When I was little I was always fascinated by the McDonald’s commercials that involved the McDonald’s characters. But some of their characters left me wondering how they would function in real life. Then when I got older I realized that they were only characters in an advertising campaign. However the fry kids were one of those characters I was wondering how they function without hands and arms? I remember back in the mid 90’s there was a bunch of McDonald’s commercials of them dancing or play soccer. Yet I wonder who was goalie and was the soccer ball blocked?
There is not a lot of information about the Fry kids. However they first appeared as early as 1972 and their original name was “French Fry Gobblins”.
The French Fry Gobblins first appeared in the McDonalds commercials and they were kind of creepy. There main goal in life as to steal other people’s fries.
Later as the other McDonald’s characters such as Grimace and the Hamburglar evolved. So did the French Fry Gobblins. Especially after Sid and Marty Krofft sued McDonald’s in 1973 for ripping off their work. It was super compared and had a very similar concept to Sid and Marty Krofft’s show H.R. Pufnstuf.
Here is the more in-depth video of what happen:
The lawsuit was stretched in court and final decisions were not made until 1979. And every McDonald’s character had to go through a massive makeover or disappear completely from the campaign. For the ” French Fry Gobblins” their transformation included getting ride of the creepy eye thing, they got shorten in height, became lesser shaggy, were made into different colors, and some had different facial features such as eye wear or eyelids. They got renamed “The Fry Guys” but later in 1985 they introduced girls into the line and they got renamed to the “The Fry Kids.”
The Fry Kids appeared in the McDonald’s campaign until 2008 and like the other McDonald’s characters where phased out of the McDonald’s promotion. I miss these McDonald’s characters because I feel like they were the most unique in the group. Although other than different colors and distinctions I do not remember if the Fry Kids had names of their own? In any regard I will always remember fondly of these cute but forever creepy characters.
What is your favorite McDonald’s character? Comment below!!
“As a kid, I grew up around witchcraft or brujeria more so. My father was always consulting with brujas and my grandmother, his mom, was the inspiration behind starting this path and this business. There are actually quite a few women on my fathers side that are on the Bruja path, which I find comforting and use it as confirmation that I was born to be a witch. The idea of the business came to me in waves, having to push past my fear and self limiting beliefs that told me that I couldn’t’ possibly be a business owner. I have worked a 9-5 my whole adult life, so stepping out in this way was challenging. I began my formal studies in 2016, with Germanic white witch, which is so far from the path I am now on. She taught me a lot and I felt myself awaken to plant medicine. I then found Hood Herbalism in early 2017 and continued on the path of studying, building community, and as that grew so did this voice inside me that said I had to do this beyond just making things for friends and family. It still took some time before I would get the business to where it is today. I had a very bad breakup in which my ex, out of spite, wanted to lay claim over the previous incarnation of the business, pushing me into a dark place where I didn’t want to make medicine anymore. And so I didn’t for months. I focused on moving, building a new, safe home for myself, work, and getting through the pandemic. I fell in love, and with that, came a renewed energy for life. Spirit also gave me time and then said, let’s get back to work. I launched my botanica in January 2021, with a new logo, new products, and a renewed sense of power that this is my path, and no one is going to knock me off of it. Life has happened, and as we all work to get back to “normal,” I am trying to evolve and grow this business into something that could sustain me and get me out of the 9-5 grind. Goddexx willing, this will eventually be the case.”
2. How did you come up with your business name?
“Carl Jung. Lol. I am a big fan of his work, and the concept of shadow work is something I use in my formal work as a substance use disorder counselor, which is a fancy way of saying addictions counselor. I have worked in mental health since I was 22, so it’s a play on that and on the fact that the tools I make are just that… tools to help you on your shadow work journeys. I have been on my own personal shadow work journey for many years, and continue to be a student of life in this way. I believe it’s vital for us to confront the darker aspects of ourselves, and learn to integrate the lessons we’re here to learn, so what better name than that?”
3. What are your top 3 selling products and why do you think they are so popular?
“Pain Relief Liniment. I have to say, these are also my personal favorites. Our Daily Protection Oil is a just that. Something to incorporate into your daily life, that offers an extra layer of protection from energetic sludge you might encounter in your day. I always advise my clients to make it a daily habit, creating that bond and trust between them and the plants. I am just a middle man. The plantitas, gemstones, and oils all do all the work. Our Cleansing Spray was first formulated for my office, as there are tons of heavy energies and bad vibes, which can’t be smoke cleansed away. It smells like a delicious herbal tea with hints of grapefruit. I love the smell. It’s potent, grounding, and cleansing as is its name. And lastly, the product that started it all… Grandma Clem’s. This one is named after my Abuelita Clementina, who has now passed. She always kept a jar of this infusion in her closet, and it’s a tried and true remedy for pain relief. I use this when I’ve had a long day of typing at work, and it immediately relieves the pain and stiffness. I think these products are my top selling because they’re my favorite products, not that I don’t love the others. These are just closer to my heart, and therefore that energy is felt.”
4. With the summer season coming up: What products from your store do you recommend for that season?
“My number one recommendation for summer is our Must Be Magick! Multipurpose Salve. It’s great for pain relief, muscle tension, bug bites, sunburns, dry skin, etc.”
5. Can you discuss the process of your grief consultation process?
“I added the brief consultation option because I was getting a lot of questions that required deeper thought and discussion. I like spending time with people, getting to know where they’re at on their shadow work journeys, so I can pin point what they may need. These are intuitive as well as incorporate my formal counseling skills. I am clear on my purpose thus far, and it’s to help people, and this is just another way to do that. I want to eventually offer more formal energy work sessions incorporating other modalities that I am trained in, but for now these sessions can help someone just get a little more clarity as to the next steps on their journey.”
6. Do you have any exciting news or events that you would like to share?
“Nothing so new or exciting, but overall just happy that I’m in love with someone who is literally my best friend and is going to start helping me more with the business end of things. She is amazingly smart and a true partner. Her name is Celeste, and we met in 2007 on a lesbian site called Our Chart. She says I friendzoned her immediately, but can’t fight fate. Lol. It really is crazy how when you let go of things that aren’t for you, the Universe sends you what is. She’s amazing and I can go on and on if you let me.”
If you would like more information about Edith and her store. The following contact information is below:
When I was little one of my main staple watching channels was Nickelodeon. My daily digest of TV shows ( just to name a few!!) on that channel was Clarissa Explains it all, All that, Hey Dude, Double Dare, Are you Afraid of the Dark? and of course:
Out of many of the stand out amazing characters on that series. One of my favorites was Mr. Tastee:
Mr Tastee was a homage to Mister Softee. An ice cream branded founded in Philadelphia, PA in 1956 by two brothers: William Aloysuis Conway and James Francis Conway. The brand is known by their trucks and their mascot:
In season one, episode ten of the show titled: What we did on Our Summer Vacation (Premiered on September 8, 1991). Older Pete has a deep one on one discussion with the tv audience about his definition of what starts summer. Then he starts talking about how he, the younger Pete and their friend Ellen try to find out who is the person behind the Mr. Tastee mask is. Since he is the embodiment of their definition of summer, they want to know who that person is since he only comes during that season.
However they realized that when they try to become his friend and start an intense questioning session with him(they even extend an invitation to go fishing with him.) He ends up leaving town. They desperately try to find out why he ran off in such a critical ice cream season and also figuring out the mysterious life of this solitary ice cream man.
They spend their whole summer trying to track down “the loneliest ice cream man” (Older Pete quote). It wasn’t until the end of summer that Mr. Tastee finally returned to town.
Not because he missed his customers but because he need to pick up his vacation photos. He told the kids that his primary duties as the ice cream man is just being an ice cream man. He is just here every summer to give out ice cream and that’s it. It is the ice cream man code and he must follow it.
It also made me think that in a lot of ways certain friendships and relationships are the same way. They will always hold a endearing memory but sometimes it is just that. I always feel like we had a Mr. Tastee figure in our lives at one point or another. I feel like even though The Adventures of Pete and Pete was a kid show it cover a lot of adult themes disguised in the show. It made feel like a lot of certain events that I have gone through in my adult life made me better prepared by watching and remembering certain themes and episodes from the show.
Fun facts about this episode: Michael Stipe of R.E.M played a cameo roles in this episode as another ice cream person: Captain Scrummy.
Kate Pierson from the B-52’s also had a cameo as the blind heiress Mrs. Van Devere.
This morning my facebook account was hacked into. They changed my email information, password so I couldn’t retrieve my account afterwards. From what I understand Facebook asked them for more personal information to verify it was me. Probably because they were logging from a super random location that I normally would never log in from, and since that person couldn’t verify past a point. From what I understand Facebook decided to delete the account. So if you happen to be friends with me on there and my page pops up please reported it as being hacked. Because it is not me running it. Also this will be my last post that is linked through the facebook group since I can’t access the account anymore. I will continue to be very active on here as well as my other social media outlets so if you have those make sure you following me there! Thank you for your support!!!
This week’s great small businesses interview is on @cheyedewolf !
Tell me a little about yourself.
Created with RNI Films app. Preset ‘Fuji Pro 160NS’
“My name is Cheyenne DeWolf, and I am a Detroit & Los Angeles based multimedia artist known for my animatics, photography, and graphics/illustrations. I just finished my bachelor’s in Television, Film, and Media Studies at California State University, Los Angeles and it has helped me be able to become the “one woman show” that folks on the internet also know me as. I specialize in all different areas of art like animation, film/video-making, photography, graphic design, illustrations, music producing, and recently crafting jewelry. I often focus on different areas at once because I get bored easily, but also stimulated easily so jumping around from different arts helps me feel more alive! I also tend to do a lot of things by myself as I was the youngest kid and only girl in the family – which means you usually have to kind of grow up by yourself and figure things out on your own.”
2. How did you come up with your designs for your earrings?
“I honestly come up with my ideas by whatever type of media I am consuming – sometimes it is film, TV, music, or object/food related. I am very obsessive with anything and try to think of ways to express that I enjoy certain things by making earrings (since it is a lot less labor intensive than sewing clothing and what not). For example, I really enjoy Chobani Vanilla Oat Milk (it is the best one on the planet), so I felt like making a pair of them would be fun and exciting to do and then I can feel proud that I made them because I enjoy the product and had fun making it myself. I guess you can say I fall into the “weird earring lesbian” stereotype lol!”
3. What are the 3 most popular designs and why?
Blanche Earrings
“My three most popular designs would probably be the Blanche (Hausu cat), Moomin, and 70s Lucky Charm earrings.
70’s Lucky Charms Earrings
I think the reason why things like Blanche and Moomin are very popular is because I don’t think there is enough supply for the demand of people interested in having earrings from those kinds of shows/films. I certainly wanted a fun pair but no one else made them – therefore I decided to make them, and I am glad to see others agree. As for the 70s Lucky Charms one, I think that may be popular due to the reference of Lucky Charms, but done in a different way than just having the charms dangle down your ear (like a lot of the ones I was inspired by). 70s chunky circle earrings have recently been coming back in style as well as food earrings are always popular so by meshing the two together, I think helps the earrings be more appealing for others to check out.”
Moomin Earrings
4. Can you talk about the concept of your youtube channel?
“My YouTube channel is just kind of a place where I post stuff I made! It is a bit all over the place at the moment, but I do enjoy making things such as animatics and montages because they help me get better at video editing (the area I focused the most in my college career). This summer I plan to upload more consistently and making content that I enjoy watching myself (like DIYs, gameplays, music videos, and even commentary). I got some great stuff planned and finally the free time to do so why not get back into the swing of things now?”
5. Do you have any exciting news or events coming up?
“I have lots in the works right now – a secret huge project that I cannot share much about yet as well as working on being more active on YouTube AND releasing my first ever royalty free instrumental album this summer. And who knows – it feels like every week I am working on something else new and exciting!”
If you would like more information about Cheyenne. The following contact information is below:
Tell me a little about yourself. “My name is Rich Wexler. I am a special education high school teacher, Photographer (under New Castro Photo (also Instagram page) http://www.newcastrocameraphotography.com/ – named after LGBTQIA+ activist Harvey Milk) I consider myself an activist and try to use teaching, my photography (documentary), my vintage annals page to help spread information and images of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and other unseen or under documented minorities. As a Jew I fall into both of those worlds to an extent and have always tried to use my white privilege to offer my experiences and talents to all diverse communities. I am also a film, pop culture, and music nerd. My claim to fame in those worlds is based around being a puppeteer (I was born on Jim Henson b-day) and did a puppet show on the same bill as Sufjan Stevens (pre-indie fame) as well as met Frank Oz once. My brain exploded meeting Yoda, Miss Piggy, Bert, Grover, Animal, Grover, and ½ of the Swedish Chef all at once. Frank was the nicest man in the world and thanked me for being a fan. I have so much respect for Frank who in my opinion was part of changing the world for the better for kids my age in the 70’s. I have spent a lot of my life doing all kinds of different things. I worked at a LGBTQIA community center, puppet theater, hot dog cart vendor, Orthodox Jewish School and Camp, Psych hospital as a general teacher, etc. To me having stories and a life of experiences has always been more important than financial stability. I do identify as having dyslexia, and having dealt with anxiety and depression much in my life. Teaching, photography, music, and art really have really kept me together. I am currently learning guitar mainly through 1970’s songs including “Dust in The Wind”, and “Time In A Bottle”, I will always love that stuff. I have also avidly shoot and collected 3D photography and other forms. I will mention that more later. Also I grew up in Philadelphia and have been here my whole life but now in West Philly.”
What made you want to start collecting and archiving vintage images?
“This goes way back to being a kid and teen. I always liked collecting stuff but also loved older items that my parents and grandparents had. My grandparents were kind of hoarders and pack rats and had the best stuff. They collected these types of decorative whiskey bottles. I remember actually drinking from one and it was gross. It was this malt liquor whiskey. Even in high school we wouldn’t drink from them. Also my dad’s best friend owned a video store and let me have full reign of all the posters, collectibles, and promo stuff. Whenever I go to a thrift store I always feel like I’m in those places. The stuff I remember the most was a full cardboard stand up of “The Toxic Avenger”, and original Sixteen Candles poster, and a AM/FM radio promo for Tremors 2. I was pretty obsessed with thrift store clothing after being obsessed with “Valley Girl”, and “Pretty in Pink” I wanted to be a punkier version of Duckie. My Jewish mom didn’t want her son to dress like the homeless so I wasn’t allowed to shop at thrift stores. So of course I rebelled and it just stuck. There was nothing better in the world than thrifting in the late 80’s and
90’s before Ebay. I was an avid thrift shopper for years in the Phily/Jersey area. I miss that so much. Since I grew up with a mother and family who always took pictures I was always interested in old photos and films. I grew up watching 8mm films, slides, and home movies on the wall of our house. I loved the visceral experience as well as the illumination of images such as slides. This is around the same time I got obsessed with 3D stuff. I had a viewmaster as a kid and remember watching “The Creature From The Black Lagoon” on tv with old school glasses. I always went to see the 3D theater releases and fondly remember “Coming at Ya” and “Jaws 3D” as well as lenticulars and 3D comics. At some point in my thrifting experiences, I started to get interested in people’s family photos and family films. I can’t really explain it but to me all that was art. I consider it a form of folk art. I love having to kind of make up your own stories about what the families were like. One time I actually found a photo of my own family. It was a photo of my mother and Paul Anka. I kind of lost my mind for a few minutes. I soon realized that my dad dropped it off, but I didn’t know that in the moment. My two best finds are as follows. I once bought $100 worth of unseen family 8mm and Super 8 films. In that set was a homemade film from the Weeki Wachee Mermaids from Florida in the 1960’s. It was shot in slow motion and was blue and to this day it’s the most beautiful footage I have even seen. I used to play records along with the films and was just transformed. My second best find is what is called a Personal Viewmaster Reel. In the mid 1950’s Viewmaster made a home personal Viewmaster stereo camera. You would shoot slide film and send it to Viewmaster and they’d send you your own 3D photos. I think they did this till around the 80’s. My friend was with me and looking for 3D Viewmaster reels for an art project and we found a few. When we looked at them they were peoples actual photographs in 3D. When I looked at them I was transported to another time. The immersive nature of 3d viewmaster puts you in that world. I have never again had such a visceral experience. After years of collected them I actually figured how to shoot and make my own 3D viewmaster slides and have shown them in a few art shows. I also own a 1950’s projector that lets you project viewmaster reels large and wear other 3d glasses to see it. Over the years I would just have great luck at finding peoples photo collections on the street. My best find of photos was a collection someone threw out in a giant trashbag in front of U Arts School in the late 90’s. It had the best collection of 90’s great bad art school photos. My favorite is a black and white of a couple holding a fish. It looks like a promo image for a bad student theater production. At some point I decided to start the Vintage Annals Archive Instagram to start to share this stuff. I think it’s about 5-7 years old. The only way I know exactly is scrolling to the bottom but with over 13000 posts I never quite make it all the way through. I had like 300 followers for the first 3 years or so and did not fully understand how Instagram worked and would post like 100 images a day. I applaud anyone who has been on there since the early days. God bless you. I got lucky one day and was reposted by Amy Sedaris who is a master at all things vintage and overnight had like 4000 new followers. After that I have slowly gotten up to 13000 followers. I don’t really care about numbers and such but it’s nice to have a solid audience. I have almost quit a few times as you start to run out of stuff but I keep going and it’s still fun.”
What is your favorite decade of advertisements?
“As I grew up in the 70’s (born 1970) I will always love the advertisements and images of the day. My favorite ads are the ones that are naughty and sexist in 1970’s terms and have double meaning. I also love prescription drug advertisements for Ritalin and such. I think of them like the scenes in “Three’s Company” where Mr. Furley is listening in and in shock and misunderstanding the conversation. I also love any drug or sex-based product ads. This also brings up an issue is that at times (though rarely)that is problematic where people read these ads by today’s standards and get angry. As a teacher I don’t mind putting out this problematic material as it is educational in my opinion. I never post it to just offend others. Although if someone gets offended as happens when I post some LGBTQIA+ materials I will then double my efforts and post a lot more. I love doing this but when people act racist and homophobic it kind of makes me want to stop but I don’t. It’s rare but happens enough that now I dox those account posts.”
4.Can you talk about your website?
“In terms of photographs and my collections I have scanned most of my physical archive and make it available for anyone to use images hi-res scans for art or historical projects. I am a Jew and I try hard to include all races and gender identities and such. Before I started to upload my images to my website I would notice a lack of historical and archival family photographs of Bipoc and LGBTQIA+ imagery online and in online archives. If I looked up African American family Christmas photos you get very little compared to general searches. I mean if you look up black musicians in Google you get 70% male musicians in the main photo search. Sadly there is racism embedded in even a google search. I just try to do what I can to add more of that material in general. My website has about 21 full collections from family photos to scanned 1980’s Dokken slides. I like that people can see them as a full collection. I also make some of the physical archive available upon request. I have a nice collection of 3D photographs and slides and have shown those locally before. One day I hope to tour with them or make a small 3D museum with a general collection of found and family photographs. I do take donations to help
procure more materials as well as pay for the site and such. I have always wanted to put some of the 2D and 3D collections out in book form which also takes money.”
Do you have any exciting news or events that you would like to share?
“I am starting to bring my vintage annals work into my own photography work which is very exciting to me. I have a favorite photographer who did most of her iconic work in the 60’s 70’s and still makes amazing work to this day. Her name is Meryl Miesler and I just did a post about her new book “New York Paradise Lost – Bushwick Era Disco” who I actually met and got to know through posting her images on my vintage annals page. https://www.strandbooks.com/product/9780578831824?title=new_york_paradise_lost_bushwick _era_disco I also did a recent shoot with amazing artist Jim Tozzi who has created (vintage art inspired) Bert’s Tit imagery and stickers and did work on Wonder Showzen, and Xavier Renagade Angel. Since I am a teacher and off in the summer I will be traveling with my camera in hopes of capturing the last pieces of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s in places like Las Vegas, San Francisco and Chicago this summer. I once got to take photos of LGBTQIA+ hero Cleve Jones. I am also hoping to document some of the characters and players who came to fame in the 60’s through the 90’s and hope to meet and do portraits and possibly short documentaries.”
If you like more information the following contract information is below:
This summer I made a promise to myself to read more and to listen to more podcasts. So in the spirit of keeping true to my word to myself. I decided to share some of my regular and new rotation of some podcasts that I have been listening to.
There is no mystery that when it was announced last year that there was going to be a podcast version of the show. I was totally more than ready and counting down the days for the first podcast. There are new podcasts every Wednesday my only complaint about the podcasts is that I wish they were longer! Most of the run times for the podcast are between 30-37 mins.
I started following @everyoutfitonsatc at the end of December 2020. I really like their humor and take on the fashion and pop culture world. They announced in February 2021 that they started a podcast but I didn’t start listening to the podcast until after my surgery. When I needed a pick me up during my recovery time frame and omg it really did fill in my requirement for it.
I Saw What You Did is a podcast by Danielle Henderson and Millie De Chirico. They bring such humor and wit to a lot of movies and genres that are not really discussed on a mainstream level. I definitely know for some of the podcasts of theirs that I listened to. I made a list of movies that I needed to watch because they were so passionate about it or that I never heard of and decided that I needed to expend my movie watch pool.
I just finished this podcast last month. It was recommended to my by a friend (thank you Marty!:) ). And it talks about the rise and fall of the Chippendales brand with a mix of true crime. I remember Chippendales when I was little. The first time I saw the Chippendale dancers was on Donahue .
But I didn’t know the full extent of the brand and the business behind it. This podcast covers everything about the brand and if you are on instagram there ig has tons of archival footage and fun info about the Chippendales history that makes a great companion while you are listening to the series.
ladycultblog 