ETC.: Rainy Monday

ETC.: Rainy Monday

Rain rain rain. I usually work Tuesday through Saturdays, and for some reason this spring, the weather gods have chosen to mock me. It rains without fail almost every single Sunday and Monday I am off work. Today it is raining, raining, raining. And Peter is being reluctant to take his afternoon nap. So it goes...

• Wildlife I have spotted in our back yard in the past three days: Deer (including one young buck who seems ready to move in), flock of turkeys with several baby turkeys (turklets?), miscellaneous cats, and one surprising raccoon that our cat nearly charged out the back door after (which would have resulted in one less cat in the neighborhood if I hadn't grabbed her by the tail). And we live in the middle of town!

• This interview with Ted Turner pretty much sums up why I don't watch TV news much anymore. Like Ted says, CNN, FOX, et al - it's true, they're the "missing white girls" and "pervert of the day' networks. Yeah, a girl is missing in Aruba, yeah, it's a tragedy, but hundreds of kids run away from home or get abducted every year. Why do only some (read: usually blue-eyed, usually blonde and pretty) merit blanket TV coverage? Ted Turner actually has some good advice for the network he started, but unfortunately I suspect if it did actually turn to serious hard news, global coverage and deep thought, the ratings would drop like stones. For some reason I can't fathom, people apparently like to watch the trauma-of-the-day and talk show blowhards pontificating at them. I don't get it, myself.

• Watching much of the "Scrubs" first season DVD this weekend reminded me how this is one of the best 2-3 shows on TV today. I missed the first season of this when it aired back in 2001, pegging it as yet another TV doctor show, but it's really become one of the funniest, wittiest and most humane shows on the air. The first season is great, and it's interesting to see where the characters started. Watching it, I'm struck by how real most of the character seem, unlike your usual sitcom constructions. I enjoyed "Friends" in a trashy way, for instance, but never felt like any of them were actual human beings. But J.D., Turk, Elliott and the rest all feel, despite the gags and pratfalls and silly lines, like actual people. Now that's fine writing.

• Absolutely wonderful comics news this weekend from the big Wizard World Philadelphia show -- in between all the hoopla about new titles, DC Comics let slip they're launching DC Showcase Presents, a massive reprint program highlighting goodies from their 70-year history in an affordable thick black-and-white format like the Marvel Essential series. It launches in fall with a 500-page monster of 1960s Superman stories, goofy and glorious fun stuff for a mere $17 or so a pop. Following will be tomes on the Justice League and Green Lantern, as well as more obscure properties like Jonah Hex and good lord, even superfreak Metamorpho! I love seeing classic comics at affordable prices, and the black-and-white doesn't bug me a bit. Hopefully even more will follow -- I would plotz for books of DC's war and science-fiction comics, or stuff like "Sugar & Spike," "The Doom Patrol," or "Brave & Bold." What a fine time to be a comics fan.

• Because it's Monday: The zombie blog. Mmm, brains....

The boy is asleep! Hurrah!