if today were a movie, it would be called revenge of the printers

is there a gene for headaches caused by car heaters? seems my mom and i have the same problem...

f's phrases of several months

me: oh--you have to hear something stupid!
f: do i have to?

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of my generally dim view about almost everything ("it's broken"; "i'm sick"; "she just wants food")

darling, you're such a pessimistic jew

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shall i darken the room?
[i.e., turn off the lights]

let the record show that i managed to cook two dishes without getting so much as a drop on the stove.

[before i could celebrate that little victory i also managed to get a sharp piece of dried mint lodged in my thumb. it was later extracted with that universal method of sliver removal: a disinfected-by-fire sewing needle.]

I have now spent two full days with my filing cabinet and Merlin and my head is swimming in a sea of paperwork and badly-written scripts.

This is a show purely for children so I will forgive the bizarrely teenage behaviour of the fully adult actors, the large number of filler episodes--especially in early seasons--and the god-awful repetition. A bit of that is necessary: if anything, the show is a valuable, valuable lesson in humility. It also does a good job with the difficulty of decision-making, with the irrational nature of fear, and with the importance of compassion.

Unforgivable, however, is the lack of character development in Arthur; the troubling focus on loyalty, which is not always grounded in reason; and the even more troubling focus on "destiny"--its existence, its veracity, and its influence.

[SPOILER ALERT?]

Most unforgivable of all is the fact that the dragon was right. About everything. The commendable lessons of kindness, mercy, and understanding--painfully established every season--are really, for me, undercut by all this.

I've taken it much too seriously, as I'm prone to do... but for parents watching this with their children: I would take care to point out its flaws.