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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.