Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to another great (subjective opinion) episode of the super-popular (factually incorrect) podcast (eh) Sneaky Dragon!
This week, it’s all: opening warm up; pred-ads; memorable mall,; pet proofing; the savages; murder in the hen house; cat names; face web; fruit flies; nature moves on; big water; cool pool; interminable walk; bussing it; humiliation; goofy question; Book of Lists; birthdays; French exit; too old to know you’re young; nothing learned is nothing gained; life is harder; zen or repression; stress effects; brownface, blackface, red face; real politics; apologies; more local TV kids show hosts; uncomfortable feelings; TV tapers; coasting on accents; scary trains and haunty houses; a fish story; golden tartar; and, finally, coo.
Thanks for listening.
Question of the Week: Is there something you did in the past – and it was okay – but you’re embarrassed about now?
Sub-question: Do you call those long-legged flying insects leatherjackets, crane flies or daddy long legs? Do you have regional names for insects that are particular to where you live?
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I remember being dressed up as a ‘Chinaman’ for book week at school when I was five – conical bamboo hat, red poncho, the whole bit. I offer an unreserved apology for the racial stereotyping. I blame my youth, my immaturity, ‘it was a different time (1976)’… My mother, however, should be ashamed of herself! I also dressed up as Linus from Peanuts a few years later. The only embarrassing part of that was that no-one else knew who Linus was.
We had no morning TV routine: until mid-high school I was were NEVER allowed to have the TV on before school, or even after school until about 5.30 when The Goodies came on. It wasn’t even a question and I never really missed it. To this day I have never seen an episode of Gilligan’s Island. There is a whole trove of cultural references that I don’t really get. I did spent my later high school years watching You Can’t Do That On TV after school, as both of my parents had jobs by then!
Not sure what you did this week but as Dave was talking about ghosting a party, my podcast app crashed so hard that it unsubscribed you guys! I had to search and resubscribe just to hear how many cakes Dave’s baked for Mary. Of all the podcasts that get unsubscribed sometimes, in all these years I’ve never lost Sneaky Dragon before.
In high school, I played a Japanese character in a play set in Okinawa. The other Japanese roles were played by Chinese, South Asian and Caucasian students, so it was a diverse cast. The teacher who did my makeup gave my skin a golden tone and made my eyes look vaguely Asian…well, more Asian as I’m one quarter Chinese. It wasn’t a caricature look, but some might call that “yellow face.” I wouldn’t do that now. I think it’s one thing to dress as a character or celebrity outside your ethnicity and another thing to alter your face. I can easily come across like you’re parodying an ethnicity and that can be hurtful.
Around the same time, our Sunday School did a Christmas pageant and our community access channel came to tape it. It was based on the Huron Carol, a song that retells the nativity story in a First Nations setting. I played the angel Gabriel in a fringed dress. Because we were going on TV, the church person in charge made us wear homemade cocoa-and-Crisco makeup. I remember getting mad because I thought it was disrespectful. I told the woman I didn’t want to wear it, but she insisted on iit because it was for television. I wish I had the words at the time to say “this is racist, this is wrong.”
Correction: that should be “IT can easily come across like you’re parodying…”