Somebody Call Me A Doctor

Somebody Call Me A Doctor                                     796

Thursday, April 21st, 2005-1:04 A.M. (Friday morning, technically)

What a wonderful week it's been, spending time home with my lovely wife and daughter; everyone's sick, there's some sort of flu or cold going around, and we got it good.  Harmony's been running a fever, so of course, as new parents, we're freaking out about it, but a visit to our pediatrician today put our minds (mostly) at ease.  Babies are little miracles...they can run temperatures that would kill most adults, or at least leave us dehydrated, and twisted into knots in our beds.

I did a show tonight at Milestones for the Comedy Block Party, and it was a lively affair with Matt Rohr kicking things off, Buffalo's Jim Meisner in the second slot, yours truly alienating and causing discomfort to the audience in the coveted third spot, and then the lovely and talented Marianne Sierk batting clean-up, and Josh Wade from NYC closing it up.  It was a fun show all around, I decided to veer away from my "tried and true" material and go wacky with some new stuff, including a small dollop of Bush-bashing political material up front.  Go figure, there were some righties in the room, including a guy who looked like Dick Cheney.  I was happy to point that out, and then later, Josh told him he looked like the new Pope.  This guy got no love.  Hey, point blank, what the hell are you doing in Milestones on a Thursday night, old dude?  'Cause Matt Rohr gave him and his family free tickets to the show, that's why!  Attaboy, Rohr!

I stopped into the Book Rack on West Henrietta Road yesterday, and picked up the new Justice League of America comic....they've really got me on the hook with a 7-part story pitting the JLA against the Crime Syndicate of Amerika...the evil duplicates.  They've always been my favorite bunch of bad guys, because they basically come from a planet full of bad and evil people, so they don't even know they're evil, they're just going along with what's accepted.  It's a whole new angle on the good guy/bad guy thing, and they're written with just a level of evil that is deeper than anything you've ever seen, it's captivating to see how far the writers take these characters.  For a comic-book-head like myself, it's the ultimate high, and it's been going on for the last six months!  The best part is that next month when the story arc concludes, a new arc begins which pits Batman agains the rest of the League.  Apparently, at one point in the League's history, they lobotomized some super-villains to help in their rehabilitation, and Batman didn't want to take part, so they erased the part of his memory where the lobotomies were performed, and those memories were recently restored, and now he's out for vengeance!  I can't wait....it's going to probably take me into this Christmas by the time the arc is complete, and I'm totally psyched.  The nice thing about being a touring comic is that I always have time during the day to go to the local comic book shop, wherever I am, and pick up the new issue of whatever titles I'm reading.  Right now, it's JLA, Exiles (a group of alternate-reality X-Men) and The New Invaders (World War II era Marvel heroes set in modern times).  Hey, a little arrested development never hurt anybody!

O.K., I'm gonna go make sure Harmony Rose is settled down to sleep, and Pamela Ruth isn't on deathwatch for her.  Tomorrow should be improved conditions for everyone involved.

Rest easy, take Vitamin C, and be healthy.  Then tend to someone you love.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY