KatMulkey

http://twitpic.com/70b4z#

 youtu.be/yfM_d-TN-uo

In de-cluttering/ organizing my home office this week, I came across two copies of Jack and Jill Magazine from 1965. Addressed to me.  I'd had a subscription, apparently, which I think might have been a grandparent gift. 

There's plenty of fun in the June 1965 Jack and Jill magazine, including my clumsy attempt on page 62 to "Draw a Dinosaur."  What really grabs me, though, is the ad for the AMF Hi-Ball Hand Car.  "More Fun Than a Circus!" "IT'S NEW...DIFFERENT--EXCITING!" "The wheel toy you can ride standing up."  I probably wanted this "toy" when I read the magazine in 1965. I know I saw the magazine, because there's the aforementioned dinosaur done badly in black pen on page 62.

For some reason, when I saw the ad again today, with its name starting with AMF, my brain was thinking "Adios MotherF***ers"  (what movie is that from?); then the happy clown image with its adult shape (yet child size) gave me the creeps.  And then I wondered how many children were killed by neighbors' cars during the first few days after the birthday in which they received this thing. The clown is not wearing a helmet or elbow pads--those items would be important much later. But that's not the biggest problem. Read the ad and look at the drawing: THERE ARE NO BRAKES!!!!!

AMF is American Machine & Foundry Company, which is best known for its automatic bowling- pin setting machines, which helped make indoor bowling the very important recreational and competitive sport that it is. They made bicycles, too. I knew kids who bragged in the '70's about having "an AMF bike." I'm pretty sure the AMF bikes had some kind of braking mechanism.

But this AMF Hi-Ball Hand Car had no brakes? OK, so maybe AMF really does mean Adios MotherF***ers.

FILLING

1 ½ cups sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

1 ½ cups cold water

3 egg yolks

3 tablespoons butter

1/3  cup fresh lemon juice

MERINGUE

3 egg whites

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ cup sugar

Optional  ½  tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Squeeze the juice from about 2 medium lemons, and remove any seeds. Save this for later. 

Take 3 eggs out of fridge.  Into two bowls, separate eggs into  white part and yolk part, without breaking the yolks into the whites http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_separate_eggs/

Make and bake 1 pie crust, or use a premade GlutenFree pie crust from Whole Foods.

 While crust is baking, do this: In a saucepan stir together  sugar and cornstarch. Gradually stir in cold water until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

In a small bowl, beat egg yolks with fork. Stir about 1/4 cup of hot mixture into egg yolks. Gradually stir yolk mixture back into hot mixture in the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in butter and lemon juice. Cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Pour into cooled baked shell.

Set oven temperature to 350°F. In small deep bowl with electric mixer, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and vanilla on medium speed about 1 minute or until soft peaks form. On high speed, gradually beat in sugar until stiff glossy peaks form and sugar is dissolved. Spoon meringue onto hot filling; spread meringue to edge of crust to seal well and prevent shrinkage.

Bake at 350°F  for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is light golden brown. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Refrigerate until filling is set, about 3 hours. Store in refrigerator.

I made these up awhile back. Some of them might be funny:
 
*  Charlotte's Web Design, 2nd Ed.--the story of a girl, a pig, and the web designer who manages workflow, makes a great team with the girl and the pig, and meets the deadline in the end. 

    *  A Thousand Splendid Acres--Loosely based on Shakespeare's King Lear, this work gives us a rare glimpse into the suffering and sacrifice of farm women and their utter helpless dependence on their patriarch.

    * The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Nothingness--This tome is long, and hard to read, but the author constructs a compelling theory of being, based on love and sex.

    * The Catcher on the Right Side of the Brain--Classic coming-of-age story in which a boy named Holden enhances his self his self-expression by running away to draw.  

    *  Lady Chatterley's Love Bug--A young married woman with an impotent husband becomes physically involved with their gardener's car--a self-aware and talented Volkswagen--which is sorely in need of a service.

    * The Inheritance of Lost--an award-winning tale of cultural identity and personal connections on an island full of strangers and mystery and secrets.

    * The Cider House Rules of Engagement--An orphan named Homer prays for 30 days to be adopted, but God instead makes Homer grow up a parentless ob-gyn. (This story illustrates the reality that no matter how much power people ascribe to them, prayers are often "answered" with "Are you kidding? There's no way that will happen!")

    * The Namesake of the Rose--a mystery story of cultural and personal identity of a first-generation monk, and of the girl and heart that he left behind.

    * Silas Marnie--Meet a miserly recluse who gets redeemed by a kleptomaniac orphan girl with a mysterious and traumatic childhood.

    * The Spy Who Came in From the Cold Mountain--The hero--a disillusioned Cold War soldier named Inmas--is sent to find spies deep in enemy territory. He instead deserts to seek his own wounded soul on a lonely trek home, shadowed by betrayal.

I recently watched the Miyazaki film Castle in the Sky (1986), and was struck by parallels in plot and design with Avatar (2009). I decided to try to list the ones that I noticed, and will welcome any others that you want to suggest. I’m doing this not because I dislike Avatar. I truly dig it! But partly to understand that stories, films, whatever, can follow, borrow, parallel, or even copy each other, yet have merit for their own sake. And I'm definitely not the first to note the connection. oh well, I've never been the first at anything.

Similarities of Avatar with Castle in the Sky

I think the central similarity is that the prize sought by the Bad Guys in both stories is a rare mineral with special powers.

The main industry (perhaps only industry) depicted in both films is mining (with heavy government/military force behind it).

A mega-tree in both stories is an important central structure housing or protecting a defending culture (or the remnants of  it, in the case of Castle) and infused or complicated with an unspecified power of its own.

Gravity-defying “islands” of land—with trees, vines, rocks--float above their planet in both films.

There is a night scene in both films where a magical phosphorescent glow signifies a special place or material.

Another similarity has the airships in the films—especially the command vessels—designed as unwieldy, gravity-defying behemoths.

Both stories have an environmental theme, where the defending culture is trying to preserve their environment.  In Avatar, defenders are the super-sized humanoid Na’vi,  while in Castle in the Sky the environmental defenders of Laputa  are robots of a super-sized, humanoid build.

In both films, a sleeper-warrior  awakes after a long dormancy. In Avatar that’s our hero Jake Sully; in Castle, it’s a robot  that awakens in the presence of the magic mineral crystal.

+++

After I made my list, I ran across other keen eyes on the internet who caught some other parallels:

1.       pocofuoco on livejournal noticed that the Marines’ working robot suits from Avatar were similar to the Laputa robots.  Pocofuoco  also notes the floating mountains http://pocofuoco.livejournal.com/14165.html