Comics for Halloween handouts

Chris Wilson does a good job of recommending comics in his blog (I will have to check out his Shakespeare reviews – Merchant of Venice and Macbeth). He is also promoting a good idea.

You can buy 25 mini comics in a bundle for the low-low price of $3 per bundle. This year they offer five titles. – I think that you should order this week if you want to hand out Bone, Charlie Brown and Donald Duck.

Chris says, “Our family did this last year and it was a hit. The kids were very excited about getting comics and so were the parents. We allowed each child to choose his or her own book (and only one book) and they seemed to delight in that. (Children having choice of reading in the classroom, true choice, is strongly supported by research.)”

The Graphic Classroom is a resource for teachers and librarians to help them stock high quality, educational-worthy, comics and give it a rating as to appropriateness for the classroom.

What Pyrates did greatly fear

To amuse themselves, pirates held mock trials,
Mimicking what would happen to them if they were captured and came up before an Admiralty Court.
In A General History of the Pyrates, Daniel Defoe relates a sham trial that took place on an uninhabited cay off the coast of Cuba.
The judge, a pirate named George Bradley, sailing master of the Morning Star, sat in a tree with a tarpaulin over his shoulders by way of a robe, a shaggy cap on his head instead of a wig and large pair of spectacles on his nose. The officers of the ship carried handspikes as staves of authority and a hangman stood by with a noose.
The accused was then brought out ‘making a thousand sour faces’.

A pirate playing the attorney general then said:
An’t please your Lordship, and you gentlemen of the jury, here is a fellow before you that is a sad dog, a sad, sad dog; and I humbly hope your Lordship will order him to be hanged out the way immediately.

He has committed piracy upon the high seas, and we shall prove, an’t please your Lordship, that this fellow, this sad dog before you, has escaped a thousand storms, nay, has got safe ashore when the ship has been cast away, which was a certain sign he was not born to be drowned; yet not having the fear of hanging before his eyes, he went on robbing and ravishing man, woman and child, plundering ships’ cargoes fore and aft, burning and sinking ship, barky and boat, as if the Devil had been in him.
But this is not all, my Lord, he has committed worse villainies than all these, for we shall prove, that he has been guilty of drinking small beer, and your Lordship knows, there never was a sober fellow but what was a rogue.
My Lord, I should have spoke much finer than I do now, but that, as your Lordship knows, our rum is all out, and how should a man speak good law that has not drank a dram. However, I hope, your Lordship will order the fellow hanged.

The judge was scarcely impartial. From his seat in the mangrove tree he said:
Harkee me, sirrah, you lousy pitiful, ill-looked dog; what have you to say why you should not be tucked up immediately and set a sun-drying like a scarecrow?
The judge then asked the accused to plead. He pleaded not guilty, so the judge threatened to have him hanged without a trial.
In his defence, the accused said that he was an honest man who had been ‘taken by one George Bradley’ – the man who was now playing his judge – ‘a notorious pirate, a sad rogue as ever was hanged, and he forced me, an’t please your honour.’

Eventually, Bradley sentenced the accused to hang, giving three reasons:
First, because it is not fit I should sit here as judge and nobody be hanged.
Secondly, you must be hanged, because you have a damned hanging look.
And thirdly, you must be hanged because I am hungry; for know, sirrah, that whenever a judge’s dinner is ready before the trial is over, the prisoner is to be hanged of course.

Pirate Mitt's Story

Pirate York Mitts made the rest of the crew happy when he stepped into the looped rope on the deck.
He was a terrible cook.
"Keep York Mitts off me grub"

11 Days to Talk Like a Pirate

Pax 2008 and Pirates of the Burning Sea

I went to Pax on Sunday - I would have liked to seen the discussion on Sex and Violence for an update on over-served immature adults. Did anyone who visits this blog go to the Raven Theatre? Did I miss much? Pax is amazing btw, much better than I expected.
I discovered while there that the talk like a pirate crew might very much like the Pirates of the Burning Sea game. I played it for a few minutes at the convention and my first impression is that it is like the great game that Akella created (Sea Dogs) with the fun factor bumped upward and a cool cel-shader turned on.

One thing that I can say: they had 3 working tee-shirt cannons firing into the crowd. Good marketing, and the booth pirates were very helpful.

The Pirate fun for computers that I have really really liked so far:
Curse of Monkey Island
Sea Dogs 2 (Released as Pirates of the Caribbean)

Maybe the Burning Sea will be another. I am very picky, but I will give it a try. It may be rated Arrrr, but aye don't think so.

Pirate Cooper's story

Named Dom, but called Dommer, and Dommer boy. Ironically "x" does mark the spot in this case. Dom had squirreled away enough to retire when Jon Black payed him back. Jon also finished Dom's Pirate career with a cutlass to the back.

The weed of crime bears bitter fruit, crime does not pay. The shadow knows.

Talk Like a Pirate Day countdown begins

Just one month until September 19th. The site is still using last year's banner. I wonder if they are interested in a new one for variety? Plunder.

The Darwin Debate continues to be interesting even when one-sided

LGF (Little Green Footballs) is not open to the great Darwin debate anymore. Even ID (Intelligent Design- which by the way, adheres to Natural Selection and Common Descent - 2 of 3 Evolution Pillars) has been linked at LGF to creationism, the worst Islamism and the recent Russian expansionism. The fun level is way down. I still go there however, and I do not want Charles to go away.

Recently LGF linked to a mock-admission of guilt from Adolf on his connection to Darwin. As if it is ridiculous to link Darwin to WW2 Eugenics.

This LGF entry falls into my list of top 10 interesting things about Darwin debate so, here is my contribution:

The original cover page from the original printing of Darwin’s life’s work with the full original title: The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.
The second image I was going to post would have been a mock up: The Origin of the Species …the Preservation for the Favored Aryan Races in My Struggle (Mein Kampf).

Between the title of the original Darwin book, and the complete abandonment of Eugenics after WW2 (after decades of increased commitment to the applied Darwinism called Eugenics) is it surprising that there is even a debate? These 2 points are compelling: Darwin Eugenics discredited by Nazi application and Darwin's connection to the racism of his clique.

This is not a debate on whether Darwin was wrong on all points. This is simply a measure of the saintlike devotion given to the founder. Fire-breathing, All-or-Nothing Evolution is currently deeply religious.