By the way, "Snack Time" nearly undoes all the psychological damage inflicted by Fraggle Rock, the Teletubbies, Elmo, and Fred Penner. Funny stuff, with all kinds of layers, including several both satirical and reverent musical allusions to Lightfoot, Neil Young, Sharon, Lois, Bram, and, we think, The Cars. Funny stuff: "The Ninjas are deadly and silent/They're also unspeakably violent/They speak Japanese/They do whatever they please/And sometimes they vacation in Ireland"; "You and I both know/It's a girl's coat"; "A is for Aisle, B's for Bdellium, C is for Czar/And if you see 'im d'you mind tellin' 'im?" Great tunes, too: claves, banjoes, and canned wolf howls. Need we say more?
Course, it's funny, cuz who in their right mind wants to see these blokes in the full monty?
Not us. Anyway, back to the point: they make some fun, profound, quirky, generally wholesome and family-friendly stuff. Darn that name anyway!
In the music store:
"Who you lookin' for, sir?"
"The, um, murmurmurmurmurmur. Ahem."
"Oh. Well, we're not really that kind of establishment. Try down on Yonge Street."
In conversation:
"Who's your favourite performing group?"
"Most talented Canadians?"
"Who do you like for the Junos?" (Which has quintessentially Greek implications we won't get into tonight.)
Seeing Ed or Jimmy or Anton or whoever on the street: "Hey! That guy's a BNL!"
(This one actually happened to Wendy on her mission, and being clueless, since they had only emerged during her service, she was very offended:
"And then God called Joseph to restore the Gosp--"
"Hey! BNLs!")
And of course, any exchange between the kiddles and their peers, at any level, is volatile:
"Um. Riley, I'm not really sure those search terms are appropriate for a school project. . . ."
"Whatcha doin', Chris?"
"Listening to . . . ."
"Jewnah!" (She's South African.) "Whot a kewt und funny szone-guh! Weah dihd jew lurn iht?"
"From the . . . ! Yeah! My dad brought them home on the weekend!"
You see the trouble.
Anyway, that's our weekly wish for the pond. What's yours?
Christopher gets his piano this week. Ay caramba. Guitar upstairs, ivories down. Jon will be spending a lot more time in his office. Jonah will positively oscillate. Or sing to compete. Wendy will lose her mind rapidly and permanently. Good times.
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