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X-E’s ’08 Summer Megaparty: Especially for..SIStah.

My sister's family is in the process of remodeling their home, and they've spent the past few months dismantling their basement, parting ways with long-held artifacts of yesteryear.

In the process, she came upon a few letters which I apparently mailed to her when I was nine-years-old. (Or, more truthfully, letters I wrote, placed in envelopes, drew stamps on and just handed to her.) One of these letters may be a little too odd to keep to myself.


(click pic to enlarge)

My sister is much older than me, and was already in her own house by the time this letter was written. She'd gotten into the habit of bringing me packs of stickers whenever she dropped by. Though the untrained eye might believe differently, this seems to be a thank-you letter for one such set of stickers.

Largely just a mismatched pile of doodles, the core "note" section reads as follows: "I got the new stickers you sent me. They are cool! I also like the postcard with the monkey with gun. I hope you like this Corvette in Hollywood! Write back!"

Hmmm. The "postcard with the monkey with gun?" I do have some vague recollection of a photo of a chimp with an exploded gum bubble covering half of his face, and I can only assume that the "postcard with the monkey with gun" refers to this. Frankly, it's obvious that I only wrote words on the page to make it work legally as a letter. I was far more interested in doodling random bullshit.

And what doodles the are! The central piece is a pink Corvette in a Hollywood setting. I titled the car "Corvette '88 Super Star," for reasons that have been completely lost over the twenty years that have passed since this was written. Also interesting is my pathetic attempt at a palm tree, which looks more like a feather duster, or possibly several thousand palm trees superimposed on top of each other.

The top third of the letter is riddled with much more random scribbles, including a series of fake stamps and stickers. There's a stamp marked "N.Y. Lamborghini," which really makes me wonder if I was more into cars that I seem to recall. The three stamps at the top depict a boy with sunglasses, Earth with one of Saturn's rings, and a whoopee cushion? The hell? Why did I make a whoopee cushion stamp?

The phony stickers on the left are equally puzzling. One lists a bunch of video game consoles, while another reads, "I'm Not DEAF I'm Just Ignoring You." A final sticker simply says "Bug Jokes." What the fuck are bug jokes?

And just in case my sister wasn't clear that some of these doodles were intended to be stamps, a final stamp-shaped doodle reads... "STAMP."

The lower third of the page is the real money shot, featuring a scene from the old Rampage video game, with Lizzie being joined by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on a destructive romp in the Bronx. I loved crossovers.


Incredibly, she even kept the envelope. I assume that these random Halloween stickers were the ones I was thanking her for. Check out that swank Headless Horsemen, and the awesome space marked "PLACE STAMP HERE."

I don't remember being this weird. Now that I have proof of it, the course of my life is starting to make a lot more sense. I dunno, though. I can deal with most of this stuff, but it's pretty hard to reconcile the "Bug Jokes" thing.

Q: Why did Bumble Bob get detention?
A: He wasn't "bee-ing" good.

Wait, wait, UPDATE: Someone pointed out that it doesn't say "Bug Jokes," but rather, "Bag O Jokes." Now I'm even more confused.

Posted by Matt on 07/09/2008. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 141 comments

Maybe you had (or wanted) a product called “Bag o’ Jokes” at the time? The “penis” looks more like the end of a whoopee cushion if you ask me. It would also explain the whoopee cushion stamp…sorta.

Chestnuts roasted by Bluejay @ 07/10/2008 12:30 AM


Was that one for the NeoGeo?

Chestnuts roasted by Hoverbored @ 07/10/2008 12:30 AM


I don’t see anything wrong with the doodle letter or the envelope. I just see what a 9 year old boy was thinking about in the moment, and what he thought was a pretty good doodle letter. That is what you got a kick out of and assumed your sister would get a kick out of it as well. Because why wouldn’t she get a kick out of Rampage, the Stay Puft Marshmellow man, whoopie cushions, a pink corvette in hollywood etc. etc. You even got a bit of pink to add to the car for her.

If those were the stickers you were willing to sacrifice I can’t imagine what the ones you kept looked like! I have several little doodles and drawings at my Grandma’s house and here that I want to get my hands on and get my hands on a scanner and scan them to make lots and lots of blog entries about them.

I went through a phase when I was in the 4th grade where I drew skeletons that were these punk badass skeletons. I would dress them up in skater type of clothing, give them a skateboard, etc. and it would be a character. I know I found a drawing a few years ago that I think I still have of a skeleton with one of those “real men wear black” raiders shirts on it. That is a time capsule for sure. On my youtube page I have a series of 5 videos I think they are of me showing drawings from a sketch diary I filled up in high school. That is different then innocent doodles like this, but it is amusing how different my point of view was back then. Doodles like this one definitely shows your point of view at that time.

Chestnuts roasted by Goob @ 07/10/2008 12:44 AM


What did your sister say about this? Did she like your letters, or did she just pat you on your head as a kid and throw them into her basement?

Chestnuts roasted by yooki42 @ 07/10/2008 12:52 AM


Invader: Yeah, I’m late with the Summer Juke, but definitely soon. :) I have to regurgitate the code used for the last X-Mas jukebox, and it’ll take a lot of “nunse nunse” throat noises to make that happen.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/10/2008 12:57 AM


yooki: I honestly have no recollection of her reaction to these letters; she gave me four of them. Among them, one is a picture of a space shuttle with a note urging her to save the envelope that it came in. Another is a Christmas letter drawn exclusively in red and green crayon.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/10/2008 12:59 AM


I mean what did she say when she gave them to you the other day?

Chestnuts roasted by yooki42 @ 07/10/2008 1:00 AM


Can’t wait to hear Wildwood Days, again!

Chestnuts roasted by Neg @ 07/10/2008 1:00 AM


I’ll bet you made this letter while you were in your room. I used to write things like this for my cousins. I’d always end up drawing the stuff I saw laying around. The stuff at the top was probably just what you saw in your room while you were drawing…whoopie cushion, bag o’ jokes, all the video game consoles…did you have an “I’m not deaf, I’m just ignoring you” button or bumper-sticker? Maybe some of it was from a magazine.

Chestnuts roasted by Adam E @ 07/10/2008 1:02 AM


I’m sure my parents have a whole fuckin ‘stash of stuff like this. I know my Grandma does… no, wait… she gave it to ME!
Ooh snap!

Also good to know that I’m not the only one that drew stamps.
I do think, however, that I am the only one that drew stamps so they LOOKED JUST LIKE REAL STAMPS in an attept to fool the mail carrier.

Chestnuts roasted by kittymao @ 07/10/2008 1:05 AM


Adam E: Yeah, the whoopee cushion, “bag o jokes” and “I’m not deaf” thing all point to my obsession with Johnson-Smith and Spencer Gifts.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 07/10/2008 1:05 AM


Lizzie seems to be holding a jug of some kind. A jug of wine, perhaps? Perhaps Liz and George were invited to a kegger at Stay Pufts house, got really drunk and just started destroying buildings. Maybe they thought the buildings was dope and just trying to smoke them. Maybe they were also hungry for White Castle hamburgers. Makes you see Rampage in a different light. They weren’t evil, just hungover.

Chestnuts roasted by JLAJRC @ 07/10/2008 1:09 AM


Matt, I was searching the archives and I read your article about the Legend of Zelda. I have 500 wii points and I’m considering buying the original one on the virtual console.

Chestnuts roasted by Hoverbored @ 07/10/2008 1:17 AM


Haha, I love seeing stuff like this. My cousin still has a bunch of notebooks full of drawings she and I did when we were kids.

OH yeah, and this reminds me about a letter I wrote when I was around 6 or so. (Click my name to see it.)

Chestnuts roasted by GloomyJack @ 07/10/2008 1:32 AM


Hoverbored

If you’ve never played the original Zelda, you should. It still holds up.

Warning: You will be humbled! Imagine playing this game before the days of the internet…

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 07/10/2008 1:38 AM


Speaking of wii points I need to get some more. I recently bought Super Metroid and this other game that I can’t remember the name of. I was eager to play Super Metroid because I never beat it when it first came out. I tried like crazy but could never do it. However I FINALLY beat last month! Oh man I wa so happy when I did it too! It was just like when I was a kid and beat a very hard game. I can now finally cross “beat Super Metroid” off my list of “the things to do in my life” list. =D Kid Nicky: King of the Monsters on virtual console ? AWESOME! =D

Chestnuts roasted by ULTRAMAN @ 07/10/2008 3:13 AM


GloomyJack – Holy crap. That letter was AWESOME.

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 07/10/2008 5:24 AM


Can’t remember if I’ve ever posted. I just wanted to say that this is just adorable. It was good of your sister to keep them.

Chestnuts roasted by Ricia @ 07/10/2008 5:59 AM


I was just minding my own business and I saw a banner for a Princess Bride game. You guessed it, someone out there made a game based on the classic movie the Princess Bride.

http://www.princessbridegame.com/princess_bride_game

I am thinking it is bad, because there is a quote on their site from USA Today that says, “Play Princess on Windows and Mac” Usually a game is bad if that is the only type of quotes they can find to advertise the game. You can play a free downloadable trial and there is a video. I thought I would throw that into the conversation.

Chestnuts roasted by Goob @ 07/10/2008 6:52 AM


A Princess Bride game?! Sounds like X-E material to me.

Chestnuts roasted by ULTRAMAN @ 07/10/2008 7:07 AM


Wow, Matt! That letter is the best! You sure you didn’t get into the liquor cabinet when you were a kid?! :)
I’m sure there’s plenty of dorkalicious letters and drawings I did when I was younger somewhere in my mom’s house. Just haven’t come across them yet.

Chestnuts roasted by DC @ 07/10/2008 7:30 AM


I love the acknowledgement of the beautiful borough I call home. Personally, I AM a bronx rampage.

Also, my wopspeak is very weak but I think caracappa means “Face Head”, which is one of the best Italian surnames I’ve seen since a local dentist named Senzamici (“no friends”). Praise Matt FaceHead!

Chestnuts roasted by Rev. Back It On Up @ 07/10/2008 8:46 AM


Q. What’s a bug favorite band?
A. The BEE-gees.

God bless your sister.

Chestnuts roasted by Nizzler @ 07/10/2008 8:58 AM


Hoverbored-yes Neo Geo. Now that was a MAN’s system.

Chestnuts roasted by Kid Nicky @ 07/10/2008 9:45 AM


This might be old news, but I just saw they are making a Ghostbusters game for the PS3 and XBOX 360. I really hope its as good as it looks. It has Stay Puft and Slimer so it can’t be too bad.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/ghostbusters08/index.html

Chestnuts roasted by Jack @ 07/10/2008 9:58 AM


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