Today was the first day of 2023 where my neck wasn’t killing me. It “went out” on Miranda’s birthday while watching the movies, and two chiropractor visits later and much resting, massaging and heat later, I woke up today without pain. It still gave me some fits this afternoon, but most of the day was quite pleasant. Up until yesterday, I was starting to think I needed to go back to the chiropractor because it was refusing to get better.
In other news, Ian started re-reading the Tintin books and after dinner asked me if I knew the books well enough to be able to rank them. Of course I do. So, we went to TierMaker.com and made a tier ranking of the Tintin books. It was a fun exercise.
A lot of thought and discussion went into this. Main criteria were:
- Story – was it good?
- Story – was it memorable? If I couldn’t give you chapter and verse of the story, it didn’t stick, whereas some of them I could give you a panel-by-panel replay.
- Art – Hergé’s art got better as time went on. Some of the early art is shockingly simple compared to later work.
- Problematic elements – some were written in a different time and didn’t hold up well. Tintin in the Congo is the most well-known issue, but there also is the evil bankers in Tintin and the Shooting Star and the blacks in The Red Sea Sharks, among others.
- Characters and “Moments” – There are great character moments that just are part of our family’s lexicon. “CHANG!” from Tintin in Tibet and “Irma!” (roll the r!) from The Castafiore Emerald. “Blistering Barnacles!” “So I’m playing the goat, am I?”
I was in Boulin books and I noticed they had a whole rack full of Tintin.