VLVL: assorted trivia

[Matt Treyvaud]

Don't know if anyone's brought this up before, but there was a 1985 sequel
to "The Wizard of Oz" called "Return to Oz" which featured monsters called
"wheelers". They had wheels instead of hands and feet, and basically
filled the gap left by the lack of winged monkeys. I don't know if they
were in any of the books, though, and I also can't think of any motivation
for Mr P. to name Zoyd after them (they were pretty pissweak even as
villainous hordes go). But, uh.. there was a big gap between the two
movies, just like there was between GR and VL? Well, it's kind of a cool
coincidence anyway. 

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And a 60's-anostalgia quote for you all, from "Imperial Caddy" by Joe
Queenan (Picador, 1992), p32-33:

 "Axiomatically, this leads us to the conclusion that there is a
 formidable, well-camoflaged, but nonetheless logical, explanation for Dan
 Quayle's selection as George Bush's running mate ... [t]he explanation is
 not political, economic, racial, or even religious. No, it is cultural.
 Of all the baby-boomer politicians who have been elected to high national
 office in the past decade, Dan Quayle is the one who least reflects the
 values of the Haight-Ashbury generation. A man who was obviously not born
 to be wild, Dan Quayle was tapped for the second slot on the GOP ticket
 because George Bush wanted to capture the votes of all those Americans
 who loath the 1960s and wish that they had never happened. Dan Quayle's
 ascendancy to the second highest office in the land is a subliminal
 expression of Middle America's intense desire not only to repudiate the
 1960s but to purge any evidence that they ever happened." 

Queenan's a political commentator, not a sociologist, and at any rate
"Imperial Caddy" is definitely marketed as a comedy non-fiction title, so
take what he says with a grain of salt, I guess. Just thought it might
interest some, given the recent discussion.

Matt

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 Matt Treyvaud, Abbr. Prim.                       (R.I.P. Kerry Thornley)
 khidr at kosher.com                           cthulhu at aardvark.apana.org.au
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     'You know what this means...                             ///`/()\'\\\
 The Comedy Bunch are going to have a field day.' - Mike Moore   /____\
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