Jay and Alex and Rocky and Bullwinkle

The video embed above is of the 1st episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle, from 1959.

from Wikipedia:

When first shown on NBC, the cartoons were introduced by a Bullwinkle puppet, voiced by Bill Scott, who would often lampoon celebrities, current events, and especially Walt Disney, whose program Wonderful World of Color was the next show on the schedule. On one occasion, "Bullwinkle" encouraged children to pull the tuning knobs off the TV set. "In that way," explained Bullwinkle, "we'll be sure to be with you next week!" The network received complaints from parents of an estimated 20,000 child viewers who apparently followed Bullwinkle's suggestion. Bullwinkle told the children the following week to put the knobs back on with glue "and make it stick!". The puppet sequence was dropped altogether.

I'm sorry, but that's inspired. Alex Anderson died over the weekend, aged 90. Apparently he created the characters of Rocky and Bullwinkle, along with the basic format of the show. All these years I hadn't heard of Anderson, assuming, as I suspect most Rocky n' Bullwinkle fans did, that Jay Ward was the creator. Richard Corliss discusses the relationship between Ward and Anderson in a nice appreciation of Anderson in Time.

Richard Corliss, "Unsung Creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Alex Anderson Dies"

Haitian abduction story, Pt 2

from CNN:

"I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking," Carlos Castillo said he told the group's leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday.

Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince.

"This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal," Castillo said.

A CNN reporter attempted to get reaction to Castillo's comment from the jailed Americans, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to questions by singing "Amazing Grace" and praying.