Is it a bird, is it a plane?
No, it’s Dean Cain under a Tour Bus Parking Sign between Mountain Dew and Pepsi machines!
I can’t go further than the South Side of Chicago without getting a weird feeling that I’ve entered some foreign land. It still frightens me to think that I live in a state where people speak with a southern accent. If I was brave enough to venture, I don’t know, south of Springfield, I would drive to the Illinois tip, specifically to Metropolis, Superman’s official hometown. Yes, the Man of Steel once lived here. So says DC Comics, the llinois State Legislature and the local newspaper the Metropolis Planet (inspired by Superman’s Daily Planet for the non-geeks out there). This town is so into their connection with a fictional superhero that they erected a Superman statue (Obama is probably the most famous person to do a Japanese tourist shot with it), hold an annual “Superman Celebration” for comic collectors and created the Super Museum. Uber-nerd/hoarder Jim Hambrick, who can probably write a Ph.D. dissertation on Kryptonite, has accumulated 100,000 Superman items since 1959. Once part of a traveling U.S. County Fair exhibit, the collection moved to a permanent home in 1993. Right where it belongs. In Superman’s hometown. At the Super Museum. And thank goodness! Because someone just stole a bunch of Superman crap in Granite City (littlemagnolia informs me it’s not crap…to each his own). Hopefully no one will be stealing Jim Hambrick’s treasure chest anytime soon. And if anyone does, then we’ll just call the cops.
