JB's Warehouse & Curio Emporium

This weekend, I had to buy a new computer. The old one had performed well given how heavily I use, but either old age or an inability to get along with recent Windows Updates meant increasing wildcat strikes by my mouse and keyboard. Setting up the new system was easy, and has provided an excuse to sort files. Among the folders I found was one filled with snapshots from late 1970s editions of Books in Canada , taken while working on other projects during some long-ago trip to Toronto Reference Library.  The first image jumped out at me. Books in Canada, August-September 1977. NIGHTMARE FUEL!!!  Kind of reminds me of that part of the opening sequence for the old Elwy Yost series Magic Shadows where the fighter pilot turns into a tiger man. Or the dude who physically modified himself into a catman . Or something Dr. Moreau genetically whipped up.  Shedding some colour on this doesn't make this cover any less creepy. Let's take a closer look at the ad...   Books...

Today's trip in the wayback machine revolves around a show that may that started my love of old movies. Magic Shadows ran weeknights on TVOntario throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The show divided old movies into 20-25 minute segments, bookended with comments by host Elwy Yost. Often, one day a week was reserved for serials. The length was perfect for little me to get hooked on classic movies, especially if they were pictured in our quickly-tattered copies of Daniel Blum's photo histories of film. Dad often tuned in for British comedies - I'm All Right Jack and The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery stick out in my mind. It wasn't long before I started watching Saturday Night at the Movies . Around this time was a brief period where I was trotted around my elementary school as a seven-year old film expert lecturing grade eights, though I think Dad quashed that quickly (probably thinking I didn't need to be paraded around like a carnival freak). Some peo...