Historian Niall Ferguson, under fire for comparing President Obama to Felix the Cat ("not only black... also very, very lucky"), sought the counsel of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (remember him?) for a ruling on ethnography. Gates' response?
None of us thought of Felix as black, unlike some of the racially-questionable caricatures Disney used. Felix's blackness, like Mickey's and Minnie's, was like a suit of clothes, not a skin color. ... You are safe on this one.Paul Krugman and James Fallows make short work of the misdirection.
Felix da Housecat, however, is still black.
"Just change "Fritz" to "Felix" and I think you will be okay," said friend Ralph Bashki.
I laughed so hard my sides did ache, and my heart it went pitter-pat.
Here's another similarity: Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his back of tricks.
We use those Brits like all get out.
In the beginning they are so shiny and charming with their pommy accents (Think: Liz Hurley, Hugh Grant, Chris Hitchens, Kevin Branaugh, Tina Brown) -- They last, tops, 5 years, and then we turn against them, chewing them up and spitting them out. It is what it is. Some kind of reverse Colonial Complex, what.