Of the 365 days in the year – 366 during Leap Year – today is tailor made for myself, Jeff and most readers of this page.

Today is Find Your Inner Nerd Day.

Most of us need not dig that deep.

If you’re here, it’s probably out of more than curiosity. Hopefully it’s to share in the culture we embrace.

In celebration of Find Your Inner Nerd Day, we’re turning the dial back on our television sets to Dec. 10, 2010, for the 11th episode of the fourth season of Big Bang Theory. More specifically, The Justice League Recombination.

If you tuned in that Monday evening, you were one of 13.24 million viewers.

Even though the episode aired before Christmas, it commemorated New Year’s Eve. The gang, plus Penny’s early on-again, off-again boyfriend Zac, gathered at Stewart’s comic book shop to celebrate with a costume contest. Dressed as the Justice League, Sheldon, Leonard, Howard, Raj, Penny and Zac took first place as the countdown began for 2011.

For 12 seasons – 279 episodes – Big Bang showed us it’s all right to fly that geek flag with pride. We watched kindred spirits live in the spotlight a life many of us hid in the shadows. They moved (super) hero worship, D&D and Japanese animation from the back of the bus to a front row seat. It was a revelation – and revolution – making Star Wars t-shirts fashionable.

Big Bang Theory took a season to gain traction, but by its fifth season had a premiere viewing audience of 14 million. The show was in the top 10 for seven of its 12 seasons. It reached number one during the 11th.

It was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series between 2011 and 2014. Jim Parsons would take home the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series four times and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series.

Coincidentally enough, Find Your Inner Nerd Day was founded a month prior to Big Bang airing, Aug. 23, 2007.

Find Your Inner Nerd Day was founded by Christopher Reaves Messina when he posted a tweet that created the modern hashtag. Since that time, #FindYourInnerNerd has become a digital hotspot to meet and greet those with similar interests and discuss fandoms and other geek topics.

Oh, and the name “nerd” was created by none other than Dr. Seuss in his book If I Ran the Zoo.

Fly the colors high today – and every day – as we celebrate our individual and shared interests. This is a life meant for us.

Not only did it happen once, or even twice, but three times. DC Comics and KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC, partnered to bring justice by forming an alliance between franchise food founder and four-color heroes.

We’ve already examined the third volume in this trilogy of travesty. While somewhat non linear in our approach to this trio of non-traditional team-ups, Four Color is committed to bringing the whole story – no matter how ludicrous.

The Colonel of Two Worlds (2015)

This time around, Flash rogues Captain Cold and Mirror Master welcome Colonel Sunders from Earth 3. Together they are to use their criminal genius to plunder as never before.

Working from Sunder’s cleverly disguised base of operations, a fast food restaurant called Easy Fried Chicken, robberies, muggings and other sundry foul deeds erupt.

Neither the cheap chicken nor criminal activities go unnoticed. Both the real Colonel Harland Sanders and Justice League founders Flash and Green Lantern come to the rescue.

The Scarlet Speedster and Emerald Gladiator take a back seat to the Colonel’s wrath. The discount franchiser beats a hasty retreat leaving Cold and Mirror Master to receive their just desserts. Sanders takes pity on the pair of felons, offering them a job at a local KFC.

KFC is the second largest restaurant chain with over 30,000 locations around the world. Only McDonald’s outpaces the chicken franchise.

The first location opened in 1952 in Salt Lake, Utah. Sanders sold the company in 1964, though he remained the figurehead.

So, join in some southern fried goodness whether it be homemade or just brought home. Make sure to wipe your fingers before reading the DC Comics/KFC saturated cheesiness, it does bring a few dollars on the collector market.

My mother was a Philatelist and I’m not ashamed to say so.

While there aren’t as many philatelists as in years past, there’s still a core group who will appreciate today. What is today? Today is National U.S. Postage Stamp Day.

The first postage stamp issued in the United States was on July 1, 1847. Prior to the stamp, a letter could be mailed without and paid for upon arrival. That changed in 1855 when stamps became mandatory.

The first two stamps issued featured likenesses of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. Since then, stamps have been adorned with everything from flowers to works of art to, yes, even super heroes.

DC Comics heroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Flash, Plastic Man, Supergirl, and Hawkman were featured on a sheet of stamps issued July 20, 2006.

Marvel followed suit a year later, July 25, 2007, with Spider-Man, Hulk, Namor, Thing, Captain America, Silver Surfer, Spider-Woman, Elektra, Iron Man and Wolverine.

DC Comics gave the paying public a shot of Christmas in 1978 with this quartet of comic books.

        Kicking off the season was Green Lantern/Green Arrow (1960) issue 113 which hit the stands November 30.

        Lantern, Arrow and Black Canary survive a Christmas eve complete with kidnapping and volcano in That They May Fear No More.

        A group of musicians find themselves prey to Granny Bleach and followers. They feel pregnant Marcy who is with musicians will birth the chosen one who will keep the suddenly active volcano dormant.

Season’s Greetings

        Lantern is able to divert the lava flow and save the town.

        Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas from Batman (1940) 309 was covered back in December 2018. Slip back there for a rehash of events between the Dark Knight and Blockbuster. It was on the spin racks December 14.

        Ross Andru’s non-descript cover belies the festive Happy New Year…Rest in Peace! behind Bizarro’s toothy grin in Superman (1938) 333. It was released December 28.

        The Brave and the Bold (1955) 148 is another book covered in 2018. The Night the Mob Stole Xmas! was originally reviewed in January of that year though released December 28 of 1978.

        While none of the above-mentioned books made the highlight reel for 1978, DC made an effort.

        What did make the nightly news included the Great Blizzard of 1978 hitting the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes January 25-27 killing 70.

        By February 5 through the 7, the blizzard had worked its way to the New England states. An estimated 100 people died and $520 million in damage resulted.

        As winter started to come to a close, other matters took the spotlight as the year progressed. In March, Charlie Chaplin’s remains were stolen from Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland.

        Dallas became known for more than assassinations and football with the debut of the series of the same name April 2. It would give birth to the modern-day primetime soap.

        In May Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds hit his 3,000 MLB hit.

        The first test tube baby was born in Oldham, Greater Manchester UK in July.

        Pope John Paul I succeeded Pope Paul VI as the 263^rd Pope in August.

        September and Camp David hosted the Camp David Accords with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat.

        President Jimmy Carter authorized the Susan B. Anthony dollar in October.

        In December, serial killer John Wayne Gacy was arrested. He would later be found guilty for the deaths of 33 men and boys between 1972 and 1978.

        All in all, a busy year capped off with some DC goodness for the holidays.

The DCU celebrated Halloween 2019 with a trade paperback of reprint material issued the previous two years entitled A Very DC Halloween.

The first half of the trade is pulled directly from DC House of Horror (2017).

Keith Giffen gives readers Bump in the Night with a retelling of Superman’s arrival on Earth. This time it doesn’t end well.

His next offering is a slasher tale featuring the ghost of Wonder Woman in Man’s World.

Another ghost story, Crazy for You, features Harley Quinn haunting a man into killing his wife.

The Last Laugh is more original as Giffen debates the yin and yang of vigilantism.

Blackest Day is a zombie apocalypse on Earth with plot by Giffen and script by Brian Keene.

Ronald Malfi scripts Giffen’s Stray Arrow with Green Arrow as a vigilante killer.

A Very DC Halloween (2019)

Two-Face is featured in Unmasked, a story by Giffen and Wrath James White.

Uttering Shazam takes the speaker to darker realms in The Possession of Billy Batson.

Swamp Thing stars in The Spread, as taken from Swamp Thing Halloween Horror Giant issue one. This Walmart exclusive was a 100-page special offered in 2018 with an original story followed by reprints from previous Halloween specials.

The remainder of this book is filled with stories from 2018’s Cursed Comics Cavalcade in the order they originally appeared, the first being Gorehound.

Batman saves the final girl who – spoiler – is really the killer.

Siren Song is a tale of myth and mystery starring Wonder Woman.

Alien zombies spoil Guy Gardner’s vacation in Life Sentence.

Demon Etrigan possesses a man a woman hires Jason Blood to find in Yellow Jack.

A ghost from the Phantom Zone haunts Lois and Clark in Strange Visitor.

The Monster in Me pits a doppelganger of Green Arrow against himself on a long, hot night.

Black Lightning and Katana get some love in Mercy Killing as they protect a young girl from a demon.

An unlikely pairing of Solomon Grundy and Robin share top billing in The Devil You Know. Professor Pyg threatens three runaway girls under the protection of Grundy.

Finally, Halloween Hayride is a simpler story showcasing Zatanna. The magic mistress plies her trade to stop an older brother from scaring his sister.

With this many stories to pick and choose from, there are plenty of tricks and treats.

Before television, before Internet, there was radio.

Radio was, literally, the voice that captured imaginations, entertained the masses and informed the world.

Today radio is more relegated to vehicles.

Brightest Day, Blackest Night (2002)

If Gugliemo Marconi couldn’t visualize what his creation was to become, neither could Nikola Tesla, who demonstrated the first radio in 1893. Hard as it may be to believe, radio wasn’t first envisioned as a communication device. It took many minds and hands to determine a functional use for the invention.

Lee de Forest made the first public transmission via the new device in 1910. In 1920, the first radio news program was broadcast out of Detroit, MI.

All of this has led to National Radio Day. Our host is Golden Age Green Lantern alias and radio announcer Alan Scott.

The 2002 Brightest Day, Blackest Night one-shot pre-dates the zombified and reunified titles of the later part of the decade.

This flashback showcases Scott and his golden oldie persona battling Nazis and Solomon Grundy at the behest of the Justice Society of America.

Radio station WGAH plays a minor character in the opening act setting the stage for the drama to come.

Scott was introduced in the pages of All-American Comics issue 16 in 1940. His skimpy eight-page introduction to the comic book reading universe was given the nod by legendary four-color pioneer Max Gaines.

Green Lantern would quickly become a member of the Justice Society and given a sidekick, taxi driver Doiby Dickles. Their exploits would continue to 1949 when disinterest in the mystery men would shelve the character for 12 years.

Radio would endure, even if Green Lantern would not – at least for a short publishing period.

Currently it is estimated 71 percent of the driving public listen to the radio while in their vehicle. At least 67 percent listen on a daily basis. Of those, 48 percent admit to singing along to the music broadcast; over half of them being women.

Today, turn on, tune in and drop the pretense: it’s National Radio Day. Spin the dial and find a good soundtrack for Brightest Day, Blackest Night.

Oh, yes, this is real.

As real as National Fried Chicken Day.

Fried chicken, or southern fried chicken, are pieces of chicken that have been coated in a seasoned batter and pan-fried, deep fried, pressure fried or air fried. The breading adds a crisp coating or crust to the exterior of the chicken while retaining juices in the meat. Boiler chickens are most commonly used.

The history of National Fried Chicken Day is unknown.

Green Lantern co-staring Colonel Sanders (2017) 3

Still, it’s a better idea than a team up with Green Lantern and Colonel Sanders.

This 16-page product-placement misadventure has the Colonel hawking his fried fowl across this and any other universe that hadn’t been destroyed during one of DC’s house cleanings.

The story really runs afoul when the Colonel learns his new Zingers (patent pending) are being hijacked before they can reach their cosmic destinations.

Together, the Colonel and Green Lantern set off to solve the mystery of the missing sandwiches. On their way they meet with Adam Strange, a big fan of the Colonel’s, and the Hawk people of planet Thangar.

Larfleeze is discovered to be the thief. Green Lantern and the Colonel team to trash the greedy alien. Thanks to Sander’s KFC bucket-shaped power ring, he is able to unleash a bushel of greasy justice with his drumstick and plastic spoon and fork creations.

On the ropes, the Colonel finally outwits Larfleeze by offering him his own KFC franchise for the planet Okaara.

Back on Oa, Harland Sanders is made an honorary Green Lantern by the Guardians of the Universe.

While this may have been envisioned by some grease-soaked, feverish nightmare born of an ad exec, the actual event was crafted by writer Tony Bedard and rendered by Tom Derenick.

Read at your own risk.

Now, back to fried chicken.

It is believed the practice of frying chicken in its own fat was done by the Scotts in the middle ages. They did not use seasoning. West African tribes practiced similar recipes, but did season. When the two cultures met during the days of slavery, the processes were combined.

To celebrate give the above reviewed comic book a pass and visit a local fried chicken franchise to see if they are offering any specials.

After a cloistered past coupla years, Americans are ready to hit the roads once more. Today is the day to do so.

Today is National Road Trip Day.

National Road Trip Day is the Friday before Memorial Day, the official kickoff to the summer road trip season.

Our official travelers are the “hard-traveling heroes” Green Lantern and Green Arrow. The pair bid farewell to the end of the Silver Age and the 1960s as they discovered America, faults and all, for a celebrated 14-issue run chronicled by Denny O’Neil Neal Adams.

The term “hard-traveling heroes” wasn’t coined until the early 1990s when their exploits were first reprinted in the burgeoning trade paperback genre. They had first been reprinted in the Paperback Library version of Paperback Comics in 1972. The book featured black and white reprints of Green Lantern (1959) issues 76 and 77.

That same year a second volume, in the same format, was offered featuring reprints of issues 78 and 79.

Green Lantern (1959) 76-87 and 89

In 1983, DC reprinted the issues in what has been termed as the Baxter series. The seven-issue run offered two issues per book, completely reprinting the original storyline.

The “hard-traveling heroes” were the brainchild of writer Denny O’Neil. DC editor Julie Schwartz offered him the floundering character allowing the writer carte blanch to boost sales.

O’Neil returned the space-faring policeman of sector 2184 and rooted him on Earth in the dying counterculture movement of the previous decade. With liberal Oliver Queen, aka, Green Arrow, they shared experiences and differed in opinions as they traversed the highways and byways of America.

False sales figures brought their adventures to a premature close with issue 89, but the storyline peaked with issues 85 and 86. Those featured Arrow’s teen sidekick and sometime Teen Titan, as a heroin addict in one of the first serious looks at drugs in the pages of comicdom.

At times the story telling was heavy handed, but the tales were recognized beyond comic book pages by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek.

Now, plot a course for your own adventure or relive part of comic book and American history. Either way, you won’t be disappointed.

What do Alessandro Volta and Green Lantern have in common?

National Battery Day.

Volta is the father of the battery. Maybe not as we think of it today, but his combination of silver, cloth/paper soaked in salt or acid and zinc forming “voltaic piles” generated the first limited, portable electrical current.

Alan Scott was the Golden Age Green Lantern. The lantern served as a battery to power his ring.

All-American Comics (1939) 16

Thus, we have however-many-degrees-of-separation between Volta and Green Lantern joined for the non-holiday.

While the Italian scientist invented the first battery, England’s William Cruckshank designed batteries for mass consumption in 1802.

The battery was improved upon over time. In 1896, the National Carbon Company, later christened the Eveready Battery Company, produced the first commercially available battery. Two years later, the first D-sized battery was unveiled for flashlights.

Martin Nodell and Bill Finger birthed the first Green Lantern.

The Golden Age Green Lantern, aka Alan Scott, became owner of a magic lantern. With the lantern he was able to create a ring allowing him a variety of powers.

By the early 1950s, the Golden Age mystery men had fallen out of favor. It would be almost a decade before another Green Lantern would grace comic book pages.

Following the success of the Silver Age Flash’s debut, DC Comic’s revamped Green Lantern. The 1959 version was sleeker and received his lantern and ring courtesy of an alien from space.

From his debut in Showcase issue 22, Green Lantern spawned an ever-growing legend that would include a corps of similar heroes who police the universe and beyond.

Together they help commemorate Volta’s birthday to honor a common tool we take for granted and the man who made it possible.

To celebrate, dust off the old flashlight and prop the covers over your head as you read an issue or two of Green Lantern by the light of the handheld device.

Alan Scott is a ghost of Christmas past, but not The Ghost of Christmas Past.

JSA Classified (2005) 33

Scott first appeared in All -American Comics issue 16 as the Golden Age Green Lantern. While no criminal could escape nor cosmic event stop his war on injustice, indifference did bring his career to an end.

Following the second World War, people tired quickly of heroes. Publishing companies scrambled to fill their books with new fads and forgot.

By the late 1950s, a new generation was ready for colorful characters to return. Flash was the first. Green Lantern followed. Not Scott, but a Green Lantern for a new age.

Eventually Scott’s memory, and form, were resurrected as heroes from one Earth would cross over with heroes of another Earth. An Earth from the past. Green Lantern met Green Lantern in, well, the book of the same name (1960) 40.

Other attempts were made to keep the Golden Age heroes from appearing in our universe, but failed. Writers – and fans – wanted them back. A company-wide crossover allowed them to return.

All of which brings Scott/Green Lantern to this point in time, 2008, and the return of a formidable foe, Vandal Savage. In the previous issue, Savage had plotted his revenge in bringing back the image of Scott’s dead daughter, Jeanie Lynn Hayden, aka, Jade.

Scott is able to overcome the grief of what he believes is the return of Jade and finally defeat Savage. His reward is a warm evening with friends and loved ones as they celebrate Christmas.