The Gobfather, Goblin King of the Moisty Mountains

The Gobfather, Goblin King of the Moisty Mountains
from The Wobbit A Parody

Thursday, December 15, 2011

#4 Bulbo's Secret Plan (from The Superfriends Of The Ring)



Outside of Bulbo’s condo behind the beauty salon, he and Pantsoff sat smoking their pipes. It was a filthy habit Bulbo had picked up on their project with Borin Oakmanfield and the dwarves, and he had trouble quitting it, somehow. He blew an expert smoke ring that rose away over the garden that Ham and his son Sham Sammich tended for minimum wage. Pantsoff blew a series of rings that linked together to spell out Pantsoff The Wizard, your one-stop project management solution! As the cloud drifted, it flashed different colors.

“I think I need a holiday,” said Bulbo.

“A holiday from what?” said Pantsoff. “You haven’t done a day’s work since the Oakmanfield Project!”

“A vacation, then. You know, my plan, my secret plan. At the party, with my little joke.”

“The one about the elf and his proctologist?”

“No,” said Bulbo. “The one where I disappear from my own party and leave the bar bill for the Snackbag-Bunkinses.”

“Ah,” said Pantsoff. “Not much of a joke, really. More of a prank. Who will laugh, I wonder?”

The next day more carts rolled up to the beauty salon. There might have been some grumbling along the lines of “Shop locally!” or “Support small businesses!” but that very week orders started pouring out to community merchants, requiring Bulbo to pay the Wobbiton sales tax. Deliveries were made of bulk-package hors d’oeuvres, boxes of wine, countless rolls of crepe paper decorations and every cheap party commodity you can imagine.

Before long, invitations began pouring out. The service at the Wobbiton post-office became even slower than ever, and the one in Buythewater township simply closed until vagrants could be rounded up to help. Bulbo blamed these “guest workers” for the low volume of RSVPs. In fact, his pre-stamped response cards reading Thank you, I shall certainly come, with one guest were mostly sitting on kitchen counters and dining room tables from Bug End to Bugger Heights. Bulbo was never to get an accurate headcount.



Keep coming back for more of Superfriends Of The Ring. To read my loving, insightful, full-length parody of The Hobbit,  order a copy of my eBook The Wobbit on Amazon for only $3.00: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK .  

If you don't have a Kindle reader, you can download the Kindle app from Amazon for free and then read The Wobbit on your Mac, PC, smartphone or microwave oven. Visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Bilbo-Bulbo Astrological Comparison Executive Summary

In case the last post (A Bilbo-Bulbo Astrological Comparison) was too much for any non-astrologer readers out there, I have created a shorter Executive Summary. You do not need to be an executive to read it. It includes some of the most interesting points from the original Comparison. I have added some insightful comments of my own. 


In general, the Astrological Comparison is a look at what a relationship between Bilbo Baggins (from The Hobbit) and Bulbo Bunkins (from The Wobbit A Parody) might be like if they met in an alternate reality.


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Bulbo's Sun in Taurus and Bilbo's Sun in VirgoBilbo is more precise and more of a perfectionist than Bulbo. Bilbo is also more easily worried and more inconsistent. Bulbo is steadier emotionally than Bilbo is, and Bilbo appreciates Bulbo's consistent nurturing, healing, and soothing qualities. Of course Bulbo is steadier emotionally than Bilbo. He isn't independently wealthy like Bilbo, not at the start of the book, at least. Years of facing frustration and underemployment have strengthened him. More or less.

  • Bulbo's Sun Conjunct Bilbo's UranusYou inspire each other to try new things, experiment, and investigate alternatives. You may have met each other, for example, during a time period when both of you were breaking free from traditional values and exploring new possibilities. They both go through a great deal of character development. Bilbo probably more-so, since he's in a longer book.

  • Bilbo's Sun Square Bulbo's MoonIn particular, Bulbo often feels that Bilbo does not sympathize enough or try to really understand Bulbo's feelings. Bilbo is not very sympathetic in general. And he certainly didn't understand the feelings of the dwarves as he was stuffing them into barrels to be thrown into a river. True, Bulbo did the same thing, but it was Bilbo's idea, and he did it first.

  • Bulbo's Moon Opposite Bilbo's MarsIf they share an interest in the same sport (for example tennis or golf) they will enjoy competing against each other. The sports in question would be darts, lawn bowling, and rootball, which is like football, but played with a rutabaga. Bulbo is a fan of that last one, but he never actually played the game.
  • Ascendant in Libra: The two of you project an image of elegance and fine taste and you endeavor to surround yourselves with beauty. Bilbo might be more elegant than Bulbo, but Bulbo is widely regarded as a maker of excellent cocktails. His Manhattan is especially sought-after.
  • Moon in TaurusThey're very good at pleasing each other on a sensual level. Here the astrologers certainly are referring to sensual pleasures like music, fine art, and gourmet dining, because this comparison is for "Moon in Taurus" rather than "Ascendant in Uranus."

  • Sun Sesquiquadrate JupiterOne of the purposes of their friendship is to inspire each other to aim higher, to do bigger things, to see much more of the world, and to expand their sense of what is possible. Being "higher and expanding their sense of what is possible" comes primarily from the abuse of pipe-weed, mostly by Bilbo. Bulbo generally sticks to bourbon.

  • Sun Square UranusPeriodic unexpected events and changes create an unsettled feeling between them, as if they can never quite relax. Both Bilbo and Bulbo suffer from a lot of free-floating anxiety. Since his adventure and to this very day, Bulbo becomes moody every year on Derwin's Day, the fabled gift-giving holiday of the dwarves. His friend Pantsoff the Wizard once "prescribed" him some Xanax. but it didn't seem to help.

  • Moon Semisquare MercuryIf they can respect one another's opinions and preferences, rather than get defensive, they'll find that they can tell one another very personal details of their lives, and end up being very close friends as a result. If only they could! Perhaps a Bilbo-Bulbo crossover story is possible, if only the Tolkien Estate and the Saul Zaentz Company could be convinced.


Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Astrological Comparison Between Bilbo Baggins and Bulbo Bunkins

Wobbit fan and reviewer The Alchemist has long asked the question "What if Bilbo and Bulbo met in a bar? Any bar, like The Prancing Pony or The Ass-Dragon Inn. If they met, would they get along?


The Alchemist commissioned a study using cutting-edge astrological science to answer that very question, and the results are AMAZING. For the astrological purists out there (Wobbit fan and reviewer Pappy O'Daniel, for one) should be aware that since Bulbo and Bilbo are fictional characters, their fictional birthdates have not been used. Instead, she has used the publication dates of their respective books (September 21, 1937 for Bilbo and May 6, 2011 for Bulbo). This is a widely-respected technique for fictional horoscopes.


The comparison was prepared by the good people at Astrology 3D, Inc. It was written to professional astrological standards. My apologies for any truncation of the following charts.


Enjoy, and keep watching the skies!

To read my loving, insightful, full-length parody of The Hobbit,  order a copy of my eBook The Wobbit on Amazon for only $3.00: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK .  

If you don't have a Kindle reader, you can download the Kindle app from Amazon for free and then read The Wobbit on your Mac, PC, smartphone or microwave oven. The download is easy: visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/
To visit The Wobbit website: thewobbitaparody.com



Comparison Report for Bilbo and Bulbo



Bulbo's Sun in Taurus and Bilbo's Sun in Virgo

Both of you are practical and down to earth. Bilbo is more precise and more of a perfectionist than Bulbo. Bilbo is also more easily worried and more inconsistent. Bulbo is steadier emotionally than Bilbo is, and Bilbo appreciates Bulbo's consistent nurturing, healing, and soothing qualities. You make very good friends!

Bulbo's Sun Trine Bilbo's Mercury

The mental rapport that you two share is a big reason why you enjoy each other's company and are good friends. Communication is open and harmonious. You work together very well on practical affairs, daily chores, problem-solving, and business activities

Bulbo's Sun Trine Bilbo's Jupiter

The two of you really enjoy each other's company! Bilbo has a great deal of confidence in Bulbo and is able to see Bulbo's best qualities. You are very encouraging and supportive of each other, helping each other to be more confident, open new doors, and advance and grow in both inner and outer ways. This positive note of good will and harmony is also invaluable in helping the two of you overcome differences in temperament and other stressful aspects of your relationship discussed elsewhere in this report.

Bulbo's Sun Conjunct Bilbo's Uranus

You inspire each other to try new things, experiment, and investigate alternatives. You may have met each other, for example, during a time period when both of you were breaking free from traditional values and exploring new possibilities. This is a good relationship for shared creative, innovative activities. You inspire each other, and have good times together, but you also find that commitments or contracts with each other are difficult to adhere to over time. This relationship works well as long as you don't make too many demands on each other

Bulbo's Sun Trine Bilbo's Neptune

The two of you have a strong intuitive understanding of each other, and you inspire each other's imagination, idealism, and aspirations. You help each other to become clearer about your ideals and religious inclinations, and together you develop a greater sense of meaning and purpose in your lives. You help each other to look beyond the daily problems and issues of your personal lives and focus more on altruistic goals and broader issues

Bilbo's Sun Square Bulbo's Moon

The distinct differences in your temperaments inclines you to periods of personality clashes and misunderstandings. In particular, Bulbo often feels that Bilbo does not sympathize enough or try to really understand Bulbo's feelings. Both of you will have to understand and respect your differences, and make a concerted effort to harmonize your very different temperaments.

Bulbo's Moon Sextile Bilbo's Venus

There is a great deal of warmth and kindness in this relationship. You do not hesitate to assist each other and you feel like family even if you are not biologically related

Bulbo's Moon Opposite Bilbo's Mars

Both of you get into an energetic mood when you are together. If you share an interest in the same sport (for example tennis or golf) you will enjoy competing against each other. However, you easily become impatient with each other and easily provoke each other's anger and hostility. You will need to be careful to avoid becoming adversaries.



Composite Report for Bilbo and Bulbo





Sun in Cancer

The longer both of you stay together, the stronger your emotional dependency grows. You enjoy being supportive of one another. This is a warm, protective and deeply caring relationship. You are capable of extreme closeness 

Moon in Taurus

Your sense of emotional security in this relationship must be absolute. You like to feel that you possess each other. You're very good at pleasing each other on a sensual level. Stubborn attitudes may prolong your disagreements 

Ascendant in Libra

You are an attractive couple. You love to socialize and people enjoy your company. You know how to charm. The two of you project an image of elegance and fine taste and you endeavor to surround yourselves with beauty. 

Sun Sesquiquadrate Jupiter

One of the purposes of your friendship is to inspire each other to aim higher, to do bigger things, to see much more of the world, and to expand your sense of what is possible. The energy generated when you are together inclines you to do things on a grand scale, and to constantly strive to expand, grow, and improve your lives.
Inner growth and spiritual or psychological development are enhanced when you are together. Higher ideals, religion, philosophy, and the big questions of life will become a focus of your relationship, even if neither of you is especially oriented toward these subjects. There may well be differences and friction over these topics, but you both will learn about your own faith and beliefs via your friendship 

Sun Square Uranus

Your friendship may or may not be long lasting, but it will always have a flavor of unpredictability, spontaneity, and surprise. Periodic unexpected events and changes create an unsettled feeling between you, as if you can never quite relax. However, you will never be bored with one another either.
You are destined to act as "awakeners" for one another. One of you may open the other to something totally new and different, even shocking, which revolutionizes the way you view the world and your place in it - something you may once have considered weird or too "far out". Always there will be the element of experimentation, of following the unexpected twist in the road. Being with one another encourages you both to be more free, unconventional, and impulsive than you might be otherwise 

Moon Semisquare Mercury

Inevitably your communications with one another will be strongly colored by emotion, emotional prejudice and bias, and subjective elements, all of which often interfere with rational discussion. Part of the purpose of your relationship, in fact, has to do with examining your feelings, coming to understand them, and becoming aware of some of your basic assumptions and habitual beliefs which you may have never questioned before. Discussing your differences of opinion about these issues will enable you both to understand your roots, as well as your prejudices. If you can respect one another's opinions and preferences, rather than get defensive, you'll find that you can tell one another very personal details of your lives, and end up being very close friends as a result.

Copyright © 1992-2009 Astrology 3D, Inc.

This report has been written to Professional Astrological Standards. It is meant for Awareness Entertainment





Sunday, November 20, 2011

Buy The Wobbit, Support A Small Business

Make the Saturday after Thanksgiving the day you shop at small businesses. It's "Small Business Saturday!"


And what could be smaller than spending $3.00 on Amazon to buy a gift copy of The Wobbit A Parody for a friend or loved one (or yourself, I don't care) from a struggling author? It's simple!


In the USA, visit http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK


In the UK, visit https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004ZR9ELK


In Germany, visit https://www.amazon.de/dp/B004ZR9ELK


In France visit https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B004ZR9ELK


Don't let those Euros sit idle in your pocket! Plus, anyone that purchases copy of The Wobbit A Parody on Small Business Saturday (11/26/11) will receive an autographed Collectible Wobbit Ironic Bookmark ABSOLUTELY FREE! Just email your mailing address to me at thewobbitaparody@sbcglobal.net.


Save the world economy, support a small business, shop on Small Business Saturday!



Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A Long Expected Brunch, Part 3: The Arrival Of Pantsoff (from The Superfriends Of The Ring)


Days past and The Day Of Bulbo Bunkins' Party drew near, whether young Promo Bunkins liked it or not. An odd-looking waggon (you or I would call it a “wagon”) laden with odd-looking packages and paraphernalia toiled up the hill to Bulbo’s condo in the Bug End neighborhood of Wobbiton. It was being driven by an odd-looking old man, not a wobbit. He wore immense black wing-tip boots and an unnecessary, affected scarf. He had a long, bushy moustache that stuck out beyond the brim of his hat. Many wobbits believed it to be nose hair. The bundles, the cart, and even the horse were each labeled with a large red P.

That was Pantsoff’s mark, of course, and it was Pantsoff the Wizard driving the cart. Years as a contractor had made him keenly aware of the business value of Branding, so he put his mark on everything, even things that weren’t his. He was famous in Wobbiton for his fireworks, as well as the fires and smokes that often resulted from them. Pantsoff dabbled in project management during the off-season, and in wizardry on a cash-only basis. As the waggon rolled past, some young wobbit toughs shouted after him “What’s the ‘P’ stand for, old man? P as in…” Pantsoff quickly turned and silenced them by flipping a promotional P-rune beverage coaster at their leader’s head.

“Run away now, you little punks!” said Pantsoff. “There’s more where that came from, and I’m not afraid to use it!” 

Keep coming back for more of Superfriends Of The Ring. To read my loving, insightful, full-length parody of The Hobbit,  order a copy of my eBook The Wobbit on Amazon for only $3.00: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK .  

If you don't have a Kindle reader, you can download the Kindle app from Amazon for free and then read The Wobbit on your Mac, PC, smartphone or microwave oven. The download is easy, just visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/
To visit The Wobbit website: thewobbitaparody.com

Saturday, November 5, 2011

GET A FREE WOBBIT COLLECTIBLE!



Don't miss out on this incredible offer! Get a Collectible Wobbit Ironic Bookmark absolutely free of charge.  All you have to do is:

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    Please Note: The Wobbit Ironic Bookmark is NOT intended for use with your copy of The Wobbit. It is excellent for marking the place in whatever book you're reading now, because you'll stop reading it as soon as you order The Wobbit from Amazon.

    If you haven't ordered your copy of The Wobbit yet, instructions are provided on the bookmark for your convenience. No purchase is necessary to receive your very own Collectible Wobbit Ironic Bookmark.

    Thanks again!

    -Paul 
    Paul Erickson
    Author, The Wobbit A Parody

    Thursday, October 27, 2011

    Bonus Scene: Prologue To The Prologue (from The Superfriends Of The Ring)




    MEMO

    RE:                Bulbo’s Book May Not Have Been Entirely Accurate

    From:             Galadtameecha, Owner, Elf Resorts International

    To:                 The Allies Of Goodness


    The world is changed, and nobody likes change.

    I can feel it at the water cooler, I can smell it in the break room. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it. Let me explain.

    It seems that in his book There Goes My Back Again (published in the Uttermost North as The Wobbit), the former contractor/thief Bulbo Bunkins may not have expressed two key concepts of the book with complete accuracy. This has created great confusion and must be addressed.

    In case any of us are unclear about these concepts (I here address myself to the Wizard and Project Manager Pantsoff, in the unlikely event that he is actually reading this memo), let me be specific.

    First of all, the ring that Bulbo “won” from the creature Gol-Gol is not a run-of-the-mill Ring Of Invisibility, such as you or I might swap for a Holocaust Cloak or a Wheelbarrow. It is, in fact, the most powerful and evil object in Little Earth.

    It seems like it was only yesterday that the Really Great Rings were forged. Three were given to the Elves, of course, because they were the best rings available at the time. Seven were given to the Dwarves, because the great fathers of the dwarves, the creators of the song “Heigh Ho,” also numbered seven. Nine were given to the Kings Of Men, because the Queens Of Women felt the rings were too gaudy.

    But they were all of them bamboozled, for another ring, a really REALLY great ring was made. In the land of Bordor, in the fires of Mount Dum-da-dum-dum he created it. The Lord and CEO of Bordor Enslavement, Banking And Destruction, Smoron contracted the forging of a super-ring to control the others. Into it he poured his impatience, his pettiness and his will to grow his corporation through acquisition. He could never have afforded to forge it in Bordor, so instead hired a skilled craftsman from the Uttermost South who did brilliant work at a very competitive rate. The ring was named after this craftsman: The Juan Ring.

    One by one, the freedom-loving lands of Little Earth were either destroyed or bought out through the power of The Ring, but there were some who insisted on negotiating better deals. A Nearly Last Alliance of Elves and Men, who were to be allied many more times in the future as The Allies Of Goodness, marched against the Axis Of Evil.

    The goblins and trolls and rargs that attacked were hideous. The air was filled with our arrows and their screams. The skies were unfortunately cloudy despite a forecast for a mild, sunny day. The allies were about to win the day when Smoron made a rare personal appearance. Even though he was an elf, his form was that of a giant warrior with uncomfortably spiky armor, which may explain his bad attitude that day. He was smoting Elves and Men all over the place. He was about to smote Isadora, son of the late King Of Men, Ellen-Doll, but he first stepped on Isadora’s sword, Nasal, and broke it in twain out of sheer spite.

    But Isadora took the hilt of Nasal and somehow killed Smoron. No one knows how. I didn’t see it myself. Enron tells me it was a cheap shot to the groin, but others report that there was a weak spot in Smoron’s armor just inside the left breast. In any event, Smoron slowly vanished with a cry of “You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting! What a world! Who would have thought a pathetic human like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oh, look out! I'm going! Oh! Oh!”

    His size 72 Extra-Tall suit of armor was left behind, useless to Isadora even with significant alterations. But Isadora noticed that The Ring magically re-sized itself. He picked it up but didn’t try it on, perhaps because he was wearing gloves. Others say he didn’t like it initially because it looked like a wedding band and he was unmarried. But he knew value when he saw it, so he kept it.

    On the way home from the battle, Isadora was ambushed by a gang of goblins. They hadn’t yet heard that the battle was over and their capo di tutti capo had been vaporized. Isadora had discovered that The Juan Ring would make him invisible, so he dove into a nearby river to escape. What he didn’t know was that The Juan Ring would not give him the power to breath underwater, hold his breath indefinitely, or swim in full armor. He drowned, of course.

    The Ring managed to swim like a scallop, jetting through the water by expanding and contracting, until it came to a new bearer, the most annoying creature imaginable. No one knows for sure, but we can assume he said something like “Well, looky here! I’m gonna call you My Precious, I say, My Precious!”

    His name was Gol-Gol, and he was kind of crazy to begin with, but wearing The Juan Ring turned out to have some undesirable mental side effects. Again, we can guess that his internal dialogue, which he always spoke aloud, was along the lines of “Mine, I say, all mine! With your help, Precious, I’ll kill scrawny little goblins and eat them raw in a cave for the next thousand years! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!” That was mostly The Ring talking.

    Finally, it was stolen by the aforementioned thief, Bulbo Bunkins, a Wobbit from Wobbiton. He invoked the ancient rule of Finders Keepers when he removed The Ring from Gol-gol’s dismal home and tucked it into his little waistcoat. Bulbo reports that the last thing he heard Gol-gol say was “Carn sarn it! Bunkins! We hates, I say, we hates it forever!”
    He didn’t stick around to see what would happen next.

    In addition to his incomplete story of The Juan Ring, Bulbo also reported in his book that according to Pantsoff, Smoron had been defeated. While Pantsoff certainly said this, the statement is dangerously wrong. It is certainly true that The Axis Of Evil was defeated at the Battle Of Six Or Seven Armies, thanks to the last-minute arrivals of The King Of The Eagles and his Squadron Of The Eagles, as well as The Incredible Bjork.

    It is also true that Smoron, while attempting to rebrand himself as “The Neccomancer,” was defeated by The Superwizard Council and thrown out of his corporate headquarters in Murkywood Forest. Unfortunately, though defeated, he melted away as he did at the hands of Isadora. Pantsoff was supposed to seal Smoron’s melting remains in an Invincibilium capsule to prevent this, but he was busy posing for a victory portrait at the time.

    To sum up, The Juan Ring is far more dangerous than Pantsoff realizes, and Smoron is still at large and dangerous, despite melting away twice. If you see Pantsoff, please let him know. Action needs to be taken immediately to avoid market instability that would diminish the fortunes of us all.



    Keep coming back for more of Superfriends Of The Ring. To read my loving, insightful, full-length parody of The Hobbit,  order a copy of my eBook The Wobbit on Amazon for only $3.00: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK .  

    If you don't have a Kindle reader, you can download the Kindle app from Amazon for free and then read The Wobbit on your Mac, PC, smartphone or microwave oven. The download is easy, just visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/
    To visit The Wobbit website: thewobbitaparody.com


    A Long-Expected Brunch, part 1 (from The Superfriends Of The Ring)

    When Mr. Bulbo Bunkins of Bug End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a brunch of special magnificence, no one expected that such a wealthy wobbit would only offer a cash bar.

    Bulbo was very rich and very peculiar, and regarded by his neighbors as “queer.” Sixty years earlier he had taken a contract job as a consultant which had, against all odds, won him a fortune. Even more annoying to his neighbors was the fact that he seemed to stop aging. At ninety he was much the same as fifty. At ninety-nine he looked fifty-one. At one-hundred-one he looked forty-nine. At one-hundred one he looked fifty again. At one-hundred-ten people began to say he’s had some work done, but they secretly thought he has a portrait in his basement that ages instead of him. This was ridiculous, because he lived in a basement apartment underneath a beauty salon, and any magic portraits would have to be hidden somewhere else.

    “It will have to be paid for,” they said. “He must be using some expensive vitamin therapy for the super-rich, because his diet is horrible and he gets no exercise. Mega-doses aren’t natural, and trouble will come of it!”

    But so far, trouble had not come. Although he was cheap by nature, Bulbo had always tipped generously and bribed freely just so his neighbor wobbits would leave him alone. He remained on visiting terms with his relatives (except, of course, the Snackbag-Bunkinses) and was adored by the local riff-raff for his well-publicized but surprisingly rare acts of charity. Like most Dorks (the family on his mother’s side) he had no close friends until his younger cousins were old enough to join him for late nights of role-playing games.

    Bilbo’s favorite cousin was young Promo Bunkins. Since the mysterious deaths of his parents, Promo had lived with his cousins the Buckiebrands of Buckiebrand Hall in nearby Buckieland. It was easy to remember the mailing address.

    At the age of ninety-nine Bulbo adopted Promo and made him his heir. They had the same birthday, September 22, which seemed to Promo to be a suspicious reason to adopt someone. And since Promo was a tweenager at the time, he was not looking forward to having combined birthday parties with Bulbo. A hundred-year-old guy is usually not much fun to party with, even if he looks fifty.

    Keep coming back for more of Superfriends Of The Ring. To read my loving, insightful, full-length parody of The Hobbit,  order a copy of my eBook The Wobbit on Amazon for only $3.00: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004ZR9ELK .  

    If you don't have a Kindle reader, you can download the Kindle app from Amazon for free and then read The Wobbit on your Mac, PC, smartphone or microwave oven. The download is easy, just visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/
    To visit The Wobbit website: http://www.thewobbitaparody.com

    A Long-Expected Brunch, part 2 (from Superfriends Of The Ring)

    Promo endured twelve years of combined birthday parties, not realizing that Bulbo had something quite exceptional planned for when Promo turned thirty-three, his wobbit “coming of age”. Bulbo was going to be eleventy-one, a clearly Dorkish way of saying one hundred eleven. (The Old Dork himself had only reached 130 due to a raw diet and hyperbaric therapy) 111 is a very respectable age for a wobbit, since they tend to die in middle-age from “death by misadventure” or from illnesses caused by poor personal habits.

    In anticipation of the coming event, tongues began to wag in Wobbiton and Buythewater, like the tails of so many animal-shelter dogs. Local wobbit Ham Sammich, known as the Grasper, took this as an opportunity to share his anecdotes about tending the gardens at Bulbo’s condo. Bunkins had purchased his apartment below Virginia’s Beauty Parlor when he became rich. Trying to live up to his new role of “job creator,” he hired Sammich as gardener, primarily because it meant his new servant would never have any duties inside the condo.

    Sammich, who Bulbo employed without benefits, was a dreadful old bore. He was old, but actually younger than Bulbo, but because of Bulbo’s mysterious eternal middle-age, Sammich acted like his cranky grand-dad. The Grasper attributed his own long life to avoiding work and drinking beer, and did both regularly at a small inn called the Ivy Drip. He was addressing a small audience. Small even for wobbits.

    “I swear,” slurred Ham, “tha’ Misser Bulbo’s all right!” Bulbo indulged Ham’s belief in his own genius at growing rutabagas. “Master Hammich,” Bulbo would often say, “you’re awesome at growing rutabagas!” But Bulbo wasn’t around at the moment.

    “Sure, Bulbo’s all right,” said Daddy Shortlegs (a neighbor of the Grasper), “but who’s this young Promo Bunkins that lives with him? Bunkins or not, he’s really a Buckiebrand from Buckie Hall, where folks are so queer.”

    “You’re right, Dad!” said the Grasper. “And I’ve never seen tha’ young Promo out on a date. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. They do have queer ways in Buckieland, across th’ Buckiewine River. Still, as long as his ‘dad’ keeps paying my wages, tha’ Promo is all right, too.”

    “Did I ever tell you about how Promo’s parents died mysteriously?” the Grasper said. “Promo told me in the strictest confidence, so if you repeat this, tell everyone it’s a secret.”

    “You don’t say, Grasper!” said Ted Sandywobbit, the Wobbiton miller, who always liked to butt in.

    “Oh, yeah! Prob’ly killed each other! Mr. Drono Bunkins and tha’ poor Miss Tremula Buckiebrand. They were paddleboating on a second honeymoon at the Murkywood Wood-Elf Lodge when the paddleboat capsized. Horseplay was suspected, or perhaps even rough-housing. And they were both somehow related to Bulbo. Tha’s  even more mysterious.”

    “That doesn’t sound mysterious at all. Not much of a story. More of an anecdote. I hate those paddleboats, all that pedaling. No wonder they fell in.” The miller was hard to please.

    “Anyway, Promo went to live with the Buckiebrands until Mr. Bulbo adopted him. What a shock tha’ must have been to the Snackbag-Bunkinses. First his eternal middle-age and then a new beneficiary suspiciously being named.”

    “What about the rootball card collection, and all the silver and gold?” said Daddy. “And the jools?’

    “The what?”

    “I’m sorry, the ‘jewels.’ What about them?”

    “He never had any jewels,” Ham said, “and Mr. Bulbo refused to diversify his portfolio, taking only gold as payment on his contract instead. As for his rootball memorabilia, all of the cards, programs, merchandise, jerseys, and even a rare game ball are all going to Promo.

    “But my boy Sham can tell you all about that.” Ham’s son, Sham Sammich, was following in his footsteps, which meant drinking and watching rootball games while on the clock for Mr. Bulbo. There was hardly enough work for one of them. “Sham’s a rootball nut! He knows the rules better than a referee. The game’s not the same anymore.  All the expansion teams ruined it. It’s a huge waste of time in my opinion.

    “Horsecollar tackles and false starts! I says to him. Rutabagas and ghost-payrolling are good enough for me and you! Pay attention or you’ll get caught goofing off! I says.

    “You can says what you want, but that Bulbo’s got strange interests beyond rootball,” said Sandywobbit. “Visits from comic book collectors and weird foreign musicians. He’s even had dwarves calling after normal business hours, with that old self-employed “wizard,” Pantsoff. Bug End is a queer place, and it’s folk queerer. Queerer by the moment, in fact.”

    “Shouldn’t you be at your mill, doing your milling, Mr. Sandywobbit?” said Ham. “All I know is my Sham is going to Mr. Bulbo’s party. I hope he brings a date.”



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