Remembering With Rose Colored Glasses: Wishbone

As a kid two of my favorite things were books and dogs, and in truth those two are still some of my favorite things.  Lucky for me there was a show on PBS called Wishbone that combined the two together. Wishbone was live action television series about a Jack Russell Terrier named Wishbone, played by Soccer the dog and voiced by Larry Brantley, whose adventures in "real life" reminded him of a plot of a classic novel.

The series came out in 1995 and the show focused around Wishbone, his owner Joe Talbot, Joe's mother Ellen, Joe's friends David and Samatha, and the Talbot's eccentric neighbor Wanda. A problem would come about such as a mysterious dog is destroying people's yard and causing mischief around the fictional town of Oakdale, and Wishbone is being blamed. Wishbone says to the audience that this reminds him of the plot of a classic novel; in the case of the previously mentioned example, The Hound of the Baskerville. We then cut to Wishbone imaging himself as a character in the book, generally the main character like Sherlock Holmes. The rest of the episode is cut between the humans figuring out the problem in real life while the other half is a summary of the CliffsNotes version of the novel. The last couple of minutes in an episode explains something about the episode's production.

Wishbone's owner Joe Talbot is every man or in this case the every kid. He likes basketball, his dog, and being with his friends. His mother Ellen is a librarian and widow; Joe's dad died of disease. Fun fact, the actors who play Ellen and Joe are mother and son in real life. David is the brains of the bunch and has a sister Emily who loves Wishbone. Samantha or Sam is the tomboy girl whose parents are divorced and her dad was friends with Joe's dad. Wanda is the Talbot's neighbor, very artsy, on nearly every club in town, and at first didn't like Wishbone. This made me dislike her as a kid because how can you not like dogs. However, Wanda and Wishbone do become friends by the second season. Also, I should mention Damont, the local bully, though he's more like the local jerk. Seriously, after rewatching the series again, this kid is about as threatening as Bulk and Skull from Mighty Morphing Power Rangers.

Finally, Wishbone the star of the show. While Wishbone "talks" it is more like the audience hears his thoughts. Personally, I think only the Pixar film Up did a better job getting down what a dog would be like if it could talk. I also wonder how Wishbone can read, but what else can he do when his owners are away at work and at school. Larry Brantley does a great job of using his voice to match Soccer's actions. Wishbone generally plays the main character of whatever novel is being focused on the day's episode but he did play Sancho Paza from Don Quixote. Sadly Soccer the dog who played Wishbone died a couple years ago, and I must admit I cried when I heard the news.

Now the series ran from 1995 to 2001, but only has officially two seasons. This explains the actors that play Joe, David, and Sam looks very different by the end of the series. In season one, Joe and his friends are middle schoolers and the actors who play them look like they belong in middle school. The second season, the actors are clearly in high school though the characters they portray are only a year older. The show also didn't shy away from the darker elements of the novels it showed. If a character died in the book, they died in the show though their death wasn't always shown. This show was 30 minutes long and only half of the time was focused on the literature.

Overall, I still love the show for introducing to classic literature to me and I truly believe part of my love for books comes from this show. Wishbone can be seen on YouTube but the quality isn't really good. Some of the episodes are out on DVD but on Blu-Ray. There are also several Wishbone book series out, one series is like television show but in book format, and another is Wishbone, Joe, and friends solve mysteries that are similar to the plots of famous mystery novels.

I seriously suggest looking up Wishbone the next time you are on YouTube. I'm Colin, and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties.

Without Internet

For the last couple of days, I've been experiencing Internet problems. Basically, I haven't been able to get onto the Internet through my phone, laptop, or Kindle. It's fixed now, but I realized that I would have a hard time going off the grid. It drove me nuts not able to check social media. Plus with everything going paperless and being on the web, it's hard to get anything done.

There have several articles stating how people (meaning my generation) are addicted to social media, and I never truly realized how often I checked social media until I didn't have access to social media. I have to wonder, if we as a society ever lost the ability to connect with the Internet, how would the world react? I had a hard time going 24 hours, and I went to places where I could connect to the Internet.

I'm Colin and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties.

Arguing, Compromise, and Civility in America

What hell has happened to our society? Why is it that we can't compromise anymore? Anne Applebaum wrote an article called This is How the West Ends, where she states that Western civilization is two or three bad elections from destroying itself. Why because we are electing leaders that are too extreme. Just look at our presidential candidates, there are leaders that are too conservative or too liberal in ideals, such leaders would make it impossible for any government to run effectively. At one point in history, political leaders of both Republican and Democratic parties would get together and compromise on a decision for the nation. Both sides would leave unhappy but with something they wanted. Our leaders no longer do that, they refuse to meet halfway for anything. So now instead of political debates, we just have name calling and mud slinging.

The same can be said of religion, "my god is real and your isn't. Join my religion or burn in hell" seems to be the attitude of the masses. The First Amendment gives us freedom of religion, which means you can follow whatever religion you want. Sadly, due to the fact that there are those who believe their religion is true, they should force people to worship theirs. And no, I'm not talking about ISIS. I'm talking about those who want to make Christianity the United States national religion, turning our democracy into a theocracy. Ladies and gentlemen if there is a national religion, then you cannot truly have religious freedom. Second of all, if Christianity was made the national religion, which denomination would it be? After all, there are literally thousands of denominations of Christianity alone, which is the right way to worship God? Would you really want the Westboro Baptist Church to be the America's national religion?

Now who is to blame for this trend of extreme beliefs? All of us because we cannot meet half way with people differ from our own beliefs. People no longer can accept that someone else has a different opinion, it's now "I'm right, and they're wrong," and this is the attitude for politics to religion to everything in between. No longer can two people discuss something politely, they have to resort to name calling and slurs racial, homophobic, or xenophobic. Just look at the comments section of a social media site to see what I mean.

To those reading this, I can give you no solution. All I will say this, we need to respect each other's opinion. I may not agree with you but I will respect your opinion. We also need to learn how to argue like grown ups without using slurs, foul language, and bullying. So please keep an open mind when discussing issues.

I'm Colin and these are the ramblings of a guy in his twenties.