Pink Panther

Greetings.
Myself, the wife and the little Grogans are preparing to hit the road for a little mid-summer mini vacation, but I couldn’t leave without posting something.
At the risk of boring the crap out of you (“Hey! Who wants to see the slides of me cleaning out the garage?”), I must relate to you the story of my youngest son’s (he’ll be 1 net week) first words.
This isn’t some cutesy baby blog, so you know I wouldn’t recount something like this unless there was some kind of an “angle”.
Herein lies the rub.
Sean’s first words come directly from a 1969 Pink Panther cartoon.
As I’ve mentioned before, I watch a lot of old cartoons with my older son (who’s 3 ½), and one of his favorites is the old DePatie/Freleng ‘Pink Panther’. Though we watch stuff together at home, he gets to watch videos in the car as well, and the Pink Panther has been in heavy rotation for some time.
One of the funnier shorts is 1969’s ‘In the Pink of the Night’ (every single one of the scores of Pink Panther shorts has a similarly pun/pink based title). In this one, the Pink Panther – much like the rest of us – is caught between the need for more sleep and the inability to make it to the train on time. He has a couple of wake-up methods and for each one a shutdown solution (i.e. an alarm clock and a monkey wrench with which to smash it when it rings).
He finally goes out to get a cuckoo clock.
The first time it’s set to go off, the cuckoo (a live bird, as is often the case in the world of cartoons) emerges from the clock, cuckoos once, then once again louder and eventually a third time where he pretty much screams.

“Cuckoo…CUCKOO!!….CUCKOO?!???!”

Miles thought this was hilarious, and started to repeat it, even miming the Pink Panther tying the bird’s beak shut.
So…the other day we’re all sitting around, probably feeding one of the boys while the other played, and out of the blue Sean utters what sounded like ‘cuckoo!’
Neither my wife nor I paid much attention, until he did a few more times, and we realized what he was saying.
Then, after a few minutes, he did it.

“Cuckoo…CUCKOO!!….CUCKOO?!???!”

We looked at each other in disbelief and started laughing.
I’m still not sure that this is a good thing, but I have no doubt in my mind that it is funny.
I’m also filled with relief and gratitude that his first utterance was not a rehash of one of the more, how do you say ‘colorful’, elements of his fathers vocabulary (many of which are also heard in the car…).

Anyway, to add an edge to the anecdote above, I’m going to make good on my earlier promise to post the two punky Ian & the Zodiacs tracks I referenced in an earlier entry.

Listen/Download – Why Can’t It Be Me – MP3

Listen/Download – Na Na Na Na Na – MP3

See you next week.
Peace
Larry

Buy  – The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection, Vol 3: Frolics In the Pink – at Amazon.com