A bit of controversy

[vanillafluffy]

Yahoo has a story up about the auctioning of items from the Roy Rogers Museum, including---drumroll, please!---Trigger, who was preserved when he passed. According to the article, they expect Trigger's taxidermied remains to fetch about $200K.

I commented. I HAD to comment:

Gee, I wish I had a spare 200 grand to throw away on a giant stuffed palomino! Nothing against Trigger, but in this economy, that's just crazy. Anyone who spends that kind of cash on something so absurd clearly has more money than good sense.

To my bemusement, reaction is running 5 to 4 against, and a subsequent poster accuses me of being jealous. Someone else has commented that it's funny to think that a dead horse is worth more than a Prius. And a lot of people are saying Trigger belongs in the Smithsonian.

It's funny what people will find to wank about!



ETA 7/16/10: From Yahoo news: Rural cable network RFD-TV bought (Roy Roger's dog) Bullet for $35,000 on Thursday and Trigger for $266,000 a day earlier at an auction in New York City.

RFD-TV owner Patrick Gottsch said the Omaha, Neb.-based network will begin airing old Roy Rogers movies on Saturdays starting November 6. The movie cowboy's son, Roy Jr., will introduce each film, as Trigger and Bullet stand in the background.

"The goal is to introduce Roy Rogers to a whole new generation of kids," Gottsch said.

That's kinda cool!

.

Comments

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

Honestly. And how many of those commenters, I wonder, are old enough to remember Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans, and Trigger as something other than Hollywood nostalgia? I'm sure I never saw their TV show except in "looking back" shows. Did they do movies? Release records?

It's things like this that remind me that the Internet is the designated "talk out your arse" zone in the modern world.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I missed that era by a few years, myself. I'm sure some of their movies showed up in reruns, and the records are Out There Somewhere, but at best, it's the grandparents of most of the posters who remember it, the early 'boomers. (I was a late 'boomer, never really felt like I fit into that demographic, but my 15-year older brother nailed it.)

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

You were absolutely correct with the "more money than sense" observation. Unfortunately, message boards tend to bring out all kinds of cranks.

And yeah, if I had $200K, a dead stuffed horse wouldn't even cross my mind as a worthwhile use for the money.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Heck, Trigger wouldn't be on the top 500 list of "Things I Could Do With All That Money". $50K would completely fix my house, get me a decent car (maybe even a new one!) and solve my current financial problems. Put the rest into CDs and have a cushion. Screw taxidermy!

ever so slightly OT ...

[majolika.livejournal.com]

I owned two stuffed animals in my life, a boxfish and a rat, and both were breeding wee little scorpions as you also find in old books (see icon). As in - 50 scorpions daily plus bonus or something. I had to spray them with unmentionable poison.

can you imagine the mental image this post gave me?

Re: ever so slightly OT ...

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Around here, they call those silverfish, and they are icky. Mostly I was thinking of how every such item I've seen has ended up molting eventually. I can just imagine how much that thing would shed!

Re: ever so slightly OT ...

[majolika.livejournal.com]

nono, silverfish are different (we call them the same, with a diminutive suffix, "Silberfischchen"), they live in my bathroom. In my books and stuffed animals I have those: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudoscorpion.

oh, and in that heat, I have little green grasshoppers in my bed! goodnight :)

[foreverhermit.livejournal.com]

Granted, I didn't search out the article on Yahoo, but why oh why are they auctioning Roy Rogers' stuff? Poor Trigger....

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Well, as I've pieced together from the other comments, the original Roy rogers Museum was in California. Roy Jr moved it to Branson, MO a few years ago, which cost a buttload of bucks, then the economy tanked and it never made back the cost. Heck, Jr can't be a spring chicken either---this is probably going to fund his reitrement.

[hippediva.livejournal.com]

It's funny what people will find to wank about!

*snerk* People will wank about ANYTHING at all, given the chance. Dead horses, dead tv shows, failed governments of the previous century. It really is hilarious the lengths humans go to be contrary. I think it has something to do with the rarified air of the interweebz. LOL!

Trigger was an icon to a generation and a half. I suppose he has his place in Horse History, along with Bucephalus and that big wooden one from Troy. *giggle* But it is SO funny to see folks get all passionate about a stuffed horse.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Wank is human nature...it's just boggling how it multiplies on the Net.

I was a horse-mad kid, so far be it for me to scoff at Trigger. It just gives a whole new meaning to the expression, "flogging a dead horse".

[cbtreks.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think the Smithsonian would be a great place for Trigger. He's as cool as the Enterprise and way better than Archie Bunker's chair! (My mom was a Roy Rogers fan as a girl. I've read Dale Evans Rogers books about her two daughters who died, Robin and Debbie.) When DH and I used to help some friend sell swords at ren faires (just a couple fairs each summer) we all loved those patrons with more money than sense!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

I agree, the Smithsonian would be fitting resting place for Trigger. He's definitely iconic enough.

I used to adore ren fests! I haven't been to one in nearly ten years, but back in the day, no spring was complete without a weekend at the Tampa Bay area Renaissance Festival (to give it its proper title). *sigh* Those were the days.