Cartoon doofus Mickey Mouse originated in 1928. Musclebound Mighty Mouse debuted in 1942. Both showed up on our suburban living room TV during the 1960s.

Mickey’s television show, cleverly called The Mickey Mouse Club, showed those of us in grammar school that kids much luckier and cuter than us could be stars. They had to wear beanies with mouse ears but they got to dance and sing.

Mighty Mouse had a Saturday morning time slot featuring reruns of his 80-odd movies. He didn’t have mouse-keteers but apparently didn’t need them since he had super powers and huge biceps. Huge.

I wanted to be on Mickey’s show. I wanted to be in one of Mighty’s movies. Barriers such as having no talent or not being a mouse were considerations of course; but achievement wasn’t the goal, not really. Aspiring was the fun of it.

Still is.