At university (which I say instead of ‘in college’ in deference to my non-American friends for whom ‘college’ is a two-year technical skills course), my crazy thespic friends, Karen Klick in particular, were fascinated by a science fiction puppet animation called Thunderbirds.

By the time we were watching, Thunderbirds was 20 years old and the puppetry and effects looked extremely cheesy. But it was fun and every October 10th (and sometimes twice a day) I remember the code for “acknowledged” that the International Rescue team used: tenten.

Now that I think about it, I suspect Karen liked the show so much becasue she bears a distinct resemblance to the sexy blond secret agent, Lady Penelope.