Happy Thanksgiving!

This Thanksgiving we are having a winter storm warning. I find this very unusual.

This weather is Christmas weather. This is the kind of picturesque snow you expect on Christmas Eve in a movie: large, fluffy flakes gently floating down from the sky.

The snowfall is dressing up the trees so nicely. Where I grew up, the snow almost never fell straight enough to pile evenly on tree branches. Snow was usually accompanied by wind, and, therefore, it created blizzardy, drifted conditions. We would have bare patches on the grass in some areas, but six-foot drifts in front of the house. This Thanksgiving snow is very pretty.

For anyone who desires to run a Turkey Trot race today, this weather is highly unsuitable. Sometimes on Thanksgiving we have played games outside, like Ultimate Frisbee. Maybe we can bundle up and play anyway.

Thanksgiving Eve

Go Check The Refrigerator or Something

We have reached another childproofing milestone. Our daughter learned to open the refrigerator. 

She is loving her new freedom. She removes the condiments from the door shelves. She chooses a yogurt and bites it open. I turn around and she's munching on grapes. I found a block of cream cheese with her toys the other day. There was mustard in the laundry room. It's not that I don't supervise her, but she is a fast little thing. I'll have my back to her while I wash a dish or two, and suddenly she's unloading or rearranging the food. 

But what gets to me is her fascination with eggs. 

Now that she has the ability to open the fridge, she frequently sees the need to spontaneously retrieve an egg or two. Sometimes she brings eggs to me. Sometimes she reaches up to smash them on the counter top (replicating what she has seen me do to make scrambled eggs). Only once did she trip and break the egg on the floor (she admitted it was an "askident" and happily helped me clean up the mess). Sometimes she moves the eggs one by one from the designated container in the door to other areas of the fridge. They roll around, get in the way, and foil my attempts at organizing (Tomato, bell pepper... egg; Yogurt, sour cream, cheese... egg; Apple juice, water, Gatorade, milk... egg.).

Instead of installing a closure device, the plan right now is to wait and see how it goes as the novelty wears off. 

And hide the eggs in the back of the fridge in the meantime.

Toy Story 4 Review *****SPOILER ALERT*****

I saw Toy Story 4 recently. It was cute, but I hated the ending. 

****SPOILER ALERT****

Woody and a weird new toy, Forky, end up in an antique shop (long story). They meet some antique toys: A Gabby Gabby doll with a broken voice box and her several accomplice ventriloquist dummies. Somewhere along the line, we learn that Gabby was defective out of the box, and so she never "had a kid" her whole life. She believes that her voice box holds her back from being loved. That is why she is desperate for a voice. (She talks to other toys in the movie, but it is only the pull string voice that speaks to humans). 

Gabby Gabby is like a mob boss, and the henchmen dummies do her bidding. Gabby notices Woody's pristine antique voice box - "There's a snake in my boots!" - and decides that it should be hers. She and the henchmen go to great lengths to steal Woody's voice box. In their efforts, they rip Woody's shirt and tear into his inner fluff. I mean, these dummies are relentless. The whole idea resembles cannibalism.  The rest of the movie involves evil Gabby and her henchmen holding toys hostage to lure Woody back to their lair, extracting critical information from Forky for manipulation, patrolling the antique shop for intruders, and making physical threats and actual attacks toward all toys on Woody's side. This is a seriously dangerous mob of creepy dolls. They don't care about anyone else. Gabby Gabby is obsessed with obtaining Woody's voice.

Ultimately, Woody is captured by the evil mobsters. He is trapped by Gabby, her evil dummy henchmen, and all of their creepy smiles. Gabby manipulates him by using Forky's information to her advantage. She tries to make Woody feel guilty that he has had experiences with children that Gabby has never/will never have. She puts him on a pity trip about her misfortune, and basically tries to convince him that she deserves a chance to have a good voice box, while Woody's own voice has already served him well enough.

This conversation occurs while Woody is captured and surrounded by Gabby and her minions, and there is no chance for escape. In reality, they are going to remove his voice box, whether he likes it or not. 

In his predicament, basically Woody has two choices and no time to really think about it: 

1. Agree to sacrifice his voice box on Gabby's behalf  

2. Refuse and resist and have his voice box removed anyway.

Gabby might as well say:

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way!"

"You can give it up freely, or we'll take it by force!" 

"Give up your voice box, and no one else gets hurt!"

I expected some miraculous rescue. "The Gang" always pulls through! The bad guys never win!

But no, it ended like this: 

So Woody, feeling some connection or empathy for Gabby's plight - and under extreme pressure - agrees that she can take his voice. So - as was inevitable - the bad guys surgically removed his voice box. Maybe if he had resisted, they would have just torn it out - mutilating him - and left him for dead. I guess in return for his compliance, they patched him up neatly and sent him on his way. 

The problem I have is that the bad guys committed serious crimes of theft and assault, while the audience is just supposed to accept it and move on because Woody complied. Hey! Gabby and the dummies manipulated and pressured Woody into giving consent, when they would have taken - by force - what was rightfully his, even if he hadn't submitted to their demands. They manipulated his emotions and stole a part of his body - an accessory organ - in an act of mutilation. They used coercion to get what they wanted, and, therefore, it was never truly Woody's choice. 

If you think of it like a sexual assault case, it's pretty obvious that this situation is morally wrong. Woody was at a huge disadvantage, both physically and emotionally. His consent was extracted, not given willingly. 

Come on, Disney-Pixar.

After that, Forky and Woody were hopefully watching each time Gabby had the chance to be loved by a child. The first time, she was rejected. The second time, Woody helped introduce her to a lost kid. Seriously though. She was so bad! She was only nice in the end because she got what she wanted. It seems like the message here is, "It really pays to be a bully, especially when you have minions to enforce your will. Because good guys like Woody will take the fall, but they'll like you anyway."

Come on, Disney-Pixar.

Think of the movie "The Island" or the book "The House of Scorpion". *SPOILER ALERT* We all think that forceful organ donation is repulsive and morally wrong. 

Here's how it should have ended: 

Gabby realizes she has taken her voice box obsession way too far, and she feels deep remorse for her crimes. She and her henchmen choose to let Woody go. He leaves the antiques store and has time alone to think about it. He comes to realize that Gabby isn't really a bad toy, she is just desperate to have what he has experienced. I mean, she had the advantage over him - she could have viciously stolen what she wanted - but she didn't. She did the right thing. He makes his decision freely and comes back to the antique shop willingly. He offers his voice box as a sacrifice so that she can have a chance at the life she longs for. They embrace, and he unselfishly donates his voice in an act of heroism. Gabby is eternally grateful for Woody's kindness. We are all satisfied because we know deep down that it was entirely Woody's decision to give up his iconic feature on her behalf.