Monthly Archives: May 2011

Down Mexico Way

The Three Caballeros is another Disney animated feature I hadn’t seen before, although the Caballeros were in the middle of the swimming pool of the hotel where Beth and I stayed on our Walt Disney World honeymoon. This was basically … Continue reading

Posted in Cartoons, Revisiting Disney, VoVat Goes to the Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Rasta Row the Boat Ashore

In my series of religion posts, I’ve been examining different religions, explaining what I know about them and trying to find out more. I’m running out of major religions to cover, but here’s another one from the twentieth century: Rastafarianism. … Continue reading

Posted in Christianity, History, Middle East, Rastafarianism, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Duende-ling in Unbelief

If you’ve looked at the tracklist for the upcoming They Might Be Giants album, you might have noticed a song in the list called “They Might Be Duende.” I haven’t heard of this song being leaked yet, and a search … Continue reading

Posted in Characters, Chris Dulabone, Iberian, Music, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

You Know What I Blame This on the Downfall Of?

What with all the talk of Harold Camping, I suppose I’ve been neglecting our other favorite fundamentalist weirdo, Jack Chick. His new tract is actually a follow-up to his first tract, telling how things have actually gotten WORSE in the … Continue reading

Posted in Cartoons, Catholicism, Christianity, Comics, Fundamentalism, Islam, Jack Chick, Religion, Television | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Leading with the Chinny-Chin-Chin

The earliest written versions of “The Three Little Pigs” date back to Britain in the 1840s. It’s thought that the tale is sort of an updated version of “The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids,” in which the wolf tricks … Continue reading

Posted in Cartoons, Fairy Tales | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Let’s Make Some Magic

High Wizardry, by Diane Duane – The third book in the Young Wizards series finds Nita’s brainy sister Dairine becoming a wizard, transporting herself across galaxies, and creating life with help from a computer. As the book was written in … Continue reading

Posted in Book Reviews, Fairy Tales, Mythology | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Too Many Endors

Watching Family Guy’s parody of Return of the Jedi (which I said a little bit about in this LiveJournal post) made me think about the name Endor, home of the Ewoks. Well, actually, Endor is a gas giant, and the … Continue reading

Posted in Christianity, Dragon Quest, Fundamentalism, History, Judaism, Middle East, Religion, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

I Heard It Through the Bovine

I’ve occasionally come across trivia contests in which one of the questions is about the name of Dorothy’s cow. The answer is Imogene, although I’m not sure whether that’s pronounced with a short or long I. She didn’t appear in … Continue reading

Posted in Animals, Characters, Eric Shanower, Fred Otto, John R. Neill, L. Frank Baum, Onyx Madden/Jim Nitch, Oz, Oz Authors | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

King, King, Double King!

Since I discussed chess last week, I figure it would be sensible to make the jump (pun intended) to Checkers, or Draughts as the British call it. While I’m sure I must have played checkers in my youth, and it’s … Continue reading

Posted in Alquerque, Board Games, Checkers, Games, History, Middle East, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Baha’i Times

It’s not uncommon for one religion to use another as a jumping-off point, as Christianity did with Judaism and Islam did with both of those. The Baha’i Faith, founded in the nineteenth century, continues with this tradition, having developed from … Continue reading

Posted in Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment