In Praise Of....

Election's over. I'm an election worker; I got home at 4 a.m. If I'm not mistaken, exactly ONE of my votes went my way. Stayed home due to exhaustion; watched concession speech and hey, we won speech. I will try to be positive and hope that President Bush meant what he said about being a president to ALL Americans and try not to focus on the fact that I've heard it before. Special praise to the people of Vic Snyder's district who re-elected Vic despite the "liberal" tag. I went to law school with Dr-Lawyer-Vietnam Veteran-Senator Vic and he is one of the finest people I have ever known.

So....more in depth analysis of what went wrong? What the future brings? Nah....there's plenty of that elsewhere.

Let's talk about.......Fairly Oddparents!

The general wisdom behind the old Warner Bros. animated shorts....Bugs Bunny, etc.....is that they weren't really designed for kids. They had jokes for adults, too; after all, the cartoons preceded the latest Humphrey Bogart or Clark Gable films in theaters back then. They hold up well even today.

To me, Fairly Oddparents is similiar. It's not South Park or the Adult Swim line-up where you can't (or probably shouldn't) let your kids watch it. It is on Nickelodeon and is extremely popular. It is not "deep" and it is not even a must-see, but it is highly enjoyable. I have watched it even when the kids weren't around. The premise is that a ten year old boy, Timmy, who isn't in the "in crowd" at school, doesn't get enough attention from his parents, and has a sadistic baby sitter, gets two fairy godparents - a married couple. Cosmo, the male, is a fun-loving moron; his wife, Wanda, is the practical one. The jokes are well-written and it appears that the writers actually put a considerable amount of thought into the story lines. The emphasis is on slapstick, mainly, but there is "hidden" social commentary, political satire, and lampoons of pop culture, and it is occasionally slightly touching (not too often, though).

A favorite recent line: Wanda: "I'm sorry, Timmy. We can't interfere with and destroy true love. Only parents can do that."

The recent feature length Oddparents "Channel Chasers" should have been released in theaters - it is far better than most kid movies that I have to go see in theaters (and I go to just about all of them). "Channel Chasers" is a tribute to all of the favorite animated shows of the creators (plus "Sesame Street") as Timmy travels through television history. I recommend it, but will say that it helps to understand "Channel Chasers" if you have watched a few episodes of the show.

I also like Spongebob and Jimmy Neutron (but not as much); always the Simpsons and South Park; Family Guy (had to get the entire series on DVD); and Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law. Not too impressed with the first episode of "Drawn Together." And, despite its rabid fan base, I haven't really warmed up to Aqua Teen Hunger Force yet. I'm trying. Sealab 2010 is funny, also.