National Mario Day

2018-03-10

Nintendo hasn't been a part of my life for decades now. Back in my gamer youth (my late 30s) I used to play video games as both a diversion and to keep those fingers nimble ... but I'm afraid that the rigors of the workaday world have precluded such activity for longer than I can remember at this point in time.

Today is National Mario Day. It celebrates Mario, that fictional character in Nintendo's Mario video game franchise. Mario is depicted differently depending on the era and the game in which you encounter him.

Early on he was a paunchy plumber dwelling in a fictional land called "the Mushroom Kingdom" with his brother Luigi, who is both younger and taller than he.

There have been movies where they are Brooklynites and the franchise has really become bigger than life to be the fantasy it all is.

The concept of National Mario Day is celebrated on March 10 because when the date is written MAR 10 it resembles the name MARIO. How totally quaint.

Anyway I don't begrudge Mario's success because he was there for me early on and the kids seem to love him still ...

And he is quite an industry in and of himself.