Quick Hits

My old buddy Stefan Blitz is running a zombie haiku contest [bad link] over on his website, Forces of Geek. Entries will be judged by FOG contributor Don Roff; the grand prize is a signed copy of Roff and Chris Lane’s Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection, newly published by Chronicle Books.



I’d rather laugh with people than at them — unless they really deserve it. So it’s
always a bit guilt-inducing to find humor in someone’s less-than-perfect skills in a language not their own. A little while back I stumbled upon an utterly charming post
on the blog Dispatches from the Me, likely thanks to [Not That] Joan Crawford, whose own blog, Things I Yell at You, is a sure cure for a bad mood. DFTM is written by Jenea Kaitaz of Moldova, and this filing describes his receipt of a care package from Lost’s Jorge Garcia. Although the subject would be heartwarming in and of itself, Jenea’s enthusiasm and his imperfect English combine for something special in which the poetry of the phrase “My sweat covered me like the surfer is covered by the ocean wave” is juxtaposed with the endearingly not-ready-for-prime-time quality of pretty much every sentence thereafter. His latest post has more delightfully bizarro prose. Dispatches from the Me, incidentally, takes its name from Garcia’s Dispatches from the Island, where the actor offers photos and short, pithy reports on his life in general and globetrotting adventures promoting Lost in particular. I’ve mentioned it here before, specifically in the same post that referenced the Richard Alpert haiku from Nik at Nite, which — eat your heart out, Kevin Bacon — is also where I met Joan Crawford.



Since it only seems right to tie these quick hits together, let’s go full circle with haiku and zombies courtesy of Bully the Little Stuffed Bull’s Comics Oughta Be Fun!. My friend Johanna Draper Carlson linked many moons ago to the first-rate, first-person Lois Lane haiku there from her own top-notch website Comics Worth Reading. Just yesterday that blissfully bovine blog responded to recent news about DC Comics’ Blackest Night event with the above cover mockup. You can’t go wrong making a cattle call to COBF if you’re in the mood for comics-oriented quirkiness.


Related: Isle of Lost • Siteseeing • Bully for You