Ah, because that's not the way news works?

I must have written about volume six of Saga (ISBN 9781632157119, chapters thirty-one through thirty-six) that I quote in the title and between paragraphs last year for I know I've read it already -- I just checked it out of Minot Public Library last week to play catch-up. Saga's the ongoing series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples that in a mash-up of Star Wars, Romeo and Juliet, and Game of Thrones has its main character Hazel -- the series starts with her birth, and she's narrating it from some undefined future -- growing up. Hazel's parents Marko and Alana were part of armies on the opposite sides of a galactic war and there's a bevy of characters wanting to help them hide or out them or use them. As for Hazel, Marko, and Alana, they're just trying to live.


Usually associated with invasions, abductions, or other hostile acts, the term "alien" gets a bad rap.


BUT how many children like Hazel (half-wing and half-horn) end up in prison because they're caught on a ship of Last Revolution rebels and her recently reunited parents have to travel to retrieve a former Robot prince in order to get her out and keep themselves one step ahead of freelancers (Saga's bounty hunters) ... it's hard to go into in just a few paragraphs, but if you don't pooh-pooh comic books or graphic novels, there is something here for everybody. And it's very relatable I think no matter who you are. Granted, Saga is for mature audiences. But don't we all need to grow up sometime? 


But what's more chivalrier than rescuin' a fair maiden?


I have days I feel woefully on the back of this learning curve. And I'm sure I mixed metaphors in that sentence; but anyway, after I left work last night I picked up Sarah and Jeffrey and their grandparents (Martha's parents Robert and Sharon, for those of us who haven't kept up) had already bought milk chocolate and cookies and cream Easter bunnies for their children and grandchildren. I picked up one of each so Martha, whom I met at Burger King where we serendipitously were able to get dinner, could choose which one she wanted. We got home, we ate, the kids watched on their tablets while I caught the latest episode of Once Upon A Time (great one!) before Martha did.


Even if they've never seen it happen, most kids understand that all lives END. Some sooner than others.


Almost, but not quite, the standard life story of a kid outside Pyongyang, North Korea. I segue into that because I just finished a memoir of Jang Jin-Sung. Dear Leader (ISBN 9781476766553, translated by Shirley Lee) is Jang's true story of how he working in the United Front Department learned once he went home outside the North Korean capital how life was barren and impoverished and outside of the ruling -- some would say paranoid -- class and the military (the world's fourth largest) with (then) Kim Jong-il at the top, total loyalty to the state had to be the norm and not the exception.


Yes, well, minefields are like old soldiers. Never know when the bloody fight is over.


Seeing and hearing or a United States carrier group headed for the Korean peninsula AND China massing one hundred fifty thousand troops on its border with North Korea now becomes understandable when you have, as much as is possible, that inside look. For you cannot leave North Korea directly into South Korea -- you have to go through China. And there's a lot involved, as Jang relates some as he and his friend work their way out of the country and later he turns his talents against the regime he used to support with such enthusiasm. I'm giving you a really simple explanation here, but I urge you to check this, or any other escapee's story.


We're not the only ones welcoming or trying to welcome refugees,


David