Saturday, December 09, 2006
Moosylvania or Bust
As someone who at an early age came to a healthy distrust of politicians as well as disbelief in conventional wisdom via Mad Magazine and Rocky & Bullwinkle, I now realize how much I owe to Jay Ward and the fellow who started Mad whose name escapes me at the moment. They not only kept me regularly amused; they also prepared me to join the hippie counterculture at a time that true believers in our official doctrine were dropping napalm on Vietnamese kids. So, for what it’s worth, a toast to the irreverent tradition, and the reconstruction of our sorry culture into one of mirth, joy, and playfulness.
Oh, and peace and love, too.
P.S.
MAD was born in 1952 as a response to the censorship of the McCarthy era. William Gaines founded it, but Al Feldstein, who took over as editor in 1956, made it the cultural icon it was to become.
Jay Ward, who kicked off Rocky & Bullwinkle in 1959, also made headlines when during the Cuban Missile Crisis he tried to crash the gates of the White House in an admiral’s uniform in order to seek the creation of the new state of Moosylvania on an island in northern Michigan.
Oh, and peace and love, too.
P.S.
MAD was born in 1952 as a response to the censorship of the McCarthy era. William Gaines founded it, but Al Feldstein, who took over as editor in 1956, made it the cultural icon it was to become.
Jay Ward, who kicked off Rocky & Bullwinkle in 1959, also made headlines when during the Cuban Missile Crisis he tried to crash the gates of the White House in an admiral’s uniform in order to seek the creation of the new state of Moosylvania on an island in northern Michigan.
