The revolving fad that was troll dolls. Donald Duck and math meet in an educational short film. Some telephone companies who can no longer take your calls.
Episode 191 gives you your weekly dose of Gen-X nostalgia with all of this and more!
Many fads come and go. However it takes a special fad to come and go repeatedly over decades. That is what makes troll dolls different. Cute, creepy, bizarre, these and other adjectives could be used to describe the spiky haired toys. What made troll dolls popular? Why did they fade away and return so often? We do a deep dive into them this week.
Can a beloved Disney character make learning about math palatable? We go way back in the day to watch the 1959 educational short film Donald Duck In Mathmagic Land. It is filled with laughs, music, billiards, a few yawns, and way too many pentagrams. We'll give it a good old review.
If you are told this week to call someone who cares unfortunately you won't be able to use any of these telephone companies. The Top 5 looks at defunct phone companies from over the decades. Did you pay bills to any of these?
There is as always a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the debut of the groundbreaking sketch comedy show In Living Color.
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Helpful Links from this Episode
- Purchase My New Book Cape Cod Beyond the Beach!
- In My Footsteps: A Cape Cod Travel Guide(2nd Edition)
- Hooked By Kiwi - Etsy.com
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- Initial Impressions 2.0 Blog
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- CJSetterlundPhotos on Etsy
- Donald Duck In Mathmagic Land
Listen to Episode 190 here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 00 (00:00):
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 191.
We are plowing through April.
(00:20):
We are plowing headlong throughthe allergies and the pollen.
But I've got the cure, at leastbriefly, and that is a heavy
dose of nostalgia.
We're going to kick it off witha weird, fun, and surprisingly
popular fad that 90s kids willremember, and that is the Troll
(00:40):
Dolls.
We're going to go way back inthe day and look at one of my
favorite educational shortfilms, and that is Donald Duck
in Math Magic Land.
There'll be a brand new topfive.
These are the defunct telephonecompanies that you may remember
growing up.
And there's going to be a brandnew This Week in History and
(01:02):
Time capsule centered around thedebut of the hit sketch comedy
show In Living Color.
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 191 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
About how allergies are here,spring is here on Cape Cod,
(01:24):
pollen is here.
You might hear it a little bitin my voice.
Like I feel fine, but I cantell that there's a touch of
allergies going on.
Just in case my voice sounds abit different, it is not your
headphones, it is not yourstereo.
Hopefully wherever you are, thepollen's not too bad, but the
weather is great, and you'regetting through it the best you
(01:46):
can.
Thank you for making me part ofyour week to help you briefly
feel young again, my fellow GenXers out there.
I saw something the other dayto go in the opposite direction
to make us Gen Xers feel old.
I saw that legendary MTVpersonality Kurt Loder is going
(02:06):
to be 80 years old in a coupleof weeks.
It's like I know time goes by,but then you get this kind of
cold slap of reality in theface.
It's like, wait a minute, howis he that old?
And then I look in the mirrorat my increasing number of gray
hairs and I'm like, oh yeah,because I got old too.
(02:27):
Man, that's depressing.
Well, welcome to the show.
Sadness has engulfed me, butwe're going to have loads of
fun.
I'm going to take you throughsome nostalgia.
Brought to you this week by oursponsor, nobody, just me.
But on another hand, it isbrought to you by my Patreon
(02:48):
subscribers, who I have to thankto start the show.
Lori, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin,Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal,
Matt.
Thank you all for being mybiggest backers, the Patreon
subscribers.
$5 a month will get you accessto bonus podcast episodes.
(03:09):
It's going to get you access tothe remastered Without a Map
livestreams.
That newest one, the third onethat I did four years ago,
that's going up this week onPatreon for subscribers.
Also, in kind of unrelatedthings, be on the lookout this
week on my YouTube channel forthe finished video where...
(03:30):
I go out to Race Point Lightwith my friends, producer Frank
Durant and real estate brokerBrian Mazzilli.
As we walk the beach, we finishHenry David Thoreau's hike.
We chat about the new moviethat we were filming and just
chat about life and enjoy thebeautiful scenery as we go.
(03:50):
So that's debuting on myYouTube channel.
It'll be Friday from when thispodcast goes live.
So if you're listening in thefuture, it's up there.
Go check it out.
We can get into more of thehousekeeping parts of the
podcast when we get to the end.
Let's dive into the meat ofthis nostalgia sandwich before
the bread goes moldy.
We're gonna start it offlooking at a fad that a lot of
(04:14):
us that were around in the 90sgot swept up in, and that was
collecting troll dolls.
Did you have troll dolls?
Well, let's dive in and shareour shame about collecting those
right now.
Okay, so shame may be kind of astrong word when it comes to
troll dolls and the fad that wasthem.
(04:35):
But come on, all of you outthere listening have something
in your past, something that youcollected or enjoyed, where you
look back and you're like, man,what was I thinking?
For me, I don't regretcollecting Beanie Babies.
I regret how many of them Icollected.
Like a lot of us, we probablythought Beanie Babies were going
(04:57):
to be our retirement fund, andthey ended up being just
something that takes up space inthe attic.
For those of you who areyounger and don't know what
troll dolls are, or those of youthat are older and wondered why
your kids were asking for thesethings from the toy store,
troll dolls were these littlePlastic toys, they had this wild
(05:19):
hair, that was the biggestthing about them.
Big spiky hair, wide-eyedgrins, and kind of pudgy bodies.
They were really weird looking,but yet endearing somehow.
They originated in Denmark,they became an unlikely global
craze, they experienced multiplerevivals.
(05:41):
This wasn't like Beanie Babieswhere they burst onto the scene
and went away.
There's been waves ofpopularity of troll dolls
throughout the decades.
And we're going to do a deepdive into how this simple good
luck charm transformed into aglobal sensation.
The troll doll was born in 1959in the small Danish town of
(06:05):
Gjøl.
And boy, I tell you, I just hadto spend five minutes finding
the proper pronunciation of thistown.
It is spelled G-J-O-L with theO having kind of a slash through
it.
So hopefully I just pronouncedit right.
Anyway, G-O-L is where a mannamed Thomas Dam, a baker turned
(06:27):
woodworker, created the firsttroll doll when he couldn't
afford a Christmas gift for hisdaughter.
This was inspired by the trollsof Scandinavian folklore,
mischievous yet often friendlyforest creatures.
So Thomas Dam carved a doll outof wood and topped it with
woolen hair.
This troll doll quickly caughtthe attention of neighbors and
(06:50):
shopkeepers, leading Dam tobegin mass-producing them using
plastic under the company nameDam Things, so that's pretty
clever.
These early troll dolls in theEarly 1960s, they were called
good luck trolls, and they wereintended as small tokens to
bring fortune and happiness totheir owners.
(07:11):
Their exaggerated facialfeatures, pot bellies, glass
eyes, and electrified lookinghair made them uniquely
endearing, if not a bit bizarre.
The troll dolls had severaldistinct characteristics.
First and foremost was thebright, colorful hair, standing
(07:32):
on end, often neon colors,pinks, oranges, and blues.
I was thinking of a scene in aSimpsons episode from season six
where Bart had a troll doll,and he was singing, I'm a troll
man, and Marge takes the dolland just remarks about its awful
hair, and it's got the spikyblue hair, and she's got the
(07:53):
same sort of hairdo.
The troll dolls also had largeglassy eyes.
They had kind of a permanentlysurprised expression, which I
guess is better than having thembe permanently sad or angry.
Their bodies were equipped withstubby limbs, large bellies.
Especially later versions wouldhave a gemstone for a belly
(08:16):
button.
The dolls were meant to befriendly.
They had big smiling faces,sometimes with visible teeth or
molded wrinkles.
So they'd be smiling at you,but they'd also look very
creepy.
Each of the dolls had its ownunique personality, with some
being, you know, firefighters,ballerinas, clowns.
(08:37):
This added to theircollectability.
By the early 1960s, troll dollshad migrated from Denmark to
the United States, UnitedKingdom, becoming a full-blown
fad.
Kids loved the wacky look, andthey were small enough to
collect or carry around, bringto school, put in your backpack.
Companies like Unita DollCompany licensed versions of the
(09:02):
troll dolls, although ThomasDam himself struggled with
protecting his intellectualproperty.
I couldn't imagine creatingsomething that then became a
global fad.
Like, what do you do?
You'd think it'd be great, youwould make tons of money, but
then there's, like I said,protecting the IP, also
unauthorized knockoff brands andsuch.
(09:25):
At its peak in the mid-1960s,troll dolls were one of the
best-selling toys in the UnitedStates.
They were particularly popularwith girls, often used as good
luck charms or friendshiptokens.
Schools and playgrounds werefilled with children showing off
their growing collections oftroll dolls.
Even adults got in on it.
(09:46):
Miniature trolls would becomepopular keychains, pencil
toppers, dashboard mascots.
Like many fads, though, theinitial troll doll craze
exploded and then it began todecline by the early 1970s.
It came from the market beingoversaturated.
And kids, you know, shortattention spans.
(10:07):
Their interest moved on todifferent action figures and
then video games.
You can't keep a good trolldown, though.
There was a major revival inthe 1980s riding the wave of 60s
nostalgia.
It was then followed by an evenbigger resurgence, and this is
the one that I remember and alot of you that are around my
(10:28):
age will remember, in the early90s.
This was when the Troll Dollscame back and they were called
Treasure Trolls or Wishniks.
This third time as a charm madeit where companies were going
to make the most out of thisopportunity.
So the Trolls were massmarketed with accessories, play
sets, animated shows andmerchandise.
(10:50):
Hasbro acquired the licensingrights in the United States and
expanded the line, so then trolldolls were everywhere.
On lunch boxes, in McDonald'shappy meals, on clothing, even
the subject of comic books.
This time, at the height oftheir popularity in the mid-90s,
troll dolls were, again, amongthe most popular toys in the
(11:13):
world.
I can't speak for anyone else.
I know me personally.
I had a lot of the smallerones, the ones that would be
considered pencil toppers orkeychains.
These ones, I can remember thetroll dolls being something you
could find in the Hallmarkstores that were either in the
mall or in regular strip malls.
I was in high school, and Ithink I remember at the time
(11:36):
wanting to make sure the trolldolls that I got were more
geared towards boys.
because they were cool, theywere ugly chic, but it was also
you knew that they werecollector's items, so that it
was an excuse, I guess, I couldmake.
Yeah, I've got some trolldolls, but they're going to make
me money in the future with theburgeoning eBay website that
(11:58):
came out in the late 1990s.
By the late 90s, though, trolldolls began to lose their
appeal.
Again, it was oversaturation.
You that were around thenremember There was that brief
time of a few years where trolldolls were everywhere.
And if something's notdifficult to find anymore, it
starts to become passe.
(12:19):
With any fad, there comes newfads that will knock it off the
top of the mountain.
That's where Beanie Babies camein.
There was also Pokemon andTamagotchis.
That's why it's going to bedifficult to make any sort of
children's toys, because even ifit's supremely popular, the
shelf life might be reallybrief.
(12:39):
So it's like, save your moneythat you make.
There was also legal confusionthat led to the decline of troll
dolls, with multiple companiesmaking them, often without
licensing agreements.
So you'd get the cheapoknockoff ones, go on eBay and
try to sell it and be like,wait, this isn't a real troll
doll.
By the early 2000s, thatoriginal troll design that you
(13:04):
can see in your head, eventhough it was nostalgic to some,
it was viewed as outdated andeven creepy by younger kids.
Troll dolls became relegated tothrift shops, grandparents'
basements.
I don't even know what happenedto the ones I have.
Maybe they're in boxes in mymom's basement.
(13:24):
Maybe they're in the trashbins.
Maybe they're 50 feet under alandfill somewhere.
But you can't keep a good faddown.
And even though the originaldolls faded, Trolls saw a
surprising reinvention with the2016 film called Trolls.
And then it was followed bysequels in 2020, Trolls World
(13:46):
Tour, and 2023 with Trolls BandTogether.
We also can't forget thelegendary...
Troll films in the 1980s, thehorror movies, 1986's Troll, and
then the iconic, so awful, it'skind of good, Troll 2.
Troll dolls are a perfectexample of how a quirky,
(14:08):
unconventional toy can capturethe world's imagination.
It started as a handmade woodenfigure in Denmark and became a
worldwide pop culture iconthat's had waves of popularity.
Their days as a toy aisleroyalty might be over, mainly
because there's not really manystores left that have toy
(14:30):
aisles.
But you can go on eBay, findthose classic trolls, or maybe
walk down into your basementnow.
Maybe you've still got yourtrolls.
All I know is they weredefinitely a very unique toy, a
unique fad.
Because really, think about it.
What other toy could make youlaugh, make you confused,
(14:50):
creeped out, and bring you luck,supposedly, all at the same
time?
That's what Trolls did.
This week in history, we aregoing back 35 years ago to April
15th, 1990, and the debut ofthe groundbreaking sketch comedy
(15:14):
show In Living Color.
I cannot believe this is 35years ago.
The show In Living Color wascreated by Kenan Ivory Wayans,
who was already an establishedcomedian and filmmaker.
He envisioned a show thatreflected the black experience
in America with humor,authenticity, and edge.
(15:34):
Fox, that was a fledglingnetwork, was looking to make a
mark, so they took a chance onWayne's vision, and with its
premiere, In Living Colorbrought something radically
different to primetime.
It was a sketch comedy showwith a predominantly black cast,
a hip-hop flair, and anunapologetic approach to satire
(15:56):
and social commentary.
At the time this show came out,I was 12 years old, and I was
watching Saturday Night Liveregularly, starting probably in
1989.
The first episode debuted on aSunday night at 9.30pm, with it
being moved to Saturdays at 9the next week.
So it was way easier for me,being 12 years old, to stay up
(16:19):
and watch this show.
It was so different thananything I had seen before.
It was backed by a high-energytheme performed by Heavy D and
the Boys.
It featured dance interludeswith the Fly Girls that were
choreographed by Rosie Perez.
A big part of In Living Color'ssuccess stemmed from the
memorable characters and sharpparodies of pop culture,
(16:42):
politics, and race relations.
If you were around back then,you can immediately think of the
unforgettable sketches andcharacters that were on In
Living Color.
The first one I think of isHomie D.
Clown, who was played by DamonWayans.
He was a grumpy ex-con turnedchildren's entertainer who would
refuse to conform and oftenuttered that famous catchphrase,
(17:06):
homie don't play that.
There was Men on Film, aflamboyant and hilarious
critique of movie culture withDavid Alan Greer and Damon
Wayans playing two effeminatefilm critics giving their
reviews two snaps up.
Or if they didn't like it, theywould just say hated it
simultaneously.
There was Fire Marshal Bill,who was a deranged and
(17:30):
accident-prone safetyinstructor, played by Jim
Carrey, who had the catchphrase,let me show you something, and
he would instantly do somethingthat would ruin everything
around him.
In Living Color launched thecareers of Jim Carrey, Jennifer
Lopez, who was one of theoriginal Fly Girls, and Jamie
Foxx, who joined in laterseasons and went on to win an
(17:52):
Academy Award.
If you had told me in 1994 thatWanda on In Living Color would
go on to be an Academy Awardwinning actor, I'd have said,
what has happened to the world?
And of course, you couldn'thave the show without the Wayans
family.
Kenan, Damon, Sean, Kim,Marlon, they were all over the
show.
They used that show as afoundation for future projects
(18:16):
like The Wayans Brothers Showand Scary Movie.
And Living Color aired for fiveseasons, with its last one
being in 1994, but its influenceis still deeply felt.
It paved the way for otherboundary-pushing sketch shows
like Chappelle's Show, Key &Peele, even Mad TV.
Fox tried to revive the seriesin 2012 for a new generation,
(18:40):
but that reboot never got offthe ground.
It was kind of lightning in thebottle.
It was fearless, tacklingissues like police brutality,
racial stereotypes, andhomophobia, but doing so in a
way that made you laugh everyweek.
And more than three decadesafter its debut, In Living Color
remains a testament to thepower of bold creativity and
(19:03):
representation in entertainment.
And that show, In Living Color,made its debut, I can't believe
it, a whopping 35 years agothis week in history.
Oh, and here we go.
A brand new time capsule.
We're going to stick to thesame day.
(19:24):
So In Living Color debuts April15th, 1990.
What else is going on in theworld of pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was I'll BeYour Everything by Tommy Page.
You're forgiven if you have noidea who Tommy Page was.
I consider myself a pretty goodexpert at nostalgia, and I had
(19:49):
to look it up.
I'm like, who in the world isthis guy?
The song was off of his album'sPaintings in My Mind, and it
was co-written by Danny Wood andJordan Knight of New Kids on
the Block.
This was Tommy Page's only hitsong, and sadly, he passed away
in 2017 at the age of 49,apparently by suicide.
(20:10):
The number one movie wasTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
and you could get into thetheater with a ticket costing
$4.22.
This is the live-action versionof the comic book or cartoon
series.
heroes in the half shell, theturtles that were kind of in
(20:32):
these animatronic rubber suits,Leonardo, Donatello,
Michelangelo, Raphael, Splinter,their rat leader.
The film is 43% fresh on RottenTomatoes, but it made over $200
million on a budget of justover $13 million, making it the
(20:54):
highest grossing independentfilm ever at the time.
This was followed up the nextyear by Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles 2 The Secret of theOoze, which included that awful
vanilla ice song ninja rap.
The number one TV show wasRoseanne.
It's about the middle classfamily, the Conners, and their
(21:17):
hijinks.
The original series was on fornine seasons from 1988 to 1997.
with a spinoff show, TheConners, still on the air in its
seventh season.
So you can still see the familyminus that idiot Roseanne if
you want to go check it out.
And if you were around backthen, April 15th, 1990, maybe
(21:42):
you went to see Teenage MutantNinja Turtles with your kids.
You've got to stop off quicklyand get a few things at the
drugstore or pharmacy.
Well, you're in luck.
There's a lot of deals going onthis week at Osco Drug.
Such monumental deals as theirOsco Drug Rubbing Alcohol, two
(22:02):
for a dollar.
An Osco Deluxe Water Bottle for$6.99.
Osco Milk of Magnesia for$1.49.
Or even an Osco Infant's EnemaSyringe for $1.99.
So there's some ingredients fora fun night.
So that wraps up another timecapsule, another This Week in
(22:25):
History.
If you didn't enjoy thatsegment, I would say call
somebody who cares.
But in this new top five,you're not going to be able to
use any of these telephonecompanies because they're all
out of business.
I feel like telephone companiesare the ones that go out of
(22:48):
business or merge with others orget bought out more than almost
any other company I've everknown in my life.
I would imagine that the vastmajority of you listening have
had your service through varioustelephone companies over the
years, over the decades.
And what I wanted to do withthis week's top five is look at
(23:09):
some of the top telephonecompanies that are now gone.
With this, I'm talking aboutany self-sustaining telephone
company that was out there.
They don't have to have goneout of business on their own.
They could have been bought outand merged into a larger
company.
But the bottom line is, theseall are telephone companies, in
(23:32):
name at least, that are defunct,out of business.
With this top five, as withmost, they're in no particular
order, and we've got somehonorable mentions.
Did you find any of thesecompany names on the top of your
phone bill over the lastcentury?
I bet you have.
So honorable mentions fordefunct telephone companies
(23:56):
include Nextel.
They were around from 1987 to2013 before being bought out by
Sprint.
Another honorable mention isSingular.
They were my first cell phonecompany that I had my bill
through.
They were around from 2000 to2006 before being bought out by
(24:21):
AT&T.
Another honorable mention isMCI.
They were around from 1983 to2006 before being bought out by
Verizon.
And the final honorable mentionis GTE.
standing for General Telephoneand Electronics.
(24:43):
They were around from 1926 to2000 before being bought out by
Bell Atlantic.
So those are the honorablementions.
Like I said, Singular was myfirst cell phone company, so did
you have any of these companieson your phone bills?
Well, let's get into the actualtop five, starting with number
(25:05):
one, 9X.
No.
Speaker 06 (25:09):
May we see a menu?
Speaker 01 (25:10):
Yes.
No.
I don't know.
If it's out there, it's inhere.
The 9X Yellow Pages.
Why would anyone need another?
Speaker 00 (25:22):
9X stood for New York New England Exchange.
They were first formed in 1984from the breakup of the Bell
System.
And if you're wondering aboutthe Bell System, stay tuned.
I remember those commercialsfor 9X, the 9X yellow pages, a
lot during my childhood.
Besides telephone, 9X was intocomputers.
(25:45):
But they got into a lot oftrouble.
There were strikes against themby their workers in 1990.
They were ordered in 1990 toreturn $35 million to their
consumers for overcharging.
In August 1997...
9X was folded into the BellAtlantic Company, so they ceased
(26:06):
to exist.
Number two is Sprint.
Speaker 03 (26:11):
U.S.
Sprint's long-distance digitalfiber optic network is so quiet,
you can actually hear a pindrop.
On the other hand, it's soefficient, you'll
Speaker 00 (26:23):
get the best...
This is a more recent one.
and was one of the largesttelephone companies in the world
at the time that they werebought out by T-Mobile.
Sprint could trace its rootsall the way back to the Brown
Telephone Company in 1899, whichfirst gave telephone service to
rural Kansas.
(26:43):
In the mid-70s, there was acontest to give a name to the
company.
Sprint was the winner, and itstood for Southern Pacific
Railroad.
internal networking telephony.
As of June 2019, Sprint wasstill serving 54 million
customers in the United States.
(27:05):
T-Mobile bought Sprint in 2020for $26 billion and quickly
phased out the Sprint name.
Number three is the BellSystem.
The Bell System was thedominant brand in telephone
communications in the UnitedStates for almost a century.
(27:28):
It was basically a monopoly.
The company was founded in 1877by Alexander Graham Bell, the
man who invented the telephone.
So this was his legacy.
As early as the 1910s, peoplewere complaining about a
monopoly and bringing antitrustlawsuits against the Bell
(27:48):
Company.
The company as a whole wasoften referred to colloquially
as Ma Bell.
Finally, in 1983, the Bellsystem was broken up.
That's where, like I said aminute ago, where 9X came from.
At the time of its breakup, theBell system had assets of $150
(28:09):
billion in 1984.
When adjusted for inflation to2025, that is equal to $461
billion.
No wonder it needed to bebroken up.
Number four is New EnglandTelephone.
One near and dear to my heartwere the ones for you, New
(28:46):
England, New England Telephone.
Those commercials were on allthe time during my childhood.
This has to do with the NewEngland Telephone that was
around in the 80s.
There was actually a NewEngland Telephone and Telegraph
company in 1878 and 1879.
This is not them.
New England Telephone was apart of the aforementioned Bell
(29:09):
system.
They began in 1883.
They basically picked up thatNew England Telephone and
Telegraph name and just took offwith it.
New England Telephone became apart of 9X once 9X broke away
from the Bell system, but theywere on their own.
They were still their owncompany, just a 9X branch.
Even when 9X was bought by BellAtlantic in 1997, New England
(29:35):
Telephone stayed around.
It kept its name until 2001.
when Verizon bought everythingand changed it to Verizon New
England.
And finally, number five on thelist of top five defunct
telephone companies is the BellTelephone Company.
This was the original, the veryfirst telephone company ever
(29:59):
founded by Alexander Graham Bellin 1877.
It was only a year afterAlexander Graham Bell patented
the telephone that he createdhis first phone company.
And you remember when I justmentioned the Bell system, this
is the originator of it.
And it just kept growing untilit became a monopoly.
The original purpose of theBell telephone company was
(30:24):
researching and developing andmarketing the telephone because
it was brand new.
In 1881, the Bell telephonecompany became the American Bell
telephone company.
Within a few years, theAmerican Bell telephone company
evolved into the AmericanTelephone and Telegraph Company,
(30:44):
AT&T, which is still aroundtoday.
But the original, the originalBell telephone company only
lasted a few years.
It is defunct in name, althoughAT&T is still around to this
day.
Did you have any of thosetelephone companies as the
provider for you?
(31:04):
I would think that none of youwould have the Bell Telephone
Company.
You'd have to be 170 years old.
If you are that old and youhave the holy grail that keeps
you young, let me know.
Send me a message.
Otherwise, we're going to shiftgears and go from defunct
telephone companies to one of myall-time favorite educational
(31:25):
short films.
Donald Duck in Math Magic Land.
This is one of thoseeducational short films that
stuck with me from an early age.
I can only assume that I sawthis for the first time probably
(31:47):
somewhere between fourth andfifth grade.
Donald Duck in Mathmagic Landis from 1959, so even though
it's getting close to 70 yearsago, it's a film, an educational
short film, that was stillbeing shown in schools as late
as the mid to late 1980s.
Donald Duck in Mathmagic Landis definitely an intro to
(32:12):
mathematics for a youngeraudience, probably kids that
were 12 and under, I wouldthink.
It's a little bit longer.
It clocks in at just over 27minutes, which is interesting
because I remember when I saw itbeing very engrossed in it,
interested, I think because it'sDonald Duck.
But I could easily see thisbeing one where kids would start
(32:35):
to have their minds wandering.
Because when you're 8 to 12years old, sitting in the dark
watching TV for almost a halfhour, having to pay attention,
it can be hard.
The film starts off with somenice whimsical Disney music as
they show you all the credits ofwho created this project.
As a kid, I know I didn't care,but when I watched this back
(33:10):
for the podcast, The first thingI think of when I see this
movie is Donald Duck is in thisdark forest.
There's a shadow.
He's walking in in a huntinguniform with a rifle.
They never bring up what he wasdoing.
Was he just out hunting and hewandered into math magic land?
(33:30):
And what was Donald Duckhunting?
Other ducks?
Is he cannibalistic?
I don't know.
Mathemagic land is just filledwith numbers.
There's trees shaped likenumbers.
There's waterfalls that arefilled with numbers and shapes,
geometric shapes.
There's a pencil thatchallenges Donald to
(33:51):
tic-tac-toe.
Then he finally, afterwandering around, gets to meet
the spirit that is kind of thenarrator.
The spirit says that he's thetrue spirit of adventure, which
when you're a kid watching this,I think that the true spirit of
adventure, if it led you to aland filled with math, I don't
(34:11):
think that would be an excitingadventure to go on.
At first, Donald is not excitedabout going on an adventure in
mathematics, but the spirittells him that math is connected
to music, so that gets himinterested.
Donald is then taken back toancient Greece to meet
Pythagoras.
(34:32):
Come on,
Speaker 04 (34:34):
let's go to ancient Greece.
To the time of Pythagoras, themaster egghead of them all.
Pythagoras?
The father of mathematics andmusic.
Speaker 06 (34:43):
Mathematics and music?
Speaker 00 (34:45):
The spirit goes on to explain how mathematics makes
music different, the differentoctaves of a string.
Then we get a whole big musicalnumber with Pythagoras and his
followers, the Pythagoreans, asthey play music.
And it's loosely based aroundmathematics, but Donald gets
(35:06):
really into it.
They're all playing stringedinstruments.
Donald brings this jug as abongo drum.
So they're all jammingtogether.
And then it busts into liveaction, big band jazz music
playing.
And then it's more classicalwith piano and violins.
While I was watching this, evennow as an adult, I could only
(35:28):
imagine being a kid listening toclassical music in the dark at
school.
You'd easily start zoning out,falling asleep.
I debated fast forwardingthrough this, but I'm like, no,
for the integrity of the reviewon the podcast, I've got to
watch every second of this.
Donald ends up getting thepentagram tattooed on his hand,
(35:52):
becoming friends withPythagoras.
The pentagram is supposed to befull of mathemagic.
Now, I can only speak for me.
I don't know you out there.
When you hear pentagram, do youthink of math or do you think
of like secret cults and such?
Because that's the first thingI thought of.
Granted, this is 1959.
But they start talking so muchabout pentagrams and I'm like,
(36:15):
man, is this occult stuff?
Satan followers?
I don't know.
It's Donald Duck.
What's happening here?
The spirit talks about themagical golden section, which I
don't understand music.
I'm not a musician.
Then the spirit goes into howin the pentagram is a secret for
creating a golden rectangle.
(36:36):
If you're a lover of math, youprobably understand that.
If you like Donald Duck andDisney, you will still be able
to enjoy this short film.
But I'll admit, it startedlosing me at this point a little
bit.
It said that this goldenrectangle has magical qualities.
I don't know what they are.
They don't explain it.
(36:56):
You're just supposed to acceptthat.
But they show a whole bunch ofdifferent images of how this
rectangle influenced Greekdesign, their old buildings.
And there's a song showing...
Different shapes and thepentagram fitting into it and
moving around to try to get youto understand the golden
(37:17):
rectangle.
Then as if you weren't lostenough with the golden
triangles, golden sections,golden rectangles, then there's
a golden spiral they talk about.
I could only imagine being 10years old and watching this and
saying, where's Donald?
I want to see Donald doingstuff and talking.
I don't want to see shapes andreally learn about math in a
(37:40):
math magic film.
The Spirit keeps going on aboutthe golden rectangle, about how
it's influenced the modernworld, you know, the late 50s.
But then they talk about howit's the proportions of beauty.
And there's this dancer on thescreen.
So suddenly Donald is back,very excited by this woman.
He comes running into thescreen, trying to hug the woman,
(38:03):
but she vanishes into a pile ofrectangle shapes.
Speaker 06 (38:07):
Boy, oh boy, oh boy.
This is mathematics?
I got mathematical figures likethat.
Speaker 04 (38:16):
Ah, ah, ah, Donald.
Speaker 06 (38:17):
Get me quiet.
Speaker 04 (38:18):
No, no.
Speaker 06 (38:19):
Ideal proportion.
Speaker 00 (38:21):
Donald ends up wedging himself into a pentagon,
which leads the spirit to showhow nature uses these shapes,
the mathematics.
It shows a bunch of flowers,starfish, sand dollars.
But even with all of the shapesand mathematics in nature, it
keeps coming back to thepentagram.
(38:43):
So every time I would see it,I'd immediately lose focus and
think of cults.
So we get a few minutes of liveaction, showing shells on the
beach, real close-ups of insectsand spider webs.
This definitely would have keptkids interested, I think, at
least a little.
The picture of the fly reallyclose up of its eye, I think,
(39:04):
would have freaked out kids myage when I saw it, you know, 9,
10 years old.
Then we get a weirdkaleidoscope effect as Donald
comes back together to be a partof this again.
We then move into the story ofchess and how chess is
mathematics and Donald's on thebig chess board.
The spirit talks about howauthor Lewis Carroll used chess
(39:27):
as an allegory for part ofThrough the Looking Glass, so
Alice in Wonderland.
And the chess pieces startchasing Donald around saying
he's a lost pawn.
So Donald's running awaybegging the spirit to help him.
Speaker 06 (39:40):
He eventually
Speaker 00 (39:57):
escapes.
He dives off the chessboard,and there's a treasure chest
that has candy in it, and itsays, eat one.
So he eats it and grows big,and then he can look down on the
chessboard.
And they show a chess gamebeing performed, kind of in fast
forward because chess wasboring definitely as a kid.
I couldn't imagine sitting andwatching people play chess, even
(40:18):
today.
Donald is as bored with chessas I would have been, as
probably some of you would havebeen.
But then he gets excited whenthey go to baseball and they
show the diamond.
Then Donald moves on to playingfootball and they're talking
about how it's a rectangle.
Next is basketball and how it'sa game of circles and spheres
(40:39):
played on a rectangle.
Then they get into hopscotchand there's Donald with a giant
lollipop.
Is hopscotch still a thing?
I'm trying to think in the2020s.
Do kids play hopscotch?
Any of you out there that haveyoung kids, have they played
hopscotch?
I think we did as kids.
Not much.
(40:59):
That seems more of like a 1940sand 50s type of game.
Maybe they should make a videogame version of Hopscotch.
I think kids might play that.
Then we get into a reallyin-depth segment about how to
play billiards, which I've neverbeen into playing pool, but
they really get into showing youhow to play it.
(41:21):
They show you a specific onecalled three cushion billiards.
So there's three balls on thetable.
And it's somewhat interesting.
Like, you could probably learnhow to play pool a bit from this
section of the film.
The idea with three cushionbilliards is that the cue ball
has to hit the other two balls,but it has to hit three sides of
(41:44):
the pool table first.
So it comes down to geometry,knowing how to play the angles.
And they show thisprofessional, quote-unquote,
billiard player, unnamed, nevernamed.
who is showing you how to dothese trick shots.
They mix it up here whereDonald is kind of a part of this
live action scene, commentingon the guy's shots.
(42:07):
This segment really drags on.
Like, if you're not interestedin how to shoot Poole, you're
going to lose interest prettyquickly.
Like I said, this film is justover 27 minutes, and we're
looking at five to six minutesof it that is just shooting
Poole.
After watching this guy do awhole bunch of different shots,
(42:30):
Donald finally tries to get in.
And he's trying to use math tohelp him do these shots.
And naturally, he's not good atit.
So the spirit has to help him.
Donald finally succeeds atbilliards.
(42:56):
Then the spirit says it's timefor the most exciting game of
all.
And that's In Your Mind, whichsounds very spooky, especially
when you were magicallytransported from a hunting trip
to this math magic land.
Like, oh, here's the other sideof the coin where the bad
things happen.
So we go inside Donald Duck'smind and it looks like a dirty
(43:18):
office with a whole bunch offile cabinets filled with papers
and the spirit's mad at him.
But as we go through his mindand look at all the filing
cabinets, there's a picture ofDaisy Duck with it signed Love
Daisy in his mind.
The spirit cleans up Donald'smind.
Now they have him thinking of aperfect circle, not the early
(43:41):
2000s alt band.
Then he has Donald put atriangle inside the circle and
starts spinning it.
That creates a sphere.
Then they start creating lenseswith slicing bits of the
sphere, so microscope,binoculars, showing how
mathematics and shapes influencedaily life.
(44:03):
It goes on to show circles aswheels with cars and trains and
propellers for planes.
They do the same sort ofdiscovery with a cone, slicing
it and showing what cones canmake.
We go through a whole montageof different inventions where
math is a big part of it, clocksand telephones.
(44:25):
The telephone is an old schoolrotary phone with an operator
that pops up and says, number,please.
God, that hadn't been somethingI don't think I would have even
understood in the mid 80s whenI saw this.
It's basically saying that mathin your mind, it's where you
create your inventions and thedifferent innovations in the
world.
And again, we come full circlewith the pentagrams again.
(44:48):
So many pentagrams in thisfilm.
I don't know if Disney wastrying to get little kids into
pentagrams.
I mean, wasn't there like thewhole Satan-worshipping cults
fear in the 1980s?
Maybe it was from kids thatwatched Math Magic Land.
That's why they stopped showingit in later years.
Too many pentagrams.
(45:09):
We get to the end here with anever-ending hallway of doors.
These doors are supposed torepresent discoveries in the
past, so Donald's running inbetween all the doors, all
excited.
Until he eventually gets todoors that aren't open, they're
locked, and he can't get intothem.
And the spirit says, these arethe doors of the future.
Speaker 06 (45:30):
The
Speaker 04 (45:41):
spirit
Speaker 00 (45:45):
then says that the key to these doors is
mathematics.
All the doors float away.
So then the movie ends withDonald Duck just trapped in Math
Magic Land.
They never show him going backon his hunting trip or getting
out of Math Magic Land.
So I guess we're led to assumethat he's just stuck there
(46:08):
forever.
I just went back to look to besure if they said who the voice
of the spirit was or who thepool player was.
But nope, they're notimportant.
They're just unnamed.
But that's Donald Duck in MathMagic Land from 1959.
One of the first educationalshort films I remember as a kid.
(46:28):
Which is wild because it cameout, what, 25 years before I
started school?
And they were still showing it.
It's a fun trip down memorylane for people my age and
probably especially those olderthan me.
You out there in your 50s and60s.
I'm betting you remember it alot better than me.
They need to make a sequel tothis where Donald gets rescued
(46:50):
from Math Magic Land.
Come on, Disney, get on that.
But until next time, that'sgoing to wrap up episode 191 of
the In My Footsteps podcast.
Thank you all so much fortuning in, for making it to the
end.
I hope I fulfilled your quotafor Gen X nostalgia.
I'm always on a never-endingquest to find new topics to
(47:15):
share.
Next week's going to beexciting.
Episode 192 is going to be anew concept.
I talked about several episodesback.
It's going to be one episodetotally dedicated to one year.
So we're going to start it with1985, 40 years ago.
We're going to look at the yearin TV, in music.
(47:37):
Funny and weird events thathappen from the year.
This week in history will befrom 1985.
So we're really going to do adeep dive into that year.
My plan is to sprinkle those inover time.
I'm going to end up choosingany year between basically 1960
and 2005.
The first one I thought of was1985, so we're going to do that
(48:00):
next week.
If you can't get enough of me,of my wacky brand of humor and
my topics I choose, I am allover social media.
Find me on Instagram, myFacebook fan page for the
podcast.
I'm on Blue Sky.
I am always sharing new videoson YouTube.
(48:20):
I've got a blog that I postseveral times a week.
My specialty is the InitialImpressions 2.0 blog that is the
look back at my week that was,the wacky and random things that
happened to me.
So you can find me all overthere.
If you want to support me, mycontent, my never-ending quest
(48:41):
to be a self-sustaining contentcreator, you can subscribe for
$5 a month on Patreon.
You could buy me a coffee.
Links to all that are in thedescription of the podcast.
But of course, the best way tohelp me out as a creator is to
share what I do.
You know, I appreciate peoplethat like my posts.
(49:03):
I'd much rather you share themwith people that aren't aware of
what I do or actually click thelinks.
That's really how you help acontent creator.
I'm a small business, oneperson.
I would love to do morein-depth videos on YouTube or
spend more time marketing mycontent.
But don't forget, I have afull-time job in addition to
(49:26):
this.
And I spend anywhere from 15 to20 hours a week doing this work
on top of everything else.
I do it because I love what Ido.
I've always loved thecreativity, making things from
my own brain.
And I will keep going on thatquest.
I've always got new ideas.
(49:47):
I feel like I have a plate andI'm at a buffet and I just fill
it with everything I like.
That's where the new idea ofacting, voice acting, that's
where that came in.
I wasn't thinking about that ayear ago.
It wasn't until Frank basicallysaid to me, I want you to be in
my next film.
And I'm like, okay, I guessthat's a new avenue for me.
(50:10):
That's a big part of my 2025,just my overall journey.
growth, I guess, as a human isbeing more open to whatever
floats into my orbit.
You know, you never know whatopportunities might show up each
day.
That's a big part of justshowing up in life.
I could literally end recordingthis podcast, go to my car and
(50:34):
go to the store and bump intosomeone that changes my life
forever.
They offer me some kind ofamazing opportunity or they beat
me up and steal my wallet.
I don't know.
The uncertainty is scary, butit's also very exciting.
In the next few months, thefilm that I just finished up
wrapping last month, that'll beout.
(50:57):
I don't know what comes fromthat.
You know, my Etsy shop lookingfor possible casting calls for
background roles in films.
You never know.
And I'm just talking about mewith my creativity and what my
passions are.
Whatever your passions are, younever know what might show up
on your doorstep the next day.
(51:17):
That's my little slice ofinspiration for any of you out
there who might need it.
If you don't need it, then takethis podcast and take a walk
outside and enjoy the beautifulspring weather.
Hopefully you don't haveallergies.
Special birthday wishes thisweek to one of my dearest
friends, Deanna, one of thehardest working people I know
(51:40):
and definitely an inspirationfor me as far as when I say I've
got a full-time job and then Ido my content creation.
She works full-time and she'sgoing to school full-time.
So it's hard for me to complainwhen I see what she does.
So happy birthday and I hopeit's a great birthday.
And remember, in this life,Don't walk in anyone else's
(52:03):
footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow
brings.
Thank you so much again fortuning in.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,but you already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 191.
We are plowing through April.
(00:20):
We are plowing headlong throughthe allergies and the pollen.
But I've got the cure, at leastbriefly, and that is a heavy
dose of nostalgia.
We're going to kick it off witha weird, fun, and surprisingly
popular fad that 90s kids willremember, and that is the Troll
(00:40):
Dolls.
We're going to go way back inthe day and look at one of my
favorite educational shortfilms, and that is Donald Duck
in Math Magic Land.
There'll be a brand new topfive.
These are the defunct telephonecompanies that you may remember
growing up.
And there's going to be a brandnew This Week in History and
(01:02):
Time capsule centered around thedebut of the hit sketch comedy
show In Living Color.
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 191 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
So what are we going to talkabout this week?
About how allergies are here,spring is here on Cape Cod,
(01:24):
pollen is here.
You might hear it a little bitin my voice.
Like I feel fine, but I cantell that there's a touch of
allergies going on.
Just in case my voice sounds abit different, it is not your
headphones, it is not yourstereo.
Hopefully wherever you are, thepollen's not too bad, but the
weather is great, and you'regetting through it the best you
(01:46):
can.
Thank you for making me part ofyour week to help you briefly
feel young again, my fellow GenXers out there.
I saw something the other dayto go in the opposite direction
to make us Gen Xers feel old.
I saw that legendary MTVpersonality Kurt Loder is going
(02:06):
to be 80 years old in a coupleof weeks.
It's like I know time goes by,but then you get this kind of
cold slap of reality in theface.
It's like, wait a minute, howis he that old?
And then I look in the mirrorat my increasing number of gray
hairs and I'm like, oh yeah,because I got old too.
(02:27):
Man, that's depressing.
Well, welcome to the show.
Sadness has engulfed me, butwe're going to have loads of
fun.
I'm going to take you throughsome nostalgia.
Brought to you this week by oursponsor, nobody, just me.
But on another hand, it isbrought to you by my Patreon
(02:48):
subscribers, who I have to thankto start the show.
Lori, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin,Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal,
Matt.
Thank you all for being mybiggest backers, the Patreon
subscribers.
$5 a month will get you accessto bonus podcast episodes.
(03:09):
It's going to get you access tothe remastered Without a Map
livestreams.
That newest one, the third onethat I did four years ago,
that's going up this week onPatreon for subscribers.
Also, in kind of unrelatedthings, be on the lookout this
week on my YouTube channel forthe finished video where...
(03:30):
I go out to Race Point Lightwith my friends, producer Frank
Durant and real estate brokerBrian Mazzilli.
As we walk the beach, we finishHenry David Thoreau's hike.
We chat about the new moviethat we were filming and just
chat about life and enjoy thebeautiful scenery as we go.
(03:50):
So that's debuting on myYouTube channel.
It'll be Friday from when thispodcast goes live.
So if you're listening in thefuture, it's up there.
Go check it out.
We can get into more of thehousekeeping parts of the
podcast when we get to the end.
Let's dive into the meat ofthis nostalgia sandwich before
the bread goes moldy.
We're gonna start it offlooking at a fad that a lot of
(04:14):
us that were around in the 90sgot swept up in, and that was
collecting troll dolls.
Did you have troll dolls?
Well, let's dive in and shareour shame about collecting those
right now.
Okay, so shame may be kind of astrong word when it comes to
troll dolls and the fad that wasthem.
(04:35):
But come on, all of you outthere listening have something
in your past, something that youcollected or enjoyed, where you
look back and you're like, man,what was I thinking?
For me, I don't regretcollecting Beanie Babies.
I regret how many of them Icollected.
Like a lot of us, we probablythought Beanie Babies were going
(04:57):
to be our retirement fund, andthey ended up being just
something that takes up space inthe attic.
For those of you who areyounger and don't know what
troll dolls are, or those of youthat are older and wondered why
your kids were asking for thesethings from the toy store,
troll dolls were these littlePlastic toys, they had this wild
(05:19):
hair, that was the biggestthing about them.
Big spiky hair, wide-eyedgrins, and kind of pudgy bodies.
They were really weird looking,but yet endearing somehow.
They originated in Denmark,they became an unlikely global
craze, they experienced multiplerevivals.
(05:41):
This wasn't like Beanie Babieswhere they burst onto the scene
and went away.
There's been waves ofpopularity of troll dolls
throughout the decades.
And we're going to do a deepdive into how this simple good
luck charm transformed into aglobal sensation.
The troll doll was born in 1959in the small Danish town of
(06:05):
Gjøl.
And boy, I tell you, I just hadto spend five minutes finding
the proper pronunciation of thistown.
It is spelled G-J-O-L with theO having kind of a slash through
it.
So hopefully I just pronouncedit right.
Anyway, G-O-L is where a mannamed Thomas Dam, a baker turned
(06:27):
woodworker, created the firsttroll doll when he couldn't
afford a Christmas gift for hisdaughter.
This was inspired by the trollsof Scandinavian folklore,
mischievous yet often friendlyforest creatures.
So Thomas Dam carved a doll outof wood and topped it with
woolen hair.
This troll doll quickly caughtthe attention of neighbors and
(06:50):
shopkeepers, leading Dam tobegin mass-producing them using
plastic under the company nameDam Things, so that's pretty
clever.
These early troll dolls in theEarly 1960s, they were called
good luck trolls, and they wereintended as small tokens to
bring fortune and happiness totheir owners.
(07:11):
Their exaggerated facialfeatures, pot bellies, glass
eyes, and electrified lookinghair made them uniquely
endearing, if not a bit bizarre.
The troll dolls had severaldistinct characteristics.
First and foremost was thebright, colorful hair, standing
(07:32):
on end, often neon colors,pinks, oranges, and blues.
I was thinking of a scene in aSimpsons episode from season six
where Bart had a troll doll,and he was singing, I'm a troll
man, and Marge takes the dolland just remarks about its awful
hair, and it's got the spikyblue hair, and she's got the
(07:53):
same sort of hairdo.
The troll dolls also had largeglassy eyes.
They had kind of a permanentlysurprised expression, which I
guess is better than having thembe permanently sad or angry.
Their bodies were equipped withstubby limbs, large bellies.
Especially later versions wouldhave a gemstone for a belly
(08:16):
button.
The dolls were meant to befriendly.
They had big smiling faces,sometimes with visible teeth or
molded wrinkles.
So they'd be smiling at you,but they'd also look very
creepy.
Each of the dolls had its ownunique personality, with some
being, you know, firefighters,ballerinas, clowns.
(08:37):
This added to theircollectability.
By the early 1960s, troll dollshad migrated from Denmark to
the United States, UnitedKingdom, becoming a full-blown
fad.
Kids loved the wacky look, andthey were small enough to
collect or carry around, bringto school, put in your backpack.
Companies like Unita DollCompany licensed versions of the
(09:02):
troll dolls, although ThomasDam himself struggled with
protecting his intellectualproperty.
I couldn't imagine creatingsomething that then became a
global fad.
Like, what do you do?
You'd think it'd be great, youwould make tons of money, but
then there's, like I said,protecting the IP, also
unauthorized knockoff brands andsuch.
(09:25):
At its peak in the mid-1960s,troll dolls were one of the
best-selling toys in the UnitedStates.
They were particularly popularwith girls, often used as good
luck charms or friendshiptokens.
Schools and playgrounds werefilled with children showing off
their growing collections oftroll dolls.
Even adults got in on it.
(09:46):
Miniature trolls would becomepopular keychains, pencil
toppers, dashboard mascots.
Like many fads, though, theinitial troll doll craze
exploded and then it began todecline by the early 1970s.
It came from the market beingoversaturated.
And kids, you know, shortattention spans.
(10:07):
Their interest moved on todifferent action figures and
then video games.
You can't keep a good trolldown, though.
There was a major revival inthe 1980s riding the wave of 60s
nostalgia.
It was then followed by an evenbigger resurgence, and this is
the one that I remember and alot of you that are around my
(10:28):
age will remember, in the early90s.
This was when the Troll Dollscame back and they were called
Treasure Trolls or Wishniks.
This third time as a charm madeit where companies were going
to make the most out of thisopportunity.
So the Trolls were massmarketed with accessories, play
sets, animated shows andmerchandise.
(10:50):
Hasbro acquired the licensingrights in the United States and
expanded the line, so then trolldolls were everywhere.
On lunch boxes, in McDonald'shappy meals, on clothing, even
the subject of comic books.
This time, at the height oftheir popularity in the mid-90s,
troll dolls were, again, amongthe most popular toys in the
(11:13):
world.
I can't speak for anyone else.
I know me personally.
I had a lot of the smallerones, the ones that would be
considered pencil toppers orkeychains.
These ones, I can remember thetroll dolls being something you
could find in the Hallmarkstores that were either in the
mall or in regular strip malls.
I was in high school, and Ithink I remember at the time
(11:36):
wanting to make sure the trolldolls that I got were more
geared towards boys.
because they were cool, theywere ugly chic, but it was also
you knew that they werecollector's items, so that it
was an excuse, I guess, I couldmake.
Yeah, I've got some trolldolls, but they're going to make
me money in the future with theburgeoning eBay website that
(11:58):
came out in the late 1990s.
By the late 90s, though, trolldolls began to lose their
appeal.
Again, it was oversaturation.
You that were around thenremember There was that brief
time of a few years where trolldolls were everywhere.
And if something's notdifficult to find anymore, it
starts to become passe.
(12:19):
With any fad, there comes newfads that will knock it off the
top of the mountain.
That's where Beanie Babies camein.
There was also Pokemon andTamagotchis.
That's why it's going to bedifficult to make any sort of
children's toys, because even ifit's supremely popular, the
shelf life might be reallybrief.
(12:39):
So it's like, save your moneythat you make.
There was also legal confusionthat led to the decline of troll
dolls, with multiple companiesmaking them, often without
licensing agreements.
So you'd get the cheapoknockoff ones, go on eBay and
try to sell it and be like,wait, this isn't a real troll
doll.
By the early 2000s, thatoriginal troll design that you
(13:04):
can see in your head, eventhough it was nostalgic to some,
it was viewed as outdated andeven creepy by younger kids.
Troll dolls became relegated tothrift shops, grandparents'
basements.
I don't even know what happenedto the ones I have.
Maybe they're in boxes in mymom's basement.
(13:24):
Maybe they're in the trashbins.
Maybe they're 50 feet under alandfill somewhere.
But you can't keep a good faddown.
And even though the originaldolls faded, Trolls saw a
surprising reinvention with the2016 film called Trolls.
And then it was followed bysequels in 2020, Trolls World
(13:46):
Tour, and 2023 with Trolls BandTogether.
We also can't forget thelegendary...
Troll films in the 1980s, thehorror movies, 1986's Troll, and
then the iconic, so awful, it'skind of good, Troll 2.
Troll dolls are a perfectexample of how a quirky,
(14:08):
unconventional toy can capturethe world's imagination.
It started as a handmade woodenfigure in Denmark and became a
worldwide pop culture iconthat's had waves of popularity.
Their days as a toy aisleroyalty might be over, mainly
because there's not really manystores left that have toy
(14:30):
aisles.
But you can go on eBay, findthose classic trolls, or maybe
walk down into your basementnow.
Maybe you've still got yourtrolls.
All I know is they weredefinitely a very unique toy, a
unique fad.
Because really, think about it.
What other toy could make youlaugh, make you confused,
(14:50):
creeped out, and bring you luck,supposedly, all at the same
time?
That's what Trolls did.
This week in history, we aregoing back 35 years ago to April
15th, 1990, and the debut ofthe groundbreaking sketch comedy
(15:14):
show In Living Color.
I cannot believe this is 35years ago.
The show In Living Color wascreated by Kenan Ivory Wayans,
who was already an establishedcomedian and filmmaker.
He envisioned a show thatreflected the black experience
in America with humor,authenticity, and edge.
(15:34):
Fox, that was a fledglingnetwork, was looking to make a
mark, so they took a chance onWayne's vision, and with its
premiere, In Living Colorbrought something radically
different to primetime.
It was a sketch comedy showwith a predominantly black cast,
a hip-hop flair, and anunapologetic approach to satire
(15:56):
and social commentary.
At the time this show came out,I was 12 years old, and I was
watching Saturday Night Liveregularly, starting probably in
1989.
The first episode debuted on aSunday night at 9.30pm, with it
being moved to Saturdays at 9the next week.
So it was way easier for me,being 12 years old, to stay up
(16:19):
and watch this show.
It was so different thananything I had seen before.
It was backed by a high-energytheme performed by Heavy D and
the Boys.
It featured dance interludeswith the Fly Girls that were
choreographed by Rosie Perez.
A big part of In Living Color'ssuccess stemmed from the
memorable characters and sharpparodies of pop culture,
(16:42):
politics, and race relations.
If you were around back then,you can immediately think of the
unforgettable sketches andcharacters that were on In
Living Color.
The first one I think of isHomie D.
Clown, who was played by DamonWayans.
He was a grumpy ex-con turnedchildren's entertainer who would
refuse to conform and oftenuttered that famous catchphrase,
(17:06):
homie don't play that.
There was Men on Film, aflamboyant and hilarious
critique of movie culture withDavid Alan Greer and Damon
Wayans playing two effeminatefilm critics giving their
reviews two snaps up.
Or if they didn't like it, theywould just say hated it
simultaneously.
There was Fire Marshal Bill,who was a deranged and
(17:30):
accident-prone safetyinstructor, played by Jim
Carrey, who had the catchphrase,let me show you something, and
he would instantly do somethingthat would ruin everything
around him.
In Living Color launched thecareers of Jim Carrey, Jennifer
Lopez, who was one of theoriginal Fly Girls, and Jamie
Foxx, who joined in laterseasons and went on to win an
(17:52):
Academy Award.
If you had told me in 1994 thatWanda on In Living Color would
go on to be an Academy Awardwinning actor, I'd have said,
what has happened to the world?
And of course, you couldn'thave the show without the Wayans
family.
Kenan, Damon, Sean, Kim,Marlon, they were all over the
show.
They used that show as afoundation for future projects
(18:16):
like The Wayans Brothers Showand Scary Movie.
And Living Color aired for fiveseasons, with its last one
being in 1994, but its influenceis still deeply felt.
It paved the way for otherboundary-pushing sketch shows
like Chappelle's Show, Key &Peele, even Mad TV.
Fox tried to revive the seriesin 2012 for a new generation,
(18:40):
but that reboot never got offthe ground.
It was kind of lightning in thebottle.
It was fearless, tacklingissues like police brutality,
racial stereotypes, andhomophobia, but doing so in a
way that made you laugh everyweek.
And more than three decadesafter its debut, In Living Color
remains a testament to thepower of bold creativity and
(19:03):
representation in entertainment.
And that show, In Living Color,made its debut, I can't believe
it, a whopping 35 years agothis week in history.
Oh, and here we go.
A brand new time capsule.
We're going to stick to thesame day.
(19:24):
So In Living Color debuts April15th, 1990.
What else is going on in theworld of pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was I'll BeYour Everything by Tommy Page.
You're forgiven if you have noidea who Tommy Page was.
I consider myself a pretty goodexpert at nostalgia, and I had
(19:49):
to look it up.
I'm like, who in the world isthis guy?
The song was off of his album'sPaintings in My Mind, and it
was co-written by Danny Wood andJordan Knight of New Kids on
the Block.
This was Tommy Page's only hitsong, and sadly, he passed away
in 2017 at the age of 49,apparently by suicide.
(20:10):
The number one movie wasTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
and you could get into thetheater with a ticket costing
$4.22.
This is the live-action versionof the comic book or cartoon
series.
heroes in the half shell, theturtles that were kind of in
(20:32):
these animatronic rubber suits,Leonardo, Donatello,
Michelangelo, Raphael, Splinter,their rat leader.
The film is 43% fresh on RottenTomatoes, but it made over $200
million on a budget of justover $13 million, making it the
(20:54):
highest grossing independentfilm ever at the time.
This was followed up the nextyear by Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles 2 The Secret of theOoze, which included that awful
vanilla ice song ninja rap.
The number one TV show wasRoseanne.
It's about the middle classfamily, the Conners, and their
(21:17):
hijinks.
The original series was on fornine seasons from 1988 to 1997.
with a spinoff show, TheConners, still on the air in its
seventh season.
So you can still see the familyminus that idiot Roseanne if
you want to go check it out.
And if you were around backthen, April 15th, 1990, maybe
(21:42):
you went to see Teenage MutantNinja Turtles with your kids.
You've got to stop off quicklyand get a few things at the
drugstore or pharmacy.
Well, you're in luck.
There's a lot of deals going onthis week at Osco Drug.
Such monumental deals as theirOsco Drug Rubbing Alcohol, two
(22:02):
for a dollar.
An Osco Deluxe Water Bottle for$6.99.
Osco Milk of Magnesia for$1.49.
Or even an Osco Infant's EnemaSyringe for $1.99.
So there's some ingredients fora fun night.
So that wraps up another timecapsule, another This Week in
(22:25):
History.
If you didn't enjoy thatsegment, I would say call
somebody who cares.
But in this new top five,you're not going to be able to
use any of these telephonecompanies because they're all
out of business.
I feel like telephone companiesare the ones that go out of
(22:48):
business or merge with others orget bought out more than almost
any other company I've everknown in my life.
I would imagine that the vastmajority of you listening have
had your service through varioustelephone companies over the
years, over the decades.
And what I wanted to do withthis week's top five is look at
(23:09):
some of the top telephonecompanies that are now gone.
With this, I'm talking aboutany self-sustaining telephone
company that was out there.
They don't have to have goneout of business on their own.
They could have been bought outand merged into a larger
company.
But the bottom line is, theseall are telephone companies, in
(23:32):
name at least, that are defunct,out of business.
With this top five, as withmost, they're in no particular
order, and we've got somehonorable mentions.
Did you find any of thesecompany names on the top of your
phone bill over the lastcentury?
I bet you have.
So honorable mentions fordefunct telephone companies
(23:56):
include Nextel.
They were around from 1987 to2013 before being bought out by
Sprint.
Another honorable mention isSingular.
They were my first cell phonecompany that I had my bill
through.
They were around from 2000 to2006 before being bought out by
(24:21):
AT&T.
Another honorable mention isMCI.
They were around from 1983 to2006 before being bought out by
Verizon.
And the final honorable mentionis GTE.
standing for General Telephoneand Electronics.
(24:43):
They were around from 1926 to2000 before being bought out by
Bell Atlantic.
So those are the honorablementions.
Like I said, Singular was myfirst cell phone company, so did
you have any of these companieson your phone bills?
Well, let's get into the actualtop five, starting with number
(25:05):
one, 9X.
No.
Speaker 06 (25:09):
May we see a menu?
Speaker 01 (25:10):
Yes.
No.
I don't know.
If it's out there, it's inhere.
The 9X Yellow Pages.
Why would anyone need another?
Speaker 00 (25:22):
9X stood for New York New England Exchange.
They were first formed in 1984from the breakup of the Bell
System.
And if you're wondering aboutthe Bell System, stay tuned.
I remember those commercialsfor 9X, the 9X yellow pages, a
lot during my childhood.
Besides telephone, 9X was intocomputers.
(25:45):
But they got into a lot oftrouble.
There were strikes against themby their workers in 1990.
They were ordered in 1990 toreturn $35 million to their
consumers for overcharging.
In August 1997...
9X was folded into the BellAtlantic Company, so they ceased
(26:06):
to exist.
Number two is Sprint.
Speaker 03 (26:11):
U.S.
Sprint's long-distance digitalfiber optic network is so quiet,
you can actually hear a pindrop.
On the other hand, it's soefficient, you'll
Speaker 00 (26:23):
get the best...
This is a more recent one.
and was one of the largesttelephone companies in the world
at the time that they werebought out by T-Mobile.
Sprint could trace its rootsall the way back to the Brown
Telephone Company in 1899, whichfirst gave telephone service to
rural Kansas.
(26:43):
In the mid-70s, there was acontest to give a name to the
company.
Sprint was the winner, and itstood for Southern Pacific
Railroad.
internal networking telephony.
As of June 2019, Sprint wasstill serving 54 million
customers in the United States.
(27:05):
T-Mobile bought Sprint in 2020for $26 billion and quickly
phased out the Sprint name.
Number three is the BellSystem.
The Bell System was thedominant brand in telephone
communications in the UnitedStates for almost a century.
(27:28):
It was basically a monopoly.
The company was founded in 1877by Alexander Graham Bell, the
man who invented the telephone.
So this was his legacy.
As early as the 1910s, peoplewere complaining about a
monopoly and bringing antitrustlawsuits against the Bell
(27:48):
Company.
The company as a whole wasoften referred to colloquially
as Ma Bell.
Finally, in 1983, the Bellsystem was broken up.
That's where, like I said aminute ago, where 9X came from.
At the time of its breakup, theBell system had assets of $150
(28:09):
billion in 1984.
When adjusted for inflation to2025, that is equal to $461
billion.
No wonder it needed to bebroken up.
Number four is New EnglandTelephone.
One near and dear to my heartwere the ones for you, New
(28:46):
England, New England Telephone.
Those commercials were on allthe time during my childhood.
This has to do with the NewEngland Telephone that was
around in the 80s.
There was actually a NewEngland Telephone and Telegraph
company in 1878 and 1879.
This is not them.
New England Telephone was apart of the aforementioned Bell
(29:09):
system.
They began in 1883.
They basically picked up thatNew England Telephone and
Telegraph name and just took offwith it.
New England Telephone became apart of 9X once 9X broke away
from the Bell system, but theywere on their own.
They were still their owncompany, just a 9X branch.
Even when 9X was bought by BellAtlantic in 1997, New England
(29:35):
Telephone stayed around.
It kept its name until 2001.
when Verizon bought everythingand changed it to Verizon New
England.
And finally, number five on thelist of top five defunct
telephone companies is the BellTelephone Company.
This was the original, the veryfirst telephone company ever
(29:59):
founded by Alexander Graham Bellin 1877.
It was only a year afterAlexander Graham Bell patented
the telephone that he createdhis first phone company.
And you remember when I justmentioned the Bell system, this
is the originator of it.
And it just kept growing untilit became a monopoly.
The original purpose of theBell telephone company was
(30:24):
researching and developing andmarketing the telephone because
it was brand new.
In 1881, the Bell telephonecompany became the American Bell
telephone company.
Within a few years, theAmerican Bell telephone company
evolved into the AmericanTelephone and Telegraph Company,
(30:44):
AT&T, which is still aroundtoday.
But the original, the originalBell telephone company only
lasted a few years.
It is defunct in name, althoughAT&T is still around to this
day.
Did you have any of thosetelephone companies as the
provider for you?
(31:04):
I would think that none of youwould have the Bell Telephone
Company.
You'd have to be 170 years old.
If you are that old and youhave the holy grail that keeps
you young, let me know.
Send me a message.
Otherwise, we're going to shiftgears and go from defunct
telephone companies to one of myall-time favorite educational
(31:25):
short films.
Donald Duck in Math Magic Land.
This is one of thoseeducational short films that
stuck with me from an early age.
I can only assume that I sawthis for the first time probably
(31:47):
somewhere between fourth andfifth grade.
Donald Duck in Mathmagic Landis from 1959, so even though
it's getting close to 70 yearsago, it's a film, an educational
short film, that was stillbeing shown in schools as late
as the mid to late 1980s.
Donald Duck in Mathmagic Landis definitely an intro to
(32:12):
mathematics for a youngeraudience, probably kids that
were 12 and under, I wouldthink.
It's a little bit longer.
It clocks in at just over 27minutes, which is interesting
because I remember when I saw itbeing very engrossed in it,
interested, I think because it'sDonald Duck.
But I could easily see thisbeing one where kids would start
(32:35):
to have their minds wandering.
Because when you're 8 to 12years old, sitting in the dark
watching TV for almost a halfhour, having to pay attention,
it can be hard.
The film starts off with somenice whimsical Disney music as
they show you all the credits ofwho created this project.
As a kid, I know I didn't care,but when I watched this back
(33:10):
for the podcast, The first thingI think of when I see this
movie is Donald Duck is in thisdark forest.
There's a shadow.
He's walking in in a huntinguniform with a rifle.
They never bring up what he wasdoing.
Was he just out hunting and hewandered into math magic land?
(33:30):
And what was Donald Duckhunting?
Other ducks?
Is he cannibalistic?
I don't know.
Mathemagic land is just filledwith numbers.
There's trees shaped likenumbers.
There's waterfalls that arefilled with numbers and shapes,
geometric shapes.
There's a pencil thatchallenges Donald to
(33:51):
tic-tac-toe.
Then he finally, afterwandering around, gets to meet
the spirit that is kind of thenarrator.
The spirit says that he's thetrue spirit of adventure, which
when you're a kid watching this,I think that the true spirit of
adventure, if it led you to aland filled with math, I don't
(34:11):
think that would be an excitingadventure to go on.
At first, Donald is not excitedabout going on an adventure in
mathematics, but the spirittells him that math is connected
to music, so that gets himinterested.
Donald is then taken back toancient Greece to meet
Pythagoras.
(34:32):
Come on,
Speaker 04 (34:34):
let's go to ancient Greece.
To the time of Pythagoras, themaster egghead of them all.
Pythagoras?
The father of mathematics andmusic.
Speaker 06 (34:43):
Mathematics and music?
Speaker 00 (34:45):
The spirit goes on to explain how mathematics makes
music different, the differentoctaves of a string.
Then we get a whole big musicalnumber with Pythagoras and his
followers, the Pythagoreans, asthey play music.
And it's loosely based aroundmathematics, but Donald gets
(35:06):
really into it.
They're all playing stringedinstruments.
Donald brings this jug as abongo drum.
So they're all jammingtogether.
And then it busts into liveaction, big band jazz music
playing.
And then it's more classicalwith piano and violins.
While I was watching this, evennow as an adult, I could only
(35:28):
imagine being a kid listening toclassical music in the dark at
school.
You'd easily start zoning out,falling asleep.
I debated fast forwardingthrough this, but I'm like, no,
for the integrity of the reviewon the podcast, I've got to
watch every second of this.
Donald ends up getting thepentagram tattooed on his hand,
(35:52):
becoming friends withPythagoras.
The pentagram is supposed to befull of mathemagic.
Now, I can only speak for me.
I don't know you out there.
When you hear pentagram, do youthink of math or do you think
of like secret cults and such?
Because that's the first thingI thought of.
Granted, this is 1959.
But they start talking so muchabout pentagrams and I'm like,
(36:15):
man, is this occult stuff?
Satan followers?
I don't know.
It's Donald Duck.
What's happening here?
The spirit talks about themagical golden section, which I
don't understand music.
I'm not a musician.
Then the spirit goes into howin the pentagram is a secret for
creating a golden rectangle.
(36:36):
If you're a lover of math, youprobably understand that.
If you like Donald Duck andDisney, you will still be able
to enjoy this short film.
But I'll admit, it startedlosing me at this point a little
bit.
It said that this goldenrectangle has magical qualities.
I don't know what they are.
They don't explain it.
(36:56):
You're just supposed to acceptthat.
But they show a whole bunch ofdifferent images of how this
rectangle influenced Greekdesign, their old buildings.
And there's a song showing...
Different shapes and thepentagram fitting into it and
moving around to try to get youto understand the golden
(37:17):
rectangle.
Then as if you weren't lostenough with the golden
triangles, golden sections,golden rectangles, then there's
a golden spiral they talk about.
I could only imagine being 10years old and watching this and
saying, where's Donald?
I want to see Donald doingstuff and talking.
I don't want to see shapes andreally learn about math in a
(37:40):
math magic film.
The Spirit keeps going on aboutthe golden rectangle, about how
it's influenced the modernworld, you know, the late 50s.
But then they talk about howit's the proportions of beauty.
And there's this dancer on thescreen.
So suddenly Donald is back,very excited by this woman.
He comes running into thescreen, trying to hug the woman,
(38:03):
but she vanishes into a pile ofrectangle shapes.
Speaker 06 (38:07):
Boy, oh boy, oh boy.
This is mathematics?
I got mathematical figures likethat.
Speaker 04 (38:16):
Ah, ah, ah, Donald.
Speaker 06 (38:17):
Get me quiet.
Speaker 04 (38:18):
No, no.
Speaker 06 (38:19):
Ideal proportion.
Speaker 00 (38:21):
Donald ends up wedging himself into a pentagon,
which leads the spirit to showhow nature uses these shapes,
the mathematics.
It shows a bunch of flowers,starfish, sand dollars.
But even with all of the shapesand mathematics in nature, it
keeps coming back to thepentagram.
(38:43):
So every time I would see it,I'd immediately lose focus and
think of cults.
So we get a few minutes of liveaction, showing shells on the
beach, real close-ups of insectsand spider webs.
This definitely would have keptkids interested, I think, at
least a little.
The picture of the fly reallyclose up of its eye, I think,
(39:04):
would have freaked out kids myage when I saw it, you know, 9,
10 years old.
Then we get a weirdkaleidoscope effect as Donald
comes back together to be a partof this again.
We then move into the story ofchess and how chess is
mathematics and Donald's on thebig chess board.
The spirit talks about howauthor Lewis Carroll used chess
(39:27):
as an allegory for part ofThrough the Looking Glass, so
Alice in Wonderland.
And the chess pieces startchasing Donald around saying
he's a lost pawn.
So Donald's running awaybegging the spirit to help him.
Speaker 06 (39:40):
He eventually
Speaker 00 (39:57):
escapes.
He dives off the chessboard,and there's a treasure chest
that has candy in it, and itsays, eat one.
So he eats it and grows big,and then he can look down on the
chessboard.
And they show a chess gamebeing performed, kind of in fast
forward because chess wasboring definitely as a kid.
I couldn't imagine sitting andwatching people play chess, even
(40:18):
today.
Donald is as bored with chessas I would have been, as
probably some of you would havebeen.
But then he gets excited whenthey go to baseball and they
show the diamond.
Then Donald moves on to playingfootball and they're talking
about how it's a rectangle.
Next is basketball and how it'sa game of circles and spheres
(40:39):
played on a rectangle.
Then they get into hopscotchand there's Donald with a giant
lollipop.
Is hopscotch still a thing?
I'm trying to think in the2020s.
Do kids play hopscotch?
Any of you out there that haveyoung kids, have they played
hopscotch?
I think we did as kids.
Not much.
(40:59):
That seems more of like a 1940sand 50s type of game.
Maybe they should make a videogame version of Hopscotch.
I think kids might play that.
Then we get into a reallyin-depth segment about how to
play billiards, which I've neverbeen into playing pool, but
they really get into showing youhow to play it.
(41:21):
They show you a specific onecalled three cushion billiards.
So there's three balls on thetable.
And it's somewhat interesting.
Like, you could probably learnhow to play pool a bit from this
section of the film.
The idea with three cushionbilliards is that the cue ball
has to hit the other two balls,but it has to hit three sides of
(41:44):
the pool table first.
So it comes down to geometry,knowing how to play the angles.
And they show thisprofessional, quote-unquote,
billiard player, unnamed, nevernamed.
who is showing you how to dothese trick shots.
They mix it up here whereDonald is kind of a part of this
live action scene, commentingon the guy's shots.
(42:07):
This segment really drags on.
Like, if you're not interestedin how to shoot Poole, you're
going to lose interest prettyquickly.
Like I said, this film is justover 27 minutes, and we're
looking at five to six minutesof it that is just shooting
Poole.
After watching this guy do awhole bunch of different shots,
(42:30):
Donald finally tries to get in.
And he's trying to use math tohelp him do these shots.
And naturally, he's not good atit.
So the spirit has to help him.
Donald finally succeeds atbilliards.
(42:56):
Then the spirit says it's timefor the most exciting game of
all.
And that's In Your Mind, whichsounds very spooky, especially
when you were magicallytransported from a hunting trip
to this math magic land.
Like, oh, here's the other sideof the coin where the bad
things happen.
So we go inside Donald Duck'smind and it looks like a dirty
(43:18):
office with a whole bunch offile cabinets filled with papers
and the spirit's mad at him.
But as we go through his mindand look at all the filing
cabinets, there's a picture ofDaisy Duck with it signed Love
Daisy in his mind.
The spirit cleans up Donald'smind.
Now they have him thinking of aperfect circle, not the early
(43:41):
2000s alt band.
Then he has Donald put atriangle inside the circle and
starts spinning it.
That creates a sphere.
Then they start creating lenseswith slicing bits of the
sphere, so microscope,binoculars, showing how
mathematics and shapes influencedaily life.
(44:03):
It goes on to show circles aswheels with cars and trains and
propellers for planes.
They do the same sort ofdiscovery with a cone, slicing
it and showing what cones canmake.
We go through a whole montageof different inventions where
math is a big part of it, clocksand telephones.
(44:25):
The telephone is an old schoolrotary phone with an operator
that pops up and says, number,please.
God, that hadn't been somethingI don't think I would have even
understood in the mid 80s whenI saw this.
It's basically saying that mathin your mind, it's where you
create your inventions and thedifferent innovations in the
world.
And again, we come full circlewith the pentagrams again.
(44:48):
So many pentagrams in thisfilm.
I don't know if Disney wastrying to get little kids into
pentagrams.
I mean, wasn't there like thewhole Satan-worshipping cults
fear in the 1980s?
Maybe it was from kids thatwatched Math Magic Land.
That's why they stopped showingit in later years.
Too many pentagrams.
(45:09):
We get to the end here with anever-ending hallway of doors.
These doors are supposed torepresent discoveries in the
past, so Donald's running inbetween all the doors, all
excited.
Until he eventually gets todoors that aren't open, they're
locked, and he can't get intothem.
And the spirit says, these arethe doors of the future.
Speaker 06 (45:30):
The
Speaker 04 (45:41):
spirit
Speaker 00 (45:45):
then says that the key to these doors is
mathematics.
All the doors float away.
So then the movie ends withDonald Duck just trapped in Math
Magic Land.
They never show him going backon his hunting trip or getting
out of Math Magic Land.
So I guess we're led to assumethat he's just stuck there
(46:08):
forever.
I just went back to look to besure if they said who the voice
of the spirit was or who thepool player was.
But nope, they're notimportant.
They're just unnamed.
But that's Donald Duck in MathMagic Land from 1959.
One of the first educationalshort films I remember as a kid.
(46:28):
Which is wild because it cameout, what, 25 years before I
started school?
And they were still showing it.
It's a fun trip down memorylane for people my age and
probably especially those olderthan me.
You out there in your 50s and60s.
I'm betting you remember it alot better than me.
They need to make a sequel tothis where Donald gets rescued
(46:50):
from Math Magic Land.
Come on, Disney, get on that.
But until next time, that'sgoing to wrap up episode 191 of
the In My Footsteps podcast.
Thank you all so much fortuning in, for making it to the
end.
I hope I fulfilled your quotafor Gen X nostalgia.
I'm always on a never-endingquest to find new topics to
(47:15):
share.
Next week's going to beexciting.
Episode 192 is going to be anew concept.
I talked about several episodesback.
It's going to be one episodetotally dedicated to one year.
So we're going to start it with1985, 40 years ago.
We're going to look at the yearin TV, in music.
(47:37):
Funny and weird events thathappen from the year.
This week in history will befrom 1985.
So we're really going to do adeep dive into that year.
My plan is to sprinkle those inover time.
I'm going to end up choosingany year between basically 1960
and 2005.
The first one I thought of was1985, so we're going to do that
(48:00):
next week.
If you can't get enough of me,of my wacky brand of humor and
my topics I choose, I am allover social media.
Find me on Instagram, myFacebook fan page for the
podcast.
I'm on Blue Sky.
I am always sharing new videoson YouTube.
(48:20):
I've got a blog that I postseveral times a week.
My specialty is the InitialImpressions 2.0 blog that is the
look back at my week that was,the wacky and random things that
happened to me.
So you can find me all overthere.
If you want to support me, mycontent, my never-ending quest
(48:41):
to be a self-sustaining contentcreator, you can subscribe for
$5 a month on Patreon.
You could buy me a coffee.
Links to all that are in thedescription of the podcast.
But of course, the best way tohelp me out as a creator is to
share what I do.
You know, I appreciate peoplethat like my posts.
(49:03):
I'd much rather you share themwith people that aren't aware of
what I do or actually click thelinks.
That's really how you help acontent creator.
I'm a small business, oneperson.
I would love to do morein-depth videos on YouTube or
spend more time marketing mycontent.
But don't forget, I have afull-time job in addition to
(49:26):
this.
And I spend anywhere from 15 to20 hours a week doing this work
on top of everything else.
I do it because I love what Ido.
I've always loved thecreativity, making things from
my own brain.
And I will keep going on thatquest.
I've always got new ideas.
(49:47):
I feel like I have a plate andI'm at a buffet and I just fill
it with everything I like.
That's where the new idea ofacting, voice acting, that's
where that came in.
I wasn't thinking about that ayear ago.
It wasn't until Frank basicallysaid to me, I want you to be in
my next film.
And I'm like, okay, I guessthat's a new avenue for me.
(50:10):
That's a big part of my 2025,just my overall journey.
growth, I guess, as a human isbeing more open to whatever
floats into my orbit.
You know, you never know whatopportunities might show up each
day.
That's a big part of justshowing up in life.
I could literally end recordingthis podcast, go to my car and
(50:34):
go to the store and bump intosomeone that changes my life
forever.
They offer me some kind ofamazing opportunity or they beat
me up and steal my wallet.
I don't know.
The uncertainty is scary, butit's also very exciting.
In the next few months, thefilm that I just finished up
wrapping last month, that'll beout.
(50:57):
I don't know what comes fromthat.
You know, my Etsy shop lookingfor possible casting calls for
background roles in films.
You never know.
And I'm just talking about mewith my creativity and what my
passions are.
Whatever your passions are, younever know what might show up
on your doorstep the next day.
(51:17):
That's my little slice ofinspiration for any of you out
there who might need it.
If you don't need it, then takethis podcast and take a walk
outside and enjoy the beautifulspring weather.
Hopefully you don't haveallergies.
Special birthday wishes thisweek to one of my dearest
friends, Deanna, one of thehardest working people I know
(51:40):
and definitely an inspirationfor me as far as when I say I've
got a full-time job and then Ido my content creation.
She works full-time and she'sgoing to school full-time.
So it's hard for me to complainwhen I see what she does.
So happy birthday and I hopeit's a great birthday.
And remember, in this life,Don't walk in anyone else's
(52:03):
footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life because younever know what tomorrow
brings.
Thank you so much again fortuning in.
This has been the In MyFootsteps podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,but you already knew that.
And I'll talk to you all againsoon.
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