Dec. 13: A redhead that's a triple threat

 Megan Follows was perfectly cast as Anne of Green Gables.

I mean, who else could have pulled off that role? If you've seen the movie and then read LM Montgomery's books, you'll find it hard, or even impossible, not to picture Megan Follows' face on Anne with an E. Heck, she even won a Gemini Award for her work and we all know how prestigious THAT is. I mean, if you win a Gemini Award, you'll never be starving for work, that's for sure.

 

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Near as I can tell, there is a triple threat of redheads in popular culture, all of 'em with pigtails. There's Anne of Green Gables, there's Pippi Longstocking, and there's the corporate logo from Wendy's. One is Canadian, one is Swedish, one is American. As always, Canada wins.

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A while ago, I posted a hypothetical question on Facebook. It was this: Who would win in a fight, Anne of Green Gables or Laura Ingalls Wilder. It was the majority consensus that Anne would win. Redheads, apparently, are fiery. I dated a redhead once. She was fiery. But it was high school. Everyone is fiery in high school, redhead or not.

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While we're on the subject of fictional redheads, may I say that I never saw the appeal of Archie? I am of the opinion that no one would read Archie comics if they didn't suffer from occasional constipation. Archie comics are the ultimate lighthearted breezy material. There is no suspense in an Archie comic. The characters never learn anything and their backstories change all the time. Once I read an Archie Double Digest. In one story, Archie was a state champion pole vaulter. In another, he couldn't pole vault to save his life.

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Believe it or not, there is a National Redhead Day. It's held every year on November 5 (they can't hold it in the summer because everyone would get a sunburn.) On that day, Lanny McDonald and Axl Rose and my high school girlfriend barbecue a dinosaur together and then they read selected entries from Anne of Green Gables.

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I have a friend in the United States who is naturally a blonde but who started dyeing her hair red. She has a daughter. When the daughter got old enough, I sent her a copy of Anne of Green Gables. I enclosed a note saying it's a beloved novel up here and that she might enjoy it too.

No word as to whether or not she ever read it. But I do know that Anne of Green Gables is extremely popular in Japan. Seriously, every year Japanese tourists flock to Prince Edward Island just to see where Anne walked.

My mom wanted to give my sister a proper Canadian girlhood, so she bought her Anne of Green Gables and read the first chapter to her one night as a bedtime story. Evidently, mom was so taken with the story that, after tucking my sister in, she went right to her room and read the whole book in one night.

Now that's the power of a well told story. Go Anne go.