I'm getting him to sign my Watchbabies dvd.

I'd probably pay to see that.

To avoid the sausage fest, I might pick Nicola Scott (Secret Six).

I'd bring me sainted mother, I would!

Brandon Choi. Gen13 and WildCATs are the bees knees!

Are you trying to tell us something?

nope, in the last page wade said something about not knowing what kind of software would email my wife if I looked at dirty pictures, so I posted the link with explanation accompanied. Made sense at the time.

I only saw the link and didn't realize that it was the source of the software in question. Now I understand.

Haven't you guys learned to read my mind yet?

Not quite. But thanks to you I now know that I'm not addicted to sex or porn. I'll have to keep trying.

ER, if you like the Twins and first basemen, you must have loved Kent Hrbek.

I'm a Red Sox fan in NY, but I was rooting for the Twins from afar in the '87 and '91 World Series. They were such an easy team to root for and I really liked such players as Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, Dan Gladden and, of course, Kirby Puckett.

For sheer excitement in a seven-game World Series, it's hard to top the 1991 "fall classic" that really was classic --- unless you're a Braves fan.

Still have my "Homer Hanky" that the Star-Tribune gave out, sent to me by a buddy in Minnesota in '87.

As for the guys you mentioned...I know he became the first baseman, but I still associate Rod Carew with second. I think of Jim Kaat, not only as a terrific pitcher but as a great presence in the broadcast booth. When he was doing the Yankee games, he wasn't afraid to speak his mind --- not always the case there.

But for many baseball fans of a certain age, if you think of the Minnesota Twins, you recall that Harmon Killebrew was The Man. In his book, Ball Four, Jim Bouton refers to the Twins as "The Fat Kid and his Wrecking Crew." It may not sound flattering, but it was a compliment just the same.

I played golf with Kent Hrbek and Jack Morris. Still not a big Twins fan even though I'm originally from MN.

A few good topics today to comment on. Another busy day, I don’t expect I’ll be free enough to get into conversations, but I can do this much. I’ll split them up into separate posts to keep the topics separate.

On the idea of any perfect era for comics, I have to come in on what appears to be the consensus: It’s mostly a matter one’s own development and attachment at the time one was reading the comics. I think it’s important to note, though, that in the long run it’s not simply a matter of when one came into comics, especially if one remains as a reader for decades, though the comics of that first year or so do tend to get an ultimately unfair pass when it comes to noticing flaws.

It’s difficult to imagine many comics that aren’t in some fashion dated, however good they may be. The cultural touchstones referenced in comics, for one thing, often either lose their context (and so their impact) as they come before younger eyes, or those points are recognized but rendered quaint.

One instance that really drove this home for me has been in getting reactions from people in their twenties and even thirties over the past decade after loaning them a reading copy of Watchmen. This is not only because many of the themes and techniques that Watchmen brought to comics have long, long since been aped into cliché, but the cold war, impending threat of nuclear Armageddon elements played with in that alternate history have no personal connection to them because all of that was essentially history by the time they came along or were at least old enough to be aware of such things.

Comics of the sixties, seventies and in their own fashion much of the eighties often seem to have far too much dialogue to suit the tastes of readers who came into comics within the past 20 years or so.

As has been noted, most of us who are older fans – I came in in the late sixties, but I’ve had (and continue to have) these discussions with people who came into comics in the fifties, seventies and eighties, too – look back in general horror at the state of the comics industry and storytelling, especially from Marvel, through much of the 1990s. (The reasons why are a huge topic in and of itself.) Yet, as was noted, fans who came into mainstream comics at the end of the eighties and through the mid-90s manage to have great nostalgia for the era. Again and again I’ve found that much like nothing is ever fool-proof neither is anything nostalgia-proof.