Suburban Gothic

Daria and Tom look pleasantly agricultural in honor of National Farm Workers Day, but I seriously doubt either one of them has so much as planted a flower in their lives. Trent, however, might still reach that hypothetical goal of becoming a farmer paid not to grow crops.

If he does actually raise any crops, I would recommend potatoes because it's National Tater Day and those cheese fries have to come from somewhere. Just don't let Quinn see them, or else she might complain about Angela's Ashtray again.

Finally, the episodes "Malled" and "The F Word" aired on this day in 1997 and 2000, although neither of them featured anyone growing potatoes.

Fandom News!

• R.I.P., Richard Chamberlain.

Not Everyone is Cut Out for Farm Life

Daria and Tom look very somber for Rural Life Sunday, but I don't see either of them sticking with the farm life. Once Daria figures out that you can't grow pizza, she'll be out of there before you can say "Grant Wood." Earl and Barbara, on the other hand, will still be out in the middle of nowhere selling bland chips and cellophane sandwiches.

Since today is also Radio Day, perhaps we should invite Bing and the Spatula Man out for a special broadcast! Or maybe not. I think I'd rather take them out to the farm and leave them there.

Friday the Thirteenth: Do You Know Where Your Karma Is?

This is the day for which a character in "A Hard Days' Night" is named. Swell kid. Little unpredictable, though.

It's also the 118th birthday anniversary of famed artist Grant Wood, who painted American Gothic, seen at right.

It's mid-February, about the time of year that the students of Lawndale High went to Montreal. Daria began to get the hots for Michael, Trent gets married, and the show was mentioned in TV Guide a decade ago.

Roentgen has written a marvelous scene that SHOULD be, but it's in the wrong thread. Read it and love it.

The immortal real-life Jane Lane, Anne D. Bernstein, has begun posting amusing things in her Buzzdome blog again. Enjoy.


PPMB

• Big Jake's Harley-Davidson, by Ranger Thorne (continued): Daria watched as Quinn rode off with Joey, Jeffy and Jamie trailing behind her. She’s got her own little motorcycle club, she thought. Of course, it’s not the bikes they’re really looking at. [Love this story.]
  
• Cynic with a Vampire, by Peapotmaster (Part 3): “Eeeewww, what kind of meat is that?” Quinn asked Veronique. “It’s called blood sausage, and the red stuff is ketchup,” replied Veronique. [Riiiiiiight.]
• LATIFA: In the King's Navy, by SoCalledGoodeGuy (Part 2): “So, Morgendorffer, eh?” Daria turned to see the short-haired girl who hadn’t jumped from her seat at the explanation of Project Starsword. The raven’s-wing black hair matched the uniform cloth, but a pair of clear blue eyes twinkled most unmilitarily in a face that held a sardonic smirk. “I’m Jane Lane. Looks like we’re roomies.”
  
• Unfavorite Daughter, Richard Lobinske (COMPLETE!): "Oh, don't bother," one of two boys said as an auburn haired girl walked by them. "It's that brainy chick." [This is excellent!]
  

What About Tom?

Tom Sloane is hard to tag in terms of personality, and a lot of essays have been written about the difficulties in pinning down his character. (See his entry in DariaWiki for links to those materials.) I had the most success in using a fairly general assessment based on the MBTI, and what came out was that Tom was probably an ENTP.

How did I get this? Fuzzy logic, mostly. Tom strikes me as extroverted, since he makes the first moves on both Jane and Daria, and he does get around a bit (i.e., he's not "antisocial" like Daria). He's unconventional in how he conducts his love relationships (not meaning the triangle thing, but more in how he likes to spend time with a girlfriend). He refers to normal dating habits as "corny crap" in "Sappy Anniversary," an episode that reveals a lot about his views on romance. This isn't necessarily bad, as he can intuitively pick out the right thing to do at times, like that special dinner for Jane with the music, etc. "All I did was meet a girl I thought was cool and I went out with her for a while," he tells Daria in "Dye! Dye! My Darling." "We started to get bored with each other. It happens all the time. It's nobody's fault." In other words, he, like Jane, is prone to change his mind, and he accepts that conflict is a normal part of life. Combine that with his intellectualism and his missing of emotional cues in both Jane and Daria, and he comes out as an ENTP.

What is an ENTP like? The following links will help.

• http://www.personalitypage.com/ENTP.html
• http://typelogic.com/entp.html
• http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/entp.htm
• http://www.entp.org/
  

Innovator, inventor, visionary, an ENTP is a restless optimist in search of understanding about the world. (This is the good side, of course.) This seems about right for Tom. He did try to bring out Daria's good side, too. Lot of good it did him, but he did try.

More interesting still, some websites about INTJs (Daria's type) say that the ENTP is a natural mate. No guarantees there, of course. Jane and Quinn both comment (in DDMD and IIFY?) that Daria and Tom would make a good pair. That it didn't work out for Tom doesn't mean it won't work out for another ENTP. INTJs are also attracted to ENFPs and to ESFPs, say the websites.

Wait a minute. Didn't we already talk about ESFPs? Why, yes, we did.

Oops. More on this personality stuff later. Amazing what you can still drag out of a show like this, isn't it?