X Stands for "The Lawndale File"

We need more Artie fics, I was just thinking. Let's see, ten years ago exactly, "The Lawndale File" was released from its cage on MTV. I wrote a bit about this last year. Not sure how many more Daria fanfics or fanfic concepts were spawned from this episode. Anyone have any favorites? (I liked this one.) There was a naughty story based on Artie and the aliens, I recall, but we won't go there. If someone could fix up the appropriate page in DariaWiki, we would all be very grateful.

Going to the Midwest US Dariacon? Check here!

What else is going on... the President of the United States turns 48 today. Many more happies to you.

Ninety-seven years ago today, a man was born in Sweden who had a mostly obscure and unremarkable life until he saw people around him being persecuted, hounded, forced into railroad cars to be taken away to death camps. He then did a very remarkable thing: he began saving people. No one can say how many Hungarian Jews Raoul Wallenberg rescued from certain death, though it is in the tens of thousands at least. Thank you for everything.

Oh! And who could forget Saint Sithney, whose feast day this is? Someone really needs to write a story about this Saints' Day Holiday from Holiday Island High School. He is really and truly the patron saint of mad dogs. That's what I said. Perhaps he is still trying to heal Jake Morgendorffer's emotional trauma from this mad dog.

Moar 2 kumm. Stae toond. Oh! Right, someone asked for a link to that alter ego of Daria as a motorcyclist. Here it is. It was part of a screensaver posted on The N's website once. I used it as "D-Day" Morgendorffer, but it is exactly the same pic. Enjoy.

Trike Girl Strikes Again!

One of the most striking characters in the musical episode "Daria!" is the one I call Trike Girl, a pigtailed preschooler on a Big Wheel pedaling fearlessly around Lawndale just before and after the hurricane passes by.

Trike Girl manages to insinuate herself in other episodes as well. She stands near Daria and Ms. Li on the sidelines of the parade in "I Loathe a Parade," and sits behind Jake Morgendorffer in a movie theater in "Aunt Nauseam," throwing popcorn at him when he acts up. Her high pigtails make her stand out in any scene. Why would anyone suspect that she is anything other than a sweet little girl?

Because she opens and closes the insane episode "Daria!" with her appearances, for one thing. She never seems to have been afraid one bit, nor did she seem to go home at any time during the hurricane. Coincidence? I think not. Also, Big Wheels were generally out of production in the 1990s. Where'd she get hers? She first appears (so far as I know) in the third season, when things got really out of whack. Remember the Good Time Chinese restaurant? Could she be a supernatural godlike invader from another dimension, prowling Lawndale for her amusement? Is she just "slumming" around town on her trike, playing tricks on mortals? What secret agenda does she really have? Was it she who brought Tom Sloane in to ruin Daria and Jane's friendship?

Post your thoughts and suspicions here. Let the world know.

Maybe Ms. Li Was Right After All

Is Principal Angela Li paranoid, or is the universe really out to get her and her school? Let's review the evidence. In the space of Daria's three years at Lawndale High School, the facility undergoes numerous scandals and traumas, to include (among other things):

• Roller hockey game between faculty and DJs turns violent ("The Big House")
• Death of a locally famous alumni in a freak accident on the football field ("The Misery Chick")
• Sabotage at a student art show ("Arts 'N Crass")
• Collapse of the library roof ("Fair Enough")
• Food poisoning in the student cafeteria ("Groped by an Angel")
• Near disaster from hurricane ("Daria!")
• Brief invasion by extradimensional beings ("Depth Takes a Holiday")
• Quarterback injured, rumors of school haunting, disastrous football season ("A Tree Grows in Lawndale")
• Teacher arrested under false pretenses during a secret government investigation ("The Lawndale File")
• Near disaster on nighttime school outing: passenger ship collides with a barge and sinks ("Just Add Water")
• Near disaster on daytime school outing: lost in mountains during a blizzard ("Antisocial Climbers")
• County-wide budget shortfall crisis leads to an unwise endorsement contract that causes the football team to sicken and Ms. Li to go temporarily insane and attack soda machines with a fire axe ("Fizz Ed")
• Teachers' strike leads to incompetent teachers, pedophiles, and high-school students being used as substitutes ("Lucky Strike")

To the above, let's add:

• DeMartino's previous heart attack during roller-hockey game ("The Big House")
• Football coach convicted of kickback scheme (The Daria Diaries)
• Grade-fixing scandal that resulted in graduating seniors being removed from college and sent back to LHS for remedial classes (The Daria Diaries)

Doesn't this compendium of angst seem a little excessive? (Not by my standards, of course. I meant by your standards.) Maybe LHS was built over an ancient Indian burial ground or something, who knows. Ms. Li's precautions don't look so crazy in this light, do they? She never knew what was coming next and tried to prepare for anything. Sounds smart to me.