Who The Smurf Knew?

While watching the weather this morning, trying to decide whether I was going to be able to make it into work or not, I saw something go by in the scrolling news at the bottom of the screen that I was puzzled by.  Today is the 50th anniversary of The Smurfs.  As far as I knew, that made NO sense, since the Smurfs were the creation of some corporate cartoon making machine back in the 80’s.  I watch the Smurfs.  I had Smurfs Colorforms and a huge collection of Smurf Cards (which I gave away to some girl I was crazy about back in high school… stupid, stupid, stupid!).  I know my Smurfs.

Or at least I thought I did.  Apparently they HAVE been around for 50 years.  Back in 1958, they started off as secondary characters in a cartoon book.  They then became toys and the figurines became popular in the US and then they created the cartoon series that ran for 256 episodes! 

The official Smurf website has a guide to The Smurfs, and it explains why there’s only one female Smurf.  I didn’t know she was a creation of Gargamel and was made into a hottie by Papa Smurf.  What a dirty old man.  Bet he didn’t consider what would happen when she was dropped into the little all-male community of Smurfs who hadn’t seen a female in 500 years.  The web site avoids the whole question of how they survived without females, or where the hell they come from.

Doesn’t Matter How Many Silk Pillows There Are, A Tree Is A Bad Place To Sleep

Last week we spent a few hours going through the dozens (DOZENS!) of wedding-related magazines and catalogs we have accumulated.  They say that the wedding industry is a multi-billion dollar industry – apparently about half of that is from printing.

W04752_905lr_2 Anyway, while looking through one catalog in particular, Jean M., I saw a photo that I couldn’t help but make fun of.  Look here and here.

I hope you had the same reaction I did.  If you didn’t, you may want to calibrate your bizarre-o-Jmw06752_269lr meter, since a tree’s hollow seems like a really weird place to put some silk pillows. 

And I’m sure there’s been a few times that garters have ended up in trees, but not for reasons you would put in a wedding catalog.