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In the movie Lost in Translation there is a scene in which Bill Murray's character explains that, upon having your first child, "your life as you know it is gone...never to return." The movie has been one of my favorites for years. I just wish that I had known he meant my life.

In early 2010, I gave birth to the world's most perfect child. (Is there a parent who doesn't think his/her child is the world's most perfect?) In addition to being beautiful, he is brilliant and sweet and funny and hands-down the best thing that will ever happen to me. This kid is my entire world. I had somehow suspected through most of my life that he would be, which is why I fought very hard to have him. But about the post-childbirth apocalypse, I had absolutely no clue.

To say things have changed would be misleading. EVERYTHING has changed. Most of it has been good--some not so great--but everything is without a doubt different. And now the world changes once again. My little family and I find ourselves journeying from the big city to beautiful, calm Montana. Will the change be for the better? As with anything, the answer is sometimes "yes," sometimes "no," and always sought with massive quantities of hope. Come with me as I navigate the roads from fast-paced, big-city lawyer to Montana Momhood. Is there a line that can be walked? We'll see. But I can guarantee, at a minimum, it will be an adventurous road trip....

Friday, August 12, 2011

That's Goofy

Originally from
http://www.toontown.net/
When I was a kid, I was in love with Disneyland.  Ok, fine, I still am.  I truly, truly believe that it is the Happiest Place on Earth, as it claims.  There are no problems that can't be solved just by paying your $5K per family and walking in the front gates.  It's heaven.

That said, I've never been a huge fan of Mickey Mouse.  We didn't have the Disney Channel (for those of you too young to remember, there was a time before satellites or DVDs, when things like Disney and In Living Color were merely rumors to those of us in the sticks).  So my experiences with Mickey were sort of hit or miss.  Now that we watch Disney Jr. most days (well, have it on, more than "watch"), my suspicions are confirmed--Mickey's a bit of a jerk.  Minnie's not much better; I find her vapid and a bit annoying.  And don't get me started on the two Ducks.  Pluto is really about the only nice character.  So, not so much impressed with the Club.

But there is one character with whom I am fascinated:  Goofy.  I, like many of my generation, loved the movie Stand By Me.  There is a line in it that I got, but didn't really pay attention to.  One of the characters comments that "If Mickey's a mouse, and Donald's a duck, and Pluto's a dog, what the hell is Goofy?"  While I understood the line, I didn't really consider it until recently.  And now it annoys me.  A lot.  What the hell IS Goofy?  Seriously, if you're going to come up with a cast of characters comprised of various, talking animals, why do you plunk in something completely out in left field?  I'm so confused.  He's clearly not a dog--Pluto is.  He's not a mouse.  He's not a horse.  The best I can come up with is that someone got a little high and rode Space Mountain a few too many times. 

If you have a better theory, I am all ears.  Because it's driving me insane.  Why?  Why Goofy?  Why?
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousAugust 12, 2011 at 1:29 PM

    Interesting that you bring this up the day after Sesame Street productions relaeses a statement about Bert and Ernies "friendship" -- claiming the infamous room-sharing man-puppet odd couple are JUST FRIENDS ... and have no sexual orientation whatsoever. Anyway, on to GOOFY...

    In a memo written in 1934, Disney animator Art Babbitt told all. "Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured colored boy and a hick," he told his staff. "His brain is rather vapoury. He laughs at his own jokes, because he can't understand any others. He is very courteous and apologetic and his faux pas embarrass him, but he tries to laugh off his errors. He talks to himself because it is easier for him to know what he is thinking if he hears it first." He was a holy fool, a sort of Thirties Gazza, though he was not to "drool or shriek". As to what he looked like, Babbitt admitted "a vague similarity" between "the Goof's head and Pluto's". But their animation was to be "entirely different". "One is dog. The other human."

    http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/so-what-is-goofy-1358726.html

    In other words... I dunno.

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