Disney-comics digest #227.

[Don Rosa]

	I have returned. Yes, my computer did, indeed, go foul and I
awaited a friend who knows computers to come by and see if he could
figure out what was wrong; but the VERY weird local weather kept him
away from my country home until today. What seemed to happen was that
my Drive A was suddenly unable to read any discs. Not just ONE disc,
but any disc. The last time I logged on I did so by switching my
software to Drive B. But the next moment Drive B also became unable to
read anything, and started making the same weird noises as Drive A. If
you're following me, this doesn't make much sense. The problem seemed
to be in the drives, not the discs, but what possible reason could
there be for BOTH drives to break down within an hour of each other. It
would be like driving around on some tires for 5 years and having all 4
blow out at the same time. It didn't make sense... until we took it
apart and found the problem. If I had ever guessed what the problem was
I could have fixed it myself right off, but who woulda' expected THIS
oddity. Here's a problem for all you computer buffs to make a note of:
	The break-down occured on the morning after we (in Louisville)
had the COLDEST night in history... 25 below 0 (F). (This was 2 days
after we had the deepest snow in history and which was still on the
ground, and some of which still is -- 20 inches. Deep snow and
super-cold do NOT happen together -- in fact, they normally preclude
one another. It was a VERY strange day when Louisville had both its
deepest snow AND coldest temperature at the same time.
	 I turn off the heat overnight in my studio here, and it got
down into the mid 50s (F) in the room. In fact, the first idea I had
about my failed computer was that the discs were too cold (?) or the
computer dewed up, and all would be well after it warmed up, but that
wasn't the case.
	Well, as near as we can figure, this is what happened: in each
disc drive is a tiny "cushion" of foam on a bit of metal which, I
guess, is designed to prevent the innards of the drive from bouncing
around during shipment or such. This cushion is attached to the top of
the drive compartment, metal to metal, with a drop of glue. 55 degrees
was JUST enough to make the glue become brittle and not one, but BOTH
"cushion" bits fell off and into the drive. This acted as a tiny
monkey-wrench in each drive and the drive was unable to read an entire
disc. Perhaps the bit of metal didn't fall into Drive B until after I'd
gotten through one last call-in. But anyway, we took out each drive,
shook it, and these tiny pieces fell out. Now everything works fine
again. That seems like a pretty strange thing to happen, but then I
guess that was a strange day in local history all around.

	I just read through all those Digests...

	TORSTEN made a gag (was it in a private note?) that maybe I
shoulda put antifreeze in my computer. That is exactly what my problem
was. Good call.

PER:
	If you were asking me if the Russian MM you have is the same one
that Disney was selling in America as the #1 issue and charging $10+
for... YES, it is the same. And that is definitely NOT the first
Russian MM. It is the 3rd. Those Russian issues were printed by
Egmont-Sweden, and they gave me a copy of a previous issue. Since then
I've been told by another Egmont branch that there was an even earlier
issue (by a few months). 

MATTIAS:
	You might come to America? Of course, I hope you might find
yourself passing through Louisville, and staying a night here at my
home... but there's nothing really to waste time seeing in Louisville
and I don't know how it would be convenient to pass through unless you
were going from Chicago south to Florida or such. 
	Did you imply that your musical job involves playing "swing"...
so called "big band" music? Did I know that? Did you know I am a very
great fan of "swing", and that it's the only type of music I like
besides classical (and movie soundtracks which I consider to be the
classical music of the 20th century)?
	And you like American style breakfasts? With all the GREEEESY
eggs and GREEEEESY pork and GREEEEEESY fried potatoes and GREEEEEESY
gravy??? When I visit Europe the thing I MOST look forward to, honest
to gosh, are the Scandanavian breakfasts with cheeses and cold cuts and
smoked fish and boiled eggs. I think the worst food we have in America
is the #$%@& we eat for breakfast. Maybe the only reason you look
forward to American breakfasts is that it's the MOST different sort of
food we have all at once? Would you wanna eat that greasy slop every day
for the rest of your nacherul life? Why do you think you people LIVE
longer than we do in the first place? It's all that greasy food and red
meat we eat. (Though, I LOVE my bloody, undercooked, American red meat!)
	Speaking of my visiting Europe, it looks like I might be in
Germany during the first week of June, visiting their big comic
convention near Nuremburg.