Suzanne's Blog

Well, it's come to this. Suzanne Muldowney (left), best known to Baltimorons as "Underdog" (or "Underdog Lady") thanks to her countless appearances in the Mayor's Annual Christmas Parade in Hampden and on Atomic TV portraying the 1960s canine cartoon superhero, now has a blog: Suzanne's Blog.

Like her nemesis Howard Stern, "King of All Media," she is a now a veritable Queen of All Media - dance, music, song, television (not just Atomic TV but legitimate programs like her December 3, 2003 appearance on Maryland Public Television's "ArtWorks"), film (The Art of Madness), the Internet, and now her very own blog. It looks like it was set up for her by the guy who directed the documentary about her (the aforementioned Art of Madness, which I hope is coming to the 2006 Maryland Film Festival).

Scott Huffines (pictured far right with City Paper film critic Violet Glaze, moi and Suzanne) just sent me her latest posting, and it turns out she was just in town last weekend for the Greek Festival in Highlandtown. As everyone knows, Suzanne is a hard-core classicist, and celebrates anything having to do with Ancient Rome (like Julius Caesar's birthday) or Greece, and is even fluent in Latin, the ultimate Old School dead language. Anyway, check out her blog and here are her thoughts on the Greek Festival.

SUZANNE'S BLOG - From the Mind and Pen of Suzanne
March 23 2006

On March 26th I am headed to Baltimore again to participate, for the third time, in the Greek Independence Mid-Atlantic Parade. It is always held on or around March 25, because it was on this day in 1821 that Greece declared its independence from the Ottoman Turks.

When I was preparing to be in this parade for the first time, and received the above information, I almost screamed. Mention of the Ottoman Turks made me remember that Dracula had had great deal of trouble with them, too! The majority of his skewered-alive victims were Turks.

Of course, I knew right away that Dracula was not appropriate character to do in this parade. He was not Greek, and he lived in 15th not 19th century. I never told any of the townspeople about my Dracula involvement or that he too had repelled the Turks.

Since my first time was in 2004, it was an Olympic year - the year the Games returned to Athens, their birthplace! I participated as the Olympic Spirit. The committee had to OK an entry dressed in the ancient style, even though the majority of entries dressed in modern costume.

When I saw the folk costumes, I noticed that the men’s costume looked remarkably similar to the Romanian male costume. But I did not mention that to any of the participants. Those dressed in folk costumes were almost all children, not adults.

When I returned to the parade in ‘05, I still did the Olympic Spirit even though it was not an Olympic year. Now the organizers have accepted me as always doing that character for this event.

For the two weeks preceding Easter, I’ll be making chocolate crème-center candies. I learned how to make them almost 20 years ago, using different flavors of crème centers. These candies I decorate with contrasting colors of candy molded into definitive shapes, which vary according to the occasion. For Easter I use upright rabbits, with each color representing a different flavor of crème center.

If you’ve ever seen boxes of commercial chocolates, you’ve probably seen the funny squiggles, curves, swirls, etc, on top of the individual pieces. Unless there’s a diagram inside the box lid, you can’t guess the candies’ inside unless you’ve learned the swirls’ code language! My use of different colors to identify fillings is useful and decorative at the same time.

Suzanne Muldowney Links:

Muldowneyville
Art of Madness
Atomic TV's Tribute to Underdog
Suzanne's Blog