GWTW

Da DAAA da daaaaaaa
Da DAAA da daaa...

Quit it, it's so annoying. Do you have to do that every time?

Why, yes I do. I just can't help it, it's so stirring.

Sarabelle had to do a multimedia presentation comparing and contrasting life as a thirteen year old today with someone in her family's experience Way Back When. Because Sarabelle has that innate tendency to go against the flow -- much like I did when for International Day at school I chose to showcase my predominently English roots instead of my weaker Irish lineage, particularly since 75% of the class seemed to suddenly be as Irish as Paddy's pig, and taught the class as part of my multimedia show to sing "God Save the Queen," nearly causing our poor pastor, whose father had been dragged through the streets behind a horse for being a suspected IRA sympathiser, to have a coronary -- she decided to do her paternal grandmother instead of one of her parents like everybody else was doing.

Now, without blatantly giving away Gabby's age, I will only say that two of the greatest movies of all time came out the year she turned thirteen, Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz. Don't bother doing the math. This necessitated a trip to the video stores in town to search for DVD versions and then a mini film festival when we got home.

We have cassette versions of both these movies at home and have watched them numerous times, but not until viewing them with the captioning on did I realize how much we had missed, especially Gone With the Wind. I had the opportunity to view it on its big screen, remixed and remastered, re-release a few years back, but even my ear, attuned as it is to a southern accent, or even Hollywood's version of a southern accent, lost about 20% of the rapid fire dialogue. And what fabulous dialogue it is, not even counting the hundreds of famous lines. With a running time of 238 minutes (and for those of you still not doing the math, that's two minutes short of FOUR HOURS), all of us, including Elle, sat in complete and utter silence.

At least until that famous score kicked in and I was shushed for humming along.

Da DAAA da daaaaaa...


She's just a pale-faced, mealy-mouthed ninny and I hate her!

-- Scarlett O'Hara