Monthly Archives: June 2011

And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Breadcrumbs

Let’s see. How about Hansel and Gretel for a fairy tale post this week? This story is best known from the version recorded by the Brothers Grimm, who added a lot of the elements we now associate with the tale. … Continue reading

Posted in Fairy Tales | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Weird Is Back

This time, I have both an album and a book review. “Weird Al” Yankovic, Alpocalypse – Within the past two decades or so, Weird Al has been releasing albums at a rather slow pace, but there was a particularly long … Continue reading

Posted in Albums, Book Reviews, Chris Dulabone, Marin Elizabeth Xiques, Music, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Stork Watch

Storks appear from time to time in the Oz series and related books. In Dot and Tot of Merryland, the third valley is where white storks take care of babies, which drop into the valley in blossoms. In order to … Continue reading

Posted in Bill Campbell and Irwin Terry, Dennis Anfuso, German, L. Frank Baum, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Peter Clarke | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Good to Go

Go is a game that I have never played, but that has great historical and cultural significance and a long past, so I’d say it deserves to be the focus of a game post. It’s one of those games with … Continue reading

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Mr. Jones Is Down at the Bar, Sir

It’s obvious that the Davy Jones from the Nonestic Ocean is named after the famed Davy Jones’ Locker, and I suppose one of the closets or the sea chest in the wooden whale’s cabin could probably count as a locker. … Continue reading

Posted in Chris Dulabone, Hugh Pendexter, John R. Neill, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fighting Disbelief and Disease

A Million Miles from Here Is Oz, by Chris Dulabone – I’ll bet you thought there weren’t any more Oz books I could possibly have left to read. Well, you thought wrong, but I AM running out of titles I … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Chris Dulabone, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Princess Makes Perfect

Pretty much, right? I mean, the story only worked out because the princess not only couldn’t get to sleep because there was a pea under twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds, but complained about it the next morning. Isn’t that rather … Continue reading

Posted in Fairy Tales | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

All’s Whale That Ends Whale

One of my favorite John R. Neill creations is Davy Jones, a wooden whale who is a seagoing vessel unto himself. I already wrote a little about him here, but…well, I’d say I barely scratched the surface, but that’s not … Continue reading

Posted in Characters, Chris Dulabone, John R. Neill, March Laumer, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

I’d Rather Play Noughts and Crosses with You

This week, we take a look at one of the simplest games in existence, and possibly one of the oldest as well. This would be Tic-Tac-Toe, known in the British Commonwealth as Noughts and Crosses. It’s a game where, as … Continue reading

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You’ve Tried the Rest, Now Try the Bes

One of the major characters in Rick Riordan’s The Throne of Fire was an Egyptian god I don’t think I’d heard of previously, but since I liked him so much in the book, I figured a little more research would … Continue reading

Posted in Egyptian, Kane Chronicles, Mythology, Rick Riordan | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments