notary sojac

[rl...@motown.ge.com]

Notary Sojac appeared in the pun laiden strip "Smokey Stover" by Bill
Holman(sp?). According to an interview I read ages ago if memory serves,
notary sojac was a phonetic spelling of an old english or gaulic merry
christmas greeting. Holman said it was his way of saying merry christmas to
his readers year round. He also had "FOO" and "1313 NIX NIX" disbursed in his
strip. I forget what FOO is, 1313 NIX NIX refered to the New York apartment
number of a fellow cartoonist (I don't remember who) who had a reputation with
the ladies and was Holman's way of telling the ladies to steer clear of his
friend. Smokey was a fireman, his wife, his son, his cat, and the firechief
were the other regulars in the strip. I have a collection of strips around
somewhere, I'll try and get more info if you want.

Bob Lian

[Plerman]

[In reply to requet about "notary sojac," Bob Lian writes in part: Notary

Sojac appeared in the pun laiden strip "Smokey Stover" by Bill
Holman(sp?). According to an interview I read ages ago if memory serves,
notary sojac was a phonetic spelling of an old english or gaulic merry
christmas greeting. Holman said it was his way of saying merry christmas

to his readers year round.]

Thanks! Although I wonder if he was odd enough to have made that up just
for fun. I'm off to Lexis-Nexis to see if I can hunt down that interview!
And yes, if you've any info on reprints, books, or whatever, please post.
I'd love it.

Since you've all been so kind as to help me in this quest, I'll tell you
why I'm so interested. Smokey Stover is one of my favorite sorts of lost
memories: things that don't necessarily mean much at the time but give you
great pleasure in recovering. I've never lost touch with Superman, for
example, so seeing a Superman comic now doesn't create any great feeling
of recovered youth. Neither does hearing '60s Temptation songs, because
you hear them every time you walk into a bar. That's why it's not the most
IMPORTANT parts of your childhood that give you the most pleasure now, or
your FAVORITE comics from your youth. It's the little, minor memories that
help you feel that sense of travelling back in time, of finding parts of
your brain you'd lose the access codes to long ago. The smell of a
Spaldeen, for example, or an ad for shoe repair that sat in the window of
the shoe shop next door. I can't even remember what Smokey looked like; i
don't think it was one of my favorites; but I do know that recovering that
memory could lead to recovering more -- which is one of the reasons we
read old comics in the first place.
The other, of course, being that they're so damn funny.
Thanks for the help!

[rl...@motown.ge.com]

Some corrections to my posting yesterday. In my collection "Great Comics"
edited by Herb Galewitz 1972 Bill Holman is quoted "...notary sojac is the
phonetic spelling of the gaelic Nodlaig Soghach which means merry christmas.
FOO was found on a jade statue in a chinese curio shop in San Francisco and the
shop owner told me (Holman) that FOO meant good luck. I don't Know if it is
true but I liked it and use it in the strip."
1506 NIX NIX (not 1313 like I said yesterday) refered to Al Posen who did the
strip Sweeney and Son.
Smokey's wife was Cookie, son was Earl, cat was Spooky(who had his own strip
for a while), and boss was fire chief Cash U. Nutt.
I hope this helps.

Bob Lian

[Plerman]

from:ple...@aol.com

bn...@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Peter Mullaney) writes:
[Hmm, are you from New Yawk? ;-) Are Spaldeens still made? I haven't
seen
them or other pink (or yellow or green) hollow rubber balls in a long
time.
You just can't play "King, Queen, Jack" (aka Chineese Handball) without a
Spaldeen.]

Nor can you play it without sqares on a sidewalk either; same problem for
box baseball and hit the penny. I was a great sports star until I left the
bronx, and the ability to make a spaldeen return to you or curve after the
first bounce became a vestigal talent; suddenly you had to do things like
catch a football, and I was lost. Spalding's not on the internet, as far
as i can tell, but in exchange for the Smokey Stover info I'll see if I
can find them in the real world and order us up a gross.

By the way -- how do you all put on headers, and copy parts of previous
messages, without AOL's tedious cut-and-paste stuff?
ple...@aol.com (philip lerman)

[Plerman]

[ In previous article rl...@motown.ge.com writes:.notary sojac is the

phonetic spelling of the gaelic Nodlaig Soghach which means merry

christmas.]
I
It is truly amazing. The net actually does contain the total collected
knowledge of the universe, only not in alphabetical order.
Thanks! ple...@aol.com

[Joe Cabrera]

Here's more Smokey Stover trivia, this time from The World's Greatest
Comics Quiz by Jerry Robinson (Tempo Books, 1978):

Question:
In whose strip does "1506 Nix Nix" and "Notary Sojak" appear and what do
they mean?

Answer:
Smokey Stover by Bill Holman. Holman says 1506 was the apartment number of
his friend and colleague Al Posen (Sweeney and Son), and it was an inside
joke warning girls to stay away from his pad! "Notary Sojack" probably
doesn't mean anything although Holman at one time maintained it was "horse
manure" in Gaelic.