Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn for November 17, 2024

My two daughters had American Girl dolls. My oldest daughter had the Kirsten doll. Strangely enough all the dolls had the same face as if they were twins. But they never noticed.

My Girls are My thing these days. Anything for them. I’m all contorted right now typing this. Why? Because Sara is lounging on me and I don’t want to disturb her. LOL

Okay, so then that’s a wreath with candles in the second panel? I thought it was a mutant very hungry caterpillar.

is that a Santa Lucia wreath? i’m actually recalling something i learned in grammar school, who woulda thunk it?

Sunday Funday

Okay, this is weird — I never had an American Girl doll, but somehow I remember Kirsten (I loved the long blonde hair) and the Christmas candle crown — I guess because it scared me so. I live near the American Girl store, and I wander through there every now and again. It’s so cool.

I do have virtually everything for Muffy VanderBear and Hoppy VanderHare — and that’s a lot. So I can definitely relate, except I was an adult when I started collecting.

Santa Lucia wore a wreath with candles to guide her as she took food to the Christians hiding in Roman catacombs and martyred for it.

WARNING! Swedes eat cats during the Lucia festival.

Google “lussekatter” for details.

So, she dressed Kirsten as St. Lucia? Cool!

Funny things: one of my favorite islands is St. Lucia, especially the drive-up volcano. Also, Kirsten is the name of my matron of honor.

Apropos to nothing, I’m very sad that Georgia and her husband parted. I missed that somehow.

An All-American Girl. (‘Born’ in Sweden and immigrated.) Sweet. Sort of.

I have a relative aged 42 and she still loves Barbie.

and I’m young adult and I still like Ben 10, Superman, Batman and Spiderman (both live action and animated versions are great but I love animation more)

They inspired me to create heroes, my SO likes most of the heroes concepts that I created.

I had outgrown dolls by the time the American Girl dolls were introduced. I would probably have chosen the twins, Isabel and Nicki Hoffman, since I have always been fascinated by twins. (Blame it on the Bobbsey twins and the Parent Trap.)

That is absolutely the only reason to work hard. The Woman is an inspiration to all!

Not tell me “kristen” is really the steenky Goldilocks who steals from poor hungry bears.

And never trusts them steenky dolls. Thems is steenky eevil creatures that breengs doom and despair when they is comes to life. So many steenky movies is evidence of that. Throws em steenky dolls away right now. Except for the teddy bears that is, for thems is always protects ya from eeevil dolls.

While I have never been a fan of dolls, I admire the woman’s dedication to hers! My little sister still has her, Cabbage patch kid, doll!

My daughters had a kirsten, Samantha, abby, and another one. I couldn’t afford buying those clothes, but bought the trademarked patterns and made each outfit. Wow what a labor of love. I’ve never done 1/8 in seams before. We attended a lovely American girl tea party fundraiser for a children’s hospital once. I made matching dresses for my girls too.

For those that don’t know (not on FB), BCN has moved from Twitter/X to Bluesky.

Look at those tiny, to scale snowshoes! And tiny, to scale … trunk? And tiny, to scale quilt? But I bet the $$$ paid for them aren’t tiny.

And I bet, even in summer, Kristen walked uphill through snow, both ways, to square off with the bear.

A dead body?! Whoa, American Girl dolls are a lot darker than I thought.

I also have a My Twin doll. You fill out a questionnaire and send a photo of yourself at the age you want. Mine looks exactly like me at age 6, complete with face shape, freckles, and braided hair.

Happy Sunday, and thank you for your prayers and good wishes for my best little pal Lucky!! We got the best news on Saturday – we get to drive to UT Knoxville and pick him up on Tuesday!!! He was such a good boy, that he immediately went back to eating, drinking, and using the litterbox regularly so that the post-procedure radiation dropped rapidly enough for an early release! He’ll get one last Geiger check Monday evening, and we’ll be there midday Tuesday to bring Lucky home! I’m sure the Orb magic had a lot to do with that!

I learned pattern making while making clothes for my dolls. I had a knock-off version of a Madame Alexander doll (those rivaled these American Girl dolls in price) and a Toni doll, yep the home permanent wave mascot. I still have those but I don’t remember what happened to the boy doll. While I could do a pretty good job on the clothes, I did have to save up allowance money for things like shoes. I was past the actual playing with dolls stage when Barbie appeared but I also made an extensive wardrobe for my baby sister’s. She eventually also acquired a Ken. Too bad no one ever made tiny fly zippers tho but I guess the bulk of the tiny snaps made up for his lack in anatomy. Speaking of which, Barbie was the first doll we had that approximated adult proportions. My “teenage” dolls still had bodies of baby doll shape but with longer arms and legs.

Posted last night and reposting today….note from Georgia if you are considering joining her Patreon….

Growing up, I made my own clothes because material was so much cheaper than actual clothing and we didn’t have much in the way of anything for a long time. I also made my Barbie clothes and clothes for my Thumbelina doll. Those were challenging. I don’t have the Barbies anymore, but I still have my Thumbelina including the wooden key and she still works. Thing 1 still has her AG doll including the horse, the barn, everything.

OK Im completely lost on this one

My niece owns Samantha from the 1900’s. She get her for Christmas when she was six, many years ago. I would give her a new outfit every occasion when she was growing up. My niece is now a new mom to a little girl, and has Samantha saved to give to her when she is older.

Alexandria (Alex) never was into dolls. She does have an enormous Great White shark she named Augustine, who still rides in the passenger seat of her car, seat-belted in place. Mac was into trains, mostly Thomas, and not the wimpy Americanized version. He liked the brutalized British version, where bad engines were walled up in an old tunnel because of transgressions.

One child likes a giant predatory fish who kills without mercy; the other, likes British kid, shows that castigate failure. Was it something we did raising them?

My most cherished doll was Mattel’s “Dancerina”, received on a snowy Christmas Eve. Two feet high and dressed in bright pink, she could pirouette and petit-pas, and came with a vinyl record of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker music… I still get goosebumps when I hear some play during the holidays. I still have the doll and amazingly, she still works.

Would someone please explain the crawler at the bottom of the last panel? “Those books went hard” mystifies me.

If that doll fought a bear for honey, no wonder she’s stuck around.

I had a lovely doll with outfits, about 18" tall, that one of my aunts gave me for my 14th birthday. I passed that on to my daughter. I wonder what happened to it.

In the late 60’s I collected Dawn dolls. They were smaller than Barbie and came with all the accessories.

When my daughter was little, we lived close to the Chicago area and would often go to the American Girl Store just off of Michigan Avenue. We bought Kirsten for her. One summer visited friends who lived in the Twin Cities and visited Kirsten’s village, a living museum sponsored by American Girl and a Scandinavian village northeast of St. Paul.

And Kirsten’s best friend died of cholera! Georgia, I see you! Samantha is my special friend and I still have my AG dolls too. :)

Cripes, she’s hardcore. I wonder if G.I. Joe ever tried to recruit her?

I loved my Revlon doll, introduced in 1956, a few years before Barbie. (Yes, I’m old.). Her accessories were standard birthday and Christmas gifts for years. I wish I still had her but I think she got lost in a move.

Georgia posted: “Unfortunately Twitter’s recent changes to allow A.I. to train on all posts has made it necessary for BCN to leave the platform entirely. Tortimer didn’t save the world from A.I. in October for us to begin feeding BCN into third parties training artificial intelligence models in November.It’s no secret Twitter has fallen on hard times and become the online bargain bin of clickbait, scams, and cryptocurrency pitches from very pretty catfish. It’s bad enough we’ve been asked to call it “X” (cue edgy guitar solo) as grown ups …I’m sorry, I just can’t. It’s so embarrassing! I’m 42! I don’t want to be on a site called X (cue edgy guitar solo). I can’t to show up to every man’s middle life crisis I’m invited to. If I don’t know someone personally, I chose to sit their middle life crisis out. So, I’ve uncomfortably sidestepped calling Twitter “X” (cue edgy guitar solo), like so many of us have. These days it’s like passing through a part of the Internet that’s getting boarded up and closed down, with shady links lurking to try and sell you knock off watches. I’ve hoped to wait it out for someone else to buy X (cue edgy guitar solo) and restore it. Instead, it’s seems to have come to a point where parts of X (cue edgy guitar solo) are being monetized to more third parties, such as A.I. trainers. While I’ve mostly shuttered my own personal Twitter, longtime readers requested I continue to post a link to the comic there daily. I’ve tried to provide that one thing there for folks. However, with this new change in policy, (and the overall ickiness/“am I about to get hacked??” gut feeling I’ve had over there for some time ) it’s time to kick out the windows and bail. It’s not in our interest to feed ‘Breaking Cat News’ to third party A.I. trainers. I hope folks will understand. Over the last year I have reestablished the BCN accounts over at Blue Sky, anticipating a time when the bottom would fall out of Twitter.”

LOL – there is TRUTH in this strip. The Cabbage Patch doll that I got (at some moderate personal risk because they were brand new to the market and in high demand that Christmas) for my Niece … is now in the arms of her daughter! That doll has been through a LOT!

My mother loved dolls and kept getting them for me and my only interest was horses-I still have my Breyer collection. My Barbie and Madam Alexandra bride doll are both in mint condition because I never played with them.

With two small kids, a home, and a bunch of spoiled cats, I very much doubt she gave that doll everything.

The Woman deserves the highest praise for being a good provider.

OT: Frederick the Literate cat is here!

Writing her biography is going to be fun … and time-consuming. :)

Meanwhile, Back on the Nile presents to you the Encore Bee Musical Xanadu

Queen Hera: Titania, you have successfully completed Queen Bee School. You are now ready to establish your own hive.

Titania: It’s an honor, Your Majesty. It has been my dream to re-establish the legendary Lost Hive of Xanadu.

Queen Hera: That is a noble endeavor. And I suggest you start your search in the area of the Great Pyramid that no one knows what to do with.

Near the Great Pyramid

Titania: Here is the Great Pyramid. Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?

Addressee: Hello. I am Hilary from Afar. I’m here to make major renovations to the Great Pyramid. What brings you here?

Titania: I’m Titania, a new Queen Bee. I’m looking to re-establish the Lost Hive of Xanadu.

Hilary: Then I believe I can help. There is evidence of a hive near a grove of wild flowers. I can show you where.

Sometime Later

Titania: Thank you! Oh, I can see where the hive was from here! I’ve arrived!

ELO: I’m Alive

Titania: I’ve Arrived!

And the future is here today!

I’ve Arrived!

Now it’s all coming clear today!

My reign as Queen begins (take a bow)!

A new legend begins (here and now)!

A new honey comb!

I’ve arrived, I’ve arrived!

…….

I’ve arrived!

A new era begins today!

I’ve arrived!

And my dreams all will win today!

No longer need to roam (very clear)!

A brand new honey comb (starts right here)!

And now it is time!

I’ve arrived, I’ve arrived!

Titania: Now I have to hire a worker crew.

My daughters (age 16 and 21) don’t do anything with their set of American Girl dolls, furniture, clothing, etc. anymore but my older daughter doesn’t want to part with them either. They take up a lot of space, but I guess I’ll keep them around in the unlikely event that I ever have grandkids who want them.

I had a My Friend Mandy. New outfits came with patterns for making more clothes. I remember making her a hooded cloak and tote bags for both of us.

If I had the space to collect stuff (I don’t after we downsized), I’d collect American Girl dolls and accessories.

The doll got married and divorced, too?

Do we get a Sankta Lucia Day strip on Dec 13?

My mom, born 1919, had some books from her childhood. One was by the author of Heidi. It opened with the main character playing with her bow in the back yard. She accidentally shot an arrow through the hedge into the neighbors’ yard. It struck the little boy next door and killed him. The story was about her having to deal with killing someone. 19th century children’s books were grimmer than 20th century stories.

I was never so into dolls to have an American Girl doll (also they were expensive!) – at least as far as I remember. It’s possible I had so little interest that I completely forgot.

I do remember the books, though.

Georgia posted an announcement: “I’m SO excited to announce this—this week I will be one of the guest artists for The Jumble’s Guest Jumbler week! You can find The Jumble here daily: , or in newspapers across the country! To quote my Mom when I told her, “NOW you’ve made it!” I’m delighted to be in this week with my friends and fellow cartoonists Dee Fish and Todd Clark! You’ll see Dee’s strip on Monday, mine on Friday’s, Todd’s on Saturday, and many other terrific cartoonists’ the whole week long too! Thank you Jeff Knurek for reaching out and asking if I’d be a guest jumbler, I’m honored!”

I’ve been reading this strip for many years, but the humor still eludes me

Why is there no signature (G D) and date on this strip? I can barely read the typed vertical script on the left of the last panel, but all I can make out is 2024.

I don’t think they make Kirsten anymore. My daughter had her because she wanted a doll that looked like her. The other dolls were brunettes, not blonde like her.

Georgia posted about today’s strip: “This morning’s BCN Sunday is very special to my heart, lol! Growing up, I loved my American Girl doll Kirsten so much. Back then they were called the Pleasant Company! (Who remembers when they were called The Pleasant Company??) I adored the doll and character Kirsten Larson and her books with the beautiful illustrations by Renée Graef Illustration (still one of my favorite illustrators!) I would read them over and over again and study the gorgeous pictures and draw my own. Those books and Kirsten really captured my imagination and helped me to become the storyteller I am now. Yes, I do actually still have my Kirsten doll from first grade. She was the best Christmas present I’ve ever received, a gift from my Nana Dee Dee when I was seven in 1988. While I actually work hard to raise my kids and pay our bills, this is a sweet little joke I like to make all the time. I thought it deserved its own Sunday strip, with a shout out and devotion to all of Kirsten’s beautiful accessories and details. Yes, these are all her actual tiny clothes, of course! You can find today’s ’Breaking Cat News’ comic strip in newspapers throughout the country and on @gocomics website, where it’s posted daily! Happy Sunday!”

We couldn’t afford American Girl (Pleasant Company) dolls when our daughter was little, but when our 1st granddaughter was 8 I went all out for her. Kisten was her 1st doll, then Samantha. I was so in love with all the tiny, perfect accessories, I started collecting for myself. Yes, there are LOTS of older lady collectors…it’s a sister-hood. I now have 15 dolls, including 2 Kistens and 2 Samantha’s. Plus all the amazing accessories. We have a whole “doll room” for them.

I still have my mother’s “Mama’s Baby Doll” from the 1920s. She still has her original clothes and hair (although real human hair, and very thin) and she wears my Baptismal Outfit as well. She’s seen better days (stored in unheated/un airconditioned attic) before I got her and when I lived at my parents’ house. She is in my bedroom now.

O.T. – Zelda Sue yesterday asked about Dr Who fans

Raccoon update! So, I have mentioned that a few years ago my backyard raccoons were hit by canine distemper, and most of the adults and all the babies died. One little fella who was left orphaned and without siblings was so lonely he started following around a baby opposum, and while the possum ignored him at first, eventually they became best friends, and I called them Possum Buddy and Brother Possum. They showed up together the next year as adults, and also this year. I think it may even have been three years, which would make the opposum geriatric, since sadly opposums only live about two years. I wasn’t surprised, just a little sad, when the opposum disappeared. So…. Today who should show up on my backyard camera but Possum Buddy with a brand new juvenile opposum! That silly raccoon is so convinced he’s an opposum that he went and bonded with a new one! They seem very happy trundling all over together.

I had a Tammy doll. I believe she was my present when I turned 6. My mom made a lot of clothes to fit her; they were included in the present.

What became of that doll? Oh, I have no clue!

I inherited my maternal grandmother’s doll from 1897. She was made in Germany of bisque, and has real human hair and red kid boots.

My girls never wanted to sit still to learn to sew or knit or crochet…until they got into AG (Samantha and Felicity, plus Bitty Twins that needed bunk beds, so add wood working)

The first mention of the woman’s divorce!

I made the mistake of going to the American Girl dolls website only to learn they have an “historical” doll from 1974. I just about had a heart attack. I was a grownup in 1974. Nineteen seventy-four was yesterday!