A friend of mine lost a bunch of weight years ago, and when I asked him his secret, he said, “I stopped eating candy.” I went on a walk with him yesterday, and he confessed that he is eating candy again. He hasn’t gained the weight back, however. Maybe I should ask him if he bought a mouse-operated tickle machine.
Fish and ships
I’m feeling some sort of kinship with the baby polar bear in this cartoon this morning, as it’s been rather chilly here lately and I also have a bit of a cold. I guess I should not go fishing today.
Wring out the old
Saying, “It can’t be any worse than last year” is kind of like naming a puppy Lucky, isn’t it? I guess I’ll just wish you all hope and strength for 2022. Try to cut yourselves and others some slack and see what happens.
Popeye the Sailor – Let’s Celebrake – 1938 from te-media on Vimeo.
Multipurpose tools
For Christmas, we’re staying in a cabin with some very nice owl andirons . Benny had to tell me what andirons are for, and then he put the andirons where they’re supposed to go in the fireplace. When the fire is going, the owls’ glass eyes glow very nicely. They do not, however, play little trumpets as far as I can tell.
What the dickens
A Christmas Carol has never been my favorite Dickens story; it seems so basic in comparison to his other works. I decided to read a couple of Wikipedia entries to see if there was something missing from my understanding of it, but no, I have it covered. I did learn, however, that Tiny Tim was initially named Little Fred, and when that didn’t fit, Tiny Mick. And that was making me wonder if any of those names would have changed the career trajectory of Herbert Khaury: it seems that he also tried out a number of names before settling on Tiny Tim: Texarkana Tex, Judas K. Foxglove, Vernon Castle, and Emmett Swink.
I seem to have gotten off track here. If you need a Christmas Carol fix, this is really one of the finer ones out there.
Scofflaw
I’m no parascientist, but I’m pretty sure that Casper breaks an awful lot of ghost physics laws here. Be careful, Billy.
Security leek
Maybe I should have posted this cartoon near Thanksgiving since it’s food-centric, but it also has a similar storyline to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer so I think now is just as fine a time to celebrate this brave little (ce)boy(ya).
Found via the amazing Instagram of bittycar once again
Won’t go nowhere
I might prefer gliders to rocking chairs, but rocking chairs get all the good songs and stories.
via @bittycar on Instagram, who finds all the best cartoons
Cliff’s notes
I know it doesn’t really follow the book much at all, but I’d still watch a fleshed-out full-length version of this. Gene Deitch tells a wild and woolly story about the origins of this piece on his blog. If you have some time and are in the mood for something that makes you feel like you’re having a three martini lunch with a legend, you really should read it.
What we’ll see will defy explanation
There’s not a lot of information online about this claymation short other than brief notes about it being distributed as educational material extolling the powers of imagination.
I for one am relieved that I didn’t see this as a kid. The framework of 1. “I have a terrible problem.” 2. [REDACTED] 3. “Thank you for solving the problem!” would have made me really angry. The credit notes that at least one person with a PhD was consulted on this, but what was that PhD for? If it was child development, I’ll eat my hat. This just doesn’t have the rhythm and feel of something developed by people who understand children at all. The whimsy is so forced and… off.
Why beanbags? Why “Skip Two”? Who is that candy-eating creature failing at setting a good example for? This isn’t fun. Kind of awful, in fact. They got that part right.
At least the backdrop is kind of pretty.
Fancy Notions 