THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 5-7, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 04 Dec 1995 21:57:35 -0800 (PST) From: Jim VanderNoot Subject: RE: Ozzy Digest, 12-04-95 -----------------Original Message----------------- 2) Did anyone see the Wizard of Oz Musical review on TV (Sunday after Thanksgiving). I don't get TV reception, nor cable so I missed it. I saw it previewed while at a friends house for Thanksgiving. I wrote a letter to the club secretary a couple of weeks ago requesting info. on obtaining a club directory. So far, I've had no reponse but if/when I do I'll let you know. Does anyone know how to obtain the International Wizard of Oz Club Member Directory? -- Dave -----------------End of Original Message----------------- Yes, I saw part of the musical review. It was very well done and looked like lots of fun! I posted info to rec.arts.books.childrens a week or so ago about Fred Meyer's back surgery and recuperation. Your inquiry will be forwarded to Peter Hanff at the club's new mailing address, so it will take some time. The membership directory is currently out of print; I think a new one will be produced in the spring. I'm not sure what the cost will be. Jim ------------------------------------- Jim Vander Noot E-mail: jvandern@sam.neosoft.com Date: 12/4/95 Time: 9:57:35 PM This message was sent by Chameleon ------------------------------------- ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 04:35:23 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Oz stuff Hi, Oz fans everywhere. Well, at least we have SOMETHING going on again. No, I don't know why Chris hasn't done anything about fixing the ozfans address . Anyway, a few Ozzy thoughts that have been rattling around in my head of late: 1. I don't know about anyone else, but I enjoyed TNT's "Thw Wizard of Oz in Concert" -- but I had to keep reminding myself, "This is NOT a full-blown performance of the movie script, just a concert!" The one thing that put me off was Roger Daltrey's entrance as the Tin Woodman, he came in like it was a Who concert and twirled his microphone like the good ol' days, and his version of "If I Only Had a Heart" was somewhat -- er -- untraditional. (The audience seemed to like it, though.) After that Daltrey settled down and was all right. Jewel was a great Dorothy, and looked a LOT more like Neill's illustrations than Judy Garland, What has she done before? I'd never heard of her until the concert. Nathan Lane as the Lion, Debra Winger as the Wicked Witch, and Joel Grey as Professor Marvel/The Wizard were all outstanding. Yes, I got it on tape. No, I can't make copies for everybody, sorry. 2. The Club hasn't put out a directory for years because some people got upset that companies were using it to compile mailing lists for Ozzy junk mail. (Well, if you must get junk mail, that's the best kind!) So now when they DO put one out, they're charging around eight dollars for it. >sigh< 3. For those who haven't heard, Fred Meyer has had recent back surgery, and so is laid up and not able to handle a lot of Club business. So the board of directors is taking over his duties for a while, and there's a new temporary address to send Club correspondence. It's: The International Wizard of Oz Club PO Box 10117 Berkeley, CA 94709-5117 Why they couldn't have slipped postcards with this info in the mail to all the Club's members is beyond me, I'm not sure I'll EVER understand how the petty politicking in the Club works, which is why I've resisted all efforts to recruit me for election to the Board of Directors... Anyway, that's all for the moment, I'm sure I'll have more to say later. --Eric Gjovaag PS: Dave, are you archiving these digests, so people who join up later can access the previous issues? ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 13:08:00 -0800 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: RE: Oz stuff Eric wrote: >Hi, Oz fans everywhere. Well, at least we have SOMETHING going on again. No, I don't know why >Chris hasn't done anything about fixing the ozfans address . You know, when I started this, I sent several messages to both Chris and Nate inviting them to join, and they never replied! Does anyone know whatever became of them? >PS: Dave, are you archiving these digests, so people who join up later can access the previous issues? Good idea! Where shall I archive them? Is Nate's FTP space still available? -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 08:13:03 -0500 From: lauram@rand.org (Laura J. Morrison) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-04-95 >Date: Sun, 03 Dec 1995 16:03:45 -0500 (EST) >From: cummingss@kenyon.edu >Subject: RE: New Oz Mailing List!!! > >2) Did anyone see the Wizard of Oz Musical review on TV (Sunday after Thanksgiving). I don't get TV >reception, nor cable so I missed it. I saw it previewed while at a friends house for Thanksgiving. I haven't seen it yet, but I did tape it. E-mail me if you want a copy of the tape. My mom watched it and she said it was hilarious! She's a BIG Joel Grey fan. Laura ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 12:54:29 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz stuff Someone asked about "The Life and TImes of the Wicked Witch of the West". I bought the book, but have not read it. USA Today did a review of it and the person who wrote the article seemed to know only of the movie. She praised the author for being imaginative to invent all this other cool stuff about the Land of Oz! (GRRR) I sent her a very nice note explaining the truth about Oz and invited her to ask me for any info she might need. Also, be sure to check out my Web Page. The Oz section is right on top! http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones The :80 part may not be necessary, but the whole thing is lower case and the thing between my first and last name is an underscore. See you around! --Tyler Jones TJONES@CSI.COMPUSERVE.COM ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 13:03:56 -0500 From: Sissor Subject: del rey books question Hey ozzies, I have the first 14 from the Del Rey publisher series from 1981. Needless to say they are terribly worn and the pages are turning and ugly brown. Also I have 15-25 of the Ruth Plumly Thompson series also by the Del Rey publishers. I was wondering how I can get new ones of the original 14 and the rest of the others as well. I know that there are a lot more of the stories, something like 50 right? I would really appreciate any informations since the Bookstop and other local big chains have NOT been helpful! Thanks, Eric Henao LaTeRs, ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |This is in no way any sort of paid advertisement or scandal. Just some honest feelings, opinions, and |talk from one human living on planet Earth. Thanks for |listening, Sissor. Houston, TX (henao@blkbox.com) | ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 13:35:00 -0800 (PST) From: Dave Subject: RE: del rey books question Eric Henao wrote: >...I was wondering how I can get new ones of the original 14 and the rest of the others as well. I know >that there are a lot more of the stories, something like 50 right? There are 40 that are considered "official" (the "Famous Forty" they are called), plus countless others released in recent years, mostly published by Buckethead Enterprises or Books of Wonder/Emerald City Press. The "Famous Forty" however are hard to come by except in the Del Rey editions, unfortunatly. :( Here's what I can offer as advice (I am still struggling to get decent copies of the Oz books myself!): Dover has released quality (not "El cheapo" like Del Rey) paperback editions of the Baum Oz books up thru _Tik-Tok_ ( they insist that it is "not profitable" for them to come out with the others! :( ). Books of Wonder has released facsimilies of the first seven books (up thru _Patchwork Girl_) as well as the Neil and Snow books, _Merry-Go-Round_ (the last of the "Famous Forty") and a volume of Baum's six "Little Wizard Stories". They plan to release the other Baum Oz books, but they are doing it at a rate of one book a year, so we should expect _Glinda of Oz_ to come out in about 2002! :( _Scarecrow_ is available in hardcover facsimilie from the International Wizard of Oz Club (I don't know why they don't have the others), and many of the Thompson books (some in hardcover, but most in the Del Rey editions) In regard to the post-Famous-Forty books, I have not read any of the Buckethead books, but many of the Books of Wonder/Emerald City Press books are good. I also recommend _The Wicked Witch of Oz_ by Rachel Cosgrove Payes (available from the Int'l Wiz. of Oz Club) and Books of Wonder's "graphical novels". These are wonderfully illustrated by Eric Shanower, who IMHO is the best Oz illustrator ever (sorry, Mr. Neil)! Hope I've been of help! -- Dave P.S. Here are the addresses of the publishers I mentioned: Books of Wonder/Emerald City Press 132 Seventh Avenue New York, NY 10011 The International Wizard of Oz Club (Temporary address) PO Box 10117 Berkeley, CA 94709-5117 Dover Publications, Inc. 31 East 2nd Street Mineola, NY 11501 Buckethead Enterprises of Oz 1606 Arnold Palmer Loop Belen, NM 87002 ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 14:36:30 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: OZ: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-04-95 Scott Cummings writes: > 1) Has anyone read "Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" (forgot author's > > name)? The NT Times panned it. I agree. A very muddled story that is only mildly interesting. I looked at it in the book store but decided not to buy it. I may be mistaken, but it seems as if the book is one of those "everybody you thought was bad is really good, and everyone you thought was good is really evil, and everything you thought you knew is wrong" kind of books, which I don't like. I have no desire to read about the Wizard as some sort of evil, fascist overlord, nor about Glinda as a greedy, power-hungry type. Of course, my analysis could be completely mistaken, as it's based on the cover-flap info and I haven't actually read the book :-) > 3) I see some e-mail addresses from Columbus, OH. I am now living near Columbus, and was >wondering if the Oz folks in cental Ohio ever get together. I haven't received an Oz Club directory in >years. Does anyone know the current status of the IWOC? I ordered some books from them last year, but didn't receive them. I wrote a couple of letters asking if the books were still available, but I never received any replies. =========================== END=============================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 7, 1995 (2) ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 23:04:00 -0500 From: smcguire@MIT.EDU (Scott McGuire) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-04-95 Hello everybody, First a big thanks to Dave for setting this up! (Has anyone told Chris Heer and Nate Barlowe? :-) A couple of replies: Scott Cummings wrote: >1) Has anyone read "Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" (forgot author's >name)? The NT Times panned it. I agree. A very muddled story that is only mildly interesting. I haven't read it, but I'm also curious to hear what others think. Unlike the New York Times, the Boston Glove gave it a highly favorable review. Dave Hardenbrook wrote: >I wrote a letter to the club secretary a couple of weeks ago requesting info. on obtaining a club >directory. So far, I've had no reponse but if/when I do I'll let you know. Does anyone know how to >obtain the International Wizard of Oz Club Member Directory? I just received a postcard in my mail today that the club secretary, Fred Meyer, is recuperating from back surgery, and has essentially (but reluctantly) retired from the job. All correspondence should be directed to: Peter E. Hanff c/o The International Wizard of Oz Club P.O. Box 10117 Berkeley, California 94709-5117 I imagine there might be some delay in getting a Club Directory while they sort things out! --Scott McGuire / smcguire@mit.edu ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 02:06:00 -0800 From: Dave Subject: Ozzy Birthdays and Anniversaries Hi all! Hope everyone's enjoying the list so far! :) I was wondering: Besides Ozma's birthday (August 21) and as well as Betsy Bobbin's (October 31), are they any other Ozite's birthday or anniversary of an important event in Oz whose date is known for certain? ( I'm looking for an excuse to throw an Ozzy party! :) ) -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 06 Dec 1995 15:37:22 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: Fred Meyer and the Wizard of Oz Club Greetings, I received the following postcard in the mail today. Many of you may have already seen it, but it was news to me and I thought it sufficiently important to warrant me sending out a copy. Apologies for the bandwidth :-) INTERNATIONAL WIZARD OF OZ CLUB, INC. November 13, 1995 Dear Oz Club Members: Fred Meyer is recuperating from back surgery and his recovery is going to take several months. With reluctance he has asked other members of the Board of Directors to take responsibility for the numerous duties he has been performing for so many years. Fred has always treasured his work for the Club, and particularly his busy correspondence with members. Now, however, his greatest concern is that the Club continue its many activities and that his recuperation not interfere with the Club's needs. I know you all share in my sentiment that Fred's greatest duty now is to focus on getting well. We will carry on the work of the Club, recognizing that no single one of us can adequately substitute for the devotion and care Fred Meyer has contributed. Fred recognizes that many members will want to write to him or send get-well cards. Because he is not presently staying in Escanaba, too much mail may be burdensome. Fred will not be able to answer any messages. However, those of you who know other Oz Club members might like to coordinate signing cards or letters as a group. That would cut down on the volume of mail and would help cheer Fred up. Please direct all official Oz Club correspondence to Club President Peter E. Hanff, c/o The International Wizard of Oz Club P.O. Box 10117 Berkeley, California 94709-5117 Sincerely, PETER E. HANFF President ================================= END========================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 8, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 10:02:51 -0500 (EST) From: smcguire@MIT.EDU (Scott McGuire) Subject: OZ - Re: del rey books Dave Hardenbrook said: >Books of Wonder has released facsimilies of the first seven books (up thru _Patchwork Girl_) as well as >the Neil and Snow books, _Merry-Go-Round_ (the last of the "Famous Forty") and a volume of Baum's >six "Little Wizard Stories". They plan to release the other Baum Oz books, but they are doing it at a rate >of one book a year, so we should expect _Glinda of Oz_ to come out in about 2002! :( Actually, Peter Glassman has said that they have arranged with Morrow (who distributes the Baum reprints) to speed up the schedule so that _Glinda of Oz_ will be released in 2000, the 100th anniversary of _Wizard_. So that means there will be a couple of years with two reprints! >_Scarecrow_ is available in hardcover facsimilie from the International Wizard of Oz Club (I don't know >why they don't have the others), and many of the Thompson books (some in hardcover, but most in the >Del Rey editions) The Int'l Wizard of Oz Club also does reprints of "The Hidden Valley of Oz", Rachel Cosgrove Payes's first Oz book (#39 of the original 40). --Scott McGuire / smcguire@mit.edu ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 08:18:32 -0800 (PST) From: Peter Hanff Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-07-95 Dave, The Board of Directors of the Oz Club authorized preparation of a new Club membership directory for early 1996. I am to produce it and Jim Vander Noot will generate the data for it. He is now handling new memberships and updates and then forwarding them to our assistant (Fred Meyer's assistant when Fred is on his feet) in Escanaba. We'll certainly announce the availability of the directory as soon as it's ready. Peter ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 11:35:35 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz stuff Info about Oz books and such. You can get a complete description of all (or nearly all) Oz books on my Web Page. http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones all lower case and use an underscore between Tyler and Jones. Some of the links are in error, but they should be fixed by Monday morning. In the oz section (right on top, of course!) go to the HACC or to my PROJECTS list and you can see just about every Oz book ever written. I should have addresses for the publishers fairly soon. I believe that Baum 1-14 and Thompson 15-23 are still available thru Del Rey, but you may have to order them directly. I'll try to find their address for you. Maybe we can convince Dover that people would pay more for the Oz books so that it will be profitable for them to publish more :) I'll try to reach Nate and Chris about this. --Tyler ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 08 Dec 1995 12:55:00 -0800 (PST) From: Dave Subject: Oz stuff Tyler wrote: >I believe that Baum 1-14 and Thompson 15-23 are still available thru Del Rey, but you may have to >order them directly. I'll try to find their address for you. The Baum Del Rey Oz books are also orderable thru Books of Wonder, and I've seen them on the shelves at Barnes & Noble bookstores. -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 10:06:36 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Re: Welcome to the Ozzy Digest!!! Does anyone know how Fred Meyer is doing? And where can we send him a get well card?? Bill Wright ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 07 Dec 1995 16:32:59 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz stuff Gang, Aaron Adelman noticed that there was an error in the HACC. Masquerade in Oz was listed twice. Note that the correct year is 1913. The ????? placement is obsolete, since we have dtermined that the story took place in 1913. There are a few spelling errors in there, too. Hpefully, we can get them all out of there. Thanks for your help. --Tyler Jones ============================= END============================================= THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 11, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 08 Dec 1995 21:24:05 -0800 (PST) From: Peter Hanff Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-08-95 Fred will, I'm sure appreciate get-well cards, but he indicated that I should tell people that he will not be able to respond to them individually. He is doing well, but has some months of often painful recovery ahead. He has been reviewing cumulated Club mail with his sister and then having her forward it to the various Club officers who carrying on for him. I suggested in my postcard that it might be helpful if those living near each other sign get-well cards or letters as a group, just to cut down on the volume. The cards should be mailed to 220 N. 11th Street, Escanaba, MI 49829 and should be clearly addressed to Fred M. Meyer. Mail addressed to the Oz Club itself is forwarded from that address to P.O. Box 10117, Berkeley, CA 94709-5117. A really good sign is that Fred called me two weekends ago with a raft of ideas about the 1997 Ozmopolitan Convention. I'm sure he'll appreciate hearing from all who write. Peter ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 15:32:40 -0500 From: smcguire@MIT.EDU (Scott McGuire) Subject: OZ: "The Wizard of Oz in Concert" repeat this week I see that "The Wizard of Oz in Concert" is being repeated this Thursday, December 14, at from 8-10 PM on the cable channel TNT. This is good, since I missed it the first time it was on... --Scott McGuire / smcguire@mit.edu ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 10 Dec 1995 18:24:38 -0800 From: glassman@ix.netcom.com (glassman) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-06-95 >Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 12:54:29 -0500 (EST) >From: Tyler Jones >Subject: Oz stuff > >Someone asked about "The Life and TImes of the Wicked Witch of the West". I bought the book, but >have not read it. I have and it is truly excellent! Imaginative, well-written and very moving. However, it is definitely NOT for children. But if you don't mind revisionist Oz writings (and even if you do, since I normally don't like that sort of thing very much) and some frank sexuality, this is a must read. - Peter Glassman >============================================================================= >Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 13:03:56 -0500 >From: Sissor >Subject: del rey books question > >Hey ozzies, >I have the first 14 from the Del Rey publisher series from 1981. Needless to say they are terribly worn >and the pages are turning and ugly brown. Also I have 15-25 of the Ruth Plumly Thompson series also >by the Del Rey publishers. I was wondering how I can get new ones of the original 14 and the rest of >the others as well. I know that there are a lot more of the stories, something like 50 right? I would >really appreciate any informations since the Bookstop and other local big chains have NOT been >helpful! Thanks, > >Eric Henao "The Oz Collector" is a catalog devoted to the Oz books of L. Frank Baum and his many successors, as well as many other things relating to the world of Oz. It is available FREE by calling the following toll-free number: (800) 207-6968. All 14 Baum paperbacks are offered in the catalog, as well as Baum's "Sea Fairies", "Sky Island", and "Dot and Tot of Merryland". Also offered are John R. Neill's "Wonder City of Oz", "Scalawagons of Oz," "Lucky Bucky of Oz" and his long-unpublished novel, now finally in print, "The Runaway in Oz." Other classic Oz books offered include Jack Snow's "Magicial Mimics in Oz", "The Shaggy Man of Oz" and "Who's Who in Oz" as well as Eloise and Lauren McGraw's "Merry Go Round in Oz". "The Oz Collector" also lists over a dozen original Oz novels by modern authors, including Eric Gjovaag (who regularly posts to this group). Forthcoming issues of the catalog will include titles by Ruth Plumly Thompson, a new Oz game book ad more. - Peter Glassman President Books of Wonder >Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 14:36:30 -0500 >From: "Mark A. Semich" >Subject: OZ: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-04-95 > >Scott Cummings writes: > >> 1) Has anyone read "Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" (forgot author's >>name)? The NT Times panned it. I agree. A very muddled story that is only mildly interesting. > >I looked at it in the book store but decided not to buy it. I may be mistaken, but it seems as if the book >is one of those "everybody you thought was bad is really good, and everyone you thought was good is >really evil, and everything you thought you knew is wrong" kind of books, which I don't like. I have no >desire to read about the Wizard as some sort of evil, fascist overlord, nor about Glinda as a greedy, >power-hungry type. Of course, my analysis could be completely mistaken, as it's based on the cover->flap info and I haven't actually read the book :-) As always, its dangerous to make judgements from covers or flap copy - though I realize it's hard not to! Actually, the book does not turn all the good guys bad or all the bad guys good. It just shows how things might have come to be and tells the story from the Wicked Witch of the West's viewpoint. Since it is an adult novel, it does not try to portray anyone as purely good or purely evil. As all us so-called adults know, nothing is ever that simple. The books is filled with complex, multi-dimensional characters who are all acting the way they do for various, reasons having to do with cultural background, childhood experiences and life's unpredictable occurances. As I in a previous posting, the book is well worth reading - particularly if you are interested in a thoughtful, imaginative adult novel which treats Baum's original novel and the MGM movie as fairy tales or myths which grew up around real events. - Peter Glassman ============================================================================== Date: Mon 11 Dec 95 16:20:08 (PST) From: Dave Subject: Questions Hi Ozzy folks! Just before Chris' list went off line, I posed the following questions to the group, and I thought I'd ask them again: -- Who is everyone's favorite Oz character? -- What is everyone's favorite book and why? -- What is everyone's LEAST favorite book and why? -- Does anyone have an Ozzy prized posession they'd like to tell about? -- Dave ================================= END ======================================= On Mon, 11 Dec 1995, Dave Hardenbrook wrote: > THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 11, 1995 > >============================================================================= > >Date: Tue, 05 Dec 1995 13:03:56 -0500 > >From: Sissor > >Subject: del rey books question > > > >Hey ozzies, > >I have the first 14 from the Del Rey publisher series from 1981. Needless to say they are terribly worn >>and the pages are turning and ugly brown. Also I have 15-25 of the Ruth Plumly Thompson series >>also by the Del Rey publishers. I was wondering how I can get new ones of the original 14 and the >>rest of the others as well. I know that there are a lot more of the stories, something like 50 right? I >>would really appreciate any informations since the Bookstop and other local big chains have NOT >>been helpful! Thanks, > > > >Eric Henao > > "The Oz Collector" is a catalog devoted to the Oz books of L. Frank Baum and his many successors, >as well as many other things relating to the world of Oz. It is available FREE by calling the following >toll-free number: (800) 207-6968. > > All 14 Baum paperbacks are offered in the catalog, as well as Baum's "Sea Fairies", "Sky Island", and >"Dot and Tot of Merryland". Also offered are John R. Neill's "Wonder City of Oz", "Scalawagons of >Oz," "Lucky Bucky of Oz" and his long-unpublished novel, now finally in print, "The Runaway in Oz." >Other classic Oz books offered include Jack Snow's "Magicial Mimics in Oz", "The Shaggy Man of Oz" >and "Who's Who in Oz" as well as Eloise and Lauren McGraw's "Merry Go Round in Oz". And fine editions they all are! (But you cal also pick up the Baum books, both the paperbacks and the BoW editions, in a number of other bookstores. I see 'em all the time at Barnes and Nobles, for instance. > "The Oz Collector" also lists over a dozen original Oz novels by modern authors, including Eric >Gjovaag (who regularly posts to this group). Forthcoming issues of the catalog will include titles by >Ruth Plumly Thompson, a new Oz game book ad more. Hey, let's be fair, here! I only CO-wrote "Queen Ann in Oz." Karyl Carlson and I split the work fairly evenly, and as the basic story idea was hers she really deserves her share of the credit. (Of course, I'm the one who said, "Hey, wanna collaborate?") --Eric "Yes, I do do autographs..." Gjovaag "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" --The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Oz Club has polled its members several times with David's questions. All I can remember is that among members who had read all 40 in the canon, OZMA was #1 or #2. I think it was #1. (My memory may have been colored by my own personal preference here. I love OZMA. It's terribly satisfying to have Dorothy return to Oz. TikTok embodies many of the best qualities of Ozziness: loyalty, perseverence, intelligence, helpfulness, complete lack of prejudice towards "different" individuals and cultures, etc., etc.) Anyway, among readers who had a more limited Oz experience, WIZARD ranked as #1. I think it was #2 for those who'd read all 40, I can't recall a specific loser/least favorite. My own are DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD because it's so episodic and so very, very dark. Also COWARDLY LION. I really don't like Notta. His running "shtick" of disguises, etc., irritated me. Also, R.P.T. never told us the last of his disguises. The business of Mustafa and the lions struck me as stupid, but that Nickadoodle character was dreadful. The book seems to be a knockoff of Lewis Carrollian weirdities. However, I loved Fiddlestick Forest and did get a kick out of Un. I think one of the top faves for characters was the Scarecrow. I don't ave a favorite. I have preferences, ut no clear favorite. Maybe the Cowardly Lion.... As for favorite Ozzy possessions, I could write a book about 'em. Somehow I don't think I want to bore you all with an elaborated list of them. I've been ollecting for many years. Mostly I enjoy the Neill artwork I own. Sorry for the long post. Robin Olderman THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 15, 1995 NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: It has been brought to my attention that many people who send an Ozzy message to the list put the entire list of members in their "To:" field...This is unnecessary, since I forward all messages to everyone on the list. So just send your message to me and I will put it in the digest and send it to each person on my Ozzy list (That way, people won't receive TWO copies of each message!). Please feel free to send me any questions/comments! -- Dave P.S. One other important announcement: The International Wizard of Oz Club now has an E-mail address: iwoc@sam.neosoft.com Note that this address is just for correspondance with the I.W.O.C. and is not in any way affiliated with this Ozzy Digest. ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995 22:47:41 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-11-95 1) My brother and I have a major dispute about where Oz actually is, and we decided to try and get some third party opinions. Nu, nu? 2) In response to the question about my least favorite Oz book, that would be all of Neill's books, as 1) he was in severe contradiction to Baum and Thompson's books, letting his creativity run amok instead of thinking about what he was doing, and failing to check his work against previous sources, 2) unlike Baum and Thompson, he talked down to the reader instead of treating the reader as an equal, and 3) he could not write to save his own life. Aaron. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Thu 14-Dec-95 00:53:27 (PST) From: Dave Subject: Where is Oz? Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman writes: >My brother and I have a major dispute about where Oz actually is, and we decided to try and get some >third party opinions. Nu, nu? My personal theory (that I assert in my upcoming Oz book) is that Oz and the rest of the "Baum universe" lies at the bottom of a 4-dimensional "wormhole" or "gravity well" that is a protrusion of of the Earth's surface into the "quantum foam" that fills hyperspace. The fact that the Nonestic Ocean and all its lands, including Oz, is in contact with these multi-dimensional "quantum vibrations" outside of the three dimensional universe we know allows for the existance of magic. In fact, the "magical powers" of an individual (Glinda, Mombi, the Wizard, the Adepts, whoever) is just a measure of to what extent he/she is able to manipulate "quantum waves" in Oz and other Fairylands. The reason why Baumgea (the continent in which Oz et. al. lies) is so hard to reach is that the mouth of the 4-dimensional "wormhole" that Baumgea lies in is usually "pinched off" from the outside world, and only through magical intervention does the mouth (which lies somewhere in the ocean of our world) open up and permit the entry into the Fairy realm of outsiders like Dorothy or Betsy or Trot and Capt'n Bill. (This all of course is in a parallel universe in which magic through Quantum Physics and Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is possible, but because there are an infinity of different universes, this universe DOES exist, and in it Oz IS A REAL PLACE!) -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 09:53:48 -0500 From: michael f burns Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-11-95 Since childhood, my favorite Thompson character was Handy Mandy. My favorite Baum character is the Hungry Tiger. My favorite book would have to be the Wizard of Oz because that's where it all began, I don't know that I have a least liked one. These are the books I first remember being able to read by myself so they all hold a special place in my heart. My favorite Oz possession is a signed Eric Shanower lithograph of Polychrome (Possession that isn't a book anyway!) Mike ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 12:33:13 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz faves Well, my favorite character has probably always been the Scarecrow, although Captain Salt is a close second. My favorite book in the FF is CAPTAIN SALT IN OZ, because it is just good solid adventure. Oddly enough, this is the only book in the FF that does not enter the Land of Oz. My least favorite is probably any of the three John R Neill books. Not to disrespect the great Oz illustrator. In fact, I heard a nasty rumor that Mr. Neills original versions were very well written but some junior editor at Reilly & Lee hacked them up. This has resulted in three books that are filled with errors, mistakes and very weird things. However, his non-FF title "RUNAWAY IN OZ" is very good. This is available from Books of Wonder. I don;t know their 800 number, but I am sure that Peter Glassman will be glad to provide it (it's also in a previous Ozzy Digest). My favorite overall author is Ruth Plumly Thompson. She had a great sense of history and her stories were much more action-based than the others. Not that she is perfect. The word "cozy" was vastly overused and she gave the Oz characters a little too much power, but her stuff is still the best. My favorite Baum book is "Queen Zixi of Ix". This is not an Oz book in the classic sense. Rather, it takes place in the "Oz Universe", similar to such stories as The Sea Fairies, Sky Island, The Magical Monarch of Mo, John Dough and the Cherub, The Life and Adventuires of Santa Clause, The Enchanted Isle of Yew, The Curious Cruise of Captain Santa and maybe a few others. That's all for today. --Tyler Jones TJONES@CSI.COMPUSERVE.COM http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 12 Dec 1995 23:00:32 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-11-95 For all who are interested: Fred Meyer is recovering well, but slowly. He is, intelligently enough, backing off from his IWOC work, but he's still very much interested in us. He sounds better and stronger every week. I certainly agree with Pete Hanff that he'd appreciate cards and letters, but he won't be able to respond to y'all who are kind enough to write him. Actually, I believe that our expressions of affection and concern will help him to recuperate even more rapidly than he has so far. Fred hides it fairly well, but he's really a sentimental fellow. Your cards will really mean something to him. The Escanaba post office will forward them. Just be sure (to repeat Pete's caveat here) to address mail to Fred personally, to identify it from generic Club mail. And completely off that subject...HI, Y'ALL! I'VE MISSED SEEING YOU ON-LINE. --Robin Olderman ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 11:21:46 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-11-95 > >From: Sissor > >Subject: del rey books question > > > >Hey ozzies, > >I have the first 14 from the Del Rey publisher series from 1981. Needless to say they are terribly worn > >and the pages are turning and ugly brown. Also I have 15-25 of the Ruth Plumly Thompson series > >also by the Del Rey publishers. I was wondering how I can get new ones of the original 14 and the > >rest of the others as well. I know that there are a lot more of the stories, something like 50 right? I > >would really appreciate any informations since the Bookstop and other local big chains have NOT > >been helpful! Thanks, > > > >Eric Henao > > "The Oz Collector" is a catalog devoted to the Oz books of L. Frank Baum and his many successors, >as well as many other things relating to the world of Oz. It is available FREE by calling the following >toll-free number: (800) 207-6968. >All 14 Baum paperbacks are offered in the catalog, as well as Baum's "Sea Fairies", "Sky Island", and >"Dot and Tot of Merryland". Also offered are John R. Neill's "Wonder City of Oz", "Scalawagons of >Oz," "Lucky Bucky of Oz" and his long-unpublished novel, now finally in print, "The Runaway in Oz." >Other classic Oz books offered include Jack Snow's "Magicial Mimics in Oz", "The Shaggy Man of Oz" >and "Who's Who in Oz" as well as Eloise and Lauren McGraw's "Merry Go Round in Oz". And fine editions they all are! (But you cal also pick up the Baum books, both the paperbacks and the BoW editions, in a number of other bookstores. I see 'em all the time at Barnes and Nobles, for instance. > "The Oz Collector" also lists over a dozen original Oz novels by modern authors, including Eric >Gjovaag (who regularly posts to this group). Forthcoming issues of the catalog will include titles by >Ruth Plumly Thompson, a new Oz game book ad more. Hey, let's be fair, here! I only CO-wrote "Queen Ann in Oz." Karyl Carlson and I split the work fairly evenly, and as the basic story idea was hers she really deserves her share of the credit. (Of course, I'm the one who said, "Hey, wanna collaborate?") --Eric "Yes, I do do autographs..." Gjovaag "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" --The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 16:38:30 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: Ozzy Books Peter Glassman sez: > "The Oz Collector" also lists over a dozen original Oz novels by modern authors, including Eric >Gjovaag (who regularly posts to this group). Forthcoming issues of the catalog will include titles by Ruth >Plumly Thompson, a new Oz game book and more. Oooh! Can you tell us any more? Like, which Thompson books are you planning on offering? And are they going to be printed by BoW? ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 22:57:53 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-11-95 The Oz Club has polled its members several times with David's questions. All I can remember is that among members who had read all 40 in the canon, OZMA was #1 or #2. I think it was #1. (My memory may have been colored by my own personal preference here. I love OZMA. It's terribly satisfying to have Dorothy return to Oz. TikTok embodies many of the best qualities of Ozziness: loyalty, perseverence, intelligence, helpfulness, complete lack of prejudice towards "different" individuals and cultures, etc., etc.) Anyway, among readers who had a more limited Oz experience, WIZARD ranked as #1. I think it was #2 for those who'd read all 40, I can't recall a specific loser/least favorite. My own are DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD because it's so episodic and so very, very dark. Also COWARDLY LION. I really don't like Notta. His running "shtick" of disguises, etc., irritated me. Also, R.P.T. never told us the last of his disguises. The business of Mustafa and the lions struck me as stupid, but that Nickadoodle character was dreadful. The book seems to be a knockoff of Lewis Carrollian weirdities. However, I loved Fiddlestick Forest and did get a kick out of Un. I think one of the top faves for characters was the Scarecrow. I don't have a favorite. I have preferences, but no clear favorite. Maybe the Cowardly Lion.... As for favorite Ozzy possessions, I could write a book about 'em. Somehow I don't think I want to bore you all with an elaborated list of them. I've been collecting for many years. Mostly I enjoy the Neill artwork I own. Sorry for the long post. Robin Olderman ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 14 Dec 1995 18:34:25 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Oz stuff I want to compile a list of Ozzy references from "The Simpsons" on the Simpsons chat line. The goal of this is to explore a possible Baum-link in one of the episodes. The episode in question is the one where Lisa, enraged by the sexist remarks of the first talking Malibu-Stacy, creates her own doll, Lisa Lionheart. At the beginning of this episode, they are all in the toy store and Lisa spies a section called "The Valley of the Dolls", an aisle filled on both sides with dolls. I think Matt Groening got this idea from "Dot and Tot in Merryland" and I need a list of Ozzy stuff on the Simpsons to break the ice. Here are the ones I remember. 1. When Ned Flanders Leftorium goes bankrupt, Marge is sure that he will find happpiness somehere. "Where?" bellows Homer, "In the Merry old Land of Oz?" 2. Homer and Michelle Pfiefer order room service, prompting Burns to send in the Winged Monkeys. 3. When Uncy Herb passes out gifts, Homer whines "I don' think there's anything in that black bag for me". 4. When we look at Lisas future, several college students are walking around dressed as the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion. 5. When Homer follows his co-workers to the Stonecutters meeting by tying a can of yellow paint to their car and poking a hole in it, he says "all I have to do is follow the yellow drip road!" I am sure that there are some more. Can anybody help me out? ============================================================================== Dear Tyler, I read How the Wizard Came to Oz yesterday and came to two conclusions: 1) The date given for How the Wizard Came to Oz is probably way too early, and 2) there seems to be no logic in the shapes that Mombi transformed Pastoria, Ozma, and the prime minister (can't remember his name at the moment) into. Justification for conclusion 1: We all know that Mombi raised Ozma/Tip from infancy, but we also know that by the time the Wizard got to Oz, Pastoria was no longer in the picture at all. (See How the Wizard Came to Oz. Pastoria is not mentioned even once in the book.) Hence the Four Wicked Witches must have conquered Oz and Mombi must have transformed Pastoria, and the Prime Minister before then, which according to the HACC must have happened before 1850. (As we know from The Land of Oz, Ozma was not transformed until the Wizard brought her to Mombi.) Since Ozma was adopted before Pastoria was deposed (see The Lost King of Oz), the HACC would put Ozma/Tip's age at the time she/he ran away from Mombi at over fifty, which since people were not halting their aging at that point in Oz, is an absurd age for her/him. Therefore, I propose that the Wizard came to Oz not in 1850, but in 1889 (I know this is pushing it), which would bring Ozma/Tip's age down to about 14 when she/he runs away. It is this date which I am currently assuming in the Woozy of Oz (most of which actually takes place in 2097), which brings us to Justification for conclusion 2: 1) Leaving the Prime Minister with his memory intact is incredibly risky, as he could have spread news of the usurping to neighboring countries and used his influence to convince other magic workers to aid him in reconquering Oz. 2) Even though Pastoria was given amnesia when he was turned into a tailor, magical amnesia seems to be imperfect at best and liable to wear off. Notice that Quox's ribbon didn't completely destroy Ruggedo's knowledge of magic, and that his memories, at least in part, resurfaced after he drank from the Fountain of Oblivion. So Mombi was extremely lucky that Pastoria didn't suddenly remember who he was, leave Blankenburg, and rightly reclaim the throne. 3) Why would Mombi have taken the trouble of raising Ozma/Tip in the first place? Raising children is reputedly (at least to me, as I have not had children yet) very taxing, physically and mentally, and rather expensive. 4) Mombi could have obviated these difficulties easily by just transforming Pastoria, Ozma, and the prime minister into rocks, which require no maintenance and never say anything to get one in trouble. This leads directly to my proposed explination for why Mombi undertook such an apparently stupid task. I propose that when the Four Wicked Witches overthrew Pastoria, they did do the smart thing and transform Pastoria, Ozma, and the prime minister into rocks. Then Glinda overthrew Singra and put her into a hundred year sleep (which would put The Wicked Witch of Oz in 1988), and Tattypoo overthrew Mombi. Mombi's magical instruments and ingredients were confiscated, and she was threatened with being turned into a chunk of granite if she caused trouble again. Sent into a state of depression and seriously considering giving up magic for needlepoint, Mombi was visited by a mysterious magician, who offered to give her plenty of magical supplies and give her ways of evading Glinda and Tattypoo if she would do four "simple tasks", to which Mombi agreed, especially as this mysterious magician, who proved himself to have great powers, told her that she had a great future ahead of her, for he had been there. Then Mombi finds out what the "simple tasks" are, and it's only the promise of a better future than doing needlepoint that makes her agree to them. The tasks are: 1) Gayelette's castle and its inhabitants must be transformed into a kiwi fruit. 2) Pastoria must be transformed into a tailor, given amnesia, sent to Blankenburg, and some cells must be scraped off the inside of his cheek with a toothpick. 3) The Prime Minister must be transformed into a goose, his memory being left intact, dumped in the middle of nowhere, and a feather must be pulled out of his tail. 4) --And this is the most difficult of all--Ozma must be transformed into a boy, some stuffing must be removed from her teddy bear, and Mombi must raise her. The mysterious magician takes the cells, the feather, the teddy bear stuffing, and the kiwi fruit, warns Mombi that under no conditions is she to turn Ozma into a marble statue, which would retroactively invalidate the teddy bear stuffing he needs for a truly demented spell, and leaves for the future. The question is, is all of this consistent with the rest of the Oz series? (Since you're the one with 200 Oz books...) Sincerely yours, Aaron. PS: I may change the teddy bear into a teddy kalidah. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 17, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 11:27:50 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: Ozzy Confession I must confess - in spite of my life long efforts, I have still not managed to read all (40?) of the canonical Oz books. Of course, I've read the Baums and (thanks to BoW) the Neils, the Snows, and Merry Go Round. I'm still trying to get ahold of the Thompsons, a few of which I've read, but not many. Which brings me to my question: I'm begining to feel the tinglings of an idea for a story about Ruggedo. I know that at one point in the series, Ruggedo was no longer the (g)nome king and that there was someone else on the throne. But what is Ruggedo's "final" fate (or status) in the original series? Did he ever return to the throne? What's he up to? Anyways, thanks for any info, and I hope I'll be able to find out all this for myself someday :-) ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 15 Dec 1995 18:30:29 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Aaron Adelman wrote me an interesting letter asking some very good questions about the pre-history of Oz. I thought I would answer them all in the public forum. By the way, if Aaron (or anybody else) would like to ask me stuff about Oz, please send them message to Dave so that the entire membership will benefit from our discussions. The purpose here is to expand EVERYBODYS knowledge and interest in Oz. Anyway, Aarons comments are based on his reading of HOW THE WIZARD CAME TO OZ, which is about the early history of the Wizard. Unfortunately, OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES is not generally available, and it also covers this period in history. Maybe I can publish a description of the main points of that book. On my HACC, I have the Wizards arrival in 1850. I assumed that he was 25 years old at this time, and that he ruled for about 50 years. The number 50 was mentioned by Chuck Sabatos in an OZIANA story. The Wiz may have been exaggerating his length of rule, but there is no hard evidence for just how mcuh time elapsed between his arrival and his assumption of the throne of the Emerald City and between that and the arrival of Dorothy. He needs enough time to build the Emerald City and for his reputation to spread, if not throughout all of Oz, at least a decent-sized part. I used this to determine in part the placement of Roger Baums Silly Ozbuls Trilogy when he says that the Wizard is ninety years old. I may have to move these books now. Aaron is correct in saying that Pastoria was not on the scene when the Wizard arrived (HOW THE WIZARD and OZ THREE WITCHES confirm this). This is another problem. How much time elapsed between the disappearance of Pastoria and the arrival of the Wizard? I've always thought it was about a dozen years, though there is no evidence for any solid number. As an aside, Mombi was not mentioned in HOW THE WIZARD CAME TO OZ, yet we know that the Wizard had dealings with her. She was mentioned extensively in OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES. Aaron assumes (as I have, for many other reasons) that the four Wicked Witches had deposed Pastoria and taken over one quadrant each. The Emerald City area (according to Prime Minister Pajuka, there was a castle of some sort there before the Wizard) was probably declared a "no-witches land". Aarons problem with the dates is the length of time Tip/Ozma stayed with Mombi before running away. If we assume that the Wizard rose to power, built the Emerald City and gave Ozma to Mombi within ten years, Tip would have spent just over four decades with Mombi before running away. This is not very likely. And what about the aging thing? Ozma would have been a baby for about 20 years before the Wizard finally did something about it. Since Ozma was a fairy and the un/slow aging was beginning to take effect, we can assume that she could have been a baby for several years (if not a couple of decades). How about this? 1. Pastoria is deposed in 1860, right about the time that Ozma is born as a baby into Pastorias family. We do not know what became of Ozmas mortal mother. 2. The Wizard arrives in 1870, ten years after Pastoria vanishes. He is about 30 years old at this time. 3. The Wizard takes five years to assume the throne and notice Ozma. In a fifteen year time span, she has gone from newborn to perhaps two years old. 4. Mombis transformation of Ozma into Tip messed up his/her aging process and Tip becomes about 14 by the year 1903, the year of THE LAND OF OZ, a nearly 3:1 slowing down of the aging process. Aaron mentioned that before Ozma assumed the throne, that there had been no change to the aging process. We have assumed that this process began when Lurline enchanted the land and was building to a culmination. Therefore, SOME slowing down of aging was happening at this time. There are a couple of problems to be cleared up, though: 1. Why didn't Mombi simply transform Pastoria, Pajuka and Ozma into rocks instead of keeping them as living creatures which could potentially disrupt her plans? 2. Glinda must have defeated Singra (Wicked Witch of the South) after She took over the Quadling country, which must have been after the disappearance of Pastoria. The hundred year clock should have woken her up in the 1960s sometime, not 1952. We can assume that Ozma, as a fairy, cannot be transformed into inorganic material. Why didn't Mombi change her into a bush or something? In OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES, Mombi agrees to take care of Ozma in a deal with the Wizard. At the time, Mombi thought the Wizard was very powerful, so she did not want to displease him. She kept him alive and safe so that she would not incur the Wizards wrath. When the Wizard left Oz, Mombi was used to having Tip around as a servant, but she finally wised up and decided to get rid of him permanently. Perhaps Mombi hoped to use Pastoria at a later date, so she kept him alive and safe, just out of the way. At the time, about 40 years before Ozma assumed the throne and Lurlines enchantment became complete, talking animals were few and far between. In THE WIZARD OF OZ, for example, the Kalidahs and the Jaguar did not talk, although Kalidahs could talk by the time of THE MAGIC OF OZ. Therefore, changing Pajuka into a goose was not THAT risky (the risk that he could stir up rebellion against Mombi). Maybe it pleased her sense to turn him into a goose, with all memories intact, in the hopes that someone would catch him and eat him. He would suffer physically and mentally, knowing that he was once the Prime Minister of Oz, and now he's someones dinner. Wicked Witches can be awful cruel at times. Aaron postulated a "Mysterious Stranger" who beset Mombi with all manner of strange tasks. I'm sorry, Aaron, but your story of the four tasks by the guy form the future was just a little too much. It is better to explain things with the fewest and most logical assumptions that you can. In light of this though, it seems I should move HOW THE WIZARD CAME TO OZ ahead about 20 years, to 1870. As for THE WICKED WITCH OF OZ, however, it was written in 1952, so I don't really want to move it ahead to a place after it was written. It is easier to say that her 100-year clock was a little faulty, and woke her up about a decade early. This has been a long message, but it is a good starting point for revealing the truth about that time in Ozian history. --Tyler Jones TJONES@CSI.COMPUSERVE.COM http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones ============================================================================== Date: Sat 16 Dec 95 15:14:47 (PST) From: Dave Subject: The Wizard on Trial (reply to Tyler's above message) Hi Tyler! I hope you don't mind my taking our dialogue about my book into the public forum, but as it is a question in response to your message to the list about Ozian pre-history, I thought I'd make my remarks public as well. (Just for everyone else's info, I am writing an Oz book centering around Locasta, the original Good Witch of the North (NOT Tattypoo who as it turns out is just a "carbon copy"). At one point in the story, Locasta is explaining to her friend Dan (the newest Ozian immigrant from the U.S.) how Mombi banished her and replaced her with Tattypoo---She says that Mombi kidnappe Pastoria & his family *BEFORE* the arrival in Oz of the Wizard (and of Glinda and Locasta), so that there was a short period when Oz was ruler-less until the Wizard arrived. Is this scenario completely off the mark? I notice that in your message you accept the truth of "Ozgate" (i.e. "The Wizard was behind the kidnapping of Ozma" scandal), but if I may quote Ozma, who tells part of the story in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD, Chapter 15: "[O]nce upon a time, four witches leagued together to depose the king and rule the four parts of [Oz] themselves...one wicked witch named Mombi stole him and carried him away, keeping him a close prisoner. Then the witches divided up the kingdom, and ruled the four parts until you [she's addressing the Wizard] came here..." The Wizard then observes that when he came, Glinda had already conquered Singra and Locasta had conquered Mombi. Ozma continues: "But Mombi was still my grandfather's jailor, and afterward my father's [and her mother's!] jailor. When I was born [INTO captivity--she wasn't GIVEN to Mombi by the Wizard or anyone else!], she transformed me into a boy, hoping that no one would ever recognize me and know that I was the rightful Princess of the Land of Oz..." From this, I conclude that the sequence of events was: (1) Mombi kidnaps the royal family, including Ozma's parents, (2) Ozma is born in Mombi's captivity and Mombi enchants her, (3) Glinda and Locasta arrive and conquer Singra and Mombi, (4) The Wizard arrives, (5) Dorothy arrives and "liquidates" the other two wicked witches, (6) Mombi banishes Locasta, and (7) Glinda finds Ozma. And we the jury find the defendant, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, the Wizard of Oz, not guilty of the offence as charged in the indictment... Does this verdict represent a miscarrage of justice, and if so, then why upon returning to Oz wasn't THE WIZARD put in a cage instead of Eureka? -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 18, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 16 Dec 1995 23:56:53 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-15-95 Aaron S. Adelman wrote: > 1) My brother and I have a major dispute about where Oz actually is, and > we decided to try and get some third party opinions. Nu, nu? That all depends on how you look at it, I guess. Some say that Oz is Australia (or a parallel-Australia). Some say it's somewhere else in the Pacific -- which doesn't explain how people get there from Kansas or the Atlantic coast, of course. In "A Barnstormer in Oz" Philip Jose Farmer puts it in a split-level continuum with our world -- it's not quite the same reality as ours, but we DO share the same moon, sun, and stars (if you can see that). Problem is, it's never been really stated definitively in any of the books -- which is probably just as well! Dave Hardenbrook wrote: > My personal theory (that I assert in my upcoming Oz book) is that Oz and the > rest of the "Baum universe" lies at the bottom of a 4-dimensional "wormhole" > or "gravity well" that is a protrusion of of the Earth's surface into the > "quantum foam" that fills hyperspace. The fact that the Nonestic Ocean and all > its lands, including Oz, is in contact with these multi-dimensional "quantum > vibrations" outside of the three dimensional universe we know allows for > the existance of magic. In fact, the "magical powers" of an individual > (Glinda, Mombi, the Wizard, the Adepts, whoever) is just a measure > of to what extent he/she is able to manipulate "quantum waves" in Oz > and other Fairylands. Somebody's been watching too much "Star Trek" and picking up a lot of technobabble... :D > The reason why Baumgea (the continent in which Oz et. al. lies) is so hard to > reach is that the mouth of the 4-dimensional "wormhole" that Baumgea lies in > is usually "pinched off" from the outside world, and only through magical > intervention does the mouth (which lies somewhere in the ocean of our world) > open up and permit the entry into the Fairy realm of outsiders like Dorothy > or Betsy or Trot and Capt'n Bill. Er, the continent's name is the Continent of Imagination, as revealed in one of RPT's books (but I can't remember which one off the top of my head). But I DO like Baumgea... > (This all of course is in a parallel universe in which magic through Quantum > Physics and Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is possible, but because > there are an infinity of different universes, this universe DOES exist, and > in it Oz IS A REAL PLACE!) Are they having the same discussion on the Ozian equivalent of the Internet as to whether America really exists? Tyler Jones wrote: > However, his non-FF title "RUNAWAY IN OZ" is very good. This is available from > Books of Wonder. I don;t know their 800 number, but I am sure that Peter > Glassman will be glad to provide it (it's also in a previous Ozzy Digest). I suspect Eric Shanower had a big hand in improving "Runaway." It is very good, and not as Neillian as his other books, and since Eric edited...well, you can decide for yourself . BoW's number is 1-800-835-4315. Their address is 132 7th Ave. at 18th St., New York, NY 10011, and in case you don't already get it (I suspect most of us on this list do), you want their Oz catalog, "The Oz Collector." Ask and ye shall receive! > And completely off that subject...HI, Y'ALL! I'VE MISSED SEEING YOU ON-LINE. > > --Robin Olderman HI, ROBIN!!!!!!!! Tyler Jones wrote: > I want to compile a list of Ozzy references from "The Simpsons" on the Simpsons > chat line. The goal of this is to explore a possible Baum-link in one of the > episodes. Pointless, IMHO, as there are so MANY (and more being added all the time)! I mean, "Oz" (or at least the movie) has become so much a part of American culture that you can't avoid it any more! If we were to compile a list of pop culture references to "Oz," it could take a very long time, and more would just keep coming. I say, enjoy 'em when they come, but let's not make a big deal out of it. Of course, "The Simpsons" is one of the better places to spot "Oz" stuff. I still get a kick out of Burns releasing the flying monkeys... --Eric "Gee, did I say a little bit of something to EVERYONE who posted?" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 00:24:37 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-17-95 Mark A. Semich wrote: > I must confess - in spite of my life long efforts, I have still not > managed to read all (40?) of the canonical Oz books. Of course, I've > read the Baums and (thanks to BoW) the Neils, the Snows, and Merry Go > Round. I'm still trying to get ahold of the Thompsons, a few of which > I've read, but not many. Which brings me to my question: Before we go on, you do know that the Oz Club now has most of the Thompson books available, in one form or another? > I'm begining to feel the tinglings of an idea for a story about Ruggedo. > I know that at one point in the series, Ruggedo was no longer the > (g)nome king and that there was someone else on the throne. But what is > Ruggedo's "final" fate (or status) in the original series? Did he ever > return to the throne? What's he up to? Read "Handy Mandy in Oz" (one of the books the Club has reprinted). Nothing's happened to him since his rather prickly fate in that book. Tyler Jones wrote: > Aaron is correct in saying that Pastoria was not on the scene when the Wizard > arrived (HOW THE WIZARD and OZ THREE WITCHES confirm this). This is another > problem. How much time elapsed between the disappearance of Pastoria and the > arrival of the Wizard? I've always thought it was about a dozen years, though > there is no evidence for any solid number. Probably even less time than that, as the citizens think the Wizard is their new ruler from the OZ on his balloon, and so not much time would have past for them to forget it. (If it had instead passed into legend, it would have been a LOT *more* time than that.) > As an aside, Mombi was not mentioned in HOW THE WIZARD CAME TO OZ, yet we know > that the Wizard had dealings with her. She was mentioned extensively in OZ AND > THE THREE WITCHES. Mentioned??? Heck, she was half the plot! > Aaron assumes (as I have, for many other reasons) that the four Wicked Witches > had deposed Pastoria and taken over one quadrant each. The Emerald City area > (according to Prime Minister Pajuka, there was a castle of some sort there > before the Wizard) was probably declared a "no-witches land". The way I've always seen it is that the witches each actually controlled relatively small areas, with LOTS of unclaimed territory between them. Look at "Wizard," where Dorothy and Co. spend some time between the Munchkin Country and the Emerald City, and again between the Emerald City and the Quadling Country. None of this is clearly defined as being part of any one country until later, when Ozma may have divided the country into administrative districts. > Aarons problem with the dates is the length of time Tip/Ozma stayed with Mombi > before running away. If we assume that the Wizard rose to power, built the > Emerald City and gave Ozma to Mombi within ten years, Tip would have spent > just over four decades with Mombi before running away. This is not very likely. > And what about the aging thing? Ozma would have been a baby for about 20 years > before the Wizard finally did something about it... In his essay "The Early History of Oz" in "Unexplored Territory in Oz," Robert R. Pattrick estimates Ozma may have been born 150 years before gaining the throne, assuming that there was some slowing of the aging process already going on. (Really, Pattrick's essay, and the new version with additions and annotations by Patrick Maund, would both be invaluable to this discussion.) > There are a couple of problems to be cleared up, though: > > 1. Why didn't Mombi simply transform Pastoria, Pajuka and Ozma into rocks > instead of keeping them as living creatures which could potentially disrupt > her plans? Perhaps Mombi wasn't that powerful. > 2. Glinda must have defeated Singra (Wicked Witch of the South) after She took > over the Quadling country, which must have been after the disappearance of > Pastoria. The hundred year clock should have woken her up in the 1960s > sometime, not 1952. Assuming, of course, that "Wicked Witch" takes place in 1952 (I'm not convinced of this year-it-was-written rule). Or perhaps the clock was measuring Old Ozian years, which are shorter. Or perhaps Glinda defeated Singra BEFORE Pastoria was overthrown, before either one came to rule the Quadlings (but I'll have to reread "Wicked Witch" for evidence for or against this). > We can assume that Ozma, as a fairy, cannot be transformed into inorganic > material. Then how did the Nome King transform her into an emerald grasshopper? > At the time, about 40 years before Ozma assumed the throne and Lurlines > enchantment became complete, talking animals were few and far between. In > THE WIZARD OF OZ, for example, the Kalidahs and the Jaguar did not talk... ...or maybe like Toto, they just had nothing to say. (It's not like the Tin Woodman ever gave that jaguar a CHANCE...) Dave wrote: > The Wizard then observes that when he came, Glinda had already conquered Singra > and Locasta had conquered Mombi. Ozma continues: > > "But Mombi was still my grandfather's jailor, and afterward my father's > [and her mother's!] jailor. When I was born [INTO captivity--she wasn't > GIVEN to Mombi by the Wizard or anyone else!], she transformed me into > a boy, hoping that no one would ever recognize me and know that I was the > rightful Princess of the Land of Oz..." > > >From this, I conclude that the sequence of events was: (1) Mombi kidnaps > the royal family, including Ozma's parents, (2) Ozma is born in Mombi's > captivity and Mombi enchants her, (3) Glinda and Locasta arrive and conquer > Singra and Mombi, (4) The Wizard arrives, (5) Dorothy arrives and "liquidates" > the other two wicked witches, (6) Mombi banishes Locasta, and (7) Glinda finds > Ozma. You know, I LIKE this theory, that Ozma was born while her parents were Mombi's prisoner. And it sure does explain a lot... > And we the jury find the defendant, Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, the Wizard of Oz, > not guilty of the offence as charged in the indictment... > > Does this verdict represent a miscarrage of justice, and if so, then why upon > returning to Oz wasn't THE WIZARD put in a cage instead of Eureka? Statute of limitations had run out? --Eric "Everyone, get a copy of 'Unexplored Territory in Oz'" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 14:29:59 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-17-95 Concerning Ruggedo's fate: As I remember, In Handy Mandy in Oz Ruggedo and the Wizard of Wutz ended up being transformed into cacti and put in the Royal Greenhouse. Of course, in the HACC they list a later book called Ruggedo in Oz, so apparently he escapes this condition (I know not how), and in my own book in progress (The Woozy of Oz) I'm going to bring him back no matter what anyone else does to him. Aaron. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 14:49:10 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Wizard's Age Concerning Ozite Pre-Dorothean History: How the Wizard Came to Oz puts the Wizard in his early forties when he comes to Oz, not at about 25. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 15:13:06 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Another idea of how to fix the chronology How about this: When the four Wicked Witches depose Pastoria, they do transform Ozma into some sort of non dangerous form (a rock, a bush, etc.). She remains in this form for many years until after the Wizard takes over the Emerald City, at which point something happens that reverts Ozma to her natural form (a passing sorcerer something is wrong with a certain rock and investigates, or perhaps transformed people/things sometimes spontaneously revert to their natural form, or if I want to save my Mysterious Stranger hypothesis, I can have him do it in order to obtain an ingredient for a spell). However, since Ozma's been a rock or a bush all this time she hasn't aged a bit. The Wizard or someone high in his political hierarchy finds the child, and the Wizard recognizes by some sort of signs who this child is. The Wizard then makes his three visits to Mombi, and Ozma/Tip spends the next 10-14 years with Mombi until she/he runs away, during which time she/he ages normally. Note: Ozma does not have a mortal other. According to The Lost King of Oz, she was adopted by Pastoria. I realize this is in direct contradiction with Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, but that story is incredibly suspicious. Mombi would have had to be insane to let the royal family do any reproduction during their imprisionment. But who would have fabricated such a story, I really don't know. Now what I'm starting to wonder is: Why does the Wizard take Ozma to Mombi in the first place? Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 18:20:51 -0500 From: Athos4@aol.com Subject: Posting 12/18 Hello all, My name is Warren Baldwin and I can hardly remember a time when I haven't been reading Oz books, however I'm merely a dilettante and have no commercial or artistic investment in Oz. Favorites are a tough choice in Oz, but I suppose my favorite character is the scarecrow because at times he and I are about as scatterbrained as can be. I simply can't pick one favorite book -- the three or four I could read over and over again are Pirates in Oz and Captain Salt in Oz (I like Samuel), Grampa in Oz (Grampa is so cozy) and The Hungry Tiger in Oz (Carter Green is delicious). Probably my least favorite is The Scarecrow of Oz. I couldn't accept the premise for some reason; thought it was too far-fetched -- a concept tautologically and semantically mystifying. My *library* is my only ozzy possession as I'm primarily interested only in the books and the lore. I hope to chat with other amatuers like myself, just for fun. Athos4@aol.com (Warren Baldwin) ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 17 Dec 1995 18:20:55 -0500 From: Athos4@aol.com Subject: Posting 2, 12/18 Hello all, I would like to find if any such thing as an Oz database is in existence, or something like. I'm of a mind to create one myself, but I think I will need some special software and hope that one of you computer aficionados might be able to give me a name. I had in mind to move through the e-texts and mark entries by the word, selection, sentence or paragraph and assign those marked to predetermined categories which would be searchable when data are to be retrieved. It would be something like a database program and I started out that way, but had no way to paste in the selections and wound up typing in all the marked text and (due to inadequate preparation) the categories as well. I estimated it would take me about two years to complete at the rate I was going. My result should be something a little bit like hypertext and a little bit like a database. Of course searching for particular words in e-text is easy, but what do you do when you're looking for something like *politics*? That's where the predetermined categories (which should also be customizable) would come in. I have no doubt the perfect program is waiting somewhere for me, and it's probably from Writers Digest. Aspiring writers? . . . Athos4@aol.com (Warren Baldwin) ============================================================================== Date: Sun 17 Dec 95 13:37:42 (PST) From: Dave Subject: The Wizard on Trial (continued) and other recent postings Eric Gjovaag wrote: >Read "Handy Mandy in Oz" (one of the books the Club has reprinted). >Nothing's happened to him since his rather prickly fate in that book. Until now. :) In my book, one of the Adepts at Sorcery inadvertently disenchants Ruggedo and he races off, gets some "friends" (I'm using coded words a lot so as not to divulge too much of the plot to everyone!), ALMOST succeeds in conquering Oz, but at the end he repents and promises to be a "good nome" from now on ( yeah, right :) ). Also, in the first chapter, which is a sort of prologue, I reveal why and how Rggedo's loss of memory by the Fountain of Oblivion "wore off" in the period ewteen _Magic_ and _Kabumpo_! ( Just thought I'd wet your juices! ;) ) > >From this, I conclude that the sequence of events was: (1) Mombi kidnaps > >the royal family, including Ozma's parents, (2) Ozma is born in Mombi's > >captivity and Mombi enchants her, (3) Glinda and Locasta arrive and conquer > >Singra and Mombi, (4) The Wizard arrives, (5) Dorothy arrives and "liquidates" > >the other two wicked witches, (6) Mombi banishes Locasta, and (7) Glinda finds > >Ozma. >You know, I LIKE this theory, that Ozma was born while her parents were >Mombi's prisoner. And it sure does explain a lot... Ah, a vote of confidence! :) On reflection, I do see two stumbling blocks to my theory, but watch how swiftly I explain them away! :) 1. In _Lost King_ and _Magic Mimics_ (and elsewhere?) it states that Lurline gave Ozma as a baby to Pastoria and his wife, who were childless. My explanation: Mombi kidnapped the entire family--Ozma, Pastoria, Mrs. Pastoria, etc. 2. Mombi says when she's interogated by Glinda in _Land_ that the Wizard brought baby Ozma to her and "begged" Mombi to hide her. If this was untrue, Glinda's truth pearl should have turned black. My explanation: Mombi *HAS* to be lying because she says the Wiz gave her some magic spells and charms, which is impossible because he was then 100% HUMBUG! Glinda's magic pearl *MUST* have been faulty or at least on the fritz that day ( did she remeber to install fresh batteries? ;) ). Seriously, if the Book of Records is flawed (and we know that it is), perhaps so are other things of Glinda's, such as the pearl. Possible? And here are my answers to my own questions to the group: >-- Who is everyone's favorite Oz character? Ozma!!! She's so beautiful and sweet and I don't care if she "waffles"! :) I am also very fond of Scraps, Glinda, the Cowardly Lion, and also the Adepts at Sorcery (largely because I greatly develop their characters in my book), but I think Ozma is still #1 for me! I was totally in love with her when I was a kid, and she is still my idea of an "ideal woman" as well as an "ideal world leader". :) (I'm done. You may now flame me.) :) :) >-- What is everyone's favorite book and why? _Patchwork Girl_ is at the top, because Scraps makes her debut, and it is one of the most whimsical of the series. Runners up are _Scarecrow_ (I like Trot, Capt'n Bill, and the Ork), _Glinda_ (all that magical machinery), and _Wicked Witch_ (I also like Percy, and I *LOVE* Shanower's illustrations!!!). >-- What is everyone's LEAST favorite book and why? No question, rock bottom is _Tin Woodman_. Nick Chopper puts himself through so much anguish for a girl he no longer loves! And those paradoxes inherent in "The Tin Woodman Talks to Himself" are just "too deep for me!" Others that do nothing for me are _Dorothy and Wizard_ (too dark), _Magic_ (too Orwellian), and the Neil books (too anarchal-- Oz gone berzerk--Oz meets Monty Python, however you want to characterize them. I'll reserve judgement on _Runaway_ until I've read it though...) >-- Does anyone have an Ozzy prized posession they'd like to tell about? Besides the books themselves, I have a collection of paper dolls of the Oz characters that I made myself. I really prize them! One thing I also prize (although they're not really "possesions" are all the terrific people I've met in the Oz Club and here in the Oz groups on the 'Net! -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 19, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 08:20:24 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-18-95 Warren Baldwin writes: > I would like to find if any such thing as an Oz database is in existence, or > something like. I'm of a mind to create one myself, but I think I will need > some special software and hope that one of you computer aficionados might be > able to give me a name ... My result should be something a little bit like > hypertext and a little bit like a database. Of course searching for particular > words in e-text is easy, but what do you do when you're looking for something > like *politics*? That's where the predetermined categories (which should also > be customizable) would come in. Well, a good place to start might be John Ebinger's electronic versions of the Oz books. He's put many of them onto disk, but I don't think he's online, and I CERTAINLY don't think he's posted them into archives on the Internet or anything like that. Maybe I'll bring this up with him at the next Winkie Convention... Now, here are a few random comments from me about things that have been going on in this digest of late: The big problem I have with the HACC (what does that stand for again???) is that many of the books are either out of print, not generally available, or not even published yet. So it would be VERY , VERY hard for most people to get these books. Yet the way it's presented, they all carry the same weight, as if all Oz fans are expected to have read them, or at least know of them. Doesn't work like that, I'm afraid. Now, if titles could be marked so as to indicate which were part of the Famous Forty, which were by FF authors, which are currently available, which aren't, which haven't been published, etc., that might make it more useful. But I think the HACCers are doing a BIG, BIG disservice by treating all books the same. What if Eloise Jarvis McGraw wanted to write a story where the Nome King comes back, but she totally ignores "Ruggedo in Oz" because she doesn't even know about it? Does that make her new book unofficial? My point here is, I think, read the Oz books, no matter who writes or publishes them, and enjoy them -- but don't read too much into them! Hey, it's only a series of children's books. True, a very GOOD set, but still... (It would probably help if all Oz fans could agree on what is an "official" Oz book and what isn't, but there isn't even one Oz publisher any more!) What is the point of all of this "Favorite"/"Least favorite" stuff? Call me odd, but it doesn't really matter to me. To be sure, I do have some preferences amongst the books and characters, but I like them all in one way or another, and picking a favorite is very hard for me, so I don't worry about it and just enjoy 'em. I STILL want to know what others on this list think of "The Wizard of Oz in Concert"! Did you like it? Not like it? --Eric "Okay, that's all I have to say for now" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 19:45:40 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Various 1) Does anyone out there know the name of the continent on the other side of the planet from Oz? (The place that the Great Jinjin rules; see Tik-Tok of Oz.) 2) It was a wildcat, not a jaguar. 3) Concerning the Oz database idea: I think it would be more worthwhile to put the effort into scanning in as many of the Oz books as possible (Oz-related stuff by Baum, such as the Magical Monarch of Mo, included.) My pocketbook (and probably many other people's pocketbooks) would really appreciate that. As far as I understand it, Baum and Neill's books all should be public domain by now since they've both been dead over fifty years, though I will certainly defer to anyone who knows more about copyright law. While I'm on the topic, for anyone who's interested, the following Oz/Baum books are available at the On-Line Books Page (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/books.html): The Wizard of Oz The Marvelous Land of Oz Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz The Magic of Oz The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus A Kidnapped Santa Claus Also: Ozma of Oz is currently being entered and The Master Key is being proofread. 4) Dave, which Oz book did you write/are writing? (No one with the last name 47 is listed in the HACC. (:) 5) On with Dave's theory that Glinda's pearl is faulty: Maybe it isn't. Perhaps Mombi considered some of the Wizard's conjuring tricks to be genuine magic. As Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Come to think of it, what is genuine magic anyway? 6) Favorite character: When I was a little kid, my favorite Oz character was the Tin Woodman. Now I'm not so sure. I'm finding myself liking the Woozy a lot, but then again I'm writing a book about him. Favorite book: Also difficult, but Baum's books as a rule rank the highest to me, with the exception of The Road to Oz, which has no plot. Least favorite book: Still Neill's Famous Forty stuff, same reasons as before (inconsistency with the rest of the series, talking down to the reader, makes the characters rather shallow and stupid...) Least favorite character: Neill's singing shoes. 7) Can anyone explain how come Trot, Cap'n Bill, and Button-Bright stayed in Oz, even though they have close family still living in the Outside World? (At least 2 our of 3 of them. ) They didn't even send a message to the effect of: Dear Mom and Dad, Moved to Oz. Not coming back. Aaron. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 13:00:50 -0500 (EST) From: "Nathanel J. Barlow" Subject: First Post Hi everyone, This is my first post to the Ozzy digest, though most of you know already know me. With this (horrible) semester behind me, I've finally gotten an opportunity to read all the posts. Favorite Character--I've always loved the Scarecrow, Carter Green and Kabumpo. Least Favorite--Can't think of any. Favorite Book--_Emerald City_ is up there, since it was one of the first I read outside of _The Wizard_. _Kabumpo_, _Patchwork Girl_ and _Magical Mimics_ also rate highly. Least Favorite--this is going to sound cliche, but any of the Neill's (I haven't acquired _Runaway_ yet, so I don't know about that) Favorite Possession--This is a tough one. There are a couple that rate up there: _Laughing Dragon_, since it took three years at being at the top of my want list for me to find it. _Phoebe Daring_, which my mother found at a tag sale for 50 cents. There's a lot of other, too. Has anyone seen The Wizard of Oz on Ice? I caught it last Friday night at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, PA, 7 rows from the ice. I thought it was pretty good. My favorite sequences were the poppy field and the subsequent snow storm. My biggest gripes were with the updating of the music--it would have been fine except for the addition of a horrible drum-machine beat in the background. The Jitterbug's struck me as a little out of place (not the sequence, just the actual physical appearance of the jitterbugs). There was _a lot_ of merchandising; I picked up a few things, but the best was one of the actual adveritising posters (not for sale), which I got by talking to one of the Arena staff. Nate RociNate -- wiz@CMU.EDU * Red Sox, Patriots, Steelers, Celtics -- nb2b@andrew.cmu.edu * Bruins, Whalers, Pens, UConn, FRINGE ___________________________________________________________________________ |"I've got a bad feeling about this."|"Don't ask me, I'm just improvising"| | --(Take your pick) | --Rush, _Presto_ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- O N T H E E D G E ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 13:54:40 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest NON HISTORICAL Yes, I am interested in other parts of Oz! The continent was indeed called "Imagination" somewhere in RPT. I can't for the life of me remember where, though. It's also been called "Sempernunquam" by March Laumer. In my earlier days, i was always looking for a name for the green area that surrounds the Emerald City, but it has never bveen named. It's just "Emerald City and enviorns". The Nome King is the guy you love to hate. He's everybodys favorite villian and he's been brought back several times after the FF. Aaron, who is writing THE WOOZY, wants to being him back again. I would suggest that you un-transform him from the cactus, and we can assume that since his last enchantment, Ozma turned him into that shape again out of sentimentality. This way, you can have fun with old Rug and you won;t contradict anyone else. i would suggest, that for the sake of consistency, that you wvoid references to past transformations, like having Dorothy say"He hasn;t done anything since we met handy Mandy". This could lead to omplications. The best thing to do is ignore his history altogether, since the important stuff is well-known already. I can't wait to read your story! Any idea on when it will be published? Oz is definitely in a paralell Universe. The split level continuum is a possibility, but I'm not sure. There appears to be a dynamic fold in space, so that openings appear and disappear on occasion. I don't want to contradict you, Eric "Turn off that TV" Gjovaag, but it is IMPOSSIBLE to watch to much Star Trek, whether original, Next Generation, DS9 or Voyager. Maybe Oz is in the Delta quadrant! --Tyler Jones ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 11:07:30 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: My newest Oz acquisition (for Digest) I just got a new book yesterday that I wanted to share with you all. But first, some background. As many of you who are active in the Oz Club's conventions know, Fred Otto shared poetic versions of the Oz books every year at all three conventions, calling them "The Oziad." For years now some folks have talked about collecting them into a book. Unfortunately it took Fred's death a couple of years ago to get it rolling. But it's out now, with endpapers and decorations by John Anthony Miller and plates by another sorely missed Club member, Rob Roy MacVeigh. (Gads, I STILL miss him, after three years.) It is a gorgeous book, bound in green leather, with the title in gold leaf, and the poems are nicely laid out. And it's a terrific tribute to two of the Club's most enthusiastic members who are no longer with us. I am SO glad I have this! I have no idea if there are any copies left or not -- it's a privately published book, not a Club publication -- and if you want a copy I'll warn you now it ain't cheap. But if you're interested write to: Onyx Madden 16720 Bajio Rd. Encino, CA 91436 --Eric Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 16:48:14 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest MORE OZ HISTORY I sent this message to Dave yesterday, but it got garbled. Unfortunately, I deleted the file and can't seem to get it back. No matter. I will redo the message and hopefully I will remember everything. I think it has been established that Pastoria had been kidnapped by mombi before the arrival of the Wizard. Eric suggested that the interval between the kidnapping and the arrival be less than a dozen years, so that the memory of "OZ" is still fresh in the minds of the people. Five or ten years is a good number for now. A new question has come up, whether Ozma was born into the custody of Mombi or if the Wizard delivered her in a secret deal, uncovered by Glinda years later. A side question is was she born of Pastorias wife or adopted? If she was adopted, it is unlikely in the extreme that it was done while under the custody of Mombi. "Mr. Chairman, I would like to clarify my earlier position, which Senator Glinda had previously stated, and to say that I have no recolltection of any "Wizard" or "Ozma". The Wizard never came to my house, except for tea-biscuits. In fact I've never heard of the Wizard, and was unaware that he ruled in the Emerald City, at the time in question, which was the alleged meeting, which did not occur". If Ozma was born in custody, that meant her mortal mother was also a prisoner of Mombi. It is unlikely that Mombi would allow Ozmas parents the time to get this done. Also, it is confirmed in LAND and OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES that the Wizard indeed gave up Ozma to Mombi for protection. "Don Mombi the enforcer is not threating Ozma. It's just a dangerous world out there and it would be a shame if something happened to her...". The White Pearl of Truth and the Great Book of Records are accurate as far as they go. When Mombi said that the Wizard gave her some magical goodies, she said that some were Humbug and some were decent. Remember, we know the Wizard to be a humbug, to but most of the people of Oz, he was (and is) a great and powerful Wizard. Even though Mombi may have known some or most of the truth about O.Z. Diggs, in the back of her mind, he was still a mighty Wizard. This is the "truth" as Mombi believed it to be and that is what the Pearl picked up on. As for the Great Book, obviously it cannot give a detailed explanation of EVERY action by EVERY person 24 hours a day. At best, it can give high-level cryptic statements on a few important events. It may have a mechanism which gives more weight to Ozzy news (red print), but it cannot do everything. Also, even if something is (or will be) important to us, the Book may not be able to determine that in advance. But if the Wizard did deliver Ozma to Mombi, why was he not arrested upon his return? Well, Ozma has always had a soft heart for villians and in fact, in OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES, Glinda expressed some concern about his staying in Oz. The Wizard then told his story under the watchful eye of the White Pearl. The Pearl went gray a few times, but it was white as snow when he denied any knowledge of Pastoria. He said that when he arrived in Oz, there was no ruler. Eric made a good point that I had made several months ago, but never mentioned. This is "How much of each quadrant did each Wicked Witch rule?" It is unlikely that each ruled the entire quadrant. We know that the southern Winkie country was free (Gloma, the Good Witch of the West in WISHING HORSE). Ojos family ruled the southern Munchkin country and Cheeriobeds father probably ruled parts of the northern Munchkin country. The Witches probably claimed the entire areas but may have exerted control only over a realtively small area. Pattricks essays are excellent and they started me off on my interest in ancient Ozian history. I doubt that Ozma was born 150 years before ascending the throne. The age-slowing was partially in place at the time, and she could not have been a baby for very long. We can assume that Sringa clock used some archaic calendar. Remember, the year-it-was-written rule is the second rule and is used only if textual evidence cannot provide a specific date or range of them. Even so, I don't like to put books in a year after they were written, but it may be necessary sometimes. As for Ozmas story in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ, Ozma may not have known the entire truth. She came into the world as a mortal baby and spent most of her time with Mombi, who certainly told her nothing of her fairy heritage. She may have made up a clever story about Mombi adopting "him" (Tip) or that his parents worked for her and died young. The noble Mombi took Tip under her wing. The truth is out, but Ozma may have still believed some of Mombis story. She had been out of communication with Lurline for her whole mortal life, Glinda knew very little of the truth and her only sources of info must have been Mombi and people in the Emerald City, who probably also knew very little. Ozma may have gotten scraps of info here and there and patched into the best story that she could think of at the time. Here is a new probable sequence of events. 1. Ozroar (Pastorias father, Ozmas grandfather) kidnapped (BLUE EMPEROR OF OZ) 2. Pastoria assumes throne. He may have moved the capital from Morrow to the Emerald City area. 3. Pastoria kidnapped. Ozma born/adopted near this time and is temporarily hidden from Mombi. 4. Locasta overthrows Mombi, Glinda overthrows Sringa 5. Wizard arrives (10 years after number 3). 6. Dorothy arrives and smashes/liqudates Wicked Witches of East and West As for ages, if the Wizard was in his early forties when he arrived, he would be in his late sixties when he left. He still needs about 20 years to become ruler of the green area, build the Emerald City and establish his reputation. How about if he arrived in 1880? This would put the kidnapping of Pastoria at 1870, so that Ozma would have gone from a newborn to age 3 in a span of 20 years. This is not TOO slow. --Tyler Jones TJONES@CSI.COMPUSERVE.COM http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tyler_jones p.s. if any of you do chatgroups, etc. feel free to post my web page address everywhere you can! ============================================================================== Date: Tue 19 Dec 95 22:21:36 (PST) From: Dave Subject: Ozzy things Eric Gjovaag writes: >The big problem I have with the HACC (what does that stand for again???) >is that ... > ... I think the HACCers are doing a BIG, BIG disservice by >treating all books the same. What if Eloise Jarvis McGraw wanted to >write a story where the Nome King comes back, but she totally ignores >"Ruggedo in Oz" because she doesn't even know about it? Does that make >her new book unofficial? >My point here is, I think, read the Oz books, no matter who writes or >publishes them, and enjoy them -- but don't read too much into them! >Hey, it's only a series of children's books... ONLY a series of children's books??? "That's like saying Sabu is ONLY an actor!!!" (This non sequitur brought to you courtesy of the _Odd Couple_'s Felix Unger) :) :) :) Actually you make some good points, but I think the fact is that just as the Velveteen Rabbit was made real by love, our love for Oz gives us a drive to strive to write out Histotries and Atlases and "User Manuals" or at least try to reconcile discrepancies between the various books, all in order to get as much as possible a clear picture of what Oz is "really" like (since we don't yet have the technology to voyage to the parallel universe that Oz actually resides in). Aaron S. Adelman writes: >4) Dave, which Oz book did you write/are writing? (No one with the last >name 47 is listed in the HACC. (:) It WAS to be titled _The Good Witch of Oz_ because it is about the Good Witch of the North, but I just found that this title is taken (by March Laumer), so I guess I'm going to have to call it something else ( $#@&^%$! "Good Witch" seemed so perfect! :( ). The reason my book doesn't show on the HACC is they only include books that have at least been *accepted* by a publisher (I'm just on the verge of sending mine to Buckethead), so mine doesn't qualify...yet. I won't go into my perceived signifcance of the number 47...Let's just say that I have concluded that it is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Fairy Life, the Baum Universe, and Everything Ozzy. :) :) :) > ... As Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is >indistinguishable from magic." Come to think of it, what is genuine magic >anyway? Is Arthur C. Clarke an Ozophile by any chance? I know Ray Bradbury is, as well as Buckminister Fuller (who called the number 47 "The Agent of Infinite Change"), radio astronomer Frank Drake (he named his search for extraterrestrial intellegence "Project Ozma"!), and I just read that my childhood "hero", Carl "Billions and Billions" Sagan is as well. >6) Favorite character: When I was a little kid, my favorite Oz >character was the Tin Woodman. Now I'm not so sure. I'm finding myself >liking the Woozy a lot, but then again I'm writing a book about him. The "which came first" paradigm -- Do you like the Woozy because you're writing about him, or are you writing about the Woozy because you like him? (Looking forward to your book, BTW!) Tyler wrote: > ... I would suggest that you un-transform him [Ruggedo] from the >cactus, and we can assume that since his last enchantment, Ozma turned >him into that shape again out of sentimentality. This way, you can have fun >with old Rug and you won;t contradict anyone else. >i would suggest, that for the sake of consistency, that you wvoid references to >past transformations, like having Dorothy say"He hasn;t done anything since we >met handy Mandy". This could lead to complications. The best thing to do is >ignore his history altogether, since the important stuff is well-known already. Yes, this is what I'm doing... >I can't wait to read your story! Any idea on when it will be published? Thanks!!! I'm just about to send it to Buckethead Enterprises -- they were very encouraging, and I am optimistic that they will publish it! >Oz is definitely in a paralell Universe. The split level continuum is a >possibility, but I'm not sure. There appears to be a dynamic fold in space, so >that openings appear and disappear on occasion. That seems likely -- I can't help thinking that Oz's universe is very nearby to ours in the multi-dimensional network of universes, or what Douglas Adams whimsically calls the WSOGMM ("Whole Sort Of General Mish Mash"). >I don't want to contradict you, Eric "Turn off that TV" Gjovaag, but it is >IMPOSSIBLE to watch to much Star Trek, whether original, Next Generation, DS9 or >Voyager. Maybe Oz is in the Delta quadrant! Very possible! -- Dave ============================================================================== Hi! I've made out a preliminary list of Ozzy questions to be included the FAQ for the list, and I want to submit it for everyone approval/disapproval/suggestions/additions/etc. etc. Actually, Eric Has announced that he is working on a Ozzy FAQ of his own, but I thought I'd still do one specific to the Ozzy Digest, with fundamental info. on Oz, and info. about the Digest and other Ozzy resources. Here is my list of questions (no answers as yet): Ozzy Digest FAQ (proposed) 1. Overview/History of Oz 1.1 What is Oz? 1.2 How did Oz come to Be? 1.3 Who is Ozma? 1.4 Who has "immigrated" to Oz? 1.5 What lands surround Oz? 1.6 What is the HACC? 2. Some Info. on Ozzy Denizens 2.1 How did the Scarecrow and Tin Man come to life? 2.2 What was "Ozmagate"? 2.3 Did the Wizard ever return to Oz? Is he still a humbug? 2.4 What's Glinda REALLY like? 2.5 Who is the Good Witch of the North? 2.6 When is Ozma's birthday? 2.7 Who is the Nome King? 2.8 Who are Ozma's councelors? 2.9 What creatures make up the "Oz Managerie?" 2.10 What wild animals live in Oz? 3. The Magic of Oz 3.1 What is the Magic Picture? 3.2 What is the Magic Belt? 3.3 What is the Book of Records? 3.4 Who is allowed to practice magic in Oz? 3.5 What is "Pyrzqxgl"? 3.6 What is the comparative magnitude of powers in Oz? 4. Miscellanious Ozzy "factoids" 4.1 Is Oz loved outside the U.S.? 4.2 Why is Oz less famous than Narnia or Middle Earth? 4.3 Was Ozma a victim of the McCarthy "Witch Hunts"? 4.4 What moon of a major planet was *ALMOST* named "Oz"? 4.5 How did Astronomy Honor Ozma? 5. The Books 5.1 "What's an Oz Book?" 5.2 Who were/are "The Royal Historians of Oz"? 5.3 What are the "Famous Forty"? 5.4 What other books are there? 5.5 How can I get my eager little hands on the Oz books? 5.6 Will there ever be a "Hitchhiker's Guide to Oz"? 6. Oz Fans Online and Off 6.1 What is the "International Wizard of Oz Club"? 6.2 Are there any other Ozzy Fan Clubs? 6.3 What is the "Ozzy Digest"? 6.4 What other Ozzy resources are on the 'Net? -- Dave THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 20, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 09:46:44 -0500 (EST) From: cummingss@kenyon.edu Subject: RE: Ozzy Digest, 12-19-95 Hi all, Just a quick question: Are readers opposed to "sale lists" appearing in the Ozzy Digest? I have a box of Oz "stuff" (books and miscellaneous items) that I'm looking to "download". But, my past experience is that mixing Oz history with Oz sales is like mixing politics and Thanksgiving dinner (someone always gets upset). My problem is that the Oz Trading Post has such a slow schedule, I'm usually moved from my address by the time my ad gets in print! I received the Oz Club newletter the other day and was surprised to see that the Ozmapolitan Convention will be moving to Kentucky. That strikes me as an odd location (not really a major metropoilitan center). Does anyone know why the convention has moved locations? I would be very interested in knowing WHO everyone on this chat list IS? Where do you live? What is your profession (if any)? Are you an Oz Club member? If so, for how many years? I'll start: I'm Scott Cummings and I live in Gambier, OH, which is a (VERY) small village in rural Ohio. I am a Professor of Chemistry at Kenyon College. I have been a member of the Oz Club since 1979. Although in recent years, my activities related to Oz have been few, I still look forward to receiving Bugles and occasionally reading aan Oz book. I collect early edition Oz books (of the 40), but have sold off a large collection of other items in the past few years. Some may remember me from a small "newsletter" I printed when I was younger called The Munchkin Times. I just ran across a few copies a few weeks ago and had a good laugh. I have not yet attended an Oz Convention, but hope to this year. Happy holidays to all! Scott Cummings ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 09:54:17 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-19-95 > 1) Does anyone out there know the name of the continent on the other > side of the planet from Oz? (The place that the Great Jinjin rules; see > Tik-Tok of Oz.) Since "Tik-Tok" was the only place we've ever seen that place, and it wasn't given there, I think it's safe to say that the answer is "no." > 2) It was a wildcat, not a jaguar. Well, it STILL didn't say anything... > 5) On with Dave's theory that Glinda's pearl is faulty: Maybe it > isn't. Perhaps Mombi considered some of the Wizard's conjuring tricks to > be genuine magic. As Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced > technology is indistinguishable from magic." Come to think of it, what > is genuine magic anyway? If Glinda's pearl works like a conventional American lie detector, it senses what the teller BELIEVES to be the truth or a lie. So if (as was once speculated in the "Bugle") someone ELSE was messing with Mombi and the Wizard, but they didn't know it, then of course the pearl didn't know Mombi was lying, because SHE didn't know she was lying. Also, perhaps what the Wizard really accomplished was scientific, not magic, but since Mombi didn't understand it, she thought it was magic (similar to the Clarke quote). The example used in "Oz and the Three Witches" was putting potassium in water, which caught on fire. Of course the Wizard also used his showmanship and a bit of bluffing... > 7) Can anyone explain how come Trot, Cap'n Bill, and Button-Bright stayed > in Oz, even though they have close family still living in the Outside > World? (At least 2 our of 3 of them. ) They didn't even send a message > to the effect of: Dear Mom and Dad, Moved to Oz. Not coming back. Well, yes, it is pretty disturbing about poor Mrs. Griffiths, but nobody in his family has ever seemed to have cared that much for Button-Bright anyway, so he just probably wasn't missed. And emigrating to Oz is probably a better deal than going with Child Protective Services... > From: Tyler Jones > Subject: Ozzy Digest > > The continent was indeed called "Imagination" somewhere in RPT. I can't for the > life of me remember where, though. It's also been called "Sempernunquam" by > March Laumer. But Laumer is probably even less canonical than most writers outside of the FF, and he CERTAINLY is less faithful to Baum. (His books aren't even listed in the HACC -- unless they've been added since I last looked.) > I don't want to contradict you, Eric "Turn off that TV" Gjovaag, but it is > IMPOSSIBLE to watch to much Star Trek, whether original, Next Generation, DS9 >or Voyager. Maybe Oz is in the Delta quadrant! Well, I'm a much bigger fan of "Doctor Who," but yes, I am a "Star Trek" fan myself. And yes, maybe Voyager will find Oz on its way home (but I wouldn't count on it). Anyone read the story in "The Emerald City Mirror" a few issues back about Q taking Picard, et. al., to Oz? > From: Tyler Jones > Subject: Ozzy Digest > > MORE OZ HISTORY > > If Ozma was born in custody, that meant her mortal mother was also a prisoner > of Mombi. It is unlikely that Mombi would allow Ozmas parents the time to get > this done. Also, it is confirmed in LAND and OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES that the > Wizard indeed gave up Ozma to Mombi for protection. I just want to add here that, if Ozma was born and not adopted, it's possible that her Ozian mother was already pregnant when Mombi captured her. > The White Pearl of Truth and the Great Book of Records are accurate as far as > they go. When Mombi said that the Wizard gave her some magical goodies, she > said that some were Humbug and some were decent. Remember, we know the Wizard > to be a humbug, to but most of the people of Oz, he was (and is) a great and > powerful Wizard. Even though Mombi may have known some or most of the truth > about O.Z. Diggs, in the back of her mind, he was still a mighty Wizard. This > is the "truth" as Mombi believed it to be and that is what the Pearl picked > up on. As for the Great Book, obviously it cannot give a detailed explanation > of EVERY action by EVERY person 24 hours a day. At best, it can give > high-level cryptic statements on a few important events. It may have a > mechanism which gives more weight to Ozzy news (red print), but it cannot > do everything. Also, even if something is (or will be) important to us, the > Book may not be able to determine that in advance. I just want to point out here that we do NOT know that Glinda got her information about the Wizard from the Great Book of Records. She only mentions "spies" in "Land," and so it's entirely possible that she didn't HAVE the Great Book of Records at that point (it's not mentioned until "Emerald City," after all), and so had to rely on human (and animal?) witnesses instead. So Glinda's records on the Wizard may be quite incomplete, and possibly inaccurate. > From: Dave > Subject: Ozzy things > [my anti-HACC posting cut for brevity's sake] > >My point here is, I think, read the Oz books, no matter who writes or > >publishes them, and enjoy them -- but don't read too much into them! > >Hey, it's only a series of children's books... > > ONLY a series of children's books??? "That's like saying Sabu is ONLY an > actor!!!" (This non sequitur brought to you courtesy of the _Odd Couple_'s > Felix Unger) :) :) :) Well, "Star Trek" is only a TV show, except to its fans who take it TOO seriously. I'm just syaing here, let's not take Oz TOO seriously or read TOO much into anything... > Actually you make some good points, but I think the fact is that just as the > Velveteen Rabbit was made real by love, our love for Oz gives us a drive to > strive to write out Histotries and Atlases and "User Manuals" or at least > try to reconcile discrepancies between the various books, all in order to get > as much as possible a clear picture of what Oz is "really" like (since we > don't yet have the technology to voyage to the parallel universe that Oz > actually resides in). Granted, but what I'M trying to say is, most Oz fans do not have access to all of the material in the HACC -- for many, even some of the FF is out of reach right now -- and it's entirely possible for someone to write a fan-published story and not even be aware that he or she is contradicting someone else's fan story. I'm just saying that what we use as our sources should be weighted, with the FF getting the most weight, other generally available commercial books being given less weight, and fan writings with small, limited press runs should be given even less weight. > Is Arthur C. Clarke an Ozophile by any chance? I know Ray Bradbury is, as > well as Buckminister Fuller (who called the number 47 "The Agent of Infinite > Change"), radio astronomer Frank Drake (he named his search for > extraterrestrial intellegence "Project Ozma"!), and I just read that my > childhood "hero", Carl "Billions and Billions" Sagan is as well. So far as I know Clarke isn't an Ozophile, but I do know that Harlan Ellison and Jane Yolen are, to add two more authors to the mix. Oh, and of course Edward Eager, who even had his characters visit Oz in one book. Oh, and of course Robert Heinlein and Philip Jose Farmer, who both wrote Oz into some of their books. (Which reminds me of something: For its 200th issue, "Starlog" magazine a year or so ago compiled a list of the 200 most important people in science fiction. One of them was L. Frank Baum, he's had that much influence in the field.) > >I can't wait to read your story! Any idea on when it will be published? > > Thanks!!! I'm just about to send it to Buckethead Enterprises -- they were > very encouraging, and I am optimistic that they will publish it! Be warned, however, that Chris has a VERY big backlog and little money to produce books (I keep telling him he'd have even more if he publicized his stuff!), so it may be a long while before we see it. --Eric "My, we're all certainly saying a lot these days, aren't we?" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 11:32:37 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest IN DEFENSE OF THE HACC The HACC stands for Historically Accurate Chronological Chain. Eric made a lot of good points in his discussion of the HACC last time, but I believe there is justification for it. Even though most of the titles on the list are not yet published, out of print or only available in small quantities, there is little cause for alarm. Most of the titles are only generic adentures with a few of the Baum characters and do not really affect Oz history. Therefore, two people could write Oz books completely unaware of each other and not contradict each other at all. There are only a few that really change or explain things. Most of these are books that deal with ancient history or those that deal with the Nome King. Ruggedo is a special case. Everybody likes to write about the old Nome King, enchanting and un-enchanting him at will. Even if someone were to write about him in a way that contradicts someone else, we can assume that he had been re-enchanted a couple times between the adventures. Part of the purpose of the HACC (and the Ozzy Digest) is to help make people aware of the current state of Oz history. For example, Dave and I have discusses all kinds of things relevant to his story (How about the Hidden Witch of Oz for a title?). In this way, people interested in writing Oz books can come together to help make sure that they do not grossy contradict each other. Of course, there are contradictions already (even within the Famous Forty or the Baum 14), bu nothing is ever perfect. In our won world, do we always know the complete and objective truth about everything? Our goal should be to get as close to perfection as possible. My point here is that there will always be errors, but if we work together, we can minimize them and explain away any leftovers as minor differences. As for which books carry more weight than others, the FF can be considered the baseline of Oz history. The layout of Oz was created here, as were most of the major characters. Many of the rulers and other authority figures were established here. As for books outside of the Famous Forty, there are usually a few unspoken guidlines, such as that Oz as it was seen in the FF will remain unchnaged. That is, Ozma will always be the ruler, the major characters will not die or be destroyed, etc. To get back to Ruggedo, I don't remember his last situation offhand, but I can find out. I do not feel that authors should be constrained by previous non-FF books. As long as someones story is textaully consistent with the FF, it can usually be reconciled with the rest of it. It is only when we try to change something or look to the past that a little extra work must be done, like with Daves book. Yes, these are just childrens stories, but Oz is a special (almost real) place, and we must give every effort to figure out what's really going on there! by the way, when I asked when "The book" was coming out, I meant Aarons THE WOOZY OF OZ, although of course I am looking forward to Daves book (and anybody elses) also. True, it would be easier if there was only ONE publishing house with an "Accuracy Division" to ensure that everybody knows whats going on. Maybe our little group can serve that purpose. And, of course, this is a challenge: To get all the publishers and authors into at least partiall agreement on the course of Oz history, even if they do not know that much about each other. One thing I can do is to publish a little summary of books that effect Oz history and make it available on the Web. Of the 211 books on the list right now, not many would qualify (thankfully). --Tyler Jones TJONES@CSI.COMPUSERVE.COM http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tyler_jones ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 21, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 21:20:16 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Various Things 1) I think it's about time that I asked about the ultimate fates of all the evil magic workers that I intend to have show up in The Woozy of Oz (aside from those I invent myself, of course). Mostly I've been working off the top of my head, so I'm curious to know where I messed up. Yes, I know that some of these characters are dead, but I have a way of getting around this. A. Wizard of Mo: Last encountered in the mountains of Mo (?1899, The Magical Monarch of Mo.) Blinkie of Jinxland: Shrunken by the Scarecrow (1911, The Scarecrow of Oz) Coo-ee-oh: Turned into a diamond swan by the Supreme Dictator (1920, Glinda of Oz) Gorba/Abrog: Don't remember. (1924, Grampa in Oz) Imp Ertinent, Imp Olite, and Imp Udent: Turned into buttons by the Wizard (1908, Ozma and the Little Wizard), however I suspect they escape this fate in 1989 in Chris Dubalone's The Three Imps of Oz Imp Etuous: Imprisioned in some Enchanted Trees (1900, The Magic Chest of Oz) J. Glegg: Exploded after being forced to drink some of his mixed magic (1922, Kabumpo in Oz) Jinnicky the Red Jinn: (I know he's not usually though of as a bad character, but there is a secret life of his that I intend to reveal) Still living happily in his castle in Ev. Kiki Aru: Made to drink from the Fountain of Oblivion (1919, The Magic of Oz) Kizzo: I think he may of appeared in The Shaggy Man of Oz, but I don't remember. I may have confounded him with another wicked wizard. Mombi: Melted in the Emerald City (1925, The Lost King of Oz) Mooj: Don't remember, just know that he was in Ojo in Oz and did stuff with clockwork Mrs. Yoop: Turned into a green monkey (1918, The Tin Woodman of Oz) Ruggedo/Roquat the Ex-Nome King: From the discussions on this mailing list, by the time the events in The Woozy of Oz take place (2097), only G-d knows Singra: Put into yet another hundred-year sleep (1952, The Wicked Witch of Oz), and considering The Woozy of Oz is in 2097 I'll have to make something up for what happens when she wakes up in 2052 Victor Columbia Edison the Phonograph: Rather badly scratched up and considered a menace by anyone who met him (1909, The Patchwork Girl of Oz) Zog: Don't remember, just know that he was in The Sea Fairies and some sort of chimera the Cookiewitch: Presumably still in the Preservatory (1923, The Cowardly Lion of Oz) the Magical Mimics: Exiled back to their mountain, I think (1946, The Magical Mimics in Oz) the Phanfasms: Exiled back to their mountain (1907, The Emerald City of Oz) the Purple Dragon: (OK, so he doesn't work magic, but he's showing up anyway) Stretched thin and cut up into fiddle strings (?1899, The Magical Monarch of Mo) the Wicked Witch of the East: Dorothy's house fell on her and killed her (1899, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) the Wicked Witch of the West: Dorothy melted her with a bucked of water (1899, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) the Wizard of Wutz: Turned into a cactus (1937, Handy Mandy in Oz) 2) What are the names of the Shaggy Man and his brother? 3) Whatever happened to Gayelette and Quelala? The latest I know they appear is in The Magic Chest of Oz (1900). 4) Does anyone know anything of Glinda's origins? 5) Why is The Third Book of Oz in the HACC? In The Third Book of Oz (= The Visitors from Oz + The Wogglebug Book), the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, Jack Pumpkinhead, Sawhorse, Wogglebug, and Gump visit the Outside World and attend Dorothy's birthday party. This is in serious contradiction with The Emerald City of Oz, in which Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, until they actually go to Oz, don't really believe it exists. If they had been visited by Ozites which didn't look like creatures from the Outside World, they'd be insane not to belive in Oz. (Come to think of it, Neill's books are really problematic too...) 6) Why has Eureka changed color several times? Hypotheses: The Food Poisoning Hypothesis: Toto, being a dog, despises cats. Hence he has tried to poison Eureka several times. However, since death is practically impossible in Oz, the effects of the chemicals he used was to change the color of her fur. The Revenge Hypothesis: The Nine Tiny Piglets, having been threatened by Eureka many times with being injested, decided to obtain their revenge by making her look absurd. Hence while Eureka has been asleep (her normal state of consciousness), they have painted her pink, purple, and other silly colors for a cat. The Spontaneous Magic Hypothesis: Sorry, no conspiracy here. Just the idea that magic sometimes happens in Oz with no one intending it to happen. See The Wicked Witch of Oz for a possible example of this (the origin of Leon the Neon). Eureka may have spontaneously changed colors! Aaron. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 20 Dec 1995 20:28:55 -0800 From: glassman@ix.netcom.com (glassman) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-19-95 For anyone who's interested, the following Oz/Baum books are available at the On-Line Books Page (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/Web/books.html): The Wizard of Oz The Marvelous Land of Oz Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz The Magic of Oz The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus A Kidnapped Santa Claus Also: Ozma of Oz is currently being entered and The Master Key is being proofread. ============================================================================== Date: Thursday 21-Dec-95 13:17:21 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Aaron's book >1) I think it's about time that I asked about the ultimate fates of all >the evil magic workers that I intend to have show up in The Woozy of Oz >(aside from those I invent myself, of course). Mostly I've been working >off the top of my head, so I'm curious to know where I messed up. Yes, I >know that some of these characters are dead, but I have a way of getting >around this. >[List omitted] Gee, is there any past Ozzy villian that DOESN'T appear in your story? :) May I ask two questions about your story, as one author to another? :) (If you don't want to reveal too much, that's okay.): 1. Why does it take place in 2097? 2. Why do so many villians make a comeback? Is it a "final battle" or something? -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Thursday 21-Dec-95 13:43:15 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Eric Shanower's Graphic Novels I received Eric Shanower's Graphic Novels, and they're great! I hope he writes more! I just was wondering a couple of things abbout how they pertain to Ozzy history: _The Enchanted Apples of Oz_: 1. Is Oz really kept magic by Apples? 2. Were there TWO Wicked Witches of the South? (The one here is apparently NOT Singra.) _The Forgotten Forest of Oz_: 3. Is Zurline a misspelling of Lurline, or is this Wood Nymph Queen someone else? Every time I think about the possibility (however slight) of E.S. illustrating MY book, it makes my heart race. :) -- Dave P.S. One more question: Is _The Giant Garden of Oz_ as unsuitable for children as the Baum Bugle review makes out? ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 01:09:26 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Sale Lists Ref the list etiquette question by Scott Cummings about posting "sale lists". Its fine by me. Bill W. ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 01:11:16 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: 96 Oz Conventions Could someone post a note listing the dates and locations of the Oz conventions this year, and the name/address of the coordinator for each. Thanks.......Bill W. ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 01:31:33 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Proposed Ozzy FAQ >Hi! I've made out a preliminary list of Ozzy questions to be included the >FAQ for the list, and I want to submit it for everyone approval/disapproval/ >suggestions/additions/etc. etc. Actually, Eric Has announced that he is >working on a Ozzy FAQ of his own, but I thought I'd still do one specific to >the Ozzy Digest, with fundamental info. on Oz, and info. about the Digest >and other Ozzy resources. > > -- Dave > I think an Ozzy FAQ would be a great thing to have. But I suspect that it could evolve into a VBF(VERY BIG FAQ) in no time at all, given the esoteria love inherent in most of us Ozzyphiles. So perhaps a collaborative work plan might be in order as a first step; i.e., layout a structure for the VBF (Dave provided a first cut in his note), making sure that the structure is easy extensible. Then make assignments amongst the volunteers to serve as editors for each major section. Contributors would send their stuff to the appropriate editor. It would also be very nice to have a search engine that one could pose questions to and get answers from the VBF. Can't imagine retrieving and reading thru the whole VBF to find the answer to a question. Other suggestions???? Anyone???? Bill W. ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 11:06:59 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones <70003.6136@compuserve.com> Subject: Ozzy Digest The reason that the Laumer books are not on the HACC is that the other guy who works on it (Chris Dulabone of Buckethead) is EXTREMELY anti-Laumer, who he calls "evil", "sick", anti-Baum etc. While it is true that the tone and style of writing of Mr. Laumer are very different from mainstream Oz, he does not contradict the FF textaully at all! He seems to have a very good knowledge of events in the FF and he also does a lot of work to explain away seeming contradictions within the FF. For example, in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ, the Wizard mentions that he got the nine tiny piglets from a sailor who picked them up from the isle of Teenty-Weent, where everything is very small. In THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ, we meet their parents, who live in the Land of Oz. The easy thing to do would be to say that the Teenty-Weent stuff was just a story made up to sound impressive, while the truth was as it was written in TIN WOODMAN. Laumer, however, managed to make both statements true! Also, he explained how Eureka got to Oz when Dorothy did not take her there in EMERALD CITY. The story is quite involved, but she gets there in the end. I enjoyed all of Mr. Laumers stories, they were a refreshing change of pace, and they are indeed historically accurate from a textaul standpoint if not from a moral one. As for the HACC, even if people can't get all the FF, they still exist and the events recorded therein are still the "truth". One of my ongoing Ozzy projects is to publish intensive summaries of each of the FF (and maybe the others) so that the information will be there even if people can't always get the books. Eric is correct is assigning a lower priority to small press-runs, etc., but as I have said before, it is not always necessary as most stories do not do anything to change or explain anything. Here is a capsule of most non-FF books: 1. Somebody wants to conquer Oz 2. One or more children gets transported to Oz somehow. 3. The children go on a tour of strange-looking cities of strange-looking people doing strange-looking things. 4. The people always try to make the children into slaves (or into people just like themselves), but they escape. 5. The children find somehing that grants wishes 6. The children cross paths with the guy who wants to conquer Oz, 7. Ozma pops in at the last minute and solves everything with a wave of her hand and a whispered command to the magic belt. 8. Everyone troops back to the Emerald City for a big party. 9. The children tell their story to Ozma and Dorothy, who are just amazed at all the strange and wonderful things that happened, even though they just HAPPENED to have watched the entire thing in the magic picture. 10. The chidlren go home and everythings OK again. My short satirical story A GENERIC OZ STORY highlights this. Maybe I'll make it available for downloading on my Web Page. --Tyler ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 08:21:28 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Proposed Ozzy FAQ On Wed, 20 Dec 1995, Dave Hardenbrook wrote: > Hi! I've made out a preliminary list of Ozzy questions to be included the > FAQ for the list, and I want to submit it for everyone approval/disapproval/ > suggestions/additions/etc. etc. Actually, Eric Has announced that he is > working on a Ozzy FAQ of his own, but I thought I'd still do one specific to > the Ozzy Digest, with fundamental info. on Oz, and info. about the Digest > and other Ozzy resources. > > Here is my list of questions (no answers as yet): > > Ozzy Digest FAQ (proposed) > > 1. Overview/History of Oz > 1.1 What is Oz? > 1.2 How did Oz come to Be? > 1.3 Who is Ozma? > 1.4 Who has "immigrated" to Oz? > 1.5 What lands surround Oz? > 1.6 What is the HACC? Does ths question belong here, or in the section on books? > 2. Some Info. on Ozzy Denizens > 2.1 How did the Scarecrow and Tin Man come to life? > 2.2 What was "Ozmagate"? > 2.3 Did the Wizard ever return to Oz? Is he still a humbug? > 2.4 What's Glinda REALLY like? > 2.5 Who is the Good Witch of the North? > 2.6 When is Ozma's birthday? > 2.7 Who is the Nome King? > 2.8 Who are Ozma's councelors? > 2.9 What creatures make up the "Oz Managerie?" > 2.10 What wild animals live in Oz? > > 3. The Magic of Oz > 3.1 What is the Magic Picture? > 3.2 What is the Magic Belt? > 3.3 What is the Book of Records? > 3.4 Who is allowed to practice magic in Oz? > 3.5 What is "Pyrzqxgl"? > 3.6 What is the comparative magnitude of powers in Oz? > > 4. Miscellanious Ozzy "factoids" > 4.1 Is Oz loved outside the U.S.? > 4.2 Why is Oz less famous than Narnia or Middle Earth? Is it? Thanks to the movie, more people probably know about Oz than Narnia and Middle Earth. Now, why amongst READERS it's not as well known... > 4.3 Was Ozma a victim of the McCarthy "Witch Hunts"? > 4.4 What moon of a major planet was *ALMOST* named "Oz"? > 4.5 How did Astronomy Honor Ozma? > > 5. The Books > 5.1 "What's an Oz Book?" And why is this in quotes? > 5.2 Who were/are "The Royal Historians of Oz"? > 5.3 What are the "Famous Forty"? > 5.4 What other books are there? > 5.5 How can I get my eager little hands on the Oz books? > 5.6 Will there ever be a "Hitchhiker's Guide to Oz"? Huh? Is Douglas Adams writing an Oz book? > 6. Oz Fans Online and Off > 6.1 What is the "International Wizard of Oz Club"? > 6.2 Are there any other Ozzy Fan Clubs? > 6.3 What is the "Ozzy Digest"? > 6.4 What other Ozzy resources are on the 'Net? Dave, it's a decent bunch of questions, and unlike my FAQ it covers a lot more about Oz the country, people, magic, etc. I'll warn you right now, though, I'm covering some of the same ground in my FAQ as well. That's not to say we can't have 'em both, of course (three if we count Nate's, but I haven't seen that anywhere in MONTHS). --Eric "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'" --The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 10:49:26 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: Re: Proposed Ozzy FAQ > 1.6 What is the HACC? and where can I get it! Also, I would suggest moving the books closer to the beginning of the FAQ, as there are some people who don't even know that there's anything beyond the movie... ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 12:35:01 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest GAng, I am testing the sign-in for my web page, so if some of you could take the time to go to my Web Page and sign-in, I would appreciate it. Thank you. (URL is at the end) The FAQ looks cool. Many of the questions are easy to answer (for us, anyway!) Question 2.8 looks interesting. Let me get my two cents in early. Who are Ozmas counsellors? Just being a famous person who lives in the Emerald City is probably not enough. I would imagine that only a few people are in Ozmas inner circle. In GLINDA, Baum described a meeting with Glinda and Ozmas counsellors. I forgot who was in attendance, but we can look it up easily. --Tyler Jones http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tyler_jones ============================================================================== Date: Thursday 21-Dec-95 15:33:18 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: The Post-F40 "Formula" & more on the Ozzy FAQ W. R. Wright says: >I think an Ozzy FAQ would be a great thing to have. But I suspect that it >could evolve into a VBF(VERY BIG FAQ) in no time at all, given the esoteria >love inherent in most of us Ozzyphiles. So perhaps a collaborative work >plan might be in order as a first step ... [Other suggestions omitted for spaces's sake] I think your ideas are good! If others on the list are willing to take part... Tyler writes: >The reason that the Laumer books are not on the HACC is that the other guy who >works on it (Chris Dulabone of Buckethead) is EXTREMELY anti-Laumer, who he >calls "evil", "sick", anti-Baum etc. Why? If you can't accept the idea of "adult" Oz books, okay...But how are they "evil" or "sick"? (I'm speaking as someone who contemplating reading some of the Laumer books.) BTW Tyler, I like your suggestion for a title for my book; I was thinking of _The Lost Witch of Oz_, but there are already two called _The Lost ---- of Oz_, so I'm going to use a title different but to the same effect. Here's how my book measures up to your "Generic Oz Book Formula": >1. Somebody wants to conquer Oz I plead guilty. But at the end of my story, I ensure that I'll never use the "Conquer Oz" Formula again by rendering Oz "Conquer-Proof". (That's why I asked Aaron a little about his book, in case I have to move mine to take place in the 22nd century.) >2. One or more children gets transported to Oz somehow. The only "child" visitor to Oz in my story is 16-year-old Dan Maryk (jointly named after Dan in Louisa May Alcott's _Little Men_, and Steve Maryk in Hermann Wouk's _The Caine Mutiny_ for reasons I won't go into here). >3. The children go on a tour of strange-looking cities of strange-looking > people doing strange-looking things. The strangest place in my story is the land of one fairy princess ruling over many dinosaurs. >4. The people always try to make the children into slaves (or into people just > like themselves), but they escape. The dinosaurs are very nice are pleased to see someone different from them. >5. The children find somehing that grants wishes Dan "only" finds Locasta and the Adepts (who in fact grant his ONE wish--for friendship.) >6. The children cross paths with the guy who wants to conquer Oz, Dan does, but only at the end, just before they're vanquished. >7. Ozma pops in at the last minute and solves everything with a wave of her > hand and a whispered command to the magic belt. My villians TAKE AWAY all of Ozma's, Glinda's and the Wizard's powers, so no magical "quick-fix" will work THIS time!!! >8. Everyone troops back to the Emerald City for a big party. Well, yes, they DO have a party... >9. The children tell their story to Ozma and Dorothy, who are just amazed at > all the strange and wonderful things that happened, even though they just > HAPPENED to have watched the entire thing in the magic picture. Ozma is unable to use the magic picture (see #7)! Besides which, she's along for a substantial part of the journey. >10. The chidlren go home and everythings OK again. Dan stays, living with Locasta and the Adepts in their palace. (That's it--I promise this is my last plug for my story until "what time IF any" that is is published...) Eric Gjovaag comments on my proposed FAQ's >> 1.6 What is the HACC? >Does ths question belong here, or in the section on books? Seeing that the Books ARE Ozzy History, I may just merge the Historical and "The Books" sections... >> 4.2 Why is Oz less famous than Narnia or Middle Earth? >Is it? Thanks to the movie, more people probably know about Oz than >Narnia and Middle Earth. Now, why amongst READERS it's not as well known... I'll change it to: '4.2 Why are THE OZ BOOKS less famous than Narnia or Middle Earth?' >> 5.1 "What's an Oz Book?" >And why is this in quotes? Because people actually ask me this! I'll say: "I love to read the Oz books."; And they'll say: "What's an Oz Book???" Sad commentary? >> 5.6 Will there ever be a "Hitchhiker's Guide to Oz"? >Huh? Is Douglas Adams writing an Oz book? No, but if I ever write a definitive Guide to Oz (which I just might), this is what I think I'll call it. :) "Mark A. Semich" futher comments: >> 1.6 What is the HACC? >and where can I get it! It is accessable from Tyler Jones' homepage: http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones >Also, I would suggest moving the books closer to the beginning of the >FAQ, as there are some people who don't even know that there's anything >beyond the movie... As I said above, I'm probably going to merge the "Books" section as part of the "Overview of Oz". Tyler also said: >I am testing the sign-in for my web page, so if some of you could take the time >to go to my Web Page and sign-in, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Tyler's URL is http://ourworld.compuserve.com:80/homepages/tyler_jones I was able to get in to the "sign-in" area but unable to answer your questions because my server's Web server is text-only. :( When school starts again, I will be able to check there...BTW the ':80' is nessesary, at least for my server... >The FAQ looks cool. Many of the questions are easy to answer (for us, anyway!) Thanks! I hope everyone will help! :) >Who are Ozmas counsellors? Just being a famous person who lives in the Emerald >City is probably not enough. I would imagine that only a few people are in Ozmas >inner circle. In GLINDA, Baum described a meeting with Glinda and Ozmas >counsellors. I forgot who was in attendance, but we can look it up easily. Here's who Baum lists at the meeting in Chap. 14 of _Glinda_: Nick Chopper, Scraps, The Shaggy Man, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, Capt'n Bill, The Wogglebug, The Frogman, Uncle Henry, The Wizard, The Scarecrow, and Glinda. (Dorothy and of course Ozma herself would be present normally, but their absence was of course the subject of discussion at this meeting.) -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 21, 1995 (ADDENDUM) (A few "late arrivals" of Ozzy messages for 12-21-95) ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 14:45:14 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: For da digest Just a quick note here from me (for once!): On Christmas Eve, Nickelodeon is showing the Judy Garland Christmas Show from the '60's. --Eric "10:00 pm out here in Seattle, in case you were wondering" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 21:32:03 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-20-95 1) In response to the question on when my book (provisionally titled The Woozy of Oz) will be published: I haven't the fainest idea. I haven't contacted any potential publishers yet, and wasn't planning on it until I had a complete rough draft. As it stands now I have about four or five chapters written which need serious editing. By the way, what's the address for Buckethead Enterprises anyway? 2) As for the unspoken guideline that Oz remains basically unchanged, uh oh... I was actually planning on seriously changing the situation in Oz (and on the rest of the planet as well), but then again I have hopes to make The Woozy of Oz the beginning of a trilogy that marks the end of the series, dated at 2097-2099 so people can go on writing Oz books for another century. Aaron --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 23:20:30 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Uh, oh, he's got more questions! 1) Has anyone written anything on the origins of the Magic Picture and the Magic Carpet? From what I remember they pop up in Ozma of Oz without any explanations as to where they came from. 2) I've attacked the HACC on the basis of unrealistic ages for Ozma/Tip. Now I'm going to attack it on the basis of questionable ages for Dorothy. The Ozmapolitan of Oz (1986 in the HACC) gives Dorothy's biological age as being 2 or 3 years younger than Tim, who turns biologically 16 at the end of the book. That would make Dorothy no older than 13 when she moves to Oz in The Emerald City of Oz (1907 in the HACC). That would make her 4 or 5 when she first visits Oz in 1899. Somehow I was under the impression she was somewhat older. (Misleading illustrations? Linguistic operating level?) 3) Exactly how does the HACC rectify contradictions between books (as mentioned in the Web page)? Specific issues: Who did Nimee Ammee work for? The creation of the Scarecrow (How the Wizard Came to Oz vs. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz vs. The Royal Book of Oz). The Glass Cat's brains (Wizard exchanged the pink ones for transparrent ones, but in The Magic of Oz the brains are pink again). The origin of the Nine Tiny Piglets (Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz vs. The Tin Woodman of Oz). Thompson's reversal of east and west. Neill vs. everybody else, especially concerning things like walking trees and singing shoes. Note: In The Woozy of Oz will be a Magic Machine that implements magic, and one of the side effects of this device is that when the Machine makes a mistake, it retroactively changes history. This is intended to explain away contradictions, but as my book's not finished yet, I doubt anyone's relying on it. Aaron S. Adelman --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 20:24:41 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Info request I have received some email notes from a student in France. Here is the relevant parts. -------------------------- Begin quote Date: Mar, 19 D c 95 10:55:59 0100 Sender: charrier@math-appli-uco.fr From: Catherine CHARRIER Organization: Universite Catholique de l'Ouest (IPLV) To: piglet@halcyon.com Subject: Oz X-Url: http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/author1.htm Dear Sir, I am a French Student at the University of Angers, France. I am writing a thesis on the Wizard of Oz. Where could I find the following critical books on the subject : - To Please a Child:A Biography of L. Frank Baum, by F. Joslyn Baum and Russel P. MacFall, Chicago:Reilly and Lee, 1961 - The Annotated Wizard of Oz, by Mickael Patrick Hearn, New York: Clarkson Potter, 1973 - L. Frank Baum Royal Historian of Oz, by Angelica S. Carpenter and Jean S. Carpenter, Minneapolis:Lerner Publications, 1992 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in American Popular Culture:Uneasy Eden, by Neil Earle, Lewiston:E. Mellen Press, 1993 - The Wizard of Oz, by Mickael P. Hearn, New York:Schoken Books, 1983 ... and many others... I should be grateful if you could help me. Thank you. I am doing this thesis for my masters in English. In studying the Wizard of Oz I would like to see if there can be an interpretation of it. I would like to show if there is or not a representation of the American Ideal in the book. I would like to study this Utopian world of Oz in comparison with the ideal of the American dream. I know there are books dealing with the subject, but once again I cannot obtain them. end quote ------------------------------ There are two things we can do to help Catherine. 1. Provide a suggested bibliography 2. Advise how she get access to the books in the bibliography I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have. I will combine all the inputs I get from everyone and send it back to her (with copy to the Ozzy mail server). Biggest issue may be how to do interlibrary loans to a French university. Thanks..........Bill Wright ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 20:27:35 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Software??? I have received the following question. I've never heard of this software. Anyone out there know anything about this? Thanks.........Bill W. ------------------------------ Begin Quote Do you know where I can find the "Legends of Oz" software? -- Jon Childerston LAN Administrator First National Bank 201 North Dewey North Platte, NE. 69101 Office: (308) 532-1000 Fax: (308) 532-3202 fnbnp@nque.com End Quote ------------------------------ ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 20:31:41 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Pirates of Oz I have received the following question. Anyone out there have an answer?? thanks..........Bill Wright ----------------------------------- Begin Quote Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 15:46:06 -0800 From: fenderpub@interserv.com Subject: ordering Oz books To: piglet@halcyon.com Hello. I have been trying to locate a copy of Pirates in Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson. Books of Wonder has one copy that they're willing to part with for $500. Too much for me. The Del Rey imprint of Ballantine Books came out with a paperback copy, but apparently this is no longer available. Do you know where I can find a modestly priced edition of this wonderful book? Please reach me by EMail. Malcolm End Quote ------------------------------ ============================================================================== Friday 22-Dec-95 02:57:31 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: My Bio Scott suggested that we tell about ourselves, so here's a little about me... My name is Dave Hardenbrook, I am 28 years old, and I have been in love with the Oz books since I was seven or eight. I a have been a member of both the International Wizard of Oz Club, and the "Royal Club of Oz" for about a year. Just this November I went to my first Ozzy convention, the Southern Winkie Convention in Dana Point. As you all know by now, I've just finished writing an Oz book about the Good Witch of the North and the Adepts at Sorcery. I am in college majoring in Computer Science and Computer Graphics. I can program in BASIC, COBOL, Pascal, C and especally C++...I know various graphics programs, both 2- and 3-D. I am unmarried and don't have a steady girlfriend. :( My hobbies (besides Oz) include Astronomy (not to be confused with Astrology!), Dinosaurs, Drawing, Chess, Photography, and Nature. Besides Oz, my favorite books are Louisa May Alcott's _Little Men_, _Eight Cousins_, and _Rose in Bloom_, Jane Austen's _Emma_, Hermann Wouk's _The Caine Mutiny_, Leo Rosten's _Education of Hyman Kaplan_, Lewis Carroll's _Alice_ Books, Douglas Adams' _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ series, and the collected humorous essays of Mark Twain, Robert Benchley, Cornelia Otis Skinner and Rita Rudner. My favorite TV shows are _Mary Tyler Moore_, _The Odd Couple_, _Rumpole of the Bailey_, and _Yes, Prime Minister_. My Favorite movies are _Hopscotch_, _Hot Millions_, _Pat and Mike_, _The Thief of Baghdad_ (1940 version), _The Luck of the Irish_, and of course _The Wizard of Oz_. I like Classical, New Age, and "Oldie" Rock, but I have three BIG musical passions: ABBA (the Swedish '70s group), Enya (the Irish singer/composer), and Vangelis (the Greek electronic composer). Well, that's all I can think of to say for now... :) -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 23, 1995 Merry Christmas Ozzy folks! Given that probably many are going away for the Christmas weekend, this will be the last Digest until Tuesday. Have a good weekend and Happy Holiday all! -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 00:59:09 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-21-95 To answer Dave's questions: 1) The Woozy of Oz is intended to be the first book in a trilogy which ends the series. Hence if I put it in 1996 (which it would otherwise be by the HACC rules) people would flame me for ending the series so soon. Since I probably won't be around in 2097, I'll be safely out of the way when the events in The Woozy of Oz occur. Plus, I need time for certain changes in the sociopolitical state of the planet Oz is on (which the inhabitants call Earth, ours being "the Outside World") that presumably no one else is writing into the series, such as Oz and Mo exchanging ambassadors and the formation of commercial ozolines and sandboats going regularly over the desert. 2) As to why so many villians make a comeback, I am not at liberty yet to say why. If I decide to post the first few chapters of my book on this digest for consistency checking, you'll probably find out in a few weeks. Aaron. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 01:07:55 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-21-95 Concerning that thing about Eric Shannower's graphic novels: Oz kept enchanted by apples? Somebody tell me more about this. This could put a monkeywrench into my book, which contains the Magic Machine Hypothesis, put forth by Barry the Asmard of Ix (Zixi's brother), which is that magic is not natural and that it is generated and directed by a Magic Machine. To use a computer metaphor, spells, potions, incantations, enchantments, and magical objects are programs which call other programs, which call yet other programs which directly call the Magic Machine's operating system, which performs the proper magic. I guess I'll be keeping the people in the library busy with interlibrary loan for a LONG time... Note: Yes, Barry is holding a grudge against his sister, who was "unjustly favored by our parents, since they gave her the throne of Ix. And she always made fun of my spell-casting technique." Aaron --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 01:35:21 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: The Woozy of Oz vs. The Generic Story of Oz THE WOOZY OF OZ vs THE GENERIC STORY OF OZ (And I'm probably giving away way too much) 1. The antagonist (Barry the Asmard of Ix) does not want to conquer Oz (or Ix for that matter). 2. No children are transported to Oz. In fact several people leave Oz via flight 4D6F on Emerald City Ozolines (Emerald City Ozoport, Oz, to Milk River Ozoport, Mo). 3-6.Pretty much impossible without the children, and the protagonists have more important things to do than go sightseeing. 7. Ozma does show up somewhere around the middle of the book (she was too busy with affairs of state to see him earlier concerning his own private 'national emergency'), but she doesn't solve anything by magic. 8. There is no party, at least not by the protagonists. 9. Also impossible without the children, though the Woozy does relate his secret past to Ozma and Glinda (but not Dorothy). 10. There are no children to go home, and I am not at liberty to say how things are at the end of the story since 1) that would ruin everything, and 2) I haven't decided on the exact state of things at the end of the story, but for certain the are not going to be the same as before. The verdict: INNOCENT. My brother the Royal Literary Critic of Oz (who, incidentally, the Asmard of Ix is named after, as he was asking for it) at least cannot accuse me of lack of plot originality. Aaron "I got to stop leaking information" Adelman --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 01:37:57 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-21-95 By the way, would someone please post a list of Laumer's books? The library staff needs to stay busy... Aaron --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 15:20:50 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: Buckethead I was browsing the "Ozcot homepage" and under the "Oz in Print" section, were listed the PUBLISHERS OF OZ: [1]Books of Wonder [2]Del Rey Books [3]Dover Publications, Inc. [4]Hungry Tiger Press [5]International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. Is "Buckethead" a publisher of Oz books as well? If so, would someone please let me know how they can be contacted? Thanks! ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 13:10:43 -0500 From: "Mark A. Semich" Subject: Giant Garden of Oz > P.S. One more question: Is _The Giant Garden of Oz_ as unsuitable for > children as the Baum Bugle review makes out? I did not find "Giant Garden" to be unsuitable at all and gave a copy to my 10 year old brother. I also thought that it was one of the best Oz books I've read - if you like Eric Shanower's graphic novels, you'll like his book. Just what did the Baum Bugle have to say about it? ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 10:40:43 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-21-95 (Addendum) Aaron S. Adelman writes: > 1) In response to the question on when my book (provisionally titled The > Woozy of Oz) will be published: I haven't the fainest idea. I haven't > contacted any potential publishers yet, and wasn't planning on it until I > had a complete rough draft. As it stands now I have about four or five > chapters written which need serious editing. By the way, what's the > address for Buckethead Enterprises anyway? Buckethead Enterprises of Oz, 1606 Arnold Palmer Loop, Belen, NM 87002. Be warned, however, that Chris already has a HUGE backlog of unpublished books, more manuscripts coming in all the time, and little money to keep up the current pace, let alone speed things up. So if you're relying on Buckethead, "Woozy" may not see print until 2097... > 1) Has anyone written anything on the origins of the Magic Picture and > the Magic Carpet? From what I remember they pop up in Ozma of Oz without > any explanations as to where they came from. You're right, no explanations so far. W. R. Wright writes: > I have received some email notes from a student in France. Here is the > relevant parts. > -------------------------- > Begin quote > Date: Mar, 19 D > c 95 10:55:59 0100 > Sender: charrier@math-appli-uco.fr > From: Catherine CHARRIER > Organization: Universite Catholique de l'Ouest (IPLV) > To: piglet@halcyon.com > Subject: Oz > X-Url: http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/author1.htm > > Dear Sir, > I am a French Student at the University of Angers, France. I am > writing a thesis on the Wizard of Oz. Where could I find the > following critical books on the subject : > - To Please a Child:A Biography of L. Frank Baum, by F. Joslyn Baum > and Russel P. MacFall, Chicago:Reilly and Lee, 1961 > - The Annotated Wizard of Oz, by Mickael Patrick Hearn, New York: > Clarkson Potter, 1973 > - L. Frank Baum Royal Historian of Oz, by Angelica S. Carpenter and > Jean S. Carpenter, Minneapolis:Lerner Publications, 1992 > - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in American Popular Culture:Uneasy Eden, > by Neil Earle, Lewiston:E. Mellen Press, 1993 > - The Wizard of Oz, by Mickael P. Hearn, New York:Schoken Books, 1983 > ... > and many others... > I should be grateful if you could help me. Thank you. Unfortunately most of these are now out of print (and that "American Popular Culture" one I've never even heard of!). For someone in France, the only possibility I can think of is interlibrary loan, and I have no idea how feasible that is. > There are two things we can do to help Catherine. > 1. Provide a suggested bibliography There will be one in my FAQ... > 2. Advise how she get access to the books in the bibliography > > I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have. I will combine all > the inputs I get from everyone and send it back to her (with copy to the > Ozzy mail server). Biggest issue may be how to do interlibrary loans to a > French university. > I have received the following question. I've never heard of this software. > Anyone out there know anything about this? > Thanks.........Bill W. > ------------------------------ > Begin Quote > Do you know where I can find the "Legends of Oz" software? > > -- > Jon Childerston > LAN Administrator > First National Bank > 201 North Dewey > North Platte, NE. 69101 > Office: (308) 532-1000 > Fax: (308) 532-3202 > fnbnp@nque.com > End Quote > ------------------------------ "Legends of Oz" is a CD-ROM put out by Roger S. Baum a few years ago. It's just a jumble of a few different things, including the complete text of "The Wizard of Oz," a few simple games, some clips from the movie, etc. It's okay, but not terribly comprehensive, and it CERTAINLY doesn't show off the true potentialof CD-ROM. It also implies that the only people ever to have written Oz books were L. Frank Baum and Roger Baum. Last time I saw it for sale it was in one of those huge ten-CD-ROMs for twenty dollars (or something like that) sets you see in software stores. If a software store can't order it (BTW, it has both Mac and PC versions on the same disk), check the mail order houses, I've seen it listed there. > I have received the following question. Anyone out there have an answer?? > thanks..........Bill Wright > ----------------------------------- > Begin Quote > Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 15:46:06 -0800 > From: fenderpub@interserv.com > Subject: ordering Oz books > To: piglet@halcyon.com > > Hello. I have been trying to locate a copy of Pirates in Oz by Ruth Plumly > Thompson. Books of Wonder has one copy that they're willing to part with for > $500. Too much for me. The Del Rey imprint of Ballantine Books came out > with a paperback copy, but apparently this is no longer available. Do you know > where I can find a modestly priced edition of this wonderful book? Please > reach me by EMail. Malcolm > > End Quote > ------------------------------ Yes, the Del Rey edition is no longer available. The best bet I can think of is Oz and Ends Book Shoppe. They carry dozens of Oz books at prices well below what most dealers charge for them. Although they have collector's editions, they also carry reading copies at VERY modest prices. They can be contacted at Oz and Ends Book Shoppe, 14 Dorset Drive, Kenilworth, NJ 07033-1417. Tell them what you're looking for, and they should be able to get back to you pretty quickly. --Eric "I REALLY need to get going on that FAQ, methinks" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 10:22:52 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-21-95 Cor, we all have been BUSY little beavers lately, haven't we? Aaron S. Adelman writes: > 1) I think it's about time that I asked about the ultimate fates of all > the evil magic workers that I intend to have show up in The Woozy of Oz > (aside from those I invent myself, of course). Mostly I've been working > off the top of my head, so I'm curious to know where I messed up. Yes, I > know that some of these characters are dead, but I have a way of getting > around this. > > A. Wizard of Mo: Last encountered in the mountains of Mo (?1899, The > Magical Monarch of Mo.) Who? There's no wizard in Mo that I can recall. > Gorba/Abrog: Don't remember. (1924, Grampa in Oz) Turned into a mouse by his own magic medicine. > Kizzo: I think he may of appeared in The Shaggy Man of Oz, but I don't > remember. I may have confounded him with another wicked wizard. There's no Kizzo that I know of. Are you thinking of Conjo, from "Shaggy Man"? He got the Water of Oblivion trick done to him... > Mooj: Don't remember, just know that he was in Ojo in Oz and did stuff > with clockwork Turned into a drop of water and dropped into the Nonestic Ocean. > Zog: Don't remember, just know that he was in The Sea Fairies and some > sort of chimera King Anko squished him into jelly, which quickly dissolved. (Hope he and Mooj don't get together...) > the Magical Mimics: Exiled back to their mountain, I think (1946, The > Magical Mimics in Oz) (Ed McMahon) That is correct, sir! > 2) What are the names of the Shaggy Man and his brother? Can't tell you about his brother, but (plug, plug) to find out about Shaggy's real name, check out "Queen Ann in Oz" by Karyl Carlson and Eric Some-weird-last-name-starting-with-G, available from Books of Wonder (1-800-345-6665). > 3) Whatever happened to Gayelette and Quelala? The latest I know they > appear is in The Magic Chest of Oz (1900). Nobody's written that book yet... > 4) Does anyone know anything of Glinda's origins? I wrote a short story about it once, but it's never been published, so I doubt that counts. Otherwise, the answer is no. > 5) Why is The Third Book of Oz in the HACC? Because Baum wrote it! > In The Third Book of Oz (= The Visitors from Oz + The Wogglebug Book), > the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, > Jack Pumpkinhead, Sawhorse, Wogglebug, and Gump visit the Outside World > and attend Dorothy's birthday party. This is in serious contradiction > with The Emerald City of Oz, in which Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, until they > actually go to Oz, don't really believe it exists. If they had been > visited by Ozites which didn't look like creatures from the Outside World, > they'd be insane not to belive in Oz. (Come to think of it, Neill's > books are really problematic too...) What, you expect complete and total logic in the Oz books? This is a relatively minor point, so no need to exclude "Third Book" from the HACC just because of "Emerald City." (By that same argument -- although with a lot less weight behind it -- we could eliminate "Emerald City" from the HACC as it states Glinda lives north of the Emerald City. Ain't gonna happen, is it?) > 6) Why has Eureka changed color several times? She hasn't, not really. She became pink somehow once she got to Oz and has stayed that way (I consider the "purple" line in Glinda(?) to have been a transcription error by the Royal Historian). But if that's not enough for you, read Chris Dulabone's "The Colorful Kitten of Oz," he explains it all there. Dave Hardenbrook wrote: > I received Eric Shanower's Graphic Novels, and they're great! I hope he writes > more! Unlikely at this point, as First Comics, which published them, is now out of business. (Dark Horse only published "Blue Witch" after First couldn't do it, and apparently they did a bunch of other stuff First was going to do. This was a one-time deal, however.) > I just was wondering a couple of things about how they pertain to Ozzy > history: > > _The Enchanted Apples of Oz_: > 1. Is Oz really kept magic by Apples? > 2. Were there TWO Wicked Witches of the South? (The one here is apparently > NOT Singra.) Looks like the answer is yes to both those questions... > _The Forgotten Forest of Oz_: > 3. Is Zurline a misspelling of Lurline, or is this Wood Nymph Queen > someone else? She's someone else. For more about her, read "The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus." > P.S. One more question: Is _The Giant Garden of Oz_ as unsuitable for > children as the Baum Bugle review makes out? With kids these days reading "Goosebumps," maybe not... Seriously, I wouldn't want to make "Giant Garden" my kid's first introduction to Oz. Whether you're going to let your kids read it or not depends on the kid, so all you grown-ups should probably preview it for them first. W. R. Wright writes: > Could someone post a note listing the dates and locations of the Oz > conventions this year, and the name/address of the coordinator for each. > Thanks.......Bill W. The '96 conventions are: Quadling Convention, April 27 (with some informal activities Apr. 26 and 28), Tulsa, OK Gillikin Convention, May 4, Escanaba, MI Ozmapolitan Convention, June 14-16, Louisville, KY Winkie Convention, July 12-14, Pacific Grove, CA Munchkin Convention, August 2-4, Wilmington, DE All of these are from the Oz Club's 1996 calendar, so you may want to double check, as the calendar has been wrong before. As for contacting the coordinators, send any requests to the Club (PO Box 10117, Berkeley, CA 94709-5117), and they can either tell you who's involved or forward your letter to the right person. > I think an Ozzy FAQ would be a great thing to have. But I suspect that it > could evolve into a VBF(VERY BIG FAQ) in no time at all, given the esoteria > love inherent in most of us Ozzyphiles. So perhaps a collaborative work > plan might be in order as a first step; i.e., layout a structure for the > VBF (Dave provided a first cut in his note), making sure that the structure > is easy extensible. Then make assignments amongst the volunteers to serve > as editors for each major section. Contributors would send their stuff to > the appropriate editor. It would also be very nice to have a search engine > that one could pose questions to and get answers from the VBF. Can't > imagine retrieving and reading thru the whole VBF to find the answer to a > question. Can y'all wait until I finish my FAQ first before we start making plans? I intend it NOT to be a VBFAQ, as I'm NOT going to answer EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE QUESTION, just the frequently (or potentially frequently) asked ones by those who DON'T know as much about Oz as the rest of us. Yes, there will be mention of how to find answers to other, less frequently asked questions (asking us seems to do the trick). I also hope you can all wait as I want everyone here to read my FAQ first and give me feedback (beta testing, for all you computer folks out there) before I spring it on the public. And I also want to say that there's no reason for there to be only one FAQ, if you have some specific type of Ozzy FAQ you want to write, feel free. Tyler Jones <70003.6136@compuserve.com> writes: > The reason that the Laumer books are not on the HACC is that the other guy who > works on it (Chris Dulabone of Buckethead) is EXTREMELY anti-Laumer, who he > calls "evil", "sick", anti-Baum etc. One could make the same claim of Chris Dulabone and some of the other authors who have been published by Buckethead. One could even make the claim of Thompson, Neill, Snow... > While it is true that the tone and style of writing of Mr. Laumer are very > different from mainstream Oz, he does not contradict the FF textaully at all! Except his much, much different for the creation of the Love Magnet that Laumer gives in one book (I can't recall which one right now...) BTW, since I never did get all of the Laumer books, does anyone know of a current source for them? Since Laumer lives in Sweden, he usually has an agent in America to sell his books, but they have been of dubious and fluctuating reliability... --Eric "What? Two Digests in one day? At this rate I'll NEVER get around to finishing that FAQ" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 23 Dec 1995 00:48:35 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-21-95 I'm not sure that Narnia outranks Oz in book popularity. I don't find people as involved in Narnia as with Oz or Middle Earth. My view may be skewed because my shop draws Oz customers much more regularly than Narnia hunters. Maybe Peter Glassman will add input here? Narnia generally seems to hold the interest of a younger group than Oz. Yes, of course Oz grabs most of us when we're young, but our fascination with it frequently lasts long past our first infatuation with it. Narnia doesn't seem to have the holding power of Oz. Consider the relative lack of merchandising of Narnia as compared to that of Oz. Tolkien, however, is another thing entirely. He sells steadily and, like Oz, we can never get enough of the good stuff in at the shop. Middle Earth is a fantasy that most of us come to later in life than to Oz. It's a more serious place and we take it more seriously. It's (forgive me, Eric) a more involving and personal place than Oz. It has great and verisimilitudinous depth. It rings true. Oz is an ideal. Middle Earth is a form of virtual reality. Big time reality. Narnia is also an ideal and more allegorical than either Oz or M.E. Baum created his fantasyland in a haphazard fashion, leaving all kinds of loose ends and contradictions for us to play with. Lewis had definite thematic concepts he wanted to work with in Narnia. And Tolkien...sheesh! He created a whole world with a remarkably complex history. His characters work within this history and frequently refer to it. Of course M.E. feels real to us and holds so many of us in its enchantment for the rest of our lives. Baum never meant Oz to be taken seriously. Narnia is so heavily allegorical that, although the series makes a dandy read (and multiple rereads), it doesn't dig its way into our subconscious the way Oz and M.E. can. Oz is a dream come true: wish fulfillment. It's cozy. It's fun. It's basically lighthearted with just enough danger for spice. Its values are "pure." It's the home most of us wish we had. Maybe that's part of why we're so unwilling to leave it behind. Middle Earth stays with us, niggling at the edge of consciousness. I'm not sure I'm saying all of this very clearly. Basically, I agree that Tolkien books are at least as well known, if not more well known, than Oz. Fortunately, we can enjoy Middle Earth while feeling no disloyalty to Oz. New subject entirely: Gjovaag, m'luv, if you're gonna do a guide, I wanna work on it with you! As for Ozma and McCarthy: I'm hoping that tthe new NIXON movie will shed some light on that. Seems to me that when I was a kid I heard something about Pat Nixon's threatening to leave Dick if he kept bothering "that pretty little girl from Oz who wears the poppies in her hair"! Merry Christmas! --Robin ============================================================================== Date: Friday 22-Dec-95 13:16:25 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: March Laumer's Books, Magic Machines, and Enchated Apples Aaron wrote: >By the way, would someone please post a list of Laumer's books? The >library staff needs to stay busy... Here are his books, but I fear the library staff has their work cut out for them--I have been corresponding with Mr. Laumer, and he says that he has had a VERY hard time getting his books distributed, partly because the "Oz Canon" regards his books as so heretical. He said that he would be able to sell me (or presumably anyone) some of his books when he returned from Sweden in the Spring. Anyway, here are his Oz titles, and his current (Swedish) address: The Green Dolphin of Oz Aunt Em and Uncle Henry of Oz The Good Witch of Oz [There goes my title!] The Magic Mirror of Oz The Frogman of Oz The Ten (sic) Woodmen of Oz The Careless Kangaroo of Oz The Charmed Gardens of Oz A Fairy Queen in Oz The Umbrellas of Oz A Farewell to Oz ------------------------------ Mr. March Laumer Plaatslagarevaegen 4E1 22730 Lund Sweden >Concerning that thing about Eric Shannower's graphic novels: >Oz kept enchanted by apples? Somebody tell me more about this. This >could put a monkeywrench into my book, which contains the Magic Machine >Hypothesis... In _Enchanted Apples of Oz_, it is revealed that when Oz was first made magical, a tree of Enchanted Apples was planted in a garden to keep Oz magical, and the tree is guarded at all times by a witch(?) named Valynn. The Apples are apparently important, for when some are stolen, the magic in Oz starts to "run down" (the Magic Picture displays "white noise", the Scarecrow becomes inert, etc.) until they are returned. Shanower does not go into detail about exactly how the apples function, but it seems it can be resovled with your concept of a Magic-generating Machine, which I find an intriguing idea, especially given my idea of magic originating from quantum "ebbs and flows" in multi-dimensional space. (Such a machine might work on the same principle as the mechanical bird in Douglas Adams' _Mostly Harmless_, I can't help thinking.) Eric Gjovaag writes: >Dave Hardenbrook wrote: >> I received Eric Shanower's Graphic Novels, and they're great! I hope he writes >> more! >Unlikely at this point, as First Comics, which published them, is now out >of business. (Dark Horse only published "Blue Witch" after First >couldn't do it, and apparently they did a bunch of other stuff First was >going to do. This was a one-time deal, however.) Does anyone know what Shanower is doing these days? -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 23 Dec 1995 12:28:06 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Oz Software??? Please disregard the following question, which I asked earlier. I have found the answer. Bill >Date: Thu, 21 Dec 1995 20:25:12 >To: ozlist >From: "W. R. Wright" >Subject: Oz Software??? > >I have received the following question. I've never heard of this software. Anyone out there know anything about this? >Thanks.........Bill W. >------------------------------ >Begin Quote >Do you know where I can find the "Legends of Oz" software? > >-- >Jon Childerston >LAN Administrator >First National Bank >201 North Dewey >North Platte, NE. 69101 >Office: (308) 532-1000 >Fax: (308) 532-3202 >fnbnp@nque.com >End Quote >------------------------------ > At 12:45 AM 12/14/95 -0800, you wrote: >Do you know where I can find the "Legends of Oz" software? > >-- >Jon Childerston >LAN Administrator >First National Bank >201 North Dewey >North Platte, NE. 69101 >Office: (308) 532-1000 >Fax: (308) 532-3202 >fnbnp@nque.com > Try the following: Multicom Publishing 1100 Olive Way, suite 1250 Seattle, WA 98101 phone 206-622-5530 email: info@multicom.com URL: http://www.multicom.com/ Hope this works for you. Bill Wright Piglet Press ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 24-26, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 22 Dec 1995 14:31:39 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Lots of stuff, here I go... Before I tel you what I know of the villians that Aaron wants to use, let me say a couple things. You have mentioned no less than TWENTY-SIX villians in your list. This is a little much. Do you really need all of these in your story? I was going to use Mrs. Yoop in the book I was re-writing, but you seem to have commandeered just about everybody worth writing about. Of course, I can use her anyway, and I'll e-mail you privately for her fate. Part of the problem with this is your desire to have your story take place so far in the future. In effect, you are locking everybody into a century of pre-destination. To be consistent, nobody else can write about these characters again (unless we come up with some truly outlandish explanations as to how they ended up in the same situation that they were in previously), and let's face it, there's precious few veteran villians left. One way that you could get around all of this is to create a new villian (your mysterious stranger from previous Ozzy digests) and start with a blurb that says "This evil creature had un-enchanted just about every vilian who has ever come up against Ozma" and leave it at that, with no references to their past. This way, you can remain consistent with everything that has been written, or will be written in the future. For characters that I do not have additional information for, I have omitted. Blinkie: Return performance in THE ORK OF OZ (1920A). She has her sized restored, but Ozma has fixed it so that if she ever touches another magical implement or attempts to use magic in any way, she will shrink again. Gorba/Abrog: Turned into a brown mouse at the end of GRAMPA IN OZ. Imp (Ertinent, Olite, Udent): Unknown. I shall contact Chris D. and see Kizzo: Who? Mrs. Yoop: Please don't use her! She's MINE! Ruggedo/Roquat/etc. I shall check and see. As far as I know, the Shaggy Man and his brother have never been named. March Laumer came close, but he deliberately did not use them! GRRRRR, I know the entire Buckethead address by heart except for the ZIP code! I will post it Tuesday. Also on the subject, I'm still workign hard to post ALL Oz publishers on the Web. Stay Tuned. I just talked to Oliver Stone and he says that the CIA, backed by the military-industrial complex, conducted secret experiments on Eureka (and Bungles brains) to see if communists could realy be revealed as "pinkos". I don't like to state peoples positions for them, especially when they are not on-line to defend themselves, but Chris D. feels that the Laumer books are full of pornography and that he deliberately ruins the childlike atmosphere of Oz by writing adult-material. For the record, I have never found any porn at all in Laumers books. OK, he drops some sly hints and subtle innuendos here and there, but it is not the same thing. I recommend these books (if you can get them) in the highest of terms. Some things in Oz are almost a requirement, such as the big party at the Emerald City when the adventure is completed. More questions from Aaron, answered vaguely... 1. THe Magic Picture jsut appears. I seem to remember that Glinda gave Ozma the Magic Carpet. Maybe she did the same with the Magic Picture. 2. For the HACC, we have made a couple of assumptions, and used some evidence. In GIANT HORSE, Prince Philador says that he has remained 10 for several years. Trot says "Me too:. That may not necessarily mean that she was also 10, just that she had stayed the same age for several years. In LOST PRINCESS, Baum says that Dorothy is a year older than Trot and a year younger than Betsy. We have assumed that Trot is 11. This would make Dorothy 12. But what kind of 12? We have assumed that Dorothy was 6 at the time of WIZARD. She stayed in Oz for several weeks or even months at a time during her four visits prior to moving there permanently. We have assumed that the combined effects, which lingered for a little while even after the got back to Kansas, slowed her aging by two years. By the time of EMERALD CITY, she is chronologically 14, but physically 12. Who's to say that during the next 79 years (between EMERALD CITY and OZMAPOLITAN) she did not decide to age a year or two? This would bring the reference from OZ [Tyler's message somehow got cut off here unfortunately...I'll print the message again in its entirety when he sends it to me (Sorry Tyler!). -- Dave] ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 23 Dec 1995 22:55:12 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Various 1) I am claiming dibs on the origin of the Magic Picture and the Magic Carpet, and on the disappearance of Gayelette and Quelala. Yes, Barry the Asmard of Ix is behind these, and I thereby clear up two mysteries and save my Mysterious Stranger Hypothesis as well. I also have to add a chapter to the beginning of The Woozy of Oz now... 2) A. Wizard of Mo was that extremely short guy who stole a princess's toe so that he could make a magic potion to grow larger. The name is found on the sign to the door of his office. 3) Kizzo is mentioned in The Wicked Witch of Oz as having given Singra a magic needle. Will have to ask my brother the psychologist how I confounded him with Conjo. 4) While I'm at it, I claim dibs on Ruggedo's final transformation. From now on, let it be known that in 2095 he is turned it a jar of picked peaches (a Moite delicacy) and left in Queen Zixi of Ix's cellar. Anyone who wants is free to write a story explaining how he got himself into such a pickle. 5) Hmm, maybe we'd better invoke the Magic Machine to explain how come no one remembers the Scarecrow and company visiting America. As for Glinda living north of the Emerald City in The Emerald City of Oz, maybe she has a summer castle in the Gilikin country. 6) How the Wizard Came to Oz has the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East as sisters, and The Wicked Witch of Oz has both of them as cousins to Singra. Is Mombi in any way related to them? Aaron. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 24 Dec 1995 00:03:43 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-23-95 From: "Aaron S. Adelman" : > Concerning that thing about Eric Shannower's graphic novels: > Oz kept enchanted by apples? Somebody tell me more about this. This > could put a monkeywrench into my book, which contains the Magic Machine > Hypothesis... I wouldn't worry about it. No Oz author, IMHO, should let some fact from anyt book outside of the FF bother them. Just go ahead and write the story you want. The fans who want to work out the consistencies with other books can do so later. > By the way, would someone please post a list of Laumer's books? The > library staff needs to stay busy... Aaron, most books on the HACC (or off it) you just ain't gonna find in a library, no matter how extensive their interlibrary loan contacts are, because a lot of books (and I'd say Laumer's fall into this category) are privately printed with very small press runs, sold almost exclusively to hardcore Oz fans who are trying to be completists (like myself...). I'm not even sure the Emerald City Press books from Books of Wonder are available in libraries. So start saving some dough, you're going to need it to read most Oz stories... From: "Mark A. Semich" : > I was browsing the "Ozcot homepage" and under the "Oz in Print" section, > were listed the PUBLISHERS OF OZ: > > [1]Books of Wonder > > [2]Del Rey Books > > [3]Dover Publications, Inc. > > [4]Hungry Tiger Press > > [5]International Wizard of Oz Club, Inc. > > Is "Buckethead" a publisher of Oz books as well? If so, would someone > please let me know how they can be contacted? Yes, they are. It's just that the editor of Buckethead, while a great book publisher, is a lousy publicist. Buckethead Enterprises of Oz can be contacted at 1606 Arnold Palmer Loop, Belen, NM 87002. (Send a SASE, they barely have enough money to print books, let alone spring for a stamp for you.) From: Eric Gjovaag : > W. R. Wright writes: > > Could someone post a note listing the dates and locations of the Oz > > conventions this year, and the name/address of the coordinator for each. > > Thanks.......Bill W. > > The '96 conventions are: ...now listed in the new edition of "The Oz Observer" that just came today, so I'd like to update the list I gave earlier, if I may: OZ CLUB CONVENTIONS: Quadlings, Tulsa, OK, April 27, contact Susan Hall, 8942 East Latimer Ct., Tulsa, OK 74115 (although I think this is actually her mother's address -- which is okay, as Shirley is involved also) Gillikins, May 4, Escanaba, MI (although with Fred laid up, this may not happen after all -- it's not actually listed in the "Observer") Ozmapolitan, Louisville, KY, June 14-16, contact Miechael Siewert, 946 Clarks Lane, Louisville, KY 40217 Winkies, July 11-14, Pacific Grove, CA, contact Lynn Beltz, 3559 Toroda Bridge Customs Road, Curlew, WA 99118 Munchkins, August 2-4, Wilmington, DE, contact Chris Sterling, 637 Ridgewood Road, Maplewood, NJ 07040 NON-CLUB EVENTS: Feb. 25-26, Oz Rendezvous 96, Las Vegas, NV, send SASE to Elaine Willingham, PO Box 31672, St. Louis, MO 63131 Sometime in mid-May (probably the 18th), L. Frank Baum celebration, Chittenango, NY. Sorry, no potential contact address yet. May 25, Yellow Brick Road Festival, Sedan, KS, contact Nita Jones, 150 East Main, Sedan, KS 67361 June 20-23, Judy Garland Festival, Grand Rapids, MN, contact John A. Kelsch, PO Box 724, Grand Rapids, MN 55744, or call 1-800-664-JUDY Sept. 18-20, Wizard of Oz Festival, Chesterton, IN, contact the Duneland Champber of Commerce, 303 Broadway, Chesterton, IN 46304 From: Robin Olderman : > Tolkien, however, is another thing entirely. He sells steadily and, like > Oz, we can never get enough of the good stuff in at the shop. Middle > Earth is a fantasy that most of us come to later in life than to Oz. It's a > more serious place and we take it more seriously. It's (forgive me, Eric) > a more involving and personal place than Oz. It has great and > verisimilitudinous depth. It rings true. Forgive you for WHAT? You obviously think I take Oz (or Narnia or Middle Earth or just about any of my other interests) so seriously as to be offended by people who don't hold exactly the same views I do. Which I do not. Sure, I'm a much bigger fan of Oz than just about any other series of books, but that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate other books, or what their fans enjoy about them. Unless, of course, you were referring to Eric Shanower there . I don't think that Oz and Middle Earth would appeal to the same people at the same time, for the very reasons you cited. It's apples and oranges, with Oz (and for that matter Narnia) being written for and appealing to a generally younger audience. > New subject entirely: Gjovaag, m'luv, if you're gonna do a guide, I wanna work on it with you! Hey, I want EVERYBODY here to give me some feedback! (I'm also going to be having a few non-Oz fans looking it over, to see if it makes sense to them!). In fact, other than the bibliography (which could end up being quite extensive), I'm nearly done with my first draft now. Shall I post it to the digest and start taking comments? From: Dave Hardenbrook : > Aaron wrote: > >By the way, would someone please post a list of Laumer's books? The > >library staff needs to stay busy... > > Here are his books, but I fear the library staff has their work cut out for > them--I have been corresponding with Mr. Laumer, and he says that he has had > a VERY hard time getting his books distributed, partly because the "Oz Canon" > regards his books as so heretical. He said that he would be able to sell me > (or presumably anyone) some of his books when he returned from Sweden in the > Spring. Good. By then I may have gone through the parts of my collection that are currently in storage at my in-laws and figure out which Laumer titles I have and don't have. (By then I might have some money to buy them with, too, if Books of Wonder doesn't come out with any new stuff by then.) You will let us know when he's back and what the address is, won't you? > Does anyone know what Shanower is doing these days? Well, since he is one of the minds behind Hungry Tiger Press, it's a safe bet that you can write to them (15 Marcy St., Bloomfield, NJ 07003-3814) and find out. His latest Oz projects have been editing and illustrating "The Runaway in Oz" for Books of Wonder, and Hungry Tiger's "Oz Toy Book 2." (And yes, when he comes out west for Winkie Conventions, we call each other "The other Eric." And when his first graphic novel came out, someone asked me to sign it. (Oh, and before it was cancelled, Eric was doing the illustrations for the linking sections of the "Harlan Ellison's Dream Corridor" comic book.) --Eric "Merry Christmas, y'all, even though you probably won't read this 'til at least Boxing Day" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 01:39:25 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Stuff Why did the Wizard want Mombi to hide Ozma for him? How did he get his hands on Ozma in the first place? (I got to find a copy of Oz and the Three Witches to Xerox...) To the second question, I have a solution that I hope will be more palateable than the original Mysterious Stranger Hypothesis. (I have to have the Wicked Witches in The Wonderful Woozy of Oz shmuz about something when they get ressurected...) Suppose that Mombi wasn't so stupid as she may have seemed in transforming Pastoria, Pajuka, and Ozma into animate creatures. She did try to transform them into rocks or something else inanimate, but she found--horror of horrors!--that someone else (probably Glinda; she keeps sticking her nose into anything politically sensitive) had put an anti-transformational spell on them in order to prevent someone else from transforming them as a means of deposing the lawful government of Oz. And so, faced with this problem, Mombi did the best she could. Pastoria became a tailor (not very different from his original form), which not being much of a disability at all, she gave him amnesia and dumped him in the middle of nowhere (Blankenburg). Pajuka became a goose, in which form Mombi was content to leave his memory intact since geese are really irritating creatures and not taken seriously anyway. Ozma became a turtle (notice that deviance from the original form is inversely proportional to political power at the time of transformation), who, being a baby, really didn't know much and burbled a lot more than she talked. Mombi was content to leave Ozma in the gardens of the royal palace, where she mostly hid in her shell and occasionally ate a few strawberries. As cold-blooded creatures under non-optimal conditions (such as in the palace gardens) age much more slowly than warm-blooded creatures, by the time Mombi's transformation wore off, due to inherent problems in two spells being cast one over the other (Mombi was VERY fortunate that Pajuka didn't spontaneously regain human form; come to think of it, perhaps Pastoria did spontaneously regain human form after having been, let us say, a caribou) er, uh, where was I? By the time Mombi's transformation wore off, Ozma had aged only a few months and the Wizard was in power. The Wizard, as we all know, did not enjoy being confined to a few rooms of the palace, so let us suppose that from time to time he would disguise himself as one of the palace staff or a courtier and slip out for a breath of fresh air. Taking a walk in such a manner one day, he finds Ozma, who had only shortly before been a turtle, and recognizes her by some sign (perhaps an article of clothing) as belonging to the previous ruling family of Oz. The Wizard then hides the child in his rooms and makes his three visits to Mombi, after which Mombi transforms Ozma into a boy, which transformation proves to be more stable than the previous one, as the human form is retained and a variation on it is expressed instead. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 11:25:00 -0800 From: glassman@ix.netcom.com (glassman) Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-21-95 >One more question: Is _The Giant Garden of Oz_ as unsuitable for >children as the Baum Bugle review makes out? I suppose it depends on how you define the terms "children" and "unsuitable." "The Giant Garden of Oz" is written for a slightly older audience than the Baum titles (ages 7 and up), but there is nothing inappropriate in it for younger readers. As the publisher of this book, we recommend it for readers ages 9 and up. If I recall correctly, "The Baum Bugle" had some reservations about the level of suspense and fear raised by the underground scenes in this book, as well as the dangers Dorothy finds herself in (sorry for the vagueness, but I don't want to give plot points away to those who haven't read this story yet!). As someone who has worked in the children's books field for over 20 years, I can assure you that there is nothing in these books that is not found in a large number of other books for children ages 9 - 12 (yet alone older!). And "Giant Garden" has no passages in it that are as scarey or disturbing as those which can be found in any of the currently popular "Fear Street" and "Goosebumps" books which readers of this age (and many as young as 7 and 8) are buying by the thousands. Indeed, any child who has read one of the "Indian in the Cupboard" novels, or a John Bellairs book, or even a story by Judy Blume will find nothing shocking or "inappropriate" in "The Giant Garden of Oz." I don't remember who reveiewed "The Giant Garden of Oz" in the Baum Bugle, but perhaps their knowledge of children's books only encompasses the Oz books. Certainly, Eric Shanower's novel is a more mature, serious-natured work than most Oz novels, having many breathtaking, hair-raising incidents (that's what makes it such a compelling page-turner!), but it also contains some delightful bits of truly ozzy whimsy - particularly in the character of Imogene. I guess the best advise I can give you is to read it for yourself and make up your own mind! After all, the Baum Bugle - though an excellent source of Baum and Ozzy scholarship - is not an authoritative source on modern children's literature. If you would like to read "The Giant Garden of Oz," check your local library or bookstore. Or you can order a copy from our catalog, "The Oz Collector." For a free copy of the catalog, call 800-207-6968. - Peter Glassman Books of Wonder ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 11:44:32 -0800 From: glassman@ix.netcom.com (glassman) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-21-95 (Addendum) >Hello. I have been trying to locate a copy of Pirates in Oz by Ruth Plumly >Thompson. Books of Wonder has one copy that they're willing to part with for >$500. Too much for me. The Del Rey imprint of Ballantine Books came out >with a paperback copy, but apparently this is no longer available. Do you know >where I can find a modestly priced edition of this wonderful book? Please >reach me by EMail. Malcolm Hey! That's a bit unfair - "willing to part with for $500." Makes us sound like pirates ourselves! The copy this gentleman is refering to is a very fine first edition, first state - a book you will find regularly cataloged by any old and rare book dealer for $400 - $700. We have also handled hardcover reprints for as little as $40 and copies of the Del Rey edition (now out-of-print) for $10 - $15. I fail to see the point in mentioning our copy and price. Is the writer trying to imply that we are asking too much for the book? Or is he seeking sympathy that he can't afford to spend this much? Either way, I'm certainly sympathetic to the difficulty in obtaining a copy of any particular Oz book at any given time. That's why I've spent the last 10 years reissuing inexpensive editions of these wonderful books. I'm a little saddened, though, that no matter how much we do, there always seems to be people out there waiting to take pot shots at us. Oh well, I hear far more positive thanks from the many Oz lovers who've read our editions than complaints from those who can't afford fine first editions. And for that, I am truly grateful. - Peter Glassman Books of Wonder ============================================================================== Date: Mon, 25 Dec 1995 12:04:38 -0800 From: glassman@ix.netcom.com (glassman) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-23-95 From: Robin Olderman > I'm not sure that Narnia outranks Oz in book popularity. I don't find >people as involved in Narnia as with Oz or Middle Earth. My view may >be skewed because my shop draws Oz customers much more regularly >than Narnia hunters. Maybe Peter Glassman will add input here? Narnia >generally seems to hold the interest of a younger group than Oz. Yes, >of course Oz grabs most of us when we're young, but our fascination with >it frequently lasts long past our first infatuation with it. Narnia doesn't >seem to have the holding power of Oz. Consider the relative lack of >merchandising of Narnia as compared to that of Oz. Robin, the Narnia books are certainly among the most popular classic fantasy books for adults to buy for kids. And once most kids get their hands on one, they want the rest. In this way, the Narnia books ARE similar to Oz and Tolkien's Middle Earth. But perhaps the biggest difference between Oz and Narnia (or Middle Earth and Narnia, for that matter) is that Lewis's Narnia books are quite self-contained. There is very little hinting at additional tales and adventures that have come before or will come after. In fact, the final Narnia book, "The Last Battle," ends with the complete destruction of Narnia - making further stories impossible. But the Oz books and Tolkien's Middle Earth novels are filled with allusions to other tales and leave many loose threads for others to follow. And, of course, Oz is famous for all its many contradictions. As has been so clearly demonstrated by this group, some people feel compelled to find explanations for these contradictions, giving rise to hour after hour of speculation. This in turn leads to an intense involvement with the subject bordering on obsession. The Narnia books don't have these contradictions and so don't generate these speculations. Finally, the Narnia books have NEVER been out-of-print. They have always been readily obtainable in bookstores and libraries. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the Oz books. - Peter Glassman Books of Wonder ============================================================================== Date: Tuesday 26-Dec-95 00:10:19 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Various Ozzy things From: "Mark A. Semich" : >I did not find "Giant Garden" to be unsuitable at all and gave a copy to >my 10 year old brother. I also thought that it was one of the best Oz >books I've read - if you like Eric Shanower's graphic novels, you'll like >his book. Just what did the Baum Bugle have to say about it? Although the review was basically favorable, they characterized _Garden_ as a "horror story" and deemed it an "adult" Oz story. BTW, does anyone know what Chris Dulabone's books are like? The Baum Bugle has also "charged" that C. D. has no knowledge of Oz beyond the Ranklin-Bass Oz cartoon series...Given that he is an Ozzy publisher, and co-produces the HACC, this doesn't seem very likely... :) From: Eric Gjovaag write: >Aaron, most books on the HACC (or off it) you just ain't gonna find ina >library, no matter how extensive their interlibrary loan contacts are, >because a lot of books (and I'd say Laumer's fall into this category) are >privately printed with very small press runs, sold almost exclusively to >hardcore Oz fans who are trying to be completists... I'd just elaborate that what you say is mostly true of non-FF books...there are SOME libraries that have Baum and Thompson Oz books (and my local City Central Library even has the Neil and Snow books, plus _Merry-Go-Round_, _How the Wizard Came_, and _Giant Garden_, so try the libraries first, just in case... :) >Feb. 25-26, Oz Rendezvous 96, Las Vegas, NV, send SASE to Elaine >Willingham, PO Box 31672, St. Louis, MO 63131 What's THIS event?????!!!!!!! >Hey, I want EVERYBODY here to give me some feedback! (I'm also going to >be having a few non-Oz fans looking it over, to see if it makes sense to >them!). In fact, other than the bibliography (which could end up being >quite extensive), I'm nearly done with my first draft now. Shall I post >it to the digest and start taking comments? Yes, please do! >Good. By then I may have gone through the parts of my collection that >are currently in storage at my in-laws and figure out which Laumer titles >I have and don't have. (By then I might have some money to buy them >with, too, if Books of Wonder doesn't come out with any new stuff by then.) >You will let us know when he's back and what the address is, won't you? Yes, of course! >Well, since he [Eric Shanower] is one of the minds behind Hungry Tiger Press, >it's a safe bet that you can write to them (15 Marcy St., Bloomfield, >NJ 07003-3814) and find out... Is Hungry Tiger Press another possibility for my book? From: Aaron S. Adelman : >Taking a walk in such a manner one day, he [the Wizard] finds >Ozma, who had only shortly before been a turtle, and recognizes her >by some sign (perhaps an article of clothing) as belonging to the >previous ruling family of Oz. Maybe he recognized her because she, like all her royal ancestors, bore the Ozzy royal birthmark--THE PURPLE PIMPERNEL! (Sorry, I got this from the Danny Kaye movie _The Court Jester_...) :) :) :) >Why did the Wizard want Mombi to hide Ozma for him? Because he was scared to death of the citizens finding out that he is an imposter and lynching him or something(?) Just a thought: Maybe Mombi had previously kidnapped Ozma along with her family, but then she planted baby Ozma in the Wizard's garden in order to get him in trouble with Glinda...Or maybe she transformed Ozma into a baby *NOME*(!) at this point, and the Wizard, fearing that he would be branded a traitor for lodging an enemy race, desperately brought the baby nome (not knowing who it really was) to Mombi, and gave her his magic tricks in exchange for her relieving him a potentially sticky problem... (I'll let those more knowledgable of early Oz history to comment on your theory of the Wicked Witches...) :) >1) I am claiming dibs on the origin of the Magic Picture and the Magic >Carpet, and on the disappearance of Gayelette and Quelala ... >4) While I'm at it, I claim dibs on Ruggedo's final transformation ... If people are "dib claiming", perhaps I'd better too... :) 1. First and foremost, the Adepts at Sorcery are MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!! :) :) :) I have developed their characters far beyond the one-dimensional sorceresses depicted by Baum into three vivid, dynamic ladies, strongly contrasting in personality and disposition. Even their names are changed (slightly) to avoid confusion between them. Anyway, if nothing else, I want to be the one that has established them as such. 2. Second, I claim dibs on the land area directly north of the Realms of the Phanfasms, Whimsies, etc. The land (currently mapped as the southernmost part of Ev) is the "site" for three new lands that my story introduces. 3. I claim an explaination for how Ruggedo regained his memory in the period between _Magic_ and _Kabumpo_, and also that the agent of Rug's memory restoration was also the agent of Mombi's learning all those fancy means of transformation and trickery ( am I getting you all curious? :) ). 4. If it's not asking too much, I want to claim the "final state" of the Phanfasms, Whimsies, Growleywogs, and Mimics (they get turned to dust along with my original villians by Locasta's "secret weapon"). 5. I'm not sure how this will work in with other things like Aaron's magical machine, but I introduce something called "The Magic of Everything" (MOE). The MOE is a set of spells and incantations that regulate the workings of all other spells and incantations (sort of like Aaron's idea of a magical "operating system"). Yet the MOE is so elegantly simple that the whole thing can be "written on a tunic". ( I'm poking fun at the cosmologists' and quantum physicists' probably futile search for a "Theory of Everything" that would be simple and elegant and yet explain everything in the Cosmos from why there are atoms to why Truman beat Dewey in 1948. :) ) -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 27, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 11:30:38 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest [Here is Tyler's 12/23 message again, now complete... -- Dave] Lots of stuff, here I go... Before I tel you what I know of the villians that Aaron wants to use, let me say a couple things. You have mentioned no less than TWENTY-SIX villians in your list. This is a little much. Do you really need all of these in your story? I was going to use Mrs. Yoop in the book I was re-writing, but you seem to have commandeered just about everybody worth writing about. Of course, I can use her anyway, and I'll e-mail you privately for her fate. Part of the problem with this is your desire to have your story take place so far in the future. In effect, you are locking everybody into a century of pre-destination. To be consistent, nobody else can write about these characters again (unless we come up with some truly outlandish explanations as to how they ended up inthe same situation that they were in previously), and let's face it, there's precious few veteran villians left. One way that you could get around all of this is to create a new villian (your mysterious stranger from previous Ozzy digests) and start with a blurb that says "This evil creature had un-enchanted just about every vilian who has ever come up against Ozma" and leave it at that, with no references to their past. This way, you can remain consistent with everything that has been written, or will be written in the future. For characters that I do not have additional information for, I have omitted. Blinkie: Return performance in THE ORK OF OZ (1920A). She has her sized restored, but Ozma has fixed it so that if she ever touches another magical implement or attempts to use magic in any way, she will shrink again. Gorba/Abrog: Turned into a brown mouse at the end of GRAMPA IN OZ. Imp (Ertinent, Olite, Udent): Unknown. I shall contact Chris D. and see Kizzo: Who? Mrs. Yoop: Please don't use her! She's MINE! Ruggedo/Roquat/etc. I shall check and see. As far as I know, the Shaggy Man and his brother have never been named. March Laumer came close, but he deliberately did not use them! GRRRRR, I know the entire Buckethead address by heart except for the ZIP code! I will post it Tuesday. Also on the subject, I'm still workign hard to post ALL Oz publishers on the Web. Stay Tuned. I just talked to Oliver Stone and he says that the CIA, backed by the military-industrial complex, conducted secret experiments on Eureka (and Bungles brains) to see if communists could realy be revealed as "pinkos". I don't like to state peoples positions for them, especially when they are not on-line to defend themselves, but Chris D. feels that the Laumer books are full of pornography and tat he deliberately ruins the childlike atmosphere of Oz by writing adult-material. For the record, I have never found any porn at all in Laumers books. OK, he drops some sly hints and subtle innuendos here and there, but it is not the same thing. I recommend these books (if you can get them) in the highest of terms. Some things in Oz are almost a requirement, such as the big party at the Emerald City when the adventure is completed. More questions from Aaron, answered vaguely... 1. THe Magic Picture jsut appears. I seem to remember that Glinda gave Ozma the Magic Carpet. Maybe she did the same with the Magic Picture. 2. For the HACC, we have made a couple of assumptions, and used some evidence. In GIANT HORSE, Prince Philador says that he has remained 10 for several years. Trot says "Me too:. That may not necessarily mean that she was also 10, just that she had stayed the same age for several years. In LOST PRINCESS, Baum says that Dorothy is a year older than Trot and a year younger than Betsy. We have assumed that Trot is 11. This would make Dorothy 12. But what kind of 12? We have assumed that Dorothy was 6 at the time of WIZARD. She stayed in Oz for several weeks or even months at a time during her four visits prior to moving there permanently. We have assumed that the combined effects, which lingered for a little while even after the got back to Kansas, slowed her aging by two years. By the time of EMERALD CITY, she is chronologically 14, but physically 12. Who's to say that during the next 79 years (between EMERALD CITY and OZMAPOLITAN) she did not decide to age a year or two? This would bring the reference from OZMAPOLITAN into agreement with everything else. 3. The HACC itself does not explain minor contradicitons. We ourselves are supposed to do that. Here are some examples. Bungle got tired of transparent brains. The Wizard was finally able to make pink brains that did not make her arrogant so he replaced his replacement. The story of the origin of the Nine Tiny Piglets is true to both versions. March Laumer explained it beautifully. In essence, the piglets were the children of Professor and Mrs. Swyne, but were sent to the island of Teenty-Weent for educational purposes. While there, a sailor pig-napped them and sold them to the Wizard, who just happened to arrive at their old country. Once again, March Laumer comes to our rescue and explains the on-again, off-again reversals of East and West. In so doing, he also explains why orange is the only color of the rainbow not represented in Oz. (Or is it? Till Orangespiegal rules!!!) Neills books had a lot of problems. One may be able to explain away some of the stuff as the Wizard trying strange experiments in magic. I believe that Books of Wonder sells one of the bios that your French student mentioned. Maybe a University can help with the International inter-library loans. AUTOBIO I am Tyler Jones and I will be 27 in January (ehh? Speak up, sonny!) I was introduced to Oz through (how else?) the MGM movie. My aunt, who was living with me at the time, had the Baum 14 and I read them all, begging my mom to buy me a set, which se did, slowly but surely. I SLOWLY collected the rest of the FF (17 years to get the last one) and joined the Oz club, whichled me to all the OTHER Oz books out there. My favorite movies are science fiction/fantasy. I won't discuss books and music, because you can find out about that on my home page. Favorite TV shows: Star Trek (all four series), Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld, Melrose Place (yes, Melrose Place) and Larroquette. --Tyler ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 12:32:34 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest The apples in Shanowers book may be the first line of defense. Other sources of magic are mentioned in other books. This was done as a redundancy measure: If one system failed, the others could pick it up. Suppose that the system got "lazy" after centuries of disuse. The magic of Oz itself had never been threatened before. When Bortag picked the apples, the other defense systems did not turn on right away, so Oz grew unmagical. If the Oz characters had done nothing, the other sytems (The crown, the pearl, etc.) would have turned on eventually and magic would have been restored. Lurline did not tell people about this stuff for security reasons. The events in THE THIRD BOOK OF OZ for very strange for most normal people. Maybe Aunt Em and Uncle Henry convinced themselves that it was a bad dream and after a few years they forgot about it. As for Laumers story of the origin of the Love Magnet, how do we know that's not the way it really happened? Shaggy himself may not have known the truth of it, or at best was vague about its origins. Despite having been dunked in the Truth Pond, he stil may not have told everything he knows. THE TEN WOODMEN OF OZ is not a mispelling! You'll have to read it for yourself to find out why. In my project list, you can see that I am (or will be) working on textual summaries of the FF. I may extend this to include ALL Oz books. Chris Dulabone has an extensive and accurate knowledge of Oz, as defined by the books. His only weakness (IMHO) is a desire to keep Oz as a perpetually childlike place and to ignore the existence of anyone who dares to anything that is not EXACTLY the way L. Frank Baum would have done it. With Sringa and the Wicked Witch from ENCHANTED APPLES< we see indeed that there are two wicked witches in the Quadling. What about Blinkie and her assistant witches? What about Faleero and HER assistants? There may be dozens of wicked witches in the north, south, east and west, all claiming the title. Only the top dog at any time is THE Wicked Witch of (pick your direction), with all capitals and no smile. Ruggedo has regained his memory TWICE. In EMERALD CITY, he was dunked and sent home. Baum assumed that, surrounded by familar sights and in the company of the wicked Nomes, he relearned his old ways. In MAGIC, he gets dunked and is relocated in the Emerald City. Surrounded by good and happy people, he regains his memory anyway. How does this happen? I can't wait to find out! As Eric "Insert Quote here" Gjovaag says, it is probably best to just write your own story and let others worry about explaining away inconsistencies with the other books. However, a least some effort should be made to look at what's already out there, so as to keep discrepancies at a minimum. --Tyler Jones ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 14:30:21 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: This dib thing is getting absurd Yeech! First Aaron Adelman makes dibs on the Magic Picture, Magic Carpet, what happens to Ruggedo, and then Mark A. Semich comes out with a laundry list of dibs, including the immortal words "the Adepts at Sorcery are MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!!" At this rate, in a short time no one is going to be able to write anything because everyone will have dibbed up everything and gridlocked. I think part of the problem with Aaron is that he is trying to explain too much at once, with the result, as others have pointed out, that he's going to undercut everyone's ability to write stories because he won't leave the ultimate fates of any baddies up to anyone else. (Of course, one could totally ignore everything he's written, which is also a viable option.) Aaron, too many baddies spoil the broth. Listen to what these people are saying. Mark, take a chill pill, and stop being mean to physicists. ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 13:38:23 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest There is something similar to an oz-guide out there already. In the tradition of Jack Snow, Peter B. Clarke has published "Who's Who, What's What and Where's Where in Oz". Based of the FF, it lists just about person, place and thing in and around Oz. I forgot his address, but I will post it tomorrow. --Tyler ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 11:52:01 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-26-95 From: Tyler Jones > Mrs. Yoop: Please don't use her! She's MINE! Uh-oh, this is going to get messy. HEY, EVERYBODY, OZ AND ITS CHARACTERS BELONG TO ALL OF US (well, except for the characters still under copyright...). WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO WRITE ABOUT THEM AND NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE WRITING! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN! From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > 1) I am claiming dibs on the origin of the Magic Picture and the Magic > Carpet, and on the disappearance of Gayelette and Quelala. Yes, Barry > the Asmard of Ix is behind these, and I thereby clear up two mysteries > and save my Mysterious Stranger Hypothesis as well. I also have to add a > chapter to the beginning of The Woozy of Oz now... But what if somebody hasn't read this dibs, and writes about them? What are you going to do then? (BTW, ISTR Gayelette popping up as a major character in Roger S. Baum's "Dorothy of Oz," maybe you should check that out.) > 2) A. Wizard of Mo was that extremely short guy who stole a princess's > toe so that he could make a magic potion to grow larger. The name is > found on the sign to the door of his office. Oh, HIM! Okay, I have my copy of "Mo" right here, let me check... Ah, yes, here it is. He fell into a chasm he had opened, hoping to cause Princess Truella to fall in. It closed up over him and undid much of his magic. So he's probably still buried somewhere in the mountains of Mo. > 5) Hmm, maybe we'd better invoke the Magic Machine to explain how come no > one remembers the Scarecrow and company visiting America. As for Glinda > living north of the Emerald City in The Emerald City of Oz, maybe she has > a summer castle in the Gilikin country. I still say that the Ozites' adventures in America are of dubious canonicity, and can probably be safely ignored. > 6) How the Wizard Came to Oz has the Wicked Witch of the West and the > Wicked Witch of the East as sisters, and The Wicked Witch of Oz has both > of them as cousins to Singra. Is Mombi in any way related to them? So far as I can recall, there was never any insinuation that the wicked witches were related until the 1939 movie, and as far as I'm concerned they're all just bad women on power trips, no other explanation need be given or mentioned. But if you must, Mombi is the cousin of the Wicked Witches of the East and West in the movie "Journey Back to Oz." From: Dave Hardenbrook > BTW, does anyone know what Chris Dulabone's books are like? The Baum Bugle has > also "charged" that C. D. has no knowledge of Oz beyond the Ranklin-Bass Oz > cartoon series...Given that he is an Ozzy publisher, and co-produces the HACC, > this doesn't seem very likely... :) This is probably in reference to one of Chris' books, "Egor and the Magic Funhouse Go to Oz," which he wrote when he was seven, and all he knew about Oz at that point was the "Tales of the Wizard of Oz" series. He mentioned "Egor" in his afterwords to his other books enough times that his regular readers wanted to read it, so he published it, changing very little from when he first wrote it. Trust me, Chris knows the Oz books as well as the rest of us (and better than some), and the rest of his books are much more appealing to fans of the books. > I'd just elaborate that what you say is mostly true of non-FF books...there > are SOME libraries that have Baum and Thompson Oz books (and my local City > Central Library even has the Neil and Snow books, plus _Merry-Go-Round_, > _How the Wizard Came_, and _Giant Garden_, so try the libraries first, just > in case... :) Oh, that's good to know. Yes, be sure to check your library, and see if you can also get some through interlibrary loan. But outside of the FF and anything published by Books of Wonder or another commercial publisher, odds are you're not going to find it. > >Feb. 25-26, Oz Rendezvous 96, Las Vegas, NV, send SASE to Elaine > >Willingham, PO Box 31672, St. Louis, MO 63131 > > What's THIS event?????!!!!!!! Ya got me, I'm just passing the word along that I read about in the "Oz Observer." Why don't you send a SASE to Ms. Willingham and ask her? Regarding my FAQ: > >Hey, I want EVERYBODY here to give me some feedback! (I'm also going to > >be having a few non-Oz fans looking it over, to see if it makes sense to > >them!). In fact, other than the bibliography (which could end up being > >quite extensive), I'm nearly done with my first draft now. Shall I post > >it to the digest and start taking comments? > > Yes, please do! Okay, that's one yes. Anybody else? (I'll warn you all right now, it may not be a VBFAQ, but it IS quite large, and will probably take a while to go through. I'll give everyone plenty of warning before I send it out. Oh, and anybody who contributes ideas, suggestions, or questions that I use in the FAQ will get an acknowledgement in the official release version.) > >Well, since he [Eric Shanower] is one of the minds behind Hungry Tiger Press, > >it's a safe bet that you can write to them (15 Marcy St., Bloomfield, > >NJ 07003-3814) and find out... > > Is Hungry Tiger Press another possibility for my book? To be honest, I really don't know. So far they've only reprinted some stuff and published some of Eric Shanower's stuff. Write and ask, the worst that can happen is they'll say "Nope." > If people are "dib claiming", perhaps I'd better too... :) Here we go again... --Eric "Maybe I'll just dibs anything I can think of..." Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 13:03:42 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: A Guide?? Eric said Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-26-95 OK, it seems I'd better clear some stuff up before I get lynched. 1) For most of the bad guys I'm not mentioning their fate previous to the Asmard sending in Kiki Aru to resurrect them. (Kiki Aru, knowing very little magic, is at the bottom of the totem pole, so he got stuck with most of the dirty work in resurrecting.) Besides the Asmard recruiting Kiki Aru, the only recruitment/resurrection that's been written into The Wonderful Woozy of Oz is that of the Wicked Witch of the East (did anyone give her a name?), which Kiki Aru has to do over since he doesn't know that water is anathema to witches and he does it in the rain. Mombi, Singra, the Wicked Witch of the East, and Ruggedo, of whom only Singra's previous fate has been merely mentioned (Kiki Aru woke her up, so she's presumably been in yet another hundred-year sleep; maybe Glinda tries putting her to sleep permanently). The only other characters I'm thinking about writing resurrection scenes for are A. Wizard of Mo and the Purple Dragon. Most bad guys penultimate fate will not be affected by The Wonderful Woozy of Oz. I repeat: My book will not lock out story possibilites for the vast majority of bad guys. Note: The Phanfasms and Magical Mimics do make an appearance. (If a wicked witch who is changed to dust is resurrected, they should be resurrectable too.) The Whimsies will not come back to life. They wouldn't make suitable co-conspirators. 2) I actually managed to get two of Donald Abott's books through interlibrary loan (How the Wizard Came to Oz and The Magic Chest of Oz), so I'm not giving up on it yet. 3) The Baby Nome Hypothesis is interesting, but were Oz and the Nome Kingdom enemies at that time? Aaron. ============================================================================== Date: Tuesday 26-Dec-95 20:23:50 (PST) From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Pluto's moon and other Ozzy things(!) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN > ... and then Mark A. Semich comes out with a laundry list of >dibs, including the immortal words "the Adepts at Sorcery are MINE MINE MINE >MINE MINE!!!!!" ... >Mark, take a chill pill, and stop being mean to physicists. For the record, *I* am the Ozzy Digest's resident Adept-lover and physics-basher. Mark is blameless, so pillory me not him. :) :) :) (Seriously, I have the utmost respect for physicists in general, and I am in fact a astronomy enthusiast, and I meant *NO* offense to the physics profession itself...) From: Tyler Jones >There is something similar to an oz-guide out there already. In the tradition >of Jack Snow, Peter B. Clarke has published "Who's Who, What's What and Where's >Where in Oz". Based of the FF, it lists just about person, place and thing in >and around Oz. I forgot his address, but I will post it tomorrow. I saw it *once* in the Books of Wonder catalog, but not lately. (Is BoW still offering it, Peter G.?) From: Eric Gjovaag >>>Feb. 25-26, Oz Rendezvous 96, Las Vegas, NV, send SASE to Elaine >>>Willingham, PO Box 31672, St. Louis, MO 63131 >> >>What's THIS event?????!!!!!!! >Ya got me, I'm just passing the word along that I read about in the "Oz >Observer." Why don't you send a SASE to Ms. Willingham and ask her? I will, and notify the list when I find out. :) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" >3) The Baby Nome Hypothesis is interesting, but were Oz and the Nome >Kingdom enemies at that time? I just used a baby nome as an example; she could have turned Ozma into any evil, nasty, hideous thing...How about a baby kalidah? Now about Pluto's moon...Did you know that its discoverer, James Christy, wanted to name it "Oz"? But the Rules of Astronomy restrict the names of planets and moons to mythological figures, so his choice was overruled and the world was named Charon, after Pluto's ferryman. But there is no restriction on the naming of craters and other surface features of a moon, and in fact each moon has a theme for naming its features--for instance Saturn's moon Enceladus' theme is the Arabian Nights. And so I thought we as a group could send a petition to the astronomers that when a probe is launched to fly by Pluto and Charon that the theme adopted for Charons features is Oz? Do you think this is a good idea? Don't you think craters named "Scarecrow", "Woozy", "Wizard", and "Nick Chopper", a mountain named "Ozma Mons", a canyon named Valles Dorthea, and a plain named Glinda Planitia have a ring to them? :) :) :) -- Dave ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 19:43:16 -0800 From: glassman@ix.netcom.com (glassman) Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-26-95 From: Eric Gjovaag >most books on the HACC (or off it) you just ain't gonna find ina >library, no matter how extensive their interlibrary loan contacts are, >because a lot of books (and I'd say Laumer's fall into this category) are >privately printed with very small press runs, sold almost exclusively to >hardcore Oz fans who are trying to be completists (like myself...). I'm >not even sure the Emerald City Press books from Books of Wonder are >available in libraries. So start saving some dough, you're going to need >it to read most Oz stories... Eric, as one of our authors (or - more acurately - one of our co-authors), you will be pleased to know that many libraries and bookstores now carry our Oz books, both those issued under the Books of Wonder imprint as well as those issued by the Emerald City Press. Now that we've hired a national sales force and issued a wholesale catalog for bookstores and libraries, we hope to have our books in even more stores and libraries. But, lest you think I'm boasting, just read Dave Hardenbrook's posting below: >From: Dave Hardenbrook > >there are SOME libraries that have Baum and Thompson Oz books (and my local >City Central Library even has the Neil and Snow books, plus _Merry-Go-Round_, >_How the Wizard Came_, and _Giant Garden_, so try the libraries first, just >in case... :) Thanks, Dave! And, Eric, if any of your favorite local bookstores would like a copy of our new wholesale catalog, it's available for the asking. They can either call our office at (212) 989-3475 or fax us their request at (212) 989-1203. - Peter Glassman Books of Wonder ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1995 22:32:49 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-26-95 Aaron: You can't claim dibs on the origin of the Magic Picture. Read Onyx Madden's MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES OF OZ. A very satisfying origin is presented there. Peter sells it through Books of Wonder, or you may order it directly from Jim Nitch (Onyx Madden) himself. If you need his address, I'll post it next time. Jim autographs his books, but I think the ones BOW has are also autographed. Eric: Relax. I know you're more well-rounded than an "Oz-only" guy. Yes, please post your guide. Various and Sundry: Anyone else out there uncomfortable with the idea of "dibsing" characters? I understand that you're just trying to avoid conflicting with each other, but claiming rights to a character feels unOzzy to me. Maybe we could each do our own thing, and let the reader decide? The only caveat here seems to be to remain consistent with Reilly & Lee Oz, the 40-book canon...plus maybe THE WICKED WITCH OF OZ, YANKEE OF OZ,and THE ENCHANTED ISLAND OF OZ since these last 3 were done by "official" Royal Historians of Oz. I'm not making a value judgment here. I think Dick Martin and Eric Shanower (and others) have done some fine writing, but total consistency seems an impossible goal and may not even be a desireable one. Hmmm. Any of you creative types want to write a self-contained short story about the origin of the Magic Picture? I could print a few of them in OZIANA and have the readers pick their favorite.... Any interest? Anything else you'd like to explore in OZIANA stories? I'm always looking for stuff. I haven't even started to block out the '97 issue. ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 28, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 07:39:55 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-27-95 From: Tyler Jones >The story of the origin of the Nine Tiny Piglets is true to both versions. March Laumer explained it >beautifully. In essence, the piglets were the children of Professor and Mrs. Swyne, but were sent to the >island of Teenty-Weent for educational purposes. While there, a sailor pig-napped them and sold them >to the Wizard, who just happened to arrive at their old country. While a good explanation, I also like the one proposed in the "Bugle" back in the 70's somewhere: The Swynes said that the Wizard came here and took the piglets. Well, we don't know very much about the island of Teenty-Weent. Perhaps Here is the name of the capital city and its largest seaport? > I am Tyler Jones and I will be 27 in January (ehh? Speak up, sonny!) This is not terribly funny, seeing as how I turn into a REALLY old man in less than a month now -- I'll be THIRTY! :) :) :) :) >As for Laumers story of the origin of the Love Magnet, how do we know that's not the way it really >happened? Shaggy himself may not have known the truth of it, or at best was vague about its origins. >Despite having been dunked in the Truth Pond, he stil may not have told everything he knows. Reread "The Shaggy Man of Oz" again (available from both Books of Wonder and the International Wizard of Oz Club, so you have no excuse except poverty). It not only goes into great detail about the Love Magnet's origins, we also meet the creator of the Magnet, who has to do a repair job. It's not just getting a few details wrong, it's TOTALLY contradictory to Laumer's story. And it's not just Shaggy getting it wrong, as in both origins he's not involved! > THE TEN WOODMEN OF OZ is not a mispelling! You'll have to read it for yourself to find out why. This is one of the few Laumer books I haven't read. I wanna, I wanna! >In my project list, you can see that I am (or will be) working on textual summaries of the FF. I may >extend this to include ALL Oz books. Er, didn't Jack Snow provide textual summaries to the series in "Who's Who in Oz"? Sounds to me like some people on this list are trying to reinvent the wheel... >Ruggedo has regained his memory TWICE. In EMERALD CITY, he was dunked and sent home. Baum >assumed that, surrounded by familar sights and in the company of the wicked Nomes, he relearned his >old ways. In MAGIC, he gets dunked and is relocated in the Emerald City. Surrounded by good and >happy people, he regains his memory anyway. How does this happen? I can't wait to find out! MOPPeT (an acronym for "my own personal pet theory") is that there's just something about (G)Nome physiognomy that counteracts the Waters of Oblivion after a while. Remember, Guph also drank the Water in "Emerald City," but he recovers entirely by "Tik-Tok," even to remembering his name. > From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN >Subject: This dib thing is getting absurd I totally agree! From: Tyler Jones > Subject: Ozzy Digest > >There is something similar to an oz-guide out there already. In the tradition of Jack Snow, Peter B. >Clarke has published "Who's Who, What's What and Where's Where in Oz". Based of the FF, it lists >just about person, place and thing in and around Oz. I forgot his address, but I will post it tomorrow. In case you can't wait 'til then: Arcus Company 1665 Greenleaf Avenue Des Plaines, IL 60018-3832 From: "W. R. Wright" > Eric said > > By all means post it.....BTW, what kind of guide is it?? > Bill w. Okay, that's TWO votes. For those who came in late, what I'm talking about is a FAQ, or a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Just about every newsgroup on Usenet has at least one, and it's a way of quickly filling people in on what's going on in a newsgroup, avoiding having to answer the same questions over and over. Nate Barlow has already written one, and someone else (was it you, Dave?) was talking about another, but I've been wanting to write one of my own for some time now, which would cover the basics of Oz. Right now the questions are divvied up into eleven sections, and I've completed eight (although I keep thinking of more things to add to some of the sections I've already completed). Once I'm done, or at least nearly done, I plan on posting it to this group for comments and feedback, and once I incorporate any suggestions I plan on unleashing it onto the public -- posting it regularly in rec.arts.books, rec.arts.books.childrens, some movie groups, any other appropriate newsgroups, some ftp sites, etc., and I plan on posting it on a regular (or at least semi-regular) basis. From: Robin Olderman >Various and Sundry: Anyone else out there uncomfortable with the idea of "dibsing" characters? I >understand that you're just trying to avoid conflicting with each other, but claiming rights to a character >feels unOzzy to me. Maybe we could each do our own thing, and let the reader decide? The only >caveat here seems to be to remain consistent with Reilly & Lee Oz, the 40-book canon...plus maybe >THE WICKED WITCH OF OZ, YANKEE OF OZ,and THE ENCHANTED ISLAND OF OZ since these >last 3 were done by "official" Royal Historians of Oz. As was "The Forbidden Fountain of Oz," and some of us would also include "The Ozmapolitan of Oz." >I'm not making a value judgment here. I think Dick Martin and Eric Shanower (and others) have done >some fine writing, but total consistency seems an impossible goal and may not even be a desireable >one. I SECOND THAT! --Eric "I REALLY need to finish up that FAQ today, it seems!" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 11:30:49 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest I hereby release my "claim" on Mrs. Yoop (not that I had it in the first place). Besides, I may create my own villian for the story. As Robin (and Eric) said, the main thing to do is to stay accurate to the FF (without "dibsing") and that should take care of over 90% of all books written. I believe consistency (as much as we can get, at any rate) is indeed a desireable and (almost) attainable goal. We will never resolve all contradictions, but we can get pretty close if we work together! The big issues that require the most attention are when we write about the pre-Dorothy history of Oz, the Nome King or when we try to change something major in Oz itself. Like I said, we can never get to 100%, but we can approximate it by coordinating our efforts. FYI, March Laumer has named the Wicked Witch of the East as "Gingemma" and the Wicked Witch of the West as "Bastinda". I can't believe I forgot that part in THE MYSTERIOUS CHRONICLES OF OZ! I'll have to re-read the thing and refresh my memory. Bucketheads address has already been given out, so I won't print it here. I forgot Peter B. Clarkes address again, but I will get it to you guys someday! --Tyler Jones ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 13:39:30 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Dave may have been thinking of "Who's Who in Oz" by Jack Snow, listing characters from the first 39 of the FF. Peter B. Clarke expanded on this to include places and things. I have a project similar to this, which is so top secret that it's not even listed on my Web Page! What is it? Wait about six months (or maybe even nine!) I agree that we should not "dib" characters. Just use them and we can explain away any inconsistencies later. I still maintain that at least some effort should be made to avoid any major contradictions, espcially in pre-Dorothy history, which is murky enough already. Aaron Adelman, if you give me your snail-mail address, I may be able to help you out. --Tyler ============================================================================== Date: Wednesday 27-Dec-95 14:59:46 (PST) From: Dave Subject: Extending the olive branch Well, I guess I went overboard with my "dibs"-claiming...I really meant it for fun, not a legal binding contract. :) Let's all declare peace and be Ozzy friends again. :) If someone else wants to write about the Adepts or anything else, who do I think *I* am to stop them, L. Frank Baum?. :) ( If someone does, I'll just say that by the time that my story takes place, the Wizard gave the Adepts a personality potion that makes them behave the way they do in my book. :) ) -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 28, 1995 (ADDENDUM) ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 21:34:04 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-28-95 1) In the spirit of getting along, I hereby undib everything I have dibbed. I never intended to offend anyone. I was simply trying to avoid getting into contradiction with anyone else's story. Though if anyone out there is writing about the Woozy, Hiergargo, Titihoochoo and his kingdom, Kiki Aru, or the Wicked Witch of the East, I'd really like to know so that alterante histories don't develop. 2) Gayelette appearing in Dorothy of Oz? Good thing I haven't written her into the story yet then. Yet another book to ILL... (Add Queen Ann in Oz to the list of ILLable Oz books. It arrived today.) 3) A baby Kalidah? That I like! But if that had happened, let's face it, the residents of the Emerald City would have killed Ozma. 4) Someone else wrote about the origin of the Magic Picture? Rats! I already wrote a chapter in which the Asmard of Ix in disguise gives it to Ozma a month after she becomes ruler of Oz. Back to the drawing board... 5) What is a Silly Ozbul anyway? Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 18:34:37 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-27-95 >As far as I know, the Shaggy Man and his brother have never been named. March Laumer came close, >but he deliberately did not use them! The Shaggy Man's brother name is Wiggy (aka The Ugly One). Bill Wright ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 18:49:08 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Music by Baum I have received the following inquiry. Does anyone out there have either an inventory of the music, or know where it can be obtained? Bill Wright >Date: Tue, 26 Dec 95 12:41:12 PST >From: Frank Freedman >Subject: Music by Baum >Greetings from the home of Baum; > One of our library patrons is looking for copies of music written by Mr. >Baum for an upcoming BaumFest here in Aberdeen. The public library has a >few, but she has a list, and would like to get copies of, all the songs. > Have you any suggestions as to a source for this music? Please respond >to either the header e-mail address or the signature e-mail address. Many >thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give us. > > Frank Freedman, Tech Librarian > Presentation College > Aberdeen, SD 57401 > gedalia@ix.netcom.com > > > ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 23:47:31 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: More checking to avoid contradiction By the way, have any of the characters introduced by Neill reappeared in any other book? And do the books that are put in the HACC between Neill's first and second books (The Tired Tailor of Oz, The Green Goblins of Oz, and The Dinamonster of Oz) show the same sort of imagination-run-wild that Neill's books do? (Sorry, the only hint I'm giving away on this is that the Neill Anti-Fan Club will be pleased with what I do to Neill's characters.) Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 27 Dec 1995 21:51:45 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-28-95 From: Tyler Jones > FYI, March Laumer has named the Wicked Witch of the East as "Gingemma" and the > Wicked Witch of the West as "Bastinda". Those names aren't Laumer's inventions, though, they're Aleksandr Volkov's! For whatever reason, Laumer incorporates Volkov's stories (or rather, the "re-Ozzified" translations into English) into his Oz (one of the major characters of "Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Oz" is Urfin Jus, for example). >Bucketheads address has already been given out, so I won't print it here. I forgot Peter B. Clarkes >address again, but I will get it to you guys someday! Oh, forget it, Tyler, I've posted it here already. Anyone needs it again, my copy is in the other room, I can run out and check any time. Now, as for my FAQ, my wife stayed home sick today, and commandeered the computer, so I wasn't able to finish, or even come close. But it IS getting close! (I've now transferred it to my computer, so any time I want to work on it I can now, IF I can get my computer booted up, which has been problematic of late.) I hope to have version 0.0 ready for everyone to look at and hack to pieces any day now. --Eric Gjovaag ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 29, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 07:33:56 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy_Digest, 12-28-95 (addendum) Now cut that out, Dave! One Ozzy Digest a day is enough, thank you! Rant mode off. Okay, now where were we? > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-28-95 > > 2) Gayelette appearing in Dorothy of Oz? Good thing I haven't written > her into the story yet then. Yet another book to ILL... (Add Queen Ann > in Oz to the list of ILLable Oz books. It arrived today.) Do I WANT to know what ILL means? And Aaron, do let me know what you think of "Queen Ann" (c'mon, be honest!), and I'll pass your comments on to Karyl as well. > 5) What is a Silly Ozbul anyway? An extremely odd creature Roger S. Baum created. Feel free to pay them no nevermind... > From: "W. R. Wright" > Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-27-95 > > The Shaggy Man's brother name is Wiggy (aka The Ugly One). Really? And where did this come from? ("The Tik-Tok Man of Oz" doesn't count!) > From: "W. R. Wright" > Subject: Music by Baum > > I have received the following inquiry. Does anyone out there have either > an inventory of the music, or know where it can be obtained? > Bill Wright > > >Date: Tue, 26 Dec 95 12:41:12 PST > >From: Frank Freedman > >Subject: Music by Baum > > >Greetings from the home of Baum; > > One of our library patrons is looking for copies of music written by Mr. > >Baum for an upcoming BaumFest here in Aberdeen. The public library has a > >few, but she has a list, and would like to get copies of, all the songs. > > Have you any suggestions as to a source for this music? Please respond > >to either the header e-mail address or the signature e-mail address. Many > >thanks in advance for any help you may be able to give us. > > > > Frank Freedman, Tech Librarian > > Presentation College > > Aberdeen, SD 57401 > > gedalia@ix.netcom.com Here's a list of Baum's music, as published in the Baum bibliography in "The Annotated Wizard of Oz." Note that Baum was only the lyricist for most of these. Louis F. Baum's Popular Songs as Sung with Immense Success in His Great 5 Act Irish Drama, Maid of Arran. New York: J. G. Hyde, 1882. (Six songs from Baum's first play, when he was still using a stage name.) The Wizard of Oz (ten songs from the play, music by Paul Tietjens and Nathaniel D. Mann). New York and Chicago: M. Witmark and Sons, 1902. Down Among the Marshes; The Alligator Song. New York: M. Witmark and Sons, 1903. What Did the Woggle-Bug Say? Music by Paul Tietjens. Chicago: Reilly & Britton Co., 1904. The Wogglebug (a book of twelve songs from the play, music by Frederic Chapin). New York and Chicago: M. Whitmark and Sons, 1905. The Tik-Tok Man of Oz (fourteen pieces from the play, music by Louis F. Gottschalk). New York and Detroit: Jerome H. Remick & Co., 1913. Susan Doozan (music by Byron Gay). Los Angeles: Cooper's Melody Shop, 1920. There, that ought to be enough for a good librarian to find at least some of them. > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: More checking to avoid contradiction > >By the way, have any of the characters introduced by Neill reappeared in any other book? And do the >books that are put in the HACC between Neill's first and second books (The Tired Tailor of Oz, The >Green Goblins of Oz, and The Dinamonster of Oz) show the same sort of imagination-run-wild >that Neill's books do? (Sorry, the only hint I'm giving away on this is that the Neill Anti-Fan Club will be >pleased with what I do to Neill's characters.) Well, "Dinamonster" is for sale from Buckethead and the Oz Club, so you could read it for yourself and find out (quick answer, though: No, Kenneth Baum manages to mess things up in his own way). Oz writers, as a general rule of thumb, don't set out to try and imitate the style of another Oz writer, and certainly not in the style of whoever was Royal Historian at the time someone else thinks their book should be set! As for the answer to your first question, no, none of Neill's original characters have appeared in any other books, because they're still under copyright. And you can't use them in your book without the permission of Neill's estate. --Eric "Just found a TON of Ozzy websites for my FAQ this morning" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 14:21:37 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Names This whole thing about names for characters in getting interesting so I'd thought I'd ask about a few more. 1) Dr. Pipt's first and middle names. I suspect that his full name is Nicolas Richard Pipt, which would explain his pseudonym, Dr. Nikidik. 2) Dr. Nowitall's first name. (Is it my imagination or is it common for people in Oz not to have last names?) Or is Nowital his personal name? (Same goes for the aforementione Dr. Pipt and yet to be mentioened Capt. Fyter.) Come to think of it, does this character ever show up in person or is he only mentioned by Prof. Wogglebug? 3) Capt. Fyter's first name. 4) Pastoria's last name. Judging from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, I would hazard a guess that his full name is either Oz Pastoria or Pastoria Oz. (I think it's safe to assume it's not Pastoria Pumpkinhead. (: ) 5) Eric Gjovaag, how is your last name pronounced? (OK, so you're not an Oz character in the usual sense of the term, but I'm still unsure of how it's pronounced, so please bear with me.) 6) The name of the planet Oz is on, assuming it's not Earth. I keep finding myself thinking of it as the Inside World, our own being the Outside World, but is there any precedent for this? 7) The Woozy's name. From what I know, being the only Woozy, he doesn't need a name other than "the Woozy", but I'd better make sure of this. 8) In the Scarecrow's name, Chang Wang Woe (See The Royal Book of Oz), which names are the personal and family names. Since the Sliverpeople are supposed to be related to the Chinese, presumably they would use the same name format, but my memory for Chinese name patterns only covers two-word names. Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 14:29:59 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Good point about the origin of the Love Magnet. I remember that, and I also happen to remember to Laumer did not read beyond the Neill books, so he would not know of Conjo. I am even now working on an explanation. Just wait til you see how I get out of this one! Yes, Jack Snow DID do summaries of the first 39 of the FF, but they were very short, just one paragraph blurbs. What I had in mind was a detailed plot analysis, about five pages each. This would allow people not only to know the general plot, but also to understand the way Oz has grown and changed over the years. In the mail yesterday, I got an ad for something called "The Oziads". This apepars to be the same thing. If they are heavily illustrated, though, they may not be as detailed as mine will be. If they are, I will skip the FF and write a similar thing for all the other books. Nomes are not human, of course, they are fairy beings, so that the water of the Fountain of oblivion may only be temporary. The only other person (as far as I can remember) who has gotten dunked in the Fountain was Kiki Aru, and we have never heard from him since. Thanks for posting the address for Arcus Company. Peter Clarke also has an Oz book forthcoming someday, called "A small adventure in Oz". A Silly Ozbul is a fuzzy fluffy thing that is filled with love. They bring happiness wherever they go in Oz. As far as I know, no Neill character has ever appeared anywhere else. The Tired Tailor of Oz is not as weird as Neills. I forgot what happens in GREEN GOBLINS, but DINAMONSTER, by one of L. Frank Baums sons, is not weird at all. There are some things in here that do not quite jibe with the FF, and there are some who think it should not be in the HACC at all. Others demand that it be in there, however, because it is written by somebody with the name of "Baum". I do not agree with this theory myself, but it can be accurate with a few minor explanations. I forgot, Laumber took quite a lot of stuff from Volkovs books, including the "Encircling Mountains". ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 16:27:34 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Ozzy Encyclopedia For those of you with web browsers, I have just added the first installment of an Oz Encyclopedia to my website. It provides a *complete* list of all placenames and things in the first 14, plus Sea Fairies, Little Wiz Stories, and the first Plumly book. It is fully cross indexed and hyperlinked. I am working now to add all characters (my site today only has two books worth - there are 500 or so new pages to add just to get the rest of the characters!!!.) Your review and critical feedback is very important, so if you see errors that need to be corrected please let me know. FYI #1: these new pages added to my website (about 400) do not yet have links from the pages that were already there (except from the home page). I will be adding those links in due course. FYI #2: I seem to be having some problem with the graphics I have added. Please ignore this problem. I will find it fix it before too long. Bill Wright http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/ ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 19:48:06 -0800 (PST) From: Jim VanderNoot Subject: Oz Club on the WWW The International Wizard of Oz Club now has a site on the World-Wide Web and can be found at http://www.neosoft.com/~iwoc. Here you will find a catalog of club publications with order forms and registration information for the various conventions. A special feature is the online edition of The Oz Trading Post, where members can post buy, sell, and trade advertisements. These pages reflect the most current information available about club events and publications and will be updated on a regular basis. As you can see, the site is still under development. Yet to come is an agenda for the Centennial Celebration of the publication of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ and detailed information about the Centennial Book Contest. An Ozzy FAQ is planned as well; this will be oriented towards club-related issues, but we hope it will go hand-in-hand with the FAQ in preparation by the Ozzy Digest group. Member submissions are welcome, and comments and questions should be directed to iwoc@neosoft.com or as indicated on the web page. ------------------------------------- Jim Vander Noot E-mail: jvandern@sam.neosoft.com Date: 12/28/95 Time: 7:48:06 PM This message was sent by Chameleon ------------------------------------- ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 30, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 22:28:06 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: website images ref my earlier note on the added material at my Ozzy website; I now have the new illustrations displaying properly. If any of you are not getting proper display of pages, please let me know. (They are html v2.0 compliant.) Bill ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 01:21:15 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Baum Short Stories With the aid of excellent input from Peter Hanff, I have added a page to my web site that provides an accounting of Baum's short stories that were published in periodicals. The URL is: http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/books7.htm Please take a look and let me know if you can add any details to the list. In particular, I am missing many of the "Queer Visitors from Oz" series titles. Bill W. ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 01:31:16 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Baum Music Eric "The Song Man" Gjovaag wrote: Subject: wiggy Eric "The Skeptic" Gjovaag writes: >> The Shaggy Man's brother name is Wiggy (aka The Ugly One). >Really? And where did this come from? ("The Tik-Tok Man of Oz" doesn't count!) Well.......it came out of the Baum Bugle. There is a story about Baum's play which was the basis for the Tiktok book, and in the story it is said that in the play the Shaggy Man's brother is named Wiggy. Now it seems to me that this should be good enough for us, if that is what Baum decided to name him. Is the Bugle story in error?? Why shouldn't the play count?? Bill W. ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 11:30:53 -0500 (EST) From: "Aaron S. Adelman" Subject: Various 1. Eric, ILL means interlibrary loan. (I know, you were hoping I'd buy the book. But the Famous Forty are higher priority unless someone gets around to posting them on the Net. Maybe if I don't find any used Thompson books this week...) 2. WHAT? I can't turn Lucky Bucky, Davy Jones, and Jenny Jump into complete and utter bad guys in the Woozy of Oz without the permission of Neill's estate first? (The Magic Machine, among other things, sometimes retroactively changes history.) Does anyone out there really think they'll go for that? Jack Pumpkinhead: Even I don't think so. Though I really did like your idea that I sue the Reilly and Lee Publishing Company over the alleged singing shoe incident and win $10,000,000 in court. Anyone out there know if I can get sued if I put them in The Woozy of Oz under severely warped names but it still being fairly obvious to anyone with even half a brain which characters I'm talking about? (Jenny Jump = Jennifer Junk, and for the others I'll think of something) I just got to have Jenny Jump try to conquer the Emerald City. Though from the postings on books taking place in the same period as Neill's, it looks like I'll have to make the Magic Machine flip-flop between two or more very different alternate histories for a few years... Aaron Solomon (ben Saul Joseph) Adelman adelman@yu1.yu.edu ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 12:31:06 -0500 (EST) From: Tyler Jones Subject: Ozzy Digest Answers and comments: Prof Nowitall appeared briefly in a Laumer book. Apparantly, he felt he himself should have been named as the dean of the Royal Athletic College. This is not really off-base. He is the one who (unknowingly) educated the Wogglebug and the Wogglebug himself acknowledged Nowitall as the best there was in the whole Land of Oz. However, Nowitall accepted a research position and studied chemistry and physics. In OZ AND THE THREE WITCHES, Glinda calls him Pastorius Oz. I am assuming that "OZ" was the name of the ruling house, and that "Ozma" was the feminine equivalent. Ozroar (see BLUE EMPEROAR OF OZ) and also been called "Ozroar Boz". Boz may be a nickname of sorts. I am guessing here, but I believe "Gjovaag" is pronounced JOE-VAG, which rhymes with GO-TAG. The only precedents in Oz for an inside world are in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ and ROYAL BOOK OF OZ. In both cases, the adventurers had to climb back up to Oz, which is on the surface. The Pellucidar series, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is an excellent series about a world on the inside of the sphere that is Earth. There is a tiny sun in the center. In this case, it would always be noon and there would be no stars. Since Oz experiences day and night, we can assume that it is on the surface of a planet. Like Dave, I am of the theory that the planet of Oz is a parallel earth. In A BARNSTORMER IN OZ, Farmer called it "Ertha". I will put a link from my page to the IWoC page today! Any chance of returning the favor? True, my page is not ENTIRELY Oz-centered, but the Oz section is right on top, above even my personal info! --Tyler Jones ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 16:20:41 -0500 (EST) From: cummingss@kenyon.edu Subject: RE: Ozzy Digest, 12-29-95 National Public Radio's 1996 Listener Poll on their Favorite Movies: 10) Dr. Strangelove 9) Schindler's List 8) Lawrence of Arabia 7) It's a Wonderful Life 6) THE WIZARD OF OZ 5) The Godfather 4) Star Wars 3) Gone With the Wind 2) Citizen Cane 1) Casablanca ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 13:29:27 -0800 From: "W. R. Wright" Subject: Baum Songs Thanks to Eric "The Songmeister" Gjovaag and the "Annotated Wizard", there is now a web page with all (?) the known Baum songs and their association to plays. The URL is: http://www.halcyon.com/piglet/songs.htm Take a look and let me know if there are any corrections or additions to be made. Thanks, Bill Wright ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 15:59:40 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-29-95 > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Names > > This whole thing about names for characters in getting interesting so I'd > thought I'd ask about a few more. > > 1) Dr. Pipt's first and middle names. I suspect that his full name is > Nicolas Richard Pipt, which would explain his pseudonym, Dr. Nikidik. Since he's never had a first or middle name before, I think you just gave 'em to him! > 2) Dr. Nowitall's first name. (Is it my imagination or is it common for > people in Oz not to have last names?) Or is Nowital his personal name? > (Same goes for the aforementione Dr. Pipt and yet to be mentioened Capt. > Fyter.) Come to think of it, does this character ever show up in person or > is he only mentioned by Prof. Wogglebug? Dr. Nowitall never shows up in Oz (although he has appeared onstage, in the rather non-canonical play "The Woggle-Bug"), and no he doesn't have a first name, and last names in Oz do seem to not be the norm, but they're not uncommon, either. > 3) Capt. Fyter's first name. C'mon, make one up! > 4) Pastoria's last name. Judging from Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, I > would hazard a guess that his full name is either Oz Pastoria or Pastoria > Oz. (I think it's safe to assume it's not Pastoria Pumpkinhead. (: ) Perhaps Pastoria was one of the few rulers of Oz NOT named "Oz." As he's royalty, I don't think you need to worry about a first, middle, or last name, or any alternates. :) > 5) Eric Gjovaag, how is your last name pronounced? (OK, so you're not an > Oz character in the usual sense of the term, but I'm still unsure of how > it's pronounced, so please bear with me.) Well, I am an Oz fan, and I am a character, but an Oz character? Hmm, Jo Fountainpen in "Queen Ann" was loosely based on a young me... Oh, and in answer to your question, in American it's pronounced /juh-VOG/. It's more complicated in Norwegian, I don't think I can do it justice here. Then again, it's spelled differently in Norwegian, using characters most newsreaders can't handle... (Incidentally -- side note here -- I AM going to be a character in a "Doctor Who" novel early next year. I'm a Dutch cricket player who gets killed. So look for "Sleepy" by Kate Orman. Yes, I'll sign copies...) > 6) The name of the planet Oz is on, assuming it's not Earth. I keep > finding myself thinking of it as the Inside World, our own being the > Outside World, but is there any precedent for this? Dunno. Nobody's been able to figure out for sure whether Oz is on Earth or not. Can't you just say "this planet" and let the reader figure it out for him/herself? > 7) The Woozy's name. From what I know, being the only Woozy, he doesn't > need a name other than "the Woozy", but I'd better make sure of this. Nope, no name. As you've guessed, doesn't need one. > 8) In the Scarecrow's name, Chang Wang Woe (See The Royal Book of Oz), > which names are the personal and family names. Since the Sliverpeople=20 > are supposed to be related to the Chinese, presumably they would use the=20 > same name format, but my memory for Chinese name patterns only covers=20 > two-word names. Personally, I don't think the Scarecrow IS Chang Wang Woe! Remember in "The Wizard of Oz," when he's having his face painted on? He's aware of what's going on around him -- essentially, he's alive -- but at that point HE HADN'T BEEN PLACED ON HIS POLE! So how could the spirit of Chang Wang Woe have gotten into him? (This, of course, brings up two questions: How IS it that the Scarecrow is alive, and what REALLY happened to Chang Wang Woe?) > From: Tyler Jones > Subject: Ozzy Digest > > In the mail yesterday, I got an ad for something called "The Oziads". This > apepars to be the same thing. If they are heavily illustrated, though, they may > not be as detailed as mine will be. If they are, I will skip the FF and write a > similar thing for all the other books. The Oziads, by the late and sorely missed Fred Otto, are poetical retellings of the Oz stories, so I think you're safe in doing what you've set out to do. > From: Jim VanderNoot > Subject: Oz Club on the WWW > > The International Wizard of Oz Club now has a site on the > World-Wide Web and can be found at > http://www.neosoft.com/~iwoc. HOORAY! And just in time to be added to my FAQ! And now, it's request time from me! Jane Albright, the Oz Club's Vice President and editor of "The Oz Gazette" for younger members, is working on an issue of the "Gazette" right now, and needs me to submit another "Talking to Tik-Tok" column (yes, that's me who does it). So what I need from you guys are questions about Oz! No, not weird ones, like "What's Dorothy's shoe size," just general interest Ozzy questions, or questions about Baum, Thomspson, etc. Please DON'T send them to Dave, I need the questions myself, so send them to me at tiktok@eskimo.com. I will be posting the finished column to Dave to post here at about the same time I send it to Jane. Thanks in advance. --Eric "Maybe I should just submit some of my answers to questions here?" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 22:12:29 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: "the Adepts at Sorcery are MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!!" Mark Semich claims he never wrote the laundry list of dibs or the immortal words "the Adepts at Sorcery are MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!!" If I goofed up in attributing this, I sincerely and humbly apoligize for my error. I just thought the dibs thing was getting silly and if it was not stopped, then people could in theory escalate the dibbing to absurd levels and that would be a great tragedy for us all. By the way, the Scarecrow is MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!! (: ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 22:18:38 -0500 (EST) From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN Subject: Horizontal Transfer and Other Things 1) Since someone mentioned that Laumer borrowed things from the Volkov series, I wonder if anyone doing a "straight" Oz book ever borrowed from Philip Jose Farmer's _A Barnstormer in Oz_? 2) Would an ozbul be something you would try to eat if you were hungry enough? 3) My brother told me something about the Scarecrow eating kittens in a Thompson book. Is this for real? ============================================================================== Date: Friday 29-Dec-95 19:28:40 From: Dave Hardenbrook Subject: Enya in Oz & other things BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN wrote: >Mark Semich claims he never wrote the laundry list of dibs or the immortal >words "the Adepts at Sorcery are MINE MINE MINE MINE MINE!!!!!" If I goofed >up in attributing this, I sincerely and humbly apoligize for my error. I've already set the record straight on this point and recanted my "laundry list", so I won't waste space repeating myself...Please see my messages in issues 12/27 and 12/28 of the Digest... Eric wrote: >Aaron wrote: >> 1) Dr. Pipt's first and middle names. I suspect that his full name is >> Nicolas Richard Pipt, which would explain his pseudonym, Dr. Nikidik. >Since he's never had a first or middle name before, I think you just >gave 'em to him! Is it established that Dr. P and Dr. N are one in the same?...Dick Martin's Oz Map shows "them" living in totally different parts of Oz! >> 7) The Woozy's name. From what I know, being the only Woozy, he doesn't >> need a name other than "the Woozy", but I'd better make sure of this. >Nope, no name. As you've guessed, doesn't need one. Looking in my archive of pre-Digest dialogue with Tyler, he told me that March Laumer's name for the Woozy is "Gwomokolotolint"(!) His other names that Tyler gave me are similarly dreadful; many appear to be from Latin. (BTW Tyler, I looked it up in my Latin book and "Sempernunquam" translates literally as, "Ever-Never". So his name for Baumgea a.k.a. "The Continent of Imagination" is Ever-never-land, I guess to compliment Peter Pan's home of Never-never-land.) Aaron wrote: >6) The name of the planet Oz is on, assuming it's not Earth. I keep >finding myself thinking of it as the Inside World, our own being the >Outside World, but is there any precedent for this? CAN we assume it's not Earth? Of course it's not OUR Earth, but it's probably what Douglas Adams calls a "shadow Earth" (in a parallel universe)... Maybe the alternate Ozzy Earth is called Terra or Gaia or Fintlewoodlewix... :) Tyler wrote: >Yes, Jack Snow DID do summaries of the first 39 of the FF, but they were very >short, just one paragraph blurbs. What I had in mind was a detailed plot >analysis, about five pages each... This would definitely be a great help to all of us to have such detail summaries, and online! >Nomes are not human, of course, they are fairy beings, so that the water of the >Fountain of oblivion may only be temporary. The only other person (as far as I >can remember) who has gotten dunked in the Fountain was Kiki Aru, and we have >never heard from him since. Singra has drunk from the Fountain as well, but we don't know if she's "sleeping it off"... (Has anyone else had a "chug-a-lug" from the Fountain?) I think you'll like my explaination for Rug's regained memory better...Just be careful what you wish for 'cause you just might get it ( That's a hint :) )! A couple of months back, I noticed in the HACC a book titled, _Sail Away to Oz_ by Marcus Mebes -- I humorously asked Tyler if it was about a trip by Enya (who wrote the song _Orinoco Flow_, a.k.a. _Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away_) to Oz. It turns out that it is NOT a coincidence! I just started subscribing to the International Enya Fan Club and it turns out that Marcus Mebes is the club's president! Does anyone know Marcus' E-mail address (so I can tell him about the Ozzy Digest) or the S-Mail address of Palo Verde Emeralds so I can order the book? Now I will be able to talk to someone who will sympathize with my drawings of Enya as Glinda! :) (I have so many weirdly diverse intrests that similar cross-overs in other people always tickle me to pieces! Now if I could only find another Ozzyphile who likes ABBA...) :) :) -- Dave ============================================================================== THE OZZY DIGEST, DECEMBER 31, 1995 ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 29 Dec 1995 22:55:49 -0600 (CST) From: Robin Olderman Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-30-95 Aaron, you wrote: >Anyone out there know if I can get sued if I put them in The Woozy of Oz under severely warped >names but it still being fairly obvious to anyone with even half a brain which characters I'm talking >about? (Jenny Jump = Jennifer Junk, and for the others I'll think of something) I just got to have Jenny >Jump try to conquer the Emerald City. Though from the postings on books taking place in the same >period as Neill's, it looks like I'll have to make the Magic Machine flip-flop between two or more very >different alternate histories for a few years... 1] It really is possible to get sued for stuff like that. 2] Why would you want to aggravate the copyright holders? They've been quite cooperative to those of us who have wanted to use Neill material for research, for the BUGLES, etc. 3] Changing another author's characters in the way you seem to be suggesting is basically just bad form, not to mention somewhat puerile. Of course you're entitled to your opinion of Neill's writing abilities. But why mess around with his characters? What's the point? Why bother? I guess I'm missing the point somehow, because it sounds like the childish "I'll GET you!" thing that might come from a mind less intelligent than yours has appeared to be so far. Surely you're not motivated by some impish type of glee. I'm confused. Maybe just old.... Please explain. On the subject of names: Rob Roy MacVeigh figured out a great name for the incidental character who hosts Dorothy on her first night out on the YBR (at least I think it was her first night.) Baum just called him Boq. Rob Roy had his name on a sign or mailbox or something. It was: B.Wright Boq! ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 30 Dec 1995 07:53:46 -0800 (PST) From: Eric Gjovaag Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 12-30-95 > From: "W. R. Wright" > Subject: Baum Music > > Eric "The Song Man" Gjovaag wrote: > <"The Annotated Wizard of Oz." Note that Baum was only the lyricist for > Thanks Eric. I heard today from the Aberdeen librarian. He has a couple of > music companies now working on it. They want the actual sheet music, not > just the names. Well, since all I had WERE the names, that's all I could provide. But at least it's more information than had been available before... > From: "W. R. Wright" > Subject: wiggy > > Eric "The Skeptic" Gjovaag writes: > >> The Shaggy Man's brother name is Wiggy (aka The Ugly One). > > >Really? And where did this come from? ("The Tik-Tok Man of Oz" doesn't > >count!) > > Well.......it came out of the Baum Bugle. There is a story about Baum's > play which was the basis for the Tiktok book, and in the story it is said > that in the play the Shaggy Man's brother is named Wiggy. Now it seems to > me that this should be good enough for us, if that is what Baum decided to > name him. Is the Bugle story in error?? Why shouldn't the play count?? No, the "Bugle" isn't in error. But c'mon, the play counts? Then the Rose Princess is named Ozma, not Ozga, there was no trip to see Tititi-Hoochoo and Quox never helped out. The plays are different enough from the books ("The Woggle Bug" doesn't even take place in Oz!) that I have a real, real hard time counting them as any sort of canon. (But then again, I have a real, real hard time counting anything outside of the FF as canon...) Of course someone could write a story that gives Shaggy's brother's name, and make it at least semi-official... > From: "Aaron S. Adelman" > Subject: Various > > 1. Eric, ILL means interlibrary loan. (I know, you were hoping I'd buy > the book. But the Famous Forty are higher priority unless someone gets > around to posting them on the Net. Maybe if I don't find any used > Thompson books this week...) Hey, it's no skin off my nose how you read it. Karyl and I are more concerned that people read the story. The royalties are small enough that it really doesn't make much difference now. (Remember this maxim, O potential writers of Oz books: Nobody gets rich writing Oz books any more!) > 2. WHAT? I can't turn Lucky Bucky, Davy Jones, and Jenny Jump into > complete and utter bad guys in the Woozy of Oz without the permission of > Neill's estate first? (The Magic Machine, among other things, sometimes > retroactively changes history.) Does anyone out there really think > they'll go for that? It's not a case of they WILL sue, it's a case that if they're in there, they can POTENTIALLY sue you, no matter how you use them. They are still under copyright, and thus Neill's heirs have control over them. Using them in a published story would be illegal, whether they sued or not. Is it shoplifting to steal candy and you don't get caught? Of course it is! > Anyone out there know if I can get sued if I put them in The Woozy of Oz > under severely warped names but it still being fairly obvious to anyone > with even half a brain which characters I'm talking about? > (Jenny Jump = Jennifer Junk, and for the others I'll think of something) > I just got to have Jenny Jump try to conquer the Emerald City. Though from the > postings on books taking place in the same period as Neill's, it looks > like I'll have to make the Magic Machine flip-flop between two or more > very different alternate histories for a few years... Hmm, that's a little trickier. You could probably get away with it, but I'm not an expert in copyright law. Anyone else out there have any ideas? And Aaron, I'll say it again, don't worry about writing your book to fit anyone's plans or stories about Oz except your own! Most readers aren't going to be familiar with anything outside of the FF, so as long as there are no MAJOR contradictions to anything there, don't sweat it! You need to be worried about telling your story. If you worry about how it fits in with EVERY SINGLE OZ BOOK EVER PUBLISHED, you're going to end up compromising your story and making it a lot less than it could be. Take this advice from a published Oz author! > From: Tyler Jones > Subject: Ozzy Digest > > Answers and comments: > > I am guessing here, but I believe "Gjovaag" is pronounced JOE-VAG, which rhymes > with GO-TAG. Well, that's closer than some manglings I've heard. (If I get a call from someone who can't pronounce it, I know it's a telemarketer, and I hang up. Trouble is, they've gotten clever and started asking for me by my first name...) > From: BARRY ESHKOL ADELMAN > Subject: Horizontal Transfer and Other Things > > 1) Since someone mentioned that Laumer borrowed things from the Volkov series, > I wonder if anyone doing a "straight" Oz book ever borrowed from Philip Jose > Farmer's _A Barnstormer in Oz_? Please, no! (But at least that would be better than borrowing from "Dorothy and the Lizard of Oz.") > 3) My brother told me something about the Scarecrow eating kittens in a > Thompson book. Is this for real? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Hey, Barry, April Fool's Day isn't for a few months still! (In other words, no. We all know the Scarecrow can't eat!) > From: Dave Hardenbrook > Subject: Enya in Oz & other things > > Eric wrote: > >Aaron wrote: > >> 1) Dr. Pipt's first and middle names. I suspect that his full name is > >> Nicolas Richard Pipt, which would explain his pseudonym, Dr. Nikidik. > > >Since he's never had a first or middle name before, I think you just > >gave 'em to him! > > Is it established that Dr. P and Dr. N are one in the same?...Dick Martin's > Oz Map shows "them" living in totally different parts of Oz! Dr. Nikidik never shows up in person, so to speak, but they both created the Powder of Life, so it's possible that they are the same person. Dr. N. got into some hot water (practicing illegal magic?) and so may have spread those rumors of his death (see "The Road to Oz") to get the fuzz off his tail, changed his name, and moved into seclusion into the Munchkin Mountains. Here's another possibility: The magician Mombi traded with in "Land" was Dr. Pipt. Dr. Pipt put his powder in a container that had a false bottom THAT HE DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT, and that false bottom contained some of Dr. Nikidik's wishing pills. How Dr. Pipt got that container is an exercise left for the student's imagination. All we know for certain about Dr. Nikidik is that he created the Wishing Pills, beyond that it's all speculation. (That "Dr. Nikidik" spot on the map is probably where Mombi went to do her trading, so I wouldn't read TOO much into that.) And now, GOOD NEWS! The FAQ is, for the most part, finished. (Okay, one more incomplete entry to put into the bibliography and that's it!) What I'd like to do is post it directly to the addresses on this list, so Dave doesn't have to deal with a huge file in the Digest and y'all can have it as a separate file outside of the Digest. I am giving you all warning that it is coming soon! I may very well upload it New Year's Eve or Day. If you aren't interested, feel free to delete it as soon as you see it's there. Thanks. --Eric "Boy, that's a lot of weight off my shoulders now!" Gjovaag ============================================================================== Date: Sat, 30 Dec 1995 13:27:58 -0500 (EST) From: cummingss@kenyon.edu Subject: RE: Ozzy Digest, 12-30-95 *******************OZ SALE********************** *****OZ SALE**********************OZ SALE******* I have a list of nearly 50 Oz items for sale. It includes books, magazines, albums, toys, games, movie stills, cards, and Baum family memorabilia. Please request a copy from cummingss@kenyon.edu if you are interested. ********************************************************************* ********************************************************************* ==============================================================================