Twitterpated

• 06:34 I'm relieved that I don't actually have to pack up all the stuff that I was supposed to in my dream. #
• 06:58 When people write "baleet" instead of "delete," it makes me think of whales. #
• 07:08 @3x1minus1 If I wanted a celebrity date, I'd aim a bit higher than Jennifer Aniston. #
• 10:50 The dogs were all going crazy about something, but I can't for the life of me figure out what. #
• 11:56 Why the Nazis never invented Tetris tinyurl.com/d3c635 #
• 13:30 You know you read too much about mythology when you have a dream about Hermes becoming Odin. #
• 22:15 @NowIsStrange No, it just reminds me of "baleen." #

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Glory Be and the Saints Be Praised!

Top o' the day to ye, and happy St. Patrick's Day. This has never been a holiday I've done much to acknowledge, but I probably will wear green when I change out of my pajamas (which, in case anyone is interested, are blue). I'll admit that I really didn't know much about old St. Paddy himself, aside from the tale that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. Of course, there probably never were any snakes there, but you can't keep a good myth down. It's difficult separating fact from fiction in the accounts of these early Christian saints, but it seems pretty much agreed upon that Patrick was born in Britain, and captured and sold as a slave in Ireland when he was about sixteen. Later, he made it his mission to convert the Irish to Christianity, and this Catholic Encyclopedia article provides a lot of the stories told about him. One is that, on Easter Sunday, he was involved in a magical duel with the Druids, who used their power to call down darkness, but Patrick used the power of God to vanquish it. Sort of like the story about Moses and the rod-snakes, this tale shows pagan deities having authentic powers, just not quite as powerful as those of the Judeo-Christian God. So was the idea that God wasn't actually the only deity, but merely the one who successfully fought His way to the top of the divine rabble? Another story about Patrick says that he converted two princesses to Christianity, and that they died upon taking the eucharist. The religious faithful credit this to the power of God, but I'm inclined to think those wafers weren't exactly fresh. According to some other websites, St. Patrick is also credited with using the shamrock as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, and with incorporating the Sun into the Celtic Cross (because, hey, if you can't beat the solar worshippers, just incorporate their beliefs into your own). I don't think any legends associate St. Pat with green beer, but maybe that's in the same source as the stories about the resurrected Jesus bringing a basket full of colored eggs and chocolate bunnies to the disciples, and the Druids bobbing for apples during Samhain.

Life in Unfairyland

Since we've already covered some of the major differences between Oz and other fairylands, what about between fairylands and the Great Outside World? [1] The early Oz books seemed to suggest that magic wouldn't work in civilized countries. Dorothy's Silver Shoes fall from her feet at the end of the first book, and Glinda indicates in Ozma of Oz that the same thing would happen with the Magic Belt, and possibly Tik-Tok as well. But in Road, we're introduced to the Love Magnet, which appears to be equally effective in the United States, the fairy countries surrounding Oz, and Oz itself. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Road is also partially a crossover with some of Baum's other fantasy work, some of which made the dividing line between magical and non-magical countries much more vague. In John Dough and the Cherub, for instance, a gingerbread man is brought to life by an Arabian elixir in an American city, and the elixir's original owner uses magic powders provided to him by a witch (presumably still in the United States) to chase after John Dough. Baum's American Fairy Tales also has magic and magicians working in the States, and while these stories were never officially tied in with Oz or its borderlands, the presence of Ryls and Knooks in both suggests some likely connection. Ruth Plumly Thompson continued and expanded the trend of magic working in civilized lands as well, although she still subscribes to the idea that there's some difference between fairylands and ordinary countries. In Gnome King, Ozma transports Polacky the Plunderer's gold to Philadelphia with Peter Brown, but only the two sacks of "real" gold (presumably meaning gold that came from the Outside World) survive the trip. [2] Yet, in Jack Pumpkinhead, it's revealed that one of the sacks is magical [3], as is the one remaining coin in it. There's no clear indication as to whether the sack's magic would be effective in the States, but the coin's definitely is.

In the earlier drafts of John R. Neill's first Oz book, Wonder City, he described a fairy society in the mountains of northwestern New Jersey (where he himself lived). While most of the details didn't make it to the published version, he still had Jenny Jump (a resident of the mountains that bear her name) granted fairy powers by her leprechaun godfather. Pretty appropriate for today, huh? Considering that Jenny is described as having red hair and green eyes, Neill might well have thought of her as being of Irish ancestry (as was Neill himself). While never officially confirmed, I think there's a decent chance that the Wizard of Oz is at least part Irish as well.

[1] Actually, Baum's use of the term "Great Outside World" could be a bit ambiguous, as it sometimes referred to anywhere outside of Oz, and other times just to the civilized, non-fairy countries. Still, I much prefer it to Thompson's usage of "real world."
[2] It's possible that this was intended to tie in to the statement that Dorothy never brought any gold or jewels back from Oz after her first few visits, even though one emerald might well have paid off the mortgage on Uncle Henry's farm.
[3] In fact, it's a Grab Bag, which grabs enemies and keeps them trapped until they're shaken out. From what little I know of Dungeons & Dragons, it sounds like a Bag of Holding is fairly similar.

The most beautiful green that you've ever seen

You know, I've never actually tried a Shamrock Shake, but I had to post this commercial anyway. I've posted a link to it here before, but it's seasonally appropriate now, so why not?

I guess Uncle O'Grimacey was never a particularly successful character, since he doesn't show up anymore. I'm not even sure he was in more than that one commercial. Kind of a shame, really, as they could have introduced more of Grimace's ethnically stereotypical relatives to advertise other sorts of colored gum-based beverages. You know, like:

Gelato Shake - Don di Grimacio
Black Forest Shake - Baron Fritz von Grimazschnitzelhoffen
Prianik Shake - Comrade Grimasovich
Chutney Shake - Maharishi Grimashira (maybe he could have four arms like the original Grimace used to)

And that's not even mentioning Birdie's long-thought-extinct Great-Aunt McDodo.

Jenny, You're Barely Immortal

Yes, it's another Oz post. Blame vilajunkie for suggesting it. {g}

While John R. Neill was easily the worst plotter of the six authors who contributed to what's come to be known as the Famous Forty, he did create some fascinating characters. Considering how often she appeared, his favorite might well have been Jenny Jump, a half-fairy girl from New Jersey. The Jenny Jump Mountain and State Forest are located in the northwestern part of the state, near Neill's own home in Flanders, and folk etymology says that they were named after a girl named Jenny who jumped in order to escape from one or more pursuing Minsi Indians. It's not entirely clear whether Neill intended this Jenny to be the same as his own character, but I believe his original Wonder City manuscript referred to her living in the mountains for a long time, and trying to charge rent to the fairies who lived there. In the published version, however, she's only fifteen when the story begins, and seemingly living alone (although I suppose it's possible her parents or guardians were just out at the time). She captures a leprechaun trying to steal her pepper-cheese, and he turns out to be her fairy godfather. I believe Neill originally called him Psychopompus, a variation on the term used for those who led the dead from this world to the next (the association of Odin with Hermes/Mercury was apparently because both gods served as psychopomps). While Jenny doesn't die, she does enter a new world after meeting the leprechaun, making his name appropriate. The book's editor, apparently fearing that a name like "Psychopompus" would be difficult to pronounce, changed it to "Siko Pompus," which brings to mind King Pompus of Pumperdink from Ruth Plumly Thompson's Oz books. But there's also a Neill drawing referring to the character as "Sico," so perhaps it went through several different spellings before the book was published.

Anyway, Jenny wishes for the leprechaun to turn her into a fairy, but due to a technicality, he stops after making her only HALF-fairy. Well, not exactly half. She gains heightened awareness in one eye and both ears, extra dexterity and other powers in eight of her fingers, and the power to launch herself into the air using one of her feet. She also breathes fire when she's angry, although it's never entirely clear whether this is due to a fairy mouth. She flies to Oz, where she befriends a Munchkin boy named Number Nine (his parents gave their children numbers for names), and takes advantage of his fondness for her in order to boss him around. Using a magical Turn-Style that she finds in a ruined house, she sets up a style shop in the Emerald City. She becomes rather popular, but her temper continues to cause trouble. In order to combat this, the Wizard of Oz makes her grow younger, losing her fairy powers (although I've heard that her reverse aging in the original manuscript was NOT the Wizard's doing, or at least not specifically attributed to him). When that fails, the Wizard physically removes her anger, envy, and ambition. That's what happens in the published book, anyway. I believe this lobotomy was not included in Neill's original manuscript, in which she learns how to better control her more negative traits on her own, but it is somewhat in character for the Wizard. After all, he replaced the Glass Cat's pink brains with transparent ones in order to make her more humble. She has the pink ones back in Magic, however, suggesting that messing with her mind might have been a failed experiment. And I like to think that much the same was the case with Jenny, who doesn't seem entirely free of anger and ambition in later books. Regardless, Ozma makes Jenny a Duchess, and Siko restores her fairy powers in the form of various odds and ends. And that's basically how she remains in Neill's other books.