Of Mondegreens and Dogs Turned Reindeer

Olive, the Other Reindeer

by Vivian Walsh and J. Otto Siebold

1997

It's this time of the year when Booksale gets their Christmas-themed children's books out, having previously displayed the Halloween books as early as September. 

Normally, kids' books that have anything to do with Christmas make me cringe; especially when Santa Claus is rendered life-like, rosy cheeks, and beard, and all.  (The Coca-Cola Santa is okay though.)  As a kid I was spared from the lie about Santa, so I didn't really care about him, not that it would have mattered since our house had no chimneys anyway.  I grew up knowing Santa only from the cartoons, and that's good enough for me.

Also, I went to a Catholic grade school, which bombarded us with Bible stories, including the Jesus' birth, on a regular basis.  I knew them by heart, I think.  So all those children's books about the Nativity and the Three Wise Men and Jesus on a manger, yawn.

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Then a nice non-sappy book such as Olive, the Other Reindeer comes along.  Still Christmassy in spirit, but this time the story revolves around a dog Olive.  Who mishears the lyrics of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and thinks the line "...All of the other reindeer..." is really "...Olive, the other reindeer..."  Which promptly sends her on a journey to the North Pole to report to Santa Claus.  Yes, it's a Christmas book about how a harmless mondegreen could put ideas to anyone's head, dogs included.

In Olive, the Other Reindeer, the story-telling is brisk, the events hilarious, and the ending is well-wrapped-up (Everyone went outside to play reindeer games).  There's even a moral or two for the reader. 

Of course, this won't be a kid's book without the pictures, and this is where J. Otto Siebold's charming PC-made illustrations come in: jelly-bean colored, glossy,  elaborate, and cartoonish, which remind me of art class when we'd cut out shapes from construction paper and paste them together, but this time it's seamless and better.  Which is like saying every page is eye-candy.  Perfect for reading to a kid.  Or a grownup.

And because Santa in Olive, the Other Reindeer, isn't too jolly-looking that I start craving for ennui, I like it.

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Incidentally, there was an animated short by Matt Groening based on the book, with Drew Barreymore as Olive.

So A-mazed

Once in a while McDonald’s comes out with a really ingenious not-just-based-on-some-movie toy for its Happy Meal.  This one here is a Feed the Monkey Maze.  In the tradition of the classic steel ball inside a maze, you maneuver said ball without falling into the holes.  You’d think it’s such an easy feat considering there are only four holes, but wait till you get your hands on it.

And unlike our old-school petty mazes inside our plastic rulers, this time there are sound effects (for as long as the built-in battery holds out I guess).

When you successfully get that ball down the monkey’s mouth, you’ll hear a sound, like a monkey’s truncated belch, perhaps.  Other times, but very rare, it’s longer and more cheery, a la pinball machine triumph.  I’ve always thought it was just factory defect, the arbitrariness of that metallic jingle until I read the instructions: 7 consecutive drops down the monkey’s mouth and the special sound plays.

For sheer digital fun though, there’s Labyrinth Lite available in the Android Apps Market, which has you tilting your phone this way and that.  The steel ball’s behavior is so realistic you’d think it was the real thing.  Only downer is that just ten levels are free in the trial version, which feels awful short.  If you think you’re really, really hooked, you can buy the full version which has over 1,000 levels and which also, in the tradition of Battle City (of the Famicom-era), lets you invent your own obstacle courses for your steel ball.

Also see Perplexus.

Who would have thought such a simple concept of a steel ball inside a maze could still be improved on?

Now that Steve Jobs Has Passed Away...

...we will forever be indebted to the many ingenious ways he had changed technology and brought it to a more personal level for all of us in the world.  


Here's a Simpsons episode parodying Apple entitled MyPod and Broomsticks.  First aired on November 2008, it's not exactly a tribute of sorts, more like a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the consumptive nature of iPod buyers and the tens of billions Apple/Mapple must be making out of all of us.  I think it's still an episode Steve Jobs would  have approved of.






And later when Lisa accrues way too much bill for her song downloads, she travels to the bottom of the ocean in a submarine to meet Steve Jobs himself in his signature black semi-turtleneck sweater.  Yes, just to underline Apple's tradition of secrecy prior to unveiling its latest innovation, Mapple's headquarters is located deep in the ocean, and can be accessed by plugging into its USB slot. 

In all of these, thank you, Mr. Steve Jobs.

Woolly Pointlessly Meets Garfield

--Hi!  I'm a woolly mammoth.  Er, I've always wanted to ask you this: how come you only talk using thought bubbles?

--Oh that.  Part of me and Jon's excellent repartee.  The human yaks, I simply ooze a sarcastic thought.

--Are you oozing one now?  Cause I can't hear you?


  

Now that they've closed the pirated DVD shops in Quiapo

It's September, so if Mayor Lim's ultimatum last July to the DVD vendors in Quaipo is to be believed and taken seriously, no more selling of pirated DVDs should be taking place there anymore.


The last time I was in the area was March, my sister was taking the LET exams, and while I was waiting for her to be done I had taken to browsing the thousands of DVD titles they had there.  Watching those guys in each stalll sit in front of their TVs with various movies being played on their DVDs, I felt envious because they watch way more movies in a day than I was able to sit through during my so-called film school years.


They have new special metal cases for the DVDs, slim and sleek, and again, metallic, unlike the usual cardboard packagings and the sordid black plastic cases.  These days, I have no more illusions about foreign arthouse films that everyone seems to be rummaging for.  This time I'm digging the oldies.  No, not from the 50's, but something I saw when I was a kid, i.e. Back to the Future.  The three volume set sells for PhP 180, which is reasonable, but for some reason, I didn't fold, I didn't put my wallet out, I just went back to pick my sister up, and told myself there's always another time.  Quiapo will always be there.

Though that's not the case anymore, what with Mayor Lim finally hardening on the movie pirates once and for all.  Because Manila's image is once again tarnished, reputed to be among the top places in the country where rampant selling of pirated goods (from fake designer bags to fake Kindles) takes place.  So it looks like I won't be able to get myself a copy of Back to the Future once and for all.  Too bad because Edge still hasn't seen it, nor my sister.  And because I would have wanted to see it again because I was too young to remember, and the Channel 2 doesn't air the movie anymore like it used to.


The "future" in the film is set in 2015, about three more years to go.  When I come to think of it, watching that film when I was a kid, all I remember is McFly's self-lacing shoes, his hovering skateboard, and Dr. Brown's battered automobile of a time machine, and of course, even then as a kid, a vague awareness of the implications of interfering with the meeting of one's future parents, and the paradox it presents.  I don't remember much, but what I get is this: now is already the future, it's upon me all of a sudden, and I'm glad I already know who I want to spend the rest of my life with.


Yes, this blog post ends in a cheesy note :)

* * *

P.S.  Will go to Quaipo tomorrow and see if there's any piracy still going on.  Fingers crossed.


P.P.S.  And oh, Marty McFly's Air Mags with the power laces, well after much petitioning from fans, Nike has those now, reverse-engineered to resemble the original pair worn by Michael J. Fox as exactly as possible, though not the power lace. The proceeds for the auction of the 1,500 pairs (at nikemag.ebay.com) will be donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Alternative Use of Play-Doh

From The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror XVII


At 13:25, Marge has an alternative use for Play-Doh, though with annoying Fran Drescher nasal voice results.  Though, of course, don't just scoot over to 13:25, this is the Simpsons, watch the whole damn thing. :)

Oh The Iron of It All

Tired of those plastic action figures and their comic book/anime origins?  



Try this one for a change: all the way from Baguio, a badass hunter of indeterminate superhero league or whatsoever affiliation.  Possibly he has a tribe, because in the store there are groups of them, but each of them could be operating solo.


This little hunter here is made of ironwood.  If you'll notice, he's got the string of the bow all taut with minimal effort, the string even magically stretching without him touching it yet.  


Anyway, this sculptural error can be forgiven as Edge was able to get Mr. Hunter for just a little over 500 Pesos.  In Baguio, they sell the black wooden sculptures (which cost less because the wood is lighter), and the expensive brown ones made of ironwood.  We saw a pair that costs PhP 3,500--but Edge is not really a fan of men with giant schlongs and giant-breasted women.      


If you know how to haggle, you can really drive the price down, which is what we did to get this guy who otherwise would have probably cost PhP 800 to 900 elsewhere.  


Incidentally, the salesladies will tell you it's expensive because ironwood, being ironwood, is hard to carve.  As it turns out, ironwood is an umbrella term for woods all over the world that are, well... hard.  In the Philippines, kamagong and mangkono are considered ironwood, the latter being the hardest variety in the country.  


At Mines View Park (where we didn't find Mr. Hunter) I found a nice pair of arnis sticks made of kamagong, their weight very, very nice on my hands.  Just PhP 200.  But since I'm no longer in college and it's too late to take P.E. classes in arnis, and since I don't know, too, where I'm going to use them, I simply said Pass.