The Geekorium

You know your daughter watches too much recorded Play School when, instead of singing ABCD-FOG¹, she sings ABC-for-kids-on-2. And I can hear it in my head as she does it.

The ABC might not have advertising, but its sure got some catchy jingles.

If they don’t dance…

I got sick of futzing with tumblr’s idea of what size a gif should be. I was thinking “Oh, aren’t all these animated gifs cute,¹ that’d be easy to do…” But then I actually tried to post one, and realised that it really only wants you to post about 3 frames about the size of a postage stamp and where’s the fun in that?

So here’s my sister dancing with my bub - because I was practicing, and I love my sister and my bub and decided it needed posting somewhere.

As much as I miss the genius of Jim Henson, I realised the other day that I will miss something else just as much as Jim’s Muppet characters. I will miss the insane and brilliant pieces of comedy gold he used to create with Frank Oz.

Frank Oz is nowadays probably best known for being the voice of Yoda, but he’s also a respected and talented film director. He’s still entertaining, long after Jim Henson’s death and I hope he continues to do so for a long time to come.

But what the world has lost since Jim’s death is not only a talented puppeteer and performer, but some classic comedic pairings of his characters with those of Frank Oz. I cry a little inside when I realise that there will be nothing new created by these two fabulous men working together.

Let me give you some examples. First up the most obvious pair:

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This is the only video in this collection that I’ll forgive you for not watching in full. It’s a scene from my least favourite of the Muppet movies (Muppets take Manhattan¹) showing the “wedding” between Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog, probably the most memorable Muppet pairing of all time (even if it’s not one of my favourites). Though an unlikely pair, Jim and Frank made the pig’s flamboyant declarations of love and the frog’s seeming indifference oddly engaging and has created a love affair that is still going strong.

The next classic pair were Kermit and Fozzie Bear:

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As well as some terrific running gags throughout the Muppet Show, this odd couple were the backbone of the first two major Muppet movies - as travelling companions in the first and as brothers² in the Great Muppet Caper³. I think their relationship is part of what made Muppet Treasure Island feel like old-school Muppets.

Rowlf and Fozzie:

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These guys had some great musical moments together (check out I got rhythm on YouTube for another classic bit). Frank rarely got to show off his musical talent, playing the fool in a lot of songs or singing shrilly in his Miss Piggy voice. It made for some great comedy moments though.

Sam the American Eagle and Rowlf:

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Sam is one of the most hilarious characters to come from the Muppets, and can instantly make any other character funnier, just by being the worlds most over the top straight man. Once again, it’s almost like Frank is playing up a lack of musical talent, and it’s brilliant.

Moving briefly to some Sesame Street pairings, and the most obvious (and maybe even more famous than any of the above) is the classic duo of Bert and Ernie. With Jim playing the prankster and Frank the straight man, there was no situation too simple to be made into a hilarious farce - and even kids could get it.

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I’m just not emotionally secure enough to do this Ernie.

And some rarer but no less fantastic pairings came when Kermit⁴ ran into the Cookie Monster:

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or Grover:

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These two men made comedic character pairings to rival some of the greatest in history: think Laurel & Hardy, Abbot and Costello, Aykroyd and Belushi, French and Saunders, Fry and Laurie, The Mighty Boosh, or Lano and Woodley.⁵ All things must come to an end I guess. The loss of Jim Henson alone was a dreadful blow, but the loss of the joyful playful scenes that these two men could create together make the loss that much harder to accept.

Of course I don’t mean to detract from the other brilliant pairings that the Muppet show produced. Statler and Waldorf come to mind as another well known pair (voiced by Jim and both Jerry Nelson and Richard Hunt). Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker are the other two that spring to mind. Their sketches are just as fun, but I believe that Jim and Frank had a spark of something greater in their performances.

I’ll leave you with one other pair that might be less obvious, but is one of the defining partnerships of the Muppet Show - and is firmly entrenched in public consciousness. The pairing of Jim Henson’s head and characteristic voice, and Frank Oz’s out-of-control hands for the Swedish Chef:

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As I hit publish on my last silly post, I realised I could use the same template for a number of things. Namely:

My wife is . She . When I and it dawned on me **, I wanted to marry her all over again.

Thus:

My wife is amazing. She carried and gave birth to my daughter Amelynne. When I first saw my little girl and it dawned on me that I now have my own clone, I wanted to marry her all over again.

See how that works?

That is a pure Twitter-bait title. I have no clue how to make my baby girl sleep except through time and patience. But I needed a hook to get you here, cause I just wanted to tell you about my baby girl.

I don’t normally use this blog for very personal stuff any more, unless it’s tech related or stuff I find on the ’net. But I have in the past and I choose to today. Pray indulge me a little.

Amelynne Grace was born 13 months ago today. My first child. A gorgeously round chubby little thing with light brown hair and her mothers eyes. We get comments all the time about how lovely she is, how much she looks like me. I’m not sure if people are being polite (and really, who would want to look like me), but I see the most beautiful thing in the world when I look at her.

Just-born babies are supposed to be at the peak of cuteness [^evolution], but this one just keeps getting cuter by the day. Maybe parents see it best in their own children because a relaxed and happy playing child is one of the most joyful things you will ever see, and they’re most relaxed around their own parents. If you’ve looked at my Flickr stream, there’s no shortage of pics of her. But they’re a tiny percentage of the actual photos I’ve taken and will not share with all and sundry[^thank]. I keep taking them because each day her smile gets cheekier, her eyes get sparklier, and her wonder at the world more and more obvious.

She walks now. Not a full walk mind you, but a shuffling along the wall or a couch. She’s figured out that dropping to her butt and crawling will get her anywhere she can’t hold on to something. She’s unstoppable.

On the other hand she’s calm and patient and gentle. We were worried going into pregnancy that Mil’s illness would make a super-active baby a nightmare to look after. It was a risk that paid off well for us. Whilst somewhat clingy at times, she plays happily by herself a lot and asserts an independence that has made Mil’s job somewhat easier.

That’s not to say she’s not difficult sometimes though. Despite my title, we’re still struggling to put her to sleep reliably and easily. But even in that she astounds us regularly when she does put herself to sleep easily. You can just tell she wants to do it herself and it’s very gratifying.

She still only has one tooth. The others are almost there, but refuse to come out. But even that has just managed to make her look cuter.

And every day I ask myself how can she get cuter?

And every day she does.

Do you see? Do you see what I mean?

So I just wanted to share that. Wanted to share that I have a baby girl who brings me more joy than I ever thought possible. It’s clichéd, but the honest truth. And to those of you who understand that, I hope for all the best for you and your children. To everyone else, I thank you for sitting through my little gush and promise it won’t be like this around here all the time.

Thank you for reading. Share about your own families in the comments below.

[^evolution]:it’s an evolutionary thing, look it up [^thank]:You can thank me later

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Manbabies - watch more funny videos

Found at ManBabies - scary but hilarious.

People keep saying that Amelynne looks like me. I don’t see it. Do you?

She’s still cute though right?

And one of me for reference:

She looks like this? Poor thing!

the weekend, originally uploaded by littlelakey. All rights reserved by the owner (who is not josh nunn).

This puppy looks like mine - and he looks so happy! I found this image through Things Look Like Things and immediately showed it to Mil. I don’t know if littlelakey used any tricks to get this shot, but I don’t care cause I think it’s gorgeous.