Butterflies

I had the boys at the playground yesterday (their usual one, the closest one where so many of their peers play), and B1 ran into his Best Girl (a lot of girls really like B1, because he's very sweet and earnest and cute, but Best Girl loves him most of all, is always writing him valentines and what-not). Anyway, she saw him and called him over to the swing with her, and she said "How do you like my new sundress, [B1]?" and he swung on his own swing beside her (they were swinging in tandem) and he said "It looks like it might attract butterflies." -- he said it in the most earnest way possible. It was so adorable. She ate that up with a spoon! They then played a bunch of Tag, Hide-N-Seek, and some intense Rock, Paper, Scissors.

The funny thing for me was the last time we were at the playground, a butterfly landed on me (which they do sometimes, go figure), and I told B1 that sometimes if I wore certain-colored shirts, butterflies seemed to land on them. So, I imagine B1 just processed that and delivered that picture-perfect line without it even being a line* -- he just logically deduced that her lavender, pink, and baby blue sundress was colorful enough to attract butterflies, and told her so. Super-cute!

*Disclaimer: Lest the Gender Police haul me in, I don't endorse or believe in delivering lines, but in that sense of saying just the right thing at the right moment, B1 completely had it, ergo me terming it as a "line" in this context.

LOST and Found

Judging from what I read about the LOST finale, I'm so glad I stopped watching it after the first 1.5 seasons -- I felt the cop-outtery of it back then, the sense of the writers making it up as they went along and yanking the viewers. Plus, in a situation like the setup, it seemed pretty clear that everybody was dead and didn't know it, yet, right? Anyway, I'm sure a lot of people will be peeved at the ending, which couldn't help but dissatisfy, since the show depending on spackling mystery atop enigma atop intrigue atop paradox -- all to keep the advertising dollars rolling in as people waded through it. I lost LOST long ago and don't feel any sense of loss for it, either.

I wonder what effect it'll have on television programming in the future, if any? It's the kind of gag a television writer can only really get away with once, without it being too derivative. In a weird way, the land where anything can happen is almost the same as the land where nothing happens. Part of what makes the uncanny great is when it happens in a setting where you know something totally shouldn't be happening, where it can't be happening -- the "super" in the supernatural.

Had to laugh with GAWKER on this (since it's a complaint I've made a few times)...

We learned nothing from two-and-a-half hours of slow-motion bullshittery backed with a syrupy soundtrack.

So, the show made its money, did its job. On to the next distraction, whatever that may be! Maybe a television show about a television show, and the actors and writers who make it?!

Speaking of that, "So You Think You Can Dance?" starts this week! My favorite "reality" show! Apparently they're bringing back winning dancers from the previous seasons to pair up with the contestants this year (I think that's the case, anyway), so that should be fun. Love seeing dancers get their proper due on a prime-time show. Go, dancers!