It’s a neat idea for a site: Write exactly 100 word stories each weekday. It’s harder than you might think. I’ve tried it once or twice and it takes real effort to trim it down that much and still have something worth reading at the end. Hemingway would be proud, I’m sure.
I kind of like my piece I put in the comments section today, which is inspired by my dad’s taste in music.
So, people looking on the Amazon baby registry may have noted there’s a lot of DVDs on there for a little kid. That’s my fault. The theory is that, no matter how parents may plan otherwise, eventually the kid gets put in front of the TV for a moment, even if just to enable the parent to go to the bathroom or shower. And once there, the kid is going to imprint on something random. (Both my nieces have imprinted on Elmo in a pretty major way.) While you hope the kid imprints on, say, Stephen Colbert (who, in his own way, is as much of a cartoon as Bugs Bunny), there’s always the danger he’ll bond with Barney or the Teletubbies, those creepy Wiggles guys or those strange fundementalist Christian vegetables. (Seriously, vegetables. There’s a born-again cucumber, tomato, a whole garden full. How is it that no one finds them really odd but me? Does no one else wonder how a tomato could find Jesus?)
My plan, therefore, is to flood the channel with good stuff. Classic Looney Tunes, the Muppets (including Sesame Street, the Muppet Show and Fraggle Rock), the Dini/Pimm DC animated stuff, non-exasperating Disney movies and so on. Then, when the kid decides he needs to watch the same DVD over and over (and over and over and over), it will be slightly less painful for the parents.
That’s the theory, anyway.
And I still miss Jim Henson. He was the only celebrity whose death made me cry.
Yes, this is only the kind of thing that appeals to a hardcore writing nerd, but Grammar Girl (my new favorite podcast, even edging out the inimitable Sandra Tsing Loh) has come up with a style guide for use with Twitter and (more important for me) text-messaging: Strunk & Twite.
before now.
