Ossie the ostrich, more books, Mark Hamill

[Tabouli]

storm (in response to my derisive comment below):
>> Darryl Somers, begorrah!!!  Even his sidekick Ozzie the 
>>Ostrich (a wisecracking puppet) has more sex appeal...
>
>oh ... steady on there ... no you are right. and for those non-au 
>listers here's a pic of the man himself, 
>http://www.elliotgoblet.com.au/gallery/pages/01daryl_jpg.htm
>Darryl is the fellow on the left (I will never live this down!) 
>Tabouli's faviourite is the pink puppet.

Actually, as photos of Daryl (knew he spelt his name some funny way) go, that one's pretty flattering.. post grisly seventies mascara-ed chest hair and medallions with open shirt, pre his current incarnation as stout and greying with cheesy grin.  Though look at Ossie (I was sure it was double Z, to the extent of using this as my illustration for mocking English people who insist on spelling "Aussie" as "Ozzie"), though, eh?  Corr, wot a spunk (1980s Australian schoolyard slang)...

I'm one of the rare souls who actually prefers "Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason" to the original.  It's hard to beat that jail scene.  And in the 90s Britgirl comedies, "Getting Over It" by Anna Maxted is similarly hilarious, and one of the best tacklings of grief in popular fiction I've seen.

My childhood hero (if not crush) was Gerald Durrell, and I was grief-stricken that I never got to meet him before he died in 1995.  Marvellous man, flaws his biographies reveal notwithstanding.  Love those tales of his family in Greece...

Yes, Momo is wonderful, Barbara, better than the Neverending Story, IMO.  They did a film of Momo too, didn't they?  The idea makes me nervous, especially after the job Hollywood did on the NS.  I will never forgive them for the way they portrayed Falkor (he's a slender, pearly white dragon, not a lion-faced muppet!), and chopping my favorite scene from the book, which is the Perilin the Night Forest/Many Coloured Death cycle.  Do you have the NS in the original red and green printing, Barbara?  I managed to get one...

On children's fantasy, The Ordinary Princess is lovely, Robert C. O'Brien is a great author, and I think Terry Pratchett's greatest works are not his Discworld books (which are good, but getting out of hand) but his Nomes children's series, Truckers, Diggers and Wings.  If I were designing cross-cultural training for children, I'd be tempted to use them as set texts!  His Johnny series has its moments too... anyone for interesting comparisons between Hermione and Kirsty?  Or Hermione and Grimma?  Terry's never quite mastered the art of the strong female character, IMHO - you can see him struggling (seeing the artist's hand in his work, tsk).

I fancied Mark Hamill too.  I thought the big dent in his movie career was caused by a nasty car accident between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back?  A fan told me they had to reconstruct his face (which you can see if you watch him closely in the movie) and it kinda wrecked his pretty-boy actor future.  Hated Dogma.  All that gratuitous violence after the sharp, ironic wit of Hal's other films.




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