Mr. Rogers' Birthday Is Today

[Lil Red]

http://mentalfloss.com/article/49559/46-things-i-learned-making-mister-rogers-me

4. A framed quotation from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince hung in Mister Rogers WQED office his entire career. It read, “L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." (“What is essential is invisible to the eye.”)

 

I love Mr. Rogers. :love:

 

there are so many things to love about him, what is your favorite?

 

http://youtu.be/yXEuEUQIP3Q

 

even cracked loves him: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-moments-that-prove-mr.-rogers-was-greatest-american/

Mr. Rogers was 143 pounds his entire adult life, and back in a time when we wore magical devices on our belts called pagers, that number was how drug dealers told each other "I love you." You know who invented that letter-counting code? Mr. Rogers, in the episode "Transformations":

 

According to Esquire, every morning, Mr. Rogers stepped on the scale, and every day, the first message he received was "I love you!" This tickled Mr. Rogers to no end, and sent him out into the world on the right foot to tell everyone he loved them, too.

 

Why It Made Him Great

Now this seems like nothing more than an adorable quirk. But what it implies is that here's a man who made a decision to be healthy and happy.

 

Nobody can maintain the same exact weight for 30 years, let alone 143 pounds. That's approximately how much the average left thigh weighs in America. In cities with a great barbecue scene, you'll find pigeons that weigh more than that. And Mr. Rogers loved them, too. But he didn't eat animals, probably because they spoke to him.

 

But it wasn't just a little cute thing. Apparently this was a thing Mr. Rogers was known to do, like when he started signing letters to a reporter "IPOY," or "I'm proud of you."

 

That annoying text shorthand that makes previously respectable people sound like robots that have been hit by cars is actually a fine tradition started by a man you respect. In the Neighborhood, everything means something, and the messages are here to help us improve.

 

And now you see that the problem was you -- or if not you, then the world's English majors, our nation's richest source of SMS snobs. Now that you have seen the face of Mr. Rogers in the heart of everyone you speak with, you realize it's the message, not the medium, that matters, and the message is love.

 

I know you're waiting for some snark to season that schmaltz, but: nope! Fred taught me it's OK to say stuff like that.

 

[Tony]

funny how cardigans are such an  "in" thing now :)

[PhuturePriest]

I don't know much about Mr. Rogers, but when listening to him it became apparent to me that he had a stutter. This would explain his slower speech.

[PhuturePriest]

^ In essence, I greatly respect him because he didn't let it hold him back.

[Lil Red]

i don't believe he had a stutter. :) he spoke slowly and clearly and calmly to children.

[Tony]

I loved it when Mr Rodgers went visiting somewhere. and they showed the model of his neighborhood  with all the little houses and things. Don't know why but that was my favorite part.

[Winchester]

I love that he never killed in anger.

[PhuturePriest]

i don't believe he had a stutter. :) he spoke slowly and clearly and calmly to children.

 

This could be why. But he has awkward pauses sometimes when he speaks. That is a product of stuttering.

[Lil Red]

dude, i've never read anything that says he had a stutter.

 

I still think you're a special snowflake, even if you're wrong.

 

(wait, that's probably not how Mr. Rogers would have done it.)

[vee]

[MIKolbe]

I don't know much about Mr. Rogers, but when listening to him it became apparent to me that he had a stutter. This would explain his slower speech.

As someone who had/has an impediment, no he did not have one. However, one of his puppets did... I forgot the puppets name...but I remember it.

Funny you should mention it because in my speech classes we watched The Neighborhood to show me how to speak slower and more concisely and to help focus on pronunciation to get my mind out of the mode of trying to get everything out at once. It certainly wasn't the only exercise I did for my speech, but I remember it.

I remember rolling my eyes at this at the time...I was in 6th or 7th grade as I was much much too cool for that.

But in the end, I ended up being one more kid Mr. Rogers helped.

Mr. Rogers, you are special, to me. I like YOU just the way you are.

:)

[PhuturePriest]

As someone who had/has an impediment, no he did not have one. However, one of his puppets did... I forgot the puppets name...but I remember it.

Funny you should mention it because in my speech classes we watched The Neighborhood to show me how to speak slower and more concisely and to help focus on pronunciation to get my mind out of the mode of trying to get everything out at once. It certainly wasn't the only exercise I did for my speech, but I remember it.

I remember rolling my eyes at this at the time...I was in 6th or 7th grade as I was much much too cool for that.

But in the end, I ended up being one more kid Mr. Rogers helped.

Mr. Rogers, you are special, to me. I like YOU just the way you are.

:)

 

That's precisely why I thought he had one. He spoke exactly how I was told to speak in speech therapy.

[homeschoolmom]

I don't know much about Mr. Rogers,

This makes me a little sad. Everyone should know about Mr. Rogers. I had a poster of him in my college dorm like this (but vertical)

 

He was a really good guy. I don't think I've ever heard anyone who knew him say anything negative about him ever.

 

I guess the Westboro Baptist Church picketed his funeral. They're all nuts, though. So....

[Anastasia13]

I guess the Westboro Baptist Church picketed his funeral. They're all nuts, though. So....

If you are not gay, but Westboro pickets you anyway, it means you probably did something right.

 

Mr. Rogers, quiet, kind to children, knew how to love, apparently knew when to show kindness and when to fight.

Edited March 21, 2013 by Light and Truth

[Anastasia13]

 

So cute! Why? Why do you have to do that to me?