Ambassador's Dispatch

January 28, 2001          vol.1 no.3

        Week three of these updates. I managed to get a couple more reviews up during the week, so I'm going to lean on that a little since I'm working on wrapping my 60th zine for Legends APA. Our deadline for this next issue is next Saturday, February 3rd, so I need to get it ready for copying and shipping soon if I want to avoid having to send it by something faster than USPS Priority.

        Sixty zines for a bi-monthly APA. That's 10 years' worth. If I hadn't taken nearly two years off a while back I'd have reached this at the end of 1999… but I needed the break then, and I've made it there now. Well, I soon shall if I don't take too much time here.

        Since I'm marking this occasion already, I'll go the extra step and make the pitch.

        Creating a zine for each issue of Legends has been, almost without exception, a joy. I've met some wonderfully creative and insightful people during my time in the apa, and even a few who've become true friends.

        If you have opinions, drawings, stories, and/or even full comics you'd like to share in a bi-monthly forum with a group not to exceed 35 people, then take a look at the Legends section of my site, and then please send me an email to ask about joining us. Next October the apa will be celebrating it's 15th anniversary.  Not too shabby.

        Here it is, Superbowl Sunday, and I'm reminded again of how few Big Deal cultural touchstones I share with most of my supposed peers. I didn't grow up in an atmosphere that even acknowledged spectator sports, other than to express annoyance when games would pre-empt shows we liked. The notion of rooting for "my" team is utterly alien to me. Even back in school I was unnerved by pep rallies and "spirit" days.  There's something in the cheering mindset that reminds me instantly of Nuremburg.

        Oh, I know, I know, that's harsh and way over the top, but if anything I'd have to say I can accept the thought and spirit that went into puffing up all those brown shirts more than I can people connecting themselves and their esteem to people with whom they share little to nothing with but a decision by themselves or their ancestors to move to a given locale. Please, don't think I'm endorsing any nazi politics or ideology - I'm not - it's just that at least they were cheering for something that had more to do with themselves, their land and their lives than some armchair quarterbacks roaring for "their" team. The same goes for hockey, basketball, soccer, and the Grand Old Game itself, the snorefest called baseball.

        But, hey, to each his own. If you happen to enjoy it, more power to you. I've left you one more spot on the bleachers of your choice. One could turn all this back on me and ask why I should care about a legion of fictional characters and their too-mutable adventures, and it would be a valid question. I simply find them more interesting. More extraordinary.

        I'll see you here next week.

                                                                                                     Send mail to: Mike Norton

                                                                                                     Take a look back at: Ambassador's Dispatch no.1                                                                                                                                              Ambassador's Dispatch no.2

                                                                                                      ..or go Back To The Embassy!