OSJ

Thanks for the virtual hug, bro! Needed that. Here's the bright spot, there is less than two weeks for the orange shit-gibbon to try and undermine democracy as it is practiced here. I'm old enough to have lived through two terms of Richard M. Nixon and if we got through that, we can get through anything. Despite approximately 50% of my countrymen being too stupid to put the toilet seat up when they have to piss, we are a rather resilient people and I have high hopes for the next three terms of the POTUS, in which we will see the first woman as POTUS (and a woman of color at that) and the oldest POTUS ever having the most remarkable one-term presidency ever. Yeah, I'm thinking four years of Biden and eight years of Harris. One of the talking heads today proclaimed that the era of Mitch McConnell is over and that the Republicans need to rally around their leaders of the future such as Marco Rubio... After I stopped laughing I realized that the guy was serious. Look, if Marco Rubio is your future you probably want to be considering a long walk on a short pier, just sayin'...

ban plz ?

We're likely going to get this shut down for being political, but what the hell... As Kathy and I re-watched the footage it became obvious to us. The Capitol police are some seriously bad MFs, due to who and what they are charged with protecting, their training is a bit different than that of other police departments; they are trained to shoot first and do the paperwork later, they do not fuck around with warning shots or "freeze" commands, they fuck you up real badly. This has "inside job" stamped all over it, you cannot convince me that the Capitol police didn't know this was coming and had orders to stand down or stand aside, whatever... Otherwise the Senate chamber would be inches deep in blood and spent cartridges.

Ah, being a closed-in recluse has its advantages (at least here in a small town). On one of my very limited forays into the public I get treated like royalty. (Though I suppose that being recognized and treated like royalty by Asst. Pharmacists, RNs, and Physicians' Assts. has a bit of a dark side to it if you stop and think about it..) Anyway, here's hoping all my peeps here are having a good start to 2021, the preceding year was pretty much a blight that we need to collectively forget as a species.

Damn it to hell, I just spent some thirty minutes writing a post covering J.L.'s excellent taste, the impressive writing talents of Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch, and digressing into the works of the publishing biz and the damn board ate my post. Obviously, I shall blame Rippa.

Ah, this is welcome news indeed! I suppose I should start subscribing to Locus again. When I hear about new books from favorite authors on WRESTLING message boards, obviously something has broken down somewhere (possibly the fact that I haven't attended a Con since 2006 has something to do with it), anyway, the other example was that a new Joe Abercrombie book came out in September and I heard about it only because a fellow poster listed his Christmas gifts on Wrestling Classics. When I'm four+ months late to the table to buy a book that I will insist on following the flag and buying only the English edition, as "simultaneous release with the US" still means that the UK was first as US bookstores hadn't opened yet when UK editions were on the shelves and being sold. Even if they started selling at the same minute, you "follow the flag" and buy whichever edition is from the author's home country, and since Joe Abercrombie is a Scot... For collectors here, the only time that you make an exception is with pre-WWI books, which had "Colonial Editions", meaning that copies sent to Canada, India, Australia, etc. often arrived before the official release date and booksellers not giving a fig about what the publishers thought, would shelve the books for sale as soon as they arrived, making the "Colonial Edition" the true first. This makes a big difference, for example the "Colonial Edition" of Dracula has been determined to be the true first making it worth something like $35,000.00 more than the UK first (which had formerly been thought to be the first until a "Colonial Edition" showed up.) Thre, how's that for on-topic thread de-railing? ?

Ditto. Over the years I thought about it many, many times but the end result was always the same, there would be an expensive book that I'd been searching for come suddenly available and so much for the tattoo. Now that I've made it to 63 sans ink, I just don't see the point. Rather than the internal dialogue and debate, I just go straight to abebooks.com and have done with it. (Reminds me that there was a new Joe Abercrombie novel out in September that I still need to pick up.) Arguably the finest fantasy writer working today!

I actually find it a bit surprising that anyone reads Bruce's stuff at any time. I haven't read the Torch since JDW stopped writing for it. His prose is painfully dry, but loads of good information. On the other hand, I can't recall a single thing that Mitchell ever wrote that had a shred of merit.

There is a Viking Prince book? Is it the classic Joe Kubert stuff from The Brave & the Bold? That would be a must-have. The old B & the B with The Silent Knight & The Viking Prince was great stuff. I was given several issues by my older cousin, wish I still had them...

Bix and Warrior, that's a fucking pair to draw to.

Mid 40s? I was thinking he had to be pushing fifty, Snowden's not THAT much younger than I am. I'd be happy to send him my address, I haven't kicked anyone in the head for a bit and he seems like a good target.

In a year that can't get over with soon enough, I'm sad to report that horror fiction lost a true icon. According to his secretary, Guy N. Smith passed away Christmas Eve in England from Covid. He was hospitalized after a fall on December 7 and contracted the disease in the hospital. The author of over 100 books including Crabs, Crabs on a Rampage, The Sucking Pit, & The Slime Beast; Smith was never going to be confused with a great writer, but damn, he was a FUN writer. Among his 100+ books on a couple of treatises on fishing and fowling in the UK, which are said to be essentials for folks into that sort of thing. If you've never read him, grab any random book, doesn't matter which one, they are all a blast! He will be missed!

Snowden has always been a jerk. He thinks that because he wrote an instantly-remaindered book on MMA that he's some sort of expert. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on.

Wanna bet he had the same back doctor as Ric Rude?

Jeebus fuck, why not just give Montiel a machete so he can fuck Kirkland up but good? Who the hell gives Kirkland a boxing license in 2020? I'm 63 years old and guarantee you I'm faster than he is.

I lived through Hogan in WCW (and wish I didn't), the very idea of Michaels in WCW nauseates me strangely.

As entertaining as Hall & Nash were as the "Invaders", all that went out the window when Hogan joined up. The dude had past his shelf-life in 1987, I had no interest watching him soil WCW with his unwelcome presence.

Just gutted, I was hoping it wasn't true... RIP to one of the greats as a person and as a wrestler.

You guys are sleeping on Colan's Dr. Strange...

Well, that's easily the most offensive thing I've seen today and considering that someone posted some shit from GWAR in another thread, that's covering a lot of ground. Fortunately, my wife who is full-blooded Navajo is in the other room as monitors can be expensive and I have no desire to go to the mall on Christmas Eve.

Stunt needs to be thrown around early and often.

Ghost ninjas, dinosaurs, and wrestling dentists! That should tick all the boxes, if it doesn't, go back to watching a bunch of tall, gangling freaks who can't hit a curveball playing in an empty arena. As for the pics of Shamrock and Jericho, certainly one is in much better shape, now ask yourself who is more entertaining.

Not that there's anything wrong with "Mississippi Queen", but "Nantucket Sleighride" is the best album that Felix Pappalardi ever produced and that's saying something. RIP big man, you will be missed! Ah, to be 16 again driving around at midnight with "Mississippi Queen" blasting on the tape-deck.

You misunderstood, he said they were going out to get "bag belts", that is to say belts to hold their man-bags. Glad I could clear that up for you!

Just fuck this year! I'm still getting over John Prine passing and now we've lost one of my guitar heroes. Leslie West could come out and sit down and blow pretty much anyone off the stage. His like will not pass this way again in my lifetime.