April 2021 April 2021

What’s Up, Doc? April Birthdays

On April 30, 1938, Warner Bros. released a new Janet Engle cartoon featuring as a Jennie Kowalski Allegria Gazette hapless hunter trying to unsuccessfully bag a Guillemin Santiago humorously hyperactive rabbit named Happy. Tracey Russell Allegria At Ocean Grove | 70 Stockton Ave. | 7327741316 | Ext: 9109 How could audiences know that this rabbit Ann Virginia Thompson

would evolve into , one of the most Peter Bravman Celebrating April A Note from Kathleen recognizable cartoon characters of all time? Constance Dalessandro Mae Zanellato The rabbit in Porky’s Hare Hunt bore Loraine Voorhees Habitat Awareness Month Dearest Residents, little resemblance to the Bugs Bunny Ed White we all know and love today. This April is showering us with some good news. The Barbara Tannehill Jazz Appreciation Month white rabbit wore no gloves, lacked Rita Munn government is easing up slightly some of its Bugs’ recognizable voice, and did Gabriel Fischoff not eat a single carrot! Nevertheless, Card and Letter Writing restrictions and we can start the process to the rabbit was voiced by , Employee Spotlight Month work towards normalcy again. This is an the future voice of Bugs Bunny, and the short was directed by Ben “Bugs” Hardaway, for whom April Fools’ Day exciting time. The warmth in the air will be the Bugs Bunny was later named. It would be two years before Bugs made his official debut in April 1 same warmth we feel when we can hug our love A Wild Hare. When a redesigned rabbit was requested for the short, went to work Easter ones again. But we must remain distant and and sketched a rabbit based on a Bugs Hardaway April 4 keep wearing our masks until this is all over. design labeled “Bugs’s Bunny.” The name stuck. When audiences got their first glimpse at the new Do you remember having Easter eggs hunts and improved rabbit, the character stuck, too. Draw a Bird Day April 8 with your children, grandchildren and great The Bugs Bunny featured in A Wild Hare already grandchildren? I miss coloring eggs with my displayed many of the Bugs Bunny trademarks Ramadan Begins we have come to love. When staring down the Renee our beloved Activities Coordinator. Renee was raised April 12 daughter Betty. barrel of ’s shotgun, Bugs first utters right here in Neptune, NJ. his catchphrase “What’s up, Doc?” in a Brooklyn- Renee’s favorite aspect f her role is working with the Many Blessings, Kathleen esque accent. The phrase was added by the residents on trips, concerts, and daily activities. Renee’s Scrabble Day cartoon’s director, , who had heard the favorite sport is foodball and her team is the 49ers of San April 13 expression a thousand times in his native Texas. Fransisco. Renee has been with us for 9 years. Renee’s goal Avery figured it a throwaway line and was more is to make sure the residents are happy and enjoying our World Amateur Radio Day surprised than anybody when it left audiences life enriching daily activities. Renee has two grand children. April 18 There names are Jada and Timothy III. Renee is looking rolling with laughter. As for Bugs’ obsession with munching carrots, this was a habit “borrowed” forward to visit with them in North Carolina very soon. As from ’s character in the 1934 movie It Renee always says “If no one told you that they love you Earth Day Happened One Night. In one scene, Gable stands today, I love you XO ”. All of us here at Allegria love and April 22 by a fence spouting advice to Claudette Colbert cherish Renee. If you have not yet met Renee introduce while chewing a carrot and talking with his mouth yourself. Kiss of Hope Day full. The scene was so famous at the time that April 24 audiences immediately got Bugs’ imitation, and it earned the bunny instant panache. His popularity would endure for over 70 years and he would International Dance Day remain Warner Bros.’ most popular and April 29 recognizable mascot.

April 2021 April 2021

An Olympian Task Unnatural History Fountain of Fiction A Poem Like a Secret

On April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic Games If ever there was a day to believe in magic On April 2, 1513, explorer Juan Ponce de León April is Poetry Month, which gives us 30 days opened in Athens, Greece, nearly 1,500 years and hope for the impossible, it is April 9, landed on a peninsula he called “La Florida” and to appreciate poems and the creative minds after they had been banned by the Roman Unicorn Day. Unicorns have not entered our claimed it for the Spanish crown. But why had that give them to us. For some, poetry is as Emperor Theodosius I. The collective imagination from myth or legend but he come? Some say he was searching for the necessary to life as breathing. Poems are ancient games were a tribute to from natural history. Various ancient Greek fabled Fountain of Youth, a spring that granted unique expressions of thoughts and feelings the Greek god Zeus. Theodosius, historians recorded the existence of unicorns. eternal youth to whoever that inspire epiphanies large and small. For a Christian ruler, abolished the games as part The Indus Valley Civilization emblazoned the bathed in its waters. others, poetry remains inaccessible and difficult of his campaign against paganism. It wasn’t unicorn on official seals, and a unique animal to understand. You can almost hear the until 1894 that the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin known as a re’em, which many believe to It is said that the indigenous desperate cries of “30 days?!” Thirty days’ suggested reviving the competition. The 79 be a unicorn, is even mentioned in the Bible. Taino people of the Caribbean worth of the stuff is torture for some, so for delegates in attendance unanimously approved Even Leonardo da Vinci mentioned them in passed on stories of a magical those in need of a smaller dose, April 29 is the proposal, and the International Olympic his famed notebooks. Modern-day scientists fountain and river of Poem in Your Pocket Day. On this day, choose Committee (IOC) was formed. may have something in common with these rejuvenation to the Spaniards. any poem you like—long or short, modern scientists of centuries past. Researchers have Rumors reached or old-timey, humorous or serious, simple or What drove De Coubertin to revive the lost discovered evidence of a giant hairy rhino De León that this was located somewhere north complicated—and carry it in your pocket. Read tradition of the Olympic Games? In 1890, he that roamed the grasslands of Eurasia as of Cuba. So with permission of King Ferdinand of it to yourself throughout the day or whenever paid a visit to the Wenlock Olympian Society, recently as 39,000 years ago. This Ice Age Spain, De León set out from Puerto Rico to find the feeling strikes. Contemplate it. Puzzle over organizers of the annual Wenlock Olympian relic survived long enough to live alongside it. He set sail with three ships and landed in it. Question it. Share it with others, if you like. Games, held in Shropshire, England. These humans. Scientists speculate that this Florida, yet he never found the Fountain of Or keep it to yourself, like a secret. No one has games were spearheaded by local doctor William “Siberian unicorn” might very well have been Youth. But then again, historians argue that was to know that you have a poem stashed away Penny Brookes, a man who believed that sports the origin of many unicorn myths that pervaded never his intention. Not only was the Fountain of in your pocket. Above all else, enjoy it. If you and physical competition were as necessary so many ancient cultures. Youth a legend but so was De León’s search for need help getting started, consider these lines for one’s self-improvement as morality and it. The truth is that stories of by Archibald MacLeish: education. Brookes organized the first Wenlock Every Day Is Earth Day De León’s search for the Fountain of Youth were A poem should be palpable and mute Olympian Games in 1850 as a mixture of athletics invented by his rivals as a means of ruining his As a globed fruit On April 22, 1970, Senator (such as running, hurdles, quoits, football, and reputation after his death. bicycle racing on penny farthings) and traditional Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin In 1508, Ponce de León colonized Puerto Rico Snack Cake Super Stardom country games like blindfolded wheelbarrow races was so concerned about the and became its governor, but a political rift and even an “Old Women’s Race” where the deteriorating natural landscape forced him to give up Puerto Rico to Diego James Dewar started working senior participants could win a pound of tea. of the United States that he Columbus, the son of Christopher Columbus. As at Illinois’ Continental Baking Perhaps the most important aspect of the games organized the first Earth Day, a consolation, King Ferdinand of Spain granted Company in the 1920s as a was their egalitarianism. Aristocrats and working a day of teach-ins on college campuses to De León permission to colonize and become the delivery boy, hawking pastries classes alike were invited to participate, for raise awareness of air and water pollution. governor of the island of Bimini, the modern-day from a horse-drawn cart. By Brookes keenly felt that athletics and friendly America’s passionate response to Earth Day Bahamas, but only if De León could find it and 1930, he had risen to plant manager, and on competition could improve the entire town surprised Nelson. Millions of Americans, finance the expedition himself. Amongst all the April 6 of that year, he created the most and community. regardless of political affiliation, race, or creed, banded together to support protecting the correspondence between De León and the famous snack cake the world has ever known, the Twinkie. Before the cakes were called De Coubertin was deeply inspired by what environment. By the end of 1970, President crown, there is not one mention of a Fountain Twinkies, they were Little Shortcake Fingers, Brookes had accomplished in Shropshire, and Nixon had created the Environmental Protection of Youth or search for magical waters. So how pre-packaged strawberry-filled shortcakes that he modeled the IOC after Brookes’ Wenlock Agency, and shortly thereafter Congress was De León’s name ever tied to this fable? passed the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. were available only during the short strawberry- Olympian Society. Although those very first After De León’s death, Gonzalo Fernandez de It’s been over 50 years since that first Earth harvest season. The idle factory equipment Olympic Games in Athens featured 280 athletes Oviedo, a Spanish court historian and ally of Day, and environmental action has never drove Dewar to invent a new, still nameless, from 13 nations, the games lacked popular support. Diego Columbus, wrote an account of a bumbling seemed more urgent. While it is up to major yellow sponge cake filled with banana crème. Not until 1924 were the first truly successful and foolish De León searching for a magical corporations to reduce their carbon footprints, While on his way to a marketing meeting, Summer Olympics held in Paris. After the first fountain of youth in Florida. While many at the individuals can still do their part by eating more Dewar passed a billboard advertising Twinkle Winter Olympics were held later that year, De time knew the writings to be a satirical smear plant-based foods, buying less, composting, Toe Shoes. He had found the Twinkies name, Coubertin felt his work was finally done, and he campaign against De León, over the centuries and supporting local businesses. and the rest is snack cake history. retired as IOC president in 1925. Oviedo’s fantastical fictions have morphed into

fact for those searching for eternal youth.