15th, 16th, 18th Days

THE FIFTEENTH DAY

Ren & Stimpy, “Ren’s Toothache,” “Nurse Stimpy,” “The Cat that Laid the Golden Hairball” plus two Powdered Toastman commercials. A bit of a jump from early, basic Warners and Disney cartoons to this, but – just felt like seeing them.

All Creatures Great and Small, “Horse Sense” – The perfect follow-up to Usborne Farm Animals. More real animals are seen, and Cubby wonders where places like Yorkshire and Glasgow are.

At Last the 1948 Show episode #1 – Ancestor of Monty Python from 1967 – John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Marty Feldman, and Graham Chapman.

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919 horror) – should have gone with “Mazeppa” airing last week. Just about the oldest horror movie.


THE SIXTEENTH DAY

“The Attempt on Everest” (London Times, Oct. 21, 1921); “The Abominable Snowmen” (ca. Nov. 1, 1921); “Abominable Snowmen: A Traveller’s Experience” (Nov. 3, 1921 p. 11) – Cryptozoological news clippings. The Howard Bury expedition gave us the name “Abominable Snowman.”

Goofy in “Giant Trouble”, Don Christensen – a Big Little Book from 1968. Part of my childhood. Odd reading Mickey Mouse and Goofy in prose.

The Lone Ranger, “The Lone Ranger’s Triumph” – third episode ends a storyline, like a mini-serial.

Jonny Quest, “Curse of Anubis” – Whatever a “mummy” is, says Cubby, don’t violate its tomb!

Biography: Ed Gein – VHS copy. Account of a weird killer. Kind of appropriate for an autumn evening.

Doc Savage #1: The Man of Bronze, Kenneth Robeson – first in the series of pulp books about the proto-superman Clark Savage, Junior and his Fabulous Five!


THE EIGHTEENTH DAY

Famous Monsters of Filmland no. 37 (February 1966) – Many years ago a little child flipped through this very issue of Forry Ackerman’s magazine in a tiny Tulsa drugstore, but his mother made him put it back on the shelf. Now Cubby has finally read it! He at least knows the names and faces of quite a number of – well – famous monsters. Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy . . . And like any red-blooded American lad, he wants more!

Kennedy Half Dollars, 1964-2003 – Coin collecting albums, surprisingly full. More half-dollars to go with his 2000 S “proof” coin. Coins are shiny and round . . . he might collect more of these, too.

The Avengers, “The Cybernauts” – Can John Steed and Emma Peel stop these steel automatons that go around terminating people? The talk in this programme (Brit. Spelling), about a new “circuit” that’s going to replace the transistor – computers and TVs that will fit in your pocket – is pretty amazing for 1965, and does better than some actual SF films and fiction of the era.

“Dragon of the Ishtar Gate,” an excerpt from The Lungfish and the Unicorn by Willy Ley (1941) – a chapter from the earliest cryptozoological book, which gave the world the word “Mokele-Mbembe”. Could the Sirrush of ancient Babylon and the Mokele-Mbembe of central Africa be dinosaurs? Fun to imagine, at least.