I've mentioned (specifically, in connection with Bungleton Green) that I like to upload articles on relevant anniversaries, so as to get a little extra mileage out of connecting them with "Today in Toons". I just now missed one. It seems Burne Hogarth (best known for Tarzan) was inconsiderate enough to be born on Christmas Day, and I was kind of thwarted by that circumstance in getting my article on his Drago done in time.

I like to get up very early in the morning. 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. is not uncommon, and I'm almost always up by 5:00. This gives me a chance to get some work done before the rest of the household starts to distract me, so I often have a new Toonopedia™ article written by the time most of the world is awake. I've posted articles on Christmas morning before — I got the ones on Santa Claus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman done on the appropriate day before mostly running out of Christmas characters (tho I still have to do Chrissie Claus, and Jingle Belle will become eligible in a couple of years — any others?). I figured sure, I'd be able to bat out something about Drago on his creator's birthday.

Not this year. Christmas Eve is (predictably) the most popular time to hire someone to play Santa for the kids (which, as I mentioned last week, is a regular December activity for me), so I was up late visiting good little boys and girls to ask what they wanted me to bring when I came by to see them later. And the grandkids are getting old enough to be excited, so they came by as early as they could, and the house was merry, merry, merry, all day.

Bottom line was, I didn't get much writing done on Christmas. So the article on Drago is up later than I wanted it to be; and when I write up Chrissie and Jingle, I think I'll get it done in advance.

Not that I really need an excuse for posting it on the 26th instead of the 25th, but to the extent I do need one, that's it. Anyway, hope you had a merry one. I sure did.

— DDM