digest #224

[Don Rosa]

Let's talk about something more pleasant and more interesting --

Answering a query recently, I think I mentioned I am now working on a story
of $crooge in 1906 Panama. And as regards how I was saying how I place my
stories in an extremely "real" world --- in my research throughout the
local libraries, University archives, military-modeler hobby shops and the
Internet, I have found that I can't locate a reference to what the military
uniforms as worn by 1906 Panamanian soldiers looked like. Since Panama is a
former part of Colombia that broke away (with American help, so we could
build the canal), I also searched for the same info on Colombia, also with
no luck. So, I decided to call the president of Panama.

Well, not exactly, but almost. I called someone, a friend of mine, who has
been a candidate for the Panamanian presidency for many years. His name is
Ruben Blades, a TV/movie actor, a very famous (so I hear) "salsa"
singer/performer in Europe and Central/South America, and a collector of
old comic books who I see every year in San Diego. (He's the only other
hoomin bean I know of who has a full set of Dell FOUR COLORs, #1-1354.) I
was watching for him this year to tell him about this story, but he was a
no-show.
He says he's working in a new TV cop series which is why he wasn't at the
con, but he will call Panama to see if he can find someone to fax me a
photo reference. (Maybe he *will* call the president, who knows?) I've
already decided, as difficult as it is for me to find this info, that if I
do get the correct uniform on my characters, there will probably only be
three people on earth who will know it: me, Ruben, and whoever he calls in
Panama. But that's plenty, as far as I'm concerned -- sometimes it's almost
more fun that way! Another lil' private joke to myself. (I do this all the
time -- someday I'll make a list of the accurate details in my stories that
surely no one ever even noticed.)