For Maura: Since you asked about Bingo Bear's characteristics

[lavendertook]

Since I've been asked about Bingo's source's characteristics, I'm taking this as an excuse to transcribe one of my favorite footnotes ever. In The Return of the Shadow which is Vol. 6 of The History of Middle-Earth and a recounting of the early drafts of FOTR, Christopher Tolkien quotes his father's biographer Humphrey Carpenter's statement that the name "Bingo" comes from "the name of a family of toy koala bears owned by his children, 'The Bingos'" (qtd in RotS 28).

CT then footnotes this to state:

I find it difficult to believe this, yet if it is not so the coincidence is strange. If Bingo Baggins did get his name from this source, I can only suppose that the demonic character (composed of monomaniac religious despotism and a lust for destruction through high explosive) of the chief Bingo (not to mention that of his appalling wife), by which my sister and I now remember them, developed somewhat later. (34)

Go Chris and Prisca! (-:

And why does the headline in my town newspaper, "Council Okays More Bingo, Defers on Beer and Wine" make me so very happy? Heeeeehe. The little things that make life delightful.

Comments

I love Bingo!

[abandonada.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to go on record that I LOVE BINGO! Everything about him! He's so amusing and insightful and all around wonderful. Keep up the good work.

Awwww! Yay!(-: (-: (-:

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you like the lil fellow!(-: He was a little crestfallen that he didn't make it onto any of the fav puppets lists on the mun survey except for the one who has to like him because his Frodo-muse is his lover(though that made him quite happy). I won't tell him he has a fan in you lest his head swell and he becomes a shallow pop icon disdainful of his loyal fans.

I love Plastic Town! It adds much mirth to my day! In fact one of my puppets has been bugging me to let her flirt with Plastic Gandalf--no make that two--so expect visitors soon. (-;

[abandonada.livejournal.com]

I didn't take the mun survey or I would have voted Bingo #1 of all the active puppets. Frodo of the Shire is my #1 inactive puppet.

I'm sure Plastic Gandalf could flirt pretty well. He's a little stodgy however and may not cooperate. I bet he'd go for it. Plastic Town is in a little bit of an uproar at the moment so when your puppets find a good entry, please allow them to write.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Right behind Frotima's puppet is quite an honor! Thanks for telling me--it really means a lot to me, and I will tell Bingo--he could use the cheering right now. (-:

Well, he's an acton figure and puppet fraternizer--he doesn't have to cooperate. Yes, I saw the uproar.(-: Those Frodo's have a way of going missing!

LOL!

[kinnosuikazura.livejournal.com]

I absolutly adore that footnote. I always read footnotes... something I've discovered, since coming to college, is rather abnormal... but I liked that one so well I copied it out! *g* Plus I love the name from Bingo Little in the books of P.G. Wodehouse! ;-)

Re: LOL!

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

We footnote people are the Gollum's of the reading world, aren't we? Must get at the very roots of things.(-; I'm not familiar with those books. Cool.

I've gotten very attached to the name since I've been writing the character Bingo Bolger-Baggins for an LJ role-playing game--I'm using the concept of being a discarded rough draft of a character as a metaphor for all the ways one can feel secondary and insecure in life--a complicated way of saying, I was having fun doing some very silly writing.(-: