Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Sunday School with Davey and Goliath

If you’re of a certain (older) age, and American, you remember “Davey and Goliath.” It must have been one of the primary inspirations for “Calvin and Hobbes,” but I don’t know if Bill Watterson has ever acknowledged that.

“Davey and Goliath” really stuck with me as a kid. Later, I was thinking about the Protestant denomination that produced the series when, as a teenager, I walked into a Lutheran Church by myself one Sunday morning.

There are, of course, parodies of “Davey and Goliath,” but I’m uncomfortable with them, because I feel that although the cartoons are now dated, in their day they were sincere, positive and worthwhile. The “Davey and Goliath” Mountain Dew commercial is clever, and it does nothing to undermine the lessons or spirit of the series. Something that’s emphasized repeatedly, and still resonates with me, is that everybody has choices in life, and people have to take responsibility for themselves.

Here is one of my favorite episodes. Animator Art Clokey did some really psychedelic stuff in “Gumby and Pokey,” and “Davey and Goliath” is toned down by comparison, but there’s a brief, slightly surreal dream sequence in “The Winner.” The importance of a lowly cotter pin is something I’ve always remembered. “For want of a nail…”

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/SEP/DaveyGoliath.flv 480 360]

Wise words

Today’s Boston Globe has a short editorial called “Aging Boomers: Hit the pavement slowly.” This sentence says it all, for guys like me, because I’ve been there and done that:

Training all-out to overcompensate for fading physical gifts often leads to injuries.

After decades of seeming to be immune to running injuries, the last few years have taught me that exercising smarter, not running more, is what I need to do.

On the Colbert of the Rolling Stone

Since the January inauguration, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have shown they aren’t just about knocking Bush. Did they have a choice?

For the midterm elections a few years ago, Colbert shared the cover of Rolling Stone with Stewart. But now Colbert, who is in the second of three weeks away, has the cover all to himself. But what happens when there are no more print editions of magazines? There won’t be any covers of anything anymore. BTW, this blog turns three years old on Saturday, and this is post #1700.

A tip o’ the DogRat toupee to Denro for the tip.

Laura Ingraham’s wilder

I’d never heard Laura Ingraham before today. I didn’t even know who it was on the radio when I came across her program, until she went to a break and said her name. I’m a liberal, and I think Keith Olbermann goes overboard sometimes, but Laura Ingraham is very scary. I’ve seen clips of Glen Beck on The Colbert Report, and he’s even scarier. And that’s why I think Keith Olbermann has to go overboard. Because being willing to compromise is seen as a sign of weakness, and Olbermann knows it, so he doesn’t compromise.
Continue reading Laura Ingraham’s wilder

Richard Egan’s right to die

Richard Egan, co-founder of data storage technology leader EMC2, was a Republican fundraiser and a friend of Dick Cheney. Diagnosed in May with advanced lung cancer, a couple of days ago Egan killed himself with a shotgun.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/20608388/detail.html

Richard Egan, 73, was inside his Four Seasons condo on Boylston Street when he killed himself in a closet. His wife and visiting nurse were in the home at the time and heard the gunshot.

As a noted Republican, Richard Egan had a perfect opportunity to step forward and proclaim his right to die with dignity, and denounce the lies about the proposed health care legislation having a provision calling for “death panels.” He didn’t do that, but I think somebody should.

Ted Kennedy Dead

I met him only once, with a 20-minute one-on-one interview eight years after Chappaquiddick, three years before he lost the Democratic nomination to Jimmy Carter. No matter what you may have thought of him as a man, I have to stay that Ted Kennedy was very impressive in person. As a senator he knew his stuff.

P.S. Ted didn’t lose the nomination, of course, in 1980. He dropped out of the running.

See comments for why I added this post to the Beatles category.