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07/16/2007: Summer Megaparty: Chief Pensive Vs. Pollution!

Woodsy Owl has fought against pollution ever since the early ’70s, but the war on litter is not a battle one owl can win alone. There have been innumerable public service ads reminding folks to put their trash in the proper receptacles, and for what amounts to a pretty simple and direct message, such PSAs sometimes took a pretty surreal approach in delivering it.

This one is a downright weird (and oft parodied) example. In it, a Native American in full traditional garb walks the busy streets of a bustling city, and he’s in no mood to impress you with tomahawk pantomimes or rain dance tutorials. Instead, Chief Pensive walks with purpose, dumbstruck by the total disregard we filthy Americans have for our own land.

After filling a burlap sack with discarded trash, our friend approaches the freeway to reflect upon the state of the nation as cars zip by. Then, in one of the most unintentionally hilarious moments in public service announcement history, a passenger in a speeding car throws what appears to be an entire bag of trash out the side window, which manages to fly all the way over to Chief Pensive and explode at his feet. And just to make sure the line between “fairly humorous” to “hysterical” is crossed, the Native American stares a hole through the camera lens, as we zoom in to reveal what would become television’s most dramatic teardrop from that point all the way up to when SinÃ©ad O’Connor would not and could not compare anything to you.

The PSA is obviously well-meaning, but looking at it through today’s PC eyes, you can’t help but wait for it to cut away from the crying Indian to the logo and 800 number for Geico. Click here to give it a look.

If I remember correctly, the actor that plays Chief Pensive isn’t even any fashion of indian.

I’m part Cherokee, and no one’s ever thrown trash at me. I stand on the side of the highway day after day, hoping, dreaming. I just keep getting arrested for hitchhiking. *sigh* Perhaps my problem is that I am only about 1/16th Cherokee?

Miguel - that’s the first thing my husband said upon seeing this commercial.

Mystie - it took me *forever* to figure out what the kids were saying in that song about the National Arbor Day Foundation. Like decades. Spreading the word across the nation about TREES!

I still have this on tape. My sister and I laughed about this commercial for years because the intro music is so funny. In fact I just IMed her and we’re both in tears, laughing. Good post.

I’m not someone who you would consider to be a “nature lover”, but I still cannot stand it to see people litter. I still get ticked off when I see people flick cigarette butts out of their car windows or toss some garbage on the ground when their is a garbage can withing twenty feet of them.

Basically I just think people should clean up after themselves. It is usually very easy to do.

If I remember correctly, the actor that plays Chief Pensive isn’t even any fashion of indian.

So I guess we’ve run out of 80s nostalgia and we’re going into the 70s now? I don’t mind it one bit (everything was even more cheesier)

And heeree, it’s always the 1/8ths putting all the 1/16ths down. It’s their reason why the 1/16ths haven’t been able to go far in this world, damnit!

The two ’70s ads in a row are pure coincidence. Not going to be much ’70s coverage on the site as it pertains to general pop culture, as I wasn’t around for it.

Can’t wait to hear the good news from Manimal, but I guess it could be a day or three.

This is another example of something I saw the PARODIES of before I saw the actual commercial…come to think of it, I also saw “Spaceballs” before Star Wars!

Just looking at the screenshots you posted is enough to keep me from watching the actual ad. Surely it’s too painfully cheesy to watch, especially since I agree with the sentiment. Littering is bad.

Now all I can think about is the “Cynthia used to drink Slurm” parody from Futurama.

I am 1/16th Cherokee too. Honestly. Or so my mother told me. If you look at pictures of my grandmother you can definitely see it. I’ve heard her mother didn’t even speak English.

One of my early childhood memories is of my dad, disgusted by a driver flicking his cigarette butt out his car window while waiting in traffic, getting out of the family car, walking over to the discarded butt and handing it to the suprised driver. I believe he said somthing to the effect of; “excuse me, I believe you dropped this.” Classic.

I canâ€™t describe how stoked I am that the Summer Megaparty entry that fell upon my 25th birthday features Captain Pensive.

I saw this on some show about old commercials or something. Trying to remember it is driving me nuts.

You forgot the best part: he apparently canoed into our modern day society from the Land that Time Forgot.
Happy birthday RtW!

Muppet Baby, I’m glad I’m not the only person who saw Spaceballs before Star Wars!

I distinctly remember seeing this commercial on Nick at Nite at some point in the 90s. It used to make me feel bad, but now I just think it’s silly.

Also, I have an off-topic question. I use Livejournal for my daily journaling needs, but if I were to, say, make a second blog that I intend to be shown to a larger audience, is there another service I should use? People don’t seem to take LJ seriously in the slightest, and I don’t want to turn readers away.

I’ve noticed that 95% of people who are Native American are Cherokee. I don’t know if it’s because of where I live, or if our mothers all just tell us that so we’ll feel like we belong.
Spaceballs rocks the house.

Yeah, I saw parodies of this before actually seeing the PSA, actually I think this is the fist time I have seen the whole thing? Count me in for seeing Spaceballs before Star Wars too.

Annette - I like blogspot for the wider audience needs. I’m not very far along in mine but I’ve noticed that a lot of the blogs I read are hosted there. What are you thinking of writing about? No pressure, just wondering.

I also saw Spaceballs before Star Wars, and somehow am also 1/16th Native American, though I have no idea what nation. It’s getting creepy in here.

I didn’t even know this WAS a PSA…I thought it was just in the ending of Waynes World, part the second. Huh. That changes things, doesn’t it?

Is this the first time you have seen this ad? I grew up thinking that Native Americans would cry if I threw trash out of the car. So I didn’t.
I also grew up thinking lesbians were Lybian terrorists. I’m glad I invested in a liberal education.

Well…uh, honestly, I was going to use it as a new home for all the retro-themed posts I make in my LJ. Also, I’d probably put movie reviews and whatnot in there. None of my LJ readers seem to give a hoot about my 80s ramblings, so…

Jessica Marie: You’re probably Cherokee. We’re most likely all related. Our ancestors were obviously whores.

Heh, my family claims to be related to both Quannah Parker (Comanche, I think) and Bonnie Parker (Bonnie and Clyde). I’m not sure if those things are true, but every family needs a story to tell.

God, I remember this like it was yesterday. It seemed liked there were tons more PSA’s in the 70’s and 80’s. I also remember one about a kid asking his grandpa “what’s predjudice?” and the jist of it was that good ol’ grandpa tells the kid that HE is predjudice. I was too young to figure out why the grandpa was insulting his own grandson!

My ex-boyfriend was related to William Wallace (aka Braveheart) surely that’s relevant and related to native americans ..?

was it the Krusty comeback special episode where Bette Midler throws a can back at a litterer (sp?) which forces him to swerve off the road/cliff and explode on impact?

To sum up: I saw this before I saw a parody of it, and there’s still way too much litter. (Also, my post was depressing.)

I have just recently found Three’s Company to be one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. I have no idea why I haven’t given it the time of day. I laugh harder at this than AD and The Office.

Even though I am 1/whatever Cherokee, you would never know it to look at me. I am what you would call an All-American mutt.

Part Native American, part Scottish, part English, part… hell… I don’t even know.

I saw the parody from The Simpsons when the entire town is moving loooooong before I saw this.

phunqsauce, it was the episode where Springfield’s landfill had become too stuffed so they moved the entire town a few miles over. Homer throws something out of his car’s window, which lands at the Native’s feet. A single tear drops, and his friend says “Do yourself a favor, don’t look over there.” (at the trash-ridden Springfield) The screen fades to black and you can hear a scream.

German/Cherokee/Scottish/Irish/English/French/
Czech. I love the fact that Magic Toe/y changed names due to a typo!

Annette, I always thought I’d go with Blogger/Blogspot if I got sick of LJ or just wanted to reach more people. It definitely gives off a more professional (for lack of a better word) vibe than LJ, plus, you know, all hail Google.
My sister and I used to rag on this commercial too. I could have sworn that there was actually a huge chunk of watermelon that burst apart at old Iron Eyes’ feet, but I guess my imagination was overactive. I definitely remembered the canoe though.
This ad makes me nostalgic for Ralphie episodes.

I’m Mexican/Caucasian with some Chickasaw in there way back somewhere. I think it’s some ridiculously low percentage, but it gets me access to their free health care, so that’s good enough for me.

Sorry to double post, but I just found the video clip of that scene. It also shows how cloudy my memory can get.

The Indian is in fact an Italian.He camed he was till his death.Sicilian-American though.

Thanks to Virgin Mobile, I get to check in for Manimal updates, and chime in on good ol’ Iron Eyes Cody. As X-E’s token full-blood Native American, it’s nice to see quite a few with a touch of the Red Man in them. When Mr Cody got nationwide fame for this ad, the Native community was like, “Huh, at least it’s something other than attacking wagon trains.” When he died, and his true heritage was revealed, we were kinda surprised, but hey, he did quite a bit for his adopted ethnicity. And he had a good part in “Earnest Goes to Camp.”

P.S. I like how everyone is “1/16 cherokee”.What a joke.I,myself am a registered “First Nations of Canada”.One quarter potawatomi.Liars.

Wow. This one brings back memories. All I’ll say is I remember watching this one on TV several times when I was a kid. I think it had more impact back at that time. Today? Well, it seems a little different.

I also saw all of the parodies before seeing this but I knew when watching the parodies that they were parodies of some long ago thing not just of each other. Also definitely saw Space Balls before Star Wars.

I am not 1/anythingth Native American since my family wasn’t even in this country until 40 years ago but there is a good chance I am 1/4 Native Romanian and 1/4th Native Polish…

Sorry to double post but it was supposed to be to the mals…proofread like 5 times and still messed that up.

Don’t most PSA’s fall into the well-meaning, but cheesy category anyway? I’d rather watch Mr. Pensive than ANY of those annoying, headache-inducing TRUTH ads. Now those are ads that need to be parodied.

I fricking HATE the “truth” ads. They’re so pretentious and overzealous that it almost makes me want to smoke a cigarette just to spite them. Except not really, because I’ve tried smoking and it sucks.

We need more commercials like this now, to me the music makes it seem like an action movie; this commercial would still to this day be powerful and moving if not for the announcer or music. Just my take on it.

What do I, and the others, possibly have to gain by lying about something like this? Sorry that I am not “registered” anywhere like you are.

was it the Krusty comeback special episode where Bette Midler throws a can back at a litterer (sp?) which forces him to swerve off the road/cliff and explode on impact?

“I’ll get you for this, Bette Midleerrrrrr!!!” And then the pickup swerves off the road and crashes into a mountain. I’m even of enough of a geek to remember that the car was red.

phunqsauce, it was the episode where Springfield’s landfill had become too stuffed so they moved the entire town a few miles over. Homer throws something out of his car’s window, which lands at the Native’s feet. A single tear drops, and his friend says “Do yourself a favor, don’t look over there.” (at the trash-ridden Springfield) The screen fades to black and you can hear a scream.

At what first seemed like a really farfecthed ending for the show (moving the entire town 5 miles away due to all of the abandoned mines overflowing with garbage), it ends with that classic gag. After the screen, the first native tells the screamer “I told you not to turn around.”

After the screen, the first native tells the screamer “I told you not to turn around.”

Oh, and the next Comedy Central Roast will be for Flavor Flav. Kickass. For it to truly be awesome, it must have the following show up:

1) The rest of Public Enemy
2) Brigitte Nielson and/or any of the other people that were on the season of Surreal Life with him.

hey Magic Toy I used to work at a Cemetary for almost a year, and we put out trash cans around the fence by the trees for people to throw away flowers and trash that we monthly or so went around all afternoon and emptied them. There was this one can about 100 feet away from the office and there was a dumpster there. I was working on something don’t remember what, and these people emptied out trash from their car into the trash can, went into their car, and then drove a slight ways forward to the office and stopped to go to the bathroom. That pissed me off because they could of threw it all into the dumpster and saved us the step!! Even though they didn’t know any better.

and phunqsauce There was an episode you described yes that was the Krusty comeback special episode, different then the episode they spoofed this commerical.

And I like the Truth PSA’s. I like how they stick it to the big tobacco companies even though cigerette smokers are probably lowering now aren’t they?

haha right on fungus…just found transformers (the new one) on joox sounds a little ahead and behind of the picture but still watchable will be doin that til its over

Well since we’re talking about heritage I guess I’ll chime in that I’m mainly Pennsylvania Dutch and Welsh, making me about the whitest person ever. Also this one time an older guy friend of mine had his son come up to him asking what heritage they were because he was supposed to discuss it in class the next day. I think he was in second grade. So my friend told him they were both of lesbian decent. He got a very angry call from the principal the next day.

3 days until the big midnight Harry Potter party at the bookstore…I personally typed up 82 Harry Potter trivia questions last night.

I saw Spaceballs b4 SW too, and Muppet Babies when they had Jabba the Hutt on b4 that!

Trees, trees, from the Arber Day Foundation, spread the word across the nation about TREES!

Woo, genealogy thread! I’m about 3/4 German, 1/8 English and 1/8, yes, Cherokee. The interesting thing is that my cousin tried to apply for financial aid on that fraction, only to find that Great Grandma was listed in all official records as “Black Irish” because Great Grandad was embarrassed. Thanks a lot, old man.

The only really famous ancestor we’ve been able to turn up is Henry Clay, as well as a couple of nautical knights back in Jolly Old England. My dad and my grandpa both have Henry Clay’s profile to a scary extent, but in me it’s been mostly washed out by waves of Teutonic blood.

Those “Truth” commercials piss me off, not just because they’re so self-righteous, but because a number of the figures they like to quote are inaccurate, exagerrated, or just plain incorrect. For a company that claims to be interested in the truth, they sure don’t like to tell it….

Count me as someone who saw Spaceballs before Star Wars, Waynes World 2 before Crying Indian PSA; I love parody movies, and I’m not ashamed.

Wow, I have a very boring ancestry. 1/2 English 1/2 Welsh, yep. If this counts my husbands great great uncle was J.L Kraft, the man who invented Velveeta Cheese!

Hey, another 1/16 Cherokee here. That is really weird. There must be a conspiracy.

Went to Ozzfest last Thursday. If you’re into metal heads and methheads, this is definitely the place for you. I’m not huge into the black metal, but it was fun. But I’m not here to review the concert. What’s pertanent to XE is that they showed the full trailer for Rob Zombie’s Halloween remake. I haven’t seen this one online yet. It looks pretty good. Faithful to the original, but ratcheting up the creep factor. Plus, this is the best looking Michael Myers since the original, in my opinion anyway. I thought the 90’s sequels’ version of Michael was pretty lame.

Anyway, it’s pertinant because it combines two great XE traditions, the Summer Megaparty and Halloween, since it’s being released on August 31st.

I’m pretty sure it’s going to fall far short of the original Halloween, but I liked House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, so I’m looking forward to it.

My ancestry is pretty boring as well. I’m about 3/4 German and 1/4 French. I’ve been told that I am distantly related to Jesse James, though I have my doubts. The source of that information, my grandfather, also had me and my brother convinced at the age of 6 that there was no Easter bunny but in fact a Black Cat that delivered all those Easter eggs. I still remember that some of his proof included those damn batteries. My mom was not happy…

Annette - Good idea. I’d definitely go with blogspot. And my husband is always griping about the pretentiousness of the truth ads…they bug me, but I just mute them.

My ancestry is pretty ambiguous, I should get on that. I know I’m at least partly Swiss, and Native American… I’ve been called Irish (untrained eyes, I suspect) on many occasions - most notably by creepy men.

Well, I’m not Native at all, but I am 1/2 Dutch. Also, 1/8 English, 1/8 Swedish, 1/16 Irish, 1/16 French, and some other stuff.

But more importantly - I’m 19 today!!! I can now legally buy and consume alcohol. WOOHOO!

Well I am 1/4 Navajo and thanks to that little number I get exempted from a lot of things at university that other people are not exempt from. Other than the 1/4 Navajo I am English and Irish. In fact I am the only person in my family with pale skin and blue eyes…makes for a fun stick out at the family reunions.

*beating on table in “Hollywood Indian” fashion*
Hey! How-are-ya?
Hey! How-are-ya?
Hey! How-are-ya?
Hey! How-are-ya?
From the land of sky blue waters, (wa-ters!)….
*record scratch*

The first screen shot profile looks like Michael Richards (Kramer) to me. That makes me laugh even more!

Knegative…not to ask a stupid question but what exactly IS a unit plan? Perhaps we can be of some assistance with it in the future? If we get your homework done faster we can play outside longer!

Wow. I have such a boring geneology. I’m just plain Colombian, born here in the states. The closest I get to any Native American blood is on my moms side, where her family was Chibchi Indians, who were probably raped by the Conquestadors. Kind of sad to think that I might owe my existence to some plunderin’ and pillagin’. My father’s side is from Colombia, but going way back, originally from Spain. So I’m basically 100% Colombian, like the coffee, and almost as brown.

I hate those truth commercials also. I have nothing against smokers, but it’s not like people don’t know what that stuff does to you. If that’s what they want to put into their bodies, let them. It’s their money and their lives.

Bill Three’s Company is a great show. Whatever you do however, stay away from Three’s a Crowd, or it may ruin the whole thing for you…

I have an xanga that I consistently updated while I was in college like twice a week with whatever the heck was on my mind. I knew alot of people on there and had a nice little circle of friends….then I graduated from college and stopped updating it regularly. Now I finally have consistent internet access again and wouldn’t you know it but just about everyone I knew on xanga is gone or doesn’t update anymore. The question by jessica Marie also made me think about what to do now. My Space seems too “desperately seeking a sex partner-ish.” What about

One way to look at it is that on your moms side your family was Spanish and that they probably raped a buncha natives. Though I cant see why that would make you feel better.

Hey, was there a MySpace group for X-E? I know that most people on here may not like it, but I thought it came up before.

Oh, and I litter as often as possible to see how many Native Americans on the side of the road I can get to cry. I know my mom does when I do…

meepy It doesn’t, but good try though. Although, it would be awesome if that were the case.

The original Truth commercials–which I think were initially local to south Florida ’cause some kids from our high school were in them–were decent. Just kids sitting around, calling tobacco executives and talking about how smoking sucks. Very low budget, sorta clever, not bad. I agree that kids probably shouldn’t smoke (their initial target) but now the commercials are just…weird.

Can I just say I love the fact that X-E has a token full-blood Native American? Thanks, kinglash!

I’m half Vietnamese and half European mutt (German, English, Irish, you name it). My brothers and I are constantly bombarded with people saying, “So…what are you?” Besides the question being worded rudely, we usually make them guess. I’ve heard everything from Filipino to Eskimo, with Hispanic often tossed into the mix as well. Yay, multi-racial!

Jessica Marie: I love the knitting! I wish I had the patience to acquire your skills, but I can only handle scarves and blankets. Everyone in my family has at least one hand-made scarf. I guess I should take a class.

It scared me to death when I was little. I mean, if this commercial came on, I turned from ‘having fun watching I Love Lucy’ to ‘OMG! WORLD IS ENDING!!’. No idea why, it just scared the bejeesus out of me.

they spoofed this at the end of Waynes World 2 as well as that simpsons episode where they move the whole town because of the trash problem i think???

anyways sorry if someone else has already mentioned this, i’m @ work and don’t have time to read all the comments! peace

heeree - knittinghelp.com is the best resource ever. My sister taught me how to knit, purl, cast on and cast off, but everything else I taught myself, mostly from watching the knitting help videos or consulting reference books. If you can do the basics you can do anything.
Also, what’s the deal with your name? Where does heeree come from?

My great grandparents from my mom’s side came over from Denmark, so I call myself Danish or a Dane so that’s cool. When I was 8 I went over for a 6 week trip to europe and Denmark was one of the stops. It was really cool that was the summer they took down the Berlin wall so we got pictures of my Grandad chipping away at it (they charged you to do so, or charged you for chips, make money off of the tourists) and we have concrete chunks! LOL

And my uncle that was married into the family, his stepsister is Meradith Brooks and her dad’s name is Bill Brooks which is his stepdad. I am not related but that is as close as it is gonna get. When she was popular with her one hit wonder “bitch” she sent a nice letter and a free cd to my aunt. I heard she is really a bitch and her dad and other siblings disowned her. You didn’t hear that from me. Fame is hard, so I understand.

I’m surprised nobody has mention the episode of Friends where Chandler throw a cig butt on the ground when they are stranded at a rest stop. One of them yells at Chandler who replies something like “Maybe the crying Indian will come and save us.”

Im not surprised no one mentioned that episode of Friends…I don’t see many people here being big fans of the show. I may be wrong though, so lets start a poll right now.

And by the way, how many generations of a family residing in one place have to pass before people refer to themselves as being part whatever.

I mean, Im sure lots of people here were born in the USA, but we refer to ourselves as being anything but “American”. So how many generations have pass before people say, I’m part Spanish, part Danish, and part American, for example.

Like I know my mom refers to herself as part Cuban and part Puerto Rican…but she was born here. Does that make me part Cuban and part Puerto Rican and part American? Or do I drop off the American? And I know that before her the family branches off to Spain and France and German…so do I include those too? Why doesnt she include those?

And ultimately, cant we say we are all African, since thats where human kind spawned from?

I posted this one because woodsy tells these kids that vandalism breaks kids swings! He was really trying to hit close to home. I have never seen someone purposely go out of their way to tear a swing just to be mean and to be a vandal. I actually have never seen anybody tear a swing seat, I don’t think you can with your bare hands. Just a comment, hope you enjoy my effort to post these videos.

has anybody else had the special carnival edition skittles. with the delcious flavors of cotton candy, bubble gum, candy apple, green slushy, and red licorice. they are sooooo freaking sweet they hurt my teeth, but they are delicious.

That commerical wound up tacked onto Dragnet on Nick at Nite during the early ninties a LOT. It used to make me sad as a little person.

I’m kind of in the same vein as Meepy. Hey, we’re all related to each other in some distant way! We should be just one big, happy family!

meepy, you’re missing the distinction between ethnicity and nationality. Someone can be American by nationality, but ethnically they might be, say, 1/2 3rd generation Italian and 1/2 1st generation Mexican.
I was OBSESSED with the first two seasons of Friends, but I grew out of it and quit watching. Lately I’ve been watching the reruns though.

Ok so does anything make someone ethnically American? Because we all came here, the same way relatives migrated to other countries. Humanity didn’t spontaniously sprout in England or Germany or anywhere else….inluding America. “Native Americans” crossed an ice bridge thousands of years ago, so they arent ethnically from here either. So following my logic, there is no difference between nationality and ethnicity.

To further expound and give an example, before some of my relatives went to Cuba, their relatives came from Spain. So when did Cuban nationalism become Cuban ethnicity? And those from Spain came over from the Canary Island, off the coast of Africa, and so on. So there really is no distinction when you look at it that way. So I’ll just say Im part American, Cuban, Spanish, Puerto Rican, German, French, and African. There.

It is so funny to watch how this post has evolved from enviromental to racial/ethnic. I have to admit though that I am pretty proud of our little group here for being so mature about the discussions and not ripping into each other over our many differences. Yay us!

That being said, I am Irish and French. Lucky me I got the best of both sides and managed to come out almost completely transparent with no hope of ever having a tan. I did manage a flesh tone for a while when I tried to use a tanning salon. Then the freckles started to appear and I stopped going. Thankfully the freckles have gone away again, sadly I am back to being whiter than celebrity teeth! Oh well, saves me money on nightlights!

I am not really sure what “I am” nationality wise…I mean, I am Canadian because I live here, and I think my ancestors were Scottish and English…to be honest, I think nationalities serve to divide people for no good reason…wouldn’t the world be a happier place if there were no countries “imagine there’s no countries…it’s easy if you try…”

I started the ethnicity thing simply because I’m interested in it. I don’t know why, but it’s just something that fascinates me.

Cricket: Aww, you should embrace your freckles! I love mine, and the one thing I like about summer is the chance to get them darker and more noticable (sp?)

Jessica Marie: My name is Hillory, and Heeree is a corruption of it. We had an exchange student from Taipei when I was a teen, and that’s how she pronounced my name. When my friends would call, she’d yell, “Heeree, phone for you!” My friends all started calling me that as a result.

heeree = That’s a cool story! I wish I had a real nickname…in junior high they called me “Skeletor”, but they weren’t being nice…although, I love He-Man, so I didn’t mind THAT much. lol

I’m back! We wound up going to the beach and had a total of 12 hours (not counting sleep time) in the beach town before we had to head home; it was awesome! Well, until the sharks showed up, but that’s another story….

I was hoping for word from the Manimals, but it looks like I haven’t missed anything yet. So to join the relevent convo: my grandmother swore her family was from England, and we know that my grandfather had some Indian in him, but we’re not sure what flavor. That’s something I’d really like to look up one day….

Other than the minute amount of native American that I am I am mostly Norwegian but also Swedish and Irish.

I forgot about that Friends reference. I will admit I watched that show religiously during the entirety of it’s run. Although Chandler and Phoebe the first few years were the reason the show made it, IMO.

Heeree…I would embrace the freckles if I thought I could actually achieve the tan but since I can only manage a flesh tone it is not worth it to me. At least I will look good when I am 80…granted I will be kicking the boobs on the floor by then but my complexion will be stunning! Heh, maybe I will get them pierced and then hang the hoops on my ears and to keep from kicking them. Like the sharks that too is another story.

Has anyone else noticed the complete absence of our host on this session? Matt…you still with us or has the dial up finally gotten the best of you? Normally you chime in from time to time.

I don’t even have a phone line anymore. I guess I sould get one incase my broadband craps out too.

meepy: I think the entire idea of national identity in the United States will have to change before “American” starts to count as an ethnicity. The idea of America as Melting Pot is still too strong. 200 years is an eyeblink in terms of ethnicity. How long did it take the Normans to stop thinking of themselves as French conquerers and to start thinking of themselves as Englishmen?

I actually don’t look forward to the day when people start commonly referring to themselves as “3/4 American,” because I believe it will take a combination of a long period of strong xenophobia and disinterest in history for us to get to that point. America’s Great Experiment will have ended, and we’ll be just another kingdom.

Someone mentioned the new Halloween “quasi-remake” The website is halloween-themove.com

Apparently there is a trailer, but it’s only available from 9pm-4AM. WTF? And this comes out August 31st? I thought it was going to be a few years…

Sorry for the double post, but that’s halloween-themovie.com…not “themove.com”

meepy and Jedoc, I was considering that too, but for Canadian. I think it’ll probably take more time here though, since we’re a younger country, and its not a melting pot but “Multicultural”. And I’m not being a bigot and complaining or something, for the record.

What I think though, is what if a Canadian or American (since I’d say those two countries are the most..whatever you’d call this) had a child in say, Germany. Would that child say there were half-American? Or would they say “1/8 Japanese, 1/4 Irish etc…”?

Lovely Lady Liberty with her book of recipes, and the finest ones she’s got, the Great American Melting pot…

The trailer has been out for a few months, I’m sure it’s on youtube somewhere. And yes that’s this year it was being filmed around this time last year if memory serves (which it never does).

This has probably already been mentioned, but I remember hearing somewhere that the actor who played the Indian on that commercial wasn’t even a Native American.

Hmmm… Genaeology thread, huh? Far as I can tell my family’s been British until my grandmother came to Canada. I tried looking it up once, but got nowhere.

So then you are telling me that a person who’s family has been here since before the Revolutionary War, who is as white and southern as they come, waving their little Confederate battle flag, they should just be like, “well, I’m English” because thats where they came from before they landed here and this nation is too young for them to call themselves American? I dont think so.

I’m throwing my hat into the 1/16th Cherokee circle. My great grandmother really looked the part and I’ve been told her father was some kind of medecine man but I’m blonde with pale skin so I don’t know what the hell happened there. The surname’s Scottish, and there’s some German in there too so it’s anybody’s guess.

Oh, btw, long time reader, first time poster and all that….Hey, Matt…(or anyone reading this who isn’t Matt) Do/does you/he read or respond to all your/his e-mails? I wrote ya/him for the first time last week and asked a few questions..never got a reply. Didn’t really expect to…just wondering. I know you/he pop(s) up on the comments from time to time.

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