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Thursday, October 04, 2012

Jennifer Livingston's Courage Under Fire


For the first time in a really long time, I was completely at a loss for a topic to talk about.  I wouldn’t exactly call it writer’s block though as much as I would call it topic block.  Ever since I made the decision to “eighty-six” the Thursday Confessional, I’ve been struggling to find a subject to replace it with. 

I thought about doing a blog on yesterday’s presidential candidate debates, but to be completely honest, I didn’t exactly watch any of them.  I mean, I suppose that being from Canada the American elections aren’t really something that I have any say in, mainly because I can’t vote in them.  Besides, the last thing that I want to do in this blog is stir up a political firestorm by going into detail about why Barack Obama is a better candidate than Mitt Romney, or why Mitt Romney is a better candidate than Barack Obama, or anything like that.  I may have my own opinions about what side of the political spectrum I sit on, and some of those opinions might have slid into previous blog entries...but this is not the time for me to get into it.

(At least in the United States, there’s no danger of any states wanting to form their own country unlike here in Canada.)

But then I saw numerous references to a story coming out of the state of Wisconsin, and I knew that I had today’s blog topic.


I don’t know how many of you out there have heard of a news personality named Jennifer Livingston before a few days ago, but over the last couple of days, she has been all over the news in regards to her response towards a particular “fan letter”.  And, it is this response that I would like to discuss in greater detail within this blog.

Just to set up the story in case you haven’t heard it yet, here’s the gist of it.  Jennifer Livingston is an anchorwoman from La Crosse, Wisconsin who works at the CBS affiliate WKBT-TV.  She is married, has three daughters, and has co-anchored the morning show on WKBT-TV for years.

Now, I may not have a whole lot of experience in the world of journalism (aside from the brief stint at my college newspaper a dozen years ago), but I would imagine that people who do enter a career in the media are subjected to some degree of criticism in their jobs.  After all, quite a few journalists and media figures rely on social networking to promote themselves, and many of them have very public e-mail addresses and telephone extensions connected to voice mail where the general public can offer their own opinions on a column or news segment that recently aired.  And, yes, I can remember a couple of instances in which I myself have written a letter to the editor of the newspaper (and actually had them printed), so I appreciate the fact that there is a forum out there for people to have their say from Twitter and Facebook, to the “Speaker’s Corner” booth outside of the MuchMusic studios in Toronto.


(Does anyone know if that booth even still exists?  I don’t watch MuchMusic much these days.)

ETA:  Apparently not, as it was disconnected in 2008.  A shame. 

But when it comes to getting our voices out there, I think that we all have a fine line to walk when it comes to how we express ourselves.  Either we can be civil and constructive with our criticism, or we can come across as an arrogant person whose sole purpose is to destroy somebody else. 

Well, on Friday, September 28, a viewer took the time to write Jennifer Livingston an e-mail message to let her know exactly what he thought of her.  Here is the message written in full, with the subject title of “Community Responsibility”.

Hi, Jennifer,

It’s unusual that I see your morning show, but I did so for a very short time today.  I was surprised indeed to witness that your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years.  Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular.  Obesity is one of the worst choices a person can make and one of the most dangerous habits to maintain.  I leave you this note hoping that you’ll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Wow...quite a lot to digest, isn’t it?  At any rate, the message may not have had any swear words, or outright insults within it, but you know, the overall message was quite prickly in tone (at least I thought so anyway), and I honestly think that whoever did write this message definitely crossed a line into bad taste.

Certainly the message left a strong impact on the recipient.  I don’t even know what was going through Jennifer’s mind when she was reading this message...I don’t know the woman.  But clearly it left enough of an imprint on her mind to go on the air the following Monday to discuss the e-mail she had received as well as her thoughts on the subject.  Now, I suppose that I could transcribe the whole commentary for you to read...but I thought that having Jennifer saying the words herself would make more of an impact.  So, I leave you with this video to go ahead and watch, and we’ll discuss it at the end.  Don’t worry...you won’t be quizzed on it.


So, here’s my opinion on the subject.  I APPLAUD this woman for having the courage to speak out against this message.  I think that she took this situation and handled it with such dignity and class...a lot more dignity and class than I admittedly would have in the same situation.

I also like the fact that she brought up the fact that October is National Anti-Bullying Month in the United States (and I believe Canada recognizes it to be the same as well, but if not, I declare it to be right here in this blog).  You don’t need me to go into detail about the struggles that I dealt with in regards to my own struggles with being bullied because there are quite a few examples within the past entries of this particular blog.  But what I can tell you is that in a lot of cases, biting and stinging words and insults can hurt as much, if not more than physical scars, punches, and bruises.  I can tell you this because I have had so many hurtful words directed in my direction which ended up causing me huge difficulty. 

In fact, lemme tell you a little bit of a secret here.  Whenever thoughtless kids (and even adults in my childhood) would tell me that I was fat, and that I needed to lose weight in order for me to be their friend, it had the negative effect.  The more that people poked fun at my weight, the more I craved a family size bag of Doritos and a 2 litre bottle of Orange Crush.  And, I am sure that for a lot of people, it is exactly the same way.  So I’m the first one that will tell you to knock it off when it comes to making fun of someone for their physical appearance.  Nobody wants to hear that.  And, if I ever see you doing it to someone else in my presence, you WILL hear about it, and I won’t be very diplomatic about it either.

And it’s because of Jennifer’s courage and her willingness to stand up to those who try to knock her down that has helped inspire me to do the same.

Of course, now that Jennifer has had her say, Internet communities have been sharing their opinions as well.  For the most part, many people seem to agree with my own stance that Jennifer Livingston did absolutely the right thing.  Jennifer’s brother Ron (who happens to have acted in “Office Space” and “Sex and the City”) immediately praised his sister for speaking out, and celebrities such as Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ellen DeGeneres have also given their support for Jennifer, with Ellen even extending an open invitation for her to appear on her talk show.

Now, there have also been some factions of people who believe that Jennifer didn’t exactly do the right thing at all.  Some even tried to defend the letter writer, saying that what he wrote may have been harsh, but they didn’t believe that it matched the definition of bullying.

I think that I want to revisit that message now.

You see, right off the bat, I notice a bit of a contradiction in the first two sentences.  Our author of this message claims that they normally don’t watch her show, but yet has the opinion that her physical condition hasn’t improved for many years?  If this person admitted that they don’t usually watch the show, how would they then know if her health has improved or not?  Well, unless this person happens to be watching Jennifer at all hours of the day...in which case that would be a bit stalker-ish.

The main point that I seem to have a real issue with is the statement our letter writer makes about the idea of Jennifer not being a good role model to anybody because of her physical size.  No, the person doesn’t outright call Jennifer fat, but they do seem to feel that obesity is a dangerous choice, and made a point to bring that up in the argument that they made to Jennifer about not being a good role model for young girls.

Whether this statement matches your definition of what bullying is...well, I leave it up to you all to make up your own minds on that one.  However, the message is one that I consider to be incredibly tasteless and cruel.  Not only do I think that this message was dripping with thoughtlessness and cruelty, I also believe that the argument is unfair.  There is no evidence that Jennifer’s size has anything to do with the way that she presents the news, or takes care of her family, or anything of that nature, so the fact that this letter writer assumes that it does...well, that’s pretty damn ballsy on his part.  It’s also quite rude and thoughtless to assume that a person is physically incapable of being a role model for people because of the fact that they may be a few pounds heavier than what the BMI suggests.  I’d say that as of right now, she’s showing that she can be a positive role model for young girls by standing up for herself, telling them that they don’t have to take any abuse or rude comments from anybody.  And, Jennifer is hardly the only female news personality that has had to face this issue head on.


I was also watching Global News on the Toronto affiliate, and even the anchors of the 5:30 newscast had their own opinions that I also agreed with.  Leslie Roberts and Anne Mroczkowski both stated that there was a double standard when it came to the feedback they received on a daily basis.  In Leslie’s case (Leslie being a male, by the way), his comments were mostly based on content.  In Anne’s case, her comments were mostly appearance based.  Is it any wonder why so many girls struggle with self-esteem issues if looks and appearance are valued over anything else?  I mean, yes, in television news, one should always try to look their best, but at the same time, I don’t believe that all anchorwomen should have to look like Barbie in order to be taken seriously.

As far as I am concerned, Jennifer is absolutely correct in making the statement that children learn from their parents by example.  It goes without saying that in many cases if a child hears a parent making fun of someone or saying something unkind, the odds of them doing that to a classmate or a peer go up.  I think that instead of teaching the younger generation that we only treat people kindly if they look and behave a certain way, we should encourage them to treat everyone as equals, and not to judge them based on a physical characteristic.

And, that’s something that I think that everyone in the world should take note of.  If we want to get respect back from people, we have to show it first.  Once again, I admire the hell out of Jennifer Livingston for taking a stand against this because I believe the message that she is sending out to the public is that life is too short to knock other people down just because you can.  If we only treated each other with respect and kindness, imagine how much better the world would be.

Come to think of it, I suppose I could use that same sentiment with regards to the heated debates about Romney and Obama, couldn’t I?

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Literally Yours, Amelia Bedelia


I thought that for today’s edition of the blog, I thought that I would talk about one of my all time favourite book series. 

Before I do though, I want to talk about another subject that is in relation to this blog.

Surely most of us have used figures of speech in our own daily conversations, e-mail messages, text messages, written letters, and other various forms of communication.  I know that in my life and times, I have used several.  I probably have used some figures of speech in this very blog over the years.

Now, there are literally hundreds of examples of figures of speech that exist in this world, all the way from allegories to zoomorphism.  And, obviously I won’t be touching upon ALL of these, as this blog entry would end up being ten thousand words.

(And, apparently for some of you, 10,000 words is just a bit much for all of you to read.)

There are some that I end up using more than others.  Take the basic, standard proverb for example.  A proverb is a simple, concrete saying often repeated that expresses a truth based on common sense or a practical experience.  Some examples of proverbs include lines such as, “People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, or “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, or “A penny saved is a penny earned”.

I am also a glutton for “pun”-ishment, as I tend to use puns quite a bit in my speech patterns.  But I usually try to avoid the double negatives, as double negatives are not never always confusing to me.

And then there are phrases which use words that can have a double meaning, which for the most part we understand what it means.  For instance, take the phrase “let’s pitch a tent”.  Now, most of us take that phrase as meaning “let’s set up a tent in the middle of the woods and make our camp”.  We would never actually throw the tent like we would a baseball, because that would just be silly.

So, what do you think would happen if someone you knew actually DID throw a tent when she was asked by someone to pitch the tent?  You’d think that they were a bit...well...dense, wouldn’t you?

(I’m really trying to choose my words carefully, can’t you tell?)

Truth be told, in our blog topic today, two of the main characters really had to do the same.  They really had to choose what they were saying very carefully for the risk of their housekeeper twisting the words around and doing something completely wrong were quite high.  Mind you, it wasn’t the housekeepers fault.  She really did try her best to please her employers and she really did have a heart that was pure gold (but don’t tell her that, she may try to sell it at a pawn shop if she needed money for Christmas shopping or something like that), but she was just too...literal of a person.

Of course, to the children who grew up reading about the mishaps and mayhem at the Rogers family household, the comedy that stemmed from the misunderstandings and misinterpretations was genius, and I remember being one of the kids who laughed the loudest when our second grade teacher would read the books to us during the story time period at school.


In today’s blog topic, I wish to introduce you to Amelia Bedelia, the blue bonneted maid who means well, but doesn’t quite understand what it is that she is supposed to do because of her naive personality and her constant bungling of simple instructions due to her taking things a little too literally.


Amelia Bedelia was the creation of South Carolina born Peggy Parish, and the inspiration for the character came from her childhood years spent in the country of Cameroon.  While she was living there, she was inspired to write a series of tales based on a maid that she knew.  What was interesting about the maid was that she had a sizeable collection of elaborate and beautiful hats, filled with lots of plumage and embellishments.

(Ah, so that’s what inspired the gigantic blue bonnet filled with little pink flowers that Amelia Bedelia always wore in each book.)

Peggy Parish wrote down an assortment of stories based on the maid and some of the experiences that she had while growing up in North Africa, and gave the main character of the stories the name of Amelia Bedelia.


The first book in the series was “Amelia Bedelia”, with Fritz Seibel contributing the illustrations for both the cover and inside pages.  Upon its release in 1963, the book quickly became a favourite of many school children all over the United States, and it really was a strong introduction to the character.

The plot line for the first book was quite simple.  Amelia Bedelia was recently hired as a maid for the wealthy Rogers family, and she was so determined to make a good impression on them.  But when everything she did ended up being wrong, she was fearful that she would lose her job.  So when Mrs. Rogers leaves a list of chores for Amelia to do while they go out, Amelia tries hard to do everything correctly.

Unfortunately, the list isn’t exactly clear...well, in the eyes of Amelia Bedelia anyway...and Mrs. Rogers simple instructions get bungled up in only the way Amelia could misinterpret them.  Among some of the gems that take place are the following;

Putting out the lights for Amelia Bedelia involves taking a string of Christmas lights and hanging them on a clothesline outside.

Dusting the furniture for Amelia Bedelia involves pouring buckets of dust on everything!

Changing the towels in the bathroom for Amelia Bedelia involves taking a pair of scissors and cutting the towels enough so that they resemble something different.

Drawing the drapes when the sun comes in means that she takes out a notepad and sketches a picture of the curtains.

Dressing the chicken for dinner for Amelia means that she actually  puts clothes on the chicken!

I kid you not, Amelia Bedelia really was that...literal.

Amazingly enough, Mrs. Rogers failed to see the humour in the situation, and was about ready to fire her.  Luckily for her, Amelia Bedelia could make a mean lemon meringue pie, and once Mrs. Rogers sampled it, her sour disposition turned sweet, and Amelia Bedelia was allowed to stay!

This was a recurring theme throughout each book of the Amelia Bedelia series.  Amelia Bedelia screws everything up, the Rogers family gets mad, she bakes them cookies, pies, and cakes, and all is forgiven.


Which then leads to the question...why didn’t Amelia Bedelia just open up a bakery?


Would you believe that since 1963, there have been thirty-six books featuring her published, with another three books due out sometime next year?  That’s quite an accomplishment.  Sadly, Peggy Parish passed away on November 19, 1988 shortly after the release of “Amelia Bedelia’s Family Album” (which is kind of freaky since I was introduced to Amelia Bedelia in the second grade, which for me was the 1988/1989 school year). 
Luckily, her nephew, Herman Parish took over the Amelia Bedelia franchise beginning with 1995’s “Good Driving, Amelia Bedelia”, and has penned the serial ever since.  Lynn Sweat, the current illustrator of the book series, has been drawing Amelia Bedelia since the mid-1970s.

There have been so many Amelia Bedelia books that I have read, and it was really hard to choose my favourite.  “Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping” was a fantastic book filled with lots of humour, and “Amelia Bedelia and the Baby” was filled with side-splitting laughs.


But of all the books that have featured Amelia Bedelia, I have to admit that I was always partial to “Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia”, because of the fantastic sight gags, and seeing Amelia Bedelia celebrate Christmas in her own way.  Who else would hang tennis balls, baseballs, and billiard balls on a Christmas tree?  Who else would put a mirror on the top of the tree so that everyone could be the “star” of the tree?  Who else would invite every girl in the neighbourhood named Carol for Christmas Carols?  Who else would cut up a calendar and bake them into a “date cake”?

Only our Amelia Bedelia.

And here’s one final piece of interesting trivia before we sign off on this blog entry.  Apparently, Peggy Parish’s contributions to children’s literature did not go unnoticed in her hometown of Manning, South Carolina.  If one were to go visit this town, they might be surprised to see a special monument dedicated to her.

A statue of Amelia Bedelia.


Now, that’s how you honour someone!

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

October 2, 1950


The first Tuesday Timeline of October 2012!  Are you excited?  If you are, that’s wonderful.  And if you aren’t...well, I hope to change your mind.

I suppose I could always bribe you with cookies.

(DISCLAIMER:  Cookies may or may not be a figment of your imagination.)

At any rate, welcome to the second day of October, the first of five Tuesday Timelines this month.  I always said that October was a lucky month!

For this week’s edition, we’re actually going back in time to a year that we have previously visited in a past Tuesday Timeline.  I usually try not to repeat a year in this feature, but the reason why I have is because the subject matter of the blog was too good to pass up.  Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Anyway, before we turn the dial of the time machine to our destination, I thought that I would go over some other happenings of October 2, just to pass some time and fill up some space.  We’ll start with celebrity birthdays.

Making a birthday wish this Tuesday are Jan Morris, Maury Wills, Dave Somerville (The Diamonds), Don McLean, Eric Peterson, Avery Brooks, Donna Karan, Richard Hell, Annie Leibovitz, Ian McNiece, Mike Rutherford (Genesis), Sting, Robin Riker, Lorraine Bracco, Phil Oakey (Human League), Charlie Adler, Freddie Jackson, Dave Faulkner, Django Bates, Robbie Nevil, Jeff Bennett, Bud Gaugh (Sublime), Gillian Welch, Victoria Derbyshire, Jeff Martin (The Tea Party), Kelly Willis, Mitch English, Kelly Ripa, Tiffany, James Root (Slipknot), Tara Dawn Holland, Lene Nystrom Rasted (Aqua), Simon Gregson, Michelle Krusiec, Sam Roberts, Paul Teutul Jr., and  Mandisa.

(Wow...Sting, Tiffany, Mandisa...October 2 must be the day of the solo named singers.)

Now here are some of the major events that took place on this day.

1535 – Explorer Jacques Cartier discovers area where Montreal, Quebec, Canada would be built

1789 – George Washington sends out The U.S. Bill of Rights for ratification

1835 – The Texas Revolution begins with the Battle of Gonzalez

1864 – The Battle of Saltville takes place during the American Civil War

1889 – Nicholas Creede strikes it rich in Colorado when he finds a deposit of silver in a mine, setting in motion the final great silver boom of the American Old West

1890 – Legendary entertainer Groucho Marx is born in New York City

1895 – Bud Abbott, half of the comedy team “Abbott & Costello” is born in Asbury Park, New Jersey

1919 – President Woodrow Wilson suffers a debilitating stroke, which leaves him partially paralyzed

1925 – John Logie Baird performs the first working test of a television set

1937 – Over 20,000 Haitians are executed in the Dominican Republic as per the orders of Rafael Trujillo

1958 – The nation of Guinea declares its independence from France

1959 – The television series “The Twilight Zone” debuts on CBS

1967 – Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first African-American justice of the United States Supreme Court

1970 – A plane crash in Colorado kills the entire Wichita State University football team, as well as administrators and supporters of the team

1985 – Actor Rock Hudson succumbs to complications from AIDS at the age of 59, the first high-profile person to pass away from the disease

1990 – Xiamen Airlines Flight 8301 is hijacked and crashes into two airplanes on the ground, killing 132 people

1996 – Bill Clinton signs the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments

2002 – The Beltway sniper attacks begin in the Washington D.C. area, lasting three weeks in total

2005 – The Ethan Allen tour boat capsizes on Lake George, killing 20

2006 – Five young girls are shot and killed at an Amish school in Nickle Creek, Pennsylvania, gunman later commits suicide

So, what year are we going to visit this week?


The date is October 2, 1950.  If you recall, the very first Tuesday Timeline I ever wrote also went back to the year 1950.  In that entry, we talked about Victoria Principal.

In THIS entry, we’re going to be talking about a comic strip.  This entry isn’t the first time that I talked about this comic though...I wrote three previous entries on this comic strip before.  Two on primetime specials, and one on a series of books that were released during the 1980s.  But I never really got the chance to talk about how the comic was created, and some of the behind the scenes moments of the comic’s 50-year-history.

And our story begins five years before the comic strip printed its first edition on October 2, 1950.

In 1945, a young man by the name of Charles Monroe Schulz had just arrived back home after serving in the armed forces during World War II.  Just twenty-three years old, he moved into a four-room apartment directly above his father’s barber shop.  He had just taken on a job as an art teacher at Art Instruction Inc (he had developed a keen interest in drawing when he was a child, and he even had a drawing of his dog, Spike, published in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not based on Spike’s unusual appetite for thumbtacks and pins), and he was ready to make art a permanent career choice.


His career began with a promising start when he created his first comic strip, a serial known as “Li’l Folks” in 1947.  The cartoons were regularly featured in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and ran for two and a half years, ending its run in early 1950.  For each cartoon he submitted to the newspaper, he earned ten dollars.  Unfortunately, back in those days, the newspaper kept the original copies of the Li’l Folks cartoons, but Schulz managed to cut the comics out of the newspaper and put them in a scrapbook.  The reasons why Schulz pulled the plug were largely due to money issues.  He wanted a pay increase, and the newspaper refused his requests for a raise, so he ended the comic.

Or DID he?

As it turned out, many elements of Li’l Folks were incorporated into his next creation...a creation that would end up becoming his pride and joy.  One of the characters in Li’l Folks was a well-dressed boy with a fondness for classical music...in his new comic strip, he became a blond-haired boy named Schroeder.  In Li’l Folks, there was a dog drawn into the comic that seemed to follow onto the new Charles M. Schulz creation, being given the name of Snoopy.  And would you believe that Li’l Folks was the first source of the name Charlie Brown?  Although in Li’l Ones, as many as three characters were given that name at the same time, in Schulz’s new creation, Charlie Brown was just one boy...a boy who was the son of a barber, always wore a yellow and black shirt, who could never kick a football, who got nothing but rocks on Halloween, and who was probably called a blockhead more than a thousand times over a five decade period.


Have you figured it out yet?  We’re talking about the long-running comic strip “Peanuts”, which debuted exactly sixty-two years ago today.  And here’s that iconic first Peanuts cartoon below!


Okay, just in case you were wondering, the people featured are Charlie Brown, Shermy, and Patty (without the Peppermint).  And, boy, oh, boy does Shermy hate Charlie Brown!  Why?  We don’t exactly know.  You know, come to think of it, Charlie Brown does end up getting quite a bit of abuse from those who are supposed to be closest to him.  I guess that’s probably one reason why I always seem to have a soft spot for the little round-headed kid.  I understand exactly how he felt.


Anyway, when Peanuts first debuted, it started off in only a handful of newspapers...nine in total.  Shortly after Charlie Brown, Shermy, and Patty made their debuts, Snoopy was added in as a character just a few days later.  In fact, here is a list of all of the regular Peanuts characters that appeared in the strip as well as the date they first appeared.

Violet – February 7, 1951
Schroeder – May 30, 1951
Lucy Van Pelt – March 3, 1952
Linus Van Pelt – September 19, 1952
Pig Pen – July 13, 1954


Sally Brown – August 23, 1959
Frieda – March 6, 1961
Woodstock – March 17, 1966


Peppermint Patty – August 22, 1966
Marcie – June 18, 1968
Franklin – July 31, 1968
Rerun Van Pelt – March 26, 1973

TRIVIA:  Schroeder, Sally, Lucy and Linus were first shown as infants and toddlers.

There were quite a few parallels between Charles’ life and the life of Charlie Brown, the most obvious one being that both were shy as children and both were the sons of barbers.  But did you know that some of the characters were influenced by real-life people?  The Little Red-Haired Girl who was the object of Charlie Brown’s affections for decades was inspired by Donna Mae Johnson, a woman who ended up breaking Schulz’s heart by turning down his marriage proposal!  Linus and Shermy were childhood friends of Charles M. Schulz, and Peppermint Patty was based off a woman named Patricia Swanson, who was his cousin on his mother’s side of the family.

And speaking of ages, the ages of the main characters of the comic strip didn’t change that much.  When the comic strip began, Charlie Brown was supposed to be four.  Over the next fifty years, Charlie Brown’s age would only peak at age eight.


Of course, Charlie Brown and the gang certainly didn’t act like eight year olds I knew.  Back when I was eight, I certainly didn’t possess the incredible vocabulary that the Peanuts gang did.  For eight year old children, the Peanuts gang were remarkably sophisticated and cutting edge.  In fact, a lot of the reason why the Peanuts were so well-received by the public was because of the social commentary that was present within each gag drawn by Schulz.  Some of the topics that were discussed in the comic over the years were “The Vietnam War”, “The New Math”, capitalism, and politics.  There were also little inside jokes inserted into the comics as well.  During the 1960s, a new character was introduced who went by the name of “5”.  His siblings were named “3” and “4”, and his family name was the same as their zip code...a clever way of presenting the point that numbers were taking over people’s identities.  Another new character, a little girl named Tapioca Pudding, was introduced in the 1980s, poking fun at the concept of merchandising popular characters.


It was a bit ironic, considering that Charles M. Schulz became rich and famous by merchandising his own creations.  There were no less than 45 television and holiday specials made of the Peanuts gang where they celebrated Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Years Eve, Arbor Day, and Valentine’s Day.  The Peanuts comics were also collected in various books and treasuries.  There was a Charlie Brown Dictionary, and two editions of the reference series “The Charlie Brown ‘Cyclopedia”.  And that’s not even counting all of the stuffed Charlie Brown and Snoopy toys, the 1985 CBS Saturday Morning cartoon “The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show” and the various Peanuts Happy Meal toys that McDonald’s released on a few occasions.


Believe it or not, the Peanuts gang became the official mascots for Knott’s Berry Farm in 1983, had an ice show, a musical, and did commercials for A & W Cream Soda and MetLife.

At the peak of the strip’s popularity, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers and was translated into twenty-one different languages.  In total, Charles M. Schulz ended up illustrating and writing 17,897 Peanuts strips between 1950 and 2000!  That’s a lot of ink!  And, of course Schulz was well rewarded from his contributions.  Aside from the television specials being nominated for several Emmy Awards, Schulz ended up earning a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996 (located adjacent to Walt Disney’s).  He won the National Cartoonists Society’s Humor Comic Strip Award in 1962, the Elzie Segar Award in 1980, and was a two-time winner of the Reuben Award in 1955 and 1964, and won the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999.


For nearly 50 years, Charles M. Schulz made Peanuts his whole career...but by late 1999, he knew that it would soon be time to retire the Peanuts gang once and for all.  In November 1999, he discovered that he had colon cancer that had metastasized, and the chemotherapy he was undergoing prevented him from reading or seeing clearly, making drawing the Peanuts strip quite difficult to do.  Compounding the problem was the fact that Schulz also suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, which caused his hand to tremor and shake (this was one of the reasons why the comic shrunk from four-panels to three-panels in the late 1980s).

On December 14, 1999, Schulz sadly announced his retirement, and said that the last Peanuts comic would run sometime in early 2000.  And, true to his word, it did.  Tragically, Schulz wouldn’t live to see the day.

On the morning of February 12, 2000, Charles M. Schulz died of a heart attack at the age of 77.  It seemed almost fitting then that his final strip also worked as a bit of a eulogy, running on February 13, 2000...one day after he died.  Have a look.


Very poignant, no?

Just three months after he died, cartoonists all over the world paid homage to Schulz.  Over one hundred comic strips paid tribute to the cartoonist in their strips dated May 27, 2000.  To this day, many newspapers still run classic Peanuts comics in the cartoon pages, and almost all of the Peanuts television specials can be found on VHS or DVD, so his legacy continues on twelve years after his death.

But there’s one lingering question that many people asked when Charles M. Schulz drew his final cartoon.  Why didn’t he let Charlie Brown kick the football for once?

Well, according to Schulz, he felt that it would be a terrible disservice to Charlie Brown if he drew him kicking the ball after fifty years.  But at the same time, in one of his final interviews, he seemed choked up over the idea of Charlie Brown never having the chance to kick the football.

Personally, I was kind of hoping that he would have kicked Lucy Van Pelt instead...but maybe that’s just me.


At any rate, that’s our look back on October 2, 1950...and a comic strip that is still well-loved by generations of people.

Monday, October 01, 2012

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope


This entry is a milestone entry of sorts.  This is a milestone that I wish to celebrate and share with each and every one of you reading this blog right now.

First of all, this is the first blog entry of October 2012.  And, I don’t know exactly what this new month will bring, but it has got to be a lot better than September.  The leaves on the trees are changing colour, the air is fresh and crisp, and in Canada, Thanksgiving is a week away, so it’s definitely looking like a great month so far.


But an even bigger milestone lies within this blog post as well.  This happens to be my FIVE HUNDREDTH blog entry!

Yes, it’s true.  October 1, 2012 marks the 500th post on the Pop Culture Addict’s Guide to Life.  500 laughs.  500 tears.  500 references to pop culture.

I still can’t believe that it’s only been a year and a half since I began this blogging project, and now I am at post number 500!  I’m either very dedicated to my craft, or I am very much in need of a social life.

Or both.

At any rate, because this is my 500th blog post, I really wanted to choose a topic that really stood out.  Blog topic #500 is quite epic, so I wanted to feature a subject that was just as epic.  And, I think that I’ve picked a topic that most everyone will approve of.

I also have a story to tell you about this particular topic.

Since today is Monday, you probably have figured out that the theme of the day is the Monday Matinee.  Naturally, I’ll be featuring a movie in this space.

And would you believe that although this movie was released thirty-five years ago, it took me several years for me to see the movie for the first time?

It was September 2001.  The first season of “The Amazing Race” had just begun, people were still trying to make sense out of 9/11, and Mariah Carey’s “Glitter” was flopping at the box office.

As for me, I was twenty years old, still enrolled in university, and was taking a film studies class.

I have to admit that I absolutely adored film studies.  Where else could you sit in a classroom that was designed to look like a movie theater and watch movies for college credit?

Now, even though I didn’t have a great experience in college during that year (I ended up dropping out that same year), I did like film studies.  We ended up watching quite a few movies from various eras.  Some movies were from the days of silent film, and other movies were huge blockbusters.  Each week was a theme week that was related to a particular genre of film (one week was dedicated to film noir, another was dedicated to horror, another was dedicated to Bollywood, etc), and our homework assignments were based around the films we watched in class.

On the lesson plan for late September 2001 was a week devoted to science-fiction, and at first I wasn’t exactly keen on the idea.  Of all the genres of film that are out there, science-fiction is easily my least favourite.  But since our professor was making up the lesson plan, I couldn’t very well change it.

The movie on the lesson plan was one that almost everyone in the room had seen before.  After all, the film was released five times in movie theaters between 1977 and 1982, was re-released in 1997, and has seen several VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray releases ever since.

But I hadn’t seen it.  I was twenty years old, and I was still a “Star Wars” virgin.


Yes, today’s subject is the 1977 film, “Star Wars”...or, if you want to get technical, “Star Wars Episode IV:  A New Hope”, directed by George Lucas.  Not a bad subject to talk about for the 500th blog post, huh?


The film, as most of you know, starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Alec Guinness, just to name a few, and was first released on May 25, 1977.  The movie has since been re-released using enhanced computer generated imagery, and was the first movie to ever make over three hundred million dollars at the box office.  In fact, “Star Wars” was one of the few movies to be declared the box-office champ twice.  It dethroned “Jaws” in 1977, was beaten by the 1982 film “E.T.”, and reclaimed the top spot once more in 1997 when the film was re-released.  It held the top spot for an additional year before “Titanic” ended up taking over the top spot in 1998.

Now, do I really need to go over the plot of the movie, seeing as how most of you have likely seen this film already?  Well, okay, I’ll summarize it for you.  Or rather, I’ll let the credit crawl summarize it for me with background music courtesy of John Williams.


Basically, there are plans to build a space station known as the “Death Star” that is capable of destroying entire planets, and Princess Leia (Fisher), the leader of the Rebel Alliance has the plans in her possession.  Unfortunately, thanks to the evil Darth Vader (played in a dual role by David Prowse and James Earl Jones) and his Imperial forces, Leia is captured.  However, before she is taken away, she manages to hide the plans inside a robot named R2-D2.  R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) then flee the scene and end up on the desert terrain of the planet Tatooine, where they come into contact with Jawa traders, who capture the pair and sell them.


Fortunately for the two Droids, they are purchased by farmers Owen and Beru Lars.  The couple also have a nephew named Luke Skywalker (Hamill).  And it is Luke that happens to hear Princess Leia’s secret holographic message while he was busy attempting to clean R2-D2.


Luke is unclear as to what Leia was trying to say, but when he heard her ask for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s help, Luke believed that Ben Kenobi (Guinness), a hermit who lived nearby could shed some light on the subject.  Sure enough, Ben and Obi-Wan are one in the same, a Jedi Knight who fought alongside Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker before he was betrayed and killed by Darth Vader.  It is here that Obi-Wan gives Luke one of his father’s prized possessions...his lightsaber.


Initially, after viewing Leia’s original message, Luke is unsure that he wants to accompany Obi-Wan Kenobi to the planet of Alderaan in hopes of helping Luke learn the ways of the Force...but after Imperial stormtroopers invade Tatooine and destroy it, killing Luke’s aunt and uncle in search of C-3PO and R2-D2, he does a complete 180 and agrees to help out, recruiting the assistance of smuggler Han Solo (Ford) and Wookiee Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) to go on the journey.

And that’s all that I really am going to say about Episode IV.  There’s actually six Star Wars movies in total (keeping in mind that while “Episode IV” was the first film made, the real debut of the storyline takes place in “Episode I”, which came out twenty-two years after “Episode IV”.

Confused yet? 

Anyway, just to offer up some brief spoilers for those of you who haven’t watched the other five films, we see what happened to Anakin Skywalker in Episodes I-III, we meet up with the cute and cuddly Ewoks in Episode VI, greeted by the Yoda we are in Episode V, and in Episodes V and VI, we learn that Luke Skywalker has more relatives than the average member of the Osmond family.

I tell you, the Star Wars films are like a science-fiction soap opera.

I’ll tell you something though, the first time I watched “Star Wars”, I was completely glued to the screen.  I found the whole movie interesting, I admittedly loved the unintentional comic pairing of R2-D2 and C-3PO, and I’ll be the first one to admit that I almost leaped out of my chair the minute I heard that first swoosh of a swinging lightsaber.  The whole movie was brilliant from start to finish, and I’m sorry that I ended up waiting so long to see it.

As of right now, I have seen exactly half of the Star Wars films...Star Wars, 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back”, and 1983’s “Return of the Jedi”.  I haven’t seen the newer films as of yet (mainly because I’m sort of afraid of that annoying Jar Jar Binks character that appeared in Episode I), but I’m sure at some point, I will.

So, that’s all that I really have to say about my own personal experience with “Star Wars”, a movie that was as epic as this 500th post.  And while we’re here, why don’t I share with you a little bit of behind the scenes trivia about this iconic movie?  After all, there might be a few things that you may not have known.

1 – Did you know that before Mark Hamill was cast as Luke Skywalker, William Katt auditioned for the movie?  In the end, Katt ended up in the 1976 film “Carrie”, which held their auditions the same day as “Star Wars”.

2 – Initially, the movie was slated to be released on Christmas Day, 1976, but was pushed ahead to the 1977 Memorial Day weekend.

3 -  Some of the people who auditioned for the role of Princess Leia were Cindy Williams, Sissy Spacek, Sigourney Weaver, Anjelica Huston, Farrah Fawcett, Geena Davis, Debra Winger, Catherine Hicks, Meryl Streep, and Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn.  And when Carrie ended up auditioning for the role of Princess Leia, she won the role, provided that she lose ten pounds.

4 – Quite a few people were considered for the role of Han Solo.  Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Perry King, and Bill Murray were all considered.  At some point, George Lucas even contemplated making Han Solo African-American, with Billy Dee Williams and Glynn Turman considered for the role as well.

5 – George Lucas almost considered the idea of making Luke Skywalker a dwarf in early stages of the screenplay!


6 – Due to the way the weapons were constructed, most of the Imperial stormtroopers appeared to be left-handed.


7 – If you are a fan of the Final Fantasy video game series, there are plenty of references to Star Wars characters beginning with Final Fantasy VI in 1994.  There are two characters named Biggs and Wedge, and the enemies that the team battles also have Imperial soldiers!


8 – Some of the footage that ended up on the cutting room floor was used in the rather lacklustre Star Wars Christmas special.

9 – C-3PO and R2-D2 were spun off into their own cartoon series, “Droids”, in the early 1980s.

10 – Star Wars was the first film to be entirely screened in Dolby Stereo.

11 – Would you like to know what Princess Leia wore underneath her outfit?  Gaffer tape!  Seriously!  Carrie Fisher’s breasts were taped down!

12 – By June 1977, the price of 20th Century Fox stock doubled in value as a result of the success of Star Wars.


13 – Oddly enough, despite not having a grasp of the English language, Chewbacca ended up having the last line in the movie.

14 – In the earliest stages of the screenplay, Han Solo was supposed to be an alien, and Luke Skywalker could have been Laura Skywalker, as he was originally planned to be a she!

15 – Before Anthony Daniels was hired as the voice of C-3PO, Mel Blanc had auditioned for the part!

16 – Although James Earl Jones did the speaking voice for Darth Vader, he requested that his name be left off the credits for fear of being type-cast.  In the 1997 re-release of the film, Jones’ name was added to the credits.

17 – Initially, George Lucas briefly considered Orson Welles to be the voice of Darth Vader.

18 – Remember the trash compactor scene in the film?  The crew never did get the stench out of the Chewbacca costume.  I really feel bad for the actor who had to wear that thing after that scene.  Speaking of which...


19 - ...the actor that played Chewbacca, Peter Mayhew, was working as a hospital orderly at the time he was cast as Chewbacca.  The minute he stood up and revealed his 7’2” frame, Lucas hired him on the spot.

20 – Mark Hamill ended up popping a blood vessel in his face while shooting the trash compactor scene (he held his breath too long), and all subsequent scenes were shot on one side of Mark’s face.

21 – Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) was supposed to wear boots as part of his costume, but they did not fit.  So, in the majority of his scenes, he wore soft, fuzzy slippers.

22 – The Tatooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia, and were filled with some delay, as sandstorms ended up destroying several of the Tatooine sets.

23 – Luke Skywalkers’ original name was slated to be Luke Starkiller.


24 – Despite playing the same character in the film, David Prowse and James Earl Jones have not yet met each other.

25 – Alec Guinness did not exactly enjoy the Star Wars experience.  He reportedly did not even read any Star Wars fan mail!