Oz in a Facebook Game

Hi all, Laura again.

I have gotten myself down to only two Facebook games, and hopefully will eventually not play any at all, but one of the two is called Bushwhacker and is a fun little flash-based adventure game in which you are a little warrior running around, um, whacking bushes. With a sword. To scare up prizes, and gold, and other fun stuff. And you solve puzzles, and meet characters, and go on quests. Ahem. Anyway, the game just introduced a new module, available to players level 16 and above, that is set in a faraway land that you have to reach by balloon...

So far I've met some familiar-looking friends, and gone on a couple of little side quests to solve puzzles. I haven't finished the module yet, but I figured I'd mention it in case anyone else wants to check it out and visit this faraway land, too.

Musical Reviews

Comparing Wicked to Comic Books. Can't explain it. You'll just have to read. Lots of YouTube linked goodness.

Michael-Sensei on Oz

Oz in Japan. Michael-Sensei is a Canadian teaching English in Japan, and here he covers a couple of Oz adaptations. The book he has scans of at the bottom is one that he just sent to Eric and I, along with a translation, to our delight!

Hmmmm. I wonder if Michael-Sensei could find the anime adaptation of L. Frank Baum's Life and Adventures of Santa Claus? It was a series called Shounen Santa no Daibôken ("Young Santa's Adventures") in 1994. I've been hunting for it, in Japanese OR English, without success for many years.

Small Wizard of Oz Sighting

August 13th 2007, The Colbert Report. Threat Down. Number Two.

"Last week a marmoset was found hiding underneath a man's hat on a flight from Florida to New York. This comes as no surprise, folks, it's well documented that monkeys have an affinity for men in hats (picture of Curious George) and for flying (this image)."

Oz Reference

In today's Flying McCoy's.

The Daily Show References Oz and Oz

Last night's Daily Show had a clip of White House Spokesman Tony Snow saying that Iraq is not Oz, to which Stewart played a couple of clips to show that, eh, maybe it IS Oz, depending on which Oz you are talking about. Oz references start about 1 minute into the piece (May 11th 2007 Mess O'Potamia). The video will start after an annoying advertisement.

Oz sighting

I thought I'd blogged about this earlier, but I can't seem to find it. No problem, I was going to recap it anyway, so now I'll just start from scratch. A few weeks ago, someone on the Oz Club's message board noticed something interesting in a movie he caught on the Hallmark Channel. When I read the note, I did some quick research and found that another showing was coming up later that morning. So I quickly set the TiVo to record it, and now I can share the whole thing with you.

The movie is Samantha: An American Girl Holiday, and yes, it's based on the very popular doll series. This one is set at the turn of the century, and early in the movie, Samantha gets a new book. Guess what it is? I'll let you take a look at the pictures...

As far as I could tell, the book only appears in the first fifteen minutes or so, then they get on with the actual meat of the story. Still, very cool.

Oz Sighting

Rubes today has an Oz theme.

Also, Edge City had Oz references yesterday, as Abby wakes up from her historical dream.

Oz in Jeopardy! yet again

I've seen lots of Oz clues on Jeopardy! before, but I'm not sure I've ever seen quite so many! On tonight's show, when the Double Jeopardy! category "Literature of the 19-Oughts" was revealed, I have a feeling Oz would pop up. Sure enough, the $400 clue at the top was:

Martin, the challenger on the far right, correctly responded with, "Who is Baum?" and Alex confirmed, "Yes, Frank Baum."

Today's Oz Comic

Today's Bliss has an Oz reference. I had to look up Manolo Blahnik on Wikipedia to get the joke, but, hey, I've done the hard part for you. Go, enjoy!

Oz sightings

Oh, there are a lot of them to report on today. So let's get cracking, shall we?

SIGHTING: Way back on February 15, The Daily Show with John Stewart had an interesting quote about the debate in the House of Representatives for a non-binding resolution on Iraq. This comes from Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah):

Yesterday I had the opportunity of going back to Baltimore and watching a play, Wicked. ("Go on," John Stewart theatrically interjects.) And in the play, the main character, the male lead, Fiyero is in love with Elphaba. And she tries to distance herself from him by saying, "Yeah, but you're thoughtless and shallow." And Fiyero says, "I know, but I'm a deep shallow." This resolution is a deep shallow.

"The only thing I can say," adds Stewart, "is good thing he didn't get tickets to..." Um, a play I probably shouldn't talk about in a family friendly blog like this. So here's a link to the show's website (WARNING: Not work safe, and don't leet the kids see this!) On a side note: Hey, with that testimony, Wicked is now in the Congressional Record!

SIGHTING: Okay, who's the Oz fan now writing for Jeopardy!? Laura and I were eagerly looking forward to seeing the show last night, because word was that all of the categories in the Double Jeopardy round had to do with the X-Men. Yes, they did. (For the record, the categories were Wolverine, Storm, Magneto, Rogue, Colossus, and "X"-Men.) But before that, there was this $600 clue in the category Literary Baddies:



Sue, in the middle, rang in and asked, "Who is the Wicked Witch?" Alex prompted, "Of..." and Sue added, "...of the West?" Then, in Double Jeopardy, we got this $1600 clue in the category Storm, which is about storms in movies:



Defending champion Brad rang in immediately and got it right by asking, "What is 'Twister'?"

SIGHTING: Gili Bar-Hillel, Israel's biggest Oz fan, is in the news again, although yet again it's about her other job, translating the Harry Potter books into Hebrew. Man, it sounds like she's got some inside information that the rest of us will have to wait for until this summer. (Yes, I already have my copy on pre-order, and Laura's already on the wait list at the library.) So quit reading my stuff already and go read about her already. (UPDATE: Wow! This was even reported on in my local paper! Okay, yeah, it was a small blurb in the "Odds and Ends" section on page 2, two stories down from Britney Spears going back into rehab again, but still, I know her!)

SIGHTING: The folks at Illusive Arts putting together the Dorothy comic book seem to be following The Baum Bugle's publishing schedule, but at least they're kind enough to tell us. Yes, issue seven is coming out next week. Here's the press release.

No Ordinary Life...

The Seattle Times takes a look at Meinhardt Raabe.

Oz in Jeopardy! again

Wow, this has been a fun Teen Tournament on Jeopardy! this year. Tonight was the second Oz-themed clue of the tournament. In the category "Broadway," the $2000 clue was a picture of this issue of Playbill:

Alex read the clue: "It's the most bewitching musical on Broadway, and its Playbill cover is seen here." David was the first player to ring in, and he got it right by asking, "What is 'Wicked'?"

Oz on Jeopardy

I was rather preoccupied with the Aquaman reference earlier in the show, so it took Eric to point out the Oz reference which came on the very last clue of Double Jeopardy, the $400 clue in the "Not The Dreaded Spelling Category", in which all the questions were only two letters long.

The question for this one was, of course, "What is O-Z?" (They had to spell it, not say it). The first contestant to ring in got it right (by coincidence, he also was the contestant who got the Aquaman question correct).