In a government public service promo, we are taken to a taxidermy shop where I suspect that the proprietor has not quite mastered his art, because the taxidermied animals there look creepy, more like road kill than a recreation of life…
These poor specimens present that vape smoke can contain formaldehyde, the same chemical used to preserve dead animals like themselves…badly! The talking animals banter among themselves, struggling to pronounce the word formaldehyde…
The promo is darkly comic and even disturbing, but conveys a serious message that vaping fumes are not simply harmless water vapor, but can contain toxic and damaging chemicals that will be conveyed to the lungs…and that’s a thought even more unnatural than these badly-preserved animals!
Now this is toxic taxidermy, and I feel sorry for my poor cousins for whom death was not the final insult!
It’s Election Day at last in America, and I’m sure that many of us are disgusted, exhausted, and burnt-out by the carnival sh*t-show that we’ve been forced to painfully endure for too many months.I really thought that we had put this to rest with the 2020 election, but no, it’s simmered for four years, and here we are again at a crossroads for the country…
So once more into the fray, dear friends, once more…let’s do this…you get it…let’s take out the garbage, the nightmares of neo-fascism…if you haven’t already done so, VOTE!
…and just think…if we elect the first female president, imagine having someday the first furry president…I’d vote for him (or her)!
Hello, Boils and Ghouls, and welcome to this special Halloween Edition of Foxsylvania! Halloween is special to me, always has been and always will be. It’s an occasion relatively free of suffocating family obligations and not awash in commercialism, a time of imagination and dipping into the dark corners of our psyche…here there be dragons!So gather ’round, kiddies, and let your Uncle Vulpes bring you items to thrill, chill, and amaze you…(well, maybe, just a little!) This is what we mean by, Cheap Thrills…
That’s it…come closer as I begin to be fired up, and my true form I share with you! For I am both man and beast, substance and shadow, flame and air…that’s really what a firefox is! I am fox, I am feral, and I am DANGEROUS!(Cue up that Michael Jackson number, please…)
(Firefoxdancing with dark animal spirits to Dangerous…)
Brief, all too brief is All Hallow’s Eve when we can take off the masks that society makes us wear to please others. Join me in this dark dance of kindred furry spirits! It is a fine kind of madness that we enjoy as we gyrate and spin faster and faster, until the dancers become the dance!
But no…soon, all too soon, the cock crows, heralding the approach of dawn, and I am drawn away by irresistible energies to another dimension to walk in boring human flesh until the calendar passes another dreary year and blessed Samhain arrives again…Best Witches, everyone, Ahahahaha!
Walter Lantz cartoons often play a distant third to Disney and Warner Bros. creations, but they can be worthy of your attention, and display a level of creativity and simple exuberant ‘toon fun that’s really noteworthy. One of my fave Walter Lantz characters is Smedley, illustrated above.Now Smedley is a dog, but his tail looks rather foxy to me, and if you stare at his face and body type, you can almost see a bit of Yogi Bear reflected. What really struck me is that Smedley’s voice sounded very evocative of Huckleberry Hound…
No coincidence, that…both Smedley and Huckleberry Hound were voiced by legendary voice performer Daws Butler, who also voiced Yogi Bear for many years as well as numerous other cartoon characters. One of those characters included Fibber Fox, who of course I have a personal affection for!
Fibber Fox was drawn somewhat cat-like, and I consider him likable and a good guy, in spite of the fact that he was an antagonist to Yakkey Duck, and would try to eat him while never succeeding. We all knew that Yakkey would never be eaten, however, as he was almost unbearably cute! Death itself in cartoons, of course, is at worst a temporary inconvenience, with many characters sustaining what would have been mortal poundings and mishaps only to emerge whole and none the worst for the wear in the very next sequence…
Getting back to the Walter Lantz stable, Chilly Willythe penguinwas another memorable character who sometimes spoke not at all but communicated with expressions and gestures, and at other times spoke in kind of an abbreviated English (example: “Yes, me like!”) . Chilly Willy was largely concerned with finding food and keeping warm, and while cute and appealing was far from defenseless…
The kingpin of Walter Lantz cartoons was of course Woody Woodpecker, he of the iconic laugh, who took on a variety of antagonists, mocking and thwarting their most insidious schemes against him…
All I am saying is that Walter Lantz cartoons are frequently overlooked, and don’t get their proper respect…and voice actor Daws Butler was like the legendary Mel Blanc, but without the size of Mel’s WB paycheck…
Exploding Kittens on Netflix is a hoot, although not for those who prefer their religion unpilloried…
It seems that God is felt by a divine council to need to be rehabilitated, and so He is sent to Earth in the form of a talking cat, devoid of his most useful but not all powers. He is to help a human family who prayed for his assistance, all the while contending against a similar demonic cat sent to thwart him… 🙀
This is pretty wild stuff that plays like Sunday School on heavy psychoactive medication. God-Cat has not long arrived on Earth before He is corralled by an animal control officer, and sedated. He escapes confinement, and goes on as a strange mixture of deity, human, and feline, railing against his cat incarnation while gradually embracing it. He learns the ways of man, and has frequent epic but hilarious battles against the opposing Devil-Cat.
You might say that God becomes a better fur-son because of all this, but you’ll just have to watch Exploding Kittens to learn of all the enabling details… Meow! 😸
(Foxsylvania proudly endorses Harris-Walz in 2024!)
The buffalo in the Buffalo Wild Wings commercials appears to be a party animal, and as he shows in the Box Out ad, is a bit of the “bull in the china shop” beast as well, not that a pub equates to a china shop! The buffalo spokes-animal still manages to trash stuff pretty impressively, and that’s without being mad!
I’ve always kinda admired the Wild Wings buffalo as a rather well-rendered and impressive chimera, and he’s certainly articulate and expressive to the point of being brash or domineering. I doubt that his wings would be adequate, however, to enable flight, and support his massive bulk. They’re nice wings, nonetheless...
The buffalo, whose name is Hank, is voiced by Beck Bennett. Crafted for the March Madness event, the commercial is certainly mad and wild. Hank, who thinks that he knows a bit about playing defense, goes into a demonstration by unintentionally knocking people about, even breaking out the window, complete with a bodily ejection and flying glass. One would certainly want to be on this bison’s team, as his opponents might not survive him!
I’ve never posted about a buffalo before, but Hank does cut an impressive and imposing furry figure in this ad; you’d just want to think twice about inviting him to your apartment, however! Unanswered are the questions of whether Hank will be held liable for damages…
And BTW, this fox was born in Buffalo, New York!
And by the way, I just happen to have been born in Buffalo, New York! My university mascot was a bison!
For a company that disavows mascots, NJM insurance presents a lot of mascots of the fictitious competition, and they frequently are pretty good! These dastardly mascots also try their best to cover up advertising copy for NJM. As this commercial begins, we are shown a peacock who spreads his tail feathers at a bus stop to cover a posted ad for NJM. Then at an office, the purple arm of some thing appears to close the lid of a laptop that might be preparing to display NJM copy. A large green” Kraken” hangs from the roof of a bus to spread its tentacles over an NJM ad. Lastly, a bear using a riding mower runs over and thoroughly shreds a delivered newspaper bearing NJM ad copy, pieces of which then float in the air like confetti around a bewildered homeowner…
It’s no “secret,” you see, that NJMinsurance is so good that it stands on its own merits, and doesn’t need mascots…
Why do I blog? Good writing prompt, BTW, and I rarely respond to these things. – – I blog because it’s so muchcheaper than therapy! Thinking about it, however, I blog because it affords me a sense of community, of knowing that somewhere out there in internet-land there are a few people who are interested in the same things that I am, and perhaps share elements of my weirdness. This can make it a bit easier to take the daily masquerade that we all engage in, of preparing a face to meet the faces that we meet…
What I am is a strange mixture of frustrated English teacher, biologist, paranormal fancier, and red fox furry. I was afurry back in the pre-internet days before we even had a word for it, and those of us who were of that persuasion just kind of blundered around unnaturally attached to cartoons, and identifying with the animal characters depicted. I played a chicken in my 2nd grade class play and Don Quixote’s horse Rocinante in a college adaptation of Man of La Mancha, and couldn’t have been happier. Playing a horse was much better than being a chicken, however, as I got to wear a large paper mache head and pulled a draped sawhorse frame behind me to simulate a horse’s body. The rear sawhorse legs were hinged so I could sit down on stage…
I guessthat experience initially led me to identify as a horse in the fandom, and I functioned acceptably that way for a while, but I could only take the identification so far. So I tried being a wolf for a whole, but wasn’t really a pack animal nor could I handle the frequently expected aggressiveness. Many of us in the fandom need to experiment and essentially try on different identities before we find the right one, and that’s fine! It’s kinda like deciding on a career field, but far deeper psychologically…
Now the furry fandom is full of vixens, but I reasoned that there must be male foxes as well to continue the species. So I accepted my identity as a male fox, and the role has fit me like a glove ever since! Sometimes, it would appear, we must wander in the desert for some time before we can finally find where we are going…
So blogging can reinforce your sense of personal identity, tie you in with a community of like-minded spirits, and it can even be a kick, to boot (pun intended). It’s also humbling to draw readers from different locations around the world. So thank you, WordPress, for giving each of us our own crazy personal niches! It may not be a second Eden, but it still beats Berwyn, right?
Back to business in my next post. But right now, it’s time for a group hug or skritch in appreciation for my readers who put up with me!
There’s a strange live-action/animated anthology TV series hosted by “Bill” (Bill Leff ) , MeTV’s “cartoon curator,” along with his puppet friend, Toony the Tuna. One does not often see a fish co-hosting a TV show, much less a talking fish apparently comfortable out of water, but Toony manages. Toony even sports wardrobe changes!
Each show contains four to six animated shorts taken from classic cartoon shows, including Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, Tom and Jerry, Betty Boop, Popeye, Woody Woodpecker, and a number pf others. The shows featured mostly aired from the 1950’s through the 1990’s. In between cartoons, Bill and Toony banter about what the cartoons illustrate, as well as issues around the studio. The show can be mildly educational at times…
While the MeTV show airs early weekdays in many areas for just an hour, a more comprehensive 24-hour a day version called MeTV Toons began in late June, and is available through subscription, or if you’re fortunate enough may be available through your cable package in your local area. Several complete episodes are available for free through YouTube. At any rate, it’s nice to see a series dedicated to the airing of classic ‘toons, and we’ll just hope that Toony doesn’t wind up in a casserole or someone’s sandwich…
Somewhere between theMayhem guy’s minimalist animal impersonations and a full-fledged, identity-concealing fursuit is Earl the Cat, doing commercial duties for Smalls Cat food. Earl is anthropomorphic, sleeping in a bed, going into the bathroom and brushing his tongue, and yes…we briefly glimpse a litter box in that bathroom, but thankfully do not see Earl using it!
We see Earl engaging in cat-behaviors such as doing a variety of full-body stretches to limber up the old back…but Earl also does humanoid activities such as going on his computer and getting into social networking sites. He becomes visibly excited when viewing web images of chickens…
Yes,Earl has the best of both worlds! Half-man and half-cat, Earl’s thoughts eventually turn as do all of ours to food. Earl is one of the sophisticats, too…no alley cat he! Picking out a container of food from a pantry-full, he carries it to a nice table, where there is candle-lighting, and perhaps a bottle of vino.- –How refined! – -How sweet it is! But in the manner of domestic animals everywhere, Earl puts his face down to eat directly from his plate.- – No utensils necessary!
Wouldn’t you love to have a human-sized anthropomorphic cat to lounge around your place? Sign me up!- – Cuddles and snuggles, anyone?- –Meow!
FOXSYLVANIA 
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