What Kind of Bird Snuff Film Is This?

Note that this is not the recommended way to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day, but you can't deny that this image is difficult to ignore. I would like to wish certain members of fandom that shall remain nameless a great day!

Speaking of unpleasant things, today is National Charlie Day so maybe we could celebrate by not calling Upchuck by his usual nickname. Then again, if he decides to observe National DJ Day as well, then I make no promises.

In fact, once Upchuck turns his personality on overdrive it might be best for everyone else to celebrate Take A Walk Outdoors Day. I'm sure Mr. DeMartino will be happy to join in, because he's always up for a hike!

Fanfic Update!

• Casual, by janendaria4life (COMPLETE!): "It was somewhere around dusk and Lawndale's spoiled rich boy, Tom Sloane, parked his shitty car in front of the curb of Casa Lane."


• I (Don't) Want to Be a Part of It, by ladyevil (COMPLETE!): "It took a couple of group therapy sessions and hours of debate, but Daria, Quinn and Helen found that there was one thing they could agree on. They all liked to watch The Saturday Sinful Cinema with Lazarus."


• Mysteries of Aurora, by cfardell_Brenorenz29 (part 8): "Freya burst out of her room shortly after 8 o'clock. 'Today is a new day!'"


• Spider Quinn 13 Aftermath and Investigations, by cfardell_Brenorenz29 (COMPLETE!): "Quinn felt the tingle as she entered the dining room, where Daria had laid out the documents she had obtained with the fourth vigilante two nights before."


• Teddy the Time Bomb, by wilddogjj (COMPLETE!): "Teddy was now stuck in the principal's office because he'd written a short story for language arts that the teacher found disturbing." (Part 3)

Sandi's Looking Especially Fowl Today

Yes, Sandi, everyone is paying attention to you for Penguin Awareness Day, but it's not the attention you think it is. It's not because you look particularly stylish, although that tuxedo is pretty sharp. No, it's because everyone is wondering why you let Dr. Shar go full-on Dr. Moreau. It's...terrifying.

I suggest shaking off that horrific image and enjoying National Cheese Lover Day instead. Jake might even dust off his squirrel impression and declare "Gimme cheese! I want cheese!"

I hope Upchuck knows that it's not only National Charlie Day, but National DJ Day as well! He should go put on some tunes, especially because if he's manning the DJ booth then he can't interact with anyone.

Fandom News!

• Voting is open for the Daria Fanworks Awards: Written Works and Visual Works.


• muireannwolfsbane wonders, what if one of Jake's siblings was disabled?

"I'm not a man, dude, I'm a rocker!"

While flipping through the pages of the MTV Daria site, I came across Rock and Roll Randy's cameo, where he introduces other obscure background characters from the series, who were all deleted when their flipbooks were discontinued, so only he and a handful of others survive. (Randy's moniker is variously written as Rock 'N Roll, Rock & Roll, Rock-and-Roll, etc., but MTV seems to have liked "Rock and Roll," so we'll go with that.)

Randy actually shows up quite a few times in the series, judging from the episode synopses on Outpost Daria. He shows up in "Malled" (on the Mall of the Millennium trolley behind Daria and Jane), "The Big House" (in the roller hockey game, where he gets punched out by Barch after he knocks down DeMartino), "I Loathe a Parade" (kissing Dr. Shar, of all people), and apparently appears in "That Was Then, This Is Dumb," "A Tree Grows in Lawndale," and "Mart of Darkness," but I am not sure where. He even gets his own alter-ego picture as a scorpion-man, probably Scorpio from the incomplete astrological-sign series of alter egos from one of the two surviving the MTV.com flipbooks. He looks like your basic balding overweight middle-aged classic-rock DJ, undoubtedly working at an AM or FM station in Lawndale itself. A wild and crazy guy, at least in his own mind.

A search with Google doesn't reveal any fanfiction written about Randy whatsoever. Ruthless Bunny did an excellent job writing about either Bing or Spatula Man in one short story, but Randy (and his romance, or whatever it is, with Dr. Shar) remains untouched. Can this possibly be true? Is there nothing more to say about him?