Corona Virus and Rabbititis

Just a cartoon to pass the time away while you're sheltered at home.    You'll see why I picked this one about half the way through...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6mk4fb

Happy New Year 2020

Happy New Year 2020!   My new year's resolution is to spend some time on this blog again.   To celebrate, here's an oddity - a Popeye cartoon without any violence!  From 1938, here's a clip from Let's Celebrake with Popeye, Bluto and Olive.   Be sure to search out the whole cartoon on DailyMotion!

Don't Go A Wafer Too Long!

I've mentioned this on this blog before, but it's time to mention it again:   Any food I like will not be around long.   It's a special curse that I endure, punishment for some past transgression that I can't recall.  Maybe it was pulling the "Do Not Remove" tag from my couch; maybe it was not washing my hands before leaving a restroom (I was just in there to comb my hair, I swear) but this curse has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, leaving a path of discontinued food products in its wake.   Quisp cereal, Delaware Punch, Fizzers candy, Chocolate Zingers and Mother's Raisin cookies are among the products I can no longer find (or find very hard to obtain).  And now, I find the curse has reached back to victimize a product over 100 years old.   I refer, of course, to Necco Wafers.

 

 Necco Wafers were founded in 1847 by Oliver Chase, who invented the first automated machine to produce lozenges for medicinal purposes. He eventually discovered the machine could also produce lozenge-sized candy wafers, which became the top product of the New England Confectionery Company, abbreviated NECCO.  The wafers became extremely popular in the intervening years due to their durability.   Admiral Byrd brought over two tons of wafers with him on a two year expedition to the Antarctic. During World War Two, the US government bought Necco Wafers to send to the troops oversees.   They found that the candy would not melt or break while being shipped overseas.  The soldiers returning from WWII eventually became a fan base that continued for many years.

In recent years, the company has experimented with the product, with some success and some misses.  Lime flavor wafers were eliminated, and a move to more natural flavors and colors was among the missteps.  The company has since returned to the original formulations.

Necco wafers is one of those candies that fall in the same group as Candy Corn - some people love them, while a large population find them revolting.   Many people feel Necco wafers taste like colored chalk, while others call them "Plaster Surprise."  Personally, I have always had a fondness for Necco Wafers, although I avoid the clove, cinnamon, licorice and wintergreen flavors.  (May I also add that I find Candy Corn revolting.  No room for debate there)

I recently discovered that NECCO produces Tropical Necco Wafers.   This pack, introduced in 2012, contains mango, passion fruit, banana, strawberry, coconut and the long-missed lime wafers.  I found these to be an exceptional treat, and will eat all the flavors except coconut.  I have been buying several packs of these whenever I find them.  Of course, I should have seen it coming...   They won't be around long.

According to this article, the NECCO company may close within the next 30 days if a buyer cannot be found.  This would mean the layoff of almost 400 employees, plus an end to the Necco wafers we all know and some of us love.  Not a Necco Wafer fan?   Well, maybe you'll be more interested to learn about another candy that NECCO started producing in 1902, and since that time has become a holiday institution.  But more on that next week.

Currently, the public at large is reacting as we would expect - they are panicking.  Retailers are reporting a huge spike in sales for Necco Wafers.   Not wanting to be left out, I am off to find some Necco Tropical wafers.  I will place them in the underground bunker where I store cases of Quisp cereal, Screaming Yellow Zonkers, Swenson's Ice Cream, Ramblin' Root Beer and other products that have been the victim of my special curse.  Tune in next week to learn about the OTHER candy that you are going to want to start buying.   Like them or not, it will be a tradition you'll be sorry to lose...

Another presidential option

Hmmm...   It looks like we have another presidential candidate who is not well-read on the US Constitution.  Check out the cartoon below:

Today's Un-PC Post

Now HERE is a product I doubt you will ever see again. 

I never saw these Hanna-Barbara characters smoking on their actual TV shows.   However, I think everyone has seen this famous clip of other Hanna-Barbera characters "lighting up."



Check out another instance of un-PC activity on the Flintstones (and there were several) by following this link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6TI2dkk2MA

Saturday Morning Cartoon - Happy Halloween 2015!

Happy Halloween!   As is my usual custom every year, I am posting a Halloween-themed cartoon.  This year you're getting "The Monster Rally" a Tom Slick cartoon from 1967.  Tom Slick was a part of the George of the Jungle cartoon show which ran on ABC for a year, and in reruns forever after.

George of the Jungle was produced by Jay Ward, the man behind Rocky and Bullwinkle.  Unlike Rocky which was animated mostly in Mexico, Ward had George of the Jungle animated entirely in the United States, with several veteran animators and directors working on the cartoons.  The results were great, but the show ran over-budget and lost money for the Ward studio.   It was the last TV series Ward would produce.

Enjoy The Monster Rally!

Bugs Bunny - the Rare and Unusual

Bugs Bunny celebrated his 75th birthday last month, and I celebrated the occassion by posting my choice for top ten Bugs Bunny cartoons of all time.   Now, here's a posting listing some of Bugs' most rare, most unusual, and most unseen appearances.   We'll start with a 1942 film commissioned by the US Treasury.   America had just entered World war II and the treasury was using all the Hollywood stars to promote the sale of US Savings Bonds, so why not Bugs Bunny?  The short film features Bugs Bunny singing an Irving Berlin number, "Any Bonds Today?" and includes a short sequence of Bugs imitating Al Jolson.



Warner Bros. was not above using Bugs Bunny as a cameo in other shorts...  one of my favorites occurs in Porky Pig's Feat, which I posted on my blog HERE.  But Bugs made appearances in other places as weel.  During World War II, Warners Bros. produced a series of cartoons for the armed forces that starred a less-than-perfect soldier named Private SNAFU.  Snafu usually demonstaretd the wrong way to do things and was a big hit at the Army camps.  The cartoons were never meant for public viewings but have recently been showing up on Youtube and in DVD sets.  Here is a typical entry, GAS, with a short cameo by Bugs Bunny.



Bugs was so popular, he could even make a cameo in cartoons made by other studios.  In 1944, Paramount released a stop-motion cartoon by George Pal, Jasper Goes Hunting.  Take a look at who joins the film briefly at the 4:40 mark (and sorry for the poor condition of the clip)



Bugs Bunny - (Ep. 36) - Jasper Goes Hunting 2015 by serijedomace04

Bugs Bunny also appeared in a couple of live-action features for Warner Bros..   In the 1949 Doris Day comedy My Dream is Yours, Bugs gets a full song and dance routine along with Day and Jack Carson.  Friz Freleng directed the animation.




Next time, we'll hit a few other rare appearances of Bugs, including one of his several appearances at the Academy Awards!   Stay tuned!