I am putting this photo here at the request of Mark Evanier.
Between Two Ears
Behind the high school version of me in the picture above was a pair of Realistic MC-1000 speakers from Radio Shack. MC-1000’s are now a butt of jokes in audio circles, but only my steady girlfriend had more of my undivided attention than my stereo system did at that time.
Consumer Reports gave the MC-1000 a Best Buy rating. I bought a pair with money earned working at a restaurant (following my night working as a carny). At the time they cost $100. That’s equivalent to $600 today, which will still buy a very good pair of speakers.
When I quit the restaurant at the end of high school I was earning $1.85/hour, or about $11.50 today. The summer after graduation I worked for the town’s school system at the incredible rate of $3.00/hour, or $18 when adjusted for inflation. I could easily have been killed by an accident that happened while doing unsupervised and dangerous work for that job, but I escaped unscathed.
Even with the money spent on girlfriends, comic books and related items, and the stereo and records for it, I managed to save $2500 for college. That’s $15,000 in today’s money, which wouldn’t get anyone past their freshman year at even a public 4-year college.
P.S. to mih — We met 50 years ago this month. You were the one who told me I should get a job.
Kirby/Sinnott — ‘Nuff Said!
“Dougie, it was a job.” — Joe Sinnott
Joe was sincerely modest about his work, but he was also justly proud of it. He used to say he hit his peak in 1961, and stayed there. Which he did.
Watching for Gadot
You don’t need to understand Hebrew to appreciate Gal Gadot in 11 hours of scenes from an Israeli soap opera.
Out of the Maxwell
An excellent 45-minute documentary on the Max Fleischer animation studio.
The studio’s first Superman cartoon appeared only three years after the character was introduced in Action #1.
https://youtu.be/LUFN1IjK4ww
Droning On And On
90 seconds in Minneapolis, and it isn’t about the George Floyd murder trial. Background on the video is at this link, and note that you may be sent to YouTube to watch it.