— I can’t take the loss of many more of my childhood icons; Captain Kangaroo has passed on, and now also Soupy Sales at age 83. Soupy in my opinion has never gotten the credit or recognition that he deserved; a comedian of television, radio, and film born Milton Supman, Soupy drew heavily from slapstick and also used word play and improvisation. His comedy wasn’t always sophisticated, but it could be clever and was always funny; taking a pie in the face was a stock in trade, and Soupy estimated that he and his visitors took 20,000 pies in the course of his career. Soupy was big at the time in the New York area where I grew up in to the extent that kids would imitate him and do his routines.
Soupy had furry elements; two of the visitors to his shows were dogs called White Fang and Black Tooth, who appeared at his door as giant shaggy paws with felt triangular claws. White Fang spoke with unintelligible growls and grunts which Soupy repeated back to his audience in English; Black Tooth was also unintelligible, but was into giving loud and sloppy kisses to Soupy off-camera. Then there was Pookie the Lion, a hip character prone to appearing in Soupy’s window who you could understand. – -Soupy even had a novelty dance record and song called The Mouse which was wildly popular in the mid-1960’s!- –Hey!–Do the Mouse, Yeah! I last saw Soupy on game shows, those last retreats of celebrities past their popularity prime. Even then, he was funny, using his improv talents to transcend the medium and material that he had to work with.
As Soupy was influenced by the Marx Brothers, so he also influenced other comedians including Andy Kaufman and Paul Reubens; if you twist and press Soupy’s persona, you get Pee-wee Herman! Soupy was an earlier prototype of the cheerfully demented childrens’ TV show host, filled with manic energy. All of these comics realized that much comic inspiration can be drawn from childhood, which can be darker and more twisted than many realize…
Thank you, Soupy, for all the laughter and the furry undertones! To quote lyrics from The Mouse, “every cat in the neighborhood will be in shock.”
Cats, you see, loved Soupy Sales, and will miss him as will I…
— Jazz musicians have often been called cats, and Nora is literally that. This gray tabby cat was adopted from a shelter in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and when a year old climbed up onto the bench in front of a Yamaha piano in the middle of the night and began to play! She has continued to tickle the ivories on a daily basis, at times playing duets with her owner and her owner’s students; she also plays alone, gravitating towards the D-E-F range on the keyboard, and including the black keys in her playing. 
– -The end is near!
— He’s furry, he’s fun, and he’s…everywhere!–The crasher squirrel, that is! 
— Believe it or not, there appears to be a live-action Aquaman movie in the works, with the star yet undecided! Aquaman has come a long way since his rather insipid portrayal as a whale-summoner in old ‘toon shows like 
— Jeez, you can hardly turn around these days without another beloved 
–On May 1st, X-Men Origins: Wolverine will open in the U.S., with Hugh Jackman in the title role. Because of his furry nature, Wolverine is a fave of mine, and Jackman portrayed him well in the previous three X-Men movies.
—The Cartoon Network tends to be a mixed bag, with some decent ‘toons and some better left forgotten. A cute, funny, and very viewable series that didn’t originate there is Skunk Fu, featuring a panda kung fu master and a variety of martial-arts trained anthropomorphic animals. Skunk is a likable, spunky title character given to laziness at times and seeking shortcuts. Vulpines are well-represented by Fox, a vixen who is quite graceful and alluring 
Q:–What is a wok?
Near Juneau, Alaska resides a handsome black wolf who lives a solitary existence apart from a mate or wolf pack. The locals call him Romeo, as he may be the mate of a deceased female wolf called Juliet, who was found dead in 2003. Romeo is estimated to be about eight years old, and for the past six years he has appeared for a six month stretch beginning in November when the glacier’s lakes start to freeze.
FOXSYLVANIA 
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