Saturday, February 7, 2015

What's Wrong With This Picture?

So... I turned on my computer today and went to the Googles, where I saw this picture:


I couldn't figure out what they were celebrating so I moused over it and it said "Laura Ingalls Wilder's 148th Birthday."

Now, I was a HUGE fan of the Little House books as a kid. Must have read them all at least a dozen times, and as any Little House aficionado can tell you, there is something VERY wrong with this picture!

Here are the real Ingalls sisters, Carrie on the left, Mary seated and Laura on the right:


Have you figured it out yet?

Well... the Google depiction shows brown haired pig-tailed Laura as the older sister. And as we all know from reading the books, Laura was the middle child who was terribly jealous of Mary, her blonde haired, blue-eyed older sister!

C'mon Googles! How could you get something so important, SOOOO wrong?!? I mean, it's one of the central themes of the books!


Harrumph!


So, did anybody else notice this, or am I just being nit-picky with my Little House obsession?


28 comments :

  1. Sorry, but I think you're way off base.

    In all the books and even the later TV shows, Laura talks about how after Mary went blind, she was her guide and her eyes as they walked and wandered. If you look at the Google doodle, Mary's arm is linked with Laura's. The doodle is not presenting Laura as the OLDER .. but as the sister who became her sister's eyes.

    I knew immediately what the doodle represented because of that.

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    1. Hmmm... well that's an interesting take. Sooo... guess what, I Googled it! :-)

      Turns out this doodle is a photograph of some yarn dolls meant to depict the scene in the opening credits of the TV show where the girls are running down a hill.

      http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Tech-Culture/2015/0207/Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-A-Google-Doodle-of-good-yarn

      I like your interpretation though, but I still think Mary should be taller than Laura! Can you tell I had "issues" with an older sibling and really related to that part of Laura's story? :-)

      Perhaps this is some sort of Laura Ingalls Wilder Rorschach test!

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    2. Love to visit your blog, just don't add in my thoughts. But I do have to say that Mary should be the taller one. And if you look closely, Mary's arm is not linked with Laura's.

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    3. True true... but the real question about Mary is... what the heck is the stick with the red ribbon on it all about?

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  2. I assumed it was perspective - Laura looks taller because she's closer. But yes, these things matter! ;)

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    1. Well now, there's giving them the benefit of the doubt - that's probably what they intended. But Mary just doesn't look like she's far enough behind Laura to be that much shorter. OK, I'm nit-picking.

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    2. Yes, I thought the perspective thing, too, but if they're supposed to be going down a hill, that would give Mary a height advantage, not Laura. But to be honest I enjoyed the books, but I would not have really even recognized the Google doodle as Little House.

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    3. Ha! Excellent point, Melissa! :-)

      I totally didn't get the Little House thing either until I moused over it to see what it was.

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  3. Maybe they're depicting a scene where Laura had a growth spurt and temporarily was taller than Mary? :)

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  4. I'm with you. Not only does Laura look taller in this picture or doodle or whatever it is, but her face looks more mature. Her hair is tidy and braided and we know from reading the books that Mary was much more likely to be the neat, tidy one. And the books bring up that Laura was short (hence the name "half-pint"). But then again, I'm the person who rarely likes movies based on books because they never seem to match up ... so it's not surprising that this picture disappoints me ...

    On the other hand, yay to Google for commemorating such an important book series! I'm enjoying them again via my 9-year-old daughter.

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    1. OK... vindication! I'm not just crazy. Though I suppose it's hard to convey subtleties like maturity of facial expression with a yarn doll, so perhaps we should cut them a break. And you're totally right that Google does deserve some KUDOS for even recognizing her. And I'm sorta jealous that you're reading them all over again. I have no children to use as an excuse, but all of this Little House reminiscing does have me thinking that perhaps I should haul my set out of the basement and re-read them for the umpteenth time!

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    2. I plan on re-reading favorite kid books when I'm really old. No one needs to know ... you own them, after all--it's not like you are going to the library in full view of everybody. I also regularly re-read Narnia ... Anne of Green Gables ... Little Women ... and, while it's not "vintage" yet, I lovelovelove the Harry Potter series. So read 'em, if ya wanna! There could be worse ways to spend a day ...

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    3. CatMan and I read all of the Harry Potter books in Spanish and totally loved them! We study Spanish together so we're always looking for fun things to read - though dealing with all of the made-up words was a bit of a challenge. We spent hours looking through every dictionary we owned for the verb "desnomizar" with no luck - finally we gave up and looked in the English version of the book, and discovered that the word was "de-gnomify" as it to remove the gnomes from the garden! Oh my!

      Anyhow, if I can interest him in the Narnia books, those might be fun to read (in Spanish, of course) but otherwise I may just have to crack those open too. I never read Anne of Green Gables or Little Women, though I did see several film versions of the latter. I doubt CatMan would go for any of the girly stuff, but that doesn't mean I can't read it - and I'll probably take the lazy way out and use the English versions! :-)

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    4. Diskworld comes in Spanish (& other languages, but I read the first couple of witches ones in Spanish to practice)... they're definitely a fun read

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    5. Hmmm... never heard of Diskworld. Perhaps I'll have to check it out!

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  5. Believe it or not I hadn't paid that much attention to the image, but I agree Mary should be taller. I loved the little house books, it was how I wished I could live, especially having some real distance between me and my neighbors. :-)

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    1. I've been having Little House fantasies all week - for some reason I keep remembering Mr. Edwards making his way through the blizzard to bring the girls peppermint candy for Christmas. I suppose there would have been plenty of inconveniences, but the wide open spaces would have been heavenly.

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    2. And Pa eating the oyster crackers but keeping the Candy when he got stranded in the blizzard bringing the shopping back from town...

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    3. Yes... and grinding the wheat in the coffee grinder to make bread during the long winter...

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  6. Not sure what's going on in the picture, but I'm super pumped that google is recognizing the Little House series! It's one of my all time favorites! :)

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    1. Me too. I'm actually thinking of reading "Confessions of a Prairie Bitch" Alison Arngrim's memoir about playing Nellie Olson. It's supposed to be quite good, though I fear it could "break the spell" of the TV show for me!

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    2. I only watched one episode of the TV show but I can understand your apprehension! There are some movies I refuse to watch because I adore the book, simply because I don't want to risk having it ruined!

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    3. I'm not a big reader so that's generally not much of an issue for me, but I did have some apprehension about watching the Harry Potter movies. I did love them, but they still weren't as good as the books!

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  7. Maybe the size of the figure relates to the importance of the character since there would be no Little House stories without Laura Ingalls Wilder and since it's a celebration of her birthday. I think it's cute anyway.

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    1. Now there's a thought - put the birthday girl up front and center with the supporting cast in the background! :-)

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  8. I never got into the books or the show, but it's a testament that so many people are celebrating her birthday. Maybe I'll check out a book from the library.

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    1. CatMan never read them either. I think it was a "girl thing" though, from my perspective they're a great read for anyone of any age or gender!

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