subject: Just how old are the Smurfs? [print this page] Just how old are the Smurfs? Just how old are the Smurfs?
How old are the Smurfs? Is the sort of question that youngsters sometimes spring on their totally unprepared parents, because of course, young children have naturally enquiring minds. If you are a parent of a young child you might wish to be prepared for this question, and some others that may be asked about our little friends.
The Smurfs came to public attention in 1958 when a cartoonist called Peyo ( Pierre Culliford), featured them in a story of Johan and Peewit in "le Journal de Spirou". The little blue characters mostly wore funny hats and looked liked kids with cheerful smiles and mischievous grins. Astonishingly, we were given to understand that these little people were actually 100 years old! In fact, Papa Smurf, the head of the Smurf village was quoted in 1958 that he was all ready 542 years old! Heavens above these characters have cracked the problem of eternal youth. They never get older, so the baby one will always be a baby, and Smurfette will always be the glamorous Smurf.
This is all very reassuring for young children who like to know that the colourful characters are always there for them just like Santa Claus. Other facts your children may wish to know are that a Smurf is roughly the height of three apples, and usually wears white or red trousers except on Sundays. They live far away in their own little village with mushroom shaped houses, and they all help each other and are very cheerful and happy-go-lucky
The Smurfs quickly made the transition from the cartoon pages to film, appearing in "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute" amongst others, and, they had a hit record with the Dutch singer Vader Abraham. Their really big break came in 1981 when the US team of Hanna and Barbara who did the wonderful Tom and Jerry cartoons, took up the Smurfs for a TV series on the NBC network in America. Since then the Smurfs have conquered the world, with figurines, books, and CDs being issued in many different countries. There are Smurf mini-tales, pop-songs, and even video games.
Maybe you should know the names of some of the Smurfs? Well, there's Azrael, Baby Smurf, Brainy , Cook, Farmer, Greedy, Grouchy, Handy, Harmony, Hefty, Jokey, Lazy Smurf, Papa, Poet, Smurfette, and Vanity Smurf. How's that for starters? Some of these little characters seem to mimic the traits found in human beings, exhibiting all the highs, and some of the lows of human characteristics (lazy, greedy). These would seem to disprove the theory that the Smurfs are aliens. They are simply friendly little people with their own ways of doing things. They are much like us really, except they're blue.
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var LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_BOTTOM_HOVER_SIZE = new LeoHighlightsDimension(LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_BOTTOM_COLLAPSED_WIDTH,LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_BOTTOM_COLLAPSED_HEIGHT);
var LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_BOTTOM_CLICK_SIZE = new LeoHighlightsDimension(LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_BOTTOM_EXPANDED_WIDTH,LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_BOTTOM_EXPANDED_HEIGHT); var LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DIV_HOVER_SIZE = new LeoHighlightsDimension(LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_TOTAL_COLLAPSED_WIDTH,LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_TOTAL_COLLAPSED_HEIGHT);
var LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_DIV_CLICK_SIZE = new LeoHighlightsDimension(LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_TOTAL_EXPANDED_WIDTH,LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_IFRAME_TOTAL_EXPANDED_HEIGHT); /** * Sets the size of the passed in element * * @param elem * @param dim * @return */
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{ try { // Set the popup location elem.style.width = dim.width + "px"; if(elem.width) elem.width=dim.width; elem.style.height = dim.height + "px"; if(elem.height) elem.height=dim.height; } catch(e) { _leoHighlightsReportExeception("_leoHighlightsSetSize()",e); } } /** * This can be used for a simple one argument callback * * @param callName * @param argName * @param argVal * @return */
function _leoHighlightsSimpleGwCallBack(callName,argName, argVal)
{ try { var gwObj = new Gateway(); if(argName) gwObj.addParam(argName,argVal); gwObj.callName(callName); } catch(e) { _leoHighlightsReportExeception("_leoHighlightsSimpleGwCallBack() "+callName,e); }
} /** * This gets a url argument from the current document. * * @param url * @return */
function _leoHighlightsGetUrlArg(url, name )
{ name = name.replace(/[[]/,"\[").replace(/[]]/,"\]"); var regexS = "[\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)"; var regex = new RegExp( regexS ); var results = regex.exec(url); if( results == null ) return ""; else return results[1];
} /** * This allows to redirect the top window to the passed in url * * @param url * @return */
} /** * This will find an element by Id * * @param elemId * @return */
function _leoHighlightsFindElementById(elemId,doc)
{ try { if(doc==null) doc=document; var elem=doc.getElementById(elemId); if(elem) return elem; /* This is the handling for IE */ if(doc.all) { elem=doc.all[elemId]; if(elem) return elem; for ( var i = (document.all.length-1); i >= 0; i--) { elem=doc.all; if(elem.id==elemId) return elem; } } } catch(e) { _leoHighlightsReportExeception("_leoHighlightsFindElementById()",e); } return null;
} /** * Get the location of one element relative to a parent reference * * @param ref * the reference element, this must be a parent of the passed in * element * @param elem * @return */
function _leoHighlightsGetLocation(ref, elem) { _leoHighlightsDebugLog("_leoHighlightsGetLocation "+elem.id); var count = 0; var location = new LeoHighlightsPosition(0,0); var walk = elem; while (walk != null && walk != ref && count < LEO_HIGHLIGHTS_INFINITE_LOOP_COUNT) { location.x += walk.offsetLeft; location.y += walk.offsetTop; walk = walk.offsetParent; count++; } _leoHighlightsDebugLog("Location is: "+elem.id+" - "+location); return location;
} /** * This is used to update the position of an element as a popup * * @param IFrame * @param anchor * @return */
function _leoHighlightsUpdatePopupPos(iFrame,anchor)
{ try { // Gets the scrolled location for x and y var scrolledPos=new LeoHighlightsPosition(0,0); if( self.pageYOffset ) { scrolledPos.x = self.pageXOffset; scrolledPos.y = self.pageYOffset; } else if( document.documentElement && document.documentElement.scrollTop ) { scrolledPos.x = document.documentElement.scrollLeft; scrolledPos.y = document.documentElement.scrollTop; } else if( document.body ) { scrolledPos.x = document.body.scrollLeft; scrolledPos.y = document.body.scrollTop; } /* Get the total dimensions to see what scroll bars might be active */ var totalDim=new LeoHighlightsDimension(0,0) if (document.all && document.documentElement && document.documentElement.clientHeight&&document;.documentElement.clientWidth) { totalDim.width = document.documentElement.scrollWidth; totalDim.height = document.documentElement.scrollHeight; } else if (document.all) { /* This is in IE */ totalDim.width = document.body.scrollWidth; totalDim.height = document.body.scrollHeight; } else { totalDim.width = document.width; totalDim.height = document.height; } // Gets the location of the available screen space var centerDim=new LeoHighlightsDimension(0,0); if(self.innerWidth && self.innerHeight ) { centerDim.width = self.innerWidth-(totalDim.height>self.innerHeight?16:0); // subtracting scroll bar offsets for firefox centerDim.height = self.innerHeight-(totalDim.width>self.innerWidth?16:0); // subtracting scroll bar offsets for firefox } else if( document.documentElement && document.documentElement.clientHeight ) { centerDim.width = document.documentElement.clientWidth; centerDim.height = document.documentElement.clientHeight; } else if( document.body ) { centerDim.width = document.body.clientWidth; centerDim.height = document.body.clientHeight; } // Get the current dimension of the popup element var iFrameDim=new LeoHighlightsDimension(iFrame.offsetWidth,iFrame.offsetHeight) if (iFrameDim.width 0) position.x = anchorPos.x + anchorDim.width; else if (anchorScreenPos.x - anchorDim.width - iFrameDim.width > 0) position.x = anchorPos.x - anchorDim.width; else // default to below position.y = anchorPos.y + anchorDim.height; _leoHighlightsDebugLog("_leoHighlightsUpdatePopupPos() - sideBottom: "+position); } } /* Make sure that we don't go passed the right hand border */ if(position.x+iFrameDim.width>centerDim.width-20) position.x=centerDim.width-(iFrameDim.width+20); // Make sure that we didn't go passed the start if(position.x
