THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 1, 1996 Happy New Year, everyone! -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 20:21:16 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Various 1) Uh, Tyler, when I suggested the people of Oz calling their planet the Inside World, I didn't mean to imply that they were not living on the surface. I meant it in opposition to the term Outside World. Also you seem to have overlooked Speedy in Oz, in which the netherworld of Subterranea appears and a few ones higher up are mentioned. 2) Eric, I have a solution to the apparent contradiction between The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Royal Book of Oz concerning the Scarecrow's origin. Suppose that magic can work retroactively. So when the Scarecrow is up on the pole, the spell affects things in the past, and the spirit of Chang Wang Woe enters the Scarecrow while the first ear is being painted on. Hence no contradiction. 3) I was at Books of Wonder today (more on that later in this entry) and saw Silly Ozbuls of Oz there. From the pictures, which gave the Silly Ozbuls the appearance of two tribbles connected by a spring, they appear to be more or less mammalian, so unless they have evolved poisonous defenses, I see no reason why they should not be edible. 4) I think in The Patchwork Girl of Oz, Dr. Pipt said that he had traded some of the Powder of Life with Mombi for the (bogus) Powder of Youth. So it would appear that Dr. Pipt is probably Dr. Nikidik, though the theory that Dr. Pipt used a jar with Dr. Nikidik's wishing pills hidden under a false bottom unknowingly is an intriguing one. 5) Dave, Tyler, what are all the Woozy's names? Gwomokolotolint is certainly dreadful, and if he has other horrible names, I'd certainly like to know about them, and well as anything Laumer or anyone else wrote about the Woozy (such as in which books this stuff appears). That the Woozy has such a dreadful name, or rather names, is a fact I can deal with, as, the way The Woozy of Oz is being written, the Woozy has been in hiding since 1897, and hence it is not surprising that the Woozy would make up pseudonyms for himself. For all those out there who are wondering why the Woozy would even think about sticking around the Emerald City, he did it because there are so many strange creatures there that he figured that he would never be noticed, and in fact, in all the Oz books I've read (the Famous Forty plus a few others), he only manages to show up in two (The Patchwork Girl of Oz and The Lost Princess of Oz), so he apparently has done a very good job. 6) I AM assuming Oz in not on Earth, OK, so, Dave, don't panic! 7) Barry, the Scarecrow is mentioned as having eaten kittens while he was human in The Royal Book of Oz. 8) I think a pre-Pastoria king of Oz also drank from the Fountain of Oblivion and made his citizens have a drink as well. 9) I'm mentioning the Shaggy Man's brother's name in The Woozy of Oz, so will people stop arguing over whether Wiggy is in any way official or not? 10) Someone tell me about Dorothy and the Lizard of Oz, please. I read The Lizard of Oz (available at the Online Books Page), and that was definitely not to be borrowed from. (It considered The Wonderful Wizard of Oz a forgery.) 11) OK, back to my trip to Books of Wonder today. (Yes, I live in New York, at least most of the year.) There I got two books of 'historical' relevance to The Woozy of Oz: Oz and the Three Witches and The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz. Big mistake. WARNING: The Surgeon General has determined that these books are incredibly boring and hence unozzy. Plus The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz managed to Make a tie-in to Oliver Wendel Holmes. Do not read them! I repeat, DO NOT READ THEM! Plus they are in contradiction with each other, and Oz and the Three Witches is in contradiction with the much better written How the Wizard came to Oz, which also has nicer illustrations than either of the stuff I brought today. Somebody shoot me next time I go to Books of Wonder and don't buy The Shaggy Man of Oz instead. Aaron: Hey, mac. Wanna buy some Oz books? Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Monday 01-Jan-96 02:27:55 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Aaaron's remarks Aaaron wrote: > ... Suppose that magic can work retroactively. So when the Scarecrow is up on the pole, the spell >affects things in the past, and the spirit of Chang Wang Woe enters the Scarecrow while the first ear is >being painted on. Hence no contradiction. I just received a letter from my future self of three weeks from now warning me NOT to comment on the implications of magic that works backward in time... :) >5) Dave, Tyler, what are all the Woozy's names? Gwomokolotolint is >certainly dreadful, and if he has other horrible names, I'd certainly >like to know about them... The Woozy has only the one Laumer name (that I know of)... When I said, "His other names are dreadful", "His other names" referred to Laumers' names for other Oz characters (I should have made that clearer). For example, his name for the Sawhorse is "Lignum" (one of the better ones). >10) Someone tell me about Dorothy and the Lizard of Oz, please. I read The Lizard of Oz (available at >the Online Books Page), and that was definitely not to be borrowed from. (It considered The Wonderful >Wizard of Oz a forgery.) So who do they think wrote _W. of Oz_, Elvis (just before he was abducted by Planetty's people)??? :) :) ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 31 Dec 1995 23:49:50 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Sample chapter of The Woozy of Oz which is going to get severely modified before the final version but which deserves to be shared anyway How the Magic Machine Didn't Leave History Alone As mentioned in the Asmard's speech, the Magic Machine, whenever it makes a mistake (well, nothing in that universe is perfect) retroactively changes history. This is known to have happened several times, and if Barry the Asmard of Ix hadn't found the magic crystal, no one would have ever known about it, as when history changes, everyone's memory changes with it. Besides the magic crystal's testimony, the only other evidence we have for this phenomenon is otherwise irreconcilable contradictions in the Oz books. For example, in 1904 Ozma sent the Scarecrow, Nick Chopper, Professor Wogglebug, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Sawhorse, and the Gump to America, where they visited Dorothy and her family. However, soon after they returned, the Magic Machine attempted to divide by zero and during error recovery it wiped out the entire incident retroactively. As far as anyone knew, the Scarecrow and company never made it to America, and when Henry and Emily Gale arrived in Oz in 1907, they were shocked to find that Dorothy hadn't made up Oz after all. This kind of thing takes place all the time. The most serious error the Magic Machine ever made was that in 1940 it managed to overflow a buffer, call a nonexistent operating system routine, try to write to a locked file, and leak several kilobytes of memory, all at the same time. The combined effects of these mistakes was to severely warp the entire nature of Oz. Houses came to life and fought with one another. Forests of trees began wandering around, looking for water. Shoes began to sing. Even worse, practically everyone in Oz became shallow and stupid. Full tales of what sorts of nonsense went on then were written down, and the author of this book would recommend these books to anyone interested in this truly bizarre era of Ozite history, except that an incompetent editor corrupted the writing so that it became virtually unbearable to read. This editor was fired in 1943, and he later made his way to West Antozia, where he studied magic and became a wicked wizard. But I digress. After the aforementioned editor was told to clear out his desk, the Magic Machine attempted to shift a bit into an already filled bit bucket, and in the process of dumping the used bits into a recycling chute inadvertantly tripped a corruption repair routine. The Magic Machine proceeded to repair the damage to Ozite history, totally eradicating everything unozzy that had happened there, especially the stupid singing shoes, and so Oz returned pretty much to normal. (This is why some books for that era give severely divergent histories, depending on whether they were written during or after the Strangeness.) However, there was some damage the Magic Machine could not repair. During those wierd years, two humans came to Oz from America. You can now forget everything that happened to them there. The Magic Machine wasn't able to edit them out of Ozite history completely, but their histories became completely warped, especially as they remained shallow, while everyone else in Oz returned to their normal level of intelligence and wisdom. The way that Jennifer Junk arrived in Oz, after the Magic Machine had repaired history, did begin with her catching a leprechaun and demanding to be turned into a fairy, but the resemblence to the original history ends there. When the leprechaun refused to comply, refering to The Official Handbook for Magical Beings, which specifically prohibits leprechauns from granting wishes or giving away pots of gold whenever they are caught, as this has been known to lead to an increase in kidnappings of leprechauns. Junk told the leprechaun that if he didn't turn her into a fairy, she was going to feed him to her pet boa constrictor Cuddlywumps. Faced with imminent danger, the leprechaun instantly transported Junk into low geosynchronous orbit over the Nonestic Ocean. When her orbit decayed and she fell into the sea two years later, Junk was swallowed by Moby David the Lead Whale, inside of whom was living "Lucky" Buckminster Nomes, who used to get his kicks by beating up smaller children and had made his way into the Nonestic Ocean via the New York City sewer system. The three decided to go somewhere nicer where they would have plenty of people to pick on and maybe conquer, and so they made their way through underground rivers leading into the Continent of Imagination and eventually surfaced in the Munchkin River of Oz. There they were promptly arrested by Glinda's soldiers, for as everybody knows Glinda has the Book of Records, which briefly records much of what goes on in the world, and hence Glinda was able to find out about their scheme even before they arrived and prevent them from doing anything mean. Plus they should have known better than to enter Oz without their passports. Moby David promptly submerged and swam as fast as he could back to the Nonestic Ocean through the underground rivers, only to be smashed by a storm at sea into small pieces, which were eaten by hammerhead sharks. Jennifer Junk was successfully taken into custody and locked in a cage beside that of Mr. Yoop, but Buckminster Nomes temporarily escaped. About that time, the Wizard had discovered a type of particle given off exclusively by complete and utter jerks, which he was able to condense into a thick grayish goo. As the Ozite term for a complete and utter jerk is 'scalawag', the Wizard named his new type of particle the 'scalawagon' and the goo it could be condensed into 'scalawagonium'. A few days later, the Wizard condensed a rather large blob of scalawagonium, at which point Buckminster Nomes walked by the palace. As Nomes, being a complete and utter jerk, gave off huge numbers of scalawagons, and as scalawagons attract one another, the glob of scalawagonium flew out of the window of the Wizard's laboratory and bowled Nomes over, at which point he was arrested by Omby Amby, after which Ozma returned him using the Magic Belt to New York City, where he was promptly mugged. The next day's edition of the Ozmapolitan had this headline for its lead story: RUNAWAY CRIMINAL "LUCKY" BUCKY RUN OVER BY SCALAWAGONS IN THE WONDER CITY OF OZ. And so the people of Oz thought they were safe from Junk, Nomes, and Moby David for evermore. But that was only true for two out of three of them. Writer's note: The final version will probably contain a masked villian who calls herself the Demifairy of Doom, but as to whether this is Jenny Jump or not will be left to the readers to decide. (: On the other hand, if I ever write something called A Plethora of Preposterous Parodies of Oz, this chapter will probably be expanded greatly and included in it. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 2, 1996 ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 12:22:56 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: Sample Chapter from _The Woozy of Oz_ Aaron "Nails" Adelman wrote: >How the Magic Machine Didn't Leave History Alone Bravo! So would this sort of thing explain away anything we don't like about certain Oz books? (Or we could instead accept the books as they are and try to understand them in the context of the people who wrote them, the times they lived in, and their conception of Oz...) ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 12:11:21 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-01-96 > Happy New Year, everyone! -- Dave You too, Dave! Thanks for doing all this work for us! > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Various > > 2) Eric, I have a solution to the apparent contradiction between The > Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Royal Book of Oz concerning the > Scarecrow's origin. Suppose that magic can work retroactively. So when > the Scarecrow is up on the pole, the spell affects things in the past, > and the spirit of Chang Wang Woe enters the Scarecrow while the first ear > is being painted on. Hence no contradiction. Uh-huh. If you can find any other examples of retroactive magic, MAYBE I'll believe this. But it just doesn't ring true, somehow. It's too convoluted, and the simple explanations are always the best. >7) Barry, the Scarecrow is mentioned as having eaten kittens while he was human in The Royal Book >of Oz. The Scarecrow NEVER was human in "Royal Book," to avoid some possible confusion here. True, if you believe the "Royal Book" explanation of how the Scarecrow came to be alive, he was ONCE human, but not during the events of the book itself. >8) I think a pre-Pastoria king of Oz also drank from the Fountain of Oblivion and made his citizens have >a drink as well. No, that story was credited to Pastoria (or at least it's strongly implied). >9) I'm mentioning the Shaggy Man's brother's name in The Woozy of Oz, so will people stop arguing >over whether Wiggy is in any way official or not? Okay, we'll just argue over whether or not "The Woozy of Oz" is official or not instead... :) > 10) Someone tell me about Dorothy and the Lizard of Oz, please. I read > The Lizard of Oz (available at the Online Books Page), and that was > definitely not to be borrowed from. (It considered The Wonderful Wizard > of Oz a forgery.) No, no, not "The Lizard of Oz," which is not an Oz book despite the title (and, seen in that light, is pretty good). "Dorothy and the Lizard of Oz" was a book a psychologist wrote some years ago to take out all the elements of the original story that he felt were harmful to children -- the Scarecrow was smart just because he had a piece of paper saying he was, the Tin Woodman had a heart just because he showed everyone a heart-shaped watch, etc. It was AWFUL, because this guy totally failed to see the point of the story -- either that, or he thinks kids are too stupid to figure it out for themselves unless they're hit over the head with The Message five or six dozen times. It's my candidate for Worst Book Purporting to Take Place in Oz of all time, beating out "Barnstormer" and Tedrow's "Dorothy: Return to Oz." (But yes, I have a copy in my collection.) >11) OK, back to my trip to Books of Wonder today. (Yes, I live in New York, at least most of the year.) >There I got two books of 'historical' relevance to The Woozy of Oz: Oz and the Three Witches and The >Mysterious Chronicles of Oz. Big mistake. WARNING: The Surgeon General has determined that >these books are incredibly boring and hence unozzy. Plus The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz managed to >make a tie-in to Oliver Wendel Holmes. Do not read them! I repeat, DO NOT READ THEM! Plus they >are in contradiction with each other, and Oz and the Three Witches is in contradiction with the much >better written How the Wizard came to Oz, which also has nicer illustrations than either of the stuff I >brought today. Well other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play? Okay, they may be boring (that's a matter of personal opinion -- personally, "Oz and the Three Witches" is a rollicking good read, in my opinion), but does contradicting other books make them bad? Most books today are written without knowledge of any others, and should be accepted on their OWN terms, not in comparison to others. I'm really, really starting to get tired of all this talk here about "official" Oz stories and theories and explanations and dibsing and all that. If anyone has an Oz story to tell, they should be allowed to tell it without small-minded fans nitpicking them to death. Sheesh, no wonder Thompson and Payes had so little patience with adult Oz fans. You tell your story, let others tell theirs, and enjoy them all just because they're Oz books! >Somebody shoot me next time I go to Books of Wonder and don't buy The Shaggy Man of Oz instead. What if you don't like "Shaggy Man," either? > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Sample chapter of The Woozy of Oz which is going to get severely > modified before the final version but which deserves to be shared anyway Aaron, this is a VERY, VERY dangerous thing! Remember, there are other Oz authors (and potential authors) and a publisher reading this. What if one of them subconsciously retained one of your ideas and used (or accepted) it in one of their writings? It could get VERY messy, with you making accusations and denials flying all over the place. Please, DON'T MAKE THIS DIGEST YOUR PERSONAL LITERARY JOURNAL! You live in New York City, there are lots of Oz fans there, find them and get critiques in person! I already told you privately I can't be your editor, now you're posting it again in public? You are overstepping the bounds of etiquette, propiety, and possibly legality here, Aaron. Cool it. --Eric "Of course, I will happily read 'Woozy' once it's published" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 01 Jan 1996 18:16:22 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Gwomokolotolint and other dreadful names and other stuff 1) Would someone please post a list of all the dreadful names Laumer comes up with for Oz characters who otherwise remain nameless, such as "Gwomokolotolint" and "Lignum"? Also, in which of his books do these names appear? For the Woozy having the name Gwomokolotolint I can provide an explaination, but where would the Sawhorse get the name Lignum? ("Ozma, in a moment of anger, decides to give the Sawhorse a dreadful name in order to punish him for fighting with Jack Pumpkinhead...") As for the Woozy having the name Gwomokolotolint, the family of Hiergargo, the Woozy's creator, has been doing research into time travel for the past few centuries. It has been very common for children of this great North Antozian family to pop in on their parents or other ancestors (or rather past versions thereof), even while the parents are still children, and do irritating things, such as ask for money in the middle of the night. This has led to numerous incidents of parents giving their kids funny names in order to get revenge on their offspring. The Woozy never engaged in such puerile behavior, but ended up with the name Gwomokolotolint because he was named after Hiergargo's grandfather, who had recieved that name for waking a past version of his older brother Tranguyathunox as a baby up in the middle of the night, which his parents really did not appreciate, especially as it took two hours to come Tranguyathunox down enough so that he stopped crying. I am pleased to report that Hiergargo did not name the Woozy's younger sister the Queasy anything dreadful at all. Hiergargo was thinking of calling her Rathinoquandvajurepuna after his grandmother (don't even THINK of asking what she did to get that name), but Hiergargo's wife Garudiprostrella told him that if he gave another child a dreadful name, especially an undeserved one (neither the Woozy nor the Queasy ever came back through time to irritate their parents, although Hiergargo and Garudiprostrella's natural children did) she was going to turn him into an African clawed frog. As Hiergargo knew that he was likely to get stepped on as a frog before he could restore himself to his natural form, he gave in and named the Queasy Sue. 2) At the moment I am collecting incidents where Ozma or Glinda do something that potentially offends the other or is of questionable judgement. (Sorry, can't tell you what I intend to do with them. Yet.) So far I have: 1903A (Stuff in The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz ommitted since the book is of doubtful historical accuracy and in any case completely unozzy, but trust me, Ozma somehow manages to misbehave and be disgustingly perfect at the same time.) 1905 Ozma going with practically no army and definitely no magic to force the Nome King to release the royal family of Ev. Notice Glinda is nowhere in the picture. 1906 Ozma frivolously uses magic to bring Dorothy to Oz for her birthday party. 1910 Glinda sends Queen Ann and the army of Oogaboo into Ev. Evardo XV was presumably not pleased with this. 1911 Glinda gives the Scarecrow magic to use against various meanies in Jinxland. As the Scarecrow is not licensed to practice magic, this is probably illegal. 1917 Ozma acted very ineffectively against Ugu. It doesn't take THAT long to scream. Glinda has to take over temporarily. 1920 Ozma goes on a peace-making mission with insufficient force to back her up. Glinda has to save her neck yet again. 1921-1939 Ozma turns into a total wimp. 1940 Ozma uses magic frivolously. 1980 How come Ozma didn't have the Forbidden Fountain walled off in the first place? 1993 See 1993E in the HACC. The title of the book itself is definitely in bad taste, and I'd hate to find out what the story itself is like. 3) In The Lizard of Oz it is claimed that something called the Humbug wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in order to make people think magic was only a fantasy. 4) I don't think the Anutherians are social enough to develop space travel. And it was the East Antozians who kidnapped Elvis. (: Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 3, 1996 ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 02 Jan 1996 14:26:51 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-02-96 1) I never claimed that the Scarecrow ate kittens as the Scarecrow. He ate them while he was human (according to those who say that the Scarecrow was formerly human). 2) Another example of retroactive magic: In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tip swallowed one of Dr. Nikidik's wishing pills, counted to 17 by twos, and then failed to make a wish. He developed severe stomach pains and wished he'd never swallowed the pills. So the stomach pains went away, and the pill which had been supposedly swallowed appeared in the box with the other pills. Also: Someone did write a book called Time Travelling in Oz. 3) Actually I do like Snow's books, and when I returned The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz and Oz and the Three Witches today, I left with The Shaggy Man of Oz and Queen Ann in Oz instead. 4) The Magic Machine's fiddling with history is intended as a last resort for explaining away contradictions. I'd like to see a decent attempt to reconcile Neill's FF books with everyone else's work that doesn't require such an extreme explination. (Shallowness and stupidity spell gone wild + animation spell gone wild + Kabumpo gets tired of Pumperdink and goes on sabbatical in the Emerald City + Ojo gets tired of Seebania and gets a job with Kabumpo in the Emerald City + Mifkets intebreed with Scoodlers, resulting in Mifkets that can throw their heads + Cheeriobed abdicates, Scarecrow becomes Munckin king + Wizard forgets that scalawag is a term of reproach + ...) By the way, is there anyone out there who actually likes Neill's FF books? 5) What ever happened to the Monarch of the Munchkins who ruled the country after the Wicked Witch of the East was killed until Cheeriobed took over again? Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 4, 1996 ============================================================================== Date: Wednesday 03-Jan-96 14:57:32 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: How to explain ALL the contradictions! From: "Aaron S. Adelman" >4) The Magic Machine's fiddling with history is intended as a last resort for explaining away >contradictions. I'd like to see a decent attempt to reconcile Neill's FF books with everyone else's work >that doesn't require such an extreme explination... Well, here's my humble explaination that I've just come up with (as a compromise between the "We-should-work-to-iron-out-contradictions-ers" and the "Don't-worry-just-enjoy-reading/writing-Ozzy-stories-ers"): The chroniclers of Ozzy history get the stories via wireless telegraph from Dorothy or other emissary from Oz ( R.C. Payes' little bird is an example, and I got my story from the Adepts at Sorcery, who E-mailed the history of Locasta's return to Oz to me :) ), and the Ozzy author is inclined to make little changes in retelling the tale ("fictionalized for dramatic purposes" as movie disclaimers say). So I suggest that the work to explain contradictions should continue, and a concensus about what the important things in Oz are "really" like should be reached; but contradictions that remain irreconcilable despite the best of efforts may be assumed by budding, aspiring Ozzy authors (like Aaron and me) to be the result of a little exaggeration, sensationalizing, or even inattentiveness on the part of previous Oz historians, and that the perception of Oz in *our* story is the "factual" one. For example, if you really don't like Neil's stories, and want to write about a strictly Baum-Thompson Oz, just assume that Neil totally sensationalized the behaviour even of the buildings in Oz, over-blew the Ozzy color schemes to include even skin tones, and just forgot which quadrant of Oz the Scarecrow resides in. :) Comments, anyone? -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 03 Jan 1996 07:22:04 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-03-95 From: "Aaron S. Adelman" >1) I never claimed that the Scarecrow ate kittens as the Scarecrow. He ate them while he was human >(according to those who say that the Scarecrow was formerly human). I know that. But the way it was first phrased was confusing, so I was just trying to clear it up for those who may have misinterpreted. >2) Another example of retroactive magic: In The Marvelous Land of Oz, Tip swallowed one of Dr. >Nikidik's wishing pills, counted to 17 by twos, and then failed to make a wish. He developed severe >stomach pains and wished he'd never swallowed the pills. So the stomach pains went away, and the >pill which had been supposedly swallowed appeared in the box with the other pills. That's not retroactive magic, that's a paradox. > Also: Someone did write a book called Time Travelling in Oz. Have you read this book? Don't claim it's retroactive magic until you know what's happening in it. >3) Actually I do like Snow's books, and when I returned The Mysterious Chronicles of Oz and Oz and >the Three Witches today, I left with The Shaggy Man of Oz and Queen Ann in Oz instead. Gjovaag cheers.> But my point is, many people DON'T like Snow's books, and you could have been one of them. I didn't know you'd already read "Shaggy Man." >4) The Magic Machine's fiddling with history is intended as a last resort for explaining away >contradictions. I'd like to see a decent attempt to reconcile Neill's FF books with everyone else's work >that doesn't require such an extreme explination. (Shallowness and stupidity spell gone wild + >animation spell gone wild + Kabumpo gets tired of Pumperdink and goes on sabbatical in the Emerald >City + Ojo gets tired of Seebania and gets a job with Kabumpo in the Emerald City + Mifkets intebreed >with Scoodlers, resulting in Mifkets that can throw their heads + Cheeriobed abdicates, Scarecrow >becomes Munckin king + Wizard forgets that scalawag is a term of reproach + ...) By the way, is there >anyone out there who actually likes Neill's FF books? /me raises hand. Although I realize this isn't the same Oz that Baum and Thompson wrote about, I still like the inventiveness and ideas Neill puts into his books. But I've got to ask, why do the Neill books need explaining? Can't people just read them and enjoy them on their own terms? Can't the small number of readers who ARE bothered by the differences come up with an explanation on their own? >5) What ever happened to the Monarch of the Munchkins who ruled the country after the Wicked Witch >of the East was killed until Cheeriobed took over again? Dunno. --Eric THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 4, 1996 (2) ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 11:00:11 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Due to the fact that I was not on-line this weekend, I have no less than FIVE digests to reply to! A belated Happy New Year, and let me add my thanks to Dave H. for doing all this work. The entire Ozzy Digest, December 1995, has been compiled into a HUGE text file (just under 300K). One contributing factor is the tendency to repeat peoples messages over and over again. I cannot put this on my Web Page, as I would soon go over my one Meg limit. Can anyone take it off my hands? Bill, you have quite lot of stuff on you collective Web Pages. Does the main page have links to everything yet? As for legal action by the Neill estate, I have heard that they are a little lax in suing people, but I wouldn't push them. Besides, it's more fun to make up your own characters anyway! As for changing their names (but you know who they are. Wink wink), that may not work either. There is a series called "I forgot" wherein several writers try to outdo each other and humiliate each others characters, with the only rules being that they cannot be killed or damged in a way that would make them useless (like a soldier losing his arms and legs). I hope that Oz does not become like that! Somebody in the BUGLE wrote an article about Dr. Pipt / Dr. Nikidik. I've always thought they were the same person, but then that would mean Dr. Pipt had access to wishing pills the whole time. Once he had those, would he need anything else? With wishes, you can have everything else. Maybe Pipt IS his first name and he is called Dr. Pipt because he has no last name! I also like the idea that Pipt had one of Dr. Nikidiks (perhaps a famous relative of his) boxes and did not know of the false bottom. Don't worry about if Oz is on another planet. Just say "the world". IN DINAMONSTER, Glinda made references about going "back to Earth", but that does not mean much. I htink that the spirit of Chang Wang Woe entered the Scarecrow as claimed in ROYAL BOOK, but the spirit of the Scarecrow was stornger and forced Chang into a dormant state. This explains why he did not act like the Emperor of the Silver Islands during all the earlier Oz adventures. This still does not explain how came to life in the first place. The only person I know who ever borrowed from BARNSTORMER is... March Laumer! The only thing he borrowed was the name of the Capital City of the Winkies.What? Your're all asking? There's no capital city in the Land of the Winkies! There may not be now, but there was. In THE LAND OF OZ, the adventurers, after escaping from the Emerald City, come to a hill which overlooks the castle of the Tin Woodman and a small town. This town never appears again. At that time, the Tin Woodman lived in the castle of the old Wicked Witch of the West. By the time we see his house again (ROAD TO OZ), he had built himself a new castle, presumably a few miles away. The town name, by the way, is Winkiezia. Strangely enough, he does not borrow the name of the capital of the Quadling city (which was not mentioned in the FF, but that does not mean it was not there) of Suthwarzha, but uses the more romantic name of Ruby City. Sadly, Marcus Mebes has vanished, and since he was the owner and only employee of Palo Verde Emeralds, that has gone as well. If anybody can find him, I (and Chris Dulabone) would greatly appreciate it. I don't think that the play should count. Despite the fact that it was written by Baum, it does not ring tru to the FF at all. To defend OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES (and MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES to a lesser extent), I found THREE WITCHES to be very well written, much better than HOW THE WIZARD CAME TO OZ. It may have been boring, in the sense that there was not the usual Ozzy fare (belts that grant wishes, pills that grant wishes, powders that grant wishes, emeralds, baskets, rings and so on that grant wishes, dozens of strange looking countries of strange looking people doing strange looking things who try to capture people and make them their slaves and Ozma popping in at the last minute to save everyones bacon by waving her hand), but it was a very good story even without all that. Most of Abbots books are not that great, but HOW THE WIZARD CAME TO OZ held its own. There really are not any contradictions in these three novels, they only appear so to the untrained eye. However, I would tend to give the benefit of doubt to OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES. Not because it came first, but because it tells the story much more logically and realisticly. HOW THE WIZARD presents the characters as cartoonish and one-dimensional. Besides, how do we know that the Wizards early years in Oz weren't filled with terror? There was no Ozma around to protect everybody with the all-powerful magic belt and the Wizard may have had some close shaves with the three wicked witches before he established himself. He was alone, he had nobody to fall back on. It's amazing that he pulled it off. Reading that story, you can feel for the Wizard as he trys to survive. I just remembered: Kiki Aru also drank from the fountain. we don't know the state of his memory, since he has not appeared since, but I think that the girls were going to keep him in Emerald City so he would be a nice loving person. He may still have gotten his memory back, like Ruggedo. Kiki Aru was not really a villian. He wanted to get away from the mountain top and was swayed by Ruggedo. Since he is away from Mount Munch and also away from the influence of Ruggedo, he turn out to be a real nice guy! March Laumers other "names" (and I use the term loosely) are mostly for new characters. Are you ready to meet Zippiochogolak (who married Dororhty, who went to the Wogglebugs college, so she is now addressed as "Doctor Choggolak"), Wamopavirochuck (The heretofore unknown Wizard Wam), Baumalaumerovik and Baumazigrynyvik? There are a few others, and they are all like the ones above. Besides this habit, Laumers books are among the best written, although they are definitely written for adults. Please, Aaron, the Woozy is just "Woozy" and let sleeping Gwommokolottolints lie (and Wiggys, in the case of the Shaggy Mans brother. I'm sure you can come up with a cool name for him!). If anyone is interested (and I hope nobody is), the spellings of these names are guesses. I don't remember the story about the king who made his people drink from the Fountain of Oblivion very well. Can someone refresh my memory? (was in in THE EMERALD CITY OF OZ?) I don't think Ozma or Glinda ever offended each other. Let me see: Ozmas behavior in THE MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES OF OZ is understandable, if exasperating. She had just been changed from a boy into a girl and was having trouble adjusting. True, she had no business slipping off like that when she is supposed to be ruling the country, but "boys will be boys", I mean "girls will be..." oh, never mind. In OZMA OF OZ, I believe Glinda gave Ozma the magic carpet after ozma came to her for advice. Therefore, I am asuming that Glinda had no serious objections to her venture. Maybe Glinda did not know of the magic belt, or the extent of power of the Nome King at that time. I'm not sure why Glinda sent the Oogabooans (you wrote about them, Eric. What should they called?) out of Oz. Despite the fact that they were going to conquer Oz, they were still citizens and they deserved some kind of protection / trial. This was a mistake on Glindas part. Glinda is the ruler of the Quadling country, which includes Jinxland. The Scarecrow at that time was carrying out Glindas orders as her agent. Therefore, Glinda could authorize the Scarecrow to use magic within the borders of the Quadling country if she so chose. Also, the magic was of a very specific nature and was to be used only in a certain way. Now, if she had sent the Scarecrow to the Gilikin country to do something, that may have been different. This is an interesting legal point. How often do the quadrant rulers act as a quadrant ruler? The only other time (besides this one) that I can remember, in and out of the FF, was in HIDDEN VALLEY. The Tin Woodman, while discovering new kingdoms in the Winkie Country, tells them that he is their ruler. They were less than thrilled with his revelations. Ozma may have been stunned by Ugus arrival. In this book (or possibly GLINDA) didn't Cap'n Bill temporarily rule in the Emerald City while a rescue attempt was under way? Glinda is supporting Ozma in her capacity as ruler of Oz. Granted, she has to save her now and again, but it's all in a days work for her. She advised her to take the Wizard (and, in my opinion, she should have). In 1921-1939 (presumably the Thompson books), Ozma for the most part recedes into the background. She usually appears only at the end of stories to "punish" villians and to host parties. She is usually very easygoing with villians (except the Nome King), but I don't know about the Wimp part. One thing that she did not do very often that she did in the Baum books was to replace bad rulers with good ones. Usually, she just made them promise to be good from now on and allows them to continue ruling. Story 1993E is only a two page ditty poking fun at Serafin Padilla and the WIZ KIDS. Since it's so short, it does not have much of a plot. Let's just say that Ozma is not happy with the idea of Serafin publising another Oz book. And BTW, she does not offend the people in the story (though some leave the throne room). Magic need not be used only for serious purposes, especially in Oz. It's supposed to be a fun place! Therefore, I find Ozma and Glinda NOT GUILTY of the charge of offending each other (though there could be episodes that we haven't heard about...) "This verdict is written on a cocktail napkin! And it STILL says guilty! And guilty is spelled wrong!" (From "The Simpsons") Either Marcus Mebes or Ryna Gannaway did TIME TRAVELLING IZ OZ. Don't get me started on the mechanics of time travel (too late!). Most people today get their time travel knowledge from Back to the Future and the Terminator movies. All of these, while good, were completely off base and illogical when charting the effects of travelling through time. For a good novel that really examines this effect, read THRICE UPON A TIME, by James P. Hogan, Del Rey Publishing. It's a litle technical, but it's incredibly good. And now for the real issue: There has been a lot of discussion over the HACC and "official" Oz history. The only official history is the FF. All else is incidental. At no time do we (creators of the HACC) demand that everybody conform to us in every way and to totally agree with EVERY OZ BOOK that has EVER been published. We did not build the HACC to force people into "our" way of thinking. We built the HACC to give people a sense of history and continuity. Many people say that the most important thing is to write a good story and enjoy them. This is true. However, I believe that some consistency among the books is itself an element of a good story, though not the only part. Let the numbers speak. I am so small minded, so nitpicky, so full of intolerance for anyone else, that do you know how many books I have refused to put on the HACC because they contradict some other non-FF book? ZERO. That's right. No book has EVER been rejected because some earlier non-FF book has "overridden" it. True, some books are not on there, but that is exclusively because the contradict the FF and the FF only (titles such as BARNSTORMER, Tedrows DOROTHY - RETURN TO OZ and SIR HAROLD AND THE GNOME KING, for example). We don't want to reject stories. That is not the point of the HACC. In the realm of imagi-nation (This is Ato called the Fairyland of Oz n PIRATES, by the way), Oz is a real place, and the people and events that they experience are just as real (in a make-believe way, of course). I do not think it is small minded or nitpicky at all to try to find the thread of truth in all Oz stories. People can write any Oz story that they want to. The fact that we have many authors, many publishers and many points of view represents the strength of Oz in its enormous diversity as well as a challenge to put it all together in one piece. This will require some effort, but everything worthwhile takes a little work, and Oz will be a better place because of it. In no way to we try to stump peoples creativity. For example, Aaron was asking about Captain Fyters first name and if someone else had given him one. If they had, and Aaron made up another one, would I reject THE WOOZY IN OZ because of that? Of course not. I would just assume that he had many names. In some cultures, people have a personal name, a family name, a nickname, a name they use among friends, a name indicating where or when they were born, a formal or spiritual name, and so on. Assuming that someone else had already named the Tin Soldier, how would Aarons use of that name stifle his creative energies? He can still write about him any way he wants. The point is that by using the same name, we add to the continuity of all the Oz books. It is true that most of these books are generally unavailable and so if person A writes about something that person B already wrote about (or is currently writing about), they may not know about each other. However, we now have a medium of communication and a way to transfer information all over instantly. In my opinion, to totally refuse to use this resource and to make NO EFFORT AT ALL to acheive even a small degree of continuity is just as small minded as an attempt to make everyone totally agree with each other even down to the smallest detail, which WE DO NOT DO. Our only goals are to make people aware of the large amount of written material that is Oz and to minimize major contradictions. This still leaves a HUGE amount of room to write about anything that you want to. We will never achieve total consistency. I for one do not want this. I mentioned to someone once that part of the magic of Oz is that there will always be hidden kingdoms, etc. in Oz and that we will never know them all. This was an excuse to keep writing Oz books. This also applies to history. We will never know the ENTIRE truth, but we should make an effort to get fairly close. "When the Ozospheres are hanged and Nonestic Oceans are drowned, the single secret will still be Oz", to paraphrase e.e. cummings. We WANT people to write stories and we want them to be fun and creative. Adjusting for consistency is a minor part of the whole, but one that I am glad to perform, contributing to Oz in my small way. The only sticking points I have are Pre-Dorothean history and the Nome King (or any villian, really). As for the first, pre-Dorothy history is vague at best. I want to write a story of my own about this time, but I am waiting until we can get a concensus on at least a skeleton of what happened in those days. This is not so that I can force my personal view on others, but so that we can paint a picture that everybody can see and use. The vast majority of books do not concern themselves with this time period, so this is not a major issue. As for the second, the key thing is: do not assume that you are the only person who has ever brought somebody back or who ever will bring that person back. This way, you can write a great story that will not interfere with somebody else's story and will still allow you to write you story in your own way. Take the Nome King for example. He has been enchanted and un-enchanted so many times in his endless attempts to conquer Oz that I've lost count. If you want to write about him, simply pick a shape, have him unenchanted from that, do not mention how he got there and do not give specifics of his last adventure. In all likelihood, these points will have nothing to do with your story anyway. In some cases, maybe a little discussion is necessary. For example, Dave is writing about the three adepts. Since he is probing into the history of some characters, we needed to thraash out some background to get some details straight. This was a group effort, but so is everything else in this world. By coming together and combining our efforts and skills, we can make a good thing better. Daves story was not compromised at all by this collaborative effort. I'm sure the story will be excellent and I can't wait to read it! (same for WOOZY and anything else out there!) Everybody has a different gift that they can give to Oz. Some people tell stories. Some people draw illustrations. Some people work behind the scenes editing magazines, organizing conventions, etc.. Some (like myself) are of a more scholarly bent and we dervie great pleasure from looking at all the Oz books, explaining seeming contradictions, and fitting them together like a big jigsaw puzzle. All of these activities are important and I do not consider what I do to be hurting Oz in any way. The bottom line is that we want people to write Oz books, we want people to have fun writing Oz books and we want people to tell any kind of story any way that they want to. OK, that last part was not entirely true. Chris D. (the other side of the HACC) dislikes sex and violence. If you wrote a story that was totally accurate to the FF but contained sex and violence, Chris would not want it in the HACC, but I would put it in. I make no moral judgements, only textual ones. All we ask is just a little effort on the part of everybody (myself and Chris actually do most of the work) so that all our Oz books will be at least in partiall agreement, with no major contradictions. Some contradiction is inevitable and that is a good thing. Often, the desire to explain away a contradiction leads to yet another Oz book! In my opinion, every single one of these goals is attainable, desireable and will make the Oz saga the best ever! I realize that this was a VERY VERY long, rambling message, but I felt that I had to set the record straight. --Tyler Jo ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 13:30:24 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest For the record: TIME TRAVELLING IN OZ does not have retroactive magic, it just has people travelling back in time. Ryan Gannaway has written three books so far(including the newly released SINISTER GASES IN OZ), all of which have people travelling through time. None of them have retroactive magic (or meta-magic, which is almost the same thing) in them. I really liked MAGICAL MIMICS, but did not like SHAGGY MAN at all. Neill showed a lot of inventiveness in his books, but he went way overboard. If you were a living floor, would you like people walking over you all the time? And so on, for all the other live stuff. If I was a house, I would not appreciate people opening and closing my doors. On one level, it is certainly possible to just read the stories and have fun without worrying about anything else than reading a good story. On another level, it is also possible to think about differences and explain them. It is even possible for the same person to do both! Maybe Thompson and Payes got tired of this from adult Oz fans, but that is one of the prices we pay for growing up. We can still lose ourselves in the stories, but every once in a while, we must stop and ask "why?" --Tyler ============================================================================== Date: Thursday 04-Jan-96 16:22:35 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Tyler's remarks >A belated Happy New Year, and let me add my thanks to Dave H. for doing all this work. My pleasure! I'm having a lot of fun doing this! >The entire Ozzy Digest, December 1995, has been compiled into a HUGE text file (just under 300K). >One contributing factor is the tendency to repeat peoples messages over and over again. I cannot put >this on my Web Page, as I would soon go over my one Meg limit. Can anyone take it off my hands? I would like to archive the Ozzy Digest to a FTP site so people can read the back issues. Does anyone know of a good site available? >Sadly, Marcus Mebes has vanished, and since he was the owner and only employee of Palo Verde >Emeralds, that has gone as well. If anybody can find him, I (and Chris Dulabone) would greatly >appreciate it. You can write to him at: Marcus D. Mebes, c/o Sail Away International (Enya Fan Club) 10461 Ridgely Drive Baton Rouge, LA 70809-3225 (I'm not 100% certain it's the same Marcus Mebes but I'm 99.9% certain- "Sail Away to Oz" seems too fantastic a coincidence!!!) >March Laumers other "names" (and I use the term loosely) are mostly for new >characters. Are you ready to meet Zippiochogolak (who married Dororhty...) MARRIED Dorothy???!!!! In which book does THAT miracle take place?? And does anyone else in Laumer's books get "hitched"? >I don't think Ozma or Glinda ever offended each other. Let me see: I still don't understand how they are supposed to have "offended" each other. Can someone explain? >And now for the real issue: [ eloquent text omitted :) ] Thank you Tyler for conveying so well what I was unable to (me and my dippy "senationalizing Oz historians" theories!)! I think this should put the Consistancy Controversy to rest! -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 5, 1996 ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 23:33:19 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: Where do I find...? Was the work listed as 1993E (the one with the name Aaron dislikes) published somewhere? With a name like that I got to see what it's like, but I don't have the information yet to ILL it. Also is -Three-Headed Elvis Clone Sighted in Flying Saucer over Oz_ a book or an article? Somehow I have trouble imagining a three-headed Elvis clone anywhere other than the front page of a tabloid. Has any story mentioned a reason that the Winkies asked the Tin Woodman to rule over them? Admittedly he did a lot in getting rid of the wolves and the bees which the Wicked Witch of the West undoubtedly used against her enemies, but it was Dorothy who actually got rid of the Witch. (Oh, God, I'm turning into my brother...) ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 22:53:10 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-04-96 Addendum ( Sorry Eric! :) ) Thanks, Tyler. I'm gonna quote your last post, here. > The only official history is the FF. All else is incidental. This is probably the most logical and certainly the most popular concept. >People can write any Oz story that they want to. The fact that we have many authors,many publishers >and many points of view represents the strength of Oz in its enormous diversity as well as a challenge >to put it all together in one piece. Amen! >...to make NO EFFORT AT ALL to acheive even a small degree of continuity is just as small minded as >an attempt to make everyone totally agree with each other even down to the smallest detail, which WE >DO NOT DO. .... [There is] a HUGE amount of room to write about anything that you want to. We will >never achieve total consistency. I for one do not want this. > Me neither. Let's just use some logic and consideration along with our creativity. >Everybody has a different gift that they can give to Oz. Beautifully said in the true spirit of Oz, Sir Tyler! ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 20:57:03 -0800 (PST) From: ahclem@netcom.com (Ken Cope) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-04-96 Addendum ( Sorry Eric! :) ) In reply to the need for an ftp site, yes I can certainly provide storage for dispersal of this most spectacular digest; it will be part of the Ozcot home page before the month of January is out as long as there are no objections among the participants (so far as I know, the service provider I'm using has a 25 meg limit, I'm not anywhere close to that for now.) -- Ken Cope Ones & Zeroes SurReal Estate ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 04 Jan 1996 23:02:18 -0800 (PST) From: Jim VanderNoot Subject: IWOC Web Site For the next Ozzy Digest: The International Wizard of Oz Club's WWW site has just added information about the Autumn 1995 edition of the Baum Bugle, other Baum works available to read on the Internet, the Centennial of the Wizard of Oz in 2000, and the Oz Club's centennial contest for a new Oz book. Come and visit us at http://www.neosoft.com ------------------------------------- Jim Vander Noot E-mail: jvandern@sam.neosoft.com Date: 1/4/96 Time: 11:02:18 PM This message was sent by Chameleon ------------------------------------- ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 00:55:41 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-04-96 Addendum ( Sorry Eric! :) ) 1) Tyler, I SURRENDER! (Opinions on Neill, Madden, and Pendexter retained.) I'll even give up the date 2097 for The Woozy of Oz and put it indefinitely in the future! 2) Actually, the way The Woozy of Oz trilogy is planned, we need to worry about whether Oz is on another planet or not. (Sorry, can't explain further without serious plot leakage.) 3) I have real trouble seeing there being a "spirit of the Scarecrow" when Chang Wang Woe's spirit entered the Scarecrow, as inanimate objects are not usually considered to have spirits (at least in America). And I was under the impression that the Scarecrow did act something like Chang Wang Woe (respecting commoners, for example). And Glinda's Book of Records did claim that the Silver Emperor had returned to his people when the Scarecrow travelled to the Silver Islands. 4) Actually I already wrote the Woozy's name into The Woozy of Oz. The Asmard of Ix quotes an entry from the Encyclopaedia Zlurgiana on the Woozy which contains it. Don't panic, people. Everyone (so far as I've written) still calls him 'the Woozy'. What Hiergargo and family called him, that I'll worry about when and if I write the prequel. 5) Dorothy getting married? Uh-oh... I already wrote in her biological age as 12, and having nothing against Laumer (yet at least) I choose to be consistent with him. Since my trilogy is supposed to be the conclusion of the series, if any of the characters decide to age, I have to make sure their ages in The Woozy of Oz are at least as old as that. Does anyone out there disagree with me assuming that no one's going to let his/her age drift past, say, 25? While I'm at it, how much does Laumer change the Ozite status quo? 6) What is the earliest (by HACC) that Glinda appears in the series? I know she appears at least as early as How the Wizard Came to Oz, but considering that The Wonderful Wizard of Oz claims that she had already been around for a long time, it wouldn't surprise me if she was around at the start of the series, but is there anything to confirm this? 7) What is the earliest (by writing) source from which we know that four wicked witches conquer Oz and divide the country among them? 8) On the subject of copyright infringement, what exactly constitutes a new character? (I've decided to give up the idea of having Jenny Jump attack the Emerald City in The Woozy of Oz, so don't panic, please.) For example, everybody knows there was a Wicked Witch of the South. Then Rachel Cosgrove wrote a book about her, actually developing the character and giving her a name, Singra. Is Singra legally considered a new character (making her impermissible to use without permission), or is she considered identical with the Baumian (or was it Thompsonian?) Wicked Witch of the South (making her public domain)? 9) On the subject of Glinda and Ozma offending one another: Yeah, I know that in the FF (at least) Glinda and Ozma never got in a fight or anything like that. What I'm looking for is things that they have done that are reckless, irresponsible, or in some way in violation of proper standards towards each other, or at least could reasonably be interpretted negatively by the other. The Oogaboo incident, for example, is almost certainly improper on Glinda's part, being a major international relations blunder. I am certain Evardo XV was not thrilled to have an army out to conquer the world roaming around his country, even if they really didn't have much idea what they were doing. Another example of what I'm looking for is when Ozma went to Ev to force the Nome King to release that country's royal family. On the surface Ozma was acting recklessly, considering that 15 men do not a realistic army comprise, especially since only one of them was not an officer. (Please compare where Dorothy and companions go after the Wicked Witch of the West, where none of them has high hopes for success.) The only reason that Ozma and company succeeded was that Billina happened to be at the right place at the right time to hear the right information which enabled her to save the day by beating the Nome King at his own game. Had Billina drowned in the sea, Ozma would probably have ended up permanently as an emerald grasshopper. (In Ozma's defense, The Shaggy Man of Oz says that Ozma created the Magic Picture, which would indicate that Ozma when she went to Ev was already dabbling in deep magic. Perhaps this gave her an overly optimistic impression of her chances of success.) Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 00:38:12 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Cookbook I've had an inquiry about the existence of an Oz Cookbook. Does anyone know if such a book exists, and if it does, bibliography info and where it might be obtained. Bill W. ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 00:41:42 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Scholarly Research Ref the earlier message I sent before Christmas, from a college student in France looking for references for her thesis, which is a study of Oz WRT US society........... to date the only response I have from anyone is from Eric who offerred several books for consideration (these are listed in his FAQ). Does anyone else have any other books on Oz critical analyses that we can refer her to?? Bill Wright ============================================================================== Date: Friday 05-Jan-96 00:45:04 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Slick Ozma II -- "I meant no offense to Glinda!" :) Aaron wrote: >9) On the subject of Glinda and Ozma offending one another: Yeah, I know that in the FF (at least) >Glinda and Ozma never got in a fight or anything like that. What I'm looking for is things that they have >done that are reckless, irresponsible, or in some way in violation of proper standards towards each >other, or at least could reasonably be interpretted negatively by the other ... [An] example of what I'm >looking for is when Ozma went to Ev to force the Nome King to release that country's royal family. On >the surface Ozma was acting recklessly, considering that 15 men do not a realistic army comprise ... (In >Ozma's defense, The Shaggy Man of Oz says that Ozma created the Magic Picture, which would >indicate that Ozma when she went to Ev was already dabbling in deep magic. Perhaps this gave her >an overly optimistic impression of her chances of success.) If there's one world leader whose defense I almost unerringly come to, it's Ozma ( "wimp" my foot! :) )! But if I had to name one really egregious ( the Wogglebug asked me to use this word whose meaning I can never remember :) ) black mark on her record of Ozzy leadership, I'd have to say it's her ultra-pacifism in _Emerald City_ when the Nome King et al. where plotting to invade Oz. She'd rather see Oz destroyed than fight those poor little innocent Phanfasms, Whimsies, and Growleywogs??? Otherwise, I think (as I asserted long ago in "Slick Ozma I" on Chris' list) she's been an exceptional Queen, and I wish she could run for President here! :) -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 6, 1996 ============================================================================= Friday 05-Jan-96 12:23:31 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: How to get back issues Hi everyone! I just wanted everyone to know that I am hoping soon to have an FTP site available for archiving the Digest...Until then, if you want back issues, send me a message, and I'll send the issue(s) you request. -- Dave ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 10:33:25 -0500 (EST) From: cummingss@kenyon.edu Subject: RE: Ozzy Digest, 01-05-96 I recently purchased a WIZARD OF OZ COOKBOOK. It has scenes from the MGM film, as well as some Denslow drawings. The recipes didn't do much for me, though. The author, exact title and publisher don't come to mind right now, but I could find that info for you. I also have a cookbok from the 1980's based on the Wizard with the story line and Denslow drawings included. Monica Bayley (sp?) was the editor, I believe. Hope this helps. Let me know if you want full info on either. Cheers, Scott ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 10:31:59 -0500 (EST) From: "Nathanel J. Barlow" Subject: Fwd: The Ozian Times #30 "Special Edition" -- FAQ [NOTE FROM EDITOR: Here is another Ozzy FAQ for our perusal. :) This is Nate Barlow's FAQ from his "Ozian Times" (the semi-precursor to the "Ozzy Digest") -- Dave] *********************************************************************** T H E W O N D E R F U L W I Z A R D O F O Z F A Q L I S T = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = - - - - - - - - - Maintained by Nate Barlow, wiz@CMU.EDU Initially compiled by Nate Barlow, wiz@CMU.EDU, July 1994 Hello! This FAQ covers all things dealing with L. Frank Baum's wonderful world of Oz. It is divided into four parts: More Info, Books, 1939 MGM Movie, and Other. At the start of the FAQ is a list of questions answered. Any suggestions, additions, deletions or corrections should be sent to: Nate Barlow wiz@CMU.EDU Thanks! Nate ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions Answered: ------------------- 1. More Info: 1.1. What is Oz? How did Oz get started? 1.2. What is The International Wizard of Oz Club (IWOC)? How can I join? 1.3. What is The Baum Bugle? The Oz Observer? The Oz Gazette? 1.4. What is The Ozian Times? How can I subscribe? 2. Books: 2.1. Who wrote the Oz books? How many did each author write? 2.2. What are the titles? 2.3. Who illustrated them? 2.4. How can I acquire them? 2.5. Who wrote the IWOC published books? How many are there? What are the titles? How can I acquire them? 2.6. Are there any other Oz books? 2.7. What is _Oziana_? How can I acquire it? 2.8. What is _Bibliographia Oziana_? How can I acquire it? 2.9. Did the Oz authors write any other works? 2.10. Did Baum write under any pseudonyms? 3. 1939 MGM Movie: 3.1. Which cast members are still alive? 3.2. I've heard that there is a scene where a body can be seen hanging in the background. Did someone really hang oneself? 3.3. How many releases have there been of the movie? 3.4. What year did the movie first appear on TV? How many times has it been shown on TV? 4. Other: 4.1. What other Oz movies have there been? 4.2. Is is true that there is a series of Russian Oz books? ******************************************************************************* Answers: -------- 1. More Info: -------------- 1.1. What is Oz? How did Oz get started? Oz is fairyland originally created by L. Frank Baum as stories he told his four sons and their friends. There are many stories as to how Mr. Baum came up with the name of Oz, one being that when asked by one child what the name of this marvelous land was, his eye happened to catch sight of his filing cabinet, which read "O-Z". Baum proceeded to write 14 Oz books, the first of which, _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_, was published in 1900. 1.2. What is The International Wizard of Oz Club (IWOC)? How can I join? Official International Wizard of Oz Club announcement: The International Wizard of Oz Club was founded in 1957 to bring together all those interested in Oz, its authors and illustrators, film and stage adaptions, toys and games, and associated memorabilia. From a charter group of sixteen, the club has grown until today it has pretty near 3,000 members of all ages throughout the world. It's magazine, _The Baum Bugle_, first appeared in June of 1957 and has been published continuously ever since. The _Bugle_ appears three times a year and specializes in popular and scholarly articles on Oz and its creators, biographical and critical studies, first edition checklists, research into the people and places within the Oz books, etc. The magazine is illustrated with rare photographs and drawings, and the covers are in full color. The Oz Club also publishes a number of other Oz associated items, including full color maps; an original collection of original Oz stories; books; and essays. Each year, the club sponsors conventions in different areas of the United States. These gatherings feature displays of rare Oz and Baum material, an Oz quiz, showings of Oz films, an auction of hard-to-find Baum and Oz items, much conversation about Oz in all its aspects, and many other activities. The International Wizard of Oz Club appeals to the serious student and collector of Oz as well as to any reader interested in America's own fairyland. For further information on the International Wizard of Oz Club or _The Baum Bugle_, please send a long self addressed stamped envelope to: Fred M. Meyer 220 North Eleventh Street Escanaba, Michigan 49829 Additional Information: If you don't want to wait, yearly dues are $15.00 third class, $20.00 first class and overseas air shipment, $30.00 contributing membership; $50.00 sustaining membership. For the lack of space and time, I will not include a list of what else you can order here and now; you'll get one soon enough. Bye, and enjoy! 1.3. What is The Baum Bugle? The Oz Observer? The Oz Gazette? The Baum Bugle is The International Wizard of Oz Club's magazine. It comes out three times a year and is included as part of one's membership. The Oz Observer and The Oz Gazette are two newsletters that IWOC also puts out three times a year. The two newsletters are sent out together but separately from the Bugle. They, too, are part of one's membership. 1.4. What is The Ozian Times? How can I subscribe? The Ozian Times is an email digest currently run by Nate Barlow, who can be reached at wiz@CMU.EDU. This digest is for any and all interested in Oz in any of aspects. To subscribe, send email to: wiz@CMU.EDU [NOTE: The Ozian Times has more or less been succeeded by the Ozzy Digest. -- Dave] ******************************************************************************* 2. Books: ---------- 2.1. Who wrote the Oz books? How many did each author write? The author of _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ and its first 13 sequels was L. Frank Baum. The following authors also wrote books considered to be part of what is widely considered the "canonical" 40 book series (number written by that author follows the author's name): Ruth Plumly Thompson, 19; John R. Neill, 3; Jack Snow, 2; Rachel C. Cosgrove, 1; Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw (Wagner), 1. 2.2. What are the titles? The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum, 1900) The Marvelous Land of Oz (Baum, 1904) Ozma of Oz (Baum, 1907) Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (Baum, 1908) The Road to Oz (Baum, 1909) The Emerald City of Oz (Baum, 1910) The Patchwork Girl of Oz (Baum, 1913) Tik-Tok of Oz (Baum, 1914) The Scarecrow of Oz (Baum, 1915) Rinkitink in Oz (Baum, 1916) The Lost Princess of Oz (Baum, 1917) The Tin Woodman of Oz (Baum, 1918) The Magic of Oz (Baum, 1919) Glinda of Oz (Baum, 1920) The Royal Book of Oz (Thompson--although R&L editions say Baum, 1921) Kabumpo in Oz (Thompson, 1922) The Cowardly Lion of Oz (Thompson, 1923) Grampa in Oz (Thompson, 1924) The Lost King of Oz (Thompson, 1925) The Hungry Tiger of Oz (Thompson, 1926) The Gnome King of Oz (Thompson, 1927) The Giant Horse of Oz (Thompson, 1928) Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz (Thompson, 1929) The Yellow Knight of Oz (Thompson, 1930) Pirates in Oz (Thompson, 1931) The Purple Prince of Oz (Thompson, 1932) Ojo in Oz (Thompson, 1933) Speedy in Oz (Thompson, 1934) The Wishing Horse of Oz (Thompson, 1935) Captain Salt in Oz (Thompson, 1936) Handy Mandy in Oz (Thompson, 1937) The Silver Princess in Oz (Thompson, 1938) Ozoplaning With the Wizard of Oz (Thompson, 1939) The Wonder City of Oz (Neill, 1940) The Scalawagons of Oz (Neill, 1941) Lucky Bucky in Oz (Neill, 1942) The Magical Mimics in Oz (Snow, 1946) The Shaggy Man of Oz (Snow, 1949) The Hidden Valley of Oz (Cosgrove, 1951) Merry Go Round in Oz (McGraw and Wagner, 1963) 2.3. Who illustrated them? W. W. Denslow--The Wonderful Wizard of Oz John R. Neill--The Marvelous Land of Oz through Lucky Bucky in Oz Frank Kramer--The Magical Mimics in Oz and The Shaggy Man of Oz "Dirk" [Dirk Gringhuis]--The Hidden Valley of Oz Dick Martin--Merry Go Round in Oz Several of the books (most notably The Wizard and Land) have been illustrated by several different illustrators. Some of these editions are available; others are not. 2.4. How can I acquire them? All of the books have been reprinted at some point in recent years. However, several of those reprints are now out-of-print themselves. The Baums are still available, along with several of the others. Publishers who have Oz books available: The International Wizard of Oz Club, Dover, Del Rey (I believe their Baums are still available, but I could be wrong), Books of Wonder, Easton Press, and others. The Wizard and Land are available from countless publishers. If you are only interested in first and older editions, the search becomes exponentially harder. Used book stores, flea markets and tag sales are all good places to check. There are several dealers who specialize in Oz and related works. Auctions are also very useful. IWOC periodically sends out an "Oz Trading Post", where club members can post their sell/trade/want lists. A major feature of IWOC conventions is an auction, which is followed by dealers setting up their tables. Good luck, and enjoy the search! 2.5. Who wrote the IWOC published books? How many are there? What are the titles? How can I acquire them? There are five: Yankee in Oz (Thompson, Illus. Martin, 1972) The Enchanted Island of Oz (Thompson, Illus. Martin, 1976) The Forbidden Fountain of Oz (McGraw & McGraw, Illus. Martin, 1980) The Ozmapolitan of Oz (Martin, Illus. Martin, 1986) The Wicked Witch of Oz (Cosgrove Payes, Shanower, 1993) All are currently available and can be ordered from the club. 2.6. Are there any other Oz books? Yes, with more being published constantly. There are even other stories by the above authors. Baum had a newspaper series in 1904-1905 called _Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz_, which was later adapted into a book by Jean Kellog named _The Visitors from Oz_ and illustrated by Dick Martin. Baum also wrote a series of short tales called _The Little Wizard_ series (later _The Little Wizard Stories of Oz_) and _The Wogglebug Book_. The _Queer Visitors_ series and _The Wogglebug Book_ were recently compiled into one volume titled _The Third Book of Oz_ (since the stories originally came out between _Land_ and _Ozma_). As to the other authors, Thompson wrote several short stories. Supposedly John R. Neill had written a fourth title called _Runaway in Oz_. Jack Snow wrote a short story, "A Murder in Oz", and also _Who's Who in Oz_ (1954), a compendium of almost every character appearing in the Oz books published at that time (i.e. through Hidden Valley). The book is illustrated with pictures from the series. A few characters were overlooked, with the Bunny King from _Emerald City_ the most famous. The list of Oz apocrypha/pastiches by other authors is quite long. The most famous is _The Laughing Dragon of Oz_ by Frank Joselyn Baum, L. Frank's eldest son. It was published in 1935 (copyright 1934) by Whitman Publishing Co., as a Big Little Book. While its sequel, _The Enchanted Princess of Oz_, was reportedly in proofs, Reilly & Lee brought suit. Whitman agreed not to publish _Enchanted Princess_ or reprint _Laughing Dragon_. Reilly & Lee also claimed that "OZ" was its common-law trademark, winning that point in a separate case. I will not go into any of the other titles here, for the sake of brevity and the impossibility of completeness (I will however discuss the Russian Oz books in the "Other" section). 2.7. What is _Oziana_? How can I acquire it? _Oziana_ is an annual collection of short Oz stories published by IWOC. It, along with some back issues, can be ordered from the Club. 2.8. What is _Bibliographia Oziana_? How can I acquire it? _Bibliographia Oziana_ is the major work describing the various states, issues, printings, and editions of the Oz books (the canonical 40 and selected others, including the IWOC books, _Laughing Dragon_, _The Little Wizard Stories_, etc). It also includes a basic glossary of bibliographical terms and pictures of the book covers. The most recent edition is copyright 1988 and is available from IWOC. The book was written by Peter E. Hanff, Douglas G. Greene, Dick Martin, David L. Greene and James E. Haff, with contributions by many others. This is a must-have for anyone who is seriously collecting first and early edition Oz books. 2.9. Did the Oz authors write any other works? Yes, all of them, too many to list here (although if someone wants to compile a list, send it to me and I will gladly tack it on). Several of Baum's other fantasy works "connect" to Oz, with the cross-over of characters and lands bordering Oz: _Queen Xixi of Ix_, _The Magical Monarch of Mo_, _The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus_, _The Sea Fairies_ and _Sky Island_ are just a few of these. 2.10. Did Baum write under any pseudonyms? Yes. Several, actually: Laura Bancroft--_Twinkle and Chubbins_ stories, _Policeman Blue Jay_ Edith Van Dyne--_Aunt Jane's Nieces_ series, _The Flying Girl_ series, _Mary Louise_ series Floyd Akers--_The Boy Fortune Hunters_ series Capt. Hugh Fitzgerald--_The Sam Steele's Adventure_ series John Estes Cooke--_Tamawaca Folks_ Suzanne Metcalf--_Annabel_ Schuyler Staunton--_The Fate of a Crown_, _Daughters of Destiny_ anonymous--_The Last Egyptian_ ******************************************************************************* 3. 1939 MGM Movie: ------------------- 3.1. Which cast members are still alive? Most, sadly, have passed away. The only remaining principal cast members are 19 of the 124 Munchkins. Several of these still make public appearances, especially at the Ozfests which occur in various parts of the country 3.2. I've heard that there is a scene where a body can be seen hanging in the background. Did someone really hang oneself? No. What is actually being scene is a bird which escaped from another set and just happened to wander onto the Tin Woodman's forest set. MGM had rented a large number of birds to be in the background of one of the scenes. 3.3. How many releases have there been of the movie? The initial release was in 1939, and full rereleases occured in 1949 and 1955. "In both 1970 and 1972, the film was used to successfully launch an MGM Children's Matinee series of family pictures...the first 'test reappearance'... drew capacity houses in 1976..." (Fricke/Scarfone/Stillman, _The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History_, pg. 212) 3.4. What year did the movie first appear on TV? How many times has it been shown on TV? The first TV appearance was on November. 3, 1956. The next was in October of 1959. It was then broadcast annually from 1960-1967 on CBS. NBC took it for 1968-1975, but then it returned to CBS in 1976, where it has been shown ever since. The makes 37 appearances! ******************************************************************************* 4. Other: ---------- 4.1. What other Oz movies have there been? There have been several Oz film adaptions. What follows is an incomplete list, taken from Allen Eyles'' book _The World of Oz_: 1910: The Wizard of Oz; Dorothy and Scarecrow in Oz; The Land of Oz (Selig Production Company) 1914: The Patchwork Girl of Oz; His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz (later called The New Wizard of Oz) (Oz Filme Manufacturing Co.) 1925: The Wizard of Oz (Chadwick, Distributor) 1939: The Wizard of Oz (MGM) 1960: The Shirley Temple Show--The Land of Oz (TV) 1963: Return to Oz (An original sequel to the book, TV, Rankin/Bass, animation) 1969: The Wonderful Land of Oz (Cinetron) 1971: Journey Back to Oz (Filmation, animation) 1976: Oz (Australian--shown in US as 20th Century Oz in 1977) (US Distributor--Inter Planetary) 1978: The Wiz (Production--Motown, Distributor--Universal) 1985: Return to Oz (Production--Oz Productions/Walt Disney Productions, Distributor--Buena Vista) 4.2. Is is true that there is a series of Russian Oz books? Yes. There are six books, the first a retelling of _The Wizard of Oz_ titled _Volsebnik Izumrudnogo Goroda_ (The Wizard of the Emerald City, 1939--the word Oz is never mentioned in any of the books). A revised version appeared in 1959, followed by five original sequels: _Urfin Dzjus i ego Derevjannye Soldaty (Urfin Dzjus and His Wooden Soldiers, 1963), _Sem' Podzemnyh Korolej_ (Seven Underground Kings, 1969), _Ognennyi Bog Marranov_ (The Fire God of the Maronnes, 1972), _Zeltyi Tuman_ (The Yellow Fog, 1974), _Zabrosynnovo Zamka_ (The Secret of the Deserted Castle, 1982). ******************************************************************************* I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this FAQ. The number is too great to list; you know who you are. Thanks. ;) My own sources inclue _Bibliographia Oziana_, _The World of Oz_ (Allen Eyles, 1985), _The Wizard of Oz: The Official 50th Anniversary Pictorial History_ (John Fricke, Jay Scarfone, William Stillman, 1989), _The Baum Bugle_, 8 1/2 years of membership in IWOC, seven Munchkin Conventions, and lots of great friendships. I hope everyone enjoys reading this as much as I did putting it together. Hope it helps. Nate Barlow wiz@CMU.EDU ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 10:52:07 -0500 (EST) From: cummingss@kenyon.edu Subject: Oz sale list OZ! January 1996 _____________________________________________________________________________ Terms of Sale 1. Prices include postage. Minimum order $15, please. 2. Make all checks payable to Scott Cummings. 3. Specify item number with your purchase. 4. Include your mailing address and phone number with your order 5. Refunds for previously sold items will be given unless you specify alternative choices 6. All sales are final. Scott D. Cummings PO Box 622 Gambier OH 43022 CUMMINGSS@KENYON.EDU _____________________________________________________________________________ Books and Magazines B1 Pirates in Oz. R & L, B & W, pictoral cover label, poor condition. $10 B2 Ojo in Oz. R & L, B & W, library rebound, reading copy $8 B6 The Royal Book of Oz. R & L, B & W, blank boards, reading copy $12 B7 The Scarecrow of Oz. R & L white edition, ex libris, poor $7 B10 Joel and the Great Magician. by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Panthenon, Weekly Reader books 1979, good $2 B12 The Magic of Oz. Rand McNally paperback, good $5 B13 The Patchwork Girl of Oz. Rand McNally paperback, v.good $5 B14 The Wizard of Oz. Rand McNally paperback, excellent $5 B15 The Wizard of Oz. Rand McNally paperback, excellent $5 B17 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Dover (1974) coloring book illustrated by W. W. Denslow. excellent. $7 B19 The Secret Island of Oz. by Eric Shanower (First Graphic Novel, 1986) excellent $4 B22 Utopia Americana. by Edward Wagenknecht (University of Washington, 1929). Original booklet, missing front cover sheet, else good. $15 B23 Notes on a Cowardly Lion. by John Lahr (Knopf, 1969) Book Club Ed. Contains appendix with lengthened lyrics to "If I were King of the Forest" ex. libris poor condition $3 B24 The Wizard of Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B25 Ozma of Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B26 Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B27 The Road to Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B28 The Emerald City of Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B29 The Patchwork Girl of Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B30 Rinkitink in Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B31 The Lost Princess of Oz. Del Rey paperback, good. $1 B32 Set of Eight Del Rey Baum Oz Books $6 B33 Grampa in Oz. Del Rey paperback, excellent. $5 B34 The Gnome King of Oz. Del Rey paperback, excellent. $5 B36 The Giant Horse of Oz. Del Rey paperback, excellent. $5 B37 The Yellow Knight of Oz. Del Rey paperback, excellent. $5 B38 Speedy in Oz. Del Rey paperback, excellent. $5 B39 The Wishing Horse of Oz. Del Rey paperback, excellent. $5 B40 Set of Six Del Rey Thompson Oz books $25 B42 The Life And Adventures of Santa Claus. Dover paperback, excellent $3 B43 Queen Zixi of Ix. Dover paperback, excellent $3 B45 American Fairy Tales. Dover paperback, excellent $3 B47 Return to Oz. Random House, 1985. hardcover color storybook. very good $5 B50 Dorothy - Return to Oz by Thomas L. Tedrow. 1993 hrdcvr. mint $10 B51 Dorothy - Return to Oz by Thomas L. Tedrow. 1993 Advanced Reading Copy. paper. v. good $8 B52 The Widow of Oz by Kathryn Lasky Knight. 1989 hrdcver. ex libris. $5 M3 The Baum Bugle. Christmas 1974, out of print, excellent $10 M4 The Baum Bugle. Spring 1972, out of print, excellent $10 Records, Toys, Games, Puzzles, Dolls, Figurines & Paper Collectibles R2 The Story and Songs of the Wizard of Oz. Disney LP (#3957). MGM tunes and built-in 11 page full color story booklet. excellent $10 T1 The Ozmapolitan Card Game. Set of one card each of Dick Martin's original card Game for the Ozmapolitan Convention. Includes a letter of authenticity from Mr. Martin $14 T5 The Wizard of Oz Board Game. Cadaco, 1974. rips in cardboard box; all parts present. poor $6 D5 Figurines. Set of four PVC (Presents, 1987) 3 1/2" MGM Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, Glinda, Wicked Witch. excellent $8 for the set, P2 MGM Cards and Postcards, set of 10. (1) "That's what happens to Munchkins when they lie about their age", Glinda with Dorothy (Hallmark postcard). (2) Dorothy with Wicked Witch (Hallmark postcard). (3) Judy Garland as Dorothy in cornfield, B& W postcard. (4) Ray Bolger as the Scarecrow, B& W postcard. (5) TinWoodman, Dorothy and Scarecrow in forest, B & W postcard. (6) foursome in castle, sepia tone postcard (Ludlow Sales). (7) Dorothy in cornfield, sepia tone postcard (Ludlow Sales). (8) "Congradulations Graduate!...You've finally got a brain!" Scarecrow (Hallmark) card with envelope. (9) "Have an Oz kind of Birthday... That's when you get blown away and can't find your way home." (Shoebox Geetings) card. (10) Wicked Witch on broomstick (Summertime press) card with envelope. all very good to mint. $8/set P3 1982 Calendar. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Determined Productions) text abridged by Monica Bayley, illustrated by Denslow. very good. $9 P4 1985 Calendar. 12 MGM color stills (Landmark, 1984) excellent. $12 P5 Stills, set of 4. 8" x 10" B & W MGM stills of Dorothy in cornfield, Dorothy with Toto (close-up), Dorothy and Scarecrow oiling Tin Man, Dorothy with Scarecrow (small rip) others excellent. $12 Denslow's Humpty Dumpty and Other Stories. Donohue & Co. 1903, first edition. Includes: Humpty Dumpty, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Old Mother Hubbard, and House that Jack Built. Cover pictoral label has small (10%) piece missing . Cover is worn at edges and spine is weak. Interior is intact but pages are worn in spots and have small rips. Overall fair copy. $90 The Sea Fairies. 1911 Copp Clark first edition. Identical to Reilly and Lee first edition, including double horizontal rules enclosing a pink band, a seashell vignette on spine (Hinke, p. 52). Small amount of wear on cover label, signiture on ownership page and following page. Otherwise good+ copy. $190 Billy Bounce, color plates, paper cover label. Small amount of ink writing in rear e.p., pencil on fron e.p. Spine weak. Interior fine, but last 1/3 of pages are discolored. Overall good copy. $90 The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus 1920's edition. color plates. owner's name on front e.p. hinges starting. good copy $50 Baum's Castorine Axle Oil box. 11" x 7 3/4" x 6 = " wooden box with stamped letters on three sides and torn paper label on fourth. open on top. Also one can (paper) of Baum's Never Fail Radiator Solderine. Sealed, contains solderine. 3" high x 2 = " diameter. Products that made the Baum Family fortune! $ 85 Frank Morgan and Billie Burke photo (inquire) ============================================================================= Date: Fri, 05 Jan 1996 09:23:50 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-05-96 From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN >Was the work listed as 1993E (the one with the name Aaron dislikes) published somewhere? With a >name like that I got to see what it's like, but I don't have the information yet to ILL it. Also is -Three->Haded Elvis Clone Sighted in Flying Saucer over Oz_ a book or an article? Somehow I have trouble >imagining a three-headed Elvis clone anywhere other than the front page of a tabloid. "Three-Headed Elvis Clone" is partly my fault, I'm sorry to say. Chris Dulabone and I were talking one night, and got going on goofy ideas/titles for Oz books. This is one I came up with, and I thought no more about it. All of a sudden, I see that it's in a list of Chris' upcoming books! So once it gets published, I want a free copy... (Yes, this is a novel, not an article in a certain type of "newspaper"...) >Has any story mentioned a reason that the Winkies asked the Tin Woodman to rule over them? >Admittedly he did a lot in getting rid of the wolves and the bees which the Wicked Witch of the West >undoubtedly used against her enemies, but it was Dorothy who actually got rid of the Witch. (Oh, God, >I'm turning into my brother...) Re-read "The Wizard of Oz," once the Wicked Witch is melted. (Theory: The Winkies offered leadership to Dorothy first, but she turned it down, as she still wanted to go home. Or the Winkies passed on her because she was still a kid.) From: ahclem@netcom.com (Ken Cope) >In reply to the need for an ftp site, yes I can certainly provide storage for dispersal of this most >spectacular digest; it will be part of the Ozcot home page before the month of January is out as long as >there are no objections among the participants (so far as I know, the service provider I'm using has a 25 >meg limit, I'm not anywhere close to that for now.) I say we take Ken up on this! He was one of the regulars on the Oz IRC sessions (back when we had them), he has some wonderfully Ozzy ideas, he knows his way around a CPU, and he's a nice bloke, to boot. I even got to meet him in person at last year's Winkie Convention. But Ken, you do realize that at the rate we're pumping out Digests, you may run out of megs pretty quick? From: "Aaron S. Adelman" >8) On the subject of copyright infringement, what exactly constitutes a new character? (I've decided to >give up the idea of having Jenny Jump attack the Emerald City in The Woozy of Oz, so don't panic, >please.) For example, everybody knows there was a Wicked Witch of the South. Then Rachel >Cosgrove wrote a book about her, actually developing the character and giving her a name, Singra. Is >Singra legally considered a new character (making her impermissible to use without permission), or is >she considered identical with the Baumian (or was it Thompsonian?) Wicked Witch of the South >(making her public domain)? Tough to say. (The "Bugle" REALLY needsto do an article on Oz and copyright law!) Since the Wicked Witch of the South was mentioned in passing by Baum, you can probably use that title with no problem. You may even be able to use the name Singra, but as long as you don't give her a full description or a huge part in the book with lots of dialogue, it's probably okay. (With Singra, unlike the Neill characters, you can at least write to the author and ask!) Writing a full-blown sequel to "Wicked Witch" without Payes' permission -- THAT will DEFINITELY get you into hot water... >9) On the subject of Glinda and Ozma offending one another: Yeah, I know that in the FF (at least) >Glinda and Ozma never got in a fight or anything like that. What I'm looking for is things that they have >done that are reckless, irresponsible, or in some way in violation of proper standards towards each >other, or at least could reasonably be interpretted negatively by the other. > >The Oogaboo incident, for example, is almost certainly improper on Glinda's part, being a major >international relations blunder. I am certain Evardo XV was not thrilled to have an army out to conquer >the world roaming around his country, even if they really didn't have much idea what they were doing. I think this is a case of Glinda deciding not to let Ozma be bothered by this pidling little army, and to teach Queen Ann a lesson at the same time. Since they're from Oz, Glinda figured no real harm could come to them. Reread chapter 3 of "Tik-Tok of Oz" for more of her reasoning behind this. And why would King Evardo be offended? He never even knew they were there, and there's some debate as to whether or not they were even IN Ev. >Another example of what I'm looking for is when Ozma went to Ev to force the Nome King to release >that country's royal family. On the surface Ozma was acting recklessly, considering that 15 men do not >a realistic army comprise, especially since only one of them was not an officer. (Please compare where >Dorothy and companions go after the Wicked Witch of the West, where none of them has high hopes >for success.) The only reason that Ozma and company succeeded was that Billina happened to be at >the right place at the right time to hear the right information which enabled her to save the day by >beating the Nome King at his own game. Had Billina drowned in the sea, Ozma would probably have >ended up permanently as an emerald grasshopper. (In Ozma's defense, The Shaggy Man of Oz says >that Ozma created the Magic Picture, which would indicate that Ozma when she went to Ev was >already dabbling in deep magic. Perhaps this gave her an overly optimistic impression of her chances >of success.) Do you really think Ozma wouldn't go on this venture without consulting Glinda? (Glinda did give Ozma the Magic Carpet, after all.) And the Army is a typical Ozian army, there's no way Glinda would have thought it was inadequate. Offended? No, I don't think Glinda would be at all. Concerned? Certainly, but I don't think Ozma would have gone if Glinda didn't have every confidence in her. From: "W. R. Wright" >I've had an inquiry about the existence of an Oz Cookbook. Does anyone know if such a book exists, >and if it does, bibliography info and where it might be obtained. There have been two Oz cookbooks. One was by, I think, Monica S. Bailey, came out quite a few years ago, was based on the book, and is probably out of print now. The second, based on the movie, came out in 1993 as part of the Hollywood Hotplates series of movie cookbooks (I'd hate to see their "Aliens" cookbook!), was written by Sarah Key, Jennifer Newman Brazil, and Vicki Wells, published by Abbeville Press, and is probably still available. From: "W. R. Wright" >Ref the earlier message I sent before Christmas, from a college student in France looking for >references for her thesis, which is a study of Oz WRT US society........... to date the only response I >have from anyone is from Eric who offerred several books for consideration (these are listed in his >FAQ). Does anyone else have any other books on Oz critical analyses that we can refer her to?? I tried to come up with as many as I could for the FAQ, so that should pretty much cover it (although there are some earlier articles that I THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 7, 1996 ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 06 Jan 1996 20:41:11 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: What happened to J. Glegg? I recently (God knows why) reread _Kabumpo in Oz_. I was wondering if any stories speculated what happened to J. Glegg. For that matter, what does the "J." stand for. I suppose if Laumer was going to make the speculation, it would be something like "Jopoglobonisnorf," or worse. Mark Semich (I think) mentioned something if anyone else was reading _Oz Squad_. Since the idea of Dorothy as a secret agent is intriguing, I am curious to see them, but I have no idea if this is something usually found in places which sell comic books. (Then again, I have this image of Pierce Brosnan saying, "The name is Bright, Button Bright.") Would _Oz Squad_ require special ordering, etc.? ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 06 Jan 1996 20:47:03 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-06-96 1) According to the map in the Del Rey paperback versions of the Thompson books, the Oogaboonians were in Ev. 2) While we're on the topic of possibly needing to contact previous Oz authors to avoid copyright infringement, what are the addresses (snail mail or electronic) for Cosgrove and McGraw & McGraw? (I don't think I'm at that stage YET, as I'm killing references to Jenny Jump, but I want to keep the quartet of Mombi, Singra, Gigemma, and Bastinda in so I can have them talk about their takeover of Oz during Pastoria's reign, which helps explore Glinda's involvement in Ozite politics, which leads to some more stuff I'd better keep my mouth shut and not talk about. So far Singra's description of what happened the second time she woke up has been limited to something like "And you don't even want to know what happened the second time I woke up!" and so far she hasn't done much except participate in a conspiracy and travel with Flambissa (Glinda's sister) to the Quadling country. Bastinda, Mombi, and Gigemma have been getting more attention, though.) 3) What do you mean that Orin marries Sir Robert Something or Other? I thought she was married to Cheeriobed! (Then again, does polygamy exist in Oz? In Oogaboo I wouldn't be surprised, considering there are significantly more women there than men, but that could be because males in Oogaboo choose to grow up less often...) 4) I know about the witches taking over Oz and dethroning Pastoria. What I want to know is who made that part of Oz history and where they wrote it. 5) More names requested: 1) Mrs. Hokus 2) Sir Hokus's horse 3) the Medicine Man (is it Herbie?) 4) Is Uncle Henry and Aunt Em's last name Gale? 5) Which part of Chang Wang Woe's name are personal and family names? Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 06 Jan 1996 23:05:31 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Cookbook In response to my question on published Ozzy cookbooks, both Scott C and Eric G. responded. This is what I got out of the responses so far. Book #1 Author: Monica S. Bailey Title: ?? Published 198? by ? Book#2 Author: Sarah Key, Jennifer Newman Brazil, and Vicki Wells Title: Wizard of Oz Cookbook Published: 1993 by Abbeville Press Scott, I gathered from your note that you have the books. If so, could you fill in the missing information. Also, does anyone know where these books can be purchased? Thanks, Bill W. ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 8, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Sat, 06 Jan 1996 23:24:33 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: copyright Dave Hardenbrook wrote on Friday 05-Jan-96 18:02:26: >P.P.S. One more question: If Neil's characters are still under copyright, then >why are his drawings in the public domain? And are Jack Snow's characters >still under copyright? Dave, Copyright law can be a little confusing for older "works" since the laws have been re-written a number of times in the past 50 years. In general, as I understand it, Neill's illlustrations in books published before 1920 are now unquestionably in the public domain. The one's published since then may or may not be, depending on whether the copyright owner took appropriate action to extend the copyright based on the revised laws. So you may have to check on each one independently. Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 07 Jan 1996 12:57:07 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Names Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman asked: > 4) Is Uncle Henry and Aunt Em's last name Gale? Doubt it.......since Aunt Em was Dorothy's mother's sister. Now if Uncle Henry was a brother to Dorothy's dad, then it's possible. (Rural families in the midwest in those days did see marriages between families that way. Not too many people to choose from.....!) Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 07 Jan 1996 18:03:36 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: Chang Wang Woe Regarding the name Chang Wang Woe, if it follows the usual pattern in East Asia then Chang is the surname and Wang and Woe would be the personal names (and would likely be written together when transliterated as Wangwoe or Wang-woe). However, Thompson doesn't seem to be very knowledgeable about the cultures she tries to borrow from and she may have intended the name to be interpreted European style, that is, Chang and Wang being the personal names and Woe being the surname. So until someone establishes it either way, you can interpret it any way you like. ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 07 Jan 1996 14:44:48 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: For the Ozzy Digest Hey, guess what came yesterday? A new issue of "The Baum Bugle." Pity it's the Autumn 1995 issue, seeing as how it's already 1996... Anyway, here's a bit of a review, and my reactions: * "Oz an Ends": Too bad the notice of the "forthcoming" TV broadcast of "The Wizard of Oz in Concert" is now hopelessly out of date. Otherwise, good info on a bunch of stuff. * Gary Kurtz interview: The "Bugle" needs to do more stuf like this! More interviews, please, with people of Ozzy note. Pity this also came under the thumb of the "Bugle"'s usual scheduling demon, as it was meant to celebrate "Return to Oz"'s tenth anniversary, in 1995. Oh, yeah, and what happened to the end of the piece? It was just cut off in mid-WORD! Very unusual for the "Bugle" to goof up THAT bad. I suspect we'll see the final paragraphs reprinted in a future issue. * It was good seeing another vintage issue of "The Ozmapolitan" again. But why was it presented as two two-page spreads this time, instead of the 1-2-1 pattern as in the past, making it appear as it did originally? It would have been real easy to put something else on page 14 and bumped "The Ozmapolitan" back one page. (For those who haven't seen it, BTW, it's from ca. 1970, and advertised the new Reilly and Lee editions of "The Sea Fairies" and "Sky Island" put out that year.) * "The Oz Files." Patrick Maund explores two odd, seemingly out-of-place episodes from "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" and "The Hungry Tiger of Oz." Funny, I never had any trouble with Down Town in "Hungry Tiger" (although I do like Maund's analysis). I do agree that that house in "Patchwork Girl" is oddly out of place, however. * "The Scarecrow to the Rescue." One of the few times the "Bugle" has ever reprinted anything from previous issues, which may be a good idea to do more often, as there are some important articles that the average Oz fan has no access to. * "Bibliographia Baumiana" on "Sky Island": When are these going to be completed and put together in a book, to go with "Bibliographia Oziana"? * "The MGM Scrapbook": Nice vintage "Wizard of Oz" movie posters. Too bad at least one of them couldn't appear on the cover in color. * "The Oz Bookshelf": With all the Oz material coming out today, this REALLY needs to be either expanded, or the focus needs to change to include shorter reviews of more books and/or more notices of "This has also been published:" * "An Oz Quiz." Either I'm getting too old, or I've read too many quizzes, but too many of these seemed to me to be reruns of previous quizzes, and they were ALL too easy for me (although I didn't get them all, either...) * "Oz in the News": What happened to the little picture at the top of the page? (And on some of the other regular columns, for that matter)? Oh, well. At least "Oz in the News" is starting to sort of get caught up. It's now up to May 1995. (I still say "Oz in the News" should be moved to "The Oz Observer" so we can get more current news.) --Eric "If you're not a member of the International Wizard of Oz Club and receiving this fine publication, why not???" Gjovaag "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" --The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 07 Jan 1996 15:39:30 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 01-06-96 From: "Mark A. Semich" > Regarding "adult" Oz stories, does anyone else out there read the "Oz > Squad" comic book? All this talk about Laumer's stories and time travel > sounds a bit similar. In the most recent issues of "Oz Squad", Smith & > Tinker have invented a time machine powered by the Wish Belt, with some > very interesting events following.... Yeah, I read "Oz Squad," but it's not much like Laumer's books. I gotta admit, I'm enjoying the last few issues, since this is a more readily recognizable Oz, with the violence, sex, and swearing toned down. (Actually, hacked out with an ax is probably more like it.) > As for Dorothy getting married, how do we know she didn't age like a yo-yo > during all those decades? There is only one example of reverse-aging in > the series. This is the dubious episode in LOST KING. However, it is > very possible that Dorothy aged a little for a while, then asked Ozma to > make her into a little girl again, and over and over again... The point > is, make her any age that you want, and it won't affect continuity! Or don't mention how old she is, and leave it up to the reader's imagination. (Readers DON'T have to be hit in the head with ALL the facts, you know.) But it looks as if reverse-aging is pretty tough to do and a rare occurrance, as seen by the Wizard doing it to Jenny Jump in "The Wonder City of Oz." > Glinda did not appear in LURLINE AND THE WHITE RAVENS, but that did not > have much about Oz in it, so she may have been there. In one of Snows > books, Glinda celebrates her 100th anniversary as the ruler of the South... Er, no she didn't. Are you thinking of "Magical Mimics," where Ozma goes to an every-200-years-conference in the Forest of Burzee, and takes Glinda with her? Had nothing to do with the length of Glinda's reign in the Quadling Country... > The four witches overthrew Pastoria and divided the country up between them > some years before the arrival of the Wizard, but they were probably active > for many years before then and may have actaully been ruling slected areas > during the reign of Pastoria. Also don't forget that there seem to have been other witches who've had some influence in other parts of the country, such as Gloma in the southern Winkie Country and Blinkie in Jinxland. The witches who overthrew Pastoria may have been the most powerful or influential, but not the only ones in Oz. From: Tyler Jones > PLEAS FROM BELOW: > > I compiling the digest into monthly text files, there are two things that would > really help a lot: > > 2. When people echo other peoples comments, could you please put NO spaces > between the little greater-than sign and the text? That may be tough to do, as it's my system, not me, that does that. (I would think this would be very easy for you to fix with a global search-and-change in any decent text editor.) From: Dave Hardenbrook > P.P.S. One more question: If Neil's characters are still under copyright, then > why are his drawings in the public domain? And are Jack Snow's characters > still under copyright? Not all of Neill's drawings are in public domain, only those that are in books that are in public domain. So any Neill picture from a Baum book is fair game. The copyright is on the book, and expires after a certain amount of time, depending on current copyright law. And from what I understand, since the copyright on the Snow books was never maintained, they are now public domain. DO WE HAVE ANY COPYRIGHT LAWYERS HERE??? --Eric ============================================================================= Sunday 07-Jan-96 18:41:25 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Eric's Comments on the _Bugle_ From: Eric Gjovaag >Oh, yeah, and what happened to the end of the [Return to Oz] piece? >It was just cut off in mid-WORD! Very unusual for the "Bugle" to goof >up THAT bad. Are you referring to page 13, to the left of the photo of the caged Mombi? Take a look just *above* that picture... :) (It still seems like an abrupt end to the article though.) >(I still say "Oz in the News" should be moved to "The Oz Observer" so we >can get more current news.) I agree, it would be more appropriately placed there, IMHO. ============================================================================= Date: Sun, 07 Jan 1996 23:23:14 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: New Stuff I have just completed a major update to my Ozzy website. The following summarizes the new material. (1) All the characters to the first 14 books have now been added (plus Sea Fairies, Little Wizard Stories, and Gnome King). (2) New graphics have been added so that most of the Wizard of Oz book characters now have their own picture in full color. (3) The "Encylopedia Oziana" (i.e., Characters, Places, and Things) pages (almost 900 pages!!!) have been completed hyperlinked to each other. (4) A set of index pages have been added for each of the three sections. This includes indexes for book, Oz region, category, alphabetic, etc. With this much data there are inevitably going to be errors. So please let me know if you find any errors. Please be sure to identify the page where the error is. Also, the possibility exists that I have missed some character, place or thing. So also let me know if you think something is missing. I have tried to structure all the pages for very rapid download. Performance over the wire is a very important issue for most people. I would also be interested in your feedback regarding performance (anything taking too long to load??) and display problems (do the pages display properly for you?). Two notes in this regard: (1) Performance: server response time to your initial page change request is a function of how busy the server is (also the Internet loading). There is not much I can do about this. The performance issue of most concern to me at this time is: once the page starts downloading, does it paint/complete in a reasonable time? (2) My pages are HTML version 2.0 tagged and optimized for Netscape. If you have another browser and are having display problems with my pages, please let me know what browser you are using. Your feedback will be most appreciated. Bill Wright ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 9, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 08:31:30 -0500 (EST) From: cummingss@kenyon.edu Subject: RE: Ozzy_Digest, 01-08-96 ************************************************************************** I have some questions regarding the comic book(s) THE OZ SQUAD. I saw a review of one appear a while back in The Bugle. At the time, I thought it was a single issue. Is this a series? If so, how many issues have been published? Are they still in print? Thanks, Scott Cummings **************************************************************************** ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 08:41:18 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Site error Found the first error in my Ozzy web info. In some places "Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz" is listed as "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz". I thought I had fixed this problem, but it slipped by me. It will be corrected in the next update. Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 13:28:46 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Various 1) Glinda was responsible for Ozma being put on the throne, and How the Wizard Came to Oz indicates that she was involved with the Wizard getting to the emerald county and staying in power there. Is there any evidence of her involvement with the ascention of previous rulers of Oz? 2) Concerning the idea of a scale of magic working: Perhaps magical ability cannot be quantified by a single number. There would appear to be several different categories of magic, and proficiency in one would not neccessarily indicate proficiency in others. For example, yookoohoos are excellent in transformations, but weak in other sorts of magic. This would explain how Ozma made a magic picture (as stated in the FF book The Shaggy Man of Oz) so early yet bungled the situation in Ev from not being able to detect enchanted objects. 3) Would someone mind telling me in what book the idea of 4 wicked witches deposing Pastoria first comes up, please? (History known, source requested.) Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 13:16:13 -0500 (EST) From: "M.GESSEL" Subject: REPLY TO: Ozzy_Digest, 01-08-96 I enjoyed your review of the Autumn issue of the Bugle. When I was the editor I always appreciated thoughtful criticism Readers of the Ozzy Digest are invited to contribute news items to the "Oz and Ends" column which I still do. I am interested in tips on any news items coming up in the future or that happened. I can be reached in any of the following ways: Mail: Michael Gessel P.O. Box 748 Arlington, Virginia 22216 Telephone: (703) 532-4261 Internet: mgessel@hr.house.gov Michael Gessel ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 18:30:30 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest OZIADS UPDATE: I've read 21 of the 40 (22 of 41, actaully, since Tik-Tok has two editions), and they are very good. They are not at the level of detail that I wanted for my on-line textual summaries, though, so I will continue with the project. --Tyler ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 18:30:34 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: ozy digest I don't know if this message got posted last time, so here it is again! New stuff comes first, so if you've seen the old stuff before, just ignore it. Other Laumer names: Frogman: Frederick Fraukx. Kangaroo from EMERALD CITY: Mar Supial My favorite merchant: Levimeyerabloch J. Glegg exploded at the end of Kabumpo. Presumably, he is not dust. The official map of Oz attributes a pretty good-sized chunk of land to Ev. I do not believe that the writ of Evardo extends that far. Nobody has written of the time of the four witches taking over. Much of the theorizing comes from the conversation between the Wizard and Ozma in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ. I am only assuming that the four wicked witches overthrew Pastoria and then divided the country up between them because that is the most logical sequence of events. Of course, in Oz, that may not always happen... I am also assuming that the four wicked withces were active before this took place. It is doubtful that four people, who had never done anything before, suddenly rose up in a united action and overthrew the king of the country I doubt that any of the four ruled an entire quadrant for several reasons, but I won't go into them here. Also, there have been many wicked witches besides the four. There was Blinkie (she also had assistants) and Faleero (who also had assistants). Don't forget the witch in ENCHANTED APPLES. The Wogglebug named her as the Wicked Witch of the South, but there may have been many who made this claim and only Singra was THE wicked witch of the south. Mrs. Hokus is named Marygolden and his steed is Stampedro. Somewhere, there is mention of a party for Glinda who is celebrating her 100th anniversary as ruler of the south. This may or may not be a symbolic number and it is NOT the same as the 200-year confab of fairies. More of March Laumers marriages: This has a connection to Daves book. Tattypoo, the "fake" Good Witch of the North, who turned out to be Tattypoo, also has another capacity as Diane, countess of Gillequaine. This is not a hidden identity, it's just the result of some of her heritage from King Gil of Gilkenny. By the way, I WON'T tell you who her mother is, you just wouldn't believe it! :) Anyway, she marries Sir Robert of something-or-other. The problem is, is her name Tattypoo, Orin or Diane? Laumer combined the first letter of each name and calls her TOD, of all things :(. Also, Ozma does not get married (FYI, she married the king of Ev in the Historically Inaccurate SIR HAROLD AND THE NOME KING), but she... I'd better not say. E-mail me privately for the straight dope on her and the Shaggy Man. Barry, 1993E (the evil Oz book) was published by Palo Verde Emeralds, which may or may not exist, based on information from Dave. It was a small press edition and cannot be ILLED. This is a point that Eric has brought up. Many books on the HACC are not generally available, but most do not affect the situation in Oz so the point is moot, but here is a capsule of the story. Note that since this story is only two pages long, and those pages are half the size of a normal book, a summary of it will be very short indeed! :) Dorothy runs into Ozmas throne room where whe is hearing a complaint by the Hoppers and Horners. She tells Ozma that something horrible has happened: Serafin Padilla (WIZ KIDS OF OZ) has written another Oz book! Ozmas internal temperature starts to rise and she finally growls "Oh, ****" People are very upset. The HHoppers and Horners leave and Dorothy is curious why she said that. Ozma replies that that little &%*$# has caused too much trouble already, so she said what she felt. Oh, **** This book is not a necessary to read to understand the further history of Oz, since nothing really happens. By the way, I have found the Wiz Kids books to be as good as any and better than some. The only complaint I have is that some of the later ones spent almost no time in Oz itself. The Ozzy digest for Dec. 1995 has been PKZIPPED into 94K size. I'll mail it to Ken sometime next week. Aaron, what are you surrendering on? My Silly OzBul army has been granted leave, so there is no danger there. If we need to worry if Oz is on another planet, here are my reasons for believing that Oz is in a paralell universe: 1. People from all over have gone to Oz, so it's hard to pin down a precise location on Earth (other than the Pacific Ocean) 2. People usually get there through disasters, which could open a gateway to the Oz Universe. 3. There is ANOTHER magic area, on the other side of "Oz/Earth/Ertha". It is doubtful that there are TWO magical continents floating aroud out there! Since the Scarecrow was alive before being placed on the bean pole, there must have been some kind of consciousness there that was pre-Chang Wang Woe (barring the magic machine). He did act like the Emperor after getting to Silver Island, but before that, he had always been the Scarecrow of Oz, without a hint of his former existence. Even after arriving, he still did not remember. As for Dorothy getting married, how do we know she didn't age like a yo-yo during all those decades? There is only one example of reverse-aging in the series. This is the dubious episode in LOST KING. However, it is very possible that Dorothy aged a little for a while, then asked Ozma to make her into a little girl again, and over and over again... The point is, make her any age that you want, and it won't affect continuity! As for you question of "new" characters, I don't know. Another example is Pastoria. he was mentioned in LAND OF OZ, but did not appear until LOST KING. Is he a Baum character or a Thompson character? Perhaps Chris D. knows. I'll ask him. Ozma and GLinda have both made mistakes in the FF, setting the stage for a POSSIBLE confrontation of some sort. It seems to me that I have heard of an Oz Cookbook, but I am not sure. Maybe the Winkies knew that Dorothy wanted to return home, so they chose the Tin Woodman, as one of the heroes of the day, to be their leader. Glinda did not appear in LURLINE AND THE WHITE RAVENS, but that did not have much about Oz in it, so she may have been there. In one of Snows books, Glinda celebrates her 100th anniversary as the ruler of the South, but this may have been a symbolic number. It is known only that she was there for some years before the Wizard arrived. The four witches overthrew Pastoria and divided the country up between them some years before the arrival of the Wizard, but they were probably active for many years before then and may have actaully been ruling slected areas during the reign of Pastoria. Last but not least, to continue the mutual admiration society :) Dave, don't be so hasty to ditch your "authorial deficit syndrome" defense! This happens all the time in the world. Do we even know the full history of our own country in every detail? Just look at the mystery surrounding the Kennedy assassination. It was only 30 years ago, yet it generates a lot of controversy. Even if you don't believe in all the conspiracy theory, the fact that so much of it exists means that history is often a clouded thing, hard to sort out. We rarely know the clear objective truth of aything, if such a thing can even be said to exist. Events are colored by our emotions and feelings at the time. Once our attitude changes, we forget a lot of the important stuff that happens, and we edit our memory on occassion, chaning things, adding things and deleting things. Here is a classic example: The ancient Egyptians and Hittites fought a war a long, long time ago, although it was NOT in a galaxy far, far away! According to the internal histories of the nations, they both claimed to have won the war. On the surface, it seems like at least one side is lying. You can have a war where everybody loses, but you can't have one where everybody defeats everybody else. Or can you? Let's dig a little deeper. The Egyptians were expanding, and they wanted to be large and strong enough to hold their own with the Hittites. There was a river somewhere, and their goal was to reach that river. If they did that, their goal was reached and they could relax. On the other side, The Hittites were afraid of the Egyptians getting too big. They figured if they could stop them at the river (you guessed it, the same one), then they were saved. The Egyptians reached the river, but did not go beyond it. Both sides achieved their goals, so both claimed that they had won. I'm sure that each felt that the other side had lost. Also, when people record events, they change them a little to match their own feelings and beliefs at the time. I myself am using your method to explain away an Oz book that just came out. It is accurate textually, but the characters act really weird and bizarre. The whole tone of the story is lame, but I figure G.J. just wrote it that way to have fun with it! That method, and the magic machine, are a little heavy-handed, though, and should only be used as a last resort. --Tyler Jones ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 18:56:12 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: New (?) Baum Songs I just picked up the following information regarding Baum songs that I have never seen listed anywhere else. Do any of you have any information which adds to or conflicts with the following? (A) Baum, Frank & Emerson Hough. "The Maid of Athens: A Musical Comedy in Three Acts." Folio, 11ff, unbound sheets, stapled at top (as issued). Chicago: privately printed, 1903. [This synopsis printed for copyright protection, is one of several theatrical projects (all unproduced) devised by Baum & the popular novelist Emerson Hough (The Mississippi Bubble). The text is included in the 1958 Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum.] (B) Unproduced musical synopsis, "Prize Silverwings" by Edith Ogden Harrison & Baum, 1903. (1200/1800) Also, does anyone know what the "1958 Musical Fantasies of L. Frank Baum" are? I presume it was something published at that time as a collection, but I have no bibliographic information on it. thanks, Bill W. ============================================================================= Date: Mon, 08 Jan 1996 21:41:24 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 01-08-96 Eric, et al: The BUGLE quiz is based on what we get from the quizmakers for that year's conventions. Fred, Jim, and I make up other questions. We try hard NOT to repeat stuff that's been asked before, although the same info may indeed be asked for in a different format, sometimes (which I don't particularly like, either.) Yes, usually that quiz is intended to be of low to moderate difficulty. Not everyone is the Ozmaniac that you and I are. I hope there's no real hurry to publish BibBaum. The moment it gets into dealers' hands, the prices will go up and the knowledgeable collector will lose his "edge." But it may be of more help than harm. IWOC plans to run the articles in the BUGLE and hope for member input before publishing the book. Actually, it's not BibBaum that causes me concern. It's BIBLIOGRAPHIA PSEUDONYMIA that worries me. That'll go a long way to kill the "sleepers" out there that we still find cheap 'cause so few know they're Baum. Oh well. I liked Patrick's oddity article, too, but like you, I'd never had a problem with Down Town, having always considered it just one more strange place encountered along the way. Patrick's take on it was interesting. The bit with the houses frustrated me as a kid. I wanted the darn things to be really explained. Aaron, if you write Eloise, be prepared for a polite but firm turndown. She's expressed dismay before that others may try to use her characters. I have a short story I wrote using Fred(the destrier horse) and got her permission to use him, but I also got the very distinct impression that she agreed to it only because we're friends. I know she wasn't happy about it, and I've never showed anyone the story because of that. She's a terrific lady and a professional author. She's very protective of her copyright rights. Rachel is also a terrific gal and a professional writer, but I don't know how protective she is of these things. ============================================================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, JANUARY 10, 1996 ============================================================================= Date: Tue, 09