One of the US’ longest running romantic intrigues was resolved on Wednesday with — as is the way with all great fictional love triangles — one engagement, one broken heart and some very displeased readers: Archie Andrews proposed marriage.
The question of who Archie would eventually choose — the beautiful, rich but mean Veronica Lodge or the sweet blonde Betty Cooper — has been puzzling US teens for almost 70 years. Along with Peanuts and Doonesbury, the Archie Comics are one of the US’ unofficial national comic series, depicting a distinctly American way of life.
It focuses on a group of teenagers in a suburban high school that non-Americans would recognize mainly from TV shows such as Happy Days. In terms of exciting plot developments, there are frequent tales involving Archie’s car being taken away by his parents or his getting detention from the crotchety teacher, Mrs Grundy, and the grumpy headmaster, Mr Weatherbee.
However, the storyline that has really kept the series going is the triangle between Archie, Betty and Veronica. It came to a climax with the publication of part one of a six-part series in which Archie proposed to ... Veronica.
This long-rumored development has been causing consternation among fans for weeks, although it remains unclear whether this final resolution will spell the end of the comic book.
Dave Luebke, a comic book store owner, said he was selling a copy of the first Archie Comics book, worth US$30,000, to protest Archie’s mistake.
“Betty is it. Not Veronica. This is serious,” he said.
On the Archie Comics Web site, other fans echoed Luebke’s sentiment: “Marry Betty! Boo Veronica!” posted “Siri.”
Meanwhile “Hiba” wrote, with perfect American intonation implied: “I am 12 and have been reading Archie since six [sic]. This is so not done.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
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Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia