Dressy Bessy & Dapper Dan Dolls

Dressy Bessy was so cool in 1976.

At around age four or five, I loved playing with my Dressy Bessy doll. Dressy Bessy and her brother Dapper Dan were soft rag dolls with a purpose ... To teach small children how to button, zip and tie.

Dapper Dan was equally adorable.

I loved Dressy Bessy's colorful clothing, bright orange yarn hair and rosy cheeks. Dapper Dan was obviously targeted to male children. I remember playing with Dapper Dan at nursery school, but I didn't own him. He was as adorable as Dressy Bessy with his ginger hued hair, red vest, pleather yellow boots and blue and white gingham pants.

These 1970s teaching toys were classic and Hasbro continued to produce the dolls updating their style. There are many imitations available, but I will always remember Dressy Bessy and Dapper Dan as the original version.

Out Of This World | TV Series

Maureen Flannigan as Evie in Out Of This World.

Out Of This World was a silly scifi NBC comedy show which ran between September, 1987 through May, 1991.  The stories focused around a teenage girl, Evie (Maureen Flannigan) raised by her mom Donna (I loved her mom, played by Donna Pescow of Saturday Night Fever fame).

Where was her dad? Well, he was an alien who lived far, far away. Her dad, Troy spoke to her via a special communicator cube. Evie finds out she has special supernatural powers when she turns 13 and shares her experiences and concerns with her dad in daily conversations with him over the colorful cube.

Click here to view an episode of Out Of This World to refresh your memory or to see what you missed out back in 1987.

I ate all the Frusen Glädjé

Frusen Gladje brand ice cream from the 1980s.

The other day I asked my Facebook friends about an old commercial for eyeglasses. The commercial had an annoying naggy voice saying, "Get glasses Alice, get glasses." Many of my New York-area friends commented about how they totally remembered it. One buddy reminded me of another annoying TV commercial for a product I had completely forgotten about.

Frusen Glädjé was a very fancy, upscale, modern ice cream famous for these silly commercials featuring numb nuts acting all serious as they confessed, "I ate all the Frusen Glädjé." I did some research on Frusen Glädjé and found out it translates to "frozen joy" or "frozen delight" in Swedish.


Frusen Glädjé was founded by an American in 1980 and was popular until about 1985. I vaguely remember the snobby frozen treat mentioned in the 1991 Bret Easton Ellis book, American Psycho.


Please take a minute to watch this commercial for Frusen Glädjé.