A Letter From Our Pal Blaster Al

Dear Rupert -

Many thanks for the swift WIG mailing. I've been enjoying that ever since it arrived, beginning with the RANDY GEORGE cover, one of his best. Right off the bat, I read my letter because I'd forgotten most of it. Golly it sure did bring the nightmare aspects of that trip steaming back, especially the really awful parts such as RICHMOND, and the fatties and their palm-pals in Nashville, etc. I only wish I'd had time to whine at greater length about the long, long delay in WASHINGTON, DC, a true downer interlude in a city that should be expunged from the map. Makes me wonder how I survived it, but that's the thing about being too tired to register the truly awful - you wind up being only able to blow your nose and nod, as I said in my BERT'S story. Too true.

So anyhow, it was a long wait between issues but worth it, as this #28 is one of the all-time best. I've been reading and savoring a few pages at a time every day snce the bugger arrived. I was happy to see "GLORIOUS MOST HOLY INMATES" a real Editorial with a lot to say. I appreciate your kind words about Blaster Al and will promise to return sometime next year when the sky looks free of the awful white stuff. People still don't believe me when I talk about the awful weather Dec-Feb in Baltimore last year and how the city under snow had even Alaska beat hands down, but we were there and we know, he said wildly.

Anyhow, issue #28 has a lot of good, surprising reads in it. When you see Chris Toll be sure to tell him I thought his 1845/1776 was one of his best-ever pieces. Also got a kick out of Stephanie Barber's stuff. Enjoyed quite a few names who were new to me. Amelia Gray's GHOST was one of the most pleasantly confusing reads I've come across since the hogs ate my brother (but you're crazy f you think I'll buy that "Chandler did it" explanation, for I know it was none other than Melvin Starr, my old delinquent high school chum who once got thrown out of Jefferson High when he jimmied the lock on the principal's door, let himself in to the office at the end of the school year, broke into the files and changed all his "F's" to "A's", which ended when his name and big punkin head appeared in the school list of "Most Outstanding Students" and was recognized by many as a grade A fraud. I always wondered what happened to Melvin. He was certainly a dead ringer for MAD MAG's "Alfred E. Newman". And as Melvin himself liked to say, "When you got it, flaunt it.")

Speaking of which, is that HAIKU FOR GLENN BECK by YOUR Everly? (ed.: yes indeed!) Quite liked that one.

OK, more about the issue next time.

"O yeah Baby - your old thang, Blaster Al"