wcw43921

Colonel Hogan, I think, would have a massive amount of Persuasion.  Coupled with Klink's Psych Complication: Extremely Gullible, that's how Hogan was able to facilitate the vast majority of his schemes.
 
I think all the Heroes had the Charm Skill to an extent, coupled with the Complication: Skirt Chaser.  For LeBeau it was a matter of national honor to "chase skirts"--Frenchmen being the kings of love and romance.  Of course, Colonel Hogan was the most successful at it, he was, after all, the star of the show.
 
As I remember, Carter was the demolitions expert, Kinchloe was communications, Newkirk was the safecracker and card shark, LeBeau was the chef (useful when bribing Germans with food, especially Schultz) and Hogan was the mastermind, whose brilliant schemes always worked.  (They might have gotten complicated, but as the English say, it all got sorted in the end.)
 
Hope this helps.

Last night my wife asked me if I had seen the dog bowl.
 
I said, "I had no idea he could do that."

I met a microbiologist.
 
He was much taller than I expected.
 

Ultimate Spider-Man Collection to Be Sold Under Heart-Wrenching Circumstances
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/ultimate-spider-man-collection-to-be-sold-under-heart-wrenching-circumstances

https://moneywise.com/a/boots-theory-of-socioeconomic-unfairness
 
Also, people will buy a product just to help a cause they believe in. It happens all the time.

Don't make umber angry.

You wouldn't like it when it's angry.

Tjack, I like that first line in your rant--I may steal it and modify it for my own purposes.
 
That said--I actually think Stark publicly revealing himself to the world as Iron Man helped his company's stock rather than hurt it.  Remember after he got back from Afghanistan how he announced Stark International would no longer build weapons--that would have depressed the share value, sending it perhaps not into a death spiral, but a steady decline.  Announcing himself as the first publicly active superhero since Captain America would have, I think, sent the share value through the proverbial roof--and that was before the licensing and merchandising deals.  We saw it in Iron Man 2--he wasn't just a superhero, he was a rock star superhero.  ("That's someone like Elvis Presley, or The Beatles, or Jimi Hendrix--" "I know what a rock star is."  "Of course.  Sorry, Steve.")  And I would imagine saving New York City along with the Avengers sent the stock valuation rising even higher--which would probably make it harder for him to buy back his stock if he ever decided to take the company back private.  As for endangering his friends and employees--that's a problem for any superhero, whether their identity is known or not.  Friends, family, bystanders, sidekicks--they're all targets when the arch-enemy comes to call.
 
Yes, Tony Stark has his flaws.  (Although I will point out that his PTSD was aggravated by Wanda's mental influence.) But if I remember right--that was the point.  When Stan Lee created the Marvel Universe as we know it today--in partnership with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett and a host of others--he wanted to create characters he could relate to, who had flaws, idiosyncrasies, responsibilities beyond fighting the forces of evil.  I've heard it said that "Superman is who we want to be--Spider-Man is who we are."  I disagree with that.  To my mind, Superman is who we want to be--Clark Kent is who we are.  Spider-Man is who we want to be--Peter Parker is who we are.  Only more so.  
 
The thing that Stan did that was so groundbreaking was that the hero could escape his problems by changing into his superhero identity and bring down the bad guy--but when he went back to his regular life, the problems were still there, and he still had to deal with them.  Most superheroes before then weren't quite so flawed--Superman may have had Kryptonite, and Clark may not have been able to get a date with Lois, but at the end of the day, he was still Superman.  Batman shortly after he partnered up with Robin dropped most of the brooding pulp-magazine qualities he had at the beginning--crimefighting was still a challenge, but most of all, it was fun.  Stan changed all that.
 
Yes, Tony Stark has flaws, and we curse him for it--especially if they are the same flaws we share.  But we also cheer when he overcomes them and saves the day--because we figure if he can do it, we can do it, too.
 
I don't know as that addresses all your concerns.  Those are just some thoughts on the subject--take them as you will.

Canada has designated the Proud Boys as a terrorist organization.
 
Elsewhere, Fox had a bad month:
https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/january-2021-ratings-fox-news-closes-month-strong-in-prime-time-but-falls-to-3rd-for-first-time-since-2001/469813/
 
So perhaps there's hope that some fraction is rejecting the narrative.  Many aren't;  we know that.  But perhaps it's a start.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Electrical_Experimenter.htm
 
Edited by Hugo Gernsback

Victor Glover Will Be First Black Astronaut To Live On The International Space Station

I would enjoy hearing another tale or two.  Perhaps you could collect all the tales and put them in a book.  There's bound to be an audience for it, I think.

All right kiddies, since you’re all tucked in and have said your prayers, Uncle Tjack will tell you some stories of his time working behind the scenes of a large regional Science Fiction Convention.  Like Dragnet before me all the stories are true. (or else they wouldn’t be so funny) But I will change the names to protect the innocent and guilty alike
  We might as well start of with a bang so I’ll tell you about  “The International Incident”or “Riverpuke”
Once upon a time in an almost mythical land near the sea there stood a hotel we’ll call the Lark Llaza. And to their great regret they booked two things to happen on the same weekend. The first was a SF convention we’ll call Risa.  This is where our hero toiled as a volunteer. Because he had in a previous life been an E.M.T. he was part of the Security Dept.  And his seniority put him in charge of the overnight shift.
  This might have been enough trouble for any hotel but they also took the reservations for a touring road company of a Broadway show featuring Irish Step Dancing. (Yeah, that one.) The troup consisted mainly of young men and women in their late teens-early twenties and their chaperones. Friday came and went with no trouble. By the time the dancers came back from the show the relatively low key meet the guests cocktail party was winding down and the two groups never noticed one another....Saturday night was a different story.
   That was the night of the costume contest followed by an all night dance.  When those poor waifs got back that night the lobby and mezzanine were packed with somewhat buzzed Klingons, superheroes and scantily clad warrior princesses of every type. And the main ballroom was blasting dance music and shone with strobe lights.  So if you’re a teenager in another country for the first time and you see all this, do you... A) Go upstairs and go to bed the way your stern Irish mother would want. Or...B) wait until the handlers are asleep then sneak down and join the fun. 
   Option B was taken by around 25-30 of the wayward youths with about half finding their ways to the many open door parties where upon finding out who the crashes were the party hosts began calling room service for bottles of Irish Whiskey, eventually emptying the entire hotel of every bottle. 
   Somewhat after this point our Hero who was working away with his stalwart band of officers started receiving calls from everywhere at once about drunks roaming the halls from party to party.  And a frantic radio call telling him to haul ass to the ballroom because “You gotta see this!” 
   It turns out that when the DJ found out who the 20 or so crashers were he pulled out the CD of the soundtrack for the show and put it in. When our Hero hit the door he saw a full on, live version of the show from about a distance of 15 feet.  The guy who radioed in told him what was happening and wisely passed the buck up the chain of command.  Our brave Hero responded with a mighty....Uhhhhh. 
   He himself was saved when the Convention Chair who we’ll call Mak-Kor-Mak was watching the whole thing with delight as the Hotel’s Night Manager was threatening to call the cops since that since the dancers weren’t part of the convention they could be arrested for trespassing or just booted out into the street.  The mighty Mak wasted no time, grabbed the DJ’s mike and proclaimed that all the members of the troup were honorary Guests of Honor for their work in international relations.  This shut the Hotel lady up and as she went back into her office she was heard muttering something about “God damned drunken hippie freaks.”
   The story doesn’t end there however.  After the more sane/less hammered members went off to their rooms we in the department were still left with the more hardcore male members who were seeking meaningful companionship.  Or in the words of one of them,  “I hear ‘murrican girls like to fook!” 
    Chasing them down lasted until around 4:30 am.  I stumbled back to our hole in the wall office, rolled one poor soul off our only couch and laid down with my arm over my eyes and tried to figure out exactly when my life went so wrong.  After about five minutes somebody knocked timidly on the open door way.  I yelled “WHAT!” in a far too unkind voice. The quiet reply was “one of the Irish kids is puking all over the carpet over there.  Without moving I said “Is he going to die?” The voice at the door looked over his shoulder and after a couple of seconds said “I don’t think so.”  I gave that some thought and replied “Then it’s not Medical, so I don’t care.”
    The next day it was decided that the neither the theater company, the Hotel, nor the State Department who had issued the visas and should have technically tossed them out of the country wanted an incident so it was agreed that the whole thing never happened.  The Convention was happy with the deal since it meant that it wasn’t legally responsible for either the damages or for getting the little sods tanked in the first place.  
  And they all lived happily ever after....although I still go into a giggling fit every time I hear that music. 
 
     If there’s any interest for another story someday I’ll either tell the tale of “Big Dumb Dude” or “How my buddies girlfriend became a Superhero.”

Something For All Our Chicagoland HEROes--

Something For All Our Chicagoland HEROes--

Something For All Our Chicagoland HEROes--