T-shirt #283 - Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry

T-shirt #283 - Hogwart's School for Witchcraft and Wizardry
Subtitled: How Harry Potter books saved my life - dedicated to my mother, Marjorie (Delbridge) Tower

Harry Potter saved my life.

No kidding. There's a story here, but first some shirt background. When I started this blog, I did not own any Harry Potter T-shirts. Nor did I own any shirts featuring Planet of the Apes, Star Wars, or The Songs of Ice and Fire. I must confess that if I am listing favorite things, I am still without shirts featuring Lord of the Rings or anything Tolkien, Asteroids the arcade game, or Harry Houdini. However, I am proud to say I now own THREE Harry Potter shirts, two Star Wars shirts, one Planet of the Apes shirt, and two shirts for the Songs of Ice and Fire. So, since I have two more Harry Potter shirts to share, this post will be short on Harry Potter content. After the story of how Harry Potter saved my life and a few fun facts, I was going to share some more reviews of books, movies, and comic books, but I will save these for another day, spread them out throughout the week. Today's story will be content enough.

What else do I have to do to fill up my days? And it's (writing the blog) fun for me. I hope you find it fun for you, too.

Okay, onto my story of how Harry Potter saved my life.

Though Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was published in 1997, I did not discover the books until March of 2000. I was visiting my friend Tom in Connecticut where he lived at the time, and we were in a mall. I saw a display of the Harry Potter books published so far, at that time, the first three, and I remarked on the elaborate window display for a book series I had not heard of. Tom emphasized that he and his family had found them delightful, and I should read them. It turns out that at the same time my mother bought all three of these books for my cousin Julieanna as a gift. When I returned home from my vacation, the books were sitting out in a neat stack on the big counter in our dining room, awaiting the time my mother would wrap, package, and mail them to my cousin.

Normal procrastination was not causing my mother's delay. She was ill. When I returned home from my vacation, my mother had recently been to the ER with intense pain in her head, not like a headache, but in the back of her skull. She was sent home with pain drugs and an appointment for an MRI. If we had only understood what was happening to her. If the doctors who had seen her originally had only run the right tests. We always knew my mother was sensitive to pain drugs, so when she started having trouble moving, so much so that the stairs from the first floor to the bedroom were too much for her and we set up a recliner in the dining room for her, we chalked it all up to sensitivity to pain medications. When she was unconscious for most of the day, I finally asked if this could be due to some other cause. In other words, as outside observers, what would be the different between a coma due to some other cause and a drug-induced coma?

By the time we called for an ambulance, it was almost too late. My mother stopped breathing on the way to the hospital, her heart stopped, and the ambulance had to pull over so she could be revived.

She had bacterial meningitis and it was killing her.

She was in a coma for 11 days. Eventually, we had doctors perform surgery to drain an abscess and to repair damage to her spine. She spent three months in Bronson's ICU and three months in Mary Free Bed before she returned home.

Her illness forever changed our lives. Those were dark days in March of 2000. We almost lost her. I saw my father cry for (until then) only the second time in my life.

So what does this have to do with Harry Potter?

Well, if my mom had been well and awake, she would not have let me read those Harry Potter books sitting out and awaiting shipment to my cousin. But she was in a coma. And I needed something to distract me from the worst family tragedy of our lives. So, I removed the dust jackets from the hard covers and read the books while holding our hospital vigil. I also spent a lot of time talking to other people holding vigil, such as the daughter of a man who is now a life (for the rest of it, that is) long friend of mine and especially my father's: Dallyn Hoffman. His daughter was also reading those books while holding vigil for her mother, whose Lupus finally caught up with her. I can only hope that the Harry Potter books brought her as much solace and enjoyment during that terrible time as they did for me. My mother survived; hers did not.

Though my mother regained the ability to walk in limited capacity and only with help, the bacterial meningitis mostly paralyzed her. She has needed total care since 2000. She cannot dress herself. She has an in dwelling catheter because she cannot go to the bathroom for herself. And the brain damage is slowly catching up with her. Mini-strokes, scar tissue, and advancing palsy conditions are slowly robbing her of her ability to speak clearly and to feed herself. We constantly fear urinary tract infections and aspirating Pneumonia. And yet, my mother is very tough. She has survived thirteen going on fourteen years post-meningitis. The illness forever changed our family, but if there is any silver lining, and there is not really, it's that my family is much closer than we had been before this happened to my mother. And though she lost the use of her left arm and mostly lost the use of her legs, and though her health is compromised, she has had a very good life in many ways since the illness, and she could live for many more years to come. My father has shown himself to be an incredible care giver. I am amazed at what he does. Truly incredible.

Since those dark days of 2000, I have read all the Harry Potter books at least twice each and listened to the fantastic audio books narrated by Jim Dale multiple times. My favorite book of those first three is The Prisoner of Azkaban, and my favorite book of the set is The Order of the Phoenix. I have not yet seen the second half of the Deathly Hallows. More on this in a future post.

To conclude, those who are interested, and to make it all public record, I will present an edited version of the story of my mother's illness communicated in email reports that I wrote to share with loved ones while she was hospitalized.

STORY OF MY MOTHER'S BACTERIAL MENINGITIS
Here's the story cribbed from those emails from 2000. I added various pictures from before and after the meningitis. There are also two pictures of me with my mom in t-shirts I have not yet featured. Can you spot them?

MARJORIE TOWER STATUS-ICU DAY 05 - We took her to the ER last Tuesday (3/7) after she had passed out. She stopped breathing on the way to the hospital and then shortly thereafter her heart stopped. They revived her. She had another major cardiac arrest on 3/8 and some "funny heart rhythms" the next day.

She has bacterial meningitis and bacterial pneumonia.

This all began on 2/26 while I was in Connecticut. She woke on 2/26 with extreme neck and back pain, which is not unusual for her given her chronic problems int hat area. She cried in pain all night on 2/26, Saturday. Sunday morning, my Dad and sister took her to ER and after x-rays the docs diagnosed her with a herniated disk, gave her some very heavy duty pain meds (Lortab 10s) and sent her home. After 21 Lortabs in 4 days my mother was in what our family calls "Zu Zu Land" -- hallucinating. This was no surprise to us as even Valium puts my mother practically in a coma.

They took her off the pain meds and slowly she became more and more lucid. But she was still too weak to move about the house without assistance and had double vision and motor control problems so severe that she had to be fed. We all believed this to be the residual effects of pain medication and her reaction to it. I am still in Connecticut. Trying to return her to normal, Lori and Dad start giving her the bazillion pills she takes each day for her bazillion health issues.  When I returned from CT, my mother still seemed REALLY out of it. She was falling asleep while eating or brushing her teeth or on the toilet and she still had severe motor control problems though her lucidity was all right. She seemed to fade in and out of Zu Zu Land now and confuse her dreams with reality, which again we figured to be the pain meds thing. While I was gone she had an MRI and saw her primary care physician.

Mom at Richland Art Fair

Monday (3/6) we gave her Norflex, a muscle relaxer she takes for arthritis. She returned to Zu Zu Land BIG TIME. So we took her off the Norflex and Monday night, really late, she insisted that we all be gathered together and gave us this speech about how sick she was and how we had to love each other and love her and how she needed our support, and how she was going to get better. She made it sound like she was worried that she was dying as she had been a lot with all sorts of questions about Lori's boyfriend and stuff that made it seem as if she was making sure everyone was all right in case she checked out. We still believed it was pain meds.

Tuesday (3/7) she seemed all right though still weak. We should have realized that how she was having trouble moving and using her left arm WAS NOT something that a reaction to pain meds would cause nor was her FEVER and a million other things. (Like I had to make a sign for her so she could remember what day it was.) Tuesday night while I was in class (6-ish), she passed out while on the toilet. My father carried her to the easy boy chair we had been using for her and she did not move for several hours. When I came home about 9:30, we began to discuss what to do. When we couldn't wake her, we called 911. The paramedics found her blood pressure to be normal. On the way to the hospital, she almost died and then she almost died again in the ER as I wrote initially etc. etc. Once they finally got her stabilized on Friday, after over 24 hours with no "funny heart rhythms," they felt they could disconnect her from the monitors, respirators, etc. long enough to do an MRI to learn all sorts of things. The MRI was normal. The blood vessels to the brain are all open. There is no sign of brain stem injury. No sign of stroke. etc. etc.

She should wake up. This may take many days as meningitis causes swelling to the brain and she may have had it since 2/26!! She started receiving antibiotics in the ER on 3/7 but none for bacterial meningitis specifically until spinal fluid analysis proved that's what it was on Thursday morning (3/9). Until she wakes up we will not know more. There still could be some brain damage. She still could be paralyzed. Some of the problems might only be temporary and "overcomeable." We just don't know. She has not made very many voluntary movements since she passed out on 3/7. She has some reflexive movements, though not enough.

 Apparently involuntary reflexive movements are not proof of no paralysis.
So we're waiting. Spending all sorts of time in the ICU waiting room. We are usually home by midnight and then leave by 8:30-10ish in the a.m.  It's a very very very difficult time. I have never been so scared in my entire life. I would trade places with her in a heartbeat. I just feel so helpless. Please do what you do in terms of prayer, good energy, whatever. I have been told that actually scientific studies have proven that the more prayers that are said for an ill person the quicker and better he/she heals. Doesn't matter who prays, to whom, how, whatever. Please, do what you do. love, chris

"if you lose your faith, babe, you can have mine
if you're lost, I am right behind
because we walk the same line."
-- Everything But the Girl "We Walk the Same Line" _Amplified Heart_

MARJORIE TOWER STATUS-ICU DAY 12

My mom is better and awake and improving.

Thursday the docs did an MRI and found two infected areas that they suspected were abscesses. If they were abscesses, they had to be drained surgically since they are walled off areas of infected stuff (pus) antibiotics would not reach them. However, if these areas were not abscesses but what one doc called "angry tissue" (IE. infected) then antibiotics would reduce their size and inflammation and so on. That's the best they can tell with the MRI. One was located in the throat, behind the pharynx, a retro-pharyngeal abscess (or not an abscess). The other is in the back of the neck in the top bones and vertebrae of the spine. The vertebrae disks and ligaments there are definitely infected and all but destroyed by infection, the bones are very very weakened.

The docs seemed pretty certain that the throat one was indeed an abscess, and so we okayed surgery for Thursday night. And yes, it was! An abscess full of pus. The doc drained it.

The next morning my mother woke up.

At first we did not know if she was 100% awake-aware. She still couldn't move. She mostly just had the left eye open and only opened the right once in a while and then only slightly. But later in the day and definitely Saturday, she was awake-aware, nodding in response to questions. She can't talk because of the breathing tube. Saturday, we were also concerned that she could not close her left eye because she still has some swelling because of all the fluids in her system.
Finally, last night, Saturday night, she managed to close both eyes and was obviously sleeping peacefully.

Today, Sunday, the neurologist saw her open and close both eyes voluntarily and wiggle toes voluntarily. Still no ability to squeeze hands with fingers or move arms, but these abilities may come back slowly. The neurologist was also pleased to see increased brain activity in an EEG they gave her Friday.

Part of her continued neurological problems could be caused by the infected area in the back of her neck. This infected area, be it tissue or abscess, is definitely putting pressure on her spinal cord and thus may be impairing her motor control from the neck down....though not the toes, for some reason. ;-)

My family has a giant decision to make. Surgery. An MRI yesterday showed whatever it is in her neck is not getting bigger or smaller. We had hoped that if an abscess, it was connected to the other abscess and would drain when that first one was drained. This is probably not happening. Taking pressure off the spine will help her to improve neurologically. And with the deterioration of bone and ligament and vertebrae there, she may need surgery eventually anyway to have any kind of control over her neck. But should she have it now or later? If that is an abscess back there, then she should have it now. If it's infected tissue, probably a little later, but not too much later. Tough choices. We will look at another MRI probably Tuesday and decide.

Still it's a long haul. We have to be happy with tiny little minor progress every day. We are keeping a constant vigil in the room and cheering my mother with stories and our love. But still it's a difficult time. Difficult to focus or work, though my father and I have managed to do some work...

Mom had the surgery Tuesday March 21st starting at about 2:30 p.m. I watched her fave soaps with her and then they took her down. First she was getting a trachea tube for the breathing machine to get the tubes out of her mouth, prevent further damage to the vocal cords, begin healing the sores on her lips, and to just make her more comfortable. When the ENT doc did the trach, he also drained her sinuses. All went fine. Then Hopkins did the neck surgery, taking off three and a half of the shell bones (2,3,4, and half of 5) in her back that protect the vertebrae and spinal cord. Two of these bones were "mushy," he said, from the infection. We've been trying to guess from that comment how long she many have had the infection, but it's hard to guess. There wasn't much pus in the abscess there, and so maybe most of it drained out the front. There was a lot of infected tissue, and so Hopkins cleaned out in there and sampled some for a culture. The whole process took several hours and Mom did not return to the ICU until 7:30-8-ish. Hopkins said the whole thing went swimmingly. She has stainless steel staples in the back of her very upper neck and had a drain for a while, but they took that out when no more pus drained. She now has a tube into her stomach and so has no tubes in her mouth. She woke right after the surgery and has been pretty awake and alert since then, except when too doped out on morphine or Benadryll, which they were giving her for a rash.

She can't nod to us anymore as she is in a halo collar, which she will have to wear for at least six weeks if not much longer. She may also require extra surgery to fuse cartilage (sp?) in her neck and to remove those bone spurs.

As of today, Sunday, 3/26, she started grimacing when Dad squeezed her hands, which is an EXCELLENT sign that feeling is returning to her arms and that she may move them soon. Rah rah!! ;-)

MARJORIE TOWER STATUS-ICU DAY 26

She continues to have feeling in her arms and has pain when you squeeze her too hard there. The blood pressure cuff that tightens hourly for a reading also causes her discomfort. But she's hanging in there. Still no voluntary movements in arms or legs but that will come in time, we hope and believe. Her vitals all look good. The feeling in her arms and legs makes us very hopeful that she will have fully restored movement and access to her limbs after much physical therapy. Her breaths have been reduced to four/minute and she's on 20-21% oxygen, which is room level, normal oxygen (what we breathe). We want her stepped down to two breaths/minute and thereafter none for an experimental time. That's what they do, I guess. They just shut off the breath machine and she breathes on her own without knowing that she's doing so. I mean, you don't have to be told to breathe. We had hoped they would do this yesterday, kind of a neat April Fool's trick. And if it was up to us or the respiratory therapists, it would have been done. The docs and nurses are FAR TOO cautious in this regard, IMHO. We plan to start making some noise if they have not stepped her down by Tuesday. The breath machine will not go away completely. So as not to stress her, they will keep it there and use it intermittently, work her back slowly to breathing on her own 24 hours a day. The good news is that she will be able to talk after her vocal cords heal (if they are swollen or bruised, we don't know). She may talk right away.

My sister's wedding.
There's my cousin whose Harry Potter
books helped me survive.
Yes, I sent them to her when I
was done with them.

Her other vitals, such blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, electrolytes are all great. The swelling has all come down and she looks pretty much normal. The sores around her mouth are healing rapidly, and she had an enormous bowel movement Friday, her first for the week, I believe, or at least since Monday- Tuesday. She's on 30 CCs of the Impact Two food solution and they have stepped down her TPN, which is some kind of blood sugar- glucose type goop, I think. Forgive me for not knowing ALL the details. ;-)

I have theorized that up until maybe Tuesday or Wednesday of this last week she has not been 100% conscious. I think that before her surgery she was not all the way awake. She seemed to nod distantly and her eyes did not look very alert. She still had all that infected gunk in her system and her spinal cord was under pressure, so that's no surprise. But we think she is getting better and better. She usually hates it when we have to leave for the night. But we have started to read a book to her. This is a book by a fave author of hers and is a book she anxiously awaited for a year. She received it as a gift for Christmas but hadn't finished it yet since she never takes time for herself to do things like that, like reading, which she enjoys so much. We may end up reading it more than once, as we don't know if she is always conscious, but I don't care. Anything to cheer her up.

"if you lose your faith, babe, you can have mineif you're lost, I am right behindbecause we walk the same line."-- Everything But the Girl "We Walk the Same Line" _Amplified Heart_

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR  - 82 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1312.29 - 11:54

T-shirt #282 - The Grinch

T-shirt #282 - The Grinch

What do I really need to write about The Grinch that has not been written already?

This shirt is a gift from my in-laws, Mike and Sue Creager. How they knew I did not own a Grinch shirt is a mystery to me.

It goes without saying that like most of America I adore Dr. Seuss and the Grinch. I have read and seen How the Grinch Stole Christmas at least 50 times but probably more.

I could clutter today's entry with additional content, but I want to have a short and sweet one.

In two days, I have seen two movies -- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and American Hustle -- at the new Alamo Draft House. I finished two books -- Dune Messiah and East of West. I spent quality time with the wife and our Satchel boo-boo puppy.

I am not feeling grinchy, though, because I am blessed. I feel luckier than anyone on the planet for such riches of love and happiness (and a cancer free body). I am sending vibes of love to those in need.

I am not done with the Christmas season. Work prevents too much preliminary enjoyment and anticipation, so I linger with it. I am pleased that my wife put up our tree on Thanksgiving weekend. But one year, it stayed up until late March (that's on me not her). The season gets busy, you know?

So, not so much extraneous content. Just enjoy the season. And what's more enjoyable than the Grinch (and a couple other related items that come up in the search). And so, three Grinchy videos as well as one by Aimee Mann and a fifth that Aimme Mann covered but here is done by a great children's choir plus, finally, a sixth: "Christmas Time is Here"

The Grinch Song

Aimee Mann & Grant-Lee Phillips - You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

The Grinch Ending (Original 1966)

"Whatever Happened to Christmas?"

Foundations of the Future Charter Academy SouthWest Campus 

Grade Two students song - "Whatever Happened to Christmas?"

Calgary AB. 2009

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Christmas Time is Here Song

Confession time: I have never seen the Jim Carrey How the Grinch Stole Christmas movie.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 83 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1312.28 - 18:09

T-shirt #281 - Marvel Heroes Various

T-shirt #281 - Marvel Heroes Various

Welcome again to the featured subject of my blog: comic books. I have written about comic books in at least eighty-five [85] of the two hundred and eighty one [281] posts so far posted to this blog, and not surprisingly, I still have more to say.

This is a new shirt that I bought last week at Meijer. This is just the kind of shirt I might never have bought if not for the blog and my main activity, which is writing about comic books.

Though I have written reviews of comic books, lists of favorites, weekly comic lists, and though many of my t-shirts feature comic book art and thus the subject of the blog post is that comic book or character, I have not written specifically about why I love comic books. What about comic books specifically attracts me and allures me, focuses my adoration into a thing so strong its nearly palpable. Though I may not render the full answer to this question today, I will begin to answer the question: why do I love comic books?

But first,boftasese themany of these heroes (or characters as some are villains) can you name? I think my list featured near the end of the blog is accurate, even though the pictures I am featuring do not quite display the shirt's art in a way that can be easily scrutinized in its entirety. I will include close ups of the shirt farther down in today's blog for more easy identification of these characters.

Today's blog is a comic book festival. First, I want to explore the aforementioned question of why I love comic books. I have stacks of comics that have been waiting for review, and though I will not post all of those reviews today, I wish to get started. Obviously, the shirt is part of the subject matter, and there's the weekly comics list (which is very short for this week).


WHY DO I LOVE COMIC BOOKS?

Though I wrote about the following memory yesterday, I am giving it more text time and a better featured spot here in today's content.

As a child, growing up, I always received a stack of comic books on Christmas Eve. My parents were very wise. They knew that I would sleep at best five or six hours, and I would be awake by three or four in the morning and ready, eager, basically coming out of my skin to open my Christmas presents. Their only hope of sleeping until seven a.m. was to let me open a gift of comic books the night before that I could read until the appointed time.

Though I no longer get a gift of comics to open on Christmas Eve, I still reserve special comics to read on Christmas Eve to honor this tradition.

My comic book love is rooted in childhood. My father read comic books to me before bed. My parents encouraged me to purchase my own comic books by structuring my allowance around the cost of comics and taking me to places that sold comic books. And the Christmas Eve box always increased my comic book collection exponentially. So, obviously, reading comic books takes me back to the happiest times of my life, the security of childhood and the certainty of the love of my parents. But there must be more.

If there's a thesis to this section, it would be something like: "though comic books conjure up happy memories of childhood and were encouraged by my parents, my love for the four-color stories extends to a deep affection for episodic fiction, for heroic stories, for fantastic and magical stories, and for a vast, intricate, immensely complicated tapestry of stories, characters, histories, premises, other worlds, and other dimensions."

In the ultimate analysis, comic books are simply a part of my life. I was defending my love of the soap opera The Young and the Restless twice this week. I have been sharing about it purposefully to test the pre-conceptions and assumptions people make about the things of their world. Y&R, as it's known, has been a part of my life since 1974, not as long as comic books (which I started reading in 1966), but long enough that it is a daily part of my life and a cherished part. Ultimately, these things define who we are. They become the familiar sights and sounds of our life's soundtrack and as such become immensely comforting.

Some might argue that by focusing attention on these things born from childhood that we are clinging to the past not growing, not moving on. But how are these affections different than establishing religion early in childhood, establishing a favorite sport to play, or a lifelong avocation, such as fishing? These things are not holding us back; these things are part of who we are. They are our identity. My identity is firmly rooted in popular culture and art experiences more than anything else, though these experiences are always attached to real relationships and love shared with real people, as the art works reflect those relationships and those loves.

I love comic books as an extension of the love I have for the people in my life, first and foremost, my parents. And that's truly FANTASTIC.

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS

Uncanny X-Force

Last week, I dedicated myself to some serious comic book reading during Sunday's Lions game and tackled the FIFTEEN issue backlog of Uncanny X-Force, which I completed though not until nearly ten at night, long after the game ended, and typically past my bedtime. There's nothing like reading many consecutive issues all together. The guys in the comic book store motivated me to grab the trades of the previous run of Uncanny X-Force, and though I have not read all the stuff, I liked the "Dark Angel Saga" very much. So, when Marvel rebooted with Marvel Now, I started buying the issues, and, well, that was fifteen months ago.

These issues hold up very well as one continuous story. Apparently, there are two more issues due in the run before Marvel once again reboots its line (which I must say is growing VERY tedious).



I liked these issues very much because the stories mostly centered on Psylocke (Elizabeth Braddock) who is one of my favorite X-Men, as I shared in T-shirt #218.

Actually, I read the first issue months ago, and then forgot I was buying the comic until it reached issue eight, and then I bought back issues and stashed the comic in my back log until I could catch up. There's nothing like a football game on a lazy Sunday, my typical day for R&R, to pour through a stack of comics in the back log. Maybe I should take pictures of the back log sometime just to provide perspective.

SPOILER ALERT!! If you do not want to know what happens in this comic, stop reading.

In Marvel's recent reboot of Uncanny X-Force, Sam Humphries and Ron Garney (later Adrian Alphona, Dexter Soy, and Ramon Pérez) take over from Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, and Leonardo Manco. The story telling does not suffer. Based on the back story of volume one, the first issue of the reboot starts with a framed story, Betsy Braddock with her psychic knife at the throat of her old nemesis Spiral in a crowded night club. Beautiful art by Ron Garney unfolds the back story leading to this attention-getting splash page as Wolverine kicks Psylocke out of his school and unofficially sends her after a drug cult in L.A. run by Spiral. Storm and Psylocke team up with former Alpha Flight mainstay Puck, forming the core of a new X-Force team. It turns out that Spiral is pretending to sell a drug that is actually the mutant ability of a young girl named Ginny. Meanwhile, Bishop returns from the future, and Fantomex runs through Paris with one third of his brain in the clone body of Cluster. What? That's a lot for one issue, but Humphries handles the writing deftly.

Issue #2 ratchets up the action as Storm, Psylocke, and Puck track Spiral, who has taken off with the girl, only to confront Bishop in a showdown. Bishop has been possessed by a demon bear. He defeats the X-Force and takes the girl.

Stories begin to converge in a smart lattice of plots. The focus of the issues is clearly on Betsy. Issue Three starts with background about the onset of Psylocke's powers as a young woman and more about her relationship with Fantomex (detailed in Uncanny X-Force volume one) that ended in Fantomex having his brain split in three parts and deposited in three clone bodies. Also, Betsy's thirst for vengeance against Spiral who tortured her at the behest of Mojo (lots of X-Men back story) is a continuing theme, especially since Spiral was as much a victim of Mojo as Betsy, and she is trying to change her life and atone for her sins. Meanwhile, Fantomex and Cluster are en route to save Psylocke from Dark Fantomex.

The story becomes further complicated as Betsy ventures into Bishop's mind and discovers that he has been hunting a revenant that hid in his mind to travel back to our present from the far future and sneak out to possess Ginny. Issue five takes place almost wholly in Bishop's mind as Psylocke and Storm learn of his mission to seek out and destroy revenants while Puck and Spiral bond, and in the end Cluster kidnaps Betsy. Issue Six takes place primarily in Betsy's mind as she has a psychic conference with Wolverine, and we learn she absorbed the demon bear, who is now her docile comrade, after healing it while in Bishop's mind.
Still with me?

Betsy and Spiral have their reckoning, and Betsy lets Spiral go; in the end, she agrees to help Cluster rescue Fantomex from Dark Fantomex, also known as Weapon XIII (which is a much more interesting name than "Dark Fantomex"). As the rescue is underway, the story details Betsy's time in Paris with Fantomex and Cluster after the original Fantomex's brain was split in three and deposited in three clones. This time in Betsy's life was alluded to as something she didn't want to discuss in issue one, setting up for the eventual payoff. These issues are the ones I love best as they are all about Psylocke, Elizabeth Braddock. Have I mentioned how she is one of my favorite X-characters? Yeah. So this was great stuff. Issues seven through nine are my favorites of the run so far because of the focus on Betsy and her relationship with all three Fantomexes. Humphries shows excellent sense of how to give a story its final moment, such as the end of issue nine as Betsy flies home after her confrontation with Weapon XIII.  In true comic book fashion, after the final moment with Betsy, the issue ends with the lead in for the next story arc with the culmination of the Revenant Queen story.

Starting with issue ten, the Revenant Queen story is not as strong as the previous work as  Ramon Pérez is no Ron Garney  or Adrian Alphona and Dexter Soy. The art is not bad; it's just a little lacking in some ways, though Ramon Pérez is very good with revenants and with the psychic nightmare blasts of the Revenant Queen's blood poison. The Revenant versions of Storm, Psylocke, and Puck are very well rendered by Ramon Pérez, and Humphries' story telling remains strong. Bishop saves the rest of the team in issue eleven and Spiral returns to help defeat the Revenant Queen in issue twelve. Alphona returns on issue twelve, and the art/story blend sees improvement. Issue twelve features some much needed back story and character development for Spiral and ends with the BIGGEST reveal of the series: the Revenant Queen is really Cassandra Nova, the evil twin of Charles Xavier who died in vitro. (Okay, that's a simplification of Cassandra Nova's origin and identity. So if you want the full story check the link.)

Art duties switch to Phil Briones and Angel Unzueta in issue thirteen as the Uncanny X-Force fights Cassandra Nova, who is attempting to turn the world into a playground, a living Hell, for her horde of demonic revenants. In the final showdown, Nova offers Betsy Braddock her original body in exchange for her allegiance, as Nova needs all the psychics she can get to continue her destruction of the world. Humphries creates a great sign of Cassandra Nova's dominance of the world: once the moon turns completely red with blood, all is lost. Throughout the story, the blood creeps more and more over the moon. But before Psylocke and the team can defeat Cassandra Nova, they are flung into the Underworld. The Demon Bear factors into the resolution of this predicament. To trap the Revenant Queen, a psychic must die. In the end, Psylocke kills her former self, her original body, concluding with the line "I will make my own happiness" as she skewers her former self. Thus, her story line, her angst over being a killer, her desire for a "normal" life, reaches a climax. The Demon Bear is trapped with Cassandra "beyond the veil." But it's not all over yet! The last panel of issue fifteen sets up the next issues as Bishop expresses anger at how his memories were tampered with.

I am glad to be caught up on this excellent story and look forward to the next two issues.

Since I wrote so much about Uncanny X-Force, I am going to stop my reviews now. This is plenty of content.

LISTS OF SUPERHEROES - today's shirt

Image below, left to right starting at the very top: Top Row: The Blob, ?? Hank Pym??/The Original Human Torch, Union Jack, ??Thunderbird??, Hercules. Second Row: Northstar, Atlas, Speedball, Songbird, Radioactive Man, the Hulk, and Deadpool. Third Row: Nick Fury, Stature (Cassie Lang), The Thing, Luke Cage, Silver Surfer, Black Bolt, Jessica Jones??, Falcon, Black Cat.

L-R: Hulkling, Namor, The Human Torch (FF), Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), Spider-Man, Daredevil, Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), Iron Man.
Next Row L-R: Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Wiccan, Captain America, She-Hulk, and Wolverine.

In the image below, I am stumped on the character in the upper right corner below Falcon and the Black Cat and above Doctor Strange and Nova.
L-R: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Mister Fantastic, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Doctor Strange, Unknown??, Nova.

L-R in below: Patriot, Sentry, She-Hulk.
Next: NightCrawler, IceMan, Professor X, Cyclops.

Previously named heroes in below, so starting with Punisher, Black Widow, Dagger, Cloak, Sasquatch, and at the very bottom in the white hood: MOONKNIGHT.

WEEKLY COMICS LIST

It's a very small list this week. No back log at all. I have already read all three of these comics, though I am not reviewing them here today. I am planning another massive comic books and football fest on Sunday. In fact, unlike past days of R&R, I plan to spend nearly all day on the couch with the dog, comic books, and football games. I will have more to report after Sunday.

COMICS FOR 1312.24

Forever Evil #4
Justice League #26
Avengers #024.NOW (Rogue Planet #1)

Bought For Piper: Harley Quinn #0

LYING CAT T-SHIRT

COMIC BOOK COVER GALLERY - ASSORTED

Here's some covers that have been clogging up my t-shirt blog folder and I just feel like sharing. I am all about sharing comic book art if you haven't noticed. I will try to add useful captions.

A great site for comic book art and reading about comics is PENCIL&INK BLOG. I have added it to my daily feed. FOLLOW. It's worth it. (Unless you don't like comics.)

Adam Strange is DC's SF revision
of John Carter of Mars. He's among my
favorite non-Franchise heroes.

This is a UK edition, but it's still among my favorite covers from
the 1970s. I own it. Though technically, it does not qualify for "oldest" category.
Mike Ploog art but looks a little like Gil Kane.

Another comic I own. Prepare for a Mister Miracle love fest.
I have a shirt. This is Marshall Rodgers. Superb.

Another comic I own. Great Kirby stuff.
I did not follow the New Gods as closely
when the issues came out, but I am a huge fan now.

Jim Starlin's WARLOCK
More to come on possibly my favorite
Marvel non-Franchise hero.

Thank you to Brian Bendis for sharing this via Tumblr
as a Christmas treat.

Starlin on Warlord? Yes.
Looks a lot like Grell.
LOVED this comic.

Mike Ploog - good stuff

Considered a top ten Neal Adams cover,
I don't think I own this one, but I like it.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 84 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1312.27 - 20:03
final publication - 1312.28 - 9:43

T-shirt #280: Israel

T-shirt #280: Israel

Grading robot powered down for two days for the holidays despite the looming final grade deadline Friday morning (12/27). I am happy to report that Grading Robot is once again powering down. This is the only time in the year that all work for which Grading Robot is needed ceases until January 13th. One school commences on Janury sixth with the other following on the 13th, but Grading Robot will not be needed for the first school until the 13th. Thus, the greatest vacation of the year for Grading Robot begins with a full ELEVEN days of no work and an eighteen day period of partial work. Grading Robot will not be at full power again until the week of January 20th, which happens to be the day after my birthday. So my birthday sort of signals the end of my full work vacation.

To celebrate the time off, I plan to spend time with the wife and kids, see movies, finish some household projects, help the parents, and most importantly host my best friend who will be here for five days of GAMING EXCELLENCE in January. Thus, it is fitting that this Israel shirt was gift from said best friend, Tom Meyers, better known as the Lord of Chaos.

It's rather interesting that this shirt is a 3XL, but it fits like a regular XL.

I am not interested in defending any political affinity with Israel or justifying any actions of this country or lack of actions. I like the shirt because I have always felt an affinity with the Jewish people, which is more interesting when recently my wife expressed interest in attending Temple. I like the shirt because Israel is the home of the holy lands of many people. And despite the country's actions toward Palestine and other actions or lack of actions in the area, I have always been rather pro-Israel because I have always felt very pro-Jewish. However, I am aware that there are many issues about which people would argue against showing pictures of myself in this shirt let alone with the Israeli flag (also a gift from the LOC) or of me in the shirt wearing my Hebrew Detroit Tigers cap (says DETROIT in Hebrew).

I have already featured Hebrew shirts on this blog:

T-shirt #3: Michigan in Hebrew

T-shirt #40: Indiana University in Hebrew

Mainly, I thought this would be a good shirt for me to share many pictures of my Christmas celebration with my birth family: my parents, my sister, Lori, and her husband Noel. Liesel always works on Christmas, and the kids are with their Dad, which is why pictures of our Christmas were posted with Christmas Eve, the day we celebrate.

Today is just pictures and text, some in captions and some not. You will see (as you did with T-shirt #278 - Three Wise Men? Be Serious) some previews of shirts to come as they were given to me as gifts. With birthday coming (January 19th in case you were thinking of gifting me a T-shirt), I think I am going to finish the blog year with enough shirts. But we shall see. I am trying to assemble another "break" from the blog in which I post shirts about which I have little to say while my friend is visiting (five days). So be prepared for light content that week. I still have much Pathfinder to prepare even though I am using modules.

Back to comic books tomorrow. Huzzah!

By the way, yesterday's post (which had its final publication today on the 26th) has become immensely popular very quickly, and I think more because it's about my wife and my wedding and not so much because it's about thirtysomething, too.

Onto my Christmas picture gallery. As always, thanks for reading.

CHRISTMAS PICTURE GALLERY - 2013 - TOWER HOUSE - PATTIWOOD

One of the purposes of this blog is a review of my geeky past. One of my fondest memories of Christmases past is my ever-burning, constantly yearning, and all-consuming desire for the toys for Big Jim's P.A.C.K. in 1976. I have found some BIG JIM shirts, so I am planning more BIG JIM content in the new year. I just wanted to share one of the best example of Christmas dreams. For at least a month in 1976, I dreamed of the stories I could make, the fun I could have, with these toys. These are definitely some of the coolest toys from my childhood.

It's important to toast with fine spirits during any holiday celebration. Liesel gave me a special bottle of Kentucky bourbon, 1792, for Christmas, and so here we are toasting and sampling this fine beverage.
I had seconds as seen below.

My mother loves Christmas. The Christmases of my childhood were magical and extra special. My mother devoted herself to so much shopping in the months prior to Christmas, carefully budgeting and yet buying many little things that showed how well she knew her children, that Christmas was all the more extra special because it was a living example of her love. Our stockings were "works of art," as my sister called them. She would carefully select very large and choice apples and oranges (one each) along with small toys and special doo-dads that she knew we would love. Some of these things we had asked for. Other things she found in her endless and months long shopping excursions.

One of my fondest memories of Christmas is that every year my mother would assemble a box of school supplies for us: pens, notepads, stamps, bookmarks, paper clips, folders, and so much more. All these items were lovingly selected to fit our personalities and interests. Often, this meant she had to go many places. Continuing the tradition while we were in college and after college, she would have to plan ahead. For my sister's box, she would have to make sure to buy University of Michigan stuff during a trip to Ann Arbor sometime that year. The thoughtfulness and love expressed by these boxes was a huge influence on the person I am today as I try to live up to my mother's example.

My Dad is the one mainly responsible for my love of comic books. Every year I would receive a large box of comic books on Christmas Eve. The tradition continued with my sister once she was born and old enough for comics. Knowing we would wake up in the middle of the night, my parents wisely let us open the comic book box the night before so we would have comics to read in the middle of the night when we were too excited to sleep anymore. We were not allowed to wake our parents until 7 a.m.

My Dad has been loving Christmas more and more lately, especially since my sister and I are both married and on our own. Also, BTW, the shirt he is wearing was originally mine and I give it to him because he likes red shirts so much. I have been keeping it in reserve, intending to use his shirts, the ones I gave him, in case I needed to round out my year of T-shirts with ones in his closet.

Tried to get a good picture of Princess, my Mom and Dad's cat, who doesn't remember me anymore, even though I used to feed her and clean her litter.

This is shirt with a special embroidered design. That's my father's logo for his architecture business.

My father asked us to get him scotch whisky but not to spend more than $30. Silly rabbit.

Great T-shirt gift!! Soon to be featured on the blog. And by soon, I mean before March 22.

My sister and Noel laughing that I now give them cards with dogs on the front because I am now a dog person as well as a cat person.

Another AWESOME T-shirt gift. The image comes from Kate Bush's The Dreaming. Don't worry. I will write about it.

My sister is thrilled to receive this special Vera Bradley purse.

My sister is also very happy here with this set of nested measuring cups shaped like a kitty cat.

Here's the Christmas tree (above) and the Christmas Village (below) all lovingly and carefully decorated and assembled by my sister who helps to keep the Christmas traditions our mother set and perpetuated alive and well. She also made cookies (not pictured) and a pecan pie.

Updates on 1312.29 from my Dad's camera. To start, a great picture of my mother laughing with chocolate on her lips.

I love page-a-day calendars. I have been disappointed this year with the Intellectual one I have. I currently run two, a word of the day one and the intellectual's checklist. At one time, I had five, so I have cut back to two.

More previews of shirts to come. When I started the blog, I soon realized that there were dear popular culture products that I wanted to write about. Can you guess which one this is in the photo below?

I mentioned Pogo in my Calvin and Hobbes post (T-shirt #122) since Walt Kelly was such a huge influence and Watterson and so many others. My brother-in-law pointed out that Pogo has been accused of containing racist content. However, in the Wikipedia entry for POGO (linked here), the word racism does not appear. A Google search did discover one lone book by some academic nerd who sees racism and sexism in every strip and obviously misses the point. I love POGO, and I have since I was a kid.

In addition to using page-a-day calendars and an engagement calendar, I have two wall calendars, though I may reduce this number to one. Here's the one for 2014.

Good times were had by all.

If it's not obvious, I love my family very much. Happy holidays to all, and thank you for reading.

COUNTDOWN TO THE END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 85 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published 1312.26 - 20:06
final publication - 1312.27 - 9:59
update - 1312.29 - 8:47