This site has become a collection of odds and ends that may not fit together but may still hold just what you were looking for … much like a basket full of odd, lonely socks!
I started this blog years ago while trying to create my own zine, for which I have still not settled on an appropriate title. The Lonely Sock was intended to be its home - a testing ground for the different kinds of articles, essays, and assorted content I intended to self-publish.
For Part 3 of my Halloween 2010 Blog Party posts, I would like to discuss something important in when choosing Halloween decorations, creating Halloween crafts, and picking out the absolute best Halloween costumes:
Col o ur! Most people only associate 2 colours with Halloween - Black, and Orange. While these colours are important, I would like to take some time to discuss other great Halloween colours, what makes them great Halloween colours, and great reasons to use them ...
Orange and Black are commonly thought to be Halloween colours, asOrange is associated with pumpkins and bonfires, and Black is associated with the night sky, black cats, bats, etc ... But there are many other great Halloween colours that go unused in decorating such as certain shades of Green- particularly Lime Green.
Green is a great Halloween colour because it compliments Orange, and next to Black it recalls TheWicked Witch of The West from The Wizard of Oz.
It can also be associated with a witch’s brew, magical potions, the liquids in beakers and test tubes of a mad scientist, and even with certain monsters such as some depictions of Frankenstein’s monster!
Purple can be a great Halloween colour for the simple reason that it compliments Green so well.Batman’sThe Joker shows us this, as his Purple suit is complimented by his Green hair! Combined with Black, Purple can also be a very sexy colour indeed, and can be used in very striking costumes for women.
Furthermore, since colours associated with Christmas are frequently Red, White, and certain shades of Green and Yellow, perhaps a lot of the remaining colours can be associated with Halloween, and Purple is one of them!
My theory is that Orange, Green, andPurpleall work so well as Halloween colours because they are all Secondary Colours– colours made by mixing 2 primary colours. While we can associate certain shades of Green with Christmas due to its association with evergreen boughs, I think the Primary Colours are all representative of Christmas:
- Red for certain berries and the colour of Santa Claus’s costume - Yellow for stars, candle light, and of course the glittery dust associated with magic - Blue for the chilly weather, ice, and snow at this time of year,
With this in mind, I think we can use all of the remaining or Secondary Colours for Halloween when decorating.
I should note, of course, that Red is still an exception to the rule. Just as the Secondary ColourGreen can be associated with Christmas and Halloween, Red too can be associated with both Christmas and Halloween, as it is the colour of blood, and can be reminiscent of many vampires and their capes! Of course, we mustn’t forget that it is often the colour of seductive lips!
Moving on, never forget about Black and White! Not Black. Not White. BlackandWhite - particularly stripes! Black and White are often used to represent opposition, opposing forces, and light verses dark, so what better colours can be joined on a night where the frightening is celebrated and the dark side is confronted? Together they acknowledge the presence of both light and dark or good and evil influences and may even imply a struggle between good and evil!
Black and White stripes remind us again of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, but this time of the Wicked Witch of The East, last seen wearing a dramatic pair of Black and White striped stockings.
Black and White stripes are also reminiscent of Tim Burton movies, as they are one of his trademarks that appear in almost all his films. Just look at his 1988 title-character Beetle Juice!
Not only can Black and White appear together in stripes, but in spirals they call to mind images of hypnosis – often a very spooky concept! If one looks closely at such a spiral, one can almost imagine peering into a deep, dark well ... or rabbit hole!
In some instances, Black and White may be used to recall Black and White movies, and therefore previous times in history.
Finally, my favourite association with Black and White together around Halloween is that of a wedding. A wedding, you may ask? What does this have to do with Halloween?
Imagine for a moment, the following characters from some very frightening stories:
. Count Dracula and Lucy Westenra of Bram Stoker’s Dracula
. Eric and Christine of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera . Hamlet and Ophelia of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
What do all of these pairs of characters have in common? Each male character in these “couples” is depicted in a Black suit while each female character is depicted wearing a long White dress. Isn’t it interesting how these clothes are identical to the traditional concepts of a bride and groom?
It makes sense that the characters in these stories wear these colours, as these stories could be considered Gothic Literature. They seem to fit all of the characteristics of Gothic Literature, one of which is women in distress, another of which is women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male! The women in the above lists are indeed in distress, and the men in the above list can be thought to be the threatening men! Perhaps portraying them in traditional wedding costumes is ironic, and yet perhaps it is meant to reflect the fear many have of marriage and intimacy ...
Well, I hope you've enjoyed my review of the depths of Halloween Colours, and I hope that this helps when choosing decorations, making or choosing Halloween costumes, and creating Halloween crafts. I look forward to any comments and additional opinions on what makes some colours Halloween colours!
For Part 2 of myHalloween 2010 Blog Party posts, I would like to show some simple crafts with a brief summary of how I created them.
A Rocking Witch!
For this doll, I used a plain cloth doll that I had already purchased. For everything else, I used scraps!
. To create the stockings, I used an old pair of socks that I was no longer wearing. I cut them so that they could fit around the doll’s legs, glued one end of the sliced sock to the doll leg with a glue gun, wrapped the rest of the fabric around the leg to meet the other glued-down end, and then glued again on top. This is probably my favourite part of the doll! I think the stockings make her look very stylish and funky!
. For the black dress I used small pieces of left over black fabric. I positioned some around the doll and experimented until it resembled a dress. Oddly, the scrappiness and lack of sewing or cutting actually creates the appearance a realistic dress!
. To make the hair, I used black and gold yarn. I cut several strands all the same length allowing them to be long enough to hang down the back of the doll, while also allowing them to be long enough to come down slightly over the face to appear as bangs. I adjusted the yarn till I was satisfied with the appearance and glued down on the top of the head. I love the effect that the gold strands have against the black yarn of the hair!
. For the hat I again used scraps of black fabric, but I also used silver and green pipe-cleaners to line the rim and cone part of the hat. The pipe-cleaners hold the hat in the desired shape and also allow the hat to be adjusted in any shape desired.
. The scarf is simply a long rectangle of orange fabric that was leftover from another sewing project. A small clothespin holds the scarf and dress fabric in place at the back of the doll’s neck.
. Her smile is a simple, small line of black fabric paint. The other facial features are made of glued on fabric, with black fabric paint for the pupils.
. Other than that, I used pieces of metallic confetti to decorate the hat and dress. This, combined with the metallic gold of the yarn and the metallic pipe-cleaners on the hat allow for a shininess that one can only assume comes from magic! Or a rock star ... you decide ...
Frightful Bookmarks!
... For Frighteningly Good Books!
These bookmarks were very simple to make.
. They were created out of sheets of cardstock, which were previously purchased in a package of sheets of various colours. I then chose the colours of paper that could be best associated with Halloween. More on Halloween Colours in my next entry!
. I cut the paper long-ways into inch-thick strips that I then folded in half to create an appropriately sized, sturdy bookmark.
. I then chose Scrapbooking Embellishments that were purchased from Dollarama, and decided which looked best on the different colours of paper. After this, I just glued away!
. Last but not least, I cut small slits to make a small triangle near the top so that a ribbon could fit through and tied it in a knot. I chose ribbons that complimented the Scrapbooking Embellishments, mostly Black and White.
For this Jack O' Lantern from 2008, I turned the pumpkin on its side while carving and used the stem for the nose. This allows the pumpkin's natural lines or ribs to appear as wrinkles when a face is carved. I used a long, black Halloween wig for the hair. To display the Jack O' Lantern, however, I actually placed this one face-up as opposed to face-forwards. This meant lying the wig on the ground on the porch and placing the pumpkin on top of it. I thought this would work as the pumpkin used was small, and placed by the door the Trick-Or-Treaters would really get a better look at it this way.
The following pictures are of a similar Jack O' Lantern from 2009:
I used a bruise on the pumpkin to appear as a mole. I think the affect was great!
The eyes were tricky: I carved holes for the eyes and used the pieces that were removed for the pupils. I carved them into egg-like, oval shapes and removed the skin. I continued to slice away to make them rounder, and when satisfied, positioned them in the eye-holes and held them in place with toothpicks. I felt this was worth the trouble because it allowed the light to shine behind the pupils all the way around.
From this angle, you can see that the smile is not only very crooked, but the corners are also curled. This makes the smile very mysterious!
2008 Cannibal Jack O' Lantern
These are pictures of a larger pumpkin I used, which I thought would look great eating some smaller pumpkin victims!
I carved a large mouth and used the remaining pieces from the mouth for the larger pumpkins sinister hands. For the smaller pumpkins I carved three of their faces to have different frightened expressions. I tried using a black Sharpie permanent marker for the front pumpkin, and I like the bold affect this makes. In the future, I may consider only drawing the faces of the smaller pumpkins, as candles cannot be placed inside, and thus the black marker would stand out better.
Most of the smaller pumpkins are placed on the hands in front of the larger pumpkin to create the affect that the larger pumpkin is bringing them slowly towards his mouth in a frightening act of cannibalism, yet one of the tiny pumpkins is already being chewed!
2009 A Mad Scientist's Victim (or An Artistic Depiction of a Migraine)
To carve this pumpkin, I turned it on its side and carved the face on the bottom, using its blossom end or belly-button as the nose.
I carved the lid in what would normally be the side of the pumpkin, but when placing it back on top, I replaced it upside down so that it could act as a kind of bowl for its seeds and fibrous strands - when piled on top of the bowl-lid, the seeds and fibrous strands look like brains!
Though not visible from the photo, I chose to scatter some of the seeds and "brains" along the ground around the pumpkin. I added stitches around the head to give the impression that this individual has suffered a similar fate to another famous stitched up character often referred to as "Frankenstein." Perhaps from personal experience as a migraine sufferer, I felt that drooping eyes with pupils rolled towards the top and a frown that exposes the teeth would be an effective way to portray pain. Perhaps other migraine sufferers can identify with this poor guy!
I hope this has been enjoyable, and if anyone would like any further instructions on how I created these particular Jack O' Lanterns please feel free to leave a comment. As always, I also welcome comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism.
If you have any Jack O' Lantern photos you would like to share with me, again, please leave a comment and a link, and I would love to check them out! Believe me, I am always looking for inspriration!
Though I am definitely no professional,I would be willing to offer suggestions for your pumpkins and tips on how to create a particular type of Jack O' Lantern.
This has been Part 1 of my Halloween Blog Party 2010 posts. I plan on posting more entries for the blog party, and will most likely end them with a final set of photos of my Jack O' Lanterns from this year's Halloween. I do not yet know what I will be carving, but I welcome any suggestions or links to inspirational Jack O' Lantern pictures.
I found out about a Halloween Blog Partyhosted by The Domestic Witch. To visit the website, join, or see the list of participants, click on the copy of the above picture located in the sidebar.
What I like about this one is that it is meant to continue throughout the month of October, and therefore I can post on any day during October, more than once. I can’t wait! I plan to post pictures of:
. Halloween Crafts
. Halloween Decorations . My Jack O'Lanterns
I still plan to post my Practical Magic blog party pictures, but so far I am having some trouble with the camera. Once I work out the kinks, I'll post them ASAP.
Okay, I realise that I haven’t written in quite a while, but I still have lots planned, and still intend to post a better late than never Practical Magic entry for the blog party that was on September 25.
But today, I have something that might be funny for any Disney fans, particularly fans of Disney’s first full length animated motion picture, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Being a Disney fan myself, I have had the names of each of the Seven Dwarfs memorised since childhood. For those of you who do not know, they are as follows:
Sneezy, Grumpy, Doc,
Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, and ...
Dopey!
As you can see, almost all of the Dwarfs are named after adjectives – descriptive words. This said, I would like to share something funny with you.
One day my brother and I were looking at a magazine together, the theme of the issue being “lists,” and one page had several “lists” that people often forget, such as the names of the five oceans, the ten commandments, the seven wonders of the world, etc ... One of these lists was a list of the names of the Seven Dwarfs from Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
As I said, I already knew their names, but my older brother Geoffrey did not. So, taking the magazine so that he could not peek, I asked him to guess their names. Eventually he did guess them all correctly, but in the process, he also guessed all of the following ... enjoy!
The Seven Dwarves According To Geoffrey
Weepy Depressed Cries-A-Lot Scares-Easily Chicken-Shit Romantic Moaner Retard Bully Sinful Sacred Simple Real-Simple Cloudy Sunny Genius Brainy Smarty Einstein Diploma Sick Sicky Temperatures-Flaring Arthritic (this one might be my favourite) Boney Evil Awful Jerko Jerk-Off Meano Mean-Spirit Lacks-Manners Lacks-Empathy Lazy Stupid Jerome (which of these names just doesn't belong ...) Temper-Temper Shy Shyness Angry Furious
Today I asked him once again if he knew all their names ... he was able to list 6, but had trouble coming up with the 7th. These were his guesses:
Whiny Sad Crazy Angry Brain-Aneurysm
P. S.
Just as I had posted the above and my brother came to sit here on the couch, he saw the picture on my laptop of the seven Dwarfs and said, "Did you post the 'Geoffrey-is-stupid' blog yet?"
Last night I was going through some boxes of junk that I have been having trouble parting with, in hopes that I will recognise some items as less sentimental or as less useful for crafts. I came across a book in which I write memorable quotes, particularly those of a former English Professor. He made it very clear on the very first day of class that he has no guilt about being offensive and will probably say something to offend every single one of us before the class is through. He also informed us that, when he stops lecturing about literature and begins preaching or “sermonizing” about something, it is not necessary to actually record what he says – we can merely drop our pens, relax for a few minutes, and (I’m paraphrasing here) use the time to daydream and patronize him.
I should note here that my recording of these quotes should not suggest that I agree with them – I merely recorded them because I found it amusing that a university professor would say such wise things along with such obnoxious things to an auditorium-size class and mean them completely. I will put stars next to those I do think wise or worth remembering.
Having said that, the following are quotes from a professor at the University of Windsor who taught me both Later British Literature and, more significantly, Children’s Literature:
1st day of Children’s Lit - Children are fascists and egomaniacs.
1st day of Children’s Lit- If you actually had a baby it would be like being chronically ill.
- in response to the misconception that “castration” means severing the penis Castration means cutting off the balls – remember that when you want to castrate someone!
- in response to sexual symbols in Children’s books and the children not being aware of it By the way Georgie, this is sexual ... isn’t that just like your penis?
- To understand everything is to forgive everything. *
- The greatest sadness is in childhood.
- The way you force bullies to be responsible for their actions is to stand up to them. *
- You should never kill someone in the heat of emotion – wait till you calm down.
- Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.
- Love isn’t love till you give it away.
- He who loses his life will find it.
- The real challenge is to love adults the way we love children.
- You are not your conditions or your profession. *
- After the Jews interviewed God they went home and wrote it down all wrong.
- on vulnerability to being hurt by others The only safeguard is to get a parakeet or any other pet, inherit a fortune, get a TV, and then you’re set.
- We all wear a straightjacket of realism *
- in response to the belief that devil worshippers go to hell, but that it would be cruel to send mentally ill people to hell Nobody worships the devil except crazy people, and then they go to heaven and get put in a little pen where all the crazy people go.
- It’s more important to understand psychologically than to judge morally. *
- after signalling out 2 girls who came into class late but feeling sorry about it If you ever walk into class late and your teacher is a prick about it, stand up and say, *shaking his fist* “I PAY YOUR FUCKIN’ SALARY!”
- A great work of literature is infinitely subtle.
- on daydreaming during a class Don’t do that any fucking more!
on the negative aspects or “dragons” we all have inside ourselves - What we should all do is face the dragons ... we do not love ourselves because we fear ourselves ... one way to un-hate yourself is to forgive someone. *
- after discussing that a cat in a poem is automatically female despite not knowing its sex, then discussing the clouds in the poem and pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back What sex are clouds ...? I prefer my clouds to be female .... Thunder clouds are definitely male ...
- Let’s face it: everybody wants a demon lover!
- When you have the flu, the best thing you can do is read Keats.
- If you ever go to Hades, don’t eat anything!
- Philosophy is always on the verge of bullshit.
- What Freud needed was 2 or 3 courses in English literature.
- When we try to get back to Paradise we make things worse by getting further away from it.
Well, I hope this was entertaining. I realise some of the funny ones might not really be that funny if you weren’t present and did not witness the delivery.
If you liked any of these, or if you too have some note-worthy quotes from a teacher or professor, feel free to leave a comment and share them with me. They can be funny, insightful, or even border-line offensive like some of the above.
Scroll down to the end of the article for Fun Features.
I’ve been planning for a while to blog about what I think are great TV shows and what specifically I think makes them so great – so to start with, I will be discussing the CBS TV show The Big Bang Theory created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady.
According to Wikipedia, this show is “about two fictional Caltech geniuses, one an experimental physicist (Leonard Hofstadter) and the other a theoretical physicist (Sheldon Cooper), who live across the hall from an attractive blond waitress and aspiring actress (Penny).” It continues, “Leonard and Sheldon's geekiness and intellect are contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense. An aerospace engineer (Howard Wolowitz) and a particle astrophysicist (Rajesh Koothrappali) are their equally geeky and socially awkward co-workers and friends."
In other words, this is a show - like many - about a group of friends; except this group-of-friends consists of stereotypical geeks. The only non-geek in the group (also the only girl in the group) is Penny, and it is partly through her eyes that we see the other characters. So, this said, what sets this show apart from other sitcoms.
1. Most sitcoms like Friends insult your intelligence. This one definitely does not!
Personally, this show has made me more interested in science, particularly physics. But apart from that, it is informative, often teaching the audience various topics without the audience even realizing it. For example, Sheldon’s odd food habits made it possible for him to inform his friends, and thus the audience that when eating Tai food it is not necessary to use chopsticks because Tailand has had the fork for the latter half of the nineteenth century. He further explains that they do not use it to put the food into their mouths, but use it to put the food on a spoon which then goes into their mouths!
I wasn’t sure if others besides myself and my mother agreed on this quality of the show, so I searched for The Big Bang Theory on Yahoo!Answers to see what people thought of it. Someone who goes by the name of Jeff G asked 8 months ago, “Why is the TV Show The Big Bang Theory so popular?” One replier who goes by the name Entropy replied,
“I'm pretty nerdy and I love it. It is the only sitcom on TV whose jokes are occasionally smarter than slapstick about the stupid person. The fact that alot of the reference gags focus on nerd culture (sci fi, comics, etc) further personalizes it for me. But the science jokes where they don't completely dumb it down for the lowest common denominator...that's what attracts me to it. 99% of sitcoms are the same. This one is a little different.”
2. The characters are definitely more diverse than the typical group of friends on a sitcom ...
Raj is Indian and a Hindu, Howard is Jewish, Sheldon comes from a Christian family, yet seems to be an atheist, and Leonard was raised in what appears to be an atheist family as well.
3. Instead of main characters who are physically fit, athletic, and who are so conventionally attractive that they could be models – these guys are skinny, more average, and goofy-looking ...
... having said that, despite any skinniness, lack of biceps, short stature, glasses, and anything else one might associate with the geek, it’s obvious that these guys are still pretty attractive. So what if they’re not macho like Penny’s ex-boyfriend Kurt (who appropriately dresses up for her Halloween party like a cave-man)? It’s obvious that the Kurt-type characters need their physique to distract girls from the fact that they have no sense of humour, intellect, sensitivity, etc ...
4. While shows like Sex and The City and Friends feature stylish characters with the latest clothes that viewers will eventually want to buy to be hip, these guys are geek chic!
Not only do they wear T-shirts with super-hero logos, molecules, and other scientific concepts that go right over my head, but these guys are criticized for their fashion sense by non-geeks like Penny and yet they continue to wear the clothes that they love anyways! And why shouldn’t they? Their clothes rock! And I’m not the only one who thinks so ... Check out the following website where you can buy T-shirts featured on the show!
Along with T-shirts featured on the show, fans can purchase T-shirts with characters and famous quotes: 5. While most sitcoms show women like Penny - conventionally attractive - as successful, desirable, and as having healthy sex lives, The Big Bang Theory shows some less conventionally attractive women who are also successful and desirable while having active dating and sex lives ...
Yes, Penny is adored by Leaonard and has many other admirers, but she seems to be unhappy in her love life, as well as in her professional life – though an aspiring actress, she currently waitresses at The Cheesecake Factory. Other women characters, however, seem to have more successful love lives and careers.
Dr. Leslie Winkle, for example, is a physisist like Leonard and Sheldon,and in some ways a stereotypical geek as well. Visually she is a sort of female counterpart to Leonard - unlike blond, tanned, curvy, perky Penny, Leslie is skinny with brown, curly hair and glasses, and could not be characterized by happy/perkiness. In fact, she slightly mocks girls like Penny after making dates with Leonard by saying in a high, girly voice, “Call me!” Unlike the stereotypical geek, however, Leslie has a very active sex life. She is also not shy when it comes to making dates like other female geek characters. On the contrary, she is very confident.
There is also Dr. Stephanie Barnett, a highly distinguished surgical resident. Also unlike Penny, Stephanie is a tall, plus-sized character with short red hair. She doesn’t look like the typical medical doctor you’ll see on TV – for some reason they are all physically fit and have obvious model-like sex appeal – but we see that she too has an active dating and sex life. Not many TV shows portray plus size women as having success in these areas, let alone as being desirable to more than one man to the point of jealousy, but The Big Bang Theory does!
6. While most TV shows and sitcoms centre around perfect men who get lots of action, The Big Bang Theory centres around men with some obvious flaws and challenges that are realistic and often unacknowledged ...
Dr. Leonard Hofstadter can be described as love shy. According to Wikipedia, love shyness is “a severe chronic shyness that inhibits intimate relationships” making it “difficult to impossible to be assertive in informal situations involving potential romantic or sexual encounters.”In other words, Leonard – and perhaps some of the other guys as well – is too shy to initiate romantic relationships and sexual encounters. Unfortunately, this is a real phenomenon more common among men and women than most people realize.
Dr. Sheldon Cooper is believed by many viewers to have Asperger’s Syndrome. According to Wikipedia, Asperger’s Syndrome is “an autism spectrum disorder that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interactions along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests.” Particular qualities symptoms of Asperger’s Syndrome that Sheldon seems to have are lack of empathy, impairment in social interaction, intense preoccupation with a narrow subject. Sheldon could also be considered a savant – a person with a developmental disorder who has one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual's overall limitations.
Howard Wolowitz, characterized by his skinny build, has a condition called transient idiopathic arrhythmia which is responsible for his only having 3% body fat. According once again to Wikipedia, arrhythmia is “a condition in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart.” Furthermore it explains that while some arrhythmias can be minor and may simply have annoying symptoms such as awareness of the heartbeat, “some arrhythmias are life-threatening medical emergencies that can result in cardiac arrest and sudden death.” Whatever the severity of Howard’s condition, what we do know is that he is proud of only having 3% body fat! Apart from this, Howard also has a severe, life-threatening allergy to peanuts, and was shown to have fallen in a deep depression after being rejected by Penny, during which he missed work and seemed to remain secluded in his bedroom.
Dr. Rajesh Ramayan Koothrappali could also be described as love shy, yet in addition to this he suffers from selective mutism. According to good old Wikipedia, selective mutism is“a communicative disorder in which a person is unable to speak in given situations, or to specific people” and in Raj’s case, he is unable to speak to women, particularly attractive women. Since it occurred to me that viewers could find this to be a stereotype and an offensive one at that, I looked into the development of this character and found that one of the show’s creators actually knew a young man with this same pathology – he was unable to talk to women due to severe shyness. So, like love shyness and Asperger’s Syndrome, selective mutism is a real phenomenon, and possibly a little-known phenomenon, as some feel the need to raise awareness of selective mutism by wearing turquoise wristbands that display the phrase “breaking the silence.”
7. Despite many character flaws, the show seems to centre around the personal growth of the characters in a way that reminds us of the fairy tale The Frog Prince ...
... but not The Frog Prince you probably heard as a child in which a kiss transformed the frog into a prince. In the original story of The Frog Prince, the spoiled princess reluctantly fulfilled the creepy bargain with the frog, but became disgusted when the frog wanted more than to just sleep on her pillow. The frog desired a kiss, and what would happen if the princess complied ... would he want even more? In her disgust, the princess asserted herself and threw the frog against the wall, and it is this action that transformed the hideous frog into an attractive human prince. The princess ultimately deserved the prince because she bettered herself through assertion, and the frog ultimately deserved the princess and was thus transformed because he learned that he could not impose or take advantage of others. Thus, both characters grew and learned important lessons.
Why is this fairytale significant in relation to The Big Bang Theory? You might say that Penny is like a spoiled princess, in the sense that she has no problems imposing on Leonard and Sheldon upon first meeting them – just as the princess imposed on the frog to retrieve her golden ball, Penny imposes on Leonard and Sheldon to retrieve her television set from her bullying ex-boyfriend who inevitably steals their pants, making them return home in their underwear.
Not only does she do this, but she imposes once more when having furniture delivered and, though she barely knows Leonard and Sheldon, she trustingly gives them the spare key to her apartment. Though her neighbors do carry the package up to their floor and into her apartment, they violate her trust later that night by entering her apartment while she slept to clean! While this is incredibly creepy and uncalled for, one could argue that Penny had no business trusting complete strangers with a spare key to her apartment in the first place! Penny certainly learned her lesson for being so trusting, and Leonard and Sheldon learned theirs for being so intrusive. One could claim that Leonard and Sheldon are both like the frog – both have a prince inside them somewhere but both have a lot to learn about people in order to grow and be worthy of anyone.
Raj and Howard also exhibit frog-like qualities in that Raj got drunk on a date with Penny, behaved rudely, and introduced her to his parents as his girlfriend, while Howard took advantage of her consoling him in another episode and tried to kiss her. Penny forced Raj to verbally apologize despite being too shy to talk to women, and punched Howard as he tried to kiss her.
I would say that the male characters have a positive effect on Penny in that she is learning to be less naive, more empathetic, less spoiled, and that her general view of the world is broadening overall. Furthermore, Penny’s effect on the male characters is also positive in that they are learning to behave more appropriately when it comes to women, and are perhaps broadening and expanding socially overall. I would even say that before Penny, their whole universe was in hot dense state, but once she moved in, expansion started (... in other words, Penny was the BIG BANG!).
"The History of Everything" by the Barenaked Ladies
Our whole universe was in a hot dense state, Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait... The Earth began to cool, The autotrophs began to drool, Neanderthals developed tools, We built a wall (we built the pyramids), Math, science, history, unravelling the mysteries, That all started with the big bang!
"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long, As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song. A fraction of a second and the elements were made. The bipeds stood up straight, The dinosaurs all met their fate, They tried to leap but they were late And they all died (they froze their asses off) The oceans and pangea See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya Set in motion by the same big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!
It's expanding ever outward but one day It will cause the stars to go the other way, Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won’t be hurt Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us Debating out while here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses) Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy It all started with the big bang!
Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology It all started with the big bang! It all started with the big BANG!
Along with T-shirts featured on the show, fans can purchase T-shirts with characters and famous quotes: 
