cora's adventure

Cora, as I've mentioned in an earlier Blathering, is The Lamest Happy Meal Toy Ever (TLHMTE), and was acquired on a foolhardy expedition to MacDonald's on the way to the cottage. Cora is an extraordinarily ugly doll, with her lips pursed and dotted with pseudo-lipstick, white plastic panties, her plastic hat permanently affixed to her misaligned curls. I usually give my Happy Meal toys to Sara and Annie, but I don't want to inflict Cora on them.

Here's the picture of Cora on the ice that I included in an earlier Blathering.

I decided to take a photo of Cora at the cottage after ice-out, so perched her on the deck railing (see photo at top of this Blathering). Moments after taking the picture, however, a malicious gust of wind whipped Cora off the railing and into the icy waters of Canoe Lake.

Jeff (my hero) leaped to the rescue and took the canoe out to retrieve poor Cora just as she began to sink.





It took several tries, but Cora was successfully rescued from a watery death (she spent longer in the water than I did yesterday). Thankfully, she has not lost any of her horror-movie charm, though her jaunty curls are not quite as jaunty. (See her just-rescued photo at the bottom of today's Blathering)

As a child, my favourite doll was Casey, Barbie's tomboy cousin. She had bendable arms and legs, and a chic blonde crewcut. In a fit of rage, my sister had drawn on one of Casey's legs with a permanent marker...a thick, angry slash that never came off. I was furious, though I'm sure I had given Ruth ample cause for this act of vandalism; I was a horribly cruel big sister at times (I recall that Jim and I used to hang Ruth's dolls and teddybears).

My favourite comfort toy was John the Teddy Bear. I adored John, even when he got very old and fragile and his stuffing started to come out.

One of favourite adult comfort stuffed toys is my fuzzy dog Mendelssohn. My friend Michelle gave him to me when Jeff and I split up once and I spent hours crying on her shoulder. I took Mendelssohn to Philadelphia with me.

Jeff let me take his own childhood comfort toy Flatmouse with me to Philly, too. Annie and Sara are fascinated with Flatmouse; Annie has asked Jeff if a truck had run over it to make it that flat.





I also love a fuzzy green frog that Scott and Amanda sent to me when I was in Philadelphia. I found their package after coming home after a particularly bad day at work. It was basically a comfort package, with funny toys, noisemakers, a homemade pedicure kit, and the fuzzy frog. I started crying as I pulled stuff out of the package, and hugged the frog for a long time.





Cora (TLHMTE) isn't that kind of comfort toy, but I do find that I've grown somewhat fond of her in a pitying "how can anything be that lame" sort of way.

Don't be surprised if she makes appearances in future Blatherings. :-)