“Susie was the kind of chick that you’d really want to be. Susie came at a time when I don’t think we were seeing a lot of little black girls in animation or a lot of little black girls on TV, period. I think she moved a lot of people and made us feel good about ourselves. She was articulate, she was kind, she was talented, she was smart.” -Cree Summer, the voice of Susie Carmichael on Rugrats.
In honor of Black History Month, our Nick archives team uncovered one of the original designs for Susie, one of the first African-American characters in Nick Animation, who made her debut on January 10th, 1993 with the episode “Meet the Carmichaels” in the clip above!
I worked with toddlers and pre schoolers for three years. Sometimes I accidentally slip and tell a friend to say bye to an inanimate object (“say bye bus!”) & occasionally they unthinkingly just do it.
I’m glad there’s a teacher version of “accidentally called teacher ‘mom’”
when I worked at Medieval Times occasionally I would slip in real life and call people “my lord”
One time during family prayer, dad began: “our father who art in heaven, American Airlines, how can I help you?”
One time my dad went to the White Castle drive-thru and the lady (who was supposed to say ‘Welcome to White Castle, what’s your crave?’) asked, “Welcome to White Castle, what’s your problem?”
She apologized profusely while my dad proceeded to lose his shit laughing.
Yesterday I went to Wendy’s and the girl said “Welcome to McDonalds” and then just sighed
Somebody in the elevator asked me what floor I lived on, and I answered “please open your books to page eight”, and we just kind of stared at each other, blinking.
i work retail full time and my script gets frequently messy - ill ask the same question twice, or say “$2.60 is your total” while handing back their change, or say “how are you doing today?” instead of “have a good day!” like name it ive bungled it
but anyway, this lady came thru my line buying a book and the review on the front said: “few books are well written, fewer still are important, and this book manages to be both”
as i handed her the bag i was trying to say “thanks, youre all set” and instead my brain mashed up the review and i said “thanks, youre important”
there was this short pause in which i tried to figure out what the fuck id just said. she blinked and then said “oh thank you! youre important too!”
the real kicker was one of my coworkers. when i was relating this story later his response was “at least you said something NICE. last week i accidentally combined ‘youre welcome’ and ‘no problem’ into ‘youre a problem’”
one time, since I used to work as a daycare teacher with preschoolers, i was on my college campus in my gym, and someone was running in the weight room and tripped over a machine and fell, and instead of offering to help, I just stared and said, “This is why we use our walking feet.”
we both sat there for a while until the guy nodded and said, “yeah, okay, i should’ve done that.”
I’ve spent a good chunk of time working in kitchens, so I still will reflexively say shit like “behind” and “coming around” as I maneuver through spaces and around people.
Which, actually, not such a bad thing; I’m a big guy and can come across as imposing pretty easily. The position calls can help defuse that, and also help avoid collisions.
Less good is the time my brain was half functional and I let slip a “coming with a knife” while grocery shopping. THAT took some explaining.
my dad worked at a full service gas station in college and once greeted a customer (welcome to conoco, how can i help you?), pumped the guy’s gas, went around the car washing the windows, and upon coming back to the driver’s window: “welcome to conoco, how can i help you?” His coworker nearly cried from laughter.
my dad’s friend worked the information desk at a bank and on a particularly stressful day answered the phone with “Bank of America, this is Matthew, can you help me?”
Fucking crying! Shit like this happens all the time!!
When I worked fast food, I kept trying to say “enjoy your meal” and “enjoy your food” at the same time and it often came out as either “enjoy your feel” or “enjoy your mood.”
The 21st of December my husband and I spent the day driving to Newport Beach, California, and spent the day eating by the beach and basking in the California sun. We tried soft shell crabs for the first time and were surprised by how delicious they were! We walked everywhere, talked about our future trips here together, talked about renting a beach house during the holidays in the future, talked about kids.
We watched the sunset by the beach, which in my opinion is much more beautiful than a sunrise, and walked the shore. We walked the bay in search of an eatery to have dinner at and stumbled upon The Crab Cooker, which we had seen earlier but decided against it as we would have had to cross a busy intersection to get to it. It was super cute, a novelty in it’s own right, so we decided to try it.
It was adorable, so many different things on the walls to look at like a newspaper clipping from Jaws, a giant Shark hanging from the ceiling with a Santa Hat on, a giant bucket hanging from the ceiling with a lobster hanging out of it. We were so busy taking it all in when I noticed him. A little old man, who was having dinner with his wife, daughter, and I am assuming the daughter’s husband, suddenly lost consciousness and slumped over. His face began to droop, his mouth drooling, and his hands dropped. The family couldn’t wake him up and the daughter was hysterical, trying to call 911.
I remember saying to my husband “I think he’s having a stroke or something” and all of a sudden I was up and next to him, asking the wife if she was okay and if he’s experienced this before. I was taking his pulse, trying to talk to him, and he gained consciousness. I began asking him orientation questions, trying to gauge his level of consciousness and if he had slurred speech. He knew where he was, what he was doing, who he was, but had no recollection of the event. I served as a mediator between him, the family, and the wait staff. I refused water for him in case he was having issues swallowing, I guided the daughter to hold with EMS while we waited until they arrived, I comforted the wife and the husband, I got them their bill. It all happened fast, it felt like forever, but it couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes.
A woman next to me asked if I needed help, told me she was a physician, I explained that I am a nurse and we exchanged words and she told me she could tell I knew what I was doing. It was nice. EMS came, I went back to my table, and they took his blood pressure and loaded him into the ambulance.
My hands were shaking so violently that I couldn’t even hold my cup, the adrenaline was out of this world, so I sat with my hands held together. My husband told me he was so proud of me for getting up and doing something, it made my heart soar. Our shrimp dish came, we had dinner, paid our bill, and as we walked out of the restaurant one girl said to us “Thank you for coming, and thank you so much for your help tonight.” So I turned around kind of shocked, told her she was welcome, and she asked me “Are you a nurse?” So I nodded and said yes, and she thanked me again. It was truly one of the best feelings in the world.
You go through Nursing school doubting yourself, hoping you’ll make a good nurse, wondering if you’ll ever be able to step up to the plate when you are needed. It’s amazing how it just happens. You just feel compelled to help and you do it. It is an amazing feeling, and I’ll never doubt myself again during Nursing school. I am meant to do this.
I am having to live vicariously through Mumblrs and through reality TV shows about birth and my friends who are pregnant and through Block 3 OB rotations until after school.
The moment we decided we wanted a baby made me a thousand times happier, but having to wait for school to be finished is killing me.
