BOOM! Good morning, Earth! This is your wake-up call!

Was there ever a story about Lawndale getting hit by a giant asteroid or meteor? I keep thinking there was, but most of the fandom talk about it was from the early 2000's, kind of a joke meme. But did someone ever write something like that? Maybe an old timer can clue me in.

Today is the 7th anniversary of the Eastern Mediterranean Event, which is why I was wondering. It appears to have been an impact event, one of those little reminders that the cosmos is very big and we are very small and easily stepped on. Still pretty cool, though.

Today is also the 70th anniversary of the declared death of Judge Crater, a well-known New York City judge who vanished without a trace in 1930. There is considerable controversy over his disappearance, and at one time it was considered a sensational mystery story. His name, along with those of writer Ambrose Bierce and pilot Amelia Earhart, has become synonymous with missing persons in general. Were Eric Schrecter to vanish in a similar way, would anyone care?

What if it was Helen Morgendorffer?

PPMB

• Expecting Trouble, by Legendeld (Part 9): Helen Morgendorffer didn’t hear her youngest daughter enter the kitchen but when she finally noticed Quinn standing at the age of the nook bar looking at her, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the redhead had been standing there for a long time. She pushed the paperwork away from her and tried to give a smile that she hoped wouldn’t be more of a grimace.
• Falling Into College 68: Judging January, by Richard Lobinske (Part 2): "At least I stopped sleeping with the knife under my pillow." "That's because I kept bumping it in the middle of the night and you moved it to your nightstand." "It's progress." [Plus, Michael screws the pooch and brings out Daria's inner b-word. Stay tuned.]
  
• Lawndale's Finest: The Dark Knight, by NightGoblyn (Chapter 4, Part 5): The rough surface of the rooftop crunched as Robin settled herself down to peer over the low safety wall at the edge. She tapped the side of her goggles the way she’d been shown to activate the zoom function, and then carefully scanned the shipping yard across the street. The stench of the industrial park was stupendous, but she wasn’t going to let that dim her high spirits.
  
  

Daria's Magnum Look, Courtesy of Tom . . . Tom Selleck, That Is

The title sounds like a pun on something from Zoolander, but it's not quite that bad. One segment of Daria's dream in "Murder, She Snored" spoofed the 1980s TV series Magnum, P.I., which starred Tom Selleck as a Hawaiian private eye. (Tom is on the right.) Tom Selleck was famed for wearing brilliantly colored shirts on the show, and in the MPI segment Daria wears one, too.

What's funny, at least to me, is that Daria (in a cleaned-up screen-cap at left) looks pretty good in a bright Hawaiian shirt, with a white tee underneath, of course. Not the first thing I would have thought of for an alternative look on her.

Daria if living in Hawaii or the West Coast? Daria on spring break from college? You decide. And do some more fan art of Daria in some different clothing, we could use a break from that green jacket.

[Oops, I was going to post this yesterday but fell asleep instead. Here it is anyway, a day late. I'll add some more to it, then.]

In other news, Richard Lobinske, Brother Grimace, Roentgen, Ranchoth, and others continue to expand the ever-expanding expanse of the expansive envelope of DariaWiki. Richard added a new category that will be of good use: Canon Media. All the publications and mass media from the show can be listed here, though SSW is missing. Hmmm. Maybe "media" is print media only.

CINCGREEN has begun a new series on his blog, examining the "storytelling engine" of Daria. Excellent reading of the cerebral kind, what this fandom needs. (I'm not particularly good at doing this myself, so I love seeing it.)

Got a bunch of useless Daria screen captures and other images laying around on your hard drive, doing nothing? Upload them to the Images section of the Daria Fan Club.

Reese Kaine reminds us that the Daria Sounds Archive is still alive and well, with some of the funniest things NOT heard on TV. Check it out. The question-and-answer stuff is hysterical.

On PPMB, Wouter has posted a picture showing Daria as normally seen and Daria in his manga style. Nice work.

More "Computer Freebies" added at left, near the bottom: wallpaper, icons, etc.

Last, but hardly least, a new T-shirt that has appeared on the market . . . oh, my.