WIZARD OF OZ TATTOOS

WIZARD OF OZ SAND CASTLES

SAND CASTLES

MARK SHAPIRO OF HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA, SEXIEST SCHMUCK ALIVE ISSUE

Mark Shapiro of Huntington Beach, California is shown the day he saw his pic on Mad magazine proclaiming the famous L. Frank Baum and oz collector as the sexiest schmuck for 1991...Shapiro only found out July 4, 2010 due to the mail getting lost for 19 years.
Here pictured with Mark is his older brother Larry Shapiro just celebrating his 70th birthday.
Once a prosperous family man with homes in Malibu beach, california and in Maui, Hawaii, with another penthouse in Paris, France and able to go anywhere on a given notice since Larry had his own yacht and jet plane.
However, the recession came and Larrys business was one of the first to go under for Larry sold dildos online and when he sat in parks or benches or at dodger games.
Woman now have gone back to coke glass bottles, cucumbers..shower heads..their great dane...broom stick...end of baseball bat...bowling ball, etc...has put Larry Shapiro out of business.
He has lost everythng including his teeth along with Mark and both sold the teeth that fell out to african ivory traders to reshape into minature penis gods that their fellow zulus still worship back in Africa.
If you wish to contact either Mark or Larry Shapiro, you can find them at the McDonads dumpster off of beach blvd . in Huntington Beach, California between the hours of midnite to five a.m.

MY WISH UPON A STAR,,by A WISHER

>
When I wish upon a star
I want something without a code bar.
Not a carton of milk nor loaf of bread
But a thought that's running through my head.

I wish for a love that's like no other
A friend, a confident, a tender lover.
Someone who laughs and lets me cry
As days and weeks and years go by.

When I wish upon a star
I might as well ask for a Lamborghini car!

WISH UPON A STAR...by TODD CHRISTOPHER ELLIOT

As I lay in my bed at night
I close my eyes and envision a sight
For though you are afar
I wish upon a star
To send my love to ye
For I do love thee
My heart pitter patters at your sight
And takes away all my pain and blight
Your beauty lies in your soul
For you to love me is my goal
So when I wish upon a star so high
I see us flying with wing in the sky
Holding and kissing your cherry lips
your mere presence and beauty can sink ships
I love you in the true essence of the word
for you are my angel who flies like a bird
When I wish upon a star that twinkles and shine
I send you my soul, spirit and being and pray to make you mine

WHEN INSULTS HAD CLASS

These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to four letter words.
Insulting in style

In Stanislaw J. Lec's (1909-1966) Unkempt Thoughts, we read of this memorable insult: "There are grammatical errors even in his silence."

And there's this famous insult from the quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli, as regards a paper of a young physicist: "That's not right. It's not even wrong."





The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:
She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison."
He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
"That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second.... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial" - Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.." - Oscar Wilde

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts.. . for support rather than illumination. " - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx


____________________________________________________________

MARK "WIZ" SHAPIRO OF HUNTINGTON BEACH

L. Frank Baum book collector then and now. Shapiro diving for the wire to win the track meet for Rosemead High School, Rosemead, California,,,1964

Mark Shapiro July 14, 2010,



Book Chase
The problem is I want to read it all but I fall farther behind every day.





Saturday, September 18, 2010Meet the Wizard, Part II

Guest Blogger Mark Shapiro


My introduction into the world of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum began at the Long Beach swap meet in Long Beach, California when I came across a young couple selling artifacts they had found in their grandfather’s attic.

I had never seen the Wonderful Wizard of Oz book, nor knew of L. Frank Baum despite having a Masters in Journalism and having been a teacher up to that point. I walked by the book and then it struck me to go back to ask how much the book was going for. The young man said one dollar and, this being a swap meet where bartering is common, I said I would take it for fifty cents. A deal was struck.

Four months later as I was going to visit my wife’s parents in Spokane, Washington, I saw in the airplane magazine an article on L. Frank Baum and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The article stated that the book was worth $10,000 and, to my astonishment,a it was like having the spirit of L. Frank Baum invade my soul.

From that point on, I dedicated my life to researching and finding anything Baum. Like all collectors, I made many mistakes in purchasing books I thought were first edition and first state until i purchased the Bibliographia Oziana by Greene,Hanff,Martin,Haff and Greene. I then spent six months digesting this information which has led me to accumulate over 450 L. Frank Baum and William Denslow books (Denslow being the illustrator on the Wonderful Wizard of Oz). I have spent the past 38 years coming across the books and other items related to Oziana through swap meets, eBay, auctions and private parties.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago and New York: Geo.M.Hill Co, 1900, 261 pages, had an initial printing of only 10,000 copies of which approximately a third were first state and, of those, approximately 2,000 were in the B binding. On the book’s spine, the first state, and rarest of this book, has the “O” outside the “C” to spell the abreviation “co” following Geo. M. Hill - whereas the second state binding has the “O” inside the larger letter “C.”

14 of the more than 450 books in Mark's collection
Lyman Frank Baum (15 May 1856 - 6 May 1919) was an American author of children's books best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four "lost" novels, 82 short stories, over 200 poems, and an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings.) The highest priced Wonderful Wizard of Oz in second state, and second state binding, with an inscription by Baum went for $152,500 at Christies Auction House in 2002.


I have never sold any of his books, for they are the children I never had. The Smithsonian Library in Washington is interested in housing my collection for posterity one day.

Freda and Mark Shapiro
Having been written up in various magazines and newspapers throughout the country and in dedicating my blog, WizardofBaum, to everything Oz and beyond, I feel the spirit of L. Frank Baum in me to help keep him alive in an ever changing world. I have been a guest speaker at many conventions and it gives me inner warmth to share not only the world of L. Frank Baum but also the overall wonderment of books in general. My dear departed mom, Freda Shapiro , molded me into the collector I am by taking me to museums, book stores and libraries throughout my childhood.




(Thanks again, Mark, for sharing your collection with Book Chase readers.)
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