Monday's Memo: Happy 91st B'day, Mickey!

This past Tuesday I announced that an article of mine re the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade participants had been published by iLovetheUpperWestside.com on November tenth.

Now, a little over a week later, after my article appeared, I've been reminded that a comic character (Mickey Mouse) from a former balloon within the Macy's Parade turns ninety-one today!

He can be seen in the photo atop today's entry greeting the residents of an apartment building on Central Park West when he participated in the parade in 2012 (unfortunately he is not scheduled to appear this year).

According to a 2008 article by Claire Suddath, "Mickey's story starts with a rabbit."

Evidently, "Disney Brothers Studio was just another cog in Universal Pictures' animation machine when, in 1927, Walt Disney created a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. With his round, white face, big button nose and floppy black ears, the smiling Oswald was an instant hit and Universal ordered a series of shorts. When Disney met with executives to negotiate another contract in 1928, the rabbit was still riding high and the animator thought he had the upper hand. Instead, the studio told him that it had hired away all of his employeees and retained the rights to Oswald. Univesral offered to keep Disney if he took a lower salary, but he refused. He and Ub Iwerks — the one loyal animator who stayed with Disney Bros. — returned to work and held a series of hair-pulling, late-night brainstorming sessions for Oswald's replacement. They shortened the ears, added some extra padding around the middle, and turned the rabbit into a mouse. Named Mortimer. The moniker didn't last; there are a number of tales attempting to explain how and why — the most popular being that Disney's wife hated the name and suggested its replacement — but soon he was ready for his debut as Mickey."

Re Mickey mouse, Suddath goes on to say, "In 1935, a young animator named Fred Moore gave Mickey his first makeover. Earlier animators had drawn the mouse as a series of circles, which limited his movement. Moore — who later animated Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice segment — gave him a pear-shaped body, pupils, white gloves and a shortened nose, to make him cuter."

And, lookin' cute he (certainly) is, giving me cause to give him a heartfelt shout out by saying, "Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse, Happy Birthday to you!"

The Audubon Mural Project (Friday's Facts)

The Audubon Mural Project is a collaboration between the National Audubon Society and the NYC gallery known as "Gitler &_____" to create murals of climate-threatened birds throughout John James Audubon's old Harlem‐based neighborhood in New York City.

The project is inspired by the legacy of the great American bird artist and pioneering ornithologist and is energized by Audubon’s groundbreaking report "Survival By Degrees."

Audubon's scientists have found that climate change will threaten at least half of all North American birds with extinction, and that no bird will escape the impacts of climate-change-related hazards like increased wildfire and sea-level rise. The project commissions artists to paint murals to call attention to this problem, and it has been widely covered in the media.

The pictures atop this entry feature details from two murals located near 157th street in Manhattan.

Hmmm.. wonder what it was like for those living in the places whose windows we see here to witness this awesome project in the making?

---- On another note: I'm so moved by these murals whose aim is to raise awareness about endangered birds, which is also a mission of my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak (although my books are designed to raise awareness re a number of birds, not just endangered ones).

Thursday's Testimony re Sponge Bob

This past Tuesday I announced that an article of mine re the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade participants had been published by iLovetheUpperWestside.com on November tenth.

Now, a few days after my article appeared, Sponge Bob is trending on Twitter as per his 2020 movie (he will not be in the parade this year).

Upon seeing this new, I recalled (in a a Facebook posting) how I loved seeing Sponge Bob in the 2012 and 2013 (first two photos included atop this entry respectively) as well as in Macy's 2016 and 2017 Parade (featured in the photos respectively that are directly below).

I will miss the character in this year's event but I'm willing to bet that because of the 2020 movie, Sponge Bob will be in next year's parade.

Musings re Sonic (Wednesday's Wisdom)

Yesterday I announced that an article of mine re the 2019 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade participants had been published by iLovetheUpperWestside.com on November tenth.

A few days after my article appeared the new look of Sonic The Hedgehog was trending on Twitter and I recalled (in a tweet and on Facebook) how I loved seeing "old" Sonic in the 2012 (first two photos included atop this entry) as well as in the 2013 Parade (featured in the photos directly below).

I will miss the character in this year's event but I'm willing to bet that because of the 2020 movie, Sonic will be in next year's parade and that is my wisdom for this Wednesday.

NYC's Upper West-Siders Love a Parade! Tuesday's Truths WK 150

For this one-hundred and fiftieth segment of my Tuesday's Truths series, please let me share an inside secret with you: NYC's Upper West-Siders Love a Parade!

In honor of this fact, I've written an article s (Upper West Siders Love a Parade) and this past Sunday, Mike Mishkin in his on-line newsletter which focuses mainly on the UWS, and rightly so, after all, his daily publication is titled iLovetheUpperWestside.

Please click here to read my piece where you will learn fun facts about the character and novelty balloons who are scheduled to be in this years Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which will occur in less than three weeks from today.