I read past my bedtime

That expression on a bookmark I saw at Ward County Public Library this morning before work made me laugh, and that's what pushed it to the front of the line ahead of whatever title I was going to use. Sarah's actually admitted to me that she does this with a book under her pillow ... but I digress. (She doesn't come by it by me though; until high school I wouldn't stay up late to read but would get up early to do so -- I remember an issue of DC Comics' Who's Who guide that suffered my inverse night owl tendency. In Martha's house I think they were too scared to try to read in the dark!)

SIR LASER LOT: Stay back.
ONE OF TWO FLEEING BROTHERS: Us or them?
SIR LASER LOT: You.

Coming back to DC for a minute (question: why does our local Barnes & Noble carry DC comic books on their newsstand and not Marvel? That bugs me; they've still got Marvel collections though.), I was there and bought and read volume one of their most recent adaptation of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (ISBN 9781401240226), a reimagining of the 1980s characters where it seems archfoe Skeletor has won, for he's inside Castle Grayskull and He-Man and his friends don't remember who they are. A good part of getting back there is laugh-out-loud funny!

BEAST MAN: Grrr ... I'll get you, Adam ... get you and gut you! (pause as he swipes at ADAM with his claws) You hear me!
ADAM [spoiler: he's He-Man but doesn't remember it]: Hear you? The whole of Eternia can hear you!

Read this a few times already, but I digress. This morning got off to a late start not because I slept in -- it's Wednesday, one of my days to deliver the Minot Daily News on our route -- but because there were issues with the press that kept us from getting the paper for two hours. Thank God that Martha's family lives here in town (yes, that's me saying this) because her mom Sharon was able to pick up Martha and the kids so I wouldn't have to rush finishing the route today. Currently we're using just our van because our car has thermostat issues.

TRAPJAW: You are ready?
ADAM: I have a choice?
TRAPJAW: Excellent. You know how this works?
ADAM: Haven't got a clue.
TRAPJAW: It is simplicity itself. You choose the person you will fight for your freedom. Should that person deny you, you fight to the death. Should you survive, you petition again ... and again until your petition is granted or you or those you might petition are dead.
ADAM: And if I don't feel like killing all of you?
TRAPJAW: Then ... petition denied. Choose or die.

Also got in the fifth of Jarrett J. Krosoczka's illustrated Lunch Lady stories, Lunch Lady and the Bake Sale Bandit (ISBN 9780375867293) before getting to Jeffrey's Cub Scout Christmas party after work last night -- the fun part of this was watching all the troops perform skits and those sadists of Scoutmasters telling them after they had received their gifts they needed to wait until the count of three to open the gifts, which foreshadowed counts of "one ... two ... OH, AND ONE MORE THING" But even for Christmas, you take the good with the bad.

[after a swordfight aboard a sailing ship]
TEELA (to ADAM): If I wanted you dead you'd be dead.
ADAM: Is that supposed to make me feel better?
TEELA: Actually ... yes.
ADAM: So, where'd you learn to fight like that?
TEELA: Your guess is as good as mine. Seems to me I've always known my way around a sword.
ADAM: Which is, you do realize, impossible. Someone had to teach --

Monday's Minot Daily News had a cover story about a local man who'll be the official representative for the 17th Airborne Division at a reenactment of the World War II Battle of the Bulge in Belgium next year. The story caught my attention because I remember my dad was also a veteran of that battle as part of Patton's Third Army. I regret to say I don't know much more about him there -- oh, I know about him during his Army years 1942-45 -- but he didn't say or I don't remember or just ignored a good deal of it. Miss my dad, I would really like to ask him a few things THIS side of heaven.

[after they've escaped a burning cauldron over which they were placed to fight to the death]
TEELA: ... seven ... eight ... nine ...
ADAM: Giving me a ten count?
TEELA: A hundred. At ten I'll still want to kill you. Do me a favor, next time you decide to take a blind leap, you go first. I'll be more than happy to wait for the "all clear" if you survive the fall.

I just need to remember to get some sleep too!

David