stuff

This is impossibly dorky, but it's been bugging me lately how arbitrary the rules are when it comes to which animals are anthropomorphized in cartoons. Not that any particular animal being allowed to talk bothers me, but I have to wonder if there were ever any arguments in writers' rooms over the raging inconsistencies. I think the classic debate has always been why Goofy can talk but Pluto is Mickey Mouse's pet, but the one that has me pondering is Nico's favorite show, Kipper. If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it for small folks. It's a nice, friendly, quiet kind of show. Most of the characters are sweet and no one screams or sasses. The main character is Kipper the Dog, and he has several dog friends, all of whom are almost completely anthropomorphic - they walk on two legs, talk, live in houses, etc. They don't wear clothing as a rule, though they will dress up in costumes sometimes. Kipper's other main friends are Pig and Arnold, a pair of anthropomorphized pigs. So dogs and pigs are people-like, no problem. In a few episodes, Kipper shares his house with a mouse who talks, but doesn't otherwise act humanlike. So I suppose you'd say the mouse is sentient. In another episode, Kipper gets a pet hamster that is just a normal non-talking hamster. Mice, sentient; hamsters, not. And there's an episode where they attempt to rescue a cat from a tree and the cat is totally non-sentient. Dogs, human; cats, not. Also, they visit a farm that has all the normal non-sentient farm animals, but no pigs since pigs are apparently people. It doesn't keep me up at night or anything, but it's SO ARBITRARY.

Another set that I find odd are the bears from the Little Bear books. They're fully anthropomorphic, though Little Bear's animal friends talk but do not walk upright or otherwise act human. Little Bear's parents wear clothes, but LB runs around as God intended. There's even a story in which he asks for clothes to stay warm in the snow, only to have his mother kindly demonstrate that he doesn't need clothes because he has a fur coat. Then whither the DRESS, Mother Bear?

How do I love thee, Target? Let me count the ways.

1. I finally found white crates for the changing table! I've had navy ones in there since Nico was a baby and though I know it should not matter one bit what color crate the baby's diapers are in, I've always wished they were white instead. Now they are!

2. My love for latch-top totes continues apace. When I used to watch Hoarders I was always horrified when the cleaning crews would throw perfectly good plastic totes into the dumpsters. I regularly shouted at the television, "Do you know how much those things cost? And they're perfectly good!" I may have a problem. I admit nothing. This is what Elliott's room looks like right now because Target had a tote sale for back-to-college and both kids just went up a size. My empire is built on a system of well-sorted carefully-stored hand-me-down children's clothes.

3. I found "some ecard" brand stuff in the dollar bins. I hope you can read these, because they're awesome. Some people I know are going to be getting these in the mail very soon.

4. I also got little four packs of Dr Seuss crayons eight for a dollar, and really nice Dr Seuss erasers six for a dollar. My only regret is that the bin for Dr Seuss stickers was empty. I prefer to send non-candy treats for treat-bag-requiring holidays at preschool, but I also prefer not to spend a frillion dollars on non-candy treats.

Real-life marginalia

I'm fascinated by the little notes and bits of things left behind by people who take a minute to bother. No surprise, considering I loved that poem off to the right there so much that I named my blog from it. I've been collecting pictures of real-life marginalia for a while and probably won't ever have enough for a post of just those things, so why not add them here.

Looking for Alaska quote written in the front of Paper Towns

I guess this one's not really marginalia, but it did make me laugh.

Happiest baby of all time

That is all.





Reading:    The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

Playing:    Long Live the King by the Decemberists