I read today that Bobby Kennedy Jr. filed for a divorce from his wife Mary.
That’s too bad. They seemed like such a nice couple…when I met them.
Yeah, you read it right. I met Bobby and Mary Kennedy. They sat next to me on a flight from Denver to Aspen. We were all en route to the 2nd Annual US Comedy Arts Festival. I was on a research trip for Hallmark Cards; Bobby was going to introduce Garry Trudeau, his good friend and creator of the “Doonesbury” comic strip, who was being honored at the festival.
The small jet had no first class; that’s why they were seated next to me. I recognized them immediately when they boarded just moments before take-off — my mother loved the Kennedys like most Catholics of her generation — but I kept my mouth shut.
They were very friendly, though, and chatted with me during the short flight. When they realized I was going to the festival as well, they mentioned their friend Garry — by first name only — and said ‘perhaps they’d see me there.’
It was a great story to share with my co-workers, who were seated elsewhere on the plane.
I attended the Doonesbury retrospective and only made the ‘Kennedy connection’ when Bobby stepped up to the podium to introduce ‘his friend Garry.’ After the event was over, attendees were invited to a gallery next door exhibiting framed “Doonesbury” cartoons.
As I was milling around with my co-workers, I suddenly heard shouts of “Carla! Carla!”
There across the room were Mary and Bobby Kennedy, smiling and waving. Garry Trudeau stood at their side.
The rest of the evening was kind of a rock star moment for me. I got to hang with the Kennedys for a little while. I met Garry Trudeau, whose comic strips explained the entire Watergate phenomenon to me as a child…and I was able to get his autograph for my brother Kent.
And best of all? The look on my co-workers’ faces.
Priceless.
Catty, or not
Unless you have been avoiding social media, you have no doubt heard the shocking revelation from Sanrio that Hello Kitty is, in fact not a kitty:
“Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”
How many little girl characters sport whiskers? If they have a hormonal imbalance, maybe…but that’s not the stuff of your typical cutesy cartoon world.
But instead, let’s focus on the bigger question —
WHY?
Why pick now to drop this bomb? It has been 40 years since this very pink, very catty property was introduced — why pick now to draw this line in the litter box?
If this distinction mattered that much to Sanrio and to its legion of crazy cat lasses and ladies, they should have made it abundantly clear four decades ago.
Meow.
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Posted in Animals, Children, Comics, Commentary, Design, Entertainment, Humor, Life, News
Tagged animals, cartoon character, cartoon property, cartoon world, cartoons, cats, catty, Charmmy Kitty, children, comics, commentary, crazy cat ladies, design, drop the bomb, entertainment, Hello Kitty, hormonal imbalance, Humor, life, little girl, meow, news, Sanrio, social media, whiskers