If you were tiny in the 1970s, 80s or early 90s, you were likely subjected to "Dynamite," a tacky-ass free magazine distributed to elementary school kids nationwide starting in kindergarten, as well as at children's doctors offices, or really any place with which to reach a pre-teen audience. Why tacky-ass? Because it was essentially a massive nationwide free advertising vehicle, which pushed the likes of "Shields and Yarnell," for example, a sub-par network variety show starring married mime performers. And really, who else would give this forgettable Vegas act a nationwide magazine cover but "Dynamite," much less the here today/gone tomorrow actor who played Juan on "Welcome Back Kotter?" I said what I said.  The magazine also included half-hearted  tricks, games and contests, but the focus was mostly on what was later called "advertorial content." Again, this was distributed in elementary schools. When it wasn't trying to pu...

When I first stumbled upon the comic strip, "Etta Kett," I was surprised to learn of its long run, from 1925 to 1974. Why? Because I'd never heard of it. At all. Not even a whiff. Originally, as you can probably guess from its pun-ish title, it was meant to teach teenagers about proper etiquette and appropriate, i.e. modest, fashion.  This must have gone over like a lead balloon, because with astonishing speed, its creator, Paul Robinson - an early-1900s railway clerk turned animator for the pioneering Bray Studios turned cartoonist - switched things up. No longer was "Etta Kett" a teaching tool, but a lighthearted, always clean-minded, comedy about teenagers and their families. Clean-minded at that time meant that it was hilarious to make sexy-times moves on an unwilling gal. But it was a "different time," as they say.  Again, this was all wildly popular, so much so that the likes of Harvey Kurtzman, of Mad magazine and "Little Annie Fanny"...