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Happy Barbie Day!

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OK, so there isn't a Barbie Day, but there should be! Barbie is the world's best selling doll and was first sold on March 9, 1959. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts and her family & friends include her permanent beau Ken (although on February 12, 2004, just days before Valentine's, Mattel spokespeople announced the split of Barbie and Ken after 43 years of dating, saying in their press release that they "have decided to spend some time apart."), her little sister Skipper (debut 1964), twins Tutti and Todd, Stacie (1992), and Kelly (1995). Barbie has dated Ken since 1961, and after a long estrangement was reuinited with her best friend Midge in the mid-nineties. Other longstanding friends in Barbie's ethnically diverse social circle include Teresa, Christie, Steven (Christie's boyfriend), and Alan, Midge's boyfriend whom she married in 1990 and now has two children with). Barbie is still said to attend Willows High School in Willows, Wisconsin.

Barbie's occupations over the year include:

  • Amateur athlete at the Olympics (including swimming, figure skating)
  • Fairy tale characters/princesses (including Rapunzel, Nutcracker)
  • Paleontologist
  • Doctor, dentist, nurse, and veterinarian
  • Astronaut - An astronaut suit was sold for Barbie around the same time the first real female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova, entered space.
  • Fashion designer
  • Model - Barbie was originally marketed as a "teen-age fashion model"
  • Politician - Barbie ran for President of the United States in 1992 and again in 2000 and 2004. Sadly, she has not yet won, nor fared well in polls. On the international stage she's been a Summit Diplomat, UNICEF Diplomat & Ambassador for World Peace
  • Rock star - Barbie has fronted several bands, including Barbie and the Rockers, as well as working as a solo Rap act.
  • Firefighter
  • Chef
  • International Traveller
  • Tennis Star
  • Ballerina, Circus Star, Movie Star, SuperStar & Rockette
  • Army Officer, Air Force officer & Air Force Thunderbirds, Marine Corps Officer & Navy Officer

Other highlights of today are:

  • 1454 - Amerigo Vespucci, explorer and cartographer is Born (d. 1512)
  • 1934 - Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut, first human in space is born (d. 1968)
  • 1940 - John Cale, composer, musician, former member of the Velvet Underground
  • 1954 - McCarthyism: CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy," produced by Edward R. Murrow.
  • 1994 - Charles Bukowski, poet, writer Died(b.1920)
  • George Burns, actor, singer Died (b. 1896)

Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., D.F.S

[ Edited by: freddiefreelance on 2005-03-09 12:44 ]

UB

Barbie and Ken
(For Mature/Immature audiences)

On 2005-03-09 12:44, freddiefreelance wrote:
Mattel spokespeople announced the split of Barbie and Ken after 43 years of dating, saying in their press release that they "have decided to spend some time apart.")

Oh, come on -- everybody knows that Ken is gay!

H
hewey posted on Mon, Mar 14, 2005 3:33 PM

According to a freind who works in a large shopping chain, they haven't sold a Ken doll since the big split. There are heaps of the new guy, but there is one Ken on the shelf waiting for someone to love him.

Maybe they should re-release him as a drunken and disenchanted bum with rags for clothes and a bottle of cheap rum in his hand.

MT

On 2005-03-14 15:33, hewey wrote:
...there is one Ken on the shelf waiting for someone to love him.

Perhaps he's waiting for G.I. Joe? Don't ask, don't tell!

W

My buddy Max is the staff bartender on BPS's Caraway Court and he's gotten to know Almo pretty good over the years. Being quite the party animal Almo really gets around and hears a lot of Dolltown gossip along the way.

Almo used to date Rainbow Brite and she claimed her and Ken had been an item for years before the "official" break up.

Ken is a notorious womanizer and Barbie is no saint either. (Common knowledge around Dolltown: Despite it's small size eleven dolls can fit in Barbie's mobile hot tub if no one is wearing clothes!)

Rather than deal with Ken and Barbie's wild and swinging private lives Mattel felt it was easier to just let the gay rumors about Ken float there. They sometimes even tweaked them a little if it served their purposes.

Ken is vain and loves hearing endless flattery from a hot piece of girl plastic. Mattel had some good looking young interns make suggestions to Ken about how sexy he looked in pastels or how cool he'd be with some blond highlights.

The gay rumors were useful in turning the public eye from what Barbie was up to. During the big Earring Magic Ken "debacle" of 1993 what was Barbie doing? Being readmitted to Betty Ford for another go at kicking her 4 tube a day Super Elastic Bubble Plastic habit.

Hmmmmmmm.....Earring Magic Ken, complete with accessory.

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