UTK Special 1/16/24

Peanut Butter Magic

Things aren’t always what they seem. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of magic, but I’m also cognizant of Clarke’s rule: anything that is sufficiently advanced often looks like magic. However, we can also fool ourselves. Let me explain:

Jif. Peter Pan. Skippy.

I don’t have to tell you what those are. They’re stupid names, really devoid of meaning at all. One’s a fairy tale, one’s how you’re supposed to pronounce a graphic format, one is … a minor character on Family Ties? (No lie, Marc Price toured for years with Marsha Warfield and Jimmy Walker as part of a comedy tour. If you don’t understand, you’re too young.)

(Let me go one more aside. Family Ties was set in Columbus, Ohio and focused on the shift from the hippie parents to the conservative son. Obviously, Michael J Fox was the breakout star of that, but how on-the-nose did the creators get the generational shift? Ohio is now a gerrymandered kleptocracy that tossed out a constitutional referendum because, well, who’s going to stop them?)

(One more: Fox wasn’t the first choice and neither was Justine Bateman. Matthew Broderick turned it down, as did Laura Dern, and just imagine a world where they didn’t and … well, I can’t. The multiverse is beyond me, people.)