] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 1 - 2, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 16:06:55 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: that jolly Oz elf Sender: "J. L. Bell" On the origin of Santa's red and white suit, I found the source I'd paraphrased before. Frederick Allen's history of the Coca-Cola Company, SECRET FORMULA (Harper, 1994), states on page 8: "There was no popular version of Santa as a round, ruddy fellow in a white suit with fleecy white piping until [artist Haddon] Sundblum invented it in a series of Christmas ads for Coke." Sundblum's holiday ads started appearing in 1931. He also created the images of Aunt Jemima and the Quaker (as in oats). On the other hand, in his introduction to the Dover edition of Baum's LIFE & ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS (1976), Martin Gardner wrote: "[Thomas] Nast...replaced the fur [that Santa wore in 'The Night Before Christmas'] with a red satin suit trimmed with white ermine. The pointed hat, cow-hide boots and wide black belt were other Nast touches." So which authority is correct on Santa's clothing? Which artist deserves credit for our popular image of him? For answers I turned to E. Willis Jones's THE SANTA CLAUS BOOK (Walker, 1976). And, as often happens when one examines gradual change, the answers are "neither" and "both." Nast drew Santa for HARPER'S WEEKLY from 1863 to 1886. In these engravings Santa always wore a fur suit, usually with a wide belt, short fur boots, and a fur hat trimmed with holly. When Nast left the magazine, the publishing firm McLaughlin Bros. asked him to adapt his latest Santa art for a new book, SANTA CLAUS AND HIS WORKS, by George P. Webster. The McLaughlins were pioneering the use of color printing in children's books. Jones writes, "This posed a problem for the artist, because he had always thought of the Santas he drew in black ink as wearing a tannish fur suit, which certainly would not contribute to colorful illustrations. The simple solution was to make Santa's suit in a bright red, and to add a little contrast he trimmed it with white ermine fur" (p. 71). Nevertheless, Nast's first red-suited Santa is still a way from our modern image. He wears fur, not woven cloth. The garment's cut is like a set of pajamas with feet. The ermine trim is slight, running around his waist in place of a belt, and appears in some pictures only. Santa's hat has a small peak, and he wears fur shoes, not leather boots. In 1890 the McLaughlins published Nast's CHRISTMAS DRAWINGS FOR THE HUMAN RACE, which moved Santa further toward the image we know: he wears buckled shoes and a wide belt--but he's still in fur, and the ermine piping runs down the front of his coat only. Furthermore, Nast's red-suited Santa still wasn't the standard at the turn of this century. Other artists showed him dressed in different colors and styles. McLaughlin Bros. issued one edition of NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS in two states, one printing Santa's suit as green and one as brown. Maxfield Parrish's 1896 portrait of Santa shows two rows of big buttons on his chest. Mary Cowles Clark's illustrations for LIFE & ADVENTURES (1902) dress Claus alternately in green and red. DENSLOW'S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (1902) depicts Santa in green with breeches and stockings, and his December 1904 comic page "Dorothy's Christmas Tree" shows the Tinman dressing up as Santa in a red coat with bristly brown trim. Neill's illustrations for ROAD (1909) don't include color, of course, but he drew Santa's suit with lots of fur piping and picked up the hat with holly sprigs from Nast (p. 243). After World War 1, the popular image of Santa settled down. A 1925 painting by N. C. Wyeth for COUNTRY GENTLEMAN called "Old Kris" showed a shifty-eyed, big-nosed gent in a red cloth coat and long pointed hat, both trimmed with white fur. There's even a jingle bell on the end of that hat. That's six years before Sundblum started painting Santa Claus for Coke. Jones does credit Sundblum with fixing the image of Santa in Americans' minds as a tall, jolly man, rather than a short, sometimes irascible elf. His book even uses a detail from one of those Coke ads for its front cover. So while we can say that Nast began the popular depiction of Santa in red and white, and Sundblum fixed his image for the latter two-thirds of this century, they worked on either end of a long evolutionary process involving many fine artists. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 16:52:45 -0500 (EST) From: Saroz Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 In a message dated 97-12-31 15:38:18 EST, you write: << Jellia: But can someone please explain to me again, slowly and carefully, preferably with diagrams, what Dorothy has to do with homosexuality?? >> I had a hard time figuring this out too, Dave, particurally when I saw a hand- blown glass ornament of Dorothy advertised in a catalog as "Dorothy, the quissential gay icon...she was around even before the ribbon!" My mother, however, suggested that it isn't really Dorothy, but _Judy Garland_ (who was somewhat suspected of being gay) they're using as an icon...and as a result their icon is her most famous role. Sarah ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 14:35:36 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 Bear (and Dave), > Bob - Copies of LWS are readily available. If not locally > from Amazon. I can report success in my quest for LWS. Went to one Barns & Noble and two Borders to find it, but I now consider myself fully supplied (so far). Thanks, Bob Spark Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 20:46:45 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Dave: >Jellia: But can someone please explain to me again, slowly and carefully, preferably with diagrams, what Dorothy has to do with homosexuality< The gay parade of "My Fellow Americans" was staged right here in good old Asheville, NC. And there was a big write-up in one of our local free papers about it. The parade featured guys dressed as MGM's Dorothy (as opposed to Dorothy of the book). As to the diagram, can't give you an exact one, except there seems to be an identification with famous, talented women who lived tragic lives & died tragic deaths. Judy Garland was one. Another gay guy I knew was fascinated with Sylvia Plath &, to a lesser degree, Patsy Cline. Patsy Cline was a singer who died young, & the poet Sylvia Plath suffered bouts of depression and finally took her own life. Jellia: Ouch! I'm glad things like that don't happen in Oz anymore. Ozma: And never will again, if I have anything to say about it. My subjects enjoy good mental as well as physical health. So there's a *vague* diagram for you. Anybody got one more exact? Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 20:45:53 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" JL Bell: >Tip had no such responsibilities, of course, so it's hard to guess how he would have responded to them.< I imagine His Majesty Prince Tippetarius of Oz running out and climbing trees or skipping stones across the royal pond after a long, hard day of holding court. :-) Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 18:18:09 -0800 From: Ken Cope Subject: Dorothy and the Drag Queens of Oz Jellia Jamb asks us all: > But can someone please explain to me again, slowly and carefully, > preferably with diagrams, what Dorothy has to do with homosexuality?? If this is a puzzlement to you, Jellia, I'd suggest dressing up in your best lettuce-accented pale green number, visit just about any gay bar in Garden Grove or West Hollywood or the Castro, and, by way of introduction, let everybody know you enjoy presenting online as a delightful little servant girl called Jellia Jamb, and that you're wondering if anybody can fill you in on all this about "friends of Dorothy." One short answer is that Oz is America's own best beloved fairyland. The next short answer is the cult of Judy Garland. Her Dorothy's alienation and quest for what lies beyond the rainbow had become anthematic among no small percentage of those among us most blithely condemned by the mainstream that needs some group to which they can feel superior, you blithe spirit, you. Judy Garland has inhabited many personae over her lifetime, and drag queens have impersonated all of them. Even her singing daughter has had to contend with this reality. Life IS a Cabaret, after all. The Stonewall riots (or was it the Cristopher Street riots? I'm blurry about this, and hope somebody else will be more precise) in New York came about when some homophobic men in blue decided it was time to crack down on gay bars on the wrong night. Their targets were mourning the death, on the day of her funeral, of Judy Garland. Those cops messed with the wrong crowd. The event became a catalyzing force in a movement for personal and political acceptance and power, a movement with powerful opposition. Many of the self-righteously opposed are not as secure in their gender roles as they profess to be. These people are afraid to heed the call of, "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" How unimaginative and unobservant, to count only two genders, or to legislate that one should behave only as a boy or a girl "should" throughout one's entire life. Face it, Homosexuality is the last "group" that so many think should be "liquidated" and that includes the "liberal" view that they be educated and rehabilitated out of their "illness," just like we should have done with those pesky redskins (!). The rainbow has become a flag and an icon; the song, _Somewhere Over the Rainbow_, an anthem. To find acceptance in such a strange and colorful place, among such curious people, and to ultimately become secure in the person you always were has emboldened many to follow Dorothy down that yellow brick road. Or you can stay in Kansas, if you like. As time and culture changes, infinite diversity in infinite combinations will be celebrated more universally, if the trend continues, and is no mere trend. I hope I will not be judged an optimist in this respect. It should be noted, of course, that Oz has always been an integral part of the culture of Theatre and showbiz, in all of its permutations, this century. If you need me to explain to you in any great detail about those dreaded Thespians, and the things they do, and the costumes and makeup they wear, well. It isn't for the faint-hearted. You may or may not enjoy the Australian film _Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_. At least the giant slipper is silver. If you're looking for some more pictures, I was looking for a way to recommend a particular series of comic books to the list, and this happens to be one way to do so. Ahem: *** _The Sandman_ by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by many. Here is a URL for a fan site that contains the FAQ and the like: http://www.holycow.com/dreaming/ Some people say it's a series of graphic novels about the anthropomorphic personification of Dream, Morpheus the King of Dreams. I would recommend it over just about anything else in graphic novels these days; there is much meat for an Oz fan, and your literary horizon will be expanded. I particularly recommend _The Season of Mists_ in which Lucifer quits his job, boots everybody out of Hell, and hands Morpheus the key to "...the most desirable piece of psychic real estate in the whole order of created things..." The second (of 10) story arc of _The Sandman, _The Doll's House_, contains an incidental character named Hal, who dresses professionally in drag. In part 6, we are shown a dream of his, containing the fragment I'll recount. As Hal tries to slip back into the dream he was having, was it about Bette? Marilyn? Judy? We are shown 3 panels. One contains Dorothy, tugging at her cheeks like they were a mask. "Of course, this isn't my REAL face, Hal." The next panel shows Margaret Hamilton's witch face, revealed as the mask is removed by the wearer of the blue gingham dress and pigtails, "And THIS isn't my real face either." The last panel reveals Frank Morgan's Wizard, still in pigtails and gingham, holding two masks, "Hal, you'll have to HELP me. I'm running out of hands." I wouldn't want you to think that the series is "about" homosexuality. Everybody dreams, and in Gaiman's story, Morpheus is responsible for everybody's dreams, while being the hopelessly gothic tragic romantic (quite het apparently, for what it's worth, though he does appear as a cat when he visits Bast in her dreams, so who knows). The series is suggested for mature readers. I don't know what could possibly have prevented you from reading all of them, if you've read any one of them. At the least, you will find more than one Ozian making cameo appearances. Dr. Fredric Wertham and Rev. Donald Wildmon would not approve. *** As for Dorothy and the Drag Queens of Oz, Pop culture and its icons are used by many subcultures to help define and identify themselves, one to another. For instance, I was looking on the web for information about Thespians, so I looked up Blithe Spirit's author "Noel Coward" in Yahoo, and clicked the first URL that came up: http://members.aol.com/sirnoelcow/index.html As it loaded a .wav file popped up with Noel Coward's voice saying what sounded to me like the words "frightfully gay." Of course it is unwise these days, to leap to any conclusions about anybody, based just on things they say and books and authors they like, and quote. But the site contained a link to a very lavendar page with some great Tallulah stories, so I'm starting to get suspicious. I am always interested in another's point of view. --Ken Cope Ozcot Studios pinhead@ozcot.com-- Our first business will be to supervise the making of fables and legends, rejecting all which are unsatisfactory; and we shall induce nurses and mothers to tell their children only those which we have approved. --Plato "The Republic" ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 15:32:26 -0600 From: Tim Allison Subject: connection between Oz/Gay parade In West Hollywood there is a store called Surrender Dorothy, which sells a rather eclectic bunch of nostalgia and novelty items. I asked about the connection, and was told that first, Judy Garland has always been a favorite with female impersonators, and secondly, she has always been viewed empathically by many gay men. In other words, it is more Judy and the movie, not Baum and the book. You will notice it is ruby, not silver slippers Carol ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 3, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 19:28:33 -0800 From: ozbot Subject: ozzy digest X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Hi, everybody! Long time no speaketh! I'm afraid I've been a lurker so long, not many of you probably remember me. Well, just remember I will be watching, and just one thing before I slip back into lurker mode Santa Clothes-- I happened to be going thru my Little Nemo collections (reprints of Winsor McKay's fantastically beautiful turnofthecentury newspaper comic strips (the full color kind that took up a whole newspaper page)) You can add Winsor McKay to an early "recognizable" Santa-- 1908 found McKay's Santa just as tall, plump, and RED (the only discrepancy would be a brown fur trim instead of white.) Earlier depictions were similar, but not quite consistent-- instead of a red coat it was a long red robe(1907) and just previous to that, green (also 1907.) The boots-the pointed hats, long white beard-- this is the CokeaCola Santa but three years early! Danny ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 22:38:50 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Ruth: Caught me on a technicality :-) In other words, you can write about the GWN as the GWN, but not using the name "Tattypoo" or in her capacity as Queen Orin of the Ozure Isles. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 11:16:44 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 > > Steve Teller's comment about Neill's WONDER CITY manuscript caused me to > wonder: > < as in the printed version, and it did contain the youthening [of Jenny] > although not the "lobotomy." The Ozlection was not in the original.>> > > Earlier I wrote, "I looked in my copy to confirm that Neill did illustrate > the additions." But that was when I thought the house battle and Jenny's > age change were among them. Neill did *not* illustrate voters lining up for > the Ozlection, and he did *not* illustrate the removal of the wasp, snake, > and toad from Jenny's personality--and both subjects were quite > illustrable. (He didn't illustrate the Heelers, either, but they only > appear in darkness.) Jenny's expression on page 315 is a bit vacant (and I > don't like the way the Wizard is looking at her!), but that's not > necessarily lobotomized. In other words, Neill-the-illustrator didn't work > to support the editorial additions to Neill-the-writer's manuscript. That > undercuts their reliability as Oz-history. > > J. L. Bell While it is true that the scenes memtioned were not in the original MS and are not illustrated there are scenes that are illustrated that are not in the original MS. I will need to have a copy of the printed book before me but the scene of Jenny's arrival in the middle of Ozma's birthday party is not in the MS. I will have a fuller list of additions later today. Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 14:11:20 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-29-97 RE: "The" illustrator As I remarked at the '96 Munchkin Con, I think for many of us "boomers", Copelman is "the" illustrator for "Wizard". The Urey illustrations, which R&L used for their first "Wizard", are not unlike Neill. c.f. the Urey "Tin Woodman". Dave wrote: >Since Books of Wonder has reprinted all the _Little Wizard Stories_ in >one volume, Not for the first time, I believe.... >Anyway, I >really didn't like what I saw as Thompson sentencing the Good Witch of >the North to "death" for not being young and beautiful. Hmmm.... I really saw it as making a virtue of necessity while disposing of a hopelessly loose loose end. (After so many years of invisibility, could the GWN have been brought back to literary life as though she'd been there all the time?) >Since Books of Wonder has reprinted all the _Little Wizard Stories_ in >one volume, Not for the first time, I believe.... // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 14:24:51 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-02-98 Melody G. Keller wrote: >As to the diagram, can't give you an exact one, >except there seems to be an identification with famous, talented women who >lived tragic lives & died tragic deaths. I think death is optional. I keep wondering why I haven't encountered a gay cult of Mira Furlan ("Delenn" from "Babylon 5"). Speaking of "Babylon 5", this would be a good time to point out to U.S. digesters that that series is starting this Sunday, January 4, on the TNT cable channel, with a new 2-hour prequel, a new re-edit of the original 2-hour pilot, and reruns of the first four years Monday-Friday, with the fifth and climactic year due to start in a few more weeks on Wednesday nights. While the vision of "Babylon 5" is rather too dark to be precisely "Ozzy", it is completely without rival as a successful creation of a secondary universe for television. // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 16:21:39 -0500 From: David Levitan Subject: Ozzy Digest I would like to purchase the BoW editions of the Wizard of Oz, Land of Oz, and Ozma of Oz. However, I know that the covers on them are not the originals. Does anybody know if they will have a reprint soon with the original covers? Thanks -- David Levitan wizardofoz@iname.com ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 12:43:10 -0500 From: Laura Subject: hi Dave - I am Rachel and my dad and I would like to get a copy of the script and all the lyrics to wizard of oz. we love wizard of oz and want to play act it. [Anyone who can help Rachel, please E-mail her privately. -- Dave] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 15:42:45 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Wonder City Illos This is in response to J. L. Bell's comments in the 12/31 digest: I have now been tempted to do a more thorough examination of the WONDER CITY illustrations in relationship to the MS version of the book: Preliminary remarks: -The MS of WONDER CITY has typewritten pages numbered 1-106 preceeded by a title page, a dedication page, a letter to "Dear Girls and Boys" and a list of chapters. In the text the chapters do not have names but they are named on the LIST OF CHAPTERS page. Two chapters are missing in the MS: Chapter 6 ("New Friends") pp 20-23, which corresponds in pat to Chapter 14: "An Unexpected Visitor" of the published book, and Chapter 22 (the next-to-last Chapter "The shiftless god-father") pp 95-96. The beginning of the book is different, we are told much more about Jenny's childhood, and her receiving fairy gifts from Psychopompus (sic) occured years before her jump to Oz. There is no Ozma party, no rescue of a Munchkin boy, no ozcalator ride. Jenny lands in the Munchkin Country, discovers the Turn style, gets a young Munchkin to help her wheel it to the Emerald City and sets up shop. She makes Whistlebreeches for the boy. After the missing chapter 6 she starts growing younger. There is no Ozlection plot. At one point Scraps dashes into the shop and accidentally changes her patches for a boys swimming suit. Jenny, for no good reason goes on a rampage and releases many animals from the animal gardens. She gets to Jack Pumpkinhead's home a reconditioned Ozoplane, where he has a glee club of shoes. Jenny accidentally starts the Ozoplane with Jack, Scraps and herself aboard. They fly to a chocolate star where, after a battle they are imprisoned. Meanwhile Whistlebreeches' father helps stop the animal attack, the family run the style shop, and Numbernine (as he is sometimes called) searches for the Wizard to try to locate Jenny. Eventually using on Ozmic ray, he recovers the Ozoplane and its three inhabitants. Jenny, by growing younger, has lost her fairy gifts/powers. She has also become nicer and less spoiled. Everything ends happily. There is no removal of her bad temper, envy, and ambition. Examing the illustrations of the printed text of WONDER CITY in terms of the MS version, paying special attention to the style of Jenny's hair, I discovered that some of the illustrations indicate that the originally appeared elsewhere in the story. On page 33, we have a picture of Ozma meeting Jenny with the Wizard behind them, that supposedly takes place at Jenny's first arrival in Oz. However, Jenny's hair in this picture matches that in the pictures for the final Chapter in the book, especially the 2 page spread on [314-315]. This is when Jenny has reached her youngest age, about 11. The pictures of Jenny on pages 156, 160, 168 etc, while she is on the Ozoplane with Jack and Scraps and on the Chocolate Star sho her with a hair style that matches her appearance in Chapter 26 "Jenny's Last Flare-Up." There would be no reason for her to revert to that hair style after the Ozlection--but in MS her flare-up immediately preceeded the unexpected adventure. For what its worth, the chapter illustration for Chapter 4 shows a very similar hair style. I had long been puzzled by the 2 page spread on pp [176-177] because there is no textual equivalent for it. However in the MS pp 54-55 we have the following: "[Scraps] threw herself bodily against the nearest chocolate soldier. "He toppled sidewise throwing his neighbor off balance, who in turn bumped over the next and so on around the circle until every brave soldier was lair flat. . . . When she had them all flat she put her foot on the leader, and held him there." What I suspect this means is not the Neill did not support the changes made but that he had already drawn illustrations for the book and tried to salvage as many as possible. The pictures of Siko Pompus in chapter 1 and p. 283 are probably later drawings. Myu time is now up, perhaps more later Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 20:04:55 -0800 From: Robert Schroeder Subject: re:"Friends of Dorothy" Jellia Jamb asks us all: > But can someone please explain to me again, slowly and carefully, > preferably with diagrams, what Dorothy has to do with homosexuality?? Ken Cope responded, in part: If this is a puzzlement to you, Jellia, I'd suggest dressing up in your best lettuce-accented pale green number, visit just about any gay bar in Garden Grove or West Hollywood or the Castro, and, by way of introduction, let everybody know you enjoy presenting online as a delightful little servant girl called Jellia Jamb, and that you're wondering if anybody can fill you in on all this about "friends of Dorothy." And I say: Ken! You did a wonderful job on explaining the connection between Dorothy and homosexuality. But it should be further refined to state "the connection between Dorothy and gay men". You were quite right on the connection between Judy Garland's death and the Stonewall Riots. Those riots took place on the evening following Judy's funeral. And everyone knows, well, except for the New York City Police, that you don't mess with a "queen" in grief. A couple of years ago, there was a movie (now out on video) called "Stonewall" which is a wonderful film, sort of historical fiction, on what was going on just prior to, and during the riots. Another way to look at this "connection" is that those gay men of the 1950's grew up with Judy as Dorothy, and during the times when it was quite dangerous to be openly gay, gay men would introduce themselves as a "friend of Dorothy". Hey, Christians drew fishes in the sand....gays have friends in the Emerald City. And Melody Keller....while you are right, gay men tend to identify with famous, talented women who lived tragic lives and died tragic deaths....well.....maybe..... I think we tend to identify with famous strong women with an attitude....Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Bette Davis, Ruth Gordon, Shirley McClaine, Olympia Dukakus and now with Madonna and Patti LaBelle. But, again, Ken, I have never seen such an excellent piece on the connection....and I've done my share of research! Robert ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 22:19:48 -0500 From: "Gary S. Dollar" Subject: Little wizard stories Hi to all, and Happy Holidays, Anyone having trouble finding LW Stories should check www.interloc.com and they will find everythin from the Books of Wonder, Rand McNally's to an offering of a 2nd state, g+ (I have seen the book offered) original 1914 compilation. Hope this mankes it easier for somebody. ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 03 Jan 98 18:31:08 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things DO TIGGERS BOUNCE E-MAIL?: :) We have two Digest members at dtaditi@primenet.com, and mbarker@primenet.com Could someone E-mail them for me and tell them that their servers are bouncing the Digest? Apparently primenet.com maintains a "black list" of mailers of bulk E-mail and I'm on it, so it will not even deliver private non-bulk posts (or else I'd E-mail them myself). Thanks ahead! "G.W.N. MUST DIE!!"??: John W Kennedy wrote: >Hmmm.... I really saw it as making a virtue of necessity while disposing >of a hopelessly loose loose end. (After so many years of invisibility, >could the GWN have been brought back to literary life as though she'd been >there all the time?) No, but she could be "brought back to literary life" as though she'd been lost in another country for many years. Bringing back Locasta by my route is only as "heretical" as Melody's means of bringing back Tip. BCF: Just a reminder -- We start discussing _Tik-Tok_ a week from Monday, and then _Little Wizard_ will be next... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 4 - 6, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 02 Jan 1998 22:01:55 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman In case she hasn't mentioned it to you, our "Ozmama" has had some surgery and is recuperating. Send her some warm Ozzy wishes. No one is going to accuse her of "having a lot of gall" anymore. I had about decided to ask my sister and my daughter, both of whom are Lesbians, about the Dorothy/Judy/Gay issue. After Ken Cope's latest tour de force on the subject I don't think I need to bother. Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 07:35:49 -0800 From: Laurie Foster Julien Subject: Link alert and a Question Hello Dave, This is a heads up to let you know that I have linked to your Oz site from my Ozma page located at: http://www.aloha.net/~ozma/oz.htm I need advice in finding someone to appraise my "Ozma of OZ" book and a picture of Ozma and Dorothy. The book is a second printing from 1909 illustrated by John R. Neill and is in very good shape. The picture is signed but I cannot make out the initials. Dorothy has short blond hair and is sitting on a bench next to Ozma. Eureka is sitting on Dorothy's lap wearing a dark coat. Ozma is wearing a very flowing white dress with black trim with a very large collar. Ozma is also holding her ceptar. Does any of this sound familiar? I would sure like to know what these two items are worth. Any help you can give is greatly appreciated, Laurie *~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~* Laurie Foster Julien laurie.julien@accessone.com http://www.aloha.net/~ozma/princess "Everything always works out the way it is supposed to" [Please respond to Laurie privately -- Dave] ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 14:19:27 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber Subject: For Ozzy Digest Kingdom of the Absurd For the amusement of the seekers of Oz/Baum books, I cite below the most overpriced quote I have seen of late: ----------------------- << Author:BAUM, L. FRANK. DENSLOW. W.W.Title:Wizard of Oz. description: CHICAGO., REILLY & LEE., (1941).. HB.. THE COVER IS WORNNNNNNNN!!! LOOSE ENDPAPERS CAME UNGLUED & ARE**. ** WITH THE BOOK. WRITING ON ENDPAPERS WITH A LIGHT PENCIL. OWNERS NAME STAMPED IN. DIFFICULT TO KNOW - MY GUESS IS TITLE. PAGE IS MISSING. THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED "TO MY GOOD FRIENDS & COMRADE. MY WIFE. L.F.B." CONTENTS WHOLE, TIGHT & COMPLETE. LT. BLUE HC CLOTH. 4TO. 309pp.. Topic/Keywords: CHILD - OZ. Price: $340.00 Offered By: (Censored!) ------------------------ Remember: Do not go shopping without your copy of Bib Oz in hand. Carefully page all books of value (an otherwise fine book may have one page skillfully removed; one of the plates may have been replaced by a plate from a different book; etc. Do not be so eager as to pay ANY price. If you really want that overpriced book, make a counter offer and leave your address. With a little restraint, we can all help to hold prices down. Herm Bieber ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 17:17:19 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-03-97 > Dave wrote: > >Since Books of Wonder has reprinted all the _Little Wizard Stories_ in > >one volume, > > Not for the first time, I believe.... > > // John W Kennedy > The first time they were all in one volume was when Reilly & Britton first published them as the LITTLE WIZARD STORIES. In recent years there was a one volume edition from Schoeken Books with an introduction by Michael Patrick Hearn and a paperback version from NAL prior to the BoW edition. > > I would like to purchase the BoW editions of the Wizard of Oz, Land of > Oz, and Ozma of Oz. However, I know that the covers on them are not the > originals. Does anybody know if they will have a reprint soon with the > original covers? > Thanks > -- > David Levitan The Morrow/BoW editions of Wizard, Land, etc, do reproduce covers like the originals, but the dust jackets are different. The covers themselves look much like the originals (WWOO in in Buckram rather than cloth.) Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 18:43:12 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Oz and evolution Sender: "J. L. Bell" To Ruth Berman: Your message about Santa and my second, both taking off from Martin Gardner's LIFE & ADVENTURES intro, crossed in the e-mail. Thanks for the thoughts. Your theory of why the questioner believed Santa was once officially green seems as good as any. To Danny (ozbot): Your post gave me an excuse to pull out my own copies of the LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND books. [To all: this is a *wonderful* six-volume set from Remco/Fantagraphics.] Indeed, McKay's 1908 Santa would be recognized by the most important contemporary judge--an 8-year-old in a department store. In addition to brown fur trim, that Santa does have dark pants, so that 8-year-old might ask why he doesn't look like all the others at the mall. I looked in Thompson's CURIOUS CRUISE OF CAPTAIN SANTA after my previous post. In that book Neill mostly dresses Saint Nick in a nautical outfit, but one early page indicates that by 1926 Neill, too, had assigned Santa a long, floppy pointed cap instead of the short one shown in ROAD. That, too, was pre-Coke ads. Sundblum's only innovation may be Santa's height. This investigation got me thinking about how evolutionary change has two stages: the creation of new ways of doing things, and the elimination of old ways. Nast created a new way of depicting Santa when he used red fur; other artists (e.g., Denslow, McKay) developed their own new ways; by about 1926 every way of drawing Santa but in red and white had been eliminated. I wonder if we see a similar process in drawings of the Tin Woodman. First, artists developed ways to show him. Denslow drew Nick with a skull-like head. In LAND, Neill gave Nick a cylindrical head with two side braces. McDougall's tin man in QUEER VISITORS was closer to Denslow's, and in OZMA and DOROTHY & THE WIZARD Neill followed Denslow, too. But in ROAD, it was back to the cylinder. The styles even coexisted in PATCHWORK GIRL: see pages 323-334. By TIN WOODMAN Neill seems to have eliminated every depiction but one: cylindrical head with no braces. And so it lasted through his tenure (though in OZOPLANING Nick got a flat top under his funnel instead of a rounded one). On LITTLE WIZARD, as well as the original (R&L) and current (BoW/Morrow) editions, Schocken issued one in 1985. Finally, a special thanks to Steve Teller for your thorough work with the WONDER CITY manuscript and art. Not only did you manage to keep track of Jenny Jump's hairstyles--a major feat in itself--but you linked them meaningfully to the creation of the book. I'm printing out that message to store with my copy of WONDER CITY. When will the BUGLE article follow? Also, having read your "plot summary" of Neill's manuscript (can we call it that when there's little that meets the definition of a plot?), I'm more willing to countenance the Ozlection as a beneficial addition than ever. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 17:55:34 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: For Next Ozzie Digest Hi all! I have once again just finished watching "The Wizard of Oz in Concert" on the cable channel VH-1. Once again, I am impressed. The credits go by so fast that I can't pick out the leading players. Can anyone tell me who the very talented woman is who plays Dorothy? Also, who plays the scarecrow? Thanks, Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 04 Jan 1998 00:47:28 -0500 From: International Wizard of Oz Club Subject: RE: Chris Straughn Chris, Now you've got my curiosity piqued. I don't ever recall a reference to "Dan-Rur," but I can tell you that Old Ozzish was never really developed or explored within the Oz books. At most, you may find vague references and single words in some of the Thompson books. I'm going to forward your note to the Ozzy Digest in hopes that the Oz Scholars who subscribe will be able to offer more detailed information. Sincerely, Jim Vander Noot Webmaster The International Wizard of Oz Club -----Original Message----- From: Christopher Straughn [SMTP:chrisas@elnet.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 1997 4:19 PM Subject: Chris Straughn Dear IWOC, I have been interested in Oz for most of my life and have been a member of the Club on and off. Recently when I was surfing the net for information on languages, I found the "I can eat glass" project. The project's goal was to see how many languages the phrase "I can eat glass; it does not hurt me." could be translated into. In the list of artificial languages, I found two languages that caught my eye: Dan-Rur and Old Ozzish. Apparently they were languages used in Oz and the (G)Nome Kingdoms at the time of Pastoria. Anyway, I was wondering if I could get information on those two languages. The URL for the Artificial Languages page of Project I can eat glass is http://hcs.harvard.edu/~igp/created.html . Could you please respond? Thanks, Chris Straughn Visit my homepage at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/1868 Bovoj estas viaj amikoj. ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 09:09:44 -0800 (PST) From: "W. H. Baldwin" Subject: Digest Post X-MSMail-Priority: Normal This is not an Oz question, but as there seems to be a bit of a thematic lull right now, I wonder if one of the writers and grammarians present could answer a question for me. I've noticed a rash of hyphenmania -- not to mention an unconscionable coining of words -- the past few months which has annoyed me greatly. Two examples taken directly from mass-produced printings are "a finely-honed legend" and "newly-minted coin." Now I'm not an expert in English or anything else, but ISTR that long ago, in a galaxy... no, I mean in grammar school (what an apt description), one of the first things I learned was that an adverb modifies adjectives, verbs or other adverbs. Are not "finely" and "newly" adverbs? Is not one of their inherent abilities that of modifying adjectives without additional assistance? Would any native speaker of English ever confuse "finely" or "newly" with adjectives? Who ever heard of a finely legend or a newly coin? Are the hyphens necessary, or even desirable, or even correct? Is this affliction akin to that other affectation of the cognoscenti which causes them to use "I" when the correct choice would be "me"? I know that the rules of English sometime conceal little hidden byways that leap out and rend unwary passersby, so if anyone could offer me enlightenment, enlightenment, I wouldn't be a-fightin' it. W. Baldwin ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 00:27:00 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-24 thru 31-97 12/24: J.L.: > Have people written about Woot in the same numbers? He's also a Baum >hero, also granted a whole book, *and* he's still alive already and can >easily be made to wander into any adventure one might choose. Aside from Tyler's comment that Woot has only been PD for four years now (vs. nearly 20 for Tip), the very fact that Woot is alive and well at the end of TW makes him somewhat less intriguing to write about than Tip. (Woot is also much more like Betsy Bobbin - a child character who's along as an observer - than Tip, who's a more active character. But that's something we need to get into more when we get to discussing _Tin Woodman_ as BCF.) > Yes, Baum blamed whites for driving Indians to that state--but he didn't >allow the possibility that better treatment would improve them. He saw them >all as a body to be inferior from now on. Well, that's something like my (facetious, lest anyone doubt it) theory that the reason France caved so quickly in all their wars after 1815, unless they were stiffened by substantial allies on the front line early (and sometimes, as in WW II, when they were), was that most of the courageous French were killed during the Napoleonic Wars (and the earlier wars of the Revolutionary period), so that natural selection left France with few men who were willing to fight if it was dangerous. 12/27: Sarah: If you want to preserve the value of your cards as a collectible, don't open them. If you want to enjoy them, then do. It's up to you. It's like buying a book; if you want to maximize its future value, wrap it up (in non-tarnishing paper, maybe in non-destructive plastic) and don't ever open it. On the other hand, why bother to buy it if that's your approach? Scott H.: >David: I listen to Limbaugh, and believe what he says. Not that I >necessarily agree with his opinions, but I have not known him to lie. I have. Or at least, to make false statements. (One can say - as he often does - that _he_ didn't make up the false statements, which one can define as "lying" if one cares to. But repeating false statements of others without bothering to check them out is close enough to lying for my money, especially when all the false statements are adduced in support of his agenda.) It's generally agreed that Zeb Hugson's characterization of his relationship to Dorothy as "second cousin" isn't accurate. If it were, Uncle Henry and Aunt Em would have to be Dorothy's great-uncle and -aunt, and references elsewhere in the books make that unlikely. I've never heard of "dandy" being a euphemism for homosexual. A dandy is a male who takes great (usually unnecessarily great) care of his appearance. It's true that this is something that's more common among the gay community than elsewhere, but it's not confined there and if it's ever been used as a sly reference (like being a "friend of Dorothy" or a "confirmed bachelor") I'm not aware of it. 12/29: John K.: That was me, not J.L., who referred to the probable currency of "French kiss" and "Welsh rabbit". I realize that the latter is usually genteelized to "rarebit" when it appears on a menu, but it originated as "rabbit" and the "Welsh" has stuck with it, though the pejorative sense may have evaporated by now. Melody: Well, sure, I qualify for Mensa, too. I'd be surprised if there are very many people who are active on the Digest who don't. Even the Conservatives... ;-) >(At least the young guys in the Hite Report on Male Sexuality seemed >to have more ageist and look-ist problems than the older men who >responded-the older the respondent males were, the more they emphasized >love and caring over physical appearance. :-) When I was about 30 I had a good friend who was about 20 years older. I well remember his telling me, "One of the best things about getting older is that the young girls look every bit as good as they ever did, and the older women look a whole lot better!" He was right. 12/30: Short Digest; nothing to say about it. 12/31: Bear: Copies of LWS are readily available, but maybe not within a day or three. And I shall give a supercilious stare to those who think the short Digest of 12/30 was due to my absence. :-) J.L.: It's true that Dorothy was quite adept at deposing monarchs, but only when they deserved it. She took no action against the princess of the China Country, or Glinda, or the leader of the Wheelers, or Ozma. King Dox, even if he knew her history, would probably have no reason to worry (though the Queen of the Scoodlers would). What's a "Yankee swap?" Not a term I ever heard. (Back in my youth a "Yankee dime" was a kiss on the cheek, but that was in the South...) Dave: I don't think it's actually Dorothy who has anything much to do with homosexuality; it's Judy Garland, and the fact that Dorothy was her most famous role. But I could be wrong, and am most interested in being corrected if so. I'm off for Tennessee the morning of 12/2; probably won't be responding to Digests again until 12/5. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 01:19:52 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-02 & 03-98 Well, I'm back. Actually, I was back on 1/1 and responded to the Digests through the end of last year, but I'm having a problem with my comm program on the partition that I use for most of my computer work, so I couldn't send it before I had to go to Tennessee the next day. I finally gave up on that temporarily (I think I need to reinstall Eudora Light on that partition; something seems to have been corrupted) and booted on a different partition that seems to work. So if some of the comments in my first post in this digest seem a bit stale, blame it on that. For a bit of personal news first (nothing to do with Oz, but some of you at least have also expressed interest and sympathy) - we spent a week out in California where my wife was with her mother most of the time. (I couldn't because she has two cats that I'm violently allergic to.) Ellie is getting very weak and the morphine she needs to keep the pain of the cancer to a tolerable level has her mind pretty well shut down. Marcia will be going back in three weeks for another weekend with her, if she lasts that long; odds are less than even that she will. Then this past weekend I had to put my mother in a nursing home. Fortunately a slot opened up in a very nice one - her room is more reminiscent of a good-quality hotel room (albeit with a hospital bed) than the usual nursing home, and she doesn't seem to have resented the move nearly as much as I'd feared she would. So our holidays weren't particularly happy ones, but for the moment we're past the worst. In the near future my brother and I will have the monumental task of clearing out my mother's condo and getting it ready to sell, but since she owned it free and clear there's no great rush about it. And meanwhile life goes on for the rest of us... And now, back to Oz! 1/2: J.L.: Thanks for all the research on Santa's attire! Most interesting, and I hope that Dave saves it as one of the available files that people can download if they want to. Ken Cope: >The series [Sandman] is suggested for mature readers. I don't know >what could possibly have prevented you from reading all >of them, if you've read any one of them. At the least, >you will find more than one Ozian making cameo appearances. Well, I read one _Sandman_ book (don't remember which one; it was a SF Book Club selection 3-4 years ago), and didn't have any inclination to read another one. It wasn't bad, but I didn't care much for the art, and the story wasn't strong enough to make me want to read more despite that. This is, of course, a matter of personal taste. I beg that you not try to convince me that the artwork was superior; from an artist's point of view it might well be, but a great deal of acknowledged great art doesn't appeal to me. My loss, I'm sure, but life's too short for me to worry about it when there's so much around that I do enjoy. Noel Coward was certainly gay. It wasn't much of a secret even during his lifetime, but after his death it was freely acknowledged by several people who knew for sure. I'm a great admirer of the man and his work, and own and have read two or three biographies besides a couple of autobiographical books and his collected diaries. 1/3: John K.: The LWS have been published in one volume several times. The edition I have was published by Schocken about ten years ago. The BoW edition _is_ distinguished by their having redesigned the book to put each illustration opposite the text it illustrates, which didn't happen in any of the other editions (including the slim volumes that contained only one story each). Depending on how much of a purist you are, this may be considered a good thing or a bad thing. Enough for now. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 09:52:36 -0500 (EST) From: JOdel Subject: Ozzy Web Page I have been trying to reach the web page. Have you moved it to a different provider? I get the message that the URL is not found. I'm off to St. Frizz and MacWorld for the week, Thank you for postponing the Tik-Tok discussion until the 12th--although I doubt that MacWorld played a major part in your decision. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 21:14:01 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Digest To JLB, Danny and all the others who provided feedback on the Santa Claus question........thanks so much on the info you provided. Here is a bit more that I picked up off list. Bill in Ozlo "Saint" Nicholas and Odin The Oosthoeks Encyclopedia explains: "[St. Nicholas'] celebration in the household sprang from the church festivity (including surprises for the children) which in turn sprang from pre-Christian elements. Saint Nicholas, who rides on the rooftops, is the pagan god Wodan [Odin]. . . . Saint Nicholas was also the leader of the wild chase in which the souls of the dead visit the earth." Yes, the Teutons believed that Odin, or Wodan, their chief god, led the souls of the dead on a furious cross-country ride during the "twelve bad days" between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6). The resulting gale carried along the seeds of the produce of the fields, stimulating fertility. The apples, nuts, and other autumn produce given around "St. Nicholas Day"? These were symbols of fertility. Ancient people believed that they could appease their gods by giving them presents during the cold, dark winter days. This would result in increased fertility for man, animal, and soil. Odin was accompanied by his servant Eckhard, the forerunner of Black Peter, who also carried a rod. As recently as the Middle Ages, it was the popular belief that certain trees and plants could render humans fertile and that merely striking a woman with a branch of such a tree sufficed to make her pregnant. The book Feest-en Vierdagen in kerk en volksgebruik (Holidays and Celebrations in the Church and in Popular Customs) mentions a few other similarities between Odin and "Saint" Nicholas: "Wodan, too, filled the boots and wooden shoes placed by the chimney but with gold. For Wodan's steed, hay and straw were also placed in the wooden shoe. The last sheaf of the field was also for the horse." The book Sint Nicolaas, by B. S. P. van den Aardweg, points to a few other striking similarities: "St. Nicholas: a tall, powerful figure on a white horse. He has a long white beard, a crosier in his hand, and a miter on his head . . . with a wide, flowing bishop's cloak. "Wodan: a person of tall stature with a white beard. He wears a wide-brimmed hat pulled deeply over his eyes. In his hand he holds a magic spear. He is clad in a wide mantle and rides his loyal gray horse Sleipnir. "There are more of these apparent similarities: Wodan rode his gray horse through the air and shuddering people offered cakes with filling in addition to meat and produce of the fields. St. Nicholas rides on the rooftops and children prepare hay, carrots, and water for the horse. Gingersnaps and the rod were symbols of fertility long before the beginning of the St. Nicholas festivities." Dutch emigrants who settled in North America took the "Saint" Nicholas celebration with them. In time the name was corrupted to "Santa Claus." The stately bishop was transformed into a red-cheeked, obese fellow dressed in a bright-red suit. His bishop's miter was exchanged for an elf's hat and the white horse for a sleigh pulled by reindeer. Santa Claus, however, continued to be a gift bringer, although his visitation was shifted to Christmas Eve. In Protestant areas of Germany, the Catholic "Saint" Nicholas was replaced by the more neutral "Father Christmas." The pagan elements, however, remain clearly discernible to this day. Some claim that a saintly bishop of Myre by the name of Nicholas, who lived in the fourth century after Christ, was the first "St. Nicholas", and down through the dark Middle Ages he was considered the patron saint of pawnshops and beggars. He was depicted as a simple, pale and rather ascetic personage, until a cartoonist got hold of him in 1863 and dressed the "saint" up in gay togs. FATHER CHRISTMAS, ALIAS SANTA CLAUS Father Christmas has been described as "the most successful promotion story since Jesus Christ." But who was he? According to The Customs and Ceremonies of Britain, he has been "known as a vague personification of the [Christmas] season since at least the 15th century . . . and appears in approximately his modern garb in a woodcut of 1653: but 'Santa's' Christmas Eve visits, his habit of descending chimneys to fill stockings (or, more ambitiously, pillow cases) and his reindeer-drawn sleigh all derive from that melting pot of traditions, the USA. His character there was blended from European legends about the 4th-century St Nicholas of Myra (who saved three maidens from prostitution by a surreptitious midnight gift of dowry money, and who as Sinte Klaas filled the shoes of Dutch-American children on 6 December, his feast day); the German-American Krisskringle (who rewarded good and punished bad children); and Scandinavian or Russian tales about North-Pole-dwelling wizards. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 15:48:11 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Danny Ozbot and J.L. Bell: Thanks for additional information on Santa Claus evolution. David Levitan: The Books of Wonder covers are the original covers, i.e., the covers on the first editions. (If you're familiar with a later edition that had a different cover, the BoW version may look different to you, but it's because the version you saw did not have the "original." Neill in some cases drew new covers for different editions.) Steve Teller: Thanks for the information on ms. vs. final version vs. illos of "Wonder City." If you want to expand on this information more another time, I'd certainly enjoy knowing more. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 16:04:12 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: previous message in the "Ozzie Digest" Hi there, I believe that at some time back there was some information on what the various conditions of used books indicate. "VF", "Good", "Fine", etc. I have lost it and would like that information again, if someone wouldn't mind sending it to me. Also, I have forgotten who amongst us are used book dealers. Thanks, Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 05 Jan 98 21:14:23 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things No much in today's Digest I feel inclined to comment on -- Except that I'm currently reading _Mouse Under Glass_, a no-holds-barred book about the history of Disney animated features, the good, the bad, and the Xerox-processed. :) I'd love to share a lot of the revelations therein with the Digest, but since this is the Ozzy Digest not the Disney Digest, so I will restrain myself and mention that the book says that Prince John (from Disney's anthropmorphic animal version of _Robin Hood_) was developed with the Cowardly Lion in mind. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 7, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 06:11:38 -0800 From: Robert Schroeder Subject: Ozzy Digest..... Bob Spark: That was Jewel singing the role of Dorothy in "WOZ in Concert" and Jackson Browne played Scarecrow. Of all the characters. I thought Nathan Lane was best playing Lion...but of course, Lion is my second-favorite character. And thanks Bob in Ozlo for the Santa referances. I know I have a year to do it in, but my roommate is an avid collector of Santas, so it will be off to the bookstores to find these books for him for next Christmas! Robert "But on the other hand, you have different fingers." ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 17:02:10 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-06-97 Warren: I'm not a grammarian, and only a sort of writer manque (I've been published, but not extensively), but I have a lot of opinions about language so I'll take a stab at answering your question. Hyphens, like all punctuation and spelling, are questions of style rather than grammar, since their function is to facilitate the recording of speech (which is the fundamental form of language). As such, there's a good deal of arbitrariness in their use, and I've no idea what criteria various style manuals have for the use or non-use of hyphens in constructions like "newly-minted coin". However, most punctuation is designed to let the written word approximate the rhythms of speech. Hyphenating two words indicates that they're pronounced in more rapid succession than two separate words, but with more of a division than a single word. For example, reading "book keeper," "book-keeper," and "bookkeeper" aloud, aren't you aware of a progressive shortening of the interval between the words (and also a progressive shift of emphasis away from "keeper")? This difference is more obvious in longer constructions; compare the speed of saying the hyphenated group in "a never-to-be-forgotten moment" with the same words in "a moment never to be forgotten". I also find a subtle difference in emphasis between "a newly minted coin" and "a newly-minted coin"; the second puts more emphasis on the newness than the first does. This is entirely separate from the true grammatical question of when to use "I" or "me". Even more irritating to me is the misuse of "whom." It's one of those words that's almost obsolete in speech; when it's used (in speech or writing), it seems to me that it's used wrongly about as often as it's used in a technically correct sense. Like, "Whom shall I say is calling?" That one really grates on me, though "I don't know who you're talking about," doesn't bother me in the least. Many other interesting things in this Digest, but none that evoke comment. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 13:19:49 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-06-97 > ====================================================================== > Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 17:55:34 -0800 > From: Bob Spark > Subject: For Next Ozzie Digest > > Hi all! > I have once again just finished watching "The Wizard of Oz in > Concert" on the cable channel VH-1. Once again, I am impressed. The > credits go by so fast that I can't pick out the leading players. Can > anyone tell me who the very talented woman is who plays Dorothy? Also, > who plays the scarecrow? > Thanks, > Bob Spark bob i can help you on one of the the fine young talented lady is none other then the singer JEWEL who brought us the song who will save your soul very talented woman ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 15:24:25 -0500 From: Lisa Bompiani Subject: Ozzy Digest Hello! Wow, this break is flying by so quickly! I have to say (yes, I'm bragging) that my niece is beautiful and it broke my heart to watch her go back to NC; however, my bro, sis-in-law, and Caitlin will be moving back to the area in May, and I'll have plenty of time to spoil her then! ;-) I just returned from a two week extravaganza to Virginia and Delaware. I love the ocean, and at the Delaware beaches it was 75 degrees! Yer, after 7 1/2 hours in the car with a very unhappy cat, I was glad to kick back at the ol' computer and catch up on the Digests; however, I'm not sure I have much to say! :-) Spark: If I am recalling the same concert you watched, Jewel played Dorothy and Nipsy Russell (I think) played the Scarecrow. Anybody else? Thanks for the Santa stuff folks, I thought it was pretty interesting. hopefully, since I don't have classes, I'll actually be able to participate in Tik-Tok. Well, by for now, I'm going to sleep! Peace & Love, Bompi ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 13:27:55 -0800 From: Ken Cope Subject: Sandman, B5, Oz David, if you take a look at the art in Gaiman's current serial story, Stardust, and tell me you don't like the work of Charles Vess, I'm afraid there's no hope for you. The art in Glass Cat didn't hinder my enjoyment of your work (much), but I certainly didn't buy (and enjoy reading) my hard bound copy for its pictures. I oughtn't to try to tell anybody what one should or should not like where art, and particularly comic book art is concerned. Graphic Novels and sequential art is a burgeoning form finding its voice, and ever widening audience, only in the last decade or more. The Sandman is among the medium's finest moments, spanning something like 9 years of storytelling, spinning off more than one series that I collect. Like Babylon 5, while told serially, The Sandman is ultimately one story, with a beginning, middle and end that spans centuries, and dozens of lives. It's currently being reissued, on the stands finishing its second story arc by issue #16, so it's easy to find all of it in print. Though I have found more than one of the artists, whose experiments have extended the tale of the Sandman, to be nearly off-putting, the Universe of the Sandman is of a scale not often attempted in any medium. Some of the art is the best, some the worst. I'm certain no two people would agree on which artists those would be. The original arc that establishes the tale, Preludes and Nocturnes, has a quality that recalls the darkest of the EC comics, a sort of demented Jack Davis quality that isn't really characteristic of the series as a whole. It is not a tale of sweetness and light. Had I not started hosting a weekly Babylon 5 party in the middle of season 3, I would have retained my negative first impression from the two early episodes I watched. (My home theater is the magnet; 7 surround/AC3 speakers and a sub woofer. While I'm mostly considerate, my upstairs neighbors feebly seek revenge with occasional disco thump.) Sandman's author Neil Gaiman happens to have scripted an episode of the 5th season of B5. (Has anybody else besides JMS scripted an episode of B5 before?) JMS is such a fan, that a race of aliens, the Gaim (from Gaiman) owe their appearance to that of The Sandman when he's wearing his battle helm and wizard garb. Just as B5's creator JMS acknowledges his debt to past and present masters of Science Fiction, Gaiman owes much to the best fantasists. He has more than one advantage over the writers of Oz pastiche. In no way is Gaiman limiting himself to an audience of children, nor does he confine his sources to the creations of only one author. The 10 volumes collecting the 75 stories of the series' run contain introductions from Harlan Ellison, Jane Yolen, Stephen King, and Clive Barker, among others. Even Norman Mailer is a fan of the series. Where Baum created a Utopian Fairyland, Neil writes of Faerie; and Aasgard, Hades and the Silver City. Nary a drop of blood, venom nor vitreous humours are bowdlerized for the sake of pleasant dreams. Lord Morpheus crafts nightmares with as much care as he embroiders epiphanies. Loki and Puck work together as part of a plot to foil the Furies. Shakespeare performs his Midsummer Night's Dream, commissioned by Morpheus, for the court of Titania and horned Auberon. Perhaps the collection titled Fables and Reflections is among the better places to start. They're all self contained stories, though some are central to illuminating the character of Morpheus. The tales are of revolutionary France, Orpheus, the Emperor Norton, Caesar Augustus, a werewolf, some creation myths; even a tale of Bhagdad that makes Disney's Aladdin look like so much cheap, jingoistic Arab-bashing. Starting most anywhere else is walking into the middle of the movie. Speaking of walking into the middle of the movie, TNT is running B5 from season one, in order, weekdays at 7 eastern, 4 pm pacific, starting Monday of this week. I'm eagerly awaiting season 5, commencing the 21st of this month, though I am so disappointed that my evil cable provider (TCI) does not carry the multichannel audio, that I am considering a dish system. I've been looking for a way to drop TCI like a zombie-proffered Jack Chick pamphlet, for months now, and this may be just the excuse I was looking for. --Ken Cope Ozcot Studios pinhead@ozcot.com-- Our first business will be to supervise the making of fables and legends, rejecting all which are unsatisfactory; and we shall induce nurses and mothers to tell their children only those which we have approved. --Plato "The Republic" ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 20:23:38 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Warren, your lament about hyphens inspired me to offer some important but often forgotten rules of English, to help raise the quality of our "ecourse." Avoid alliteration. Always. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. Avoid cliches like the plague. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive. Contractions aren't necessary. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos. Don't be redundant: don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake. Who needs rhetorical questions? Gee David, I wonder if making blanket denunciations without proof is a healthy approach to life and discourse? Welcome back. :) Dave >Prince John (from Disney's anthropmorphic animal version of _Robin Hood_) was developed with the Cowardly Lion in mind. The Disney Prince John reminds me of the Cowardly Lion about as much as Bill Clinton reminds me of George Washington. Regardez vous, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 17:31:37 -0800 From: Ken Cope Subject: a shrill, didactic voice in Oz Melody G. Keller wrote: >As to the diagram, can't give you an exact one, >except there seems to be an identification with famous, talented women who >lived tragic lives & died tragic deaths. It's so tempting to generalize and extrapolate from limited experience, but through no fault of your own might your experience be comparatively limited in Asheville, Melody, not that I know a thing about Asheville. For example (to generalize some more), large urban centers are a refuge from (stereotypically) small town attitudes towards those who are, shall we say, not normal. So, people in small (minded) towns tend to hide in the closet, or risk such persecution or run so afoul of the local arbiters of morality that suicide seems a most romantic and reasonable option. There is precious little community support in any but the larger cities that few fey folk stick around in the town they grow up in long enough to offset the cliches one would find attributed to them. I hope this becomes more and more a thing of the past. There is a pathology among those not so bright, who romanticise AIDS death among their elders to the extent that some seek it. It's obviously not the first time that death has been romanticized, look at the art of the Pre-Raphaelites. The internet enables communities to form independently of geographic proximity. Pretty subversive, eh? And now, a frank talk among princesses about death. >Jellia: Ouch! I'm glad things like that don't happen in Oz anymore. >Ozma: And never will again, if I have anything to say about it. My subjects >enjoy good mental as well as physical health. Jellia, I'm glad people don't die in Oz, unless executed with water, of course. And, we're all glad there is no HIV in Oz. The sooner people realize that it isn't just a gay problem, or an apocalyptic plague visited on bad people by a universe spanning deity intimately concerned with your sex life, the sooner there'll be sufficient funding for research to prevent AIDS-related deaths among those on the wrong side of the deadly desert. AND let's insure that discussion about condoms, sex education and gender roles occurs in time to save lives first; we'll worry about souls later. Infliction of ignorance on the young on religious grounds I consider to be culpable murder. The type of conservatism that prizes the luxury of innocence pays for it with death. And speaking of mental health, how are things in Rigamarole, Fuddlecumjig and Flutterbudget Center, Tippe-- Princess Ozma? Robert Schroeder wrote: >there was a movie (now out on video) called "Stonewall" which is a >wonderful film, sort of historical fiction, on what was going on just >prior to, and during the riots. I wanted to view it before commenting on it. Certainly worth the rental. (Thanks for the kind words, and answering Dave's direct question with something I'm glad to have learned.) It is more of a fictionalization than a documentary, but chillingly telling how recently such draconian laws were enforced, and so brutally by the slope-browed neanderthals in power (From Nixon to any of his petty stormtroopers, not that gaybashing was his invention, just his mindset and personal style of private gutter vocabulary). That full frontal nudity does not occur, while some crimson stained violence IS luridly portrayed shows how warped American audiences are. The Rush Limbaughs* and Pat Robertsons of the world, who wish to demean feminists and gay rights activists as shrill, with nothing to complain about, count on short memories and ignorance about how twisted and corrupt this nation was in the 60s. Of course, it can't happen here. These days, we're twisted and corrupt in quite different ways. ;) It does tend to sort of catalogue many "types" for purposes of drama, and does seem a bit manipulative to drive its dramatic climax home, but is far more tame than the average pg-13 or R rated trash action flick, and less toxic too. A film likely to be of more interest to listers here would be the documentary, The Celluloid Closet. The description by Norman Mailer of deciding to have Stephen Boyd play all his scenes with Charleton Heston in Ben Hur, as former teen lovers (not that unusual for the public mores of the era), "but whatever we do, we can't let Chuck know that's what we're doing!" makes the video worth owning. *attention dittoheads, this URL is for you: http://www.igc.org/fair/limbaugh-debates-reality.html David Hulan wrote: >Noel Coward was certainly gay. It wasn't much of a secret even during his >lifetime, but after his death it was freely acknowledged by several people >who knew for sure. I'm a great admirer of the man and his work, and own and >have read two or three biographies besides a couple of autobiographical >books and his collected diaries. Thanks for stating that explicitly for the sarcasm impaired. I'm a fan of his too. Eric Idle does a turn sending up one flavor of Noel Coward just before Mr. Creosote's entrance in M Python's The Meaning of Life. Here's for the day when the private matter of one's sexual proclivities will raise no more of an eyebrow than one's eye, hair or skin color, topics that may, some day, raise no more hackles than the mention of freckles. Fat chance, huh. Bear, it sounds like your relationship with your sister and daughter sounds much healthier than that of Newt Gingrich and his daughter. Thanks for the news about our Ozmama, we all wish her well. I had her travails in mind when I mentioned the need for proper sex-education in schools. I think I have enough gall for both of us, if you need any, Robin! Geeze, somebody help me offa this soapbox, willya? Here's to Little Wizard Stories, some of my favorites. --Ken Cope Ozcot Studios pinhead@ozcot.com-- Our first business will be to supervise the making of fables and legends, rejecting all which are unsatisfactory; and we shall induce nurses and mothers to tell their children only those which we have approved. --Plato "The Republic" ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 22:18:13 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones David: I suppose your conclusions regarding Woot can be summed up as saying that Woot is nothing spectacular. That is, he does not have as interesting a background as Tip, he does nothing of note and has no "excess baggage". Not that there's anything wrong with him, he just tended to fade into the woodwork. Kiki Aru may be more interesting to write about, but of course he's only been Public Domain for three years. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 22:29:57 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-06-97 Surgery: Yeah, I had my gallbladder out the Monday befoe Xmas (and carpal tunnel surgery the Monday before Thanksgiving!) I'm fine, y'all. Just call me a cut up, I guess. ---------------- Hyphens: Yes, adverbs may modify adjectives (and verbs and other adverbs); they do not need hyphens when used to modify adjectives. ---------------- David: I'll say my prayers for your mother-in-law and for your own mom. How very sad for you all. ---------------- Bob: Herm Bieber and I are used book dealers specializing in Oz. If Herm hasn't already done so, I'll dig up a copy of the AABA's definitions of condition terms and send them along sometime soon. I'm in a time crunch. Sorry. Oh, one thing to always remember is that G (Good) means that the book is in average *used* condition and shows wear, although it is complete. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 00:56:41 -0500 From: Lisa Bompiani Subject: ozzy digest It's me again, I thought I better correct myself before I got stomped :-) I have just been talking about _The Wiz_, in which Nipsey Russell starred. So, Spark, he wasn't in the concert as I said, but if it's the same one I'm thinking of recently, I think it was Jewel who played Dorothy. Did Natalie Cole play Glinda? P & L, Bompi ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 07:19:05 -0400 (EDT) From: earlabbe@juno.com (Earl C. Abbe) Subject: Martin Gardner Oz & Wonderland Book (Please forgive me if this is already well known information; I have been off-line for some time and am only up to the 11/18 Digest in my reading.) In the Lewis Carroll Society's Winter 1997 _Knight Letter_, Martin Gardner is quoted: "I have just finished writing a new Oz Book, currently being considered by St. Martin's Press. (My wife predicts a rejection). I mention it because I have placed Wonderland in Oz, and several chapters are devoted to Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Tin Woodman, taking a tour through Wonderland where they discover numerous errors in Alice's two out-of-body visits there." Gardner is, of course, the celebrated author of the two _Annotated Alices_ and so many Scientific American Mathematical Games columns. I think that anything he writes on an association of Oz with Wonderland will be of considerable interest. Let us hope that St. Martin makes the right decision. Earl Abbe ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 10:26:27 -0600 From: Gordon Birrell Subject: Ozzy Digest W. Baldwin: In response to your question about the proper use of hyphens, here is what Wilson Follett has to say in _Modern American Usage_: "The first and by far the greatest help to reading is the compulsory hyphening that makes a single adjective out of two words before a noun: eighteenth-century painting / fleet-footed Achilles / tumble-down shack / Morse-code noises / single-stick expert. Nothing gives away the incompetent amateur more quickly than the typescript that neglects this mark of punctuation or that employs it where it is not wanted. It is not wanted between an adverb and its adjective before a noun: a serenely unconscious man / a verbally inept proposal / a remarkably pretty girl. But when the adverb well is linked with a past participle, again only before the noun, the hyphen is required: a well-liked actor / a well-intentioned fool / a well-translated poem. The reason for hyphening emerges from these examples: it is to warn the reader that he must fuse two ideas before he can perceive how they apply to the subject. With the ordinary adverb this signal is conveyed by the form itself: serenely cannot modify a noun directly; rather, it falls forward on the adjective unconscious and the necessary fusion is accomplished. Well needs the hyphen to link it with a participle because neither is obviously adverb or adjective: we can say a well man, and we tend to think of liked, beaten, intentioned, protected primarily as verb forms. The full-fledged adjective (full here plays exactly the same role as well) arises only from the combination marked by hyphening. After frequent use the mark may disappear, but only by means of amalgamation into one word: thoroughbred, scapegrace, bluenosed, fatheaded, bittersweet, and so on." --Gordon Birrell ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 15:58:20 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-02-98 Ken: I don't remember an Oz reference in _Pricilla_, which my parents rented and like a lot more than I did. The other day I finally found a copy of Rankin Bass's _Return to Oz_, and one part I remember only upon seeing it again (last time I saw it I was nine) was Rusty singing "Sometimes I feel I'd like to be gay!" I remember laughing then, and I laughed this time, too. Perhaps my choice to make Tip dealt with his very nature as an extraneous character, as I often feel. Like people are only nice to me to be polite, not because they really care. None of my friends ever attempt to stay in contact me. You may have heard me reference my friend Katherine, who I have not heard from in a month but who I consider my best friend, and also whom I fell in love with, though, of course, she has a boyfriend. Once I told her (in e-mail,) that I feel like I'm an appendix to people's lives, that they can just drop off without any change. She never said anything about this. I don't know what's going on. I'm constantly alone, and my brother thinks I'm a fag, so why wouldn't I identify with a re-formed Tip as described by Jack Snow? Scott Happy birthday to me, 1-02-76... ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 98 16:57:17 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things MISCELLANIOUS: Thanks for the Rules of English, Bear! Jellia (picking up a small paperback book): What's this? Wogglebug: That is _The Rules of English Grammar and Spelling_. Jellia (picking up a volume the size of the unabriged dictionary): What's *this*? Wogglebug: That is _The Exceptions to the Rules of English Grammar and Spelling_. Interesting points about "doers" and "watchers". It reminds me of the sign on the wall of my 7th grade teacher's classroom: "There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened." You could probably classify Oz citizens in broad terms in this scheme: THOSE WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN: Ozma (under Baum and Hardenbrook), Dorothy, Scarecrow, Nick Chopper, Scraps, Tip, Glinda, the Wizard, the Shaggy Man, the Cowardly Lion, Ojo, Polychrome, the Adepts. THOSE WHO WATCH THINGS HAPPEN: Ozma (under Thompson and Neill), Betsey Bobbin, Woot, Toto (except in _Mimics_), the Wogglebug, Uncle Henry and Auntie Em, Bungle (except in his title book), the Hungry Tiger. THOSE WHO WONDER WHAT HAPPENED: Jack Pumpkinhead, Button-Bright. PRINCE JOHN: Bear wrote: >The Disney Prince John reminds me of the Cowardly Lion about as much as >Bill Clinton reminds me of George Washington. Well, it just said that they had the Cowardly Lion *in mind*...Nothing about their actually succeeding...Actually the CL could probably sue Disney for defamation of character. :) Speaking of which... ANOTHER OZZY-DISNEY REVELATION: I'm up to _Aladdin_ in _Mouse Under Glass_, and it gives this piece of trivia to which I can draw an Oz parallel...In the climatic scenes in which Jafar steals the lamp and uses his first wish to annex Agrabah, they were going to have Jafar wish, "I wish to be Sultan, to always be Sultan, and *to always have been Sultan*!" -- So then Aladdin would find himself in a nightmarish new world a' la Bedford Falls-transformed-into-Pottersville in which everyone is mean and unhappy, and only Al and the Flying Carpet would remember how things should really be. This idea was rejected as being "too weird", which is a pity IMHO because apart from being a potentially intriguing plot twist, I think the parallel of this scenario with _The Wishing Horse of Oz_ is uncanny. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 8 - 9, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 22:57:20 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: YANKEE swap IN OZ Sender: "J. L. Bell" David Hulan asked: <> Let's imagine that for her birthday Ozma, rather than having her friends go on dangerous quests seeking the perfect gift for a fairy who has everything, announces that the court will celebrate with a "Yankee swap." Everyone's very pleased, except Number Nine, who has to go home to his uncle because he's still under copyright protection. Each celebrity in Ozma's palace chooses and wraps a small present. Jellia collects all the goodies and puts them in a big pile on the throne room floor. The courtiers gather around with food and drink and wassailing (for those who don't eat or drink). Finally, it's time for the gift exchange. Ozma goes first because it's her birthday. She chooses a squash-shaped object wrapped rather clumsily in yellow paper. "Why, it's a squash!" she says after unwrapping it. "How lovely!" Jack Pumpkinhead watches with a big grin on his face. Scraps insists on choosing next. She picks a big package and tears open the paper to reveal...a big bottle of metal polish. "Polish?!" Scraps wails. "You can use it to polish your ears," says Dorothy. "Or, under the rules of a Yankee swap, you can trade it for my squash," Ozma says. "What good's a squash to me?" grouses Scraps. Trot peeks at Jack to see if he's insulted, but he still has a big grin on his face. The Shaggy Man comes next. He opens a packet of embroidered handkerchiefs. At this point, he has the choice of swapping them for the metal polish or the squash. "Don't you want this shiny polish?" the Patchwork Girl asks, but no, Shaggy's happy. Next, Uncle Henry unwraps a pair of golden scissors. He decides that he'll get more use from kerchiefs, and swaps with the Shaggy Man. The Scarecrow unwraps a quill pencil, and Trot a compass, and--but wait, Trot swaps the compass for the scissors because Cap'n Bill already has a compass and she can't imagine going anywhere without him. Meanwhile, Scraps is muttering rhymes to herself: "abolish... demolish..." Herby gets a hair ribbon, and Betsy a Game Boy she can play by herself on adventures, and Tik-Tok a box of chocolates, which he graciously trades with Betsy because he knows she almost never goes on adventures by herself. Then the Wizard unwraps a hair brush, which he swaps for the Game Boy, for the obvious reason and because he's eager to take the Game Boy apart. And so on through the court. Each celebrity, after opening a present, chooses whether or not to swap for any of the presents already opened. Presents that attract several people change hands often, while others remain with the people who opened and wanted them first. Finally, everyone in court has opened a present--but there's still one gift left. "Where's Button-Bright?" Dorothy asks. "He was jus' here," says Trot. "I've noticed that Button-Bright is often 'just here,'" says the Scarecrow. "But I know he was here. He brought a present--he wrapped up some licorice balls he found in his pocket." The Hungry Tiger starts to look queasy, but it's too late for him to swap--because it's past his turn, and because of the obvious reason. "I know," says Ozma, standing. "We'll save this last present for Button-Bright, unless someone wants to swap for it now." The Shaggy Man speaks up: "I b'lieve Button-Bright's the sort of lad who needs a good compass." So he swaps his compass for the unwrapped present, which turns out to be a sterling silver cow bell. Still standing, Ozma says, "Now, since I chose first, I can swap my squash for any other present--but I wouldn't dream of it." Everybody claps. The fairy princess, unable to bear the thought of anyone not being happy, adds, "Finally, any two of you can trade your presents if you both wish." Well, Uncle Henry has taken a liking to that cow bell, so he gives the handkerchiefs back to the Shaggy Man in exchange for it. Billina the Yellow Hen swaps a diamond-crusted nail file for a children's ABC book chosen by from a giant white rat who remains nameless. Meanwhile, Dorothy notices that the Patchwork Girl is off twirling in a corner. She dashes over. "Scraps, you can swap that polish for something diff'rent now." "I can?" The Patchwork Girl runs back and asks, "Does anyone want a bottle of metal polish?" No answer. She asks, louder, "Does anyone want a bottle of metal polish?" Still no answer. "DOES ANYONE WHO HAS NO HAIR BUT WHAT'S PAINTED ON HIS COPPER HEAD WANT TO TRADE A HAIRBRUSH FOR--" "Oh! Tik-Tok's run down!" says Betsy. She winds him up, and he quickly trades Scraps the brush for the polish. And that's the end of the Yankee swap. So everyone has a gift, more or less to his choosing, and everyone has the excitement of watching gifts unwrapped and traded. The "Yankee" part probably refers to the shrewd exchanges, but it may refer to the cost savings of such an event. And remember, in case you're ever in a Yankee swap: the person who unwraps second has the least choice. Mazel tov. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 23:05:24 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: They can also eat glass in Oz Someone asked about what Dan-Rur is (I don't remember who), having found reference to it on the "I can eat glass" pages, and I must take the blame for it. Working on the premise that nonhumans who develop societies independenly of humans are extremely likely to develop their own languages, I created a draft version of a language for the fairy species with one main goal: It should be intolerably difficult. As such, most of the basic vocabulary is computer-generated, and the grammar is a disaster area. If I get around to designing the writing system, it will have a syllabary and not an alphabet. This language, Dan-Rur (the Fairy Language), will probably show up in Lurline's Machine if I ever get enough time and regain the proper spirit of ozziness to get back to work on the project. So far, my submission to the "I can eat glass in Oz" is the longest text written so far in Dan-Rur. Also in (suspended) development: Old Ozzish (Human with significant non-human influence; multiple dialects; draft alphabet; one poem composed so far). Under consideration: Erb (at least 2 dialects), Dragon. More information on Old Ozzish and Dan-Rur is available to anyone who wants it on request. Aaron. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@ymail.yu.edu The Antipolitical Martian Empire ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 07 Jan 1998 22:04:08 -0800 From: Ken Cope Subject: lonelyhearts in Oz When I saw the sequences in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, where high atop a bus in the middle of nowhere in the Australian outback, rides a drag queen on a giant silver high-heeled sandal, I couldn't help but think of Dorothy's silver slippers lost in the deadly desert, but somehow grown large in transit and ending up in the outback down under... As for "Rusty" singing he wishes he were gay... "H-huh. Huh-huh-huh-huh. Ow, quit it, Butthead..." Repeat after me. "Beavis and Butthead are not role models." Scott, it sounds to me like you're going through a perfectly normal process of teen angst, despair, alienation, and hormones. Are you really surprised when the object of your present infatuation, who already has a boyfriend, rejects you? Or is rejection what you're looking for? You ought to learn how to take a hint. Don't waste your time with those types of games. A lot of people really don't care; so what? You'll get over it, there isn't anything worthwhile you'll miss by avoiding hurtful people. You've got years ahead of you to learn what it means to be yourself, instead of somebody you think others want you to be. I spent a lot of time alone in high school, I read, I wrote, I drew, I painted, I had a very few close friends and have no idea where any of them are today-- If your brother thinks you're a fag, I'll thank you not to mention the names I'm sure he uses for women in general, and specifically women who object to his sexual advances, if he's like those who typically use the pejorative that way. You've got an opportunity to grow a brain and learn how to use it, which likely gives you a one-organ advantage over your brother from the sound of things. So stop using the language they're using to put you down, in some effort to fit in. It does you no credit. The way your brother is using the word fag has more to do with primate politics than anything else. I was called a hippie faggot because I was tall, skinny, wore long hair and didn't letter in sports or date-rape cheerleaders in Orange County during the heyday of the John Birch Society. (I was in high school 69-73) I got good grades without having to try very hard. It was obvious I wasn't one of them, and I wouldn't have it any other way. You'll get over it. Unless you just had your 37th birthday, I'm guessing you're still in HS. In which Jack Snow book was Tip re-formed? --Ken Cope Ozcot Studios pinhead@ozcot.com-- ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 01:37:06 -0600 From: "R. M. Atticus Gannaway" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-07-97 SCOTT H.: >I don't know what's going on. I'm constantly alone, and my >brother thinks I'm a fag, so why wouldn't I identify with a re-formed Tip >as described by Jack Snow? first of all, I REALLY HATE THAT WORD. i KNOW you know to what word i'm referring. secondly, here's my opinion on the rest of it: people really don't like being around negative people. yes, i pick up a lot of negativity from your posts. i used to be a negative person, and i didn't have friends. i've changed now, and i do have friends. further, i don't let what other people think of me influence my self-esteem. i could give a damn what my reputation/public approval rating is. hey, there's a lot worse things than being called homosexual--for instance, being called HOMOPHOBIC. i don't wish to get ugly or to begin another futile debate as happened a number of months ago. i'll just assume that you're not so stupid as to use the F word again. we may just drop the subject. please don't disappoint me. atticus * * * "The crash of the whole solar and stellar systems could only kill you once." Visit my webpage at http://members.aol.com/atty993 ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 16:11:08 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-07-97 Ken Cope: >David, if you take a look at the art in Gaiman's current serial >story, Stardust, and tell me you don't like the work of Charles >Vess, I'm afraid there's no hope for you. The art in Glass Cat >didn't hinder my enjoyment of your work (much), but I certainly >didn't buy (and enjoy reading) my hard bound copy for its pictures. I can comment only on the art in the Sandman story that I read (the title of which I forget, and I didn't keep it so I can't look it up), and which I didn't like. I don't think it's valid to compare the effect of art on the enjoyment of a graphic novel to the effect of illustrations on the enjoyment of a text novel; it's pretty easy to ignore illustrations, but the art in a graphic novel carries a good deal of the story, and if it isn't appealing then the best script in the world is going to suffer badly for it. I don't say the Sandman stories aren't worth reading; they probably are. However, I don't have any urge to try to collect the lot of them and read them when I already have more books that I know I want to read and reread than I'll probably live long enough to get through, and that's not even considering all the new books that are going to be published as time goes by. I did love Gaiman's collaboration with Terry Pratchett, _Good Omens_, though. Bear: >Gee David, I wonder if making blanket denunciations without proof is a >healthy approach to life and discourse? Welcome back. :) Oh, probably. You seem to be healthy enough, if misguided, and you do it all the time. :-) Robin: Best wishes for quick healing. Earl: I hope Gardner's Oz book is published. He has a big enough name that I think he has a chance, and it might open up the market a little more for other writers as well. Gordon: Thanks for sharing the Official version on the use of hyphens. I disagree with Follett's rationale, but it amounts to pretty much the same thing that I said. Dave: Ozma sometimes makes things happen under Thompson, and frequently just watches things happen under Baum; I don't think their respective treatments of her are as different as you seem to. I think it's fair to say that by the time Thompson took over the series, Ozma had become so powerful that giving her a major role from the beginning of a story would result in there being no story. She pops in at the end of _Yellow Knight_ and _Ojo_ and settles everything in an instant, for instance. Baum didn't give her that much power until his last three books (and she didn't have occasion to use it in _Magic_). While she was still more of a princess than a magic worker, she could take a more active role (as in _Ozma_, _Emerald City_, and _Patchwork Girl_) without her intervention being essentially the end of the story. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 18:13:02 +0000 From: Scott Olsen Subject: Re: Ozzy Digests Re: Dave's reading _Mouse Under Glass_ Hey, I got that for Christmas too! And I also received a copy of Michael O. Reiley's _Oz and Beyond_, and have found it to be a truly fine book. I am very impressed with his notes, bibliography, and "works cited" section, which is a testament to the many fine individuals who have contributed to the knowledge of L. Frank Baum and Oz (some are even on the digest!) Re: Herm's posting of an unusual (to say the least) 1941 Reilly & Lee edition of _Wizard_ for $350.00: You're right, that price is terrible! Do you think they'd take $300.00? Re: Digest discussion awhile back about the best place to read: I'm surprised no one mentioned the one place where you can be alone: the bathroom. To Robin: Glad to hear you're feeling better. And to Robin (re: Limbaugh): I have nothing against legitimate political discussion or the exposure of true political wrongdoing, but most talk radio nowadays is the same ranting of the same conspiracy of the day, so it either turns me off or makes me laugh. I also find continued disrespect of our elected officals (of either party) which goes beyond the bounds of genuine, good satire (which itself appears to be a lost art) in poor taste. Sincerely, Scott Olsen ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 12:59:09 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-07-97 Ken Cope wrote: >(Has anybody >else besides JMS scripted an episode of B5 before?) In each of the first two seasons, Larry Ditillio, with the title of "Script Editor", contributed three, and several other writers, including Christy Marx, Peter David, David Gerrold, Dorothy C Fontana, and Katherine Drennan (Mrs. Straczynski) also did a script or two, mostly from premises by JMS. As the plot became more convoluted in the third season, he intentionally undertook to write all 22, but didn't intend to do it again. However, when the PTEN "network" was shot out from under him, and nobody knew whether the fourth season would be the last, he had to repeat the effort, in order to create a structure that would work whether there was a fifth season or not. // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 20:47:05 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Well this is the age of pressure groups. Dave, how about a letter(email) to St. Martins from the eminent producer of the Oz Digest encouraging them to publish Gardner's book? You could tell them your large readership is awaiting it with baited breath. Scott - Your latest post made me feel really sad for you. It was not something I can just scroll on by. I don't know where you are in your life journey other than that you are a young man. However, your state of mind somewhat reminded me of myself at a point in my life when I was sitting there trying to absorb the end of my first marriage. So I have a prescription for you, one that a friend gave me at that time in my life. Get up from that computer, go out into the world and throw yourself body and soul into some volunteer work. I did that, learned a lot about myself, did some useful work, helped others, regained my balance, met my second wife and lived fairly happily ever after. Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 21:27:52 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones David: I've always been irritated by TV and movies when they use the phrase "you and I" incorrectly. For example, "This is a wonderful opportuniuty for you and I". They think they're being sophisticated, but it just ain't using grammar real good. :-) Bear: Here are some more rules. Do not use run-on sentences they can be confusing. About them sentence fragments. Eschew obfuscation. Always review your work to see if you any words out. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 98 12:00:57 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things TO SCOTT O.: I agree with what you say about confusing intellegent satire with hate-mongering. Baum always did the first and not the second. BIRDS OF BAUMGEA: I just heard that there's a legendary bird featured in the _Arabian Nights_ known as the Orc...Any connection to our Ork? Another reminder: We start discussing _Tik-Tok of Oz_ on Monday... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 10 - 12, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 12:20:44 -0600 From: Tim Allison Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-03-97 The Harold Washington Library in Chicago is having an Ozzy birthday Saturday Jan 10 at noon in the children's section Carol Mitchell ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 22:54:18 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 J.L.: Thanks for the explanation of the Yankee swap. I'm familiar with the process (it's the one followed by the LASFS Gift Exchange, among others), but hadn't heard that term for it. Aaron: I assume you're probably the one who put the Old Ozzish into the "I can eat glass" board as well? As far as I recall the only actual reference to Old Ozzish in the FF is when Ozma tells the Wizard that "Oz" meant "great and good" in the old language. Otherwise we're left with a lot of other names whose meaning can be speculated on, and that's about it for anything canonical. Or am I forgetting something? Scott O.: >Re: Herm's posting of an unusual (to say the least) 1941 Reilly & Lee >edition of _Wizard_ for $350.00: > >You're right, that price is terrible! Do you think they'd take $300.00? Actually, I'd guess that a 1941 Reilly & Lee edition of _Wizard_ should be worth a whole bunch, since Reilly & Lee didn't publish _Wizard_ in 1941; it was still Bobbs-Merrill's property at that point. It'd have to be a True Rarity... >I'm surprised no one mentioned the one place where you can be alone: the >bathroom. That was a favorite place when I was younger and living with my parents. (Back in the days when our books were clay tablets. :-)) For a long time, though, I've had no need to be alone to read undisturbed; nowadays, of course, I'm home alone for 50 or so waking hours a week, but even when my wife's home as well she's usually busy reading herself and doesn't disturb me. Tyler: Agreed with your irritation at people who use "you and I" (or "[name] and I") as the object of a verb or preposition. I'm quite comfortable with "It's me"; to my mind "me" in English has for all practical purposes assumed the same role as "moi" in French - the first person pronoun for any use other than the immediate subject of a verb. If the pedants would simply recognize that that's the way people talk, and that "I" should only be used when it's followed by a verb that it's the subject of, there'd be a lot less of the irritating use of "I" where even pedants recognize it's inappropriate. Dave: I never heard of a bird called an Orc in the Arabian Nights. There's a Roc that plays a prominent role in one of the Sinbad stories. But I haven't read all thousand and one nights, so maybe there's an Orc there too. I'm reasonably sure, though, that if so it has no connection to our Ork. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 18:54:26 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Oz '98 Sender: "J. L. Bell" I just opened my 1998 Oz Club Calendar, and recognized more names of list-members than faces of Oz characters. I was worried about my book memory until I saw Chris Dulabone's explanatory note on the back. Tyler Jones wrote: <> Hear, hear! My favorite counterexample, however, is "We Are the World," in which Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie write: "There's a choice we're making: / We're saving our own lives. / It's true we make a better day, / Just you and...me." Not only would "you and I" be assonant, but here it's correct, dammit! Hey, in this crazy world in which we live in... Dave Hardenbrook wrote: <> Ha ha! I do wish to point out that Toto races away from the storm cellar, attacks the Lion, and knocks over the screen that reveals the Wizard. Some of these actions are instinctual, some inadvertent, but all crucial to how things go down--because his actions prompt Dorothy to act. And Prof. Wogglebug has makes important suggestions as well as atrocious puns in LAND: mending the Sawhorse's leg, choosing a head for the flying machine. But he quickly reveals himself to be a *grown-up.* As soon as the professor gets his college, he's only interested in boring stuff like education pills, writing "The Royal Book of Oz," and pursuing his RUNAWAY vacation home. Thus, the Wogglebug can still set events in motion, but he's more often a mild antagonist to the child-hero. Finally, Dave, a gentle reminder when you date the next digest: we're into 1998. I know because I just got a new calendar. (And I spent all today at the office carefully watching to make sure I typed "8 January 1998" on my letters. Then I realized it's 9 January.) J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 19:58:44 -0500 (EST) From: ZMaund Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 Boy is this ever on topic! In a message to the Ozzy Digest dated 98-01-09 17:14:29 EST, Scott Olsen writes: > I also find continued disrespect of our elected officals (of either > party) which goes beyond the bounds of genuine, good satire (which itself > appears to be a lost art) in poor taste. Hmmmm... Lyndon Johnson as he sends the next troop transport out? John Adams as he signs the Alien and Sedition Acts? Clinton as he signs the Decency in Telecommunications Act? Spiro Agnew anytime at all? ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 19:17:15 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 Digesters all, I just had to express my appreciation for the Digest of 1/9/98. An extremely well written, well thought out, witty, civilized discourse by all. I hope that the rest of the year continues in this same vein. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 22:53:15 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 Scott H.: Happy belated 21st. birthday! (or is my math wrong?) Please avoid the word "fag." It's a loaded, offensive word, whether it's meant to be or not. I can tell from your post that you weren't aware that it was offensive in that context, but it was and always is...unless you're talking about a cigarette or something. Bear's idea of volunteer work is a good one. Or find a leisure learning class where they view and discuss films. In other words, get up and get moving in circles where you might just meet some good folks out there. Join a gym. Learn to work with stained glass. Join a community theater group. Get out there! ================== David: How are things on the mothers' front? ================== Jno Bell: Cute story! So that's what a Yankee Swap is! --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 23:53:53 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Dave: >BIRDS OF BAUMGEA: I just heard that there's a legendary bird featured in the _Arabian Nights_ known as the Orc...Any connection to our Ork?< Are you sure that legendary bird wasn't the "roc"? My Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable says: Roc. In Arabian legend, a fabulous white bird of enormous size and such strength that it can "truss elephants in its talons", and carry them to its mountain nest, where it devours them. It is described in the Arabian Nights (Sinbad the Sailor). Ork: I may be big, but not that big! Besides, rocs have those ugly feathers... About Orc: Orc. A sea-monster fabled by ariosto, Drayton, Sylvester, etc. to devour men and women. The name was sometimes used for a whale. An island salt and bare, The haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mews clang. Milton: Paradise Lost. Orc: Those orcs give us orks a bad name... :-) David: Got a kick out of your older friends' observation on the benefits of growing older. My coworkers liked it, too. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 23:53:13 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-07-97 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Ken Cope: >And speaking of mental health, how are things in Rigamarole, Fuddlecumjig and Flutterbudget Center, Tippe-- Princess Ozma? < Ozma: When we have *perfect* mental health in Oz, those places will no longer be necessary. :-) Tip: Did somebody say my name? Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 23:23:36 -0600 From: "Warren H. Baldwin" Subject: Ozzy Digest Jan. 7-9: Thanks, David, for your explanation on hyphen use. Your writing is cogent and to the point, as usual. As soon as you mentioned "style," my personal BIOS was flash-updated: "style=permissiveness," so I will no longer feel that inarticulate rage at the sight of an occasional empirical hyphen. I have nothing against hyphens, but I had thought there were more definite rules governing them. The rising gorge occasioned by them and by the use of "I, he, she" instead of "me, him, her" was not stimulated by the objects themselves, but by the users thereof, my rationale being: the country already has more groups fighting with other groups with less meaningful communication than ever before, so what purpose is served by impairing, by whim or by intent, the greatest advantage reconciliation has, a common language? At any rate, it's good to know that I'm not the only one who has noticed these things, or the only one who still cares -- albeit unprofessionally -- about language. Language=thought; imprecise language=muddled thinking. Thank you, too, Gordon. So there *are* some real rules about hyphens! I'm printing them out to have them at hand when a need for them arises. I'm even more impressed with the likening of the hyphen to a bridge connecting or fusing two ideas. That idea, I think, makes an excellent benchmark to measure against when trying to decide whether a hyphen can be used legimately in any particular situation. Bear, I'll try to use all your rules meticulously at all times, and I'll try to do so as well as you use them yourself! Tyler: more useful rules! At times I've suspected that obfuscation might also be a function of the size of the hearer's or reader's useful vocabulary, but I may be about that. W. Baldwin ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 10 Jan 1998 11:51:45 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-07-97 I forgot to mention that January seventh is Queen Aubrey's birthday. She's 112, but looks not a day over seventeen. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 22:38:03 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: TIK-TOK OF OZ, pp. 1-12 Sender: "J. L. Bell" One benefit of these discussions is feeling spurred to read my Books of Wonder/Morrow Oz books. I grew up with "white cover" editions, which either dropped the color plates or converted them to line art. Seeing those illustrations in the text is thus in a small way a new reading experience. Every so often "white cover" editions make up somewhat for the loss of color. For TIK-TOK, I like the "white cover" better. It shows all our heroes (except Files) in a chariot whose wheel is the interlaced O and Z; on the back, Hank pulls the chariot. I recall reading that Neill originally drew this art for an advertisement or retail display. The original TIK-TOK cover was redrawn for page 2 of the "white cover" edition, with small changes: Tik-Tok lost his gun and gained the missing shadow of his hat, and the background and title were left out. The cross-hatching, line, eyes, and hands make me suspect this and other redrawings were the work of Dick Martin. Can anyone shed light on that conversion? Proceeding all the way to page 11, I admire Baum's alliterative chapter titles for TIK-TOK. The only big lapse is "Shaggy Seeks His Stray BROTHER." That could have been alliterative, too, if only Shaggy were seeking a sister. (In 1914 the terms "sib" and "sibling" still meant "relative" rather than "brother or sister.") Now, just as I approach TIK-TOK's actual story, I rear back to address the endpapers: the maps of Oz and surrounding countries. I hadn't noticed how in the Oz map the Yellow Brick Road is straight as an arrow and extends to the east/left into the Deadly Desert. Because that extension doesn't appear on the continent map, and because there's no sign of the branch Ojo took, I have to consider the road's rendering unreliable. More intriguing to me is how these 1914 maps show countries that didn't appear in Baum's stories until later. We know he'd already written of Pingaree, Rinkitink, and Boboland in his RINKTINK manuscript. And his note "To My Readers" shows he was at least planning SCARECROW, in which Jinxland and the Magic Waterfall appear. So do the appearance of the Yips, Skeezers, and Mount Munch indicate that Baum already had stories about them in mind as he guided Neill's cartography? A look ahead shows Baum's vision of these sites was (no big surprise) inconsistent. In TIN WOODMAN, Ku-Klip says Nimmie Ammee went to "live with some people she was acquainted with who had a house on Mount Munch" (p. 222). That house must be fairly low, given what MAGIC tells us about the mountain's steep slopes. Indeed, Munch is described on p. 261 of TIN WOODMAN, with no mention of its singular shape. In GLINDA, Baum has to account for the lack of Flatheads on the map by having Ozma say, "...on Professor Wogglebug's Map of the Land of Oz there is a place marked 'Skeezer [sic],' but what the Skeezers are like I do not know" (p. 18). (Ozma goes on to say, "The Skeezer Country is 'way at the upper edge of the Gillikin Country, with the sandy, impassable desert on one side and the mountains of Oogaboo on another side," which cuts out a lot of Winkie Country.) And, though Jinxland is on these maps, it's not across the desert from Mo. Indeed, Baum seems to have forgotten Mo and Yew entirely. Such discrepancies show that, rather than Baum shaping the map with ideas for future stories, Baum's future stories were inspired by the map. I presume that he and Neill filled blank regions with odd labels like "Yips" and geographical features like the waterfall to give Oz more verisimilitude. Later, Baum, seeking inspiration within his established framework, used those places in his books--again, because they were already mapped, giving Oz verisimilitude. Yet all these border areas turn out to be isolated and little known; the Hyups, the Yips, and so on are all tiny human communities cut off from the rest of Oz. Normally mapped features are those we know the *most* about, places *most* important to us. So, ironically, Baum created and revisited places like Jinxland to give verisimilitude to the maps of Oz, then undercut that verisimilitude when he chose to depict those places as isolated. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 13-14, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 13:23:21 +0200 (IST) From: Tzvi Harris Subject: Ozzy Digest Hi. I hope everyone enjoyed their vacations. It's snowing here in Israel. I've been living here for 15 years and this is only the second time I've seen a snow that stuck in most of the country. Tik-Tok In my edition of _Tik-Tok_ there is an illustration of Tik-Tok on roller skates on page 106. Does anyone know what the deal is with this illustration? I recently read _Merry Go Round_. I thought it was much better than RPTs' writing. Enjoyed it very much. Tzvi Harris Talmon Israel ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 10:32:32 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Another bit of post-Nast pre-Sundholm Santa Clausing -- Neill also illustrated a "Night Before Christmas: (1908). The "Bugle" reprinted some of the illustrations as a cover back in 1985, and they show his choice of outfit for Santa then as blue robe with white trim. (He also drew Santa, as J.L. Bell mentioned, for Thompson's "Curious Cruise of Captain Santa." The IWWOC reprint has the interior illos in b&w, but the original edition had two-color printing, with the illustrations in black and red -- so, of course, Santa wore red there in the North Pole scenes. Incidentally, for those of you who don't have it, it's an enjoyable story, and still available from the IWWOC.) David Hulan: Nice analysis of the range of Ozma-plots. Yes, "it's me" is idiomatically much more comfortable -- as Peter discovered when Jack Pumpkinhead thought it was Cy at the door. Warren Baldwin: I keep getting startled by your W. Baldwin signature line -- reminds me of the villainous Thrush satrap Ward Baldwin (and his wife Irene) in David McDaniel's "Man from UNCLE" novels. They were based on a real couple, friends of his, and the names were their own choices (Irene for Irene Adler, as they were Sherlock Holmes fans; Baldwin because bald, Ward because Dean Warner Dickensheet's first, middle, and last names could all be translated as watchman, the last being Dutch for dike-guard). J.L. Bell: You're probably right that Dick Martin made the changes in art that was changed in the white cover editions. I don't recall direct comments to that effect, but he said somewhere that he worked on the white cover and amused himself by making the ampersand in Reilly & Lee different on each spine. Fred Meyer in one of his "Bugle" articles talked about the presence on the "Tik-Tok" maps of place-names Baum proceeded to introduce into the texts of the later books and wondered if he had the stories already in mind, or if looking at the names he'd put on the map helped him come up with the stories later -- he thought it was probably some of both. Your suggestion that Glinda's comment about not knowing what the Skeezers are like implies that "Skeezer" was a case of story-growing-out-of-map-name sounds plausible. I'm not sure that putting unknown places on the map necessarily undercuts plausibility in mapping. The Wogglebug seems like just the sort of person who would like to put unknown places on the map. (Of course, it might be asked how he knew their names if they're unknown, but they're probably not quite entirely unknown. He might ask the birds for a quick bird's-eye view.) Ken Cope: Tip's (first) re-appearance was not in a Jack Snow book, but in his short story, "Murder in Oz," which was published posthumously in the "Baum Bugle" (and is still available in "Best of the Baum Bugle" #1). (Melody Grandy's version is a book, though.) Speaking of the "Bugle" -- over the years it's published some articles relevant to "Tik-Tok": the pair of Nome articles that I mentioned during the "Ozma" discussion, Phyllis Karr's "Curious Case of King Kaliko" (Autumn 1978) and Judy Pike's "Decline and Fall of the Nome King" (Winter 1969); also articles on the 1913 play "Tik-Tok" and its relationship to "Ozma" and the 1914 "Tik-Tok" Oz book, Fred Meyer's "Dramatic Influence on Oz" (Best #2), and Dan Mannix's "Ozma, Tiktok, and Rheingold" (Spring 1978). Robin Olderman once played the female roles in an Ozmapolitan convention's staging of the play that sounds as if it must have been a lot of fun. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 15:02:07 -0500 (EST) From: Marpy Subject: hello...i've written to you before...... ...and i hope you might be able to point me in the right direction (again). i'm trying to help my husband in his endless search for oz memorabilia. we're trying to finish up a couple of holes in collections, and i was wondering if you might be able to suggest where i could find the following: 1. the "Little Golden Book" The Emerald City of Oz - 1952 2. the "Junior Edition" titles as follows: * The Land of Oz * Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse of Oz * The Patchwork Girl of Oz * The Road to Oz * Little Dorothy & Toto of Oz We're looking to start building a list of contacts that we can buy/trade/sell oz memorabilia with. we've got a room PACKED full of stuff that we've scoured all of southern texas for....and would be willing to help look for specific requests for people if we could get that help in return. thanks for any information you can share! -marpy hayse ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 14:47:18 -0500 (EST) From: Marpy Subject: hello! i got your email from ozmama :-) long story short: my hubby's an oz collector (we USED to have a guest room!) and i'm trying to help him locate *stuff*. we'd like to get our name into the "inner sanctum" of oz collectors, so that we can actively trade and seek out oz memorabilia with the best of them. any information you can provide would be helpful! thanks! -marpy hayse ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 21:37:13 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-12-97 Carol: >The Harold Washington Library in Chicago is having an Ozzy birthday >Saturday Jan 10 at noon in the children's section >Carol Mitchell Too bad I didn't hear about it until Jan 12, though I probably wouldn't have gone anyhow because of the weather. J.L.: >Hear, hear! My favorite counterexample, however, is "We Are the World," in >which Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie write: "There's a choice we're >making: / We're saving our own lives. / It's true we make a better day, / >Just you and...me." Not only would "you and I" be assonant, but here it's >correct, dammit! Hey, in this crazy world in which we live in... True that "you and I" would be technically correct in that sentence, but it sounds stilted to me. Even people with an excellent grasp of grammar would normally say "you and me", though if writing carefully they might write "you and I." See my comment on the use of "I" and "me" in the 1/12 Digest. Robin: >Please avoid the word "fag." It's a loaded, offensive word, whether it's >meant to be or not. I can tell from your post that you weren't aware that it >was offensive in that context, but it was and always is...unless you're >talking about a cigarette or something. I don't know whether it's inoffensive or not (just because it's not common in US English, so could be misinterpreted), but "fag" is also used in talking about British Public Schools - upperclassmen choose younger boys who run errands for them and generally act as their servants; the younger one is called the older one's "fag". (I don't know if this practice is still current, but it was recently enough that you frequently run across references to it in contemporary British books - that is, a fairly young, but adult, character will mention that he was some other character's fag when they were at Eton or wherever.) >David: How are things on the mothers' front? Both are now in nursing homes. My mother-in-law is slowly fading away; Marcia is going back to CA the weekend of the 23d and thinks she'll still be alive by then, but probably not much longer than that. Since she's in constant pain and so doped up that she can't do anything (even talk or watch TV), we're all really hoping that the end comes soon for her. My mother seems to have settled in pretty well where she is (I'm not sure she even knows she's no longer at home). There's no real prognosis for her, other than that she's not going to get any better; she could live years or she could go at any time. Melody: >About Orc: Orc. A sea-monster fabled by ariosto, Drayton, Sylvester, etc. >to devour men and women. The name was sometimes used for a whale. >An island salt and bare, The haunt of seals, and orcs, and sea-mews clang. >Milton: Paradise Lost. That kind of orc is, I believe, the same root as "orca," or killer whale. Although I think the fabulous sea-monster was the original referent, and the name applied to the fairly common cetacean later, rather like the Komodo "dragon" or the "vampire" bat. J.L. again: I like the alliterative titles in _Tik-Tok_ too. That's one reason why I used the same device in the chapter titles of _Glass Cat_ (if anyone noticed...). In _Eureka in Oz_ (if it ever gets published) I used the device Baum used in _Emerald City_, where every chapter title starts of with "How..." (and in fact all of mine start with "How Eureka..."). The endpaper maps are not, I'm afraid, very consistent with the texts of the books. The map of the lands surrounding Oz, in particular, contradict the texts in many ways. Hiland/Loland and the Mifkets are both described as being on islands, unlike the way they're shown on the map. Voe and the Vegetable Kingdom and the Gargoyles are described as being underground. And so on. I think the Haff-Martin map is much more consistent with the stories (besides adding in all the places mentioned in the rest of the FF). There's a good deal of question as to whether Yew is really part of the Oz universe. Back in the early days of the Digest we had a lengthy discussion of this question which ended up with Eric Gjovaag getting thoroughly bent out of shape (though it wasn't the argument that ended up with his unsubscribing). My personal feeling is that it probably _isn't_ part of the Oz universe; the only tie-in anyone has come up with (aside from the fact that magic works, and in some of Baum's _American Fairy Tales_ magic works in our world as well) is a reference that seems to be to Santa Claus. But while Santa is part of the Oz universe, he's also part of ours, so that doesn't prove anything. The statement that a hundred years after the events of the book "civilization had won the hearts of the people" seems to conflict with the statement in _Wizard_ that Oz isn't a "civilized country," though of course that doesn't mean that there's no "civilized country" elsewhere in the Oz universe. But it makes Yew seem to be rather different from all the other countries we know about in Nonestica. > Yet all these border areas turn out to be isolated and little known; the >Hyups, the Yips, and so on are all tiny human communities cut off from the >rest of Oz. Normally mapped features are those we know the *most* about, >places *most* important to us. So, ironically, Baum created and revisited >places like Jinxland to give verisimilitude to the maps of Oz, then >undercut that verisimilitude when he chose to depict those places as >isolated. I disagree somewhat. As Baum says in several places, most of Oz is just peaceful farming country or forests with few human (or humanoid) inhabitants; as far as he was aware, at least, there weren't many features worth putting on a map (beyond the ones that had already been described in books) except for a few tiny isolated communities. Thompson later added a lot of little kingdoms and cities and such, but Baum apparently didn't know about them. (That's if one is speaking in the "Oz as History" mode; in the "Oz as Literature" mode, Thompson's Oz was more European in nature, something like 16th century Germany, whereas Baum's was more American. Neill and McGraw followed Thompson's lead; Snow didn't really show us any of Oz except the Emerald City in his two books.) Continuing comment on _Tik-Tok_, I find Queen Ann and Jo Files to be particularly interesting characters because they're among the few in the Baum books who aren't either very good or very bad. (Jinjur is another, though in her case it's more a transition from being a villain in _Land_ to being a good citizen in the later books where she appears.) Both are aggressive and ambitious, wanting to conquer the world, but they're rather choosy about the means they're willing to use to do so. Ann, in particular, is also egotistical and unrealistic. As has been said on the Digest before, this book is a case of Baum economizing on imagination - that is, he wrote the play _The Tik-Tok Man of Oz_ based on _Ozma_, and then wrote the book _Tik-Tok of Oz_ based on the play, which is why there's so much similarity between the two books. Personally, I think _Ozma_ is far superior to _Tik-Tok_; the latter is a good enough book (much stronger than, say, _DotWiz_ or _Road_), but because of the similarity it inevitably suffers by comparison. It's clear that _Tik-Tok_, like _Land_, is related to the stage musical extravaganza (though in this case the play came before rather than after the book); both the Rose Kingdom sequence and Ozga's appeal to the flowers are obviously designed to show off a chorus of pretty young women, and Ann's bumbling army gives lots of opportunity for dashing about chaotically like the Keystone Kops. It doesn't, however, include a comedy duo like the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman in _Wizard_ or the Woggle-bug and Jack Pumpkinhead in _Land_. Tik-Tok comes across as a comic character in this book (unlike his sagacious role in _Ozma_), but there's no real straight man for him. I haven't reread the book for this discussion yet, so I won't go into specific bits that struck me as worthy of comment. Hopefully I'll get to it before the discussion lags. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:39:49 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 J.L: The "I" is afer the 1991 because another animated Oz film, directed by Jim Simon, was released later that year, so that is its IMDb designation. This is the Tinmanator one. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:37:57 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 Ruth: I thout the guy (the barrister or city father, I'm not sure) was saying "if any!" when the Mayor referred to all the Munchkindsa nad their descendents. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:44:45 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-31-97 J.L.: The frozen Stouffer's Welsh Rarebit looks like cheese sauce on toast, so I always thought it was something different from Welsh Rabbit. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 15:40:32 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-12-97 Hi Y'all! > Now, just as I approach TIK-TOK's actual story, I rear back > to address the endpapers: the maps of Oz and surrounding > countries. I hadn't noticed how in the Oz map the Yellow > Brick Road is straight as an arrow and extends to the > east/left into the Deadly Desert. Speaking of maps of Oz, I have a question. I am looking at a paperback Del Rey edition of one of the Ruth Plumy Thompson Oz books purchased from IWOC. There are two maps in the front of the book, one of "The Marvelous Land of OZ" and one of "The Magical Countries Surrounding Oz". They are both by James E. Haff and Dick Martin. Both show the Deadly Desert to the west, the Impassible Desert to the north, the Shifting Sands to the east and the Great Sandy Waste to the south. I am familiar with the properties of the sands of the Deadly Desert, but do the sands of the other three have the same properties? Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 19:42:38 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: > In which Jack Snow book was Tip re-formed? It was his SS, "A Murder in Oz" that resasurected Tip. I haven't read his books yet, because I'm going in order, and am missing _Purple Prince_ and the Neill books, but the latter I can get easily enough. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 20:12:30 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-12-97 Hello, everyone! I'm baaack!!! Am having a lot of trouble with my computer right now, so will keep comments brief for once. David Hulan: You were lucky--in my house, even the bathroom is no safe refige. Birds of a Feather: I can just hear the orcan playing in the background ... Re Proper Pronouns: Just ask MY grammar! She's a riot! But I'm not at the moment--too annoyed at this darn machine and its not working!!! That's why I'm not trying to catch up on lost digests tonight--maybe tomorrow if I get this thing working right. Until later, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 22:03:41 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: TIK-TOK OF OZ, the big stuff Sender: "J. L. Bell" Speaking of the roc, isn't that beast an antecedent for the monstrous, flying Rak? Which brings us to TIK-TOK. If there's any guiding moral to this stew of old and new, it may lie in Betsy's odd little anecdote on page 235: "I once knew a little boy who wanted to catch the measles, because [sic] all the the little boys in his neighborhood but him had had 'em, and he was really unhappy 'cause he couldn't catch 'em, try as he would. So I'm pretty certain that the things we want, and can't have, are not good for us." Though Shaggy and Ann disagree, the rest of the book seems to back Betsy up on the danger of desire. Ann wants to conquer the world, and finds privation and woes. The roses want a king, and force out a perfectly nice princess. The Shaggy Man's brother wanted wealth, only to be captured by the Nome King and nearly starved in a golden forest. Polychrome wants to dance on the earth, and ends up fending off a proposal to wed and live underground. Ruggedo wants, well, everything under the earth. Not until his pockets burst does he see his error (and, as we know, his repentance won't last). True happiness seems to come serendipitously. Of the questers, only Shaggy achieves what he desires, and then not in the way he expected to get it. Ozga and Files meet by happenstance. Betsy finds her way to Oz by luck. Kaliko gets a better job because his boss annoys the wrong guy--not because of those letters of recommendation he wrote for himself [the passage I liked best this time around, now that I have job applications pending]. Throughout TIK-TOK Baum also explores the theme of good and bad rulers. Starting from chapter 1 we watch Ann, a bad ruler, learn to be a better one. The book's biggest lasting effect on the Oz series is that Ruggedo, a very bad ruler, is replaced by Kaliko, who shows signs of being a good one. Ozga would be a good ruler, but she lacks a prerequisite for ruling: the consent of the governed. The roses reject her, and as sexist as their desire is, they control the Rose Kingdom and she doesn't. Similarly, Oogaboo maintains the Soforth dynasty "as a point of pride" (p. 14). The fairy kings and queens have chosen the Private Citizen to rule them (p. 131). Because of their subjects' consent, these rulers seem to reign supreme. Ann can call on the loyalty of all her male subjects but one to march off with her. Glinda can exile the Oogaboo army from the Tin Woodman's territory without even telling anyone. Tititi-Hoochoo, before whom fairies prostrate themselves, can order a dragon to the other side of the world. Ruggedo is, of course, this book's epitome of the bad monarch. Indeed, he seems a little worse than Baum portrayed him before, and the other Nomes a little more victimized. In OZMA Roquat drove harsh bargains, but didn't break his word until he sent his army after the Ozians; Kaliko in OZMA and Guph in EMERALD CITY were just as nasty as their boss. But now Kaliko is gneiss [a geological pun] and Guph threatened. Ruggedo is completely tyrannical. We know he's a bad ruler because "the nomes hated Ruggedo and...when Ruggedo abused them worse than usual, they grew sullen and threw down their picks" (p. 150). This king lacks the support of his subjects; only Kaliko can call on their loyalty. How rulers treat strangers (or, more specifically, how they treat our heroes) seems to be another big test of goodness. The heartless roses throw Shaggy, Betsy, and Hank out. Ruggedo imprisons the Shaggy Man's brother, tosses Tik-Tok down a well, and is otherwise inhospitable. (Many of Ruggedo's actions may be justified, however, if we accept his view that he owns the underground; the Shaggy Man's brother was mining the earth, and Hiergargo's tunnel belongs more to the Nomes' domain than the Great Jinjin's.) Even Tititi-Hoochoo's subjects have "fire and pincers" ready for Tik-Tok and his party (p. 115), though they give our heroes a good night before sending them away. In contrast, Ozma actually brings four immigrants into Oz (Ozga, Betsy, Hank, the Shaggy Man's brother). Tititi-Hoochoo is a just ruler, but he's heartless and feared. Ozma is, by implication, a better ruler because she is merciful and loved. Given all that, however, the book ends on a down note: Ozma warning readers *not* to expect to be let into Oz. Even the best of rulers has her limits. And we mustn't want what we can't have. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 22:29:37 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-12-97 David: There is an Ork in Middle-Earth, at least according to Jeff Rovin. I thought he was referring to Orcs. J.L.: According to Angelica Shirley Carpenter and Jean Shirley, Baum wrote _Magic_ and _Glinda_ around 1914 and put them in a safe-deposit box, if the need arose to publish them posthumously. He liked the stories enough that he took them out and revised them, even while in bed after his gall bladder operations. Though they did end up published posthumously, the early drafts existed for quite along time beforehand. I am sorry dor offending people with that F word. Had I had time to alter it (I had two minutes to get to work two buildings away), I would have applied it in the context more of a quotation, because he would call me all sorts of those things, as did the idiot high school students I had to work with at a supermarket several years back. Anyway, _Return to Oz_ had a so-bad-it's good quality, badly rehashing the book and conflating elements of the book and MGM film, and far less successfully than _The Plan Is Divine; The Gifts Are Awesome_ (1994). The witch turning to stone seemed to forshadow Walter Murch's film. If you want to know more, I can tell you. those are just some notable things. some scenes I remeber quite vividly from childhood, such as the chocolate key to the city. Atticus: I wish I knew what negativity you were referring to. :( Aghhh! there it is! In Civic Theatre's production, the Lion seemed the most masculine of the three in his portrayal by Mark Fishback, like the beaten-down Biif at the end of Robert Zemeckis's _Back to the Future_. The Scarecrow's voice reminded me of Carl Banas's Dandy voice (in Return, if it was him in Tales, he sounds totally different). When introduced, he seemed like he was being crucified with his hands in the limp-wrist gesture. His acrobatics manages to get him into Neillish positions, less humanlike than I remember Bolger (it's been about three years, though: time to pull it out). He also said Juliet's lines to make Dorothy laugh. Dorothy was played by a really sweet seventeen-year-old named Sarah Lizabeth Wiley, who seemed fasicnated by my Oz films research, enthusiastically saying: "That's awesome!" several times. An old man named Lahr talked to both of us, wondering what Bert Lahr's last name really was, since he knew he had changed it. Sarah didn't know, but I did. Sarah's brother George was there, and he played Jem (for profit, unlike Sarah) in IRT's _To Kill a Mockingbird_. Scout (Courtney Bollin) was there, too. I told her I wrote a paper on their performance, and she shouted "Cool!" I talked with Sarah so long, I hardly got anyone to autograph my poster. Chuck Marion (The Guard) and some Ozians and technics, along with Sarah, signed my poster. Bob Hackett signed his "Bob `Sexy Ozian` Hackett XII." He seems like the perfect guy to play the character Aubrey refers to only as "Idiot Boy." The real sexy Ozian only sign hers "Prima Donna." Back to the show. I don't have my program handy, so I can't credit anyone. The sets were simple, but gorgeous. The Oz scenes were all covered by three archways with different colored lights, which could be rainbows on green, or rewd for the witch, etc. The road was three round, elevated platforms, which the technics (often visible to me because of where I was seated) would move around with levers. They used video tape for the Wicked Witch casting her spell on the poppies, and for the humbug Wizard's head, whose sparklers were loud and startled both the adults and the children. The witch was not ugly as Miss Gulch, but her attitude made her so. She was frightening to adults as well. she reminded me a bit of Laurence Cortadellas as Jean-Pierre's wife Eliane in Agnes Varda's _sans toit ni loi_ (Vagabond). The Wizard was fairly young, fortyish, and in his Professor Marvel turban he was projected on the screen. The Munchkins and winged Monkeys were played by children. More faithful to the film than the RSC production it claimed to be based on (going only on knowledge of the albums), and omitting "The Jitterbug," there was an unusual addition: the Witch spoke Nikko's name. Munchkin Kelly Ann Marquart can be glimpsed fleetingly in _Home Alone 3_. The Kansas scene had a detailed painted backdrop with a windmill, that was in greys and browns. Dorothy's dress in Kansa was black gingham, which became blue upon entering the rainbow world of Munchkinland. One of the inclusions from the original script that did not make the film was a scene with the Lion prepared with his sprayer and the Scarecrow with his green rifle (looked like it could have been Omby Amby's, without the flowers). This was hilarious! The girl who played the Coroner was also really good. The special effects were quite impressive. Purotechnics came out everywhere, and the house was moved a lot. Pushed in and out for the Professor Marvel scenes, and then hungs supended on a nearly invisible cord while winds were projected on a scrim, ending up at the other side of the stage in Oz. The only thing I can remark that was bad about the production (except that "VIDEO" appeared in electronic letters when the video started) was the music. This was played by a few trumpets, a bass violin, a percussionist, and a "musical director," which was not the conductor (that was someone else), but a perosn on a keyboard making a lame-sounding simulation of an orchestra. The vocalists, particularly Sarah, were extremely good. If only they could have had better accompaniment. The letter I sent to Warner Books (publishers of _Scarlett_) got sent back due to change of address. I found Ballantine's address and I am going to send this when I send the Warner letter to the current address. Anyone know of other publishers that might seem to be interested? I'd need to at least have their city and state to look up their addresses. I'm only sending introductory letters, with the obvious but unstated focus that that publisher might want to cash-in on the centennial. The simple fact is, I want more people to read the book than Buckethead can provide. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 22:55:59 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-07-97 Incomplete credits for _The Wizard of Oz in Concert_ (1995): Directed by Louis J. Horvitz Darrell Larson Cast (in alphabetical order) Larry J. Alexander .... Background Singers John Anthony .... Background Singers Lucie Arnaz .... Aunt Em Christy Baron .... Background Singers Jackson Browne (I) .... The Scarecrow Natalie Cole .... Glinda Ry Cooder Roger Daltrey .... The Tin Woodman Dr. John Joel Grey .... The Wizard of Oz Images .... Crows/Winkies Jewel Kilcher .... Dorothy (as Jewel) Jay Kiman .... Background Singers Daniel Lane .... Mayor Nathan Lane .... The Cowardly Lion Neal Mayer .... Background Singers Kevin Miller .... Coroner Julia K. Murney .... Background Singers Jennifer L. Neuland .... Background Singers Catherine Ruivivar .... Background Singers David Sanborn Stephanie Seeley .... Background Singers Robin Skye .... Background Singers Phoebe Snow Ronnie Spector .... Captain of the Winkie Guard Tom Treadwell .... Background Singers James Waller .... Toto Debra Winger .... The Wicked Witch of the West Alfre Woodard .... Host Written by L. Frank Baum (novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) Noel Langley (story) Darrell Larson Music by Harold Arlen George Bassman Keith Levenson George E. Stoll Herbert Stothart Robert W. Stringer (I) Produced by Jonathan Brauer (executive) Darrell Larson Other crew E.Y. Harburg .... lyrics Keith Levenson .... musical arrangements musical supervisor musical conductor Evan Morris .... music preparation Donald Oliver (II) .... music preparation Walter J. Turnbull .... director of The Boys Choir of Harlem ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 23:50:43 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones JL Bell: I guess Toto would be classified as a catalyst in Dave's system. He makes the things that make things happen. I agree with you that it is doubtful that Nimmie Aimee's friends actually lived on Mount Munch, even though the bottom third is climeable. It is still probably fairly steep and would not make a nice plot of land. In all likelihood, they live in its shadow. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:31:41 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: no hatred in Oz I cannot apologize enough for the offense I seem to have caused so many people. I was not wanting to sound hatedul becuase that is not how I am. It seems in trying to report certian things I was slipping in observances as if they were opinions or something, and I don't know... Anyway, it won't happen again. You might be able to help me remove an offensive term from my Oz filmography if you can tell me what scene(s) from _Wild at Heart_ is (are) shown in _The Celluloid Closet_. I'm guessing it was the scene with that F word, but if it isn't, I want to take it off immediately before it offends anyone. It is a quotation, agfter all, but if it doesn't need to be there, I'll make haste to remove it. There is a gap between inconsiderate and hateful. Ken Cope says I am the latter and need help. I hope those of you that met me at the convention understand otherwise. A mistake has been made, and I hope you will not continue to hold it against me. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 14:42:58 -0500 From: Richard Randolph Subject: Ozzy Digest 1-10/12-98 Re: Tik-Tok in Oz. Where have I heard this before? Young girl is shipwrecked along with an animal, meets a group from Oz, runs up against and defeats the Nome King, ends up, happily, in Oz! And, was the Royal Gardner of the Rose Kingdom's remark on page 54, "Plenty of royalties are growing, I admit; but just now they are all green", Baum's sly way of saying "this book writing about Oz is really paying off!", I wonder? ;) Dick ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 17:15:16 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Ozzy paraphrase I'm not a computer expert by any means, but this song came to my attention nevertheless. If You Only Had A Brain: The Tech Support Song (Sung to the music of "If I only had a brain" from the Wizard of Oz) When yer computer's in the toilet, and all attempts to fix are foil-ed, though you try and try a-gaaaaain... Better call us for service, 'cause w know that you're nervous and you just don't have a braaaaain! When your com port is un-know-un, better get us on the phow-un, 'cause you know it's just germaaaaane: you don't know from shinola, you never did what we tol' ya', and we wish you had a braaaaain! Yeah, yer' typin's a disaster, the computer is yer master, and reading, you disdaaaaain. The man-u-als, they snow you and in spite of all we show you, just your ignorance remaaaaains. You don't know what the hell yer' doin', and it's drivin' us to ruin, my God!, you're such a paaaaain! You talk when you should listen, and into the wind you're pissin', oh, we wish you had a braaaaain! At tech support, we're here for helpin', so siddown and quit yer yelpin', while we're tryin' to explaaaaain. Please don't futz with your system, I'm not askin', I'm insistin', 'cause you just don't have a braaaaain! Well, your mind's like cookie batter, there's an absence of grey matter, so this is our refraaaaain: We could make your system work, and not a duty would we shirk, if you only had a braaaaain! It's our job, we try to help ya' though at times we'd like to belt ya', 'cause you're drivin' us insaaaaane! But as long as they keep payin' us, we'll be here, although it's heinous, and we wish ... you'd ... get ... a ... braa-ee-yaaee-yaaee-yaaee-yain! Just though the Digest might be interested . . . Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 17:26:24 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Oz stuff _The Plan Is Divine; The Gifts Are Awesome_ claims on the end credits that the Denslow and Neill artwork used in the film and pamphlet was used with permission of The International Wizard of Oz Club. A. I did not think the club held the copyright to any Oz books saved those first published by the club. B. The art was all from _Wizard_ and _Ozma_. Are the illustrations in public domain or just the text. Denslow died before Baum, so I would think the copyright would have run out. Can anyone clarify these two points? Robin: Do you know if Willard Carroll does a director's cameo in _The Runestone_. I thought I saw him in the background when I first saw it, but haven't been able to find him. Tom Wilhite can be seen in the film, smashing a wall with a sledgehammer as part of an art gallery fundraiser. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 13 Jan 98 17:34:06 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things THE BEGINNING OF THE END??: Well, I've been trying to qualm this "war" that erupted over that "F"-word, and after considerable agonizing, I've decided to take on that role I most hate -- that of "censor" -- and keep most of the dialogue off of the Digest (except for Scott's apology to the Digest as a whole). I must say that I do as good a job as I can to be fair to everyone and balance everyone's freedom of speech with maintaining the Ozziness of the Digest, but with respect you guys don't always make it easy for me. Compared to other Internet moderated discussion forums with their "zero-tolerance" policy on off-topic posts, I think I'm pretty reasonable in letting everyone say what they want, but it so often seems to open a Pandora's Box of totally irrelevant discussions -- sometimes escalating into flame wars -- that should be private between those involved and not publically expressed on the Digest. I have to ask Digest members to at least keep the discussions on the Digest at least in the Nonestic Ocean if not specifically Oz or Baumgea. When I volantarily try to keep the Digest on an Ozzy plane everyone says I'm the Big Bad Censor, so I have to ask the Digest members -- as a favor to me and to all those who subscribe to this Digest to discuss and learn about Oz and the rest of the Baum universe -- every time you write a message for the Digest, to stop and ask if your message is really material of interest to the whole Digest, or is it something non-Ozzy that is best E-mailed privately to the intended recipients. It is what the Ozzy Digest needs to survive. There is a small but growing number of people who think that the Ozzy Digest is an anachronism and should be supplanted by a USENET newsgroup or LISTSERV mailing list. Perhaps they're right. There are *three* discussion forums for _Red Dwarf_ on the 'Net -- One Daily Digest like this one, one automatic LISTSERV mail list, and one USENET newsgroup. Maybe I and the Ozzy Digest have too much of a monopoly on Oz discussions. But other Oz forums will not themselves solve the problem -- There is a lot more infighting and irrelevant posting on the LISTSERV and USENET versions of _Red Dwarf_ than on the Ozzy Digest or the Ozzy Digest-like Red Dwarf Digest. It depends on the people who contribute. Whether or not the Ozzy Digest florishes will depend on the actions of Ozzy Digest members in the future. If the non-Ozzy aspects of the Digest continue, we may see a full and successful movement to offer Oz fans an alternative to the Ozzy Digest. If we can all restrain ourseleves, keep the discussions fairly Ozzy, relegate other dialogue to private E-mail, and I can find a way to make my Digest-generating program generate meaningful subject headings for every post, then I think people will remain satisfied witht he forum we currently have. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 15 - 16, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 13 Jan 1998 23:08:02 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Salket Oith Ferba Ardzu (The Old Language of Oz) David, There are a few more words than just _oz_ which are recorded in the cannonical and apochryphal books which are definitely not English, e.g., _nuffet_ (_Forbidden Fountain_) and _jemkif_ (_Tik-Tok_ as interpreted by _Queen Anne_). In reconstruction of Old Ozzish, I have relied largely on guessed meanings of names, e.g., _Ozma_ = "ruler of Oz" (feminine), therefore -ma is a feminine suffix. As such we also get: Omby Amby = _om-bi ambi_ "wants to win battles" (Blame RPT for this etymology.) Ozana = _Oz-ana_ "flower of Oz" Ree Alla Bad = _Ri Alla-bad_ "Ree, son of Alla", indicating that Seebanians are probably not Muslims Ku Klip = _Ku Klip_ "Ku the Smith" and so forth, (_soforth_ itself--my informants being unclear on this subject--either meaning "ruler" or "anvil"). The rest of the vocabulary and grammar comes from other sources, occaisionally my own perversity. Woozy: So THAT'S where the subject-case preposition came from! Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@ymail.yu.edu The Antipolitical Martian Empire ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 13:48:53 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 Going back to the 9th: >(Has anybody >else besides JMS scripted an episode of B5 before?) I don't remember this. (I'm Jeremy Michael Steadman) Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 14:59:33 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: The Magic Cloak of Oz Cc: movies@music.iupui.edu This was written for two different audiences, so it might be tough to follow. Last week I watched _The Magic Cloak_ again. The copy I have is from Timeless and contains no music (though there is odd noise if you turn it up really loud). The first time I watched it without music. This time I put on Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire V, seeing as how that recording is about Kepler's moon dream, and the film opens with the fairies of Burzee with the moon. This recording matched the action perfectly. I was amazed at how often the action was hit, even though rather subtly. The odd thing was the scene with the robbers (of which I'm sure one was L. Frank Baum, can anyone on the digest confirm it) which came across as werid rather than funny, as Baum and MacDonald surely intended it. When they attack the Roly Rogues, the "hallelujahs" come on. Unfortunately, I had thought the disc to run longer than the 38 minutes of the existing portion, but it actually runs around 35, and worked poorly on repeat. Still, tracking a 1914 silent like _The Magic Cloak_ with Fresh aire V will certainly never become as popular as tracking MGM's _Wizard_ with Dark Side of the Moon. On Saturday I placed a hold on the disc at the public library, so I can see this for myself. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 18:23:38 +0000 From: Christopher Straughn Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Comments: Authenticated sender is About civilized places in th Oz universe: On the map of Oz published by IWOC, there are several countries shown that seem to be fairly civilized. Most of the countries appear in American Fairy Tales. They are: Quok, Junkum, Mulgravia, and (I believe) Macvelt. Also there is the "civilized" island of civilized monkeys. BTW, does anyone know where the names of these other coutries on that map come from: Aurissau, Ribdil, Bilkon. And I don't remember Seventon being mentioned in AmFTales either. Anyone heard of that? About TikTok of Oz: Isn't the Scarecrow of Oz based on a really radically changed version of WWWOz or LandOz? Also, I am working on a project to construct a floor plan of the royal palace so if anyone would like to see my preliminary notes, just e-mail me. Chris Straughn Bonan Tagon! ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 19:09:14 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 White cover art: Ruth and John, yes, Dick did the changes in the artwork for R&L. John: Nice rundown of _Tik Tok_. It was one of Jim Haff's favorite books, though I never could see why, since I'd viewed it from childhood as a mere rip-off of _Ozma_. I was really pleased when, after joining IWOC, I learned that it really *was* a reworking of _Ozma_, but for the stage. Poor Baum, chasing the elusive butterfly of stage fame one more time. _Wizard_ was his only true stage success. Much of _Tik Tok_ is based on broad comic elements of Baum's time. Ann is a comic stereotype, strictly for laughs. Shaggy doesn't recognize Poly because in _Ozma_, he hadn't met her yet and because it gave Baum opportunity for punny dialogue between them...(beau/bow...Shaggy wouldn't have said that to the Polychrome he'd been through so much with, would he?) Ozga is an ingenue. Pure and simple. Also simpleminded, as some of us have probably noted. Files is the young leading man type. Shaggy's some kind of catalyst, I guess. I'll have to think about his role more. Visually, he's a satisfying character for the stage. The C. Lion did so well in _Wizard_ that it just made sense to have Hank, rather than a dog or chicken companion for the little girl heroine. I'm gonna have to think more about this. No time now. Bye. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 20:21:05 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Warren - Those weren't my rules. They were by someone named Anon. J.L.: ....., in this crazy world in which we live in... This sounds like lyrics from the theme of "Live and Let Die," which IIRC were written by Paul McCartney. How David Hulan wrote two books about cats when he can't afford to get near one! :) Bob Spark - Put your foot in the sand and report back to us. :) Dave - Since you have asked I'm happy with the Digest the way it is, appreciate you for formating it, really dislike you being a censor, and find the digressions interesting. Lighten up. We are the 90's version of a family. In fact we probably spend more time with each other than most families. Ever known a family where there weren't disagreements, arguments and spats? I think it is healthy rather than destructive. Occasionally, we will encounter someone who is wrapped so tight they will flee, e.g. Eric. I tried to talk him into returning, as I imagine did others, but no dice. That is his loss. The majority of us are adult enough to handle whatever comes along. Please keep on sending it out. Regards, Bear ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:12:30 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Dick: As I understand, _The Tik-Tok Man of Oz_, for which _Tik-Tok of Oz_ was a loose novelization, was based on _Ozma of Oz_, but as we see with his attempt to film _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ (as _His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz_), his creativity went wild, and he had new fodder for his obligatory annual Oz book. As per my comments which did not make it on the digest, I was responding to someone who asked what it was about Tip thaat made me want to write about him, and that sort of came up as a part of it. I neglecteded alos to mention the parental situation: Tip's father (Pastoria) is a failure, as my father failed as a biochemist and never recovered. He is now a car dealer and does not make enough for us to get by and we manage to maintain our standard of living through charging beyond our means and through the bonds my grandmother left for my mother's retirement, and only one is left. Then there is the mother. Tip doesn't really know who his mother is, because she isn't there. My mother is very difficult to talk to, has very stubborn ways of thinking, and does not seem to know me at all well. That helped in the development of Tip as a character, as well as the fact that now that I'm in college things are a lot easier, and the people a lot nicer. It's as though I realize what's going on but suspect it is all just a mask of politeness, which is what Tip goes through as he tries to reintroduce himself into Ozian society, which he has been reluctant to do. Woot returns in _Nikidik in Oz_, a rather reluctant member of Aubrey's party to invade the Nome King. Ruggedo, who has returned several years prior to Nikidik, is back on the throne with Kaliko (is that pronounced "calico" as in the Cinar animation, or like the toy company, Coleco. (for lack of diacritical marks Kuh-lee'-ko) exiled. Tip is also a reluctant member of the party. He still uses the offensive comment that Sailor uses in _Wild at Heart_, then a similar sequence to _Wild at Heart_ follows, he apologizes, again quoting Sailor. He becomes a less important character, narratively when this happens, because this is a major moment, and the story has so many plots interelated on either a thematic or proximal manner, that there is no point on continuing to focus on him, when it needs to focus on Aubrey, Nick, and Timothy, among others. Ruggedo is portrayed in a bit more neutral way. He has no current plan to attack Oz because he wants to do it right if he tries again (as well as using the vicious guerilla technique of employing velozciraptors), and though Aubrey comes with the intent to blast an egg right into his mouth, Ruggedo takes a liking to her spirit, traps her in the rocks, has a conversation with her, and sends her home. Everyone just goes home. That's only a very small part of what goes on in the novel, as I said, and it ought to be much more interesting to read when it is written for real. One of the voices for _Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz_ is _South Park_'s Matthew Stone. The others don't seem to have any other film credits, except possibly Hiromi Kawaye. Dorothy sounds a lot like Janice Kawaye of _Captain Planet_ and _The Karate Kid_ animated series, so I'm guessing this is her, possibly under her given name. Michael Lloyd co-wrote produced, and arranged the song "A Special Place," which reminds me a lot of Jo (Ozu no Mahotsukai) Hisaishi's music from the "Starlight Angel" section of _Robot Carnival_. ("Merry-Go-Round" if you have the CD). Lloyd also won the Worst Song Razzie Award for "You Can Be a Garbage Pail Kid" for Rod Amateau's _The Garbage Pail Kids Movie_. I doubt if I'll have time to reread Tik-Tok, but I say, I sure need too. On the topic of LWS, I am almost certain I saw a copy of _The Scarecrow and The Tin Woodman_ on the floor when Melanie gets attacked in Alfred Hitchcock's _The Birds_. Has anyone checked this? It seems like a sly little reference, considering the swarms of crows in that story. "Were they crows or blackbirds? Is there a difference?" "There most certianly is a difference." Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:33:39 -0500 (EST) From: CrNoble@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Dave: I've been rather quiet lately, but I do read (or at least skim) the Ozzy Digest every day. I'm telling you this to make a point: I LIKE THE DIGEST AND WOULD BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IF IT WERE DISCONTINUED. I suspect there are MANY others who feel the same. The occasional flames are not nearly as bad as the norm on usenet groups. There is a sense of community here which I don't believe exists on most of the Internet. Yes, people sometimes get carried way. No, I don't think it spells doom. Ozzily, Craig Noble ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:49:47 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Okay, I'm sending this in pieces because my computer has started freezing up and I'm postponing reloading Win95. It's al;ready frozen once and I've lost a good page of response, which I'll never reproduce. Re the F word: Good thing we don't have British members of the digest--or do we? Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:51:05 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Tzvi: Just proves there's snow place like home . . . ;-) Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:55:38 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Re alliterative titles: I started to use such a device for my _Emerald Ring_, but it fell apart (5 of the 24 chapters do NOT start with "About", the word I used so as to not be so blatantly stealing. In _Time in Oz_, the unpublished sequel, I discarded the whole idea. I know, I know, I keep talking about a book that doesn't exist yet--_Time_--but only to illustrate the point). Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:58:50 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 David Hulan: Ah! A land without humans--a peaceful refuge. Deserted: I think the "Deadly Desert" is a term used to encompass all the deserts, which all haave the same qualities BUT I'm no expert on the subject. Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 22:00:03 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: TIK-TOK OF OZ, the heroines Sender: "J. L. Bell" About the verisimilitude of the maps credited to Prof. Wogglebug in TIK-TOK, Ruth Berman wrote: <> And Dave Hulan wrote: <> Prof. Wogglebug could indeed have picked up extra knowledge of geozgraphy from birds (not jackdaws, of course) and other travelers. And I have no doubt he would have put little-known places on his map just to show how thoroughly educated he was. But that still leaves the question of how he could have learned about the Yips, Jinxville, and the Skeezers without also learning about Herku, Loonville, and other sites closer to the capital. If I were a traveler relying on these maps, I'd be quite upset at the professor for spotting Mr. Yoop but not warning me away from Mrs. Yoop's valley. Bob Spark wrote of the Oz Club maps in the Del Rey editions: <> These labels originated on the TIK-TOK maps, probably as a way to fill those barren spaces. Because only the "Deadly Desert" name seemed to figure in the books, I always assumed the other labels were synonymous and superfluous. The quality of the desert seems the same everywhere: undoubtedly "great" and "sandy," but not really impassable (on the TIK-TOK map of the region, the Magic Carpet's route cuts right between the E and R of "Impassable Desert"). As for "deadly," do we ever actually see anyone die on the desert? There are, of course, folks who survive the sands in LAND. Maybe those wordy signs warning travelers away from the Deadly Desert (as in ROAD) are merely a trick of Glinda's to discourage visitors. Finally, on "Shifting Sands," in my own manuscript the sands actually do shift, propelling someone across to Oz--but that's due to a freak storm. Some sources say Baum's last words were something like, "Now we shall cross the shifting sands," but does that label appear in any book? Scott Hutchins wrote: <> Thanks, Scott, for the reference. (You may have mentioned this earlier, but I couldn't track it down.) I wonder what the Shirleys' source is. If Baum had chunks of two new Oz books in the can in 1914, we should ask why he spent that year and the following rewriting a stage play (TIK-TOK), a screenplay (SCARECROW), and an old novel (RINKTINK). Riley's OZ AND BEYOND posits that Baum adapted old work in this period because his studio and his ill health took up so much energy. On the other hand, one could say that *because* Baum wasn't writing all-new stories in these years, he had time to stockpile drafts. Are there textual indications of chronology? Some have argued here that TIN WOODMAN should follow GLINDA because Ozma is more powerful in the former book. Yet MAGIC (in its final form) must follow TIK-TOK because Ruggedo is a wanderer in it. Hmmm. About THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ musical, Dave Hulan wrote: <> From the TIK-TOK MAN poster in ANNOTATED WIZARD, I got the impression that the Shaggy Man and Tik-Tok were meant to be Scarecrow and Tin Man stand-ins. The musical Shaggy Man was a clean-shaven white-face clown, more like Fred Stone as the Scarecrow than like the Shaggy we know, while Tik-Tok was a tall metal man, very like David Montgomery as the Tin Man. You're right that Tik-Tok's different from his OZMA persona. In that book he told Dorothy all about Ev and was a ferocious fighter when he felt wound up. In TIK-TOK he's almost naive; he's never seen a gun (p. 89), though the Soldier with the Green Whiskers has carried one for years. Perhaps being dismantled in his LITTLE WIZARD story cost him some memory. Another new detail about Tik-Tok, on page 74: "little flashes of light began to show in the top of his head, which was proof that he had begun to think." And I'd thought the computer that blinked to show it was thinking didn't appear in our popular culture for a few more decades. Why doesn't the Shaggy Man like being asked why (pp. 52, 98, 110, 140, 161)? I'd ask him myself, except he doesn't like it. I theorize this bit of business might have roots in the stage play. Dick Randolph wrote: <> Nifty idea! In our discussion of PATCHWORK GIRL, I hinted that its text might show that going back to Oz books made Baum feel frustrated and confined. Peter Glassman's afterword for that book reports, "THE PATCHWORK GIRL sold nearly half again as many copies as either SEA FAIRIES or SKY ISLAND." In his next book, Baum has Betsy say, "I'm pretty certain that the things we want, and can't have, are not good for us." Things like writing non-Oz books, perhaps? And speaking of Betsy...well, what's to say? Obviously, Baum created her as a stand-in, since he'd sold the stage rights to Dorothy Gale. She's as bold as Dorothy--she speaks up to the Great Jinjin (p. 122), for instance. But she shows almost no drive: to get home, to have adventures, to punish wrongdoers. In PATCHWORK GIRL Dorothy asks Hip Hopper, "Do you surrender?" In contrast, Betsy asked Ruggedo, "Are you conquered yet?" (p. 172), expecting others to accomplish this. As Dave Hardenbrook has pointed out, Betsy's an observer most of the time. She does have the idea to pick Ozga (p. 58) and to drag the well (p. 71), and later she takes the lead in rescuing the Shaggy Man's brother (p. 241). But the central battle with Ruggedo would be the same without her. It's significant that Betsy doesn't even come into TIK-TOK till chapter 4. The only fact Betsy volunteers about herself is that she loves onions (p. 160). She doesn't even say she's from Oklahoma; rather, the Shaggy Man says it (p. 80), and she casually mentions the state (p. 226). Neither she nor Baum ever mentions her family or life before she befriended Hank at sea. What can we infer about Betsy? She knows of Oz, Ozma, and Dorothy (p. 50), indicating that she's familiar with Baum's books and/or theatricals. When Ruggedo complains that she arrived unannounced, she replies, "There wasn't anybody to announce me. I guess your folks are all busy" (p. 172), showing knowledge of upper-class etiquette and servants. Being on an ocean-going ship at the start of TIK-TOK means that Betsy has come far from Oklahoma. (In HUNGRY TIGER Thompson says Betsy "often" rode a subway in the US--since Oklahoma was rural, having become a state only in 1907, that's a later indication she's traveled.) Putting all that together, ILTT that, in contrast to Dorothy and Trot, Betsy came from a wealthy family; she went on trips, had servants, and enjoyed the best in children's books. Oklahoma was probably not the Bobbin family's only home; perhaps they located there for someone's health. Betsy may not think of going back to her family because she had, as a "poor little rich girl," received little love from them. Alternatively, she may know that her parents died in the ship explosion, and is too traumatized to speak of them. One detail going against this theory: Betsy's speech is as full of colloquial ellisions as Dorothy's and Trot's. On p. 266, Baum writes that Dorothy and Betsy "were almost of one size." In LOST PRINCESS, he says Betsy is a year older than Dorothy and Trot a year younger (which seems to have influenced Eric Shanower's depiction of them at three different heights). Either Betsy is short for her age, or--and this I find more interesting--she let herself grow after reaching Oz. Dave Hulan, I know you've written an adventure for Betsy--how do you conceive of her? In one of my first postings to this list, I listed "Ann/Jo" among romantic couples in Baum's Oz books. Folks quickly reminded me that should be "Ozga/Jo." On rereading the first chapters of TIK-TOK, I was reminded of why I thought Ann Soforth and Jo Files should get together. They're the only two people in Oogaboo who have any ambition; they understand one another. (As Dave Hulan wrote, they're both mixtures of good and bad qualities.) But instead of marrying his queen, Files goes dopey over Ozga (p. 86) and turns entirely boring. Oh well--no accounting for fictional tastes. Plenty of folks still object to which March sister Lorrie married, and I so dislike Nikolai's choice of wife in WAR AND PEACE that I once blocked it from my head. Judging by my little information about THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ, I infer Baum created Ozga for the book. The play included a scene in a rose greenhouse, but there's no rose princess in the cast. Jo Files dances with Polychrome. That probably explains why Ozga has so little to do in the latter chapters. I'm disappointed Baum didn't make the remedy for the Shaggy Man's brother a kiss from a mortal maid who used to be a fairy (p. 243). That would be more interesting and rare than a fairy's kiss--and it would have created a reason for Ozga to be among the heroes. Instead, she merely achieves the minor honor of becoming the sixth mortal person Ozma allows to immigrate to Oz. Finally, the December 1998 issue of FORBES AMERICAN HERITAGE shows on its back a 1923 painting by J. C. Leyendecker for the SATURDAY EVENING POST depicting Santa in a red suit with white trim, white belt, lace-up boots, and long floppy hat with holly sprig. So sometime in the 1910's seems to have been the crucial codification of that costume. Now I can sleep soundly...if only I wasn't wondering what bent Eric Gjoovag out of shape lo those many months ago. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 22:29:02 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Chris D: The episodes I have of "Tales of the Wizard of Oz" refer to the dragon as "Desmond," not Dexter, as you have on the calendar. Was this one of the many inconsistencies of the series? At least two or thrree people's names are spelled wrong on RTO's credits. These include Carl Banas (credited as Banis), Peggi Loder (credited as Pegi), and possibly Phil Ramon, the recording engineer. _The Wiz_ OC album's recording engineer was Phil Ramone, so I wonder if this is the same person. I think the animator William Mason was the Bill Mason who helped draw the 1933 cartoon. The number of names repeated on the filmography is amazing. I thinks someone on _Dorothy Meets_ has the same name as one of the Disney RTO people, but is not the same person. In the last post, I mentioned _The Karate Kid_ TV series. One of the episodes was called "Over the Rainbow." Has anyone seen this? There is also an episode of _The Snorks_ called "The Wizard of Ice." Is there a connection that anyone knows about? I have not, to my knowledge, seen this episode. The major Oz films I have yet to see that seem to be readily availble are _The Wizard of Oz in Concert_, _Underground Adventure_, _The Monkey Prince_, _The Return of Mombi_, and _Journey Beneath the Sea_. Caan anyone put these last four in chronological order? _Journey_ was released a month after the others, so that places it. The chronology of the other episodes appears to be _Toto Lost in New York_ (there is no comma on the title screen), _The Nome Prince and the Magic Belt_, _Virtual Oz_, _Who Stole Santa?_, and _Christmas in Oz_. Chad Polenz interviewed Shay Astar, the fine actress who plays Andrea, the most interesting character, and asked her about the Oz Kids. She said she is not working on that now, and doesn't know if she will work on it again. She said it is supposed to air this year and is big in Japan. As members have seen in the Bugle, there is a large store devoted to Oz Kids memorabilia sponsored by meldac corporation ( a great one for atty, they never capitalize. Jeffrey Hogue owns the rights to many children's films, including _The Wonderful Land of Oz_. Some of these he has released to video, but why this one I do not know. Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog no longer has his number, so I have no idea how to contact him. David Lee Hewitt, director of _The Wizard of Mars_ was (Is? He's still alive) a magician. His films look like Melies with about three decades advances in technology (half as long as it should be). Nevertheless, though its thematic overtones are contrary to Baum, it is a gorgeous film. Unfortunately I have only seen it on poor quality tape as _Horrors of the Red Planet_. The picture was loaded with ghosts in both the Star Classics (LP) and Genesis (SP) versions. The Republic one ought to be significantly better, in addition to the fact that it contains the original title screen, which may or may not give credit to Baum. As it stands, it says "John Carradine as Horrors of the Red Planet," with the title invoking a bad character generator, to produce cheap-looking yellow letters on a black background. The Star version is so bad you can't even see that Dorothy is wearing silver shoes. Oddly enough, they only meniton her name once in the entire film, though the other charaters names are given repeatedly. It also has the credit "and Jerry Rannow as Charlie." Rannow seems like he could have been a leading man in light comedy, but the IMDb lists his only other appearance as being a guest star on _Welcome Back Kotter_. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 19:42:11 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Me again, Mention is made from time to time about the "white cover editions". The majority of my OZ books by Baum are soft-cover editions published by Rand McNally that appear to me to be copies of the original editions. The covers have a white background. Are these the editions referred to? Thanks, Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 22:46:54 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Since Ken Cope complained to me privately about my review of Civic's Oz play. I'd like to point out that masuclinity is as much a cultural constuct as gay stereotypes. Dr. Bingham knows all about it, and you can find his book, _Acting Male_ in the film section at Borders. I found it there last night. I've only read the chapter on the _Dirty Harry_ films, which he assigned for one of our classes, though. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 22:52:54 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-12-97 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" J. Bell: >The only big lapse is "Shaggy Seeks His Stray BROTHER." That could have been alliterative, too, if only Shaggy were seeking a sister. (In 1914 the terms "sib" and "sibling" still meant "relative" rather than "brother or sister.")< How about "Shaggy Seeks Stray Sibling". :;) Also: Last Saturday there was a Pinky and the Brain cartoon where Brain tried to conquer the world by taking control of a cyclone. At the end, of course, they lose control of it---and at the end they're being chased by a Winged Monkey in Oz! Brain says, "If I had enough time, I'd build a Winged Monkey trap." Pinky says: "What do we do now, Brain?" And, with the megalomaniacal one-track mind that he has, Brain replies, "What we always do, Pinky. Try to take over Oz!" Pinky and the Brain would not be entirely out of place as Oz villains. :-) Incidentally, it's obvious Pinky and the Brain have landed in MGM's Oz. The Winged Monkey chasing them wears the uniform MGM put them into. Jellia: Ozma? There's this mousy megalomaniac who wants to see you... Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:46:39 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Tzvi: _Merry Go ROund_ is perhaps the best written of all of the FF, although it is not as "Ozzy" as some. It is excellent reading, though, and I also enjoyed it very much. Dave: I still think you're facing an uphill battle in trying to automatically define posts by subject, especially since so many people talk on so many different subjects. I'd liek to second you plea to keep this digest on the subject of Oz primarily. Other subjects will inevitably come up, since all things are ultimately intertwined, but Oz should be our primary focus. Remeber, each and every one of us is here because of our love of the Land of Oz, be it book, movie or memorabilia. Any threads which deviate too much from this really should be taken to private e-mail, and I am confident that we can all do this voluntarily in order to keep Dave away from his role of the Big Bad Censor. :-) Keeping my eyes on the prize, Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 16:35:37 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Tzvi: >Hi. I hope everyone enjoyed their vacations. It's snowing here in Israel. >I've been living here for 15 years and this is only the second time I've >seen a snow that stuck in most of the country. It's snowing here in Chicago, too (or at least it was last night), but that's not exactly unusual... _Merry-Go-Round_ isn't as "Ozzy" as most of the other books, imho, but it's probably the best-crafted of all of them and one of my favorites. Scott H.: >J.L.: The frozen Stouffer's Welsh Rarebit looks like cheese sauce on >toast, so I always thought it was something different from Welsh Rabbit. Welsh Rabbit _is_ cheese sauce on toast. The origin of the term was a put-down of the poverty-stricken Welsh, who weren't able to afford real rabbit (or other meat) in their diets and had to make do with cheese sauce on toast. Like a "Mexican milling machine" for a file, which was a common slur when I was first starting to work in the California aerospace biz, though it's not heard so much any more. Other publishers you might query? St. Martin's Press seems to be at least considering an FF-consistent Oz book by Martin Gardner, and William Morrow is handling distribution of the Books of Wonder Oz books (and co-publishing the Baum reprints). I don't hold out great hope for you at either, but they're probably as likely as any. Artwork from _Wizard_ and _Ozma_ is PD. Maybe the "permission of the IWOC" line referred to their having used copies belonging to the IWOC as the source of their art? I believe it's true that you can't make a copy of something belonging to another person without his permission, even if the item isn't under copyright. But I'm not an authority on the subject, and could easily be wrong. Bob Spark: Interesting question, whether the other deserts surrounding Oz have the same properties as the Deadly Desert bordering the Winkie Country. It could be argued that they don't, or at least that the Great Sandy Waste in the south doesn't, since Mombi and Glinda both seem to have set foot on it in _Land_ and survived unharmed. There are references to noxious fumes from the Impassable Desert (in _Silver Princess_) and Shifting Sands (in _Magic_), but I don't recall any reference to the fatal effects of stepping on any of the sands except the Deadly Desert. Jeremy: Welcome back! J.L.: >Kaliko in OZMA and >Guph in EMERALD CITY were just as nasty as their boss. Strictly speaking, we don't know that the nasty Chief Steward in _Ozma_ was Kaliko, and based on Kaliko's character in the next two books the odds seem to be that he wasn't. Roquat certainly had a habit of throwing away his underlings who displeased him; my opinion is that the Chief Steward of _Ozma_ was thrown away in Roquat's initial fit of pique over losing his Magic Belt and all his new ornaments. Dave: I think you've let enough be said on the f-word subject. FWIW, I support your decision to no longer accept posts on that thread on the _Ozzy_ Digest. I'm as guilty as any of posting off-topic; within reason, I think it keeps the Digest more interesting (like some of our posts on grammar and usage, for instance, or about people's personal lives), but at the point where it starts getting into personalities I think it's time to cut it off. It's not as if any of the posters here are hiding their E-mail addresses; those who want to continue a discussion can do so off the Digest. And CC other people on the Digest if they want their point of view more widely spread. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 13:26:06 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-12-97 > ====================================================================== > Date: Fri, 09 Jan 1998 22:53:15 -0500 (EST) > From: Ozmama > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-09-97 > > Scott H.: Happy belated 21st. birthday! (or is my math wrong?) It's 22, your math was wrong. :) > > Bear's idea of volunteer work is a good one. Or find a leisure learning class > where they view and discuss films. In other words, get up and get moving in Katherine and I run the film studies club, and this is what we do. Unfortuantely, everyone left after we showed _Mon Oncle_, and Katherine and I have already discussed this, so we just went home. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 13:07:58 -0500 (EST) From: Scott Hutchins at PlanetAll Subject: International Wizard of Oz Club Group Page This is a location where there is an informal group gathering place for the International wizard of Oz Club, if you look for it. I don't think it could replace the Ozzy Digest, however. PlanetAll is a great new Web service that will help us keep in touch for free! It helps connect people with the people and groups that are important to them. You can easily find high school or college friends, people you have worked with, or people with similar interests. When you join PlanetAll, you create links to other people you know. When you change your address, phone number, or email address, these friends will be notified, and their virtual address books will be automatically updated. People who are linked on PlanetAll never lose touch again! PlanetAll also notifies members when people in their address books are in town and when their birthdays are approaching. PlanetAll has a meeting and travel planner, a comprehensive reminder service, and a networking tool that helps members find their friends' friends in a particular group or city. On PlanetAll, your information is kept completely private and is only accessible to the people you specify. Go to http://www.planetall.com and join for free and we can always stay in touch! Hope to hear from you soon! ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 15:48:23 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 I suppose the Oz of my books is more like America. There is a cluster of small towns and an isolated estate, but other than that; it is not very populated, save for references to various other cities. Down Town is referred to aas Downtown Ev to avoid copyright violations, as it is integral to the works of these Quadling towns, which are in violation of Ozma's ordinance against money. The velozciraptors are from a novella which is unfinished and too loaded with protected Thompson characters to be published in the near future. It is a darkly comic prelude to the trilogy entitle _Giraffic Park_, which startd Ozzily enough, and then turned extremely violent, because I was in high school, and guys had to write violent stories. Kabumpo got mauled and saved by Valynn, whom Ozma proclaimed the new Good Witch of the North, because Tattypoo had become Queen Orin, who was also in the story. There was a major scene in Sapphire City. Much of the Emerald City was destroyed. It needs heavy revision, but if I were to delete all the protected characters, I would have almost no story. The screenplay deletes most of them, and that was the point. Scott P.S.: I don't think an Oz book with a McDonald's could have won the contest. This was a bit of a reference to Alquist's _Oz Squad_ in which the Ozma keeps McDonald's out of Oz. Dorothy said "screw them!" Ozma said that's what she said "or rather, words to that effect." Then Dorothy tells Ozma she is pregnant. Then it stops. ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 11:15:47 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest David Hulan: In the play, Shaggy was the straightman to Tik-Tok's comic. I don't know if Baum rewrote a good deal to make that less obvious in the play, or if his script had less material for them in the first place. (Maybe he wrote less for them expecting them to interpolate routines anyway.) You're right that Yew seems like a different "sort" of country from the Borderlands Baum tied in as being geographically near Oz. All the same, I thought it was nice that the Haff/Martin map put it (along with Mo) onto the map. Marpy Hayse: Dealers Robin Olderman and Herman Bieber on the Ozzy Digest are good resources for finding specific Oz titles. If you join the International Wizard of Oz Club (if you need address/price info, email iwoc@sam.neosoft.com), you get with the club mailings a page of listings of Oz-items people are looking to sell or buy. Bob Spark: So far as the Oz books indicate, the different names for the Deadly Desert are simply variant names, and don't refer to physical differences. (The different names are on the "Tik-Tok" map, too -- Haff&Martin didn't invent them.) There are differences from book to book in how deadly it is and how clear its edges are, but those differences don't seem to correspond to the names. (Perhaps the amount of magic in the sands varies from place to place, or even in the same place over time as the sands shift around.) Which reminds me of a small "Tik-Tok" speculation that occurred to me on this reading -- Baum doesn't explain how Ann & Army got across the Desert. Perhaps he expected readers to assume that Glinda's magic spell twisting the road included protection against the Desert. But one way she could have given them such protection would have been to open up the Nome King's tunnel (closed at the end of "Emerald") and twist their road through the tunnel. Looking ahead to Snow's "Shaggy Man," this suggestion would have the advantage of explaining how the Nome King's tunnel was open when the King of the Fairy Beavers wanted to use it. (Of course, in that case, an explanation would be needed of why the Oogaboo people didn't run into the difficulty of getting around while invisible that the KotFB worried about. Perhaps the invisibility is a one-way affair, or perhaps Glinda's twisting spell included protection against it, or perhaps the degree of invisibility, like the degrees of deadliness and demarcation, varies from place to place and over time, anyway.) J.L. Bell: Interesting comments about dangers of desire. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 98 14:42:21 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things MERRY-GO-ROUND: Tzvi Harris wrote: >I recently read _Merry Go Round_. I thought it was much better than RPTs' >writing. Enjoyed it very much. I'm total agreement with you...The only really enjoyable FF book for me outside of Baum (except _Wishing Horse of Oz_). If you liked _MGR in Oz_ you'll probably also enjoy Melody Grandy's _Disenchanted Princess of Oz_ from Buckethead... OZ SILENTS: Scott H. wrote: >The first time I watched it without music. This time I >put on Mannheim Steamroller's Fresh Aire V, seeing as how that recording >is about Kepler's moon dream, and the film opens with the fairies of >Burzee with the moon. The supplied music on my prints of the Oz Silents is IMHO awful, so I also put on my own music to watch them to (usually Vangelis' albums _Direct_ and _Oceanic_, which are "Ozzy" to my ears)... Christopher Straughn wrote: > Isn't the Scarecrow of Oz based on a really radically changed >version of WWWOz or LandOz? _Scarecrow of Oz_ is based on Baum's silent film, _His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz_. The 1925 version of _Wizard of Oz_ with Oliver Hardy is probably the one that fits the description "a really radically changed version of WWWOz". TIK-TOK: J.L. Bell wrote: >Are there textual indications of chronology? Some have argued here that >TIN WOODMAN should follow GLINDA because Ozma is more powerful in the >former book. Yet MAGIC (in its final form) must follow TIK-TOK because >Ruggedo is a wanderer in it. Hmmm. If you look at the "History of Oz" on my webpage, I have the post-_EmCity_ chronology as: _Patchwork_, _Tik-Tok_, _Scarecrow_, _Rinkitink_, _Lost Princess_, _Glinda_, _Tin Woodman_, _Magic_, _Royal Book_. >In TIK-TOK he's almost naive; he's never seen a gun (p. 89), though the >Soldier with the Green Whiskers has carried one for years. Perhaps being >dismantled in his LITTLE WIZARD story cost him some memory. Kaliko: Oops! Here's 32 megs of memory I forgot to put back into Tik-Tok! Ruggedo: Forget it! No one will ever know! Install it in the Giant With the Hammer! Kaliko: But sire, the Giant With the Hammer doesn't have any internal RAM expansion slots! Ruggedo: Technicalities! Always technicalities! Thanks to those who sent kind words to me about the Ozzy Digest! :) :) -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 17, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 15:50:50 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 I got my Oz Observer yesterday. Debussy's "Golliwog's Cakewalk" has got to be one of the most obnoxious pieces of classical music ever written. However, I am a fan of Saint-Saens and Prokoffiev. For the most part, I like Debussy, but that piece is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 20:57:20 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 Robin, Thanks for your precis of _Tik-Tok_. I have always considered it a piece of fluff and am glad that others agree with me. Dave L.H., > I've been rather quiet lately, but I do read (or at least > skim) the Ozzy Digest every day. I'm telling you this to > make a point: I LIKE THE DIGEST AND WOULD BE VERY > DISAPPOINTED IF IT WERE DISCONTINUED. I suspect there are > MANY others who feel the same. The occasional flames are > not nearly as bad as the norm on usenet groups. There is a > sense of community here which I don't believe exists on > most of the Internet. Yes, people sometimes get carried > way. No, I don't think it spells doom. Couldn't agree more. Bob Spark P.S. Bear, I don't believe that I'll pursue that course of action with the various sands. Thanks for the idea, though. :=) ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 23:45:18 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 Bob Spark (I think): The white binding Oz books we refer to are hardbound. R&L put them out in...oh gee, I think it was the early '60s, but I'm too lazy to go check it out...someone'll correct me if it was as early as the '50s. Dave: Like Bear, I rather like the digressions. I kept my response strictly to Oz yesterday, although there were other things I wanted to say. The digressions, if they're brief and not negative, add flavor to the DIGEST for me. Some of them have been more interesting than whatever Oz topics we discussed that day! --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 01:17:34 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 > > ====================================================================== > Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 21:12:30 -0500 (EST) > From: sahutchi@iupui.edu > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 > > One of the voices for _Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz_ is _South Park_'s Matthew what is this and where can i get it aslso what is this tik tok of oz musicial im reading about in the digest and where can i get that also ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 10:01:01 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Chris Straughn: Aurissa and Ribdil are from "The Witchcraft of xx-Marie" (I forget the character's exact name), one of the three stories added to the second edition of "American Fairy Tales." It was reprinted in the "Baum Bugle" a few years back. I forget if Bilkon is from the same story or elsewhere -- probably someone else will check before I'm back on Digest (which I access at work). Seventon is from Thompson's "Enchanted Island of Oz," published by the Oz Club (illustrated by Dick Martin). Yes, "Scarecrow of Oz" as book grew out of Baum's "Scarecrow of Oz" movie, which was an adaptation of "Wizard." (Similar to the way "Tik-Tok" grew out of "Tik-Tok" play which was adaptation of "Ozma.") Robin Olderman: Cowardly Lion's popularity in stage "Wizard" may have been a factor in choosing Hank as an animal companion in "Tik-Tok," but probably even more of a factor was the popularity of Imogene the Cow, Dorothy's companion in the stage "Wizard" (can't very well cast a human as a small dog, and they didn't want to trust a real dog onstage for so long). Reasons for liking "Tik-Tok" as a story different from "Ozma" -- well, the parody of military glory and conquest in the Oogaboo characters is fun, and Quox is an interesting character, and there's a more detailed picture of Nome life. Maybe some of those factors were among Jim Haff's reasons for counting it a favorite. (I don't think I'd count it a favorite, but am fond of it, more so than of "Dorothy and the Wizard" or "Road." As a child, I loved Neill's illustrations of the Rose Princess, and I still like his artwork in the volume, but not as much as in some of the others, such as "Road" and "Emerald City," or his transition-from-Denslow style for "Land.") Bear: I think Glass Cats are hypoallergenic. J.L. Bell: Yes, you'd think Prof. Wogglebug would have heard about places like Herku. Then again, if his informants are little birds (as in birdbrained), perhaps the information they gave would be erratic? Nice point about the desert-passage marked on the "impassable desert" section. Interesting set of speculations about possible background of Betsy. She doesn't strike me as a poor little rich girl, though -- doesn't, for instance, have the rich clothing of poor-little-rich-boy Button Bright. I wonder if her knowledge of the custom of announcing guests and her presence on an ocean-cruiser might mean that she was an orphan who had been hired as a servant by a well-to-do family, rather than that she was a member of such a family. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 11:36:22 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 <> And the story goes on anon. Betsy's heritage: That would make her unusual in the Oz books, ISTR. I guess only the wealthy have time to go Bobbin for apples . . . The problem with _Merry-Go-Round_ is its dizzying pace. I mean, just look at it! David Hulan: You probably welcome me back because you've forgotten what the bulk of my posts often consist of. ;-) Until next time, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 09:29:51 -0800 From: glassman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 David Hulan: > William Morrow is handling distribution of the Books of Wonder Oz books (and > co-publishing the Baum reprints). I don't hold out great hope for you at > either, but they're probably as likely as any. The pessimism inherent in the above comment is so sad. Particularly in light of the fact that David also relates in the same statement that Books of Wonder's original Oz books (issued under our "Emerald City Press" imprint) are now being sold and distributed throughout North America by William Morrow and Company, one of America's largest publishing houses. This greatly increased distribution (which only began this past fall!) obviously also increases our opportunities to successfully publish new Oz books. In fact, our increased sales now make it possible for us to consider far larger print runs thus making it also feasible for us to consider much longer Oz manuscripts (interestingly, though the shroter length of our new Oz books than the traditional FF has been a source of complaint by a number of digest members, it has also been praised by many younger readers and their parents, as well as educators). Given our success with our new Oz books (nearly all have been reprinted one or more times!), it saddens me that there is still such negativity being expressed about the viability of having new Oz books considered for publication. I've been both surprised and dissapointed that so few of the digest members who have talked about the Oz books they are writing have chosen to submit them to us for consideration. Especially after reading about how many of you wrote books for the centenial contest. Did the fact that your manuscript failed to win so discourage you that you decided it wasn't worth pursuing? If so, remember that some of the most beloved children's books in history (including "The Wind in the Willows" and "A Wrinkle in Time") were rejected by numerous publishers before finding a home. If you have an Oz book you feel is ready for publication, by all means feel free to submit it to us for consideration. Don't let its length or failure to win a contest discourage you! We accept for consideration ANY Oz manuscript submitted in the correct form which is written in the style of L. Frank Baum's Oz books - though bear in mind that we do tend to prefer books that do not depend upon having an exhaustive knowledge of Oz to be enjoyed. Manuscripts should be submitted in typewritten form (or computer printed on a high quality ink jet or laser printer). The manuscript should be printed on only one side of the paper, double -spaced with one-inch margins on all sides. Please be sure to include your name, address and phone number with the manuscript. Also, if you would like the manuscript returned to you, be sure to include a self-addressed, stamped envelope with the manuscript. Please send all manuscripts to: Books of Wonder Attention: Submissions Dept. 216 West 18th Street, #806 New York, NY 10011 I hope to see some of these stories I've read so much about on the digest! - Peter Glassman Books of Wonder ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 12:01:43 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Seventon, South of Oz 1) Chris, Seventon is mentioned (I think, but am not 100% sure) in the apochryphal Thompson book _The Enchanted Island of Oz_. Also, Melody has already worked out the floor plan for Ozma's palace. You may want to compare notes with her. 2) Ozmama, what's an 'ingenue'? (With me reading so much Hebrew and Aramaic these days, English words seem to be dropping out of my head.) 3) Dave, keep the Digest. While it has its faults, a newsgroup has the potential to be much worse. The last thing I want in any sort of Oz-discussion forum are con artists running pyramid scams, hatemongers trying to incite a riot, or missionaries using transparent arguments to try to gain converts. We may have infighting and sermonizing here, but at least it's usually related to Oz at least perhipherally, and it's orders of magnitude smaller than what happens in newsgroups. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@ymail.yu.edu The Antipolitical Martian Empire ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:41:49 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 Dave L. Hardenbrook wrote: > Christopher Straughn wrote: > > Isn't the Scarecrow of Oz based on a really radically changed > >version of WWWOz or LandOz? > > _Scarecrow of Oz_ is based on Baum's silent film, _His Majesty, the > Scarecrow of Oz_. The 1925 version of _Wizard of Oz_ with Oliver Hardy > is probably the one that fits the description "a really radically changed > version of WWWOz". > Actually HIS MAJESTY THE SCARECROW OF OZ, a.k.a. THE NEW WIZARD OF OZ *is* a radically changed version of WWOO. It contains the creation of the Scarecrow, Dorothy finding the Scarecrow and helping him down from the pole, the first meeting of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, a Wicked Witch that inprisoned Dorothy and made her do manual labor, and ends with the Scarecrow being named King of Oz. It includes action about King Krewl, Princess Gloria, Pon the gardener's boy and Goodly Goo, but this is not more radical than the changes that were made for the 1902/3 musical. Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 14:32:58 +0000 From: Craig Noble Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 Bob: I know the Rand McNally softcover editions you're talking about, but I believe "white cover editions" usually refers to the circa 1960's hardcover editions published by Reilly & Lee. The Rand McNally editions have the same cover art. I assume they had permission from R&L to print them. I grew up with the hardcover "white cover editions." I received _The Wizard of Oz_ for my 4th birthday in 1971. My first _Land of Oz_ was the Rand McNally softcover. My mother bought it to read to me during a family trip to Italy & Yugoslavia. I suppose she thought it would pack easier than the hardcover. I'm sure it did, but it also fell apart, and I had a hard time finding it in hardcover. By the time I got to _Lost Princess_, the white cover editions were becoming scarce. It took my mother quite some time to track down Baum's final titles and then go back and find _Land of Oz_ as well. Of course, the next step was getting the RPT titles. That's when I found out about IWOC and first joined in 1975. The rest is history. Craig Noble ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 13:46:42 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-11-97 I've changed my tactic and am now going through the Digests I've missed in order instead of reverse order. 12/11: Baum inspired by religion??? That seems ridiculous to me, no offense. Why can't people accept that other people have good ideas without resorting to "They were helped by a higher authority!"? That's all for this issue of the Digest. Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 16:42:11 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: TIK-TOK OF OZ, the end Sender: "J. L. Bell" Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding! We have a winner in the "Obscure Quotation Sweepstakes": Richard Bauman correctly identified the painful phrase "in this crazy world in which we live in" as from the chorus of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die." Bear wins a four-foot-tall platinum trophy engraved with his smiley, which can be picked up at Queen Zixi's castle any weekday between the hours of three and five. Bob Spark wrote: <> Yes, those are the vintage of Baum books I've referred to. I grew up on twelve Rand McNally softcovers and two Reilly & Lee hardcovers from the 1970s. R&L seems to have prepared these editions around the time it published MERRY-GO-ROUND. Rand McNally sold paperback versions in the '70s. They have cover art printed on white cloth rather than on colored cloth with dust jacket (like the first edition of PATCHWORK GIRL) or on a pictorial paper label glued onto colored cloth (like the first edition of TIK-TOK and most books that follow). Several "white covers" besides TIK-TOK have cover art different from the originals. LOST PRINCESS has a back cover that screams, "Dick Martin!" [Thanks to Robin and Ruth for confirming my suspicion that Martin converted Neill's art for these editions.] "White cover" books' interiors also differ from the originals, but in ways that don't affect the texts: different endpapers, no color plates, new frontmatter and backmatter. DOROTHY & THE WIZARD had several (but not all) of its color plates redrawn as line art. If you have that "white cover," compare the style of Neill's large line drawings on pp. 71 and 94 with the art on pp. 81 and 82, which are redrawn color plates. If you don't have that "white cover," don't bother with those page numbers; they were changed from the original. I think that's the only "white cover" edition in which the page numbers shifted, but I haven't checked. About TIK-TOK's stage origins Robin Olderman wrote: <> Quite so. Whether he was allowing Dorothy the last name Gale or writing that Tottenhots are less human than Mifkets, Baum let little get in the way of an easy laugh. From one L.A. TIMES review of THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ, 1 April 1913: "I was not so favorably impressed with the book lyrics [sic]. To be sure it formed the basis for the wonderful scenic conceptions of Robert Brunton, but there is little real sparkle. Compared with the music and the setting, the work of L. Frank Baum must take third place." Dave Hulan wrote: <> Interesting theory. The Chief Steward's personality certainly differs in OZMA and EMERALD CITY, but Kaliko's personality also changes between TIK-TOK and RINKITINK (which was, of course, first drafted around another Nome King). In RINKITINK Dorothy tells Kaliko, "You must be more wicked than I thought you were," which implies a prior acquaintance. If that encounter was recorded in the Oz books, it can only be when Dorothy met the Chief Steward in OZMA. But in RINKITINK there are hints that Dorothy has interfered in Kaliko's royal doings already, implying some unrecorded meeting. Ruth Berman wrote: <> I'd assumed that Glinda's spell temporarily took the "narrow mountain pass" out of Oogaboo and arranged its twists--rock walls and floor and all--in a different direction. Thus, the army was still marching over rock, not sand. As for the barrier of invisibility, Snow's version is much more powerful than Baum's own. In SCARECROW the barrier is just "a few moments" of mist tinged by the red country behind it. In RINKITINK and MAGIC it doesn't interfere with travel from and to Oz by land or air. I read Glinda's calling it "the Barrier of Invisibility" and saying it would cut off and protect Oz forever as a well-intended exaggeration. The path out of Oogaboo is the first in a series of tunnels or near-tunnels in TIK-TOK--appropriate to a book about Nomes. There's the Hollow Tube, the tunnel into the Nome King's castle, the two tunnels into the Metal Forest, the deep gulf around the Rose Kingdom, and the dry well where Betsy finds Tik-Tok (a tunnel that leads nowhere). A few more TIK-TOK comments: Unlike PATCHWORK GIRL and SCARECROW, all the illustrations in TIK-TOK are either chapter openers, full pages, or chapter closers--there's none in the middle of a page of text. Also unlike PATCHWORK GIRL, the book's design lets chapters start on left- or right-hand pages, so Neill didn't need to fill blanks. Stylistically, his draftsmanship is much simpler than ROAD and EMERALD CITY; especially in the color plates, the contrast is striking, and regrettable. Those choices in design and art style probably made production easier for Reilly & Britton. I wonder if TIK-TOK was on a tight schedule. On page 151, the Long-Eared Hearer says he's 9,306 miles from the people in the Tube. Since the Earth is only about 8,000 miles across, does this mean he's hearing around corners? On page 253, Shaggy seems to be breaking one of the rules of 1990s etiquette--don't place calls on your cell phone during a dinner party. Or perhaps it's been transmitting the whole time: on the previous page Ozma seems to have heard the party's conversation. Dave Hardenbrook wrote: <> Hee hee. Better than "install it *with* the Giant With the Hammer!" J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 16:55:27 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digests Past Speaking of searching old Digests: Is anyone making an index of all the Digests? It's a monstrous task, and not one I personally have the time for, but it'd be useful... The 14th: Massacre as Impetus for Oz?: I can't believe it. NOTHING as terrible as that can have good results. Or maybe I'm an optimist. The 16th: Slavery & Its Effects: I'm sorry to say such prejudices are with us still. Or maybe that's just my mistaken impression. (I have a lot of those.) A thought: Yes, I do have these. This particular one has been germinating in my brain for some time, and I decided to let it out. It is addressed to Peter Glassman, if he still recieves the Digest, or anyone else who knows. It is this: Do you, or does he, have a web page for Books of Wonder, and if so, what is the address? Those are all the back issues I have time for now, but stay tuned! Until later, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 13:49:36 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Item for the _Ozzie Digest_ Howdy, In _Tik-Tok_ on my page 260 there is a drawing of Dorothy running downstairs. She has a definite coltish adolescent appearance. Apparently in (at least) Neill's concept of the scheme of things Dorothy is maturing. On my page 269 there is a drawing of Dorothy, Ozma and Betsy. Ozma in particular is represented quite differently than Neill had done in earlier works. On thing that really struck me was the absence of the flowers on either side of her face, but she seems more mature also. Any comments? Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 21:46:50 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Chris Straugh: You should check out Melody Grandy's essay on the Royal Palace of Oz. Eitehr Dave or Melody can e-mail it to you. John Bell: Nobody in the FF ever actually stepped onto the Deadly Desert and died/turned to dust, etc. Of course, some people in _Land_ walked on the desert, but were not injrued. In one of the Buckethead books (it may be _Gardeners Boy_), a girl crosses the desert, and a grain of sand falls on her big toe, dissolving it. Shaggy seriously seeks several silly siblings. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 16:18:14 +0200 (IST) From: Tzvi Harris Snows gone. Guess we'll have to wait another six years or so for another one like it. Tik-Tok Last night I got around to reading the end of the book. It all came back to me. I remember reading it as a child (somewhere between ages 7-10) and being insulted by Ozmas' statement about "the army of children" overrunning Oz. I didn't think it was fair that Betsy Bobbin gets to stay in Oz, and I don't even get to visit. Tzvi Harris Talmon Israel ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 20:32:13 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 Aaron: I agree that there are other words in apocryphal books that are defined and that at least seem to be Old Ozzish, but I don't think there are any in the FF besides "oz". Other than the names that aren't common English ones, and that might be interpreted as being related to the character's nature or occupation. Christopher: Aurissau and Ribdil are in the story "The Witchcraft of Mary-Marie," in _Baum's American Fairy Tales_. (This is a later edition of _AFT_ with two or three new stories in it; this may be one of them.) Bilkon, like Quok, Junkum, Mulgravia, and Macvelt, is from "The Queen of Quok." Arol and Thumbumbia, neither of which you mentioned, are from stories in "The Runaway Shadows and Others", published by the IWOC. Seventon I admit I don't recognize; Ruth Berman probably knows its origin. >Also, I am working on a project to construct a floor plan of the >royal palace so if anyone would like to see my preliminary notes, >just e-mail me. Before you go to a lot of trouble on that, get Dave to send you Melody Grandy's lengthy articles on the layouts of the gardens and the palace that he has. She did an excellent job, and while you may be able to augment it there's no reason why you should duplicate what she's already done. Bear: >How David Hulan wrote two books about cats when he can't afford to get near >one! :) I could afford to get near a _glass_ cat! Anyhow, I like cats, and my allergy came on me relatively late in life (in my mid-30s); I've lived with cats in my younger days. Jeremy: I don't know if we have any British subscribers to the Digest, but if we do have any they don't seem to post. There was a girl from Scotland who was a subscriber and occasional poster to the Digest's predecessor--a listserv whose name I forget at the moment--but I haven't seen anything from her on the Digest. J.L.: >Prof. Wogglebug could indeed have picked up extra knowledge of geozgraphy >from birds (not jackdaws, of course) and other travelers. And I have no >doubt he would have put little-known places on his map just to show how >thoroughly educated he was. But that still leaves the question of how he >could have learned about the Yips, Jinxville, and the Skeezers without also >learning about Herku, Loonville, and other sites closer to the capital. > If I were a traveler relying on these maps, I'd be quite upset at the >professor for spotting Mr. Yoop but not warning me away from Mrs. Yoop's >valley. You could use Tyler's "wormhole" theory - that is, a lot of the little kingdoms and such that turn up in Oz books aren't really there all the time, but are only occasionally accessible (sort of like Brigadoon, maybe). Alternatively, we could say that Prof. Woggle-bug is a busy person, so he doesn't spend a lot of his time talking to birds and other travelers; he just didn't know about a lot of the other places in Oz that he put on his map. And as far as the ones in _Tik-Tok_ are concerned, we know they're inaccurate as well. It's true that we don't ever see anyone die on the desert. Of course, we don't ever see anyone die in Oz at all (any human or humanoid, that is; there are a few cases of animals dying). But clearly everyone in Oz believes that the desert on the Winkie side, at least, is fatal to step on. > Are there textual indications of chronology? Some have argued here that >TIN WOODMAN should follow GLINDA because Ozma is more powerful in the >former book. Yet MAGIC (in its final form) must follow TIK-TOK because >Ruggedo is a wanderer in it. Hmmm. We had a discussion of this a few months ago. The only reason to place _Magic_ after _Lost Princess_ and _Tin Woodman_ chronologically is the presence of the Tin Soldier and the Frogman at Ozma's birthday party. Those could have been late interpolations. The Trot-Cap'n Bill sequence, on the other hand, is a big enough part of the book that it's clear that _Magic_ takes place after _Scarecrow_, and was probably written after it as well. It's possible, though, that Baum wrote another adventure of Cap'n Bill and Trot after _Sky Island_, possibly even bringing them to Oz, and then decided later to pad it out with the Jinxland sequence - which is the only part of _Scarecrow_ that's based on the film, as far as I know. He could have then written _Magic_ and _Glinda_, which assume that Trot and Cap'n Bill and Button-Bright are living in Oz, before going back and making the final tweaks on _Scarecrow_ and _Rinkitink_ to bring them into their present form. This would make _Tin Woodman_ the last Oz book he actually wrote, which may explain why I find it the weakest one after _Road_. >It's significant that Betsy doesn't even come into TIK-TOK till chapter 4. I think this is standard for most Oz books - that is, books that include parallel plots and a child from America coming to the Oz universe almost invariably begin in the Oz universe and pick up the American child later. The only exceptions are _Wonder City_, _Lucky Bucky_, and _Shaggy Man_ (i.e., Neill and Snow). But it's the method used in _Emerald City_, _Tik-Tok_, _Cowardly Lion_, _Gnome King_, _Yellow Knight_, _Pirates_, _Speedy_, and _Merry-Go-Round_, which are the other books that use parallel plots and bring an American child to Oz. (_Wizard_, _Ozma_, _DotWiz_, _Road_, _Scarecrow_, _Jack Pumpkinhead_, and _Hidden Valley_ don't have parallel plots, but follow the American child throughout - well, there's a short stretch of _Scarecrow_ where the Scarecrow is getting from Glinda's palace to Jinxland where we leave Trot, but that's so far into the book that I don't think it counts.) I think you're right that Betsy is more upper-class than Dorothy or Trot, though whether her family was actually "rich" is a separate question. I guess it depends on how you define "rich" - in 1913, someone with an income equivalent to $60,000 a year or so today would certainly have servants, probably even live-in servants, but I don't consider that "rich." There aren't that many places where Betsy could have ridden a subway, are there? Boston and New York, yes. I'm not sure about Chicago; was the subway part of the CTA around as early as 1913? Philadelphia? Buffalo? Most cities used above-ground light rail of some kind in those days, either street-level or elevated. It was only when the increasing number of automobiles made street-level rail too slow, and people started objecting to the noise of elevated trains, that it became worth the large extra cost of digging the tunnels in most cities. > Dave Hulan, I know you've written an adventure for Betsy--how do you >conceive of her? Unless you're talking about Betsy's chapter in the _Emerald City Mirror_, I haven't written an adventure for her - that is, she's a pretty minor character in _Glass Cat_, very minor in _Magic Carpet_, and not present in _Eureka_. I conceive of her as a sweet-natured, rather shy and naive little girl, not nearly as strong as Dorothy or even Trot; she's popular with the other residents of the palace, but isn't fond of adventures and isn't often called on to _do_ anything. Even her biggest adventure after _Tik-Tok_, in _Hungry Tiger_, is one that she gets into entirely by accident; she did nothing more adventurous to get into it than going out to the street to buy some strawberries. And she does nothing much but follow Carter and Reddy and the tiger around for the rest of the book. > Judging by my little information about THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ, I infer >Baum created Ozga for the book. The play included a scene in a rose >greenhouse, but there's no rose princess in the cast. Jo Files dances with >Polychrome. That probably explains why Ozga has so little to do in the >latter chapters. I don't have much information about _The Tik-Tok Man of Oz_, either, but I know that one of the songs in it is titled, "Tell Me, Pretty Flowers." That sounds like one Ozga would sing at the point where she asks the flowers to point them to the Nome King's dominion. But maybe Polychrome or Betsy sings it in the play. Bob Spark: The "white cover editions" refer to the hardcover editions published by Reilly & Lee in the 1960s (roughly); they no longer had dust jackets, but came in a sturdy binding with a white background and the cover art printed directly on the cloth. They were really quite attractive, I think, and are fairly readily available. Dave: You didn't like _Speedy_ or _Silver Princess_? Or haven't you read them? David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 98 13:56:16 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things DIGEST CONTENT: Robin: >Like Bear, I rather like the digressions. I kept my response strictly >to Oz yesterday, although there were other things I wanted to say. I know I'm asking too much to ask people to stay strictly on Oz, I only ask that people don't stray *really far* (e.g. when the personal insults start flying), so please don't go crazy trying to restrain yourself, especially as I certainly have never had any problems, Robin, with *your* posts. I know that no matter what I do, I can't please everyone, so I will continue running the Digest as I have and let people stay or leave as they wish... OZ REFERENCE #4747: If I can site a new Oz reference without instigating a political battle: :) I'm reading Anita Hill's book _Speaking Truth to Power_, and she equated the march of the women of Congress to the Senate door in order to demand that Professor Hill's charges against Judge Thomas be addressed, and their being refused entrance by the Senators' aides to Dorothy et. al. arriving at the Emerald City and the guard saying: "The Great and Powerful Oz says 'Go away!'" -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 18 - 19, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 16:27:48 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 Thanks all for the information on the white cover editions, also the soft cover editions. Particular thanks to J. L. Bell for this: > If you have that "white cover," compare the style of > Neill's large line drawings on pp. 71 and 94 with the art > on pp. 81 and 82, which are redrawn color plates. If you > don't have that "white cover," don't bother with those page > numbers; they were changed from the original. I do have that "white cover" and did compare the respective pages you identified. The differences are remarkable. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 20:09:11 -0500 (EST) From: Saroz Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 Everyone: Amazingly, my mother has come into possession of _another_ complete set of wrapped Return to Oz bubble gum/sticker cards (36 wrapped packs total) in the original sale box. The box, unfortunately, has a huge black magic marker streak across the front (as if someone was trying to blot out a price) but is very much intact. All the wrapped packs are great condition. The wrapped packs each have one of four designs on the wrapper: Scarecrow, Dorothy/Billina, Tik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead...there are an equal number of each character wrapper in the box. I have put a scanned graphic of wrapped packs from my own box (which is exactly identical) on my AOL FTP client. You can view it at: http://users.aol.com/saroz/returnc.jpg . I am thinking of putting these up for sale on eBay online auction, but I'm willing to take offers from any of you before I do that. Let me know by this coming Friday, January 24th, if you'd like to try and make a deal with me over these. Sarah G. Hadley ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 20:36:09 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 Ingenue:in*ge*nue (noun)[French ingenue, feminine of ingenu ingenuous, from Latin ingenuus] First appeared 1848 1 : a naive girl or young woman 2 : the stage role of an ingenue; also : an actress playing such a role (From AOL's dictionary) Ingenue: a boring role for any actress to be stuck with. (From Robin O's personal dictionary, based on experience from many years and pounds ago when she'd get stuck with playing ingenues) Ruth: Did I say that Hank was a result of the C. Lion? If I did, OOPS! You know I meant Imogene. (Shaking my head in chagrin and wonder at myself that I could have been that careless!) Thanks for the correction. David: Now that it's still o.k. to stray a bit, do keep us updated on your mothers. Ken: I hope you post again soon. We still love you, y'know! --Robin Olderman ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 21:53:12 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 Robin: I'm glad you don't object to digressions. That means I can continue to function as normal! (Normal for me, at any rate.) <> Or they could have just been stubborn! <<3) Dave, keep the Digest. While it has its faults, a newsgroup has the potential to be much worse. The last thing I want in any sort of Oz-discussion forum are con artists running pyramid scams, hatemongers trying to incite a riot, or missionaries using transparent arguments to try to gain converts. We may have infighting and sermonizing here, but at least it's usually related to Oz at least perhipherally, and it's orders of magnitude smaller than what happens in newsgroups.>> I agree. Re the "barrier of invisibility": I too had always wondered why it never met up to expectations--why people etc., so often got through anyway. A discrepancy between intended and effected would help explain it. It also couldn't go more than earth-deep if Nomes could burrow under it to get to Oz. <> Just shows there's snow place like home (or did I already use that one?) David Hulan: I like your Brigadoon analogy. (In fact, I'd like to live my life that way, some of the time.) Here and there, now and then, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "SUBDUED--n., the guy who works on the Nautilus." ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 23:29:08 +0000 From: Christopher Straughn Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-14-98 Comments: Authenticated sender is The Emerald City Architecture essay is great! Thanks. Chris Straughn Bonan Tagon! ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 23:29:08 +0000 From: Christopher Straughn Subject: Oz Palace Floor plan Comments: Authenticated sender is Thanks to everyone who suggested that I get Melody Grandy's palace description. I've been reading it and I've seen many spaces that seem to be spaces for floorplans. Could someone please send me the floor plans or tell me where I can locate them? Thanks! Chris Straughn Bonan Tagon! ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 13:00:08 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 >(interestingly, though the shroter length of our >new Oz books than the traditional FF has been a source of complaint by a >number of digest members, it has also been praised by many younger >readers and their parents, as well as educators). Y'know, what's _really_ sad about that is that they're probably the same soi-dissant educators who complain about the effect of MTV on attention span. // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 17:19:21 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Peter - I know you have a financial interest but I think it was really nice of you to extend your encouragement to budding Oz authors. It would be great to see more of our Digest friends in print. You are a pleasant contrast to some others I can think of. Harlan Ellison is one who comes to mind. I remember him being a judge of a writing contest and simply tearing the entrants efforts to shreds. There was nothing constructive about his criticism. Somehow he managed to forget how raw some of his early efforts were. I'm on my way to Zixi's castle. I haven't won a trophy for a while. Actually, I didn't know there was a contest. Hmmm. I think the last trophy I won was the table tennis championship on the Fair Sea. >On page 151, the Long-Eared Hearer says he's 9,306 miles from the people in the Tube. Since the Earth is only about 8,000 miles across, does this mean he's hearing around corners? I wonder if there was some confusion in Baum's day about this. Nope. I went to the trouble of consulting an 1881 astronomy book. The author gave the diameter as roughly 7950 miles. Actually IIRC someone in ancient times used a well in Alexandria to measure the diameter of the earth. I guess it was Baum's problem. Robin - Many thanks for the encouragement. I finally couldn't stand it and galloped through TH. I am now trotting along in TFOTR. It is sooooo good. For my third time I am surprised at how fresh it feels. TTOO - p. 93 - In both the copies I have "gong" in paragraph 2 and "vast" in paragraph 3 are damaged. One of the copies I have is a first, the other is a copy. I guess they used the same plates. p. 109 Interesting typo - line 6 and 7 - "swords, which swung back and forth during the swift journey and pommeled everyone..." Ah ha! Learn something every day. I thought he meant to say pummel. Turns out to pummel is defined as to pommel. And pommel means to beat with the pommel of a sword. p. 131 "....Tititi Hoochoo.....had no heart. ...he possessed a high degree of Reason and Justice...he showed no mercy in his judgements he never punished unjustly or without reason.....those who were innocent of evil had nothing to fear from him." If only...... sigh. p. 138 Quox...is a young dragon who has not yet acquired the wisdom of his race... he has been disrespectful toward his most ancient ancestor..." Pay attention you whippersnappers. :) p. "Grandpa.....insists on telling us stories of things that happened fifty thousand years ago, which are of no interest at all to youngsters like me..... He lives all together in the past, so I can't see any good reason for his being alive to-day." I think there are some who agree with Quox today. :( p. 211 The famous illustration. At first I thought this was silly. However, the more I look at it...... p.272 Ozma tells Betsy if all those kids came to Oz they "would crowd us so that we would have to move away." If the silly Ehrlichs had been right when they first put out their theory we would all be standing packed together covering the whole country. Maybe Ozma influenced them. Despite being thoroughly discredited they are still around here shoveling the same manure. I will try to ask them if I get a chance. Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 20:43:51 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Ozzy question? Not really, but please post This isn't really an Ozzy question, but does any of the computer experts on the Digest have a way to help me solve the problem of the computer error message that keeps popping up-- EXPLORER This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. [Close box] If the problem persists, contact the program vendor. [Details box] [details--"EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in module WININET.DLL at 0137:6300136b. Registers: EAX=00000000 CS=0137 EIP=6300136b EFLGS=00010246 EBX=82c0f400 SS=013f ESP=00e0ee3c EBP=00e0f648 ECX=ffffffff DS=013f ESI=0046f4b8 FS=2d67 EDX=0046f4b8 ES=013f EDI=e726f402 GS=2f96 Bytes at CS:EIP: f2 ae f7 d1 49 3b 4a 38 0f 83 2c 3c 01 00 8b 7d Stack dump: 00000000 0046f4b8 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 ] I know this is a strange thing to put in the Digest, but I'm desperate to find a way out of this situation without reloading Windows. Right now I'm just postponing the reloading until I get home and can use my resources there (such as they are) by moving the annoying error message box down to the bottom of the screen and ignoring it. My problem is that I'm afraid I may be causing unnecessary harm to my computer in the process, and I don't want that. If someone has any suggestions or wants additional info, please e-mail me at jsteadman@loki.berry.edu . Thanks. Jeremy http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 18 Jan 1998 22:50:08 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Non-Ozzy Observation: Went to see "The Postman" on Saturday, since rumor had it that the girl I had a crush on in High School had a bit part in it. Did not see her on screen or in credits, although I also heard that may scenes filmed in Tucson had been cut. Also, it was not that good, a drier version of "Waterworld" with too much melodrama. John Bell: The Hearer may be using a different mile that we have. Maybe Baumgea had already gone to the metric system and Baum just called them miles instead to make it easy and forgot to do the math. it's also possible that their world is larger than ours. Dave and John: WIth that new memory, the Giant with the Hammer can now pound people with a Graphical Interface. :-) Jeremy: I have every Ozzy DIgest kept in monthly blocks, and I believe Bear has them all day by day. However, I don;t think anybody has indexed them by subject matter. Yes, it would be cool, but it is something I have no time for. Jeremy: Peter Glassman still reads the DIgest, although he rarely posts. I called them about a year ago and asked if they had a website, and they did not. You can give them a call at 1-212-989-3270 and ask them. The 800 number is for orders only. In the spirit of "Dilbert" In response to concern about an "Army of children" moving to Oz, Ozma has institued a number of management paradigms to reduce headcount of newbies coming into Oz. Here's a recent conversation. Kid: Hey, Ozma! Can I live in Oz? Ozma: We now only allow a certain quota of children in every year. Go away. Kid: But you're way below pace for the quota. Let me in. Ozma: You have to have a certified adventure in Baumgea first. Go away. Kid: But I've been adventuring around Oz all week. Let me in. Ozma: You have to achieve measurable goals. Our policy is to reward only those applicants who "make a difference". Go away. Kid: But I saved Oz from being conquered. Let me in. Ozma: Everybody does that. You also need to be associated with highly visible executive-level members of our organization. Go away. Kid: I spent the week with Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Wizard. Let me in. Ozma: Very well. Your application for residency has been approved and you're a member of Cohort 47. Sadly, Cohort 47 has been downsized and relocated to the icy island of Isa Poso. Start Packing. -- Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 05:39:07 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: Ozzy Digest As you may have noticed, I haven't been on the Digest recently. I've been away on vacation. I have recently returned, and read about two weeks' worth of Digests. Steve: So Scraps defeated the Chocolate Soldiers in the original manuscript, rather than the Turn-Style? David: Actually, _Merry Go Round_ begins with the adventures of the American child. Chapter 1 features Robin Brown. J. L. Bell: I would imagine that, after travelling for so long, Shaggy has learned to accept things as they are, and not to ask why. I believe that Ozga did appear in the play, but that she was called "Ozma." Baum changed her name for the book, to avoid confusion with a certain other character. On Ribdil: It is interesting to note that Ribdil is a city in "The Witchcraft of Mary-Marie," but a country on Haff and Martin's map. Maybe the city of Ribdil is in the country of Ribdil. Regarding Rocs: Note that these birds apparently do exist in Nonestica. Captain Salt mentions to Tandy that he wants to find a Roc's egg. Regarding Raks: Upon first reading _Tik-Tok_, I thought that "Rak" might just be an alternate name for a dragon, or that Files' unripe book contained the word "Rak" instead of "Dragon." Of course, once Quox and his kin were introduced, that shattered that theory. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "I don't want the world. I just want your half." ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 15:06:08 +0100 From: Bill Wright Subject: Oz Digest Have received a request for Oz info for which I need some help from the experts on the Digest. Here is the background. A college in New York is putting together a fitness challenge and plan to use Oz as a theme. The route will be called the Yellow Brick Road. They would like to model their route on Dorothy's trip in WWOO. Here is the basic info needed. What are the major sections of the Yellow Brick Road from where Dorothy started in the Land of the Munchkins, to the Emerald City? What is the length of each section (miles or km)? I'm sure there are some published studies on this, but I do not have access to them. Could I get some feedback from those of you who have access to these studies? Also, there may be some of you who have done this kind of study but the results are not published anywhere........feedback from you would also be desired. Thanks, Bill in Ozlo ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 98 09:53:44 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things THE SIZE OF THE EARTH (OR IS IT NERRUM?): Bear wrote: >Actually IIRC someone in ancient times >used a well in Alexandria to measure the diameter of the earth. Eratostenes to be exact...He used two sticks in the ground -- one in Alexandria, one miles away in Syene -- to make the calculation...The well just kind of got him started thinking about the problem. For the full story, watch the first episode of _Cosmos_... Tyler wrote: >The Hearer may be using a different mile that we have. Maybe Baumgea had >already gone to the metric system and Baum just called them miles instead >to make it easy and forgot to do the math. I'll buy that -- Or perhaps in Old Ozzish-Baumgean there's a unit of measurement called the "milo" or the "mylei" or something which is unrelated to our "mile", but got mistranslated as such. >it's also possible that their world is larger than ours. Perhaps, but this upsets my MOPPET that Nerrum/Nonestica is parallel to Earth but with things much better than our Earth, e.g. Oz exists, Hitler surrendered in 1940, Princess Diana is still living, etc. EMERALD CITY, NEXT 47 EXITS: Bill Wright wrote: >What are the major sections of the Yellow Brick Road from where Dorothy >started in the Land of the Munchkins, to the Emerald City? >What is the length of each section (miles or km)? Erm, well...If you accept my esimates of Oz's size, then the journey was about 70 km (40 miles) total, with about 7km from Dorothy's house to the Scarecrow's beanpole, 12km from beanpole to where they found Nick Chopper (assuming it was in proximity to Ku Klip's house), 10km from that point to where they met the Cowardly Lion. Then perhaps another 5km from there to where they encountered the Kalidahs, 16km from there to the Poppy field, and 20km from there to Emerald City gates. Of course these estimates are based solely on my own views on Oz's size (see Section 4.9 of the Ozzy Digest FAQ). And they in any case totally go out the window if they are thinking in terms of the MGM movie -- My estimates are based on the book. ("Book? *What* book???") NON-OZZY QUESTION: As long as people don't seem to mind about little non-Ozzy digressions, I have an important question to ask, and I trust this group's opinions... I am looking for a backup of some kind for my hard disk to avoid the unpleasantness of last year when my hard drive crashed; but I don't know which way to go -- tape drive, Zip drive, SyQuest, or even writable CD...Can anyone offer me some advice? Also, I'd like to get a graphics card that would allow output from my computer to videotape so that I can maybe show my Oz-related animations at the next Oz convention without having to transport my whole computer...Can anyone advise me? One other question I have that Jeremy's problem reminded me to ask... I use a "Dial-Up Networking" to access the Internet from Windows 95, and every so often, when I log off of the 'Net the entire system freezes -- *Nothing* responds, not even the "three-finger salute" (CTRL-ALT-DEL)!!! I have to turn off the computer and on again to recover. Has anyone else experienced this and know how to deal with it? Is it a bug in the OS that might be repaired in Windows 98? -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 20, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 16:26:18 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 Bear:In a message dated 98-01-19 15:12:56 EST, you write:<< For my third time I am surprised at how fresh it feels. >> I've been through LOTR more than a dozen times. It feels comfortingly familiar, but is so incredibly rich in detail that much of it is fresh to me every time. ------------------ Dave:<< I use a "Dial-Up Networking" to access the Internet from Windows 95, and every so often, when I log off of the 'Net the entire system freezes -- *Nothing* responds, not even the "three-finger salute" (CTRL-ALT-DEL)!!! I have to turn off the computer and on again to recover. Has anyone else experienced this and know how to deal with it? Is it a bug in the OS that might be repaired in Windows 98? >> Yeah, it happens to me once in a while, but before I log off. I just hope it doesn't damage my pc too much. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 16:54:41 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 Okay, I have continued to try to find a way out of my situation (the annoying error messages). So I tried one last time to get rid of After Dark 4.0 screen saver I downloaded from the Net, and thought I had done so--but the messages first come up "Cannot find AD.something file" then "Cannot find the AD.something file" etc., until we get to the "EXPLORER This program has performed an illegal operation" message. GRRR!! <> About the same way Oklahoma City is in OK. Bad example, but you get the idea... Dave: So Aristophanes had some use for two sticks-in-the-mud? Interesting... Until later, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "SUBDUED--n., the guy who works on the Nautilus." ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 17:26:15 -0800 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 > Nathan Mulac DeHoff > Steve: > So Scraps defeated the Chocolate Soldiers in the original manuscript, > rather than the Turn-Style? > Actually it is not that simple. Scraps' defeat of the Chocolate Soldiers was only temporary. She Jack and Jenny were imprisoned as in the published book, but Jenny never escaped and the Chocolate Soldiers never invaded Oz. Whistlebreeches/Numbernine finds where they are trapped using some of the Wizard's equiptment, and rescues them with an Ozmic Ray. I was glad to see Peter Glassman's comment in the January 17 digest. All those who submitted MSS to the contest and were not chosen should remember that, unlike the Emerald City Press, we could select only one title and that we had rather specific guidelines to go by, that this was to be a centenniel book. On the other hand, Emerard City Press is less restricted in its criteria and could publish books that did not make our final cut. Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 12:59:50 -0600 From: Gordon Birrell Subject: Ozzy Digest My compliments to all who have commented on _Tik-Tok_. This has been a particularly interesting and informative discussion. _Tik-Tok_ was one of two Oz books that I actually owned when I was little, and the first that I read. For that reason, perhaps, it still doesn't seem as derivative to me as it does to many of you. It's true that any real Oz aficionado is going to find it a pastiche of familiar material (other traces of earlier works that haven't been mentioned: trees bearing manufactured goods, from _Ozma_; glass houses broken by falling objects and people from _Dorothy and the Wizard_; a royal personage [Tubekins in _Tik-Tok_] who is knocked down when people fall on him, from _Sky Island_), but it also works very well as a stand-alone book. And the feature which really captivated me as a child--the hollow tube through the earth to the realm of Ti-ti-ti-Hoochoo--is certainly unprecedented, as is the memorable figure of Quox. Like Ruth Berman, I can't help being fond of this book even though I recognize its shortcomings. When we were discussing _Ozma_, Joyce argued that Ozma's expedition to Ev has imperialistic overtones--an assertion that met with considerable resistance from other members of the Digest. It's intriguing that Queen Anne's expedition, which is clearly the counterpart to Ozma's (with the same army of officers with one private), now has unmistakeably imperialistic ambitions. And in light of the fact that Anne is out to conquer Ruggedo as well as the rest of the world: I have to wonder about the Jinjin's highly praised sense of justice. Here is how he justifies sending Quox to punish Ruggedo: "Because [Ruggedo] had unjustly kept the Shaggy Man's brother a prisoner, this little band of honest people, consisting of both mortals and immortals, determined to conquer Ruggedo and to punish him. Fearing they might succeed in this, the Nome King misled them so that they fell into the Tube" (p. 137). This is not exactly true. On p. 104, Ruggedo has said, "Well, Shaggy Man may have his ugly brother, for all I care," and in fact Shaggy's brother is as much a prisoner of his own vanity (his family's vanity, to judge from Shaggy's remarks on p. 209) as he is a prisoner of Ruggedo. On p. 105, moreover, we see that Ruggedo's decision to send the invaders through the Tube is motivated entirely by his rage against the Army of Oogaboo. The Hearer has told him, "The Army of Oogaboo is determined to capture all the rich metals and rare jewels in your kingdom, and the officers and their Queen have arranged to divide the spoils and carry them away." In other words, the Jinjin has badly misjudged the motivations of at least 18 of the 23 invaders, and he has equally misjudged Ruggedo's motivation in protecting what is rightfully his property. As far as I can see, the only unambiguous infraction that Ruggedo has committed is his unauthorized use of the Tube to dispose of unwanted visitors. Speaking of the Tube: has it struck anyone else that this device apparently runs diametrically through the earth, but people who fall through it don't go into free-fall but slide along its inside surface? This would make the Tube . . . what? A secant? (It's been a long time since I had solid geometry.) In any event, the implication is that the travelers have come out on the opposite side of the earth, and I find it intriguing that this region is so clearly marked with Oriental characteristics: the Jinjin, the dragon motif, the name Ti-ti-ti-Hoochoo (which sounds like a Chinese sneeze). When I was little, people used to say, "If you dug down straight through the earth you would come out in China." This of course is not quite accurate, but it was at least a popular misconception. The implication for _Tik-Tok_ is that Oz is somehow in our own geographical space, a fairyland that relates to us the way the Jinjin's realm relates to China. (Thompson was doing something similar in _Royal Book_.) I was very impressed with John Bell's comments on the themes of desire and governance, though it seems to me that the issue of good governance is scarcely new with _Tik-Tok_. Baum took it up again and again, beginning with _The Wonderful Wizard_ and ending with _Glinda_. Another motif that strikes me as being pervasive in _Tik-Tok_ is the motif of *falling*: Betsy and Hank fall off the ship, Shaggy falls through the roof of the greenhouse, Tik-Tok falls down the well (after being pushed), the travelers fall down (and then up) the Tube, Anne falls onto Tubekins, Anne and her army fall into the pit. There may be some other examples. I'm not certain what sort of thematic significance attaches to this motif of falling, but perhaps it relates to what John said about the loss of control that is associated with desire. On p. 141 there is a bit of dialogue that puzzles me. Tubekins says, "Quox tires me dreadfully, and I prefer his room to his company." Is this a joke? Is Tubekins saying that he likes the huge amount of space that Quox occupies but not Quox himself? Thanks, Robin, for your good remarks on the theatrical elements of _Tik-Tok_. One thing I've wondered about is whether the Hollow Tube, which is so essential to the action of the book, was part of the play. If so, how on earth was it represented on stage? (Related question: is the script still extant?) One final comment: the approach of the Rak can detected by a tell-tale aroma of salt and pepper (p. 33). This I find interesting, since salt--at least the table salt NaCl that is associated with pepper--is a colorless and odorless compound, as Baum must surely have known. Scott H.: Baum might very well have shared your aversion to Debussy's "Golliwog's Cakewalk," which is a sort of high-cultural version of the "coon song" that the phonograph plays in _Patchwork Girl_. I like the entire "Children's Corner Suite" very much, though, and I think the "Cakewalk" is an appropriately larky conclusion to the whole thing. Perhaps the performance you heard makes the piece more raucous than it needs to be. Did you know that the middle section of the "Cakewalk" contains a wonderful parody of Wagner's _Tristan und Isolde_? --Gordon Birrell ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 01:18:42 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 I had a project going this weekend, so I ended up with two Digests to comment on today: 1/17: Scott H.: Personally, I like "Golliwog's Cakewalk" as a piano piece (I don't think it works well in the orchestral transcriptions I've heard). Kind of a fun little piece, and it's not as if it lasts very long. Peter: I'm delighted to hear that you're willing to consider longer MSS at Emerald City Press. My MS will be on its way to you tomorrow. (It would have gone today, but the Post Office is closed for the MLK holiday.) Aaron: The "ingenue" is a theatrical term for the young female romantic character who isn't the lead. Other such terms I've run across are the "juvenile" (young male romantic character who isn't the lead), and "heavy" (villain). There is also a magazine called _Ingenue_ that's sort of a rival to _Seventeen_ and _Mademoiselle_, or at least there used to be back when I was aware of such things. (This is not to be confused with the French lens manufacturer Angenieux, which is typically pronounced about the same by Americans, though not by Frenchmen.) J.L.: > In RINKITINK Dorothy tells Kaliko, "You must be more wicked than I >thought you were," which implies a prior acquaintance. If that encounter >was recorded in the Oz books, it can only be when Dorothy met the Chief >Steward in OZMA. But in RINKITINK there are hints that Dorothy has >interfered in Kaliko's royal doings already, implying some unrecorded >meeting. Dorothy may not have personally encountered Kaliko; she'd presumably have heard from both Betsy and Tik-Tok (from the LWS) ["Little Wizard Stories", in case anyone is in doubt about this abbreviation. -- Dave] that Kaliko was pretty much of a Good Guy, and have been basing her favorable opinion of him on those tales. I think _Tik-Tok_ was the first Neill-illustrated book since _Land_ where the color plates were "colorized" by the printer. _Ozma_ and _PG_ didn't have color plates, but had color added to the illustrations in the text; _DotWiz_ and _EC_ had watercolors as the basis for the color plates, and _Road_ had no color illustrations at all. _Tik-Tok_, OTOH, started a process that was continued through _Wishing Horse_ of having the printer colorize black-and-white drawings by Neill. Tzvi: >Last night I got around to reading the end of the book. It all came back to >me. I remember reading it as a child (somewhere between ages 7-10) and >being insulted by Ozmas' statement about "the army of children" overrunning >Oz. I didn't think it was fair that Betsy Bobbin gets to stay in Oz, and I >don't even get to visit. Hear! Hear! Dave: >I know that no matter what I do, I can't please everyone, so I will continue >running the Digest as I have and let people stay or leave as they wish... Absolutely. In numerous other organizations to which I belong and have belonged, the guiding principle (to which I emphatically subscribe) is, "The person who does all the work gets to make all the rules." If the rules become too onerous the organization may disappear, but I don't think there's any danger of that in the case of the Digest. 1/19: Robin: Nothing really new with our mothers at the moment. Marcia is going back to CA this coming weekend to see her mother, and I'll be going to TN the middle of next week to see my mother, take care of some business for her, and most importantly to see my daughter, who'll be there to visit both of her grandmothers (though mostly her maternal grandmother, since one can't really "visit with" my mother any more). Thanks for asking. Jeremy: In the FF at least, the Barrier of Invisibility wasn't there by the only time the Nomes burrowed under the desert. John K.: Speaking as one who reads to children as part of volunteering at a local elementary school, the ECP books work much better in terms of a length that one can get through in some reasonable time. I read to each individual kid 15 minutes a week. A FF book couldn't be finished in an entire school year - I couldn't quite finish _Glass Cat_ last year, reading 15 minutes a week to one little girl who liked it, and it's no more than 3/4 the length of most of the FF. Kids who are lucky enough to have parents who'll read to them every night for 15-20 minutes, or who are good readers themselves, will do great with the FF, but those whose parents are too busy for that amount of commitment, and who aren't up to reading whole books themselves, would find the books from ECP a much more comfortable length. Bear: Harlan Ellison is a - well, I don't think I care to use any of the words that come to mind on the Ozzy Digest. Oddly enough, he's an Oz fan, but at least we haven't had to put up with him at any Oz convention I've attended... As Dave remarked, Eratosthenes was the Greek (from Alexandria, IIRC) who calculated the diameter of the Earth from shadows. (Syene happens to lie exactly on the Tropic of Cancer, so that at noon on Midsummer's Day the sun illuminates the whole interior of a deep well.) He came quite close; I think he was off by less than a percent, which given the measuring instruments of the day was excellent. Have you actually looked at what the Ehrlichs said, as opposed to what some of the right-wing media have said they said? Population _has_ exploded in the last 3 decades; my recollection is that their estimates of how much it would increase in that time was roughly correct. Their estimates of the _effects_ of the population increase were exaggerated - generally speaking, any extrapolation into the future of the effects of a given action are highly exaggerated in the direction the extrapolater wants to emphasize. After all, I can remember Republican economists warning that the 1993 tax increases were going to put the economy into the tank, and that the increase in the minimum wage last year was going to hike unemployment by a couple of percent, and that the restrictions on sulfur emissions to combat acid rain were going to coast $15,000 a ton, and put the economy into the tank again (in fact, it cost $150 a ton,, and the economy didn't notice it), and none of these actually happened. It works the same way in either direction; there's a good deal of negative feedback for any action, so that whatever is done is never either as bad or as good as those who oppose or advocate the action predict. Tyler: But Isa Poso isn't in Oz! I expect any kid who managed to get to Oz could settle in Isa Poso as far as Ozma's concerned. (Chin Chilly might have other ideas, of course.) Nathan: Welcome back! Hmm...I coulda sworn that MGR opened in Oz, but you're right, it didn't. I is covered with rue! Raks can eat a dragon for breakfast and have room for some mince pie. I know, because the Glass Cat says so in the October 1997 issue of the _Emerald City Mirror_. Bill Wright: Different people have different estimates of the size of Oz. I, for instance, make it about 1/3 bigger (linearly) than Dave does, so multiply his distances by 4/3 to get my estimates. The books don't seem to be completely consistent on the subject; Oz seems much smaller in _Ozma_ and _Road_ than in _Wizard_ or _Patchwork Girl_, for instance. But since it's easier to say that the author may have left out a day's uneventful travel here or there than that somehow it took a party three days to go 20 miles, even though there were no obstacles, I tend to accept those books that indicate the largest dimensions. Dave: Since you have a Wintel machine I can't be too helpful, but from what I've read you can get a tape backup drive quite cheaply (circa $150) that will easily hold the full contents of any reasonable hard drive on a cheap cassette. If all you want is protection against the need to reformat (or replace) your hard drive then I think that's the way to go. I use Zip drives myself for data backup on my Mac and my PC, but those are really mainly useful for data backup, not program backup. (They're a lot faster than tape, but if you can do your backup while you sleep that's no big deal.) Zip disks are fairly expensive ($15 or more a pop) and it takes quite a few, at 100 Meg each, to back up most modern hard drives. (I don't know about you, but I have a 3.2 Gig drive, even though it's not nearly filled.) David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 20:55:08 -0600 From: "R. M. Atticus Gannaway" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 TYLER: >Non-Ozzy Observation: >Went to see "The Postman" on Saturday, since rumor had it that the girl I >had a crush on in High School had a bit part in it. Did not see her on >screen or in credits, although I also heard that may scenes filmed in >Tucson had been cut. Also, it was not that good, a drier version of >"Waterworld" with too much melodrama. i laughed through that entire "postman" trailer ("there was a time when getting a letter meant something!"). it looked so incredibly hokey that i wondered how costner could possibly have expected it to do well. hmmm, hope its low box-office receipts don't prompt him to do something drastic. you know what can happen with those disgruntled postal workers... DAVE HARDENBROOK: >One other question I have that Jeremy's problem reminded me to ask... >I use a "Dial-Up Networking" to access the Internet from Windows 95, and >every so often, when I log off of the 'Net the entire system freezes -- >*Nothing* responds, not even the "three-finger salute" (CTRL-ALT-DEL)!!! >I have to turn off the computer and on again to recover. Has anyone >else experienced this and know how to deal with it? Is it a bug in >the OS that might be repaired in Windows 98? this happens to me, but i'm the last person who'd be able to explain it. back to my new manuscript, atticus * * * "The crash of the whole solar and stellar systems could only kill you once." Visit my webpage at http://members.aol.com/atty993 ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 22:13:26 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Jeremy: There are two Oz-as-History explanations that sound reasonable regarding the varying strength of the Barrier of Invisibility. 1. Over time, Glinda tinkered with the spell. At times, it was just intended to make Oz hidden, although people could still get there. At other times, Oz needed to be protected, so that it became a true barrier. 2. Different materials act as conductors of magical energy, some better than others. Due to the configurations of the continent, bodies of water, etc. the spell was stronger in some areas than others. Dave: I also got the story of the stick and the well from Cosmos. He came pretty close, too. Dave and Jeremy: WIndows 95 is not known for doing a good job in cleaning up memory. Often, processes stick around and memory is used up by things you thought had been closed. Eventually, enough memroy gets eaten up, or possibly a process intrudes onto system memory. When that happens, interrupts get hung and your whole computer freezes. Hopefully, WIndows 98 will fix this. Also, Dave, I'd go with a zip drive. It's a little faster than a tape drive, it's easier to access the files, and the tapes are cheaper than CD's (I think). Besides, many CD's out there are not the highest level of quality. At our office, we have about a 20% failure rate for writing CD's by using crummy-grade CD's. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 19 Jan 1998 23:00:29 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Oz openings, Oz closed off Sender: "J. L. Bell" Bob Spark wrote: <> It took me decades to figure out why some artwork in my DOROTHY & THE WIZARD was so different from others, so I was glad to share the examples. Another interesting picture is opposite page 1 of the "white cover": Dorothy with her suitcase. That's adapted from a color print in the original, in which she's poking a sleeping Zeb with her umbrella. The lettering on her suitcase is new, and it's thoroughly Dick Martin. About Ozma's fear of children overrunning Oz, Bear wrote: <> I suspect most people read Ozma's policy as about immigration, not population control. And studying that connection makes more sense than asking Paul and Anne Ehrlich what they read fifty years ago. After all, Baum wrote TIK-TOK during the period that US policy, under pressure from California (his new home), limited Chinese (1882-) and Japanese (1907-) immigrants and forbade almost all of them from becoming citizens. This is the second time in as many Oz-book readings, Bear, that you've plucked out a passage, posited that it's the source of a postwar idea you dislike, and then took the opportunity to call the idea "manure" or "nutty." About the 1913 musical THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ, Nathan DeHoff wrote: <> And Dave Hulan wrote: <> If Ozma appeared in THE WOGGLE-BUG, Baum's adaptation of LAND, he sold the stage rights to her before TIK-TOK MAN. I don't see Ozma or Ozga mentioned in the only two sources I have on TIK-TOK MAN: the poster reproduced in ANNOTATED WIZARD and the items pictured in OZ SCRAPBOOK. But maybe she's a minor character who doesn't go on the adventure to the Nomes. One of those items is a cover of sheet music from the musical. The song titles it lists: * "Ask the Flowers to Tell You" [Since this line appears in the book, I assume Files sang it to his stage fairy love, Polychrome.] * "The Magnet of Love" * "When In Trouble Come to Papa" [an oddity--TIK-TOK the book has nothing but absent fathers: Ann's lights out for the territory, the other Oogabooans march away, the Rainbow leaves Polychrome behind.] * "The Waltz Scream" * "Dear Old Hank" * "So Do I" * "The Clockwork Man" * "Oh My Bow" [probably based on the beau/bow pun] In addition, according to the poster in ANNOTATED WIZARD, Tik-Tok, Betsy, Poly, and Shaggy performed "Isn't Folly Jolly," and there was a ballet interlude for a wood-nymph and a satyr in Ruggedo's Metal Forest. Since Ann was played by Charlotte Greenwood (later Aunt Eller in the movie OKLAHOMA!), there should have been a comic dance number using her. I bet that's not a complete list, though. Musicals of the time used to shuffle songs and comic interludes in and out depending on the available talent and the audience responses. Numbers didn't need to be tightly tied to either character or plot--talk about your IE's! About Betsy Bobbin, Dave Hulan wrote: <> And Ruth Berman wrote: <> It's true Baum says little about Betsy's clothing, just as he says little about other details around her. Since he does make a point of Button-Bright's velvet, I guess he didn't want to portray Betsy as much different from the norm. My suggestion that Betsy came from a rich household derives from two details Baum didn't make a point of: (1) her travel (though it's not clear what class of ship she's on--it's carrying a bony mule, after all); (2) her knowledge that servants were supposed to announce guests--which in turn implies a household staff larger than a cook in the kitchen. But, as Dave points out, that doesn't necessarily mean the highest strata of society. And, as Ruth points out, that doesn't mean Betsy was on the receiving end of the servants' attention--the notion that she was somebody's maid or paid companion has a certain Gothic intrigue. The main attraction of the rich-Betsy theory to me is, frankly, that it would make *one* interesting difference between Betsy and Dorothy. Dave, I'd assumed from the opening of GLASS CAT that Betsy was a more prominent character in your book, but obviously I'll have to read farther. I, too, dislike Betsy's passivity throughout HUNGRY TIGER, and especially how she cowers during Reddy's final battle. Dorothy would never have sat by! (At least Baum's Dorothy.) One of the ideas in the back of my hard drive is a story for Betsy in which she wrestles with her jealousy of Dorothy for having all the good adventures, all the while realizing that she really likes Dorothy and that she doesn't want to brave those sorts of tribulations. Speaking of Oz-book openings, Dave Hulan wrote: <> I wasn't addressing whether TIK-TOK started with the inside-Oz or the outside-Oz plot, but with how long the book takes to bring on a child with whom readers can identify. In every previous Oz book but one that child appears in the first chapter; in the one exception, EMERALD CITY, the second chapter starts, "Dorothy Gale..." Baum stuck to that pattern--even in MAGIC, Kiki (a child *antagonist*) appears in the first chapter. The long wait for Betsy in TIK-TOK foreshadows how little she affects the main plot. (One could argue that, like Kiki, Ann Soforth is a youngish and childish person with whom readers might feel a pang of empathy--but it's quickly clear that she's older, she's on the wrong side of the Ozian law, and we should root against her.) Thompson seems to have started most of her books with either (a) poor child from the Ozian provinces, (b) familiar celebrity in the Emerald City, or (c) villain. We readers instinctively root for (a) and (b) and against (c), so her openings still grab us. PIRATES has several chapters of Ruggedo and Samuel Salt before Peter Brown climbs aboard, almost as an afterthought. [Without looking, how many of us can remember how he got to the Nonestic that time?] Does GLASS CAT fit Thompson opening (b) above: Emerald City celebrity leaves on adventure? Dave Hulan also summarized one alternative Oz chronology: <> That would mean that between 1913 and 1916, Baum wrote two full-length Oz books (PATCHWORK GIRL and SCARECROW), adapted old work into two more (TIK-TOK and RINKITINK), and drafted yet another two into a form he saw as finished enough to set aside for after his death (MAGIC and GLINDA). All while also presiding over a movie studio, writing a steady series of pseudonymous books, doing the Uplifters' shows, and dealing with gall bladder attacks. He certainly went through productive periods before, but that output's hard for me to believe without documentary evidence. But I don't mean to reopen an old discussion. Appropriately, I close with a note on closings: TIK-TOK is the second straight Oz book in which a character "reforms" at the end, only to return in later books to the more interesting, less likable personality. In PATCHWORK GIRL, the Glass Cat lost its pink brains; in TIK-TOK Ruggedo's accepts his fate. Thank goodness their sticky goodness doesn't last. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 11:09:14 +0100 From: Bill Wright Subject: Oz Digest Jeremy, regarding the explorer gpf, Sounds like a dll problem or configuration problem. I would suggest you try reloading the latest version of Explorer. I presume you are running Win95. Download Explorer 4.0 from microsoft and install it. Bill in Ozlo ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 11:16:11 +0100 From: Bill Wright Subject: Oz Digest Dave, thanks for the feedback on they YBR. On your backup question, how much data do you need to backup? Do you separate your program space from your data space? Bill in Ozlo ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 10:04:40 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest J.L. Bell: You had guessed from the absence of Ozga in the "Tik-Tok" play cast that Baum invented the character for the book "Tik-Tok." No, only the name. The character of the exiled Rose Princess is in the play, but there named Ozma (as Nathan DeHoff suggested -- must have been confusing for audience members who'd read Baum's books, but that's how he did it). Craig Noble: Rand, McNally had automatic permission from Reilly & Lee to reprint any of their books, because at that time R McN had bought R&L, which ceased to exist as an independent outfit. (R McN, in turn, was later bought by the Regnery Co., but I don't know if they brought out any Oz editions, offhand.) Mark Anthony Donajkowski: The "Tik-Tok" play wasn't published, but the "Bugle" has printed a couple of songs from it, and a couple of detailed articles on it by Dan Mannix. Presumably someone has a copy of the script, as Marc Lewis and John Frick and Robin Olderman headed an Ozmapolitan-convention-production of it one year. David Hulan: Places where Betsy could have ridden a subway -- if whatever got her on a sea-voyage in the first place was a round-the- world journey, she could have perhaps been on the London Underground or Paris Metro? Dave Hardenbrook: Interesting Hill use of Oz-movie quotation. I ran across some Oz-movie referencing in recent reading, too -- Margaret Wander Bonanno's sf novel "Preternatural." This is basically a "Star Trek" parody (I wonder what William Shatner did to make her despise him so -- or maybe it was just that she needed a colorful antagonist for that role in the plot) combined with a "first contact" story, but the main character is a writer apparently very much like herself who likes to describe her imagination as opening onto "Oz and Toontown," and who at some points describes the novel's mosaic structure as like the scattered Scarecrow ("That's you all over"); she and various other characters run numerous changes on the "lions and tigers and bears -- oh my" line. It's a funny novel that runs on too long but would probably interest those of you who also enjoy "Star Trek." Robin Olderman: I thought you probably meant Imogene, but saying that the Cowardly Lion influenced the portrayal of Hank was probably true, too, since the Lion was a popular character in the play, too. (And Fred Woodward, who played Hank in "Tik-Tok" and similar animal roles in the Oz Company movies Baum produced, had also played both the Lion and Imogene in "Wizard" companies.) Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 12:04:43 -0500 From: Richard Randolph Subject: Ozzy Digest 1-18/19-98 Bear: I have a post-1935 Tik-Tok (no color plates) and it has the print problem you mentioned, plus, on page 22, second paragraph, line 2 the word "said" and, line 3 the word "But" show the same damage, as does the word "Somewhere" on the top line of page 43. Your comment regarding the difference between the Long-Eared Hearer's 9,306 miles through the tube and the 8,000 mile diameter of the Earth assumes Baumgea is on our planet? Dick ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 98 11:32:28 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things THE TUBE: Gordon Birrell wrote: >Speaking of the Tube: has it struck anyone else that this device apparently >runs diametrically through the earth, but people who fall through it don't >go into free-fall but slide along its inside surface? This would make the >Tube . . . what? A secant? (It's been a long time since I had solid >geometry.) For the sake of arguement, I think either "secant" or "chord" could be used to describe the tube. BTW, the Tube is mentioned by Martin Gardner in _The Annotated Alice_ in his note about Alice speculating on whether she will fall *through* the Earth. He describes it as "an effective plot gimmick". BOOK LENGTHS: David Hulan wrote: >Speaking as one who reads to children as part of volunteering at a local >elementary school, the ECP books work much better in terms of a length that >one can get through in some reasonable time. I read to each individual kid >15 minutes a week. A FF book couldn't be finished in an entire school >year... DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, PETER!!!!! :) :) :) Seriously, times (or *something*) have obviously changed -- When I was in fourth and fifth grade our teacher read to us *every day* for about half an hour. We got through several books each year, including _The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe_ (where I got into an argument with the teacher about the pronounciation of "Aslan"), at least three of _The Great Brain_ series (a fav. with the kids), _The Enourmous Egg_ (about a _Triceratops_ born in the 20th century), and _Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing_ (one of Judy Blume's few books aimed at pre-teen males). We were also read to in sixth grade by Ms. Reed (that name should ring a bell to anyone who's read _Locasta and the Three Adepts of Oz!), but her ideas of what were suitable for kids our age included _The Great Gatsby_, _The Lottery Rose_, and _A Day No Pigs Would Die_. But at least she *was* reading to us... But even nowadays I've seen many children's books of lengths comparable to the FF... Jellia: BTW, how *is* "Aslan" pronounced?? Dave insists it's "AZ-lin", even though elsewhere we've heard it pronounced like a donkey plus an acronym for a Local Area Network... FRED WOODWARD: Ruth wrote: >(And Fred Woodward, who played Hank in "Tik-Tok" and similar animal roles >in the Oz Company movies Baum produced, had also played both the >Lion and Imogene in "Wizard" companies.) Jellia: Fred Woodward? Isn't he the guy who uncovered Watergate with that other bloke, Leonard Bernstein?? Dave: Very funny, Jellia... WEB RING: I got a message the other day that David Levitan is adding a search engine to the Oz Web Ring, but because of that, we all who are on the Ring have to reduce the descriptions of our web pages to ten words or less, and I don't know how I'm going to do that! Jellia: Yeah...That kind of condensation is amost impossible! Take that news story in the _Ozmapolitan_ the other day about how the Dinosaurs' Union in Ix have gone on strike and refuse to pull wagons, chariots, or any other of Ix's public transport systems, and how Zixi offered to strike a settlement that the Union rejected, and how Ix may not have any public transport for weeks? How could anyone have written that in ten words or less?? Unc Nunkie: Zixi talks. Union balks. Public walks. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 21, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 17:57:34 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 Tik-Tok Play: It's been too long--13 years--and I don't remember it all, esp. since I played all the female roles in one of the productions...they all run together. I think it was Files and Ozga (Fricke and me, anyway) who sang "Ask the Flowers to Tell You." And I think it was Ann who danced "Waltz Scream" with Shaggy (Rob-Roy). We ended up on our b*tts by the end of that one, then sprawled out on the floor! I do not recall anything at all about a Hollow Tube in the play. I don't recall that Quox or Tititihoochoo were in it, either. Marc may well have missed or cut out a bunch of stuff. He had pieced together quite a lot of it, though. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 18:43:34 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 >Jellia: BTW, how *is* "Aslan" pronounced?? Dave insists it's "AZ-lin", > even though elsewhere we've heard it pronounced like a donkey > plus an acronym for a Local Area Network... Hmmm.... I've always pronounced it like "as" plus "LAN", and I don't remember being surprised by either the American or the British TV versions, so that's probably how they pronounced it. Actually, it's probably meant to be pronounced the same as the equivalently- spelled word in classical (e.g., Ferdowsi's) Persian, but I don't know how accurately Lewis pronounced that; scholars of his generation often made a dreadful hash of pronouncing dead languages. There are really too many possibilities -- either "a" could be pronounced in any of three ways, the "s" could really be a "z", the accent could be on either syllable, and in some languages, there could be a clear distinction in pronunciation between "As-lan" and "A-slan". // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 16:23:12 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 > Jellia: BTW, how *is* "Aslan" pronounced?? Dave insists > it's "AZ-lin", even though elsewhere we've heard it > pronounced like a donkey plus an acronym for a Local Area > Network... > > In the excellent adaptation shown in "WonderWorks" on PBS (which I have on tape, watch occasionally and recommend) the second pronunciation is used. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 21:24:22 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Gordon: The Hollow Tube would be a chord, actually, a line segment that touches two points of a circle/sphere but does not go through the center. Dave: I've always prnounced it AZ-LAN, so there are at least three versions out there. I remember "The Great Brain" well. I always wanted J.D. to win a bet with T.D. but it never happened. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 21:54:23 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Ozma and the tube Sender: "J. L. Bell" Thanks to Ruth Berman for confirming that a Rose Princess named Ozma appears in TIK-TOK MAN. My apologies to Nathan DeHoff for doubting a more recent winner of the Munchkin quiz. I still wonder how prominent Ozma is in the play, and whether an Ozma appears in THE WOGGLE-BUG. Robin Olderman, if you indeed performed a version of TTM at Yosemite one year, do you remember the script? Gordon Birrell wrote: <> Dave Hardenbrook has mentioned Martin Gardner's allusion to this Tube in ANNOTATED ALICE. His note points us to a couple of precedents for Baum's Tube. Most directly, there are Alice's ruminations: "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think . . . I wonder if I shall fall right *through* the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think--" This passage could also have been Baum's inspiration for the Duchess Bredenbutta's plunge into Turvyland in MO. I like your suggestion that he was also inspired by the American notion of digging one's way to China. Gardner reports that Plutarch, Bacon, and Voltaire all speculated on what would happen if one fell through the earth. Galileo "gave the correct answer," he writes (though we can ask how Gardner knows for sure): Tik-Tok should fall faster and faster until he passes the center, then slower and slower until he stops at (in a frictionless world) or near (in the world with air) the other opening, and then he would fall back the way he came. He would end up either oscillating endlessly from one end of the earth to the other or hovering in the middle. This is, of course, quite different from shooting out and hitting a star or fairy king. As for a tunnel built as a chord, Lewis Carroll wrote in SYLVIE AND BRUNO (1889) of a train that ran on a perfectly straight tube through a section of the earth. It was to be pulled down by gravity for the first half of every journey, then (in a frictionless world) carried up by momentum. Gardner reports that the time it would take any such train to run and the time it would take to fall straight through the middle of the earth is exactly the same. The number of minutes required for either journey: 42. Gordon Birrell also wrote: <> I read this as meaning, "If I had the choice between Quox's presence and the breathing room I would gain by his absence, I would quickly choose the latter." And Gordon Birrell wrote: <> I woulda been wid ya, Joyce! (Much imperialism, especially the Teddy Roosevelt variety at play when Baum wrote OZMA, was as well motivated as Ozma was when she thrust herself into the Ev/Nome relationship. We can distinguish between that and the type exemplified in CAPTAIN SALT.) Dave Hulan wrote: <> Thanks for this intelligence, Dave. That explains the qualitative difference between these plates and the magnificent artwork in EMERALD CITY. In recent digests I described how the "white cover" edition of DOROTHY & THE WIZARD included redrawn color plates, with pages renumbered to accommodate them. It's a shame that Reilly & Lee didn't insert the artwork Neill had already created in black-and-white for TIK-TOK and later books into the corresponding "white cover" editions. I have to assume that the company was more willing to spend money on D&W. It's a relatively weak book, but it has a bankable title. Dick Randolph wrote to Bear: <> I made the original comment, and indeed I start from the assumption that the land mass where Betsy and the Shaggy Man's brother end up is on the same planet as Oklahoma and Colorado. I'd need to be convinced by textual evidence otherwise. (I haven't gotten used to "Baumgea," either.) My own explanation for the Long-Eared Hearer's measurement is that he's hearing the conversation echoing off various surfaces, and that the distance the sound had to travel to his ears totals 9,306 miles. Hence his warning that his estimate is "as nearly as I can judge by the sound of their voices" (pp. 151-2). J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 22:11:43 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 System freezes: The WWW's lingering legacy . . . My comtinued computer woe saga: I finally got rid of AfterDark entirely which was too bad, as I liked it--when it worked), and am back to the first error messages I used to get--Rundll32 error and Alexa error (the latter due to a program I have installed--it's irrelevant. The Rundll error, though, as well as the Windows Explorer error--both illegal operation errors--persist. Rather than clog up the Digest, please e-mail me directly with suggestions, as I am open to any and all). Onto Ozzier matters-- Tubes through the earth: Assuming the tube is perpendicular to the earth's axis (which is a big presumption, but if we were to say so--) the tube would hit the magma core to begin with, then get to the other side secant (I had to say that). LFB may have had a poor sense of geography (which I doubt), but I personally think this is added evidence that Oz is not on our world, or perhaps even a close but parallel one. Just for my two cents . . . . <> Yes, but just because the aroma has salt and pepper does not mean it has pepper and the salt associated with it, I wouldn't think--but then again, neither science nor the culinary arts are my forte. <> Which is just what I get for having read the books out of order as a child . . . <> Yes, but Win98 has mostly stuff I don't need and includes Internet Explorer, which I don't want--unless they REALLY fix it up . . . A Winner (or Whiner) Anyway, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "SUBDUED--n., the guy who works on the Nautilus." ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 06:40:40 +0200 (IST) From: Tzvi Harris Subject: Ozzy Digest Dave: I can only tell you about the Zip drive. I bought mine about a year ago, out of fear of a disk crash. I run a small business off my computer, and each file of mine includes graphics and runs a few mega. I love the Zip drive. It's reliable, portable, and the diskettes are only slightly larger than the standard diskettes. It's convenient to be able to fit so much data on one diskette without zipping zapping (or whatever) the data. It has one drawback, and that is speed. It is much faster than a tape drive, but still slow. If your only use for it is backup, it might be a good choice. If you're looking to fill other functions, it might be slow for you. Tzvi Harris Talmon Israel ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 20 Jan 1998 22:50:13 -0800 From: Ken Cope Subject: Spin Doctors of Oz In view of the fact that I sent this, along with another paragraph that I did not want published, to Dave last week, I'm trying to figure out what I said that would be considered unfair criticism, or that would warrant Dave's pre-emptive post on a subject that I hadn't planned to bring up to the list at large yet. Minus the first paragraph, here is what I sent to Dave privately. ************************* I'm on 3 other mailing lists, and I am seriously suggesting that we are nearing the time when it will be easier on you and better for the list in general, if it is re-organized as an automatic listserve. On the three animation and CG-character animation lists to which I subscribe, subject headings and threading are mandatory. If I don't want to hear about motion-capture technology, I ignore that thread. If I want to follow a discussion, I follow the thread without having to wade through a digest, or wait for a digest to arrive. I can toggle between Digest mode if I want to or not, and I use mail filters to send list postings to their appropriate mail folder. That way, the topic takes as much time as it needs, in its corner, and if people get obnoxious, it's far easier to tune them out. If you post something, and nobody responds to it, well, there you are. If people are excited about a topic, 50 or 60 posts can fill a thread and run its course within hours, preserving context. It runs itself, and if the post doesn't show up, it's because the server is down, not because you haven't paid your Delphi bill or because you've got too many things to juggle, understandably enough. I've grown used to your not responding to my posts, but when Primenet confuses YOU with a spammer, it is time to do what it takes to get past the spambots, i.e. get the proper credentials. It will be not only better and simpler for you, but also for those who subscribe to the Digest. I have not run a list server, but I do know two other people who do, and of course it can be done readily enough. I'll bring this up on the Digest at a later time, after I've done some more research, and especially as we near the next opportunity to vote on an Oz newsgroup. *********************** For that I've an offer to like it or lump it? *********************** I don't have any problem with the Ozzy Digest as it is. My suggestions were efforts to make Dave's job easier, by making it automatic, to allow for people to toggle Digest mode on or off, and to state a yearning for the utility of topic threading that I find so handy for organizing my bulging mail folder. Later that day I read a post from the keeper of the Animate list about a rumoured de-digestifier for people who prefer to receive list traffic in Digest mode, but read it as threaded conversation. We all know that Usenet is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but if they gave an Oz newsgroup and you didn't come, it would have to go on with you or without you. The last vote for a newsgroup didn't pass, not because anybody who cared about Oz was opposed to it getting a group, but because there are a lot of ubergeeks who routinely offer no votes to new groups just to make it harder for less than a certain number of people to add anything to Usenet that they didn't start. The difference last time was maybe 30 votes. I fail to see what an Oz newsgroup would take away from the Ozzy Digest, either. I want my Ozzy Digest, I just lose my patience from time to time having to scroll through each poster responding to 5 or 6 topics I find difficult to track down from the previous Digest, and the next poster responding to a different 5 or 6. And sometimes, I just lose my patience, at which time you'd be able to notice from the subject heading and just move on. And I of course was not telling Dave what to do or not. I was offering my impression of what I like about other lists to which I subscribe. As I said, I had not learned whether my ideas were easy to implement or not, and told him I was not even going to bring this up to the group until I knew more. I was a bit surprised by the public characterization of my private proposals, unless Dave was responding to somebody else who was actually criticizing the Digest. If anybody needs tutoring on how to use mail filters, send me private e-mail. I haven't seen spam in my inbox in months, not that I don't receive more than you do. --Ken Cope Ozcot Studios pinhead@ozcot.com-- ************************************************ >From Red Riding Hood, the PC version: The wolf said, "You know, my dear, it isn't safe for a little girl to walk through these woods alone." Red Riding Hood replied, "I find your sexist remark offensive in the extreme, but I will ignore it because of your traditional status as an outcast from society." ************************************************ ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 03:03:04 -0500 (EST) From: Nimoy Fan Subject: DVD vs.LD Am thinking of getting MGM "Wizard" on DVD, is it really better than on Lazerdisd? I will need to, anyway someday, so the LD dosen't have to flip sides, much as I love the Wizard! Thanks, Malcolm Barker (Digest Primenet refugee) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 09:51:44 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Some further thoughts about how Baum got from Ozma to Ozga. Obviously, starting from "Ozma of Oz," when he began the "Tik-Tok" musical, he had a Princess Ozma who was both the ruler of Oz and the head of a comic army trying to conquer the Nome King. Somewhere in there, he decided the head of a comic army had better be a comic character herself, and as such was not the same person as the ruler of Oz. At that point he probably made her the queen of Oogaboo, but may have gone on calling her Ozma. In the process of making her a comic character, he wound up with something close to the standard stage Dame, the old or middle-aged woman played by a man in English pantomimes, or by the contralto in Gilbert&Sullivan. (When he got round to making the play into the book "Tik-Tok," Queen Ann got younger and prettier, but the stage Ann, as far as I can make out from copies of photos I've seen, was older, more of a Dame type.) Then two things happened, probably together. One was that he remembered that he needed a romantic couple (it's a musical, after all), and although the boy could well be the army's Private, the girl could not be a middle-aged comic. The girl couldn't be Betsy/Dorothy, either, who was too young. (Polychrome might have done, if he had her in the plot-line by then, but she would have had to be someone very different from her Oz-book version to do something as earthy as falling in love, even the extremely-chaste-falling-in-love of Young Lovers in musical comedies, so he would still have been stuck making more changes.) The other was that he wanted an excuse to get in a chorus of flowers, to try to repeat the stage-success of the Sunflower scene from the stage "Wizard." So the Queen of Oogaboo got split into two characters, one the Dame-like Queen now re-named Ann, and the other a Princess Ozma who was now to be an exiled Rose Princess. And he went on calling her Ozma, thinking that since obviously stage-musical- adaptations never assumed that anyone had read the original book, it didn't much matter if she was an entirely different character who happened to have the same name. When he got back to making an Oz book of the play, of course, he assumed that the readers would have read (or would read) other Oz books, and Ozma the exiled Rose Princess became Ozga. Gordon Birrell: Interesting comments on the Jinjin's invalid basis for making his judgments. You're maybe over-emphasizing the degree to which Ruggedo is protecting what is "rightfully" his. The question of whether Nomes "rightfully" own all the underground mineral wealth, or whether surface dwellers who uncover some of it can "rightfully" take it away is the issue that goes back to the earliest account of Gnome/Human relations (Paracelsus, 16th century). And Ruggedo had captured Shaggy's Brother in the first place because he objected to Brother's mining activities. Apparently the Jinjin is to some extent claiming that Ruggedo really doesn't have any right to say, "All mines are mine." But the narrative as a whole clearly implies there's something unjust about Ann's plan of conquering the world in general and Ruggedo in particular. I'm not sure if the famously just Jinjin's failure to object to Ann simply represents narrative inconsistency, or if Baum intended readers to suspect that the Jinjin wasn't as totally reliable a judge as he and his people thought he was. Preferring someone's room to his company -- yes, that's a way of saying, "I have better uses for that space than having you around in it." An already existing idiom for being politely rude, I think, although I don't offhand recall other examples. I think the Hollow Tube and Quox and all the other-side-of-the-world material were added to the book, and were not in the play. J.L. Bell: You might want to get in touch with me privately about getting copies of additional material dealing with the "Tik-Tok" play. I don't have a script, but do have the "Bugle" articles by Dan Mannix and copies of some contemporary reviews. The reviews do refer to a character in the play named "Ozma" who is an exiled Rose Princess. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 17:00:06 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 Jeremy: >About the same way Oklahoma City is in OK. Bad example, but you get >the idea... Most obvious case is probably New York, New York. That's a state and not a country, though. There aren't many countries that contain a city with that same name, other than a few countries (e.g. Singapore, Vatican City) that aren't anything _but_ cities. Mexico is the only one that comes to mind offhand. >Dave: >So Aristophanes had some use for two sticks-in-the-mud? >Interesting... No, Eratosthenes. Gordon: We had a discussion about the Tube back a year or so ago, and concluded that it probably didn't go through the center of the Earth (or the world Oz is on, if that's not the same). In fact, it more nearly resembles a tunnel from somewhere in the US to somewhere in China. It also clearly had a magical acceleration force somehow; those who fall through it not only overcome friction, but pick up enough extra kinetic energy to rise up in the air some distance at the exit end. Hiergargo evidently picked up enough to reach escape velocity, or thereabouts, since he hit a star. It appears that while the accelerating force works in both directions, it's stronger in the Evward direction; Ann and company seem to have risen only a few feet above ground level when they exited in Tubekins' garden, but Quox flew high enough to pass over the Nome army and land on a mountaintop some distance away, and that was also the direction Hiergargo was going when he hit the star. (Possibly the amount of additional momentum the magic can add is fixed, so the great mass of Quox didn't gain as much increased velocity as Hiergargo's much lesser mass?) >On p. 141 there is a bit of dialogue that puzzles me. Tubekins says, "Quox >tires me dreadfully, and I prefer his room to his company." Is this a joke? >Is Tubekins saying that he likes the huge amount of space that Quox occupies >but not Quox himself? To "prefer someone's room to his company" is an expression I've run across fairly often in British books, though less so in American; it means to prefer his absence to his presence. J.L.: A planned party for Betsy is what gets _Glass Cat_ started, and the last chapter comprises the party, and is told from Betsy's POV, but she doesn't appear in the rest of the book; Trot, Button-Bright, and Cap'n Bill are the main familiar Oz mortals in it. (You mean you started reading _Glass Cat_ and didn't finish it? *Sniffle*.) > PIRATES has several chapters of Ruggedo >and Samuel Salt before Peter Brown climbs aboard, almost as an >afterthought. [Without looking, how many of us can remember how he got to >the Nonestic that time?] He fell (or was washed) overboard from a friend's yacht off Cape Hatteras, and swam to Octagon Island. (The most convincing evidence I know of that Oz isn't physically located on our Earth is this, combined with the fact that Dorothy drifted in less than 24 hours from somewhere in the Pacific to the coast of Ev.) > Does GLASS CAT fit Thompson opening (b) above: Emerald City celebrity >leaves on adventure? Yes, more or less. Ruth: >David Hulan: Places where Betsy could have ridden a subway -- if >whatever got her on a sea-voyage in the first place was a round-the- >world journey, she could have perhaps been on the London >Underground or Paris Metro? Could be, but those aren't called "subways". In London a "subway" is what we call a pedestrian undercrossing here. Dave: >David Hulan wrote: >>Speaking as one who reads to children as part of volunteering at a local >>elementary school, the ECP books work much better in terms of a length that >>one can get through in some reasonable time. I read to each individual kid >>15 minutes a week. A FF book couldn't be finished in an entire school >>year... > >DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, PETER!!!!! :) :) :) I'd be the last to oppose ECP publishing longer books - I was just giving a reason why some people like the shorter Oz books. Certainly if a teacher is reading to a class every day (and the teacher I mostly work with is in fact doing just that) he can get through a lot of books in the course of a school year. But in my particular situation I read to individual kids 15 minutes a week, and in that length of time I can't get through a whole FF-length book in a school year. I'm not a teacher reading to a class, remember. >Jellia: BTW, how *is* "Aslan" pronounced?? Dave insists it's "AZ-lin", > even though elsewhere we've heard it pronounced like a donkey > plus an acronym for a Local Area Network... I don't know if Lewis himself ever prescribed a pronunciation; most people in the Mythopoeic Society pronounced it "OZ-lon" back when I was active in that group. Ruth? I think you're still active in it, aren't you? David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 13:24:42 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 Mark: _Dorothy Meets Ozma of Oz_ was a 1987 animated video. It is no longer available , and the company appears to be out of business, as I was unable to contact them by mail. _The Tik-Tok Man of Oz_ was a 1914 stage muscial. I don't know if the script has ever been made available. David: I thought the Rose Princess in the play was named "Ozma," which he had to change for obvious reasons. Yesterday, I saw Quentin Tarantino's _Reservoir Dogs_ (in widescreen, natch). In the scene where Vic Vega (those of you who have scene _Pulp Fiction_ know that Vincent Vega is the name of Travolta's character) aka Mr. Blonde gets in the room with Officer Marvin Nash and cuts his ear off, he goes out, and comes back in with gasoline. He pours it over the guy and opens his lighter. He says "Have a little fire, Scarecrow!" (not quite quoting the MGM film), but then gets shot by Freddy (Mr. Orange), before he can do it. _Mars Attacks!_ by Tim Burton, had the Ambassodor, flip his cape around like MGM's WWW, and had one of them act like a monkey while looking into the crystal ball. Dave: Did all those brief posts I sent make it? Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 14:02:17 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 I've heard several piano renditions of "Golliwog's Cakewalk" and not liked any of them. The only one I own is an electronic arrangement by Isao Tomita, which, as far as I'm concerned is just barely listenable. He unfortuantely insisted on putting snatches of it in his rendition of the CE3K theme. Dave: "Aslan" is the Turkish word for "lion," and based on Turkish pronunciation keys, and the film _Aysecik ve Sihirli Cuceler Ruyalar Ulkesinde_, in which the Cowardly Lion is called "Aslan Korkak," it is pronounced as in the donkey+Local Area Network fashion, which is how it is pronounced in the BBC adaptation of _The Chronicles of Narnia_. I got Dark Side of the Moon from the library, and I have not played it yet. That way it will come across as new when I watch it in synch with the MGM film. I also saw this five minute film called _The Adventures of a Man in Search of a Heart_, an animated film from the American Heart Association. Another film which was confused as to whether it was based on the book or the MGM film. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 14:41:26 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 I must also say that it seems to me, particularly in its inclusion of "new" characters that Semon's 1925 _Wizard of Oz_ (I don't know if I've said this before, but there is no "the" on the title screen) seems heavily influenced by the book or film of _Scarecrow_, though I'm not sure where Snowball comes in. In Full Metal Jacket, the sergeant calls a black private "Snowball," though I doubt it was in reference to this film. According to Dr. Kristine Karnick , who wrote _The Classical American Comedy_, _Wizard of Oz_ was not unusual for the 20s, and knowing this makes it easier to handle the gross (however positive) stereotypes of a film like King Vidor's _Hallelujah!_ My favorite recording of _Carnival of the Animals_ has Leonard Bernstein with young music students (including an early recording from flautist Paula Robison, who has CDs of her own now) playing their best (which is better than the two CDs I have, one from Tring, which has no spirit or recording capabilities, and the other from Yoel Levy, accompanied by rhymes by Peter Schickele, that aren't that appealing. (My favorite Schickele is "Prelude from Einstein on the Fritz," a Philip Glass parody, nopt of _Einstein on the Beach_, but of the better-known _Koyaanisqatsi_. At one point someone starts singing "koy-hatsi-tatsi") Bernstein also explains how each piece came to be written, what it was a parody of (playing excerpts of the originals), etc. Unfortunately I have never found this on CD, and my parents' record player is broken, and they can't afford to have it fixed because my dad makes almost no money. He keeps forty to spend (allegedly he is not buying more pornos), then gives twenty to me and twenty to my mom each week. After that, there is $37 to pay bills. I spend my entire paycheck on bills, but I don't have a family to support. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 98 17:09:15 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things OZ ON STAGE: Ruth B. wrote: >Polychrome might have done, if he had >her in the plot-line by then, but she would have had to be someone >very different from her Oz-book version to do something as earthy as >falling in love... You mean a fairy falling in love with a mortal is blasphemy even in a stage musical?? Tell that to W.S. Gilbert... STORMING THE CYBER-CASTLE: Jeremy wrote: >Yes, but Win98 has mostly stuff I don't need and includes Internet >Explorer, which I don't want--unless they REALLY fix it up . . . I wish Queen Ann would lead her army to Microsoft Central and overthrow Bill Gates... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 22, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 22:00:36 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-21-98 Aslan, pronunciation of: If I said I ever really thought much about how I was pronouncing it, I'd be lion. Endless falling: Yikes! I'd not want to fall through a tube if I were going to be trapped like that. But if one would do that forever, how is it possible to start such a fate? What I mean is, if that is perpetual motion, shouldn't some law of physics say it is impossible to _start_ oscillating like that? I didn't make any sense there. What I mean is, just as some theories say it is impossible to go back in time and kill your mother (because you would never be born in the first place), how is it that you can start perpetual motion? As according to Einstein's theory, time and space are the same, I think my question is valid--if it makes sense to anyone. In case anyone is suspicious, I'm being serious. Nomes: Do they "own" the whole underground?: Do we own the air that we're polluting, the water we're toxifying, the soil we're making unfertile? No, no ecological lecture here, just points to think about. I think. NY, NY: A far better example. Although the only reason I didn't like Oklahoma City, OK, was because of the bad memories we have of it. Tho some have less-than fond memories of NYC too... Tube--Path of: True, and centrifugal force could have kept travellers on the the non-straight path. Subways: I vastly prefer Blimpie's ... <> Yes, but how is it pronounced in Turkish? <> I heard today that he is not as wealthy as we all think he is because most of the money is caught up in bonds or something like that. For whatever it's worth. (I do know that if I were to buy another computer, I'd really reconsider getting a Windows one, given problems I've had with it lately...) Ozzily but not MicrOzoftly yours, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "SUBDUED--n., the guy who works on the Nautilus." ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 21:47:56 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's and Tomorrow's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Golly J. L. Bell did I disparage another of your icons. Stick around for my comments on Gore. Clinton is beyond comment. John - I thought I remembered Aslan was Persian. Do you know the translation? Is it lion? Ken - FWIW I like the Digest as is. If you all change to another format I will learn what is required to follow. My support of the status quo was not a response to anything you said. Ruth >Preferring someone's room to his company This reminds me of another example, the ancient: "Don't let the door hit you in the rear." Leaving swiftly, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 19:25:31 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-21-98 Re: Tubes through the Earth, is anyone else reminded of "Invicta"? You know: "Out of the dark that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole....." Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 03:26:18 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-21-98 J.L.: > As for a tunnel built as a chord, Lewis Carroll wrote in SYLVIE AND BRUNO >(1889) of a train that ran on a perfectly straight tube through a section >of the earth. It was to be pulled down by gravity for the first half of >every journey, then (in a frictionless world) carried up by momentum. >Gardner reports that the time it would take any such train to run and the >time it would take to fall straight through the middle of the earth is >exactly the same. > The number of minutes required for either journey: 42. Yeah, I remember working that one out as a self-imposed calculus problem back in the '50s. Ruth: Interesting bit on the change in age of Ann. Scott H.: >I must also say that it seems to me, particularly in its inclusion of >"new" characters that Semon's 1925 _Wizard of Oz_ (I don't know if I've >said this before, but there is no "the" on the title screen) seems heavily >influenced by the book or film of _Scarecrow_, though I'm not sure where >Snowball comes in. In Full Metal Jacket, the sergeant calls a black >private "Snowball," though I doubt it was in reference to this film. Back in Bear's Golden Age of the Fifties (and earlier), "Snowball" was a common nickname used by whites for blacks. I remember a song we used to sing that went, "Oh, Mammy, Mammy, tell me,/ About those white folks' chillun,/ Why do they call me Snowball/ When Snowball ain't my name?/ My Daddy calls me Apple-dump (dump dump),/ My Mammy calls me Sugar-lump (lump lump),/ So why do they call me Snowball/ When Snowball ain't my name?" An example of why I think the Nineties are better than the Fifties... Dave: >You mean a fairy falling in love with a mortal is blasphemy even in >a stage musical?? Tell that to W.S. Gilbert... Well, you remember what Gilbert said happened to the fairy who fell in love with a mortal, right? (Not to mention poor Strephon's problems with being half-fairy and half-mortal!) >I wish Queen Ann would lead her army to Microsoft Central and overthrow >Bill Gates... Amen! David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 22:52:01 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: TIK-TOK OF OZ once more into the hole... Sender: "J. L. Bell" Yet another final comment on TIK-TOK: In this book Baum seems to make a big deal about Ozians being different from other humans. Not simply very, very lucky to have been born in Oz, but endowed with powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men. On pp. 32-33, Files explains how he and his fellow Ozians would continue to live after being chewed up by a Rak. This parallels Kaliko's description on page 156 of how a Nome can survive being torn up by a dragon. Nomes are definitely magical creatures, like ryls and fairies, so this hints there's something inherently magical about Ozians as well. On page 107, Baum writes that Ozians "cannot be deceived by such common magic as the Nome King could command," though of course they are fooled before the end of that very paragraph. This ability may derive from Ozians' having witnessed more magic, but again there's a hint that they're somehow special. (Shaggy is not ascribed this power, even though he's traveled around Oz for years.) Alas, Ann doesn't participate in the experimental kissing of Shaggy's brother in Chapter 22, so we don't know whether she should be classified as mortal maid, fairy, or something else. Ruth Berman wrote of Ann Soforth: <> Ann was played by Charlotte Greenwood at the age of 23. Her physiognomy let her (or forced her to) play older than she was through most of her career, but her real age might have been one influence on Baum when he made Ann a huffy teenager instead of a puffy dame. Dave Hulan wrote: <> I'm sorry, Dave! I confess an near-allergic reaction to lack of curly quotation marks in a book. I had to take a breather and come back to the Emerald City Press collection in my local Borders when I have more strength. (Peter G. is right about increased bookstore presence in the past year.) Scott Hutchins wrote: <> Just before WW2, there was a black child actor working in Hollywood under the name "Snowflake." Evidently some people considered this sort of irony the height of hilarity. The best film he appeared in was probably THE BISCUIT EATER, a boy-meets-dog sleeper from 1940. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:04:36 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Chris Straughn: >The Emerald City Architecture essay is great! Thanks.< You are very welcome. Thanks for the compliment. Did it jibe with what you had done already? :-) Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:05:01 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Chris Straughn: >Thanks to everyone who suggested that I get Melody Grandy's palace description. I've been reading it and I've seen many spaces that seem to be spaces for floorplans. Could someone please send me the floor plans or tell me where I can locate them? Thanks! Chris Straughn< I sent some to the Baum Bugle--but they have not published the article yet. The length is the problem. Shall have to get up the time or energy to see exactly how much I did draw for that article. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:04:13 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Robin: >Ingenue: a boring role for any actress to be stuck with. (From Robin O's personal dictionary, based on experience from many years and pounds ago when she'd get stuck with playing ingenues)< ???? You are sooo fortunate. *I* was always stuck playing "the mother," or old maid in school plays. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:05:39 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-20-98 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" J. Bell: >Appropriately, I close with a note on closings: TIK-TOK is the second straight Oz book in which a character "reforms" at the end, only to return in later books to the more interesting, less likable personality.< Mr. Spock, Dr. Who, and Sherlock Holmes are all 'good guys' who are much more interesting than their wicked enemies. Their writers cared enough about them to *make* them interesting. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:07:52 -0500 (EST) From: TWOOZ Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-19-98 QUESTION: I have a 78 (one sided) record. It's a Victor Record. It has a number ingraved on the inner part of the record (from the manufact) and the number is 1657. It's also on the label. It says Sammy (from "Wizard Of Oz") Harry Macdonough. On the back is a label of Victor 10 inch record $1.00 with a date at the bottom of January 1, 1904. I found this in the basement of an old record store in San Antonio. Can anyone give me some information on this? And what would be it's approximate worth? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Twooz@aol.com p.s. yes my log-on name stands for The Wizard Of Oz = TWOOZ ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 00:03:52 -0500 From: "Melody G. Keller" Subject: Ozzy Digest, 01-17-97 Sender: "Melody G. Keller" Bob Spark: > On thing that really struck me was the absence of the flowers on either side of her face, but she seems more mature also.< In the text, Baum says that Ozma is at least half a head taller than Dorothy or Betsy--so Neill probably assumed Ozma was more mature as well. Melody Grandy ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 22:22:32 -0800 From: Ken Cope Subject: Re: DVD vs.LD MGM Oz >Am thinking of getting MGM "Wizard" on DVD, is it really better than on >Lazerdisd? I will need to, anyway someday, so the LD dosen't have to flip >sides, much as I love the Wizard! >Thanks, Malcolm Barker (Digest Primenet refugee) Which MGM Wizard? There is supplemental material on the Criterion disc not present on the Ultimate Oz, but the Ultimate Oz is the prizewinner between those two. The restored print is stunning, and there is so much information on the other 3 tracks, including alternate sound stems, piano demos by Arlen, commentary by John Fricke, and another disc that includes the Angela Lansbury hosted TV special, and interviews with various cast members. This disc is one of the supreme examples of the potential of the laserdisc as an archival medium. So far, only Contact on DVD has begun to explore the multi-media potential of DVD (See my Contact comment below). I have not yet taken time to A/B the DVD with the LD yet. Apart from the obvious advantage of being able to watch it all the way through without having to switch sides (handy when you've just gotten it syched with DSOTM), the DVD has the potential to look better than the LD. Reports say that the sepia Kansas sequences are only marginally better than the LD, and the color is nearly identical, a testimony to the quality of the LD. There are only the token supplementals that are standard with DVDs so far. That is, cast and crew and a couple of stills maybe with a pretty point and click menu interface, but that's a guess, I have not seen it. If you're a completist, you will want it for its alternate soundtracks and subtitles, Spanish and French (subtitles in English, Spanish and French). It took me years to find my two copies of Return to Oz. The panned and scanned Image release, and the letterboxed version with Japanese subtitles (imported from Japan, not surprisingly). As for Contact and Oz, how many people heard the strains of Over the Rainbow as the Cosmic Zoom pulled out past the Oort Cloud, just as its sundogged particles refracted a spherical bow? How many other Oz refs did you catch? --Ken Cope Ozcot Studios pinhead@ozcot.com-- ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 09:04:42 -0600 From: Sandy Traylor Subject: Oz Digest 1-14 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Thank you Dave - the song was on 1-14 if anyone else ask you for it. Thanks again - I sent it to my computer genius sons - raised by an Oz fan Mom to see if they would enjoy it. Sandy Traylor ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 13:12:03 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-16-98 Sarah: I couldn't get to your aol page. Was it the correct url? I saw on the IMDb that Fran Rubel Kuzui's _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ has a spoof of the MGM film. One of the producers is named Carol Baum, but I don't think that had anything to do with it. :) Scott ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 12:49:41 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest J.L. Bell: Yes, the Tip plot (including Ozma) was in "The Wogglebug." (I was at the Ozcon the year that Robin and the usual suspects gave a performance of it. The most amusing character, though, is Prissy the soldier-girl, original to the musical.) You were commenting earlier that in using Ozma in "Wogglebug" Baum would have lost the rights to use her again in another play. That doesn't really follow. It would depend on the specifics of the individual contract -- and he did use Ozma again in the Oz movies. Like you, I don't care for the "Baumgea" name. Gordon Birrell: I checked in the OED, and there are several citations for preferring someone's room to someone's company, going back as far as 1557. Ken Cope: I don't care for "threading" of topics because (at least in this group), the threads are so likely to start braiding. For instance, I'd imagine that we're all tired of hearing about Baum's editorials on American Indians and would just as soon skip further discussion of that topic -- but it could reasonably show up in comparing Baum's "Tottenhots" in "Patchwork Girl" and "Rinkitink" to his treatment of "racial" issues generally, or in a discussion of how "red" the Quadling Country is, or (when we get to "Scarecrow") in commenting on Phyllis Karr's use of an American Indian protagonist in her "Gardener's Boy of Oz" sequel to "Scarecrow." Any of these might lead to some interesting comments on the boring old topic -- and if they didn't, probably at least a few people would be complaining, "We've had that already," and the topic would die out again. I'd rather complain about things I object to now and again than have them shut out entirely. (I admit that in some cases I might decide that an individual person is not worth reading, and would skip all that individual's posts -- but "threading" is not a solution to that problem.) David Hulan: I'm sort of still active in the Mythopoeic Society (don't go to Mythcons or subscribe to the journal, but subscribe to the newsletter). I have a feeling that most of the locals (Twin Cites) stress the first syllable and pronounce the first a as in (American) ass, the second as a schwa, but I'm not even sure what I do about s vs. z or as-lan vs. a-slan, much less what others do. Dave Hardenbrook: No, I don't mean that having marriages between fairies and mortals is necessarily a no-no, but that it necessarily involves difficulties. In "Iolanthe," the background plot specifies that fairies are able to marry mortals, and Gilbert solves the difficulties by having the peers tired of politics anyway and gallantly glad to become fairies themselves. They all sprout wings and happily fly off to live with their fairy wives in fairyland. In Oz, it isn't clear if fairies could marry mortals in the first place -- most of Baum's fairies are, like Polychrome, personifications of natural forces, and while Baum might have decided to have it be possible if he'd wanted to write such a plot, it's hard to see how one could seriously marry a rainbow (or electricity, or a forest, or the like). But even if it's physically possible for Polychrome to marry a mortal, I can't see someone like Files or Shaggy willing to go live permanently "up in the sky, ever so high," dancing up and down the colors of the Rainbow for a primary (oogh!) occupation, or Polychrome as willing to abandon her Rainbow. (A compromise arrangement of six-months-here-and-six-months-there might be possible, but it would be very clumsy narratively. And there would still probably be some kind of basic physical incompatibility between someone who eats apples and solid food and someone who eats mistcakes and dew.) Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 98 15:24:14 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things ENDLESS FALLING: Jeremy wrote: >I didn't make any sense there. What I mean is, just as some theories >say it is impossible to go back in time and kill your mother (because >you would never be born in the first place)... Although, according to _Red Dwarf_ at least, you *can* be your own father! :) :) > ... how is it that you can start perpetual motion? I don't think you can...If Tik-Tok, Betsey, Poly, Ozga, et. al. had continued to fall back and forth nonstop, I think they would have eventually wound up at rest at the tube's midpoint. THE DIGEST: Bear wrote (to Ken Cope): >My support of the status quo was not a response to anything you said. Nor was mine. SCHOOL PLAYS: Melody wrote: >???? You are sooo fortunate. *I* was always stuck playing "the mother," or >old maid in school plays. When I was in school, if the current play I was in had a character that was a "nerd" or a "geek", that's who I was cast as...I *never* got the a romantic part, and I *certainly* never got to play anything comical... Not until I made a hit playing Pooh-Bah in a modest production of _The Mikado_, but that was years after High School... Sorry I can't comment anymore today, but I'm in a hurry to get this out before the clock strikes midnight in the East and calling this the "Ozzy Digest for 1/22/98" becomes a misrepresentation... :) -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 23, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 23:05:01 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones John Bell: While there is no direct evidence either way that the Ozian land mass (Whether you call it Imagi-Nation, Nonestica, Baumgea or some other appellation) is physically on our globe, a lot of little odds and ends add up to it. David Hulan often gives the example that while Dorothy and Trot got to Oz via the Pacific Ocean (in _Ozma_ and _Scarecrow_), Peter Brown gets there after falling overboard near Cape Hatteras. It is unlikely that Peter could swim around the continent of South America. I suppose it may be possible to imagine Oz as part of a floating continent, but that would require all of the nearby islands to also float with the same vectors. In _Tik-Tok_, the adventurers fall through a tube to another fairy country at the antipathies (I mean antipodes) of Oz. In order for Oz to be on our world, this continent does too, although I doubt you follow the Adelmanian example of calling it Antozia. Note that if Oz was mobile, Antozia would also have to be mobile, as would the Hollow Tube itself. Also, in _Captain Salt_, they sail to the continent of Tarara. We now have THREE fairly sizeable land masses that are "out there" somewhere, plus several islands. The likelihood of three fairy lands at widely spaced points is, IMHO, quite low. Of course, there's always Dave Hardenbrook's idea: That these places are part of a parallel earth with their own America, Africa and so on. This world is a slightly magical version of our own, with some differences, and some vary familiar settings. 1. Their Kansas has a city called Butterfield. 2. Their Oklahoma has an extensive subway system. 3. In Northern California, a small white dog with glassses goes up against Total Quality Management. 4. In Santa Rosa, California, young Charlie Brown is valiantly trying to win another softball game, while another intelligent white dog (no glasses) plays shortstop. 5. In Highland, Texas, two morons are watching a cable system that has at least a dozen music channels, yet they all suck. 6. In Springfield (state unknown, but I'm still holding out for Rhode Island), four-fingered people with qeird hair are up to all kinds of crazy antics. There is actually some indirect evidence for Dave's theory, such as Terrybubble coming to life in America, the reverse rocket, and other magical things happening in a supposedly non-magical area. In this way, Oz and the rest can be on "earth", just not "our" earth. David: It's also possible that the acceleration force was reduced by another magic-worker after Hiergargo test. Perhaps Tititi-Hoochoo desired to apprehend Tube travellers instead of having them destroyed. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 08:45:07 -0500 (EST) From: Saroz Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 Scott: The link was not working properly. I've fixed it now. ;-) Sarah G. Hadley ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 06:12:01 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 J.L. Bell, > The best film he appeared in was probably THE > BISCUIT EATER, a boy-meets-dog sleeper from 1940. > It might have a good film and a "sleeper", but it was traumatic for me. I can still recall as a child sobbing uncontrollably at the end of the damn thing . As far as fairies marrying mortals it seems to me that the literary tradition mainly suggests that the fairy becomes mortal if that happens. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:42:21 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 Jeremy: >Endless falling: >Yikes! I'd not want to fall through a tube if I were going to be >trapped like that. But if one would do that forever, how is it >possible to start such a fate? What I mean is, if that is perpetual >motion, shouldn't some law of physics say it is impossible to _start_ >oscillating like that? You'd oscillate forever in a frictionless world, but in a frictionless world perpetual motion _is_ possible. Once friction comes into play the oscillations will gradually damp down until you hover at the exact center of the Earth. (Actually, if there really _were_ a tunnel through the center of the Earth filled with air you'd probably stop a very short distance from the center the first time through. Friction from the air balances the acceleration due to gravity rather quickly; there's a distance beyond which you don't fall any faster no matter how much higher you start, and I think it's only on the order of a couple of hundred feet. That's why people have survived jumping out of airplanes and having their parachute fail to open.) Much of Bill Gates's wealth is in Microsoft stock, and if he tried to turn a big chunk of that into cash it would depress the price of the stock so that it would no longer by worth its current paper value. In that sense he isn't as wealthy as advertised - but then, that's true of most wealthy men. Most of their possessions aren't cash, and turning such possessions into cash would reduce their value. Bear: >Golly J. L. Bell did I disparage another of your icons. Stick around for >my comments on Gore. Clinton is beyond comment. We know you're sufficiently biased against Democrats that if Clinton healed the sick with his touch, you'd say "Clinton's practicing medicine without a license!" Ruth: > Like you, I don't care for the "Baumgea" name. I'm not enamored with it, but we do need a name to refer to the Ozian continent, and I like "Baumgea" better than "Imagination." Do you have a suggestion? I don't care much for threaded topics, either, especially since in the newsgroups I've browsed the subject-heading of the thread usually doesn't have anything to do with what's really being discussed in subsequent posts after a day or two. Listserves, on the other hand, can work quite well; I quite enjoyed the one that was in a sense the predecessor to the Ozzy Digest. I have no problem if Dave gets tired of doing the Digest and it's converted to a listserve, but I like the Digest just fine the way it is. Maybe if I got more E-mail I'd have a different attitude, but I don't, so see no need to worry about filters or remembering what was going on in a discussion. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 09:46:45 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Twooz: Your "Sammy" record is probably valuable. It's a recording of Tryxie Tryfle's hit song from the 1902 "Wizard of Oz" musical. If you'd like to see the sheet music, it's included in Stanley Applebaum's anthology for Dover Books of "Show songs from 'The Black Crook' to 'The Red Mill" (1974). No cast recordings of songs from the 1902 "Wizard" are known, so if by chance your record has Lotta Faust (or Grace Kimball, but Faust had taken over the role at the start of 1903, when the show opened in New York) as the singer, it would be particularly valuable. Even sung by someone else, it's still a rarity. Jeremy Steadman: Perpetual motion as such is easy if you don't have to allow for friction. As Newton said, "An object in motion continues in motion." The planets keep going around the sun perpetually. But the term "perpetual motion" doesn't just mean staying on the go -- it means also getting energy out of that motion to use for other purposes, for instance, enough energy to keep going out the other end of the Tube and smash into a star. As David Hulan commented, there must be some magic at work to make that possible. But just falling in and bopping back and forth forever, or until you stop discounting friction and come to rest in the center, is easy enough. (Avoiding that fate, you should loudly at each end, "Help!" and hope that someone throws you a rope before the friction you didn't get to discount slows you down so much that you're out of reach of an easy way to be pulled out.) Bear: It isn't so much a problem of disparaging any particular icons, but of dragging in a political reference that isn't particularly relevant to talking about Oz books. The Ehrlichs' ideas about population growth don't have much to do with Ozma's ideas about too-many-immigrants. (If you want to wait until "Captain Salt" comes up for discussion, maybe a complaint about fears of over-population as meaningless would be relevant. But meantime, as J.L. said, it looks as if you are using an improbable "did they get this idea from Oz" lead-in to try to make a complaint about recent political ideas you dislike relevant to a discussion of Oz books, and in the process boring those of us who may be willing to discuss the political ideas in the Oz books, but are not interested in politics as such. This isn't the forum for it.) J.L. Bell: So Charlotte Greenwood was only 23 when she played Ann? She sounds like an interesting actress -- do you know of any biographical articles on her? Melody Grandy: There's something to be said for a career playing old maids -- look at Margaret Hamilton! Dave Hardenbrook: Likewise, there's something to be said for a career playing nerds, although Leonard Nimoy's Spock doesn't quite qualify as an example, because although Spock is probably the ultimate nerd (who said nerds can't be romantic?), Nimoy has done a variety of other stuff. But Spock is undoubtedly the role he will always be best known for. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 11:14:33 -0500 (EST) From: HermBieber Subject: For Ozzy Digest Twwoz: Your old RCA Victor record could be quite valuable, but it would depend on the condition. Your query reminds me to alert Digest readers that David Maxine, who is quite active in the IWOC, is working on a compact disk anthology of old Oz music. If anyone is willing to lend or sell old Oz music recordings such as you describe, please contact Davis at 619+296-7331 or write to him at 1516 Cypress Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103. The recordings would be copied and electronically restored so that eventually we can all enjoy these old treasures. Herm Bieber ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 11:35:57 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 >What I mean is, if that is perpetual >motion, shouldn't some law of physics say it is impossible to _start_ >oscillating like that? No. There are two kinds of perpetual-motion machines that are impossible, but this is neither. One depends on getting energy from nowhere; that is not the case here -- energy is being converted from gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy and back again, but never created. The other depends on extracting heat from something already at ambient temperature (like a ship that pulls in seawater, pulls the heat out of it in order to boil part of it to run the ship's engines, and tosses ice cubes out the back); this is obviously not the case. The perpetual-bounce-through-the-center-of-the-earth is no more impossible than the perpetual-fall-around-the-earth trick that the moon has been successfully performing for billions of years. >John - I thought I remembered Aslan was Persian. Do you know the >translation? Is it lion? As nearly as I remember. // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:23:29 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 Jeremy: it is Ass-LAN in Turkish. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:27:59 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 Ken: I caguht "Over the Rainbow," and the balloon. I also ht "You are my lucky statr" from _Singin' in the Rain_. Did you catch more? Scott ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 15:57:23 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 > > The number of minutes required for either journey: 42. Did you know that 6 times 9 is 42 and that's what's wrong with the universe? I didn't either, but my sister says it's so, and who am I to dispute an expert at wrongness . . . Coherently yours (or not), Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "SUBDUED--n., the guy who works on the Nautilus." ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 98 14:54:45 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things PARALLEL EARTH: Tyler listed as characteristics of "Nerrum" (the parallel Earth on which Oz resides): >1. Their Kansas has a city called Butterfield. >2. Their Oklahoma has an extensive subway system. >3. In Northern California, a small white dog with glassses goes up against >Total Quality Management. >4. In Santa Rosa, California, young Charlie Brown is valiantly trying to >win another softball game, while another intelligent white dog (no glasses) >plays shortstop. Also, Lurline's Enchantment appears to have leaked into a few isolated pockets around the globe, including Santa Rosa. And so Charlie Brown et al. don't age. Charlie Brown has been eight and a half for nearly 50 years now! >5. In Highland, Texas, two morons are watching a cable system that has at >least a dozen music channels, yet they all suck. >6. In Springfield (state unknown, but I'm still holding out for Rhode >Island), four-fingered people with qeird hair are up to all kinds of crazy >antics. And of course I have to throw in my own: 7. In Minneapolis, MN there is a small local TV station called WJM whose news show is run by Lou Grant and is anchored by a vain half-wit named Ted Baxter. 8. New York City's most preeminent neat-freak photographer and most celebrated slobby sportswriter live under the same roof and drive each other nuts. 9. The President of the United States is one Margie MacDuff Fontaine and Scarlett O'Hara, Rick Blaine, Jedediah Leland, Adam and Amanda Bonner, and George Bailey are all members of Congress. 10. The LAPD has achieved much prestige through the infamous murders solved by Lieutenant Columbo. 11. The most famous member of the "Old Bailey" in Great Britian is a crusty old barrister who loves cigars and mashed spud and refers to his wife as "She Who Must Be Obeyed". 12. A certain hotel in Torquay is run by a snobbish, hot-tempered tree surgeon-wannabe. 13. The global marketplace is overshadowed not by Microsoft but by Cavindish Foods, the Grocery empire of Richard DeVere, whose wife, Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, chairs the British equivalent of the Heritage Foundation. 14. The British Prime Minister is one James Hacker, whose Civil Service Head, Sir Humphery Appleby, is currently advising him not to cut funds for the outmoded Jupiter Mining Corporation just because their largest and reddest mining spaceship has become lost in deep space and is manned solely by a curry-consuming slob, a pompous hologram, a humanoid cat, a punctilious android, a Jane Austen-phile, and a dithery onboard computer. 15. And so on and so on... :) TYPECASTING, OR m_pMiss_Gulch = (Old_Maid*)m_pMargaret_Hamilton; :) : Ruth wrote: >Dave Hardenbrook: Likewise, there's something to be said for a career >playing nerds, although Leonard Nimoy's Spock doesn't quite qualify >as an example, because although Spock is probably the ultimate nerd >(who said nerds can't be romantic?)... No one, fortunately...There are even some examples of films in which the "nerd" gets the girl, e.g. _Born Yesterday_. I guess my humble opinion of the best example of a successful career playing "nerds" is Richard Haydn, who really seems to enjoy playing that bespectacled character with the funny voice in film after film; even though on those rare occasions when he played a straight part, he was very good. A REQUEST: Can everyone help me? I'm trying to post updated pages on my website and Delphi doesn't seem to want to...As a test, could you point your browsers to and see if the text for Question 1.1 "What is the Ozzy Digest?" now includes the bit at the beginning on what the Digest is NOT? Thanks... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 24 - 25, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 21:43:57 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: Ozzy Digest Jeremy: >Did you know that 6 times 9 is 42 and that's what's wrong with the >universe? I didn't either, but my sister says it's so, and who am I >to dispute an expert at wrongness . . . Probably a reference to the _Hitchhikers' Guide_ books by Douglas Adams Dave: >As a test, could you point your >browsers to and >see if the text for Question 1.1 "What is the Ozzy Digest?" now includes >the bit at the beginning on what the Digest is NOT? I didn't see that part there. I guess Delphi didn't accept it. On the Location of Oz: MOPPeT (well, I didn't come up with it, but I adhere to it) is that Nonestica is a dimension closely connected to our own Earth. I don't really care for the Nerrum theory. I guess there's no evidence that Oz isn't on an alternate Earth, but there isn't much evidence for it, either, and I prefer to think that Oz is right around the corner and through the dimensional rift. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "I don't want the world. I just want your half." ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 21:03:08 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Jeremy - Perpetual motion isn't going to work if there is any friction, in this case air and possibly wall friction. Don't try it at home. >Do we own the air that we're polluting, the water we're toxifying, the soil we're making unfertile? Jeremy, will you stop doing all of these things please. Remember a clean environment starts at home. Spark - That's "Invictus" by Arthur William Edgar O'Shaugnessy. Great individualist poem. By the way, its "Out of the night....." Hulan >"Snowball" was a common nickname used by whites for blacks. Not in my part of the Golden Age. This doesn't even make sense. Oh, it came from the South?! >>I wish Queen Ann would lead her army to Microsoft Central and overthrow >Bill Gates... Amen! You know, all you folks with Gates hates have a real problem. Amen? Why don't you buy some of his stock and let him help you grow rich? JLBell >I'm sorry, Dave! I confess an near-allergic reaction to lack of curly quotation marks in a book. "Glass Cat" has quotation marks. Curly???????? Melody - Speaking of Holmes there is a new Laurie King out! Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 21:53:45 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman David >We know you're sufficiently biased against Democrats that if Clinton healed the sick with his touch, you'd say "Clinton's practicing medicine without a license!" That was good. However, in reality I am not biased against "Democrats." I have even voted for one occasionally. I am "opposed" to Clinton for many, many reasons including "Fornigate," or whatever they are going to call the latest. In short, I think Clinton makes Nixon look like a boy scout. By the way, do you know the difference between The Boy Scouts and The Clinton White House Staff? The Scouts require adult supervision. Ruth >"An object in motion continues in motion." Unless acted upon by an outside force. Like fiction, gravity, etc. >The planets keep going around the sun perpetually. Our view is just too short. Someday we will end up in the sun. Not soon tho. On Ehrlich's - point taken - but don't expect me to reform overnight. See above. It's interesting that the digressions of those you disagree with are more boring than one's own. Well, you have a defense. If I grow too boring you can just add me to the list of people who's posts you skip. Moving along, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 22:05:46 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-22-98 In a message dated 98-01-23 00:35:19 EST, you write: Bob Sparks:<< "Out of the dark that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole.....">> "I thank whatever gods there be, For my unconquerable soul." Right? I think that's "Invictus." By Henley? Aw, gee, now I'm gonna have to look it up. Thanks a lot, Bob. ---- John Bell:<> Ann? No question about it. Ann was definitely "somethin' else"! <> If someone has mentioned this before and I've just missed it 'cause I've been skimming, then I apologize: Charlotte Greenwood was a comical gal with extraordinary kicking ability. Her legs seemed to be hinged to her armpits. When I was a very little girl...probably in the late '40s or early, early '50s, my grandmother took me to see her at the Chicago Theatre. The old pro could still swing those legs around in a truly amazing manner. Subsequently, I've seen her kicking her way through several old movies. Surely she must've been a heckuva high-kicker in her youth. Makes me wonder how Baum utilized her special talent. Poor Files or whoever it was that caught *her* foot on his rearmost extremity! (Just think of the momentum it would have picked up on its extremely long pendulum arc...). ========== TWOOZ: John, your record is of one of the songs from the stageplay of _Wizard_. I think it's one of the later, interpolated songs, but I'm not sure. Marc Lewis will know. I think Karl Lurix (gee, y'all, have I got that name right?) wrote an article about Oz records. If he did, someone here on the DIGEST can confirm that and give us a date for the article. Then you may borrow it from me...if you promise to bring the baby to the shop the next time you're in. BTW, we've just gotten in some new Oz. No first editions, folks. ======= Ruth to J.L. Bell: <> Prissy was one of the most enjoyable characters I've ever had the pleasure to play. She's one of Ginger's soldiers, and has a great scene with Ginger where she gets to sass the general. Lotsa fun. Much more fun than the Tip/Ozma character, and it felt more natural, too, since it was o.k. that Prissy was--shall we say, uh "round." BTW, IIRC, that was the first OzCon that you decided to return to us, wasn't it, Ruth? And the usual suspects were so busy that we didn't have the time to talk with you as much as we'd have liked to.... I'm SO glad you decided to give us yet another chance! --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 22:17:29 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-23-98 In a message dated 98-01-23 19:16:07 EST, you write: << Ruth: > Like you, I don't care for the "Baumgea" name. I'm not enamored with it, but we do need a name to refer to the Ozian continent, and I like "Baumgea" better than "Imagination." Do you have a suggestion? >> Isn't this one of those "been there, done that" things? Nonestica was the consensus, IIRC, for Oz and its surrounding countries. Oh well. Consensus be hanged. You're free to call it whatever you wish, if you're the one writing the story! --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 03:33:44 +0000 From: Scott Olsen Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-23-98 Re: Tylers: "In Springfield (state unknown, but I'm still holding out for Rhode >Island), four-fingered people with qeird hair are up to all kinds of crazy >antics." It can't be Rhode Island. I know because Mr. Burns is my boss. Re: David's "Clinton curing by laying on of hands....." *I* understand what you were trying to say, but in light of recent events perhaps it should have been worded in a different way.... Sincerely, Scott Olsen ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 23 Jan 1998 22:48:48 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: You say Ozma, I say Ozga... Sender: "J. L. Bell" Jeremy Steadman, other folks have well and ably answered your question about Tik-Tok oscillating in the middle of the earth. I'll add only that perpetual motion is legal under Newton's laws of motion--just not under the laws of thermodynamics. Ruth Berman wrote: <> You're right that the contract specifics mattered. I bet Baum's stage contracts didn't include movie rights because that medium was so young--and he could thus film and refilm his stories. On the stage rights to OZMA, however, I relied on a note by Peter Glassman in his edition of TIK-TOK: "When L. Frank Baum decided to wrote a stage musical play based on his third Oz book, OZMA OF OZ, he found that he couldn't use many of the main characters, as he had sold the rights to them for stage versions of his first two Oz books. So Baum created Betsy Bobbin to replace Dorothy and Queen Ann to replace Ozma..." If Baum did indeed sell stage rights to Princess Ozma for WOGGLE-BUG, then created another princess named Ozma for TIK-TOK, that might have led to legal problems--or he might have deliberately differentiated the characters. Alternatively, Peter's note could be mistaken. I wonder if one reason the Ozma character doesn't appear in the poster of TIK-TOK MAN in ANNOTATED WIZARD, or in the reviews reprinted in OZ SCRAPBOOK, is that she was a singing part rather than a dancing part. These roles used to be more differentiated on the musical stage. Does any of THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ actually take place in Oz? Do Ann and her army come from Oz, for instance? Do the characters end up there at the end? If not, the "Oz" label may have been thrown in to give the play more box-office oomph. Ruth Berman wrote: <> I looked her up in my movie reference books. Those with the most info are QUINLAN'S FILM COMEDY ACTORS and COMIC SUPPORT: SECOND BANANAS IN THE MOVIES. Here are the highlights: Greenwood was born in Philadelphia in 1890, made her stage debut at 15, and hit Broadway in 1912. At 5'9" and able to swing her feet over her head (one at a time), she usually worked with short partners. From 1915 to 1940, off and on, she played a character named Letty in a popular series of plays. "She was not the ingenue, not with her long body, long face, and long nose, but even in her later support roles in film comedies she was far from the stereotyped homely man-chaser." (COMIC SUPPORT) Greenwood signed with Fox in 1940 and appeared as the heroine's wisecracking pal in several musicals: DOWN ARGENTINE WAY, MOON OVER MIAMI, SPRINGTIME IN THE ROCKIES, THE GANG'S ALL HERE, and so on. Earlier she'd made a few scattered features and several shorts, including (if I put the pieces together right) work with Bert Lahr. Greenwood's performance as Aunt Eller in OKLAHOMA! is probably the easiest to find on videotape. Once, according to COMIC SUPPORT, Greenwood did a comic dance in front of Eleanor Roosevelt, swinging her feet over her head as usual. Groucho Marx turned to the First Lady and said, "That's what you could do if you just put your mind to it." A Christian Scientist, Greenwood died in 1978. Her 1947 autobiography was titled NEVER TOO TALL. It would be interesting to check in that if Ann Soforth was anything more than another journeywoman role for her. Melody Grandy wrote: <> Indeed. When I wrote that Ruggedo and the Glass Cat reverted to a "more interesting, less likable personality" after their last-minute reformations, that doesn't demand that characters grate to be interesting. But if the Glass Cat *weren't* vain about its pink brains, it would have a thin personality to entertain us with. And a Ruggedo who doesn't nurse a grudge against Oz? He might as well be a cactus. Imagine MAGIC with the Glass Cat as humble as it is at the end of PATCHWORK GIRL, and Ruggedo as contrite as he is at the end of TIK-TOK. **Bo**ring! What makes the heroes you mention so interesting to me is their combination of great virtues with small flaws or quirks or hobby horses. I look for those same chinks in Ozma and Dorothy and other heroes of Oz because it gives them more interest. Kabumpo wouldn't be as much fun if he wasn't so vain about his robes. And would Tik-Tok be as enjoyable if he were powered by a perpetual-motion machine? Tyler Jones wrote: <> Carl Sagan had a dictum that an extraordinary claim, such as that aliens from other planets have landed on earth, requires extraordinary proof. Similarly, I seek direct statements by the authors that people from earth have landed on another planet when they reach Oz. When I was young and foolish, I theorized that Oz's and Ozamaland's continents might lie in a warm hollow under the Antarctic ice cap, thus equidistant from the Atlantic and Pacific. Now that I'm older and foolish and can't find directions I just scribbled down, I'm more willing to accept that we've just overlooked them. (As for Tititi-Hoochoo's region, a populace that goes around being invisible could surely hide it.) I don't object if other Oz fans prefer the notions of planets and worm-holes and other mechanisms. I just don't see them as a necessary part of the series' cosmology. Richard Bauman wrote: <> Once again, Bear, you didn't quote a word of mine--odd for someone who's complained about being quoted out of context. I'll repeat my comment so folks can judge whether you read it accurately: <> Can you indicate which sentence in these paragraphs makes you think the Ehrlichs are one of my "icons"--or that indicates any opinion one way or the other about their ideas? For that matter, can you quote how you disparaged one of my "icons" before? I understand you archive the digests, so I hope you won't return without answers to these questions. As to Clinton and Gore, I have no doubt you itch to disparage them--even though you'll have to stretch "Little Dorothy and Toto" like taffy to do so. I question why you feel such a burning need to insert comments about modern politics into discussions of the Oz books, where they have so little connection. Are you reluctant to post your thoughts to a political chat group, where so many knowledgeable people would reply? Or are you, as a small-government conservative, so upset at every reminder that the Oz books glorify an intrusive, centralized state that you have to lash out, throwing "manure" at the modern world in some sort of Freudian transference? J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 11:54:29 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-23-98 Web page check: I for one can't do that right now, as the web browsing capabilities of the college network isn't working right now (at least for me here in my room). More alternate reality characteristics: a) cats have overrun the world and swept those nasty dogs and humans out of the way, becoming the dominant species b) Isaac Asimov still lives and is continuing to write his (by this point) over 1000 books. c) The world is a peaceful place. Okay, so the last one might not be possible in anything so closely parallel to here, but it'd be nice. Until next time, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "SUBDUED--n., the guy who works on the Nautilus." ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 14:21:26 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-23-98 Dave: Is Richard Haydn the Monotonous Man? Katherine doesn't like MGM's Wizard of Oz. Maybe I can get her to appreciated the books. She got me appreciating Beckett, though neihter of us consider his drama his best work. Her namesake runs manuscripts through a paper-shredder, but somehow, even if she didn't like my writing (which she hints at but won't admit) I don't think she'd do that. I'm trying to get her to read _American Fairy Tales_ :) I have a video beside me of a Barbershop Quartet doing selections from the MGM film. I anticipate giving it a bad review, but I hope I don't have to. I'm about halfway through _Oz and Beyond_. I think Riley's points are often very interesting. Who was it who said _John Dough and the Cherub_ was their favorite Baum? He doesn't make it sound good, but maybe that's why it's out of print. at least, at seems to be, though there is a Dover edition. Dr. Eller has one at his house, where we have our annual English/Film Studies Club Oscar party, where I showed this part of his collection to Katherine. (I'm mentioning this to bug Ken. (just kidding)) Anyway, it'll be in my third Oz book, so long as she approves. I started Nikidik the other day, but am going to tear through it because my exposition is awful and I'd rather jump right in and deal with that later. You don't need to know who everybody is right off the bat if you haven't read _Tip_. I certainly should not have to provide an explanation of who Ozma is, when it can easily be inferred once it's relevant. Peter G; One of the things I notice about ECP that disturbs me (though if I get rejected by enough publishers, you will see _Tip_) is that the only store that carries them is Borders, and they are buried on the children's classics shelf, under Baum, rather than the author's name, and they are never among the new releases when they are, so they are only found by people who are looking. _Tip_ is also less of a children's book (which probably had a lot to do with why it didn't win) and the sequel has some cussing in it, so I'm not sure you would be interested in it, though a major publisher, if they liked the first one, probably wouldn't care if it had cuss words, which are a lot milder than Beckett's. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 98 11:49:31 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things OZ/PARALLEL EARTH: J.L. Bell wrote: >Carl Sagan had a dictum that an extraordinary claim, such as that aliens >from other planets have landed on earth, requires extraordinary proof. >Similarly, I seek direct statements by the authors that people from earth >have landed on another planet when they reach Oz. Well, you *won't* see those statements that people from earth have landed on another planet when they reach Oz, because they *haven't*... My theory does *not* say that. In my theory, Dorothy et. al. lived initially in the Kansas or whereever of the parallel Earth and then traveled to Oz on the same globe...They've *never* left their home planet. RICHARD HAYDEN: Scott wrote: >Dave: Is Richard Haydn the Monotonous Man? I dunno...I've never heard him described as such...What movies has the "Monotonous Man" been in? That might help... Thanks to those who checked my web page for me...It obviously hasn't been updated...I now await Delphi to tell me what the hippikaloric is going on... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 26, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 17:23:34 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: Ozzy Digest Stuff Robin: >Isn't this one of those "been there, done that" things? Nonestica was >the >consensus, IIRC, for Oz and its surrounding countries. IIRC, "Nonestica" was the name for the entire fairyland containing Oz, not just the one continent. That's the way I use "Nonestica," anyway. Scott: >Who was it who said _John Dough and the Cherub_ >was their favorite Baum? He doesn't make it sound good, but maybe >that's >why it's out of print. I didn't say it was my favorite Baum, but I liked it. The plot was fairly weak, but there was certainly no lack of ideas, and the Isle of Phreex sequence was, IMHO, one of the funniest things Baum wrote. It's definitely worth reading if you get the chance. >One of the things I notice about ECP that disturbs me (though if >I get rejected by enough publishers, you will see _Tip_) is that the >only >store that carries them is Borders, and they are buried on the >children's >classics shelf, under Baum, rather than the author's name, and they are >never among the new releases when they are, so they are only found by >people who are looking. Still, that's more exposure to the mass market than you'll see from other publishers of more recent Oz books (Buckethead, IWOC, etc.). If you can find a more major publisher willing to print your Oz books, good for you, but I've heard that most publishing houses bigger than BoW aren't really interested in doing Oz books. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "All I know could be defaced by the facts in the life of Chess Piece Face." ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 17:45:56 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Woops! Robin, you are right. It was William Ernest Henley who wrote "Invictus." I know the poem by heart, being a good individualist, but lost track of the author. J. L. Bell - Interesting. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I would rather watch the Super Bowl than deal with your post. Also for the sake of the rest of the Digest I suggest that we take it off line in the future. I will try to behave better here. Politely, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 14:29:36 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-25-98 Bear and Melody, > Melody - Speaking of Holmes there is a new Laurie King out! Always glad to meet more Laurie R. King fans. I think she's fantastic. I just heard from Amazon that her new book "A Letter of Mary" is out in paperback (I had them primed to let me know), and ordered it this morning. All, "Invictus" is correct, of course. Also "Out of the night..." rather than "Out of the dark..." See what happens when I operate from memory. I learned that poem in the 8th grade, 45 years ago. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 19:32:28 -0500 (EST) From: JOdel Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-25-98 In a message dated 1/25/98 12:32:42 PM, you wrote: > "When L. Frank Baum decided to wrote a stage musical play based on his third Oz book, OZMA OF OZ, he found that he couldn't use many of the main characters, as he had sold the rights to them for stage versions of his first two Oz books. So Baum created Betsy Bobbin >to replace Dorothy and Queen Ann to replace Ozma.. Bingo. Did we just see the REAL reason for the Roquat-Ruggedo name switch? There have been a number of comment hooks that I've wanted to remark upon, but I have been, and still am, laboring in digital hell ever since I got back from St. Frizz, and doubt that I'll be able to join in before it is over. ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 21:28:38 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: growing up with OZ Sender: "J. L. Bell" Robin Olderman wrote: <> The original Files in TIK-TOK MAN was Charles Ruggles (1886-1970). In contrast to Neill's long, lanky depiction of the private, Ruggles was a short man--I bet Queen Ann swung her leg over his head at least once a show. Like Charlotte Greenwood, Charlie ("NOT Charles," he later wrote on a press agent's biography) Ruggles went on to a successful stage and movie career, adding some early television as well. He can be seen in the all-star 1933 ALICE IN WONDERLAND, RUGGLES OF RED GAP (no relation), BRINGING UP BABY, THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER, OUR HEARTS WERE YOUNG AND GAY, IT HAPPENED ON FIFTH AVENUE, and those immortal Disney live-action features SON OF FLUBBER, THE PARENT TRAP, and FOLLOW ME, BOYS! Here's a question for all: If the first Oz book you read wasn't WIZARD, or if after WIZARD you went on to a book other than LAND, how did that out-of-sequence reading affect your view of Oz? In my case, since my favorite WIZARD character was Nick Chopper, when my mother took me to buy some of the sequels she fondly remembered, I picked the two with the Tin Woodman prominent on their covers: LAND and TIN WOODMAN (this was "white cover" time). I read TIN WOODMAN next. And I was *so* confused! I needed Mom's help to understand who this Ozma chick was, why Dorothy wasn't back in Kansas, and so on. (Luckily, with LAND next on my reading list I could find the complete story of Ozma's arrival.) Looking back, I realize that being introduced to Ozma in TIN WOODMAN, when she's most active as a magic-worker, meant that I missed her gradual growth as a fairy. Not until I read OZ AND BEYOND last year and saw discussions on this digest about the "real" sequence of Oz events did I realize how most people start out with the image of Ozma as an ordinary girl. From that perspective, her growing powers may be a befuddling change; from mine, they're natural. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 00:56:52 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski Subject: oz stuff VARIETY columnist Michael Fleming reports Drew Barrymore will star in and co-produce SURRENDER DOROTHY, a WARNER BROS. film inspired by THE WIZARD OF OZ. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 01:08:41 -0800 From: glassman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-25-98 >Peter G; One of the things I notice about ECP that disturbs me (though if >I get rejected by enough publishers, you will see _Tip_) is that the only >store that carries them is Borders, and they are buried on the children's >classics shelf, under Baum, rather than the author's name, and they are >never among the new releases when they are, so they are only found by >people who are looking. _Tip_ is also less of a children's book (which >probably had a lot to do with why it didn't win) and the sequel has some >cussing in it, so I'm not sure you would be interested in it, though a >major publisher, if they liked the first one, probably wouldn't care if it >had cuss words, which are a lot milder than Beckett's. Well, as a children's book publisher, I'd probably not be interestest in a book that is "less of a children's book" than I would be in other Oz manu- scripts. As to our books being "only at Borders" - that is patently false. I don't know where you live, but most of the major independent bookstores in the county - including The Tattered Cover, Powells, and most children's bookstores - carry our titles. As to the shelving of the books, we have no control over that - nor should we. That's up to the bookseller. And in the Borders I've visited in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, all our Oz books are shelved with other publisher's Oz titles in a seperate Oz section. If you want to see our Oz books in stores that don't stock them, tell the store's buyer or manager - not me! I'd obviously like to see them in as many stores as possible. - Peter Glassman ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 11:24:39 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-25-98 Robin: I wonder if Prissy was the inspiration for Colonel Cardamon in the CTC play. Scott O.: I think this was discussed before, but are you the Scott Olsen that wrote the "Coronado Fairyland" article Riley sites? Dave: the Monotonous Man does the Clear Eyes commercial, appeared in _Casper_, and is most famous as the science teacher on _The Wonder Years_. I thought that might be who you were talking about. I looked at the beginning of _We're Off to See..._ and it had this hideous 50ish fat guy in drag as Dorothy, the other three dressed as the others. I'm surprised that image did not give me a nightmare. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 13:10:52 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-25-98 > >Did you know that 6 times 9 is 42 and that's what's wrong with the > >universe? I didn't either, but my sister says it's so, and who am I > >to dispute an expert at wrongness . . . > > Probably a reference to the _Hitchhikers' Guide_ books by Douglas Adams Also, joke I once heard: What's the difference between a duck? [sic] 43 because ice cream has no bones. The point to this one is that there is no point--if that makes sense. <> Exactly--so if we don't keep it clean, we're going to end up living in a pigsty. <"An object in motion continues in motion." >> I always knew gravity was a fictional force! << Does any of THE TIK-TOK MAN OF OZ actually take place in Oz? Do Ann and her army come from Oz, for instance? Do the characters end up there at the end? If not, the "Oz" label may have been thrown in to give the play more box-office oomph.>> As I seem to recall, RINKATINK is the only one of Baum's books that takes place completely outside Oz. But I could be wrong, of course... <> Hmm--this sentence reminded me of a joke I once told-- Why do many people prefer Haydn's pieces to Johann Sebastian's? Because Franz are better than Bachs. I'll quit that now-- --And say goodbye for today. Bye! Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "The man who thought his wife was a bicycle tire soon found he'd spoke too soon." ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 98 12:57:42 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things PARALLEL EARTH: Jeremy wrote: >c) The world is a peaceful place. > >Okay, so the last one might not be possible in anything so closely >parallel to here, but it'd be nice. There *is* world peace on Nerrum! (Largely due to Ozma's global influence.) RICHARD HAYDN: Scott H. wrote: >Dave: the Monotonous Man does the Clear Eyes commercial, appeared in >_Casper_, and is most famous as the science teacher on _The Wonder Years_. >I thought that might be who you were talking about. No...Richard Haydn died in 1985. His last role was in _Young Frankinstein_ playing the fellow who at the beginning brings Gene Wilder his grandfather's will. He also did the voice of the Caterpillar in Disney's version of _Alice in Wonderland_. There must be some American Movie Classics-Turner Classic Movies junkie here who seen him in other things...Did anyone see _Cluny Brown_ (Jellia's favorite film!) last week on AMC? He was Jennifer Jones' priggish fiancee' who loses her to Charles Boyer. THE ONCE-LER IN OZ: Jeremy wrote: >Do we own the air that we're polluting, the water we're toxifying, the >soil we're making unfertile? I wouldn't recommend posing this question directly to a developer. I'm afraid he'd shug and say "Yes!" as though you just asked him if water is wet. MY WEB PAGE: I straightened out the problem with my web page...Delphi has apparently changed the procedure and now when I upload revised files to my web space, I have to execute a "PUBLISH" command, to actually move the new files onto the WWW. If you look at my page now, the revisions I mentioned before should be in effect. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 27, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 15:33:22 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest David Hulan: For a name for the continent Oz is on, I like Bob Pattrick's coinage of Nonestica. For a way to refer to the world Oz is part of, I prefer just "the Oz world" rather than any of the suggestions for names I've seen. Characters in stories needing a way to distinguish the Oz world from Smith&Tinker's Moon or Planetty's Anuther Planet could call it "the world" or "our world," after all. (I don't venture any opinion as to whether the Oz world is identical with Earth, or a parallel or alternate Earth, or if not how it is connected to Earth, or a par. or alt. E.) Herm Bieber: How nice to hear that a recording of old Oz music is in the works! Robin Olderman, Bear, and Jeremy Steadman: Irrelevant to Oz, but of interest in terms of children's fantasy, and since you're mentioning Henley's "Invictus" -- he had a daughter who died in childhood and whose babytalk nickname for J.M. Barrie (wendy=friendie) gave Barrie the name to go with Peter. Robin Olderman and J.L. Bell: Thanks for the additional information on Greenwood. If someone in the group has access to a copy of the autobiography, I hope it'll get looked up and reported on. (I'll take another look at the reviews I have to see if there are references to scenes in or characters as specifically from Oz.) Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 19:48:56 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-26-98 In a message dated 98-01-26 18:14:36 EST, you write: JOdel:<< Bingo. Did we just see the REAL reason for the Roquat-Ruggedo name switch?>> Ooooh! Good point!!!! That works for me. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 20:22:37 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-26-98 Books out of sequence? Yes, I did read them that way (as the first non-WWOz Oz book I read was Lost Princess), and it did lead to some confusion in terms of what was going on, who this Ozma person was, etc., BUT as I was a young, avid reader who would rather accept it and go on at that point, I took it in stride (as I recall) and just kept looking for more of them. (Oz books, I mean--the librarians in NJ, and also TX, where I moved next, grew to know me as "the kid who wants the Oz books" and reserved any that came in for me.) Beyond where? Okay, I've heard about it long enough. Now where am I going to actually get a copy of OZ AND BEYOND? <> Sorry, when I wrote that I meant, a _frictional_ force. It would have made that funnier... Possibly fictional myself, Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "The man who thought his wife was a bicycle tire soon found he'd spoke too soon." ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 20:30:03 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-26-98 J.L.: I had read Wizard, and had the Octopus _Land_ flipped through but not read when I read _Scarecrow_. I got confused near the end when Baum talked about Betsy Bobbin, nad Aunt Em and Uncle Henry living in Oz, and stuff like that, so I read Land and took them all in order after that. I re-read Wizard for a book report, but never re-read Scarecrow, which hopefully I can do soon. Thoguyh I really need to expand my horizons to many other authors to be an English major. I finished _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_. Ken Kesey's _Twister: Ritual Reality_, starring Elvis (Simon Babbs - in white) Frankie-Frankenstien (Ken Babbs), The Wiz (Ken Kesey - with top hat), The Scarecrow (Phil Deitz ). Two Dolts appear in the background has a web site at http://www.well.com/user/really/twister/html [Warning to younger Digest members: This next section is rated TV-PG for adult language. You have been warned. -- Dave] "TWISTER!" In 1993, following a Grateful Dead concert in Eugene, Oregon, Kesey held the premiere of "Twister: A Ritual Reality in Four Quarters." Keseys "ritual reality" is a play structured loosely around the Wizard of Oz, with each of the characters facing turn of the century crises in the world today. The three crises are The Hungry Wind, The Lonely Virus, and The Restless Earth. They deal, respectively, with tornadoes, plagues and earthquakes, all of which Kesey cites as being on the rise. This is just shit. Its happening. No blame. Happening and on the rise it would appear. What can we do to delay it? Probably zilch. To stop it? Likely less. But to survive it? Now that sounds more promising. There is evidence of bad shit having been survived before. Ancient Advice Left in cave by Wise French Caveman: "When Bigbad Shit come, no run scream hide. Try pain picture of it on wall. Drum to it. Sing to it. Dance to it. This give you handle on it." So "Twister" is my try.34. The play was panned from the start, being overlong, too loose and largely uninteresting. One critic called it "a musical catastrophe." Keseys career shows that he has returned time and again to his first interest in communications and drama, but his abilities as a prose writer far outweigh his efforts as a playwright. from "Tarnsihed Galahad: The Prose and Pranks of Ken Kesey" by Matthew Rick. One of the works cited in this thesis: "Ritual Reality" Mary Jane Fenex and Matthew Rick The Cryer April 8, 1993, Ed.II, Vol. 7 Peter G.: Perhaps "less of a children's book" is just how I see it. I think it would probably be too difficult for children, as it deals with complex and abstract concepts and themes. It's certainly not someone trying to conquer Oz or any simplistic good vs. evil plot. There are no "bad guys" save for Kraktalus, and even he has his reasons, sadistic as he may act. Kraktalus only appears in one chapter, and all they managed to do is escape from him. When Aubrey returns for the Silver Shoe in _Nikidik_, he gets humiliated. It's certainly no _Wicked_ or _Barnstormer_ from the bits and pieces I've read of those books. I leave it up to you, when I send it to you, what you think of it. I didn't consider it writing for children, even when preparing it for the contest, though I deliberately kept the l;anguage clean to the point of intentional absurdity and leave the violence (against a child, by Kraktalus) to a mere newspaper report. There is also a huge amount of satire, intertextuality, and observation, as opposed to action. I saw _We're off To See... The Most Happy Fellows_ (capitalization sic) The guy playing Dorothy was like the drag show of Thisbe in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ (Dani Bedau's local modern version even had him with a cigar, which he put in his mouth after Thisbe dies). He plays with the Cowardly Lion's tail like he's Minira in Jun Fukuda's _Kaiju Shima no Kessen: Gojira no Musko_ (Son of Godzilla). The Scarecrow narrates the story. They start with "We're Off to See the Wizard" then go to "The Merry Old Land of Oz." He then begins the story. Dorothy twirls his fingers to simulate the cyclone. Then they sing "Lullabye League/Lollypop Guild/We Welcome You to Munchkinland," followed by "If I only had..." and a reprise of "We're Off to See the Wizard." Then it's "If I Were King of the Forest" in which the bass (who has a Yiddish accent, if that is the appropriate way to describe it) has a solo backed by the other three. Then they use flashing lights and describe the witch segments. Like the later _Volshebnik Izumrudnogo Goroda_, it is only then that they see the Wizard, following "Ding! Dong! The Witch Is Dead/Optimistic Voices." "Over the Rainbow" is performed to close. I'd tell you who the people were, except I left the credit sheet at home. Only the Lion lacked a mustache. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 20:53:46 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Bob - More good news for you. There is an even newer Laurie King. It is called "The Moor." The title evokes memories of "The Hound." She is signing it in Capitola this week. That is a little far for an autograph. Hopefully she will come back to Silicon Valley and probably SF. Isn't that your location? Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 23:43:56 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Jeremy: Falling through the Tube would not really be perpetual motion,since you would stop eventually. Of course, with magic anything is possible. I won't dwell on how you could go back in time and prevent your own birth, since it would take too long. E-Mail me privately if you are interested. John Bell: Baum may have been implying that Ozians, being around so much magic, more so even than other fairy countries, could easily see through Nome Magic. Of course, there is no real proof that people such as Dorothy, Speedy, Zeb, et. al actually came from "our" earth. John Bell again: Well, I read the entire Baum 14 in order, so my foundation of Oz was well-ordered. However, I read _Kabumpo_ (16) before _Royal Book_ (15) and I was trying to figure out who the hippikaloric this Sir Hokus guy was. After blazing through the rest of the Thompsons in order, I read the rest of the series in more or less random order. However, those final FF books are disjointed and self-contained enough so that it really did not affect me. Of course, even Dave's theory is still hampered by David Hulan's observation of Peter falling into the sea near Cape Hatteras. There are two explanations: 1. The children of Oz are all from several different parallel-earths. None of them, except for Dorothy and Zeb (and Trot and Button-Bright) have any connection into the "real" world. 2. Baumgea/Nonestica is in the Pacific in Dorothy's Earth, and Peter is from yet another Earth. Jeremy: I hate to be the one to do this, but I must. _Rinkitink_ does not take place completely outside Oz. THey visit there at the tail end. I am convinced that in the original manuscript, they did NOT visit Oz, so you're half-right. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 09:05:24 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Joyce Odell: Change from Roquat to Ruggedo couldn't very well be a problem of having used Roquat in a play before -- the character hadn't been so used. J.L. Bell: I still feel doubtful that Baum sold the rights to future stage use of the character Ozma when he did the "Wogglebug" play. Peter Glassman's statement that Baum sold the rights doesn't indicate what the evidence is for saying so. If the evidence was a copy of the contract, that would be quite definite, but if the evidence was something like a letter saying, "I'm not going to have Ozma lead the attack, because I already used her in a play," there might be a question of whether that meant selling the rights, or a preference for different lead characters. If Baum had really sold the stage-rights to the character, it seems odd that he included someone named Ozma (although not as the ruler of Oz) in the "Tik-Tok" play. I said that I'd check if the contemporary reviews indicated that part of the play takes place in Oz. They do -- sort of. The scenes in Oogaboo of the decision by Anne (so spelled in the play credits) to go a- conquering and the return to Oz at the end are not there. but the play opens with Betsy's shipwreck on the coast of the Rose Kingdom of Oz (which must have confused those in the audience who knew that Oz was surrounded by the Deadly Desert). I notice, by the way, that the role of Anne was NOT played by Charlotte Greenwood, but by Josie Intropidi. Incidentally, Anne and Shaggy, as well as Ozma and Files, are matched up at the end, and intending to marry. Peter Glassman: Some of the local (Minneapolis) bookstores that carry your books, besides Borders, are Barnes & Noble, Uncle Hugo's, Dreamhaven, and Red Balloon. (Probably others, too.) Bear: I betcha you had to read (and maybe memorize) Henley's "Invictus" at the same time that you had the O'Shaughnessy poem that goes "We are the makers of music,/ And we are the dreamers of dreams." (The "Bartlett's Quotations" I looked in has a few other lines of his, but that was the only bit that actually sounded familiar to me.) Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 09:48:24 -0400 From: jwkenne@ibm.net Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-26-98 >> "When L. Frank Baum decided to wrote a >>stage musical play based on his third Oz book, OZMA OF OZ, he found that he >>couldn't use many of the main characters, as he had sold the rights to them >>for stage versions of his first two Oz books. So Baum created Betsy Bobbin >>to replace Dorothy and Queen Ann to replace Ozma.. >Bingo. Did we just see the REAL reason for the Roquat-Ruggedo name switch? I have grave doubts about this entire line of speculation. This is not customary practice in the theatre even today, and lawyers were much less rapacious concerning intellectual property back then. I'd really want to see documentation for this. (On the other hand, I have seen -- but in a secondary source -- that Baum was asked not to repeat names from one musical to another, lest the fact that they were all really the same show become too obvious.) // John W Kennedy ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 16:05:11 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-25-98 1/25: Nathan: >On the Location of Oz: >MOPPeT (well, I didn't come up with it, but I adhere to it) is that >Nonestica is a dimension closely connected to our own Earth. I don't >really care for the Nerrum theory. I guess there's no evidence that Oz >isn't on an alternate Earth, but there isn't much evidence for it, >either, and I prefer to think that Oz is right around the corner and >through the dimensional rift. This seems to me to be a distinction without a difference. Are you just saying that the other dimension Oz is in doesn't include the continents that are on our Earth? If so, then I think I agree with you that the evidence favors that view, but I still consider that an "alternate Earth." Robin: >Isn't this one of those "been there, done that" things? Nonestica was the >consensus, IIRC, for Oz and its surrounding countries. My recollection was that "Nonestica" referred not only to the Ozian continent but to all the surrounding islands, possibly even as far as Tarara. The continent itself didn't have an agreed-upon name, but "Baumgea" at least has the advantage that most people on the Digest know what's meant by it, even if they don't like it. J.L.: >Carl Sagan had a dictum that an extraordinary claim, such as that aliens >from other planets have landed on earth, requires extraordinary proof. >Similarly, I seek direct statements by the authors that people from earth >have landed on another planet when they reach Oz. I don't think anybody on the Digest has ever held that getting to Oz requires going to another planet, as if traveling in space. Rather, the two main views that seem opposed here are (a) Oz and surrounding countries are located somewhere physically on our planet, but are magically hidden so that they don't show up on satellite pictures or the like, and a lot of natural laws work differently there; or (b) Oz and surrounding countries are on a planet that occupies the same space as our planet, but on a different vibrational plane or something like that so that only something extraordinary will enable someone to pass through to the Ozian world (and going back is even more difficult; in all the FF, I believe that happened only once except by direct action of magic, and that was the Wizard's departure near the end of the first book). Another possibility is Dave's theory that none of the characters in the Oz books ever lived on our Earth. One then has to explain how Baum and the other FF authors got their information, though. It does not seem to me that one of these claims is more extraordinary than the other, so I think the considerable weight of evidence for the second position, and the paucity of evidence for the first, is reason enough to support the second. But you can believe what you like. Scott H.: _John Dough_ isn't one of my favorite Baum books, but I think it's quite enjoyable. It doesn't have much in the way of a plot, but it has some good characters and some interesting scenes. I'd rate it better than _Road_ or _DotWiz_ or _Tin Woodman_, and about on a par with _Emerald City_ or _Tik-Tok_. ECP books aren't that hard to find, as Peter pointed out to you himself. Borders is the only big national chain carrying them as far as I know (meaning, basically, that Barnes & Noble and Crown aren't, unless they've started doing so recently), but lots of independents do, and so does amazon.com, which means anybody who knows about an ECP book or is looking for Oz titles in general can find it on the Internet. 1/26: J.L.: _Wizard_ was the first Oz book I read, but _Wishing Horse_ was the second. I think its significance to my feelings about Oz was that I was immediately caught up in a hugely diverse, rich Ozian environment with all kinds of kingdoms and characters in the background that I wanted to know more about. Stepping through the books in publication order might make more sense, but Oz really developed quite slowly if you follow that sequence, and it also requires getting through several not-very-good books near the beginning. I also think I was lucky in picking _Wishing Horse_ as my second book (I debated between that one and _Giant Horse_; I was very much into horses at age 5); it remains my favorite Thompson and close to my favorite Oz book. (I vacillate among it, _Ozma_, and _Lost Princess_.) And because the theme of the big party from which Ozma and the other rulers disappear is the discovery of Oz by mortals, it has enough ties back to _Wizard_ that things aren't entirely confusing. Also, the fact that the second Oz book I read was a Thompson means she framed my personal view of Oz about as much as Baum did, so I think I appreciate her books more than those who had read all of Baum before venturing into Thompson. I'm not sure of the order in which I read the other books, except that it had little to do with the order of writing. IIRC I got _Lost Princess_, _Magic_, and _Lucky Bucky_ for my sixth birthday and _Emerald City_, _Tin Woodman_, and _Kabumpo_ for my seventh. Not long after that my father went into the Navy and the rest of us went to live with my grandparents; a former teacher of my mother's (co-dedicatee of _Glass Cat_) had most of the books through _Wishing Horse_, and loaned them to me. She did not, however, have _Land_ or _Ozma_, so they were among the last that I read, other than a few of the later books. The last four books hadn't been written at that point, of course. _Handy Mandy_ was the last FF book I found and read. Jeremy: No, _Rinkitink_ doesn't take place entirely outside Oz; it has about as much time in Oz as _Ozma_ or _Tik-Tok_. None of Baum's books take place entirely outside Oz. The only FF book that takes place entirely outside Oz is _Captain Salt in Oz_ (which he never is in this book, ironically enough). David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 12:15:50 -0500 From: Richard Randolph Subject: Ozzy Digest 1-26-98 Scott H.: ECP and Books of Wonder Oz Books are also available at Barnes & Noble stores, at least here on the east coast. Dick ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 10:15:45 -0700 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz John Bell: Quick note. IMHO, it was only in the Baum 14, and in fact only in _Emerald City_ specifically, that the idea of Oz as a centralized economy was mentioned. It was here that Baum discussed how each family unit produces whatever it can, and then is supplied by their neighbors with everything that they need, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs". However, this was never expanded upon in Baum's later books, and in Thompson's Oz, we see a fledgling non-centralized economy, based mostly on barter. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 98 15:27:30 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things MISTITLED BOOKS: David H. wrote: >..._Captain Salt in Oz_ (which he never is in this book, ironically enough) Captain Salt doesn't appear in _Captain Salt in Oz_??? Sigh. Another "Clarence the Cat" title. (My term a for strangely titled story, after a short story from the PBS show _Zoom_ which baffled me as a kid because it was titled _Clarence the Cat_, even though Clarence was not the main character, and indeed only had a cameo role...) A CONTINENT BY ANY OTHER NAME: Ruth wrote: >For a name for the continent Oz is on, I like Bob Pattrick's coinage of >Nonestica. I'll concede that B.P. is a fairly high authority...For my own writings, however, I'll stick to my nomclature... _RINKITINK_: Tyler wrote: >I hate to be the one to do this, but I must. _Rinkitink_ does not take >place completely outside Oz. THey visit there at the tail end. I am >convinced that in the original manuscript, they did NOT visit Oz, so you're >half-right. _Rinkitink_ would appear to be the _Life, the Universe and Everything_ of Oz books..._Life, the Universe and Everything_ is the book in Douglas Adams' _Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ series that started out as a _Dr. Who_ script, but that Adams subsequently "recycled" to force it to fit into the _Hitchiker's_ universe. Baum appears to have done the same kind of "recycling" with _Rinkitink_ to force it into being an "Oz" book... ECP BOOKS: Dick R. wrote: >ECP and Books of Wonder Oz Books are also >available at Barnes & Noble stores, at least >here on the east coast. Here in Southern California, Barnes & Noble carries the BoW reprints of the Baum books, but not any of the ECP books. On the other hand, the Huntington Beach Central Library has not only most of the FF, but most of the ECP books as well! BOOK ORDER: FWIW, when my dad first read the Oz books to me, we read them in order through _Royal Book_. Then we had to skip to _Magical Mimics_ and then to _Merry-Go-Round_. Only in much later years when the library got other FF and ECP books was I able to read more Oz. A REQUEST: I hate to ask this of the group, but could someone write Digest members and again? The 'Net is *still* bouncing any message I try to send them because I'm on their server's "black list" of bulk E-mailers... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 28, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 17:10:51 -0500 From: David Levitan Subject: Ozzy Digest First of all, I have not recieved the digests since 12/24 (over a month ago). I have been forwarded the digests by Barbara Belgrave (Thanks a lot). Dave Ha., can you please check your e-mail address list? Also, to all digest members whose sites are part of the Oz Web Ring: You don't have to shorted your descriptions (even if I sent an e-mail to you). I will compress it myself (I've already started). However, if I did send an e-mail to you telling you to change your keywords, you must change them. I will be sending out another reminder to those who need to change something (I don't know when, but soon). I have only one comment on that month of digests that I missed: An Oz newsgroup can't be proposed till May, so without the digest, there would be no kind of forum for Oz. BTW, if people are concerned about spam on a newsgroup, I could propose a moderated newsgroup (as long as people volunteer to be moderators). -- David Levitan wizardofoz@iname.com ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 17:38:09 -0500 From: David Levitan Subject: Ozzy digest Hi, I recieved this message from a visitor who was on my website. Can anybody help her? (please e-mail directly to her, thanks) > Name: Arlet Dunsworth > E-mail: arlet@cyberramp.net > Comment: > > We are enjoying the web pages dedicated to OZ. The > high school our son attends in Dallas, Tx (Woodrow Wilson) > is scheduled to perform the stage version of the Wizard of > Oz April 30, May 1-3. He will be the Tin Man, and we are beginning a > search for the costume. Any suggestions of where to look or who to > contact would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help. > > Sincerely, > > Arlet & Janell Dunsworth -- David Levitan wizardofoz@iname.com ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 21:13:11 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: Ozzy Digest David: >This seems to me to be a distinction without a difference. Are you just >saying that the other dimension Oz is in doesn't include the continents >that are on our Earth? Yes, that's basically what I was trying to say. It just came out in a somewhat odd fashion. >(b) Oz and surrounding countries >are on a planet that occupies the same space as our planet, but on a >different vibrational plane or something like that so that only >something >extraordinary will enable someone to pass through to the Ozian world >(and >going back is even more difficult; in all the FF, I believe that >happened >only once except by direct action of magic, and that was the Wizard's >departure near the end of the first book). There might have been some magic involved there, too. We never see the entire story of the Wizard's return. He tells us in _Dorothy and the Wizard_ that he had adventures on his way back to Omaha, and these adventures might well have included magical transportation to the Great Outside World. Dave: >Captain Salt doesn't appear in _Captain Salt in Oz_??? He appears, but he never goes to Oz. Note that the title character in _The Silver Princess in Oz_ never really goes to Oz within the course of the story, either. >_Life, the Universe and Everything_ is the book in Douglas Adams' >_Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ series that started out as a _Dr. Who_ >script, but that Adams subsequently "recycled" to force it to fit into >the >_Hitchiker's_ universe. Interesting. I didn't know that before, but I suppose it makes sense. _Life_ is a more self-contained story than the other titles in the _Hitchhikers'_ series, and Slartibartfast seemed to have undergone a change in occupation from planet manufacturer to intergalactic hero. Order in which I read the Oz books: Well, the first few titles I read were: Wizard Land Tin Woodman Cowardly Lion Dorothy and the Wizard Sky Island Sea Fairies (Yes, I know these last two aren't Oz books, but I'm including them anyway.) I think that the next one I read was _Rinkitink_, and I read several other Baum Oz books soon after that. The second non-Baum Oz book that I read was _Lucky Bucky_, I believe, and the last two Baum Oz books that I finished were _Patchwork Girl_ and _Magic_. By the time that I had joined the Oz Club, I had read all of the Baum Oz books, as well as (in addition to the ones that I've already listed) _Jack Pumpkinhead_, _Speedy_, _Kabumpo_, _Ojo_, _Scalawagons_, _Wonder City_, _Magical Mimics_, _Shaggy Man_, _Ozoplaning_, _Merry Go Round_, and _Purple Prince_ (in roughly that order). When I joined the Club, I ordered _Hidden Valley_, _Royal Book_, _Grampa_, _Lost King_, _Hungry Tiger_, _Gnome King_, and _Giant Horse_, and had soon read all of those. I picked up _Wishing Horse_ and _Yellow Knight_ at my first Convention. The last canonical Oz book that I read was _Pirates_, which I finished last August, IIRC. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "All I know could be defaced by the facts in the life of Chess Piece Face." ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 20:46:33 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: TODAY'S OZ GROWLS Sender: Richard Bauman Ruth - I never had to memorize any poetry for school. I just liked "Invictus" enough to imprint it on my brain when I was young and there was lots of room. You are right, I liked the O'Shaughnessy too, but didn't memorize it. Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 21:40:08 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-27-98 Tyler: Hmm--Rinkatink _doesn't_ take place completely outside Oz? Then I was thinking of another of Baum's books. I think... David Hulan: OZMA and LAND as the last of the books you read? Must've been incredibly confusing. (I mean, who is that Ozma person anyway?) Or for that matter, who is this Jeremy person anyway? Jeremy Steadman, jsteadman@loki.berry.edu (kiex@aol.com during the summer and school vacations) http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "The man who thought his wife was a bicycle tire soon found he'd spoke too soon." ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 21:48:24 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones John Bell: One more thing. In the Thompsonian Oz, we see evidence that the atmosphere is quite different from our own, as far as things inside it and distances. While none of the things I and others have mentioned amount to a "Smoking Magic Belt" proving that Oz is on another world, I have yet to see strong evidence that Oz is NOT on another world. Here are the four possibilities that I can come up with: 1. Oz is physically on Earth, THIS Earth. 2. Oz is on another Earth in a different Universe. 3. Oz is in a different Universe, but on a planet that is not earth-like. 4. Oz is in our Universe, on a different planet. While none of these has ever been proven (and probably never will), IMHO choices 2 and 3 are the likely contenders with choice 2 maintaining a slight lead, given that in the "real" countries some magic was possible. Dave: I'm sure David will correct you on this as well, but when he said of _Captain Salt in Oz_, that he is never in it, he meant that the title itself was false. Although the story is called "Captain Salt in Oz", Captain Salt was never "IN" Oz during the adventure. He was a central character throughout the entire book, though. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 03:21:24 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-27-98 I'm going to be taking off in the morning for Tennessee for a few days, so I want to respond to this Digest as much as I can, albeit probably briefly: Ruth: I'd heard that "Wendy" came from a child's calling Barrie that as a baby-talk version of "friend," but didn't realize it was Henley's daughter who'd died in childhood. Jeremy: >Yes, I did read them that way (as the first non-WWOz Oz book I read >was Lost Princess), and it did lead to some confusion in terms of >what was going on, who this Ozma person was, etc., BUT as I was a >young, avid reader who would rather accept it and go on at that >point, I took it in stride (as I recall) and just kept looking for >more of them. (Oz books, I mean--the librarians in NJ, and also TX, >where I moved next, grew to know me as "the kid who wants the Oz >books" and reserved any that came in for me.) Another question we might ask here as a corollary to the last one: at what age did you read (or have read to you) your first (if it wasn't _Wizard_) or second Oz book? I suspect those of us who read them out of order very young might have accepted them more readily than those who did it later in life. Easiest ways to get a copy of _Oz and Beyond_ are to order it from Books of Wonder (if you get their catalog, or just want to call them at 800-835-4315) or from amazon.com. Finding it in a bookstore - especially in Rome - is probably being too optimistic, though probably the cheapest way if you could. Bear: I'll have to start looking for the new Laurie King in the library. Thanks for the tip. I think she's great, though I only buy her books when I see them in paperback or a Mystery Guild edition. (But then, there are only two or three authors who aren't personal friends whose books I'll buy in the $20+ publishers' hardcovers.) Ruth, Dick, and possibly others: I'm delighted to hear that Barnes & Noble and other stores are carrying the ECP books. Every little bit helps in sales of _Glass Cat_! (Which should have passed the 1000-sale mark sometime last fall; it had hit 976 [but who's counting?] as of the end of September.) Dave: >David H. wrote: >>..._Captain Salt in Oz_ (which he never is in this book, ironically enough) > >Captain Salt doesn't appear in _Captain Salt in Oz_??? Sigh. Another >"Clarence the Cat" title. (My term a for strangely titled story, after >a short story from the PBS show _Zoom_ which baffled me as a kid because >it was titled _Clarence the Cat_, even though Clarence was not the main >character, and indeed only had a cameo role...) I had a feeling that I might be stretching the language a bit too much there...I meant that "Captain Salt is never in Oz in this book," not that "Captain Salt is not in this book." Ol' Sam is definitely the central character of the book, but he spends its entire span out on the Nonestic and/or its islands and other continents. He never even lands on the Ozian continent, much less getting to Oz itself. What do you want us to write those people whose ISPs keep rejecting your messages? I'll be happy to do so once I get back from TN, but don't know what to say other than that "Your ISP is blocking the Ozzy Digest; talk to them!" Considering how much good that did when AOL was blocking mine, I'm not sure what it would accomplish. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 03:30:15 +0000 From: Scott Olsen Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-26-98 Re: J. L. Bell: "Here's a question for all: If the first Oz book you read wasn't WIZARD, or if after WIZARD you went on to a book other than LAND, how did that out-of-sequence reading affect your view of Oz?" Well, I did read _Wizard_ and _Land_ first, but I remember reading _Patchwork Girl_ and _Road_ last. I remember wondering what was the story behind these characters. Also, _Royal Book_ was one of the last Thompson's I'd read and I had the same problem with Sir Hokus. Re: Scott H.: "Scott O.: I think this was discussed before, but are you the Scott Olsen that wrote the "Coronado Fairyland" article Riley sites?" Yes Re: Dave's comment about "_Captain Salt in Oz_ and Captain Salt not appearing in this book": I think there is a misunderstanding here. Captain Salt is very much in this book, he is just never IN Oz! (That said, I do think it's one of Thompson's better efforts.) Re: _Tic-Tok in Oz_: This has been discussed before, but Baum is constantly confused about whether Hank is a mule or donkey. **I** never noticed this problem even after 5 readings. However, when reading the book to my daughter, she picked up on the error right away. Re: Discussion awhile back on MENSA. I would never join any club that would have me as a member, except maybe the International Wizard of Oz Club.... Sincerely, Scott Olsen > >Scott > ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 22:43:39 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Oz of this world Sender: "J. L. Bell" In our discussion of Baum's stage rights, Joyce Odell wrote: <> As Ruth Berman pointed out, Baum had no conflict using the name Roquat in TIK-TOK MAN because no stage play with that character had been produced before. I theorize Baum changed "Roquat" to "Ruggedo" for the musical because the latter is easier to say and sing. Then he wrote TIK-TOK from his TIK-TOK MAN material and only at the end recalled (or was reminded of) the name difference, sticking that footnote into the book. Anyone read ZAUBERLINDA, THE WISE WITCH? Does the gnome king have a name in that WIZARD knock-off? Ruth Berman wrote of TIK-TOK MAN: <> An Ozian rose princess being named "Ozma" makes more sense than a rose princess outside Oz being named "Ozga." But there's a lot odd about Ozga: despite being a cousin of Ozma, she seems to be of a different biology entirely. Ruth Berman also wrote: <> And Tik-Tok is left all alone. . . Which production do your sources cover? Charlotte Greenwood is credited (and pictured) as Queen Anne in OZ SCRAPBOOK (p. 145). The character of Anne isn't mentioned in the poster of the April 1913 production in Los Angeles reprinted in ANNOTATED WIZARD, nor in the reviews of that production reprinted in OZ SCRAPBOOK, so they're no help. (Both those sources name and picture Chas. Ruggles as Files.) If Greenwood was a later addition to the troupe, my speculations about her age's influence on Baum's characterization in the book may have to be kicked into a corner. Dave Hulan wrote: <> To further complicate Dave's theory, some children who travel to Oz have read about previous children's adventures, presumably reported by Baum; Betsy's the first in this group. So there would have to be an alternate Baum as well. I fall into school (a) above, and can revise my Sagan corollary: "Carl Sagan had a dictum that an extraordinary claim, such as that aliens from other planets have landed on earth, requires extraordinary proof. Similarly, I seek direct statements by the authors that people from earth have landed on another planet when they reach Oz." I also seek direct statements by the authors that people who reach Oz have *come from* another planet than the one we know. In other words, I seek an indication that readers are *not* supposed to accept that Dorothy comes from the same Kansas they know in the center of America on this earth. Of course, every Earth-bound fiction takes place on an alternate version of this planet, whether it's WAR AND PEACE or THE WALTONS. Your point about Peter's trip from Cape Hatteras is a strong argument against a Pacific (as opposed to pacifist) Oz. PIRATES also says the Munchkins live in the West of Oz, however, so its geography may be shaky all around. Among the many who shared memories of their *second* Oz book, Dave Hulan seems to have made the longest jump: <<_Wizard_ was the first Oz book I read, but _Wishing Horse_ was the second.>> Whoa there, Chalk! Interestingly, these are the two books in which Dorothy peacefully overturns the accepted ruler of the Emerald City. In light of our recent discussion of openings, I think WISHING HORSE spends the most time of any book with its villain before a child-hero (Dorothy) comes on stage. Thompson tries to make Chalk out as a sympathetic character, especially near the end, but I never bought him as more than Talleyrand with a saddle. Tyler Jones wrote: <> When I wrote of Baum's Oz as "an intrusive, centralized state," I meant not simply the economy, but all forms of power. By law Ozma keeps the right to work magic among her closest companions. As we read in PATCHWORK GIRL, Ozians live where she tells them to. In TIK-TOK she alone decides who gets to immigrate. Ozma can look in on anyone whenever she wants to, and Glinda actively keeps tabs on the whole country's doings. As Americans bred to love freedoms, we bristle at these details, but they're in the books. I see three comforting ways to read this depiction: 1) Madison wrote that we need democratic institutions and overlapping powers because men are not angels. Ozma and Glinda--good, all-seeing, powerful, and immortal--might as well be angels, so Oz doesn't need a Madisonian constitution. 2) The political structure of Oz mirrors the political structure of young readers' families, in which the rulers (parents) own the property, control the car and the stove, and make the rules for the benefit of all. 3) Oz's government is as satirical as her army, or the trial in DOROTHY & WIZARD. The Oz books are full of examples where Ozma's system *doesn't* work: people defy her rule and escape her notice for years. This is the hardest reading to support because it requires Baum to have penned nearly all the passages describing Oz's government with tongue in cheek. Scott Hutchins, the "Monotonous Man" you mentioned is probably Ben Stein, an actor and conservative political commentator who had his breakthrough in FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF. He now has his own game show on Comedy Central, weekdays at 7:30. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 10:19:40 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Jeremy Steadman: ordering information on Michael O. Riley's "Oz and Beyond: The Fantasy World of L. Frank Baum" -- University Press of Kansas, 2501 W 15 Str, Lawrence KS 66049; $29.95, and book rate postage for one copy is $3.00. Try asking a library near you to buy a copy if the price is a problem for you. Scott Hutchins: It would really be a good idea for you to stop talking about your manuscript on the Oz Digest, and especially to stop talking about it to Peter Glassman (if you genuinely have any thought of ever submitting it to him for consideration). First you told him that you would not want to send it to him until you'd tried it on bigger publishers first. That means that if you ever send it to him, he will know that it has already been judged unacceptable by other publishers. No doubt he'd discount their judgment to some considerable extent, but it isn't advisable to let a publisher know that other publishers didn't think your work was worth publishing. Now you're telling him about ways in which the story is not "really" a children's book, when he's just told you that he publishes children's books. If you ever decide to send him the ms., tell him anything appropriate about it in a cover letter then. Meantime, you can't help your chances of selling it by talking about a manuscript he hasn't seen -- all you can do is hurt your chances. David Hulan: I think Peter Glassman's recent announcement that William & Morrow was now distributing the Emerald City Press as well as the reprints of the original Oz books explains why the ECP books are now showing up in at least some of the Barnes & Noble stores. He said then that the W&M involvement would result in wider distribution, and that's turning out to be the case. Dave Hardenbrook: Captain Salt appears in "Captain Salt in Oz" throughout -- it's just that none of the places where Captain Salt appears are in Oz. In terms of the geography of the Oz world, "CS" is of particular interest, since it expands the Nonestic charting so much, adding not only assorted small islands but the continent of Tarara. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 98 14:26:40 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things THE STATE OF THE OZION: J. L. Bell wrote: >1) Madison wrote that we need democratic institutions and overlapping >powers because men are not angels. Ozma and Glinda--good, all-seeing, >powerful, and immortal--might as well be angels, so Oz doesn't need a >Madisonian constitution. This harkens back to a statement I made a long time ago -- and for which I got a lot of flack -- That the most ideal form of government is a totalitarian dictatorship, *provided* that the totalitarian dictator could be guaranteed to be Ozma or someone like her. Now before you all report me to HUAC, I'd like to assert my awareness that such ideal conditions could never arise in *this* universe, so Democracy is best for *us*. Second, I'd just like to ask you to think about Ozma and Oz -- all the beauty, love, peace, and content; now think of us, with Congress, endless political campaigns, dirty tricks, and empty speeches. You won't get that from Ozma! :) I'm not sure though about Ozma and Glinda's "angelic perfection"... After all, even Mary Poppins is only *practically* perfect! BOUNCED MESSAGES: David Hulan wrote: >What do you want us to write those people whose ISPs keep rejecting your >messages? I'll be happy to do so once I get back from TN, but don't know >what to say other than that "Your ISP is blocking the Ozzy Digest; talk to >them!" I'm afraid I don't know what to suggest you say execpt the above... MY WEB PAGE: Version 2.1 of the Ozzy Digest FAQ is now online at my web site . The main revision is a pointer to David Levitan's archive of Ozzy Digests (Section 1.5). -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 29 - 30, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 15:55:39 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-27-98 Robert Pattrcik called the Oz continent itself "Ozeria." That's all for today. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 20:55:30 -0500 (EST) From: Ozmama@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-28-98 Roquat/Ruggedo: Nutz. I wanna know why Baum changed that name! The explanation Baum gave never worked for me. Age I met Oz: Dunno. Never remember being without it. Mom says I started reading the Oz books somewhere between 3 and 4 years of age. They are probably what encouraged me to become an early reader: I've never been a patient person, and probably didn't want to wait for someone to find time to read to me...and I've always been a bit independent...maybe too independent at times. I don't know which book was read to me first. The first one I remember reading is _Road_, but I know Oz was already an established habit by then. I wonder how much that series has influenced my value system. It sucked me into IWOC, and that has certainly affected my life. How much has Oz affected your "real" lives, y'all? --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 21:32:45 -0500 From: Richard Bauman Subject: TODAY'S OZ GROWLS Sender: Richard Bauman On the continuing discussion of the location of Oz. In Baum's day there were still unexplored parts of the world. The idea that there was a little chunk containing Oz that hadn't been found probably wasn't so far fetched as in our day. Is this a possibility? It's hard to imagine Baum thinking in terms of parallel universes or other worlds with exotic connections. Another application of Occam's Razor. Sharply, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 23:14:56 -0800 From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff Subject: Ozzy Digest [144.80.104.94] didn't use HELO protocol >Another question we might ask here as a corollary to the last one: at >what >age did you read (or have read to you) your first (if it wasn't >_Wizard_) >or second Oz book? I read my first Oz book when I was 11, and I finished the FF when I was 19. The big trouble-maker was _Pirates_, since I had finished all 39 of the other canonical Oz books when I was 15. Scott: >Re: _Tic-Tok in Oz_: This has been discussed before, but Baum is >constantly >confused about whether Hank is a mule or donkey. I'm pretty sure that Hank is a mule, and has always been a mule. I think that Baum sometimes calls him a "donkey" for the sake of variety, in much the same way that Thompson sometimes refers to the Wizard of Oz as a "necromancer," although he presumably does not deal with the spirits of the dead. J. L. Bell: >But there's a lot odd about Ozga: >despite being a cousin of Ozma, she seems to be of a different biology >entirely. Melody Grandy solves this problem in _Disenchanted Princess_, by making the Rose Fairies descendants of an enchanted Burzeean Fairy. -- Nathan Mulac DeHoff vovat@geocities.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ "All I know could be defaced by the facts in the life of Chess Piece Face." ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 22:57:30 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Nathan: The Wizard could have had a whole slew of adventures, in and out of Fairyland, between _Wizard_ and _DotWiz_. We know that this was the time the he acquired the Nine Tiny Piglets. March Laumer has written a deliciously ironic story about this that brings the aparantly contradictory stories in _DotWiz_ and _Tin Woodman_ into reconciliation. Dave: I originally heard the phrase "benevolent despotism". One of the faults of this (in our world, anyway), is that Mr. Niceguy will eventually die or be assassinated/overthrown by some Ruggedo-like person and thus endeth the benevolence. We can assume that this will never happen to Ozma, or if it does (as with _Wishing Horse_), that it will only be temporary. John Bell: DAvid Hulan once remarked that if you postulate that Oz is actually on our world, but hidden in such a way that it's position is never constant, it cannot be seen or felt, and you can only get to it magically, then for all practical purposes it already is in another Universe, since there is now no real difference between the two theories. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 20:00:04 -0800 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-28-98 Hi All Y'all, > This harkens back to a statement I made a long time ago -- > and for which I got a lot of flack -- That the most ideal > form of government is a totalitarian dictatorship, > *provided* that the totalitarian dictator could be > guaranteed to be Ozma or someone like her. I have always believed that a benevolent dictatorship would be the ideal form of government--as long as I was the benevolent dictator :-). Benevolently (moderately), Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 08:49:34 +0000 From: Craig Noble Subject: Ozzy Digest Hey folks, I recently discovered that there are lots of Oz books on ebay. I'm a newbie to this online auction, and hadn't realized how much traffic there is. For those of you with experience, how do you like it? So far I've been outbid on everything, but that's because I've been looking for the steals. The final bids on many books are still cheaper than what I've seen advertised by dealers on ABE, Bibliofind, etc. But what about the quality of the books? Are people satisified that they're getting what they expected? Craig Noble ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 10:26:18 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest David Hulan: I had the Oz books read in order to me, but the effect of seeing the MGM movie at about the same time resulted in some mild confusion similar to the sort of thing that happens with reading out of order. By the time my older sister stopped reading them to me, which I suppose was when I was old enough to read them for myself, I was very puzzled, on reading "Wizard," to find that the slippers were silver, not ruby, and escape from the poppies did not involve a Glinda-sent blizzard. I did not remember that these ideas came out of the movie, and could not understand why my memory had so changed the events of the book. (I'm not sure if Betsy actually read me all the Oz books, or if I started reading on my own before we got through the entire series.) J.L. Bell: My recollection is that the Gnome King in Zauberlinda has no name except that, but I'll check. There was only the one production of the "Tik-Tok" play, but it toured for a year or two, so could well have had cast changes along the way. I'll check the dates I have and see if that suggests probabilities. As you say, every work of fiction takes place in an alternate world -- one of the factors that notably complicates the game of trying to discuss fiction-as-if-real is that in some fictional universes there are works of fiction (Glinda is fictional in the world of Baum's Aunt Jane's nieces), but in others the characters from different stories exist in the same world and can visit each other (as in the "Road" banquet). For copyright reasons, such visiting usually goes on inside one author's works, although Lewis's look back at the start of Narnia in "The Magician's Nephew" is set in the days when Holmes lived in Baker Street and the Bastables were treasure hunting, for instance. The earliest example I know of a story in which all fictional characters are imagined as living in a world-of-the-fictional is Walter de la Mare's novel "Henry Brocken," at the turn of the century, and I think de Camp and Pratt were the first ("Incompleat Enchanter" series, started in the 40's) to think in terms of a series of alternate worlds, in which it is possible to visit in sequence any individual "world" of fiction. Both the literature- worlds and sequences-of-literary-worlds tend to fudge on the question of the existence of works of fiction within fictional worlds. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 12:56:41 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-28-98 > Ruth: > I'd heard that "Wendy" came from a child's calling Barrie that as a > baby-talk version of "friend," but didn't realize it was Henley's daughter > who'd died in childhood. On a similar note, Dave Thomas noted that Wendy is not hi daughter's real name, it was what they called her based on a younger daughter's struggles to pronounce her real name, so they just started calling her Wendy. > > Another question we might ask here as a corollary to the last one: at what > age did you read (or have read to you) your first (if it wasn't _Wizard_) > or second Oz book? I suspect those of us who read them out of order very > young might have accepted them more readily than those who did it later in > life. > I was in fourth grade when I started really reading the Oz books. I discovered them in 2nd grade, but never finished any of them (except _Wizard_ somewhere along the line), presumably because I had too short an attention span. > Ruth, Dick, and possibly others: > I'm delighted to hear that Barnes & Noble and other stores are carrying the > ECP books. Every little bit helps in sales of _Glass Cat_! (Which should > have passed the 1000-sale mark sometime last fall; it had hit 976 [but > who's counting?] as of the end of September.) I haven't seen ECP at Barnes & Noble yet, but I'll look when I go there today. The other stores Peter mentioned do not exist here in Indianapolis. But then, we only have two Borders stores, and those are within two miles of each other. When they built an expanded music and video store, the old one did so much business still that they decided they would not close it. > Anyone read ZAUBERLINDA, THE WISE WITCH? Does the gnome king have a name > in that WIZARD knock-off? Can this book be purchased cheaply? I think I saw it for sale once, but didn't check the price. That was at Elfinwood Book Shop, in the Oz case. but the owners retired and closed the store, which was the nicest used & rare book store in town. I've been to all but some paperbacks-only ones. > Your point about Peter's trip from Cape Hatteras is a strong argument > against a Pacific (as opposed to pacifist) Oz. PIRATES also says the > Munchkins live in the West of Oz, however, so its geography may be shaky > all around. That's because Thompson was looked at the map with the "corrected" compass rose that R&L put out. I think she got the directions right in Royal Book, but never again. > -- all you can do is hurt your chances. Good point. Sorry if I offended anyone with the cussing, because I didn't read the essay until after I posted it. _We're off To See... The Most Happy Fellows_ [capitalization sic] was photographed and edited by Jim Niswonger. The music was arranged by Lloyd Steinkamp (with no credit to Harburg and Arlen). The Most Happy Fellows are Lead-Larry Hassler (Dorothy) Bass-Matt Rice (Lion) Tenor-Bob Hodge (Tinman) Baritone-Jack Lyon (Scarecrow) (c) 1990 Has anyone found _The Wizard of Oz in Concert_ for sale lately (preferably without _The Ultimate Oz_) I'm going to do the Dark Side of the Moon synch today! Then I'm going to watch _The Tin Drum_ at Film Studies Club tonight. I'm going to see _Candida_ by GB Shaw at IRT tomorrow night, and read _The Master Key_ on Saturday. Not to mention some wrting to do for school publication. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 29 Jan 1998 15:06:28 -0500 From: Michael Turniansky Subject: Ozzy stuff Hi....I bet you guys are wondering whatever happened to me? No? Oh, well....Anyway, the big reason that I haven't contributed anything is that the size of my e-mail file is HUGE. I have managed to chop it down from 750 backlogged messages to 495, up to 1/12/98. I will continue my usual practice of not commenting on anything in previous digests until I have read them _all_ to make sure no one else has repeated what I was gonna say. Of course, by that time, you'll have all forgotten the original threads. Let's see, I think since the last time I wrote my computer hard disk crashed, causing me to have to get a whole new computer in October, and leaving me with about 200 mail messages permanently unread. And I got new galsses (one reason I hadn't been reading e-mail regularly, I think, was eye fatigue from a 2-year-old prescription. Tzvi Harris, Baruch Haba. Nice to have you aboard (I also have read you comments on the Beis-Midrash list, BTW). Let's see....the local fire station here has a practice every year to have an extrememly elaborate model train setup from Thanksgiving to after New's Years Day (called, unfortunately, a "Xmas Garden" even though a large perecentage of their visitors are Orthodox Jews). This year, they had a Wizard of Oz section (MGM version). It had a rotating twister (complete with Miss Gulch on her bicycle) in the Kansas section, a Munchkinland section, the Emerald City (including a very clever "horse of a different color", that was crystal, with three small colored lights inside it that turned on and off sequentially), the trio scaling the mountain outside the witch's castle. Very well done. Another thing that might be of interest to you folks (especially Scott H.) is the Star-Links website (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~bct7m/star_links.html) which can link any two actors/actresses (did you know that Yahoo Serious is only two steps removed from Vera Hruba Ralston?!). On a whim, I put to Ozzy actors of extreme time periods, Fairuza Balk and G. Howe Black, and discovered the following: Balk, Fairuza was in Return to Oz (1985) with Laurie, Piper Laurie, Piper was in Dawn at Socorro (1954) with McCullough, Philo McCullough, Philo was in Blue Blood (1925) with Black, G. Howe See you in a few weeks or so (hopeflly), when I have cleaned out the backlog, --Mike "Shaggy Man" Turniansky (whose personal webpage, although not Ozzy is http://www.bcpl.lib.md.us/~turnip/turnip.html , should anyone prove interested...) ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 30 Jan 98 11:15:09 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things I just I thought I'd mention that I got my Zip Drive the other day. I thank everyone for the advice that offered me! :) MISTITLED BOOKS: One Oz book that really *is* mistitled is Shanower's _Forgotten Forest of Oz_. (Burzee isn't *of* Oz at all!) BTW, am I wrong or was Zurline a no-show at Ozma's birthday party in _Road_? "DISCOVERING" OZ: I'm not sure when my dad first read the books to me, but I can make a guess. I *know* I was eight and in second grade when we read _Sky Island_, because we were vacationing in Big Bear. We read the "Borderland" books only after we had run out of available Oz books, so I estimate that I was six or seven when we started the series. NEWS FROM OZ: I realized that I've neglected to report on the "Olympics of Magic", an annual event in Oz to which all Baumgea/Nonestican magic-workers are invited. This was the preliminary week in which we had the first two events -- Worm-Charming and Dancing On the Head of a Pin. In Worm-Charming, Audah floored Ampersand the Famous Segmented-Worm Guru From Agrabah, and was proclaimed a heroine and the days of male domination in worm-charming to be numbered. Of course, many of the Adepts' detractors, including the Troll King King Rolf the Rotten "Harrumph"ed Audah's victory and claimed that the Adepts are bumbling hacks who only manage to win competitions against male sorcerers because the men are "distracted" by the Adepts' good looks. The next day, the Dancing On the Head of a Pin was won by the Monarch of Mo with Audah coming in second; so King Rolf (and the other board members of "The Campaign to Get Glinda, the Adepts, Locasta and Reera Back Into the Kitchen Where Nice Girls Belong") then put Handel's Messiah on the Victrola and proclaimed, "We knew it all the time! Women -- especially those absurd Adepts -- are no good at magic!" The Adepts are already plotting their revenge. Also, Necile the Wood-Nymph came in third in the Pin-Dancing, and Queen Zixi -- still shaken by the recent scandal in which she crashed her chariot into the trunk of an oak occupied by a flock of irate pterodactyls -- came in forty-seventh. In petulant disgust, Zixi stormed off after her performance, totally ignoring her cheering fans and members of the press. Zixi is reportedly taking lessons in good sportsmanship from Princess Langwidere. Games continue next week. Events to be annoucned. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave ************************************************************ Dave Hardenbrook, E-Mail: DaveH47@delphi.com URL: http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ Computer Programmer, Honorary Citizen of the Land of Oz, and Editor of "The Ozzy Digest" (The _Wizard of Oz_ online fan club) "When we are young we read and believe The most Fantastic Things... When we grow older and wiser We learn, with perhaps a little regret, That these things can never be... WE ARE QUITE, QUITE *** WRONG ***!!!" -- Noel Coward, "Blithe Spirit" ************************************************************