Art Clokey, the coolest cat of claymation, passed away on January 9 at the age of 88. Like many lil’ children of the sixties, I grew up on the adventures of Gumby and Pokey. I dug Clokey’s fantastical book-penetrating tales the way a kid would enjoy them. Years later, when pop-culture thrust forth a Gumby resurgance, my generation and I dug them on an entirely different level: multi-colored clay psychedelia. Only then did it hit me and my friends the trippy intricacies intact in a Gumby cartoon, from Gumby’s father rescuing him from the moon and placing him in an iron lung, to background subtleties like a sign in a drug store advertising liver pills.

We now saw the wildness in Gumby and Pokey, but we still retained the sweetness inherent in these totally awesome cartoons. Sweet dreams, Mr. Clokey!

Happy January 11! Today is National “Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day!” Hmmm… make certain that the person you splash is (a) your friend, and (b) is very well humored.

On this day in 1925, Betty bumpers,  Arkansas’s first lady from 1971-75, is born. Along with husband Dale, Bumpers was instrumental in desegregation legislation and state immunization programs. Okay, confession time… I had never heard of this great woman before. I saw her name under a “celebrity birthday” list on IMDB. I looked her up merely because I thought  “Betty Bumpers” is a great name for an adult film actress. Am I a deep thinker or what?

Also on this day in history:

1906: Albert Hoffman, the chemist who discovered LSD, is born. Birthing process went well, though doctors were puzzled why Baby Albert would slowly wave his fingers in front of his eyes in the delivery room.
1981: Centurion Negro wins the UWA middleweight title from Jungla Negra.
1991: Bull Nakano & Kyoko Inoue beat Aja Kong & Bison Kimura in a hair vs hair match in Kawasaki, Japan.