Order Of The Stick

A web comic I've been following for some time. It may be old news to RPG fans, but just in case, here's addresses.

Rich Burlew's site, Giant In The Playground.

This is the latest page, as of 28 October 2004. The comic is updated every Monday and Thursday.

If you've not read OOTS before, start at page 1 and work your way way forwards from there.

Appointments and Disappointments

Wednesday, I was faced with an immense setback. The Welfare crowd had not paid me any benefit. My bank account was almost empty, and This Was Not Meant To Be.

So, in anguish, I visited the Benefits Office to ask them what was going on.

To my amazement, the person with whom I spoke, a Benefits Officer whom I'll only refer to here as "J," took up my case. J actually checked the records thoroughly, discovered what was going on and informed me where the problem lay.

It was a small matter of red tape between two branches of the same Benefits Office, and all J needed to do was make a couple of telephone calls, ask around, see if somebody could pull a few strings, start getting papers shifted etc.

Now, the matter was resolved, and way beyond my expectations to boot. It took enormous patience on her part, on my part, on everyone's part: but the matter was resolved, and at the close of day I received payment in full.

So, I'm posting this article for J, for Mrs D, for Ms K, for Ian and for those members of staff who, over the past few weeks, have completely turned around the stereotyped image of the "bureaucratic pen pusher." Heartfelt thanks to them all. A credit to their service.

There you have it. A spot of good news, for a change. And if I'm careful with my cash, there might be enough left over after paying my bills to actually go out and buy Ghost Stories and Antagonists when they do emerge next month.

(At long last, say).

BST --> GMT

I am so looking forward to Saturday night / Sunday morning.

One reason: the clocks go back an hour.

An extra hour in bed. W00t! :)

Sunday won't be entirely a happy day, though, because it's Samhain, and it being the Day of Rememberance for the dead, there are an awful lot of newly - deceased people just starting off their postmortem existence, many of whom arrived at the Far Side only recently.

This site lists the most famous ones. It's been a very sad few months for celebrity deaths, and the most recent ones are listed here.

For this year alone, the ones I'm particularly sad about are:

February
Julius Schwartz (comic editor/agent) -- Dead. Died February 8, 2004. Born June 19, 1915. Edited many DC comics for many years, including Superman.

March

Cecily Adams (casting director/actress) -- Dead. Lung cancer. Died March 3, 2004. Born February 6, 1958. One of the actresses who played Moogie on Deep Space Nine, casting director for That '70s Show, daughter of Don Adams. Make memorial contributions to: Cecily Adams Fund

Paul Winfield (actor) -- Dead. Heart attack/diabetes. Died March 7, 2004. Born May 22, 1941. Played a memorable Martin Luther King, Jr. in a '70s miniseries, nominated for an Oscar for Sounder

William H. Pickering (rocket scientist) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died March 16, 2004. Born 1910. Manager of the Mariner missions to Venus and Mars in the '60s

Jan Berry (singer) -- Dead. Died March 26, 2004. Born April 3, 1941. Part of the early '60s duo Jan and Dean who brought you "Little Old Lady from Pasadena"

Peter Ustinov (actor/writer) -- Dead. Heart failure. Died March 28, 2004. Born April 16, 1921. Spartacus, wrote Monsieur Rene, good will ambassador for the UN

Alistair Cooke (radio commentator/author) -- Dead. Died March 29, 2004. Born November 20, 1908. Retired from doing a weekly radio show for the BBC after doing it for over 60 years weeks before he died; host for Masterpiece Theater for over 20 years

April

Norris McWhirter (Guinness World Records curator/commentator) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died April 19, 2004. Born August 12, 1925. For the first 50 years of his life, shared an almost identical biography with his brother and frequent collaborator Ross. IMDB

Estee Lauder (entrepreneur) -- Dead. Cardiopulmonary failure. Died April 24, 2004. Born July 1, 1906. Created and marketed high quality, expensive cosmetics

May

Tony Randall (actor) -- Dead. Died May 17, 2004. Born February 26, 1920. Best-known for the television version of The Odd Couple's Felix, great as many characters in The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, became a first-time father at 77(!), making him older than other famous first-time fathers like Cary Grant at age 62.

Richard Biggs (actor) -- Dead. Torn aorta (see John Ritter). Died May 22, 2004. Born March 18, 1960. Starred on Babylon 5 as Dr. Stephen Franklin, soaps, and recently on Tremors Make memorial contributions to: Richard Biggs' Children College Fund. IMDB

Archibald Cox (Watergate prosecutor) -- Dead. Died May 29, 2004. Born May 17, 1912. Fired by Nixon during the Watergate hearings

Sam Dash (lawyer) -- Dead. Died May 29, 2004. Born 1924. Senate counsel during Watergate

June

Ronald Reagan (actor/president/governor (CA)) -- Dead. Pneumonia/Alzheimer's disease. Died June 5, 2004. Born February 6, 1911. Helped America "to believe in itself again" while ignoring America's flouting of international law during the Iran Contra scandal, an ex-husband of Jane Wyman, helped to bring Alzheimer's out of the closet.

Ray Charles (blues legend) -- Dead. Died June 10, 2004. Born September 23, 1930. Cultural icon, singer, pianist. "Georgia on My Mind" . IMDB

Danny Dark (voice) -- Dead. Died June 13, 2004. Born 1940. Voice of Superman in the '70s and '80s, did voiceovers for NBC and Bewitched

Bob Bemer (Pioneering geek) -- Dead. Cancer. Died June 22, 2004. Born February 4, 1920. Helped to develop the ASCII character set, COBOL and the ESC sequence

July

Marlon Brando (actor) -- Dead. Died July 1, 2004. Born April 3, 1924. Played iconic characters including the Godfather and Stanley Kowalski, born on the same day as Doris Day. IMDB

Jerry Goldsmith (composer) -- Dead. Cancer. Died July 21, 2004. Born February 10, 1929. Wrote the score for Planet of the Apes (plus The Man From UNCLE and some Star Trek movies, not to mention Star Trek: The Next Generation!), won an Oscar for The Omen.

Jackson Beck (voice over actor) -- Dead. Old age. Died July 28, 2004. Born July 23, 1912. Performed Bluto in '40s and '50s Popeye cartoons, did "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman!" for many Superman cartoons.

Francis Crick, Ph. D (DNA researcher) -- Dead. Colon cancer. Died July 28, 2004. Born June 8, 1916. Co-discoverer of DNA, co-winner of a Nobel Prize for medicine for 1962, wrote The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul

August

Red Adair (Oil well fire expert) -- Dead. Died August 7, 2004. Born June 18, 1915. Famous before the Gulf War - John Wayne played him in 1968's Hellfighters IMDB

Fay Wray (actress) -- Dead. Died August 8, 2004. Born September 10, 1907. King Kong.

Laura Branigan (singer) -- Dead. Aneurysm. Died August 26, 2004. Born July 3, 1957. "Gloria" and "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You?" Make memorial contributions to: Project Angel Food

September

Russ Meyer (maker of busty movies) -- Dead. Pneumonia. Died September 18, 2004. Born March 21, 1922. Vixen movies and many other "uplifting" flicks

Tim Choate (actor) -- Dead. Motorcycle accident. Died September 24, 2004. Born October 11, 1954. Zathras on Babylon 5 ... Make memorial contributions to: The Tim Choate Memorial Fund, PO Box 861355, Los Angeles, CA 90086

October

Janet Leigh (actress) -- Dead. Vasculitis. Died October 3, 2004. Born July 6, 1927. She didn't take a take a shower for years, once married to Tony Curtis, mother of Jamie Lee Curtis.

Rodney Dangerfield (comic) -- Dead. Heart disease. Died October 5, 2004. Born November 22, 1922. Finally getting respect?

Christopher Reeve (director/actor/advocate) -- Dead. Systemic infection/heart failure. Died October 10, 2004. Born September 25, 1952. Superman, Somewhere in Time, became a major spokesman for paralysis research after his 1995 accident [[I hated updating this record almost more than anyone else's over the last seven years - he was a man of great courage and was an example to the rest of us.]] Make memorial contributions to: Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation

John Peel (DJ) -- Dead. Heart attack. Died October 26, 2004. Born August 30, 1939. Legendary British DJ and voice-over presenter.

You'll note more than one name linked to Superman has passed this year. I've bolded them. It has, in fact, been a very sad year for Superman fans.

I'm strongly considering a Superman theme for my Samhain altar this year, accordingly.