Wednesday Hodgepodge

1. Did March come in like a lion or was it something less ferocious in your neck of the woods?

Well, we had snow for a couple of days but it melted, just like all winter. We had some nasty wind that along with the snow tamped down the crocus blooms a little, but they are starting to stand back up. I guess I’d say March made no grand entrance, but we’ve had pretty much lion cubs all winter.


2. Speaking of lions, which one's your film favorite...The Cowardly Lion (Wizard of Oz), Mufasa (The Lion King), Elsa (Born Free), or Alex (Madagascar)? You may notice I left Aslan off the list. Including him would have made this question way too easy for many of you.

I’m going to start by clearing up a misconception about me. Many people seem to expect me to know at least something about The Chronicles of Narnia because of the name of my blog. I don’t. I never read the book, never saw the movie. When I read the end of this question and the “Aslan would make it too easy for some,” I had to Google Aslan because I had no idea who Aslan was.

The first Chronicles of Narnia movie came out in 2005 and the pre-release advertising started early and was a regular staple on the TV channels and programs I watched. I had never heard of The Chronicles of Narnia before early 2005, but when I started my first blog in April of that year, I embraced the movie as just for me but misspelled and fixed the spelling to name my blog.

So, having still never read the books or seen any of the movies, I still don’t know who Aslan is. It would have been no different in choosing if Aslan was a choice.


As a favorite, I think the Cowardly Lion because I love the Wizard of Oz. I think the way they mixed black and white and introduced Oz in Technicolor in the movie was brilliant and they truly used the technology of the day to their creative advantage. I know that’s more liking the movie than the character, but the impressive production of the 1939 classic and the great development of all the characters make the Cowardly Lion stick out amongst movie lions to me.




3. What's your favorite spot from which to view the sunrise or sunset?

When I’m traveling on the eastern side of the country, if I’m near a beach, I want to be on that beach before dawn so I can watch the sunrise. There is nothing more inspiring and powerful that watching the birth of a new day rise up from the horizon over an endless body of water. I’ve seen sunset over the Pacific Ocean and Lake Michigan and they are pretty, but not as much an event as sunrise.



4. To what extent is knowledge power and to what extent is truth power? What's the difference?

Truth is unedited knowledge. I think they work in tandem and are personally very powerful. It is the foundation for understanding and peaceful coexistence with others who seek the same.

I don’t think knowledge or truth have any kind of power in the world. It would be a lot more peaceful place if it did.


5. What's something peculiar you've seen recently?

Me? I guess I’m peculiar in that I don’t really find too many things odd, just interesting. I was recently intrigued by seeing a shed with a large Ohio logo, similar to the Bicentennial Barns.



6. Bottled water...your thoughts?

I conserve water at home by filling a half gallon jug while dish water is warming up. I use that water for cooking or making tea and coffee. I have a 32 ounce water bottle I keep with me during the day and fill it a few times from the tap. We have good city water, so I don’t see a need to filter it or buy bottled water for home. Besides, that would take the fluoride out of my everyday drinking water and the Dentist would up my daily required amount of Fluoride Rin$e!

When I travel, it’s a different story. I like the convenience of bottled water and I’ve stayed in some hotels with hard water that tastes so bad a half a bottle of Mio can’t make it drinkable! So, I do drink bottled water when I travel.



7. What's your strongest sense?

My strongest sense is probably my sixth sense. When I “just have a feeling” about something, I’m often right. If we’re talking one of the five senses, probably taste? I think that helps my baking.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

I’ve been watching Degrassi for 10 years and I really think it should be required viewing for parents of teens because the situations are so very real. I’ve talked to teens who love the show because it depicts things that really do go on in high school, although maybe not all of them in one group of kids. But even the teens watching say that everything happening to one cast of characters is what makes it riveting to watch, these are real situations, but they are grateful they really don’t ALL happen to the same people.

I love teenagers; I remember from my own teenage years, that they were some of the best and worst times in my life. I admire them because I remember how hard it was socially to exist in high school. I enjoy the show for its realism and because there has always been a character or two who have aspects of their personality that remind me of myself as a teen.

Last week, they introduced the current class president’s Mom, who has MS. I was kinda surprised at myself about how cool I think that character is. It’s a character my age battling the same disease as me. So I have a character who is more like me now. It’s kinda cool. Of course, I covet her power chair and wheel-chair friendly house and the things that are more readily available to patients in Canada where MS is more common and healthcare is better and more affordable, especially if your house is a TV set and you are a member of the supporting cast, so you don’t have “issues” to be addressed. It still makes me feel good that the reality of MS, and kids living with parents who have MS, is part of the story.