Loyal readers will be aware that every now and then (spurred on by something I’ve read or heard about that makes me think the world is taking leave of its senses) I have to share my strong feelings on the matter with you in this esteemed publication.
Some weeks ago, I mentioned that a Hollywood moguls reference to a handful of famous actors setting up their own movie studio – “The inmates have taken over the asylum” – applies more now than back in the 1920s when it was first uttered. Read this article and tell me I’m incorrect!
And if you have tears, prepare to shed them now…
After three and a half decades, the long and happy marriage of Mister and Mrs Potato Head has finally frittered away. Mrs Potato Head didn’t ‘fry’ off the handle and give her husband a roasting for have a roving eye. Well, okay, he has. Two roving eyes in fact. Plus a roving nose and two roving ears!
However, the couple aren’t to blame for the marriage crumbling like an over-baked potato.
Hasbro, the mighty world-wide game and toy manufacturer, has decided that later this year, their 70-year-old, highly popular toys, Mister and Mrs Potato Head, will be re-branded simply as “Potato Head”, having presumably decided that in 2021 there’s no market for male and female potatoes.
Not that anyone actually rummages through the potato bin at the supermarket or the grocers, basing the decision on which ones to buy on what sex they are. That would be a fruitless exercise. Because a potato isn’t a fruit. It’s a vegetable.
I hope Mr and Mrs Potato Head have a good agent – otherwise they won’t be appearing in future “Toy Story” films.
Although Hasbro Toys have been around for years, when their Mister Potato Head first appeared in 1952 he wasn’t a plastic potato. He was just a collection of plastic ears, eyes and nose that children had to stick into real potatoes.
Imagine waking up on Christmas morning the first year Mister Potato Head was on sale to find some little pieces of coloured plastic and a King Edward stuffed inside your stocking!