Spot Conlon

My all-time favorite movie is Newsies.  If you haven't seen it, watch it.  If you still use a VCR you can borrow it from me.  I've probably seen it at least 100 times since I discovered it on the Disney Channel in 7th grade.  My friend Amber and I would rewind the tape over and over again to learn the dance moves (yes, dance moves) and sing along.  Ridiculous, but so much fun. My first TV crush ever (beating out Matthew Lawrence from Brotherly Love and Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains) was Spot Conlon, the tough kid from Brooklyn who sort of saves the day in Newsies.  Here are some pictures for everyone's enjoyment: 

He's about to save the day.

He's saving the day.

He's happy he saved the day.

Here are a few Spot quotes from the movie:  

"I say... that what you say... is what I say."  

"Never fear, Brooklyn's here."

Talk about your Oscar-winning writing... 

If I haven't made a good enough case for the movie, I'll go ahead and do some name dropping. Christian Bale is the main character, and it's one of his first noteworthy films.  That's right, I consider this film to be worthy of note.  

Now, the main purpose of this blog post was not so that you would learn to love this classic (although that will be an obvious by-product of reading this).  It's because I recently found out that "Spot Conlin" is more than just a name.  It is found in the Urban Dictionary and the verbatim definition is:

Spot Conlin:  (n) Brooklyn; (v) To beat someone up or to use a slingshot.

Who knew that my first fictional crush would turn out to be so famous that they put him in the Urban Dictionary as not only a noun - "I live in Spot Conlin territory", but also as a verb - "Look my way again, and I'll Spot Conlin you."  Looks like I chose my first entertainment crush well.  I mean, no one goes around saying, "I'm gonna Zac Morris or Jason Priestley you."  Now, it is important to note here that Spot's last name is actually spelled Conlon, but in the urban dictionary, they spell it Conlin.  Maybe spelling things a little different than the original is the urban way.  Like getting your hair done at Kiki's Krazy Kuts or something.  I'm not sure.

So, in summary... 

Looking for a movie to watch this weekend?  Rent (or borrow) Newsies.  Starring:

Christian Bale

Bill Pullman

Ann-Margaret

Robert Duvall