Google Doodle honors Mark Twain

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One of my fave authors is featured on Google’s homepage today — Mark Twain. The Google Doodle celebrates the 176th anniversary of Twain’s birth. Twain, whose real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Missouri Nov. 30, 1835. He died at 74 in April 1910.

The full-screen illustration depicts a famous scene from Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” where Tom tricks his friends into whitewashing the fence.

I love how it looks like the “g” and “e” in the logo are missing — they’ve been white washed. And the colors and artwork make it look like it came from one of my childhood storybooks.

Tom Sawyer has always been near and dear to my heart. When I was a kid, I made a float for my town’s Halloween parade depicting this scene. I built a picket fence, mounted it on a red wagon, which was decorated. My friends and I made various signs and posted these on the sides of the wagon. One sign said “Ferry boat leaving at noon.”

When we got to the judges’ stand, I took out the white shoe polish with the spongy applicator and started “whitewashing” the fence. We won! I think we spent the money on penny candy at the little store in the alley behind our houses.

So, yeah, this Google Doodle brings back great memories!

Some other cool Google Doodles
Create your own hand turkey for Thanksgiving
Google doodle honors Louis Daguerre
Google Doodle honors veterans
Google Doodle honors Marie Curie
Google Doodle celebrates Halloween
Google Doodle honors Art Clokey, creator of Gumby and Pokey
Happy Birthday Google
Jim Henson
Albert Szent-Györgyi
Freddie Mercury
Jorge Luis Borges
Lucille Ball 100th birthday
Gregor Mendel
Summer Soltice
Les Paul playable Google Doodle
Martha Graham
Royal wedding
Earth Day
Charlie Chaplin
First human space flight
200th birthday of Robert Bunsen
Jules Verne
John James Audubon

Here is an archive of all of the Google Doodles throughout the world. It’s really neat to see ones that appeared in other countries.

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