{"id":2341,"date":"2009-01-15T20:03:29","date_gmt":"2009-01-16T01:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=2341"},"modified":"2009-01-15T20:03:29","modified_gmt":"2009-01-16T01:03:29","slug":"rip-the-scarecrow-and-other-maunderings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=2341","title":{"rendered":"RIP The Scarecrow, and other maunderings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I swear before Heaven and eart<\/strong>h that I heard a young man say the following today, in the Men\u2019s Room at the Bible School:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been reading this book called <\/i>The Faery Queene. I heard it\u2019s where Shakespeare got some of his ideas. It\u2019s really good.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Somewhere, C. S. Lewis smiled.<\/p>\n

As Phil noted below, Patrick McGoohan<\/strong> died yesterday (Ricardo Montalban too, but I have less to say about him). McGoohan is most famous for his roles in the TV series, Secret Agent<\/i> (known as Danger Man<\/i> in England), and The Prisoner<\/i>. Also for his one-dimensional but massively entertaining portrayal of King Edward I of England in Braveheart<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I watched both Secret Agent<\/i> and The Prisoner<\/i> when I was a kid. Can\u2019t say I was a big fan, though. Secret Agent<\/i>, in my opinion, didn\u2019t have enough pretty girls, and The Prisoner<\/i> was all style, no actual story (and again, not enough pretty girls).<\/p>\n

It turns out the lack of pretty girls was purposeful. According to McGoohan\u2019s Wikipedia entry<\/a> he accepted the leads in these programs partly on the condition that he do no kissing. Apparently he had moral objections (like Kirk Cameron) to kissing a woman who was not his wife. <\/p>\n

The Wikipedia article says nothing about his religious convictions (if any). Perhaps he was simply a principled man. However it was, he deserves respect.<\/p>\n

The role I remember him best in, though, was that of Vicar Syn in Disney\u2019s The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh<\/i> series, back in the \u201960s. I haven\u2019t watched it in a long time, but I remember it as one of the most memorable TV experiences of my youth. The inspiration for Batman may have been Zorro, but Russell Thorndyke\u2019s Scarecrow character<\/a> could have fulfilled the same function as well or better. Like Batman, The Scarecrow is a generally frightening, nocturnal costumed character who takes advantage of his enemies\u2019 superstitions. The major difference is that The Scarecrow is himself (technically) a criminal\u2014a smuggler. But his smuggling is portrayed as a protest against unjust tariffs (he\u2019s a free trader! Hoorah!).<\/p>\n

The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh<\/a><\/i> series is now available on DVD from Disney. If I had any spare money, I\u2019d buy it.<\/p>\n

In closing, back again by popular demand, are the boys from Minnesotans For Global Warming. Can\u2019t imagine why.
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I swear before Heaven and earth that I heard a young man say the following today, in the Men\u2019s Room at the Bible School: \u201cI\u2019ve been reading this book called The Faery Queene. I heard it\u2019s where Shakespeare got some of his ideas. It\u2019s really good.\u201d Somewhere, C. S. Lewis smiled. As Phil noted below, … Continue reading RIP The Scarecrow, and other maunderings<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}