The Fonz is Bronze(d)!

The other day I read an article about a statue of Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzearelli (a character in the TV series Happy Days) being erected this year in Millwaukee, WI. It is being done to promote tourism in the area. The main sponsor is VISIT Milwaukee. They are running a promo to raise money for erecting the statue called .

The fundraising has been so successful that they are now selling the T-Shirts for the project as a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Milwaukee literacy program.

But that isn't what led me to write this post. It was a comment by Mike Brenner, founder of Hotcakes Gallery. He called the statue a publicity stunt (It is, so what?) that perpetuated lowbrow sterotypes about Wisconsin. The word "lowbrow" set of an alarm or 2 in my mind. & the name of his gallery added to the loud ringing. I said that this guy is probably 1 of those artsy-fartsy elitists who would approve of any so-called art that blasphemed Christianity & clearly looked down on the average person as a part of the unwashed masses who wasn't smart enough, or worthy enough to appreciate the type of art he sold. So, I checked out the gallery website & I was right.

Some of the things he sells is art, but a lot of it is the garbage that the so called cognoscente pretend is art, but actually proves they are really the people who are ignorant. Not the ones they look down their nose at. He is 1 of those people who (to paraphrase a line my Italiano madre would say) doesn't think that a certain bodlily waste of his produces an odor.

I enjoyed Happy Days a lot. I am college educated & anything but lowbrow. Nor do I think the statue gives a bad image to Wisconsin. In fact, I would say a statue of the Fonz is a huge step up from a picture I saw many years ago from SW Wisc showing a pair of pink flamingoes with cheese hats.

Mr. Brenner, get off your high horse & come into the real world. You are no better than the rest of us. & in fact, your attitude proves that you are no where near as good as the many friends I have known & loved over the years from over the river in Wisc. Unlike you, I do not assign stereotypes to a whole state (except in fun to my friends.).

Oh, wait a minute, it just dawned on me. Fonzie was Italiano, so was Alfred "Al" Delvecchio, Charles "Chachi" Arcola, Laverne DeFazio, Carmine Ragusa, Leather Tuscadero & many other characters in the show (as well as the spin-off LaVerne & Shirley). & they were positive images of Italianos. Mr. Brenner is a bigot who is prejudiced against Italianos. That must be it. I've seen his type before. Hiding behind a liberal facade to cover up his prejudice & bigotry. There is a word for that: HYPOCRITE!