Something I noticed a long time ago and failed to document

This doesn't seem to be widely known; perhaps it is and no one besides me cares.

The cover of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game (Tor Books, 1985) is recycled from a 1983 issue of White Dwarf.

Ender's Game:


White Dwarf #41, May, 1983:



The only reason I care is that I've always thought the art was a pretty poor fit to the contents of the novel, but it doesn't seem to have hurt the book none. Given how poor a fit the art for Speaker for the Dead is to the contents of that book, I've always assumed it was also reused art. (It's in the same style as the earlier cover, but is not also a White Dwarf cover.)

Things that cost too damn much money

In 1988, Penn Jillette, Dean Seal, and Rob Elk (with Teller on bvox) released an album, Never Mind the Sex Pistols, Here's Bongos, Bass, & Bob which featured the wonderful anti-anthem, "The Thorazine Shuffle". Stupidly, I didn't buy a copy of it, and I've regretted it ever since. Now that I have more money than I did when I was comic-shop clerk, I've gone searching for it hither and thither. Alas, the only copy I can find is on half.com for $146.99. Yikes and yikes again!

I guess that I'm rather stuck until someone has the wisdom to re-release it. Why are there albums which are out of print in this day and age?

One of my favorite moments ever in radio was on Chapel Hill's WXYC in, probably, 1989 or 1990. The DJ started a set with "The Thorazine Shuffle." About halfway through the song, there's a divided line:

They shuffled in the quiet room [pause]
when no one was around

The pause lasts about ten seconds. The DJ, apparently not expecting the dead air, immediately switch turntables and started "Welcome to the Terrordome" by Public Enemy. When that was done, she resumed "The Thorazine Shuffle" and let it finish. A brilliant, if simple, mash-up avant la lettre.