Makes My Teeth Ache

This is an interesting bit of breakfast cereal lore that dates back to the mid 1960s.  Post Sugar Sparkled Rice Krinkles and their animated mascot, an Asian boy named So-Hi (because he was ''so high").  I missed-out on this opportunity as this cereal wasn't part of our household line-up; nevertheless, each box included the So-Hi Rickshaw Racer.

For the time it was rather nifty; including easy-to-assemble parts featuring a tiny figure of So-Hi pulling a two-wheeled rickshaw.  The kit included some string and a small plastic bucket which functioned as a counterweight.  Tie the string to the rickshaw, put a coin in the bucket, hook it over the edge of the kitchen table and let the weight drop.  The falling weight would cause So-Hi and his rickshaw to zip across the table at high speed.  Fun stuff and you were always one box away from a replacement once it broke.

At the time Madison Avenue didn't have any of today's qualms about cultural tropes like gongs, a broken-English accent, conical hats or rickshaws. So-Hi was intended to be a fun and lighthearted replacement for an unsettling clown mascot dating back to the 1950s; he even had a role as a regular character on Linus the Lionhearted, a Saturday morning cartoon show funded entirely by General Foods (Post) where the characters were literally cereal mascots.

Naturally, this era used cultural characters to foster instant identity.  Frito Lay had the Frito Bandito, Pillsbury used Funny Face drink mixes with flavors like Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry.  Post had So-Hi.

Post eventually retired So-Hi realizing that Rice Krinkles didn't need the baggage of a clown that creeped-out children or a mascot becoming a textbook example of racial stereotyping.  In 1971 they repurposed their puffed-rice operation and launched a licensed and inoffensive mascot; Fruity Pebbles.  Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble became pitchmen for sugary children's breakfast cereal.

 Now you know the rest of the story. 

Free Speech

It should come as no surprise that Vice President Kamala Harris has long been the target of racist and misogynistic online attacks as a consequence of her Black and South Asian ethnicity.  

As a candidate for president the gendered, sexualized and racial attacks aren't going away.  In some respects they've become worse.  In the absence of any personal restraint on the part of internet users combined with lackadaisical oversight by tech companies, the close to this election cycle will likely set a new standard for tastelessness.

Interesting to me is that of my 348 Face Book friends virtually everybody (on both sides of the aisle) have refrained from posting or reposting crude and vulgar content related to any candidate on their FB pages.  If anybody is talking politics they're going about it correctly;  sticking with policy differences, tasteful humor and witty sarcasm.  Personally, I avoid it.  If I have anything to say on politics I do it here because reading the blog is voluntary.  There is no faceless algorithm to foist it upon you.  If you're bothered or troubled about anything I publish;  don't come here.  But you already knew that.  Getting back to the subject of Face Book there are four acquaintances of mine who cannot seem to help themselves.

Moreover, the curious thing is that all four of these acquaintances have a great deal in common with me.  We're all within a year of each other in age, grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same schools and for some the same church.  By all outward appearances they're upright citizens.  If you met them socially you'd find them personable and likeable.  Not a criminal amongst us.  But when it comes to the volatile mix of Face Book and political speech you might just think that from time-to-time they've lost their minds.

A couple of days following President Biden's abdication of the throne I spent a few moments  sampling of the Face Book pages for these four individuals and collected these screen shots.

Frankly, this sort of behavior is a turn-off.  And I don't think it's restricted to a conservative-leaning independent like me.  Many of my acquaintances who are Trump supporters likely share this sentiment.  Can you believe these are adults?

Are these four individual's under the impression that licentious posts are going to polish Donald Trump's brand?  Advance their cause?  Attract voters from the Big Fat Middle who are necessary to win an election?  It hasn't let-up either.

Thankfully it's a small number.  But Holy Cow, they've sure got a hard-on for sexualized hate speech. 

Meanwhile, last Wednesday, former President Trump questioned the racial identity of Vice President Kamala Harris during a tense appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago.  He asked, Is she Indian or is she Black?  He falsely claimed that Harris, who has long identified as Black, attended a historically Black university, used to identify as Indian and then, all of a sudden, she made a turn, and she became a Black person. 

This is all part of the Trump campaign play book.  Skip the policy and dominate the media cycle.  Like I said earlier; looks like this election is game-on.

Pro Tip - Watch the Vegas Line and the odds-makers......