Gender and Dolls (was Re: Lego vs. Legos: Americanism? Regionalism?)

[Jonathan Lighter]

The scheduling times sound right to me, Larry.  Perhaps you'll recall too Rootie's friend Mr. Deedledoodle and the no-good, very scary-looking Poison Sumac.

  And that Polka Dottie. Hubba.

  JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: Gender and Dolls (was Re: Lego vs. Legos: Americanism?
Regionalism?)
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At 2:37 PM -0700 7/31/07, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>When I was about four I owned a rubbery simulacrum of Rootie
>Kazootie, a celebrity marionette on local TV. He dressed like a
>baseball player. I also had one of the more celebrated Howdy Doody.
>
> I did not call them "dolls" or "simulacra." They were just
>"Howdy" and "Rootie." Girls played with dolls. Boys played with
>copies of celebrity marionettes.
>
> And no, I don't have them anymore.

Too bad. I don't recall anything at all about Rootie K, except that
he came on immediately after Howdy D (at 5:30 and 5:00 if memory
serves, which it may not after 55 or so years) and that since
everyone else loved Howdy, I decided I was more of a Rootie kid.

LH

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