8 posts tagged “childhood”
Who is your favorite Muppet? Why?
Not a Muppet "lead," have you, but my favorite Muppet is Sam the Eagle. I think he plays best with our modern political humor and could fit very well on The Daily Show. To this day, though, I always confuse Sam the Eagle with Richard Mulligan.
Oh snap, I'm not alone!
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And, from the dollarshort well. This, from February 2004:
Around Christmas this last year I saw a deck of Muppet-themed playing cards that had a picture of Kermit the Frog wearing a suit and trying to look smoothly into the distance. Immediately I launched into a rant on how I hate it when cartoon characters and puppets are made to look smooth or sinister or studly (think about how Looney Toon characters used to be made to look like gangstas). When I was recounting my hatred of smooth Muppets (and I'm not talking about smooth like those stoned Muppets in the band -- I'm talking about Kermit as pictured below), I just realized that "hate" is a really strong word.
Actually, I remember something that Mister Rogers said in that great Esquire interview:
"Mister Rogers always worries about things like that, because he always worries about children, and when his station wagon stopped in traffic next to a bus stop, he read aloud the advertisement of an airline trying to push its international service. "Hmmm," Mister Rogers said, "that's a strange ad. 'Most people think of us as a great domestic airline. We hate that.' Hmmm. Hate is such a strong word to use so lightly. If they can hate something like that, you wonder how easy it would be for them to hate something more important."
I think "hating" smooth Muppets is the definition of using a word lightly and I should probably just get over it.
What was your most memorable or favorite school field trip?
In answering this question, I tried to think of all the field trips I went on during my elementary school life in Los Angeles. Off the top of my head, I could remember:
- Los Angeles Children's Museum
- Los Encinos State Historic Park
- San Fernando Mission
- Huntington Museum
- Los Angeles Natural History Museum
- Universal Studios
It was a pretty strenuous task trying to remember more than the first three field trips. It's amazing how little I can remember of elementary school other than the kids picked on me and I was most likely ditched by other kids at each of these destinations.
Still, my most memorable and favorite field trip was always the Los Angeles Children's Museum. As a class, we went there for a couple different school years and, I can actually remember the experience of being there. It's one of those children's museums where kids can interact with kid-sized versions of hospitals, fire stations, news stations, etc... One giant make-believe session. Anyway, I loved that place.
What song was number one on the charts the day you were born? How about the day you turned 21? What do you think about the result?
I did the search for my birthday and found out the result was "Best of My Love" by The Emotions. Hmm... that song didn't sound familiar, so I decided to listen to it at the iTunes music store.
Oh shit. It's the official anthem to easy-listening radio station commercials.
Play the song and imagine these lines being said over the song:
"When I'm at work, I love listening to music. And with The Mixx (or some other lame name for a channel), I can enjoy fifteen songs in a row with absolutely no interruption. The Mixx gets me through my work day."
I really don't like that song.
But oh, wait. The song when I turned 21 is much worse! "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith. Oh no, it's the song from Armageddon.
Dismayed, I checked out the number ones from the British charts. On my birthday, "Way Down" by Elvis Presley. Well, Elvis died exactly a month before I was born, but this song sort of sucks. Maybe that's why. How about the British charts when I turned 21.
Oh snap, it's "Millenium" by Robbie Williams. I can get behind that song.
From a post that I wrote on May 9th, 2003 about my tastes changing:
I Can Stomach Fish Now Too
By Mena Trott, age 25
Mushrooms, wine, coffee and tea.
Don't take my youth away from me.
Instead of a "oh my, this bouquet is dripping
with a hint of oakey, strawberry sarcasm."
You get a "tastes good and it doesn't make me want to die
When Ben read my last post about favorite Halloween costumes, he told me I needed to post the following photograph. This certainly isn't my favorite costume (it was supplied by the photographers), but it's certainly one great photo. This post originally appeared on dollarshort.org.
Rarely does one have a photograph of an incident that is responsible for who you become later in life.
I've got one. It's this shot taken at the Topanga Plaza in Los Angeles.
Basically it's a "holiday portrait" mall shot with a twist. Like a Santa's Village or The Easter Bunny's Rabbit Hole, this photo-taking extravaganza was set up for the sole purpose of torturing little children.
I'm two years-old in this photograph. I'm just forming fears and issues. I'm about to be emotionally scarred into really hating witches and vampires.
The moment I saw the set-up, I knew my worst nightmares were about to begin.
The tears started flowing and I started screaming. For some reason, this didn't affect my mother.
I distinctly remember the man-vampire responsible for ushering the crowds. Even at two, I could tell he was flirting with my mom. At this moment, I instantly associated vampires with evil men trying to steal my mother away. Vampires are sexualized -- maybe that's their gimmick. Tell that to a little child.
So, I'm crying and still standing in line when it's time for me to take my picture with a witch. Although I tried to hold on to my mother's leg, the vampire forcibly picked me up and brought me to my date with the devil.
If you look closely in the photo, you can see the tears.
Yeah! Halloween.
For years after this photograph was taken, I would wear a scarf to bed in order to avoid Dracula's bite.
The board game that best represents my childhood and, therefore my favorite board game, is "Hüsker Dü?" It's a memory game, very much like, well, Memory. I lived with my grandparents for the first 12 years of my life and as my live-in babysitters, they were constantly given the task to entertain me. Hüsker Dü? was the board game that my grandmother and I played the most.
It may be hard to believe, but I'm not a good sport when it comes to playing games. I always remember my mother telling my grandmother not to let me always win. But if I lost, I would push the game away and get pouty. Therefore, I won Hüsker Dü? a lot.
I can still picture all of the various images that needed to be matched. Especially the yellow flower, the purple jack-like drawing and the red/pink heart. Great stuff.
I wanted to be a lawyer. I actually just wanted to have a job that paid very well and as far as I knew, that was either a lawyer or a doctor. And, I had no desire to be a doctor.
Sometimes I considered being a teacher -- particularly and art teacher. It's funny, for a time during college I actually thought I was going to become a teacher -- most likely a literature or english teacher. I even went so far as to take the CBEST (the test that's the first step to becoming a grade school or high school teacher in California). Scarily, I passed and that meant I could become a substitute teacher immediately. Fortunately for all the children in the state of California, I lost the certificate and my interest around the same time.
The final career I considered was an archaeologist. Even as a kid, I knew it was pretty much a pipe dream and never thought to pursue it past the archaeology course I took in college. I still find myself toying with the idea of being one after all this company stuff is over.
Like I said, pipe dream.
Of all the things I've accomplished in life, I'm probably a bit too overly proud about these miniature donuts I made. I love donuts and I love miniatures, so it only made sense that I put these two passions together.
When I was a kid, I would always visit Mott's Miniatures at Knott's Berry Farm. My dad's favorite part of the amusement part was the miniatures and we would spend an inordinate deal of time looking at all the displays. Two that stand out in my memory were the version of a 60s home (most likely a modern home) complete with a miniature working television and the Mott's General Store.
These miniatures at Mott's were memorable because of early childhood associations. However, if I was to talk about amazing quality, I would have mention the Thorn Miniature Rooms located at the Art Institute of Chicago.
We've only been to Chicago once, ages ago, but were lucky enough to be taken to the Art Institute by a friend of ours who I met via dollarshort.org. If you're even in Chicago and have any interest in miniatures, this is a must-see.
