image courtesy of theexaminer
As I watched The Soup, hosted by the hilarious Joel McHale, I nearly fell on the floor dying of laughter when I watched this clip below! Being “The Love Doctor”, I can’t believe Dr. Terri Orbuch didn’t realize the double meaning of what she said about Barack and Michelle. But I’m glad she didn’t because this was just too funny!
Mental Floss has uncovered some of the stories behind some of your favorite Dr. Seuss tales. Who knew he was incorporating adult issues of the time, like environmentalism, corruption, and race relations, into his books for children.
1. In case you haven’t read “The Lorax,” it’s widely recognized as Dr. Seuss’ take on environmentalism and how humans are destroying nature. Loggers were so upset about the book that some groups within the industry sponsored “The Truax,” a similar book — but from the logging point of view.
Another interesting fact: the book used to contain the line, “I hear things are just as bad up in Lake Erie,” but 14 years after the book was published, the Ohio Sea Grant Program wrote to Seuss creator. Theodore Geisel, and told him how much the conditions had improved and implored him to take the line out. Geisel agreed and said that it wouldn’t be in future editions.
2. Somehow, Geisel’s books find themselves in the middle of controversy. The line “A person’s a person, no matter how small,” from “Horton Hears a Who!,” has been used as a slogan for pro-life organizations. It’s often questioned whether that was Seuss’ intent in the first place, but when he was still alive, he threatened to sue a anti-abortion group unless they removed his words from their letterhead.
Karl ZoBell, the attorney for Dr. Seuss’ interests and for his widow, Audrey Geisel, says that she doesn’t like people to “hijack Dr. Seuss characters or material to front their own points of view.
3. “If I Ran the Zoo,” published in 1950, is the first recorded instance of the word “nerd.”
4. “The Cat in the Hat” was written because Dr. Seuss thought the famous Dick and Jane primers were insanely boring. Because kids weren’t interested in the material, they weren’t exactly compelled to use it repeatedly in their efforts to learn to read. So, “The Cat in the Hat” was born.
5. Bennett Cerf, Dr. Seuss’ editor, bet him that he couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less. “The Cat in the Hat” was pretty simple, after all, and it used 225 words. Not one to back down from a challenge, Mr. Geisel started writing and came up with “Green Eggs and Ham” — which uses exactly 50 words.
The 50 words, by the way, are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.
6. It’s often alleged that “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” was written specifically about Richard Nixon, but the book came out only two months after the whole Watergate scandal. It’s unlikely that the book could have been conceived of, written, edited and mass produced in such a short time.
Also, Seuss never admitted that the story was originally about Nixon. That’s not to say he didn’t understand how well the two flowed together. In 1974, he sent a copy of Marvin K. Mooney to his friend Art Buchwald at the Washington Post. In it, he crossed out “Marvin K. Mooney” and replaced it with “Richard M. Nixon,” which Buchwald reprinted in its entirety.
7. “Yertle the Turtle” = Hitler? Yep. If you haven’t read the story, here’s a little overview: Yertle is the king of the pond, but he wants more. He demands that other turtles stack themselves up so he can sit on top of them to survey the land. Mack, the turtle at the bottom, is exhausted. He asks Yertle for a rest; Yertle ignores him and demands more turtles for a better view.
Eventually, Yertle notices the moon and is furious that anything dare be higher than himself, and is about ready to call for more turtles when Mack burps. This sudden movement topples the whole stack, sends Yertle flying into the mud, and frees the rest of the turtles from their stacking duty.
Dr. Seuss actually said Yertle was a representation of Hitler. Despite the political nature of the book, none of that was disputed at Random House — what was disputed was Mack’s burp. No one had ever let a burp loose in a children’s book before, so it was a little dicey. In the end, obviously, Mack burped.
8. “The Butter Battle Book” is one I had never heard of, perhaps with good reason: it was pulled from the shelves of libraries for a while because of the reference to the Cold War and the arms race.
Yooks and Zooks are societies who do everything differently. The Yooks eat their bread with the butter-side up and the Zooks eat their bread with the butter-side down. Obviously, one of them must be wrong, so they start building weapons to outdo each other: the “Tough-Tufted Prickly Snick-Berry Switch,” the “Triple-Sling Jigger,” the “Jigger-Rock Snatchem,” the “Kick-A-Poo Kid”, the “Eight-Nozzled Elephant-Toted Boom Blitz,” the “Utterly Sputter” and the “Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo.”
The book concludes with each side ready to drop their ultimate bombs on each other, but the reader doesn’t know how it actually turns out.
9. “Oh The Places You’ll Go” is the final Seuss book published before he passed away. Published in 1990, it sells about 300,000 copies every year because so many people give it to college and high school grads.
10. No Dr. Seuss post would be complete without a mention of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” Frankenstein’s Monster himself, Boris Karloff, provided the voice of the Grinch and the narration for the movie. Seuss was a little wary of casting him because he thought his voice would be too scary for kids. If you’re wondering why they sound a bit different, it’s because the sound people went back to the Grinch’s parts and removed all of the high tones in Karloff’s voice. That’s why the Grinch sounds so gravelly.
Tony the Tiger, AKA Thurl Ravenscroft, is the voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” He received no credit on screen, so Dr. Seuss wrote to columnists in every major U.S. newspaper to tell them exactly who had sung the song.
Via CNN
image courtesy of dailylife
Artist Giles Walker has made my nightmares come true! Maybe it’s the creepy music accompanying lifeless robots as they slowly grind against a pole or mechanically bob their head to the beat.
Well, this isn’t as bad as my childhood fear of Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit” video. I would run from the television set when that video, also involving robots and mannequins, would come on MTV.
Seriously, Walker’s robots are awesome. Check out HIS BIO HERE to find out where he gained his passion for sculpture.
image courtesy of dailylife
Every time I hear Donovan’s 1967 song Wear Your Love Like Heaven I just wanna iron my hair and trip out on LSD mixed with shrooms and pot. Too bad I was born in the 80’s. I was, fortunately, taught by former flower children turned art/home economic teachers who were truly out-of-their-minds in a good way. The sixties must’ve been awesome.
With the families pocessions gathered in piles throughout their home in East Palo Alto California, in preparation for being sent back to Tonga, a 12-year old boy and his 2-year old cousin were in a bedroom playing around 11pm Thursday night. The 12-year old, who is now in child protective custody, reportedly wanted to “show off” and retrieved a small caliber rifle, which the family didn’t know was secretly left by a friend. Unbeknownst to the child the gun was loaded.
“The older boy didn’t realize the gun was loaded and shot it. The bullet struck the toddler in the chest. Crews raced the toddler to the hospital, where he pronounced dead.
According to (Detective) Sanchez, the gun belongs to a family friend, whom he would not identify. But he said police are looking for this East Palo Alto man for questioning.”
So sad.
Link to full Mercury News story
Jason with Lola (photo courtesy of celebritybabies)
Lilakoi Moon aka Lisa Bonet and her beau Jason Momoa welcomed their second child. A son by the name of Nakoa-Wolf Manakauapo Namakaeha Momoa. Like the couples 20 month year old daughter, Lola Iolani Momoa, their new son also has a name with Hawaiian roots and meaning.
On her fan forum, she states how she chose his name and the significance behind it:
“He was born on the stormest, rainy night.
so Nakoa(warrior)…Mana(strength/spirit) Kaua(rain) po(dark)…
The name was always going to be Nakoa-Wolf, but Jason did the research on first middle name, 2nd middle name as you know is Jason’s.”
I love it! I was reading comments on other sites and some of them are pretty negative. Hawaiian names are usually long and have some spiritual/family significance. Mine is pretty long as well and I’m proud of it and my Hawaiian roots, so let the haters hate, Momoa family! Congratulations!
Name: David Russell Strathairn
DOB: January 26, 1949 in San Francisco, CA
Claim to fame: Although he’s had a lengthy career as an actor on television, stage, and screen spanning nearly 29 years, he went mostly underrated until he starred in his Oscar nominated role of broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck.
Background: He is Native Hawaiian (who knew?! but I can see it now) and Scottish. (Is it wrong to think someone is hot even though they’re old enough to be your dad? *sigh*)
Image courtesy of jaylopez
For the procrastinators or unaware, as of midnight February 17, 2009 most television stations will make the switch from analog to digital. If you’re without a pay service like cable television, you will find that no amount of adjusting your already existing rabbit ears will result in an on-screen image. So that you’re not left in the dark, CLICK HERE for 10 things you need to know about the digital switch and then CLICK HERE for a $40 coupon towards the purchase of a converter box (you may request up to 2 coupons which will expire 90 days from its mailing date; no renewals). If you’re not sure of which box to buy, Consumer Reports has already tested out a couple of for you HERE.
Image courtesy of Neil Gould
January is a month where gym memberships usually soar as people make it a goal to get healthy and get in shape. But with many out-of-work, gyms such as Bally’s, 24 Hour Fitness, Club One, and Gold’s Gym are not seeing the surge in new members as in the past. CLICK HERE for deals offered by some gyms and tips on negotiating for more perks like free passes for friends.
Domestic abuse is one of those taboo secretive subjects that is rarely spoken of due to a variety of factors and it is such a bad situation to be in and to know someone in a relationship like that. So what are some of the early signs one might be in an abusive relationship? Click HERE to read some of the red flags to seperate the frogs from the princes.
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