Dismembering Grimace

A while back I had several heated discussions with some folks over whether Grimace from McDonald's originally had 2 or 4 arms. Most claimed I was crazy for thinking he had four arms. I insisted I was correct of course having recalled eating way to many McDonald's cookies and that the cookie version of Grimace had four arms and I used to eat them off first.

First off, there is a lot of people who want to know what the hell is Grimace actually. Someone finally called McDonald's and asked and was told Grimace is actually supposed to represent the shakes at the golden arches. Back before 1975 or so "Evil" Grimace was actually a four-armed creature that found it fun to go around ganking everyone's great tasting milk shakes. I spose one theory could be that the Hamburgler had the corner on organized crime in McDonald land and Grimace honing in on he turf just wouldn't do and he was stripped of his arms in some barbaric "eye for an eye" type justice. Or more likely, McDonald's was actually involved in a lawsuit by Kroft, the creators of H.R.Puff n' Stuff who claimed he was rip off of one of their characters. Some creepy spider thing who I don't really remember. I just remember the flute... creepy. Anyway, it's not certain if Grimace lost his extra 2 arms because of the lawsuit or if McDonald's simply decided to adopt a nicer version of the big purple blob.


But to prove he originally had 4 arms, here is a picture from an Official McDonald's poster from the 1970s. If you look closely you can also see mayor McCheese who is now a lost character. I guess you can only be elected mayor so many times before you get sent away in a happy meal.


The Poem on the poster(for easier reading)

"The Evil Grimace Ronald knows
is round and purple and has big toes
He carries shakes in every hand
as he scurries through McDonaldland"


(Part of this was originally e-mailed out a while back to a few friends, i thought I would post it here for fun)

A castle is a castle?

As most of you know there are 5 Disney theme parks now. Disneyland being the oldest and Hong Kong being recently completed and open for business. I plan on visiting them all. Chase recently had this great idea to visit one Disney park every 2 years till we see them all. I can honestly say i was overjoyed by this idea. :) So I was thinking about the Disney castles at each park and decided to take a look and see who's castle is where. And I noticed something interesting. out of 5 parks, there are only 2 different castles but 3 different architectural styles. I always knew that the Castle at Disneyland was Sleeping Beauty's. Well, thats not entirely true. When Disneyland opened in 1955, the movie Sleeping Beauty was still in post production so for a very short time the castle was actually Snow Whites castle. As we all know, poor Snow White never had a castle in the movie. She lived with 7 creepy dudes in a hut made of mud. Personally I think she deserved a castle, but after Sleeping Beauty was released the castle was renamed.
Then in 1971 a second castle was completed in Disneyworld Florida. This Castle was Cinderella's. Sorry Snow White, no love for you there either. But lucky Sleeping Beauty got herself a second castle when Disneyland Tokyo opened April 15th 1983. This one matching the same design as the Florida castle. Again poor Snow White got the short end of the rampart.

In 1992 Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant was completed in Paris France. This castle also belongs to Sleeping Beauty. It has a newer updated design. It is much larger than her first castle in Anaheim and is home to a sleeping dragon.Snow White loses again. But she had yet another chance to have a castle to call home when work began on Disneyland in Hong Kong. Would she be lucky this time? Alas no. September 12th 2005 the park in Hong Kong opened with a 3rd castle dedicated to Sleeping Beauty matching the exact design of the first castle in California. Poor Snow White. Perhaps someday. But not today. I honestly think she deserves a castle. She was the star of the first Disney full length feature animated film Disney made, came back from the dead, had to live with 7 grubby midget miners each with their own unmedicated social disease, and got robbed of the castle in Disneyland! What did Cinderella do? Lost a slipper. Sure she had 2 crappy stepsisters, and dancing in glass can't be super comfortable, but at least she had a house, and a driving pumpkin. She didn't have it that bad. And what did sleeping Beauty do to deserve not one but THREE castles? Thats an awfully good haul for a teenager who's claim to fame was napping all day don't ya think? Sure an evil fairy was trying to kill her, and she'll never try to spin yarn again, but isn't that what servants are for? Well just so you know Snow White, I'm still rootin' for ya'. And a 6th Disney park would make a nice round number. And besides, it would probably be nice to have a castle that isn't a copycat of all the others. Maybe something with a few flying buttresses!

Yay for Cat Girls!

Cat girls, also know as nekomimi in Japan, seem to be a regular theme with a lot of Anime today. Cat girls date back thousands of years. Most notably but not limited to the Egyptian culture. Whats the draw to girls mixed with kitty's? It probably something along the lines of this small formula. Girls = Cute, Cats = Cute, Girls + Cats = Super CUTE! All I know is that Cat Girls are fun! If you wanna know more, Google it. You'll be overwhelmed with info you never wanted to know on the subject.