From the Desk of Joselyn Martin: June 2014

Get Netflix, watch this show.

So...what have I been up to? Gonna be real honest here, it's been mostly TV pilot writing, screenplay competition reading and Bob's Burgers on Netflix viewing. And the ratios for those three things aren't very good. Like, if the Empire State building were to represent the amount of time dedicated to Bob's Burgers, then my screenplay reading time would be best represented by the 1933 iteration of King Kong and my writing time represented by the unfortunate Ann Darrow (represented in the picture below by a kind of discongruent blip near the bottom, much like my writing).

"I should have thought this decision through more thoroughly!"

But I digress. Back to the point of this blog: Thomas Edison! Of course I've known for years that this man wasn't all grade school cracked him up to be, thanks in part to allusions made by TV and film (which is where I get most of my historical and scientific information). There was the movie The Prestige, which introduced the concept that Nikola Tesla was way ahead of Edison on a number of inventions that Edison was then able to steal with the help of the government. Then there was this Oatmeal comic to really drive it all home.

That's some hot hot alternating current Mr. Tesla/Bowie

But none of this - nothing - could have prepared me for Topsy.

Edison, that sonofabitch, electrocuted an old circus elephant just to show how dangerous AC current was WHEN STRAPPED TO A LIVING THING! I mean, my god Edison! There's a microwave in every house, that doesn't mean you should SHOVE A CAT IN ONE TO PROVE HOW DANGEROUS THEY ARE! YOU FREAK!

Okay, the caps are getting out of control, but can I get an amen here? Anyway, Bob's Burgers manages to take this and make a really funny episode out of it while still shaming the shit out of Edison, so check it out.

And Thomas Edison, you are DEAD TO ME! DEAD! I mean, I know you're physically dead, but I mean your ENTIRE LEGACY IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IS DENIED IN THIS HOUSE! I am damn near tempted to HAVE CHILDREN just so that I can teach them what a MISERABLE LITTLE PISS ANT YOU ARE!