The Duo That Was Not to Be

What if Daria had been about Daria Morgendorffer and her best friend, Jodie Landon, and they had been transferred from a regular high school to a private prep school called Grove Hills? Interesting take on the old formula. "Gifted" aired for the first time 11 years ago today.

ADDED NOTE: Ajar is writing a story very similar to the above, called "Regifted." My fault for not mentioning it earlier. It is excellent and entirely worth your time to read. Enjoy.

Today is the 89 anniversary of Ray Harryhausen's birthday. If you don't know who he is, that is sad. There's an MTV alter ego of Helen Morgendorffer as one of his creations, the snake-haired Medusa from Clash of the Titans. I got to see the master of stop-motion animation a few years ago at a fan convention, and it was awesome.

Oh, today is also the 53rd birthday of the Interstate system! Hooray! And this is post #1,200 of the blog.

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Clash of the Legal Titans

In a way, this one works for me, too. Helen is Medusa, from the great Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animated movie, Clash of the Titans. (See the relevant clip here. Pure awesomeness.) A full-size replica of that serpentine archer monster is shown here, from a recent ComicCon. (Ignore the wacky guys in the foreground. I don't know them.) The original movie model is here. A model kit of this figure was released by Geometric.

A lot of data, yeah, but this picture is sort of a sci-fi/horror/fantasy icon nowadays. Helen would have trouble dressing up like this, but it would be so cool if she did.