Dave Thomer

Maybe we can consult the Spin Doctors.

I couldn't get into the book back when it was coming out but I was intrigued by how they were going to revisit the Atom-as-Monarch idea . . . and then they didn't get much farther with it than they did in ARMAGEDDON 2001.

Extra-legal killings are bad.

Extra-legal killings of people who are drug smugglers is really bad, since they could not be executed if arrested.

Extra-legal killings of people who are MISTAKEN to be drug smugglers is a necessary consequence of a policy of extra-legal killings.

#NotInMyName

I have bought a LOT of these books over the years. Lots of behind the scenes info on what is still my favorite TV series.

Before 1989 my main method of following Spider-Man was the newspaper strip, so that's where I saw Peter and MJ get married and I thought that was pretty cool.

I think Marvel knows that it needs some kind of release valve for the pressure that builds up from the fans and creators who did like the marriage/stable relationship even if it's going to hold firm on the main line. But that's a guess on my part.

Yes, although in part that depends on who your target audience is. A married, happy, responsible Peter was certainly relatable to me in my 20s and 30s, but maybe less so to kids and teenagers?

(Although when I was in HS in the 90s, the idea that Peter could grow up & be happy was HUGELY appealing.)

For me, what aged up Spider-Man was having him graduate college and be living on his own. At that point, married or not, he’s an adult having adult relationships.

I also think that fewer people are invested in the idea that being Superman should block Clark’s happiness, compared to Peter.

The deliberative model is much better than what we have but it still depends on support and structuring by elites, which would make it very vulnerable if it were scaled up.

No institutional framework will survive a culture that doesn’t fundamentally support its values at all levels.

My family was on a break from collecting Superman at this time but I’m sure glad Jerry called that audible. This issue, on the other hand, I definitely had. (The transition from this page to the first page of the Robin mini is amusing in that we don’t often see the aftermath of such Big Moments.)

It’s interesting to contrast the way different generations of creators and fans responded to the marriages of Superman and Spider-Man. The publishers tried to remove both, but for whatever reasons DC was willing to change its mind and Marvel hasn’t been.

And as I’m thinking about it, Tim and Jason should be around the same age but I don’t think I’ve seen them portrayed that way.

Robin is a good example of a big tension in post-80s superhero comics. Everything is built on big status quo disrupting events but also time can’t pass. So all the disruptions are crammed together and feel silly. Like, how quickly has Bruce gone through Robins for there to be 4-5?

This is true, and important, and good.

What I am still trying to wrap my head around - after getting my PhD in philosophy studying democracy and now in my second decade teaching HS students about US gov't - is how much they also stand apart from the larger group of non-elites.

That is some fantastic dice jockey patter.

How exactly are you defining “ordinary?”

My conclusion based on what I see is that the ordinary (typical, average) person doesn’t care about democracy.

The people we see taking action to defend democracy are extraordinary even if they don’t hold positions of fame or influence.

Comic. Scatter chart with Emperor Palpatine character age on Y axis and Ian McDiarmid age during filming on X axis. Plot with descending arrow beginning from Return of the Jedi (emperor age 90, McDiarmid age 40) → Revenge of the Sith, Attack of the Clones, and The Phantom Menace (emperor age 50-70, McDiarmid age 50-60) → The Rise of Skywalker (cloned body, undefined age) with a gradient vertical line (McDiarmid age over 70) → Now (emperor age under 10, McDiarmid age over 80). [caption] To continue the trend, they should make a Star Wars movie where 81-year-old Ian McDiarmid plays the emperor as a toddler.

Emperor Palpatine

xkcd.com/3157/

It was definitely a local thing in Philly for many years. We had a short weekday version and a longer one on weekends. I think the DJs of both have since retired from doing them.

Now I wonder how many cities have a Breakfast with the Beatles feature on their morning radio. (Not sure if we still have one in Philly, to be honest.)

Oh, I hope you had dramatic music playing at the moment!

I’m about to turn 50. This summer I bought an electric piano and I’m plunking keys in my basement. There are many options available.

The PBS News Hour has had five different names and six official anchors since it first aired in 1975. Through it all, we've stayed true to our mission of delivering fair, accurate and in-depth reporting.

I feel like it’s trying to add ambiguity. There’s no way of ending this cycle of destruction that feels clean, there’s no way to get rid of the Reapers AND keep the cool stuff you got from them.

Which, OK, I can see that life can be like that. But you don’t HAVE to make the story like that.

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That's the 1100 block of Market Street in Philadelphia; David Byrne is town for a three-night visit. #NoKings

I agree with this BUT as both an undergrad and a grad student, I valued my professors’ expertise as a way to make my process of being introduced to a field or a topic more efficient. I didn’t want them to tell me “the right answer” but I also didn’t want to completely reinvent the wheel.

I think that annual just called him the Herald.

I gotta read the 70s Teen Titans one of these days.

I think the only comic I have ever read with Mal was the Secret Origins Annual that Pérez wrote. Did they actually call him Hornblower in the 70s?

Netflix as a company seems hell bent on denying any possibility that the theatrical viewing experience has something of value that the home streaming experience does not. I think that matters more to them than money.

I think they’re wrong but what do I know.