by John Walters

 

Starting Five

Marvel Us

Comic book super hero Stan Lee, the wizard who created The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man,  The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Black Panther and Captain America, among others, passes from this universe at the age of 95.

Lee was born in Manhattan and first grew up in an apartment on the corner of 98th Street and West End Avenue, not far from MH world headquarters. He graduated high school early, served in the Army Signal Corps in World War II, and loved writing short stories. He was thinking of changing careers when his boss at Atlas Comics, trying to find an answer for DC Comics’ success with the Justice League and the Flash, asked him to come up with some super heroes.

On the advice of his wife, Lee created characters, beginning with the Fantastic Four, who unlike most super heroes to that point, were also flawed humans (Batman would’ve made a perfect Lee character). The rest is comic book history.

Lee, born Stanley Lieber, was Jewish. You wonder how many Marvel fan boys may also have a little bit of white nationalist in them. You wonder if they realize that most of their comic book heroes were created in the mind of a Jewish man.

Quoting Stan Lee:

 “Another definition of a hero is someone who is concerned about other people’s well-being, and will go out of his or her way to help them — even if there is no chance of a reward. That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.”

2. Bugaboo in Baraboo

Add “Prom Nazis” to the heap of things plaguing the country right now, though I think I could shop a treatment of “Prom Nazis” to AMC and we could give them 10 episodes for Sunday nights for the summer of ’19. I can even imagine Chris Hardwick hosting “Talking Nazis” live immediately after.

Should we take this photo, from the Baraboo (Wisconsin) High School junior prom last spring, seriously? Yes, and no. No, because high school boys make insensitive jokes hourly without truly grasping the weight behind their actions, and yes because many of these same boys will just grow older without really ever growing up. And they’ll have more money and less joy and use their power to punish others.. And if they have less money and less joy, look out.

And yes, the kid bottom center in the classic Trump suit is making an alt-white signal with his right hand. Also, you see the boy on the top left who is not smiling and not making a sign. He’ll grow up to create a billion-dollar artificial intelligence company.

3. Paradise Lost

Paradise, California, located roughly four hours north of the Bay Area, is mostly destroyed in the wake of both the largest and deadliest fire in state history. More than 40 people perished in the fire, many of them stuck in traffic gridlock as they attempted to flee.

If it seems as if wildfires in California have become more common, and coming closer to humans, in the past half-decade, well, you’re right. Part of that is the expansion of residential areas into what was wilderness. Part of it is drought.

4. Cuse Control

Last May I got on the horn with Syracuse coach Dino Babers and quarterback Eric Dungey and you know what? I really liked them. Like, REALLY liked them. Dino, even if he’s a stranger to Mike Francesa, is just a swell egg. The son of a career Navy man, he grew up mostly in San Diego and then attended college in Hawaii, which is odd because he doesn’t surf. In fact, he can’t even swim. Seriously.

This fall he’s got his daughter and her new husband living at his house, which is odd cuz the son-in-law is also the Orange’s starting left tackle. As for Dungey, he’s been almost criminally overlooked the past few seasons. A senior with NFL size, he’s a poor man’s Pat Mahomes.

So I wish really good things for the 8-2 Orange, who barely lost at Clemson and only in overtime to Pitt. Except maybe not this Saturday in the Bronx.

What’s for sure, though, is that every single college football fan who doesn’t root for Notre Dame is on the Syracuse bandwagon this weekend, because they’re the only team (at least this week) who can throw the playoff into chaos. The following weekend Ohio State will have its chance (hosting Michigan) and then the week after that Georgia (against Bama).

This Saturday, though, almost everyone who loves college football is a Syracuse fan. And it’s hard to blame them.

5. Riggo

No, John Riggins did not die or anything. While we were not paying close attention a couple nights ago, one YouTube video bled into another and suddenly we were transported back to a time when John Riggins was the toast of New York (on a few subpar Jets teams…stop us if you’ve heard that one). And with NFL Films creator Steve Sabol interviewing him, it only gets better.

The native Kansan was a true original. Tougher than the rest, a white Jim Brown, and a guy who sat out a year and then actually returned, after the age of 30, better than he’d been before. Listening to him, you can tell he’s a very smart man, if still just one of the guys. Listen how quickly he furnishes an answer to Sabol’s terrific question: “Finish this sentence for me: ‘The mark of a great running back is…. ________?”

It’s the correct answer, too. Hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Music 101

My Back Pages

Roger McGuinn (The Byrds), Tom Petty, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, the song’s writer, Bob Dylan, and finally George Harrison taking a verse apiece on Dylan’s 1964 classic nearly thirty years later at Madison Square Garden. Time capsule stuff. Dylan went 24 years after writing this tune before first performing it live in 1988.

Remote Patrol

A Streetcar Named Desire

8 p.m. TCM

“HEY, STELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!”