Hepcat

This TV show aired for the first time just over fifty years ago in December: It's become a much beloved Xmas classic of course. I've been an ardent Dr. Seuss fan even before I bought my first comics though. We had moved to within a block of the Fred Landon branch of the London Public Library when I was six years old in the fall of 1958. The branch became a regular haunt of mine and I visited several times a week. For one thing we didn't get a television until 1961 and even then we got only one channel so I watched very little anyway. I was most decidedly not a TV watching kid as a youngster. The library though was something else! It was filled with wonders! From the magazine section with Boy's Life, Model Airplane News, Life, Post and Look magazines to the childrens' book section, I spent hours there poring over the offerings before checking out a book that couldn't be quickly devoured on the spot. And the first books I ever read may have been one of the Dr. Seuss offerings. I can still remember the shelf where they were placed. Here are some favourites: One of the Uncle Remus Golden Books was another favourite of mine for on-site reading. It may have been this one: The first book though that I actually checked out may very well have been The Adventures of Reddy Fox: It was part of a wonderful series penned by American naturalist and author Thornton W. Burgess which were located on the bottom shelf right below the Dr. Seuss books. The Burgess books became a staple of mine at the checkout counter by early 1960.

Well then you might enjoy seeing these photos from previous Xmases again. First here's Phoebe(2005-2008) in the large bedroom: And yes, I did hang the lighted garland in the bedroom again this year right after putting up the tree. The Christmas tree: Here's Deuce(2006?-2015) beside it: As I mentioned the tree is a fiber optic one to which we add multiple strands of seven colour C6 LED lights and decorate it with predominantly silvery or white decorations including lots of little birds. Adding multitudes of silver icicles and swaths of angel hair turns the tree into a scene from a magical wintry wonderland where a riot of colour can be seen breaking through a haze of snow and ice. Unfortunately, The MAN has never been able to accurately capture the effect with the camera. Here's Phoebe with her soul mate Blizzard while he still shone brightly: So after we'd taken down the tree in January 2007, we put Blizzard in the upstairs closet. One day the following summer I opened the closet door and Phoebe discovered that her long lost friend was dwelling there! She happily lay down beneath him again. Here's Styx(2000?-2015) with Blizzard: Here's Cowboy with Blizzard: Here's Blizzard out on the front porch with Deuce:

Actually I think we've gotten off easy with respect to Scout and the tree:

Great stuff from my mis-begotton youth Hepcat! Thanks! The CARtoons, Hot Rod Cartoons, Cycletoons and Drag Cartoons are all harder to find in comic shops than hen's teeth. Most comic dealers just respond with a dumb look when asked about them.

Thank you all for your kind words. We were in no mood to put up the Xmas tree this year but I realized that if we didn't maintain the tradition by putting the tree up for an eleventh straight year then it might very well never go up again. I therefore fought through my sadness and resignation and finally put the tree up on the 24th. Usually we cap the tree off by draping the branches in icicles and then swathing the whole thing in angel hair to complete the silvery-white magical winter wonderland effect. But I didn't have the wherewithal this year to even go out and buy the icicles or angel hair we needed so the tree was a bit more sparsely decorated this year than most. But on Xmas morning we woke up to find that Scout our twenty month old female cat had already torn down and broken one of the silvery balls. This of course left shards of broken glass on the floor and was a safety hazard. As a result The WOMAN strongly suggested that I replace any breakable decorations with non-breakable ones (we've acquired a surfeit of decorations over the last decade) and I had to agree. Once again though my enthusiasm level was really low and I had to fight through frustration as well as resignation to do the job of making the tree Scout proof. It's a good thing I did though since Scout removed another four decorations the next night and a total of nine in all to this point. And the non-breakable ones are tougher to take off because they're hung from a string! I shudder to think how many of the delicate glass ones that all go on with fragile hooks Scout would have broken. It's all been well worth the effort though. The tree is still a thing of beauty and always draws my eye. Like I say, it represents a magical wintry wonderland with the fibre optics and seven colour LED light strings shining through the silver and white decorations. Gazing upon it has had a calming therapeutic effect on both of us.

Here are scans of the only two comics in my collection cover dated December 1956: 149

Well it is Xmas so I suppose I can post these scans from my magazine collection.... 9 15 20 26 32 56 Uncle Creepy wants to get in on the action too! Then one foggy Xmas Eve, Santa came to slay, hey, hey!

Well it is Xmas so I suppose I can post these scans from my magazine collection.... 9 15 20 26 32 56 Uncle Creepy wants to get in on the action too! Then one foggy Xmas Eve, Santa came to slay, hey, hey!

So it was sixteen years ago earlier this month that I saw a wild looking long-haired black cat in the northeast corner window of the Bay store on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto where the Toronto Humane Society was showcasing pets for adoption. Being bereft of cats at the time the thought that popped into my head was "That's the cat for me!" I was told that he was perhaps two years old and I decided to name him Ace after the Bat-Hound. A few years later on a summer's day Ace was nowhere to be found when I came home from work on a Friday. Nor did he reappear the following morning. Monday morning though I had a phone message at work. It seems Ace had been discovered late Friday afternoon by the elevators just outside the second floor lost and found office of Sears in downtown Toronto just north of the Bay store. Since the Sears store downtown was about six miles away from my house, I was somewhat puzzled but I assumed that Ace must have hitched a ride downtown to revisit the Bay store but got mixed up a bit. Nonetheless he'd been taken home by one of the women and I retrieved him from the Sears lost and found office the following day. By last summer Ace was a senior citizen in cat terms and had slowed down somewhat. The vet told us that his kidneys were no longer functioning at peak efficiency and that a slow deterioration in his kidney function could be expected at his age. But on Sunday December 12th we found Ace curled up inside the console TV in the basement. I recognized this immediately as the behaviour of a cat hiding from pain. Off to the vet we went on Monday. Blood work on Tuesday revealed a certain liver enzyme's count at 623 when the maximum level could be no higher than 158. A possible cause was a malfunctioning thyroid which could easily be treated. But further blood work revealed that his thyroid was fine. A liver tumour was therefore the dreaded diagnosis. The vet told us that even for a young cat there would be nothing he could do other than prescribe a pain killer. I resigned myself to Ace having only a few weeks to live. His condition declined even more rapidly though. By Sunday evening I had to face the reality that his time on this earth was near an end. I broke down at that point. But I couldn't bear to see my friend suffer and steadily lose all dignity. We took him back to the vet on Wednesday morning where he was given an injection and died in my arms. R.I.P my beloved furry friend Ace (December 1998? - 21 December 2016) Unlike our other cats Ace had no time for the paparazzi and refused to ham it up for the cameras. As a result we don't have too many good shots of Ace. Here are some decent ones (Ace is the big one):

Topps in 1963 issued the 153 card Monster Laffs Midgees set. The cards though were only a third the size of regular cards as they were issued three cards to a 2 1/2" X 4 11/16" panel with each card separated by perforations that could be broken apart. Later that same year Topps released 66 of the Midgees as standard size Monster Laffs cards. These cards seem to have been issued primarily for vending machine purposes as they were only packaged in generic wrappers. Here are front and back scans of some of mine:

Nope, not even top 5 (at the time - even lower now), which makes the next two accomplishments even more impressive. Sorry. I goofed. I should have checked that detail. Milt Stegall was still behind Terry Vaughn, Darren Flutie (Doug's brother), Allen Pitts, and Don Narcisse in total receptions when he retired. Milt was a big play type of receiver which enabled him to break the career receiving yards and touchdown records without reaching the mark for receptions. That's for sure. Milt has 147 regular season touchdown catches. Running backs George Reed and Mike Pringle are tied for second place with 137 TDs in all. I don't think any active player is even up to 90. Yup. Funny though. Saturday evening I happened to approach the escalators leading to the outside doors of the Convention Center just when Milt was approaching them. He said he liked the story I told of my spouse becoming a huge fan of his and the Blue Bombers because she thought that someone named Milt Stegall should be selling matzoh ball soup from a storefront in Brooklyn! His fellow TSN analyst/commentator Gary Lawless who was a few steps above us on the escalator then looked back and asked Milt whether he wanted to share a taxicab to the hotel. Milt said "What?! I'm walking, baby!" Well of course. The hotel could only have been a few blocks away. No way I'd ever take a cab that distance either. I also got a picture of myself taken with Eskimos QB Mike Reilly at the Post Cereal booth.

Yes. It's what we do on this board.

Here are scans from my 1966 Green Hornet sets: Donruss Topps

Look at you - handling that mike like a pro. Great photo So can you tell which is the recently retired Hall of Fame receiver and which is the not soon retiring stockbroker?

Those Don Bluth video games had fabulous graphics. I don't understand why video game manufacturers subsequently moved away from cartoon line art animation. More sophisticated/photo realistic doesn't mean better.

No. Are you sure one exists? Twould make for a good one though!

No. Usually I settle for either the U.S. or the Canadian set, whichever I find first. I'm collecting both the U.S. and Canadian variants of the Topps Giant Funny Valentines set though. These were first issued in 1961 and then reissued in 1966. The 1961 cards have red-orange backs while the 1966 reissue has bright red backs. The 1966 reissue was also printed in both the U.S. and Canada. They're easy to differentiate because the U.S. version was printed on white card stock while the Canadian version was printed on grey card stock. The fine print on the back also tells you in which country the cards were printed. 1966 U.S. 1966 Canadian The wrappers though I collect in any variant - U.S., Canadian, different side ad, etc. After all, one additional wrapper doesn't open a huge can of worms like trying to assemble a whole additional set of cards.

The Dragon's Lair video game showcased an innovative new technology on its release in 1983. To be able to control the action/plotline of a cartoon was simply amazing at the time! Video games have unfortunately moved away from cartoon animation since the mid-eighties. Here are some pictures of my Dragon's Lair lunchbox and thermos:

Speaking of regional football leagues/associations, for the first time ever I volunteered to help out at last weekend's Grey Cup Festival here in Toronto. My duties were primarily directing people to various events. As such I had fun because I got to meet many other equally fanatical Canadian football fans. I also got the chance to try out the obstacle course set up by the Canadian Armed Forces. I wasn't at all pleased with my performance and I still have skinned and bruised elbows. In addition I took advantage of the opportunity to get my picture taken with Milt Stegall up on the The Sports Network desk. Milt retired after the 2008 season with the lifetime CFL marks for pass receptions, receiving yardage and touchdowns, the last of which isn't likely to be broken any year soon. He's been working as a commentator for TSN since 2009 and he's really good at it. Since the ticket prices were set substantially higher than ever before this year, the game wasn't entirely sold out. We volunteers were therefore given free tickets to the game. Mine had a face value of $599 and was on the thirty yard line about twenty rows from the field! The fellow sitting to my right was big, very big. I realized that he also seemed to be in great condition so I asked him whether he was with any team. Well he turned out to be Peter Dyakowski, a well known offensive lineman with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats! Peter Dyakowski bio Peter was with LSU in 2003 when LSU won the U.S. College championship and was the Hamilton Tiger-Cats nominee for Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2011. But best of all he was a first-team Academic All-Canadian while attending high school in Vancouver and was named Canada's Smartest Person by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after being the victor on the program of the same name in 2012! It was a great game, one of the very best Grey Cup games ever played. The 16-2-1 Calgary Stampeders had fallen behind 27-7 to the 9-9-1 Ottawa RedBlacks early in the third quarter but then rallied furiously and had a great chance to win the game with the ball on the Ottawa two yard line with less than a minute to play. Ottawa held though and the Stampeders had to settle for a game tying field goal with seconds to play. But in OT it was RedBlacks receiver Ernest Jackson who made a spectacular grab to score a touchdown that Calgary then failed to match. Final score: Ottawa RedBlacks 39 Calgary Stampeders 33 It was only the third Grey Cup game out of 104 that went into OT. The two teams combined for a Grey Cup record of 882 passing yards with Ottawa QB Henry Burris accounting for 491 yards and Calgary pivot Bo Levi Mitchell 391 yards. Burris also tied the Grey Cup record Ricky Ray of the Edmonton Eskimos set in 2005 with 35 completions. His 35 completions were also a personal high in a game for Burris as well as an Ottawa club record. Like I say, it was one of the most exciting Grey Cup games ever! Peter though looked wistful after the game. He was clearly wishing that he and the rest of his Tiger-Cat teammates hadn't come up short again and were the ones celebrating a Grey Cup victory on the field.

I think the crest cards are even more interesting than the player cards, but of course I'm not exactly an Australian football fan. Still a team named the Rabbitos is very cool! Unmolested is king for us collectors!

There was a time when most moms would say that comics would rot your brain.

Hmmmm. It sounds therefore as if Rugby Union has only a niche following. Were any Rugby Union cards ever released by Scanlen's or any other issuer? What was the Scanlen's gum like? Did Scanlen's also market penny bubble gum in the fifties and sixties?

There's a whole subset of dairy collectors who collect specifically milk caps. Besides the aesthetic appeal of the various caps (which were almost invariably printed in only two colours), they're easy to store. A collection of thousands requires only several binders. What draws many individuals to collecting dairy artifacts is the way these dairy items tie-in to local history. A city the size of Toronto had hundreds of small dairies in the early part of the twentieth century. As recently as 1961 there were still 1710 dairies in Canada. There were so many local dairies back in the day that milk bottle collecting is very regional in nature, i.e. enthusiasts stick to collecting bottles from a certain municipality, state or province. The tie-in to local history is also one of the primary reasons why there are so many railroad hobbyists, e.g. the Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway is very popular with railroad modellers in Ottawa.

1. From what years are those two sets? 2. I see that the Rugby League cards were issued by Scanlen's and I know that Scanlen's distributed Topps cards in Australia. Were then the cricket cards also issued by Scanlen's? 3. Which of the two sets is more highly prized and collected in Australia? The very first cards I ever collected as a kid were a uniquely Canadian set from 1959 printed by Topps in the United States but issued/marketed by O-Pee-Chee of London, Ontario which had been marketing all of Topps' products in Canada since the early fifties:

Do you ever get together with these fellows? Bytown Antique & Bottle Club