and Ix (Ruffles the dog, given speech by the magic cloak, was a specific exception. Queen Zixi did talk to several other animals, but Baum specified that she could speak their language.) There were talking animals in other fairylands in the Baum books, to be sure (notably in Merryland, and in the Land of the Scoodlers where the cities of Foxville and Dunkiton were), but it was by no means a universal phenomenon, and the same with Thompson's, where even a few pockets inside Oz itself, like Samandra, had non-talking animals. (Samandra was right on the edge, and was a desert country...might it perhaps have been more properly part of the Deadly Desert?) As for stories set in the "Baum universe" but outside Oz, I know that Ruth Plumly Thompson wrote a few stories, as did Baum, that she later connected with the Oz universe. She wrote one or two stories about the kingdom of Pumperdink before establishing it as part of Oz...although, since it IS within Oz, they could theoretically be considered Oz stories even though the larger kingdom was nowhere mentioned. (At least one such story took place in winter, which seems anomalous in the tropical climate of Oz...although Pumperdink might be atop a high mountain, even though it's not so described in any of the texts or maps.) A final question: THE ROAD TO OZ at one point refers to "the Monarch of the Munchkins, the King of the Quadlings, the Soveriegn of the Gillikins, and the Emperor of the Winkies" all riding on a float at Ozma's birthday party. Now we all know the Emperor of the Winkies is the Tin Woodman, but who are the other three? The "Sovereign of the Gillikins" would be the Good Witch of the North (Tattypoo), but she's said to be on another float. And all the other books indicate the Quadlings are ruled by Glinda (who wouldn't be a King, but an even more alliterative Queeen), but she again is said to be on another float. And, according to THE GIANT HORSE OF OZ, the actual "Monarch of the Munchkins" had been destroyed by the witches long before, leaving them without a king before Cheeriobed assumed the throne in that book. (For that matter, John R. Neill had the Scarecrow ruling the Munchkins, but I'd say that was due to Cheeriobed and his family being away for some reason, leaving their country in the capable hands of a native Munchkin who had once ruled all of Oz. Maybe there's another story there.) That's about it... Rich Morrissey ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 12:15:44 -0500 (EST) From: swarkala@cris.com (Sharon Warkala) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 Bill Wright: My reaction to the Oz on Ice TV show was that it was somewhat disappointing probably more due to the fact that I saw it live than with how it was portrayed on TV. I do agree with Eric on some of the points he brought out about the show but I thought that the costumes that the Munchkins wore were great. They really had to be exaggerated like that so that people who see it live and are not sitting close to the ice still can get the desired effect. Also I don't think that anyone will be disappointed by the original Dorothy and Scarecrow in the live show. I think they only used Petrenko and Baiul for their TV star power. All in all the TV show was good but it really needs to be seen live. Speaking of Oz on TV I have free HBO this weekend and on Sunday morning I woke up to a WOZ cartoon series. Does anybody know anything about it? Would it be worth it to suscribe to HBO for it? Chris Warkala Chris and Sharon Warkala 5 Columbia Way Middletown, New Jersey 07748-5321 E-Mail (Internet): swarkala@concentric.net ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 03:47:08 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 1. D'OH! In my comparison of the season premier of "Sliders" and "The Wizard of Oz," I forgot to mention that the sorcerer's executive assistant who tried to keep everybody from seeing him was named Mr. Gale! 2. I just bought "The Jolly Pocket Postman" yesterday, and guess where the Postman goes in this book? OZ! In case you're not familiar with the "Jolly Postman" series, it's a delightful set of books (the other two are "The Jolly Postman" and "The Jolly Christmas Postman," all by Janet and Allen Ahlberg, published by Little, Brown) in which a postman delivers letters and other mail to famous storybook characters. The best part is, there are envelopes pasted in throughout the book, so you cn open them and read the letters! Anyway, this one includes a greeting card/map of Oz, some charming Oz stamps (both air mail, I suspect, since they show Winged Monkeys and a tornado), and a little book and postcard from Dorothy and Alice (yes, she's in there, too). Check it out, it's fun (though not strictly accurate, since the Ahlbergs seem to have based their Oz on the movie, and their map is original, not the Prof. Wogglebug/IWOC one.) > From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN > Subject: The Land of Quok > > Tyler, Quok was mentioned in one of the short stories in Baum's _American > Fairy Tales_, and was probably the best of the collection. The name of the story, I might add, is "The Queen of Quok." --Eric "Boy, THIS is a short one from me!" Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 15:22:25 -0300 From: amyjones@mindspring.com (Amy Jones) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 >Anyway, before I plunge in, did anyone see the season >premier of "Sliders" last night? I saw it on Friday, and I wonder how many people watching picked up on the Oz metaphor. I must admit I didn't get it at first, (I'm a bit dense on Friday nights after a week with 12 year olds) but once I clued in, I was able to predict the rest of the show. I guess it shows how pervasive Oz is in the American entertainment culture. (Or it shows that one of the writers for the show is an Oz freak --who knows which is true?) Amy Jones ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 18:27:36 -0500 From: Athos4@aol.com Subject: Digest Comments Not necessarily for the Digest -- your call. I've been watching with interest the growth of the Digest in the past three months. I think maybe it has the potential to become the mother of all online Oz groups if it doesn't accidentally step into a sinkhole along the way. But . . . Now that you've had a complaint or two about the length of the text and the singularity of subject matter and two or three readers have confessed that they really aren't all that interested in the writer-stuff, I feel I have the courage to admit, too, that I really am ruthless about deleting a lot of the Digest before saving it. My files for the last three months are a lot smaller than the sums in toto. As far as the length of the Digest is concerned, I don't see that there is a lot to be done about that. The group, after all, was begun by a writer, and it has been patronized primarily by writers up to now, so what would you expect? That's what writers do: write. Right? Add to that the custom or fiat that thou shalt quote previous postings to which thee reply and it's going to add up. I really wouldn't think it necessary for too much quotation to preserve a string, as it seems that most of the readers check their mail at least every couple of days or oftener. It wouldn't appear that folks of the caliber present here would have too much trouble remembering what they posted a couple of days ago. So as far as length per se is concerned, there isn't a whole lot that can be done IMO. You've had one or two suggestions, I think if memory serves me correctly, that the Digest be split. No, no, no, that's the wrong way to go. If the Ozzy D. is to serve us all, I couldn't think of a quicker way for it to expire than to break it into pieces. Such a solution might well serve the narrower interests, but would be anathema if you want a group for the Oz public at large. So what's to be done? Here are my thoughts on the topic, FWTW (For What They're Worth): I believe it's time for the Digest to emulate a couple of the features used extensively in the print media (gasp!). One: departmentalization. Think -- you get your newspaper, and it weighs five pounds. Do you read it all? Nah, you read the comics first, then the stock market page, then the front page, and you're done. Do you wade through the Modern Home section, the want ads, the Feature section, the Sports, the General Business section, etc.? No -- or maybe. The point is that you read what you like and that's it. The remainder is there if you want it. You now have a flock of writers and two or three subscribers who admit to being collectors. There are your first two sections or departments: Writers' Roost and Collector's Corner. Collectors who aren't as interested as writers in whether it takes 42 minutes or 47 minutes to fall through the center of the earth (yawn) can avoid all that completely. For myself, I would like to see at least four other segments: Chez Chitchat Generale, Kids' Korner, Commoners' Coterie, and Buy-Sell-Trade. The first would be for non-Oz remarks, if any. The second is pretty self-explanatory, and I for one would like to see younger children inhabiting the Digest. The third would be for nerds like me who are mentally disadvantaged. I still have the mentality of a six- or seven-year-old, old enough to read my Oz books but young enough to accept them without being questioning or judgmental. A lot of the writers must have forgotten that Oz was written for children. Does the child say, "Daddy, read me a treatise on the scientific accuracy of the Oz mystique?" No, he says, "Daddy, read me a STORY." The fourth (Buy-Sell-Trade) I would really like to see. Some subscribers would probably think that a section like this would spoil the "purity" of the Digest; I don't. Currently I hunger awfully for a copy of Neill's book, but I live a long way from New York and BOW, or from any bookstore for that matter. I asked BOW for a copy of the Oz catalog, and when it finally arrived it was their more general catalog for children's books. If three or four dealers were online, I could order The Runaway like *that*! Those who disapproved of this section could just cavalierly ignore it in the same manner in which they treat their newspapers. That pretty much takes care of departmentalization. What about the other print-media adjuncts? Well, I'd kind of like to see a clever little masthead somewhat on the order of the one which showed up recently from the subscriber in Israel. With an Oz theme, naturally. It would also show the date and volume number of the Digest along with the editor's name and e-mail address. Following that would be a short Index or Table of Contents on the order of: "In this issue: Department One, Department Three and Department Five." Of course these would be the actual names of the departments; and not every department need be present in every issue, but hopefully the Digest will soon be large enough that they will have to be! And how would you know in which department to put your correspondents' efforts? Aha, that's why we need an editor; it's a judgment call. Whatever seems TO YOU the main theme of the communication, that's where you put it. You might even hear from some of your people who request a particular department; talk about an easy life! In any event, I should think that folks would soon adapt to the changed circumstances in the spirit of Oz. And speaking of editors: Dave, I worry about you, and I worry about me. For instance, what if TriStar picks up the movie option for your book and you go to Hollywood? With all those starlets around, are you going to have the time to consider putting out the Ozzy Digest? Fat chance! Then what happens to me without my Oz fix? Or what if you get sick and can't lift a finger to press your mouse button? All the rest of us sicken with you without our Digest! It's bigger than both of us, I tell you. It's time for you to train an understudy who can take over for you in a time of travail. Don't wait until the hour of debacle is at hand; do it now, for your sake and ours, so if the unthinkable should happen your comrades and friends will know with assurance to whom they can turn for comfort! And on that closing note, have a happy day! Athos4@aol.com (Warren Baldwin) ============================================================================= Date: Sunday 03-Mar-96 23:02:38 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: The Good Witch of the North and Suggestions for enhancing the Digest IN DEFENSE OF LOCASTA: Rich Morrissey wrote: >... the movie's "Glinda" is actually the less powerful and more >scatterbrained Witch of the North ... As the author of the first Oz book centered on the Good Witch of North, I can't let this go by! :) In the first place, as my book reveals, Locasta (whom Dorothy meets in _Wizard_) is the "real" Good Witch of the North, Tattypoo just being a "copy" that Mombi inserted after casting a spell that banished Locasta to the Ends of the Earth until her grand return at the start of my story. But whether we're talking about Locasta or Tattypoo, neither of them could be called "scatterbrained" ( not as much as the Billie Burke type cast anyway :) )! She/they just have a unique view of the world, which is frequently mistaken by outside observers as "scatterbrained-ness" (the same can be said of Edith Bunker and _Mary Tyler Moore_'s Georgette). It is true that Locasta sometimes gets her spells wrong, but so does Merlyn (nobody's perfect!), and any apparent inanities or non sequiturs she may utter are just her expressing her unique insights. End of Sermon on the Mount. :) ATHOS' COMMENTS ABOUT THE DIGEST: Athos wrote: >Not necessarily for the Digest -- your call. I saw no reason why everyone else shouldn't see it... >I couldn't think of a quicker way for it to expire than to break it >into pieces. Nor a quicker way to make *ME* expire... :O >... departmentalization ... Great idea, but as a stuggling Computer Science University student, I just don't have the time at present, either to sort the daily messages into "departments", or to write a program that would do it for me... :( >... whether it takes 42 minutes or 47 minutes ... ^^ ^^ Sorry to sidetrack, but were these two numbers purely random choices on your part -- "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, Universe, and Everything" followed by "The Agent of Infinite Change"? :) ( Do these two numbers hold any significance with Lurline's Machine, Aaron? :) :) ) >I for one would like to see younger children inhabiting the Digest. Believe me, so would I! (Especially since I'd love to know how *THEY* would react to things like Locasta's being separate from Tattypoo, the Adepts having distinct and dynamic personalities, and Ozma falling in love -- Would children be so judgemental as to say, "You *CAN'T DO THAT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES* because of reasons A, B, & C"???) But are there that many children on the Internet? (Though maybe there's more than I think, if Eric got a question about 'Net resources in the Oz Gazette -- maybe an inundation of children joining the Digest is imminent!) >... what if TriStar picks up the movie option for your book and you go to Hollywood? :) :) :) >With all those starlets around, are you going to have the time >to consider putting out the Ozzy Digest? Unless the "starlets" are Enya, Oksana Baiul, Penelope Keith, and Cecilia Bartoli, you guys have nothing to worry about. :) :) :) >It's time for you to train an understudy who can take over for you in a >time of travail. I'll tell you what I'd *REALLY* like is for this to be a standard mailing list that not only could send messages separately (so everyone could look at each message's Subject: line and then read or delete it as they wished), but that also could be put on "autopilot", so that I could get sick, go on vacation, get blown to Oz by a cyclone, etc., etc. and the list would still go on regardless. But my server doesn't provide a list processer, so I have to do this with a simple forwarding list that just sends the Digest out to everyone at my command. As it is, I was delighted to find that my server offers THAT much ( if I had known before, I would have started the Ozzy Digest that much sooner! :) ) But maybe you're right that I should have a helper/stand-in. Anyone care to volunteer? -- Dave ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 5, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 10:16:22 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Yellow Hen of Mo, take 2 To: Ozzy Digest Mailing List Message-id: Organization: Martian Bureau of Travel and Kumquats 1) Come to think of it, Billina couldn't be the Yellow Hen of Mo. The Yellow Hen of Mo talks to the King of Mo, whereas Billina denies having spoken before she met Dorothy. Still, Billina could conceivably be from an enchanted land. 2) Rich, a wren in Ev in The Shaggy Man of Oz talks. Also: The Monarch of the Munchkins in The Road to Oz is a character called King Stan of Munchkinezia, who was one of several monarchs who claimed to be King of the Munchkins. He lost the title when Ozma decided upon Cheeriobed. As for the Scarecrow being the King of the Munchkins under Neill, that was because the Scarecrow was head of the civil government of the Munchkins at that point, and hence he was often refered to as 'King', even though his official title was 'Mayor'. Both of these topics get dealt with in Lurline's Machine. 3) Dave, sorry, but 42 and 47 don't have any significance in Lurline's Machine. The significant numbers are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17, 23, and 128.6. 7, 40, 60, and 360 also have the potential to become important. I leave you to wonder what the significance of these numbers is. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 10:30:34 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Evil Author of Oz The Evil Author of Oz A Self-Parody in Five Psychotic Episodes Yet Not Even Five Pages Long (Lurline's Fountain Pen, Volume I) by Aaron Solomon Adelman in celebration of pUwrIym Episode 1: The palace gardens in the Emerald City. The Woozy is sitting under an anvil tree talking about their roles in the upcoming book The Woozy of Oz. Woozy: No, no, no! Your role is miniscule! I'm the star of the book. Bungle: Wrong, you opaque blockhead! You may get more lines but-- Scraps: Run for your lives! Run for your lives! Woozy: Why? Are you being chased by a washing machine? Scraps: The Evil Author of Oz is coming! The Evil Author of Oz is coming! Bungle: He's just a myth. Scraps: That's what you think, but he's coming anyway! Aaron: I, the Evil Author of Oz, have arrived. What have we here? A Woozy! Woozy: Uh-oh! Aaron: Rats! I really wanted to use the Woozy for my spell, but I guess I'll have to change the script so that I can use a Glass Cat instead. Bungle: Take the tree instead! I have to survive so that I can appear in The Woozy of Oz! Aaron: No dice. Episode 2: The Evil Author's office. Aaron is sitting at his desk. Aaron: Hmm. I don't seem to have enough bad guys in this story. I'll just have to get some more. Snorpus! Snorpus: Yes, sir? Aaron: We need more bad guys in this story! Go find some more. Snorpus: But we already have 99,999,999.2 baddies, which constitute the entire non-nice population of all the alternate versions of Oz's world, plus all the Republicans in Congress. Aaron: But that's not good enough! Go find some more. Snorpus: Yes, my liege. Aaron: What are THEY doing here? They're from a HERETICAL Oz book, Phillip Jose Farmer's A Barnstormer in Oz. Snorpus: They're all I could find. They were playing chess around the corner. Aaron: They'll do. Get lost, Snorpus. Snorpus: Yes, my lord. Aaron: OK, you two, what can you do? Sharts: I can do surgery and beat people to a pulp. Blogo: Ditto for the second, and I can drink several times my body weight in mead in a matter of minutes. Aaron: OK, I can use bad guys with your talents. What do you guys want as wages? Sharts: We want to become real Oz characters, get the standard share of loot, and to have our wildest fantasies fulfilled. Aaron: Which are? Sharts: I'd like to keep my shirt on in a fight. Aaron: And you, Mr. the Rare Beast? Blogo: I want to be rewritten as the World's Greatest Babe Magnet. Aaron: Hmm. I think I can go for that. You're hired. The conference is in five minutes, down the hall, first door on the left. Sharts: Thank you, sir. Blogo: Where are the babes? Aaron: The fools! I think I'll drop them into a pit of maple syrup at the end of the story! Episode 3: The Evil Author's conference room. The bad guys are all gathered around a really long table. Aaron: My fellow magic-workers, I have gathered you all here to perform the most devious spell of all time. I propose to create the one single spell that will give me access to Lurline's Fountain Pen! The Wizard of Wutz: What's that? Aaron: Lurline's Fountain Pen is a device that will change me from an author to a meta-author. This will give me the ability to force all other Oz authors to accept my vision of Oz. I will become all-powerful! Conjo: And why should we help you? Aaron: Because I'm writing this story, and so I can give you anything you want. Jinnicky: I think we can go for that. Aaron: At last! Absolute power is mine! Episode 4: A conference room in Ozma's palace. Most of the good characters in Oz are gathered around a large table discussing what to do about the potential threat from the Evil Author. Ozma: Settle down! Now what we need is a way to stop Aaron the Evil Author of Oz from rewriting Oz according to his own warped vision. Scarecrow: He can't do that. Consistency with the Famous Forty makes it impossible for him to change it to the degree you're depicting it. Ozma: Lurline's Fountain Pen will give him the ability to rewrite the Famous Forty. What do you say to that? Scarecrow: I'm not sure. Excuse me while I convince someone with some sense of decency to start a 100% copyrighted series staring me. Ozma: Does any else have any bright ideas? Ozma: What are you doing here? Mombi: I have to tell you something! Ozma, I am your father! Ozma: You must mean that you are my mother. Mombi: No! Due to a series of bizarre transformational, memory-loss, and time-travelling accidents, I happen to have already been half of the people in this room. Half of the people in the room: Ew! Ozma: This is the type of thing I was worried would happen! Now, do we have any ideas on how to stop the Evil Author before he strikes again? Shaggy Man: Alright, I'm tired of the way Oz has been for the past hundred years, and so now I'm taking over! Wiggy: Yeah! Ozma: I think Aaron's outdone himself for absurdity. Shaggy Man: Shut up! This was my idea! Things are going to be different here from now on. Ozma: Do you really think you can get away this? Shaggy Man: As much as I can get away with this. Ozma: This has gone too far. Now that's done, is there anyone else left alive here? : I am. Unfortunately, I'm still under copyright, so the author can't give my name. Sue the Queasy: Well, I'm not. Ozma: Not alive or not under copyright? Queasy: Not alive. Ozma: Then how come you're still talking? Queasy: Uh, just a moment. Whoops! Ozma: OK... Is there anyone else alive around here? Jenny Jump, Number Nine, Lucky Bucky: We are! Ozma: Great. I'm stuck with a bunch of Neillian characters. You'll have to do. Follow me. Episode 5: The Evil Author's office. Aaron is at his desk rewriting the history of Oz. Aaron: Let's see... I think I'll then have the Winkies invade the Emerald City and use the Sawhorse for a-- , and Neillian characters> Ozma: Not so fast! Aaron: Ooh! Like I'm so scared! What do you intend to do to me? I'm an author and can have anything happen I want! Ozma: Attack! < and Neillian characters rush at Aaron, only to be incinerated by the force field surrounding him> Aaron: It's just you and me now. What do you intend to do? Ozma: Five, four, three, two, one. Ozma: That takes care of him. Blogo: But it doesn't take care of me! Come to Papa! Ozma: AAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 10:35:03 -0500 From: DIXNAM@aol.com Subject: ATHOS COMMENTS ABOUT THE DIGEST Dave said, >But maybe you're right that I should have a helper/stand-in. >Anyone care to volunteer? Looks to me like Warren/Athos4 just did!! :) :) Dick "Don't change a thing, Dave" Randolph (DIXNAM@aol.com) ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 09:55:54 -0600 (CST) From: sjanich@mke.ab.com (Steve Anich 414-382-2650) Subject: OZ & List management Hi, You might want to ask delphi if they would be interested in letting you use their mailing list server for the OZ list. I imagine they have one. If not, they can install the free,easy and powerfull procmail/smartlist mailing list manager. I could offer technical assistance if needed. I'd let you use my server, but I must restrict it use corporate-only activities. --steve -- Steve Anich Rockwell Automation Networking & Telecommunications email: sjanich@mke.ab.com Voice: 414.382.2650 Fax:414.382.2222 ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 11:39:00 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Aaron and John: Perhaps Tititi-Hoochoo created a rough prototype of the magic picture and gave it Johns country. After Ozma captured it, she found that it was not very state-of-the-art, so she enhanced it a little bit. Thus, the passage in SHAGGY MAN would not contradict MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES and would also not contradict Johns new story (this is, of course, assuming that John is going to write the thing :-) ). As usual, I prefer explanations that justify everything as much as possible, instead of just picking some and ignoring others. In this case, I like to think that Ozma may have exaggerated her role in creating the magic picture. Nome Kings bumper sticker : "Hippikaloric" Vanity plate for the King of the Winged Monkeys: "MY GLD CP" Barry and Aaron: I have ifnally begun to peruse the Laumers in search of Dorothys degree. I have so far been unsuccessful, but I found the title of her thesis. If forgot it, of course, but I will post it tomorrow. However, if you are interested, he called the Queen of the Field Mice "Ramina". Eric Gjovaag: While Snow obviously erred in combining the Guardian of the Gates with the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, I don't see anything wrong with one of them marrying Tollydiggle. In this case, of course, they BOTH married her, since he thought they were one and the same. Kinda confusing. Also, while it strongly implies in EMERALD CITY that Ozma completely filled the Nome Kings tunnel, she might have only sealed the ends and told everybody that the whole tunnel was filled. Overall, the tunnel being there provides more room for storytelling, such as THE RED JINN OF OZ. Aaron: It is doubtful that Billina is the semi-famous Yellow Hen of Mo, because in OZMA OF OZ, she claims to have been raised in the United States. Rich Morrissey: Your question about the "Monarch of the Munchkins, Emperor of the Winkies, King of the Quadlings and the Sovereign of the Gilikins" has been asked before, and I have a partial answer. You said that the Emperor must have been the Tin Woodman, but he had already been mentioned as marching in another part of the parade. As you pointed out, Glinda and Tattypoo were also marching elsewhere. The Monarch of the Munchkins could not possible have been Cheriobed or his father. There are reasons for this, and if you would like me to expand upon them, please let me know. Who were these four people then? MOPPet is that they are the liasons between the four quadrants and the Emerald City, perhaps they form cabinet of some kind to help Ozma deal with matters outside the Emerald City. They might also have been rulers of small kingdoms chosen to act as stand-ins for the quadrant rulers. Stand-ins are very common in the real world and they could just as easily happen in Oz. Chris Warkala: From what I know of the HBO cartoon series, it takes some elements from LAND and OZMA and some stuff of its own. I have not seen enough to be able to decide how good it is, though. Maybe some others on the digest can help. Warren Baldwin (aka ATHOS4): Yes, Oz books are ultimately childrens stories and the key thing should be just to read a fun story and enjoy it without worrying about every little detail being consistent with every other little detail. As the man said, can't you just relax and have fun with it? My answer is split. Yes, I can relax and read the story for the fun of it, but I cannot JUST do that. Part of the price we pay for growing up is that we can no longer simply accept things at face value. I must probe for the truth and dig deep to discover things. As much fun as the Oz books are, every once in a while, I have to stop and ask "why?" or "how?". It is no longer enough to just read the story for fun and nothing but fun. That is just me, of course, and other people can choose to do this or not. Like the Burger King ads say: "Have it your way!" On being the Assistant List Guy: Since I can't log in on weekends yet, I cannot volunteer for this post. --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 08:42:48 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-04-96 Guess what was on the local news this morning? They had a report on the auction our local children's hospital held over the weekend, and among the many items donated were a set of beautiful Oz books! They even had a close-up of the "Royal Book of Oz," and from the dust jacket it looked like a first edition! I hope those books all went to good homes, and the hospital got a lot of money for them... > From: RMorris306@aol.com > Subject: Re: Billina, Lurline, and Tattypoo > > Which reminds me of a few anomalies in the movie... You absolutely can not, IMHO, use the books to justify anything that's wrong in the movie. The movie is a horse of a COMPLETELY different color. Besides, don't forget, Dorothy dreamed it all. Anything that's wrong or contradictory in the movie is the result of Dorothy's less-than-perfect subconscious. > From: swarkala@cris.com (Sharon Warkala) > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 > > Speaking of Oz on TV I have free HBO this weekend and on Sunday morning I > woke up to a WOZ cartoon series. Does anybody know anything about it? Would > it be worth it to suscribe to HBO for it? I believe that's the Cinar series, made a few years ago up in Canada. From what little I've seen, no it's not worth subscribing to HBO for JUST for that. > From: amyjones@mindspring.com (Amy Jones) > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 > > >Anyway, before I plunge in, did anyone see the season > >premier of "Sliders" last night? > > I saw it on Friday, and I wonder how many people watching picked up on the > Oz metaphor. A LOT of people did, from what I can tell in the alt.tv.sliders newsgroup. Most of them didn't seem to appreciate it, and I had to tell one guy off for claiming that sci-fi fans don't like Oz. "What about me?" I asked, adding how offended I was by his sweeping generalizations. If he tries to put me down, however, I'm also going to mention some famous Oz fans, like Ray Bradbury, Steven Spielberg, L. Sprague de Camp, Philip Jose Farmer, George Lucas, Carl Sagan, Jane Yolen... Warren, I'm not going to try and pick and choose from what you wrote so I can reply to it, I'll just post a few general reactions: * What are you trying to do to poor Dave??? I'm surprised he has enough time to put together the Digest as is! And now you're suggesting he should DEPARMENTALIZE it??? * The question about online Oz resources came from an adult. Despite being a kids' newsletter, it goes out to ALL members of the Oz Club, and Jane and I have gotten quite a few questions from adults as well. Fine with me. I doubt there are a lot of kids on the Internet in general (which makes all these worries about pornography on the 'Net even more laughable), but that could very well change in the near future as more homes and schools get wired up, and the next generation of Internet users comes along. * You know, we could eliminate the need for the Digest entirely if someone would pick up the banner and spearhead a campaign for a rec.arts.wizard-of-oz newsgroup... * Books of Wonder is probably still your best bet for getting "Runaway." Just make sure, everybody, that you ask for "The Oz Collector" by name. Or you can just order it directly from them, you don't need to get the catalog to order it, or any other BoW book. (That number again is 1-800-345-6665.) There aren't a lot of dealers on this list, but I personally have no objection to buy-sell-trade notices here, so long as prices aren't quoted for everyone, just those e-mailing to express interest. * I think the length of the Digest is getting better, now that we're familiar with the problem. * A clever little ASCII-art masthead is a great idea. So, who's going to design it and send it to Dave? * Yes, too many people here seem to forget that these are children's books. I've been guilty of that a few times myself, I fear... --Eric "That's my two cents worth" Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 04 Mar 1996 17:48:48 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Thanks to Chris Warkala and others who have given us some feedback on the Oz on Ice TV special and the live show. Although no one has actually said so, I gather by inference that the TV show was a special done from the live show that is touring, and not just a copycat. Is this correct? Bill W. ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 6, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Tue, 05 Mar 1996 14:18:14 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-96 How's this for a masthead? ] c/ \ /___\ *THE OZZY DIGEST* |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] |\ _,,,---,,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili Bar-Hillel, |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' avigailb@zoot.tau.ac.il '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat (c) by Felix Lee ============================================================================= Date: Tue, 05 Mar 1996 09:30:00 -0800 From: Bob Shepherd Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-96 My family and I thoroughly enjoyed The Wizard of Oz on Ice last Friday! If it comes to your area, I recommend that you see it. The costumes and the special effects are stunning. The skaters were energetic and they put on the show as if it was the first night. Bobby McFerrin was terrific and the music was great. On the way home we debated which part was our favorite, and all we could decide on was that it was all good. The show is the same as the show on TV - same costumes, music, etc, but different skaters, of course. You won't be disappointed that it's not Baiul and Petrenko. We really enjoyed the TV version, but of course it's nothing compared to seeing it in person! We have a friend who has seen several Disney on Ice shows, and she thought this was even better than what Disney has put on. Robin Oldman - I confirmed that your name in not in the program. :-( Your student probably saw the name of the choreographer who's name is Robin Cousins. Yes - there is a lot of Ozzy stuff to buy once you're in the show. We spent a few bucks to say the least, but hey - there was a lot of nice Oz things that you're not going to find elsewhere. It was all decent quality - not much junk. Some sample prices - you decide if it's overly expensive....the show's program was $7, T-shirts were $12 (kids) and $14 (adults), hats $10, children's charm bracelet with the "fab four" $5, sno-cones in a Tin- man cup $6, just to name a few...there's LOTs more... Here's a hint -- when you walk into the show, you'll be handed a freebie program with coupons in it. Open this up before you buy anything! There's a coupon for $1 off the program, and $2 off a t-shirt. Lastly - I picked up a couple of addresses you might be interested in. If you want to be put on the Preferred Customer list to receive advance notice to purchase tickets to next year's show, write: Irvin Feld and Kenneth Feld Productions, Inc. Attn: Advance Sales Post Office Box 39845 Edina, Mn 55439-9457 In you are interested in contacting the official concession company of The Wizard of Oz on Ice...(maybe it's possible to buy some of the Oz stuff even it you don't attend the show?)....... Sells-Floto, Inc. 8607 Westwood Center Drive Vienna, VA 22182 phone: 1-800-755-1530 ============================================================================= Date: Tue, 05 Mar 1996 18:25:51 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: The Multiple Monarchs Rich, regarding those monarchs mentioned in _The Road to Oz_: As someone has already pointed out before (name?), there are a whole lot of little kingdoms in Oz and any number of them could have rulers which might claim to be the true monarch of such-and-such country. This is probably even more likely in the Munchkin and Gillikin countries, as they lack the strong central leaders as are portrayed for the Winkies and Quadlings (Nick Chopper and Glinda namely). (I don't think it's reasonable to suppose Tattypoo lead the Gillikins in anything more than advice and example, since there do not seem to be anything related to governmental functions in her little hut unless you want to make some really strange leaps of hypothesis.) What Aaron ("the Sieve") mentioned/leaked was one was of interpreting things in relation to the Munchkin Country, though there may certainly be other plausible explainations. But I certainly do not see Cheeriobed and Joe King as being as central to their countries as Glinda or Nick Chopper. As for those representatives from the Winkie and Quadling countries, they could be local monarchs, high civil administrators (see Aaron's model for the Munchkin Country which explains why the Scarecrow is "king" in the Neill books), contest winners... If you use a copyrighted character in a book with permission, does this have to be mentioned somewhere? (I know I've seen such things in non-Oz books.) In the book _Who Censored Roger Rabbit?_ (I can't remember the author), there were appearances of copyrighted cartoon characters such as Dick Tracy and Hagar the Horrible and no little blubs such as "The character Blankety-Blank appears courtesy of..." Since people are mentioning lisence plate, I once saw "LND OF OZ" in Roanoke, VA. For the Hungry Tiger I would suggest "OI812". ============================================================================= Date: Tue, 05 Mar 1996 17:38:48 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-96 > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: The Yellow Hen of Mo, take 2 > > Also: The Monarch of the Munchkins in The Road to Oz is a character > called King Stan of Munchkinezia... Aaron, you REALLY need to start marking these sorts of posts MOPPeT or IMO or putting smilies in or something to let those readers not as familiar with you and your posts that this is not canonical (yet). We do get newbies here once in a while, don't we? (Dave, do we?) Oh, and Merry Purim. But that was a tad long, IMHO... Tyler wrote: > From what I know of the HBO cartoon series, it takes some elements from > LAND and OZMA and some stuff of its own. I have not seen enough to be able > to decide how good it is, though. Maybe some others on the digest can help. There are fifty-two episodes. The first thirteen cover "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," the next thirteen "The Marvelous Land of Oz" (with Dorothy also being thrown into the story), the third thirteen "Ozma of Oz," and the final thirteen covering "The Emerald City of Oz." It's done much better abroad than here in America, since Oz doesn't carry quite the baggage it does in the States... BTW, I just got a response from the guy who slammed Oz in his post in alt.tv.sliders, basically calling me anal. I know of a similar word I could use to describe him, but I won't say it here in the Digest, I'm too polite. But anybody care to come over there and defend me should he slam me in public? --Eric "I'm TRYING to take the high road with the jerk, but it ain't easy" Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Tue, 05 Mar 1996 20:40:08 -0500 (EST) From: swarkala@cris.com (Sharon Warkala) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-96 Eric: Thanks for your assesment of the WOZ cartoon on HBO. The episode I saw Sunday was not that great but I thought I might have seen a "clunker". I will take your advice since I seem to agree with alot of your opinions and skip subscribing. I'll wait until Willard Carrol's Little Wizard Stories that I saw at the last Munchkin convention come out . Those were great cartoons for Oz fans. Bill W: You are correct in assuming that the WOZ on Ice special was taken from the touring show. The live show runs about 2 hours so I guess you could call what was on TV as the Highlights. Still see the live show if you can. ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 00:54:06 -0500 From: DavidXOE@aol.com Subject: Ozzy Digests 3/1-3/2/96 I thought I sent a briefish message on Sunday, but it didn't turn up in the Monday Digest so I guess I either forgot to send it or it went astray. So here I go again. Dick Randolph: I too read the Oz books in random order - WIZARD first, but then WISHING HORSE was second, and the rest followed with no relationship to writing order that I can figure. EMERALD CITY, LUCKY BUCKY, and LOST PRINCESS were the next three, I think. I know that LAND and OZMA were very late in my reading order, although the last few were CAPTAIN SALT, HIDDEN VALLEY, SCALAWAGONS, MERRY-GO-ROUND, WONDER CITY, and HANDY MANDY, in that order (all after I was 30). (The lady who'd loaned me most of the books that my parents hadn't bought me - I never saw one that I hadn't read in a library, although I did find THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS in one - didn't have LAND or OZMA, and her collection stopped with WISHING HORSE.) But it never bothered me much. Might be that the great parade in WISHING HORSE prepared me from the start to expect huge numbers of unknown characters in any given book. Tyler Jones: Yes, the Heelers lived in the Deadly Desert (or, Neill says, the Sandy Waste, or in a different place the Shifting Sands, if there's a difference). You'd miss some significant references in GLASS CAT if you hadn't read MAGIC, but there's nothing post-Baum in it. After reading both twice, I found that I liked MASQUERADE better than MAGIC DISHPAN, although I felt the other way after my first reading. DISHPAN seemed a little too preachy for Oz. But I agree with you that all of the BoW books are worth buying except for SPECKLED ROSE - though I wouldn't pay the hardcover price for any of them but GIANT GARDEN, QUEEN ANN, and of course GLASS CAT :-). Though I think the HC editions of the first two sold out long ago, and from what I've heard from Peter Glassman, GC will sell out soon in HC if it hasn't already. I have a long post that I'm going to do when I have time giving my reasons for not thinking Ozma was all that great a ruler (though of course she was sweet and adorable) even in Baum. But I don't have time to go into it tonight. Dave's book may well win the centennial contest, but you're showing a lot of favoritism when there are other people posting here who also plan to enter... Gili Bar-Hillel: Welcome to the Digest! I've posted some things to you privately; if you get this and didn't get that, E-mail me here at my AOL address. Never heard of the "Wew" stories, but I'll have to keep an eye out for it. Sounds like very much of an Oz pastiche (or maybe rip-off...). Rich Morrissey: Hi, and welcome to the Digest too! That's Sherwood Smith, not Schwartz, just for the record. Wrote the children's fantasies WREN TO THE RESCUE, WREN'S QUEST, and WREN'S WAR - very good otherworld fantasies (Wren is a girl with some magical talent, not a bird), in the same general vein as Diana Wynne Jones's Dalemark books, or Lloyd Alexander's Prydain books. Good stuff. She also writes a very good SF series with Dave Trowbridge called EXORDIUM, but I'd wait till the last volume is published later this year before buying the five books, if you like STAR WARS-like space opera. Actually, Apanage saw all of the first draft of GLASS CAT, though it was somewhat revised and completely reorganized before I submitted the MS, and then it was cut about 20%, so the members who've bought it have had something fairly new to read. And finishing NO DRAGONS is high on my list of things to do as soon as I'm settled in Chicago - though writing a centennial Oz book is probably priority #1, since that one has a deadline. [By the way, since my Sunday message disappeared, we -are- moving to Chicago around the first of April.] And, of course, Bruce has several times said that ARGYLE THE WINDMAKER is still on his list of things to revise and get published. Incidentally, GLASS CAT is now released to general bookstores; I saw copies in a store in Chicago. So get your friendly neighborhood bookstore to order several copies... John White: I don't think Ozma knew enough magic by OZMA to have created the Magic Picture, either. Tyler's theory in the 3/5 Digest seems reasonable to me. But I like your synopsis of a story; when are you going to write it? Do it short and it might fit into OZIANA; do it long enough and it might sell to BoW. Gili again: To join Apanage, send $5 to John Hopfner, PO Box 8, Warren, MI 48090, USA, and then prepare to wait into the next millennium. There's a waiting list to get in, and it moves with all the celerity of a glacier. As an example, the person who's now #4 on the waitlist got on after the 100th mailing - and the last one was 152. And mailings are bi-monthly, so that was over 8 1/2 years ago. In fact, a rule has been instituted that a person can't be #1 on the waitlist for more than a year, even if the membership is full, and the majority of people who've been admitted in the last ten years have gotten in under that rule. (This also means that when people do drop, it usually doesn't create a vacancy because the roster is over the limit of 23.) But I encourage you to get on the waitlist anyhow; I think you'd make a great member and would enjoy Apanage a lot. Though I have to say that Diana Wynne Jones has dropped out, and Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville are only honorary members and don't contribute often any more. Still, there are several children's book writers who are active, and the rest of the members are also very interesting and agreeable people. (Except maybe for myself, the resident curmudgeon...) Which DWJ books did you loan out and have go missing? I happen to have an extra (PB) copy of WILKINS' TOOTH, and have PB and HC copies of a couple or three others, I think, and would be willing to give up the PBs. (If you're looking for TIME OF THE GHOST, though, it took me a lot of searching in the UK to find a copy of it myself.) Aaron Adelman: Snow's informant is clearly unreliable; he contradicts other FF writers almost as much as Neill did, so even when he's not directly contradicted one needs to take his statements with a generous dollop of salt. Rich again: Kiki Aru encountered a sparrow in Ev that could talk, so some of the birds in Ev could. On the other hand, when Hank arrived there with Betsy he couldn't talk until he got all the way to Oz. So maybe there was something special about Billina - it's hard to say. Gili yet again: As I mentioned earlier, I'm pretty sure that the Soviet Union and the US never had a reciprocal copyright agreement, so Volkov wasn't guilty of copyright infringement in his own country for copying Baum, and Laumer wasn't guilty of copyright infringement here for copying Volkov. (And I'm not guilty of copyright infringement for having a copy of Volkov's book printed in Russia, because Baum is now PD.) (And the composer of the score of WIZARD OF OZ was Arlen, not Allen.) And it's getting on to my bedtime; I'll try to catch up more tomorrow. David Hulan ============================================================================= DAte: Sunday 03-Mar-96 23:02:38 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things NEWBIES: Eric wrote: >We do get newbies here once in a while, don't we? (Dave, do we?) Yes we do...On average about one or two new "subscribe" requests a week. The bad news is that's about the rate of "unsubscribe" requests I get, so the membership stays pretty much in equilibrium at just over 90. ( Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone cares. :) ) ANTI-OZ FLAME: Eric wrote: >I just got a response from the guy who slammed Oz in his post in >alt.tv.sliders, basically calling me anal ... Is this guy by any longshot chance named D. Forgey? If so, I not only know the guy, but he's the semi-inspiration for the main villian of _Locasta_... (And I'll be happy to come to your defence ANY time!) DAVID HULAN'S COMMENTS: David wrote: >Dave's book may well win the centennial contest, but you're showing a lot of >favoritism when there are other people posting here who also plan to enter... In my not-so-humble opinion, Tyler can extend his support to whomever he wishes! ( *Especially* if it's me! :) :) :) ) But of course, I'll submit _Locasta_ to the contest only in the event that Buckethead rejects it, and any chance _Fairy Princess_ will have of winning will depend upon whether the IWOC contest judges are closer to Tyler or Bear on the little issue of Ozma falling in you-know-what... :) :) :) >I have a long post that I'm going to do when I have time giving my reasons >for not thinking Ozma was all that great a ruler (though of course she was >sweet and adorable) even in Baum. But I don't have time to go into it >tonight. Uh oh...stand by for the "Slick Ozma III" thread, guys! :) ( Well, at least I've been forwarned and have time to prepare the rebuttal... :) :) :) ) -- Dave Hardenbrook, The Committee to Re-Elect the Princess :) :) :) ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 7, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 10:14:02 -0500 (EST) From: "Nathanel J. Barlow" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 Excerpts from mail: 6-Mar-96 Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 by Dave Hardenbrook@delphi. > Here's a hint -- when you walk into the show, you'll be handed a freebie > program with coupons in it. Open this up before you buy anything! > There's a coupon for $1 off the program, and $2 off a t-shirt. They didn't have these when I saw the show in December. I probably would have kept the coupons anyway :) Nate ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 12:26:31 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger Eric, I already privately flamed Aaron about his post about not making it clear it was not his opinion. Also, was that guy slamming Oz going by the handle Zarathustra? If it is, I've dealt with the dufus before. He's always an irritating jerk. I've been wondering why the Cowardly Lion lives in the Emerald City. _The Wizard of Oz_ very strongly indicates that the Cowardly Lion obtains his own territory and subjects to rule by killing the giant spider and that is definitely where he ends up going (unless you want to postulate some wierd Winged-Monkey accident). But in his next appearance in _Ozma of Oz_ there is no trace of him being a visiting monarch, and ever since he lives in the Emerald City and shows no traces of being ruler of anything. Unless one postulates numerous trips back and forth to his forest to rule his subjects (and if I remember correctly _The Little Wizard Stories_ pretty much rules out this possibility), he is pretty much avoiding his subjects and shucking his duty. Does anyone have any theories/references which could shed light on this puzzling behavior? I have an idea of my own, which most generally and least leakily can be stated as that for some reason he fell from favor with his subjects and left (possibly involuntarily), and then when he and his friend the Hungry Tiger showed up at the Emerald City at the beginning of Ozma's reign, they became the first in a long line of celebrities and oddballs to be invited to live there. Does anyone have any (hopefully more parsimonious) ideas? While I'm on the subject of asking for theories, where is all the meat people are eating in Oz coming from? There are incidents of people killing animals or trying to do so for one reason or another (like someone gump-hunting in _The Land of Oz_ and the attempted killing and roasting of Pajuka in _The Lost King of Oz_), but these involve the problem that the animals and sentient, in which case killing an animal would be murder and eating them would be near- cannibalism. Since I am not willing to put most Ozites on the same level as the Compleat Cook/People-Eater, I suspect another explaination is in order. (I think the incident with Mombi trying to make dinner of Pajuka is probably anomalous; she must have been lying about where she was getting the goose meat from since the people of Kimballoo were way too nice to commit near-cannibalism willfully.) One could postulate the existence of trees which bear various cuts of meat, though this explaination has its own problems, not the least of which is that this has never been portrayed as a meat source (except in finished form in lunch pails, dinner tins, and three-course nuts), whereas there are plenty of examples of getting meat from animals. (I am curious as to what Mombi told the farmer she bought Pajuka from is this sort of near-cannibalism is not an accepted practice.) Of course, given some acts and statements by animals themselves, certain animals themselves would be subject to these same problems (see the Cowardly Lion's suggestion as how he could feed Dorothy in _The Wizard of Oz_ and his and the Hungry Tiger's little snack in _The Magic of Oz_.) I am not trying to rip/condemn Oz here, but I don't think Baum fully thought out all the implications of animal sentiency and eating animals in the same land. Any thoughts? ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 00:14:13 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 Just this - anyone who wants to write me privately would do best writing me at msmaya@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il, as only rarely do I get a chance to look through mail sent to avigailb@zoot.tau.ac.il. - Gili ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 12:31:55 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Well, my post did not seem to get received yesterday, so here are two days worth in a row: While I wouldn't call you the "Evil Author of Oz", there is a kernel of truth in your parody. However, here is some info. Dorothys thesis is entitled "An Enquiry into Certain Aspects of Recondite Nomenclature in the Kingdom of Oz and Adjacent Regions". I had to look up "recondite" in the dictionary. Due to some problems last night, I was unable to look thru Laumers stuff to try and find Dorothys degree, but I can hopefully get some work done tonight. Eric Gjovaag: I wonder if that Sliders fan meant the movie or the books. He is still wrong in his assertation that Sci-Fi fans don't like Oz. Barry Adelman: It may have been me who commented on the little kingdom rulers. I have mentioned before in an Oz Research Group paper that any ruler of these little kingdoms could, with some truth, claim to be "King of the Munchkins", or of any of the other quadrants. I have to take a step back from your assertation that Nick Chopper and Glinda are "strong central rulers". Granted, they are the most well known of the rulers, but what do they DO insofar as their quadrants are concerned? In and out of the FF, I can remember only ONE instance where somebody acted in their official capacity as ruler of a quadrant. This was in HIDDEN VALLEY, where the Tin Woodman was in the adventuring party and when they came upon some heretofore unkown countries, he mentioned that he was their ruler. He was not very successful in this attempt, however. I have always thought that the position of quadrant ruler was a figurehead position granted out of respect for their contributions to Oz, although The Tin Woodman and Glinda ruled their quadrants before Ozma ascended the throne. It seems to me that most of the day-to-day government operations are handled on the local/municipal level with Ozma stepping in as the ocassion warrants. I cannot even remember any occasion where anybody said that they were under the rule of a quadrant ruler, with the possible exception of a scene in HANDY MANDY. I believe that Barry and I are in agreement with our theory that the four rulers mentioned in ROAD were probably local rulers or civil officers. I believe that you do need to mention that you have received permission from somebody to use their character. March Laumer mentions that he has the permission of copyright holders for some of Thompsons and Neills characters, although he does not actually have their permission. Aaron and Eric: I'm going to have to go with Eric on this one and state that most of the stuff we come up with in this digest is at best theory, given the weight of evidence that we have seen to date. Eric alone: I don't watch Sliders, so I don't know how much I could bring to the debate, but I will be glad to defend Oz anywhere and everywhere! On the level of Ozmas magic: David Hulan put in another good arguement: That Ozma probably did not know enough magic to create the Magic Picture entirely on her own. The fact that she is a fairy may not guarantee that she is also an accomplished magic worker. Johns story would be perfect for OZIANA! Ozma herself never seemed to work any magic herself (not counting the magic belt) until TIN WOODMAN. After GLINDA, Ozma never seemed to do ANY magic without the Belt. Aaron and David: I will weigh in on the side of Snows informant being a little flighty, or perhaps Snow himself wanted to build up Ozmas image. Rich and David: Perhaps the sparrow that Kiki met in MAGIC was also from the Land of Oz. We have lots of evidence from the FF of news being spread around the lands by birds, so it is very likely that they fly over the desert all the time. ON THE OZ SLAMMER: With my consistency efforts in and out of the FF, I'm the most "anal" person on this list! (Not that that's anything to be proud of...) :-) ON FAVORITISM: I don't know if I'm supporting Daves book to the exclusion of all the other efforts. Most of my comments were meant to be taken lightly, more for comic relief than anything else. David again: I can't wait to see your comments about Ozmas abilities as a ruler. Granted, she is a sweet caring person who feels our pain, but that does not mean that she is a good ruler. I made a similar comment about Mr. (name withheld) in 1994, but that's another story! --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 17:04:57 -0700 From: estelle@usa.net (Estelle E. Klein) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 Haven't exactly figured out the heads of state, but they must be males- Baum wrote each was wearing emeralds around HIS neck to show that HE... FYI- The Jolly Pocket Postman book is "cute" but costly (20.00); The album "For Our Children: the Concert" is no long being produced, so if you find it and want it, buy it. I suspect that the 1 hour WOZ on Ice was an enticement for the live production. There's a quaint gift and card shop in Denver, Colorado called "Surrender Dorothy" (they have lots of WOZ "stuff"). David Hulan- Rebecca finished the book in 2 sittings- "it was fantastic :-)" ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 20:44:53 -0500 From: RMorris306@aol.com Subject: Billina, Locasta and Tattypoo Dear Group, A lot of great stuff these last few days, especially Aaron's "Evil Author" story! As a fan of the comics, I've encountered way too many of these people who want to make their version of a character/universe they didn't create the *only* canonical version, hopefully with blood, gore, and machine guns thrown in...and, I hasten to add, I can tell that in real life Aaron isn't one of them. Jack Snow seems to have been the first person to suggest (WHO'S WHO IN OZ) that the Good Witch of the North (from WIZARD) and Tattypoo (from GIANT HORSE) were two different women. I like the idea, and the name Locasta, not in any book but a genuine Baum name for the character in the musical, is certainly a lot more dignified. That also explains at least one apparent anomaly in the ROAD parade. (But wasn't it also in ROAD that the Shaggy Man or someone asked how the Tin Woodman rated as an Emperor when he didn't rule an empire? I could very easily argue that he did, since there are many city- states in the Winkie Country with their own kings, rulers of their countries, but subordinate to Nick Chopper.) Yes, I'd forgotten that sparrow (or wren? It's been a few years since I've reread MAGIC) in Ev. But, if memory serves, wasn't he (she? My memory's *really* going!) talking to Kiki Aru when he was a hawk? If so, they might have been talking bird language, just as Queen Zixi did with the birds and beasts of Noland in her book. For that matter, how do we know the sparrow was native to Ev? He could've flown over the desert from Oz, same as Kiki himself. I do remember the sparrow's saying that "magic is wicked and unlawful," and I can't recall it ever being said elsewhere that magic was unlawful in Ev, but we all know it was in Oz, except for Glinda and the Wizard. Good to know Apanage is still thriving! I'm a bit busy with other things now to consider rejoining, but maybe some day... my best to everyone! Rich Morrissey ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 21:00:59 -0500 (EST) From: swarkala@cris.com (Sharon Warkala) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 Bob Shepherd: Glad to see you and your family enjoyed the show. It was hard to pick out a favorite part for me and my wife also but we both thought the number with the Winkies was great. Also thanks for the address of the concession company there were a few items that I wanted to get but the funds were low. Maybe you can answer the question what did that sword they were selling have to do with the show? I was interested to see the posting from Dave that we get about two new subscribers each week but also get two that unsubscribe. I was wondering if those that do drop out give their reasons. I know that when I first subscribed I never responded and thought about dropping out but then I decided to get involved with the digest and have found it to be very enjoyable. There are some topics that at first I was not that interested in but as I have gotten more into the digest I now find some of these subjects quite interesting. Since we do have 90 members though I am disappointed that it looks as only a group of about 35 of us ever contribute. I'm sure the rest of the members have opinions, views, or interests they could and should share with us. Maybe if more of us get involved we will have more subscribers and no unsubscribers. Let's face it the digest is what we make it. Get involved! It can be fun. Chris Warkala ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 21:17:12 -0500 (EST) From: jnw@vnet.net Subject: writing books DavidXOE@aol.com writes: > I like your synopsis of a story; when are you going to write it? Not for a while. I have another book idea that I plan to writes first. Perhaps I'll have that ready in time for the IWOC contest. Even if it's not *the* winner, it would be nice to have an official IWOC illustrated and published book. In my last attempt to writes this book my writing just sort of trudged through the story, if you know what I mean. Then I wrote a chapter that was really good. But that just made the rest look worse than ever, and I haven't yet figured out how to make the whole thing as good as that one good chapter. -- jnw@vnet.net (John N. White) ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 21:37:59 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Neill and Snow Bashing 1) Tyler, John, The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz has the Magic Picture go straight from Tititihoochoo to Ozma, so a harmonization between Madden and Snow would involve Ozma enhancing an already-existing Magic Picture. I fail to see why a third party is necessary at all. 2) In a last-ditch effort to save my theory of Billina being from a magic country, I propose that the place in the US Billina was raised had an unusually high magic flux. (Somehow I have gut feeling that this is going to get shot down too.) 3) Eric, I accept rebuke on my failure to mark MoPPeTs. 4) David Hulan wrote: >Snow's informant is clearly unreliable; he contradicts other FF writers >almost as much as Neill did, so even when he's not directly contradicted one >needs to take his statements with a generous dollop of salt. Since when? In order to defend the honor of Snow, I hereby challenge you to list all inconsistencies between Snow and Baum & Thompson you can think of to prove your point. For comparison to that list, I submit the following list of inconsistencies between Neill and Baum & Thompson: * Neill makes everyone stupid and shallow, including characters that Baum & Thompson invented and made intelligent and deep. * Neill makes practically everything in Oz alive, including things that Baum never made alive, such as shoes and houses. * Neill made ordinary trees talk and move around; Baum & Thompson only made special plants able to move at all and none able to move from place to place or speak. * Neill made the ruler of the Munchkins the Scarecrow; Baum made him a seperate, unnamed character, and Thompson deposed this character and gave Cheeroibed his post. * Neill made Kabumpo live in the Emerald City and made Ojo his attendant; Thompson had Kabumpo live in Pumperdink and at last mention he had no attendant, while Ojo had moved to Seebania to live with his parents. * Neill made people in the various countries of Oz the actual colors of their countries; Baum & Thompson made them ordinary humans. * Neill confounded Scoodlers, who live to the south of Oz, with Mifkets, who live on an island in the Nonestic Ocean. * Neill put a Boxer in the Emerald City; Thompson had them only living in the Boxwood of Ix. And if I may get a bit ridiculous, * Jack Pumpkinhead won $1,000,000 in court when he sued Neill for claiming that he taught shoes to sing, which no one would be stupid enough to try; The Magical Mimics were forced to pay $1,000,000 in court when they sued Snow for claiming that they tried to invade Oz. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 21:47:37 -0500 (EST) From: Richard Bauman <72172.2631@compuserve.com> Subject: Once Around The EC More on Billina - She was definitely not the semi-famous Yellow Hen of Mo. According to my source she was raised in the USA. She was originally brown but has dyed her feathers yellow. Actually Billina was living in Kansas under that assumed name. Her real name is Clarabelle Cluck. She moved there to escape the constant kidding of the other barnyard animals after the exploits of her son. The infamous "Chicken Little." Eric - You have to watch out for real Sci Fi fans. They are a humorless lot. This is because most of the good science fiction was written before 1960. Since then there has been an unending stream of tech-trash. When that started most of us with any taste migrated to fantasy and have been living there happily ever after. Those who are left in Pure Sci Fi fandom are either under 14 or are skinny, bald-headed guys who bike to work and dream of "Vurt." Won't you admit you are more a fantasy than Sci Fi fan? BTW you are one of the least anal people I have ever read. I doubt you ever hold anything back. :):) Dave Hulan - Welcome to the ranks of the retired! Just think, nothing to do all day but what YOU want to do. And a wife to support you. Hah! We'll see. Now you will really learn the meaning of "honey do." In any event you are a great loss to the "Left Coast." I was looking forward to meeting you at the Winkie Convention in Asilomar. Regards, Bear (:<) ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 00:04:09 -0500 From: DavidXOE@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 to 03-06-96 Try to catch up here, but trying to get ready to move in a couple of weeks as well makes it difficult... Eric Gjovaag: The IWOC has published some of the best of the non-FF books, but they're way behind both BoW (which has published something between 13 and 15 depending on how you count) and Buckethead (which is up into the 30s, I think) in terms of quantity. (The two IWOC Thompsons are pretty inferior, I think, nowhere near her FF books, but the other three are all excellent - WICKED WITCH is much better than HIDDEN VALLEY, I think. Though I may be somewhat influenced by Shanower's superiority over "Dirk" as an artist...) I have the impression that the Heelers were something like Dustbusters with legs... Warren Baldwin: Departmentalizing the Digest would be a lovely thing for the readers, but a major burden on Dave. And since he's the one who's doing all the work, it's clearly his call how much of it he's going to do. Personally, I'm entirely content that the Digest exists at all; I can do my own departmentalizing as I read it. Aaron Adelman: Well, that story was certainly silly enough for Purim.. Tyler Jones: Agree with you entirely re your response to Warren Baldwin - yes, the Oz books are children's stories, but when you still love them as an adult you bring your adult knowledge of the world to reading them, and this produces a different attitude. It's not as if we were wanting to make changes in the books as they stand, or make them into classroom lessons for kids that will take as much fun out of them as studying Shakespeare in college took out of the Bard for me. But what's wrong with a group of adults who love the Oz books treating them "seriously"? Who does it hurt? Eric Gjovaag: I might point out that the 800 number you give for BoW is their mail-order department, which seems to be located in New Hampshire somewhere, and not the store. Still, it's the one people should call to order books or other Oziana. Gili: Great ASCII masthead! I hope Dave has a way to implement it. Barry Adelman: I don't think you -have- to mention it when you use a copyright character with permission - McGraw didn't when she used Kabumpo in FORBIDDEN FOUNTAIN, for instance - but it's more usual. And the copyright owner may be running a bit of a risk if you don't. Any legal experts reading this? Dave Hardenbrook: Certainly Tyler can extend his support to whichever centennial contestant he wishes! (But he has thereby to accept the consequences of the reactions of those he didn't wish to support...) "Slick Ozma III"? Sorry, but I miss the referent. I know that my posting isn't going to be popular - I think Ozma was the favorite Oz character of practically everybody on the board the last poll - but I have my reasons, I do, yesss, preciousss... David Hulan ============================================================================= Date: Wed, 06 Mar 1996 21:36:44 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 > From: DavidXOE@aol.com > Subject: Ozzy Digests 3/1-3/2/96 > > [By the way, since my Sunday message disappeared, we -are- moving to Chicago > around the first of April.] Darn. So I guess I have to mail you my copy of "Glass Cat" to get it autographed, right? (Yes, you can do the same with "Queen Ann.") > Aaron Adelman: > Snow's informant is clearly unreliable; he contradicts other FF writers > almost as much as Neill did, so even when he's not directly contradicted one > needs to take his statements with a generous dollop of salt. Well, Snow does use a television. Make of that what you will... > Rich again: > Kiki Aru encountered a sparrow in Ev that could talk, so some of the birds in > Ev could. On the other hand, when Hank arrived there with Betsy he couldn't > talk until he got all the way to Oz. So maybe there was something special > about Billina - it's hard to say. Maybe birds in Ev can talk, but not other types of animals. > From: Dave Hardenbrook > Subject: Ozzy Things > > Eric wrote: > >I just got a response from the guy who slammed Oz in his post in > >alt.tv.sliders, basically calling me anal ... > > Is this guy by any longshot chance named D. Forgey? If so, I not only know > the guy, but he's the semi-inspiration for the main villian of _Locasta_... > (And I'll be happy to come to your defence ANY time!) To be honest, I don't know who it was, and I don't care. After his last post (private, didn't have the guts to post it in public), I've decided not to have anything else to do with him. --Eric "Gee, not a lot I cared to comment on in this issue, I see" Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 00:13:15 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Sharon said: > I'll wait until Willard Carrol's Little Wizard Stories >that I saw at the last Munchkin convention come out . Those were great >cartoons for Oz fans. Does anyone out there know what the status of this series is? Or how we could get ahold of Carrol to find out? Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 00:18:39 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Guess I'm displaying my ignorance again. No one has asked so I guess everyone but me knows what Apanage is. Could someone explain it to me? Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Thursday 07-Mar-96 01:01:49 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things OZZY _HAUTE CUISINE_: Barry wrote: >While I'm on the subject of asking for theories, where is all the meat people >are eating in Oz coming from? Actually, I was under the impression that the Ozites are ovo-lacto vegetarians (I can't think of any banquet, etc. in Oz in which meat is mentioned)... BAUM SHOULD HAVE SAID "HE/SHE": Estelle E. Klein ( no relation to Barry and Becky :) ) wrote: >Haven't exactly figured out the heads of state, but they must be males- >Baum wrote each was wearing emeralds around HIS neck to show that HE.. IMHO this doesn't folllow--In Baum's day "he" was frequently used to mean both sexes. LOCASTA AND TATTYPOO: Rich Morrissey wrote: >Jack Snow seems to have been the first person to suggest (WHO'S WHO IN >OZ) that the Good Witch of the North (from WIZARD) and Tattypoo (from GIANT >HORSE) were two different women. I had long wanted to write about the Good Witch of the North, but when I saw Snow's entry for her in _Who's Who_ that seems to *BEG* for a "whole book" about her, that's partially where I got the drive to finally sit down and write it! >I like the idea, and the name Locasta, not in any book but a genuine >Baum name for the character in the musical, is certainly a lot more >dignified. I like "Locasta" too, and have never liked the name "Tattypoo" ( sounds too much like "Witchipoo" -- in case there's anyone else here who grew up with Sid and Marty Kroft :) ) Actually, when I first read _Giant Horse_, I thought that was the end of my story about the Good Witch of the North, but then I got the idea for the "real" (Locasta) vs. "fake" (Tattypoo) Good Witches, and with Tyler's help ironing out some of the details, it has worked out! :) ( Now I just pray that Chris Dubalone at Buckethead likes my story as much as I do... :) :) ) SUBSCRIBING AND UNSUBSCIBING: Chris Warkala wrote: >I was interested to see the posting from Dave that we get about two new >subscribers each week but also get two that unsubscribe. I was wondering if >those that do drop out give their reasons. Sometimes. Of those that do, the main complaint seems to be that the Digest is too long and/or frequent. But the traffic on the Digest is great enough ( thankfully :) ) that I can't do otherwise. >Since we do have 90 members though I am disappointed that >it looks as only a group of about 35 of us ever contribute. Actually, greater than 1/3 of members participating is probably a very good percentage for an Internet forum! DAVID'S COMMENTS: David Hulan wrote: >Great ASCII masthead! I hope Dave has a way to implement it. If others like it, I can easily add it to the header... >Certainly Tyler can extend his support to whichever centennial contestant he >wishes! (But he has thereby to accept the consequences of the reactions of >those he didn't wish to support...) As Tyler said, he didn't mean to express support for me at the exclusion of everyone else...And he did mean his comments to be "comic relief"-- He actually hasn't read a word of my writing as yet...No one has, so there is a chance that what I've written stinks. :) :) :) >"Slick Ozma III"? Sorry, but I miss the referent. It's just that this isn't the first time the ineffectualness of Ozma's rule has been brought up...(It first began on Chris Heer's old list) And when it has come up I've always raced to Ozma's defense... ( Although I may send in Dan to do it this time... :) :) ) DOUSING FLAMES: Eric wrote: >To be honest, I don't know who it was, and I don't care. After his last >post (private, didn't have the guts to post it in public), I've decided >not to have anything else to do with him. Actually, I think you're probably very wise... -- Dave "I don't THINK my writing stinks though" Hardenbrook :) ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 8, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 03:46:22 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 Dave/Tyler/et al: Just in case anyone takes the comment seriously about favoritism of Dave's book to win the IWOC book contest. NO ONE has an edge. Absolutely NO ONE. I promise...and as far as Iknow, I'm one of the judges. Meat eating in Oz: Neither Baum nor Thompson has ever shied away from that one. Even Pigasus in WISHING HORSE wants to avoid farmers because he feel whenever a farmer sees him he thinks of slabs of bacon. RPT lightens it up a bit by adding that one farmer captured Pigasus and stuck him in a sty: Pigasus, of course, spread his wings and escaped. David: Finances wouldn't allow a fast trip to Winkies from Chicago? Pete could probably find you a compatible roomie to share expenses with. Airfares have gone down lately, but I don't know how long it'll last. I'm going to L.A. from Houston tomorrow for (gasp) $198! On American Airlines. I'd really like to see you there again. Maybe I'll see you at OzCon. Dunno if I'm going and dunno if you're going. Conventions: How many of us *are* planning to attend an IWOC convention this year? It'd be interesting to meet some of you in person! --Robin O. ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 13:01:08 +0200 (WET) From: Gili Bar-Hillel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 Hi gang! I don't remember exactly who I'm responding to, but even s.f. writers of the more dismal genre seem to like Oz. Anyone else read "Tik-Tok" by John Sladek? Creepy book. Also, I've heard Heinlein sends a bunch of people to Oz in "Number of the Beast"? Hitherto, I will always picture Heelers as dusbusters with legs. I used to joke with Fred Meyer that there was a mutant Heeler living in my mailbox, who thrived on missing copies of "The Baum Bugle" instead of votes. I can just imagine the little creep HOOVERING in my missing Bugles. (BTW - they didn't actually dissappear, they were only late. I didn't know that this is not unnusual behaviour for Bugles. Still, one of the Bugles was *especially* late, and only arrived *after* the next one had already been posted...) |\ _,,,---,,_ /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ Gili |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' '---''(_/--' `-'\_) Cat (c) by Felix Lee ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 07:59:07 -0500 From: lauram@rand.org (Laura J. Morrison) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 From Barry: >I've been wondering why the Cowardly Lion lives in the Emerald City. Maybe he tried ruling and didn't like it, so he abdicated the throne. >While I'm on the subject of asking for theories, where is all the meat people >are eating in Oz coming from? Wasn't Baum a chicken farmer at one point? Didn't people back then (when he and RPT wrote the books) have to kill their own meat or go to the butcher's? Maybe it was just such a normal part of daily life, he didn't think much about it. Maybe he hadn't quite thought out the "eating chicken/talking chicken" thing yet. But then again, maybe all the "eating" chickens and other meats are actually made from tofu, cleverly transformed by magic to look like and taste like the "real" thing. (At least, that's what the package in my grocer's freezer tries to convince me...) ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 06:00:38 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 On "Sliders": Everybody, it's basically a dead issue now, I don't remember who it was, and I don't care anymore, either. But the Oz references in the group are interesting, it shows how much people DON'T know about Oz -- and also that it was quite obvious and most people got it, since just about every day there's a new post or two saying, "Hey, did anybody notice that that last episode was a rip-off of 'The Wizard of Oz'?" Barry, it's MOPPeT that yes, there are "meat plants" out there somewhere, but it just hasn't been brought up in the books much, and they're pretty rare anyway. One story I read a long time ago (in a fan-produced newsletter) has a great name for a tree that bears chicken, turkey, etc. -- a poul-tree! Also, you will note that in "The Wizard of Oz" hat Baum never actually says what the Cowardly Lion hunts. Maybe he was just skulking off to find one of these plants. I may be writing a story for "Oziana" this summer that addresses this very subject. > From: estelle@usa.net (Estelle E. Klein) > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-06-96 > > The Jolly Pocket Postman book is "cute" but costly (20.00) True, but considering the complexity of it, all the inserts, etc., that's not too unreasonable a price, IMHO, when you compare it to other picture books -- or BoW's Oz book reprints. But you can always go to Crown Books and get it for less... > From: Richard Bauman <72172.2631@compuserve.com> > Subject: Once Around The EC > > Actually Billina was living in Kansas... What evidence do you have of THIS? Remember, Dorothy didn't meet Billina until her trip to Australia, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific/Nonestic Ocean. > Eric - You have to watch out for real Sci Fi fans. They are a humorless lot. But real sci-fi fans also read Oz books, it seems, from the number of famous sci-fi writers who are also Oz fans. Methinks the jerk who called me anal, therefore, was NOT a real sci-fi fan . > From: DavidXOE@aol.com > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-03-96 to 03-06-96 > > Eric Gjovaag: > The IWOC has published some of the best of the non-FF books, but they're way > behind both BoW (which has published something between 13 and 15 depending on > how you count) and Buckethead (which is up into the 30s, I think) in terms of > quantity. True. But what I hoped I was implying is that what the IWOC lacks in numbers, they make up for in quality and star power. > From: Dave Hardenbrook > Subject: Ozzy Things > > I like "Locasta" too, and have never liked the name "Tattypoo" ( sounds too > much like "Witchipoo" -- in case there's anyone else here who grew up with > Sid and Marty Kroft :) ) Oh, gads, did you HAVE to bring her up? Now I have the theme to "H. R. Pufenstuf" going through my head... --Eric "H. R. Pufenstuf, he's you're friend when things get rough..." Gjovaag ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 09:15:27 -0500 From: lauram@rand.org (Laura J. Morrison) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 >From Aaron: I propose that the place in the US Billina was raised had an >unusually high magic flux. Didn't you know? She originally hatched on a little farm located at the base of the Quartz Mountains of Arizona, an extremely mysterious and holy place, filled with great magic and power. The power of all the universe is collected by the quartz and reflected back to all who venture near. Poor Billina was yet another victim of living too close to a power plant. >3) Eric, I accept rebuke on my failure to mark MoPPeTs. What's a MoPPet? From DavidXOE: >Personally, I'm entirely content that the Digest exists at all; I second that emotion! Where else can I learn so much Ozzy stuff? From Bill W.: >Guess I'm displaying my ignorance again. No one has asked so I guess >everyone but me knows what Apanage is. Could someone explain it to me? Thank goodness you spoke up! I thought *I* was the only one who didn't know... >From: Dave Hardenbrook >I like "Locasta" too, and have never liked the name "Tattypoo" ( sounds too >much like "Witchipoo" -- in case there's anyone else here who grew up with >Sid and Marty Kroft :) ) H.R. Puffenstuff!!!!!! That and the Banana Splits and the Bugaboos were my favorites! Hey, maybe we could write "Jack and the Magic Flute Come to Oz." >David Hulan wrote: >>Great ASCII masthead! I hope Dave has a way to implement it. and Dave Hardenbrook replied: >If others like it, I can easily add it to the header... Count me in for a YES vote. I loved it! ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 11:16:27 -0500 (EST) From: "Nathanel J. Barlow" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 Bill W. said: > Does anyone out there know what the status of this series is? Or how we > could get ahold of Carrol to find out? I can't remeber for sure, but I believe sometime later this year (fall). The show is an absolute smash in Japan. Nate RociNate -- wiz@CMU.EDU * Red Sox, Patriots, Steelers, Celtics -- nb2b@andrew.cmu.edu * Bruins, Whalers, Pens, UConn, FRINGE ___________________________________________________________________________ |"I've got a bad feeling about this."|"Don't ask me, I'm just improvising"| | --(Take your pick) | --Rush, _Presto_ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- O N T H E E D G E ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 11:29:47 -0500 From: DIXNAM@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest 3/7/96 Dave, I'll vote "yea" for Gili's masthead suggestion, as long as it's no added burden for you. Bill Wright, Maybe the Warkala's can help me here, but my recollection, from the '95 Munchkin Convention was that the "Litle Wizard Stories" cartoons were not expected on TV in this country for another year or two, but were headed for Europe and, I think, Japan, first. The ones we were shown were great! Davis Hulan, wrote: >Personally, I'm entirely content that the Digest exists at all; >I can do my own departmentalizing as I read it. Amen!! Like most subscribers, I'm not interested in every item that appears in the Digest, but I pick and choose what interests me, comment accordingly when I feel the desire to so, and save what I deem useful and informative. But I enjoy reading ALL of it each day. (Thanks, once again, to Dave H! :-) ) Dick Randolph (DIXNAM@aol.com) ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 12:16:09 -0500 From: OZZILEE@aol.com Subject: help Dave, can you help me find Oz collector Scott Elms. Oz package waiting in Minn. without proper address. FED X needs his phone number, not listed, to make arrangements or apt 3 or specific directions. Tracking X7024117752 HELP Lee Jenkins Thank you Love the daily mail ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 08:54:23 -0800 From: Bob Shepherd Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 Sharon Warkala: >Maybe >you can answer the question what did that sword they were selling have to do >with the show? Absolutely nothing, except they have a light in them and they look cool when the lights are turned off. ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 17:31:43 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Barry Adelman: The only reference to the Cowardly Lions kindgom is, I believe, in OZMA OF OZ. Baum mentions that the Lion heard of Ozma and went with his friend the Hungry Tiger to go see who she was. When he got there, he begged to be allowed to stay on. Maybe, after adventuring with Dorothy, he was no longer satisfied with life in the forest, or maybe he had become to civilized to rule a forest and the other animals drove him out. The Lion, of course, would have glossed this over... "Yeah, uh, I just came up here to see what's going on, and please don't make me go back". As to the meat-eating, another question is how did the farmer come to "own" Pajuka in the first place? Animals are treated pretty much the same as human beings "if the behave themselves" according to Dorothy. The farmer owning the goose is virtually slavery if you think about it. I hate to take the easy way out, Barry, but this is just something that was not thought through. In Baums defense, the series was not originally a series, but just one book. He changed things as the series went on, and it was not clear in the first book that ALL animals could talk, although nobody seemed suprised by the Cowardly Lions speech. The only theory I have is that meat dishes are magically created by cooks in "raw" form and then cooked and prepared however people want them. I was particularly shocked at the episode in OJO IN OZ, where Ojo and Realbad kill, cook and eat two birds! Did they beg for mercy and scream with pain as they were being annihilated? Also, since nobody can die in Oz, can we assume that they were still alive as they were being cooked and eaten? This issue was simply not considered in full. In other series, such as NARNIA, only some animals can talk and it is OK to kill and eat non-talking animals. XANTH has meat that grows on trees. Farmer, in his heretical BARNSTORMER, had a logical answer, albeit a cold- blooded one. In the cities, or "human" areas, nobody ate meat at all. In the forest, or wilderness, the gloves came off and humans could eat animals, and vice-versa. Rich Morris: It was indeed Shaggy who asked why the Tin Woodman is an Emperor when he rules a mere kingdom. Also, I believe that the Tyler/Barry theory can explain the anomalies in the parade in ROAD. I also use this theory to explain the visit to the "King of the Munchkins" near the end of OZMA. It has been suggested that this person is Cheeriobed or his father, Obadiah, but the Quiberon issue would surely have come up if it were! Undoubtedly, this was just another minor ruler of the endless kingdoms that make up the Land of Oz. Rich also made a good point about the conversation in MAGIC being in bird language. Also, I forgot that the wren called magic "unlawful", which would imply that he also was from Oz. Chris Warkala: The more the merrier, and the more people we have contributing, the better the digest will be. So to all of you out there (I know you're listening, Tracy!), speak up! We want to hear from you! Aaron: John could still write his story about the "other" origin of the magic picture. Maybe there were TWO magic pictures and Ozma destroyed one of them. For all we know, there are dozens of the things all over the place. Although I still lean toward the philosophy of honor what came first, John can write whatever story he wants to, and I'll cram it into the HACC by hook or by crook! :-) Aaron, if you really tried, you could come up with some clever explanation that "proves" Billina is magical in nature, but what would be the point? Also, wouldn't she (and other animals from the same area) be speaking even in America? I like your Lurline-behind-the-scenes theory much better. Aaron, David, Jack Snow and John R. Neill: I hope this challenge does not turn into a war. For the record, I would pick Snow over Neill any day, and if there is one set of Oz books that have a weird informant, it is Neills. One interesting thing is that Neills three books were virtually of the same quality, while Snow flucuated. I really enjoyed MAGICAL MIMICS while SHAGGY MAN was a disappointment. I rate this in terms of quality of writing, not for accuracy. The only contradiction that I can remember offhand of Snows is his combination of the Guardian of the Gates and the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. I do not consider his/their marriage to Tollydiggle as an inaccuracy, because it was never stated that it was NOT so in any earlier book. BTW, Aaron, for my response to your comment about Baum making the King of the Munchkins a separate, unnamed character, see the above paragraphs. Aaron again: I hate to do this, but the COURT OF CONSISTENCY has been re-opened, and on appeal, I find Jack Pumpkinhead GUILTY of being foolish enough to try to teach shoes to sing. Maybe not stupid, but a few tacos short of a combo plate. Richard Bauman: Much as I don't want to, I have to agree that most of the truly great sci-fi was written before I was born and most of the stuff today gets zero stars from my rating system. David: The last thing I want is for a teacher to say "Ok, class, what did Baum MEAN by this? I want a five page paper by next week". Class: GROAN...... That would squeeze the life out of them. I don't think I concluded my point very well. Growing up and looking at Oz throughan adults eyes does not hurt anyone and is not a bad thing, it's just a fact of life that we must adjust to. To all book writers in the contest: I am not officially "supporting" anyone, since I have not read anybodys story yet. My comments about Daves book were meant to be in the spirit of fun. I hope as many people as possible enter the contest and I hope that the result (whoever wins) is many great Oz stories! :-) Dave: Oh, No! Watch out for WITCHIPOO IN OZ Coming down the Shampoo river! Also: "Look dad! It's Hollys signal! She must be in Oz!" --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 20:03:26 -0500 (EST) From: swarkala@cris.com (Sharon Warkala) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-07-96 Bill W.: The only information I can give you on Willard Carrol's Little Wizard Stories is that they were to be shown in Japan (possibly now) and that Willard's production company was looking for a distributor for the American market. I know that we saw 4 or 5 already completed episodes at last years Munchkin Convention but since that time there has been no new information. Perhaps someone from the IWOC would have more information. Chris Warkala ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 22:06:21 -0500 From: DavidXOE@aol.com Subject: Ozzy Digest 03-07-96 First Digest in a while that I had to read with a word processor... Barry Adelman: MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES explains how the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger came to live in the EC. It's not canonical, but seems like as good an explanation as any. We know that in Oogaboo there's a ham tree (and since it grows on a tree, it's presumably even kosher :-)); no reason there couldn't be trees with other kinds of meats growing elsewhere. (Remember the cut "Garden of Meats" chapter from PATCHWORK GIRL?) OTOH, there are a number of instances, of which Pajuka is only the most prominent, where the slaughter of living (and articulate) animals is implied. Another specific one that comes to mind is the mention in WISHING HORSE of a farmer who captured Pigasus and was going to fatten and slaughter him, only he escaped by flying. I was careful in GLASS CAT to make all the non-magical meals lacto-vegetarian, except when Barry and Becky were in animal form themselves, in which case they ate fish. (It's questionable whether fish in Oz are sentient. The only instances I can recall of fish speaking in FF books are when the fish are really enchanted people - e.g. the Adepts in GLINDA. Does anyone have a counter-example?) Tyler Jones: The only instance I can think of where it's important that the Tin Woodman is the overall ruler of the Winkie Country is in PATCHWORK GIRL, when he says that as ruler of the Winkies he can prevent Ojo from taking the wing of a yellow butterfly because they only occur in the Winkie country and he rules all of it and wouldn't let him. Ozma also used the Magic Picture and the Magic Carpet before TIN WOODMAN, but like the Magic Belt, those were magic devices that Dorothy herself (who is presented as the archetypal non-magic-worker by Baum) could and did use when she wanted to. That is, the magic was in the device and not in the user. True, the sparrow Kiki met might have been from Oz. But you'd have though it would have mentioned it at the time if it were. And sparrows aren't distinguished as long-distance fliers; crossing the desert would have been quite a chore for one. I thought I put a smiley when I took you to task for saying you were sure Dave's book would win the contest. I knew you were kidding, and I was just doing an indignation shtick back. My analysis of Ozma's abilities as a ruler will probably have to wait until after we're settled in Chicago, so don't anyone try to keep your adrenaline up waiting to slam me back... Estelle Klein: Delighted that Rebecca liked GLASS CAT! And since it looks now as if I'll definitely be at Ozmapolitan this year, I'm looking forward to meeting both of you. Rich Morrissey: No, the sparrow was talking to Kiki in his human form. It had watched him change from human to magpie, steal a gold coin, and turn back into a human. Its saying magic was "wicked and unlawful" couldn't be a reference to the laws of Oz, since it presumably knew it was in Ev at the time. (It might have said "wicked, and where I come from it's unlawful" if it were referring to Oz laws.) You're still on the Apanage WL, aren't you? So it's a question as to whether you'll have come up with enough time for it in another two or three years when you've worked your way to the top. Aaron Adelman: OK, so I was exaggerating when I said Snow was "nearly" as bad as Neill. I'll come up with a list of discrepancies in Snow when I get a little time; I know there are some I've discussed with other people, but I need to collect my thoughts on the subject before presenting them, and I'm busy right now. (Aside from the fact that Snow completely ignores all Thompson characters and events...) Richard Bauman: Oh, I don't know, I have a lot of friends who are SF fans and they're far from humorless. There are humorless SF fans, of course, but I don't think they're any worse than most people. And there's quite a bit of good SF being written these days as well, although a lot of it tends to be in the "space opera" vein. Try Doyle & Macdonald, Smith & Trowbridge, Elizabeth Moon, F.M. Busby, Robert Sawyer...all post-1960, and all very good. (Not but what the average quality of SF was better pre-1960, I'll agree with you wholeheartedly on that. But everything today isn't dreck.) Oh, I have a lot that I know I'm going to be doing. Fortunately, Marcia isn't the "honey-do" type; she knows I know (generally better than she does) what needs to be done around the house. I've been doing most of that already. But there are, irrefutably, those 50 hours a week that I've been devoting to getting to and from and being at work that will be available for other things, even if the other things may well involve a good bit of consulting. I might still make it to Winkie. If I get a reasonable amount of consulting work between now and the deadline one of the primary things I want to spend some of it on is going to Winkie. (Hey, I'm an Oz Author now, and I want my kudos!) But it's not as definite as it would have been if we weren't moving. Eric Gjovaag: You can wait till later to decide about mailing GC to me for an autograph; I may still make it to Winkie. See comment above. (And, if necessary, I'll send you QA for reciprocation.) Bill Wright: Apanage is an "apa" - amateur press association - devoted to children's fantasy, or at least that was its original raison d'etre. If you want a description of how an apa works E-mail me privately; I have one already written so it's no trouble. It includes quite a few people who are professionally published children's authors, and quite a few who are fans of children's books. Most of them aren't that crazy about Oz, though. If you want to know more, ask in private E-mail. (I don't think everyone else knows all about it; I think most people just don't care...) Dave Hardenbrook: I know there are some banquets in the FF where meat is mentioned - I've noticed them in passing - but I'd have to look things up to cite specific instances. See my comment to Tyler about his support of your book for the contest. I was kidding, too. David Hulan ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 23:42:01 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: The Garden of Meats Dave (I think you were the one who brought this up), I could swear there are scenes of people in Oz eating meat. And in any case, the scene in _The Lost King of Oz_ with the King and Queen of Kimbaloo discussing that they are going be eating goose for dinner demonstrates that they aren't averse to the idea. One could find ways to account for this, of course, but those ways are fairly grotesque, such as: Queen: Oh, my husband, I have great news for you! Our little kingdom is going to be rich! King: That would be fine. How will this come about? Queen: Well, why don't you listen to our new cook? Compleat Cook: Thank you, m'lady. My proposal is that we capture total strangers who venture into the forest and steal their buttons. Then we plant the buttons, which will grow into button trees, which will make for excellent barter. King: But who will want to buy our buttons if we do such a thing? The people we steal them from will tell their friends when they get home, and we will be branded as outlaws! Compleat Cook: That is the second part of my plan. We will take these people and eat them. I have been looking forward to making a recipe I got from England called "Swift-kabobs." King: Very well, we'll give it a try, just as long as Locasta doesn't find out. And years later, killing innocent sentient geese doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Tyler: That is the sickest, most unozzy thing-- I know, and I wouldn't endorse this sort of solution to the meat problem in general. (And I hope you all reading this agree with me on that, or I will not ever come near you without a bodyguard.) I am wondering if Baum himself was leaning towards the meat-on-a-tree solution. The excised chapter from _The Patchwork Girl of Oz_, "The Garden of Meats," certainly does have a title which leans in that direction. (If only someone had the text...) Meanwhile, could someone answer a question about Till Orangespiegel which I could not infer from the material in _The Frogman of Oz_: What in the world is an owl practicioner? ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 00:00:13 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: No one pushes Glinda around! Tyler: I could see Nick Chopper being an Emperor in name only, but if there is a centralized regional ruler in Oz, it's Glinda. Given her magical ability and her political position, I doubt any of the local rulers would ever dare think of themselves as being on a similar level as her. Meanwhile, does Laumer make use of the wife and kids Volkov gives the Cowardly Lion? ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 23:54:35 -0500 From: JOdel@aol.com Subject: For the Digest Why does the Cowardly Lion live in the Emerald City rather than rule in the forest of the great spider? Well, let's fly this one from the flagpole and see if anyone salutes; The "courage" which was administered by the Wizard is known to be bogus, since the Wizard at that time had no magic. It was supposed that the placebo would satisfy the Lion, who, it is also known was perfectly capable of rising to the occasion when he needed to. Well, in the first flush of confidence after having taken in his bitter drink of "courage", the Lion did indeed go off to rule the forest. He ruled it reasonably well. But, y'know, there are a lot of things in a forest which can startle those of nervous disposition. And before too long the Lion was feeling his heart going pitty-pat as much as ever. He put a good face on it. Most of his subjects never guessed. The only person he told was his friend the Tiger. But he wasn't very happy being the King of the forest. So when Ozma took over the throne, and the Scarecrow remained in the Emerald City, the Lion got the bright idea of giving up his throne as well. He named a successor, and departed in a show of grandeure, with the intention of "visiting his old friend the Scarecrow". Once he got to the Emerald City and looked the Scarecrow up he was pretty sure that he would be invited to stay - which was the case. ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 00:08:17 -0500 (EST) From: jnw@vnet.net Subject: Lions and meat BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN writes: > I've been wondering why the Cowardly Lion lives in the Emerald City. In MAGIC when the Cowardly Lion meets Gugu, he claims to be King of all beasts the world over. Perhaps this is a translation error and he really meant that he was King of all beasts in Oz. The Lion is also said to have fought and conquered Kalidahs, presumably when he still thought he was fearless. He may have decided to return to the Emerald City after realizing that he was still cowardly. Ozma might have given him the title "King of all beasts". (That seems like the sort of thing she would do.) > While I'm on the subject of asking for theories, where is all the meat people > are eating in Oz coming from? That's a very good question. There are many references to talking creatures eating other talking creatures. In OZMA, Billina states that the bugs in Oz are the best, in D&W the cab horse is served roast quail, in TIN WOODMAN Woot is nearly eaten by a Jaguar, in GLINDA Button Bright is also nearly eaten. In PATCHWORK GIRL Mr. Yoop not only wants to eat Dorothy, but strongly implies that he has eaten little girls in the past. In E. CITY Toto actually eats some of the residents of Bunbury. > (I think the incident with Mombi trying to make dinner of Pajuka is probably > anomalous; she must have been lying about where she was getting the goose > meat from ... The book makes it clear that the King himself bought the goose for the purpose of dinner. He even joked about it with the Queen while the goose was supposedly being cooked. All this is in stark contrast with the way things are in Narnia, where there is a clear distinction between talking and non-talking animals. In SILVER CHAIR, for instance, the party is warmly welcomed by some giants. At dinner, while eating some stag that the giants gave them, they hear one giant comment that the stag is tender. Another says that the stag was a liar, then, since the stag said that he was too old and tough to eat. When the party hears this they react as if they had learned that they had been eating a baby, and they realize that they must escape ASAP. Sure enough, they soon discover a cookbook on a table. It is opened to the recipe for man-pie. -- jnw@vnet.net (John N. White) ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 00:27:35 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Possible Copyright Violations in Oz My brother and I were wondering, to what extent may places from copyrighted books be mentioned without permission? Also: based on yesterday's post, do I gather correctly that Locasta isn't copyrighted at all? After all, Baum did invent the Good Witch of the North and the name for her. (No, I don't have plans for Locasta in Lurline's Machine.) Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Friday 08-Mar-96 00:00:55 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things CONVENTIONS: Robin O. wrote: >How many of us *are* planning to attend an IWOC convention >this year? It'd be interesting to meet some of you in person! Unless a major disaster occurs , I'll almost certainly be at the South Winkie Convention...There is also a slim chance I might make it to the main Winkie Convention (I'd sure love to!) but probably not until next year... "I'M PRACTISG. MY ABBREVS. FOR AN IMPRTNT. SCHL. ASSGMNT." (-- Sally, "Peanuts") :) : Laura J. Morrison wrote: >What's a MoPPet? Maybe this is a good time for me to post version 1.2 of the Official Ozzy Digest abbreviations list: FF - The "Famous Forty" (i.e. the 40 original "official" Oz books) EC - The Emerald City (Famous Oz locale) PD - Public Domain (Books, etc. no longer protected by copyright) LFB - L. Frank Baum (Oz's "discoverer") ILL - Inter-Library Loan (Good way to borrow hard-to-find Oz books) BoW - Books of Wonder (Ozzy publisher) ECP - Emerald City Press (Subsiduary of BoW) BEOO - Buckethead Enterprises of Oz (another Ozzy publisher) IWOC - International Wizard of Oz Club (The worldwide Ozzy Fan Club) RCOO - Royal Club of Oz (Another Ozzy Club & another subsiduary of BoW) HACC - Historically Accurate Chronological Chain (Historical Flow of Oz books) IMHO - "In My Humble Opinion" (Common Internet-ese) IIRC - "If I Recall Correctly" ISTR - "I Seem To Recall" FWIW - "For What It's Worth" MOPPeT - "My Own Personal Pet Theory" (Invented by our own Eric Gjovaag!) ^^^^^^ THUMBS UP FOR THE DIGEST: Dick Randolph wrote: >But I enjoy reading ALL of it each day. (Thanks, once again, to Dave H! > :-) ) AHHHH! More praise! :) :) :) "KILLING" OZ FOR KIDS: Tyler wrote: >The last thing I want is for a teacher to say "Ok, class, what did Baum >MEAN by this? I want a five page paper by next week". >Class: GROAN...... >That would squeeze the life out of them. PEPPERMINT PATTY: Our class went to a "Young People's Concert"...After I heard the music I thought it was great! So what happens? Now we have to write a five hundred word theme on the concert! But I guess that's what education is for...To keep us from enjoying ourselves! -- From "Peanuts" This is the main reason I'm glad the Oz books *aren't* taught in school! :) But this is NOT what Tyler and others are out to do -- No one's trying to look for metaphorical satire in in the Glass Cat or allegorical symbolism in Scraps' poems! (At least, I HOPE no one is!) :) :) :) SID AND MARTY KROFF IN OZ: Tyler wrote: >Oh, No! Watch out for WITCHIPOO IN OZ Coming down the Shampoo river! Other possiblities: HORATIO J. HOODOO IN OZ, SIGMUND THE SEA MONSTER IN OZ, THE LOST SAUCER IN OZ...I'd better stop before I get *really* silly... :) BTW, does anyone else have a very vague memory of seeing many years ago a Halloween TV special in which Margaret Hamilton (as Bastinda of course) and Witchipoo meet at at a haunted castle and really hit it off? TIK-TOK: Here's a weird conundrum that struck me the other day...Maybe someone ( especially Eric with his "Tik-Tok" hat on :) ) can answer it...Or else you can dismiss it as another inane post from Dave. :) -- If the Powder of Life were sprinkled on Tik-Tok, what would happen to him? If nothing else, would he never have to be wound again? :) -- Dave ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 9, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Thu, 07 Mar 1996 23:25:05 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: I have received a query from a mother looking for an Oz coloring book for her kids. Does anyone on the Digest know of the availability of an in-print Oz coloring book? Not a collectors item. Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 09:09:54 -0500 (EST) From: "Nathanel J. Barlow" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-08-96 Okay, here's some more on the Little Wizard series than I had time to write yesterday. As I said, they are an absolute smash in Japan. There is a merchandise store (similar to a Disney or Warner Brothers store) which has been so successful that they might open a second one. I can't remember exactly when they are to be released here--late this year or early next year, I believe. There should also be video tape releases--I can't remember if those will come before or after the television release. Nate RociNate -- wiz@CMU.EDU * Red Sox, Patriots, Steelers, Celtics -- nb2b@andrew.cmu.edu * Bruins, Whalers, Pens, UConn, FRINGE ___________________________________________________________________________ |"I've got a bad feeling about this."|"Don't ask me, I'm just improvising"| | --(Take your pick) | --Rush, _Presto_ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- O N T H E E D G E ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 09:11:39 -0500 (EST) From: MICHAEL TURNIANSKY Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-08-96 > H.R. Puffenstuff!!!!!! That and the Banana Splits and the Bugaboos were my > favorites! Hey, maybe we could write "Jack and the Magic Flute Come to > Oz." Oy! Several corrections: Your Sid and Marty Krofft knowledge has fled you. 1) I think you mean the Bugaloos, here. 2) The boy's name was "Jimmy", not "Jack" (were you referring to Jack Pumpkinhead, perhaps?) (The flute was Tommy) 3) H.R. Pufenstuf spelled his name with single "f"'s, but that's an easy mistake to make. 4) The Banana Splits you implied were by the Kroffts. They were not. They were Hanna-Barbera. Others that _were_ Sid and Marty Krofft shows were: Lidville, Sigmund and the Sea Mosnters, Far Out Space Nuts, The Lost Saucer, et al. Stick to Oz :-) Rich Morrisey: Nice to have you aboard. Dave Hardenbrook: I seemsed to have missed an issue (last Friday, Saturday or Sunday I think). I must assume my ISP's system was misbehaving. Can you re-send it? It should have: Aaron's purim Oz-thing, and the original call for bumper stickers/license plates of Ozites. --Mike "Shaggy Man" Turniansky ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 09:54:17 -0500 (EST) From: Michael F Burns Subject: Death and Oz OH NO!!! HE'S BACK!!! Hi everyone! I am currently reading Wicked:The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which by the by, IMHO, is one of the most richly rewarding reading experiences I have had of late. Definitely not for everyone. Keep your kids away from this and definitely Aaron too! The reason I bring this up is that one of the things discussed in the course of the book is the difference between Animals(sentient creatures ruled by intellect) and animals (driven by instinct) . Killing and eating animals is treated pretty much as it is here in the Outside World whereas killing Animals is considered murder. In the Wizard of Oz, Baum at least implies that this distinction exists in his Oz as well. In the scene where Nick Chopper kills the wildcat chasing the Queen of the Field Mice, the scene where the heroes kill the bees, crows, and wolves the Witch sends after them, the Giant Spider... I'm sure there are more that can be pointed out as well. Unless you want to accept all of your favorites as multiple murderers, unworthy of our respect and admiration, it would seem to me to follow that there is some possibly random effect that marks some of the animals in Oz as Animals and equal to human or humanoid life in Oz. Going back and saying that nobody eats meat and nobody dies just because you don't like that fact seems pretty simple-minded to me. Death is present in Oz as it is everywhere else. There have never been any Baumian equivalents of the Jains checking to make sure that nothing that lives is ever harmed. One of the posters a couple of weeks back said that in reference to Dorothy killing untold hundreds of Nomes that he preferred to believe that that never happened. Fine. That doesn't change the fact that it did. Nor should it alter any pleasure you might derive from reading the books. We all seem to have a multiplicity of ways we read the books, some of us preserving them in some mystical childhood place where we edit and gloss over the things we don't like. Some of us like to look at the issues raised in the books that we never considered when we read them as children but which are very much interesting to us as adults. My own: I find the story of Nick Chopper particularly poignant. A flesh and blood man is systematically robbed of his human identity, through no fault of his own and yet struggles to hold onto his humanity so strongly that he receives great comfort from the Wizard's gift, and forms a deep, lasting friendship with a living scarecrow that was never "human" to begin with. Even Ruth Thompson's Royal Book has resonances for me about the depth of friendship and what goes into making up a family. Dave, help me! I lost my way again! Oh wait... Ozma and Oz Forever!!! ;-) I've really got to start writing these things down first! You know, put my thoughts in order. Form coherent sentences. Complete a thought. Any way, my best to Gili. I can only hope and pray for the best for you and yours. Bye!! Mike ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 07:47:36 -0800 (PST) From: Peter Hanff Subject: Science Fiction and Oz Dave, Eric Gjovaag prompted me to forward yesterday's message to you. The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, is the oldest research library in California (founded in 1859). Bancroft does not collect children's books, science fiction, or fantasy as such (but, of course, as a large special collections library of rare books and manuscripts, we certainly have representation of each of the genres). Zeitlin & Ver Brugge was a large rare book firm in Los Angeles from the 1920s into the 1980s. It specialized in the history of science and medicine. Squires, a major science fiction collector, sometime publisher, and bibliographer, managed the public desk for a number of years in the 1960s. Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 7 Mar 1996 07:49:51 -0800 (PST) From: Peter Hanff To: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Science Fiction and Oz Eric, Of course you are right about Science Fiction and Oz interests not being antithetical. Bumped into Ray Bradbury at the big International Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles on February 17. I sidled up to him and said, "I understand you have an interest in the Oz Books." "Since I was ten years old!" he responded without a blink. I then introduced myself and gave him my Bancroft Library business card. I also talked with him briefly about the late Roy Squires, with whom I worked many years ago at Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, was a mutual friend. Bradbury reminded me that Roy had published a number of limited edition short works by Bradbury. Squires might not have been a fan of Oz, but he was enthusiastic about my enthusiasm and introduced me to "The Literary Rescue Society" in Hollywood so I could address them about Baum. There were a number of science fiction fans in that group and some were keenly interested in Baum and his work (among them the wife of A. E. Van Vogt, who invited my friends and me up to their house to join still another party after my lecture). And a particularly vital fan of Oz is Harlan Ellison who addresses the viewers of the SciFi Channel from time to time. One of his presentations includes a tour of his own Oz collection and he extols the virtues of the Oz books. But you knew all that!. Peter ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 13:29:31 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Billina: She was not necessarily living in Kansas. She was probably from a farm in the central California valley. She mentioned automobiles, so she was undoubtedly was somewhere in the U.S. On the existence of the Ozzy digest: Praise be to all for it! :-) :-) :-) David: I'm sure that you did put a smiley face or two in there to let me know that you were kidding. For some reason, I thought that you misunderstood things, but I think we've cleared things up. Good luck to all! David and Aaron: IMO in was a mistake for Snow to ignore Thompsons and Neills stuff, because that broke the continuity of the series. He felt that the latter two had made Oz very Un-Baumian, and he was trying to fix what he saw as a problem. Barry: Down with the Compleat Cook! The Court of Consistency finds him evil and un-Ozzy, and he is hereby banished to the far reaches of nilspace. The "Owl Practitioner" was a nickname that Til Orangespiegal gave himself. The reason is explained in THE MAGIC MIRROR OF OZ. Ironically, this is the very book that I am skimming right now in my quest for Dorothys degree. I'll let you know as soon as I find the answers. More Laumer Information: Aaron and/or Barry, while I have not found Dorothys degree, I did turn up some interesting trivia. Professor Nowitalls first name is Eydoant. The Wogglebug, anxious to get a degree before starting up his college, goes to Western Kentucky Christian College at Cay Why, KY. D'OH! I forgot HIS degree, too. I'll look it up tonite. FLASH! Both Laumer and the Random House books gave Mr. Tinkers name as Ezra P. Tinker. This cannot be a coincidence! Can anyone provide insight? Mar Supial (The Careless Kangaroo from EMERALD CITY, whose first name can be spelled with one R or two, depending on your mood), has five children: Plonch, Zelix, Tronto, Meluel and Ophrid. Polychrome (who went to school at the Wogglebugs college and got speed- degrees via the magic pills in Art and Philosophy) has, believe it or not, NINETEEN sisters! The 20 girls are icosatuplets (they all look alike). Are you ready for their names? Aurora, Iris, Vattenande, Prism, Opal, Raduga, Arcenciel, Tien Kang, Naiad, Alouette, Pluvia, Curcubeu, Sateenkaari, Regenvlaag, Aquarelle, Lucy, Farvespil, Arcobaleno and Roong. (YIKES!) Fex (The college registrar), fell in love with Polychrome, but rapidly transfered it to Arcenciel after he found out that Polychrome... Barry again: OK, it is true that, in all likelihood, no local ruler in the Quadling country would do anything evil, both out of fear of punishment by Ozma AND Glinda. However, my point was that Glinda (and the other quadrant rulers) never DO anything as quadrant ruler. Even Glinda apparantly rules by reputation only. I still believe that the vast majority of day-to-day operations (even in the south) are handled on a local basis. Of course, this could change if someone writes a story that has Glinda actively involving herself with a problem in one of her kingdoms or arbitrating a dispute between to kingdoms. One more thing: besides my mention of Nick Chopper in HIDDEN VALLEY and Davids remark about Nick intervening to protect all yellow butterflys, Glinda did do a few things: She set up the Cuttenclips and Bunnybury as kingdoms. As far as I know, The Lions wife and kids are never mentioned by Laumer. Jodel@AOL.COM: Good idea for the Lion. I would lean toward the explanation given in MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES (I forgot what it was at the moment), unless there is a compelling reason not to. John White: Since Ozma named the Sawhorse "King of all horses in Oz", she could just as easily have named the Cowardly Lion as the de facto ruler of all beasts in Oz. The Lion (or Ozma), in a fit of arrogance, could have expanded his geographical base a little bit. Aaron: I am not sure, but I think that places may be mentioned, but not visited. I am sure that someone else knows a little more than I do. The Good Witch of the North is not copyrighted, but the name Locasta will be when Dave publishes his book. ON OZ CONVENTIONS: When and where is the southern Winkie one? And how do I sign up? Dave: Thanks for the support! I've had more than enough of symbolism and looking for deeper meaning in High School English. "All we do with these things is look for multiple meaning. Can't people accept that a long time ago, some guy just wanted to write a story for the fun of it and that's it?" One of my classmates, 1987. On Powder of Life and Tik-Tok: Tik-Tok is not "alive", but he IS self-aware. IMHO, if we sprinkled him with the stuff, he would never need winding again. Interestingly, March Laumer had Tik-Tok supplied with a self-winding mechanism in his foot. When he stepped down, a magical spring would wind him up a little bit, so that he would never run down. --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 09:51:08 -0500 From: DIXNAM@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest 3/8/96 Robin O asked; "How many of us are planning to attend an IWOC convention this year? It'd be interesting to meet some of you in person!" I'll be at the Munchkin Convention in August, Robin, will you? And who else? (I'm sure the Warkalas will be there!) Dick Randolph (DIXNAM@aol.com) ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 08 Mar 1996 12:11:14 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: A Game Show in Oz 1) I managed to get Roger S. Baum's Dorothy of Oz this week through ILL, and I'd like to abandon my normal format for reviews for something a little different... --- Prasmthrasm: Hi, I'm Prasmthrasm the Infinite-Necked Wizard, and this is Guess the Informant, the game show where the contestants have to guess the informant for an Oz book. Today's book is Dorothy of Oz by Roger S. Baum, and our contestants are Professor Wogglebug the President of the Royal Athletic College of Oz, Nalrodi the Mind-Reader the Undisputed Expert on Magic of Antozia, and Blogo the Rare Beast. Blogo: Hi, Mom! Prasmthrasm: I assume that you all have read the book, so let's begin. Blogo: