2009-08-05

Na Zdrowie!

Ed signed all the birthday cards he gave me, "Na Zdrowie", which is the Polish equivalent to "Cheers". If you click that link, you can hear it yourself and understand why I always bastardized it to "Nice Driveway"!!

I didn't get many parties over the years, for my birthday was always secondary to that other guy born on December 25th, but Ed & I always got together for beers and a present exchange sometime in December. Here is a sampling of the cards he chose for me over the years. I have also included some original envelope covers plus the interiors of these cards. It's your job to match up the exterior with the interior!














We shared a love of comics and we frequented Silver Snail, The Beguiling, Dragon Lady but mostly a tiny store out in Etobicoke that surprisingly has weathered the storm of comic closings, Excalibur Comics. This comic is one that his brother gave me last year on my 50th Birthday and it was probably from Ed's personal collection.






Our annual exchange included funky comics, toys, booze and Children's books. We were both aspiring writers and he once wrote a short story about a demon named "Gorgonzola" that was frustrated because he was constantly showing up in kitchens when little old ladies read out their recipes. He got a few polite rejection letters from National Lampoon and others but was never published. He got further than I...my only story was about a Hamster named "Sam Spayd" that solved crimes in the fictional world of comics, cartoons and newspaper strips. I believe I was one of the first to make Snap a Cereal Killer after offing Tony the Tiger and the Lucky Charms Leprecaun. Unfortunately, I never got past the planning stage and then "Roger Rabbit" struck theatres and I put my story on hold. This book is one of the few that I still have and I treasure it.

We also shared an appreciation for fine music, such as the SCHMENGE BROTHERS!

2 comments:

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

I especially love the Monty Python reference in the one card. I think that is great that you have kept them all. What fun memories.

Cheers!

Michael Jones said...

Curiously, these are the only cards I ever saved. I must have known that someday I'd be a blogger and would need them!

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