Stratovania

We'd been planning to do the Creamy Acres Night of Lights for a while, but positive COVID tests got in the way of that. Last weekend, everything worked out all right, so we finally went. Due to social distancing restrictions, we drove through instead of taking a hayride. As such, I was only able to get pictures from my side of the car, and a lot of them came out blurry.

I know Beth took a few other ones, but I've been having trouble transferring pictures.

On Monday, we did some shopping at the Nintendo store in Rockefeller Center, and saw the tree while we were there, albeit from a distance.

Then, on Tuesday, I attended a virtual get-together with Michael Booth and some other Oz fans, which was fun. A few people read some of L. Frank Baum's Christmas-related stories.

We spent Christmas at Beth's mom's house, but it was just the two of us and the two people who live there, so I don't think it counts as a superspreader event. (That term doesn't even really sound bad. It just sounds like people are trying to see who can butter their bread the fastest.) Stuff I received included three Carl Barks collections, a book of art from the Mana series of video games, a copy of Vampires and Oz, Robyn Hitchcock's Perspex Island, Janelle Monae's The Archandroid, and Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam.

We also got a new kettle, as our old one just stopped whistling this week.

Beth was telling me about how Christmas Day is always disappointing after the buildup, and while it's not as bad for me, it does kind of fizzle out. For me, I guess I kind of feel on holidays like I'm supposed to be doing something special, so I feel a little guilty when I just do the same stuff I do every day, although I generally do anyway. We're probably going to visit my family next weekend, but I haven't made any specific plans.

I'm still playing through Dragon Quest XI for the Switch. I finished what I guess is the main game, defeating Mordegon and seeing the credits, but there's still more to do. Basically, you go back in time and try to fix the mistakes you made the first time, and also beat the evil being behind Mordegon.

I finished the first challenge in Drustan's Labyrinth, but haven't managed to take out the powered-up Arboreal Serpent. The only other Switch game I currently own is Paper Mario: The Origami King, which I started but haven't played much of. There's still a fair amount of DS/3DS stuff I need to get back to.

I guess I might as well do a life update. On Friday, Beth and I saw It Chapter Two with Tavie, and you can read my review of that on my WordPress. On Saturday afternoon, we visited Governors Island, a place in the river between Manhattan and Brooklyn (although it's officially considered part of Manhattan) that is only open to visitors in the summer. There was actually a work event there last week, but I didn't go to that. You can reach it by a ferry from the Battery area, and when we took it, it was also taking a bunch of horse trailers. I think there are equestrian events there this coming weekend.It's sort of like a theme park, except without rides. Well, maybe even that isn't entirely true, as they have surreys and go-karts for rent. They looked fun, but we didn't use any of them. The two fortified installations, Fort Jay and Castle Williams, were closed at the time, although we did see the outsides.



We mostly walked around, and saw some of the art installations they had there, including this dog made of trash. A lot of people were taking their kids' pictures with it, and I had Beth take my picture as well, even though I am technically an adult.

We also went down a slide, even though it was recommended for ages eight to fourteen. Well, if you reverse the digits in that latter number, you get my age. They were also having an award ceremony for food trucks while we were there. After leaving the island and returning to the much larger one where we live, we ate at a place called Black Iron Burger, which was all right. Really classy sense of humor, too.


I sort of watched the Emmys on Sunday night, but I was in and out of the room a lot. I can't say it mattered much anyway, as I don't watch much TV these days. Well, I've been watching Lost in Oz on Amazon Prime, and that won some Emmys a few years ago, but they never show the award presentations for animated shows. I'm more likely to go to the Internet, and it doesn't have an awards show yet. Or maybe it does, but not a high-profile one. Maybe they should just televise those food truck awards. I did find a podcast about the Super Mario Bros. Super Show on the Hard Times. I've only listened to a few episodes so far, but the hosts have been pretty positive about it, although not without calling out the stupidity. They don't seem to remember the Super Mario Bros. 2 enemies that well, though. I'm listening and thinking, "Hey, those are Flurries, not ghosts!" I've considered doing an episode-by-episode review of the show myself, but the last time I brought it up, nobody seemed particularly interested. Speaking of the Super Show, I also came across this 1989 Nintendo of America art depicting Wart, where he looks kind of like King Koopa in the cartoons.

Since they were using characters from both of the first two SMB games, he might well have originally been intended as a combination of Bowser and Wart, although the SMB3 cartoon kept the same design and called him Bowser a few times. The frog was given Wart shrift. Well, it looks like he IS in the Link's Awakening remake.


Yesterday, Beth, Tavie, and I went to the last late night the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this year, and didn't really see all that much. We probably should have planned out the walk a little better. Oh, well. It was still fun.

I haven't written on this particular blog in a few weeks. For that matter, I've only written sporadically on my WordPress. There have been several events in that time I feel are worth mentioning. My dad and his girlfriend were up in the city a few weeks ago, and we went with them to Burger Bistro and to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. My dad was interested in seeing our place, but it's still not really in an appropriate condition for guests. When the scope of something is overwhelming, it's difficult for me to even start. I mentioned before that, for Easter, Beth and I had dinner at her mom's house. I've finished drafts of a few new Oz stories. I feel I always have to specify "drafts," even though I sometimes don't do anything else with them, because I don't want to discount the editing process. If anyone wants to read them, let me know. One of them is a Super Mario Bros. crossover, an idea I had way back when there were only three main series Mario games. I like the idea of crossovers, but it can be really difficult to get two different fictional worlds to interact in a way that makes sense. More often, I tend to just sneak in brief references to other works I like, without really explaining them. I have ideas for a few more tales, but I don't know how long those will take me. And I made macaroni and cheese, which turned out to not have as much flavor as I'd hoped. I used cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. I guess I'm a bit of a cheese snob, in that I grew up on sharp cheddar, and stuff like American cheese and Velveeta just seem dull to me.

Yesterday, our friends Tavie and Sean got married, and had their reception at a place called Le Petit Café in Carroll Gardens. It's a nice place, but we were all packed in pretty tightly. There was no room to dance or kids to run around, which are things that often happen at wedding receptions. Beth wore a new dress, but while I did get a few pictures, none of them came out that well. You can see one of them on Facebook if you're interested. It's weird, because I always wonder why people don't want pictures of themselves on social media without screening them first. Then, when that happens to me, I'm like, "Okay, I get it now." For me, it's mostly because my hair doesn't behave. Speaking of marriage, Beth and I just recently saw a stand-up set by another guy we've known for a while, Matt, who is now a Daily Show writer, and he's also married now. We don't see him that much, but we have friends in common, so you'd think we would have known about that before. In my experience, marriage doesn't change much in the dynamic between couples. I mean, it's really just a bureaucratic thing, when you get down to it. But I think it totally affects how other people view you, "wife" or "husband" just sounding so much more serious than "girlfriend" or "boyfriend."

At one point, Tavie was talking about how her cat Neelix likes Sean better, and I mentioned how our Wally prefers Beth and Reagan prefers me. I've heard it was similar with my grandparents and their male and female cats. It's strange, but I don't think there's really anything to it on a grand scale. And when I lived with Beth's cousins Patti and Dorothea, they had a cat named Cracker whom they said preferred men. I know I got along well with him. I walked by a cat café earlier on Friday, and I've never been to one of those. I'm kind of afraid I'd want to adopt another cat, when we already have two who are on pricey medication.

We attended two events at the Alamo Drafthouse last week. On Thursday, we saw something from VCR Party, with Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher of the Found Footage Festival.

It was basically a collection of weird stuff found on old video tapes. There was sort of a Halloween theme, as with some discussions of Satanic panic, but there were unrelated bits as well. One home movie had a family singing songs from Phantom of the Opera, then footage of a house being demolished while someone yelled at the cameraman for no reason, apparently a common occurrence in Queens. A cheap but funny edit of a whelping video focused on how often they said "bitch," then they ran with that idea for one about horses and carriages (the repeated word there was "shaft"), and another about Dutch ovens. Another video was made by a guy who, by his own admission, stole a camera and microphone from a local CBS affiliate to tape a heavy metal concert. Then there were selections from really dull videos of a business meeting and training for church lectors.


On Friday, it was the latest Kevin Geeks Out, this time about shock rock, which is I guess is sort of a Halloween-related topic. One argued that Screamin' Jay Hawkins, the guy who originally sang "I Put a Spell on You," was the first shock rocker. He was a talented musician who came to embrace a witch doctor image. It was something white performers couldn't really imitate without coming across as really racist, but eventually they came up with the idea of spooky theatricality without the African tribal associations. And we saw footage of Hawkins meeting Emo Philips on Arsenio Hall. Tenebrous Kate, who had discussed a ridiculously noisy Japanese punk band at an earlier show, this time talked about the death rock band Radio Werewolf, who mixed Nazi imagery with other tasteless subjects. Another presentation focused on the band Impaler, whose lead singer had sort of an ongoing feud with some preachers of the "music is corrupting the youth" ilk. He pointed out how hypocritical they were, and as if to prove it, they paid him to appear in a promotional picture for one of their sermons or something. There was a bit of a chat with the guy who wrote the Scooby-Doo/KISS crossover; and a cut-down version of Turbulence 3: Heavy Metal, a movie about a fictional Marilyn Manson rip-off called Slade Craven who had to land a plane. The edits concentrated on how many times people in the film said Craven's name. I'm still not sure what we're doing on Halloween itself, although Beth is considering going to see the new Halloween movie. We've watched a few sorta-horror movies recently, and I should be writing some reviews soon.

I enjoyed Nadia Oxford's look back at a Super Mario Bros. 3 fanfic she wrote when she was ten. I think I'm in much the same boat (Doomship?) in being heavily influenced by the Mario cartoons. They were not, strictly speaking, good; but they contributed to how I thought and still do think about the workings of the Mushroom World. I'm still pretty intent on Mario and Luigi coming from Brooklyn, even if it's canon that they were at least born in the Mushroom Kingdom. I've never written a complete Mario fanfic, although I remember starting one when I was in junior high, and I've had a Mario/Oz crossover in the works since about that time as well. I'm not really sure the Mario universe lends itself that well to prose, though. Speaking of which, I've been checking out the work of Nintendrawer on DeviantArt, who's been doing Mario fanart for over a decade. She's done a comic retelling of the original SMB (which hasn't been completed), a story with the Marios' and Princess Daisy's parents, and some stuff with Mario and Luigi's own kids. And yes, there are some references to the cartoons and other spin-off media.


My last temp job ended at the end of September, and while I had plenty of warning, it had been extended so many times before that I'm kind of surprised it wasn't again. It was actually pretty good timing, as I was focused on moving around then. Today, I started doing essentially the same job in Brooklyn instead of Manhattan. I worked with one of those computers with two monitors for the first time, since I was copying information from one application into another.

The temporary job I've had since January is winding down. The original plan was for it to last through the end of June, but instead it's ending next Wednesday, or maybe even Tuesday. That, and we've been working shortened weeks. That means I'm going to need to find another job pretty soon. This past week, however, it's given me some time to do some other things. All I usually want to do is sit around the house and utilize electronic media, but I did go to Central Park with Beth on Wednesday to hear the New York Philharmonic. It was a free show, which means the lawn was really crowded, but that's not a huge deal in and of itself. What was problematic was that several people near us just wouldn't stop talking loudly throughout the whole thing. To be fair, some of them were kids, but that doesn't excuse the adults who were encouraging the children to be noisy and rowdy. If you just wanted to talk, there are much more comfortable places to do so than on a crowded lawn. I also think two different families kept bringing up the fireworks to their kids, then left before the fireworks. Also annoying was that I was unable to find anywhere to buy a soda. Don't these gatherings usually attract all kinds of vendors?


Yesterday evening, I decided on a whim to go to Nintendo World (I think it's officially called Nintendo NYC now), and I bought a few things there, including a Cheep Cheep and a Blooper. Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, was doing a signing, and I waited in the line a little bit, but we were pretty much told that we wouldn't be able to get in before the store closed. I wasn't really expecting to, since the website said they were letting people line up hours before he even arrived. Today, I brought my new aquatic Mario toys to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island. One photographer saw me holding them and took a picture, which was pretty cool.

This was my second time attending the parade, and it was fun despite the rain, which died down after about an hour. And yes, this led to a lot of "must be good for the mermaids" jokes, including one from me. I did have to buy an umbrella at a souvenir store, and was disappointed that it was just plain blue and not Coney-themed.





I took a whole boatload of pictures, but was frustrated when my phone battery had almost died and, while I BROUGHT my spare, I'd forgotten to charge it. I'd wanted to hang around the area a little after the parade, but in the end I didn't bother because I was so flustered. I'd like to be in the parade sometime, assuming it continues (they had some trouble raising enough money for it this year) and that I can get together a costume. Preparation is not my strong point. Anyway, when I got home, I found out the ceiling had leaked, which kind of put my annoyance over phone batteries into perspective. The super says he'll be by tomorrow morning, but I'm not even quite sure what happened. Some of my stuff got wet, and there's ceiling plaster on the floor in one spot that isn't that close to the wet part.

The temp job I've been doing since the beginning of March ends this week. I'm not sure what I'll be doing after that, although I do have plans to do some volunteer/internship work and can hopefully go back to the freelance data entry stuff. The job is eight hours plus an hour lunch, and I have to commute to Manhattan and back, so I'm sure it will be nice to save that time. Still, money is also important. I have to admit I feel rather incompetent for being thirty-eight and never really having worked full-time.

I've been playing The Sims 4 recently, since it was on sale and I can't get Sims 3 to load anymore. The newest installment runs much more smoothly, but that's partially because it doesn't have the open world that the previous game did. I wrote a little about how it differs from earlier versions, and mentioned how I like to make Sims of characters I've made up but haven't really done much of anything with. I have drafts of Oz stories that involve a dimensional traveler named Xornom and a witch named Myrena (daughter of Medea from Greek mythology), and while I have details of their backgrounds planned out, I haven't actually written them yet. It seems to be a thing on the Internet for people to come up with their own characters, even if there isn't actually a story for them yet. I was just thinking that it's kind of weird, because interactions between characters are often my favorite parts of a story to write, but I'm a socially awkward shut-in who has no idea how real people generally interact. In fact, I suspect quite a few writers are. So does it come across as phony, or is it one of those cases where nobody expects fiction to be totally realistic? Maybe I'm just writing versions of myself, although I don't buy that because I'd never do most of what characters in my stories do. L. Frank Baum allegedly once complained that his characters wouldn't do what he wanted them to, but I can't recall ever feeling that way. That said, I DO sometimes have trouble figuring out how a character would ever get into a certain situation, but that's not to say they really take control.

I've been working a bit on a follow-up to "Prince Pompadore in Oz," which was published in the most recent issue of Oziana. I already had the main idea, about Evered's father Asha (who is mentioned in passing in The Hungry Tiger of Oz as having retired from ruling Rash to study radio) returning to his homeland and finding his missing wife, but I've expanded it a bit and introduced other plotlines. It's probably going to be pretty short overall, but much longer than my original take. I'm also probably going to take another crack at The Giant Rabbit of Oz soon, but while there's a lot I like about that one, I really can't work out an ending that makes sense to me. I also tend to disappoint myself because I'm always coming up with ideas when I'm in a situation where writing them down is pretty much impossible, then when I actually do have the ability to write I'm too tired or just not in the mood. And how many people read Oz stories, anyway? I also have a bunch of Web browser tabs open that I have to look at, and some games that I want to try out. It's sad when you feel like you have to force yourself into doing something that's only for fun anyway.

Speaking of Oz, the convention in Portland, Oregon is coming up soon, and I might be participating in a panel. I haven't been to one of these in sixteen years, so I'm pretty excited, although I haven't been thinking that much about it because there's so much else going on. I've participated in costume contests at earlier conventions, but didn't have any ideas for this one, or at least none that seemed realistic. I'm not going to have time to do anything else in the area while I'm there, which is kind of a shame, as I wouldn't mind visiting Powell's Books again. I bought a pretty cheap paperback of Grampa in Oz when I was there before.

Today, Beth and I went to the Pride March in Manhattan, and stayed about an hour and fifteen minutes before she started feeling crappy from the heat and lack of sleep, and had to go sit down. What we saw included commemoration of the Orlando shooting, but also some fun costumes.

I'd never seen so many rainbow socks in my life. Honestly, I don't think I knew what I was missing.

And while I don't like being in a crowd, I'm glad it draws a lot of people. After leaving, we ate lunch at the Heartland Brewery at the Empire State Building, then stopped by Nintendo World.

We didn't buy anything, but there were stuffed Boom-Booms that I thought were cool. His female counterpart Pom-Pom was also there, and while I'm not really familiar with the game she was in (Super Mario 3D Land, I believe), I like the idea.

I had a dream two nights ago about a video game with really good character graphics. There were life-like humans, dogs, cats, and even an iguana. You cycled through the looks like in the original Sims. As it was a dream, even though this was supposed to be a game, a lot of it just took place right in front of me. It's like my subconscious doesn't bother including details like screens and controllers. Then again, I've had so many dreams about trying to type on a keyboard and failing miserably that this was probably for the best. I think the game itself was a Mario Kart one, and even though messing around with the character design was the first thing I did, I wanted to play as a Mario character when I did the actual racing. I know you can race as a Mii in the Wii and Wii U installments, but I wonder why you'd want to when you could be a Mario character. Mind you, I've never liked rendering myself, even in simple formats. Since Mario Kart 8 and The Sims 4 both came out recently, that probably influenced the dream.

It's been a while since I've played The Sims 3, yet there's still part of me that thinks I should get 4. I doubt I will, though, at least not until the price goes down. What I've seen of it suggests that there isn't much of an advantage to it over earlier installments aside from improved graphics. Sims 3 finally let you freely wander around the neighborhood, which was the main thing I thought would improve Sims 2. On the other hand, the fact that most of the characters are under computer control means much less freedom over relationships and such. I was trying to develop somewhat of an ongoing story with my Sims 2 neighborhood. I also thought Sims 3 removed some of the challenge, particularly as far as building skills and making money were concerned. Some of the life goals seemed way too easy to achieve, while others were practically impossible. I noticed this with the goal of having multiple lovers at the same time, which would have been fairly easy in the original Sims (a Sim could have an affair when their significant other was on the property, as long as they weren't in the same room) and more difficult but still feasible in Sims 2. In Sims 3, two-timing was much harder. My main concern, however, is the same one I had when I obtained 2 and 3. I grew attached to the Sims I was controlling, and there was no way to carry them over to the next installment. Sure, I could (and did) make Sims with the same appearance and personality, but they didn't have any of their old memories. I understand that the technology wouldn't allow such transfers, but it basically meant playing a new game would erase everything I'd achieved in the last one.

I probably should spend at least some of my free time writing, since there's an Oz story I'm supposed to be editing. It's easy to plan these things out, but hard to get down to doing the actual work. I do write WordPress posts, but that seems like much less of an accomplishment. I did watch Tangled last night, but since I already wrote a post about it, I'm not going to do another one.

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Maybe Animal Crossing, as it's pretty peaceful there. The only real danger comes from shaking trees with beehives in them. And while having anthropomorphic animals as neighbors might be freaky at first, I guess I could get used to it. I also quite like the aesthetics of the Mushroom Kingdom from Super Mario Bros., but don't so much relish the idea of having to jump over a bunch of turtles every time I went to the store for orange juice.

Speaking of the Mushroom Kingdom, I found the most recent Captain SNES strip interesting in light of my own speculation about the relationship of Goombas to Toads. I also have to give props to the comic's author for his ability to turn simple gags into significant plot points. Braveshroom appeared as a joke back in this comic from almost ten years ago, and is still around.

Yesterday, bethje and I went up to New York to see John Waters' Christmas show, which we did last year as well. I had wanted to go a few other places in Manhattan as well, so we arrived there a few hours early. First, we stopped at Books of Wonder, a children's bookstore that has a fair amount of Oz stuff. Honestly, it seems that they de-emphasizing Oz a bit (I guess it just didn't sell that well, unfortunately), but they still have a better selection in that area than any other store I've been to. I picked up a comic adaptation of "A Kidnapped Santa Claus," Donald Abbott's Speckled Rose of Oz (which got pretty bad reviews from other Oz fans, but it was the only Baum-consistent Oz book there I hadn't read yet), and Mark Evan Swartz's Oz Before the Rainbow. I also noted that they had some copies of Phil Lewin's The Master Crafters of Oz, which I didn't buy because I already have it, but it was nice to see a more recent Oz book getting exposure. After that, we went uptown to Nintendo World, which is located in Rockefeller Center, making for a rather long walk. We stopped along the way at the Sanrio store in Times Square, which has kind of become a tradition for Beth, even though it's been some time since she's actually bought something there. They seem to have decreased their stock considerably anyway, and don't feature very many characters. I can understand why most stores only carry Hello Kitty, as she's obviously the most popular by far, but wouldn't you think a specialty store would have a little more variety? Anyway, I like going to Nintendo World because they usually have some new Nintendo-related toys, and yesterday I bought a stuffed Hammer Brother. I wish I knew someone else who would appreciate a gift like that, as I feel kind of guilty buying stuff for myself so close to Christmas. I've made a bit of a collection of toys like this by now, but I have nowhere to display them. By the way, the store also now has stuffed Wigglers and Cheep-Cheeps.

When therealtavie got out of work, we met her for dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. I had a small pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms. Pretty good, but the crust was a little weird for me. For dessert, I had the apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. After that, the three of us met Tavie's boyfriend Sean at B.B. King's in Times Square, which is where the show was. That's the same place it was last year, as well as where we saw Peter Noone a few weeks ago. Thankfully, they gave the four of us a booth this time, instead of cramming us in at a table with strangers. The show was similar to last year's, but he did add a few things. For instance, he mentioned how he met Justin Bieber, who told him, "Your 'stache is the jam!" He also discussed his proposal for a sequel to The Wizard of Oz, which was prefaced by a story about asking a kid if he liked the movie, to which the child replied, "No, it's basically just walking." Just wait until this kid sees Lord of the Rings!

We hit a traffic jam on the New Jersey Turnpike on the way back, so we ended up getting back home much later than expected. And really, that's about all there is to tell. Well, except maybe that I retrieved all seven fyggs in Dragon Quest IX, and now I have to chase some guy on a black dragon. Happy Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Yule, or whatever else it is you celebrate! I'm not at all ready for Christmas, but what else is new?

I'm always having dreams about going back to either high school or college, and last night was no exception. I was taking a whole bunch of college classes, and I was horribly disorganized. Mind you, this was the case when I really was in school, but it was even worse in the dream. I wasn't keeping track of my schedule, or of when assignments were due. The most interesting bit was that one of my classes, which was for theater or something (I never really took any theater classes) was taught by Amanda Palmer.

Speaking of unqualified teachers, here are the final two episodes of the Super Mario World cartoon:

A Little Learning - In this one, the Princess is working as a schoolteacher in Dome City, teaching kids including Yoshi and Oogtar. Was she doing this job and working as an operator at the same time? Do the kids get the day off when she's kidnapped by Bowser? And what's happening to her own kingdom while she's hanging out in Dinosaur Land? These questions aside, it's not a bad idea. When Oogtar arrives for school, he gives the Princess an apple that has a tiny Wiggler inside, which Peach calls a "worm." Let's hope she's not teaching zoology. Hip and Hop Koopa, seeing the opportunity to pull some pranks, decide they want to attend school. Their father forbids it, but they go behind his back and enter the classroom right when the Princess is leading her students in the Pledge of Allegiance "to the flag of the United Lands of Dinosaur World."

What IS the governmental system there, anyway? Oogtar does his best to get the new students into trouble, but it's not like they can't handle this task perfectly well themselves, as when they throw fireballs around at recess. They kept these in their backpacks, which makes me wonder what they're made of. An unspecified amount of time passes, and the Princess declares that there will be a science fair. Hip and Hop's exhibit appears to be one of those vinegar-and-baking-soda volcanoes, but it's actually hooked up to a magma pit in the Valley of Bowser. King Koopa discovers this and learns that his youngest sons had sneaked off to school. In the mayhem that follows, the volcano erupts and everyone runs away to a song that's sort of reminiscent of "Rock 'n' Roll High School." Mario reroutes the pipe to Bowser's bedroom, and that's the end of that episode.

It's interesting that Mario and Luigi had a fairly minor role in this one, and the latter didn't even have any lines. I wouldn't have minded seeing a little more of the Princess in her teacher role, but there's only one episode left, and it's mostly a flashback.

Mama Luigi - Finally, we get the story of how the Mario team arrived in Dinosaur Land in the first place, in the form of a bedtime story that Luigi tells Yoshi. The green-clad plumber says that they went there for a vacation after they'd banished Bowser from the Mushroom Kingdom. Yeah, don't show us how they managed to do that or anything. King Koopa apparently arrived in Dinosaur Land before the Marios did, and he has Chargin' Chucks capture the Princess. Luigi is confronted by a Sumo Brother who isn't on a platform, so his stomping just opens up the ground below him. In either a bizarre coincidence or a careful plan on the Sumo's part, there's a long vertical drop right below where the ground opens, and Luigi lands on a balloon that helps him descend. After a short ride on a skull raft, Luigi arrives on a platform, and hits the blocks above it. One of them contains Yoshi's egg, which for some reason has red spots even though Yoshi is green.

The baby dinosaur imprints onto his rescuer, and starts calling him "Mama Luigi," hence the episode title. Luigi runs into two dinosaurs, and initially thinks Yoshi is their baby (they're obviously of a totally different species, but I think we can cut the plumber some slack here), but runs away into a warp pipe when he learns they actually want to eat him.

They call the baby a "Yoshisaur," which is presumably how Luigi knows the newborn Yoshi's name. The Brooklynite ends up in a water world, where he dodges a Rip Van Fish and some Porcu-Puffers, and has the help of dolphins in escaping a Torpedo Ted. When they reach the shore, Luigi and Yoshi find themselves surrounded by Wigglers, which the dinosaur promptly eats.

It's at this point that Mario shows up, saying he's escaped from Bowser's "Coney Island Disco Palace," and that he wants to return with Luigi to rescue the Princess. Actually, before he can relay this information, he's eaten by Yoshi, but the dinosaur decides he doesn't like the taste. The three make it into the Neon Castle, and during the song, Luigi is crushed by a giant spike and flattened. Mario reinflates him with a balloon, which is really more the sort of physics you'd see in a Wario game, but I don't think those existed yet at this point. When they reach the throne room, Yoshi eats everything in sight, including the throne. Bowser shows up and sends Mechakoopas after the intruders, but Yoshi eats those as well. He then uses his tongue to take a key from King Koopa's hand, and spitting it into a keyhole results in him, Mario, Luigi, and the Princess all returning to Dome City. Boy, these magic keys sure are convenient! Note that Dome City was deserted when the Marios got there, and there's no indication as to what happened to the cave people or how they were restored. Yeah, I know the focus of this episode was the bond between Luigi and Yoshi, but it left a lot of unanswered questions. Also perhaps worth mentioning is that the baby Yoshi eats more than five enemies, but doesn't grow to full size.

One thing I never really got about the Mario cartoons is why they never really had proper season premieres or finalés. The Writers' Bible for the Super Mario Bros. 3 cartoon reports that Bowser had been sent to a Banishment Zone but managed to escape, but we never see this. Why aren't Mouser and Triclyde working for him anymore, and why did he suddenly start involving his kids in his schemes? This could have made for an interesting transitional episode, but we didn't get anything of the sort. Yeah, I'm probably asking too much of a cheap cartoon cooked up to advertise Nintendo games, but it's not like that would have taken any more work than any other episode, right?

Anyway, since that's it for this show, here's a poll to see what I should cover next. I doubt anyone really cares, but if you have any opinion at all, you might as well voice it.

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