Sing It Again, Bilbo!

One of the important parts of being a teen and having your own room is decorating its walls with posters.  Of course, Mom or Dad might think your were defacing, not decorating.

One of the many posters I bought and hung up, with no parental conflict at all, was one containing "Bilbo's Last Song."

Here is the text:

Bilbo's Last Song
(At the Grey Havens)

Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!

You can read about it here, too.

Below is a Pauline Baynes poster of the poem.

Now, I do not have the poster any more.  But, the little sticker from the shrinkwrap?  THAT I have!

From this extreme enlargement of a sticker that's about three inches high, you can tell that the sylvan image is not the same as on the Baynes poster.

Here's an image of the same poster I had, for sale online.

I wonder why there were two posters of this very strictly copyrighted poem?

Au revoir until Thursday, Christmas!

  

Secrets of Silver!

Secrets of Silver

 

The Silver Age of Comics was inaugurated by DC Comics in the October 1956 Showcase #4, which introduced Barry Allen as the Flash.  The Silver Age is generally considered to have ended in 1970 when comics editor Julius Schwartz left Green Lantern, or in June 1973, when Gwen Stacy died with “the snap heard ’round the world” in Marvel’s The Amazing Spider-Man #121.

Around 700 BC, Greek poet Hesiod described the Five Ages or Races of Man.  Following the paradisical Golden Age came the Silver Age, ruled by Zeus.  During this time a child could play for a century before growing up; this is when Zeus divided the year into four seasons.  But Zeus destroyed the folk of the Silver Age for not honoring the gods.  (By the way, we are living in the final, Iron Age.)

An early bit of American folklore tells how George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River.  Even though at points the river was only about 300 feet across in Washington’s day, the first US silver dollars weren’t struck until 1794.  Perhaps Washington threw the silver coin from Germany or Holland, called the thaler (pronounced like “dollar”).  No matter what denomination made the trip, it’s plain that a few hundred years ago, money went a lot farther than today.

In Eastern European folklore, burying a silver coin under the foundation of a new house will ensure that the inhabitants will never find themselves in want.

In the 1965 Underdog cartoon storyline “The Silver Thieves,” a race of cloud-men from the planet Cumulus come to Earth.  They want to steal our silver because they need to replenish their silver linings.  They even take Underdog’s ring!

King Nuada, a mythical Celtic king of the gods, lost a hand in battle.  To fulfill the gods’ requirements that their king must be physically perfect, his Master Druid fashioned him a hand of silver.  Henceforth the ruler was known as Nuada Argetlamh, or “Nuada of the Silver Hand.”

Silver implements have always provided a defense against werewolves, but the idea of a silver bullet wasn’t popularized until the late 1800s, when standardization lowered the price of bullets.  The concept was solidified by 1941’s The Wolf Man.  In contrast, Universal’s 1935 Werewolf of London ended with its title character being slain with an ordinary firearm.  The Grimm story “The Two Brothers” tells of an otherwise bulletproof witch who falls to a silver bullet.  The Lone Ranger’s signature— “He left this silver bullet” –—symbolized the purity of justice.

The medieval Irish poem The Journey of Bran includes the Silver Branch, which represented the hero’s passage to Tír na nÓg, the Otherworld.  Anyone who entered the Otherworld without carrying the Silver Branch for safe passage would never return.

In mythology silver is often associated with lunar deities and the feminine side.  Its alchemical name is “LVNA.”

Did you know that silver has antimicrobial properties?  Since Phoenician times, people have used silver vessels to keep water potable; silver dollars used to be dropped into bottles of milk to keep the contents fresh longer.

One folk tradition holds that if you wear a gold ring and a silver ring on the same hand, you will never marry.

The book and movie The Mothman Prophecies tell about UFO sightings and paranormal phenomena centered around Point Pleasant, West Virginia.  The weirdness culminated with the collapse of the Silver Bridge on December 15, 1967, into the Ohio River.  Forty-six people lost their lives.

There’s a logical explanation for the folk belief that vampires don’t cast reflections.  Until recently, mirrors were backed with silver.  This purity refused to be sullied by the vampire’s evil.  Likewise, it was often believed that a vampire couldn’t be photographed, because of the silver nitrates necessary for early film and processing.

Fantasy writer Manly Wade Wellman wrote a series of stories featuring a wandering folksinger, John the Balladeer.  His silver-stringed guitar was named Silver John, and its charms provided protection against the folkloric evils he often encountered.

These Secrets of Silver were part of the fun of SoonerCon 25, "The Silver Age," which touched down briefly in 2016.

See you Monday, fellow treasure seekers!

Superman's Family Album

The Ruby-Spears Superman was not a perfect entity. It seemed to have three minutes of library music, which was shoehorned in everywhere. The "younger Clark Kent" vignettes were crippled by obvious cutesy-poo voice impressions of a child.

Still, we heard John Williams's fanfare in the theme.  Perry White sounded grumpy.  Luthor sounds greasy.  I learned a lot about the series from the October 1, 1988 issue of Amazing Heroes.

As you will read, this tried to tie in with the godawful Byrne reboot of the Superman mythos.  But when Superman pickings were rare, at least we had this.

Are you a fan?

  

This Treasure Gains in Value!

This here is a glorious PSA from DC Comics.

The interwebs tell me that the pencils and inks are by Win Mortimer.  Don't know who provided the text.

This is an important message for all.  Don't wait for Superman to take you to the library.  Go now!  Take your parents or children or friends.

Read! at least until Monday!

  

Keepin' It Honest

One of the great things about buying things at thrift stores is that you never know what you might find inside some of them.

I found this inside a book a few years ago.  The interwebs inform me that this honest insurance agent passed away in 2008.

I do not recall WHICH used book I found this in, but we assume it was donated by the same Mr George the note was addressed to.

See?  Honesty lives!  Until Thursday, fellow straight-shooters!

  

I Read It for the Ads!

Some may not go THAT far, but these ads from the 1960s ARE pretty fun.

Specifically, these are the pages I have not yet posted from Eerie #15, cover-dated June 1968.

You can see more about the Forgotten Prisoner of "Castlemare" in this 2009 Super Blog post!

Who on earth would want a live monkey?

You can find all of the other pages from this fine scary screed by simply entering "eerie 15" (including the quotation marks) in the handy-dandy blog search box just to the right of this post's title!

See you Monday.

  

Keep in Touch!

This interesting bit of pop-culture awareness is from the July 8, 2025 Tulsa World.

And what a legacy, huh?  You kiddies don't recall things like:

• rotary phones and party lines
• dialing a zero to talk to an operator for help or for them to tell you a phone number
• answering the phone to an operator asking you whether you would accept a collect call from someone else
• dialing zero plus the phone number and when your party answered, an operator would ask the other person if they would accept a collect call from YOU
• waiting for evening when the phone rates were cheaper before making long-distance calls
• LATER ON ... cell-phone carriers competing for how cheap EACH MINUTE was.  (I remember a boss telling me in the 1990s that anything more than ten cents a minute was excessive.)
• Pretending your flip-open phone was a STAR TREK communicator
• Checking your phone screen for bars (that is, coverage)
• Your cellphone not working inside a metal-roofed building .... 

Are YOU old enough to recall the cellphone revolution?  Talk amongst yourselves until you come back here Thursday!

  

The Super Paunch

For Thanksgiving, let's look at a column about Our Hero ... specifically, a portrayer who might not have been in trim super shape, but was just perfect for his 1950s-60s audience.

This is from the May 1990 issue of Amazing Heroes, #179.

I hope you are of the age to recognize that George Reeves's Superman was a classic.  See you Monday!

  

No Surgery Required

Emerson Lake & Palmer's Brain Salad Surgery came out at the end of 1973 and thanks to an upperclassman, I was clued in.

This is the LP front, with art by the creepy genius HR Giger.

In June of 1974, around my graduation from high school, I got out my rulers and felt-tip pens and made my own draft of the cover.

Above is a 600 dpi scan.

Fifty years later, I'm glad I put dates on things!  But check it out .... 

I also used BLACK LIGHT PAINTS.  Above is a phone photo of the thing.

And ABOVE is the thing under black light, baby!  Are you PSYCHED!  I'm PSYCHED!

See you Thursday.

  

A Super Gallery, Part 2

Here are the rest of the depictions of Our Hero from the February 29, 1988 issue of Amazing Heroes.

(That issue's date was Superman's 50th birthday, you will recall.)

Ya just can't beat Truth, Justice, and the American Way!  See you Monday.

  

A Super Gallery, Part 1

Part of the fun in celebrating Superman's 50th birthday was seeing other people's take on Big Blue.

This spread is from the February 29, 1988 Amazing Heroes.

I really really love this cover, don't you?

You DO remember that Superman's traditional birthday is celebrated on Leap Day, don't you?  

We'll see the rest of the images on Thursday.  TTFN!

 

Wore Them Suckers Out!

One of the greatest Christmas gifts my parents gave me (and there were about a zillion) was a stereo turntable (with a built-in amp) and two speakers, at Christmas 1968.

Robert and Susan (big brother and sis) had a stereo (of earlier vintage), and before this I had a kid's all-plastic kid's record player.  But this was the big leagues, baby!

It looked a lot like the above.  (I often wonder if Mom and Dad regretted the loud choice!)

I had somebody take me to Wards and in the record department I bought two LPs, soundtracks to that summer's big sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Above are the front and rear LP jacket.  Note the wear patterns!

But see the label wear around the hole in the record?  I played this sucker A LOT!

Likewise, this "music inspired by" album.

As you can see, THIS record didn't get as much wear as the first one.  But still, I know every note of these eclectic collections.  When I re-found the pieces online or on CD, my memory notices the LACK of surface noise or ticks in the originals.

You can buy a re-released version of the 2001 soundtrack all over the place,  My post on the Record Round-Up concerning the "music inspired by" is here.

Have YOU got any similar worn-down treasures?

  

Government Can Do Good, Really!

Being a proud American does not mean that I endorse everything done in our nation's past, nor especially a lot of things done recently.

It's just stupid to run around cutting research willy-nilly.  This article from the June 29, 2025 Tulsa World has an example of the good kind of things government can do!

See you Thursday.

  

You'll Be Gripped!

If that happens, tell those mean ole aliens to keep their hands to themselves.

Until then, check out this article:

These breathless whispers of freakiness are from the June 9, 1987 Globe.  And before you ask, I do not have the previous two parts of this world-shattering series.

The theories of the distinguished Rev Theodore Peters don't hold theological water, because his Lutheran faith (and Protestantism) maintains that God revealed himself through his son and the Bible, and that's all that's necessary to know what you need to know to learn God's ways.

You are free to make up your mind and/or heart about whether space beings (or other beings) are messengers of God.  You might even meet one on Sunday at church!  But don't hold your breath.

See you Monday!