"Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" - movie review

I like Johnny Depp ok. I mean, like a lot of other people, I thought he was perfectly fabulous as Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean". I didn't think he was quite as fabulous in the second and third movies of the same franchise, but I blame that less on him and more on the writers. And I've liked him in a number of other films, like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Finding Neverland", "Sleepy Hollow" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" I vaguely remember him, after the fact, from "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and I don't remember him at all in "Platoon". Most people probably remember him best from "21 Jump Street". I watched the show, and I thought he was ok, but I didn't fawn over him like a lot of others did - Richard Grieco was more my style.

But with his performance in "Sweeney Todd", I am firmly and completely in the "Johnny Depp is an acting god and one of the THE best actors working today" camp. I think what seals it for me is that as well known as Johnny Depp is, he is such a chameleon that he completely morphs into the characters that he's playing, his popularity and fame notwithstanding. My reaction to him in "Sweeney Todd" was much like my reaction to Tom Hanks in "Forrest Gump". I knew Tom Hanks from "Bosom Buddies" and a lot of movies and roles, and I knew that he did not have the personality that Forrest Gump exhibited. But I totally bought into that role because he was just so convincing. Johnny Depp does the same in this film. You know that he has not lived through the cruelties that Sweeney Todd has had to endure - and yet you buy it completely because he plays it with such conviction. If you take the triumvirate of "Sweeney Todd", "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Finding Neverland", where he plays three completely different characters, you can see the depth of his acting genius. I never did see "Edward Scissorhands", but now I'm figuring on going back and catching it. I'd heard great things about it before, but I'm curious to see what he did with the role.

But Johnny Depp gushing aside, the film does work very well, though it is definitely a trial for the squeamish. There are quite a few parts of the movie that I did not watch, when I knew the blood and gore were coming. You can mostly avoid seeing too much if that sort of thing bothers you too, though there is one scene that is a bit abrupt and so you'll likely be unable to avoid the first couple seconds of that.

I'd never seen the stage musical myself and only had a fleeting idea of the general story. Sweeney Todd is a man who has been severely wronged, and he returns to take his vengeance on the man who wronged him. He ends up partnering with Mrs. Lovett, who unsuccessfully makes meat pies, and their dark association leads to a boon to her business when they discover that his killing provides the perfect ingredient to her now-popular meat pies that the town devours, not knowing what exactly it is they are consuming.

I found the opening credits to be a bit more stylized than I generally prefer, especially since it's very obviously CGI. For me, that tone didn't quite fit with the gothic nature of the rest of the film, though it only takes a few seconds of seeing the opening credits to know that it's definitely a Tim Burton film.

However, the first shots of London define the look and feel of the rest of the film. And with Johnny Depp's first line of song, you are pulled into the film. As a matter of fact, he is so engaging that you pretty much are glued to him every time he's on screen. He doesn't play a caricature of the embittered, deeply disturbed man - he plays the pain and festering anger with complete believability.

As much praise as I have for Johnny Depp, I cannot say the same for Helena Bonham Carter. I am usually a fan of hers, and while I can't quite pinpoint what I didn't like about her, her character and her singing just never seemed to gel with the rest of the film for me.

Alan Rickman is no stranger to playing the bad guy, but boy this bad guy is way beyond all the rest. His singing was ok, but I never felt he was comfortable doing that.

Sacha Baron Cohen makes an inspired appearance as a temporary foil for Sweeney Todd.

And yes, that *was* Giles with the one line.

Never having heard the songs before, I generally liked them. I liked the reprise of "No Place Like London" that occurs periodically, though I didn't much care for "Poor Thing". My favorite as far as staging and just darkness was "A Little Priest".

The overall look of London and one sequence of shots in particular oddly reminded me of the techniques used in "Moulin Rouge" to depict Paris and Montmartre.


HERE'S YOUR SPOILER WARNING. IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM AND DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED, STOP READING NOW. EVERYTHING AFTER THIS POINT CONTAINS MEGA-SPOILERS. I'D ALSO CAUTION YOU THAT ANY COMMENTS MIGHT ALSO BE SPOILER FILLED, SO DON'T READ THOSE EITHER IF YOU'RE AVOIDING SPOILERS.






















No, seriously, I'm not kidding, spoilers galore ahead.
















OK, you've been warned.

When Sweeney Todd tells the story of the barber who was wrongfully imprisoned and whose wife and child was taken away from him by the evil judge, you can see how that has made its mark on his character, especially after Mrs. Lovett tells him that his wife poisoned herself with cyanide to escape the judge's grasp, not to mention that the judge also now has his daughter. His first kill is also at least understandable since Pirelli was going to blow his cover, and Todd does really kill out of a fit of rage. But it's really Mrs. Lovett who pushes him over the edge. She is at first appalled by the killing, but when Todd explains why he did it, she completely accepts that as reasonable, and it is in fact her idea to use his dead bodies as pie filling. The subsequent killings are a lot less personal, as we later learn that they've been very careful about who to target, and we see that Todd only gives a shave to the man who had brought along his wife and child. But since chance has it that his young friend from the ship is the one who also then falls in love with his now-15-year-old daughter, he is bent on saving her as well as exacting his revenge on the judge. He does finally get his revenge (the judge catches site of his wife and then and there arranges for him to be taken away, and then he takes their child and locks her away and peeps at her and then decides, oh, it's time to marry her? Wow, a true gentleman. But then, he did sentence a little boy to hanging), but in true Greek tragedy style, he also discovers that he has in fact murdered his own wife, not dead from the cyanide poisoning as Mrs. Lovett had led him to believe. You knew that when he was waltzing with her at the end, he wasn't going to forgive what she had done, so it was no surprise when he threw her into the baking oven and locked it shut. He grieves over his dead wife, and poetically, he invites the helper boy to slit his throat, so that he dies while holding his dead wife, his blood mingling with hers. (Yes, I saw bits of this, even though it was pretty gruesome, but it worked really well regardless.) The daughter and her young suitor presumably escape, with neither carrying knowledge of all the horrors that have happened.

pet peeve

My schedule hasn't changed that much. So let's not start in again with the "you must not like me as much now because we never see each other anymore" crap. Everybody has their schedules and interests. Things happen. That kind of guilt doesn't really work with me. It just serves to irritate me.

"Survivor" - season finale

So the season finale of "Survivor" started with a reward challenge involving their own little version of the Great Wall. Amanda ended up winning, but she had the option to share her pizza, beer and brownies (what is up with them craving pizza so badly anyway?) with either one or two other people. I didn't think she was going to pick any of them, to make it more "fair", but she ended up picking Todd only, which surprised me a little. Maybe she didn't want to show her hand further by also picking either Denise or Courtney, since she and Todd have been in an alliance all along. But I thought it was interesting that she didn't pick him so much because of their alliance but because she wasn't sure about him and wanted time to talk to him alone.

And then the four go on their final journey to remember all of their fallen comrades. Wait, didn't they say last week that there would be three tribal councils? Which would mean they're going back to only having a final two? Maybe there's still another twist coming up.

The last challenge was kind of like an endurance thing of who wanted it more, but it had the added element of having to balance the plates and such. It was interesting that Amanda decided to flip her one bowl around, which seemed to perhaps steady a bit more. And she almost got distracted by Denise's attempt to make a deal with her, but in the end, Amanda won the final immunity. Yep, Jeff said final immunity and Amanda would be in the final tribal council, but everything was still worded strangely that it made me wonder if something else wasn't up. Maybe they'd have a regular vote off to three, and then Amanda would get to pick who goes with her to final two, so her immunity would end up being a double-whammy.

As Amanda was going back and forth about what to do, whether to vote for Todd to force a tie (since she apparently couldn't persuade Courtney to vote for Todd) or to just vote off Denise, Courtney threw in her two-cents to the camera and made a comment that Denise shouldn't win because it's not a welfare gig. Wow, that was pretty harsh. Loser at life? Denise seemd to be doing ok for herself, and I'm not sure what kind of position Courtney thinks she's in that she feels entitled to look down at Denise. Because Denise is a lunch lady? That's ridiculous. Courtney herself has said that she's pretty much been a tagalong to get where she is, and Denise has had to fight. Courtney's comment really irritated me, on top of everything else Courtney has done/said.

In the end, Amanda chose to vote with her alliance, and Denise was voted off. I did think Denise's comment about Amanda having her back was a little deceiving because Amanda was right in that she'd made that comment a little while ago, not that day. And Denise has it confirmed to her that she in fact did make the biggest mistake in not voting with P.G. and Erik earlier, when they could have kicked off Todd, and Denise would have had a real shot at final three. And for Denise, Jeff said she was the final member of the jury. So what's going on? Is it still going down to final two, and the one not selected doesn't even get to be on the jury?

The three had a bad final night at camp because Amanda was upset with what Denise said and Todd's reaction and her perception that Todd threw her under the bus. But all was well the next morning, especially since they enjoyed some breakfast treats.

So we get to final tribal council. Yep, it's final three again, not two. Hmmm, but maybe this council ended in a tie, so they had to have a run-off. After all, they already know who wins once the votes have been cast since they're all doing it on camera. There is a chance there could be a tie, and if so, they couldn't very well break a tie on the live show, so they'd have to have a run-off right then and there. Maybe that's the twist.

The questions from the jury were pretty much what you'd expect. I did think it was funny that Todd's answer to Jean-Robert left him literally speechless, and James was just simply cracking up about it. I thought it was interesting that James said twice that he didn't want to be a Bitter Betty. I'm wondering if that was directed at Denise, who we find out is obviously very bitter, but her wounds were the freshest. Everyone else had some time for thought and perspective, but for her, not much time had passed at all. You could tell by Denise's questioning, or rather, commenting, that she was really just ticked off at Amanda and Todd, and she ended up voting for Courtney because Courtney was the one she wasn't mad at because she had never promised her anything or broken her word, really because she was never in a position to do either. The most surprising to me was Jamie's questioning. Easy-going blondie had the most direct, pointed, biting, combative questions, and she wasn't letting them off easy.

And in the end, Todd won with four votes, with Courtney getting two votes and surprisingly to me, Amanda only getting one vote. I think Amanda really tanked herself in her answers to the jury. Yes, Todd had lied and cheated as well, as much if not more so than Amanda, but he completely owned up to it, that it was strategy, part of the game and he meant to do all of it, while trying to keep the personal relationships separate. Amanda waffled entirely too much, and she did play it off as if none of the betrayals were her fault, at one point even saying she had no choice but to vote someone off. She didn't want to be blamed for the bad stuff, but in the same breath, she also wasn't then going to claim the credit, though she tried to claim her rightful credit for James' ouster. But she played both sides, so I think she really just made people angry, whereas Todd might also have made people angry, but you could at least respect his game play.

I can't even say how much it irritated me that Courtney came in second. I wasn't too fond of Todd after a while, but he definitely deserved to win after all his machinations.

And since there was no tie whatsoever, I don't know if they just made a mistake when they had Jeff do the promo about there being 3 tribal councils or if they just deliberately lied about it.

Denise ended up being the key to the game. (Jeff tried to talk about Courtney's "welfare" comment, but both she and Denise seemed to blow it off, with Courtney saying she had apologized and Denise saying it wasn't a big deal, so Jeff just moved along. I was really surprised that Denise was that blase over the comment.) And her decisions in the game were motivated by what she talked about all throughout the game. She kept saying that she wasn't ever the popular kid in school, and that she was always the one who got picked last or never got picked at all. And her holding onto that hurt is what cost her final three and ultimately, it turns out, P.G. winning it all as well. Denise had been taken in, to some degree, by the "cool kids", aka Todd and Amanda and their alliance, and Denise couldn't abandon that. She said she was never picked as a kid - but she was picked in the game eventually - by P.G. and Erik. But P.G. and Erik were outcasts as well, and Denise's fixation meant she would rather reject the outcasts who were trying desperately to gain her favor and try to stay with the "cool kids" (which is probably why she refused to vote off Todd) in the hopes that their acceptance of her was real, that she could really and truly be included in their group. And in the end, when they did ultimately reject her, like we saw coming for weeks, she was angry that yet again, she was tossed aside by the "cool kids". Jeff made a comment about how it was nice that James was able to put aside his feelings and vote the game because some people just can't let the personal feelings aside. I wonder if that was directed at Denise, who clearly voted her emotions at the end.

When Jeff announced the fan favorite, I wasn't surprised at all that James won. The added twist came at the last break when Jeff announced that, because of the story Denise told about having been fired from her job when she returned, Mark Burnett had decided then and there that she would get $50,000 to help her out.

I liked Denise for some time, but her stubbornness in not seeing the game started to annoy me. And then I felt sorry for her about having lost her job. And then I saw this story, where it turns out that Denise's tearful confession wasn't entirely truthful. Her boss at the school district says that she was promoted, at her own request, to custodian, which included higher pay and more benefits, before she went on the show. When she returned, she wanted to go back to being a lunch lady, but the position was no longer available. This is a far cry from the sob story she told on the show.

So the next season of "Survivor" will be in Micronesia. (OK, yeah, I'm geography-challenged, but where the heck is that?) And this time, it's going to pit a team of returning contestants (all-stars) with rabid fans who have studied and know every aspect of the game. That's a nice twist that sounds like a lot of fun (depending on who the returning people are) - looking forward to seeing it, wherever they are...

Bristol Farms - where's the loan officer?

I was working late tonight, and then I had to run an errand after work, so I decided to stop into the nearby Bristol Farms to pick up some dinner. Nothing fancy - I got a lemon fried chicken breast, a side of Greek salad and a container of watermelon. Handing the cashier a $20 bill resulted in me getting a couple of coins back - and not big denomination coins either. Wow, $20 for a fairly simple dinner. Now, I will say that it was a fairly substantial chicken breast. There were no bones at all, so it was just a hefty hunk of meat - a tasty hefty hunk of meat, I might add. And I know that fresh fruit is expensive anyway, especially this time of year, especially from some place like Bristol Farms. But as much as I like to browse high-end markets like Bristol Farms (and Whole Foods Market), I can't bring myself to shop there much because the prices are just so steep. For specialty items, I think it makes more sense, or maybe for special occasions, but as a regular grocery store, it's not exactly the most affordable place to shop.

I know that banks give loans for remodeling a house or starting a business or whatever. I wonder if they give loans to help finance dinner?

"The leader of the band is tired"

"Leader of the Band" is the song that Dan Fogelberg wrote to honor his father. But Dan can now talk directly to his father, as Dan Fogelberg lost his battle with cancer on Sunday, December 16 at the age of 56, just three years after discovering he had advanced prostate cancer. I've always loved Dan Fogelberg's music. It was something about the combination of the tone and feel of the music and his amazing, soothing voice.

Whether it's a song about deep, abiding love ("Longer") or love gone wrong ("Hard to Say"), you could feel every word that Dan was singing. You could even feel the caress of his voice when he sang about horses.

Yep, horses. "Run For The Roses" was a song that I loved, but for whatever reason, even though I knew the words, I guess for the longest time, I didn't really pay attention to exactly what I was singing. Great for a guy whose lyric-writing ability I claim to love, huh? (Yeah, ok, so I'm lame. But I also sang Rod Stewart's "Young Turks" umpteen times before the full significance hit me of what exactly it meant for Patty to give birth to a 10 pound baby boy!) But as I actually paid attention to what he had written on this song, I learned that it was an amazing tribute to the horses that run the Kentucky Derby.

But the song that Dan Fogelberg is probably most know for is "Same Old Lang Syne". It's played a lot at the end of the year, for obvious reasons, but you'll also hear it at other times, on certain stations. I've always loved story songs when they tell a great story, and the story that Dan tells in this song is amazingly vivid. (And, yes, Dan has confirmed that the events of the song actually happened.) For me, it's not any one thing about the song that gets to me, bringing me to the brink of, and even past, tears. It's the melody, the honesty of their exchange, the moment captured in time, the bittersweet chance meeting and the feeling that Dan conveys with his amazing voice.

OK, I had no idea that Bean of Kevin and Bean wrote about Dan Fogelberg today as well. Here's a direct link to that particular blog entry, which has an embedded link to play the song "Same Old Lang Syne".


Growing up in Los Angeles, I'd seen the periodic ads that would appear in the newspaper announcing his various tours that came around, and it would occur to me to go. And I didn't. And life went on. A few years ago, I found out that a very good friend also liked his music and had had the opportunity to see him a few times on his acoustic tours. And I decided that on his next trip nearby, I'd go. And that was when he announced that he was going to stop touring because he'd been diagnosed with cancer. And I regret never having taken advantage of the opportunity to have seen him live in concert.


My condolences and best wishes go out to his wife and family.


Here's the official website for Dan Fogelberg, which includes lots of good information, as well as a link to where good wishes, prayers and condolences can be posted.


"And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned in to rain..."

Oedipus had it easy

So when you were born, your parents gave you up because they were married/involved with other people and lots of other drama going on. As an adult, you finally track down who they are, and their relationship is on and off and still also involving other people. You're still angry that they gave you up, so you concoct all kinds of schemes. Even though you're a man, your features are feminine enough that you can also pass for a woman, so dressed as a woman, you seduce your father, and then you get pregnant by him. He has no idea you are his son, but your mother knows what you've done and is urging you to come clean with him.

Sounds like a fun time, doesn't it?

I've been watching soap operas for most of my life, and yes, soaps are home to a lot of outlandish stories. Usually, their forte is bed-hopping, mate-switching, infidelity, paternity issues and the like. "Passions" has always included a supernatural element in their show, which isn't my thing but which apparently some people like. But when you get into these convoluted incestuous relationships, exactly who are they trying to appeal to? And people wonder why "Passions" has been cancelled twice (two different networks) in the past year?

No, I don't watch the show myself. Everything I know about it, I've learned from reading Soap Opera Digest.

"Kitchen Nightmares" and "Survivor"

"Kitchen Nightmares"

This episode was about a restaurant called Secret Garden in Moorpark, CA. It's apparently so secret that Gordon had a hard time finding the front door - not a good omen to start with.

Another pattern I've noticed - the owner of the restaurant is in complete denial about their circumstances. Maybe they just don't like being confronted, and their egos take over. Michel says that he's in debt at the restaurant for something like over $200,000? And they've obviously applied to have the show and Gordon come in. But when Gordon confronts him about it, he says the restaurant is doing just fine? Ummm, ok, whatever.

And then Michel references having worked for Thomas Keller. I have recently learned a lot about and become quite enamoured of Thomas Keller, and if Michel had managed to work for one of Keller's restaurants, he must not have been there long. Michel's restaurant was filthy. Thomas Keller's restaurants are immaculate, and he's a stickler for cleanliness, much like the quick glimpse that we were given of the kitchen of one of Gordon's restaurants earlier in the season. Keller would have been appalled to have seen the state of the store room at Secret Garden, not to mention the inefficiency at getting the food out, making his customers wait so long before they're brought anything they've ordered. And Michel doesn't realize that he's dropping Thomas Keller's name, but Gordon is a name that could be equally thrown out in that vein, and yet Michel is completely dismissive of him.

It was funny to see that Gordon had arranged to have the restaurant boarded up. I guess that was the most extreme example he could give Michel. I thought it was funny that Michel was mad because he said people would see the signs and it would be broadcast on the evening news that he was closed. Does he really think his restaurant has garnered enough attention that its closing would actually make the news, even in a small town like Moorpark?

Gordon's new menu specials are a hit, but that only solves one problem - there's still no one really running the restaurant. There's zero communication between the kitchen and the servers - the kitchen has run out of some food items, but no one bothers to tell the servers, who then get yelled at because they're taking orders for food they didn't know had run out? Michel is also making things worse by not even letting his sous chefs help him. There's "hands on", and then there's an inability to delegate. What's the point of having all those people in the kitchen if you won't let them do anything? No wonder it takes so long for food to be prepared.

I did think the bit with the bus of 24 people arriving was a bit ridiculous. Most restaurants wouldn't even agree to accommodate something like that with zero notice.

But in the end, Michel does learn his lesson. He's still skeptical of Gordon's changes, but he decides to let his customers be the final test. And when they tell him how much they love everything, he finally lets it all sink in. And we were really happy that he promoted Jane to manager!

This is the last episode of the season, so it's another show to cross off my list of shows to watch. With the writers' strike still in full swing and the regular holiday hiatus coming up, there will be fewer and fewer things to watch.


"Survivor"

The reward challenge was fun because it wasn't just a matter of winning or losing on your own. You could potentially have done horribly on your own but still won because of other people. I did think it was interesting that Courtney got the most arrows. I can't believe that it was because she was all that popular. I'm wondering if so many people gave her so many arrows because they figured she wouldn't do well, so she was the least dangerous. Todd did a great job, but in the end, Courtney was responsible for Denise winning the challenge.

Denise picking Courtney to go with her made perfect sense as payback, and while there's a part of me that understands P.G. getting upset that Denise didn't pick her to go, it wouldn't have made any sense strategically to pick her. Denise's refusal to vote off Todd the week before pretty much cemented that Denise was sticking with her tribe, and as grateful as she might have been that P.G. took her to the Shao Lin Temple, that wasn't going to obligate Denise to return the favor. I understood Denise's comment about not wanting P.G. to get stronger, but I was surprised that she said it loud enough for P.G. to hear. I can't remember how close they were to each other in proximity.

I was really surprised at how completely lost Denise, Todd and Courtney were with the hot pot cooking. OK, so there's raw meat and vegetables and a boiling hot pot. It's not obvious that you cook your own food in there? Not a single one of them has had any experience with anything remotely like that? All that food, and they thought it was confusing? No wonder Amanda and P.G. were later annoyed by their comments. I thought Courtney's comment about just having pizza was pretty stupid. Ummm, hello, you're in China - they've already fed you American food a few times. Why would you expect that you'd be having pizza at the Great Wall of China? I thought Courtney's comment about Amanda being less likely to stir up trouble was pretty stupid too. Did she completely forget that it was Amanda who had engineered blindsiding James by voting him off?

It was nice to see the scenes of P.G. and Amanda bonding. I can see how demoralizing the whole experience can be for P.G., so at least she had some time of fun.

The immunity challenge with the revisiting of challenges was fun. It was seriously surprising that Todd did so poorly and was the first one kicked out. You could see the complete look of shock on P.G.'s face. The second person out was, not surprisingly, Denise on the balut challenge. She couldn't do it last time, so I'm not surprised she couldn't do it again. Jeff made a comment about it being a $1,000,000 decision, but honestly, it's really just about money. If it was something else, like her daughter would be killed if she didn't eat it, you'd bet she'd be able to get it down then. It's a matter of what's enough motivation for you. On the bouncing ball on a drum competition, Courtney lost, so it was down to Amanda and P.G. P.G. came close, but in the end, Amanda was faster, mostly because she chopped through the ropes faster.

P.G. fought a good battle, but in the end, she lost the war.

So I guess there's going to be no car challenge this time? I don't remember it coming this late. And it sounds like they're going back to having final two, not final three like they've had the last few times. I still want Todd out. I'd be ok with either Denise or Amanda winning, so that's who I want in final two. I am absolutely going to scream if it comes down to Courtney and Todd. I would pick Todd as more deserving, but to have Courtney in at the end? NO FRICKIN' WAY!

Season finale is on Sunday, and then the reunion episode!

Shopping

Shopping on weekdays shortly before Christmas is so much nicer than shopping on weekends shortly before Christmas. Fewer people, more parking, less time spent.

I'm mostly done with the Christmas shopping. There are just a few more things I have to get, which will be done tomorrow or Sunday. They're not at malls, so it shouldn't be too bad.

And then comes the wrapping. But because I didn't buy 400 little things for each person, that won't take days and days to do!

What flavor pickle do you want?

OK, I love pickles. I do. I like different kinds of pickles. I generally like whole pickles, though spears can be ok. I generally prefer pickle chips on hamburgers - they're not my preferred choice for just eating pickles. I like kosher dills, I like regular ones, and I even like the butter pickles. Sweet pickles are ok but not as much my thing. I don't like pickles when they're too vinegary, but I don't like them when they're not very flavorful either. I generally like them to have a tart kick, and they need to be crispy. Soggy pickles are so not worth it. And generally, I prefer pickles cold. That keeps the crisp in.

I like pickles in my hamburgers, I like pickles in the pastrami sandwich that I get from Togo's, I like pickles in the sandwiches that I get from Subway, and I even like a pickle spear (or relish) on a hot dog. I've never had deep fried pickles. I think I'd be willing to try that.

But marinating pickles in Kool-Aid? I don't know about that. I get the sweet and sour thing (Sour Patch Kids are great, but they have to be the old ones - the newer ones aren't nearly as good), but maybe I'm just a pickle purist in that respect. I probably wouldn't be against trying it (heck, I've tried pickle-flavored potato chips), but I think it would take some getting used to.



Here's a good New York Times article about the growing popularity of Kool-Aid pickles.

Here's an article from the Dallas News that includes a recipe for making your own Kool-Aid pickles.

A Christmas tree would just be a multi-layer cat toy

About six years ago, we bought a beautiful new Christmas tree. (Sorry, I don't do real trees.) It was the "fancy" kind, with the lights already woven into the branches. We had an older tree, but it was too small for our collection, and we wanted something newer and nicer. So we put our beautiful tree up, our beautiful tree skirt, and our various wonderful ornaments, many of which were Disney themed, some of which had different sound and motion features to them. Brilliant.

And that was the last time I saw that tree and most of the ornaments.

Because about five years ago, we adopted our cat Orkid. She's very playful and very mischievious. And we had to redecorate various parts of the house to thwart her curiosity and exploratory nature and sometimes amazing jumping ability. And we knew that we couldn't put out the tree. OK, maybe the tree itself would be ok - she'd probably still climb it and try to chew on the branches and lights, and if the tree came crashing down, it probably wouldn't hurt her and hopefully wouldn't set the house on fire since the lights wouldn't be turned on when we were home. But what would be the point of putting the tree up if we couldn't also put up our nice ornaments? But she'd have a field day with those, and I know she'd destroy them. We definitely couldn't have them moving, and the twinkling lights would probably attract her attention even more.

When I was a kid and we had cats, they would generally eventually break a few of the round ornaments around the lower parts of the tree. Every morning when we woke up, we'd generally find one broken against a wall or something, after they'd yanked it off the tree and then batted it around. I know what cats can do to ornaments. And I wouldn't be able to help being upset with Orkid if she broke any of ours. So the only solution is to keep the tree put away until she's old enough that she's not interested any more. We thought maybe a few years would be enough time. Well, she's not really showing any sign of slowing down, which is good, I guess, since she still loves to play. It just means we can't have a tree up in the house. And it also means I don't get to see most of our beautiful ornaments. We've pulled a few out, and they're currently sitting on the mantle. The plan was to have them plugged into a string of lights along the mantle, since they were the more spectacular motion ornaments, and we'd at least get to see them. The boxes sit there, but I haven't gotten around to actually setting them all up yet.

But there's one ornament that I absolutely love. I can't even really remember why I have it. I think I bought it as opposed to being given it as a gift, but it's the cutest little mouse.



We call him "little fat mouse". He's just too adorable sitting there having eaten some of the cookies left out for Santa. I pulled him out about a year or so ago, and he sits in our curio cabinet so I can see him any time I want.

I miss having a tree and other Christmas decorations, but it's worth the trade-off to have Orkid. And I still get my little fat mouse.

However, other people have been much braver about putting up a Christmas tree with cats in the house. And it makes for hilarious pictures. Check out this link.