Happy Thanksgivingukkah from Papa Smurf

 

 

 

Greetings to our blog-readers in Nigeria, Cyprus and Japan. We have chosen Papa Smurf as the best pop culture entity to wish everyone a Happy Tahnksgivingukkah as a large helium balloon of him is likely to be in tomorrow's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and because images of Sonic the Hedgehog, who will also be in the parade, are too darn hard to find!

 

We have put together a dream Thanksgiving dinner list, which can be found on our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

 

Today (Thursday), we are celebrating Thanksgiving here in America, and this year the holiday overlaps with Hanukkah, so the term Thanksgivingukkah has been termed for the occasion.

 

 

Spiritual leader Kate Judd of the Shir Herharim Jewish community in Brattleboro, Vermont, told her local paper that she felt the mixture of the two holidays was a nice coincidence. Several years, we found out by chance that there is a synagogue in Waco, Tex., called the Congregation Agudath Jacob, where Rabbi Gordon Fuller is a minister.

 

http://wwwbajcvermont.org

 

http://www.aquath-waco.org

 

 

In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, the Hotel Strasburg in downtown Strasburg, a town of 5,000, that is an hour and half south of Washington, DC, will hosting a traditional Thanksging dinner to the public from 11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m

 

http://www.hotelstrasburg.com

http://www.trianglevegsociety.org/

 

 

Tomorrow, in Durham, NC, the largest vegan/vegetarian Thanksgiving diner in America will take place. The event organized by the Triangle Vegetarian Society has already sold out for seating. But, the event, first organized in 1992, will presumably be taking reservations for Thanksgiving2014 soon.

Comic Strip Dialogue_ In the Mending Pile

 

Wow! What-a-nightmare we've had trying to get this blog entry up; it was initially supposed to be posted by midnight, New York Time, which was 16.5 hours ago.

 

At any rate, here are some samples of actual dialogue from various comic strips, most of them are Sunday strips and about of them are from yesterday's edition of "The Roanoke Times" in Roanoke, Va. As much as we love doing this series, we will only be doing it until the end of the year. As it is time-consuming and there is the chance that Hank Ketcham of "Dennis the Menace" fame will see this blog entry and not be amused (this is actually a joke, Ketcham has been dead for a full decade, but the comic strip was still in his name up until just a few years ago.)

 

#- Strips which are not carried by "The Roanoke Times."

 

%- Strip dialogue that was used from a daily strip

 

*- Strips we have never quoted before

 

 

 

 

 

1) "She usually just leaves stuff there till we've grown out of them!!!" (from "For Better or For Worse," yes, it is the reason why we have a children's Smurfs t-shirt. This is also the strip which lead to us calling this entry "The Mending Pile," since this retro term was used in that same strip)

 

 

2) "Your homework better be finished" (from "Zits")

 

3)  "Can we take a rain check? I've got some thinking to do." (from "Funky Winkerbean," our personal favorie line of the day).

 

4) "Go back to your cubicle and don't leave until five o'clock."

 

5) "Mystery Science Theatre 3000"? What's that?" (from "Sally Forth")

 

6) "I must've missed that?" (from "Blondie," said by Santa Claus)

 

7) "Come to think of it, you're kind of a copy cat" (from "Hi and Lois")

 

8) "Who robbed my coffee shop?" (from "Jump Start")

 

9) "See that girl across he room? She just whispered she wants me..." (from "Rhymes with Orange#%)

 

10) "Think now's a good time to have some friends over?" (from "The Pajama Dairies" *#)

 

11) "Well, you know I've always wanted to party like a rock star." (from "Mother Goose and Grimm.") #

 

12) "Well I think we have a good start and a lot to think about." (from "Prickly City") #%

 

13) "I did it! A Thousand! Somebody take my picture! Unbelievable!" (from "Animal Crackers") *#

 

14) "But it don't make no sense" (from "Barney Google and Snuffy Smith") *#

 

15) "Wait a minute....was so and so elected" (from "Zippy the Pinhead.") *#

 

http://www.dilbert.com

 

http://www.rhymeswithorange.com

 

http://www.pajamadiaries.com

 

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

 

 

http://www.roanoke.com

 

The Rabbitt Ears Quiz (3 of 12) How Much for That H.R. Pufnstuf Lunch Box

Witchiepoo, the villain from the Sid and Marty Kroftt cult tv classic "H.R. Pufnstuf," is the image you should be seeing if everything is going according to plan.

The children's tv show made its debut on Sept. 6, 1969, and it lasted until NBC decided to abruptly can the production after 17 episodes in August of 1972. Today, one can presumably watch the show for free on hulu.com; well, hopefully, we haven't misguided anyone.

There are many unqiue things about this show which could easily make this entry as long as a chapter in Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace."

For starters, the show had the proverbial fairy tale/"Wizard of Oz" plot of good versus evil, and the adventures revolved around a shipwrecked youngster named Jimmy, played by the late Jack Wild (1952-2006). While on the isle, Jack ran into Mayor H.R. Pufnstuf. Tragically enough, both Wild and Lennie Winrid (1935-2006) who was the voice of H.R. Pufnstuf (along with Scrappy Doo and Bigmouth on "The Smurfs") died in the same year.

The show also featured unique supporting characters, including Freddy the Flute, Dr. Blinky (the owl) and Judy the Frog.

Now, for the dirt....yes, the show has been accused of making many drug references to marijuana, and the matter was profiled in a 2003 issue of "Cannibis Culture." Both Sid and Marty Krofft, who created the show, are still alive. Marty has denied any efforts to link his children's show to a Cheech and Chong movie. But, of the many instances that the journal cited were: 1) the fact that H.F. Pufnstuf is a green figure with red hair. 2) the term 'black bart' which is code for marijuana is mentioned in one episode, and 3) Witchipoo's laughing gas. Oh, there are also magic mushrooms (we believe) in one episode.

"H.R. Pufnstuf" is also unique because it was both the defendant in a lawsuit against it (not for pot) and a plantiff in a suit the producers brought forth.

Paul Simon succesfully sued the producers on the grounds that the theme song, which contains lyrics that some find suggestive towards marijuana, was too much like his popular song "59th Street Bridge (Feeling Groovy)."

Conversely, the producers in turn successfully sued McD's because Mayor McCheese looked a bit too much like H.R. Pufnstuf.

But, our question today pertains to the worth of the show's limited edition lunch boxes, which are worth an astonishing amount of money, epsecially if it comes with the thermos!

On e-bay, we noticed that the following dollar amount was going out for the box, is the answer?:

A) $225

B) $275

C) $325

D) $375

SIDEBAR: In case, you were wondering, the answer to last week's Bonus Road Trip between Cincinnati and Boulder, Colo., is B) 19 hours.

DC Diary- Michelle Obama's Inauguration Gown

When we posted an entry with a quote from former president George H.W. Bush, aka Papa Smurf, we mentioned that there was an exhibit of first ladies gowns at his presidential library in College Station, Tex.

Thus, I was quite surprised when we stumbled a similar exhibit at the Smithsonian American History Museum during our family trip to Washington, DC, in the first phase of our excursion.

There were two gowns which stood out. One was surprisingly the purple inauguration gown worn by Laura Bush, Papa Smurf's daughter-in-law.

The other was the amazing white gown by our current First Lady Michelle Obama, which neither a Romanian gymnast nor a contestant on "The Biggest Loser" could possibly fit into. The dress illustrated just how tall Michelle Obama is as well as how tight her figure is. I am certainly no fashion expert, and as a heterosexual man my interest in such things is fairly limited. But, this gown, complete with the white Jimmy Choo high heel shoes, left quite an impression.

Later in the trip, we went to the Smithsonian National Science Museum where we saw an exhibit with ancient artifacts from the politically divided island nation of Cyprus, located between Greece, Turkey and Lebanon.

My sister and I were really intrigued by the digs especially since we had been to the Turkish/northern part of Cyprus back in 1993. We even saw a photo of a cathedral that had been converted into a mosque that we visited in the port city of Famagusta, where I almost got hit by a car since the Cypriots (Turks and Greeks alike) drive 'The British Way,' which is quite challenging for pedestrians!

A funny moment happened when I was looking at a female nude statue and a guard yelled. I thought it was Orwellian mind-reading at its best, but the culprit he was after turned out to be a Japanese tourist who was sneakingly taking a photograph of a bronze statue behind me.

This concludes my special series on our adventures and misadventures during our week in Washington, DC, which took place between Christmas and New Year's Eve.

There are more entries about the trip on my other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

Just for the record, my brother-in-law and my sister are not named Sven and Eva Thomasson, nor do they reside in Goteborg, Sweden. This was meant to be a bit of an in-joke between my sister and I, but when my mother heard about my little prank, she pretty much threatened to sell the family cat on Craig's List (that is a joke too!).