Zen and the Art of Prop Making

One of the more interesting stories to come out of World War Two was that of a B-24D Liberator bomber called the "Lady Be Good" which failed to return from a mission to Italy in 1943. A search failed to find any trace of the plane or its crew of nine. The wreckage of the plane was discovered 15 years later in the Libyan Desert. It was another two years before the remains of all but one of the nine crew were discovered. The plane had become lost in the darkness and eventually ran out of fuel leaving the crew no choice but to parachute into the darkness. The plane eventually crash landed 16 miles south of where the crew had safely landed. Inspiration from the "Lady be Good" The story became the plot for an opera based on the fact that the body of the ninth crew member was never found. "Madeline Lee" was a one act Australian opera, composed by John Haddock to a libretto written by the composer and Michael Campbell. It premiered at the Sydney Opera Hous...

The jibberish text you see in some website templates and page layouts is known as Lorem Ipsum . It is used in the printing and typesetting industries so readers are not distracted by readable text when looking at page layouts. It originated in the 1500s when, so the story goes, a printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. Lorem Ipsum was born and it has remained more or less unchanged since that time and has crossed into the digital domain into desktop publishing software. The real source of Lorem Ipsum In reality, Lorum Ipsum it takes its roots from a piece of classical Latin literature written by Cicero in 45BC called "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" or "The Extremes of Good and Evil". Nowadays there are many variations around with the majority having been adulterated with the injection of humour or randomised words. The Lorum Ipsum website warns "you need to be sure there isn't anyhing embarrassing hidden in the midd...

The Wizard of Id was first created in 1964 as a result of the collaboration of writer Johnny Hart and artist Brant Parker. In the early 60's Hart was already successful with his creation of BC. The pair first met in 1950 when Parker was asked to judge a high school art contest. One of the entrants work so impressed him he organised a meeting. The entrants name was Johnny Hart. Wizard of Id humour The Wizard of Id is set in the mythical kingdom of Id ruled by "the King", a dwarfish monarch with a dry and, at times, black secnse of humour. As well as the Kings subjects (Idiots) there are several other major characters including Rodney the inept knight, the wizard and his domineering wife, Bung the court jester who is constanting drunk and the Spook, a destitute prisoner who is locked in his cell with only the Turnkey for company. There are several other players which are described in detail in Wikipedia . The King and the Wizard have a great relationship and a very dry sens...