WTF? Friday

One of the questions I get when people find out I am Canadian is whether or not I speak French.  I am not sure where the assumption that we are bilingual comes from (other than the fact that every package and sign in Canada has to legally be printed in both languages) but most people do assume we are fluent in both languages. I for one, am not.  I can tell you the French translation for  ‘Fat Free’ or ‘You could win’ but that doesn’t come up much.

We were taught French in school up to grade 8 but the only thing I can remember from those lessons was watching a show called Telefrancais (French for ‘French Television’).  If you are in your late 20’s or early 30’s you will probably have watched it as part of the Canadian French language curriculum.  Most of us can sing the theme song and some are even gifted enough to remember the French translation for pineapple (anana).  Sadly, I have never once had to use the word pineapple in French in a real life scenario.

Stick with it until the 1:30 mark to hear the amazing theme song, you will be thanking me later when it is stuck in your head.

My 15 minutes of fame

So they say everyone has their 15 minutes of fame, unfortunately I believe mine has come and gone as I was Miss March in a 1988 calendar (before you get too excited I was 9 and wearing yellow elastic waist shorts with a lovely un-matching blue top).

The reason for my rise to fame was that a neighbour had photographed me with one of (what I thought was) the coolest toy of that year…the bubble thing (fantastic name, must have taken ages to come up with).  Basically it was a giant bubble wand that you dipped in a bucket of water and dish detergent to make giant bubbles. I stumbled upon this fantastic commercial that explains it.

I love the marketing message…you a loser that just moved to a new neighbourhood? Get a bubble thing and you will be the coolest kid on the block (they missed out on the added advantage of being  featured in a calendar).  Sadly though when I think back, I am pretty sure we got that just around the time we moved to a new neighbourhood where I didn’t have many friends.  We generally did have quite a crowd around us after the neighbours noticed 6 foot bubbles going by their windows…so I guess the overenthusiastic announcer was right ‘bubble thing makes people curious’…score 1 for marketing.

Enjoy…oh yeah, the calendar image is below the advert…let me reiterate about the amazing elastic waistband and the unimpressive ‘the bubble is this big’ look on my face.

Happy Birthday Little People

One of the blogs I read as a way to increase my useless knowledge mentioned that this weekend marked the 50th Birthday of Fisher Price’s ‘Little people’ (is this politically correct?)  and they were able to dig out this fantastic commercial.  The reason I am so excited about it is that I had BOTH of the ‘Little People’ play sets featured in the ad.  I remember hours of fun playing with the front doorbell of the house with the puppy in the window and the mooing barn door on the farm…it rocked.

I also had the Little People Sesame street…complete with Big Bird’s nest and Mr Hooper (rest his soul) which was equally as awesome (me? spoiled?…to be fair I think Mom got them at a garage sale for $1 each and is secretly hoping they will become collectors items so she can get that condo in Florida she has always dreamt of).

It seems however that the more recent ‘Little People’ have been exposed to too much junk food, TV and genetically modified chicken as they are a bit rounder and plumper than my 1960’s version….a ‘Little People’ gym might be a nice addition to the set perhaps?

It could be genetic

I am a shining example that neither cooking or sewing skills are genetic as my Mom is fab at both however I can barely thread a needle and would rather spend hours on the internet finding the best food delivery website than actually cook.  But, I was thinking of my gadget obsession today and actually laughed out loud when I remembered a particular gadget my parents had….it was called the Bone Fone (thanks to Mom for remembering the name) it was brilliantly orange (wasn’t everything in the late 70’s) and promised to revolutionise the way you listened to music.   All I remembered is that it had arm straps so I could loop it over my neck run around the house singing (genetic as well, got it from Dad) with it on and it didnt’ fall off.

As this hilarious advertorial tells you (click on the ad to read it full screen)…..

“The Bone Fone was invented by an engineer who liked to ski. Every time he took a long lift ride, he noticed other skiers carrying transistor radios and cassette players and wondered if there was a better way to keep your hands free and listen to stereo music”

Seriously? people skied with  transistor radios and cassette players?  Can you imagine wiping out on the slopes and not only having to collect your skis, poles, hat and gloves strewn all over the piste but having to look for your double A batteries and tape player before the guy behind you skied over your Wham Make it Big cassette? I am sure we can’t even imagine how many skiers were saved by this gadget!