The Year in Reading

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 30, 2006

I have long since recalled what prompted me to begin recording the books I read each year. Still, today marks the end of the tenth year. A decade of reading preserved for some reason. As a result, I decided to take a look at a few of the statistics before sharing my 2006 reading list.

First of all, I seem to be getting faster, as this year was a record: 73 books. Interestingly, from what I can tell, I read more after going back to work than when I was home. The train ride certainly has been helpful. As usual, I’ve sampled new authors and some different subject matter and found several books to be highly entertaining. Perhaps the two best newcomers of the year were Sweet & Low: A Family Story by Rich Cohen and The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.

I’ve read 643 books in the last decade. Plus countless comic books, magazines, newspapers and the stray cereal box. Over the last decade, 25% of those books were Star Trek related titles which made sense given my contributions to the program and my keeping up with what many friends have been up to.

The top 10 most read authors breakdown as follows. Again, this makes sense given my friendship for several and my enjoyment of all the output. I excluded, by the way, titles edited by several of these people.

28-Peter David
23- Robert B. Parker
17-Michael Jan Friedman
14-Keith R. A. DeCandido
12-John Vornholt
11-Christie Golden
11-Max Allan Collins
11-Susan Wright
10-Greg Cox
9-David Baldacci
9-Greg Rucka

These days I continue to read much of the DC and Marvel output plus a handful of titles from other publishers. Each day I still read USA Today and the Connecticut Post plus parts of The New York Times. My magazine reading includes Time, The Week, Entertainment Weekly, Smithsonian, Starlog, Geek, Playboy, Premiere, Dreamwatch, Starburst, Sci-Fi Channel, Alter Ego, Back Issue, and the occasional one-off. None of this includes material read on websites throughout the World Wide Web.

That’s certainly plenty to keep one’s mind stimulated.

And now, a look at this year’s reading:

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

The Week

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 28, 2006

It’s a working week so the holiday spirit has moved to the back burner for the moment. We closed another issue early without incident which instills me with some confidence. I’m also working ahead in planning issues well into February so my absence will be minimized when I take a vacation in January.

Deb’s parents left Tuesday so even things at home have been quiet.

I did, though, get back on track with plotting out the sequel to “Things that Aren’t”, the short story Michael A. Burstein and I sold to Analog. Both of us have been busy so we kept making noises about it but neither really did much. Michael and his wife Nomi came to New York for the week and we had a wonderful lunch on Tuesday. He brought up a comic project he wanted to pitch but just had the characters he wanted to use, no story. By the time I got a second helping from the Indian buffet, a story presented itself and it got him very excited. Since we were clicking and on a roll, we got back to the sequel and were thrilled to see pieces fall into place. I returned to the office and quickly jotted some notes. In January, we’ll actually get to work on this which will be cool.

Beyond that, we’re enjoying having Robbie at home and await word from Kate about her adventures in Israel. We’re even almost caught up with Dr. Who’s second season which has been very entertaining, even if a bit uneven. Odd how little the Doctor was actually a participant in the tenth and eleventh episodes yet both remained engaging.

Since answering my sole question a few days back, two others have arrived so in the interest of fairness, I’ll answer them.

gah…I have a question. Just what exactly does “RTM” stand for? I’ve always wondered.

Representative Town Meeting, this is essentially the legislative body. Fairfield follows the New England style of government with a Board of Selectmen acting as the Executive Branch; a Board of Finance and the RTM, all providing checks and balances usually involving how the town chooses to spend its residents’ money.

Didn’t realize you had thrown the floor open to questions…but I’ll see you at Farpoint anyhow. But in the meanwhile, what do you know about the various Prisoner remakes on the table? Anything feel more solid than any other?

I know what I hear and basically there are two remakes on the table. Oddly, the rights were spliced and diced in such a way that competing video productions could occur simultaneously. The first is a movie currently based at Universal Pictures with Christopher Nolan scheduled to direct. This has been kicking around for a while with no script, no cast and no schedule. Nolan is about to helm The Dark Knight so this may follow. Interestingly, rather than his brother penning the script, the assignment is in the hands of Janet and David Peoples.

More recently, AMC has partnered with Sky One and Granada to produce a 6-8 episode miniseries which is being called Number Six and is described as a “reimagining” of the original. This is the one Dr. Who and Heroes’ Christopher Eccleston was supposedly attached to but those appear to be just rumors. Bill Gallagher is the sole writer named for this project.

Currently slated to air in January 2008, the miniseries will clearly come out prior to the movie and the former’s success may dictate the latter’s likelihood of survival. AMC will also rebroadcast the original 17 episode series. Let the comparisons and complaining begin then.

The Answer

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 26, 2006

I must do a good job of expressing myself because last week, when I threw out the opportunity for questions, I received a grand total of one.

Out of fairness to the person who took the trouble to ask, I provide the answer.

Here’s a leading question. Of all the comic book series that you edited, which would you like to see collected as a trade paperback collection?

Hands down, The Atlantis Chronicles most deserves collecting. Not only does it still hold up to re-reading, it would work well in the bookstores for fans of fantasy and not just comic books. Unfortunately, when comic shop retailers have been surveyed throughout the years, there has never been enough interest to merit the miniseries being collected. To this day, Peter David and I remain enormously proud of this project.

On This Christmas Day

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 25, 2006

Christmas is finally here. As usual, the build up, the anticipation and preparations for the season tend to top the day itself.

Robbie proclaimed he wasn’t really in the spirit at all while at college so it didn’t hit him until his return on Wednesday. That day, Deb and I were at a funeral and she didn’t feel like a lot of dinner prep so we did Chinese take out and watched her favorite holiday special, The Muppets Christmas Special. It’s great having it on DVD despite missing a few songs that couldn’t be cleared. After that, he proclaimed the season was finally upon us.

Deb and I got out of work early on Friday and as she started prep at home, I was out doing the big grocery shopping. Saturday morning I was back at the supermarket getting the stuff we missed. She was a baking machine all morning, prepping pies and the like and then I started in on cookies. Between Saturday and Sunday, I baked four batches of cookies to complement her fabulous (and famous) almond cakes and biscotti.

Deb’s parents arrived on Saturday to join in on the fun. They had to be north because of the funeral so weren’t quite ready for Christmas so we sought to change that. Late in the day we drove to Redding where her brother Jim lives. Jim and his gal pal Jennifer prepared a feast spotlighting a turducken (a duck stuffed inside a chicken stuffed inside a turkey – “I know an old lady who swallowed a fly….”) and some amazing cookies and pies.

Sunday was more baking and swinging into the traditions outlined on a previous post. Most years that included a movie to help kill time but we stayed home this year, with Christmas tunes on the CD player. We had the shrimp and pasta meal and continued to relax and enjoy one another’s company (in between bouts of cooking for today and cleaning).

The Christmas vigil mass was its usual splendor. The Choir (with Deb and Robbie) did some lovely music, accompanied by trumpet, drum, organ and strings) and I saw people I knew from all around town. Some had hoped Kate was there to cantor as she did last year but alas, she was having an amazing adventure in Bethlehem.

We got home late and had to rush to sleep so there was time for Santa to arrive prior to getting up in time for an 8 a.m Skype session with daughter. It seems she had some lovely experienced with seminarians, attending a Lutheran mass prior to midnight mass and then being invited for dinner which led the college students to teach the seminarians the electric slide and the Macarena (who says we’re not one large global village?).

Deb and Rob ran off to sing in the morning mass and finally, at 11:30, we got to open presents. He loved his Guitar Hero II game for the PS2 while Deb adored her new bathrobe, music and pretzels. Me, I got some much desired books, the new Diana Krall CD and some shirts for work – plus a NY Mets antenna topper!

The turkey’s in the oven, the Christmas music continues to play and I’m here tidying things up since tomorrow is, alas, a work day.

With luck, today was as peaceful, pleasant and relaxed for you as it is for us.

Traditions of the Season

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 23, 2006

The Holidays are here and with it come the traditions that make each family unique. For some it’s carols and egg nog and for others it’s Chinese food and movies.

Interestingly, Kate and Robbie seem to like the same traditions and we are rather impressed that they hold to them as dearly as they do. We must have done something right these last 20 years. Kate started this on her blog and I had Robbie add to it. The results were, to us, fascinating.

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?

Robbie: Egg Nog

Katie: Hot chocolate, definitely.

Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree?

Robbie: Wrap.

Katie: Santa just leaves presents under the tree? Dear me. Nope, Santa wraps all our presents up.

Colored lights on tree/house or white?

Robbie: Colored lights on the Tree, white on the house.

Katie: Colored on the tree, white icicle lights on the house. Last year, during our disastrous (disastrously HILARIOUS) Secret Santa, my roommates and I had a great mix-up involving colored Christmas lights. They spent the rest of the year around my room and they looked great.

Do you hang mistletoe?

Robbie: Yes.

Katie: Ah, no. Awkward.

When do you put your decorations up?

Robbie: In December.

Katie: home, it’s maybe the first weekend of December. Here…there is a disgusting lack of decoration. I feel dirty and Scrooge-like.

What is your favorite holiday dish?

Robbie: Stuffing.

Katie: Possibly the chocolate-covered cherry cookies I make every year, possibly the tri-layered almond and raspberry cookies my mother will patiently make just this time of year. As you might guess, the sweet tooth reigns. I could easily skip dinner for the cookies.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child?

Robbie: Sneaking down in the morning as a kid to see how big my stack of presents was.

Katie: Y’know, I don’t think I have one. No one memory stands out above all in terms of goodness. There are a couple that stands out in my mind in terms of awfulness, but that’s not what this is about.

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?

Robbie: I was told about it in school and found my unwrapped presents in the house.

Katie: Oh God, third grade. I was on the bus going home from school and some particularly obnoxious and too-cool fifth-graders were talking about how there wasn’t a Santa. One kid even busted his parents in the act. I hated them, with all the hatred any eight year old can muster.

(Actually, she called me at the office one August day after hearing at a summer program that there was no Santa Claus when she was around 8. Between my insistence it was a lie and her desperate desire to believe it to be so, we got past that crisis until third grade.)

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

Robbie: Yes, from out of town relatives.

Katie: In our family, we open all the relatives’ gifts Christmas Eve, which became a particularly nice tradition when we started having to go to Midnight Mass for either altar-serving or choir duties because it meant we had something to play with.

Snow! Love it or Dread it?

Robbie: Love it.

Katie: Lovelovelove it. LOVE it.

Can you ice skate?

Robbie: yup.

Katie: Yes, moderately. We once had a spectacular tag game in a hockey rink in Stamford. Nothing beats going a million miles per hour on a frictionless surface and not being able to stop.

Do you remember your favorite gift?

Robbie: Yup. A long time ago I received a construction truck that broke into smaller vehicles for special purposes.

Katie: I can’t honestly speak to the gifts I received as a kid, but I’m not gonna lie. I think the Durmstrang messenger bag I got last Christmas is definitely up there, predominantly because it had no real purpose in my life (messenger bags and I have long love affairs) and it was just something I wanted, something frivolous and lovely. Tying with that would be the silver hourglass necklace I got a few Christmasses ago. I saw that thing in one of the mall jewelery shops while wrapping gifts for fencing and by the time I had come back for it with the money I needed, it was gone. I saw it again the next Christmas and was waiting to use my Christmas money to get it. I pointed it out to Mom one day right before Christmas and she got it for me that day. I wear that thing all the time. Because it was never in style, it can never go out of style.

What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?

Robbie: Christmas Songs.

Katie: The feeling in the air around December. It’s so powerful it penetrates the panic of finals. It’s what gives baking cookies and listening to carols and doing Secret Santas their magic.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?

Robbie: Apple pie.

Katie: I’m ALL about the Christmas cookies–of which we routinely have hundreds in the house during Christmas and New Year’s in my house…and they’re always good!

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Robbie: Christmas Eve.

Katie: Oooh…um. Probably the Christmas Eve pasta dinner, followed by the opening of the relatives’ gifts and then the ceremonial reading of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” by my father. And then Midnight Mass, which has my absolute favorite music of the year to sing.

What tops your tree?

Robbie: An Angel.

Katie: We have this pretty little golden angel. One day, for my own tree, I think I’m going to get a tacky gold star.

Which do you prefer: giving or receiving?

Robbie: Giving.

Katie: Nothing beats giving the perfect present.

What is your favorite Christmas Song?

Robbie: “Christmas Shoes”

Katie: I have five (yikes!): “All I Want for Christmas is You,” by Mariah Carey; “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” by Andy Williams; “O Holy Night” sung by just about anyone with a voice, but especially my choir and Jocelyn O’Toole; the choir’s combined “Silent Night/Night of Silence”; and “Sleigh Ride,” by Johnny Mathis. Mind you, I love Sleigh Ride sung by just about anyone, but Johnny Mathis’ version evokes images of little penguins flapping their wings to the beat, as Allie, Kelly and I discovered sophomore year in high school right before Chemistry.

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?

Robbie: Yummy

Katie: Fantastic.

Remembering

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 22, 2006

There’s something about the holiday season and the ending of a year that makes you look back and reflect and there’s always something a little bittersweet about that.

Close to home, Deb lost a 93 year old aunt earlier this week. She was a wonderful woman who selflessly volunteered at a nursing home (and elsewhere) for 30 years until she became a resident back in March. Fortunately, her efforts brought her the reward of loving care that made her final months happy ones. The funeral was a lovely celebration of her life and efforts, with the room filled with people as she deserved.

In my profession, people of similar ages also left us recently, more dwindling among the founders of the comic book field. Jack Burnley, a terrific and underrated artist on Superman, Batman and Starman, just passed away at 95. Fortunately, he was active and lucid these last few years to contribute to DC’s Archives and to Roy Thomas’s Alter Ego so the memories of his career and the love of his life have been preserved. I had the pleasure to have him select and discuss a favorite cover for Superman Cover to Cover but never really got to know the man.

Marty Nodell, creator of Green Lantern, passed away a few weeks back and I was very impressed that his passing got picked up by the national media. Marty was a great guy to chat with at the conventions. He and his spitfire of a wife Carrie certainly enjoyed being rediscovered by fans of the medium and when opportunities presented themselves, DC bought the occasional piece of art so he continued to contribute to the company well into his 80s, which is very impressive.

A much younger man, and one whom life was less than kind, Dave Cockrum, also left us. Dave contributed to my one and only fanzine, Hemogoblin (co-edited with Jeff Strell), back when he still did fan art while assisting Murphy Anderson. Later, I got to meet Dave and get some pieces from him for Who’s Who. He was kind and gentle and had terrific good humor but by 1980, health complicated his life and his work grew sporadic. Editors at DC and Marvel seemed to forget about him and his final body of work was Claypool Comics, a company that also vanished this year.

The comic book field is young enough that it has managed to capture a lot of its origins through oral histories and first person narratives. Several pioneers, notably Joe Simon, remain, and hopefully everyone will get their story told. Far too many practitioners are gone and their work forgotten for one reason or another.

In part, that’s why I’m noodling on a personal project and am now seeking information on Jon L. Blummer, the writer/artist best known for his work on Hop Harrigan. If anyone has information on him, drop me a note at bobgreenberger@hotmail.com.

In Praise of the DVR

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 21, 2006

Deb and I are slowly catching up on our prime time television watching. Thanks to the DVR, we’ve managed to stockpile plenty so as each series goes into winter reruns, we can begin watching new shows from their season debuts. We’re caught up on all the network shows and have begun with season two of Dr. Who with Battlestar Galactica waiting patiently.

It hasn’t hurt that some shows we recorded got canceled so we can delete them without making the emotional investment in the characters or situations. That being said, I find the following Neilsen information interesting since we actually DVR’d 5 of these 10 (including the first three), only dropping The Nine when ABC yanked it.

Top 10 “Timeshifted” Primetime TV Programs – 2006
Program/Network % Viewership Increase
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – NBC 10.9
Heroes – NBC 9.1
Gilmore Girls – CW 7.9
America’s Next Top Model – CW 7.7
30 Rock – NBC 7.5
Friday Night Lights – NBC 7.5
The Nine – ABC 6.7
Supernatural – CW 6.7
Kidnapped – NBC 6.6
One Tree Hill – CW 6.6
Smallville – CW 6.6

The DVR has also freed us to grab various and sundry oddities that catch our eye. I’m pulling movies off the various premium channels that one or the other of us want to see. I even spotted an old Victor Borge special on PBS that I recorded to introduce Robbie to his work (and now that my in-laws are coming for Christmas, I know my mother-in-law will love it too). Some things we’ve recorded specifically to burn onto DVD for Kate, which we’ll hand deliver in just three weeks.

Some technology takes its time being adopted, some fit right in. The DVR and DVD burner have slipped right into our lives at a terrific time.

A Very Long Night

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 19, 2006

Well, last night took longer than it needed to.

Despite items 3-8 being on the consent calendar, which included some funding issues, we spent over an hour on item 9 which seemed to finally bring the RTM together in the bipartisan way it was intended to be.

Maybe it was because the item under discussion, rebuilding our 106-year old crumbling beach pavilion, was of such a non-political nature or maybe it was just the Christmas spirit but it was certainly an interesting process. Oh yeah, and a long one, too.

What bogged the body down was that the Pavilion is being rebuilt in three phases and we were being asked to fund phase one without a clear picture of what the pavilion would look like and how it would be used when all three phases would be complete. The Rec and Public Works departments had gotten together and figured out how the East Wing could be modernized and showed us floor plans during the Committee Meetings last week.

The problem seemed to be that not only didn’t we know what the full scope of the project looked like; we felt a healthy discussion over the use of the space had never been held. Are private lockers for only 200 out of 57,000 residents really the best use versus, say, public changing spaces? It was argued that the building was built as part of a private beach club serving 500 members and now services one hundred times that number.

Despite being told repeatedly this had been on the town’s agenda going back a year; nothing reached us before this month because the town waited to get some state funding to help finance phase one. This is commendable but still, we were being pressured to approve this now so they could finish the application and bid process so the pavilion could be rebuilt during the spring for summer use.

Somewhere in the middle of the comments, many of which seemed repetitive, I spoke up and objected that both the Board of Finance and Board of Selectmen routinely hand us matters to evaluate and approve with a ticking clock attached so sometimes we’re forced to approve things when we feel in our hearts, it could be better. I urged that more consideration be given when putting things on agendas.

While that was intended as constructive, a member from the other side of the aisle took an unnecessary swipe, declaring that this was an ill-conceived muddle that only proves the total incompetence of the upper levels of town management. And gosh, the election for the upper levels of town management is only eleven months away. Fortunately, at the “socialable soda” afterwards, at least two members of the other party made certain to distance themselves from their brethren.

Anyway, this thing dragged out and finally got settled and before you knew it, the final three items were addressed, commented upon and voted upon lickety-split. A little after 10 p.m., most of the members were on their way to Angus where Buffalo wings and nachos awaited.

I was not so lucky.

Our zoning sub-committee had a scheduled meeting where we hoped to review a final draft ordinance, vote it into existence and retire. Four members of the public, though, endured the previous meeting just so they could speak with us on the proposed Demolition Delay. As a result, the next meeting took nearly an hour and we decided we needed to do a little more due diligence. I was reminded all over again that I proclaimed in October we needed to make certain our ordinances were done right so rather than rush, we’re doing the job that needs doing.

In retrospect, this loose end should have been touched on sooner but was eclipsed by the other departments and processes reviewed. At least it’ll get covered and when we do take the final vote, it’ll be done with full knowledge.

I made it to the Angus for about an hour, enjoying a few wings and some lively conversation with folk I don’t normally get to chat with. A fine way to end the very long night despite how tired it has left me for the rest of the week.

The Year Winds Down

Posted by Bob Greenberger on December 18, 2006

It definitely feels like the year is winding down.

We’re pretty much done shopping for Christmas and yesterday brought the tree into the house. Deb and Robbie will decorate it once he’s home from college (some traditions you don’t mess with). Yesterday we put other decorations up around the house and the holiday music was playing pretty much throughout the afternoon.

Projects at work are winding up as are things at home, some are the simple monthly cyclic things, others have been lingering. A bunch of short stuff I’ve set to read finally got read and put away.

A media tie-in proposal that I’ve been trying to complete finally got done and was sent off to the editor today.

Despite the weekly schedule all year round, and early closing deadlines this week and next, Weekly World News is in good shape as one year blends into the next.

Tonight, the RTM meets for the final time this year and immediately following, I hope our sub-committee will have its final meeting, finalizing one last ordinance.

The calm, relaxed December has been largely that. Which is not to say there haven’t been moments of sheer madness and exhaustion nor will be it be clear sailing all the way into the New Year.

We had a death on Deb’s side of the family so tomorrow’s the wake followed on Wednesday with the funeral. Our home becomes the crash sight for some of the New Hampshire members of the family and there’s a possibility Deb’s parents will find themselves extending their New York stay through Christmas so we may have some company which is fine by me.

There’s also the planning and packing to continue for our impending trip to see Katie in Cairo. But that goes to the next phase, the building anticipation for what looks promising in the New Year. First this two week vacation and then digging in to the new project which should be discussable in the coming weeks.

Q & A

Posted by Bob Greenberger on

We’re starting to drift into that period when things slow down at work, get busy at home, and people kick back a little. As a result, now might be a good time to take questions from the many readers of this site.

Despite the paucity of comments, I get a fair amount of feedback both verbally or in private communications so I know there are many who do read the site.

I’ll throw the door open to questions until Christmas and then next week, I’ll post answers. Want to talk about movies, television, comic books, books, writing, politics, etc. now’s the time.