] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, AUGUST 27 - SEPTEMBER 1, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] Hi All! Sorry it's been such an eon since the last digest, but I've been having problems with my modem and I have therefore been without 'Net access for the last couple of days...Everything is "hunky-dunky" (as S.K. "Cuddles" Sakall would say) now. -- Dave ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 11:45:51 -0400 From: Jane Subject: Munchkins My grandmother told me many years ago that she knew a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz. She is from Muncie, Indiana. Her name was Mary Kiester or Kester. Also her maiden name was Delp. We are trying to find out which munchkin she was. My grandmother also said she had one line in the movie. Do have any suggestions on how I would go about finding which munchkin she is? Thanks. An Oz fan ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 19:48:57 -0400 From: David Levitan Subject: Ozzy Digest Archive X-Accept-Language: ru My archive will be down for the next several days due to a disk crash at my ISP. My ISP doesn't know when everything will be back up again, hopefully soon. -- David Levitan wizardofoz@bigfoot.com ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 00:06:09 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 08-26-98 Tyler: >If we want to get really technical, the Wizard did not "enter" the Emerald >City in _DotWiz_ either. He was transported directly there. As far as we >can tell, he did not enter the EC in the standard way until _Emerald City_. I guess it depends on how you define "enter." It seems to me that "to go from a place outside to a place inside" is a reasonable definition of the word, whether one does it by walking, riding, flying, or magical transportation. And if you want to get _really, really_ technical, he went outside the city gates in _DotWiz_ to watch the games and races, and re-entered after they were over. (He isn't mentioned by name, but Baum says "they all," in a context that clearly includes Dorothy, the Wizard, Zeb, Jim, and Eureka as well as Ozma.) Ruth: >A pleasanter note -- I checked the dates for the two equestrienne- >Ozma drawings, and the "Emerald City" cover is 1929, and the "Yellow >Knight" was 1930, so it's not surprising that the two are similar. I hadn't checked the dates, but I was pretty sure that was the case. You may remember my theory that it was when Mogodore lusted after Ozma in _Jack Pumpkinhead_ that Neill decided to start depicting her in fitted clothes rather than the voluminous draperies she'd always worn before, showing a figure that was clearly at least teen-age rather than a little girl. I got this from a bit of a study of the books, and there's an abrupt change in the way Neill dresses Ozma between _Jack Pumpkinhead_ and _Yellow Knight_. Since the equestrienne Ozma of the redone EC cover is wearing a fitted outfit, that places it after JP chronologically. (The same is true of the "slinky Ozma" cover for _Ozma_.) Mark Anthony: >you read it write the fabulous forty are now forty one why forty one cause >at >http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/7277 > >you can now read dave l hardenbooks (yes our dave whose last name is >really lister) red dwarf in oz >so point your browsers to power star and read daves new oz story Nothing against Dave's book, but it isn't the forty-first Oz book; even new Oz books by FF authors, some of which are very good (like _Forbidden Fountain_), don't add to the canon, much less books by new authors (including myself). Still, it's nice to know that _Red Dwarf in Oz_ is available for reading. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 19:16:47 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 08-20-98 David: William Hope Hodgson wrote "The Voice in the Night," which was overshadowed (deservedly) by the film version, _Matango_, by Ishiro Honda, which the dufuses who released it in the U.S. called "Attack of the Mushroom People" and only put it on late night TV. The screenwriter, Takeshi Kimura, thought he'd said all he had to say, so he started using the gender-neutral name Kaoru Mabuchi. He eventually died in isolation in a Tokyo appartment, making the film all the more prophetic. Dave: I'm quite ashmaed. I always forget about Ozma's birthday. I sent chapters 1 and seven (they actually only wanted the first) of _Tip of Oz_ to Linda A. Chester & Associates, a publishing agent interested in seeking new young voices. That was yesterday (Wednesday the 27th). Scott ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 21:11:46 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: all aglow in Oz Sender: "J. L. Bell" About the "barefoot Button-Bright" cover, Dave Hulan wrote: <> The other possibility in my mind was a Copp, Clark or other foreign edition. It had that "Who in the world would find this attractive?" quality of some foreign book designs. Since you say R&L's redone covers covered even HUNGRY TIGER, I feel secure in my memory that that spine did say Reilly & Lee. As a "white-cover baby" I had the benefit of seeing ROAD with a colorized picture of the arrival at Jack Pumpkinhead's house on the cover. One of Neill's best drawings, and twice as natural. Lovely! Another trivia question for all, free of both Club encumbrances and dependence on obscure editions: Name three objects in three different Baum Oz books that are made of radium. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 14:07:24 -0400 (EDT) From: LuVCHACHI@aol.com Subject: message board Hi, whoever posted the message about the Oz message board I tried the address you posted and it didn't work...could you post it again? Thanx! ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 21:33:41 -0400 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Back from the wilds of Oregon and Washington. Actually, I attended my 45th high school reunion in Portland, among other things. Had a great time. I was also in Long Beach, WA and they have a book store there called "Sandpiper Books." They had just purchased someone's Oz collection. I didn't really have time to look it over but there were a lot of books. They do have email and I believe a web page where they offer everything they have that is over $25. Their email address is: sandpiper@willapabay.org IMHO - Meghan is much nicer than "LuVCHACHI." The latter sounds like a character out of "Star Trek." Tyler - Thanks for archiving the Digests. Now I can dump mine and regain a bunch of space. Barbara DeJohn - If you think summer went fast, wait until you get to Hulan's age. :) Regards, Old Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 23:04:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Ozisus@aol.com Subject: Oz post In case you all haven't heard, Hallmark Entertainment is producing The Land of Oz for ABC, May 1999. I'll pass along more details as I learn them. I heard about it when we first signed the deal (I work for Hallmark) but only recently have begun to see us include enough references to it in print to be confident it is moving forward. FYI, Hallmark Entertainment productions are not Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations. We have a subsidiary that makes all sorts of stuff for TV. Recently Gulliver's Travels, Merlin, Odyssey, Moby Dick... There is a long line of kids classics set for the next year. Jane Albright ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 98 22:43:38 (PDT) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things Bear wrote: >Tyler - Thanks for archiving the Digests. Now I can dump mine and regain a >bunch of space. Whoops...I'd better update the FAQ again... :) Jane wrote: >In case you all haven't heard, Hallmark Entertainment is producing The Land >of Oz for ABC, May 1999. Looks like my VCR is going to be busy in late '98 - early '99 with _Cats_ (A.L. Webber) in November, _Red Dwarf_ Series VIII in January(?) and _Land of Oz_ in May! :) -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave **************************************************************************** Dave Hardenbrook, DaveH47@delphi.com, http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ "I like to define humor as the affectionate communication of insight." -- Leo Rosten, introduction to _Oh K*A*P*L*A*N, My K*A*P*L*A*N_ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 2, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 08:34:25 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: LOST PRINCESS OF OZ, for starters Sender: "J. L. Bell" Kudos to Ruth Berman for noting the likeness between a 1930 YELLOW KNIGHT drawing of Ozma on the Sawhorse and the picture that appeared on EMERALD CITY covers starting the year before. A new picture appeared on OZMA about the same time, of the royal princess opening curtains (the "slinky Ozma"). I looked in the late 1920s books for a b/w counterpart, but couldn't find one. Have others had the same luck? Interesting analysis of Neill's Ozma costuming, David Hulan. Now to LOST PRINCESS. In his introduction for SCARECROW, Baum wrote, "Dorothy has promised me that Button-Bright and the three girls are sure to encounter, in the near future, some marvelous adventures in the Land of Oz, which I hope to be permitted to relate to you in the next Oz book." As we know, Baum was unable to do that. Instead, he published RINKITINK. In the introduction to that book, Baum wrote: "If I am permitted to write another Oz book it will tell of some thrilling adventures encountered by Dorothy, Betsy Bobbin, Trot and the Patchwork Girl right in the Land of Oz, and how they discovered some amazing creatures that could never have existed outside a fairyland. I have an idea that about the time you are reading this story of Rinkitink I shall be writing that story of Adventures in Oz." In both cases, it's clear that Baum was describing LOST PRINCESS, an idea or manuscript still in development. What made him fall behind his plans for writing the girls' adventures after SCARECROW? We know he faced both health and business crises. In addition, it might have been harder than Baum expected to narrate Ozma's disappearance as a mystery story [more about that later]. Now for an Oz-as-history analysis of the delay in publishing LOST PRINCESS: I'm struck by how Baum twice used the term "permitted" in these book introductions. From whom would the Royal Historian have to get permission to write LOST PRINCESS? Why, from Princess Ozma, of course. It's conceivable that benevolent despot suppressed the story of Ugu's thefts and kidnapping--at least until she'd developed ways to prevent folks from repeating those crimes. I can imagine a wireless telegraph conversation like this: "I'm sorry, Mr. Baum, but Ozma says nobody must read our adventures rescuing her jes' yet." "But the children are asking me for a new book. Not to mention Mr. Reilly and Mr. Britton." "I s'pose you could tell them about the time a few years back when the Wizard and I rescued the King an' Queen of Pingaree from that wicked ol' King Ruggedo." "I thought Ruggedo isn't a king anymore." "He isn't." "Is Pingaree part of Oz?" "No, it's off in the ocean." "Was it an exciting adventure for you?" "Not really. But it was exciting for Inga." "Who's Inga?" "He's the boy at the start of the story. You see,..." Meanwhile, Ozma could have been honing her magical skills, adding to what she came by naturally--see David Hulan's essay "ARE YOU A GOOD RULER OR A BAD RULER? An inquiry into the quality of Ozma's governance". One logical source of her added, non-innate powers is the material confiscated from Ugu's workshop [303], which he'd inherited from the ancestor Vig calls "the greatest wizard and sorcerer who has ever lived" [174--Melody Grandy, would this be Wam?]. Incidentally, Baum's introduction for LOST PRINCESS abandons the pretense of his previous two prefaces that he's simply a historian. Instead, he presents the new story as a fiction he imagined in response to a little girl's question, and provides a rather high-handed paean to our imaginations. Baum seems to be writing not really "To My Readers" but to adults, as in WIZARD, issuing an apologia for his profession that his readers really don't need. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 10:45:04 -0400 (EDT) From: LuVCHACHI@aol.com Subject: Oz and The X-files? One of my friends recieves an X-Files mailing list. One of the resent messages she got she sent me me and I found it interesting: Turns out that not only are they gonna kiss, not only is it gonna be in real- time, & not only is it gonna be so friggin' cool, but the third ep of season 6 is gonna be based on The Wizard of Oz!!!!!!!!!!!! How cool is that ?! check out these sites if you wanna hear about it: http://www.calendarlive.com/HOME/CALENDARLIVE/TVENT/t000078240.html http://www.mrshowbiz.com/news/todays_stories/980828/xfiles082898.html Is it just me or can any of you not imagine an episode of the X-Files based on Oz? Just thought I'd share this bit of information! ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 12:58:44 -0400 (EDT) From: RMorris306@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 08-14-98 I've been doing a lot of traveling last month and only now am getting caught up on some points...so my apologies if I raise points others already have: Scott Olsen wrote: << Would it have been better for Oz if the picture would have never been made (or not as popular)? Would it have been better if a poor, forgotten, motion picture had been made?>> Uh, it was. The Larry Semon/Oliver Hardy movie, remember? << Speaking of which, anyone remember _The Lord of the Rings_ movie that ended about 2/3 of the way through the story?>> Well, that happens with very episodic novels...Disney's PINOCCHIO left out at least 80% of Collodi's original, too. For that matter, most movies of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS have stopped after the first (or sometimes the first two) of the sections. (The only use of Laputa I recall was in a Japanese anime movie by that name, without Gulliver...) <> Well, people still sing Jane Taylor(?)'s original "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," too... David Hulan wrote (and I swear I didn't look at the original answers!): <> I don't think Jenny Jump (even before being temporarily(?) deaged) counts as an adult, but you seemed to be careful to avoid using "woman" or "adult HUMAN female." So my guess would be Billina. (Eureka was female, as were probably at least some of the Nine Tiny Piglets, but they weren't adult.) <> I assume you're not including "Queer Visitors from the Land of Oz" in which the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman (among others) visit the Gale farm? That would be Santa Claus! <> The original Guardian of the Gates? (Since Ozma, or maybe Jinjur, permanently opened the gates, he may have been laid off. Jack Snow had Omby Amby take over the position...) <> Probably "The Land of Oz," as Tip. Rich Morrissey ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 09:42:51 -0700 From: "Weisberg, Larry" Subject: RE: Ozzy Digest, 09-01-98 To Jane : Check out Stephen Cox's wonderful book "The Munchkins of Oz." If you can't find it in your local library, I have a link to it at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6188/books-ozmisc.html Ozzily yours... Larry Weisberg ldweisberg@geocities.com )|( (o o) ----------------------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo------------------------------- ------ "Welcome to Oz" http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/2525 Also consider visiting "WEISBERG on the WEB" http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6188 ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 13:05:22 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-01-98 There is a new film bearing the title _Under the Rainbow_ in the works. I don't know if there is any Oz connection, but it is a production of Jovian Pictures (an amateur filmmaking group based in Bloomington, Indiana) and Bunk Films (another troup based in Indianapolis that I am planning to join). Here is the official URL for the film, directed by Carl James: http://www.marqueznet.com/bunk/films/rainbow/ It is an SF-drama about four youths (3 men, one woman) born in a starship with a crew of thirty going to Earth for the first time. Scott ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 13:13:15 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Some "Lost Princess" comments: I referred a while back to David L. Greene's article on "Baum's Later Oz Books" ("Bugle," Vol. 16 #1). It has some discussion of how Baum wrote "Lost Princess" (as shown in surviving correspondence with the publishers). Initially, he was planning a book that would be called something like "The Three Girls in Oz," and would have Dorothy, Betsy, and Trot adventuring together in a journey around Oz. Michael Riley's "Beyond Oz" book comments that "Lost Princess" was the first Oz book to be set in the opening chapter in the Emerald City, and he suggests that, having explored the border areas outside Oz to see how far he could get away from the kids' demand for Oz while technically still satisfying it (and reaching what was probably maximum distance in the last book of the exploration group, "Rinkitink," where he was rewriting an actual non-Oz book), he had now decided that he really did want to explore Oz in detail himself. All of his last few Oz books are set entirely in Oz and have plots of having characters go out to explore sections of the country. In the others, the exploration was given some motive other than simply wanting to go and explore, and in the process of writing what would have been "The 3 Girls," he came up with the "lost princess" element to give them a reason to go exploring. (Also in the process, he added a lot more people to go off exploring with them, and wound up having essentially nothing for Betsy and Trot to do in the story, which seems a pity. It might have been a good idea if he'd left them out, maybe by sending them off on some of the other search parties, but perhaps he kept thinking that he'd find something for them to do in the course of the story, and hoped that he'd find some moments to spend narrative time dramatizing the close friendship that he meant to show as having grown among them. By the time he'd realized that the task of finding Ozma was really compelling which characters were getting spotlighted, he was perhaps a good way into the story, and didn't want to go back and excise the two of the three who'd become extraneous to the story.) In the Irrelevant Episode dept (I keep reversing the initialese for this and wanting to call the type Extraneous Incidents), the most notable example in "Lost Princess" is the visit to the Thists. Dan Mannix had an article in the "Bugle" about the influence of Wagner's Ring Cycle on Baum, mostly in terms of the Nome King as similar to similar to the gold-greedy Alberich the Dwarf, but he also suggested that the point of the visit to the Thists might have been getting to run a musical mechanical dragon through the scene out of fondness for the mechanical dragon representing Fafner in "Siegfried." Although the Thists are not really necessary to the story, they (along with the Herkus and the stuffed bears) give Baum room for the kind of gently satiric arguments over the nature of good government that he liked to include. Scott Hutchins: A publishing agent interested in seeking new voices? If they tell you that your manuscript needs to be worked on by a professional script doctor, for whose services you will be invited to pay, or if they tell you that a subsidy publisher has offered to publish your work if you pay the publishing costs, you'd do well to say no and look elsewhere. (As I've commented before, rather than looking for an agent now, you'd probably be better off working on writing other things in modes that might be saleable without an agent, so that you can hope to build up the kind of track record that might interest a reputable agent or publisher.) Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 14:44:27 -0400 (EDT) From: HermBieber@aol.com Subject: For Ozzy Digest For the New England Traveller / Resident: The Science Center of Connecticut, 950 Trout Brook Lane, West Hartford, CT has a show "The Science of Oz" running through September 20, 10 am to 5 pm. As described: "Follow the Yellow Brick Road and make a rainbow, inflate a hot air balloon, step into a tornado, make the Tin Man's heart race, and more. Discover the science in objects and phenomena presented in the classic film, Wizard of Oz." There is also an Oz Laserlite show in the Planetarium at 10:30am, and 1:00 and 3:30 pm; plus Thur. only at 6:00 pm: "An exciting laser version of this family classic. Dorothy never dreamed of anything like this." Herm Bieber ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 12:58:36 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Munchkins Cc: DaveH47@delphi.com Here are the names of the Munchkins starting with K, although, according to Stephen Cox's _The Munchkins Remember_, not all the children who appeared in the background are known. Could it be Mitzi Koestner? Robert Kanter .... Munchkin (uncredited) Charles E. Kelley .... Violent Munchkin (uncredited) Jessie E. Kelley .... Violent Munchkin's Wife (uncredited) Joan Kenmore .... Child Munchkin (uncredited) Shirley Ann Kennedy .... Child Munchkin (uncredited) Frank Kikel .... Munchkin (uncredited) Bernard 'Harry' Klima .... Munchkin (uncredited) 'Willi' Koestner .... Soldier (uncredited) Emma Koestner .... Munchkin (uncredited) Mitzi Koestner .... Munchkin (uncredited) Karl 'Karchy' Kosiczky .... Herald #1/Sleepyhead (uncredited) Adam Edwin Kozicki .... Munchkin (uncredited) Joe Koziel .... Townsman #1 (uncredited) Dolly Kramer .... Munchkin Villager (uncredited) Emil Kranzler .... Munchkin Villager (uncredited) Nita Krebs .... League Dancer (uncredited) Scott ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 19:14:48, -0500 From: NQAE93A@prodigy.com (MR ROBERT J COLLINGE) Subject: Ozzy Digest, 09-01-98 Jane wrote: >...... a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz. She is from Muncie, Indiana. Her name was Mary Kiester or Kester. Also her maiden name was Delp.< I checked Stephen Cox's "The Munchkins of Oz" book, and there are no Munchkins listed that are close to the names you listed. The one that comes closest is Mitzi Koestner. There were also an Emma and a William Koestner. There is not much mentioned about them. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Bob C. ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 20:49:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Orange5193@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-01-98 In a message dated 98-09-01 02:53:05 EDT, Jane Albright writes << In case you all haven't heard, Hallmark Entertainment is producing The Land of Oz for ABC, May 1999. >> I am thrilled to hear they're doing it- this is Robert Halmi's company, I believe and he's also responsible for "Gypsy" with Bette Midler a couple of years back, which was, by the way, completely faithful to the original script. Let's hope the same respect is shown Baum's work :) Let the reign of Ozma begin at last for couch potatoes everywhere! Other matters--- As far as the Famous Forty/ canon argument, I for one believe its time to do some serious thinking about how set in stone one should honestly be about that- there certainly needs to be some recognized distinction between, say, the post-canon published Oz work of RPT, Neill, Cosgrove etc. and "Hogan's Heroes Meet The Harlem Globetrotters in Oz" by Quincy T. O'Studge One can hardly call Neill's "Runaway" a pastiche, since it was clearly written to be part of the canon, but where does it fit in? H.M. James Doyle, T.E. ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 00:09:09 -0400 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Bear: Do you still maintain Digests from every day? If so, what is your earliest one? This is assuming that you have not dumped yours yet. If so, then the first one is gone forever. :-( All: This recent Ozzy Digest is a recod-setter : The most number of consecutive days (6). The old record of five has been reached a number of times. Great milestones of the Ozzy Digest: December 4, 1995. The debut of the Ozzy Digest. Sadly, this is the one digest that I do not have. March 10, 1996. The debut of our Tin Woodman logo, drawn by the talented Gili. March 28, 1996 The only time the Digest was ever dated using a calendar other than A.D. March 1996. The only time that the Ozzy Digest broke the 1 MegaByte ceiling. May 2, 1996. Tyler Jones coins the term "switcheroo" to describe what happened to the Good Witch of the North, plus some other people. August 1996. The last time there was a Digest for every day of the month. October 1, 1996. Dave makes the fateful decision to dump the Amiga and go over to the PC. November 1, 1996. The debut of the current dating system. This was done by Dave to help me verify that I have all the digests archived. Thanks, Dave :-) April 3, 1997. The last time that more than one Digest was sent out on the same day. This does not count special notices, announcements and voting results. These extra Digests have been called "Special Edition", "Addendum" and "Part x of y". Again discounting special things, there have never been more than two regular Digests on the same day. I had thought that August 98 was the first time we ran through an entire month without getting a Digest two days in a row, but that honor was achieved in May of this year. It's only happened twice, though. With the August 98 Digest, we broke the record for smallest byte size in one month at 228,294. This breaks the previous record of 261,882 held by May 98. Note that this is not a "dare" to send huge posts to the Digest just to inflate the size. Let's remain Internet friendly, if we can. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 01 Sep 1998 22:58:16 -0400 (EDT) From: Baringer@aol.com Subject: Oz Dave, I have the Disco Wizard of Oz record from the 70's by Meco, and I'd like to trade it or sell it. Is there any way you could tell the people of the Ozzy Digest? If it's not too much trouble, could you put me on the mailing list to see if I'm interested in the Ozzy Digest? I appreciate your time. Thanks. ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 14:52:07 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-01-98 Scott H.: Hadn't realized that any of Hodgson's books had been filmed, even in Japan. Good luck with _Tip of Oz_. J.L.: >Another trivia question for all, free of both Club encumbrances and >dependence on obscure editions: Name three objects in three different Baum >Oz books that are made of radium. Hmm. There are the radium mines in PG; the Horners made quite a few things out of it, I believe. A quick check turns up radium chairs; there might have been other things. And in _Tik-Tok_ the frame of the Magic Picture is described as being radium. I can't find another reference to it, other than the Wizard's thinking the Gaulau that raises the Skeezer island (in conjunction with a magic word) might be a form of it. I've looked in all the other places that seem plausible and haven't found it, so I'll await your solution. (I expect it's in _Lost Princess_, _Tin Woodman_, or _Magic, because I don't think radium had been discovered by the time of _Emerald City_ and I looked at _Glinda_ pretty carefully. But I can't think where in one of those books it might occur.) Bear: >Barbara DeJohn - If you think summer went fast, wait until you get to >Hulan's age. :) Or even worse, yours! :-) David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 10:56:27 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: LOST PRINCESS OF OZ mystery Sender: "J. L. Bell" "Princess Ozma...was lost. She had completely disappeared." What a terrific start for an Oz book! LOST PRINCESS has several ingredients of the classic mystery form that had developed within Baum's lifetime. There's a seemingly untraceable crime, committed with careful planning by a malicious and greedy genius. Ozma's friends seem at first to have the resources to solve the mystery, track down the culprit, and right his wrongs. Baum even refers to his heroines as "girl detectives" [73], and the Little Pink Bear as a "pink Pinkerton" [211]--both Pinkerton agents and young female detectives had been appearing in dime novels for decades. Unfortunately, LOST PRINCESS doesn't develop into a mystery story because it lacks the *other* ingredients we'd need. There are no clues for the detectives--and us--to analyze. There are no red herrings; as Isaac Azimov has written, a classic mystery leads readers toward at least one conclusion that turns out to be wrong. There's no systematic listing and evaluation of suspects. Rather than becoming a battle of wits between criminal and detective, LOST PRINCESS shows Ugu tracked down through magic and luck. Indeed, in this war of wits, I'm sorry to say our heroes are outmatched. Glinda's organization of search parties seems poorly thought out. She sends fragile Jack Pumpkinhead and two mortals into the wild Gillikin Country. She assigns the Tin Woodman not to the Winkie territory, where he commands authority, but to her own land. She ignores the Hungry Tiger, the Glass Cat, and Oz's many birds, who could cover much more ground [Betsy cites birds' knowledge of geography on page 90, and the Bluefinch recognizes Button-Bright on page 157]. Indeed, Glinda's very plan of sending out small search parties is more wishful than wise. More than anyone else she should know the full dimension and complexity of Oz; more than anyone else she should realize a magician powerful enough to steal her Book of Records could also have penetrated her Barrier of Invisibility from outside Oz. The Wizard doesn't seem much shrewder. He takes an uncommonly long time to look for his black bag [not till 66]. He wrongly deduces the villain stole the magic tools to prevent Ozma's friends from rescuing her [68]. As soon as he hears about Ugu, the Wizard assumes he is "just the magician we are searching for" [174]. Dorothy also makes unwarranted assumptions about where Ozma is: "Oh, that [dark place] must be a prison dungeon cell!" [235; cf. 159] The Frogman and Cayke are equally unrealistic in their search for the Golden Dishpan. A Winkie even tells them, "your method [is] sort of haphazard and indefinite" [190]. Their unfounded optimism is easier to understand, of course, because they're from an isolated corner of Oz. This analysis may seem unduly harsh, especially to Glinda fans [Hi, Dave!]. The Ozians' actions are quite understandable and consistent with their personalities. They aren't used to crime, much less tracking down criminals; they're in distress at the loss of Ozma and the magic treasures. But by comparing their actions to what a classic detective--such as Sherlock Holmes--would have done, we can see how removed most of LOST PRINCESS is from a classic mystery story. Only toward the end of the book does a mystery tale develop, in the search for where Ugu hid Ozma. Here at last we do have clues: what the Little Pink Bear has said at various times. We readers also have one clue that Dorothy and the Wizard don't, thanks to Button-Bright's unique thought process. Despite recognizing the name Ugu the Shoemaker on page 173, the boy says nothing about the peach that animals had told him Ugu had enchanted until page 297! J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 02 Sep 98 09:39:23 (PDT) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things "YES, OZMA"??: J.L. Bell wrote: >Now for an Oz-as-history analysis of the delay in publishing LOST >PRINCESS: I'm struck by how Baum twice used the term "permitted" in these >book introductions. From whom would the Royal Historian have to get >permission to write LOST PRINCESS? Why, from Princess Ozma, of course. It's >conceivable that benevolent despot suppressed the story of Ugu's thefts and >kidnapping--at least until she'd developed ways to prevent folks from >repeating those crimes. I can't help comparing this scenario to the "Official Secrets" episode of _Yes, Prime Minister_, in which Jim Hacker (the Prime Minister) attempts to stall the publication of a book that doesn't exactly paint him in a favorable light. Actually, a meeting between Ozma and Jim might be an interesting political experiment... >I can imagine a wireless telegraph conversation >like this... I'll buy that! I've long been of the opinion that the Baum 14 are not completely in chronological order...(See my "History of Oz" on my webpage for my conjectured actual order of events in the early days of Ozma's reign.) The only stumbling block is that Betsy and Hank are mentioned in _Rinkitink_, but maybe Baum just inserted that... > ... "the greatest wizard and sorcerer who has ever lived" >[174--Melody Grandy, would this be Wam?]. Melody is no longer on the Digest, but I'll forward this question to her... NONESTICA: For anyone who cares, I have come up with a rationalization that makes the name "Nonestica" for the Ozian Continent more acceptable to me: Just as _Apatosaurus_ (the official scientific name for the Brontosaurus) means "Lizard that does not exist", because it discoverers couldn't believe that it did, "Nonestica" was so named because the first Ozites couldn't believe how beautiful and idyllic it was. NEW VERSION OF _LAND_: James D. wrote: >Let the reign of Ozma begin at last for couch potatoes everywhere! Hear, hear!!! OFF-TOPIC: Rich M. wrote: >(The only use of Laputa I recall was in a Japanese anime >movie by that name, without Gulliver...) I haven't seen it, but I understand that the Ted Danison version has all four lands, including Laputa. Scott wrote: >It is an SF-drama about four youths (3 men, one woman) born in a starship >with a crew of thirty going to Earth for the first time. The woman is a "token" I suppose... Dorothy: I am not, nor will I ever be, a "token woman"! Ozma: Me neither! Glinda: Nor me! Wizard: Sometimes I feel like I'm a "token *man*"! :) -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave **************************************************************************** Dave Hardenbrook, DaveH47@delphi.com, http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ "I like to define humor as the affectionate communication of insight." -- Leo Rosten, introduction to _Oh K*A*P*L*A*N, My K*A*P*L*A*N_ ====================================================================== ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 3 - 4, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Content-return: allowed Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 14:56:34 -0700 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Archive: For some reason, I forgot to move the March 1997 Digest over to the archive. It should be there tomorrow. All others are there, including the August 1998 digest. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 17:47:35 -0500 From: "R. M. Atticus Gannaway" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-02-98 My thoughts on THE LOST PRINCESS OF OZ: When I first read the book at the age of 9 or 10, its inconsistencies marred my enjoyment of it. Specifically, Baum tells us that Dorothy had little notion of how the Magic Belt worked! The girl who collected the belt from Roquat and later gave it to Ozma could no longer use it? She has to practice transformations after turning the Nome Army into eggs?! This is still irksome to me as I re-read the book 10 or 11 years later. The belt definitely assumes deus-ex-machina status, in my mind, and could easily have been omitted by, say, having Scraps' chandelier contain some sort of lever to reverse the room again; the Patchwork Girl inadvertently sets the room in motion to return to its rightful orientation. Had the "pyramid trick" worked, which it might have if Cayke weren't so squeamish, the Wizard could have reached his tools and accomplished Ugu's transformation himself. And thus, one of many ways the untruly-ringing "quick fix" could have been avoided. Unfortunately, I have other grievances. The Thi episode is pointless. And Neill doesn't even illustrate a mechanical dragon, which might have inspired some mild interest in the chapter for me. I wish Baum wouldn't have spoiled the mystery by needlessly having the bird tell Button-Bright about the peach, and the tracking down of Ugu strikes me as far too neat. Aside from that, we hardly even *see* Ugu, who has tremendous potential for psychological interest--an evildoer with no sense of the wrongness of his actions. I agree with J. L. Bell that a mystery story LOST PRINCESS is not. As a child, I had anticipated one and was sorely disappointed. There are, of course, nice elements to the tale--Baum gives the Cowardly Lion some real philosophical gems, and the Frogman's forced hypocrisy reversal is amusing--but I'm afraid that, while I can't help liking the story somewhat (it's Baum, it's Oz), I think Baum could have done quite a bit better here. And considering Glinda's uncharacteristically haphazard method of searching for Ozma, which Mr. Bell also mentioned, I hope that when the Found Princess returned to the Emerald City she got down on her dainty little knees and thanked Lurline that she was rescued at all! To please a child is a sweet and lovely thing--but it didn't quite happen this time, Mr. Baum. Blasphemozly, Atticus * * * "...[T]here is something else: the faith of those despised and endangered that they are not merely the sum of damages done to them." Visit my webpage at http://members.aol.com/atty993 ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 02 Sep 1998 22:57:31 -0700 From: ozbot Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Hi all. I know I don't get to post Ozzy stuff as often as I'd like or as I'd used to, but I do love to get e-mail and read all of you! I was always on the lookout for a similar email list for my other favorite wonderland, namely, well, Wonderland. I have just joined a small list called LewisCarroll, and I would point you in a similar direction if you are interested. It's hosted through "onelist" on the internet, go to http://www.onelist.com/ You have to register at onelist and then go to the books menu (and if there is a subsection, authors) to find LewisCarroll. It's for anyone who wants to discuss Wonderland and any of LewisCarroll's works. ozbot Danny Wall ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 09:29:06 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: LOST PRINCESS OF OZ and Magic Belt Sender: "J. L. Bell" Ruth Berman wrote: <> I find Baum's depictions of different forms of government in LOST PRINCESS to be less gentle and varied than in other books (EMERALD CITY, for instance). We see four distinct societies, in addition to Ozma's power structure. And all four seem to be governed deceitfully or harshly. The Yips take their disputes to a giant frog because "the Frogman was shrewd enough to make the people believe he was far more wise than he really was. They never suspected he was a humbug." Like another humbug ruler in the Oz series, the Frogman is adept at securing "time to think" by sending difficult callers on errands [44-6]. In Thi the High Coco-Lorum hides his power from the people. "In reality, I am the King, but the people don't know it. . . . I make the laws to suit myself" [131]. He even seems to hide the name of the city from his people: they say, "We have no occasion to call our city anything" [126], but he says, "We call our city Thi" [129]. (I should acknowledge that the High Coco-Lorum's house is "neither better nor worse than the others" in Thi [128]; Baum leaves the Pink side of Sky Island the same idealized way.) In Herku, Vig has enslaved the giants, making them wear golden collars riveted around their necks [166]. For interrupting him with bad news of burned soup, he throws one giant out a window [172]. Though Vig is happy to give the Wizard some zozoso, "I never allow the giants to have it...and keep all the stuff locked up in my private laboratory" [172]. That Vig is quite close to being a villain can be seen in the parallels between him and Ugu: both are ambitious magic-workers who carefully guard their secrets [173], and neither sees Ugu's ambition as having made him wicked [175, 241]. Even the Big Lavender Bear, the most soft-hearted ruler our search parties encounter, makes a mockery of Bear Center's laws and threatens to banish naughty bears to--horrors!--America [218]. These depictions of rulers show us how valuable it is for Oz to have Ozma. As Baum's introduction quotes a reader, "I s'pose if Ozma ever got lost, or stolen, ev'rybody in Oz would be dreadful sorry." Thanks, Ruth, for mentioning the BUGLE article that discusses Baum's correspondence in regard to LOST PRINCESS. Once I stop viewing LOST PRINCESS as a mystery story, being frustrated by the lack of clues and detection, I enjoy it as a good-versus-evil adventure. It's like a movie serial or comic book, especially after Chapter 19, when we've seen Ugu commit his crimes. We're in for a seesaw game of "Magic Against Magic" as the rescuers approach the wicker castle. Dorothy carries the trump card, of course. I remember disliking how cavalierly Baum handles the Magic Belt here, disregarding what he told us in previous books. Near the quest's beginning Dorothy insists "I've never found out about" the Belt's powers [97], but of course she had found out in OZMA. Later she oh-so-conveniently recalls intricate directions for its use. And the method she remembers is one we've never heard about before. All that contradiction could have been avoided if Baum had given Dorothy one more speech: "It's been ever so long since I used the Belt against the Nome King. Ozma told me she'd found out a way it grants wishes, but I can't 'member any of how it works now. P'rhaps I'll find out by the time we meet whoever stole her." That still leaves one contradiction to gnaw at us Oz fans: How can Dorothy transform the Sawhorse into a potato-masher [290] when Ruggedo couldn't freeze that wooden beast in OZMA? People probably have different theories, but here's my childhood system of explaining the Magic Belt's powers. There are four: 1) Protecting its wearer from harm. 2) Transporting, shrinking, and enlarging things--i.e., not changing their essence, but changing how they stand in relation to other things. This power, for whatever reason, doesn't work on wood. 3) Transforming things--changing their essence. This power does work on wood, and is what the Nome King most enjoyed using. 4) Granting a wish so powerful that it can overcome most other magic. This action is so draining that the Belt can grant only one wish a day. It therefore has an elaborate trigger: close right eye, wiggle left toe, draw breath. That leaves only the knotty question of why the sleepless Sawhorse stood still for being transformed into a potato masher. Maybe the horse was glad to be put out to spud. Scott Hutchins, the Linda Chester Agency is a reputable firm. Ruth's advice to you is very sound, however: don't send checks, and keep writing. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Content-return: allowed Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 09:13:44 -0700 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Other Great moments on the Ozzy Digest, January 23, 1997. Bear Bauman suggests an Ozzy "Book of the month" for discussion. This idea is met with great approval, and has defined much of the Digest ever since. Only one dissenting voice was heard, and I won't tell you who that was. No, it wasn't me! :-) February 1, 1997. After much discussion on the format, Dave Hardenbrook coins the term "Book of Current Focus", or BCF, partially to assure us that each book will not take exactly one month and also to dispel the idea that only posts about the "Book of the Month" would be allowed. February 4, 1997. Stephen Teller makes the first "BCF" post. Feb 24, 1997. Possibly the first official day of the BCF format. Originally scheduled for Feb. 10, 1997, Dave psuhed it back twice, but there was no digest for the 24th and no other official start time was ever mentioned. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1998 23:56:16 -0400 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones James Doyle: Well, the only real arguement for the "officialness" of the Famous Forty is that these forty were published with relative regularity by one publishing house. Even books after that by canon authors were fairly sporadic. Then, of course, there are the numerous pastiches. If you go to Dave's FAQ, you will find that the Oz books are typically divided up into these groups: 1. The Famous Forty. The core of the Oz series. Some people go further and consider the Baum 14 to be the really important ones. 2. The QFS, or Quasi-Famous Seven. These are the seven Oz books written by FF authors, mostly published by the Oz club. 3. Everything else. Private publications, Books of Wonder, TOTCLAF, etc. Some people make a distinction between actualy books and short stories published in magazines. The Famous Forty are the most well known (as well known as the Oz books are, at any rate), and the are the most profesionally done, as well as being, on the averge, better written than others. They will probably always be the standard, although I consider the others to be historically valid, as long as the jibe textually with the Famous Forty. Certainly, Oz as we know it was clearly defined in the FF, so any vision of Oz that would be acceptable to most people would have to be based on it. --Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 08:52:14 -0700 From: "Stephen J. Teller" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-02-98 > In the Irrelevant Episode dept > (I keep reversing the initialese for this and wanting to call the type > Extraneous Incidents), the most notable example in "Lost Princess" is > the visit to the Thists. Dan Mannix had an article in the "Bugle" about > the influence of Wagner's Ring Cycle on Baum, mostly in terms of the > Nome King as similar to similar to the gold-greedy Alberich the Dwarf, > but he also suggested that the point of the visit to the Thists might > have been getting to run a musical mechanical dragon through the > scene out of fondness for the mechanical dragon representing Fafner > in "Siegfried." > > Ruth Berman The new covers that Michael Herring drew for the Del Rey paperback editions of the Oz books are all very nice, but my favority is the one for LOST PRINCESS, because there he presents one of the great mechanical dragons of Thi which Neill's drawings do not show. The book is worth having just for that cover. > Other matters--- > As far as the Famous Forty/ canon argument, I for one believe its time to do > some serious thinking about how set in stone one should honestly be about > that- there certainly needs to be some recognized distinction between, say, > the post-canon published Oz work of RPT, Neill, Cosgrove etc. and "Hogan's > Heroes Meet The Harlem Globetrotters in Oz" by Quincy T. O'Studge One can > hardly call Neill's "Runaway" a pastiche, since it was clearly written to be > part of the canon, but where does it fit in? > > H.M. James Doyle, T.E. > RUNAWAY fits in the same way Baum's "Queer Visitors" and "Little Wizard" stories and Thompson's YANKEE and ENCHANTED ISLAND: these are what I called "deutero-canonical" writings. The "canon" consists of the forty, the "deutero-canonical" material of other Oz related writings by the canonic writers and the "apocrypha" of Oz narratives by other writers. The apocrypha can be divided into "orthodox" and "heretical", the latter including such works of Farmer's BARNSTORMER and Tedrow's DOROTHY--RETURN TO OZ. > > J.L.: > >Another trivia question for all, free of both Club encumbrances and > >dependence on obscure editions: Name three objects in three different Baum > >Oz books that are made of radium. > > Hmm. There are the radium mines in PG; the Horners made quite a few things > out of it, I believe. A quick check turns up radium chairs; there might > have been other things. And in _Tik-Tok_ the frame of the Magic Picture is > described as being radium. I can't find another reference to it, other than > the Wizard's thinking the Gaulau that raises the Skeezer island (in > conjunction with a magic word) might be a form of it. I've looked in all > the other places that seem plausible and haven't found it, so I'll await > your solution. (I expect it's in _Lost Princess_, _Tin Woodman_, or _Magic, > because I don't think radium had been discovered by the time of _Emerald > City_ and I looked at _Glinda_ pretty carefully. But I can't think where in > one of those books it might occur.) > In ROAD Ozma has a radium crown. > From: Dave Hardenbrook > NONESTICA: > For anyone who cares, I have come up with a rationalization that makes the > name "Nonestica" for the Ozian Continent more acceptable to me: Just as > _Apatosaurus_ (the official scientific name for the Brontosaurus) > means "Lizard that does not exist", because it discoverers couldn't > believe that it did, "Nonestica" was so named because the first Ozites > couldn't believe how beautiful and idyllic it was. "Nonestica" is the proper name for the continent because it is the largest land mass is the Nonestic Ocean. Steve T. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 11:17:25 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest J. L. Bell: I like your idea that Ozma might have suppressed the events of "Lost Princess" until she'd had time to beef up security a bit. On the switch from introducing himself as Royal Historian to acknowledging the story is fiction -- it would have been difficult to use the Royal Historian presentation and at the same time give credit to the youngster who suggested the plot -- Baum felt that giving credit was the more important, evidently. I think you're right that the ode to imagination as a defense of fantasy writing is really addressed to the parents rather than to the kids. Interesting set of comments on ways in which "Lost Princess" is like and unlike dime novel detectives and Sherlock Holmes. Were there "girl detectives" among the dime novels? I had an impression that they were a bit later -- maybe first with the Stratemeyer fiction factory, although the Stratemeyer's Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew wasn't the first. Baum was familiar with the Holmes stories, including a parody of Holmes' resurrection in his scenario, "The Wizard of Gee Whiz," and a reference to it in one of his girl-aviator books. (Richard Rutter had an article in the "Bugle" some years back pointing out the similar use of a clue of which-way-do-the- bike-tire-tracks-go in one of the Holmes stories and a magazine story of Baum's. It's an interesting example of how close stories can get without actually being influenced by each other at all, as Baum's use of the gimmick came first, but in such an obscure publication that it's very unlikely that Doyle could have seen it.) Rich Morrissey: Yes, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" holds up on its own without the bat. Come to think of it, so does Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer," which is (rather distantly) parodied in "Soup of the Evening." On the theory that the Oz books are probably as strong as the likes of "Twinkle" and "Dreamer," and not as weak as the likes of "How doth the little busy bee" or the one about the old man's comforts, it seems to safe to conclude that the Oz books are not going to get swamped by books such as "Wicked." Tyler Jones: Interesting batch of statistics. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 20:32:29 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-02-98 To: "Dave L. Hardenbrook" J.L.: I don't have a copy of OZMA with the "Slinky Ozma" cover, so I haven't been able to do a side-by-side comparison, but my memory of that cover is pretty close to the "How can we ever thank you?" illustration on page 261 of _Pirates_. Similar pose, anyhow. Your Oz-as-history analysis of the delay in publishing _Lost Princess_ makes very good sense to me. (Of course, I'm almost sure that what Baum really meant by "permitted" was that he'd live that long - which would work either from the Oz-as-history or Oz-as-literature POV. His health was definitely failing by the time LP was published, and I think even by the times of _Scarecrow_ and _Rinkitink_.) I suppose it's possible that Ozma gained some of her enhanced powers from materials confiscated from Ugu's castle, but I doubt it. In _Glinda_ Baum is pretty specific that Ozma's magic is of a different sort - fairy magic - from the technological magic used by Glinda, the Wizard, Ugu, and presumably Ugu's ancestor. It's true that Ozma seems to use a bit of technological magic in _Tin Woodman_ to view Mrs. Yoop from Jinjur's cottage, but that's an isolated instance and may be a specific trick taught her by one of the others so she can in effect have a portable Magic Picture. I think that at some point between _Lost Princess_ and _Tin Woodman_ (or _Glinda_, if, as some of us speculate, the events of that book actually precede those of _Tin Woodman_) Ozma visited Burzee and received some training in fairy magic from Lurline or members of her band. (This was a part of the plot of my _Magic Carpet of Oz_ entry in the Centennial contest, but that book now seems unlikely to see print.) It's my opinion that Glinda didn't expect much from the search parties, but sent them out so that she could do her work recreating her magical tools without one of the others interrupting her every hour or so with frantic questions. It was sheer luck that one of the parties actually did happen on the villain. Rich: Correct on Billina and Santa Claus. Ozma in boots is when she's a grasshopper ornament in _Ozma_; the character who plays an important role in the first two books and never appears again in the text of another book is the Queen of the Field Mice. (At least, there's no reason to believe that the Guardian of the Gates in _Patchwork Girl_ is different from the one in _Wizard_ and _Land_. Thompson certainly implies that the one from _Wizard_ has been continuously serving in that capacity up to the time of _Ozoplaning_.) Ruth: It's not strictly true that all of Baum's last few Oz books are set entirely in Oz; Kiki Aru travels rather extensively outside Oz in _Magic_, though his adventures there take up only a couple of chapters. The visit to Thi is really the only extensive Irrelevant Episode in LP, although the Winkie who couldn't communicate with animals is another short one. I'm sort of surprised that Wagner would have influenced Baum, considering the apparent negative reference to "Vogner" in _John Dough_. James: There is some distinction between the post-FF Oz books written (or at least started) by one of the FF authors or illustrators and those by others, but even the former aren't considered fully canonical. This is true even though I consider _Forbidden Fountain_, _Ozmapolitan_, _Wicked Witch_, and _Runaway_ all to be superior to several of the FF - _Ozoplaning_, _Wonder City_, and _Hidden Valley_ for sure, and the first two to _Cowardly Lion_, _Lucky Bucky_, and _Shaggy Man_ as well. Dave: Melody isn't on the Digest any more? I'm sorry to hear that, and hope it's either because of lack of time or because the Digests became boring to her, and not that she took offense at anything anyone said. >Scott wrote: >>It is an SF-drama about four youths (3 men, one woman) born in a starship >>with a crew of thirty going to Earth for the first time. > >The woman is a "token" I suppose... It's more likely, I would think, that they're duplicating the gender numbers of the Fab Four in _Wizard_. More on _Lost Princess_: Despite some flaws, this remains my favorite of the Baum Oz books by a small margin over _Ozma_ and _Patchwork Girl_. I think part of the reason it became my favorite as a child was that it was the only Oz book I owned with a true map in it (_Lucky Bucky_ had a map of sorts, but Neill labeled it "Not a true map," and it obviously wasn't). Of course, it was mirror-reversed from the text (since the latter specifies that the Winkie country is in the west, and the map shows it in the east), but still, it was a map, and even when I was 8 years old I loved maps. The fact that I owned it from a very young age may well be why _Ozma_ and PG - which I read then, but didn't own - fall below it in my estimation, but it's nevertheless a very good story. There's a fixed goal from the very beginning (though the two separate search parties don't know until they meet that they're both on essentially the same quest), and it's an important one. I've never been able to regard freeing the royal family of Ev as being particularly important (maybe if we'd been given a chance to know them a bit better after they were freed?), so the plot of _Ozma_ has always struck me as "Ozma places herself and friends in deep yogurt and Billina has to get them out, with a little help from Dorothy." And while Ojo's quest in PG is interesting, it's ultimately shown to be both impossible and unnecessary. However, as usual there are odd bits that don't quite work. How could the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman be "taking a course of [Prof. Wogglebug's] Patent Education Pills" (p 77)? It's been well-established that neither of them can ingest anything. The passing of the Merry-Go-Round Mountains makes very little sense as described. In the first place, the method described for swinging out on a strap wouldn't work, or at least, it wouldn't let you get as far as just taking a running jump off the edge would. It might work if the swinger grabbed the strap high enough to get his/her feet off the ground, and pumped it like a swing until it was going really high, or if the strap were fastened far out on a limb that extended halfway to the nearest mountain. But that's not how it's described. And while the humans could possibly do it, I see no way how any of the animals could. Second, anybody who's ever played a pinball machine knows that there's no way that all those people and animals, of widely varying weight and strength, are going to end up close to each other on the other side. I'd expect the party to end up distributed fairly uniformly all around the perimeter of the mountains. Nah, Wiz - you blew this one. From a look at the map it would take about a day extra to go around the mountains, and since Ozma is just as likely (from what they know at that time) to be somewhere north or south of the mountains as west, there's no reason they shouldn't. It's not as if they were trying to get to a specific goal; they're exploring. The treatment of the Little Pink Bear by the Emerald City party is totally out of character for most of them. It's true that his pronouncements are frequently oracular, but it's very hard for me to believe that the Wizard or Dorothy would be so instantly dismissive of what he said, especially when they know that there's powerful magic at work. As John mentioned, Button-Bright could have solved everything if he'd just mentioned that enchanted peach he'd eaten, but Button-Bright's intelligence seems to dim anytime Baum needs it to for plot purposes, so we can let that pass. It's much harder to accept that the Wizard would not have pursued the same line of questioning he eventually did when they first found Button-Bright in the hole, and the Bear said that Ozma was in the hole as well, and especially when he said Ozma wasn't in the hole once Button-Bright was out. There's another inconsistency when the Big Lavender Bear asks the Little Pink Bear if it's safe for them to join the Emerald City party. Surely that falls into the class of things that are _going_ to happen, which the BLB has told Cayke and the Frogman the LPB can't tell about. And I guess that's enough for one post. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 15:35:52 -0400 (EDT) From: LionCoward@aol.com Subject: IMPS and CORN MANSION The books The Three Imps of Oz and The Corn Mansion of Oz are here and ready to be ordered. For the many people who have already pre- ordered, many thanks. Now at press is Thorns and Private Files in Oz. Get all the details on these and other Oz books @ http://members.aol.com/LionCoward/home.html ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 15:55:24 -0700 From: Estelle Subject: Rob Roy MacVeigh Auction Catalogue We purchased 2 catalogues @15. for the Rob Roy MacVeigh auction in July and would be happy to sell one (mint condition) to the first person who contacts us (I will also include a copy of the prices realized). estelle & rebecca ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 98 13:09:11 (PDT) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things BELT EX MACHINA: Atticus wrote: >This is still irksome to me as I re-read the book 10 or 11 years later. >The belt definitely assumes deus-ex-machina status... This use of the Belt for quick resolutions only gets worse as the series progresses... PARODIES: Ruth wrote: > ... so does Foster's "Beautiful Dreamer," which is (rather distantly) >parodied in "Soup of the Evening." Actually, the Mock Turtle's song was a parody of "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star". DAVID H.: >I don't have a copy of OZMA with the "Slinky Ozma" cover... I have a JPEG of it, if like me to E-mail it to you... >I suppose it's possible that Ozma gained some of her enhanced powers from >materials confiscated from Ugu's castle, but I doubt it. In _Glinda_ Baum >is pretty specific that Ozma's magic is of a different sort - fairy magic - >from the technological magic used by Glinda, the Wizard, Ugu, and >presumably Ugu's ancestor. Isn't it possible that she intentionally strived to broaden her magical horizons? If Glinda could train the Wizard, she could train Ozma...And since it's my MOPPET that _Glinda of Oz_ actually took place between _Lost P. Oz_ and _Tin W. Oz_...Well, I won't go into that today... "YES, OZMA"?? II: I maddeningly cannot find it now, but I know *someone* the last couple of days commented on how Baum treats _LPOz_ as fiction in his intro mainly to give credit to the little girl who said that everyone would be "awfully sorry" if Ozma were lost. I agree with that, because in _Tin Woodman_ he goes back to reagarding the books as "History". So I don't believe Baum in _Lost P. Oz_ was attempting to appease pragmatic adults. Nor did he really need to...In another little Oz-_Yes, Minister_ parallel, in the novel versions of that TV series, the authors always reagrd themselves in the books' intro and footnotes as "Editors" of these real memoirs of a real Cabinet Minister and later Prime Minister of Great Britian, without any "all characters and events in this work are ficticious" type of disclaimer. Antony Jay and Johnathan Lynn were the "Royal Historians" of the life of James Hacker, MP. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave **************************************************************************** Dave Hardenbrook, DaveH47@delphi.com, http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ "I like to define humor as the affectionate communication of insight." -- Leo Rosten, introduction to _Oh K*A*P*L*A*N, My K*A*P*L*A*N_ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 5 - 7, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 02:15:54 -0400 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Lost Princess: The one thing that definitely struck me as odd when I first read this was the difference in the number of people assigned to each party. Dorothy has by far the largest. I was also amused at the beginning of Chapter 6 to learn that the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman were taking a course of the Wogglebugs pills. The pills could be ground up into powder and mixed in with the Scarecrow's brains, but The Tin Woodman has me stumped. One of the few useful tidbits offered in this book is the statement that Dorothy is one year younger than Betsy and one year older than Trot. The Web: I have moved my entire CompuServe web site over to my Apprentice site at work. This has 3 advantages: 1. Instant updates with no CompuServe Charges 2. Virtually unlimited space, as opposed to the 5MB limit imposed by CompuServe. 3. I can use subdirectories. With CompuServe, everything had to be in the same directory, and that tended to be a pain. Sadly, I did not type in the links correctly, so much of the site cannot be accessed from the hyperlinks. I will correct this problem on Tuesday. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 22:50:31 -0400 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Somedays Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Gee J.L., I don't recall Holmes being confronted by many powerful magicians. This is, after all, a children's story. Dave - What happened to Melody???? Atticus commented: Aside from that, we hardly even *see* Ugu, who has tremendous potential for psychological interest--an evildoer with no sense of the wrongness of his actions. Hmmmm. David - Magic Carpet of Oz - Why don't you publish it yourself. I'll buy one. Everyone on the Digest might as well. Regards, Bear (:<) ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 13:25:10 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-02-98 Meghan: Michelle Naylor worked on an X-Files Oz story. I believe it was an investigation of the voice house in _PG_. Rich: Charles Sturridge's 1997 two part telefilm starring Ted Danson adapted the whole book, with significant deletions such as having to learn the language, some censored portions, the monkey, the sea voyages, and that the four voyages happened one right after the other, with Gulliver's supposed insanity dealing with insisting his adventures are true rather than an inability to reconcile man's yahoo nature. I finally got a chance to read the book this past week, but had to leave Gulliver at the Academy of Lagado when I went back to school. I haven't had time to pick it up again. I had read excerpts of books 1, 2, and 4 before. Disney recently picked up Hayao Miyazaki's _Laputa: Castle in the Sky_ to be released DTV like they did with his _Kiki's Delivery Service_ (in which Phil Hartman plays Kirsten Dunst's dad again). I believe they have shortened the title to _Castle in the Sky_ and have given it a new music score. (They really shouldn't do that) Jane: Do you know if the new _Land of Oz_ (which Marc Berezin tells me you suspect will be animated) is why Hallmark bought the video rights to _Journey Back to Oz_? I hope they're not just going to put this out and say it's theirs. Anyway, if you don't already have Hallmark Entertianment's release of _Journey Back to Oz_, I highly recommend it: it is a beautiful new print without the color fluctuations of the previous video versions. Unfortunately, they claim it has the Bill Cosby footage, but it does not. Please tell me Trevor Jones is writing the music for Land (I'm a fan)! Scott ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 14:07:37 -0500 (EST) From: sahutchi@iupui.edu Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-04-98 > Scott Hutchins, the Linda Chester Agency is a reputable firm. Ruth's advice > to you is very sound, however: don't send checks, and keep writing. > > J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com I have no intention of letting my book get turned over to a script doctor. Up front, all revisions must be my own, or no deal. I don't have to sell it to them, after all. > > > In ROAD Ozma has a radium crown. Then Ozma's lucky she doesn't have cancer. Well, the only real risj is if she were to hold it between her teeth to keep her hands free, but her head would make more sense in that case. > > From: Dave Hardenbrook > > > NONESTICA: > > For anyone who cares, I have come up with a rationalization that makes the > > name "Nonestica" for the Ozian Continent more acceptable to me: Just as > > _Apatosaurus_ (the official scientific name for the Brontosaurus) > > means "Lizard that does not exist", because it discoverers couldn't > > believe that it did, "Nonestica" was so named because the first Ozites > > couldn't believe how beautiful and idyllic it was. > > "Nonestica" is the proper name for the continent because it is the > largest land mass is the Nonestic Ocean. Perhaps his explanation is a good explanation for the name "nonestic Ocean." Tip, who is not necessarily reliable, although honest, suggests very cynically, that the name was given so those in the outside world would see it as an encoding that it does not really exist, to keep Oz from becoming overpopulated. Though I have not read in, March Laumer's _The Ten Woodmen of Oz: Th Oz Book for 1999_ deals with that explicitly, and tip makes reference to it as a work of speculative fiction. I found the Bugle summary very amusing, it said that Dorothy is sent to Oz looking like MGM's Dorothy, the Ozites believing that is how she will best be recognized. The plan backfires, and it's interpreted as a publicity stunt! > in which "Lost Princess" is like and unlike dime novel detectives and > Sherlock Holmes. Were there "girl detectives" among the dime > novels? I had an impression that they were a bit later -- maybe first Dorothy Dwan of the 1925 film frequently appeared as a detective in '20s films, but obviously, that was later. > Rich: > Correct on Billina and Santa Claus. Ozma in boots is when she's a > grasshopper ornament in _Ozma_; the character who plays an important role > in the first two books and never appears again in the text of another book > is the Queen of the Field Mice. (At least, there's no reason to believe > that the Guardian of the Gates in _Patchwork Girl_ is different from the > one in _Wizard_ and _Land_. Thompson certainly implies that the one from > _Wizard_ has been continuously serving in that capacity up to the time of > _Ozoplaning_.) But is there only one Guadian of the Gates, and if so, what's his name? > I'm sort of surprised that Wagner would have influenced Baum, considering > the apparent negative reference to "Vogner" in _John Dough_. Well, in the glorious land of Mo, where Baum said he wanted to go after finishing the book, the thunderstorms play _Tannhauser_, so he must have like Wagner more than, say, Samuel Clemens (who liked Baum, BTW). > >Scott wrote: > >>It is an SF-drama about four youths (3 men, one woman) born in a starship > >>with a crew of thirty going to Earth for the first time. > > > >The woman is a "token" I suppose... > > It's more likely, I would think, that they're duplicating the gender > numbers of the Fab Four in _Wizard_. Diane Rainwater Uttley ( Mary-Beth Doty ) Diane serves as the engineer and maintenance manager of the Ludington. Her job is to make sure the ship returns to Earth in one piece. The 23 year old Diane is married to Stuart Uttley. She has great respect for her younger brother Jacob, but can't quite understand him. She looks forward to returning home in order to experience the freedom that has been denied her living in a cramped spaceship. Gordon Meisenheimer ( Coley Winbush ) Medical specialist Gordon Meisenheimer is responsible for crew welfare on the Ludington. He spent much of his childhood learning biology and medicine. He almost has all of the training of a medical doctor even though he is only 21 years old. Although he finds his work rewarding, he was given little choice in life and finds himself bored a great deal of the time. He eagerly awaits the return home and hides a secret desire that may cause problems among the crew. Jacob Rainwater ( Brian Galebach ) The youngest of the Ludington crew, Jacob Rainwater takes a cynical view of the life forced upon him. Raised a scientist, his job is to present the mission findings to the people of Earth. It's a job that overwhelms him because he feels the work that preceded his by the original field scientists was sloppy and incomplete. He's not very trusting but has an unusual friendship with Gordon and an appreciation for his sister, Diane. Stuart Uttley ( Tino Marquez Jr. ) Stuart is the mission commander. At 24 years old, he feels the weight of great responsibility on his shoulders. He has a strong sense of duty. He has dreams of his own, but he had decided that those dreams must be secondary to the mission. He can always pursue them later. Married to Diane, he's mostly content, but the leadership role placed on him at such a young age shows in his face and gives him the seasoned impression of man of many more years. I am going to get involved with Bunk Films, so I might be part of the crew, as I don't belive the picture is yet completed, even if it is all in the can. They only started filming July 17th. The Credits List: Director: Carl James Producer: Carl James Executive Producer: Tino Marquez Jr. Associate Producer: Brian Galebach Production Consultant: Will Hickman Writer: Carl James Music: Brian Galebach Art Direction: Tina James Editing: Carl James Videography: Carl James Computer Generated Special Effects: Fairiz Hinman Make-Up: Mary-Beth Doty Starring: Mary-Beth Doty as "Diane" Coley Winbush as "Gordon" Brian Galebach as "Jacob" Tino Marquez, Jr. as "Stuart" With the Voice of: Hannah Mufson as "The Computer" Scott ====================================================================== Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 16:26:03 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: LOST PRINCESS OF OZ perspective Sender: "J. L. Bell" When I'm rereading an Oz book for these discussions, I try to spot a theme that runs through all or most of its episodes. Such a theme helps, in my mind, to unify the separate threads. It may explain, if not justify, passages which seem boring or extraneous. Identifying a theme for LOST PRINCESS took longer than usual, but I finally came down on the issue of perspective. The importance of different points of view shows up in many of Baum's books, but it seems to be nearly everywhere in this one. Remarks on perspective appear as early as page 22, when Scraps says she hasn't seen Ozma that fateful morning, but then she hasn't seen anything at all. Later, the city of Thi seems to move, causing the Wizard to suspect it's "Just an illusion" [114]; the High Coco-Lorum reveals that the city is stable, but the land turns around it [130]. And the final chapter shows us the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow nearly bickering over their favorite colors [309]. This theme of perspective makes sense of Chapter Ten, which is mostly an argument among the animals unrelated to their quest. Baum shows how they champion their different tastes. Even when their talk does focus on finding the villain, he invokes perspective: the Lion rumbles, "The growl is of importance only to you," and Toto insists, "to prevent a dog from growling...is just as wicked, in my opinion, as stealing all the magic in Oz" [148-9]. (If only Toto truly "seldom said anything" in this book [82], I'd like him a lot more.) A lot of the spells cast in LOST PRINCESS depend on deceptive appearances. The Lavender Bear's magic consists of conjuring up images. Ugu has an army of ghost soldiers [268]. Thi is surrounded by what looks like a wall but is insubstantial [122], while Ugu has its converse, an invisible wall [285], and a wall that's impassable from one side but yields to a pin from the other [264]. The Merry-Go-Round Mountains look rocky, but are rubbery [108]. The people of Herku look "dreadfully lean and thin," but are very strong [166]. Both sides of the struggle can be tripped up by the limits of their points of view. On page 236 Scraps is confident nothing can hurt her, but on 261 she's on the run from Ugu's fire. Meanwhile, Baum implies that Ugu thought his fire would be impossible to quench; as Glinda's protege, the Wizard has the knowledge to quench it. Ugu the Shoemaker's main failing, Baum writes, is his self-centered perspective. The first thing we learn about Ugu is that "he didn't suspect, in the least, that he was wicked. . . . His ambition blinded him to the rights of others and he imagined anyone else would act just as he did if anyone else happened to be as clever as himself" [241]. (A psychological analysis might cast his wickedness as a response to desertion by his father and having to work hard [242]; in TIK-TOK Ann Soforth has the same complaints, and perhaps Baum himself felt such resentment after his family's fortune disappeared.) Baum makes nice use of shifts in point of view in narrating LOST PRINCESS. To cross the Merry-Go-Round Mountains we stay with Dorothy: first watching three of her companions go over, then experiencing her trip, and finally awaiting the rest of the party [105-7]. When the Lavender Bear shows Ugu's image to Cayke and the Frogman, we readers can recognize Glinda's Great Book of Records, but since those characters don't know the Book the narrator doesn't identify it [213]. And the story of the golden peach-pit challenges us to use knowledge only we (and Button-Bright) have to find Ozma before Dorothy and the Wizard. This kaleidoscope of perspectives and illusions doesn't mean truth is all relative, however. Baum highlights a few fonts of truth. The Truth Pond is one, of course. It forces the Frogman to acknowledge that his status among the Yips is based mostly on his unique appearance (though Baum also says he's "adventurous" and "unusually intelligent" [40-2], and he proves to have those qualities). Refusing to bathe in the Truth Pond allows Cayke to maintain her "pleasing illusion" that the Frogman is very wise [186, 207]. The Great Book of Records and the Magic Picture are two more sources of truth in Oz; Ugu therefore steals them to ensure his plan "to become the greatest magician in Oz" can proceed [242-3]. Another true voice is the Little Pink Bear's. Twice children think he's "crazy" [257, 296], but the bear king proves correct: "He never makes a mistake!" [298] The solution to the final mystery comes only when the Wizard figures out how Ugu's peachy illusion and changing perspectives have masked the little bear's true information. Given that emphasis on perspective, it's appropriate that Ugu halts Ozma's rescuers by turning their world upside-down [274]. But in Oz adventures, Dorothy is a champion of truth; she's not always right on the facts but always clear on priorities [154, 159]. Representing the side of right, Dorothy soon has the castle right-side-up again. After that, Ugu has lost the battle, and knows it. But only when he changes his perspective on life [309, 312] does he become truly happy. Whew! J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 23:41:43 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-02-98 The 2nd-- <> Funny, I thought most publishing agents were interested in new authors... Stuff made from radium: Reminds me of teh very purpose of cookie jars--to radium . . . The 4th-- _LOST PRINCESS_: As the first non-WWoO Oz book I ever read, I ought to have fond memories of it. Unfortunately, any such memories as I might have had are marred by the constant questioning "Who is this Ozma person?" etc., that I did at the time. Banishment: Banishing bears to ... America?!!! A worse fate I could not wish on anyone! <> But in Oz the characters ALWAYS succeed by pure chance--in fact, it's about the only way to get ahead there. (For those that don't already have one.) (Sorry.) Jeremy Steadman, Royal Historian of Oz kivel99@planetall.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "A good example of a parasite? Hmmm, let me think... How about the Eiffel tower?" ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 98 20:50:19 (PDT) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things Bear wrote: >Dave - What happened to Melody???? She has asked me not to say, for the time being. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave **************************************************************************** Dave Hardenbrook, DaveH47@delphi.com, http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ "I like to define humor as the affectionate communication of insight." -- Leo Rosten, introduction to _Oh K*A*P*L*A*N, My K*A*P*L*A*N_ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 8 - 9, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 06:26:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Ozmama@aol.com Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-07-98 John Bell. I like your analysis, but would like to point out an alternative theme or, perhaps, an additional one. I think you're right about point of view, but would like to suggest the classic Baum theme of Appearance vs. Reality. << A lot of the spells cast in LOST PRINCESS depend on deceptive appearances. The Lavender Bear's magic consists of conjuring up images. Ugu has an army of ghost soldiers [268]. Thi is surrounded by what looks like a wall but is insubstantial [122], while Ugu has its converse, an invisible wall [285], and a wall that's impassable from one side but yields to a pin from the other [264]. The Merry-Go-Round Mountains look rocky, but are rubbery [108]. The people of Herku look "dreadfully lean and thin," but are very strong [166]. >> Add to these the Truth Pond and Ozma in a golden peach pit, and you'll also have a case for stating that Appearance vs. Reality is a major theme in this book. It's certainly one of Baum's favorite themes. Things are not as they appear to be. Thi seems to be in one place, but then seems to be elsewhere. The Little Pink Bear seems to be wrong when he tells the group where Ozma is, but he's right. Ugu appears to have been punished by being transformed into a dove, but it turns out that he likes the new form. --Robin ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 07:39:02 -0700 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-07-98 In Re: "The Lost Princess of Oz", I find that I like all the various animals less than I did after I read this book. They, all of them, have very little sympathy for anyone other than themselves. Toto had a legitimate cause for being upset and could have used a little support. If he thought he had perhaps he wouldn't have whined so much. I ask you, in that picture on page 149, could anyone not feel sorry for him? Even Dorothy (his mistress) dismisses his loss of bark as relatively minor. Having said that, I also prefer him to be seen and not heard. He's a little too voluble for me. For that matter, the humans also all seem to be fairly blasé about other's (of any species) difficulties. I don't particularly like Dorothy's experiments on the others while they were sleeping. Seems that she could have gotten them in all kinds of difficulties. She could have tested the belt on inanimate objects. In chapter 13, page 181, "The water was deliciously cool and grateful to his thick, rough skin" I like the wording, but it really doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense, does it? Would the water being "grateful" to his skin be an obsolete usage? For that matter, as one who (as all high school students were at the time) was forced to kill and dissect a frog, I don't recall that it had particularly thick and rough skin. Rather smooth and elastic. Finally, I find Cayke to be a damned attractive woman and wouldn't mind seeing more of her. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 13:16:53 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: LOST PRINCESS OF OZ alternatives Sender: "J. L. Bell" [Parts of this message were sent 9/5, but disappeared into deepest cyberspace. I'm assuming they won't circle back; if they do, sorry for the redundancy.] Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding! Dave Hulan and Steve Teller have between them listed three items in Oz that Baum said were made of radium: 1) "a diadem of diamonds set in radium," selected for Ozma by the dowager queen of Ev, ROAD 2) the mines and home interiors of the Horners, PATCHWORK GIRL 3) the frame for the Magic Picture, TIK-TOK The Curies discovered radium only in 1898, so Baum moved quickly to establish it in Oz as well. Radium's carcinogenic qualities were a later discovery. Dave Hulan wrote: <> That's the closest I found, but the pose isn't as similar as the EMERALD CITY/YELLOW KNIGHT illustrations. Ozma's arms and head are at different angles, for instance. Earlier I mentioned a cartoony cover of ROAD that came from Reilly & Lee sometime in the 1950s. I see in the fall 1996 issue of THE BAUM BUGLE that Roland Roycraft created that dust jacket sometime between 1959 and 1964. This issue shows three of Roycroft's other covers. According to Bill Stillman's article, he drew 11 jackets in all, 8 for Baum's books and 3 for Thompson's. About LOST PRINCESS Atticus wrote: <> I think that would just transfer the convenient deity from one machine (the Belt) to another (the chandelier). It seems important that Dorothy and her party actually bring the power to vanquish Ugu; otherwise, they'd stumble across it as they stumble across so many other things. But with little preparation for Dorothy using the Belt--indeed, Baum goes out of his way to make us *not* expect that--it doesn't feel like a clean victory. Finding some way to snag the Wizard's tools would indeed be a good alternative. To satisfy most young readers, there would still have to be a way for Dorothy and the kids to come up with the solution. Ruth Berman wrote: <> A good point, though Baum had found ways of balancing this before. In SCARECROW, for instance, he starts talking about readers' demands to bring Trot to Oz, but credits the Scarecrow for managing that. And in PATCHWORK GIRL, he both acknowledges the little girl who thought of the radio telegraph and tells us the Shaggy Man is actually using it. Ruth Berman asked: <> Yes, there was Belle Boyd, the Girl Detective, who was actually a young woman, as well as Lotta, the Young Lady Detective; Lady Kate, the Dashing Female Detective; Mademoiselle Lucy, the French Lady Detective; Wild Madge, the Female Government Detective; Nell Blondin, the Lady Ferret; and several others, appearing only once per year or so. As you can tell from these names, a distaff detective was still a novelty for writers and readers. One fact that probably smoothed the acceptance of these fictional females is that Allan Pinkerton had employed real women as operatives in the 1860s. When he later wrote up his cases for the popular press (or said he did--since his office records had burned in the Chicago fire, no one can prove he was embellishing), he highlighted these women's contributions. Reportedly he also had a long affair with the head of his female department, and that was one reason why his sons shut it down after they took over the firm. But back to Oz... Dave Hulan wrote: <> I was indeed thinking of the elaborate set-up in TIN WOODMAN. It's unlike the magic Ozma does elsewhere, relying on objects and potions of the sort that can be transferred from one lab to another. On her peace mission in GLINDA Ozma does seem to be deliberately confining herself to the magic she comes by naturally. Dave also wrote: <> Ha ha--what a picture! Dorothy: Glinda, do you have any news yet? Nick Chopper: What sort of heartless person would do such a thing?! Jack Pumpkinhead: Does this mean I'm an orphan? Dorothy: The Wizard an' I should just march 'cross the Desert and make the Nomes give us back Ozma, shouldn't we? Toto: When you have a minute, Glinda, would you look for my growl? Trot: Shall I go to the lake and call for Queen Aquareine? Dorothy: What if I took the Cowardly Lion an' looked in the most dang'rous forests in the Gillikin Country? Cowardly Lion: What if you *don't*? Betsy: Would it be all right if I stayed home and looked around the palace one more time? Tik-tok: Sor-cer-ess, are we both-er-ing you? Button-Bright: Is it lunchtime? What do folks think of Cayke the Cookie Cook? She's not a fully-baked character for me. Though Neill pictures her as a young woman, Baum seems to have had someone older in mind. He calls her "the little dried-up Cookie Cook" [178], adjectives he usually reserves for the Wizard. If Cayke's an adult, rather than someone Baum meant young readers to identify with, that helps to explain her flat characterization. At the end of LOST PRINCESS Cayke is still in the Emerald City "and seemed in no hurry to go back to the Country of the Yips" [310]. We know from succeeding books that the Frogman became a big frog in the big pond of the Emerald City, but where do folks think Cayke ended up? Some critics have questioned how a dishpan can affect the quality of cookies. That doesn't concern me: by definition magic doesn't necessarily conform to logic or physical laws. I am intrigued, however, by how the Yips tell Cayke they like her cookies "except when they are burned on the bottom" [49]. Does this imply that even when she had her Dishpan her cookies weren't always perfect? Or are they referring to the batch of cookies she'd baked the morning after the theft, which "burned up in the oven!" [63]? What's the origin of the Magic Dishpan? Cayke says, "It belonged to my mother and to all my grandmothers [don't most of us have only two?], since the beginning of time. It is, I believe, the very oldest thing in all the Yip Country" [62]. Ugu's researches reveal more of the Dishpan's powers--it can grow and "transport him in an instant to any place he wished to go within the borders of the Land of Oz"--but not its origin [243]. Connecting those dots, I envision a magician in the prehistory of Oz, when the land was wracked by battles among witches, creating the Dishpan and using it to transport family and loved ones as far as possible within Oz. In a safe, secluded corner of the Winkie Country they founded the community of the Yips. (The same magician may have planted the world's only skosh there [41-2].) Eschewing magic and the dangerous world below, the Yips gradually lost their knowledge of the Dishpan's powers. Or maybe not. (I just read Jeff Freedman's MAGIC DISHPAN OF OZ, from Emerald City Press. It posits that the Dishpan works only when it's soapy clean, and that both the Frogman and Cayke went back to Yip Country.) J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 20:29:50 -0400 From: Richard Bauman Subject: Today's Oz Growls Sender: Richard Bauman Scott - I think you have fallen victim to "author's conceit." A fatal disease. I doubt there has ever been a book written that wouldn't benefit from some editing. You might want to reconsider in aid of getting published. Most authors I know have survived editing and lived to write again. Regards, Bear ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 22:33:58 -0500 From: "R. M. Atticus Gannaway" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-07-98 >Date: Sat, 05 Sep 1998 22:50:31 -0400 >From: Richard Bauman >Subject: Somedays Oz Growls >Sender: Richard Bauman >>Atticus commented: Aside from that, we hardly even *see* Ugu, who has >>tremendous potential for psychological interest--an evildoer with no sense >>of the wrongness of his actions. > >Hmmmm. "Evil"? Just don't. Oz is one of my few havens from the banal. Atticus * * * "...[T]here is something else: the faith of those despised and endangered that they are not merely the sum of damages done to them." Visit my webpage at http://members.aol.com/atty993 ====================================================================== Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 22:47:26 -0700 From: ozbot Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-07-98 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Thanks to the Lost Princess theme of perception by JNBell! Great work and that really helped me to make sense of this. One thing that continually strikes me as odd is the Wizard's attitude and actions in the LPoO. His humbug nature shines through, and he actually acts as quite a bit of a jerk, I'm afraid. Although I don't have the book in front of me, I'm struck by the fact that the Wizard seemed distraught to the point of misjudgement, fearful of his life and himself without magic, and was willing to hide behind the bravery of the girls and the animals (especially when crossing the Merry go Round mountains.) Perhaps another theme is that of loss and regain. Obviously, Ozma is lost to her friends and country and Cayke loses her dishpan, but Ugu, the Wizard, Toto, the Frogman, and Scraps lose different things in different ways. Others are threatened with loss, Dorothy with her friend, Big Lavendar Bear with the faith in Little Pink, and the Irrevelant Episode Lands with fragile hold of political power. Is it any wonder, then, that Button Bright, the one most comfortable and mercurial in his own "losings" of himself is the one that holds the key to the main Loss of All: Ozma? ozbot Danny Wall ====================================================================== Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 18:21:42 +0000 (GMT) From: David Hulan Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-04 & 07-98 9/4: Atticus: _Lost Princess_ was one of the first Oz books I read, long before I read _Ozma_. Well, not long in absolute terms,but long compared to the order in which I read the books; _Ozma_ was one of the last Oz books I read as a child. It didn't happen to be one I was given, and the lady from whom I borrowed most of the ones I didn't own didn't have that one (or _Land_). (I didn't read _Captain Salt_, _Handy Mandy_, _Wonder City_, _Scalawagons_, _Hidden Valley_, or _Merry-Go-Round_ until I was an adult; of course, the last wasn't published until I was an adult.) Because of that, Dorothy's having to learn about how to use the Magic Belt didn't bother me. Rather, I was surprised when I finally read _Ozma_ that Dorothy was able to do all kinds of things with the belt without a learning curve. That actually seemed much less plausible. True that the Thi episode is pointless, but then Irrelevant Episodes are highly characteristic of Oz books in general. _Lost Princess_ is actually less burdened with them than most of the books. Neill's failure to illustrate a mechanical dragon is unfortunate, but that's how it goes. In short, while LP is far from a flawless book, it's still my favorite of the Baums. I could pick equivalent nits with any of the others. J.L.: Interesting comments on the various societies depicted in LP. As far as the Yips are concerned, they seem to be happy enough letting the Frogman settle their disputes, so whether he's inherently wiser than they are or not, he must be making good decisions most of the time. (The same could be said for the Wizard in the first book.) Perhaps what Baum was getting at in both cases is that in the normal course of things it doesn't take extraordinary intelligence to rule well - just common sense, good will, and a willingness to make decisions when necessary. Much the same seems to be true of the High Coco-Lorum of Thi; if he were misruling the Thists they'd soon cease to accept his rulings, but the citizens of Thi seem to be happy enough and not even to realize that they're being ruled. Unless you postulate that they're all really stupid, which doesn't seem to be the case, this is an indication that the High Coco-Lorum must be ruling them with a light hand and settling their disputes in a manner perceived as fair. The Herkus are another story: I could easily see Ozma determining that they had to be taken in hand once she got back to the EC and heard about them. I can't really reconcile slavery with Ozma's government. (Maybe this is a subject for another addition to the Oz Apocrypha?) 9/7: Tyler: I think the large numbers in Dorothy's party come about more by accident than intent. The original idea was to have just the three girls and the Wizard, with the sawhorse to pull the wagon, but characters kept adding themselves to the party. Bear: I might think about self-publishing _Magic Carpet_, but I have a few other possibilities in mind to try first. The first of which is to see if a tightening of it would overcome Peter Glassman's reservations. But I have other things on my writing agenda ahead of that. J.L.: I dunno, I rather liked Toto's speaking a good deal in this book. Aside from the much later _Magical Mimics_ it's the only book where he says anything much. Jeremy: I don't remember for sure in which order I read _Lost Princess_, but I know it was very early. I know _Wizard_ and _Wishing Horse_ were the first two I read; I believe _Lost Princess_ was in the next batch of three that I got for my 6th birthday, along with _Lucky Bucky_ (the new book for the year) and, IIRC, _Magic_. But there are other books that might have been in that first batch: _Tin Woodman_, _Kabumpo_, and _Speedy_ are others that I know I had from a very young age. (Eventually my personal collection as a child also included _Land_, _Emerald City_, _Rinkitink_, _Silver Princess_, _Ozoplaning_, _Magical Mimics_, and _Shaggy Man_; the rest I either borrowed or didn't read until I was an adult. But I know none of the latter group were among my earliest acquisitions.) >But in Oz the characters ALWAYS succeed by pure chance--in fact, it's >about the only way to get ahead there. Not always, surely. Tip and company's escape in the Gump wasn't pure chance, but deliberate and intelligent effort. Dorothy and her party's rescue in _DotWiz_ wasn't pure chance (though it took her an unconscionably long time to think of making the signal to Ozma). There was little of chance in _Tin Woodman_, at least once the adventurers had gotten Mrs. Yoop's transformations undone. Etc. David Hulan ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 09 Sep 98 22:49:21 (PDT) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Ozzy Things IT'S NOT THAT EASY BEIN' GREEN: Bob S. wrote: >[A]s one who (as all high school students were at the time) was forced >to kill and dissect a frog,... My mom took Botany instead of Zoology (She had a choice denied most of us) in order to evade having to kill and dissect frogs. In my generation we had to dissect frogs, but we were mercifully spared having to kill them ourselves...On the down side, we also had to dissect an aborted pig fetus. *That* was too much -- I was conveniently out sick that week. >I don't recall that it had particularly thick and rough skin. Rather >smooth and elastic. Frogs have smooth skin...Only toads have rough or bumpy. That's the thing with fantasy writers...They feel no need to do hard research. (Well for that matter neither do Sci-Fi writers 3/4 of the time...) Frogman: We also *do* in fact have ears, noses, and teeth. I dunno how many irate letters I've written to _Sesame Street_ every time Kermit has asserted otherwise... >Finally, I find Cayke to be a damned attractive woman and wouldn't >mind seeing more of her. She appears briefly in _The Magic Dishpan of Oz_ (BoW/Emerald City Press). MISS YOUNG GOES TO WASHINGTON (AS UNNAMED OZITE?): Today I watched my favorite Loretta Young film, _The Farmer's Daughter_, the one in which Loretta runs for Congress. I couldn't help noticing that through much of the film her hair is done up into two big round buns that vaguely resemble...poppies. -- Dave ====================================================================== -- Dave **************************************************************************** Dave Hardenbrook, DaveH47@delphi.com, http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ "I like to define humor as the affectionate communication of insight." -- Leo Rosten, introduction to _Oh K*A*P*L*A*N, My K*A*P*L*A*N_ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 10 - 11, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 07:38:34 -0700 From: plgnyc Subject: Ozzy Digest Now that everyone on the digest (well, not everyone, but lots of digest readers) has "digested" LOST PRINCESS OF OZ (is that pun worthy of the Wogglebug?), I was wondering what people thought of Jeff Freedman's THE MAGIC DISHPAN OF OZ. As most of you can guess from the title, this book definitely relates to LOST PRINCESS. Any thoughts or comments? - Peter Glassman Books of Wonder ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 09:19:24 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest Robin Olderman: Interesting point that appearance/perception vs. reality is an important theme in a lot of Baum's work. There are several books where he uses the magical barrier that becomes ineffective when the traveller is blindfolded or disappears after the traveller gets past it. Bob Spark: "Grateful" in the sense of "affording pleasure or contentment" is not an obsolete usage (you'll find it in current dictionaries), but probably it's a good deal less common than in Baum's time. "Thick, rough skin" -- you're probably right that Baum was simply giving an incorrect description, but it's at least possible that a frog grown to giant size would have skin much thicker and rougher than a frog of ordinary size? J.L. Bell: Enjoyed David Hulan's idea of a beset Glinda organizing search parties to stop the participants from interrupting her, and enjoyed your extrapolation of how frantic the scene might have been without the dispersal. // Cayke's Magic Dishpan can't very well have belonged to "all" her grandmothers, as the paternal grandmothers presumably didn't own it, but if it's assumed that "all her grandmothers" means the maternal line and counts greats-to-the-nth- grannies as grannies, then the line makes sense. Your thought that the Yip community was founded by the magician (a woman, presumably -- maybe named Yip? -- with a husband named Harburg?) who invented the Dishpan and gave it its transportational magic seems plausible). Danny Wall: Your suggestion that Button Bright who's always getting lost himself is the right person to find the key to finding a lost Ozma is ingenious. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 16:49:06 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-09-98 <> I guess this is because there was a definite purpose: finding and restoring Ozma; while some books (think Thompson here) seem to have little plot and alot of IE's. <> Reminds me of The Golden Goose . . . the way you phrased it, I mean, David. Toto's speech: Adds to the characterization . . . Until next time, Jeremy Steadman, kivel99@planetall.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "A good example of a parasite? Hmmm, let me think... How about the Eiffel tower?" ====================================================================== Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 22:42:23 -0400 From: "J. L. Bell" Subject: LOST PRINCESS OF OZ commentary Sender: "J. L. Bell" Scott Hutchins wrote: <> In OZOPLANING, the gatekeeper's pal Wantowin Battles (i.e., Omby Amby) refers to him as Gardy [sp?]. But that nickname's obviously based on his title. I enjoy the implication that the Guardian of the Gates is at whichever Emerald City portal the book's heroes happen to be passing through. How? Some things are better left unexplained. About LOST PRINCESS Robin Olderman wrote: <> I agree; perspective and deceptive illusions are closely related in this book. Throughout the quest for Ozma we keep learning that if one takes a different view of something (rubber mountains, golden peach pit, girl soldiers) one sees its reality is different from how it first appeared. Danny Wall wrote: <> Loss is definitely a motif Baum wanted us to pick up on. In addition to the title LOST PRINCESS, he has chapters titled "A Terrible Loss," "Toto Loses Something," and "Button-Bright Loses Himself." Danny Wall also wrote: <> Indeed, the Wizard's shaken to his core by the loss of his magic; he faces the prospect of being a humbug once more. But I don't think that's why he's so fearful compared to the children. I suspect he grasps the danger to Oz more fully than Dorothy, who's mainly worried about Ozma herself. He's the grown-up, after all. He's the one making sure the search party has enough resources, as when he brings the blankets and leather straps across the mountains. And in the end he's the one who figures out where Ozma is. Tyler Jones wrote: <> Wouldn't everybody want to be with Dorothy? After all, not only is she nearly the most charming little girl in the world, but she always has the best adventures. The real quandary for me would be whom to follow if Dorothy and Button-Bright were in different search parties--whose luck is stronger? Probably I'd soon lose Button-Bright, and Dorothy would end up finding and traveling with him. Baum's statement about the girls' ages and his many references to Trot as little seem to have cued Eric Shanower to draw the three at different heights--a welcome differentiation. In TIK-TOK, Baum wrote that Betsy and Dorothy were the same height. Might Betsy have let herself age a bit after coming to Oz? Also on page 18, Baum's words make a telling distinction between how Betsy and Trot came to live in Ozma's palace. Betsy had to "seek refuge with Ozma," implying she had no other home. Trot, on the other hand, "had been invited" into Oz; I read that as implying she did have a choice, between homes in the Emerald City and back in California. Richard Bauman wrote: <> An author can write a mystery tale within a magical world. She or he just needs to lay out some parameters at the outset: what are the limits of magic, who could have done the crime, what are the clues? Atticus wrote about how he expected that sort of story. So will some children who read the Books of Wonder flyer calling LOST PRINCESS a "mystery." But that's not what Baum gave us. Bob Sparks wrote: <> A sad little doggy indeed, but it doesn't look like any Toto I know! (Compare to page 83, for instance.) Bob Sparks also wrote: <> A secondary meaning of "grateful" was akin to "gratifying." And perhaps the Frogman's skin was rougher than usual because he hadn't had his bath yet. Jeremy Steadman wrote: <> I had the opposite prejudice. LOST PRINCESS was the *last* Baum Oz book I read because Rand McNally had let the paperback go out of stock. I therefore had to save up and send away for a hardcover. And when it arrived, I knew that I'd never again read a Baum Oz novel for the first time. That, alas, laid a sour feeling behind my first reading. Miscellaneous LOST PRINCESS observations: My knowledge of the history of teddy bears (besides my own) is fuzzy, but that name derives from Teddy Roosevelt. Baum clearly makes a connection between the stuffed bears of Bear Center and American kids' toys [218]. For Baum to have a village of stuffed bears could be analogous to an Oz book today having a Cabbage Patch Kid Town or perhaps even a Beanie Babies-ville. On page 218, the Lavender Bear says, "A King isn't required to stay at home forever, and is he takes a notion to travel, whose business is it but his own?" At this time in American history, constitutional scholars were still debating whether the President could leave the country while in office. None did so until Wilson went to Europe for the post-WW1 treaty talks. The teddy-bearish President Taft had even avoided going to his vacation home in Canada. The Frogman's paean to female soldiers ("They are more brave than men and they have better nerves"--page 266) seems especially provocative when we recall that in 1917, the year LOST PRINCESS was published, the U.S. entered WW1. J. L. Bell JnoLBell@compuserve.com ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 00:36:51 -0400 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Sender: Tyler Jones Scott: You got that right. _Ten Woodmen of Oz_ is an interesting book. Their final solution to the overpopulation problem is, well, unique. (Poor Tik-Tok, though). Jon Bell and Bob: Hmmm, that's two people who wanted Toto to say less. Do I spot a trend? Of course, Toto never actually said anything until _Tik-Tok_ and even then it was under protest. Order: I read the Baum 14 in order, and most of the RPT 19, except for _Kabumpo_, which I read first. I had no idea who this "Sir Hokus" guy was. Del Rey stopped publishing the FF after _WIshing Horse_, so from 30 to 40, the tail end of the FF was more or less random. The last one was _Lucky Bucky_. I finally sat down and read them all in order. I was considering reading them backwards, but there seems no point in that, since they are not a tightly plotted series. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 09:59:48 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski Subject: MAJOR OZ NEWS Sources tell ZEN that HALLMARK Entertainment (Gulliver's Travels, Odyssey, Merlin, Alice in Wonderland) is working on producing a LAND OF OZ mini-series which will air on ABC in May 1999. ====================================================================== Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 17:31:26 -0700 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz All: Okay. I think my revamped web page is ready. Go to http://tyler1.apprentice.com and see what you can find. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== -- Dave **************************************************************************** Dave Hardenbrook, DaveH47@delphi.com, http://people.delphi.com/DaveH47/ "I like to define humor as the affectionate communication of insight." -- Leo Rosten, introduction to _Oh K*A*P*L*A*N, My K*A*P*L*A*N_ ] c/ \ /___\ *** THE OZZY DIGEST, SEPTEMBER 12 - 13, 1998 *** |@ @| | V | \\\ |\_/| | ;;; \-/ \ ;/ >< ] ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 10:08:06 -0700 From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz Web: I got a message from John Bell, saying that some of the links on my website still did not work. I believe that John tested this on Thursday morning, before I had changed everything. If people could visit my site and poke around, testing various links, I'd appreciate it. http://tyler1.apprentice.com Also, John mentioned the difficulty of unzipping the Digest archive files on a MAC. Does anybody have any ideas about this? Thanks for any help. Tyler Jones ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 07:54:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Ozisus@aol.com Subject: Ldssons from Oz Has anyone mentioned here that you can now find a list of ways to incorporate The Wizard of Oz into classrooms on the Web? Eric Gjovaag put it together. I've asked Jim VanderNoot to link it to the Oz Club's home page. We never found a particularly aggressive volunteer to champion a more traditional development/distribution of lesson plans for the Oz centennial, so I begged Eric to do with with all the ideas we (and others!!!) had identified. He did a terrific job. It's a great resource for teachers, librarians, etc. http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/ozteach.html Jane Albright ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 07:06:30 -0700 From: Bob Spark Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-11-98 > My knowledge of the history of teddy bears (besides my own) > is fuzzy, but that name derives from Teddy Roosevelt. I am operating from memory so don't place too much credence in this but, I have heard that the "Teddy Bear" name came from an incident when Teddy Roosevelt (an avid outdoorsman) was hunting bears. The guide pointed out a female with a cub for Roosevelt to shoot but he refused, not wanting to orphan the cub. The papers got wind of this story (probably from Roosevelt's spin doctors) and the name was perpetuated. Bob Spark ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 09:12:52 -0600 (CST) From: Ruth Berman Subject: ozzy digest [These comments, except for the last one, refer back several days. The earlier copy emailed to Dave Hardenbrook seems to have vanished in cyberspace.] J.L. Bell & David Hulan: I think the "Pirates" illo David mentioned is as close as Neill got to an interior illo similar to the "slinky Ozma" cover. A couple of drawings in Neill's own Oz books are also a bit like it. But none of them is quite as slinky, not having so long and tight a hobble skirt. (In fact, the "slinky" Ozma would barely be able even to hobble, unless we assume the skirt is made of an elastic fabric similar to the Magic Carpet and expands to permit movement). David Hulan: I seem to recall a comment from a "Bugle" suggesting that the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman could take Professor Wogglebug's Education pills by putting them inside themselves. (Whether they'd have any effect that way is another question?) Bear: Holmes doesn't meet anyone who turns out to be a powerful magician, but he meets several who seem to be powerfully magic at first (Hound of the Baskervilles, Sussex Vampire, Devil's Foot Root), and presumably that's at least some guide to how he would have acted with actuals. In fact, the late Dean Dickensheet took this notion to extremes one time, in a very short Holmes-in-Oz story, in which Holmes is called in by Ozma to investigate something or other, and, after he has concentrated a moment, the entire country and most of the inhabitants vanish, leaving behind a flat grey plain and some puzzled mortals. Holmes explains apologetically that it's probably his fault, as he always begins an investigation by eliminating the impossible. (And, of course, there was my "Sherlock Holmes in Oz" story, which you may have seen in "Oziana" originally, or reprinted in "The Game's Afoot," ed. Marvin Kaye, published by St. Martin's Press.) Dean's story originally appeared in one of Bruce Pelz's fanzines, and I reprinted it in one of the three anthologies I did of Holmesiana from sf fanzines. Scott H: Possible name of Guardian of the Gates (assuming there aren't really four of them, identical quadruplets, to cover the four gates without needing magical roller skates to have him on duty at the right time and gate no matter which one's being knocked at by a given visitor) -- maybe "Guardy" (as he's occasionally called) is actually his name? (Short for Edgard? Or Ozgard, with a touch of the Vognerian?) Dave Hardenbrook: Well, tell Melody we miss her and hope it'll work out for her to take part in the Digest again later. // Yes, I'd forgotten about "Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star" -- wonder if it was influenced by "Beautiful Dreamer," or if the similarity is just an accident of similar meter. Bear: In commenting on the importance of accepting the process of being edited, you shifted the topic to being edited by an editor -- the earlier couple of comments were about being edited by a script- doctor. The two are considerably different, as a script-doctor has no power to accept a manuscript for publication, and (usually) poor credentials for the claim that the script-doctoring will make the ms. more likely to get accepted. When the person trying to edit a manuscript is actually the editor, of course, you're right that it's a good idea to consider accepting the changes suggested -- but it's almost never a good idea to accept all the suggestions automatically. Ruth Berman ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 13:42:19 -0400 (EDT) From: Mark Anthony Donajkowski Subject: MORE OZ NEWS ARRIVED: Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion -- and Toto, too -- on a brand new CD from Rhino Records, "The Story and Songs from 'The Wizard of Oz.'" The CD features dialogue and the musical score from the beloved 1939 classic, which is set for a theatrical re-release this Christmas. Wicked witches, beware. ====================================================================== Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 15:52:55 -0500 (EST) From: Jeremy Steadman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 09-11-98 << My knowledge of the history of teddy bears (besides my own) is fuzzy>> Cute. But I am glad to see I'm not the only one making rotten puns here. ;-) Jeremy Steadman, Royal Historian of Oz kivel99@planetall.com http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9619 "A good example of a parasite? Hmmm, let me think... How about the Eif