With April home from a summer in the world of veterinary medicine, the world of Lynn Johnston's For Better or For Worse newspaper strip will see changes in September.

On Labor Day, Michael Patterson shows his 5-year-old daughter, Meredith, a family photo album. As they look at the pictures, the strip will take a look back at the 28-year-old strip in a blend of past and present art and scripts that will revisit the evolution of the family.

When the photo-album arc ends at some point in 2008, the strip will evolve even further. "When that happens, time will stop for the extended Patterson family, but not their stories. The stories will be relived by a current generation of fans and introduced for the first time to a new generation."

Ahhhhh, the benefits of an occasional long lunch hour!

I began with the first episode of Heroes last night; today, I decided that it might have been better to start with the unaired pilot. I was right. So here are my suggestions for viewing:

If you haven't seen Heroes at all: Just watch the episodes as aired, in the original order. Then you can go back and watch the supplementary material and such.

If you've seen random episodes of Heroes: Just watch the episodes as aired, in the original order. Then you can go back and watch the supplementary material and such.

If you saw Heroes as it aired: Begin with Disc One, go to the bonus features first, and watch the director's cut pilot with commentary off. Then watch the director's cut pilot with commentary on. Then watch the first episode as it aired and continue from there.

My way of viewing was less satisfactory, starting (as I did) with the first episode as it aired, then cutting to the original pilot with commentary. That commentary does bring up fascinating details. (That's why we watch most commentaries, isn't it?) There's an entire plot thread that was dropped for a number of reasons, for example -- involving terrorists, which is why there was a trainwreck in which the cheerleader is seen by the fire fighters. It also affected the introduction of one of the major characters, thanks to droppping the plot thread that introduced him.

As to filming details, I was surprised about Petrelli's dive off the building: It was actually a stunt person's fall from the building -- but he was on wires, whereas I'd assumed it was complete CGI work. On the other hand, the cheerleader's dive wasn't on wires and was an unusual face-down fall into the padded surface below. Ouch. It was also done in a continuous take (though done more than once), with the star ducking out of the shot and the stunt person taking over.

If that sort of thing bores you, you may just want to skip the original pilot altogether; it's the sort of thing that fascinates me.

A final note (well, not really final, since I'm sure I'll end up posting more about my Heroes marathon in days to come, but ...): One of my favorite websites is Television without Pity, and you might find it entertaining to follow up your viewing of each installment with a visit to its snarky discussion of that episode. But begin at the bottom of the page; since there's a quick summary of some events in the airing, you don't want to look at later descriptions unless you've already seen the full season.

Brent just groaned that he'd forgotten that the MythBusters' special on super-heroes was aired yesterday but cheered up when he learned that it was being repeated tonight. A look at the MythBusters' website revealed a brief video featuring a discussion of Spider-Man, The Hulk, and such characters as Namor.

As for the Discovery Channel broadcast, yes, the one-hour special on Marvel's heroes is on again today at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Rev up the VCRs. (Or the DVDRs.)

Wow, 13 years old already -- and she's already an accomplished writer and artist, not to mention her skills at travel and simply being a wonderful person to be around!

May I suggest that people check out the link at the left side of this page, link to Neil's blog, and wish her many happy returns of the day? I'll do it right now.

Start to the week began normally enough with a usual morning swim at the fitness center.

Home to take a shower, only to have my suspicions confirmed: Water in the basement is definitely from the water heater, not from the rains that have drenched Wisconsin for the past week. Confirmed because there was No Hot Water for said shower. Brrrr! So (and this is one of the many charms around here) it was off to the little storefront office of the folks who repair furnaces, air conditioners, and -- yes! -- hot water tanks. (It opens at 7 a.m., praise be!) In the middle of the morning, then, I'm out of the office (where we're in the midst of wrapping up CBG #1635) and hanging around my house, wringing my hands as kindly workmen empty one tank somehow, disconnect it, and lug it upstairs -- and then install the new tank.

What does this have to do with collecting? Well, the symptoms showed up as dampness on the basement floor, and I noticed that soon enough to haul most vulnerable stuff off the floor. (Yes, there are collectibles in my basement; there's Stuff all over the house, most of said Stuff being worthless.) But my warning continues to those with basements (and first floors under second-floor plumbing): Plastic bags are Good Things.

I trust the remainder of the day will go more routinely.

National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Sunday has just paid tribute to the Web comic Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams on the occasion of the strip's 10th anniversary.

Abrams discusses his career after attending Joe Kubert's school of comics art, the strip's evolution, the potential of online comics, and his own ability to make a living from his online project. He even seemed on the verge of revealing the reason for the title Sluggy Freelance.