grrrr

Bear with me. Or, bears with me. Well, not really with me. But on the list. Yes, Themed Things Thursday¹ is coming out of hibernation, as I come crawling out of my work-induced cave of fatigue and grumpitude. And what better way to come out of a cave than being pursued by a whole lot of bears?

Some Bears ²

Winnie-the-Pooh: Pooh has to top any list of bears in my book. The bear from the books by A. A. Milne. (I prefer not to think about the Disneyfied version.)

Grizzly Adams: A TVshow about a man and bear.

Gentle Ben: A lesser-known show about a boy and a bear.

Grizzly Man A movie about a man who decided to go and live with bears. Eventually, the bears tired of him. From what I understand, he met a…um…grizzly…end.

Yogi Bear: A cartoon about a bear, smarter than the average bear, so he says. Stole pic-a-nic baskets. Yogi Bear was always allegedly “in the ranger’s hair.” But I don’t believe he ever actually ate the ranger. (I watched this show as a kid, but I’m not sure I liked it. I feel like I felt some empathy for Boo-boo Bear, the side-kick.)

Goldilocks and the 3 bears:
The classic fairy tale of breaking and entering. While a family of bears is out for a walk while their porridge cools, a little girl heads into their house where she steals their food and breaks some furniture.

Bears are also prominent in several other fairy tales, like Snow White and Rose Red.

Bear Snores On: A kids’ book (by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman) about a bear who snoozes through a party in his cave, when various other animals sneak in to get out of the winter storm.

There are a whole bunch of other bear books for kids, several of which are berry-oriented, like Blueberries for Sal, Jamberry, The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear.

bear hug: A hug characterized by a real squeezing of the arms, rather than just a symbolic arm-wrapping. As one might imagine it would be like if hugged by a bear. Though without the mauling.

“B is for Basil, assaulted by bears:” A page from The Gashleycrumb Tinies, Edward Gorey’s alphabetic masterpiece.

Fozzie Bear: a muppet who likes to tell bad jokes. (Wocka, wocka, wocka.)

fuzzy wuzzy, a children’s rhyme:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t very Fuzzy, was he.

“Bears Discover Fire:” A Hugo Award-winning short story by Terry Bisson in which bears…discover fire.

Bears are fairly popular mascots for sporting teams, especially brown bears, or Bruins (cf. the Brown University Bruins, UCLA Bruins, the Boston Bruins, or the Chicago Bears. And cf. also “da Bears” sketch from SNL)

teddy bear: A popular type of stuffed animal, named for Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

Gummy Bears: fruit-flavored, brightly-colored, gelatin-based candies shaped like little bears.

¹ Yes, I realize it is now no longer Thursday. But I ran out of time, and I’ve had this draft going for over a week.

² This list is about bears, not bears…

candles at both ends

As the nights get longer up here in the Northern hemisphere, we look forward to having a bit more light. When you’re not in the mood for a lightbulb, you might consider lighting a candle.

Candles are used for a wide range of purposes: religious, decorative, symbolic, and as a light source for when the electricity goes out. Here’s a list of a few candle things and candle traditions to light up your evening on this Themed Thing Thursday.

A list with candles at both ends (and in the middle)

Hanukkah
The 8-day Jewish holiday, also known as the Festival of Lights, is observed in part by the nightly lighting candles in the Hanukkah Menorah, or Hanukiah. Today was the second day of Hanukkah. (Hanukiyot photo by photo by Beth Brewer.)

Christmas
Candles are also featured in many celebrations of the Christian holiday Christmas, such as with advent candles. Other traditions include using candles to decorate, such as using them on trees. Contemporary Christmas tree lights evolved from this tradition, as electricity became available, though in Denmark, people still decorate Christmas trees with real lighted candles. People will also place candles in windows, a practice said to have been popularized in Colonial Williamsburg.

Lucia’s Day
In Sweden, as part of the traditional celebration of this holiday (December 13th), girls will wear a wreath on the head with lit candles to celebrate Saint Lucia.¹ “>Apparently people have also moved to battery-operated candles:

In Sweden we do not wear candles anymore because before girls caught their hair on fire very often. Today we use modern candles with batteries in them.

Birthday cakes are often decorated with miniature candles. The candles often represent the age of the person having the birthday, whether by using number-shaped candles, candles arranged in the shape of a number, or most often, a candle for each year of age.

Sixteen Candles (1984) A John Hughes movie starring Molly Ringwald as a girl whose 16th birthday is overlooked.

Candle in the Wind A song by Elton John (lyrics by Bernie Taupin) written in honor of Marilyn Monroe in 1973, rededicated it to AIDS victim Ryan White in 1990, and rewritten and remade in honor of Princess Diana in 1997.

The Babylon candle: A magic candle appears in the movie Stardust (2007), allowing the user to travel great distances. I found a suggestion that the source of the name for this candle is the nursery rhyme:

How many miles to Babylon?
Three score miles and ten.
Can I get there by candlelight?
Yes, and back again.

hold a candle to: an expression meaning “measure up to.” Usually used with a negative, as in: X can’t hold a candle to Y, A could never hold a candle to B, the word trousers doesn’t hold a candle to pants.

light a candle for: People will light a candle to show remembrance of someone (such as Yahrtzeit in Judaism) or in support of some cause, such as “lighting a candle for peace.” The phrase has also been used more generally as an expression, often interpreted as “say a prayer for,” possibly based on the tradition of lighting a candle in a church to accompany a prayer. The expression is also sometimes interpreted in reference to leaving a lit candle in the window as a beacon for a loved one who is away.

not worth the candle: an expression meaning worthless, or not worth the expense

burn a candle from both ends: an expression meaning get little sleep due to being busy from early in the morning till late at night, or to generally work too hard and spend energy recklessly:

Our current understanding of this phrase refers to a life that is lived frenetically and unsustainably – working or enjoying oneself late into the night only to begin again early the next day. It didn’t having that meaning when it was first coined in the 18th century. The both ends then weren’t the ends of the day but were a literal reference to both ends of a candle. Candles were useful and valuable (see not worth the candle) and the notion of waste suggested by lighting both ends at once implied reckless waste. This thought may well have been accentuated by the fact that candles may only be lit at both ends when held horizontally, which would cause them to drip and burn out quickly.

You can also see a short movie of someone actually burning a candle at both ends. (YouTube)

—————–

¹ My friend Gregory, who recently moved to Sweden mentioned recently that he would soon be sharing some information on this tradition:

They put candles everywhere except the roof of their cars (they do wear them on their heads, as I will explain in a couple of weeks)…

slow and steady

Slow and steady about sums up a lot of the work I do. Well, slow at least. Slow like a turtle.

Here’s a list of turtles for this week’s Themed Things Thursday. We’ve got turtles and tortoises, and possibly even some terrapins (though I haven’t identified any as such).

A Stack of Turtle Things

Yertle the Turtle, Dr. Seuss. As Lisa Simpson says, “this is quite possibly the best book ever written on the subject of turtle stacking.”
What Newt Could do for Turtle, Jonathan London.
A picturebook of friendship between 2 friends, a newt and a turtle, who live in the swamp.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Comic book characters, of the mutant turtle persuasion. And presumably adolescent. And possibly also Ninjas. Have branched out to TV, movies, and of course, merchandising.

Bert the Turtle, from the “Duck and Cover” film on preparing for a nuclear attack. (You can watch it on YouTube, and learn how even covering yourself with a newspaper can help protect you from a nuclear blast.)
Bert has a catchy song:

there was a turtle by the name of Bert
and Bert the turtle was very alert
when danger threatened him he never got hurt
he knew just what to do
he’d duck…and cover
duck…and cover…

The Tortoise and the Hare: A fable attributed to Aesop. A fast hare has a race with a tortoise, but loses since he figures he has time for a nap. The tortoise wins since he kept moving. “Slow and steady wins the race.”
The Great A’Tuin: The Giant Star turtle in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. The world (which is disc-shaped) is supported by 4 elephants standing on the back of this giant turtle. This is most likely based on…
Chukwa, from Hindu mythology. A giant turtle who supports the earth, sometimes also with an elephant on its back. (The turtle may also be standing on more turtles, such that there are turtles all the way down.)
chocolate turtle: Not really a turtle at all. Or at least not the reptilian kind. A confection of nuts (usually pecans) covered in caramel and chocolate, typically forming a dome shape that resembles a turtle.
turtle trap: When I was little, maybe 4 or 5 years old, I thought that people had called this one Sausalito shopping center a turtle trap. I’m not sure at what point it became clear to me that people had called it a “tourist trap.” Not being clear on the concept of tourists, I assume I’d interpreted the word I’d heard as “tortoise,” then remembered it as “turtle.” To this day, I still think of that place as the Turtle Trap. Especially since I can’t remember its “real” name.
“Turtles are quiet.” A page from Leslie Patricelli‘s most excellent book Quiet LOUD. The book is full of quiet things, and loud things. But somehow this is the one we remember when trying to encourage Phoebe to be quiet: “Quiet like a turtle.”
“I like turtles” I just saw this in a post on riddlebiddle, but it has apparently been making the rounds for months. And kicked off a lot of video responses. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, have a look at this video on YouTube (It’s only about 17 seconds long.)

A turtle at our local zoo. Or a tortoise at our local zoo, if you want to be particular. Or if you want to be British about it.

chocolate-coated list

Halloween is just around the corner, and this means a bunch of things. Costumes. Parties. Spooky decorations. Getting the crap scared out of you at fun “family” activities. But for a lot of people it’s all about the candy. And while there are loads of types of yummy sugar-coma-inducing candies out there filling up those plastic pumpkins, chocolate is the treat most trick-or-treaters prize the most. So I give you a ThThTh list that’s chock-full of chocolate. Enjoy!

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
A children’s novel. Also the 2005 movie starring ever-versatile Johnny Depp, as well as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), starring Gene Wilder, both based on the Roald Dahl novel. The factory has a chocolate river.

Chocolat (2000)
Again with Johnny Depp, and this time with Juliette Binoche. About a woman who opens a chocolate shop in a French village. Based on the novel Chocolat by Joanne Harris.

“Chocolate,” by Snow Patrol (video on YouTube)

Hot Chocolate, a 70’s band best known for the song “You Sexy Thing” (YouTube video)

Como agua para chocolate/Like Water for Chocolate. The book by Laura Esquivel, and the 1992 movie based on the same. Also an expression:

The phrase “like water for chocolate” comes from the Spanish “como agua para chocolate”. This phrase is a common expression in Spanish speaking countries and was the inspiration for Laura Esquivel’s novel title (the name has a double-meaning).
In some Latin American countries, such as Mexico, hot chocolate is made not with milk, but with water instead. Water is boiled and chunks of milk chocolate are dropped in to melt. The saying “like water for chocolate,” alludes to this fact and also to the common use of the expression as a metaphor for describing a state of passion or sexual arousal. In some parts of Latin America, the saying is also equivalent to being ‘boiling mad’ in anger.

The Chocolate Touch, by Patrick Skene Catling. A kids’ book based on the tale of King Midas, whose touch would turn things to gold. In this case, a boy’s touch turns things into chocolate.

“Band Candy” This Buffy episode is one of my favorites. All students at the high school must sell chocolate bars in support of the school band, but eating the chocolate makes adults behave like teenagers.

I Love Lucy Episode 39 – “Job Switching” (aka the “Candy Factory” episode). Lucy and Ethel get a job in a chocolate factory, and can’t keep up with the conveyor belt, leading to much laughtrack laughter. (YouTube video)

My momma always said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” A quote from “Forrest Gump“. (Also from the novel by Winston Groom.)

“Happiness is” by the Violent Femmes

I don’t know what one means by happy
I’m happy spasmodically
If I eat a chocolate turtle I’m happy
When the box is empty I’m unhappy
When I get another box
I’m happy again

along came some spiders

Halloween’s around the corner. One thing this means is that people break out the creepy crawly decorations to get festively creepy. It’s harder to get much creepier or crawlier than spiders. So I offer you a whole mess of festively creepy crawly eight-legged critters for this week’s Themed Things Thursday. Enjoy. (Or shield your eyes, depending on your feelings towards spiders.)

A Few Spiders

Charlotte’s Web, by E. B. White. A novel featuring a very smart spider who could weave a remarkable web. One of my favorite books of childhood.
Little Miss Muffet
A nursery rhyme about a little girl who was frightened off her tuffet by a spider.

“The Spider and the Fly”, a poem by Mary Howitt. A poem best known for a first line that doesn’t actually appear in the poem: “Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly”. Here’s how the text actually begins. (You can read the full text here.)

Will you walk into my parlour?” said the Spider to the Fly,
‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I’ve a many curious things to shew when you are there.”
Oh no, no,” said the little Fly, “to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne’er come down again.”
Seven Spiders Spinning, a kid’s novel by Gregory Maguire, an author best known for writing Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Anansi: A spider who is a trickster character in many West African folktales.

Spider-Man. (Or Spiderman.) The superhero of comics, cartoons, and the more recent live action movies. A man was bitten by a spider and got spider-themed superpowers. Such as a spider sense. Which tingled. (When I’ve been bitten by a spider I’ve gotten a red welt. I guess you could say it tingled. But I wouldn’t.)
“Spider-Man,” the song. The theme song from a cartoon version of Spider-Man. Since performed by a variety of artists, including Moxy Fruvous and the Ramones.

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out!
Here comes the Spiderman.
“The Itsy Bitsy Spider” A children’s folk song. About a small spider, itsy bitsy even, who went up a spout. Then down, then back up.
“Spiders,” a song by Joydrop

When love was fresh like a web we’d mesh
Nothing felt better than your flesh against my flesh
One fatal slip one rip a tear
Touch me now and every single hair on my body stands on end
So don’t touch me anymore
‘Cause it feels like spiders
Like spiders all over me
Like spiders
Like spiders all over me
It: a book by Steven King and miniseries based on the same. Involves a big evil spider. (And a clown.)

Shelob: A giant, nasty spider from the Lord of the Rings
Aragog: A giant, nasty spider from the Harry Potter books and movies
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
A TV movie with William Shatner, about evil, venemous spiders that infest a town.
Arachnophobia (1990)
A movie about evil, venemous spiders that infest a town.
A few other random spiders include: spider(a type of pan, basically a frying pan with legs), web spider, Alfa Romeo Spider, Spider (2002), and spider veins.

turning into a pumpkin

I mentioned briefly that I’m going to be a bridesmaid in a wedding coming up soon. Well, that “soon” has now become “this Sunday.” Which is, technically, very soon. As is the standing tradition, in U.S. weddings at least, I will be wearing a dress chosen by the bride. As it will be an October wedding in New England, the bride has chosen fall colors. My dress is in burnt orange, a very pretty color, though a somewhat unusual one in my wardrobe. And is also often the case for such occasions, I am to have shoes that match my dress. This means that I have needed to get some dyed. I picked up my shoes yesterday afternoon. And I have to admit that I was quite startled to see them. You see, they are orange. I now have shiny orange shoes. I don’t think you can ever be fully prepared to see orange shoes.

Anyhow, this weekend I will be donning the orange, and perhaps as such, feeling a bit like a pumpkin. Hopefully an elegant pumpkin, mind you, but a pumpkin nonetheless. But seeing as it’s October, pumpkins are all the orange rage right now. And in honor of their orange pumpkiness, I bring you a pumpkin-based Themed Things Thursday.

pumpkin
A vegetable. Or a fruit. Depending on your choice of taxonomy. Generally eaten cooked. Used in lots of baked goods, like pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin (2002)
A movie starring Christina Ricci.

Pumpkin
A song by Tricky off Maxinquaye (YouTube video)

Cinderella’s carriage
In many versions of this fairy tale, Cinderella’s fairy godmother turns a pumpkin into a carriage to carry Cinderella to the ball. Cinderella must leave the ball before her ride turns back into a pumpkin. Leading to the expression turn into a pumpkin, meaning depart, go to bed or otherwise turn in for the night.

The Headless Horseman
A ghostly character from Washington Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow“, who carries around a pumpkin head.

Jack Pumpkinhead
A character from the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. Later had his own book, Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, though it wasn’t by Baum.

Pumpkinhead (1989)
A horror movie involving a demon dug up from a pumpkin patch.

The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead
a song by XTC. (YouTube video) Later covered by Crash Test Dummies.

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater
A nursery rhyme. Also a song you can play on the piano using only the black keys.¹

Peter Peter pumpkin eater
Had a wife and couldn’t keep her
He put her in a pumpkin shell
And there he kept her very well

The Great Pumpkin
A mythical holiday character that never appears in the animated Peanuts special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)

Jack, the Pumpkin King
A character from Tim Burton’s animated movie The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

jack-o-lanterns
It’s a Halloween tradition to carve a face into a pumpkin. These are then typically set outside, with a candle inside. It’s also a Halloween tradition for mischievous kids to steal other people’s pumpkins, and smash them.

Smashing Pumpkins.
A band. Performs songs such as “Tonight, tonight” and “Tarantula” (YouTube videos)

punkin
An endearment or nickname based on the word pumpkin, which is sometimes pronounced without the word-medial [p]. Gives us [pʰʌŋkɪn] (Where the nasal has then assimilated to the place of articulation of the following consonant, a velar. Not that you asked.)

¹ I admit that I’m recycling this particular item from my vegetable ThThTh list. But recycling is good, right? Or should I be composting, since it’s vegetables we’re talking about?

You want the pants? You can’t handle the pants.

Well, maybe you can handle the pants. In fact, I’ve promised pants. And I’ve given pants. And I think that you deserve more pants.

In the great tradition of the pants game, I offer to you the following great movie pants movie moments:

“Go ahead, make my pants.” — Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood), Sudden Impact (1983)
“You can’t handle the pants!” — Col. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson), A Few Good Men (1992)
“May the Pants be with you.” — Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Star Wars (1977)
“Fasten your pants. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” — Margo Channing (Bette Davis), All About Eve (1950)
“The stuff that pants are made of.” — Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), The Maltese Falcon (1941)
“Show me the pants!” — Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise), Jerry Maguire (1996)
“I have always depended on the pants of strangers.” — Blanche Dubois (Vivien Leigh), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
“Round up the usual pants.” — Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca (1942)
“Pants? We ain’t got no pants! We don’t need no pants! I don’t have to show you any stinking pants!” — “Gold Hat” (Alfonso Bedoya), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
“Oh, Jerry, don’t let’s ask for the moon. We have the pants.” — Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis), Now, Voyager (1942)
“Keep your friends close, but your pants closer.” — Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), The Godfather: Part II (1974)
“Get your stinking pants off me, you damned dirty ape.” — George Taylor (Charlton Heston), Planet of the Apes (1968)
“We’ll always have pants.” — Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), Casablanca (1942)

Don’t they know what’s going to happen?

The news has come out that scientists will soon be combining animal and human DNA. This Washington Post article gives a rundown:

Britain to Allow Creation of Hybrid Embryos

Capping a months-long scientific and ethics review, British regulators said yesterday that they are prepared to allow the creation of embryos that are part human and part animal for use in medical experiments.

We all know how this is going to play out. Scientists will create these hybrids for good, but then they’ll turn evil. It’s only a matter of time before we start hearing about crazed half-cow, half-humans going on murderous flesh-eating rampages, or plotting the destruction of human civilization. Just look at the background research:

Movies where scientists conduct experiments involving blending humans with animals, which go horribly wrong

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977) and (1996), Island of Lost Souls (1933), based on the H. G. Wells book. A scientist creates hybrids with humans and various animals. Who turn evil!
Dr. Renault’s Secret (1942)
A scientist turns an ape into a man. But then he turns evil!
Ssssss (1973)
A movie involving turning people into snakes. Who turn evil!
The Fly (1958) and (1986)
A scientist accidently blends himself with a fly. Then turns evil!

Creature Unknown (2003)
A scientist makes a lizard/human hybrid. That turns evil!
Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy (2005)

When he began fusing human and shark DNA, his colleagues laughed at him. Now his creation is taking his revenge, and they aren’t laughing anymore.
Tank Girl (1995)
This movie features the Rippers: human-kangaroo hybrids. Created by scientists as fighting machines, they…turn good! And fight the bad guys. So, if we’re lucky, the British scientists will work mostly with kangaroo DNA.

10 little piggy-pig-pigtail-people

As might be inferred from my last post, I am decidedly pro-pigtail. In celebration of pigtails, I bring you the following pigtail-themed list.

The 10 people on this list have one thing in common. Or two things, really. Pigtails. Whether it’s two braids, or two little pony tails, these folks know how to do the two-do with style.

Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy’s pigtails with their blue-ribbon bows are iconic, and a standard feature of Dorothy costumes, along with the blue gingham dress and ruby slippers. Many illustrations of the original book (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum), also show Dorothy in pigtails.

Ronald Ann from Berke Breathed’s cartoon Outland. She started off with 3 pigtails, but her do evolved to the classic 2.

Laura of Little House on the Prairie. I’m familiar with the TV show Laura, as played by Melissa Gilbert. I can’t speak for her hair in the books on which the show was based. (I loved her braided pigtails when I was about 11, and would occasionally wear my hair that way.)

Pippi Longstockings. The super-strong Pippi, of the books and movies, has bright red pigtails that defy gravity.

Cindy from the Brady Bunch, in the early days. The youngest one in curls. Which were often in pigtails.

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Then there are various girly-girl cartoon & animé characters wear pigtails, like…

Bubbles, the Powerpuff Girl. The sweet girly-girl one, and
Sailor Moon, who has really, really long blond pigtails.

And lest you think that pigtails are just for toddlers and schoolgirls, I submit to you the following pigtail-sporting women:

Jennifer Schwalbach Smith (aka Kevin Smith’s wife) wore pigtails with her black leather catsuit in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) (I actually found a picture of Kevin Smith in pigtails, which was not something I expected to find.)

Buffy, on occasion, also sported pigtails. Like in the episode “Fear Itself,” a bit which you can see on YouTube. (Okay, so Buffy’s dressed in a Little Red Riding Hood Halloween costume in this one, but other times she wears pigtails when not dressed as a little girl.)

Michelle Yeoh in Supercop/Jing cha gu shi III: Chao ji jing cha/ Police Story III: Supercop: I mentioned once before that my favorite scene in this movie is a fight scene where she’s wearing her hair in braided pigtails. Those braids go a-flyin’ as she kicks some serious ass.

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Some Bears ²

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A list with candles at both ends (and in the middle)

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A Stack of Turtle Things

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A Few Spiders

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Movies where scientists conduct experiments involving blending humans with animals, which go horribly wrong

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