Oh No, William & Mary Won't Do

As seen on the Penn State campus earlier this year - on the day of the Nittany Lions' first home game, as a matter of fact. 

Wait... as in NCIS Donald Bellisario? 

Apparently, yes. He was a 1961 journalism grad from PSU; and in 2017 he bestowed a $30 million endowment on the university, which prompted them to rename the College of Communications after him, all according to Wikipedia. 

I did always think it clever that his TV production company was named 'Belisarius Prductions' - his last name in Latin transliteration - also the name of a highly successful Eastern Roman general of the 6th century. Bellisario was (something else I didn't know) an enlistee to the Marine Corps in the late 50's. This seems to have influenced his character creation process as a lot of his main characters are Navy and Marine vets.

I also didn't know that he was from Cokeburg, PA, a tiny town in Washington County southwest of Pittsburgh. Cokeburg's Wikipedia page explains that the town was used to film the series finale of another Bellisario creation - Quantum Leap. 

Now I actually want to see that last episode. 

Breaking Free From All The Spells Chained To My Head

Surely, every fantasy reader knows about the case of the dead villain who doesn't let it stop him. Possibly the best-known example is Sauron and his One Ring. Pouring his power into it to control the other rings - the Three of the Elves (they saw what Sauron did there), the Seven of the Dwarves, and the Nine of the Kings of Men - it was later taken from him and lost. If it fell into the wrong hands, Sauron could rise to his full power again.

Harry Potter fans know a similar attempt by series villain Voldemort; J.K. Rowling coined the term Horcrux to define such an item. But it's in the webcomic Order Of The Stick, a long-running story operating under the Dungeons & Dragons rules, that we get a serious name for these objects; big bad lich Xykon has an amulet that will regenerate his undead body in case of emergency. His second-in-command, the goblin cleric Redcloak, refers to it as a phylactery. And Wikipedia does indeed define the word as "an amulet or charm, worn for its supernatural power." The site also mentions that the phylactery is common as an item in fantasy games. I took a peek at the 'lich' entry in my D&D 1st edition Monster Manual, and it does indeed make mention of the item, but does not give any details about the phylactery in particular.

It is neat to learn that some of the things in fiction I enjoy have real-world inspirations and precedents.

You're Spinning Away All My Time

This is a great photograph.

Been a while since I've done this, huh?

Look At You, Lookin' At You Babe

I present to you the greatest Wikipedia article ever.

Apparently they come in 3" size. I want some of those for use at work. Actually any size will do.

Hope you like googly eyes, bossman. You're gonna be seeing a lot of'em soon.