Monsters—from the Id!

For the heck of it, here’s a shot of my desk, with a key.

1. The last show I was in when I lived in Indianapolis was The Vast Difference, a comedy by Jeff Daniels.
2. The Groucho glasses are a souvenir from the time PJ and I saw An Evening with Groucho (starring the great Frank Ferrante).
3. PJ and I saw The Cher Show in its pre-Broadway tryout in Chicago.
4. A cool print I picked up at the only time Comic-Con Revolution came to the Chicagoland area (and then came COVID, sadly).
5. The Great Gatsby is my favorite book. Turns out I have the same birthdate as F. Scott Fitzgerald, too.
6. We originally put the TV on the wall so that I could watch while I was working, but I’ve never used it, so I unplugged it. It’s available in case I ever really need it.
7. Various prints I’ve picked up at different C2E2 shows. The Waffle House prints brings back memories of stopping at Waffle House when my parents, younger brother, and I would go on cross-country roadtrips to see my sister in Nevada.
8. The Merchant of Venice was the first time I’d been in a show since high school (about eight years earlier). It reignited my periodic interest in doing community theater.
9. Maya Angelou’s autograph. She came to Truman State’s campus in September 1988, when I was taking a creative writing class, and I asked her to sign the inside cover of my class notebook. When we had to turn in the notebooks at the end of the semester (which I hadn’t known was going to happen), I cut off the cover and handed in the notebook.
10. I once wrote a letter to DC Comics about continuity changes post-Crisis on Infinite Earths and how certain events at the end of CoIE didn’t align with later events (e.g., Byrne’s Man of Steel miniseries). I got this letter back at my dorm. It’s a form letter at the top, with a handwritten P.S. by Dick Giordano. It reads,
    P.S. We’re in a transition period that is difficult for older readers to easily accept. All of your questions can & will be answered in some way if your [sic] patient.
    Understand that the vast majority of our readers (who are new to DC) don’t have any problems with what we’re doing. That is not to excuse our actions but to explain them. – D
11. My brother gave me his Forbidden Planet 50th anniversary set.
12. I got the Voit-Komp case special collection of Blade Runner on DVD.