March 19, 2008
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Stuff and Nonsense
Here’s a new discovery tangentially related to yesterday’s entry:
My Footprints show that within two minutes after 8:30 AM today, there were seven visits to an entry on happiness I posted about five and a half years ago. It had not been linked in my memoir module, but I corrected that oversight before I started writing this. Those mysterious hits, one from Virginia, two from Connecticut, three from Pennsylvania and one from the generic U.S., were all referred from the same URL:
http://xanga.com/item.asp?user=SuSu&tab=weblogs&uid=5415465
Note the absence of the “www” in that URL. It’s the URL of the aforementioned happiness post, minus only the “www”. Either someone posted a link accidentally leaving out the www, or it was an intentional way to evade the backtracking ability of Xanga Footprints. What do you think?
SidekicksThis idea occurred to me during the time recently when I was too sick to blog. Thinking about sidekicks, I wrote down some sketchy notes on a pad by my bed, and now I don’t recall where the idea came from or where I thought I’d go with it. This morning, before I got out of bed, I was wondering what I’d blog about today. Nothing came to mind immediately, so I picked up the scratch pad.
Doug was warming himself by the wood stove, and I told him I was considering blogging about sidekicks. I asked him if he had any favorite fictional sidekicks. After some thought, he said the only sidekick who came to mind was Robin. I asked him if he thought Batman and Robin were gay. He gave me the crooked smile he inherited from his father, turned toward the computer, and said, “Wait a sec.”
When I finally got out of bed and over here, I found a series of images he had called up from superdickery and left for me. Here are just two of them:
Hmmmm….
Oh, well, to get back to my topic, my favorite sidekicks –
A few of my favorites are characters out of books, and the only images I have of them are pictures in my mind. These include:
L.Q. Navarro, Billy Bob Holland’s dead partner (James Lee Burke, author)Hawk, Spenser’s enigmatic sidekick (Robert B. Parker, author)
Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe’s legman (Rex Stout, author)
For the rest of them, I was able to find pictures.
Rags the Tiger, Crusader Rabbit’s sidekickIgor, Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew’s assistant, Beaker.
Pancho (played by Leo Carillo)
sidekick to the Cisco Kid
Lucy Ricardo’s neighbor, Ethel Mertz
Little Beaver, the Indian boy who was always rescuing Red Ryder–
I liked the older kid, played by Don Kay Reynolds,
not the earlier version, played by Bobby Blake –
yes, THAT Robert Blake.The Lone Ranger’s faithful Indian companion, Tonto,
who never said (but should have),
“Who’s we, paleface?”
Chewbacca, Han Solo’s co-pilot on the Millennium Falcon –
Do you recall what Chewie said?
Prinnies
are the ever-present allies of
Etna, who is either ally or enemy
(it’s hard to tell which) to
Laharl, Overlord of the Netherworld
in Disgaea.Garth Algar, from Wayne’s World.
Take your Ritalin, Garth.
Half Vulcan, half human Science Officer Spock
I got quite a shock on my image search for Kirk+Spock.Likewise, on my search for a (non-pornographic) pic of
Cloud’s larcenous sidekick Yuffie, from Final Fantasy VII.
Who’s your favorite sidekick?
Comments (18)
I’m not sure who my favorite sidekick is, I may have to think bout this – your post reminded me of an awesome short story I heard on This American Life on NPR about 7? years ago that was written from the POV of the sidekicks of superheroes.
Dr. Watson. He has not been well served by portrayals in movies, but if you go back to the original stories you’ll find that Sherlock Holmes was well aware of, and had great respect for, Watson’s strengths. If a gun was required on a dangerous adventure, it was Watson who carried it, and when Holmes faked illness to trap a villain, he wouldn’t let Watson near him, knowing that Watson was too good a doctor to be fooled for a minute.
(Of course, he had to fool Watson because he knew that Watson wasn’t a good enough actor to fool the villain…nobody’s perfect.)
Barney Fife. Hands down with a bullet in the shirt pocket!
Your blog reminded me that it might not be a Friday night date but a side kick that I really miss but I look over at Jess on the velvet sofa and Sadie and Zeus begging for her hot pocket and realize I’m not really short of good company.
@Scriveling -
By an interesting synchronicity, Doug and I are now reading the series of “Mr. and Mrs. Sherlock Holmes” novels by Laurie R. King. Surprisingly faithful-to-the-original fanfic-style stories, and she mentions Watson’s “inability to dissemble.”
I consumed Conan Doyle voraciously as a preteen, and passed up the King books for several years when I saw them in the library, convinced they couldn’t do justice to the characters. This winter, Greyfox brought me one of them, and after reading it I asked for more.
@SuSu - I’ve read those too, and liked them a lot. I was going to say that I guess Holmes is the sidekick in that series, but I’m not sure that relationship is the hero-sidekick type.
I dunno, can you consider a 1st officer to be a real sidekick? I mean they’re sort of a paid, institutionalized sidekick or something. Help I want to go to israel again. Excuse that it was yesterday’s insane woman breaking through. Ummm, I guess I have to like the Wookie the best. He has to be a composite or something. I wonder where Lucas got the idea to make him furry?
I dunno who my favorite sidekick is, honestly…
“Who’s we, paleface?” But that? Cracked me up.
I love that the hit to your site was based on happiness. Probably seeking it though. Mrs. Claus is a favorite sidekick of mine. SInce there isn’t much material I can entertain myself thinking up qualities and characteristics which makes her a great sidekick. Costello, no Abbott, no Costello, no Abbott. Jackie Gleason’s guy Art Carney as Norton!
It is with equal pleasure that I make your acquaintance. We think we don’t know each other, so let us remember!
I hope to hear more from you, fellow adventurer!
My favorite sidekick is Newkirk from Hogan’s Heroes. I absolutely love that show. I am also completely unaware as to the correct spelling of the name.
I would have to say The guy on Ferris Beullers day off..Cameron Frye
oh, i thought hawk was fantastic!! although I have to admit, i’ve never read the spencer books…but i sure loved watching spencer for hire! Hawk was played by avery brooks, and he was a wonderful sidekick! and beaker is my favourite muppet of all time! (besides maybe the two grumpy old men!)
Beaker and Garth.
My favorite sidekick? Julia Hoffman, sidekick to Barnabus Collins on Dark Shadows.
lol! you listed most of them, but my fav is still robin and i’ve asked the same question myself countless times. of course i have tons of anime ones… like yusuke’s stupid friend, kuwabara or even kurama’s side kick, hiei- not that he’d admit it! (from yuyu hakusho).
you know you can block non-xanga users from viewing your blog
: )
@StarzxGoxAway -
Of course, I know that, but why would I want to do it?
I have
already that kind of information. Thank you!
Tacoma Roofers
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