Happy Thursday morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for making The County Line part of your morning routine.
We’re here to celebrate nonsense again today, and believe me, the nonsense is about to come hard and fast. Today is National Donald Duck Day, which we can and will announce, analyze, and even mock (we’ll get there), but we cannot share a photograph.
Since Donald is owned by Disney and still has a few years left before he enters the public domain, you’ll have to do with a description: Cartoon duck, the short white one who runs around with Mickey Mouse, not the taller black duck that hangs with Buggs Bunny. Everyone gets these two confused, so—to put it another way—today is for the cartoon duck that isn’t in either of the Space Jam movies.
Of all the silliness that has made up the majority of these morning posts since we launched the site in February, this might be the silliest: A fake holiday for a supporting-character cartoon duck whose popularity peaked decades before most people reading this site were even born. You had me at “fake holiday.” The irony is that even if someone, somewhere, cared to acknowledge this holiday, he better be careful not to show the image on his website, otherwise there could be legal repercussions.
What’s more? The copyright on all these old Disney characters should have expired in the 1970s. Disney has successfully lobbied congress to extend their exclusive right to the characters on two occasions, but the intellectual property is once again set to enter the public domain (in two or three more years). It’s hard to say why Disney gets this level of protection, but it’s good to see that our government is looking out for the little guy, the mom-and-pop, family business that just happens to be worth more than $200 billion.
It is a bit odd that whoever came up with this one (maybe Walt Disney’s frozen head) couldn’t find something more culturally relevant. Even if the whole point was to stick to intellectual property owned by Disney, there had to have been better, more current options. Even Star Wars or The Simpsons—two other Disney properties that have been around for three or four decades—would fit better in 2022. If the goal wasn’t brand-building though, and simply an ode to cartoon ducks, Daffy is the better option in this case, given that Buggs Bunny is a cooler leading man to be a sidekick for than Mickey Mouse as well as the recent screentime from the aforementioned Space Jam movie.
This is the kind of analysis you cannot get anywhere else, folks. Quack loud and proud as you go about your day.
Today’s Quote of the Day is not from Donald Duck, because garbled 1940s punchlines don’t really move the needle around here, but he does garner a mention. From Orson Welles:
Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in senate.
Personally, I think Mr. Welles must have been crazy. I’d prefer Donald Duck and The Muppets to several senators, but that’s just me. Maybe ol’ Orson could see the future, however, and was warning against voting in legislators who are more style than substance, something we, of course, would never do in the highly enlightened 2020s.
Anyway, on to today’s weather, courtesy of the recently-back-from-vacation intern:
Just a few minutes past 6 a.m., it’s a brisk 63 degrees at company headquarters in Russell Springs. Intern correspondents in Jamestown and Columbia report near-identical readings of 63 and 64 degrees, respectively. If the rain holds off until tomorrow as is expected, we’re looking at a perfect one today—sunny with a high in the mid- to upper-70s.
That’s it for now, folks. Thanks for joining us this morning, and check back throughout the day for more exciting content, always from local voices.
