Recent Comments

1. about 13 years ago on The Meaning of Lila

   Why on earth does she need to be tested? Especially at a specialized institute across the world? They live in a major city, I’m sure there is a university where she could be mentored, or get the opportunity to take classes.

   If she tests as a genius, there’s this huge pressure to do something big, and Lila would be pressured to not let her be a kid, or change her mind. It sets these expectations up, and normal levels of success becomes failure. For a kid with a hard life to start with, this is not good.

   I know it’s just a comic, but it’s a pet peeve that every smart character in anything has to out of university by 12 or running a lab at 16 or something. Annie has a better chance of success if she gets a challenge somewhere and is allowed to, and encouraged to, do things she’s not good at.

   (rant over – back to work)

2. almost 16 years ago on Heart of the City

   The Christmas Shoes - Oh, manipulate me a little more, I don’t mind. It’s so realistic, too. Somehow, a boy who’s mother is very ill, dying, decides it’s crucial that he run out to the store and buy her shoes that he has no money for.

   Of course, Dad or whatever relatives don’t stop him, or give him money, or tell him just to spend the last time he can with his mother. Of course, a little boy wanting to buy something pretty for his mother thinks of shoes rather than a necklace or dress or something.

   And of course the child is saintly, wanting mom to look beautiful and get a smile from a gift, rather than angry, or terrified, or any of the other emotions you might expect from a real child.

3. about 16 years ago on Stone Soup International Sundays

   We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…

   (paraphrasing Kennedy and all)

   Besides, Holly, you’ll get busted when you talk about parts where the film adaptation differs from the book.