LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THE BEATLES!

According to the calendar, it's Spring, not that you could tell from the weather map. And for some reason, that puts me in mind for some Beatles.......

As filtered through two of the most iconic television shows from the 1960's, of course!

BCnU!

Both of those videos are going out to my friend Ken Natter, wherever he is.....

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AS SEEN ON TV: LARRY FINE

Had I known that it was Larry Fine's birthday on Tuesday, I would have had the perfect Two for Tuesday showcase for him. But instead, we'll use that second half of the tribute next Tuesday when we salute somebody else. You'll see what I mean......

So, today, hopefully better late than never, we honor this great Stooge who would have turned 108 on Tuesday. (A number from 'Lost'......)

LARRY FINE

AS SEEN IN:
'The Howard Stern Show'
(WWOR-Channel 9 version 1990-92)

AS PLAYED BY:
Billy West

From Wikipedia:
Louis Feinberg (October 5, 1902 – January 24, 1975), known professionally as Larry Fine, was an American comedian and actor, who is best known as a member of the comedy act The Three Stooges.

In a 2004 New Yorker feature on the Farrelly Brothers's attempt to write a script for a new Three Stooges movie, Peter Farrelly offered his theory of Stooge appreciation: “Growing up, first you watched Curly, then Moe, and then your eyes got to Larry. He’s the reactor, the most vulnerable. Five to fourteen, Curly; fourteen to twenty-one, Moe. Anyone out of college, if you’re not looking at Larry, you don’t have a good brain.”

A large mural of Larry Fine appears on a wall at the busy intersection of 3rd and South Streets, near his birthplace in Philadelphia. The effort to create a mural on that site began when a local weekly newspaper suggested that the city should somehow honor Fine. Dedicated on October 26, 1999, with Fine's sister in attendance, that mural showed Larry with a peculiar look on his face. In May 2006, a similar mural showing Larry with a more animated expression and playing a violin was painted over the original mural. This mural stands over Jon's Bar and Grill and a sign reads "Birthplace of Larry Fine."

On October 15, 2009, the Associated Alumni of Central High School in Philadelphia inducted Larry Fine in the illustrious school's Hall of Fame, even though he never graduated. A member of the Central Alumni Hall of Fame Committee stated: "Many people are not even aware that Mr. Fine was a Philadelphian and that is a part of what we’re trying to do."

In the real world, Larry Fine may have passed away in 1975, and in Toobworld as well. But over in Skitlandia, "the middle Stooge" lived well into the early 1990's and apparently was retired from military service......

Here's a tip of the hat to you, Larry......

BCnU!

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TIDDLYWINKYDINKS: MARIE OF ROMANIA

Russell:

“Tell me what you are.”
Sookie:

“I’m a waitress.”
Russell:

“Yes, and I am Marie of Romania.”

'TRUE BLOOD'

I haven't done an official "Tiddlywinkydink" in a while....

Marie of Romania

Marie of Romania (Marie Alexandra Victoria, previously Princess Marie of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875–18 July 1938) was a British Princess by birth and Romanian Queen by marriage.

In 1918, writing for The Century, William T. Ellis profiled this "Soldier Queen", as her nation prepared for war east and west.

In all the terrible days of last winter, when plague and death ravaged the remnant of Rumania, she visited the hospitals, going among the smitten ones, indifferent to infection. Always she rides about without an armed escort. Her laughing disdain of the anti­aircraft shrapnel which rained about us from the skies on the motor ride is of a piece with her complete disregard of all considerations of her personal safety.

Two days after my visit with the queen at the Regina Maria Hospital I went to the front-line trenches, though with endless difficulty, because the commanders did not want an American killed while their guest. It chanced that I saw the very trenches where a few days earlier her Majesty had approached to within fifteen yards of the Prussians, so that her companions conversed with them, without betraying, of course, the presence of visitors.

For a journalist the venture was right and proper, for it is in his day's work; but for the queen it was too grave a risk. The road by which she approached was under fire and torn by big shells. I found that she had gone not only into the first-line trench, but also out into the observation-posts. How constant is the peril was illustrated by the fact that when the Germans heard an officer and me talking, they exploded a hand-grenade to try to catch us. Yet on speaking to me of her visit to the front, the queen had mentioned only its interest, never its danger.

She was also referred to in a number of contemporaneous literary sources, including Dorothy Parker's poem "Comment":

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,

A medley of extemporanea;

And love is a thing that can never go wrong,

And I am Marie of Roumania.

Russell Edgington, the vampire king of Mississippi, must have known Marie during her lifetime. (Being over 3,000 years old, he probably knew the televersions of a lot of famous people.) Perhaps it was her transformation of Castle Bran, an ancestral home of Vlad Tepes, that drew his attention to her.....

BCnU!

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WNU-TOOB: TUNE IN TO MOREAU!

Huzzah!

Good news, everyone!

Toobworld Central finally has proof that the H.G. Wells character of Dr. Moreau (from "The Island Of Lost Souls") existed in the TV Universe! So there's another common character between the Toobworld Dynamic and the Wold Newton Universe.....

This past week on 'Warehouse 13', the woman who claims to be H.G. Wells (As far as Toobworld Central is concerned, she's not.) revealed that she once worked with Dr. Moreau on experiments involving amino acids. This knowledge ended up saving Claudia Donovan's life.

As such, we now have a splainin behind that portrait of Gomez Addams' former business partner as seen on 'The Addams Family': a giraffe wearing a business suit.

Of course, he had to be a silent partner - despite what they show you in the Tooniverse, giraffes have no voice boxes!

See? TV can help you learn something everyday!


BCnU!

PS:
And as a reminder, check out Win Scott Eckert's excellent website about the Wold Newton Universe. You'll find the link there to the left, manimals!

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JULY 14, 1861

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HENRY XII: SOME TIDDLEYWINKS & A BIT O' WISH-CRAFT

Another curio from the 'Doctor Who' episode "The Beast Below"......

Before revealing herself to be the Queen on board the Spaceship UK, "Liz 10" told the Doctor how she knew about him from his involvement with past members of her family:

"The Doctor: Old drinking buddy of Henry XII. Tea and scones with Liz Two… Vicky was a bit on the fence with you, wasn’t she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day! And so much for the Virgin Queen, you bad, bad boy!"

We've seen his involvement with Queen Victoria and he mentioned how he married Queen Elizabeth the First to Sigma Ood. As for Queen Elizabeth the Second, it's an easy assumption since she seemed familiar with him when he saved Buckingham Palace from the crash of the starship Titanic.

But like Elizabeth the Tenth, Henry the Twelfth is from sometime in the future of Toobworld. I'm hoping that we'll see his story told someday on the show.

However, it could be that Liz 10 was referring to somebody from her family's past....

From Wikipedia:
Henry the Lion (German: Heinrich der Löwe; 1129 – 6 August 1195) was a member of the Welf dynasty and Duke of Saxony, as Henry III, from 1142, and Duke of Bavaria, as Henry XII, from 1156, which duchies he held until 1180.

He was one of the most powerful German princes of his time, until the rival Hohenstaufen dynasty succeeded in isolating him and eventually deprived him of his duchies of Bavaria and Saxony during the reign of his cousin Frederick I and of Frederick's son and successor Henry VI.

At the height of his reign, Henry ruled over a vast territory stretching from the coast of the North and Baltic Seas to the Alps, and from Westphalia to Pomerania.

In 1168 Henry married Matilda (1156 -1189), the daughter of Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and sister of Richard Lionheart.

He was exiled from Germany in 1182 for three years, stayed with his father-in-law, Henry II of England, in Normandy before being allowed back into Germany in 1185. He was exiled again in 1188. His wife Matilda died in 1189.

So Henry the XII referred to by Liz 10 might not have been a British monarch at all, but instead a German prince who was an in-law.....

Personally I'm still hoping it's somebody from the future. And as a bit o' Wish-Craft, I'd even sacrifice one of my suggestions for casting a future Doctor to play the role: James Buckley, better known to you Wankers as Jay from 'The Inbetweeners'. I think it would be perfect - Buckley and Matt Smith are close in age, with Buckley only four years younger. I could see him being one of those "boy-kings", reckless and immature, and out for a good time, with the Doctor tagging along at some point to keep him out of trouble. And it could take place in one of those near-futures, maybe from around the era of 'Star Trek', so that they'd still be on Earth but everything would feel... well, futuristic. Or here's another casting suggestion: Bradley James. Same arguments in his defense as those raised for James Buckley, with the added benefit that it might suggest a genetic link all the way back to King Arthur of the 'Camelot legends (as seen in 'Merlin'). Toobworld Central has already decreed that 'Merlin' takes place in an alternate TV dimension, but there's nothing that says Arthur Pendragon of the main Toobworld didn't look like that as a young man.....

That would be my hope anyway.....

BCnU!

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TELE-QUICKIE: FRONTIER FREUD

In "A Slow Fade To Black", movie mogul Mike Kirsch rails against the psychological Westerns that were being made at the time, in which the cowboys were "mental patients talking about Freud".

This might be a reference to the movies made by Anthony Mann and Budd Boettlicher, among others. Some movies that might fit the bill were "The Left-Handed Gun", "Invitation To A Gunfighter", and modern Westerns like "The Misfits", "Hud", and "Lonely Are The Brave".

All of these have proven to be classics, which shows how out of step Kirsch had become with the times.....

BCnU!

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