Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, November 16, 2019

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Mountain Views-News Saturday, November 16, 2019 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side 

 by Deanne Davis

KATIE Tse....This and That


LOONEY TUNES & SPEECH 
PATHOLOGY

“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

Albert Einstein

“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.”

Lynda Barry

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a 
telescope.” Dr. Seuss

My dear friends and neighbors, I entered into a world of pure, exquisite fantasy Friday night a week 
ago when I was privileged to attend the preview of Moonlight Forest at the Los Angeles County 
Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Here’s how the Arboretum folks describe it:

“A fantasy of light 
transforms the 
Arboretum into an 
evening wonderland. 
Magnificent lantern 
art depicting exotic 
animals, shimmering 
flowers, whimsical 
pandas, soaring dragons 
and other themes 
create the mesmerizing 
experience of Moonlight 
Forest.”

I was in a world 
of fantasy, totally 
mesmerized, from the 
moment I stepped through the Peacock Welcome Gate and my sense of awe and wonder continued 
throughout the evening as delight upon beautiful delight was revealed. Pandas, peacocks, dragons, 
flamingoes, antelopes, cheetahs, walruses, seahorses, mushrooms, fairies, and butterflies. Butterflies 
of every size and color imaginable. Well, you just simply have to go see for yourself. Pure light 
everywhere.

This is the second year of the Moonlight Forest Magical Lantern Art Festival and the Arboretum 
folks have been working to create this world of fantasy since last year. They have succeeded in giving 
all who come to visit an unforgettable evening. There is a row of gloriously illuminated canons firing 
colored flames into the air. A giant peacock with tail feathers spread covers an entire lawn. A dragon 
160’ long slithers along the lake. There are cranes, signifying longevity. A desert garden with giant 
lizards and snakes coiled around cactus. Sacred baobab trees. A giant crocodile, a team of Siberian 
Huskies pulling a sled, enormous macaws. So much wonder to absorb!

These “lanterns” are made of a very thin polyester fabric stretched over metal frames, lit from within 
with LED lights in every color imaginable. Over 300 hours have been spent setting up the lantern 
displays, of which there are over 50! 

We were treated to a Chinese Face Changer – which defies description. Seriously! A pass of a fan and 
he was transformed from an evil villain to an innocent maiden and so many other characters. When 
you go, you will have an opportunity to see the Face Changer and an assortment of other Chinese 
acrobats including High Chair, Hand Stands, Land Circle, Opposing Power, Bar Balance and, so you 
can plan your time there, the shows are nightly at 6:00, 7:30 and 8:30 with an added show at 9:15 on 
Saturday and Sunday evenings. 

The Moonlight Forest Magical Lantern Art Festival will run through January 12, 2020 and is open 
for your amazement Wednesday through Sunday from 5:30 to 10:00 p.m. You will see Aluminum 
Braiding, Stone Carving and Straw Painting at the Market Place and there are even several Interactive 
Lanterns like the Polychrome Elephant and the Moonlight Swings. All I can say is you just simply 
have to go and see this for yourself. You will take a million pictures, like we did, because you won’t 
believe all that you will see. And, yes, there is food!

Tickets Wednesday-Thursday are: Adults - $25.00, Seniors/Students - $23.00, Children (3-17) $20.00. 
Friday-Sunday: Adults - $28.00, Seniors/Students - $25.00, Children (3-17) $23.00 and the parking is 
free!! You can purchase tickets on Arboretum.org. Or call 626-566-3711.

If you don’t give yourself this magnificent Magical Lantern experience, you’re going to be kicking 
yourself all year! Trust me on this. Fantasy doesn’t happen around every corner, but you will find it 
for sure at the Arboretum Moonlight Forest. Photos by Chuck Seitz

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Blog: www.authordeanne.com

Christmas is just a few short weeks away and my book:

“Sunrises and Sunflowers Speak Hope” 

Would be a really nice gift for everyone you know.

You can find it on Amazon.com

“Star of Wonder” a delightful Christmas Kindle story is there, too.

Follow me on Twitter! https://twitter.com/@playwrightdd

(Let me just say that I’m sure this title has grabbed the attention 
of any speech pathologists reading this paper. Or at least their close 
relatives. Speech pathologists are like that...)

I’m in a prayer group with my parents and their neighbors. This 
last time toward the end my dad and one of the neighbors (we’ll 
call him Stephen), got to talking about speech pathology, my field. 
Stephen and I are somewhat kindred spirits, since we’re both in 
special education.

It came up that all the characters in Looney Tunes have a speech 
impediment of some sort.

“Hey, you should write about that for the paper!” my dad exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Stephen laughed, “You know that’d actually be funny!”

What? You mean all my articles aren’t scintillatingly hilarious? I restrained myself from 
asking. “I’ll see,” I said.

Admittedly, my heart wasn’t in diagnosing the speech disorders of vintage cartoon 
characters. Not because I don’t think it’d be 
a good article. It’s just that speech pathology 
is my job. Therefore, I don’t think it makes 
for interesting leisure reading, and part of me 
doesn’t expect others to find it intrinsically 
fascinating, either.

It’d kind of be like asking a cop to analyze 
a TV crime drama. Sure, the rest of us may 
think that sort of thing is intriguing. But to 
someone else, it’s just their job. And they 
might want to forget about it while they’re not 
on the clock.

But then I didn’t have any other ideas 
kicking around, so here goes nuttin’. One 
small, and need I say, obvious disclaimer --I’m 
not the first person to write this!

Yes, it’s true, everything you’ve suspected 
about the speech of your favorite Looney 
Tunes characters. Porky Pig stutters (sound 
repetition in “Th-th-th-that’s all, folks!”). 
Daffy Duck has a frontal lisp (/s/ is produced 
as /th/, “dethpicable” for despicable). 

Tweety Bird has the phonological process 
of stopping (producing a continuous sound, what we in the trade call a “fricative,” as a non-
continuous sound, or a “stop.”) Examples include “I tought I taw a puddy cat.” However, if 
we consider that Tweety Bird may actually be a juvenile, his speech patterns could simply be 
developmental. Just for kicks, try to figure out what the following is [answer at end of article]: 
“Dough pis”

But the character we’re all most familiar with is Elmer Fudd, who’s forever chasing “wabbits.” 
He’s got the bane of all speech pathologist’s existence --the dreaded gliding of liquids (/w/ 
replaces /l, r/, “wike” for like and “wain” for rain, etc.). Interestingly enough, unlike many of 
the kids us SLPs deal with, Elmer is able to pronounce some /r/-colored vowels, such as the -er 
in “ever” and the -or in “door.” So there’s hope for him.

Another reason I wasn’t too hot about this topic was that it doesn’t take too long to write. 
See? I’ve done it in three paragraphs. But what about the characters we’ve come to know and 
love who suffer from challenges outside the realm of speech pathology?

Look at the Seven Dwarfs or Winnie the Pooh’s gang. For most of them, their problems 
are obvious. Grumpy has anger issues. Sleepy has insomnia or some other sleep disturbance. 
Actually, he’s a bit rotund. Perhaps sleep apnea’s to blame. And what’s behind Bashful’s shyness? 
Some deep seated insecurity rooted in childhood trauma? And I’m not even going to touch 
Dopey, for obvious reasons.

Eeyore is clearly depressed, and Tigger has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I’m not 
sure if Rabbit’s got anything going on. In most episodes his short fuse escalates quickly. But he’s 
got anything on Grumpy. 

But rather than poking fun at people with speech impairments or social problems, I think one 
reason these cartoons are so popular is because their creators knew that by making them less 
than perfect, they’d be more relatable. 

Reminds me of a meme I saw: “As children, we love heroes. As adults, we understand villains.” 
We’ve all missed the mark in some way. That’s why sometimes the off-beat characters resonate 
with us more than the heroes. If we’re honest with ourselves, we’d admit we’re all a little broken 
in places. And the moral of the story is that that’s okay.

* Speaking of stories with relatable characters, check out my novel, “A Year at Apex!” If you 
can’t relate to the guilt-ridden one-handed plumber, I’ve got a jaded veteran teacher for you. 
Makes the perfect stocking stuffer. Look for it in paperback and ebook on Amazon and Barnes 
& Noble. [answer to “dough pis”: “Go fish.”]


TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

COMMENTARY: SO SORRY

What ever happened to the TV and Radio Commentary? According to Google, a commentary is 
simple, one person’s opinion on an event, a happening or a live event. I plan to offer a commentary 
every now and then. These 
commentaries are social and are not 
aimed at a person, ethnicity or any 
certain restaurant; basically, things 
that happen to you and me on a daily 
basis. If you have a counterpoint I’d 
love to hear it, these commentaries 
are also available in print, you just 
need to join my mailing list! Joining 
my mailing list is easy! just go to 
my website diningwithdills.com 
and contact me. Don’t forget that 
on Tuesday we have our podcast 
available, you can just type in Peter Dills and subscribe.

 Here way go again!! Last week we spoke of social harmony and restaurants . This week I 
tackle why we apologize to the restaurant when they did something wrong. Hear me out, I order a 
steak and I ask for it medium rare and it comes back well done or my margarita on the rocks and its 
blended I think you see where this is going… I got this idea from listener Chelsea, she says that half 
the time she is apologizing for them not getting her order right. Let me interject here, my pet peeve 
is when the server says don’t blame me I didn’t cook your food!! Didn’t say you did just please get it 
right. Just last week I stayed in a nice hotel off the Santa Barbara coast, my room was right next to 
the elevator shaft, I strolled down to the front desk and explained the situation and said I am sorry I 
can’t sleep in that room, the hotel said, yea we get a lot of complaints on the room. My mom used to 
say kill’em with kindness, MOM I am trying!!! An apology is admitting you are wrong. My opinion? 
Let’s be civil, keep your cool, be gracious, mistakes happen. I look at going to restaurants as a pro for 
them, you just don’t have to return if you are not satisfied. Next week is the customer, always right? 
You’ll be surprised at my answer

Listen in every Sunday at 8 AM to my show on Go Country 105! 

I’ll even give you my direct phone line: 866-479-1051


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com