Shortest Friday Fragments Ever

Because I am typing this in my mother-in-law's house, on her computer, which is smack-dab in the middle of the family room, I am not going to write much. I'll write just enough to participate in Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragments without causing my extended family to assume I'm writing my secret, deadly manifesto (FYI: That's my other blog.)




***
 I realize that my extensive time online comes across as a tad anti-social and freakish, when away from the familiar setting of my kitchen table cave. Why is typing on the computer considered "rude" yet watching A Night in the Museum as a family---sitting in total silence---considered social?

***
Speaking of TV, I don't know why Paul and I feel this overwhelming urge to make Owen watch all of the Charlie Brown specials. They are poorly animated, kinda creepy and way over his head. And yet, every year, we sit him down and say, "You need to watch this. This is important."

Maybe we're wanting to experience our own childhoods anew, harkening back to the nights when we would snuggle under a blanket with a bowl of popcorn, watching Linus and Snoopy.

Now, we notice things. Consider this Peanuts--A Second Glance:

*Franklin, the token African American kid, sat by himself on one side of the table when Charlie Brown had his popcorn and toast Thanksgiving. Even the dog got to sit with the other kids. Not cool, Charlie Brown. Not. Cool.

*Whenever I saw Peppermint Patty on screen, I kept hearing Melissa Ethridge, crooning, "Come to my wiiiindoow!" You connect the dots.

I bet Peppermint Patty and the strangely subservant Marcie have matching Ani DeFranco shirts today. (And before you hate, I LOVE lesbians.)
*The music on the Peanuts specials is just charming---I wish that modern kids shows had half as much musical sophistication. Most cartoon music, in my limited experience, causes seizures and intense feelings of despair.

*Those Peanuts Kids? Man, those were some mean, mean kids. Even Linus could be kind of a shit, and he's the one who's spouting Scripture and Colonial History at the drop of a hat. Nobody likes a hypocrite, Linus.

*What was the deal with Pig Pen? Some adult should have called social services and said, "Wah Wah Wah Wah Wah." Why does Charlie Brown, a kid suffering from premature hair loss, get mocking, but the kid with a virulent cloud of dust is totally cool in everybody's book?

*Yet, with all these inconsistencies, that final part of the Christmas Special, when they dress up the pathetic tree and sing "Hark the Hearld Angels Sing" gets me every time. Haven't we all had moments where we're that weak old tree, and yet we're made beautiful through the faith and gentle tending of our friends?

***
Well, this turned into a treatise on Charles Shutlz. Not my intention, but being that I'm on borrowed computer time, I'm going to be a blockhead and roll with it. Happy Friday!