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Our hearts went out to Cubs fans when they were thwarted in 2008 so I posted this lamentation in October of that year…
The origin of the line “Curses, foiled again!” is from the wonderful and hilariously popular cartoon show, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (1959–1964), also known for a time as Rocky and His Friends. If you’re too young to remember Rocky & Bullwinkle, you’re too young to rule the world…
“Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.”
Bullwinkle pulls out a hostile rhino face, or sometimes a roaring lion’s head, and pushes it back in.
“Wrong hat.”
OK, it was a kids show, but incredibly creative. Masterful. The format of the show had Rocky and Bullwinkle as hosts introducing the other cartoons, which were also set pieces like established regular acts on a variety show: Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody, Fractured Fairy Tales and Mr. Know-It-All.
The phrase “Curses, foiled again” routinely emerged from the mouth of villain Snidely Whiplash whom our hero Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties had to defeat every week in order to rid the world of evildoers, thereby winning the heart of his fair Nell.
I love the names of these villains. Because this was the Cold War era, Rocky & Bullwinkle’s nemesis was Boris Badenov (bad enough), who with his assistant Natasha reminded us that not everything is innocence in this world of ours. The names are, of course, a dead giveaway as to who the…
