January 2007 Archives

Mobile phone carriers make a lot of money from customers who use their 411 service. LiveSource, a company that handles directory assistance services for the major carriers, answers a billion 411 calls per year. They charge a couple of bucks every time you use the service, and if you use it once or twice a day, it can really rack up your phone bill.

I never dial 411. Whether I’m on a landline or my mobile, I dial 1-800-free-411, an advertising-sponsored directory assistance service. It’s worth it to me to listen to a 12-second advertisement before getting the number I need.

Besides 1-880-free-411, you can use a similar service, 1-800-411-metro.

Walt Disney's early cartoons are funny, innovative, and delightful. I bought the two-DVD Silly Symphonies when my first daughter was a baby and she still enjoys watching them with me. It's no longer in production, but you can buy it for about $90 on Amazon.

Fortunately, Disney just released More Silly Symphonies, and the cartoons on this set are just as good as the ones on the first. Over a dozen of the cartoons here have never been released on DVD or video before. For a little more that $20 bucks, you get over five hours of wonderful entertainment.
$22.95 on Amazon.com

A giant-sized full-color tribute to on on America's comic geniuses, MAD-creator Harvey Kurtzman. This 150-page plus book has interviews with Kurtzman about his early EC comic work (particularly his excellent war comics, which are the only war-comics I can bear to read), his MAD, days, his ill-fated but brilliant magazines, Trump and Help, and his work with Playboy (including Little Annie Fanny).

The seventh volume in this distinguished series focuses entirely on one of comics’ most esteemed and influential creators: artist, writer and, editor Harvey Kurtzman, whose complete Comics Journal interviews are collected in this oversized, lavishly illustrated full-color edition. Every stage of Kurtzman’s landmark career is represented, beginning with his entry into comics via superhero stories for Ace from 1943-46 (Mr. Risk, Lash Lightning), World War II-era Army cartoons, early humor work for Timely and Toby Press (Rusty, Pig Tales, Genius, and Hey Look!), his first collaborations with John Severin and Will Elder at Prize Comics Western, and, of course, his groundbreaking period at EC as editor of Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat and Mad. Kurtzman’s undeservedly lesser known post-Mad career at Trump, Humbug, and Help! is also given its due and examined in depth. What makes this volume particularly noteworthy is the obscurities unearthed from Kurtzman’s solo freelance career – from Children’s Digest, Pageant, U.S. Crime, Varsity and Why – most of which haven’t been seen since their original publication. All of which illustrate the most informative and compelling interviews with Kurtzman ever published.

$14.16 on Amazon

Written for kids 11 and older, Tales of the Cryptids is a joyful, non-scary introduction to cryptozoology. It is realistic, non-sensational, and hopeful. My 9-year-old daughter and I marveled at the heavily-illustrated pages about Bigfoot, sasquatches, yetis, and the Loch Ness Monster, as well as animals I've never heard of, such as ngume-monene, komgamato, and mapinguari. What a fun way to inspire a sense of wonder in your kids and yourself. $13.45 on Amazon.com

Published in the form of a leather-bound hymnal or sacred text, The Book of Secrets is filled with short, little-known facts an anecdotes on science, sex, politics, history, and other subjects. The first entry in the book shares 10 secrets for "attracting beautiful women," followed by the "secret German link between Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and The Beatles."

I enjoyed the "secret tricks of the trade" section. Here's a trick for an actor: "A wise old actor once told Michael Caine, 'don't act like a drunk man. Act like a drunk man trying to be sober.'"

Some of the entries can hardly be considered secrets, but they're entertaining nonetheless.

$11.66 on Amazon.com