] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 2 - 5, 1999 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 19:11:31 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: Ozzy Matters Glinda's invisible spell: My guess is that after Glinda placed the "invisible spell" on Oz, Ozma regret it, and thought that it might hide the beauty and splendor of Oz. Maybe she told Glinda to remove the spell, knowing that the power of good always beats the power of evil, and so she could protect Oz forever. Ozzy RPG: As David Godwin said, everyone wants to take the minor characters.Don't worry. The RPG doesn't go exactly as in the FF. I will do in such a way, that all the characters including the minor ones will beable to participate in each dazzling adventure.You can play upto three characters. Dave already choose to play the Adepts and Jellia. Someone else wanted to play Scraps,Polychrome and Dorothy (Non Digest Member) David Hulan wants to play Eureka, Bungle and the Wogglebug. Aaron wanted to play the Woozy and a wizard in one of the Thompson books. Tyler wanted to play two of the Thompson characters too. So did David Godwin. I finally choose to play Princess Langwidere, Coo-ee-oh and Jinjur. More fans should join once my new site is up. Remember, you can't play two characters who are in the same storyline.(Ruggedo and Kiki Aru, Coo-ee-oh and Ozma e.t.c) As you all know, the game will be based on brand new adventures. It will play out on a message board....... Witches in Oz:AND SPOILERS FOR MY OZ BOOKS: It seems as if the GWN is very weak in magic. Yet she managed to conquer Mombi, who was once the most powerful witch in Oz. Maybe she took her by surprise. Infact, I reveal in my books that the Wicked Witch of the North was actually an old witch called Taana, who was Mombi's grand-aunt. She paid Mombi to kidnap the Royal Family of Ev. I also reveal that Locasta banished Taana to the Land of the Lost, where she was trapped in a abubble. Lots of witches paid Mombi to do their dirty work in my books: *.The WWW paid her to steal the Golden Cap *.I also say that the WWE told Mombi to hide the Royal Munchkin Family for her to conquer the Munchkins. Then, Mombi made the Munchkins forget all about them. Later, Mombi kidnapped Orin and turned her into Locasta, to get back at her for banishing Taana. Mombi didn't want Cheeriobed to remember that the WWE told her to kidnap him, because the WWE was her friend, so she made them think that she kidnapped them 25 years ago. *.I also say in one of my stories that when Lurline came to Oz, Oz was ruled by a wicked king, who mistreeted his people. She cured his bad thoughts by means of a magic forbidden fountain, and left one of her fairies to be his queen. I dont really beleive that Glinda had anything to do with it...... *.I say that Langwidere's mother was a sorceress, and before her daughter was born, she wished for thrity beautiful heads, as a present for Langwidere. Her mother has a part in one of my stories. She is the Queen of lovelyland, a cut-off corner of the Land of Ev...... --Gehan Cooray "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== From: "Bob Collinge" Subject: 2nd annual Wizard of Oz Fiesta of New England Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 09:29:54 -0500 For those of you in, or close to, the New England area, the 2nd annual Wizard of Oz Fiesta will be held on Saturday, April 17th, at the Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The digest's own John L. Bell has agreed to be a guest speaker for the event. He will be speaking on "Three reasons why I like the books better than the movie". Sounds great. Thanks John. For more info on the days events, please e-mail me privately. Thanks, Bob C. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 09:45:36 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: ROYAL BOOK OF OZ ending Yesterday I posted a message discussing how ROYAL BOOK gets off to a good start. Today I'm coming at the book from the opposite direction: I think this tale comes to a rather poor end. First, Thompson relies a great deal on coincidences. Dorothy happens to open her parasol, happens to fly up [alone, even though the Scarecrow had just "held convulsively to" her], happens to come down just as the Grand Gheewizard throws his vase, and happens to deflect it onto the princes [260-3]. Back in Oz, the fan just happens to blow the Cowardly Lion and the camels to the Emerald City [287]. How convenient this all is. Thompson simply gives up on justifying one useful detail: "by some reason even I cannot explain, the people from Oz found that they could understand all that was being said" [255--cf. 49-50, 117]. Second, the action in the Scarecrow's imperial throne room [chapter 20] goes through a series of stuttering climaxes. The Silvermen refuse to let their straw emperor resign, the Gheewizard arrives, Sir Hokus attacks the dragon, and...the action stops for two pages. The Gheewizard goes into his wind-up again, Dorothy triggers the parasol, and...the action stops for another page. Finally the Silver Island plot ends happily. But even after Dorothy and her companions float up through the pole hole [the return to home so important in Oz books], there's a new crisis when--with only a bean-sized link to what has come before--Sir Hokus becomes attached to the pole [284]. Thompson seems to have added that final episode just to bring her characters all the way to the Emerald City and to play on "knighthood in flower" [295]. A third, minor problem involves the Munchkin farmer who made the Scarecrow. Late on night he sees his old friend out in his cornfield; "I'll see you in the morning," the straw man promises [36-38]. Yet when the farmer wakes up, his friend is nowhere to be seen and there's a deep hole right where he was standing. Does the farmer suspect these two odd events are related? Does he alert Ozma that something may have happened to one of the most popular people in Oz? No, he covers up the hole and says nothing [277]. Here's one way Thompson could have finished her story instead. The Gheewizard enters with his flagon and his dragon, intentions unmistakable. The Scarecrow's friends go into action. Sir Hokus springs at the dragon while the Cowardly Lion tackles the three princes. The Gheewizard turns the Lion into a stone foo dog, one paw resting on the eldest prince. Pop! goes the dragon, stunning Hokus. The now-enraged Gheewizard throws his potion at the defenseless Scarecrow. Dorothy stands up, opening her parasol as a shield. The vase bounces off it and cracks over the foo dog and the howling heirs, restoring the Lion and turning the princes into those little carnivores. Meanwhile, Dorothy rises into the air but soon returns, having found the mechanism for returning to Oz. The companions then float up to Oz, as in ROYAL BOOK, and hack their way through the farmer's cover. But instead of an empty field, they find Ozma and her court, summoned by the Munchkin farmer. The grateful ruler of Oz turns her search party into a real party [she's already had one in this book, the first of many in Thompson's stories--15]. There could even be room for a little "knighthood in flower" surprise at that party, but the curtain would come down before everyone returned to the Emerald City, while the Scarecrow and Dorothy's success was still new. Incidentally, there are hints in ROYAL BOOK that the new Royal Historian receives her reports from Oz in a different way. Twice--on pages 76 and 167--Thompson remarks on how Dorothy later described her adventures to Princess Ozma. That implies Thompson either got the story through Ozma, or listened in on that conversation. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-01-99 Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 08:17:18 PST David Godwin: >Personally, I am - disturbed, shall we say? - by the storm that >caused >Dorothy and the CL to stray into Pokes in the first place. Such >weather is >so rare in Oz that I expected some sort of explanation for its >special >occurrence, but none was forthcoming. I can't recall any other such >storm >in the FF, unless it was that house-dropping cyclone. There was a pretty bad storm in _Cowardly Lion_, and it rained (although I can't recall any thunder or lightning) in _Tin Woodman_. Gehan: >Not to mention, books like -Cap't Salt-, >-Lucky Bucky-, -Royal Book- and -Scalawagons- dont sound ozzy, and >they >really aren't. They remind of books like Robinson Crusoe, Tresure >Island >e.t.c. They don't have that "ozzy feeling" like in the Baum books, >and >"most" of the Thompson books. Perhaps they're not particularly Ozzy, but they're nothing like _Robinson Crusoe_ or _Treasure Island_. Those books are fairly realistic, and contain nothing along the lines of talking hippopotami, magic beanstalks, or sentient automobiles. >BTW, who is your FAVOURITE Oz criminal, and your WORST Oz criminal? >My fav. >are Jinjur and Queen Coo-ee-oh. I cant stand Ruggedo, Ugu, and all >the >villians in the Thompson books. While the Thompson villains might not be developed as well as some of Baum's, they often tend to be funnier. I find the rantings of Ruggedo (who is both a Baum and Thompson villain) quite amusing to read. -- May you live in interesting times, Nathan DinnerBell@tmbg.org http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 11:37:58 -0500 From: "Lisa M. Mastroberte" X-Accept-Language: en Subject: ozzy replies Gehan wrote: <> Tim Burton DOES tend to get a bit strange...but yet, at least it will be live action instead of *gag* claymation. Not that I'm dissing claymation, because I personally thought the Nomes in RTOZ were great, but just try to watch his Nightmare Before Christmas for five minutes. ok, here goes my cast list: Liesel Matthews - Ozma Tina Majorino - Betsy Bobbin Scarecrow - Gene Wilder Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean") - Nome King Tyler: Well, I could always start a ribbon campaign against the Liz Taylor movie....like the "No Phantom Movie" campaign. But Hollywood doesn't really care about the wishes of fans... Peace!! -Lisa ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Mar 99 14:42:44 CST From: "Ruth Berman" Subject: Royalatry in Oz David Godwin: There are some other storms in Oz without special explanation -- usually rain needed to help Polychrome find a rainbow (as in "Tin Woodman"). Of course, there might be a difference in whether a rain without high winds would be called a storm, but in general usage it's probably at least "stormy weather." Dave Hardenbrook: I see from David Godwin's and Tyler Jones' comments that the question of whether "Oz and the Three Witches" can be made available continues to be of interest. Maybe next time you can give us a report -- have you written Hugh Pendexter yet (and was the address that I had for him still good)? David Hulan: The greater availability of circuses compared to zoos would be a factor for Baum and Thompson in deciding what animals their readers would be likely to know, but Thompson as a Philadelphian and Baum during his years as a Chicagoan and an Angeleno probably had opportunities to visit zoos pretty regularly. J.L. Bell: Interesting point, that the Wogglebug's admiration for other people's lineage doesn't match with his pride in his own self-awarded academic standing. I'm not sure that it's necessarily out of character for him to be inconsistent in prizing achievement in himself and background in others, though -- might indicate an attempt to snag a bit of the genealogical glory he can't claim for himself otherwise by making it one of his academic studies. Inconsistent in the Wogglebug, but could be consistent in depicting his character. I'm not sure to what extent the story accepts the Wogglebug's snobbery as appropriate. The surprise-you're-royal-plot RPT used so often, just in itself, puts some degree of more or less snobbish value on high birth, but the feeling I get from the stories where she does it is that most of the value she's putting on being "royal" is a metaphoric way of underscoring the more serious value she's putting on "it's nice to have a family that love you." In "Royal Book," the Scarecrow abandons both the royal position and the newly-discovered family, finding that the adopted family of people who really love him, such as Dorothy and the Lion, is far more important than sons and grandsons who don't love him at all, so it seems to me that even though the Wogglebug is (mostly) holding by his snobbishness at the end, the Scarecrow and the narrative have thoroughly undercut it. Likewise an interesting point that the Scarecrow imposes a (non-royal) ruler on the Silver Islanders instead of leaving it to them to choose a ruler as he did in Jinxland. You're probably right in seeing at least some degree of ruler-idolizing here, but, then, there's a certain amount of royalatry built into the Jinxland plot, too, where the people given a free choice freely choose the two royal heirs. A noteworthy difference between the two situations is that in Jinxland the Scarecrow is offered and is refusing a job. In the Silver Islands, he has already been forced to accept the job, and it's plausible that in running out on the job he would feel that appointing a successor was part of the job and something he ought to do before bailing out. (He forces them to accept his choice before he leaves, but once he's off in Oz, they would probably be free to oust Happy Toko and put in the Grand Chew Chew, or a royal grandson, or someone else, if they liked.) Ruth Berman ====================================================================== From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 15:50:24 -0700 Gehan: I'll agree that Ozma's aging was considerably slower than usual when she was a baby. My belief is that about 12 years had elapsed between Pastoria's kidnapping and the Wizard's arrival. Further, at least two or three years must have elapsed between Ozma's birth an d the kidnapping. Too, give the Wizard at least three years to get to the throne of the Emerald City. That means that Ozma aged to perhaps three years old in a span of 21 years. A seven to one ratio is slow, but not unthinkable. Since I accept the events in _Oz and the Three Witches_, then I believe that the Wizard knew very well that Mombi was a Witch. Speaking of this, are we having any luck in contacting Hugh Pendexter III? I'll ask Chris where we can look him up. David G: _Oz and the Three Witches_ is fairly short. I would gladly volunteer to transcribe it into an e-text version, if we can find the copyright holder and get his permission. Gehan and the FRPG: The only two characters I want are Captain Salt and Re Alla Bad. If we can only have one, I'll take the Captain. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== From: LionCoward@aol.com Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 17:46:03 EST Subject: Oz book contest Some time ago, I added a link to my webpage to Brewster Bunny's Detective Agency. This is a sort of online game that offers prizes to the lucky winner. So far, there have been no takers. I suppose it helps to actually TELL someone that it is there, huh? I'd really like to have someone at least try for the prize. Please have a look at http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Meadow/7921/index.html I dunno the screen name to send to the Digest, but please share this with everyone, after you make your own attempt at solving the puzzle, of course ;) ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 21:18:51 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz All: The last Digest (Feb. 21 - March 1) broke the record. Nine days in one digest! :-) Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 21:50:44 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: ROYAL BOOK OF OZ centered Ruth Berman wrote: <> Now that's service! (And a reminder not to rely just on my British dictionary.) David Godwin wrote: <> I too was struck [though not thunderstruck] by the storm in ROYAL BOOK [63-5]. Baum left hints of poor weather (the rain at the end of TIN WOODMAN, the spell over Miss Cuttenclip's village), but nothing this bad. However, the storm ends just as suddenly as it begins, with no precipitation except Dorothy falling into a bush. Clearly it was Thompson's convenient way to lose Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion. David Hulan wrote: <> I developed a similar theory when researching the rules of early baseball. About halfway through the project I realized that each increasingly technical new rule was probably the fossil of a bench-clearing argument. I'd need to see examples of "dromedary" applied to a two-hump camel before being convinced, however. I suspect the reason authors (including the assemblers of my 1931 encyclopedia) felt a need to clarify so clearly is that all dromedaries are camels, but not all camels are dromedaries. Once Thompson created a Camel and a Dromedary, Neill seems to have taken some half-steps to distinguish the beasts. When they're standing or sitting together, he consistently shows the one-humped animal as larger [opp. 191, 213, 244]. Sometimes, but not always, the Comfortable Camel can also be distinguished by his tasseled headdress [249]. Often, however, the two animals' expressions show equal mixes of comfort, doubt, and simple obtuseness. Speaking of drawing animals, I used to sketch lots of pictures of the A-B-Sea Serpent as he looks on page 31. Just over and over [but not, thank goodness, over again]. It must have been because he was the first character in WHO'S WHO, and because drawing blocks is easy. Not until this reading, however, did I consider the chilling implications of a giant sea monster wearing an American sailor's cap. Ruth Berman wrote: <> Thanks for the date. It looks like Leonowens' story was revived in 1944 as a third-person book called ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM [part of the wartime interest in lands occupied or threatened by the Axis?], which prompted the adaptation frenzy David Hulan noted. Gehan Cooray wrote: <> This idea makes sense to me. It seems in keeping with the Wizard's character in all books outside LAND. Gehan Cooray wrote: <> Favorite: Ojo. Worst: Wutz. Ruth Berman wrote of the TIK-TOK maps: <> By added names, do you mean Jinxland, Mount Munch, the "Magic" Waterfall, and other sites not yet mentioned in the series? I can imagine Baum giving his artist a bit of carte blanche to add those features, and picking them up for his stories later. Or I can imagine him making up the names himself. I suppose the existence of Rinkitink and Pingaree seals the case that he must have provided at least a list and general notion of where lands lay. I thought one model for the TIK-TOK maps was the map Baum created for his Radio-Plays. But then I also thought I had a picture of that map in my library, and now I don't know where it might be. David Godwin wrote: <> If you want to continue exploring self-help/spiritual uses of Oz after that, you might scout out FROM CONFUCIUS TO OZ and THE LIZARD OF OZ. Then again, you might be completely fulfilled. Warren Baldwin wrote: <> I, too, read of a constitutionally-based lawsuit planned near the start of this year to reverse the copyright extension. Seemed a bit late, I thought. I don't understand the rest of your message, though, Warren; much of the world (especially Europe) had elongated their copyright terms *before* the U.S. did. Italy was in the forefront; I've wondered whether the government of media mogul Berlusconi was the one that extended copyright. ****SPOILER**** Gehan Cooray wrote about RETURN TO OZ: <> I believe that blonde girl is supposed to be the real-world version of Ozma, just as the sanitarium's doctor and nurse are played by the same actors who portray Mombi and the Nome King. The makers of RETURN TO OZ seem to have felt the need to recreate that aspect of the MGM movie. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 23:19:01 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David G.) Subject: The Wizard and Zen of Oz The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: If you haven't read WWiz in a while, you might want to go back and do so. You may be in for some surprises. I recently reread this first and foundational Oz book after having gone through the rest of the FF, the QFS, and a few others (Roger Baum, ECP, _Visitors, Wicked, Wisdom of Oz, Zen of Oz_, Rushdie, etc.) It had been a while since my last reading of this basic Oz text. It's not the same book when it's read in the light of the subsequent canon. I was astonished to learn that -- The Quadling country is not immediately south of the Emerald City. The forest of the fighting trees, the Dainty China Country, and the mountains of the Hammerheads intervene. After you leave the EC, it is a two-day journey to Quadling country through a very rough landscape. A similar situation seems to obtain with regard to the Munchkin territory, separated from the EC by a generally wild and unpopulated area featuring a deep forest swarming with kalidahs. Most of the citizens of Oz are no bigger than a six-year-old child (i.e., Dorothy). Although many meals are described in detail, not once does any human being eat any meat of any kind. At this point in Ozstory, death seems to be quite common. Dorothy's house lands on the WWE and kills her, the TW speaks of his parents' having died, a couple of kalidahs fall to their deaths, the TW kills a wildcat, the TW kills forty wolves, the Scarecrow forty crows, and the TW forty bees, Dorothy melts the WWW, the CL kills the giant spider (which had previously eaten a lot of animals), and so on. Not many of these deaths are natural, but some are. Glinda's youthful appearance, like that of Zixi of Ix, is due to her magic arts, not to any cessation of aging in Oz. After getting his courage from the Wizard (as he supposes), the CL really is courageous and without fear. In later books, esp. RPT's, his cowardice reasserts itself (because of its comic potential, I think, but incongruously from the OzHist POV). The CL chooses to live forever in the great forest between the Hammerheads and the China Country,. In later books, he turns up as a regular inhabitant of the EC. At this point in time, Glinda is a mere witch, not yet a sorceress. She evidently has no GBR. There is nothing to indicate that she ever knew of Dorothy's existence before she showed up on her doorstep (unlike the movie, where Glinda and the GWN are the same person). Glinda's hairstyle is definitely described as long ringlets falling over her white gown. Perhaps she changed her hairstyle to the (unattractive, IMHO) Neill-style hairnets after she became a sorceress. It would be interesting if someone were to write a book detailing this phase of Glinda's career. If she is in training to be a sorceress, who is her mentor? Not Lurline, because that's fairy magic. Does she have access to some ancient books of magic and is slowly becoming a self-taught magic worker? Of course, from the OzLit POV, all this just reflects LFB's changing ideas about the character, but it does lead to interesting speculations. _The Zen of Oz_: I said last time that I would review this book, so here goes: The book is _The Zen of Oz: Ten Spiritual Lessons from Over the Rainbow_ by Joey Green (author of _Polish Your Furniture with Panty Hose_), Los Angeles: Renaissance Books, 1998. Number one, it is based entirely on the MGM movie. There's a place where he mentions that he read the Oz books to his kids, but there isn't a shred of evidence anywhere else in the book that he ever read a single one of them. He assumes that Dorothy's journey to the EC is an adventure in satori (Zen enlightenment). He then takes ten statements from the movie (e.g., "Follow the yellow brick road") and uses them to make various points about Zen teachings. The book features Japanese-woodblock-style illustrations of scenes from the movie in which all the characters have an oriental appearance. I read this book immediately after reading _The Wisdom of Oz_, so comparisons are inevitable. In general, I would say this book is much more attractively designed, better edited, and better proofread than _Wisdom_. The writing is much clearer and more straightforward with less jargon (although he does tend to go on about such things as "the creative potential of the universe." I'm sorry to say that this phrase fails to convey very much to my spiritually benighted mind.) I've only had nine hours of college psychology, but it appears to my unpracticed eye that Green is a fairly perceptive psychologist. Rather than just going on and on about empowerment and self-esteem, he gets into things about motivation, sibling rivalry, etc. Both Green and Morena stress the importance of getting in touch with your authentic self, of which WWiz (or MGMWiz) is supposed to be an allegory. Of the two, I would rather read Green's book any day of the week, and not just because it's shorter. Nevertheless, there is never any suggestion that Baum (as opposed to Glinda) was a Zen master who knew what he was doing. Instead, Green seems to just be using MGMWiz to illustrate a few basic points about Zen. I am not a Zen master, either, or even a Zen student, but I get the impression that he did a reasonably good job. - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 16:45:12 -0500 (EST) From: Subject: A special discount to see The Wizard of Oz at Madison Square Gard en (fwd) ============================================================================ === = Scott Andrew Hutchins http://php.iupui.edu/~sahutchi Oz, Monsters, Kamillions, and More! "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."--Noam Chomsky ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 15:12:31 -0500 From: "Webmaster, MSG" Subject: A special discount to see The Wizard of Oz at Madison Square Gard en Offer: $5 off weekday Wizard of Oz performances Restrictions: Offer valid on weekday performances only. There is a 10-ticket limit per order. Available on: $59/ $39/ $29 ticket levels Offer Starts: March 2, 1999 Implementation: Customers must ask for code: JWEB when ordering tickets Available at: Ticketmaster phones (212) 307-7171 and Garden Box Office Expiration: May 14, 1999 Notes: Offer is subject to availability; may not be combined with any other offer/discount. Tickets are not refundable or exchangeable. 10 ticket limit per order. ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 00:43:18 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David G.) Subject: Oz Oz Oz RTOz: There's been some discussion of this movie in the past month or two, but all of it has been in the way of mentioning it in passing. I saw it when it first came out and was enthralled. I really got a psychological/emotional high seeing the Gump take off from the palace. Then Siskel and Ebert (Ebert especially) gave it thumbs down because it wasn't much like the MGM movie. Too dark and scary for the tots, they said. Oh yeah? I said. What about the Winged Monkeys? Weren't they scary? What about the marching Winkies and the castle of the WWW? Weren't they dark? It's enough to make you sympathize with the Cowardly Lion ("Talk me out of it!"). Since that time, my feelings toward RTOz have cooled a little. I think the thing that most disturbed me about it was not the electroshock nonsense that they tacked on (which, if they absolutely had to have it, was nevertheless about four times too long), not the transmogrification of the Nome King from a comic villain into some fearsome supernatural creature with more akin to the elemental gnomes of Paracelsus than the egg-fearing Nomes of LFB, but the fact that Fairuza Balk never once smiled during the whole movie. Even during the triumphal procession in the Emerald City, she looked puzzled and morose. In answer to your question, Gehan, yes, that was supposed to be Ozma who rescued Dorothy from the booby hatch. How she got out of the mirror long enough to do so, I don't know, but I seem to remember that there was some explanation for it. David Whitten: >I'm interested in re-reading Thompson's OZ books. I have been told that >a) they were printed by Del Rey b) they are not in print any longer. > >Is there a source (online or otherwise) to get them? > There are several that seem to be unavailable, but most of the Del Reys can be obtained from the International Wizard of Oz Club (www.ozclub.org). Books of Wonder has a few that they have published, including the last four that were never published by Del Rey as far as I know. >On a different note, are there any MUSHes or MOOs (text based virtual >realities) that have re-created OZ ? >If there are not, I am a wiz at a MOO (telnet://park.dds.nl:7777) >and would be willing to give quota to anyone who is interested in making >a Virtual Oz on the internet...especially if they want to make it more than >the glimpse of Oz seen in the movie. Sounds very intersting, but unfortunately all my attempts to go to that url result in a message that says "This program does not support the protocol for accessing telnet://park.dds.nl:7777." Gehan wrote: >BTW, who is your FAVOURITE Oz criminal, and your WORST Oz criminal? My fav. >are Jinjur and Queen Coo-ee-oh. I cant stand Ruggedo, Ugu, and all the >villians in the Thompson books. >Who is your favorite Oz hero/heroine? My fav. are Trot,Dorothy and the >Scarecrow and maybe the Wizard.......... Seems like the Digesters have been through all this before, but it was really before my time, so I'll play the game. My favorite Oz bad guy is without a doubt the wonderful Nome King. He reminds me of myself in some ways. I don't know whether you mean "most fearsome" or "least interesting" when you say "worst." The most fearsome would probably be the Queen of the Mimics. The worst in the sense of "a dull or offensive character that I can't stand" might be Abrog/Gorba, although his appearance is mercifully brief. My favorite heroine is Dorothy; she often seems to have more common sense, self-possession, and pluck than most of the adults back here in the Great Outside World. Ozma is admirable in many ways, but she seldom gets down off her throne and goes adventuring. I suppose you could say (Lurline forgive me) that she's a Magic Picture potato. My favorite hero would be the Tin Woodman, although I'm not sure why I make that choice. "He's cool,that's all." - David G. ====================================================================== From: Ozmama@aol.com Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 10:57:17 EST Subject: Unposted response to Digest Subj: Re: Ozzy Digest, 02-20-99 Date: 2/19/99 David H.: Yes, Princess Orange Blossom looks like a snubnosed Blue princess. Makes one wonder what chinless person Neill knew and thoroughly disliked, doesn't it? <> I'm ashamed to report that I wrote the chorus to the duo's muddy ditty (gasp) right in the book (p.46) when I was a teenager. :( Of *course* the Middling Anthem triggered that song in our minds and vice versa. For those who don't know the F&S song, here's the chorus: "Mud, mud, glorious mud, There's nothing quite like it for cooling the blood. So follow me, follow, Down to the hollow, And there we will wallow, In glorious mud!" Possible prejudice/bias: The only thing I've noted so far is on p.117 with Happy Toko's "A 'talking China in a way/To break a white man's jaw, Sir!" The rest of the Chinese material seems quite lovely and sets an exotic tone for the setting. Overall, I'm impressed with the quality of writing in the book, and am distressed with the lack of quality in the proofing. No one seems to have caught the many "it's" for "its" errors. I like the whimsy and the inventiveness. I like the doggerel, which is pretty durned good, overall. I'll get to Fix City tonight, and then my enthusiasm will probably wane, since I'm not very fond of the IE. It's overly forced for my taste, since it's based on a single pun and is rather an unpleasant and pointless interlude. Overall, I'm glad for an excuse to reread the book. I haven't read an Oz book in quite some time, and it's fun! As for David's mention of the "comb" for "cone" on p.90, my first edition uses "cone." My childhood copy...from somewhere in the '50s, also uses "cone." I'll have to go look it up in _BibOz_, but I don't recall that as an edition point. --Robin ====================================================================== From: Ozmama@aol.com Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 11:23:47 EST Subject: Ozzy Digest: Feb. 21--March 1 David G:Personally, I am - disturbed, shall we say? - by the storm that caused Dorothy and the CL to stray into Pokes in the first place. Such weather is so rare in Oz that I expected some sort of explanation for its special occurrence, but none was forthcoming. I can't recall any other such storm in the FF, unless it was that house- dropping cyclone.>> I immediately get the mental image of Kabumpo, ears and tarp fluttering in the wind, as he is swept away by an RPT storm. Was that in _Kabumpo_? I think so. Stereotypes: Neill seems more guilty than Thompson of stereotyping the Chinese. His illos are demeaning, IMO. His most demeaning illos, btw, are probably those of Sambo in what I think was the earliest reprint of the Bannerman book. (Reilly & Britton were the first to publish that book, IIRC, after she lost her copyright through mismanagement.) Neill's Sambo is Ubangi-lipped and very dark. More racist, even, than Bannerman's original illos. She, being veddy British and in India, had the concept that Indians were blacks inculcated early on. I wonder what Neill's excuse was. His Chinese characters are all too consistent with his Little Black Sambo. The stereotypical features are grossly exaggerated in each case. Thompson does stereotype, but the Neill pictures come off as rather offensive caricatures. :( --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Mar 1999 19:23:18 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: Loveliana or Lovelian? I've already told you about my story on Princess Langwidere, her mother(Queen of Lovelyland) and her sister Belle. Which name would suit her mother better? Loveliana or Lovelianne? PS- Can we actually consider Princess Langwdiere a villainess? She was rather like Snow-White's stepmother. Proud, Vain, Selfish, Stubborn, Lazy and she always had a "I get what I want!" attitude, much like the wicked queen in Snow-white. In my book, she plays a very major part, along with her mother and her sister Belle in stopping a wicked witch from conquering fairyland and turning it into a dark, ugly, creepy, unpleasent place. Langwdiere is one of my fav. and so I want to make her a heroine. But, do you think she would be better for a heroine or a villainous? BTW- Which name would be better for the witch? Ugliana or Uglianne? Thanks a million, --Gehan "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 07:09:43 EDT Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission - New Garland Recordings Found 50-51,55-56,60-65,70-71,74-75,79-80,82-83,87-88,92 From: "Earl C. Abbe" Judy Garland Recordings Found In N.J. Basement (Last updated 12:30 AM ET March 5) By Sarah Tippit LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Judy Garland is making a comeback 30 years after her death. A rare two-CD set of her work, based on audio and video tapes that were secretly stored in a New Jersey basement for more than 20 years, has gone on sale in U.S. music stores. The digitally remastered CDs include duets from her 1960s TV show with such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Ethel Merman, Dean Martin, Bobby Darin, Lena Horne, Count Basie and Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli. They also include an emotional concert at Broadway's Palace Theater that was secretly taped from her backstage bathroom by her former husband and manager Sid Luft. The tapes were believed lost forever until Luft got a phone call in 1993 from a young man in Florida who demanded $250,000 for their return. "I got a call one day from a chap. He says, 'My name is Billy,"' Luft told Reuters. "I said, 'Yeah, Billy, what can I do for you?' He said, 'I found all your tapes and kinescopes.' ... I said, 'What do you want for all this stuff?' He said, '$250,000.' I said, 'You're flirting with Leavenworth!' He said, 'I'm going to hang up on you."' But Billy called back and Luft was able to bargain. 'BILLY, BE REALISTIC' "In our next conversation I said, 'Billy what do you want? Billy, be realistic.' He says, 'I want a yacht.' I said, 'How long?' He said, '100 feet will do.' I knew he had a sense of humor. I said, 'Billy, let me see what I can do and let me get back to you,"' Luft said. As it turned out, Billy had found the tapes in the basement of his grandmother's house in northern New Jersey after her death. It was unclear who had acquired them, presumably illegally, and hidden them there, Luft said. The young man's stepfather turned them over to Luft, who rewarded Billy with $10,000. "All this stuff was in a crawl space in his grandmother's house," Luft said. "Barrels of it. It was in surprisingly good condition." The CD set produced by BCD/MSL Partners was digitally remastered but without enhancements to the sound. It includes the sounds of Garland moving about the stage as well as historic duets from "The Judy Garland Show." Garland was overworked and not in good health during the show, which ran for 26 episodes, but she saw it as a way to pay off debts. Alas, Luft said, she did not make any money at all from the show even though the music was classic Garland. "Judy could cough better than anybody, let alone sing. She was a phenomenal creature. She tried so hard with this project, she was so convinced it was her annuity .... that's the tragedy. When she died in 1969 she had a lot of debt." Had she lived, Garland would have been 75 this year. PLAYING THE PALACE The second half of the set contains the final performance of Garland's historic concert on Feb. 24, 1952, at New York's legendary Palace Theater. The concert, although never commercially recorded, may be better than the concerts at Carnegie Hall for which she won several Grammys, Luft said. He said he had holed up in her backstage bathroom and recorded from her microphone cord onto a portable tape recorder he had just received as a gift from Bing Crosby. "I wanted a record of it. You might say it was a souvenir of the 19 weeks at the Palace, which was a record run at the time. You're not supposed to record in a Broadway theater. I knew was going to be a special night," Luft said. "It's really remarkable it came out the way it did," he said. "You would think you're right in the Palace Theater." During her final encore at the Palace, which was Garland's favorite theater, the audience serenaded her with a rousing "Auld Lang Syne," which Variety at the time called "one of the warmest tributes ever given to a headliner in New York." Garland ended with "probably the most remarkable recording of 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' I've ever heard," Luft said. "That is extraordinary. How that happened I don't know. She was so emotional. It's the most emotional recording I've ever heard." ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 05 Mar 99 15:56:18 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things WITCHES: Gehan wrote: >It seems as if the GWN is very weak in magic. Yet she managed to conquer >Mombi, who was once the most powerful witch in Oz. My theory in _Locasta_ is that Mombi only *pretended* to lose, only to take Locasta by surprise later. (Any further elaboration would constitute a spoiler...) OZ CASTING: Lisa wrote: >Tina Majorino - Betsy Bobbin >Scarecrow - Gene Wilder These appear to be "Alice"-inspired. :) I know it's OT, but what did you all think of "Alice" Sunday? Anyone else think a Jim Henson Oz on the face of it sounds more promising than a Tim Burton Oz? I've posted my dream Oz cast list here before, so I won't repeat the whole thing (I may post it on my web page if anyone's interested) -- But in brief: Ozma: Chloe Annett (from "Red Dwarf") Glinda: Judy Davis Jellia: Winona Ryder Scarecrow: Chris Barrie (from "Red Dwarf") Tin Man: Robert Llewelyn (from "Red Dwarf") Cowardly Lion: Ken Page Wizard: Nigel Hawthorne (from "Yes, Prime Minister") Dorothy: Tina Majorino Aujah: Susan Sarandon Aurah: Geena Davis Audah: Jane Horrocks GWN: Angela Lansbury Zim the Flying Sorcerer: Nigel Havers OZ + 3W: Ruth wrote: >I see from David Godwin's and Tyler Jones' >comments that the question of whether "Oz and the Three Witches" >can be made available continues to be of interest. Maybe next time >you can give us a report -- have you written Hugh Pendexter yet (and >was the address that I had for him still good)? I'm afraid schoolwork and the continued hard days for my mom have made it hard for me, but I'll write him as soon as I can... RTOZ: Like David G. and others, I have many problems with _Return_: The shock treatment (yeah, right, Auntie Em would really do that to her!), the utter lack of humor, and WHERE WAS GLINDA??? Here's a really heretical idea: How about a straight movie adaptation of _Land_??! (I know, I know -- You can't do an Oz movie w/o Dot!) FAVORITES: David G. wrote: >Ozma is admirable in many ways, but she seldom gets down off >her throne and goes adventuring. She and Jellia become much more active and adventuring in my own books. -- Dave ====================================================================== ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 6 - 10, 1999 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 05 Mar 1999 20:43:39 -0500 From: "Lisa M. Mastroberte" X-Accept-Language: en Subject: replies to the last digest dave: yeah, they were a bit alice inspired...:) the alice in wonderland on sunday was a very cool adaption of carroll...taking a little liberty but otherwise good. i especially liked the white rabbit...."oh, i'm late! oh no!" i half expect him to add "i'll be dipped for this!" :) <> I personally loved rtoz.......even if it was a little heretical. and if wasn't for that movie i would never have even _heard_ of the oz books! gehan: For the roleplaying game....I'll be Betsy Bobbin. She has always been my fave.. Peace!! -Lisa ====================================================================== From: Ozmama@aol.com Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 21:32:52 EST Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-99 Storms in Oz: Let's not forget that a storm is what started the whole Oz series, albeit not a storm in Oz itself. John Bell: I like your tightly plotted ending to _Royal Book_. Good job! Earl Abbe: Thank you so much for the info about the new Judy CD's. That's really kinda exciting, y'know?! One more thing, Earl: any chance at all that you might make it to Lake Lawn this June? Or at least to Indiana next summer? I miss you, and Munchies now meets while I'm back at school. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 11:51:11 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David Frank Godwin) Subject: Oz Gehan wrote: >Tyler wanted to play two of the >Thompson characters too. So did David Godwin. I don't recall volunteering for anybody except Cap'n Bill. If we can choose more than one character, and if we can do villains, I might take Ruggedo (pure Baum or according to RPT, makes no difference). For a third, I thought about Betsy. Betsy would be the most challenging, seems to me, because she wasn't the main character in more than two books (Tik-Tok and Tiger) and it's hard to get a handle on her. Still, since I was born and raised in Texas and Betsy's from Oklahoma, maybe that would give me some insights. Nevertheless, I'd prefer Tik-Tok. I'm not crazy about mules. Nathan DeHoff wrote, with regard to my comments about the storm in _Royal Book_: >There was a pretty bad storm in _Cowardly Lion_, and it rained (although >I can't recall any thunder or lightning) in _Tin Woodman_. I admit that there are other storms in other books - and some nice ones, too - but this one was peculiar because of the total darkness it produced (and some magical property that enabled the Cowardly Lion to run halfway across Oz in a very short time). J. L. Bell wrote: >If you want to continue exploring self-help/spiritual uses of Oz after >that, you might scout out FROM CONFUCIUS TO OZ and THE LIZARD OF OZ. Then >again, you might be completely fulfilled. It might be more accurate to say "filled." And with regard to RTOz: >I believe that blonde girl is supposed to be the real-world version of >Ozma, just as the sanitarium's doctor and nurse are played by the same >actors who portray Mombi and the Nome King. When I first saw the movie, I "knew" right away that it was Ozma herself, somehow reaching into our world to rescue Dorothy and get help for herself. I got quite a frisson when she appeared in Dorothy's room at the sanitarium, which seemed to be a magical/supernatural event. That notion was reinforced by the fact that no one but the nurse was in the hallway when Dorothy went to look, and we never saw the door open or close when the blonde girl came and went. The identification was given weight near the end when Dorothy said, "I thought you'd drowned." Later, back in Kansas, no mention is made of a child drowning. So it really was Ozma, right? Even though trapped in a mirror in Oz, she was somehow able to move into our world (a distorted mirror image of Oz?) at least tentatively. But, upon looking at the video again, I can't understand why I ever thought that. The strange blonde girl is evidently a patient or relative of the doctor or nurse, who doesn't seem suitably surprised when she sees "Ozma." Memory is a treacherous thing, too. Ms. Balk did indeed smile upon several occasions, including most of the time during the EC procession, but I only remembered the 95% of the time when she looked depressed, frightened, sad, puzzled, and just about as bad a mental case as the adults thought she was. As long as we're whining about this movie, I might as well mention that it strikes me as very odd that a flood in Kansas can carry a crate across the Deadly Desert and dump it a few feet from Oz. Dave wrote: > I know it's OT, but what >did you all think of "Alice" Sunday? I thought Alice was very good, but some of the other characters were IMHO overdone. But maybe not. I have to remember that the primary audience is kids. I thought some of the changes made to the book(s) were unncecessary (e,g,, the caucus race in a library, including an anthropomorphized dodo). Overall, it was above average. But it was a sort of obvious homage (or theft) when it made everyone in Wonderland have a real-life counterpart. Duh. Wonder where they got that idea? This device then necessitated the garden party at which Alice was to be forced to recite. But, since Alice does a fair amount of more or less unwilling recital in the books, this scenario fit in pretty well. And I did a double take at the end when Alice woke up. Was that Toto? Dave also wrote: >Like David G. and others, I have many problems with _Return_: The >shock treatment (yeah, right, Auntie Em would really do that to her!), In all likelihood, Auntie Em had never seen _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_. - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 18:40:10 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: ROYAL BOOK OF OZ footnotes Robin Olderman wrote: <> Fix City, for some reason, was my favorite IE this time through ROYAL BOOK. Thompson does pound one note over and over, but she gets the most she can out of it with some nifty visual images. I particularly liked Dorothy's remark about going to sleep in the moving bed as "Just like sleeping in a train" [177], which she did around the time of DOROTHY & WIZARD. Whoever recently characterized Thompson's IEs as our heroes stumbling into a community who want to make all newcomers like themselves was certainly on target for this book. The Middlings offer the Scarecrow "a coat of mud" [44], the Pokes try to put Dorothy and the Lion in their pokey, and the Fixes are fixed on convincing them to stay put as well. Even the Silvermen want to make the Scarecrow one of them [again?]. My least favorite episode in ROYAL BOOK doesn't even have that soon-to-be-familiar story line, though. It has none at all: the pointless appearance of Memo and Randum. Ruth Berman wrote: <> Except in PURPLE PRINCE, where Randy's father loves him so much that he's abdicated and headed for the hills! I think you're right the Thompson would certainly say that the Professor gets his comeuppance at the end of ROYAL BOOK, and that the Scarecrow leaves the Silver Islands more democratic than when he arrived. But I also sense that Baum would have gone a bit further than she did. He could end stories with heroes returning to families that weren't royal or American (e.g., Ojo). Miscellaneous ROYAL BOOK remarks: The only line in the book that made me laugh out loud was Maud Baum's: "You see I am Mrs. Baum, the wife of the Royal Historian of Oz, and so I know how he feels about everything" [9]. Yes, dear. When he's in Pokes, Sir Hokus is described as "melancholy" [76], acting "mournfully" [77], "gravely," "wistfully" [78], and even "brokenly" [80], though Thompson also remarks on his "kind, timid...dignity" [76]. When he escapes, Thompson shows him as "kind-hearted and jolly and so polite," and he even cracks jokes [163-4]. I don't think he ever truly escapes his melancholy, however, at least while he's in the body of the old knight; it certainly resurfaces to spur the plot of YELLOW KNIGHT. Comparing a mid-century Reilly & Lee edition to Books of Wonder's, I was struck by the latter firm's difficulty in matching some of Neill's double-page spreads vertically. My edition has particularly odd effects on pages 160-1 and 224-5. The shift in trim size, perhaps combined with a different binding process, may not have been kind to Mr. Neill. Finally, here's a mystery that my old edition of BIBLIOGRAPHIA OZIANA didn't help me with. Why is the first numbered page of ROYAL BOOK--page 13--actually the eleventh? As usual, I'm not counting the endpaper or color plate. Both my editions, neither of which is a first, have this oddity. David Godwin wrote about WIZARD: <> Both comic potential, I think, and because cowardice is the only thing that sets this Lion off from other lions, making him an interesting (and non-frightening) character. Baum re-establishes the Lion's cowardice early in OZMA, though he also makes clear that (as in WIZARD) his fears don't get in his way when he has to act bravely. I tie the Lion's relapse to the fact that the Wizard's courage--a liquid to drink--leaves no visible or audible trace. To remind himself that he has brains, the Scarecrow need only note the pins and needles that occasionally stick out of his burlap scalp. To recall his heart, the Tin Woodman can hear the rattle in his chest. But the Cowardly Lion has no such reminder, and after leaving the forest [do we really know the full story why?] he has no deferential subjects to remind him he's king of beasts, either. David Godwin wrote about RETURN TO OZ: <> I always liked watching Gene Siskel's face when Roger Ebert--who has no children--talked confidently about what kids would and wouldn't like. It's sad we won't see that anymore. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 23:23:54 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz David Godwin: As for Glinda's being a witch or sorceress, this item was discussed long ago on the digest. The consensus (though not unanimous) was that the specifi titles of magic-workers, "witch", "wizard", "magician", "sorcerer/ess" are either self-bestowed or just mentioned by people. IMHO, a woman who practices magic would naturally be called a witch by people, not knowing the subtle difference between the various titles. Further, I don't believe that all of the various titles (you can add seer, soothsayer, cookywitch and yookoohoo to the list) are all part of some graduated hierarchy, where you start out as a magician, work your way up to witch/warlock, then wizard, and finally achieve your PHD as a sorceress. The conclusion reached in general is that the power of magic is "out there" in raw form. When a person studies it, they study it in a way that appeals to them, and may choose a title accordingly. Witches seem to be involved with transformations, sorcerers with information and Wizards with mechanical and engineering applications. Fairies, it seems, are magical by nature and their power appears to be inherent, although Ozma uses her wand and seems to have gained in power over the years, and not just from the Magic Belt. Dave Hardenbrook calls this "The Magic of Everything". I believe that there is ultimately one source of magic (call it the Universe if you will). How people apply that magic, the type of magic that they do and the power that they wield depends on the person and their abilities, not some artificial title. RTP tried to do this to an extent, by stating that a Cookywitch is next in Wizardry to a Sorceress, but with all due respect, that doesn't really mean anything. I believe that Glinda was always a sorceress, but was usually called a witch until she became better known and people knew that she was addressed as a sorceress. BTW, I noticed in _Wizard_ that Glinda's dress was white, following up on what Boq said about white being the color of witches. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 23:23:56 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Gehan: Two theories as to how/why the GWN conquered Mombi are that 1) The GWN took Mombi by suprise, as you said, and two, Mombi only pretended to lose so that she could retire into anonymity and plot her schemes... David Gowdin: Interesting observation on the territories of Oz in early times. I once speculated that the four quadrants of Oz were not always under the control of one unbroken line of rulers. Ruth Berman took that idea a step further and speculated that the entire area of each quadrant was not always even thought of as being part of that area. She also added that there were probably large uninhabited areas of the wilderness that were ruled by nobody. There may have been several "No-Man's" lands all over Oz, with the traditional Munchkin, Quadling, etc. countries existing only in their core areas. As for meals, I haven't read it in a while, but I seem to remember the meals being described as pleasing to children: cookies, pie, cake, etc. Did you come across any vegetables? The many incidents of death have led to the theory that deathlessness was a gradual change that became complete only with Ozma's ascension to the throne. I remember a passage in one of Baum's books about the Cowardly Lion moving from the forest to the Emerald City. It must have been _Ozma_, _Dotwiz_ or _Road_. Apparantly, he heard of Ozma taking the throne and he journeyed to EC to meet her. Can anyone remember this passage? It must have been early Baum. My response to Glinda's title is long and has it's own message, probably somewhere below :-) Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 23:34:50 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Dave: You mom comes first. We can ati a little while for _Oz and the Three Witches_ to be made available to all. I hope she is getting better. If all else fails, I could write a VERY detailed discussion of the story and post that on the internet, although I would prefer just to e-text the whole thing. We'll wait a while and see. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 15:09:01 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: RTOZ RPG Well, I've decided to turn that into a RTOZ roleplaying Game. I've also decided to take characters from the parade (Polychrome, Scraps e.t.c) The following characters are already taken: *.Polychrome *.Shaggy Man *.Scraps *.Dorothy *.Glass Cat *.Wogglebug *.Adepts *.Jellia-Jamb *.Eureka *.Captain Salt and two other Thompson characters. Plus, RTOZ Digest members wanted to be: *.JP (Jack Pumpkinhead) *.Mombi You can play upto three characters the most. I also beleive that all the characters in the FF were in the parade at the end of the movie. Other than the following characters, who for certain, were not in the parade: *.Langwidere *.Trot *.Betsy *.Button-Bright So you can be any character you would like to be, other than those mentioned above. Although the storylines will be RTOZ related. I choose to play: *.Jinjur *.Coo-ee-oh *.Cowardly Lion It would be nice to see everyone participate. It'll be fun. Please tell your friends about it too... Cya later, Email me to join, --Gehan "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 8 Mar 99 13:48:54 CST From: "Ruth Berman" Subject: royalbookends J. L. Bell: You may be right in thinking that the "Royal" illo on p. 48 is upsidedown. It's not so clear a case as the "Wishing Horse" illo of the Scarecrow pole-vaulting over a bar that got printed as the Scarecrow sliding under a bar and being pulled up by his pole. (The Del Rey edition, incidentally, corrected that, printing it upsideup.) If this one is upsidedown, it's an illo of the Scarecrow falling on his face, or, rather, about to. But if Neill misread the description of the Scarecrow blown halfway up to the roof and thought the Scarecrow wemt roof-high in the blast, then the illo as printed might be what he intended. // Interesting set of suggestions for how ending of book could have been stronger. Lisa M. Mastroberte: Suggesting Gene Wilder for Scarecrow -- several years back he did a wonderful job playing Hawthorne's pumpkinheaded scarecrow Feathertop, in a production for PBS's American Theater series. David Godwin: It's probably fair to say that "Return to Oz" is darker than the MGM "Wizard," although the corollary that it's too dark-and- scary for kids doesn't seem to match up with the way kids actually responded to the movie. I don't recall reports that kids hid under their seats at it, as they're said to have done (for that matter, as my parents told me I did, although I don't remember doing so) with Margaret Hamilton. One difference here may be that electroshock therapy doesn't mean much to kids, but is Very Scary to many adults. Dave Hardenbrook: Jim Henson did actually do a Muppet "Wizard of Oz" one time on the Muppet tv show. I don't have a clear memory of it except for the splendid absurdity of Fozzie Bear in silver as a bloated Tin Woodman. (Or am I remembering the Muppet "Alice," and they were throwing in "Wizard" jokes as a sideline to that?) The Majorino-led "Alice" was visually beautiful, and some of the individual scenes were delightful, but the whole idea of turning Wonderland into therapy for stagefright seemed ridiculous. (And I doubt that parents who had asked for a performance of "Cherry Ripe" would be quite so pleased to get "The Lobster Quadrille.") Ruth Berman ====================================================================== From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 16:24:43 -0700 Non-Ozzy plug (just the URL please): http://www.tyler1.apprentice.com/bookplug.htm Tyler Jones ====================================================================== From: "Bob Collinge" Subject: Fw: Happy99 Virus (worm) Information [Off-Topic] Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 08:49:39 -0500 -----Original Message----- Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 14:43:59 -0600 To: all-employees-worldwide@atlas.na.informix.com From: Bob Coombs ext 8560 Subject: Happy99 Virus (worm) Information Sender: owner-worldwide@informix.com Reply-To: Bob Coombs ext 8560 We have experienced a virus/worm called Happy99. It is transmitted via email, shown as an attachment called Happy99.exe. If you receive an attachment with this name, DO NOT open it, please delete it. The virus does not become active unless you open this file. If you have already opened the file, you will now transmit this virus with every email that you send. For a more technical explanation, you can read the information below. (snipped) Bob Coombs Information Services ================================= NAME: Win32/Ska.A ALIAS: Happy99, WSOCK32.SKA, SKA.EXE, I-Worm.Happy, PE_SKA SIZE: 10000 Win32/Ska.A is a Win32-based e-mail and newsgroup worm. It displays fireworks when executed first time as Happy99.exe. (Normally this file arrives as an e-mail attachment to a particular PC, or it is downloaded from a newsgroup.) When executed first time, it creates SKA.EXE and SKA.DLL in the system directory. SKA.EXE is a copy of HAPPY99.EXE. SKA.DLL is packed inside SKA.EXE. After this Ska creates a copy of WSOCK32.DLL as WSOCK32.SKA in the system directory. Then it tries to patch WSOCK32.DLL so that its export entries for two functions will point to new routines (to the worm's own functions) inside the patched WSOCK32.DLL. If WSOCK32.DLL is in use, Ska.A modifies the registry's RunOnce entry to execute SKA.EXE during next boot-up. (When executed as SKA.EXE it does not display the firework, just tries to patch WSCOK32.DLL until it is not used.) "Connect" and "Send" exports are patched in WSOCK32.DLL. Thus the worm is able to see if the local user has any activity on network. When "Connect" or "Send" APIs are called, Ska loads its SKA.DLL containing two exports: "news" and "mail". Then it spams itself to the same newsgroups or same e-mail addresses where the user was posting or mailing to. It maps SKA.EXE to memory and converts it to uuencoded format and mails an additional e-mail or newsgroup post with the same header information as the original message but containing no text but just an attachment called Happy99.exe. Therefore Happy99 is not limited like the Win32/Parvo virus which is unable to use a particular news server when the user does not have access to it. The worm also maintains a list of addresses it has posted a copy of itself. This is stored in a file called LISTE.SKA. (The number of entries are limited in this file.) The worm contains the following encrytped text which is not displayed: Is it a virus, a worm, a trojan? MOUT-MOUT Hybrid (c) Spanska 1999. The mail header of the manipulated mails will contain a new field called "X-Spanska: YES". Normally this header field is not visible to receivers of the message. Since the worm does not check WSOCK32.DLL's attribute, it can not patch it if it is set to read only. ====================================================================== From: "Jim Vander Noot" Subject: For the Digest... Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 06:17:35 -0500 Can anyone offer suggestions? Thanks, Jim From: Tails999@aol.com Date: Sat, 6 Mar 1999 10:03:13 EST Subject: can you help don't even know where you are located.....but nothing to loose....we are doing a wizard of oz theme dance in the spring and are looking to locate lots of oz props etc.......we are in the bergen county area of nj......just outside of nyc.....can you recommend anywhere to look.....thanks pat ====================================================================== From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1999 12:47:38 -0700 Mistakes were made: Yesterday, I sent a plug for a non-Ozzy item, and I gave the wrong URL. Take out the www, and you have the correct one: http://tyler1.apprentice.com/bookplug.htm Thanks, Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 14:24:46 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: Oz Digest Hey everyone! I just thought of the perfect actor to star as Ruggedo: Danny De Vito BTW, remember we were talking about -Land-, as to how the Saw-Horse ran across the Deadly Desert with Glinda on its back? It must have been a desert inside Oz as we agreed, for the Saw-Horse was made of wood, and as we all know, trees have life. However, in -Road- it says that "Anything made of flesh, or anything that was once alive would turn to dust". Whereas in -RTOZ- Dorothy says:"ANYTHING living" which includes those such as the Scarecrow and the Tinwoodman. Ofcourse, RTOZ is not the real Oz. BTW, if the MGM movie isn't the real Oz, then why are we so concerned about it? Dont tell me because its a great movie! True, I really, really enjoyed it, but it doesn't have that "ozzy" feeling and that "ozziness" that we find in the books. Oz is more like a humdrum place in the movie, with not many magic places or magical beings. And even though I enjoyed it, I dont rate it the "best movie ever made" whereas the ozzy books in IMHO are the "best childrens stories(series) ever written" But that all defers from ones opinion. Still, I think that the MGM movie fans should read more FF books. (PS-If they havent) Thankyou, --Gehan "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 10 Mar 99 15:42:17 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things "THE MAGIC OF EVERYTHING": Just as a quickie explanation, my idea of "The Magic of Everything" is a magical analogy for "The Theory of Everything" which physicists are currently searching for that would explain the ultimate source of all forces and elementary subatomic particles. RPG: Gehan wrote: >I also beleive that all the >characters in the FF were in the parade at the end of the movie. Other than >the following characters, who for certain, were not in the parade... Glinda was not in the parade (nor in the movie at all) nor was the Wizard, nor Ruggedo of course. And if Jellia was there I'd love someone to point her out... Are the Adepts the trio of lovely ladies with the Grecian-type, over-one-shoulder gowns? That's always been my assumption, hence my own illustrations of them... OBSERVATION: Neither _The Oz Scrapbook_ nor _The World of Oz_ give any acknowledgement of Jellia's or the Adepts' existance. :( OZ NEWSGROUP: What's going on with this? According to my news server there has been no debate since 2/17... Thanks to everone for their best wishes for my mom... It has been hard for my whole family... All my "smilies" have been sad lately... :( -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave DaveH47@mindspring.com, http://www.mindspring.net/~daveh47/ Take the time to taste the honey on a summer breeze, Touch the love song every bird has learned to sing. Feel the sunlight as it warms you on the coolest day, And you'll feel a part of what we're gathering -- The senses of our world." -- The Bugaloos, "The Senses of Our World" ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 11 - 16, 1999 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 02:53:49 GMT From: David Hulan Subject: Vacation I'm going to be gone until the day after Paddy's - a jaunt to Lunnon Town. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it... :-) C-ya then! David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 22:31:28 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz David Godwin: Accurately role-playing a character of the opposite sex would be an interesting challenge. If I were to do that, I'd pick Trot, since we're both from the coastal area of Southern California. Gehan: I think that the issue of "concern" for the MGM movie amongst the book fans is not that they don't like the movie. Almost every person I know, Oz fan or not, loves the MGM movie, if not RTOZ. Rather, our concer is that so many people will go through their lives thinking that Oz is nothing more than a 60 year old musical. They will never the joys of the true Oz, and all of the wealth that lies in so many stories. As good as the movie is, both as a movie and a story about Oz, it is but a pale shadow of all that Oz has to offer. "Ozma WHO?" :-) Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:39:58 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: Ozzy Things Ozzy RPG: O.k. Turning the RPG into an RTOZ would be too complicated. So I'll do my own RPG, and I can have a seperate one in Lisa's RTOZ digest, using only the main RTOZ characters. The RPG is really catching on. Here are the volkunteers along with their parts...so far... *.Lisa: Jack Pumpkinhead and Betsy Bobbin (Would you mind playing Jack on this RPG, since you volunteered to on the RTOZ Digest?) *.Bruce Gray: Shaggy Man *.David Godwin: Cap'n Bill and Tiktok and Ruggedo *.Dave: Jellia and the Adepts *.An annonymous Oz fan wished to play Mombi *.David Hulan: Wogglebug,Bungle and Eureka *.Tyler: Cap't Salt and someone else. I think it was a Thompson character *.Kate: Scraps, Dorothy and Polychrome *.Aaron: Woozy and one of the wizards in RPT's books *.Dratini: A munchkin. Maybe Boq. *.I'll be playing Coo-ee-oh, Princess Langwidere and Jinjur John Bell and Tyler: The CL mentioned coming to the EC in -Ozma-. BTW,I've given an explanation as to how the CL left the forest and came to the EC in my Ozzy Stories... Dave: Come on Dave! Dont tell me you didnt see Ruggedo in RTOZ? I suppose you've seen the Gnome King? BTW... I know this may sound like an odd question, but who would you guys liked to have seen on the Ozzy throne? All three of them, Ozma, Scarecrow and Oscar were great rulers. I also wouldn't mind Jinjur being queen. In one of my stories, Coo-ee-oh tempo. becomes queen of Oz. I loved her following quote in -Glinda-: Ozma- I'm the Queen of Oz......and all the other kings and queens in the country have united with me, and I rule them all. Coo-ee-oh: If other kings and queens are fools, that does not interest me in the least! I like all the female criminals in the Oz books,and I hate all the male ones. They are so stupid, unlike the females. I mean, just compare Ruggedo to Jinjur. Or Wam to Mombi.Or the Su-Dic to Coo-ee-oh. The male criminals are all sissies. The female ones are more tough and use their brains... --Gehan Cooray "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Cc: wallyhubbard@earthlink.net Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 16:04:16 -0500 Subject: oz X-Juno-Att: 0 From: laumer@juno.com dear members: does anyone have the germ of an oz story idea; outline/sketch, or partially completed ms. for me to 'laumerize' & turn into a 200-page oz novel for publication in the latter part of this year? please let me hear from you through the DIGEST. march laumer ====================================================================== From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 15:35:24 -0700 Non-Ozzy Request: Does anybody have a copy of DOS 3.3 that they could send to me? If so, please send it to TYLER@APPRENTICE.COM Thanks, Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 23:35:39 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David F. Godwin) Subject: Oz Food Tyler Jones wrote: >As for meals, I haven't read it in a while, but I seem to remember the >meals being described as pleasing to children: cookies, pie, cake, etc. Did >you come across any vegetables? No cookies, no vegetables. Before she leaves her mobile home (made mobile by the cyclone), Dorothy has bread and butter. She packs the remaining bread in a basket and has some fruit from nearby trees. She arrives at Boq's in time for the party, where they have fruits, nuts, pies, and cakes. On the rest of her journey, she subsists on the bread she has with her, fruit from trees along the route, and nuts gathered by the Scarecrow. The C. Lion offers to kill her a deer, but the TW objects. Near the EC, they stop at a farm where Dot has porridge, scrambled eggs, and white bread. After that, the descriptions are not so detailed. When they set off against the WWW, they take a provision of "good things to eat" prepared by the "pretty green girl" (Jellia?). Another interesting point about WWiz concerns the use of money in Oz. In the EC, Dorothy sees someone paying for green lemonade (Ozade?) with green pennies. Then there's the business of Tip and the ferry in _Land_. We can of course theorize that Ozma did away with money in Oz (perhaps provoked to do so by her/his experience with the ferryman), or so inspired the citizenry with love that they gave "each according to his need" after she came to the throne, but that money remained in use in relatively isolated places such as Ragbad. - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 07:30:51 EDT Subject: Ozzy Digest Submission - The Oz Theme Park 36-37,40-41,43-44,49-50,53-55,58 From: "Earl C. Abbe" Oz bill advances in Kansas House with final vote today By JIM SULLINGER - The Kansas City Star Date: 03/10/99 22:15 A bill that boosts the chances for a $771 million Wonderful World of Oz theme park and resort complex near De Soto won preliminary approval Wednesday in the Kansas House. A final vote is scheduled for today, and passage is expected. The bill would then go to the Senate. "This is a project of major proportion to this state," said Rep. Bill Mason, a Wichita Republican who carried the bill on the House floor. Mason said the project would increase the state's attractiveness to tourists. He cited a study last year by the Mid-America Regional Council that forecast 7,455 more jobs and an increase in the gross regional product of $237 million a year. The bill would give Oz developers a 1 percent sales tax increase on the 9,065-acre Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant land, bringing the total sales tax authority to 8.375 percent. The money would be used to pay off $250 million in bonds. The measure also would extend the life of those bonds from 20 years to 32 years with state officials able to extend that period if necessary. Several amendments were attached to the bill, which legislators said would protect taxpayers and make their support of the bill more likely. State Rep. John Ballou, a Gardner Republican, attached two amendments. The first would guarantee that property tax revenue from the Oz project would flow to the De Soto School District, even if Oz officials win a future property tax abatement from the county. The second would require Oz to purchase insurance or a "pre-paid financial instrument" that guarantees a cleanup of contamination on the Sunflower plant site even if the theme park fails. An amendment offered by Mason placed all future planning and zoning at the site under the authority of Johnson County government. An amendment from Rep. Tom Burroughs, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat, would require Oz to submit a detailed development plan to the Kansas Development Finance Authority by July 1, 2001. If a substantial change in the plan is made, Oz would have to seek new authority from the state before issuing STAR bonds. Mason acknowledged the legislation didn't guarantee that the project would be built. He said that the bonds made up 42 percent of the funding and that developers still had to come up with more than $400 million. ****** To Robin: I have a wedding (my son's) and a high school class reunion (42nd) to go to in June. No Lake Lawn for me this year. But definitely Indiana next year. I miss you too. Earl ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 12:17:13 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David F. Godwin) Subject: Oz? OT but brief, Ruth Berman wrote: >The >Majorino-led "Alice" was visually beautiful, and some of the individual >scenes were delightful, but the whole idea of turning Wonderland into >therapy for stagefright seemed ridiculous. (And I doubt that parents >who had asked for a performance of "Cherry Ripe" would be quite so >pleased to get "The Lobster Quadrille.") This reminds me of a New Year's breakfast I attended last year where the man in charge took it into his head to have various people read inspirational poems before the meal. Most of the poems were fairly familiar and hackneyed, and most people were bored. One fellow, God bless him, threw away the printed copy of a poem he had been given and recited "Jabberwocky" from memory. Everyone but the head man appreciated it deeply. - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 15 Mar 99 13:36:35 CST From: "Ruth Berman" Subject: stormy weather in oz David Godwin: I think you're overstating the strength of the "Royal" storm in thinking that it must have had "some magical property that enabled the Cowardly Lion to run halfway across Oz in a very short time." The time isn't that short -- it seems like several hours to Dorothy while it's going on, and her estimate seems to be right (it's sometime in the day when they start, and sometime getting on for evening when they stop). And the Lion doesn't run halfway across Oz -- going by the placement of the Scarecrow's Tower and Pokes on the Haff/Martin map, it's about a third of the shorter (north/south) way. If you go by the estimate of the north/south axis as about 70 miles, the Lion might have run some 25 miles, and he ought to be able to do that in maybe three hours. The comparable distance from the Truth Pond to the Tin Woodman's Castle (about the same as the Truth Pond is placed on the "Tik-Tok" map, or somewhat longer as it's placed on the Haff/Martin map, which puts it further south) is walked by Dorothy and company in "Road" in less than a day. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 16 Mar 99 07:54:43 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things RTOZ: Gehan wrote: >Come on Dave! Dont tell me you didnt see Ruggedo in RTOZ? I suppose >you've seen the Gnome King? I thought we were talking about the parade... TO MARCH LAUMER: >dear members: does anyone have the germ of an oz story idea... *I* do! Right, guys? :) > ... or partially completed ms. for me to 'laumerize'... Exactly what would "Laumerization" entail? I feel I have to ask, because my ms. has been subject to so much criticism as it is that I need to know what further heterodoxies it may acquire... >let me hear from you through the DIGEST. As opposed to E-mailing you privately? I *am* seriously considering sending you my Ozzy romance... It's just I haven't fully decided yet how much of its subplots to retain and how much to take out and adapt to my sci-fi novel (which will likewise have a "forbidden romance" aspect)... JELLIA: David Godwin wrote: >When they set off against the WWW, they take a provision of >"good things to eat" prepared by the "pretty green girl" (Jellia?). Yes Virginia, this *is* Jellia (see _Ozoplaning With the Wizard of Oz_)! :) WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ THEME PARK: I suppose it will be MGM-only... -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave DaveH47@mindspring.com, http://www.mindspring.net/~daveh47/ Take the time to taste the honey on a summer breeze, Touch the love song every bird has learned to sing. Feel the sunlight as it warms you on the coolest day, And you'll feel a part of what we're gathering -- The senses of our world." -- The Bugaloos, "The Senses of Our World" ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 17 - 23, 1999 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 16:51:48 -0500 From: "Lisa M. Mastroberte" X-Accept-Language: en Subject: Vegans in Oz and other ramblings Gehan: Ok, I'll be Jack in both RPG's. Btw, when are we actually going to start this thing? Also, the Scarecrow has to be my favorite Oz ruler. Ozma is ok, but sometimes it seems like she is very communist. Check out chapter three of _Emerald City_, and you'll see what I mean. Dave: A couple of digests ago, you asked "WHERE IS GLINDA?!" in Return to Oz. Well, I was thinking about it last night, and think about it, how were they supposed to compete with Glinda in MGMWiz? The Glinda in the books and the Glinda in the movie are two totally different characters. For one thing, the book Glinda is not floaty and squeeky. David G.: <> No meat? Yipee! (As you can probably tell, I am a vegetarian.) But in one of the books, doesn't it say something about animals for food can be killed? I forget which one, I have a short memory. Peace!! -Lisa ====================================================================== From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-16-99 Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 14:49:53 PST Gehan: >Come on Dave! Dont tell me you didnt see Ruggedo in RTOZ? I suppose >you've >seen the Gnome King? Well, he was still Roquat in the books to which RTOz corresponds, and he wasn't named at all in the movie. >I know this may sound like an odd question, but who would you guys >liked to >have seen on the Ozzy throne? All three of them, Ozma, Scarecrow and >Oscar >were great rulers. I think that Ozma is probably the best ruler that Oz could have (and I'm not saying that just because she's the current ruler). The Wizard used deception and trickery to rule. This was fairly effective, but the thought of a ruler who uses kindness and love instead seems more pleasant. Besides, Oz seems to be an altogether safer place to live during Ozma's reign (although that isn't entirely her doing). We don't really know much about the Scarecrow's reign. >I like all the female criminals in the Oz books,and I hate all the >male >ones. They are so stupid, unlike the females. I mean, just compare >Ruggedo >to Jinjur. Jinjur's motivation is somewhat more interesting. After _Ozma_, Ruggedo's plots are basically just for revenge. Ruggedo is a more amusing villain, though. >Or Wam to Mombi. Wam doesn't actually appear on stage in any of the Famous Forty, and, from what we do know of him, he doesn't appear to be a villain. Are you sure you don't mean some other character? David Godwin: >We can >of course theorize that Ozma did away with money in Oz (perhaps >provoked to >do so by her/his experience with the ferryman), or so inspired the >citizenry with love that they gave "each according to his need" after >she >came to the throne, but that money remained in use in relatively >isolated >places such as Ragbad. The McGraws' _Forbidden Fountain_ has money being used in the Emerald City. It's never clear whether this money is entirely necessary to the economy, though. Dave Hardenbrook: >WONDERFUL WORLD OF OZ THEME PARK: >I suppose it will be MGM-only... From what I've heard, it will be mostly MGM-based, but have some minor references to the books. The last I heard, one of the planned rides is called "The Great Sawhorse Derby," and the Sawhorse certainly doesn't appear in the MGM film. -- May you live in interesting times, Nathan DinnerBell@tmbg.org http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ====================================================================== From: Ozmama@aol.com Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 21:01:07 EST Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-16-99 << To Robin: I have a wedding (my son's) and a high school class reunion (42nd) to go to in June. No Lake Lawn for me this year. But definitely Indiana next year. I miss you too. Earl >> I look forward to it. Actually, I hope a lot of Munchkins will show up. They're a great bunch of people. And I hope the Digesters are planning to attend, too. It'll be a grand convention, folks. Try not to miss it.--Robin ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 16 Mar 1999 23:04:41 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Gehan: Technically, Jinjur was Queen of the Emerald City for a short time. Her plans to invade the Winkie Country were put on hold and she never got around to it. The other character that I reserved was Realbad the bandit from _Ojo_. If none of the list of rulers of Oz were there, I suppose I'd vote for Glinda to take over, but that's an easy answer. The question is really "what non-ruler would make the best ruler?". My answer to this question is the same as an earlier question posed on the Digest "Who would make the best President of the United States from the Oz books?". That, IMHO, is Cap'n Bill. Of course, it was in either _Lost Princess_ or _Glinda_ that the good Cap'n temporarily looked after things while the rest were off to find Ozma. He did not rule per se, he just minded the store. I don't know if I would classify the Scarecrow as a "great" ruler. We don't see much of his admnistration in the FF. Most of the non-FF books written during that time are by Donald Abbott, and they're pretty poor as Oz books go. Not all male villains in the FF are stupid. Mustafa of Mudge and Baron Mogodore were fairly competent, as was the Sultan of Samandra. Of course, these are all Thompsonian baddies. For the most part, their only mistake was underestimating Ozma's power, although they may have known too much about her at the time. David Godwin: Former Digester Eric Gjovaag wrote an excellent commentary about money in an issue of the Baum Bugle. Essentially, he said that the value of money had been depressed after Ozma ascended the throne. According to Eric, Ozzies for the most part grow or make what they need, and trade for the rest. Eric downplays the idea in _Emerald City_ that all items of production are sent to the Emerald City for redistribution. However, money remains in small amounts to fill in the gaps when things are slightly out of balance. March Laumer: Allow me to gladly welcome you to the Ozzy Digest. I had heard that you received it, but I did not know if you wanted to be anonymous. Welcome aboard. Dave and David Godwin: I'll confirm that the little green girl in _Wizard_ is indeed Jellia Jamb. I remember reading that when RPT wrote the book for 1939, she decided to feature characters from the original story to tie in with the movie. According to the blurb I read, she was quite upset when MGM cut out Jellia Jamb, her main character. Dave: Yes, the theme park will be MGM-only, or so I read. In fact, they are extending things that were specific to MGM. For example, Glinda's "northern" kingdom, which was never seen in the movie, will become a land of snow and ice. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 15:00:48 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: Ozzy Things Tyler: I'm not saying that I dont like the MGM movie:I love it. But I think the Oz in the books is more colourful than the movie Oz, if you know what I mean. David Gowin: We can also take a look at Jinjur's quote: "And there is enough money in the king's treasury to buy all my army girls a dozen new gowns" I agree with you on your iedia that Ozma stopped using money in Oz. Dave: It suddenly struch me, why did March Laumer want my snail-mail address? The Wicked Witch of the South: The WWS in -Enchanted Apples of Oz- is more interesting and more acceptable than Singra. Anyone agree? C'ya later! --Gehan Cooray "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 17:57:05 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: Return to Oz O.k. Here are the "exact" characters we find in the parade in -RTOZ-. Try and spot out: Polychrome Frogman Scraps Musicker Ojo Notta bit more Guardian of the Gates Mustafa the Mudge King Rinkitink Shaggy Man Cap'n Bill (Coutsey of Lisa Mastroberte) Ofcourse there could be more..... Regarding the Ozzy RPG: As I said, you can play a character of the opposite sex as well. I dont think that is quite a challenge. Infact, I find it easier to play the role of a female character than a male one's. Thats why I choose to play:Coo-ee-oh, Jinjur and Princess Langwidere my favorite villains in Oz. Remember you can play upto three characters.... --Gehan Cooray "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 14:14:32 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David F. Godwin) Subject: Oz Ruth Berman wrote: >I think you're overstating the strength of the "Royal" >storm in thinking that it must have had "some magical property that >enabled the Cowardly Lion to run halfway across Oz in a very short >time." The time isn't that short -- it seems like several hours to >Dorothy while it's going on, and her estimate seems to be right (it's >sometime in the day when they start, and sometime getting on >for evening when they stop). And the Lion doesn't run halfway across >Oz -- going by the placement of the Scarecrow's Tower and Pokes on >the Haff/Martin map, it's about a third of the shorter (north/south) way. >If you go by the estimate of the north/south axis as about 70 miles, the >Lion might have run some 25 miles, and he ought to be able to do >that in maybe three hours. The comparable distance from the Truth >Pond to the Tin Woodman's Castle (about the same as the Truth Pond >is placed on the "Tik-Tok" map, or somewhat longer as it's placed on >the Haff/Martin map, which puts it further south) is walked by Dorothy >and company in "Road" in less than a day. Okay, I exaggerated. It's not halfway across Oz, only about a quarter of the way across Oz, or somewhat more than halfway across the Winkie country. If the longer dimension of Oz is 90 miles (about the same as Connecticut), a quarter of that is only 22-1/2 miles. However, as I've stated before, I for one do not accept these claustrophobic dimensions. I think it's about twice that (140 x 180 miles, with an area about the same as West Virginia), so that the Lion would have had to run 45 miles. It only _seemed_ to Dorothy that the Lion ran for "hours and hours" - it was "quite late in the afternoon" when they started out and still daylight when they stopped. But supposing that the CL ran for three hours, that's still only 15 mph max - not terribly speedy. However, it was "absolutely dark" - plenty of thunder but, oddly enough, no accompanying lightning. Try driving with your lights off on a dark, moonless night in a rural area at 15 mph. I for one would be far too cowardly to try it. Also, I'm not sure that non-magical lions in non-magical countries are able to run for three hours - I have the impression that they're good at sprinting, not so good on the long haul. But this is Oz, after all, and no ordinary lion. I concede that point. It also seems to me that the natural reaction to a total blackout like this, especially for a cowardly individual, would be to freeze, not to run headlong into the pitch darkness for more than 20 miles in search of a place of safety (from what?). It's not a case of panic, either, because Dorothy and the Lion discuss it beforehand. It also seems odd that someone can run in total darkness for 22-1/2 miles (much less 45 miles) without hitting a tree or falling into a ditch. Doesn't the Lion have any apprehension about chasms such as the one that swallowed the kalidahs? Of course, he thinks he's running back to the EC - but then why is he not apprehensive about bolting headlong into the encircling wall? I suppose you could say that cats can see in the dark, although the book doesn't mention this. But, if so, why does he run in the wrong direction? As for how far Dorothy can walk in a day, I think we've all agreed that travel times as reported in the FF are notoriously unreliable. On the Haff-Martin map, the distance from the Truth Pond to the Tin Woodman's castle is roughly equivalent to the distance from "where Dorothy's house landed" to the Emerald City, and the latter journey took five days. In any case. it still strikes me as odd, noteworthy, and unusual that an ordinary storm could and would cause a total blackout over an area of about 400 square miles (minimum) for three hours or more. Shades of New York in 1965! The whole episode seems to me a transparent, artificial, and (IMHO) awkward device used to transport Dot & Lion the requisite distance and get them lost. - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 21:48:59 -0500 (EST) From: "James R. Whitcomb" Subject: Announcing "Oz Centennial Web Page" Dear Oz Fans: Several weeks ago I sent an email to Jane Albright, Chairperson for The International Wizard of Oz Club's Oz Centennial, offering to host a web page from my site to publicize this historical event which is to be held July 20-23, 2000 on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Jane took me up on the offer and I am pleased to announce that the page is ready to go "live"!!! I would like to invite you to visit the Oz Centennial Web Page. The url is: Even though the Oz Centennial is over a year away much help including monetary contributions is needed to make this a memorable Oz celebration. Jane has sent me a "wish list" of things needed for the Oz Centennial and a list of programs and contact people which I have included in the web page. Hopefully you will want to assist with and attend the Oz Centennial. As I receive new information from Jane I will update the web page accordingly. If you have any comments or questions about the web page, please do not hesitate to contact me at . For comments or questions about the Oz Centennial, please contact Jane Albright at Thank you! Jim Whitcomb of ... Jim's "Wizard of Oz" Website http://www.geocities.com/~ozfan/ ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 17 Mar 1999 23:42:56 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David F. Godwin) Subject: 50k Oz run As an afterthought to my posting about the storm and the Cowardly Lion's 22-1/2 (or 25, or 45) mile dash through the land of the Winkies in _Royal Book_ - what really beggars the imagination is that anyone or anything could travel such a distance in Thompsonian Oz without having to go through at least half a dozen IEs. - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 19:37:06 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: The Wicked witch of the South and more..... Sorry, what I meant to say was that Singra is more acceptable than the WWS in -Enchanted Apples of Oz-. Shanower's book doesn't really give a good background on her. I mean, it is not specified as to who enchanted her, the wogglebug only says:"A powerful sorcress once enchanted her". She doesnt really seek revenge on Glinda too. BTW, theres another mistake in -Enchanted Apples-. They show a picture of the Wizard giving orders to build the EC. But hed oesnt look the least big young. He looks the same old man we find in the books, and not the "young wizard" he was when he first came to Oz. But Shanower's illustrations are much nicer than Neill's. Dorothy looks much prettier. Ozma looks more mature and Glinda looks more beautiful. Anyone agree with me? BTW: Neill changes his drawings very often. I mean... *.Denslow drew Dorothy with blonde hair. In the cover of -DOTWIZ- its auborn.In -Patchwork Girl- its brown, and Dorothy looks much younger than she were before. *.Coming to Ozma, she had long blonde hair in -Land- and looked really young. She looked like a twelve year old in -Ozma- with black hair. In -DotWiz- and -Patchwork Girl- she looks like an adult with brown hair. In other books, she looks like a young teenager. Why did Neill change his drawings so often? How can Dorothy and Ozma grow tall and short? Do they die their hair or something? You may also notice that Trot's hair style changed, as well as her hair colour. Could someone please tell me why Neill kept doing this so often? Another BTW: They should have selected a better Dorothy in -RTOZ-. Fairuza Balk was too solemn and not the "Dorothy" we find in the books. The Dorothy in the books is real fun, but the Dorothy in -RTOZ- isnt. Her voice was too soft and "too" innocent. Anyone else agree? I'd bet Lisa wouldn't...Do you Lisa? --Gehan Cooray "I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 17:14:57 GMT From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 03-10 & 16-99 David G.: >I admit that there are other storms in other books - and some nice ones, >too - but this one was peculiar because of the total darkness it produced >(and some magical property that enabled the Cowardly Lion to run halfway >across Oz in a very short time). As Tyler pointed out, the Scarecrow's tower and Pokes aren't halfway across Oz from each other. Using the Haff-Martin map and the scale I've chosen (which fits travel times reasonably well for most books), I make it 28 miles. Granted, a normal lion can't run full speed for that long, but the CL is an extraordinary lion. It seemed to Dorothy that he ran for hours and hours - the distance is about the same as for a marathon, which are typically won in a little over two hours by men and about two and a half by women. They left the tower "late in the afternoon," but since they'd planned on leaving right after lunch that could mean maybe 3:30-4:00, and night was falling when they reached Pokes, not long after the CL stopped running - probably about 7:00. Running 28 miles in 3 hours or so shouldn't be beyond an extraordinary lion... But I'll agree that the total darkness of the storm is puzzling; I've never seen a storm like that. (Dark enough I had to turn on my car lights in midday, but not dark enough I couldn't see without them.) J.L.: > My least favorite episode in ROYAL BOOK doesn't even have that >soon-to-be-familiar story line, though. It has none at all: the pointless >appearance of Memo and Randum. I think that falls into the same category as the Scarecrow's encounter with the A-B-Sea Serpent and Rattlesnake; Thompson had thought of a pun that tickled her fancy and put in an incident that let her use it. Neither of those episodes contributed anything to the story. >He [Baum] could end >stories with heroes returning to families that weren't royal or American >(e.g., Ojo). I think that's pretty marginal; Ojo is the only hero in Baum who returns to a family that isn't American, and Unc Nunkie is royal, though he doesn't rule anything at the time of the book. Of Baum's other protagonists who aren't American, Inga's family is royal and Woot never returns to his family. As far as Thompson goes, Snip isn't royal (in _Lost King_), and while his family doesn't appear on stage he does return to Kimbaloo and presumably to his family. Mandy's family doesn't appear, and she might not have one; when she goes back to Mt. Mern for a brief visit before settling in Keretaria she seems more concerned about her goats than any people. But she isn't royal. Tyler: >I remember a passage in one of Baum's books about the Cowardly Lion moving >from the forest to the Emerald City. It must have been _Ozma_, _Dotwiz_ or >_Road_. Apparantly, he heard of Ozma taking the throne and he journeyed to >EC to meet her. Ruth: >David Godwin: It's probably fair to say that "Return to Oz" is darker >than the MGM "Wizard," although the corollary that it's too dark-and- >scary for kids doesn't seem to match up with the way kids actually >responded to the movie. I don't recall reports that kids hid under their >seats at it, as they're said to have done (for that matter, as my parents >told me I did, although I don't remember doing so) with Margaret >Hamilton. Rachel didn't hide under her seat, but when I took her to the movie when she was about 4 she'd hide her face in my arm when Margaret Hamilton would appear. 3/16: Earl: A 42d high school class reunion? Seems unusual; aren't those things usually for even 5-year periods? I know mine are. (And the 45th is due this year, though I haven't heard of any plans yet. With my luck, it'll be the same weekend as Winkies - in which case the old high school class will have to get along without me. There's only one classmate I've had any contact with in the last 15 years anyhow, and I see him every year or so; I'll go if it's not Winkie weekend, but I'd rather see my Oz friends if I have to choose. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 17:15:01 GMT From: David Hulan Subject: Ozzy Digest, 03-05-99 This seems to have been lost in cyberspace somehow; I sent it on 3/9, but it wasn't in either the 3/10 or the 3/16 Digest, so I'll send it again: -------------------- Gehan: >It seems as if the GWN is very weak in magic. Yet she managed to conquer >Mombi, who was once the most powerful witch in Oz. What's your evidence that Mombi was once the most powerful witch in Oz? If this is just something you're using as a factor in your own books then that's fine - although I think the evidence is fairly strong that Mombi wasn't as strong as the WWE, GWN, or Glinda, there's no absolute proof. But there's certainly no evidence I can think of that Mombi was ever the most powerful witch in Oz. >She paid >Mombi to kidnap the Royal Family of Ev. I assume you meant the Royal Family of Oz? There's no evidence that the RF of Ev was ever kidnapped; Evoldo sold them to the Nome King, but that's all that ever happened to them. Or is this something else in one of your stories? J.L.: Thompson relied on coincidences in a lot of her books. Baum did too to some extent (e.g. the fortuitous meetings of characters in _Tik-Tok_ - what was Shaggy doing in the Rose Kingdom in the first place, and how probable is it that he and Betsy would encounter Polychrome, Tik-Tok, and the Oogaboos in a short span of time?), but Thompson employed it a lot more. _Yellow Knight_, though it's a book I like, is one of the worst - for Speedy to end his rocket flight in Subterranea doesn't really qualify, but first he finds the statue of Marygolden, and then when he takes off with his parashoot (or whatever they called it) it emerges within a day's walk of the place she'd originally come from? And that's far from the only one, but I'll wait till it's the BCF to go into others. I like your proposed ending to RB better than the one Thompson wrote, by the way. Ruth: I'm sure that Baum and Thompson themselves had both visited zoos, but I think they probably picked the animals they used based more on circus animals than ones from zoos, because they knew much of their audience would never have been to a zoo. J.L. again: > I'd need to see examples of "dromedary" applied to a two-hump camel >before being convinced, however. Fortunately, I still have my childhood copy of _Animals of the World_, originally published in 1917, though this is a 1941 reprint, so I can quote: "...it may be well to refer to the confusion which exists in the use of the names Camel and Dromedary. The latter name seems popularly to be applied to the two-humped species, the name Camel being reserved for the one with a single hump. This is a mistake." And later, in the article on the Bactrian camel, "This species is often called the Dromedary; but, as we have already remarked, this is an error." Is that enough evidence for you? It isn't an example of someone misusing the term, but it's a clear statement by someone who was around at roughly the time of RB that the misuse was common. David G.: >After getting his courage from the Wizard (as he supposes), the CL really >is courageous and without fear. In later books, esp. RPT's, his cowardice >reasserts itself (because of its comic potential, I think, but >incongruously from the OzHist POV). He doesn't act in a cowardly manner in any of the Baum books, but he frequently refers to his cowardice. There aren't really many if any occasions where his courage or cowardice would show in Baum's later books; he's a rather minor character after _Wizard_. The only occasions in Thompson when I can recall that he actually acts cowardly are in connection with thunderstorms, in _Royal Book_ and _Cowardly Lion_. Otherwise, though he refers to trembling and such, he acts with great courage. Which is more or less what he did in _Wizard_; the Wizard was, after all, a humbug, and the "courage" he gave the CL was no more needed than the "brains" he gave the Scarecrow or the "heart" he gave the Tin Woodman. All three of them had repeatedly demonstrated their possession of the qualities they desired. > It would be >interesting if someone were to write a book detailing this phase of >Glinda's career. If she is in training to be a sorceress, who is her >mentor? Not Lurline, because that's fairy magic. Does she have access to >some ancient books of magic and is slowly becoming a self-taught magic >worker? Maybe she went to Ix to study with Zixi? Or maybe with Ugu's great-grandfather, or with Wam, or Wumbo, or Gayelette, or some other powerful magic-worker we've never heard of. Robin: Since I read RB long before I heard Flanders & Swann (for that matter, long before F&S started performing, as far as I know - I read it around 1945, give or take a year) it was "The Hippopotamus" that reminded me of the Middlings' Anthem rather than vice versa. >I immediately get the mental image of Kabumpo, ears and tarp >fluttering in the wind, as he is swept away by an RPT storm. Was >that in _Kabumpo_? I think so. No, it was in _Silver Princess_. It's how Kabumpo and Randy got across the Deadly Desert that time. Gehan again: Personally I like Lovelianne better than Loveliana; the latter sounds more like a country than a person. But it's your book. I think that based on what we know about her from _Ozma of Oz_ it's difficult to make much of a case for Langwidere being either a heroine or a villainess; she seems too lazy and self-centered to have much of a capability for either good or evil. But she doesn't seem to have an evil impulse, so she's probably better cast as a heroine if she's to be one thing or the other. (She wanted to take Dorothy's head, but was proposing a fair swap and when Dorothy refused she didn't take it by force, though she did lock her up to think it over.) I wouldn't name the witch either Ugliana or Uglianne, myself; if I wanted to get "ugly" into the name I think I'd steer farther away from a parallel with Lovelianne/ana, and make it Ugli or Uglia or Ugliosa or Uglina or something of the sort. Dave: I'm sorry to hear that your mother is still not doing well. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 00:14:49 -0500 From: "Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman" X-Accept-Language: en Subject: Hiergargo Just for the record, Gehan is mistaken that Hiergargo, whom I have volunteered to play in his role-playing game besides the Woozy, is not a RTP character. He is mentioned in _Tik-Tok of Oz_ as being a magician who built the Hollow Tube running through the planet from Ev to the Land of Jinjun in Antozia (last two names not official in any way). Once he travelled through the Tube, shot out too far, and hit a star (presumably the crystalline kind that floats in the atmosphere). He was not heard from again. I am planning to explore his history and ultimate fate further in what I shall refer to in this forum as Project RUR, the successor project to the now defunct Lurline's Machine. Much of the Lurline's Machine material will be recycled, but anything I've said on anything in Lurline's Machine should NOT be taken for granted as being the same in Project RUR. And the Woozy has threatened to sit on me if I reveal what RUR stands for. Aaron PS: Somehow I feel tempted to also play a live paper bag which can produce corned beef sandwiches without mayonaisse in the role-playing game. -- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman Pioneer Aviation adelmaas@musc.edu http://www.musc.edu/~adelmaas/ ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 18:02:32 -0800 From: Larry Weisberg X-Accept-Language: en Subject: For your next issue Hi, gang... Would anyone know the going rate for a hardcover copy in good condition of "To Please A Child"? Ozzily yours... Larry Weisberg ldweisberg@geocities.com )|( (o o) -------------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo------------------------ "Welcome to Oz" http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/2525 Also consider visiting "WEISBERG on the WEB" http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6188 ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 23 Mar 99 10:47:18 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things OZMA: I'll be one of the heretics and say that I think Ozma is generally a good ruler... Her biggest shortcoming I think is her assumption that she can handle it all herself without any help from Glinda. (I'm thinking most about her first encounter with the Nome King and her little jaunt up to Mt. Flathead/Skeezer Lake.) JELLIA: Pity MGM wrote out Jellia -- otherwise I could go around saying my favorite Oz character is JJ and people would know what I'm talking about... LAUMER: Just so everyone knows, March Laumer is returning to Sweeden so his E-mail will no longer work and he's no longer on the Digest... GEHAN: >O.k. Here are the "exact" characters we find in the parade in -RTOZ-. Try >and spot out... >Frogman >Ojo >King Rinkitink Really?? >Mustafa the Mudge Isn't he a baddie? >Shaggy Man Doesn't look much like him though... >Ofcourse there could be more..... Wasn't Tommy Kwikstep there too? And I still say that's the Adepts! But no Jellia! For RPG -- If no one wants Ozma, I'll take her...Then I'll three (I assume you're counting the Adepts together as one "character") And when *are* we going to start? -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave DaveH47@mindspring.com, http://www.mindspring.net/~daveh47/ Take the time to taste the honey on a summer breeze, Touch the love song every bird has learned to sing. Feel the sunlight as it warms you on the coolest day, And you'll feel a part of what we're gathering -- The senses of our world." -- The Bugaloos, "The Senses of Our World" ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, MARCH 24 - 26, 1999 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" Subject: Oz Matters Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:58:33 PST Lisa: >Ozma is ok, but >sometimes it seems like she is very communist. Is this necessarily a bad thing? It may be communist, be it's certainly not Stalinistic, or anything like that. Gehan: >O.k. Here are the "exact" characters we find in the parade in -RTOZ-. >Try and spot out: >Polychrome >Frogman >Scraps >Musicker >Ojo >Notta bit more >Guardian of the Gates >Mustafa the Mudge >King Rinkitink >Shaggy Man >Cap'n Bill Are you sure those Thompson characters are in the parade? If there is a clown in the parade, it might be Mr. Joker (from the China Country), rather than Notta. I don't know about Mustafa, but it seems unlikely that a villain, especially a Thompson villain, would be there. What does he look like (the guy in the parade, not Mustafa). >Why did Neill change his drawings so often? How can Dorothy and Ozma >grow >tall and short? Do they die their hair or something? You may also >notice >that Trot's hair style changed, as well as her hair colour. Could >someone >please tell me why Neill kept doing this so often? Neill was probably just experimenting with different ways in which to draw the characters. As to whether the characters changed their hairstyles and colours, they might well have (even though Neill's drawings don't provide proof of this). I would think that several decades of the same hairstyle might be a bit boring. David Godwin: >In any case. it still strikes me as odd, noteworthy, and unusual that >an >ordinary storm could and would cause a total blackout over an area of >about >400 square miles (minimum) for three hours or more. Maybe it wasn't an ordinary storm, and it followed the Lion around. I agree that it was a rather awkward way to get Dorothy and the Lion lost, however. David Hulan: >I think that falls into the same category as the Scarecrow's >encounter with >the A-B-Sea Serpent and Rattlesnake; Thompson had thought of a pun >that >tickled her fancy and put in an incident that let her use it. Neither >of >those episodes contributed anything to the story. Well, the A-B-Sea Serpent did allow the Scarecrow to cross the Munchkin River, but that task could have been accomplished without introducing any new characters. >Snip isn't royal (in _Lost King_), and >while his family doesn't appear on stage he does return to Kimbaloo >and presumably to his family. I don't recall any indication that the button boys and girls of Kimbaloo had families. I suppose they might have, though. After all, the children probably could not have supported themselves, and the castle staff seemed too small to support five hundred children. Snip was planning to return to the Emerald City and work with Pastoria after his visit to his old home, though. >Mandy's family doesn't appear, and she might not >have one; when she goes back to Mt. Mern for a brief visit before >settling >in Keretaria she seems more concerned about her goats than any >people. I think it was stated in the text that Mandy was an orphan. >The only occasions in >Thompson when I can recall that he actually acts cowardly are in >connection >with thunderstorms, in _Royal Book_ and _Cowardly Lion_. Otherwise, >though >he refers to trembling and such, he acts with great courage. He did seem to be quite frightened of the Ozoplanes (in _Ozoplaning_). >>I immediately get the mental image of Kabumpo, ears and tarp >>fluttering in the wind, as he is swept away by an RPT storm. Was >>that in _Kabumpo_? I think so. > >No, it was in _Silver Princess_. It's how Kabumpo and Randy got >across the Deadly Desert that time. While the image of an elephant being blown away by a storm is quite amusing, this seems like yet another one of Thompson's hurried attempts to get the characters to the right place. Note that a thunderstorm also helped Kabumpo and Randy to cross the desert in _Purple Prince_. Why would so many storms fall in such an arid area as the edge of the Deadly Desert? Maybe the Rain King has a particular liking for Kabumpo. -- May you live in interesting times, Nathan DinnerBell@tmbg.org http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/5447/ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 22:24:46 -0500 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Lisa: I don't know if it ever specifically said anywhere in the FF that animals could be killed for food, but I remember it saying that animals in the forest pretty much had to take their chances. And, of course, the Cowardly Lion would sneak away and get his own supper. Dave: March Laumer's stay on the Digest was all too brief. Maybe he can go online over there. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 24 Mar 99 09:17:40 CST From: "Ruth Berman" Subject: sorcery in oz Lisa Mastroberte: "Wizard" refers to Cowardly Lion as going off by himself to kill animals for food. Other books refer to "roasts" at feasts, but don't indicate specifically that any animals were killed to provide them (with all the magic available, it would be at least possible that the "roasts" are all as vegetarian as the ham-sandwiches in the "Ozma" lunch-tree lunch-buckets). There was an article in the "Baum Bugle" several years back about foods in Oz, but I don't remember the title/author. Tyler Jones: Seems odd to speak of MGM as cutting Jellia Jamb out of the "Wizard" in making the movie -- the corresponding character in the book has quite a small role, and isn't even given a name at that point. For the matter of that, perhaps the leader of the beauty shop cohort (the one in the long green robe?) could be considered to be Jellia. David Hulan (on David Godwin's query as to whether Glinda had a magic-instructor): The characters you suggest all sound plausible -- I wonder if Gayelette might be some relative, and the initial Gs a family preference? Your suggestion of Zixi as another possibility -- if Glinda could get to Ix for that, an additional possibility (attractive as suggesting a link to Glinda's preferred title of "sorceress") might be Soob the Sorcerer who gets mentioned in "Gnome King" (residence unknown, but probably on or near the Nonestic, as some of his magic turns up on a Nonestic island). Perhaps the initial instructor would pretty much have to be an Ozite, but once started in the field Glinda could have looked for training from more than one person. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 15:56:13 -0500 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: Ozma the Red I asked: <> Gordon Birrell kindly sent me an e-mail saying that ROYAL BOOK doesn't have true endpapers (single sheets connecting inside covers and bound pages); the right side of what looks like the opening endpaper is thus truly page 1 of the printed signatures. I'll now keep my eye out for that trait in other books. Lisa Mastroberte wrote: <> So what's wrong with that? Or rather, since that chapter and the rest of EMERALD CITY make clear that Ozma's economic system works, how is that a fault in her rule? Baum depicts the parts of Oz that acknowledge her authority as among the most bountiful, peaceful societies on earth. Poverty rate: very low. Crime rate: even lower. Infant mortality: none. Life expectancy: infinite. Citizens suffering from hunger: one tiger. Of course, Ozma has advantages that other absolute rulers lack: a land seemingly free of natural disaster and famine, where goods truly do grow on trees; no time limit on her rule--ever; a friendly oligopoly controlling supernatural powers; secure borders; few enemies left from previous regimes; discredited democratic opposition; etc. All those advantages imply a distribution system like Ozma's wouldn't work for any mortal ruler, and indeed no one's made it work. But that doesn't mean the system is bad for Oz. Lisa Mastroberte wrote: <> Well put. David Hulan wrote of the visit of Memo and Randum: <> Thompson even had to do some backing and filling to explain why the Serpent and Rattlesnake didn't tell Ozma they'd met the Scarecrow and thus affect the plot. But at least their episode gave Neill a chance to depict those magical monsters in their grotesque glory; Memo and Randum are ordinary humans, and he didn't even bother drawing them. David Hulan wrote: <> In judging Thompson's infatuation with royalty, I take into account how she made Peter a knight and Speedy a princess's likely betrothed even as they return to America. Zeb didn't get that treatment. Baum made Dorothy a princess, as she deserved, but left Trot, Betsy, and Button-Bright as ordinary palace guests. Thompson elevated the first two to princess level. When a poor Gillikin boy wanders into TIN WOODMAN, he ends up as...a poor Gillikin boy. In PURPLE PRINCE, the similar figure turns out to be a king. Ojo ends PATCHWORK GIRL living happily with his uncle (whose royal blood isn't mentioned after the beginning of the book). Thompson moves them out of that small cottage into a big castle. Baum's happy, status-quo-ante endings didn't seem sufficient for Thompson. Thompson leaves three ordinary young protagonists as commoners, I think: Bob Up, who gets to live in a circus; Snip, who serves a former king (Pastoria) and a current one (Kinda Jolly); and Jellia, Ozma's housekeeper. No one seems to be a regular *friend* of a ruler, like Trot or Betsy. Snip and Jellia are are working children, fitting into a royal master-servant relationship. I see Mandy as anomalous: with her extra arms, she seems to be on the edge of what ordinary young readers can identify with. That may be a reason Thompson brought in Kerry--to be restored to his royal throne as usual. But HANDY MANDY as a whole is a careless production, even by Thompson's standards, with a lot that's hard to figure out. David Hulan wrote: <> Indubitably. Thank you. Aaron Adelman wrote: <> REUBEN IN OZ, the story of an ordinary scrap of paper who is sacked by an evil Sand Witch! Released by a gust of wind, Reuben sets out for the Emerald City, where he has heard there's a tiger who will appreciate him. I like it. Only problem: no cover art, just a brown paper wrapper. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 18:35:14 -0600 From: d.godwin@minn.net (David F. Godwin) Subject: Oz things Lisa wrote: >But in >one of the books, doesn't it say something about animals for food can be >killed? I forget which one, I have a short memory. I don't recall any statement like that, but in _Ozma_, Dorothy has a ham sandwich from a lunchbox that is growing on a tree. Not only it is not vegetarian, it isn't even kosher! A few pages earlier, Billina accuses "You eat lambs and sheep and cows and pigs and even chickens." Dorothy's only defense is "But we cook 'em." In any case, it has always been my impression that things like beefsteaks grew on trees, thus avoiding the uncomfortable notion of abattoirs in Oz. Nathan wrote: >The McGraws' _Forbidden Fountain_ has money being used in the Emerald >City. True, but this isn't part of the FF and so (goes one theory) we are not obliged to recognize it as canonical. Good story, though. BTW, I think money is also used in _The Ozmapolitan of Oz_. Gehan wrote: >Why did Neill change his drawings so often? How can Dorothy and Ozma grow >tall and short? Do they die their hair or something? I think Neill drew whatever he felt like drawing at the time and was more interested in his own artistic expression than actually illustrating the story in question and being consistent. As for the girls dyeing their hair - well, no one in Oz can ever dye. :) >Another BTW: They should have selected a better Dorothy in -RTOZ-. Fairuza >Balk was too solemn and not the "Dorothy" we find in the books. I basically agree with you about Fairuza Balk. If nothing else, Dorothy comes across in the books as a very dynamic character, which Fairuza did not. "Solemn" pretty well sums it up. Mostly she seemed like a victim. This may very well be the fault of the writers and director rather than the actress, however. This idea is borne out by the fact that Emma Ridley, who played Ozma, is also very solemn and not at all the radiant, charming young lady we might expect. Dave wrote: >For RPG -- If no one wants Ozma, I'll take her... Okay, but only if you promise not to let her fall in love and get married! :) I love a parade: Concerning the "coronation procession" toward the end of RTOz, there is a photo of this parade reproduced in Allen Eyles' _The World of Oz_, page 85. It is apparently a publicity shot rather than an actual still from the movie. Anyway, in this picture, we see Dorothy riding the Cowardly Lion and flanked by the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow. In front of the Tin Woodman is a bearded, short fellow in a fur hat. He is waving a red tassel. Behind the Scarecrow is another, even shorter person wearing what appears to be a Wehrmacht helmet with a plume and with black ringlets sticking out from underneath on all sides, and he is waving a blue tassel. I have no idea who these two are supposed to represent. Behind all these are Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump. On the left side (Dorothy's right) are a young woman in a white sort of ancient-Grecian dress, an older couple in Victorian garb, a woman in a flowered hat, a few others with no distinctive identifying features, and a young man who resembles a hippie high on drugs and who could be either the Shaggy Man or the Braided Man. His costume actually looks more like the latter, to me. On the right side (Dorothy's left) are three more young women in white dresses (the Three Adepts, if you like) and another Victorian-looking woman in an elaborate hat. In this picture, I do not see any trace of _any_ of the characters listed by Gehan with the possible exception of the Shaggy Man. Now to review the videotape... The first couple down the aisle is a fellow in green coat and boater escorting a woman in red Victorian dress, followed by a man in a red uniform coat with white cross belts escorting one of the ancient-Greek ladies. In the procession that follows, we see Tik-Tok in addition to the above-named characters, while the sidelines definitely include the Patchwork Girl and Tommy Kwikstep, as well as a man who could be the Wizard (although he doesn't belong there in this context). In the parade itself near the Shaggy/Braided Man there is a man with somewhat exaggerated white hair and beard, but, despite his red costume, it's not Santa Claus. There are a lot of people who could be anybody, and a fair number of Wheelers. Later, in viewing the crowd before the throne, we see a person in a sailor suit holding a bunch of balloons and jumping up and down. We only see him (or her?) from the back. If it's Cap'n Bill, he's awfully agile for a sixty-year-old man with a wooden leg. In another shot, we see a clown in the crowd who might or might not be Notta Bit More. In later quick shots of the crowd, we can see the Frogman. I could barely make out Polychrome. She only appeared a couple of times for a split second, and I would not have had any idea it was her if it hadn't been for her headdress (all you can see of her in some shots), and I wouldn't have identified her from that if not for the photo of her in _World of Oz_. (The headdress is certainly not in any of Neill's drawings.) I don't see anyone with a turban and a fierce beard (Mustafa) or anyone who looks like Rinkitink. I also do not see the Musicker at all, and several of the younger men or boys could be Ojo, or not (in one shot, someone with a peaked hat is reflected in a mirror). I don't know who you might identify as the Guardian of the Gates. The one soldier in the red coat might be him, or he might be the Army of Oz, but in either case it seems that he ought to be wearing green rather than red. He is a young man without whiskers. I'd tend to say he is Pvt. Files; he bears more resemblance to that character than either of the other two, and in that case the "Greek" woman he escorts could be Ozga. There are one or two young women who could be Jellia, although none is wearing anything like a maid's uniform. We also see several brief shots of a man in a purple suit or uniform, but I have no identification for him. Eyles says, "The director insisted that the characters correspond in form as closely as possible to the John R. Neill drawings." Well, he evidently got his way with the Tin Woodman and Tommy Kwikstep, but beyond that I'm not so sure, Polychrome and the Shaggy Man don't come very close. IMHO, a lot of the identifications that could be made or have been made are sort of arbitrary. Is it possible to get any information about all this from the Disney people? - David G. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 19:37:33 +1100 From: Gehan Cooray Subject: The Blue Witch of Oz Tell me, Is -Blue Witch of Oz- also one of Shanower's comic books, or a normal book like -Giant Garden of Oz-? Is the story about the Good Witch of the East, or the the Wicked Blue Witch of the East? I'm curious to know....... --Gehan Cooray "I think I've had a change of heart. The animal plant toxins had a unique effect on me. They changed my blood with aloe, my skin with chlorophyll, and filled my lips with venom.....One more thing, I'm POIson..... I'm natures arm! Her spirit! Her will! Hell, I am Mother Nature! And the time has come for plants to take back, the world so rightfully ours! Cause its not nice, to fool with Mother Nature!" --Poison Ivy (Batman and Robin. Warner Bros.) "My will is law!" --Princess Langwidere (Ozma of Oz by L.Frank Baum) ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 26 Mar 99 12:34:09 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things NEILL'S VARIED ILLIOS.: I go along with Nathan that Neill experimented... As the _Oz Scrapbook_ points out however, there was an overall tendancy towards "more sophisticated" (i.e. more mature)... By the era of his own books, Neill's Ozma has definitely aquired what _Red Dwarf_'s Kryten refers to as "in-and-out bits"... Can you really blame some of us for getting the "blaphemous" impression that she's more than "just a little girl"? ;) BLUE WITCH: Gehan wrote: >Is -Blue Witch of Oz- also one of Shanower's comic books, or a normal book >like -Giant Garden of Oz-? Is the story about the Good Witch of the East, or >the the Wicked Blue Witch of the East? It is a "graphic novel" (in other words, a comic book). It is about the Good Witch of the East. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave DaveH47@mindspring.com, http://www.mindspring.net/~daveh47/ Take the time to taste the honey on a summer breeze, Touch the love song every bird has learned to sing. Feel the sunlight as it warms you on the coolest day, And you'll feel a part of what we're gathering -- The senses of our world." -- The Bugaloos, "The Senses of Our World"