Maglie of Mound Fame

Where my knowledge of trivia began

I recently received a crossword puzzle magazine in the mail. I love doing puzzles and I quickly jumped into this publication with relish. It wasn’t long until I found myself thinking about the many times lately when I’ve said something humorous in the presence of my grandchildren and been met by blank stares. Come to think of it, it’s not just my grandchildren who have no idea what I’m talking about; and it’s not just my attempts at humor. Most people twenty or so years younger than me have no knowledge of the trivia of my life.

For example, last week I mentioned that I once had a friend who was very much like Joe Btfsplk. Recognizing that I probably mispronounced Joe’s last name, I quickly added, “He was the little guy who always had the storm cloud over his head.”

Blank stares from all but one or two people in my presence. I had to explain further, “He was one of the characters in Li’l Abner… the Al Capp comic strip.” At that point, I realized that, even though we had just gone through an important election, mentioning Senator Phogbound’s name would get me nowhere.

Li’l Abner left the daily newspapers in 1977. I have to remind myself that most people younger than thirty-five have never seen anything to do with Al Capp’s Dogpatch.

Does anyone anywhere still celebrate Sadie Hawkins Day?

So what does Pansy Yokum have to do with a crossword puzzle magazine? Nothing more than the name of Desi’s daughter, Mindy’s TV roommate, Philo of whodunits, Warbucks’ ward, a 1984 dictator, J.R.’s mom, the actress who played Miss Kitty, a Princess Phone feature, the patriarch of the McCoy family, Imogene’s partner, TV panelist Francis, Burr’s TV crime fighter, DDE’s opponent, Robert of “I Spy”, Mountie Do-Right, Slaughter or Cabell, Bucky Beaver’s brand, Sapphire and Lightning’s radio and TV show, Vaudeville super-star Al, Kuklapolitans, and Will Rogers’ prop. And the list goes on.

Every puzzle in that magazine had at least one entry that would be extremely difficult for a young solver. I’ve often run into puzzles that throw in extremely obscure words or foreign phrases, but I’ve never seen so much absolute trivia.

At the same time, I’m loving that magazine because it’s bringing back so many memories.

It’s been years since I’ve given any thought to Captain Video and the Video Ranger, Howdy Doody, Buffalo Bob, Clarabell, Princess Summerfallwinterspring, Phynias T. Bluster, Flub-a-dub, Bobby Orr, Otto Graham, Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, Bruce Jenner, Ara Parseghian, Lech Walesa, Mario Lanza, Emma Peel of the Avengers, Maxwell Smart, Hedda Hopper, Erma Bombeck, DeSotos, Lonesome George, Uncle Miltie, Mamie’s predecessor, Walt Frazier, James Arness, Chester (Dennis Weaver), and Xavier Cugat’s wives.

Anyone who has recognized all the people and events I’ve mentioned so far is either somewhere around my age, or a great fan of meaningless information. Perhaps this will generate some comments and we can all remind each other of many other trivial items. In the meantime, I’m going to fill my jug with some Kickapoo joy juice and work another puzzle.

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By the way, let’s all take the time to thank our fellow citizens who have served, or are currently serving, to protect our rights as Americans. Today may be a bit special – Veterans Day – but we shouldn’t wait to say “Thanks” only once a year. We thank them every day!

The Funny Pages – Gone but not Forgotten

Yesterday I wrote about the pollution of my childhood and how the U.S. has done such a great job of cleaning our air and water.

This morning I received an email that reminded me of some other things from my childhood that have quietly slipped away… the comic strips I eagerly awaited every Sunday morning.

I recall a story about a former mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, who read the Sunday funnies over the radio during a newspaper delivery strike in 1945. I’ve searched the Internet for supporting evidence to the story I heard many years ago, but could not find direct evidence.

Thus, I cannot attest to the truth. However, it does sound reasonable that a man would read the funnies at the end of his weekly radio address. Then, believing his microphone was no longer turned on, say something like, “That should hold the little (expletive deleted) for another week.”

In Pittsburgh we didn’t have a mayor to read the funnies to us. So we took turns reading them to ourselves. Fortunately, when my closest brother and I were at the age of fighting over things, there were two sections of comics. We’d each take one, read it, and then swap.

Now that I think about it, I believe we had two Sunday papers delivered to our home – the Pittsburgh Press and the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph. That might explain the separate sections.

Some of the comic strips we read are still around today, but I’m going to concentrate on the ones that are long gone.

The one that was mentioned in that email I received was “Smokey Stover” who was a fireman noted for saying nonsensical things. The fun of that strip was looking for the minor details. The artist would label various items in humorous ways making the story line simply one part of the total humor.

“Gasoline Alley” was somewhat similar, but my memory isn’t good enough to support my thoughts.

There were two strips that made fun of hillbillies. I can’t say for sure which was more popular, but there was a stage play (and perhaps a movie) based on “Lil’ Abner”. Al Capp, the creator of Abner Yokum, Pappy and Mammy (Pansie) Yokum, Daisy Mae, Sadie Hawkins, Marrying Sam, and the other denizens of  Dogpatch, may have gotten bored drawing the same characters week after week. At times he’d take us into the daydreams of Lil’ Abner and we’d follow the adventures of Fearless Fosdick. At other times, he’d bring in the Schmoos who would be whatever humans wanted them to be.

As I recall, Abner usually saw them as country hams or pork chops.

The other parody on hillbillies was Snuffy Smith and his family. Snuffy usually had a jug of white lightning and was more than open to the idea of his wife doing all the chores.

“Priscilla’s Pop” was the only man I ever heard of who took mashed potato sandwiches in his lunch every day. It seems that family was always looking for ways to save money and Priscilla was always finding ways for that money to be spent… paying for the damages she’d done.

There were a number of other characters that seem to have faded away. “Little Lulu”, “Little Iodine”, “Henry”, and “The Little King” are all but forgotten as are “The Katzenjammer Kids” and “Felix the Cat”.

All of the comic strips mentioned so far were meant to be funny. However, there was another group that were designed to be dramatic. I think of them as the soap operas of the newspapers.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a complete Sunday comics section. Some of these might still be in existence.

“Brenda Starr”, “Terry and the Pirates”, “Smiling Jack”, “Prince Valiant”, “The Phantom” and “Dick Tracy”. If I’m not mistaken, Fearless Fosdick was a take-off of Dick Tracy.

There was one strip that was destined to die from its inception – which means it’s probably still running in some papers. “Dondi” was about a little boy who was orphaned during World War II and adopted by an American GI. If the creator of the strip allowed the boy to age, he’d be collecting Social Security by now and probably no longer be seen as a cute little boy in an over-sized Army uniform.

I’m sure I’ve overlooked some other old time comic strips. If I skipped your favorite, use the comments link below to tell me about it. I enjoy being reminded of those relics of my childhood.