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As *spoon* as Arch comes back from vacation Hepcat will still be Hepcat.
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1,114 posts in this topic

So up until a year ago last September I had a Dell Vostro 1720 laptop with a Vista Business operating system and a Dell V105 copier/printer with which I was getting scans that captured the full magnificence of my comics. Here's an example:

 

12-07-2011105344PM.jpg

 

Then when my Dell laptop died just over a year ago, I replaced it with a Hewlett Packard Envy laptop with a Windows 8.1 operating system. For three or four months thereafter I was getting scans with the same resolution and brightness but slightly smaller in size. Then my Dell V105 copier decided it no longer wanted to continue mating with my new Hewlett Packard laptop. I therefore replaced it with a new Hewlett Packard 1513 copier/printer. My scans are now back to full size but I've lost brightness! Here's the same Fox and the Crow comic but scanned with my new Hewlett Packard equipment:

 

FC5_zps5902e493.jpg

 

What gives? Aren't computers supposed to get better/faster/more powerful all the time? Or is Hewlett-Packard equipment just junk?

 

???

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Hepcat
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So my sources tell me All Hallow's Eve is only hours away.

 

Halloween1_zps6fe64e31.jpg

 

Everything is in readiness here. The front porch has been fully desecrated:

 

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That's Tabitha from down the street communing in fellowship with a kindred spirit raven.

 

The kids' Halloween bags have been prepared:

 

Boys

 

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Girls

 

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Older Kids

 

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But the real fun tonight will begin after we take care of the little tricksters!

 

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I never fly coach. It's first class for me all the way!

 

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Happy Halloween to one and all!

 

Haloween56_zpse7dcb6ed.jpg

 

:cool:

 

 

 

Edited by Hepcat
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So I was viewing my favourite Halloween videos again today:

 

DSCN3449_zps9c65beed.jpg

 

When Cowboy took advantage of the opportunity and raided my Halloween stash!

 

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Villain! I chased him away of course but I then had to spend a few minutes taking inventory.

 

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:mad:

 

Edited by Hepcat
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Speaking of Halloween treats, here are the uniquely Canadian sweet treats I strongly recommend complete with my subjective numerical Yummy rating out of ten:

 

Vachon.jpg

 

Rating 10

 

Nothing like Vachon Passion Flakies are sold in the United States and they are simply the best! They can be bought individually wrapped at most variety stores but buy a whole box of six. You won't regret it. They'll make you want to move to Canada.

 

mrbig_header__96371_zoom.jpg

 

Rating 9.5

 

My very favourite chocolate bar! Originally Willard's Extra Big, Neilson's retitled the brand after acquiring Willard's in the seventies. Since 1996 Neilson's has been part of the Cadbury conglomerate, but the Mr. Big chocolate bar remains the single best in North America. Even a multi-national hasn't been able to screw it up.

 

lowney-cherry-blossom-01.jpg

 

Rating 9

 

Previously a Lowney's brand but since the nineties Lowney's has been part of the Hershey conglomerate. Cherry Blossom is tough to find these days but is worth it! Talk about a mega dose of sweet flavour!

 

sweetmarie.jpg

 

Rating 8.5

 

A touch tastier than Oh Henry and that's saying a lot! Sweet Marie is also just a few grams smaller. It was another of the Willard's brands. I haven't seen it in recent months though which leaves me wondering whether the bastiches at Cadbury Schweppes have discontinued it. If so I'll riot I swear!

 

OhHenry.jpg

 

Rating 8.0

 

Get an Oh Henry too. It may very well be better than the Oh Henry bars sold in the States. And of course you can compare it to the Sweet Marie bar.

 

Pep.jpg

 

Rating 7

 

For peppermint lovers! Not as smooth as the York Peppermint Patties, but the Pep has it all over whatever else when it comes to appearance. Another one time Neilson's brand now made by Cadbury. Once again though, I can't recall seeing Pep for more than a year so it may have been discontinued by Cadbury Schweppes.

 

popeye.jpg

 

Rating 7

 

Popeye's Candy Sticks are coagulated icing sugar or something and have an addictive chalky flavour. They.ve been sold in Canada for as long as I can remember. Up until twenty years ago or so they were called Candy Cigarettes but the Women's Christian Decency League and Anti-Smoking Brigade forced their relabeling.

 

And for those with a craving for a salty savoury snack when in Canada, here are my ratings for several widely sold uniquely Canadian products:

 

hickorysticks.jpg

 

Rating 9

 

Hostess was the dominant brand of chips in Canada for decades. Not surprising since General Foods had acquired the company in 1959 and used its distribution muscle to dominate the chip market until the early nineties when kettle cooked chips hit the marketplace. In an attempt to gain the economies of scale to compete against the kettle cooked chip onslaught, General Foods entered into a business combination with Lay's in 1996. The Hostess brand of chips virtually disappeared and surfaces only occasionally as a discount brand now in supermarkets.

 

The Hickory Sticks though are unique and continue to proudly carry the Hostess name brand.

 

humpty051-1.jpg

 

Rating 8

 

While Humpty Dumpty was swallowed up by Old Dutch Chips of Calgary in 2006, the Humpty Dumpty name brand is still used on certain products. I like the Barbecue Corn Chips. They're at least as good as Frito's.

 

HumtyDumpty.jpghumpty052-2.jpg

 

Rating 7

 

Slightly different than Cheetos but just as good!

 

YumYum-PC-Regular.jpg

 

YumYum.jpg

 

Rating 7

 

Uniquely Canadian Quebec based chips! Unfortunately the Indian boy logo is no longer featured on the bags. Very tough to find in Ontario though.

 

OldDutch.jpg

 

Rating 5

 

Maybe I'm just prejudiced against Old Dutch for replacing the Humpty Dumpty brand name that I so loved, but I don't think their chips are even as good as Lay's. They're worth a try I guess but they're not nearly as widely sold as Lay's so you might have to look around for them.

 

MissVickies.jpg

 

Rating 4

 

This is the brand of kettle cooked chips that took the Canadian market by storm in the early nineties. If you like kettle cooked chips, you'll like them fine. Personally though I've never been a fan of the kettle cooked variety.

 

:cool:

Edited by Hepcat
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So fifty years ago the Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a massive hit on TV stations from coast-to-coast and stores had stocked their shelves with Man from U.N.C.L.E. merchandise for the Xmas season.

 

Here's some of that merchandise from my own present day collection:

 

Topps Bubble Gum Cards

 

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Cadet Sweets Man from U.N.C.L.E. Cards

 

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Aurora Model Kits

 

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Ideal Board Game

 

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RCA Victor LP

 

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Miscellaneous Toy Stuff

 

ManfromUNCLEFantastiks2.jpg

 

:popcorn:

 

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I used to love The Man From Uncle. I had a lot of the toys. I had the Illya Kuryakin cigarette case that was a gun, the Napolean Solo gun, and the THRUSH gun. :)

Lotsa toy guns as a kid, fun stuff. What's kinda funny is I've never owned a gun as an adult - which is neither here nor there, really.

 

 

And for Hepcat, here's a picture of my roommate, Atticus: :grin:

Addie_med_zps3bf47b53.jpg

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My parents were here for the holiday, so a lot of MeTV was watched. I watched The Man from UNCLE yesterday for the first time in a long time.

 

Great fun - particularly with all the white-folks painted up to play the folks from India.

 

Also caught a Mission:Impossible, 2 Get Smarts, and The Saint. Overall a good night of vintage TV watching.

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I used to love The Man From Uncle. I had a lot of the toys. I had the Illya Kuryakin cigarette case that was a gun, the Napolean Solo gun, and the THRUSH gun. :)

 

Oh man, those gun sets were awesome!

 

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DreamToyUNCLEgun.JPG

 

Lotsa toy guns as a kid, fun stuff. What's kinda funny is I've never owned a gun as an adult - which is neither here nor there, really.

 

Maybe you just got it out of your system so you weren't frustrated as an adult?

 

And for Hepcat, here's a picture of my roommate, Atticus: :grin:

 

Addie_med_zps3bf47b53.jpg

 

Nice looking kitty!

 

(thumbs u

Edited by Hepcat
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Another big hit TV show fifty years ago was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It was perhaps my absolute favourite at the time. Here are shots of some of my Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea items:

 

Donruss Gum Cards

 

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15ece12a-f476-4ef1-b4c5-ea22a9c33bd7_zps300dfbae.jpg

 

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Aurora Model Kit

 

SeaviewAurora.jpg

 

Milton Bradley Board Game

 

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:cool:

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Hepcat!HappyMeowYear!

Was just in a thread in gold that made me think of you,started by a new forumite I think has a great passion for collecting like yours.You should check it out...and we miss you in the positive thread....

Jimme rs >±<

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Hak, hak, hak, horrrrkkkk!!!! Sorry, hairballs. But Gold you say?

 

:cool:

 

BTW, this is the first time I can recall you commenting on any of the diverse topics I've introduced here in this thread over the years....

 

(shrug)

Edited by Hepcat
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Another big hit TV show fifty years ago was Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It was perhaps my absolute favourite at the time. Here are shots of some of my Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea items:

 

Donruss Gum Cards

 

23-10-201174740PM.jpg

 

15ece12a-f476-4ef1-b4c5-ea22a9c33bd7_zps300dfbae.jpg

 

23-10-201174747PM.jpg

 

Aurora Model Kit

 

SeaviewAurora.jpg

 

Milton Bradley Board Game

 

c408f6b6-13e3-426b-babd-c61b8060ced0_zps780617d8.jpg

 

0ab66d4f-b7c1-4744-8130-afc27ddb0d88_zps752f51bc.jpg

 

e89e05cc-b9f7-4c55-85d7-c73256e63853_zpsc74263b3.jpg

 

:cool:

 

:applause:

 

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea :cloud9:

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Fifty years ago over the Xmas holidays in 1965 I saw a James Bond double feature, Dr. No and From Russia with Love, at the Odeon theatre in downtown London, Ontario. It was a very exciting screening for me since I'd not seen either movie previously.

 

Here are scans from my Philly Gum James Bond card sets with the wrappers:

 

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:cool:

 

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So Deuce somehow came down with pancreaitis in late November which morphed into liver failure/jaundice. He lost an enormous amount of weight from about 14.7 pounds to 9.3 pounds over the course of his illness but has now rallied and is back up over 10.5 pounds.

 

Meanwhile our twelve year old cat Styx whom we had rescued off the street bleeding from a fight with another tom in the summer of 2009 seemed jealous of all the attention we were lavishing on Deuce and early last week took to hanging out on the loveseat in the rec room where Deuce has been convalescing. We were pleased that Styx was keeping Deuce company. As a further complication last Wednesday evening we realized that both Deuce and Styx appeared to have contracted cat colds and took them both to the vet Thursday morning. Styx was quite lively and showed a keen interest in whatever the vet was typing into his computer. As we suspected, upper respiratory track infections was the diagnosis. They were each given an antibiotic shot which we were told might not show an effect immediately but should within three or four days. The shot seemed to help Deuce as by Sunday he no longer seemed stuffy, but of course he was still in a recovery mode from the liver problem. But Sunday evening Styx actually looked worse to me than did Deuce.

 

So we took Styx back the vet yesterday morning. The vet was somewhat concerned as their was a hint of crackling in Styx's lungs but otherwise Styx was alert and active during his re-examination. The vet injected Styx with fluids and prescribed a different antibiotic pill to be administered once per day. By late yesterday evening though I was once again very concerned with the level of lethargy Styx was exhibiting. He just wasn't moving from anywhere we placed him and I was thinking we might have to take him back to the vet this morning. The WOMAN slept on the futon with Styx wrapped in a blanket overnight.

 

At 6:45 this morning while I was taking a shower, The WOMAN told me that I better come down since Styx was dying. I told her to forget about me and take Styx back to the vet who opened at 7:30 immediately. She replied that I better come too because I might not get another chance to see Styx. It was horrible. He was as limp as a rag doll except every few minutes he was giving out a little mewl of distress/pain.

 

The upper respiratory tract infection had morphed into pneumonia. The vet said that Styx's chances were at best 50-50. He put Styx on a heating pad and I brought the humidifier we had been using in the cat's convalescent room to humidify the air to help him breath. I okayed intravenous fluid treatments for Styx with more antibiotics to which I gather he seemed to be responding. I was hoping not to hear from either The WOMAN or the vet for the rest of the day at work. The WOMAN's fears were confirmed though. Styx passed away a few minutes past noon.

 

I'm devastated. I've closed my office door because tears are flowing down my face as I type these words. How could this have happened? From an upper respiratory tract infection (a common cold) on Thursday to this? He'd had extensive blood work for "geriatric" cats done in November and had received a clean bill of health. There was no sign of the FIV he's been carrying all along kicking in to action. Was there something more I could have/should have done? In retrospect we might have been able to save him had we put him on intravenous yesterday, but there didn't seem to be any need.

 

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RIP my loving friend. Forgive me if I failed you, because given your absolute trust in me I'm not going to forgive myself. Maybe though it was just your time.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Hepcat
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Hep, I am so sorry to hear about your beloved Styx. It really sounds like you did all you could. Your vet gave the diagnosis and treatment plan. You should not blame yourself. Again, I am truly sorry for your loss.

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