Looniest Laws Ever!

So, did you hear the one about Winnie-the-Pooh being banned from Poland?

Well, okay, he technically isn't being banned from the entire country of Poland.  Just one small town. 

Oh bother!

What prompted the residents of Tuszyn, Poland to come up with such a radical decision?  Did they not like honey?  Did they not like the book written by A.A. Milne?  Did they not approve of the friendships that the bear had with a grouchy rabbit, a hyperactive tiger, and a chronically depressed donkey?

No, it all has to do with Winnie's appearance.  Apparently they banned him from the town because he likes to walk around without the common decency to put on underwear.  Or, pants for that matter.

I can see how this would have merit, had Winnie-the-Pooh been a middle aged man.  But, get real.  He's a cartoon character.  One of many who don't feel a need to wear trousers.  And yet, the people who are instituting the ban feel that it is inappropriate for Winnie to be showcased anywhere in their town, saying that the bear is dressed inappropriately, and even resorting to calling the poor bear a hermaphrodite!

Oh bother, indeed.

I'm being absolutely serious about this too.  It is an actual law that this Polish town is actively pursuing.  Read the article HERE.  It's from NBC News, so I am certain that the source is valid.

But it got me thinking.  What other looney laws are there that exist in various places?  What sorts of laws could you be breaking right now and not even be aware that you are because of the laws being outdated, not making any sense, or being just plain stupid?

That's what this blog is all about.  We're going to take a look at some of the LOONIEST LAWS all over North America, at least.  If this entry is successful, I may do a part two down the road with a global twist.

Okay, so are we ready to take a look at some of these laws?  I'll get to them in a second right after I credit totallyuselessknowledge.com, dumblaws.com, and laughbreak.com for the information found in this blog.  And, I am only going under the assumption that these laws are one hundred per cent truthful.  If any of you out there can debunk any of these laws, please let me know in the comments!  Thanks!

1.  It is illegal to fall asleep inside of a restaurant in the state of Kentucky.  So, no KFC slumber parties, okay?

2.  In the District of Columbia, taxi cabs must be equipped with a broom and a shovel.  Okay, the shovel I understand, as D.C. does occasionally get snow.  But what's the broom for?  Street sweeping?

3.  In the community of Walden, New York, you may not give anybody a drink of water unless you have a legal permit.  So, I am assuming that the whole community is on lockdown now.

4.  You cannot leave a rain puddle in your front yard for more than twelve hours in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Better get those straws ready.

5.  No dancing cheek to cheek in the city of Compton, California!  I guess it's a good thing that "Dancing With The Stars" doesn't shoot there!

6.  Comic books that depict illegal acts are reportedly banned in some parts of Canada.  Could I be a criminal and not know it?  Some of those Life With Archie comics were questionable...

7.  Also in Canada, it is illegal to kill a sick person by scaring them.  Don't ask how that is even possible.

8.  It is also prohibited to use dice for playing craps in some parts of Canada.  Which leads to the question...what do they use?  The spinner from Life?  Indian rubber balls from the old Lotto machines?

9.  If your cat gets stranded on a tree branch in Oshawa, Ontario, he's pretty much screwed.  There's an edict that makes it illegal to climb trees there.

10.  You may not give a moose any sort of alcoholic beverage in Alaska.  Which is common sense, really.

11.  Mind your P's and Q's if you're playing mini golf in Long Beach, California.  There's a law against swearing!

12.  Obedience schools are technically considered to be a taboo in Hartford, Connecticut.  Dogs are not allowed to be educated.

13.  If you plan on jumping out of a plane in Florida and you happen to be female, you better be exchanging vows with someone on the plane.  Single ladies do not have the freedom to wear parachutes...especially on Sundays.

14.  It is illegal to wear nothing but swim trunks in public in the state of Hawaii.  So, all those people on the beach need to put on some clothes and Hawaii Five-Oh must be the most scandalous show ever.

15.  The anti-smoking campaign is really hard core in South Bend, Indiana.  You can't even give a monkey a cigarette there!

16.  On again, off again relationships are frowned upon in Kentucky.  You can only marry and remarry the same man a total of four times.

17.  Randy Newman may love L.A., but he may not have much love for the state of Maryland.  His song "Short People" is allegedly banned from all Maryland radio stations!

18.  Michigan law states that a woman's hair legally belongs to her husband!  Apparently, she gets to keep the rest of her body.

19.  Nebraska must have seen its share of bad 1980s hair.  In that state, moms are not allowed to give their daughters a home perm without a permit!

20.  If you're sick in Asheville, North Carolina, don't go out in public.  Sneezing on city streets is illegal!

21.  Going to church in South Carolina?  Better bring your gun!  It's not only a constitutional right...it's the law to have a gun in one hand and a Bible in the other!

22.  Because the Encyclopedia Britannica reportedly holds a formula for making beer, the series is banned in Texas.

23.  Utah is apparently the state where birds can roam free.  They have the right of way on all major highways!

24.  St. Croix, Wisconsin has an interesting law.  No woman is allowed to wear the colour red in public!

25.  Oh yeah.  Don't lip lock on a train car in Wisconsin.  It's illegal.

Human - Born To Make Mistakes

It takes a strong person to admit that they are human, and a stronger person to admit that they do make mistakes.  And, believe me, I have a lot of respect for people who own up to making mistakes and admitting that they aren't perfect. 

Truth is, nobody in this world is absolutely perfect.  The perfect person does not exist no matter who may tell you otherwise.  Trust me, I am nowhere near perfect!  I'll be the first one to tell you that!

But you know, that's what makes all of us human.  We are all people who have our own flaws, and that help shape what the world is.  We're only human, and we are born to make mistakes.

Wait a minute.  That phrase just now.  That sounds incredibly familiar.  I know it will come to me at some point. 

Anyway, while I try to think of where I have heard that line before, I think that this is a good time to reveal that YOU NEVER NOVEMBER WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET month continues on with this week's look back at all things music.  Normally, I would make Sunday the day of music discussion, but in this case, I chose to make it a Saturday this week.  No real reason why.  I just thought that Saturday was one of those days in which music just sounded like a good idea.

In all seriousness, some of my favourite music memories involve weekends.  I would listen to Casey Kasem's Top 40 while I did my homework, or if Muchmusic was having one of their special weekends where they played 1980s videos all day long, I would tune in and watch some of those videos.  Yeah, those were good times, watching videos by ABC, Blondie, Glass Tiger, Human League...

Wait one minute.  Now I know why that line "human, born to make mistakes" sounds really familiar!  It's from a song by the British band "The Human League"!

Yeah, now I remember!  It was the #1 song back in '86!  Have a listen if you will.

ARTIST:  The Human League

SONG:  Human

ALBUM:  Crash

DATE RELEASED:  August 11, 1986

PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week

Yes, we're going to be talking about the British band whose music you've likely heard in 1980s clubs, 1980s proms, and commercials for Chips Ahoy cookies! 

Now, for those of you who were around in the late 1970s, you might know that this is approximately the time in which The Human League first formed.  And the original line-up of The Human League by the time the group had undergone a couple of name changes and added a couple of new members were Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh, Philip Oakey, and Philip Adrian Wright.

During the band's first few years, the group initially released two albums, and strictly decided to play only electronic music.  The albums did sell well in their native UK, but because the singles from the album were not commercially successful, the band struggled to be heard.

The stress certainly got to the band members of The Human League.  While Martyn Ware and Philip Oakey never really did see eye to eye on a lot of things, the catalyst came after the band released their second album.  Ware and Marsh had wanted to go ahead and release another electronic music album for their third effort.  But Oakey, seeing how their previous efforts hadn't done so well, believed that they should infuse their next effort with more mainstream pop, so that radio stations would be more apt to play it.

Needless to say, the band came to a stalemate, and the result was that Ware and Marsh walked out of The Human League, leaving Oakey and Wright left to carry on the band as a duo.

To make matters even worse, with Ware and Marsh beginning their own band project, "Heaven 17", Oakey decided that he would continue using the original name of "The Human League", which meant that Oakey not only inherited the debt racked up by the band, but he also had to pay royalties to both Ware and Marsh.

Certainly a heavy price to pay for taking a stance against his now former bandmates.  But hey, he's only human.

Only in this case, the decision to keep the name ended up being a good one.

Another good decision that Oakey made was hiring a brand new line-up to join him and Wright to continue The Human League going.  Oakey hired teenage singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley after allegedly seeing both of them dancing at a club.  Jo Callis would become the fifth and final member of The Human League, with Ian Burden joining the band as a session keyboardist from time to time.  The line-up was confirmed by January 1981, when the band released their long awaited third album, "Dare".

And over the next five years, The Human League would have a lot of success in their native UK as well as the United States and Canada.  I'm sure almost everyone in the world knows of the band's 1981 smash "Don't You Want Me", which was really the single that put The Human League on the charts.  "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" and "Mirror Man" were also minor hits.

By the time "Human" was released in 1986, two-sixths of the band had left to do other projects - Callis left in 1985, and Wright left in 1986 just as the band's "Crash" album was being released.

This meant that only Oakey, Catherall, and Sulley were left to keep the band alive.

Now, "Human" didn't perform as well in the UK as it did in North America, but the song itself was very well done.  It was produced by the team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who had recently worked their magic on Janet Jackson's "Control" album, and the video itself was quite ethereal with images of Oakey, Catherall, and Sulley fading in and out of a blue background.  Sure, the song sounded a lot different from the band's earlier works, but it certainly did blend very well with other music that was coming out of that time period.

And can we talk lyrical content here?  "Human" depicts the tale of a young man with a huge burden on his shoulders.  The good news is that he has gotten back together with his girlfriend after some time apart.  I would probably hazard a guess that based on the lyrics that it was a trial separation because in the song, the man is very sorry that he had decided to have a liaison with another woman in between that time.

So, in short, he's admitting that he's only human, and that his dalliance with the two-bit floozy down the street was just a mistake he made.  He's deeply committed to her now, but that wasn't always the case.

Ah, but here's where the "dun-dun-dun" moment comes in.  Would you believe that she was "only human too"?  Yep, she cheated on him with a dirty dog from down the lane while he was with his floozy.  So, basically both of them were only human with each other.  But, hey, they found each other again, so it's all good.

Okay, maybe not the most positive end result here...but it is a great song to illustrate that all of us do have our flaws, and sometimes we just have to accept them.

And, well...some people tend to do that better than others.  

Canadian PSA's That Were...Strange

I'll be the first one to admit it.  Having my formative years falling in the late 1980s and early 1990s was definitely an interesting experience.

For the most part, it was a good time (well, the time outside of school, that is).  The music was great, there was a great emphasis on environmental protection (something I wish the world would do more of), and the movies at the cinema were some of the best.  Seriously, if you were to take every film released between 1988 and 1996, I probably would like a good 75% of them.

But not all parts of pop culture were celebrated during that time period.  In particular when it comes to Canadian television.

Specifically public service announcements.

Now, I am sure that most of you know what a public service announcement is.  They are 30 second to one minute advertisements that usually air during blocks of children's or family programming that deal with a particular subject.  Subjects like drug use, alcohol use, safety precautions, cause awareness, and environmental awareness.  Here's an example of one of these PSA's that aired in both Canada and the United States, I believe.

Of course, not all of these PSA's were as cute as the one starring Tweety up above.  Some of them were strange, weird, or just plain scary.  Canadian ones in particular were all kinds of weirdness.  I think some of them might have been filmed by a director who was under the influence of the very things that they were trying to warn children and young adults about!

Anyway, we're going to take a look at some of these PSA's in a moment, but before we go ahead, I really want to give a shout out to one of the people who read this blog and gave me the idea to do this topic.

Viki A. from Pincourt, Quebec, this one's for you!

And, to begin, let's take a look at one of the very first PSA's that I remember from my early childhood years.  One that used to scare me when I was really young.

Okay, so as you probably have seen, this is a public service announcements for War Amps, an organization that helps people who have had amputated limbs cope, as well as providing financial services for children to receive artificial limbs.  It's a really great organization, and my family has used the War Amps key tag service for decades. 

It's just a shame that this commercial was so scary.  Here's a small child robot named Astar, who very well could be the love child between C-3PO and Big Brother's Zingbot, having fun the best way that robot children know how - swinging on moving gears, chains, and sawblades.  Of course, Astar ends up playing foolishly and accidentally severs his whole arm off in a sea of bright yellow sparks and ear-splitting noise.  Don't worry though, he can snap his arm back on in seconds.  But if a real child were to do what Astar did - well, frankly he'd probably be dead within the first ten seconds.  But at best, he would likely lose the same arm, and unlike Astar, there's no way of putting that arm back on.

It was meant to scare kids into not playing with dangerous toys, or doing dangerous things that could make you lose an eye, arm, or leg.  But really, all it did with me was make me want to avoid that creepy commercial at all costs.

Which wasn't easy, given that the commercial ran for FIFTEEN YEARS!!!

You know, let's go ahead with an ad campaign for smoking.  You know how nowadays, ad makers try to use grotesque imagery and sad stories to keep people from smoking, or to encourage smokers to quit?  Well, this was Canada's answer to anti-smoking ads circa '87.

Okay, so the lady singing is Canadian entertainer Luba, known for the singles "Let It Go", "How Many", and the uplifting single "Every Time I See Your Picture, I Cry".  And Luba's message is for all people to break free from the habit of cigarette smoking.

And by doing this, they have a whole bunch of teenagers dancing around dressed like extras from Degrassi Junior High.  If people want to join the party, they need to break free from the cigarette ads that pepper the alleyways, and change from black and white to their colourful 1980s bad selves.  Not exactly the most effective video to promote anti-smoking, but hey, it was the 1980s.  Most commercials didn't make sense then.

And speaking of commercials with loud, garish colours.

Hey, that's Gert!  And that's her brother Bert!  And these wascally wabbits are dressed like Screech from Saved By The Bell so that they can help YOU stay alert, stay safe, and look good doing it!

All right, so the ads themselves were a good idea, and provided a lot of great information for kids.  But, I don't know...using animated bunnies to promote personal safety...could there possibly be anything worse than that?

Well, okay, I forgot about the two fuzzy blue monsters who warn you not to "put it in your mouth, though it might look good to eat, like a muffin or a beet".  Yeah, my sister and I used to make fun of this commercial all the bloody time it came on, which back in 1993 or whatever year this came out was at least five times a day.  Before my voice changed, I could mimic the voices of the blue monsters quite well.  Now I look at this ad and I cringe at how horrible it is.  And they think that ads like this were supposed to help us AVOID drugs.  I wouldn't be surprised if this ad made some kids believe that they were already under the influence!

And, speaking of anti-drug ads, I can't even explain this one.

This one just has every single bad 1990s stereotype attached to it.  Ugly fonts, kids dancing, grown-ups acting like fools, and that one guy in particular looks like a "Movember" participant!

That's about all that I have to say about really weird PSA's from Canada when I was a child.  Do you have any from your own countries that you'd like to share?  Are there some that I left off this list.  Please leave all comments here.

In the meantime, I suppose you want to know what PSA's look like now.  Well, these aren't recent (I'd say they came out in at least 2006), but they certainly do make a good point about workplace safety.

As well as this ad that is really creative...but not what you might expect.

Hotel Signs That Don't Quite Work

I think that for today, I will be lightening things up.  It has been a while since I have done a post with funny images, so I decided to make today FUNNY THURSDAY.

It's just a part of a complete YOU NEVER NOVEMBER WHAT YOU'RE GONNA GET month!

And for today, I thought I would take a look at the funny signs that can be found around hotel lobbies, hotel rooms, and even in the hotel rooms themselves!

We're heading towards December at full speed, and this is definitely the time of year in which people start planning their getaways to escape the frosty days of winter.  Whether you are going home for the holidays, or whether you are planning on taking an extended sabbatical from all things winter, it's almost a guarantee that unless you're staying with friends or family members, you'll be checking into a place of lodging.

Whether that place of lodging is the Plaza Hotel or the Motel 6 down the highway, you know that hotels all over the place have signs posted in restaurants, lobbies, and even bathrooms in hopes of making your stay a little more pleasant.

But what happens when those very signs get lost in translation, post useless advice, or are just plain offensive? 

Well, let's find out, shall we?

As always, I wish to offer credit to Pinterest, oddee.com, signspotting.com, funny-pix.co, guysgab.com, hotelchatter.com, 2lucu.com, and funnysigns.net for the images presented today.

1.  Someone should probably let this hotel know the real definition of free.

2.  OH MY GOD!  JACKEE IS HERE!  I loved her in 227, and Sister Sister, and all those other shows she was on too!  I hope I get her autograph and...

...oh, wait.  That's Jacky, not Jackee.  My bad.

3.  Let's go to the hotel that is floating up above our heads!  I always wanted to stay at the Sky Palace!

4.  So does that mean you'll pull the alarm, spray me in the face with a fire extinguisher and chop off my head with a fire axe?  Now that's service!

5.  For $49.95, that poo better damn well be refreshing! 

6.  Yes, this hotel's staff can speak English quite well.  Writing it, on the other hand...and, what is up with the pictures underneath?  You're allowed to go down the stairs on a wheelchair?

7.  Okay, if you can make heads or tales out of this message, do feel free to use the comments section of this blog and let me know.  Because after staring at this image for more than five minutes, I don't know what else to say.

8.  This hotel must be owned by the people that run that Ashley Madison cheat dating site.  Or, perhaps Hugh Grant bought it.  Who can say, really?

9.  Intoxicated people take note.  If you fall over this balcony, you will never have to worry about nursing a hangover ever again.

10.  An interesting perspective for sure...but honestly I would probably be more offended by the cockroaches crawling around than the cigarette butts.

11.  Well, one thing you can say about this hotel and casino's name.  They appreciate honesty.

12.  Baltic Bitch Hotel?  Oh dear.  Can you think of a hotel with a more offensive name than this one?

13.  Y'know, I stand corrected.  Well played Dick.  Well played.

14.  The Old Weak Ill Disability and Pregnant Lounge.  Well, if Betty White breaks her hip, gets sick with the flu, and happens to get pregnant, she'd fit right in.

15.  The toilet is not a foot massager.  Not that you should ever really try this.  I actually want to know the circumstances behind why this sign was even put here in the first place!

16.  This sign = awesomeness!  But, seriously, if you're in a burning building, don't take a selfie.

Betty's Diary

Today's blog entry is all about two of my favourite things in the whole wide world.

Writing and Archie Comics.

For those of you who have been following along with this blog over the last three years, I am sure that you know that I love writing.  It has always been a hobby of mine for as long as I can remember, and I certainly can call it more than just a hobby.  I mean, I've done this blog every day since 2011.  That takes dedication!

And, for those of you who have been with this blog a while, you know that I have a soft spot for Archie comics.  I have a huge collection of them at home, and I credit Archie comics to keeping me sane during a rather tumultuous childhood.  I have been reading them since I was five years old, and I don't see myself giving them up some twenty-eight years later.

Well, I thought that for today's blog, I would take my love of writing and my love of Archie comics and combine them into one subject.  Sounds impossible, right?

Well, not really.  You see, there is one character in the Archie comics world that would write all about their days in Riverdale, their struggles in school, and of course, obsessing over a certain red-haired teenager.  But this person also recorded her biggest fears, her wildest dreams, her anxiety about growing older, and the beauty that life could bring.  She definitely could be considered a whimsical, thoughtful, intelligent, and emotional young lady and no matter what was going through her mind, she would always tell her stories so eloquently and passionately.  She very well could have had her own book series.

Oh, wait.  She already did.

Today we're going to be looking at the Archie comics serial "Betty's Diary".  And this is a serial that really should have lasted a lot longer than it did.  I will get to more on that a little bit later.

Now, truth be told, Betty Cooper has always been seen as the girl-next-door type.  A bouncing blonde who always does nice things for her neighbours, who always gets straight A's in class, and who almost always has a really kind word to say about everybody.

(Well, unless you're Veronica Lodge or Cheryl Blossom, or anyone else who happens to come between her and Archie Andrews, that is.)

And one character trait that Betty always seemed to have was the fact that she loved to write.  Heck, on this cover of Archie from the 1950s, she is writing in her diary!

This trend would continue over the next thirty years or so, and usually whenever we saw Betty writing in her diary, it would often be used as a gag in which Betty embellished the truth.  Like, for instance, if she was blowing up balloons for Archie's birthday party, she would write about Archie making her feel breathless.  You know, stuff like that.

It really wasn't until the 1980s that Betty's diary entries became more...shall we say, personal.

The Betty's Diary series began in the summer of 1985, initially as a one-off title that was a part of the "Archie Giant Series" title.  It was issue #555, to be exact.

In the title, it featured four stories from Betty's point of view as she wrote about her daily happenings in her diary.  And unlike the one-page gag entries that we were used to, these were full page stories that really dug into the depths of Betty's personality.  She shared stories about how she had feelings for Archie mixed in with teenage angst and worry about friendships, school, and life in general.

And the book was a huge hit with readers.  So much so that the "Betty's Diary" one-off became an entire Archie series.  The first issue came out in 1986.  Have a look at the cover below.

(And, yes, I do own the first issue.  Actually, I have about half of them.  I am missing a few, but I could probably find them online if I wanted them that badly.)

But the "Betty's Diary" series of books was absolutely unlike any other Archie comic series out there.  It was so radically different, it was refreshing.  I mean, yes, titles like "Archie", "Jughead", "Betty & Veronica", and "Pep" were comic series that were designed to make you laugh.  And yes, there were some light hearted moments in the "Betty's Diary" series that made you chuckle and smile.

But "Betty's Diary" also had a lot of warmth and joy, as well as a lot of sadness and angst.  You see, the majority of the stories in "Betty's Diary" were written from the perspective of a seventeen year old girl.  And anyone who has been, or has known a seventeen year old girl knows just how stressful of a year it is.

And certainly, Betty wrote a lot about some of those things.

There was one story in which she questioned whether working hard was really worth it.  It was a tale that brought Betty's older sister Polly to town, and Polly told Betty that she and her friends studied hard while the head cheerleader goofed off and slacked on her studies.  Interestingly enough, that cheerleader ended up making the sandwiches that Betty and Polly ate during their lunch meeting!  So, Betty wrote about how she learned the lesson that working to meet a goal was good after all.

Another one had Betty examining the relationship she had with her own mother, and how she wore many hats - fashion consultant, barterer, sewer, friend, confidant...and most importantly, the best mother a girl could have.

You see, they were sweet stories that often had wonderful resolutions that made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And yes, she did write about her dates with Archie.  A lot.

But, perhaps one of my all-time favourite arcs that was ever featured in the "Betty's Diary" series was the one in which she befriended a kindly elderly lady named Lydia Wyndham, whom she discovered after buying a copy of "Wuthering Heights" from a used book sale and discovering that it belonged to Lydia when she was a little girl.  She tracked her down, and discovered that Lydia was already an established author, having penned several novels under the name of Elyse Smith. 

And Lydia became her personal mentor of sorts. 

In the first few issues of the series, Betty would ask Lydia for advice on how to deal with people, and how to handle certain situations.  And, of course, Lydia would always have the right words of wisdom for Betty - which makes sense because Lydia had lived a good six decades longer than Betty had and was more experienced in the world.  Lydia even showed Veronica a thing or two when she won a Snow Queen competition!  I don't know what issue that story was in, but if you can read it, it is wonderful!

And, one other thing that Lydia shared with Betty?  She was madly in love with an American soldier named Declan McManus, and the two were engaged to be married before Declan went off to fight in combat in World War I (remember, this series began in the late 1980s).  According to letters that Lydia received, Declan died in combat, and Lydia never fell in love again.

This relationship between Betty and Lydia lasted until issue #18.  That was the issue in which Lydia passed away, and Betty had to deal with the loss of her friend and mentor.  Shockingly enough, Declan McManus showed up unexpectedly after Lydia's death, revealing that he wasn't really dead which was kind of weird, but that was another issue altogether.  What made this arc really shine was the gift that Lydia left Betty in her will. 

You see, like Betty, Lydia also kept a journal.  In fact, she had fifty years of journals stashed away in her attic.  And Lydia made sure that Betty received every single diary. 

It was a priceless treasure for Betty, and after Lydia's passing, Betty often wrote diary entries imagining what life was like in the early twentieth century, and even using one of Lydia's poems to inspire her in a songwriting assignment.  It just went to show that the impact that Lydia had on Betty was strong.  I think that's why I really appreciated that story arc because of the mentor relationship between two different generations.  It really was an interesting read.

The "Betty's Diary" series ran for forty issues, with the final one being printed in early 1991.  And, I honestly was sad to hear that the series only lasted five years.  I mean, I know that 1991/1992 was an experimental year in Archie comics history, with the company making bold moves to stay relevant, but they should have kept the "Betty's Diary" title going.  It was one of the more mature comics that Archie Comics has released, and I think it should have gone on longer.

But for what it was worth, "Betty's Diary" stories would occasionally appear in the "Betty" and "Betty & Veronica" titles well into the 2000s.

There was also a graphic novel published a few years ago that compiled the greatest hits from "Betty's Diary" into one volume.  If you can find it, do so.  It's a nice collection of stories.

And, recently, the Archie Comics team decided to release a rebooted version of Betty's Diary by releasing the diaries that a then 14-year-old Betty might have written as a high school freshman in a novel format as well.  The cover is up above, if you want to check it out.

Now, the reason why I really wanted to do a blog on "Betty's Diary" was to show everyone the main reason why I write a blog in the first place.  Now, granted, Betty certainly packs a lot of emotion into her diary, and probably reveals some of her deepest, darkest secrets about everything going on in her life.  And honestly, that's what a diary is for.  You use it to write down everything you want out of life, and all the fears you have in life, and all the worries that you have.  It can be a real cathartic experience and it can make even the worst days seem better.  Certainly I can see why Betty is deemed one of the most well-rounded characters in Archie Comics.  She is probably in touch with her feelings more than anyone else in the entire community of Riverdale, U.S.A.

And that is why I do my blog too.  Granted, I don't reveal as much as Betty does in hers (I have to keep some secrets myself).  However, what I do reveal makes me stop and think, and if I am feeling bad, it helps me get things in perspective, and I feel better for venting it out.  I certainly don't intend to make people feel like they are a psychologist listening to a patient of theirs (as one thoughtless, now former Facebook friend accused me of doing).  Though I won't apologize for anything that I write in this space because it is my own space, and I can choose to write about how I am feeling or what may be going through my mind.  I know that not everyone will agree with my stances, and that's okay.  But there's a way to disagree without coming across as a jerk, and if you feel a need to make a negative comment against someone just to get a rise out of them, do yourself a favour, and don't read it.

(Besides, in Betty's case, she openly admits to having three diaries.  And the third diary contains her deepest feelings, so it must always stay hidden.  So she lucks out that way - especially when protecting her thoughts from Veronica or Archie!)