21 Comments

Loved this one! I grew up with Bullwinkle & Rocket. I got to spend time with Babs at the Warroad Riverplace opening a couple weeks ago.

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Oh my! We were all there at Riverplace on the same day! I am only sorry I didn't see either of you there. I came early and headed over to Roseau for part of the afternoon. Couldn't score a ticket to the concert. They were sold out.

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Super cute and fun story! Imagine having a state in our union called Moosylvania.

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Thanks!

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You've done a stunning amount of research!

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Holding that record album in my own hands and reading the liner notes was so much fun!

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So much fun at a scary time in our history. I admire people who go to extremes for the sake of laughter. I never learned the art, but married a man who knew how to joke and jive and my sons perfected the art with their dad. Thank you, Jill, for a tour of the history of Moosylvania with a reminder of the scary cuban missle crisis.

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Timing is everything with humor. The Cold War stopped being funny during those tense 10 days in October of 1962.

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Wonderful read! Thanks for sharing & now I want to find that silly jazz album…

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Worth it for the liner notes! Laughter ensues

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This is hilarious and in so many ways my kind of fun. That said, I found the comments about the State of Mississippi really provocative. Perhaps it was because I had just watched this video from C-Span: https://www.c-span.org/video/?538441-5/author-discussion-journalism

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Provocative indeed! Thanks for the link to the Mississippi Book Festival panel discussion. Journalists uncovering hoaxes and humbugs!

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Jay Ward was the P.T. Barnum of television animation- he was very notorious for pulling these kind of things in public, which is probably why he didn't end up getting more chances to produce programs!

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Ward follows in the Barnum tradition of humbugs and hoaxes. He liked to create a circus atmosphere for his political satire. His humor was at times quite subversive.

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What a great piece of history you've uncovered Jill. Thoroughly enjoyed the read! I'm assuming the island is on the American side? Some newspapers in the region might love to pick up this story. Let me know if you'd like me to send it to the editor here in Kenora.

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What a delightfully weird piece of history! I love it!

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History can be fun!

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This was something I didn't know. It's a shame so much isn't taught in our school system. It was a really interesting bit of information. I enjoyed it!

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It only recently dawned on me that I grew up with the idea of 50 states as set in stone, but the last two states were added when I was a toddler.

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What a fun back story! Love this.

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thanks!

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