Jake in the Winner's Circle

Today marks the annual running of The Oaks at Churchill Downs, the big race between fillies just one day before the Kentucky Derby. And, of course, Helen Morgendorffer is the filly to beat! (That was not meant to be a joke about the riding crop Jake is holding. But maybe it is.) Whew, is it getting hot in here, or is that picture smokin'?

Tonight, however, is Walpurgis Night, Europe's version of Halloween. Hence we use the Three Js as the witches from Macbeth. (Yet another Shakespeare reference!)

Thanks to Pinhead for the big images. Stay tooned, more to come later.

LATE NOTE: Just because I want to, here is a small tribute to the best horse ever born. I loved this guy. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, Back in Highland....

A Very Special Christmas with Beavis and Butt-head.

Go. Hurry. Do it now, before it's gone.

And when you're done....

Want a sleigh full of major-league Christmas fanfic to read? Outpost Daria has it! Thank you, webmaestro Martin Pollard!

Oh, the Horror, the Horror!

PPMB and SFMB are both down, so if you want to chat about anything, you may do so here in Comments. Have at it. I'll ramble on about nothing, after I get back from going out, and maybe the other guys who can post here will do so too, if they know what's good for them.

Brand New Caption Contest!!!!1111!1!!11!1!

Put your caption(s) in the Comments section! Have fun!
(bonus points for sheer rudeness)

A Very Special Mother-Daughter Moment

Had to give one this its own blog post.

PPMB

• John Lane 39: Leaving Summer, by Richard Lobinske (Part 3): "Mom got a little carried away in reminiscing about the past and… I don't think I can ever look at a banana split the same way again."

Breasts We Don't Ever Want to Think About

Anyone who has ever studied, and I mean really closely studied cartoon breasts knows that there are certain limits beyond which the sane mind will never go. In the interests of furthering the cause of science, we present two such examples here. Do not stare at them for too long! You will not go blind, but you will wish you had. Or maybe you will go blind, who knows. Just be careful.

The image of Ms. Li, by the way, was inspired by U.S. soccer star Brandi Chastain, who performed a similar victory celebration in 1999 in the Women's World Cup. [Heh heh heh, women's cup, heh heh heh]

Dariaverse.com has updated. Lots of new fanfiction there. If you have some spare fanfiction lying around your hard drive, send it on! Lawndale Online has also been updated with "Calling Calliope," by Dennis. All stories have previously appeared elsewhere, but they're good for the gettin'.

Prince Charon's Iron Chef, Daria is Raven's Apprentice, has gathered a remarkable number of responses, all of them highly amusing.

Disco316, Brother Grimace, Dennis, and BlackHole continue to labor on DariaWiki, with great results. Latest page: Ken Edwards, about whom much more could be said. Why were pedophiles supposed to be funny on that show? This issue has already been talked to death, so no more here. Oh, well.

This is about the time of year that this story takes place. A golden oldie, one of my favorites.

Gene has started a PPMB thread about Nicely Turned Phrases in Daria Fics. Contribute your own favorites.

NEW! On the Backgrounders website, Moe, Tall Goth Girl, and Brown Blouse have been updated. Anyone using them in a fanfic, let me know!

Anyway, now it's time to list some fanfiction that's popped up in the last few days.

PPMB

• Acts of Cupidity, by Disco316 (Parts 1 and 2): A response to WacoKid's Iron Chef: Valentine’s Day’s hand slapped around on the clock/radio until it found the snooze button. He rolled over in bed, his head throbbing. He was about to drift back to sleep when the sound of his phone ringing snapped him out of unconsciousness. He grabbed the receiver off his nightstand and thumbed it on. “Mmmmhhhh, hello?”
  
• Knockin' on Heaven's Gate, by HeirOfNorton (Parts 1 and 2): This is a revised version of an older story, "Between the Lives." It picks up from the end of "Esteemsters" and picks up with Joey's point of view, then with Helen's. Good stuff!
• Turnabout Confusion Part II: All The King's Horses, by Dennis (continued): Skylar Feldman was annoyed. Oh, he hid his irritation behind his usual facade of insouciance, striding down the halls of Lawndale High like he owned them and was only deigning to go to homeroom for reasons of his own, but he kept replaying last night in his mind. How dare a nonentity like Jane Lane turn me down. As far as the rest of the school would know, she hadn't, but Skylar was one to brood on insults.
• An Unexpected View, by Paisleygal (Part 1): As she approached the reception desk, a handsome young man came over to greet her. “Ms. Morgendorffer, we’ve been expecting you. Welcome to the MT Towers. My name is Jeffrey, and I am here to help you.”

Jake: What if he was YOUR father?

This being Jake's fandom birthday, let's look into his role as a cartoon father.

What did Daria and Quinn think about their father? I'm not sure what Quinn thought, but Daria found him both embarrassing ("One J at a Time") and, oddly, heroic ("Of Human Bonding").

We talk about Jake in a distant sort of way, because he's a cartoon dad, but let's make it more personal: What if Jake had been your father? Put yourself in a teenager's position once again, and ask yourself, how would you have handled that?

To be fair, I'll go first. I would have been embarrassed to death. As a teen I was already known to my family as "Mole Man" because I so rarely came out of my room in the basement (severe introversion), but with Jake around, I would have become The Invisible Man. I'm sorry, but the heroic part of Jake, fighting off his own demons, would not have become obvious to me until decades later after I had kids, too.

Quinn appeared to handle this by keeping her parents away from her friends and her friends away from her parents, and everything was fine. Daria had only one friend most of the time, and Jane was around Jake about as much as Daria was. (Misery loves company.) Daria did not want Tom to be around Jake, especially after Jake's awful attempt at a joke on insider trading (and the squirrel thing, too). Come to think of it, Quinn did the same thing, leaving the house as soon as her date arrived.

Your turn. Jake is your old man. How would you deal?

OTHER NEWS: Latest addition to DariaWiki: Maine Escape, one of many new entries from the great and powerful Dr. Mike! Thank you!

How Disaster Looks in Animation

"I kissed Tom." Jane hears the words she's dreaded all along. Her instincts were correct: she was about to be betrayed by the two people she trusted most. Bang. It is the only time in the series that Jane cries, yet you never see her actually do it. You only see the instant before it happens.

This moment of animation caught my attention because, just from looking at Jane's eyes, you can tell at once what she is feeling and what she is about to do. I've long admired the ways that emotion can be conveyed in well-drawn animation, and this is one of them. The eyes do it all. Nice work, whoever you were that drew this. Nice work.

And you, too, Daria and Tom. Nice work indeed.

The Teenager Who Changed the World

Being a fan of history, I've been especially fascinated by the few times that individuals have had a disproportionate impact on world events. One of those people was a 19-year-old teen who managed to make things a lot worse for us all, born just 114 years ago today. His story forms the basis for a Daria fanfic.

Today is also the anniversary day when a passenger liner with an unusual name collided with another ship and sank. The ship's name became part of the title of Part Four in this story.

Thirty years ago today, a happier event took place: the birth of the first "test-tube" baby. She (and recent genetic research involving Dolly the Sheep) inspired a fanfic, too: this one.

DariaWiki's newest page is about a squirrel, but not a normal squirrel. Thanks, BG. NO! WAIT! The latest article is about another squirrel, also abby-normal. Still BG's fault, however. The latter article is also the 1,900th one on DariaWiki!

Just a reminder: If you lack exciting in-canon villains to go with your next Daria fanfic, look no further than this thread, from here on.

And a quick note: Jim Vitale is BACK!


FF.net

• Duck and Cover, by Smileyfax (Part 2): "I'd like to see those zombie bastards try to get us now!"
• The Young Switcheroo, by Smileyfax (Part 3): The story is better than excellent, but what I want to know is, how can this guy write so much good stuff all at the same time? Check it out.
  

PPMB

• The Other Side of Time: The Nightmare Never Really Leaves, by The Sidhe (continued): “I’m given to understand that you’ve been having nightmares again.”
  
• A Simple Makeup Kit, by Richard Lobinske (Part 1): The real, true story about how Daria learned to put on makeup. And the secret has to do with The X-Files.
  
• Tales of the Ringbearers: Morning Mission, by Doggieboy (COMPLETE!): “What are you doing here?” Daria asked. “You can’t take Robert!”

Boy, George. . . .

In addition to this being (hurrah, hurrah) Flag Day, today is also the 47th birthday of Boy George, the lead singer for the 1980s group Culture Club, which produced many songs I am still trying very hard to forget. Funny that MTV's artists would draw Kevin as Boy George, which is so appropriate I cannot think of anything else to add.

Oh, almost forgot: It was about five years ago today, believe it or not, that the whole penguin thing started. You can thank Kristen Bealer for that. Seriously. Thanks, Kristen! And Tux thanks you, too!

PPMB

• Falling Into College 63: Broken Star, by Richard Lobinske (Part 1): No good deed ever goes unpunished.
• Stacy Rowe, Seeker (Part II), by jtranser (continued): Poetic justice to the Nth degree. Words fail me. I am not worthy.
• Swan Song, by NightGoblyn (Part 4): Jane stood on her toes, trying very hard to ignore the fact that her big brother was holding a gun to her head.

Today's best bad joke involving a Daria fanfic is here. Ipswichfan, you rule.

A Sad Thing

You might have to click on the above pic to be able to read it. I see this image a lot lately. Me, the only one who is on SFMB.

Is there a way to resurrect this forum? It has been moribund for some time. It was once the alternative to PPMB, but lately few have been interested in seeking a new online water cooler to shoot the breeze about Daria or anything else. Few authors cross-post stories on both PPMB and SFMB, and no one at present posts stories exclusively on SFMB, except maybe in the adult areas. Every other Daria MB that I can find is similarly comatose.

Time goes on and things change. Here's hoping SFMB sees new life before too long.

LATE ADD: And now for a happy thing.


PPMB

• Stacy Rowe, Seeker (Part II), by jtranser (continued): OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!! !!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!! !!!!!! !!!!! !!!!! *

* Best line ever: "YOU SEE THAT, DARIA? THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DECENT PEOPLE GET INVOLVED WITH SQUIRRELS!!!"

Whip it! Whip it good!

Bottoms up! Yes, that rascal the Marquis de Sade was born a mere 268 years ago today. He knew how to have a cracking good time.






Ahem.





Enough of that. More later. (NOTE: The link has been fixed. Sorry if that was confusing.)

"I've Got Me, Babe . . ."

This shocking image of Tiffany Blum-Deckler dressed as Cher graphically and horrifically illustrates that this is the most terrifying day in world history: Cher's 62nd Birthday. Yes, the sun has literally gone out all across America, and many believe the Day of Judgment is at hand. Alas, it is not. You need only glance at the image at right to feel bone-chilling fear that millions are experiencing in this nightmarish time. Or whatever.

Nothing else going on. More in a moment or two. Or three.

Did You Get Something Today You Really Wanted?

Oh woe, alas, the horror! On PPMB, we have Evil Daria Vignettes III (is Roger alive or dead?)

Also, Andrew Landon finally got his own DariaWiki page, but much material needs to be added. He is a very interesting character, all considered.

[this space to be filled in later if possible]

[or, you know, not]