1. Sweet Seymour Skinner’s Baadasssss Song (Season 5)

2. Marge Be Not Proud (Season 7)

3. Lemon of Troy (Season 6)

4. Itchy & Scratchy Land (Season 6)

5. The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show (Season 8 )

This list is done in honor of the 20th Anniversary of The Simpsons.  Which Fox celebrated 24 days after the 20th anniversary of the first episode (12/14/89) or 4 days too early for the 20th anniversary of the second episode (1/14/90).  Of course, they’re also really late for the 20th anniversary of the first Simpsons’ short on the Tracey Ullman Show (4/19/87). Of course, Fox also celebrated the 302nd episode as the 300th so clearly math is not one of their specialties.

If I can keep speaking about The Simpsons, my mom recently pointed out that I can always tie things back to The Simpsons.  And while I admit to this, it’s for a good reason.  The show has simply covered so much ground that of course they’ve touched on everything and so the show can always be brought up.  There is a joke in the movie “You’ve Got Mail” that men can bring up The Godfather in any situation.  Maybe so, probably not as much as The Simpsons.  And in my defense, I’m not the only one who finds the Simpsons’ useful in everyday life.

Also, when I say I love this show, I mean that I loved this show.  I’ve got the first 8 seasons on dvd and that’s all I need.  I haven’t watched new episodes of the show in years at least five years.  Before that I suffered through a few seasons waiting for King of the Hill to start and hoping it wouldn’t be too rough on me.  I just looked at the list of season 9 episodes while putting together this list and saw that of the 25 episodes in that set, there are only four (The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson, Treehouse of Horror VIII, The Joy of Sect, Das Bus) that I like.  I knew I stopped there for a reason.

1. The Manhunt (Season 1)
2. Stranger in Town (Season 1)
3. Opie the Birdman (Season 4)
4. Barney and the Choir (season 2)
5. The Loaded Goat (Season 3)

Here’s something new for the site.  Each Friday I’ll list my five favorite things of a certain topic.  To kick things off I’ve got my favorite people that directed a Warner Brothers cartoon, in honor of the marathon on Cartoon Network.  So without further ado they are…

1. Chuck Jones

2. Friz Freleng

3. Tex Avery

4. Robert McKimson

5. Bob Clampett

Though I can hardly believe it, 2009 is practically over.  Which means it’s time for me to once again look over the books I read and see what’s on The Dropping Block.

Before I look at the titles themselves, my overall impression is to note that there are fewer comics listed here than previously.  Also my general feeling for the comics below is less enthusiasm than I’ve had in the past.  And I’m not alone in this line of thinking.  There are many books that I actively look forward too, but many that I slog through and hope things improve.  I’m also looking for some new book to come up and demand my readership, but there isn’t a whole lot out there that inspires those feelings.
read more from "Dropping Block – December 2009"

Of all the movies being remade by Hollywood right now, I’m surprised that “Robin and the 7 Hoods” hasn’t been. In this economy and era of Ponzie Schemes it would be a big hit with people.

In the last few weeks I’ve grown quite attached to the tv show Pawn Stars.  It’s a fun show with colorful characters, retail “fun”, and a dash of facts.
At some point in each episode, after having an item’s authenticity proven, the pawn shop’s co-owner Rick will say some variation of, “I really want this.”  While watching the most recent episode I remarked to my wife, “I wonder how tempting it would be to keep the neat stuff they buy for themselves and not resell it.”  But Colleen pointed out that the logistical reasons of why he wouldn’t want to keep the treasures they come across (the cost and the storage), but she also nailed the most important factor: there will always be newer, cooler stuff coming in to the store.
And as cool as it would be to own General Griswold’s West Point cadet jacket, how much difference is there between saying “I bought General Griswold’s West Point cadet jacket” and “I bought General Griswold’s West Point cadet jacket and it’s on that hanger”?  You’ve still had the experience of buying the jacket and owning it and no longer owning it will not take that away.  Besides then you can say, “Then I sold it and bought this World War I knife.”  And really, how many people will be excited to see a hundred year old jacket on a hanger?
This has made me think about my own West Point jackets.  And while I don’t have any actual ancient jackets, I do have lots of things that I really enjoyed owning but have no more use for: dozens of books I don’t plan on rereading (or reading in some shameful cases), toys that aren’t played with, chotchkies hidden away in boxes, clothes that just aren’t in my regular rotation, and many other examples.  And so, I need to get rid of these things.  Craigslist, eBay and Goodwill, here they come!

After reading through the just released second volume of Alan Moore’s “The Saga of Swamp Thing” I naturally felt inclined to reread some of Walt Kelly’s Pogo.  I have one tattered barely held together copy of a Simon & Schuster reprint book from the 70s that my dad gave me, The Impollutable Pogo.  I enjoyed it as I knew I would and it got me looking into the upcoming Complete editions that Fantagraphics are working on.  But I hope they don’t reprint all the strips and call that good.  In the old reprint books, Walt Kelly added extra panels that were often just an additional gag continuing a joke past the space he had available in the newspaper strip.  It would be a shame if The Complete Pogo missed out on all this additional great work!