Murrieta Mambo

One of the things about writing this blog is I don't let a silly little thing like lack of experience or knowledge stop me from writing about something.  In most cases, I'm just too lazy to do the research. However, in the case of what's been going on in 
Murrieta, CA, I have in fact made efforts to read up on this story and actually gather some facts before voicing my opinion. 


But despite this reading, this research, I feel there's something I'm missing, something I'm not quite grasping. So bear with me as I review what I do know or understand to be true while I try to figure out the missing pieces. 

• There has a been a surge off illegal immigrants crossing the border from Mexico to the United States.  

• The bulk of this surge comes from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, 3 Latin America countries mired in poverty and consumed by violence. 

• A large number of these illegal immigrants are children, mostly unaccompanied, numbering in the tens of thousands. 

• Federal facilities in Texas are being overwhelmed so plans have been made to distribute some of these immigrants to facilities in other states. One of those is located in Murrieta, CA. 

Protests have flared up in Murrieta against bringing these immigrants to the facility there.  “We need to stop these busloads of illegals,” said Liz Herger, who was one of about 75 protesters who showed up to oppose the expected transfer Friday. “We are an economically depressed area and we already don’t have jobs … who's gonna take care of them? We're not going to.”


And this is the point where I am missing crucial information. Are these illegal immigrants being released by the Feds "into the wild" as it were to fend as best they can with whatever resources are available at the local level? If that is the case, then maybe....just maybe...the rage in Murrieta is perhaps justified.  


But at the heart of this issue is that we're talking about 50 thousand plus children who have escaped a world of hunger and violence to find a chance at something better. The politics of immigration be damned, isn't our first duty as Americans...no, scratch that...isn't our first duty as human beings to do what we can to help?  Is the best solution really to stand in front of buses with angry shouts and defiant protest signs, telling kids they are not welcomed here? 


And as always, this comes down to politics.  Immigration reform is a particularly sore point with the far right Tea Party nut cases in the GOP; they're idea of reform is more barbed wire with machine guns trained on anyone desperate enough to come through.  


The thing is people still want to come here because America still represents the best chance, the best hope for a better life, a life of freedom and opportunity.  Yes, we need to manage who gets in and how, not only to the benefit and protection of citizens already here but for the benefit and protection of those who seek to pursue this American Dream. 


But on the backs of thousands and thousands of hungry and frightened children, is this really the right time to draw a hard line on immigration? Yes, our resources are tight but these are people in need. No, we may not have as much as we like or even need when it comes to money and jobs but in the end, we must do what we can. We must give what we can. These things must be done when people are in need.  

Unless I'm missing something here. 

Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You 

This (Non) Sporting Life: There's a Large Fuzzy Grasshopper Dancing on the Dugout

It's been awhile since I've posted an installment of This (Non) Sporting Life, the blog post about sports by a guy who does not know much about sports.  So I thought I would dust off this feature by talking about the minor league baseball game I attended with my family last night. 


Our local baseball team is the Greensboro Grasshoppers. Why "Grasshoppers"? There are grasshoppers around here but there's nothing unique about them as it relates to this region. Mostly, it's just alliterative. Before they were the Grasshoppers, they were the Greensboro Bats and trust me, we have way fewer bats around here than we do grasshoppers.  (Oddly enough, I did encounter a bat flitting about the parking garage where I parked my car after leaving a Grasshoppers game a few years ago. Weird.) 


The Grasshoppers play in this really nice 
ballpark that was built about 10 years ago in downtown Greensboro and has been one of those "sports will revitalize downtown" stories that did NOT turn into a boondoggle. Not only is the team itself a successful commercial enterprise but it has inspired development in the center of the city. Some of that took a hit when the big recession hit in 2008 but in the last year or so, there has been an upswing in revitalization and new construction in the downtown area.  


The park itself has the small town charm suited to minor league baseball but the facility itself looks really good and has several amenities including a playground, several dining options and skyboxes. 


The Grasshoppers are a farm team for the Florida Marlins which has been a very effective association for the two teams. The Grasshoppers are not frequently in contention for high rankings and post season play but that has stopped the team from drawing high levels of attendance each season.  

Part of the appeal of minor league baseball is not so much the game itself but all the stuff that goes on between innings. Led by a guy named "Spaz", a jester hat atop his head, inning bridging stuff includes human hamburgers, sumo wrestling, mascot races and more. One year, one of the sponsors was a pest control company so there was a guy dressed as a giant cockroach. The deal was for a fan to chase the cockroach and beat with with a large bat. My daughter got selected for this honor once and...I should mention she really, really, really hates cockroaches. This poor bastard did NOT stand a chance.  

A stand out at the games is the team mascot, Guilford the Grasshopper. The mascot is named for the county Greensboro is in. Guilford is large, green and fuzzy and has more in common with Big Bird than an actual grasshopper. But kids love Guilford who can frequently be found dancing on top of a dugout.  

Another feature at these games are the baseball dogs, trained canines named after Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Yogi Berra. These dogs will fetch loose bats and balls and entertain the crowd by running the bases and pursuing long balls between innings. One thing they have not been completely trained to do is not take a dump on the field. I think there are attempts to train them not to do that but I guess the excitement gets the better of these dogs, I guess. 


My wife, daughter and I like to go on either Friday or Saturday when the ball park puts on a post game fireworks show. It runs maybe a little more than 10 minutes but they pack a lot of really awesome fireworks in those minutes. (Meanwhile, the actual city of Greensboro's 4th of July fireworks show lasts 30 minutes but I would bet its the same amount of fireworks that the Grasshoppers put into their 10 minute show.)  

I understand the Greensboro Grasshoppers have been playing very well and are 2nd in their division. So naturally on the night my family comes to see a game, the Hoppers go down with a score of 5 to 1. Sorry, guys, if we had anything to do with that. 


And that 1 run came in the 9th inning. Man, you would've thought we had won the game. Yeah, the home team may have lost but we didn't get shut out so in your collective faces, the West Virginia Power.  


In the end, the experience of attending a Greensboro Grasshoppers game is not so much if the team wins or loses (although it is better when they win) but about the indescribable pleasure of spending time with other people, watching the game, 
occasionally keeping track of it, laughing at the antics of Spaz, Guilford and the dogs. Meanwhile, the sun paints the western sky red and gold, the dark blue night advances from the east, a cool breeze wafts across the grass. Over the bubbling of voices comes the sharp crack of a bat, a ball arcs through the evening sky and we hold our breaths for either a moan of disappointment or a shout of triumph. 

For a moment the ball spins through the cooling summer air. 

For a moment, anything can happen. 

Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You

Doctor Who Weekend: The Americans Are Coming! The Americans Are Coming!

Hi there! Dave-El here and welcome to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You, the internet's answer to the carrier pigeon. 

As today is 1 day removed from the 4th of July, America's Independence Day, I decided to devote today's Doctor Who Weekend post to the subject of Americans in Doctor Who.  


With all of time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will, it's amazing how often the Doctor's adventures take him and his companions to times and places within the United Kingdom. But once in a while, that big ol' country across that big ol' pond called the Atlantic Ocean gets acknowledged in the Doctor's travels. 


This is not a comprehensive list, just the moments that I am aware of where American characters have made an appearance in Doctor Who.  

Foremost on this list is the 1st Doctor adventure, The Gunfighters. This particular serial has a poor reputation, citing historical inaccuracies, bad accents, musical narration ("Ballard of the Last Chance Saloon"), bad ratings and more.  While some of the bad rep may have been earned, some of that rep also owes to preconceived perceptions of the story. Still, Part 4 of The Gunfighters received the lowest Audience Appreciation figures of any Doctor Who episode. 

In the 3rd Doctor adventure, The Claws of Axos (click here for my write up on that), an agent from Washington DC, Bob Filer, comes to Great Britain to bring the Master to American justice. 

The most significant and ongoing presence of an American character on Doctor Who was that of Perpugilliam Brown or Peri. As played by Brit actress Nicola Bryant, Peri's American accent was notorious for not remaining consistent. (I'm not being critical of Nicola here; I'm sure the American aspect of the character was not her idea and besides, not a lot of Brits are like Hugh Laurie who can pull off a really great American accent.) Producer John Nathan-Turner's reasoning for making the Doctor's companion an American was in line with why Tegan Jovanka was made an Australian, to better increase the show's appear outside of Britain. Suffice to say, Peri's appeal to America had less to do with her accent and more for her propensity for low cut, form fitting tops.  



I recall in the 7th Doctor adventure, Silver Nemesis, there is a bizarre cutaway scene with a female American visitor giving someone a lift. She was an over the top Southern gal but why she was important to the story, I have no idea.  

This brings us to the 8th Doctor and Dr. Grace Holloway, not only an American character but played by American actress Daphne Ashbrook. This was the first time that a companion gets into liplock action with the Doctor. 

When the series was revived in 2005, the 9th Doctor and Rose encounter Henry van Statten, a megalomaniacal American businessman with a fetish for alien tech. He's a greedy son of a bitch who, once he realizes the Doctor is an alien, has the Doctor tortured for information. Somebody's been channeling their inner Dick Cheney, perhaps?  

The next time America shows up in Doctor Who, the 10th Doctor and Martha visit Depression era New York. Future Spider-man Andrew Garfield plays a genial drifter from Tennessee while various other characters affect "Nu Yawk" accents almost to the point of caricature. ("LAZ-LO!") To be fair, I don't know how many American actors wouldn't approach such accents the same way.

It wasn't until the 11th Doctor along with Amy and Rory that not only did the characters make it to the USA but so the actors themselves. The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon saw Doctor Who actors actually on American soil. Not only that but we had several American characters including President Richard Nixon. And I love this exchange: 

The Doctor (acting calm while surrounded by Secret Service agents with their guns drawn): "They're not going to just shoot me."
River: "Doctor, they're Americans!"
The Doctor (suddenly panicked): "Don't shoot!" 

Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Matthew Darvill made a return trip to shoot scenes for The Angels Take Manhattan a year later for the 7th series. Earlier in that series, A Town Called Mercy was set in the American Old West, the first time since The Gunfighters. However, this was not shot in America or England but in Spain where the famous westerns of Sergio Leone were filmed.  


While I can't recall any American characters appearing in subsequent episodes, the Americans do get name checked by UNIT's Kate Stewart in The Day of the Doctor when she voices concerns over Americans getting hold of time travel technology and re-writing history. As she tells Clara, "You've seen their films." (That line got a big laugh here in America.)  

So far, Doctor Who performers and crew have not made a return visit to America although 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi and the Doctor Who gang have been back to Spain for some shooting there. I don't know if any of the forthcoming stories will have any American characters. But it's always a kick to see Doctor Who in America so I hope a return visit, either virtually or actually, is in the cards soon. 

___________________________________


So the clock is ticking, ticking, ticking....

ALL NEW Doctor Who is COMING!!! 

And the question of the moment is....

In the meantime, coming up on a future edition of Doctor Who Weekend...

Someone's playing games with time with Clara Oswald and the Coal Hill School caught in the middle. The Doctor has a new face but an old enemy is up to no good. 

What is... The Time of the Dominion? 

A new fan fiction from Dave-El featuring the 12th Doctor...coming soon! 

Broken News (On a Break) For Friday, July 4th, 2014

Hello there! I'm Dave-El and this is my blog, I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You and no, I cannot see by the dawn's early light, I need to turn on a lamp. 

Today is the 4th of July also known as Independence Day, a holiday set aside to celebrate the talent of actor Will Smith. No, wait! It's a holiday set aside to celebrate the founding of...

"The Greatest Nation on Earth". 

Do not argue the point, we are armed and drunk so just accept it, OK? 

Click here for a link to last year's July 4th blog as I discuss what I love about Oosah. 

Oosah, as in USA. No, this has still NOT caught on, dammit! 

Since the 4th has fallen on a Friday which is the day I post bROkEN nEWs, I have decided to do a special bROkEN nEWs iN pIcTuReS edition as we look at that most treasured American resource, our politicians. 


I hope you enjoy this post while I honor the bravery of our founding fathers by sipping this strawberry margarita by the side of the pool.


Let's start with the big dog in chief, the President. 

Sometimes having fun at Barack Obama's expense seems a bit unfair. This is a guy who can't even order a hamburger without Fox News proclaiming it an insult to American hot dog makers.  Then he eats a hot dog and there's Fox News with, "What? A good old fashioned American hamburger too good for him?" 


Face facts, guys and gals. Barack Obama is NOT "the worst President ever". But he's also not a miraculous wonder sent from the heavens above either. He's just this dude doing what he can and like all dudes, he can screw up like the best and the worst of us. 

Yeah, I know that this is...what, the 5th time I've posted this graphic on my blog? Well, I'm still damn proud of it! This is my Gary Trudeau moment! So there! 

Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for this next guy too. 

Rep. John Boehner first of all has to ALWAYS remind people his last name is pronounced "bay-nor", not "boner". And secondly, he gets to be Speaker of the House while his Republican party is (for lack of a better word) infested by ideologically driven fruit cakes.  Occasionally he says or does something that makes one think he really doesn't believe the bullshit he's saying. That being said, Boehner ("BAY NOR") has let the tail wag the dog too many times, giving control of the GOP and the House to the Tea Party nut cases. 

Which is a bit ironic to consider that our nation was founded in part on the idea that a lone nut case (King George) couldn't run our lives and now our democracy is at the mercy of a minority group of nut cases.  

Before the GOP had control of the House of Representatives, this lady had Boehner's job as Speaker.  

I don't know why but of all the women in Congress, Nancy Pelosi provides the best photo ops for humor. Michelle Bachmann provides the best headlines but her photos tend to be more scary than amusing.  

But the best subject for funny pictures is this senator from the big honkin', too fuckin' hot and crazy state of Texas.  

Ted Cruz has two expressions that seem to pop up in so many photos I see of him: 

• Trying to think
• About to cry

Now I shouldn't give Ted too much grief for the former. I've had way too many times in my life looking totally gobsmacked trying to remember why I walked into the kitchen. 

But look at those last two pics in the set above. The first word that comes to mind is "petulant". 

And that may be an apt description given Ted Cruz's history. Below is a graphic I created last year when Ted staged the Senate's version of "hold my breath until I turn blue" known as a filibuster in yet another appeal to the hard right to overturn health care reform.  

Now it may seem disingenuous to make fun of our leaders on a day Americans are celebrating our country's birthday. But in a way, this is the greatest way to celebrate our gift of freedom.  Too many people in this world still live in oppressive nation states where speaking ill of the leadership is an invitation to be imprisoned or executed.  So take time, my fellow Americans, to be thankful to live in a nation where we can speak in freedom about this country of which we love and sometimes burns our butt.  

And to those who are not Americans but aspire to that dream, do not lose hope in that dream, the dream of freedom as personified by the great nation of Oosah.

No? Still "no" to Oosah?

OK then. Happy birthday, USA!

Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You

Tomorrow:

A bit of post 4th of July spin for this week's edition of Doctor Who Weekend as we look at Americans on Doctor Who. 
_______________________________

Next week: 

After two weeks, we're back with an ALL NEW edition of bROkEN nEWs. Jokes and satire ripped right from the headlines, just like a Band-Aid from a hairy leg. And just as much fun. 

Until then, be good to one another. 

It Came Thru Bruce Wayne's Window #6

Because absolutely NO ONE demanded this, today Dave-El Incorporated and I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You Entertainment feature the return of....

IT CAME THRU 

BRUCE WAYNE'S WINDOW!

Okay, you know the drill.*

*(And if you don't, click here, here, here, here and here for the previous 5 installments.) 

Poor little rich boy Bruce Wayne has watched his parents murdered by a thug in an alleyway. Bruce swears to wage war on all criminals. So he trains his mind and body to...

Well, to do what? That's the question. Bruce needs a direction for his war on crime. 

What inspiration will crash through the windows of Wayne Manor this time?

Let's find out.  

Comics Blah Blah Comics: Freedom Fighters

With the 4th of July coming up in a couple of days, I thought I might take a look at DC series from the mid-1970s, Freedom Fighters. 

Like a lot of projects from this time period at DC, Freedom Fighters came from the desk of Gerry Conway and like a lot of Conway projects from that time, the first issues were a revolving door of talent before settling on a regular creative team. Conway plotted issue #1 and wrote issue #2, Marty Pasko scripted #1 and wrote #3 and #4 before Bob Rozakis came on board with issue #5 and wrote the rest of the series. After Ric Estrada and Pablo Marcos pencilled the first two issues, Ramona Fradon drew issue #s 3 through 6. Then Dick Ayers came on board with inker Jack Abel as of issue #8 and drew the series to the end. 

Cover art by Ernie Chan (#4), Rich Buckler & Jack Abel (#7) and Alex Saviuk & Frank Giacoia (#15)

The Freedom Fighters were composed of former Quality Comics super heroes that DC had acquired and had appeared in Justice League of America in a crossover with the JSA.  These heroes were: 

• The Black Condor 
• No, he wasn't black but he could fly
• Doll Man
• Could shrink to the size of a doll (duh!)
• The Human Bomb
• Blows up real good...when he's naked (really!)
• Phantom Lady
• Fought crime dressed in the finest of Frederick's of Hollywood
• The Ray
• Light powers
• Uncle Sam 
• Yes, THAT Uncle Sam

Back in the old multiverse days of DC, the Quality heroes were over on Earth X where the Nazis had won World War II. However, thanks to the intervention of the Justice League of Earth One and the Justice Society of Earth Two, those mean old Nazis were overthrown and apparently there was no more crime left to fight on Earth X. So the Freedom Fighters hopped over en masse to Earth One where we have LOTS of crime. Except the FF gets played for suckers by a villain called the Silver Ghost; before the last page of issue #1, the Freedom Fighters have been labeled as outlaws and are on the run. (Yes, even Uncle Sam!)  

My first issue of Freedom Fighters was #4 which guest starred Wonder Woman and in many ways, this book was my first "Marvel" comic. Think about it: 

• A group of super heroes who are on the outs with society and the law. 
• A big time super hero comes over from their title for a guest star turn. 
• Meanwhile being pursued by the very authorities they came to Earth One to help have put our heroes under a lot of pressure and they're not exactly getting along. 

Freedom Fighters was never what I would call a "great" book. It was at its best mildly entertaining. But Rozakis, Ayers and Abel were delivering solid, professional work and I'd recommend their "mildly entertaining" work over a lot of other books at the time.  I'll say I was sufficiently entertained enough that I was truly sad when I got to the end of Freedom Fighters#15 and found out the book was coming to an end. 

Except it didn't. And it did.

The Freedom Fighters were to continue their battles against the Silver Ghost in the pages of Secret Society of Super Villains while The Ray would fly solo in a new back up series appearing in Black Lightning. It was all part of some spectacular new initiative called The DC Explosion. 

Yep, this was 1978 and what came to pass was the infamous DC Implosion. The Ray got one solo story before Black Lightning was cancelled. The FF in Secret Society never happened at all (except in the Xerox'd Cancelled Comics Cavalcade). 

While certain threads from SSoSV were later picked up in issues of Justice League of America, to my knowledge, this incarnation of the Freedom Fighters was never addressed again. Variations did appear elsewhere: 

Roy Thomas rolled in versions of the Quality heroes into All Star Squadron. 

There was a Phantom Lady serial in Action Comics Weekly. 

Some configuration of the Fighters appeared... and were summarily slaughtered... in Infinite Crisis#1.

Later the Freedom Fighters concept was dusted off and refurbished by writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. I understand some good work was done in those comics but I never followed them.  

There's still a soft spot in my heart for those original ragtag heroes from Earth X, trying to make their way on a new Earth they didn't understand. I'm glad I stumbled upon them on that squeaky spinner rack when I was a kid.  

Dave-El

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You

__________________________

Thursday: 

The return of... 

It Came Thru Bruce Wayne's Window

What's coming through the Wayne Manor window this week? Hint: it has a connection to the American Revolution. And speaking of which....

Friday: 

The 4th of July brings us a special edition of bROkEN nEWs!

Saturday: 

And with the red glare of 4th of July fireworks still in my head, Doctor Who Weekend looks at the history of Americans in Doctor Who.

In the meantime, be good to one another.    

"That's Not a Drive, That's a Putt"

In southeastern North Carolina where I grew up, one might be asked upon visiting another's home, "Would you like something to drink?" Now this meant any number of beverages, from a Pepsi or Coke to lemonade to iced tea or even just a glass of water would be nice, thank you very much.  


On TV shows, things were a bit different. A visitor to someone's home or even an office would be greeted with the question of "Would you like something to drink?" which would be followed by someone making their way behind a bar.  Ice would clink in glasses as a drink would be concocted from various bottles of bourbon, scotch, gin, etc, etc.  


I was always fascinated by this disconnect between the real world offering up a Pepsi and the fake TV world proffering something called a gin and tonic. 


So imagine my surprise when I found out that stuff on TV really did happen in the real world.  


My wife's grandparents were the type of people who when that asked if you wanted to something to drink would head behind the bar to make something.  As seen on TV! 


Eddie and Helen were most certainly urbane in many ways with their mixed drinks, country club membership, season tickets to the theater and more. But they were nice people, caring and humble, who made me feel welcome in their family. 


I'm thinking of them now because Helen passed away this weekend at the age of 92. Eddie preceded her into death a few years ago. Both were diagnosed with varying degrees of Alzheimer's. Eddie descent into this lost world of confusion and degradation was more precipitous than Helen's. Eddie was twice my age but in so many ways healthier and sharper than I was so it was hard to watch his fall from a robust and happy individual to a callow and confused shell of himself. Before he forgot who I was, Eddie always addressed me as "Young David". He may have been physically older than me but that twinkle in his eye made him seem so much younger. 


Helen held on longer. As recently as last year, she was able to attend a family dinner. But it was clear she was not getting better. She spoke only in whispers and it wasn't always clear if she even knew where she was. 


Among the many frustrating things about Alzheimer's is that it doesn't do its damage in a neat straight downward line. There are times when someone afflicted with this disease will seems to recover a bit, seem almost like their old selves.  My wife's last visit with her grandmother was a positive one; Helen was more alert than she had been the last time she saw her. It gave my wife that little bit of hope for her grandmother. But that's just one of the many ways Alzheimer's is so cruel to those afflicted and those who love them.  


At this point, I should probably address the title of this post. It's a punchline to a joke that I've heard and used in a variety of circumstances for many, many years. But the best laugh I ever got from that punchline was when I heard Helen deliver it. I had to drop off a package at Eddie and Helen's house and while I was there, Helen offered me a drink. A "like they do on TV" drink. 

I replied, "You guys are driving me to drink." 

She quipped, "That's not a drive, that's a putt." 

An old punchline, yeah, but she made it sound new. I still laugh when I remember that moment. 

God speed and God bless, Helen. You and Eddie are together again. We should all be so young as we grow older. 

Helen and Eddie
with their great-granddaughter Miranda (2005)