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This just in...
^apparently Uggs boots are still quite in style
for the 12-year-old set
(I later found three more pairs
in another room)
(Or, alternative title:
As if you needed any evidence that 6th graders
like to dress alike)
So easy: we got a bunch of movie supply stuff (popcorn bags and tubs, red carpet, rolls of tickets, little movie charms and fake director's black and white "take one" frames for them to take home) from Oriental Trading Company (sadly Maddy wouldn't let me get the popcorn box costume, let alone wear it. Don't you think it would be stunning on me?). Pasted the invitation to a popcorn bag and attached a ticket and sent it. Got pizza, popcorn, junior mints, and other horrendous candy I hope they finish or I will. Movie title pictionary, eating, filling out the movie ballots, watching a movie = easy 3-hour soiree for 12-year-old girls. So now you know, in case you're ever in a bind with a gaggle of energetic preteens.
Meanwhile, Lauren went with some friends to the high school to see The Hypnotist. I'm pretty sure this is a different guy but the hypnotist was a yearly favorite for us at Logan Junior High and Logan High School, only the school leadership deemed it so educational back then that they actually used school time to hold a hypnotist assembly.
Anyone else out there have this?
Shiny bald headed and intimidating, Jack Lythgoe would show up every year, pick a few eager volunteers out of the audience and proceed to basically embarrass them by making them do silly things (like grab the curtain and not be able to let go or not be able to get up), make predictions, or they would go into the future and describe what they saw. Sometimes someone would say they were married to someone we all knew (I remember thinking "please don't let it be me" more than once). There was also lots of talk about the new millennium and World War 3, the Cold War at its chilliest.
If you got close you could see that Jack Lythgoe wore black eyeliner and greenish blue eyeshadow--making him simultaneouly more frightening and more ridiculous. He would hypnotize a row of about 10 students, then walk behind them and put up his fingers indicating how "under" each person was, sometimes flickering between two. (Greg and I used to mimic The Hypnotist when our kids were babies, using our fingers above their sleeping heads to indicate how under they were when they fell asleep. One of the benefits of sharing a Junior High history with your spouse.) I never was hypnotized but I always had the nagging suspicion that most of them were humoring Mr. Lythgoe, using their free pass to be zany and stupid and funny and basking in being stars for a night.
[Lauren just got home & reports it was hilarious. He made them believe they were missing their bellybuttons or had someone else's. He made them forget their last names. Sounds pretty much the same as I remember. And now...you're getting very sleepy, your eyes are getting heavy, on the count of three I will snap my fingers and you will sink deeply into a comfortable sleep...]
Saturday, January 12, 2008 | 8 Comments 
Reader Comments (8)
If only it were that easy. Snap! And I'm asleep and being programmed to think I'm thin, beautiful, and rich. Awww, bliss.
What does it say about my daugther that she wears a pair of (fake) uggs every ding-dong day? I can't get her to take those things off. Must be hot in the five-and-under set, too.
Yes, though I have to say that remembering hypnotism assemblies is twilight zonish. Did he really wear eyeliner? That is so weird.
According to Robert Shacter of New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine "children tend to respond to hypnotic suggestion better than adults because they are more in touch with their imaginations." Mortgage companies just don't understand how this could help us get along! Obviously, we don't have enough children working for Countrywide.
What a great bday party. Low maintenance, I like that. We don't have any Uggs, reall or fake around here. I guess I'm an "out of it" mom.
We never had any hypnotizing assemblies at my school! I feel very ripped off.
Fun party idea. I will take note...wonder if Uggs will still be around in another five years?
I remember when, at Logan High School, there was a student (MANY years ago) who, when asked who would be the next president of the U.S., said, "Ronald Reagan", and everyone who heard it immediately discounted the validity of the hypnotist, because, well....THAT was just ridiculous! This was very early on in the election process, but it seemed unthinkable at the time. Amazing, no?
Ma
I would like to apply for two of the job offers: The nanny thing and the menu planner. I could also help with the painting, but I would not be very good at the decision thing, as you well know. It is genetic. I will send my full application soon. Thank you for your consideration. Ma
Thank you for dropping by my blog. I love it when others LOVE Les Mis. Pure beauty.
Anyway, I really enjoy your writing. It is intoxicating. I hope you do pursue your dream and write MORE.
We had Mr. Lythgoe at our high school as well. He must have really made the rounds. He always was a bit creepy and yet as a high school student I thought he was hysterical too!
"One--starting up now, two--lighter still, and three--wide awake, please, wide awake."
He also came to our northern Utah Junior High and High School (Box Elder) every year until 1992. That year, in the evening community show, he had a segment where people would assume other personas--usually actors or popular sports stars. One guy was Grover from Sesame Street; another was Jack Lythgoe himself.
When he came to one girl and asked who she was, she responded, "Don't you know who the f*** I am?" After ascertaining her identity as "Satan," he brought her to the front of the stage to introduce her to the audience. Before he could say "Ladies and Gentle--," however, she grabbed the microphone away from him and screamed "OBEY ME!! F*** G*D!!!"
Although he immediately knocked her out after that, he was never invited back. I heard the girl was pretty upset about it afterwards, when people told her what she'd done.
I was wondering whatever happened to Jack Lythgoe, which was how I came across your blog. So there's that story.