Mollystix

He's gone. But his legacy is getting stronger.

It can still be a beautiful day in the neighborhood if we take Mister Rogers' lessons as seriously as *he* took *us* when we were growing up.

We can live in Mister Rogers' neighborhood. We can do it. Just listen to me talk about everything he did that was so cool. Volcanoes of cool.

I looked into the lessons he was trying to teach us, and I think I found some things we just might need. Let's begin!

Lesson #1. Be the Mister Rogers you wish to see in the world.

Think: What would Mister Rogers do? Then do that. This is the most simple and most difficult of all the lessons.

Lesson #2. Know that scary things are there. And talk about it.

For example. If you are worried you might go down a drain, Mister Rogers has you.

The rain may go down,
But you can't go down.
You're bigger than any bathroom drain.
You can never go down
Can never go down
You can never go down the drain.

Lesson #3. Talk about your feelings. If you know what to do with your feelings, you can do anything.

Mister Rogers went to *CONGRESS* and talked about his feelings.

When he was like, "By the way guys, people can't deal with their feelings and they're hurting each other."

And then he straight up was like, hey congressmen, can I sing you a song?

AND HE DID.

And that's how he won over a grouchy old senator and got millions of dollars of funding for his show.

Lesson #4. Dress down! The only thing that matters is who you are inside, anyway.

It's OK to be comfortable.

Here's some more of his beautiful song:

But it's you I like —
Every part of you,
Your skin, your eyes, your feelings
Whether old or new.
I hope that you'll remember
Even when you're feeling blue
That it's you I like,
It's you yourself,
It's you, it's you I like.

Back to the lessons.

Lesson #5. It's good to be curious and imagine new things.

CRAYONS!!!!!

Remember when he took you to the crayon factory? No one questions how crayons are made because Mister Rogers changed your life when he showed you how your favorite writing utensil came to be.

Mister Rogers was ready to learn, he was curious, and he thought that, like, EVERYTHING was interesting.

Even cassette players!

Yes. That is what cassette players looked like!

Best question ever, right here:

WHAAATTTTT?!

Get out of your life and into your mind. It's called imagining. :::prayer hands:::

Lesson #6. Remember the helpers in our world.

Maybe even *be* one of the helpers. Feel the feelings.

Lesson #7. Like other people. Like yourself!

I'm just so proud of all of you who have grown up with us, and I know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. But I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are.
— Mister Rogers

Lesson #8. Remember: Everyone is your neighbor. I mean everyone.

New concept: EVERYONE IS YOUR NEIGHBOR.

Imagine if we lived in a world where we realllllllly thought that everyone was reallllly our neighbor.

That's Mister Rogers' world.

People from Ferguson.

People from halfway around the world.

People on your street! (Your LITERAL neighbors!)

EV-ER-Y-ONE.

Sing me your song, Mister Rogers.

So, let's make the most of this beautiful day. Since we're together we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine?

Won't you be my neighbor?

We can live in this neighborhood.

How about we grow *that* idea in the garden of our minds?

Mister Rogers taught us a special thing about ideas in the gardens of our minds.

All you have to do is think, and they'll grow.

I'm gonna send this to my fav neighbors. AKA everyone.

Happy birthday, Mister Rogers.

Thank you.

FOR EVERYTHING. And your special songs. :)

ORIGNIAL by PBS Digital Studios.

Transcript thanks to Genius.com. Many thanks to PBS kids for having so many of Mister Rogers songs available, and to Genius.com for transcribing Mister Rogers' testimony before the U.S. Senate.

Thanks to ATTN, Tumblr and Wikimedia commons for images.

This man is a genius.

Let's review, shall we?

Tobacco companies like Philip Morris used to be on top of the world.

Then countries started passing laws banning their advertising.

For a little while, their profits took a nosedive.

But then they figured out a diabolical solution.

Sue those countries, especially the ones that can't afford to fight back!

Like Uruguay, a small country in South America.

And Togo, a tiny nation in west Africa, that just happens to be one of the 10 poorest countries in the world.

That's more than a little messed up.

But John Oliver is a peacemaker!

So he came up with a genius way to let countries warn their citizens about the dangers of smoking while still letting tobacco companies keep their advertising.

He created a new spokesperson for Marlboro, Philip Morris' signature brand.

That's Jeff the Diseased Lung!

And wouldn't you know it, they love him in Uruguay!

They love him in Togo!

Let's help him go global, eh?

Share #JeffWeCan on Facebook and Twitter. Let's give the tobacco companies the branding they deserve!

Original by "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver."

The worst part? We perpetuate this cycle without even knowing that we're doing it.

Patrick Rothfuss is a fantasy author best known for his series "The Kingkiller Chronicle."

He's also pretty well-known for generally being a badass bringer of real talk. Case in point: During a Q&A at a pop culture event in Chicago, he was asked the following question:

"What would you change about fantasy?"

"We have huge problems with how we portray women." YES.
The best part is, when he said this, the crowd went wild. In a good way.

#NotAllPrincesses. But OK, point taken.

Ugh, worst endless cycle ever.

And this is where he takes on Tolkien:

Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly in "The Hobbit" movies, does not exist in the book.

Excellent use of the word "vomit" here. 10/10 would use "vomit" again.

Rothfuss hit the nail on the head: Until an author purposely counteracts the fact that many fantasy stories (weirdly) don't feature female characters, the pattern is pretty boring and predictable. Not to mention sexist.

And, like he says, most authors don't even realize they're perpetuating it. But they do have the power to change it.

Don't miss the full recording of his answer below. My favorite part is where he admits to having written a fantasy novel in high school that didn't have a single female character. "Not even a serving girl. No one even thinks about their mom."

Think it's safe to say Rothfuss has since learned from that mistake? I'd say so.

FACT CHECK TIME!

• Just to be extra-super-duper clear, we're talking about "The Hobbit" the book.
• I wasn't sure I believed that there were no women in "The Hobbit" — I mean, I had never noticed that before ... surely there had to be someone. So I looked it up. And I found that there are three female characters mentioned in "The Hobbit": Bilbo's mother (Belladonna Took), the unnamed mother of Fili and Kili, and the unnamed wife of Girion of Dale. None of these female characters have active roles; they simply provide connections between other (male) characters.
• There may be mentions of other female characters, but they definitely don't get names or actual roles. And besides, if we're gonna get caught up in arguing the details of how many daughters Old Took may or may not have had ... then we're kind of missing the point.

Patrick Rothfuss (he's on Twitter!) is a fantasy writer best known for his series "The Kingkiller Chronicle." This video of him was uploaded by The Nerd Element. I found the story on plutheroquexos' Tumblr via skyisawake.

I made the GIFs in this post. The thumbnail photo is from a video uploaded by UAT Digital Video, used under Creative Commons license.