Walked 9,798 steps/ 7.34 kilometers yesterday.

Watched "Big Fish" last night. It was a good movie. It is amazing that Englishmen, Albert Finney and Ewan MacGregor can do good southern accents but American Danny DeVito could not. Steve Buscemi was able to pull off a decent Alabama drawl.

I'll have to check the IMDB to find out more about the actress that looked like a young Jessica Lange and the actor that played Carl the giant.

Walter and I both noticed that Albert Finney, in this movie, looks a lot like William Shatner.

Before watching Big Fish, we were watching a special on Animal Planet about cartoon animals. Like every special about American animation this special went on and on about the cleverness and wit of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

News Flash: The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show is not that clever or witty. Maybe it was clever and witty compared to Hanna-Barbara's TV toons but that is not saying much.

It was poorly drawn. Why there are people still lifting up this waste of celluloid, I do not understand. Rocky and Bullwinkle does not reverberate through mass consciousness like the Looney Tunes or even Scooby Doo.

Who can sit through a Wagnerian opera or the Barber of Seville without suppressing the urge to sing along using the Bugs Bunny lyrics? Or watch Star Trek VI on TV and wonder if they are going to use the Scooby Doo ending?

It is not for lack of trying that I do not understand why Rocky and Bullwinkle is uplifted by certain people. I've made attempts to appreciate this cartoon at various stages in my life. Every time I come away thinking, "This is crap. What is the big deal?" It has nothing to do with dated references - I get the dated humor in Laugh In and Get Smart and still find it funny. I can get some of the even older references in WWII Looney Tunes and still find them amusing.

Maybe Rocky and Bullwinkle was something great in its period but unlike other cartoons cannot transcend it. Rocky and Bullwinkle must be one of those "you had to be there" cartoons. Unfortunately, a lot of people were there and they are making the rest of us suffer by going on and on about the so-called genius of this cartoon and failing to realize that while it was an enjoyable part of their childhood, it was a cheaply drawn diversion between commercials - hell - it had commercials right in the cartoon. Not everything from the Baby Boom childhood was great. Most of it was a crass attempt to sell things. Nothing magical. Just Madison Avenue.

Hong Kong Phooey was one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. Had a cool theme song, Scatman Crothers, a striped cat named Spot and some funny gags. It was a great part of my childhood and others my age enjoyed too. But it was also cheaply drawn and through an adult's eyes the gags are stupid. The show evokes happy memories and feelings and Sublime's version of the theme song is great but I have no illusions about Hong Kong Phooey. It was cheaply drawn diversion between commercials. Nothing more. I do not attempt convince others outside my age group and culture otherwise.

That trick never works.