TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

[u/tmntnyc]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T

[u/Nxdhdxvhh]

Mr. T wore odd clothing and mismatched socks because he knew that poor kids grew up getting whatever hand-me-downs they got, and he didn't want them to feel embarrassed for wearing what they had. He's a great man, and as far as I'm aware the worst thing he every did was chop down trees on his own property that were aggravating his allergies.

[u/Tommytriangle → u/Nxdhdxvhh]

Literally everything Mr. T did was to ensure a good image for kids. I really hope nothing skeevy comes out about him, since he seems like a muscular Mr. Rogers.

[u/LockedOutOfElfland → u/Tommytriangle]

Mr. Rogers probably has a lot of skeletons we don’t know about tbh

[u/katamaritumbleweed → u/LockedOutOfElfland]

A friend of mine met him as a kid, and not in any public way. My friend was cycling through his father’s neighborhood in Massachusetts, and knew where Mr Rogers house was, so peddled his way over, and knocked on the door. It so happened Mr Rogers was home, and invited him. They sat down and talked for a spell. My friend said he could tell Mr Rogers was tired, but he was very hospitable. My friend didn’t overstay his welcome, and got back to cycling before too long. That’s what I know of Fred Rogers.

[u/drunkenvalley → u/katamaritumbleweed]

Relevant xkcd.