Back in the Saddle

by Colin P. Delaney on May 14, 2012 at 12:00 am

It was a quiet (last) week in Lake Catbegon, Dear Reader, as your humble corespondent had a thing every night after work—The Avengers on Monday, a friend’s improv show at UCB on Tuesday, Wednesday we were at BAM with Miss Wit (whose “NRD” shirt I cannot recommend enough) and Thursday, dinner with friends at Dumont Burger, where you can find the best milkshakes this side of Newton Creek. By the time Friday made her entrance, all this corespondent wanted to do was curl up on the couch and watch a season’s worth of Community.

Which is all to say that there were many, many, many things I wanted to say last week, but, alas and alack, I did not. So—let’s do a fast rundown of missed flash facts and tiger tidbits!

Let’s start with lion, yes?

Point of order: The lions outside the Main Branch of the NYPL (the work of sculptor E. C. Potter, by the by) are named Patience and Fortitude. The one pictured below is Patience (no, I don’t know that, I made that up).


What the hell is up with this lady? Well, I  know, obviously, but I hope you weren’t too thrown for a loop. Flash fact: When Tony and I were talking character designs for our above Mystery Date, I may have giving him this as a reference.

I mentioned this on Twitter last week, but I think it bears repeating—this:


Is the Court Square Diner in LIC, Queens. See, after being saved (however unknowingly) by the Mystery Date, Cat & Co. ran down the street and jumped in the nearest subway, which just happens to be the 7 train, right around the corner from the Library.

Court Square is third stop into Queens and our gang got off and decided they needed a post-monster-attack cheese-fries-&-coffee break, which, well—we’ve all been there, haven’t we?   Anyway—ask me, I think Tony really nailed both the external and interior shots of the Diner, but you don’t have to take my word for it—you can see the real thing here.

And another thing: I really love the composition of this panel:


The balance of dark and light (dare I say chiaroscuro?), the bird’s eye POV that highlights the emotional separation between Cat and her father, the slopped-shouldered shadow, unable to offer any sort of comfort or peace, the sheer loneliness of it…I just love it and wanted to say as much.

Oh, and to publicly answer an email I received about last Friday’s page:

No.  Cat is, in fact, NOT dead and Bruce Willis will NOT be making an appearance in these pages anytime soon.

‘Til, Wednesday, Dear Reader!

~cpd