Off Duty V

Fatigue preempts a substantive post today, but you must behold the Wikipedia entry for Skeletor, evil jackanapes and foe of 1980s era cartoon hero He-Man. Startling is the length and depth of this entry (which, as of today, includes sections entitled "The Scare Glow controversy," "Skeletor in popular culture" (where else would he be?), and, of course, "The question of Skeletor's head," in which we learn, at last, that "[i]t has never been clarified as to what extent any version of Skeletor is supposed to have remaining fleshy matter in his head, and thus to what extent Skeletor retains normal biological functions, if any."). One of the criticisms of Wikipedia is its priorities; its collected knowledge of things pop culture is encyclopedic, while its entries on things of more import are less so. (See generally the Wikipedia entry for lightsaber, or compare those of comic strip character Mallard Fillmore and former U.S. President Millard Fillmore.). That said, without this resource, how would we know that Skeletor may have once been Keldor, uncle to Price Adam/He-Man? Where would we turn for information on Panthor, Skeletor's "evil feline companion"? How could his relationship with Stinkor, "The Evil Master of Odors," be fully explored? ("[Skeletor] does seem to have a sense of smell though, as he is shown in the 2002 MYP series attempting to block his nose when Stinkor appears before him to beg a boon, which has some logic as his skull would still have nasal passages permitting him to breathe, if he in fact still needs to."). Thank the maker that these truly scholarly issues have been addressed and forever preserved.