http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/may/22/46081/

It was around 1999 when I first heard through mutual acquaintances that Paul Reubens, AKA Pee Wee Herman, liked the (utterly unauthorized, but not negative) comic book bio that I wrote about him back in '92. As in many instances when I find out someone I've written a comic about actually LIKES it, despite not getting any money from its proceeds, I parlayed that goodwill into an interview. Which, as it turned out, took place in L.A.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/may/22/46076/

After sitting for a lengthy chat eventually published in the Reader, Reubens offered me a tour of his nearby home, a memorabilia-stuffed museum full of vintage toys and advertising, 3-D cameras and Viewmasters and other pop culture kitsch. Opening a small plastic garbage can full of snot-thick green goo, he suddenly became playful and held the stuff over my head, giggling "Look out, the Green Slime is coming!"

Goo dripped wetly from between his fingers, and suddenly the viscous fluid went kerplop onto my skull.

Immediately apologetic, Reubens tried to assist pulling the gunk from my shoulder-length hair but it just got more matted-in.

Then I felt a burning sensation and my eyes began watering, as if exposed to ammonia.

The green slime, I found out later, was nearly a decade old and the chemical breakdown was having decidedly unpleasant interaction with my scalp, hair and eyes.

The photographer accompanying me whisked me to a hospital, where I was attended by a middle aged nurse who luckily remembered the alcohol-based concoction often called upon to treat green slime related mishaps of the early 80s.

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/may/22/46080/

Reubens was still apologizing the next day when he phoned to make sure I'd lived to tell. He kindly picked up the tab for $975, which covered the cost of my hospital visit and of the hair stylist later called upon to "fix" those spots where slime-encrusted hair had been excised from my shaggy 'do.

The resultant haircut can only be described as a cross between a mullet and a Banzai tree.

And my scalp still itches like hell anytime I see something both green and gooey ("Honey, how come you always pick your nose and scratch your head at the same time?")

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/may/22/46078/

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