Oh, Wikipedia, how I love thee.

I can type pert near anything into you and you spew out copius amounts of useless informations that my brain thrives on. I wanted to read about my favorite candy bar ever in the whole world, Twix, and I'll be damned, you delivered the goods. Hey, Wikipedia, I'd like to know about Skittles. Wow, look at that! I've always wanted to know what happened to Stompers. Damn, I loved those things. Want to know more about meatballs? Wikipedia has got you covered.

This morning I challenged Wiki to learn me about one of my childhood heroes, Mr. Rogers. Needless to say, it definitely Wikied my Pedia. While reading about Fred, I was shocked to learn that "McFeely", the last name of the white haired Speedy Delivery dude, came from Fred's very own name. Assuming it's a last name, does this mean Fred was a name hyphenater in real life? If so, I suppose he shortened things up as to not give the impression that he and the Speedy Delivery man were shackin' up. That ain't how a mild-mannered Reverend wants to be represented, know what I'm sayin?

What I found to be most interesting was that before he was the big mac daddy at PBS, Fred went to Canada with an understudy who went on to become known up dare in Canada as Mr. Dressup. Evidently Mr. D was a Canadian version of Mr. Rogers, and rather popular with the young canadian chillens to boot.

Mmm... nice! Mr. Dressup? I'll say! Look at those snappy duds he's sportin'. We all know that Canada is a smoldering hotbed of comic genius embers, so I wonder if this guy was a goofball. I wonder if he spoke with a thick Canadian dialect like the one I loved so when watching You Can't Do That on Television and Mr. Wizard's World on Nickelodeon in the 80s (hmm, there's more stuff to look up!) I need to go find me some Mr. Dressup footage on YouTube or something to check this guy out.

This brings up a valid chicken/egg question. It mentions that Rogers and Dressup were homies, but whose show was first? It's unclear to me, and it only makes me wonder even more. Why did Dressup stay in Canada? Did he and Fred have a torrid love affair and break up? Why are the shows so similar (it mentions some of Dressup's songs were later used by Rogers.) Why did he pick "Dressup" as a name? Did he start the show by dressing up, unlike Fred who would come in and dress down into a thin colorful sweater and pair of blue and white sneakers? Judging from Mr. D's pic, if that's his version of "dressing up" I'd love to see what he looked like prior to that.

My inquiring mind wants to know. It's time to scour the internet for some answers and Mr. Dressup footage. I hope I'm not disappointed with my findings. I mean, I hope we weren't just fed a load of recycled Mr. Dressup crap when watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. GAAAHD that would suck.

But before looking into this, I need to get back to Wikipedia and see what there is to read about cheese food.