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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Mr Potato Head to lose "Mr" title in gender-neutral rebrand

A gender-neutral makeover will see Mr Potato Head become the toy formerly known as Mr Potato Head.

The classic toy's branding is being "reimagined for the modern consumer", its US maker Hasbro announced on Thursday.

From later this year, the toy - launched almost 70 years ago - will be named Potato Head on packaging.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56200811

"Now Hasbro has decided to announce again that the ‘Mr. Potato Head’ will not be going anywhere as well as Mr. and Mrs. will remain as their own characters. It is more obvious now when the first announcement happened, the company wanted to test the waters as to how the internet would react.

Matt Walsh of Daily Wire mocked Hasbro’s decision with what [certain types] would say,

I told my 7-year-old daughter that Mr. Potato Head is gender neutral now and she smiled and said, ‘This is the greatest day of my life. Finally I can be at peace.’ We hugged and I started sobbing. It was so beautiful.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...makeover-gender-neutral-name-will-not-happen/

Translation: Hasbro got gobs of free publicity for virtually zero effort.

maximus otter
 
This made me hoot:

iowahawk_mister_potato_head_02-25-2021.jpg


True, so true...

maximus otter
 
"Now Hasbro has decided to announce again that the ‘Mr. Potato Head’ will not be going anywhere as well as Mr. and Mrs. will remain as their own characters. It is more obvious now when the first announcement happened, the company wanted to test the waters as to how the internet would react.

Matt Walsh of Daily Wire mocked Hasbro’s decision with what [certain types] would say,

I told my 7-year-old daughter that Mr. Potato Head is gender neutral now and she smiled and said, ‘This is the greatest day of my life. Finally I can be at peace.’ We hugged and I started sobbing. It was so beautiful.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/20...makeover-gender-neutral-name-will-not-happen/

Translation: Hasbro got gobs of free publicity for virtually zero effort.

maximus otter
The point that journalists - and I use that term loosely - seem to have missed is that the big change here is renaming the brand, so that (for example) Mrs. Potato Head is not seen as ancillary to the Mr. Potato Head brand. I can't see how that's a bad thing. They are pushing how the Potato Head family kits can make two mommies or two daddies, but this seems more like repackaging than changing the components in the product.

I'm not disagreeing that Hasbro was being clever to generate publicly, but a good journalist would have seen through that.
 
North Korea: Russian diplomats leave by hand-pushed trolley

The eight people travelled by train and bus before pushing themselves across the Russian border for about 1km (0.6miles) over train tracks.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56206033

Things I never knew, part 758: Russia has a border with North Korea. I was sceptical, so I checked my map, ready to gloat, but there it is - 10 miles of river and one railway bridge!

Every day here is an education.
 
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The point that journalists - and I use that term loosely - seem to have missed is that the big change here is renaming the brand, so that (for example) Mrs. Potato Head is not seen as ancillary to the Mr. Potato Head brand. I can't see how that's a bad thing. They are pushing how the Potato Head family kits can make two mommies or two daddies, but this seems more like repackaging than changing the components in the product.

I'm not disagreeing that Hasbro was being clever to generate publicly, but a good journalist would have seen through that.

I was always of the opinion that there only was a Mister Potato Head.....Mrs Potato Head was just him in a frock and wearing a bit of lippy. What he gets up to in the privacy of his own home is his concern only.....it’s a free world and he isn’t causing any harm to anyone or scaring the horses!
 
They call him Mr Potato Head, but anatomically that's not quite correct is it? He is one whole mass, upon which the various appendages and facial features are placed.
If anything the correct name would be something like 'Mr Potato body'.
 
Last night I was up at about 3:30 and noticed that the motion detector light in the front was on. Peered out the window hoping for a fox but nothing. Then noticed that the one in the back was on, so I peered out that curtain and saw the local racoon, who is huge, probably the largest I have seen, standing up and pushing at the metal lid to the metal can (standard trash can size) that holds the bird seed. I don't know how he knew it was in there, and I don't know how he did it because it takes me two hands to pull on the lid, but he got it off and I saw a large racoon hind end protruding from the can. Thinking of the new 10 lbs of bird seed and bag of corn and that racoons once they learn something don't forget, rather than run out banging pots in my winter pj's I sighed, wished him a good meal and went back to bed. This afternoon I turned the can over so the other wildlife could get the remnants. Must think of a solution.
 
Last night I was up at about 3:30 and noticed that the motion detector light in the front was on. Peered out the window hoping for a fox but nothing. Then noticed that the one in the back was on, so I peered out that curtain and saw the local racoon, who is huge, probably the largest I have seen, standing up and pushing at the metal lid to the metal can (standard trash can size) that holds the bird seed. I don't know how he knew it was in there, and I don't know how he did it because it takes me two hands to pull on the lid, but he got it off and I saw a large racoon hind end protruding from the can. Thinking of the new 10 lbs of bird seed and bag of corn and that racoons once they learn something don't forget, rather than run out banging pots in my winter pj's I sighed, wished him a good meal and went back to bed. This afternoon I turned the can over so the other wildlife could get the remnants. Must think of a solution.
Bin with a clip lid?

Screenshot_20210226-225145.png
 
They call him Mr Potato Head, but anatomically that's not quite correct is it? He is one whole mass, upon which the various appendages and facial features are placed.
If anything the correct name would be something like 'Mr Potato body'.
Named after his ancestor where you got a kit with bits on the end of metal pins which you then pushed into a real potato.
C922E20F-CF28-42D4-8134-8BDDB89A69D5.jpeg
 
metal pins which you then pushed into a real potato.

By the time I got my own "Prairie Potato Head" - the cowboy-themed version - the dangerous metal pins had been toned down to become part of the plastic bits*. We were still required to provide our own potatoes.

My thrifty mother made sure we got the ones with eyes already in them! Did we eat them after? I don't recall.

Maybe Prairie Pete got cut in half and bled out his last, starchy moments as a failed experiment in potato-print artwork?

Did that ever work? :dunno:

*Was this to prevent children trying out the eyebrows and moustaches on the cat? You stood no chance against a cat with the plastic ones!
 
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I was always of the opinion that there only was a Mister Potato Head.....Mrs Potato Head was just him in a frock and wearing a bit of lippy. What he gets up to in the privacy of his own home is his concern only.....it’s a free world and he isn’t causing any harm to anyone or scaring the horses!
Ive definately seen mr and mrs potato head in the dame room at the same time in toy story (mumble)

Screenshot_20210227-031804 (2).png
 
Slight bit of oddness happened to me today.

At work today I got talking to a man I've known only as a nodding acquaintance for at least two or three years. I'm not even sure of his name.

I can't remember what we were talking about initially but it led to him telling me how he hears voices in his head (like a radio channel) and how he's very psychic (although I don't think he actually used the word). He seems very down to earth about his experiences, not at all woo woo but what was a bit odd was him saying he could hear the voices laughing at something we'd been talking about.

I would like to probe further but am a little unsure.
 
I had two small strange things happen to me very recently. Not earth-shattering, but still ...

I checked my e-mail this morning and saw I had one from local government saying I owed council tax (I don't) so I dashed off a quick and pithy reply. I say 'quick' but one of our cats was pestering me for crunchy bits, jumping up by the laptop and miaowing so I had to stop and feed her to get any peace. Now the original e-mail, and my reply, have completely disappeared from my gmail account. There is no sign that they ever were there. How can that happen? The distraction caused by Treacle the cat 'anchored' the memory for me, which is handy because otherwise I might think I had dreamt the whole thing. Which I didn't.

The other one was that, coming to bed last night, I tried not to disturb Mrs Asparagus who was asleep. But just as I got into bed, she said very clearly "Max's Rainbow(s)". I said 'sorry' and she repeated the phrase, so I said 'what about it' and she said 'I'll tell you later" then was asleep immediately. In fact I think she was asleep all the way through. I asked her about the conversation today but she had no memory of it and the phrase was meaningless to her. So I googled it and it turns out to be the name of a bereavement group on facebook. We don't do social media and Sue almost never uses the internet. But we have been very involved lately with practical matters relating to a recent family bereavement so that her midnight mutterings seemed strangely appropriate.

Two (very) minor fortean things in 12 hours! I think that's a record for me.
 
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