Those of you who caught Sunday night’s episode of Twin Peaks—one of the few live-action shows I’ve watched—were likely as moved by the death of the Log Lady, Margaret Lanterman, as much as I was. But I’m going to bet it didn’t jog weirdly emotional memories about the year you quoted Ed Edd n Eddy so often around the house that your parents indefinitely banned you from watching the show.
But I digress. The Log Lady—played with deep nuance by the late Catherine E. Coulson—was in turns hilarious, terrifying, charming, and achingly sorrowful. Her constant companion was an inanimate log, who, she claimed, talked to her. Played at first as a joke, the log became representative of the mystery of the woods surrounding the town of Twin Peaks—the woods from which, of course, it came—and, consequently, a weird ’90s pop culture staple. She and her log will be as deeply missed as the woman who played her.
Part of her legacy, however unlikely, will be the animated child created (maybe?) in her image for Cartoon Network’s Ed Edd n Eddy: Jonny, whose constant companion, a painted plank of wood named Plank, also whispered words of wisdom into his ear.
Jonny was a sweet, if slight, riff on Margaret, the wise fool stereotype as befitted an irreverent children’s cartoon and not an otherworldly and experimental soapy procedural. Hell, there was even an episode where Plank was replaced by a log!
It was a bit on the nose. But that probably would have been fine with Margaret:
Requiescat in pace, Margaret and Catherine. The world will never have enough of you—or your log.
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