Frivolity Break: Robin Sparkles Let's Got to the Mall

For no particular reason (except for an escape from politics and seriousness), here is a little fun diversion. One of my favorite sitcoms (and there aren't many) is CBS' How I Met Your Mother. Even though it is built around a gimmick (a dad explaining to his kids how he met their mother), and even though it somehow features Bob Saget, it's a great show. Like Seinfeld, the scripts are very complicated, with A, B and sometimes C story lines alternating in a rapid-fire sequence, ending in a resolution that ties them all together. It's a great show.

One of the subplots of the series features a woman (not the "mother" of the title), who hails from Canada, and once had a career as a teen sensation in the Great White North. Even though she's not old enough for acid wash jeans, and a Tiffany sensibility, that is explained by the slow transition in trends up north. One episode featured the revelation that the woman was once known as "Robin Sparkles," and had a music video to prove it. Enjoy. Or not.