Toot toot
December 8, 2009 (Tuesday)
Users of Google will see Popeye on the title page today, celebrating 80 years since his creation by E. C. Segar, who died in 1938, at the age of 43.
I never thought to ask myself who was Popeye’s creator. I guess I thought Popeye was a person like all the rest of us. The line Popeye used frequently was, “I yam what I yam.” I’ve quoted it in more than one of these blogs and have used it in sermons. The meaning of that sentence for me is that, like Popeye, we need honesty and transparency.
Popeye loved spinach and it always made him incredibly strong. Parents all around this country reminded their children of that at many meals. A lot of kids learned to eat spinach in the hope of attaining superhuman strength.
A movie was made about Popeye. Robin Williams played the part of the sailor man and Shelly Duvall portrayed Olive Oyl. You may not know that Duvall came from these parts (Houston’s Oak Forest) and went to Waltrip High School (as did recently deceased actor, Patrick Swayze).
Popeye’s arch enemy was Bluto, big and powerful and rude. Popeye always prevailed when they fought, by eating a can of spinach. (At the end of his animated cartoons, Popeye would sing, “I’m strong to the finish cause I eats me spinach!”) Popeye received an orphan baby in the mail, whom he adopted and named “Swee’Pea.” A moocher of hamburgers showed up regularly. His name was Wimpy. Many other well-known characters became a part of the Popeye cast.
Please say with me, “I yam what I yam, and that’s what I yam!” Smile when you say that, pardner. And really mean it. Of course, if you don’t like what you are, you can be changed (but that’s another sermon).