[ExI] shaggy nearly killed me today

spike spike66 at att.net
Tue May 13 23:28:05 UTC 2014


 

OK so this one will take a short introduction.

 

For those born in the early 1960s in the USA, no explanation is necessary,
for you already know the toxic wasteland that was children's TV back then,
so when Scooby Doo showed up in about 1969, it was a blessed relief.  It was
a cartoon, but not as brainless as the usual alternating 6 minutes of coyote
chasing road runner interspersed with 9 minutes of commercials, repeat.  The
Scooby Doo show was a half hour, and was an actual story which required at
least a modicum of attention span, a detective mystery, where the bad guys
were always trying to take advantage of the superstitious nature of the dumb
guy (Shaggy) and the dog (Scooby.)

 

The other three meddling kids were smart and not superstitious.  They always
caught the bad guy.

 

Shaggy's voice was Casey Kasem, who is now missing in action.  Kasem also
did Americaaaaannnn Top Fortyyyy the weekly radio show countdown of that
week's most popular rock and roll songs, a three-hour vaguely-disguised
commercial for album sales, interspersed with commercials.  We always
pictured Shaggy, who was stupid but a kind and gentle soul, a hippie kid
would wouldn't harm a flea in the process of biting him even if it carried
the plague, a likeable dunce.  Likewise Kasem came across as a kind and
gentle avuncular type on his radio show, introducing songs and offering fan
dedications to sweethearts and such.  I liked his show.

 

Kasem is in the news today because he has been ailing (he's 82) and has
disappeared.  

 

Some yahoo released a tape they made of Kasem in the studio where he was
doing the top 40, a long time ago, and had just finished a jumpy happy dance
tune, then read the dedication for the next song.  It was a touching weepy
account of the death of the family dog, a good story but it didn't belong
sandwiched between these two particular songs.  

 

They played the tape on the radio today as I was coming home from an
excellent lecture at SETI in Mountain View.  The song was over, he read the
solemn tearjerker dedication, and as soon as his mike cut off he started
abusing the fool who arranged the show in that order.  It was the voice of
gentle Shaggy, ".our broken hearts go out to you, Rover; you are gone but
not forgotten in our loving memory."  {Song starts}  "WHO in the BLEEPing
BLEEP is the BEEPing idiot who arranged that, and what BLEEP-BLEEP planet
did the BLEEB."  etc, on and on he went, completely shattering the
carefully-crafted illusion.  Here was kind, sweet, loving Shaggy,
shit-heading this, goddamming that, fucking the other thing, oh my, I got to
laughing so hard I had to pull over and stop.  I started choking it was so
funny, and I thought oh dear, this is it, I am going to die laughing right
here right now, so tragic is this, I have been slain by tenderhearted
Shaggy, I was such a nice guy too.

 

Fortunately I survived.

 

Casey Kasem, may you be found alive and well, and may you live another 82
years.

 

spike 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20140513/b5dd45a7/attachment.html>


More information about the extropy-chat mailing list