Ruth Martin, stickler
“Fine grammar for a college graduate – ‘not me.’”
Another Lassie–MTM connection
Jenny from Calverton.
“The ’Clipse” redux
You don’t have to be in the path of totality to enjoy “The ’Clipse.” It’s a piece of Timmy and Lassie fiction that I wrote in 2017, after the last solar eclipse that passed through Illinois. “The ’Clipse” is both tongue-in-cheek and genuinely reverential, if that’s possible. I think it is.
At a party
“Oh, thank God! Here comes a Border collie!”
The Martin family dictionary
Timmy and Lassie and a Merriam-Webster’s Second.
Salomi and prosciuth
An Italian foods store in Calverton.
Martins and Child
Seeing as our household has had Julia Child on the brain, I reread a piece of fan-fiction I wrote a few years ago: “Bon Appétit!” It’s about Julia Child visiting the Martins — as in Paul, Ruth, Timmy, and Lassie. Oh, and Uncle Petrie.
Lassie and Ted
“Remember the time Murray told you, just before the news, that Lassie was three different dogs?”
Ted and Suzy and Fluffy
Ted Knight and a puppet, 1959, 1973.
Cloris Leachman (1926–2021)
The most abiding image: as Phyllis Lindstrom in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The most striking: as Christina Bailey, running down the highway in nothing but a trenchcoat in Kiss Me Deadly. The strangest: as Ruth Martin in Lassie, pre-June Lockhart.
Mystery actor
There’s a farm in her future.
Lost Forest as Calverton
Straight from the three-episode 1962 Lassie story “The Odyssey.”
Petrie opines
“And there’s nothing better than barbecued ribs and beans on a cold winter’s day.”
Two Frosts
The poet, in a documentary and a piece of Timmy and Lassie fan fiction.
“The Case of the Purloined Prairie”
A fifth (and almost certainly final) piece of Lassie fan-fiction. I’m thinking of it as distraction, diversion, respite.
A pencil box, not Lassie
Joe is disappointed when he learns that the surprise in store for him is not Lassie.
“A Lassie Classic”
A New Yorker Cartoon of the Day, by Mary Lawton.
“On the Road”
A fourth (and probably final) piece of Lassie fan-fiction, with Special Guest Stars Tod Stiles and Buz Murdock.
“Bon Appétit!”
Here’s a third piece of Lassie fan-fiction, with Julia Child.
Timmy Martin, writer
“Where’s the pen and ink and good paper?”
Lassie do-overs
Does greater readability equal greater hokiness?
“Bob & Timmy & Lassie”
Fresca, l’astronave , has made a photo-collage to go with my story “The Poet.”
“The Poet”
A second short piece of fan fiction, by me: “The Poet,” a Timmy and Lassie story. Featuring a Major American Poet!
Timmy Martin, Ticonderoga user
The ferrule is the giveaway.
The first Paul Martin
Jon Shepodd played Paul Martin in the 1957–58 season of Lassie.
“The ’Clipse”
This post contains the text of a short piece of fan fiction, by me: “The ’Clipse,” a Timmy and Lassie story.
Lassie Ticonderoga
In a farmhouse just outside Calverton, the pencil of choice is the Dixon Ticonderoga.
Domestic comedy
“You know, if you grow up with one version of something, any other version is going to strike you as ersatz.”
Deep-focus Lassie
Lassie, in the Gregg Toland manner.
Domestic comedy
Some shows are always interesting.