March 8, 1979

A few times in the last weeks, Aaron has grown weary of listening to typewriters clicking and has turned on the 1940 vintage television which is part of our office furniture.  He is usually met by the smiling face of Romper Room's Miss Marti.

Romper Room has over the years become a children's television tradition, but if you have not watched it recently, a synopsis may be in order.

The idea of the show is that an attractive, smiling, gentle lady (Miss Marti) is solely responsible for the entertainment of six preschool age children as well as the children watching in the sanctity of their own homes.  The preschoolers on the show take part in delightful games, delightful stories, and delightful situations while asking delightful questions.

The show is a half hour of bliss--most of the time.  Sometimes, the man who screens the youngsters for the show blunders, changing the entire complexion of the program.  Now and then a little tow-headed kid, usually named Tommy, who sports the most devious of grins, finds himself on the show.  He attempts to make the most of his half hour in the limelight by doing his level best to get Miss Marti to take a swing at him.

When the kids are instructed to lightly toss their small rubber balls into the air and then catch them, Tommy rifles his into the camera.  While the other kids are walking around mooing like cows, Tommy is perched on the desk crowing like a rooster.  When Miss Marti looks into her "Magic Mirror" to see all the children in television land, Tommy beans her with a cupcake.

Incredible as it may seem, Miss Marti, a graduate of the Mary Tyler Moore School for the Terminally Gleeful, continues smiling, says something like "Tommy, good do-bees don't hit Miss Marti with cupcakes," and then carries on, pausing only briefly to wipe the side of her face.

Bearing in mind that there is already too much violence on television, we would like to see, just once, for her own sanity as well as ours, Miss Marti completely lose control.  To see her grab little Tommy, shove a rubber ball in one ear, a cupcake in the other, and then hang him by his thumbs from a ceiling beam would do our hearts good....  ~T. Stucky