Keskustelujen arkisto

Now that I know it, let me please take a moment to celebrate the
Birthday (May 5th, 1905) of a great man who gave us so many wonderful
Stories of Mickey, Goofy and the gang! Happy Birthday to the Mouse Man,
Floyd Gottfredson. He may no longer be with us in the flesh, but his
Mouse Tales will last forever! Thank you Floyd Gottfredson for all
you've left us!

> From: JALustig at aol.com
> I don't know about the others, but Van Horn's birthday is February 15, 1939.
>
> John Lustig

Thank you, John.

Rich Bellacera
xephyr at jps.net

OLIVIER to OLAF SOLSTRAND, 23-04-2001:

>> HOW was Little Helper invented?

> Geoffrey Blum wrote something about Helper in GG album 6 of the
> CBL in Color ("A Glance at Gyro's Helper"):
>
> "Did Gyro invent Helper? In Barks' tales the subject never arises.
> Yet when Gyro attempts to constryct other mecahnical men he
> comes up with much clunkier, more limited creations. The implicit
> sophistication of Helper's design and programming would seem
> to be far beyond what Gyro is capable of in this area. Given this, one
> might wonder if maybe Helper just showed up on Gyro's doorstep,
> an electromechanical foundling of unknown origin that the inventor
> welcomed into his home."

Very interesting! I've always *assumed* that Gyro's little helper was
Gyro's invention, but after reading this information I now doubt it.

The helper debuted in the singing cats story (US 15) and it works on
batteries, which can even be recharged by lightning without destroying
the little helper itself (US 47).

In one story, "Milktime Melodies" (OS 1047), the helper is shown being able
to replace its own lightbulb head, which might suggest that the lightbulb
has no other function than just being a lightbulb. It is used as such in
"Firefly Tracker" (US 27). In "Milktime Melodies", Gyro discusses the
helper with Grandma, who objects to Gyro's (in her eyes) cruel plan of
removing the helper's lightbulb in order to demagnetize it.

The helper is so advanced that it seems to have "consciousness".
In "Krankenstein Gyro" (US 26), the helper is shown *dreaming* of a
female helper (which seems to suggest that the helper itself is
intended as a male).

I don't know the definition of "consciousness". Animals appear to have
dreams, but do they have "consciousness" according to that definition?
In recent news I've heard that investigation has learnt that dolphins
seem to recognize themselves when looking into a mirror and that this
could be a proof of dolphins having "consciousness".

Some stories show the helper as having thoughts. In "Man Versus Machine"
(US 47), the helper even seems to get emotional about not being able
to help Gyro suffering in the desert.

The helper sometimes has independent adventures within Gyro's stories,
like the gold find machine story (US 18), which seems to suggest that
the helper is capable of making choices of its own.

Do these examples make the helper fit within the definition of
"consciousness"? Are there other Barks stories which might "prove" it
(or the contrary)?

In this email I've used the word "consciousness" between quotations,
because I don't think that we as humans will be able to *really* prove
the existance/meaning of true consciousness. (Maybe creatures with true
consciousness do not intentionally destroy the surface of the planet they
live on, for example?)

Maybe we're all just *dreaming* that we live on Earth, while in fact
we're living somewhere else instead? :-)

Best wishes,

--- Daniel

OLIVIER to GILLES MAURICE, 23-04-2001:

>> I remember a one page Barksian story where Daisy's phone number is
>> given, but I can't remember where. could somebody help me?

> Sure-- but don't tell Donald! ; )
> Inside back cover U$ 7 (Sept - Nov '54):
> Citrus 2437

What does "Citrus" mean (as part of a phone number)?

Best wishes,

--- Daniel

> What does "Citrus" mean (as part of a phone number)?

Words were commonly used in phone numbers in the U.S., until well into the
1960s. They referred to the names of neighborhood telephone exchanges, which
local calls would be routed through. Usually (but not always) they referred
to something about the neighborhood, so I guess Daisy's neighborhood had a
lot of citrus trees or the streets were paved with tangelos or something
like that. They were translated into numbers by associating the numbers 2-9
on the phone dial with three letters each (two were dropped from the
alphabet, X and I forget which other), and dialing the first two as part of
the number. "Citrus", or "CI", would have translated as "24". The
word/number combination was usually rendered in print with both of the first
letters capitalized -- thus, Daisy's number would have been written as
"CItrus 2437".

Until the 1950s, a U.S. phone number consisted of a word followed by four
digits. When we reached a point where six digits weren't enough to give a
unique number to each phone in a local dialing area, a digit was added after
the exchange, with a hyphen separating it from the main number -- thus,
Daisy's number might have become "CItrus 5-2437". Later, as old-style
telephone exchanges went out of use, the word was replaced by the numbers,
so Daisy would have given her number as "245-2437". Even today, U.S. 7-digit
phone numbers are usually given with hyphens between the third and fourth,
tho it's been decades since the first part referred to a specific
neighborhood.

Which reminds me of an old joke. Guy calls Information (they call it
Directory Assistance now) for a number, and the one they give him is
"CApital 5-9020", and he says "How do you make a capital 5?" Of course, this
joke no longer works, because by the time he opened his mouth, the operator,
if any, would be long gone.

(No, this is not off-topic. It's as a Barks annotation.) (Okay, the joke
is.)

Quack, Don

Today in Toons: Every day's an anniversary. What's today?
http://www.toonopedia.com/today.htm

...It really ended before I was aware of it , but US
phone numbers used to be based on this concept of
" Beechwood 45789 " ( To reference the old song ,
recorded by the Marvelettes , of that title ! ) ,
where ( I...believe ! ) , where the first two letters
of the word were , of course , the first two numbers
of the phone # . It ended when I was a little kid ,
before I was aware of it , really , and I was born in
1960 , so we're talking a while ago here . So ,
whatever
" CI " is , on the phone number/letter spread ( I'm
not near a phone now ! ) , is what Daisy's # would (
there ) be ...I trust that European phones follow that

( generally ) " three letters to each number " pattern
or everyone non-American's really gonna be confused !

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OLIVIER, 25-04-2001:

> The WDC&S ten-pagers usually had no title.
> There were a few notable exceptions at the beginning, with a strip of
> art at the top of the pages or a title panel (ie art with the title
> but not the first panel of the story, like a cover).
>
> (WDC&S 34, July '43) No title, just the strip of art at the top
> (WDC&S 35, Aug '43) Same as above (same strip too)

"Donald Duck" is lettered into it. Who could have been the artist of this
strip? Was the art made for the strip or has it been taken from a story?

> (WDC&S 36, Sept '43) "The Mighty Trapper" (strip of art with title)
> (WDC&S 38, Nov '43) "Good Neighbors" (strip of art with title)
> (WDC&S 39, Dec '43) "Salesman Donald" (strip of art with title)
> (WDC&S 40, Jan '44) "Snow Fun" (strip of art with title)
> (WDC&S 41, Feb '44) "The Duck in the Iron Pants" (strip of art with
> title)

Could Barks have been the artist of the strips for these stories?

The "Good Neighbors" strip is rather creative, using a garden-hose for
the title lettering. At the right of the garden-hose, Neigbor Jones
opens the faucet. At the left of the garden-hose, Donald gets the
water into his face.

> (WDC&S 42, March '44) "Kite Weather" (title only)

The story was a victim of shrinking comic-book size, caused by paper
restrictions during World War II. It was drawn as a three-tier ten-pager,
but published as a four-tier seven-pager. The art was cut up, panels were
trimmed or expanded. In some panels, non-Barks drawings were added to
fill in the empty spaces caused by the changing of Barks' panel layout.
Apparently, no panels were omitted. (Source: Kim Weston article "My Secret
Life By Scrooge McDuck - Or, The Unpublished Carl Barks", 1975.)

Maybe this story originally was accompanied with a strip on top of
the pages, which was removed during the cutting process?

The comic "Mickey and Donald" No. 15, 1989, published an attempt
in converting "Kite Weather" into a three-tier ten-pager again.

(Note: In The Carl Barks Library, the bottom half of published page 6
is redrawn. This redrawn art was used for the ten-page reconstruction.)

If the story originally contained a strip on top of page 2 to 10,
maybe the vertical size of the reconstructed panels is now slightly
too large? Or was it taken into account that these pages may have
contained strips on top of them?

> (WDC&S 43, April '44) "Three Dirty Little Ducks" (title panel)

"The Duck in the Iron Pants" (WDC 41) also contains a preview title panel
which isn't part of the story-line itself. (These preview title panels
can be removed without having any effect on the story-line.)

> (WDC&S 44, May '44) "The Mad Chemist (title panel)

This title panel seems to be part of the story-line. The nephews are
playing with their chemical set. In panel 1.2, Donald comes by and
asks them "what's cooking?"

> (WDC&S 46, July '44) "Camera Crazy" (title only)
>
> Then (unless I missed some), nothing till
> (WDC&S 229, Oct '59) "The good Deeds" (title, but a machine-like font)
> (WDC&S 230, Nov '59) "Black Wednesday" (title, but a machine-like font)
> (WDC&S 231, Dec '59) "The Wax Museum" (title, but a machine-like font)
> (WDC&S 232, Jan '60) "Unde the Polar Ice" (title)

An interesting exception is "Lost Peg Leg Mine" (DD 52), which originally
was intended for WDC 203, at the time when WDC stories were still untitled.
The title seems to be lettered manually. (No machine-like font.)

This story was submitted on June 14, 1956. In a letter dated June 22,
1956, editor Chase Craig informed Barks about the change and asked for
another story for WDC. The WDC stories of that time were untitled, so
maybe the title "Lost Peg Leg Mine" was made up by the editors?

The watchful parent story for WDC 228 was submitted after the stories
published in WDC 229 and WDC 230, but it is untitled. So, maybe the
machine-like font titles were made up by the editors?

If so, then "Under the Polar Ice" (WDC 232) may have been the first
WDC title made up by Barks himself (after "Camera Crazy", WDC 46).
Apart from the creative lettering, the title "Under the Polar Ice"
sounds more exciting than "The Good Deeds", "Black Wednesday", and
"The Wax Museum", which only decribe the story's theme.
This is just a guess, though.

At this time, Barks' stories were printed in a different order than
they were submitted. So, maybe the editor felt the need to identify
the untitled ten-pagers by adding titles to them, making it easier
for them to identify the stories? If so, maybe they asked the
WDC contributing artists to add titles to their future stories
themselves, which, in Barks' case, started with "Under the Polar Ice"?
Again, just a guess.

> Does anyone know what prompted the changes (no more titles in the
> early years, then titles again from late '59 onward)? If titles has
> started reappearing in 1952/3, I would have guessed the decision
> was influenced by the appearance of the U$ comic books, to make
> the whole coherent, but there's a goid 7-year gap in-between.

To find an answer to this question, I think non-WDC stories and
stories by other artists also need to be investigated.

For example, a lot of Barks' One Shot stories do contain a title.
The first two US main stories (OS 386 and OS 456) have a title, but
the third story (OS 495) up to the eigth main story (US 8) are untitled.
Starting with US 9, all following main stories are titled.

Best wishes,

--- Daniel

Subject: Daisy's phone number
Regarding Daniel's questions:

>> Inside back cover U$ 7 (Sept - Nov '54):
>> Citrus 2437

>What does "Citrus" mean (as part of a phone number)?

In the USA before 1960, the central office portion of a phone number was
given a name for the public to use, to make it easier to remember the first
three digits to dial. Based on the letters marked on telephones, the number
CITrus 2437 would actually be dialed as 248-2437. Before dials were added
to phones, you just told the operator to connect you to Citrus 2437.

Regarding the term snafu, your dictionary has been edited to be
politically correct. In my past connection with the military, the letter
"f" invariably represented the much ruder word you had in mind.

Sonia

Message: 4
From: "Daniel van Eijmeren" <dve at kabelfoon.nl>
To: <dcml at stp.ling.uu.se>
Subject: Snafu
Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 07:39:34 +0200

KRISTIAN PEDERSEN, 24-04-2001:

> Another term I discovered via Barks was "snafu", which my dictionary
> told me was military slang for "situation normal, all fouled up".
> I was surprised to see that expression in a Disney comic, as "fouled"
> in that context seemed very much like a euphemism for an altogether
> ruder word (I think it was in one of Barks' later stories that
> I saw it).

Does someone know in which story the word "snafu" was used?

Best wishes,

--- Daniel

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