So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Harp]

To quote Claudette Colbert's character in The Palm Beach Story: "You have no idea what a long-legged woman can do without doing anything."

No truer words were ever spoken....
_____

Night games. Bears v Seahawks; Cubs v Diamondbacks-last nite. Took a stack of papers home and grabbed a deli sandwich to scan the sports radio dial with; fell asleep at my desk and at Starbucks this dawn realized I had left
all the papers at home. Least Chicago won.

 

[Edward]

Mister Rogers demystifies Margaret Hamilton.

Beautifully pitched; it's been along time, at least here in the UK, since kid's TV was like this instead of it being all flash bang wallop and dreadfully patronising to children. These are clearly adults making an effort to communicate with children, but not by insulting them.

I wonder at the time were there a lot of kids frightened of that particular character? It has the feel of "see, she's a nice lady, just playing dressing up" - but again, pitched in a way that allows kids to figure that out for themselves,without beating them over the head with it.


I also wonder how much of the Sheldon Cooper persona was influenced by thisshow.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There have been a lot of calls for Jim Parsons to play Fred Rogers in a movie, and there were pangs of disappointments from some in the Fred-head fandom (yes there is such a thing) when Tom Hanks got the job. And I suspect if Sheldon was a real person, he'd definitely have grown up with the Neighborhood.

There was, certainly, a lot of childhood fear of the Wicked Witch of the West thanks to the annual CBS screenings of "The Wizard Of Oz" in the sixties and seventies -- it was always a big family event, and Hamilton came across a barbarously larger-than-life figure to the little kids watching. Rogers was aware of this, having two kids of his own who were the right age to have been scared by the film, and he made a point of asking Hamilton to come on the show and deconstruct the character for his viewers. She was, by all accounts, delighted to do it -- she was a very kind-hearted soul, according to people I knew who knew her, and it bothered her a lot that kids found her frightening.

I also think that the writers of "Wicked" must've seen and absorbed this interview, because a lot of the characterization of the Witch in that play echoes what Hamilton's saying here.

The approach taken here was a trademark of Rogers' approach to children. He studied childhood development under the tutelage of Benjamin Spock, Eric Erikson, and Margaret McFarland, and learned from them that the most important thing to remember about children is that they are developing human beings, not miniature consumers to be manipulated and exploited. There was no one else quite like him in all the long history of American childrens' television, and there never will be again.

 

[Fading Fast]

To quote Claudette Colbert's character in The Palm Beach Story: "You have no idea what a long-legged woman can do without doing anything."

I always thought The Hollies captured this sentiment perfectly in the song "Long Cool Woman" with, specifically, this line:

Just a five nine beautiful tall​

 

[Hercule]

returning to petty annoyances, I must say that I've always been annoyed with the way motorcyclists will park their machines perpendicular to the curb. Kinda makes me want to tap the front wheel with my bumper as I drive by. Needless to say I exercise restraint on that matter.

 

[scottyrocks]

returning to petty annoyances, I must say that I've always been annoyed with the way motorcyclists will park their machines perpendicular to the curb. Kinda makes me want to tap the front wheel with my bumper as I drive by. Needless to say I exercise restraint on that matter.

I suppose you'd rather have each one take up an entire spot instead of making the best use of the space for all concerned.

 

[Hercule]

I suppose you'd rather have each one take up an entire spot instead of making the best use of the space for all concerned.

That's not the point. I just would expect there to be in interest in presenting less of a target for passing traffic.

 

[BobHufford]

That's not the point. I just would expect there to be in interest in presenting less of a target for passing traffic.

The slope of the road comes into play. If parked parallel the bike would have a tendency to tip over.

 

[tonyb]

In my motorcycling days I generally parked not perpendicular to the curb but at an angle considerably more perpendicular than parallel. My front wheel protruded less far from the curb than did cars of typical widths. This left room enough in the parking space for another bike or two. It also made merging back into traffic a much less dicey affair than looking over the shoulder for an opening in traffic, as would be required if I started from a parallel position.

 

[Edward]

There have been a lot of calls for Jim Parsons to play Fred Rogers in a movie, and there were pangs of disappointments from some in the Fred-head fandom (yes there is such a thing) when Tom Hanks got the job. And I suspect if Sheldon was a real person, he'd definitely have grown up with the Neighborhood.

I guess Hanks pulled it on grounds of both age and, possibly, having played Disney. JIm Parsons and the make-up department would have been better, though.

There was, certainly, a lot of childhood fear of the Wicked Witch of the West thanks to the annual CBS screenings of "The Wizard Of Oz" in the sixties and seventies -- it was always a big family event, and Hamilton came across a barbarously larger-than-life figure to the little kids watching. Rogers was aware of this, having two kids of his own who were the right age to have been scared by the film, and he made a point of asking Hamilton to come on the show and deconstruct the character for his viewers. She was, by all accounts, delighted to do it -- she was a very kind-hearted soul, according to people I knew who knew her, and it bothered her a lot that kids found her frightening.

Oh, she seems just adorable - and as good as him at talking to kids without talking down to them.

I also think that the writers of "Wicked" must've seen and absorbed this interview, because a lot of the characterization of the Witch in that play echoes what Hamilton's saying here.

Possibly - pity it was rubbish, though!

The approach taken here was a trademark of Rogers' approach to children. He studied childhood development under the tutelage of Benjamin Spock, Eric Erikson, and Margaret McFarland, and learned from them that the most important thing to remember about children is that they are developing human beings, not miniature consumers to be manipulated and exploited. There was no one else quite like him in all the long history of American childrens' television, and there never will be again.

It's hard to imagine this being greenlit now. Even on the venerable BBC, most kids TV is now just chock full of inane presenters who are only ten minutes older than their audience...

 

[Zombie_61]

...Oh, she seems just adorable - and as good as him at talking to kids without talking down to them...

This is one of the things I hated about "kids" shows even when I was a kid. Most of them in one way or another talked down to kids instead of speaking to them, and I felt I was being insulted.

 

[Trenchfriend]

German reflex, when radio-moderator starts with "Auschwitz. ... "

 

[LizzieMaine]

This is one of the things I hated about "kids" shows even when I was a kid. Most of them in one way or another talked down to kids instead of speaking to them, and I felt I was being insulted.

Yep. Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo were the only exceptions I can think of on the national level. I couldn't abide Miss Whatsherface on Romper Room, and her romper-stomper-domper-doo merch-selling nonsense. Even as a six year old I knew I was being gulled. Mister Do-Bee was a transparent shill.

Radio kids shows of the Era weren't much better, with gooey-voiced announcers and their "Hey gang don't forget to send your boxtops for these keen prizes" palaver. The main nationally-heard exceptions were Ireene Wicker, "The Singing Story Lady," who was basically the Mr. Rogers of radio, and a strange fellow named Vernon Crane, who told storybook-fantasy-type stories in a high, lisping voice that only seemed to add to the unreal atmosphere of the tales he told.

The famous Uncle Don of WOR could have been a lot better if he hadn't had to shill for sponsors as much as he did -- I doubt many six-year-olds were much interested in the Greenwich Savings Bank, no matter how hard he pushed it.

 

[Fading Fast]

German reflex, when radio-moderator starts with "Auschwitz. ... "

That's a world-wide thing.

 

[ChiTownScion]

This is one of the things I hated about "kids" shows even when I was a kid. Most of them in one way or another talked down to kids instead of speaking to them, and I felt I was being insulted.

Whenever I heard, "Hey, kids!" I knew that the pitch was following. I suppose the upside is that it planted a seed that sprouts in my noggin every time that our Lizzie mentions, "the Boys," and hits the button for a "Damn right!" in me when she does so.

In a similar vein: The Boys are increasingly becoming the Girls as well. Female enrollments in MBA programs are up, and those programs specializing in Marketing and Communications show a 62% increase in female enrollment from 2011 to 2015.


http://fortune.com/2015/11/09/women-mba-40-percent/

 

[LizzieMaine]

The man who led the way for all the TV shills who'd follow was Buffalo Bob Smith, who was absolutely shameless in his vending. Someone could have put out the Official Howdy Doody Edition of "Tristram Shandy," and he'd have shoved it down the gullets of the Peanut Gallery.

 

[swanson_eyes]

Just noting that the sexy witch goes back, at least (I'd bet earlier), to 1942's "I Married a Witch" with Veronica Lake:
View attachment 135370

I think it goes further back to Clara Bow but that depends on whether one finds her sexy.

 

[BobHufford]

The hysteria in the media over shark attacks (five times more people are killed by cows annually)...

 

[HanauMan]

The hysteria in the media over shark attacks (five times more people are killed by cows annually)...

Too true....

In twenty-five years working as a RN I never encountered a single shark victim but every single year we'd get several farmers, both men and women, with fractures and other injuries caused by cows, sheep and goats. And those were the ones who survived. And the worst thing, some of them came back regularily with injuries caused by their farm critters! The dumbest guy was one the one who lost half his hand in a farm machine. A couple of years later he was readmitted after losing half of his other hand in the same machine!

 

[LizzieMaine]

On the other hand, nobody would go see a movie called "Goatnado." Well, I would, but you can't build a major release on that.