My household was late to the cable television game, so in the late 1970s and early 80s I took what I could get cartoon-wise. While waiting for some of my favorites, like Looney Toons, Scooby-Doo or the Flintstones to flicker across my screen, I’d make do with the sociopathic antics of
Stave One When I was about five or six, I found myself in handcuffs on the day after Christmas. I blame the ghost of Jacob Marley. After big holiday gatherings with my mom’s side of the family at my grandmother’s house, some of us usually stayed the night. It was at her house that I a
By the 8th grade my horror movie immersion was at its zenith. I had a subscription to Fangoria and would supplement the time in-between issues with copies of Gorezone, among others. I had amassed an impressive mask collection from Halloweens past, my favorite of which was the full hea
Growing up in Southeastern Massachusetts on the border of Rhode Island meant that our kitchen cabinets were usually stocked with coffee syrup. This staple stood among the ranks of other flavorings like Nestlé Quik, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, and Ovaltine, all of which turned an ordina
The TSA agent didn’t seem to notice the tiny B.A. Baracus that rode on the x-ray conveyor belt along with my wallet, phone, belt, shoes, and carry on bag. I dropped him into the basket designated for the contents of my pockets just before crossing through the metal detector. I m
T-shirts are a fine way to express yourself or profess your love for something. They are like bumper stickers for the torso, stating “hey, I like and/or believe in this thing.” They can help people find members of their own tribe. They can attempt to signal status, opinion
My parents walked me into kindergarten on my first day of school. I didn’t fully understand that we weren’t just visiting a new place, but that I was being surrendered to the mercy of the public school system for a long school career. I attended Kindergarten at the old A.S
In most situations, I tend to imagine the worst case scenario. This delightful character trait is a bit of behavior I learned from my father, a catastrophist whose glass is perpetually half-empty. My talent for negative thinking has been honed to a fine art when it comes to medical or
In the lean days before home video releases of the Star Wars films, television appearances by the folks from the galaxy far, far away were pure magic for me. Having missed the Star Wars Holiday special during its one and only broadcast, I was sustained by brief guest appearances by St
Aside from the presence of the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi, most of the unrest in the Star Wars universe is generally attributed to the 1997 re-release of the altered versions of the original trilogy, the subsequent revisions made to the original trilogy, and the release of the “prequ