The Stolen Fish

My nephew, Ibrahim, had me read a story he was working on for school. I don't have it with me to quote directly, but he's a paraphrasing of "The Stolen Fish" It is "realistic fiction."

Peter asked for, and received, permission from his parents to go swimming in the pool (apparently one in their backyard). While he's swimming, his parents bring the family fish tank outside and place it near the edge of the pool so Peter could watch them as he swims. Two of the fish lep from the tank and into the pool. Peter dives underwater to retrieve them. Upon resurfacing, he discovers that the one remaining fish is missing from the tank and has obviously been stolen

[This is as far as he had written. Thinking the story was almost over, I asked him how it ends.].

Peter then searches all the houses on his block for his fish, but is unsuccessful. When he returns home defeated, he discovers that the other two fish have also been stolen. He calls the police, who respond and investigate the fishnapping. They leave without discovering anything.

That night Peter sees a robber stealing fish from his neighbor's house. He knew it was a robber because of the robber mask he was wearing. Peter follows the robber to a house around the corner and then calls the police again. The police arrive in full force, prepared to charge the house. Unfortunately, the robber had barricaded the door. Also, the house was made of concrete so they couldn't use a drill to break through a wall. They tried to use another tool, but the house was brick inside the concret and that too failed.

Having failed, the police left again. Peter commandeers a jackhammer from somewhere and drills under the house and busts in from the basement. He spots the robber getting prepared to kill the fish.

......................

That's where I stopped him, it dawning on me that maybe he's making it up as he goes and doesn't really have and endgame planned. I struggle to explain to him why this isn't realistic fiction, but it's difficult. Nothing in that story is physically impossible. Unlikely characters and motivations, sure, but far from fantasy. Eventually I had to ask him about the robbers mptives.

"Why," I asked, "was the robber stealing fish?"

"Because he's hungry" he answered matter of factly.

"But if he's breaking into houses, why didn't he steal food from the fridge?"

"Because he liked fish."

"So why didn't he just steal money so he could buy fish from the grocery store?"

"Because he wanted them as pets, too."

Fair enough, I guess?

The Real Lion King

[Note I'm probably not going to be writing here regularly. Just wanted to share something that was on my mind]

A couple of weeks ago, I watched The Lion King with my niece and nephews. It was the first time I'd seen the movie in a long time. The movie was as great as I remembered it, but now there was something that bothered me.

Namely Scar.

His motivations are a bit unclear. Why does he try to kill Mufasa and Simba? I mean, I get that he wants to be king, but enough to kill his own family? He'snot shown as being mistreated by the royal family at all, so it seems as if he, being the king's brother, would be able to command any creature in the kingdom and they'd obey. The only one who wouldn't have to is Mufasa himself. So he commits murder because having dominion over every creature except one isn't dominion enough for him? Doesn't make sense.

Liik, there is no story more about people fighting for power than A Song of Ice and Fire series, HBO's "Game of Thrones", and even there characters have other motivations besides just thirst for power. Stannis wants to be king because he knows that the crown is rightfully his. He wouldn't fight for it without that knowledge. Robb is fighting for revenge and secedes The North from the rest of the country because of what happened to his House at the capital. Danaerys wants to take the crown for both the above reasons. Scar, however, just wants to be king? That seems oo childish a motivation.

Now, there is one possibility that makes sense, but it completely changes the movie. As we know, Simba's parents are both played by Black voice actors. Simba, on the other hand has Jonathan lor Thomas playing him as a kid and Matthew Broderick as an adult. Scar is played by Jeremy Irons. Now, what if Simba is actually Scar's illegitimate son?

I'll wait for you to recover your knocked off socks.

`Now, with that possibility in mind, we could put the pieces together of the real story behind The Lion King. 

The story starts with a young Scar. Scar is resentful of his older brute of a brother. Mufasa has none of the intellagince that Scar has, but is still revered by everyone. It's obvious to Scar that the only reason Mufasa is so revered is that he's the heir apparent to the throne. That, and the fact the Mufasa is tougher than everyone else. Scar, on the other had, is rather sickly and is constantly ostracized by all the other young animals, led by Mufasa of course, for having the recessive black mane. 

The only animal that doesn't taunt Scar is Sehrabi, the young lioness. Scar and Sehrabi grow to become fast friends and Scar eventually falls in love with her. He's sure she feels the same way about him, but unfortunately she's betrothed to Mufasa.

As they grow older, Mufasa begins to treat Scar better. Easy for him to do as he's going to have everything in life. Mufasa eventually becomes king and has Sehrabi as his queen. Together they rule happily, or so it would seem. The couple is having having problems concieving a child. Scar comforts a distraught Sehrabi once and they have an affai. Sehrabi is immediately pregnant with, what is is clear to both her and Scar, an illegitimate son.

Scar wants to confess to Mufasa. He knows hat Sehrabi, as leader of the lionnesses, can protect him from any vengence Mufasa would take. Sehrabi is hesitant, however. Despite her feelings for Scar, she doesn't want to hurt Mufasa. She agrees to come clean after the baby is born. When Simba is finally born, Scar is disappointed to see that he has brown tufts of hair. It was unlikely that the baby's mane would be black, but he's disappointed nonetheless. Sehrabi, seeing that the baby shows no physical signs of being Scar's son, backs out of her deal with Scar.

It become clear to Scar, as Simba grows older, the boy has none of his intellect and all of his physical prowess (Simba is regularly out wrestled bu a girl, even when he's older and fighting for his life)

Scar grows resentful of Simba who looks at him more like a silly uncle than as a respected elder. Scar decides he's going to set up a trap for Simba with the heyenas, the only animals that really treat him with any respect. He's going to make it seem that Simba's in danger and will, at the last second, appear to rescue him. This'll win the boy's respect as well as gratitude from Mufasa and, especially, Sehrabi. Things don't go as planned as Zazzu is able to alert Mufasa and it is he, and not Scar, who's able to rescue Simba.

Scar decides that the only way for him get the lioness he loves and the son he lost is by killing Mufasa. He, of course, can't kill Mufasa by sheer strength s he uses his cunning. He sets up the trap in the gorge knowing Mufasa would be able to save Simba, but would probably die in the stampede. This would leave Scar free to marry Sehrabi and be a father figure to Simba. Unfortunately, Mufasa is able to escape and begins to climb the gorge walls. Amusingly, Mufasa begs Scar for help. Scar, assuming that Simba would have seen what he'd done comes to down to try to explain himself. It becomes clear immediately that Simba has no idea of Scar's role in Mufasa's death, and moreover, is willing to blame himself. 

Scar realizes that if any adult were to hear Simba's story, they'd immediately realize that he'd been setup so he convinces Simba to run away. Immediately Scar regrets his decision. Spmeone might realize Simba was setup if they'd hear his account of events in the gorge, but someone who'd hear that Scar had urged Simba to run away would absolutely know exactly what happened. Scar panicks and takes the only option he sees avalable to him, he sends the heyenas after Simba.

Scar takes his place as king and now has his queen, but things turn immediately. The heyenas blackmail Scar with their knowledge of his light treason into giving them free run of the Pride Lands. Scar relents for a couple of reasons. First is the obvious, he doesn't want the truth discovered. Second, he realizes that despit being king the other animals still don't really respect him. and the heyenas act as his muscle to get his orders obeyed. Sehrabi is too distraught with the apparent death of her husband and son to ever return Scar's affections. She falls into a deep depression. The lionesses, reverting to their dislike of Scar eat whatever prey they catch out in the plains and bring very little back to Rpide Rock. 

Scar's reign is in shambles when Simba returns. Scar immediately assumes that Simba, having gotten older had realized the truth of what happened at the gorge. He, however is relieved to discover that Simba still stupidly thinks that it was somehow his own fault. Scar uses this to his advantage as he taunts Simba reaffirming his belief that it wa shis fault that Mufasa died. Simba slips off the edge of Pride Rock. Scar can't help but gloat to someone that he killed the mighty Mufasa and chooses that moment to whisper it in Simbas ear before tossing him off the Rock, ensuring his reign. Simba recovers and forces his father o confess. Sicar begs his son to spare him deflecting the blame on the heyenas. Simba exiles Scar. With Scar's lack of hunting skills, exile is as much a death sentence as it is in The Dark Knight Rises. Scar desperately attacks Simba who overpowers the older lion and tosses him off Pride Rock and shrugs as heyenas tear up his father.

So last night was the premiere of the second season of HBO's "Game of Thrones". I don't know why it took so long for someone to realize it, but this is the easily the best way to adapt a novel to screen. Each episode is an hour long and there are 10 episodes per season, this way you don't have to cut anything a reader of the book might have enjoyed. This isn't to say that the producers have to adhere a hundred percent to the source material. "Game of Thrones", in fact, has scenes that never happen in the books. These scenes are necessary to compensate for the limitations of the medium. In a book, a character's motivation or back story could be told though inner thoughts or simple exposition. That doesn't really work on screen (except, of course, for the LOTR opening).

I'm tired of movies butchering a great book. Some don't even try to keep with the source. Take The Bourne Identity and its sequels; they took the title of book, the name of the main character, and the idea of an amnesiac government agent and discarded the rest. While the movies might have been good on their own, attaching the name of the book ruined them for me. LOTR was probably the best modern film adaptaion of any novel, but even that is dwarfed (haha) by the HBO series.

...and we're back!

I've decided to take this up again, Hopefully, I'll be consistent, though I won't make any promises. Hopefully someone will read this, though I know you won't make any promises. Truth is, I enjoy doing this, but a weekly football entry began to feel suspiciously like homework. That's not to say I'll never discuss sports here, just not as much. Hence, the name change. You still here?

As for the new name, it's a work in progress. The terrible secret about me is that I'm not nearly as creative as I'd like people to believe. Just ask all the novels I gotten two pages into writing. I began writing a fantasy novel, had the basic plot figured out, but soon realized that I'd have to make up names for all the people and placed. Not just name them, but make up names from scratch. Gave me whole knew level of respect for writers of the genre. I mean, bot only do they name the characters, but their names fit so perfectly. I mean, take Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, the name of any other human character would diminish the character. He can't be Boromir.

Speaking of LOTR, the casting has always bothered me. This has become an issue (the other way0 with The Hunger Games How is it that Peter Jackson casted this epic story with so many characters and the only ones who weren't white were the orcs? The orcs being the only non white characters was messed up on a few levels. First, the obvious, they were mindless and violent villans who mostly came out at night. Second, and maybe more disturbing, orcs were elves who'd become evil. So if you took the graceful, beautiful, perfect creatures and made them evil they went from white to black. Also, there were two separate camps of Men. Alright, I get it, you didn't want to make Aragorn black, you think that would bring unwelcome scrutiny to the film. Fine so Aragorn, Boromir, and all citizens of Gondor could be white. Why not make the Rohanians black? It's not a big deal.

There was an uproar about a year ago when news spread that Marvel Comics was going to have a half black half hispanic Spirder-Man. First, something about comic books that you need to know, the same character has many different comics dedicated to him. For example, Spider-Man will have many difference comic series' that he stars in that have completely different stories and are independant of each other. They're like alternate dimensions of the same character. Got that? Good.

Anyway, Marvel decided a few years ago to start a new series for all their big characters giving them origins in the modern world rather than whenever they were created. The original stories kept going, but the new ones were in their Ultimate series. So they started a new Spider-Man story. Eventually Peter Parker is killed off and a new character, Miles Morales, gets bit by a spider and dons the tights. Well, peole revolted at the idea that an iconic (fictional) character was going from being white to black. What I loved most about this was that the racists had no idea of what actually was happening and just heard "Black Spider-Man' got up in arms. Stupid. Same thing happening now with The Hunger Games.

That said, I too had a problem with the idea of Miles Morales. It wasn't so much that there was a minority Spider-Man, but that there was a new Spider-Man. If, when the Ultimate, series started they'd decided to make Peter Parker black, I'd think it was cool. just the idea that someone else could be Spider-Man seems to cheapen it a little. Make it less unique. But hey, that's the dork in me.

Sorry for rambling, this wasn't supposed to be this long.

Peace

Week 10 Thursday Afternoon Punter

Vack from holidays!

Week 10 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) What a crazy ending in the Jags - Texans game. Man, every Gus Johnsons game! Good job by the NKnicks for distancing themselves from the Law of Gus Johnson. Now they just play boring games.

2.) Tie game. Overtime. About a minute and half left. Both teams with one timeout left. Ball within your own three. You got a choice. Run the ball and get a tie. Or go for a loss. What do you do? Well, if you're Eric Mangini, you go for the loss. He coached scared. You could get ripped for settling for a tie, but not for going for the win. Well, if you so badly want to go for the win, you should have gone for two at the end of regulation down by one. The Jets were desperate for the Browns to not run out the clock. Call me crazy, but I subscribe to the theory that what the other team wants you to do is generally not good for you. Horrible job there.

3.) That said, Jericho Cothery clearly injuring himself during a play, seeing his QB in trouble and sprinting to make a diving catch was one of the most remarkable things I've seen on a football field. More than the Hail Mary. The only thing that really beats it is....

4.) Michael Vick. It's not everyday you see a pro athlete look like he's on an entirely different level than his peers. That said, let's all calm down. It's been a couple of games. He might continue to perform fantastically, but let's see it first. I love the way he's playing, but now he's being talked about as if he's unstoppable. He's not the greatest QB ever, and even the greatest QBs ever have been stopped. I really hate saying this before he plays the Giants, though.

5.) I did love how people were talking about how the Cowboys offense is different now that Wade Phillips is gone. Jason Garrett had autonomy oer the offense anyway. The difference this week was that Jon Kitna looked like Peyton Manning.

6.) Mario Manningham's very talented. Home run threat. Reliable hands. Is going to put up big numbers while Steve Smith is out with injury. Giants should shop him after the season. Manningham's not a smart WR. Not nearly as much as Smith. Too many times I've seen him catch a pass near the sideline and bring his second foot out of bound when he had room to shorten his stride and get in, or run a thrid down route short of the marker (just pass the yellow line!), or, worst of all, catch a thrid down pass for a first down and then retreat behind the marker to try to break his guy and get tackled short. Don't get me wrong, he's a great number three WR and would be a really good number two, but I would like to see what they could get for him.

7.) I seriously reccomend going to NFL.com videos and watching the Anatomy of The Plays segments. Mike Mayock does a brilliant job breaking down every asoect of the play and shows you all that goes into a success. A must watch.

Limerick of the Week

The Knicks I continue to support
Though they're sucking on the court
Giants get torched by Vick
It all makes me sick
How long till pitchers and catchers report?

Peace

Week 9 Tuesday Afternoon Punter

Week 9 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) How can you not love the way Mike Vick is playing? He's finally playing the way we'd all hoped he would. Well, outside of those who thought he was an elite QB in Atlanta. The thing with Vick always was was that if he could ever develop into a good passer and use his running as one option, not THE option, he'd be a QB like we'd never seen. He seems to have become that. Unless they fear injury, Philly should lock him up now. You can't let a talent like that hit the market.

2.) The Cowboys worry me this week. Changing coaches in the middle of a season sometimes lights a fire under the players, especially those who'd quit on the old one. Dallas is not short on talent. If the Giants sleep on them, they could be in for an upset.

3.) Great win for the Jets. Down 10 with four minutes left. Sanchez bounced back from playing a bad game to help get the win. That's what you want to see from a young QB. I have to be fair, that's what I always harped on when Eli was young.

4.) It is funny, though, how winning a game makes people forget how bad things were uring the game. At one point in the Jets game, the Lions were up by three with first and goal just outside the five. The Jets lined up with too many men on the field and were forced to call a timeout. Then on second down, it happened again! They burned two timeouts in a close game with most of the fourth quarter left. That's terrible. Still, players are dumb. Say you're the player who realizes that you need to run off the field to acoid a penalty. Now the other team has first and goal at around the six. Now, you can try to run off the field, drawing attention to yourself and telling the offense to snap the ball for a free play, or cost your team a timeout in a close game. What should you do? The correct answer there is secret choice C. You should run up to the line and touch an ofensive player, get called for encroachment (a dead ball penalty), give the offense half the distance to the goal (3 yards) and save your vital timeouts. If you can't stop them from the three, you probably wouldn't have stopped them from the six. Timeouts are more important there than three yards.

5.) It is interesting how much people hate the BCS, yet talk about the NFL in the same way. This week I heard so many media people talking about which teams can win the Super Bowl and which potential playoff teams may as well go home. That's stupid. Anything can happen in the playoffs (Yep, you guessed it, I'm about to make a Super Bowl XLII reference). Just ask the 18-0 Patriots. I wonder how many media people were talking about the Giants as a team that could win the Super Bowl.

6.) I don't understand why the Browns refuse to commit to Colt McCoy as the starter. He's already at least as good as anyone on the team and has a high ceiling.

7.) The roughing the passer penalty against Philly when Peyton's helmet was touched was ridiculous. It should more of a judgement call, not so strict that allows for no interpretation. And the penalty on the Collie hit was even worse. That was a reaction to the result, not the actual play. You shouldn't throw a flag because a hit looked vicious or the hittee isn't getting up.

Limerick of the Week

In July I was crushed by The Decision

October forced me to make a World Series revision

My picks were bad

Still, not as sad

As seeing Wade Phillips exiled from the division.

Peace

Week 8 Tuesday Afternoon Punter

So the Giants won the World Series. Doesn't matter. This brings up the age old philosophical question: If a team wins a World Series and no one sees it, does it matter? More importantly, if a team wins a World Series and it's not the Yanks, then did that season happen?

No and no.

My bitterness aside, game four is what was most important about this series and the coming offseason. With the Rangers down 2-1, Tommy Hinter started instead of Cliff Lee. Cliff Leem who was the answer for the Rangers. More important than game 4 is that if the series went 7 Lee wouldn't have been available. I don't see why Lee could not pitch game 4, Hunter 5, Wilson 6, and Lee again on 7. Oh of course, Cliff Lee has never pitched on 3 days rest.

I hate that point. Pick whatever workhorse pitcher you want; Halladay, Sabathia, anybody, they hadn't pitched on three days rest until the first time they did. Every pitcher had never pitched on short rest until he did. Manuel refused to do it to Lee last year and Washington id the same this year. Makes me woner if Lee isn't saying that he can't go. If that's the case, than he's no ace. Apart from that being a wicked rhyme, it's also true. An ace needs to demand the ball whenever his team's down. I thought Girardi should've started Sabathia in Game 4, followed by Burnett, Pettite, and Sabathia.I don't know why that didn't happen. Supposedly he didn't want anyone else on short rest, so having forseen that issue Pettite should've pitched Game 2 and he'd have been on normal rest on game 6. That's not the point, anyway. The point is, that after Giving the Yanks a very good start on Game 5, Sabathia told Girardi he was available to relieve in game 6... on one day's rest. He's not the only ace that would do that. Any ace would. I think Lee didn't.

On another note, I was beginning to think that the idiotic moves plaguing the Knicks for the past decade were over. I thought we were in the dawning of a new era. The "New New York Knicks" as their calling themselves, would be different.

I was wrong.

For the past decade, consistently the best part of being a Knicks fan was getting to hear Gus Johnson call 50 more games than most people do. Not only did I get to hear Gus Johnson on a regular basis, I got a different Gus Johnson. I got Gus Johnson rooting for my team announcing the games. He was way more over the top than he usually was. He had John Sterling type catchphrases for each players ("My name is Al Harrington, and I make baskets!"). It was amazing. I was looking forward to getting to hear Gus Johnson calling the action for a quality Knicks team. No such luck. For some reason the Knicks decide to let Gus go. I don't get it. I feel betrayed. This is more inexpl;icable than them trading Ewing. For me to say that, well, you could see how hurt I am by this. On to the TAP.

Week 8 Thoughts I Think I Thought About Thinking

1.) Randy Moss would be a Jet today if the Jets had their way. Unfortunately for them, they don't have first priority. So he probably wouldn't end up there, but man what a perfect fit.

2.) As for Childress cutting Moss. I think he was sick of hearing everyone say he didn't have the guts to bench Favre and tgus was the ramatic way to prove them wrong. It's like if a guy became so desperate to prove he wasn't having money problems that he pulls a 100 dollar bill out of his pocket and tears it to pieces. It doesn't really prove anything, just that you're an idiot. Now you're out a 100 dollars for nothing.

3.) A Chargers Vikings Super Bowl, man I gotta stop making predictions. Or predict a Jets and non Giants Super Bowl.

4.) Mike Shannahan thinks we're all idiots. He benches McNabb at the most critical point in the game for whatever reason and brings in Grossman. Maybe that could've worked, maybe the backup QB kick starts the offense and they march own the field. Still doesn't mean it's the right move. Especially if you're going back to McNabb as the starter. Even more especially if your ace in the hole is Rex Grossman. Then after the game he tries to drown everyone's criticisms in some football jargon, throwing around words like "two minute offense terminology" As we all know, the two minute offense is simpler than the regular offense. Running plays are all but eliminated. That's half the playbook. Also, it needs to be simple enough to call at the line, in a hurry, I don't think it can be all that complicated.

5.) How can you not like Josh Freeman? Ahem, "When you look at this guy, here's a guy who's a football player. A football player in the National Football League that wins football games." I think black guys deserve some of that too. Eight career wins, six fourth quarter comebacks. Impressive.

6.) Watched the NFL redzone channel for the first full Sunday this week. That thing is awesome. I mean if the Giants aren't playing, game breaks are my favorite parts of games, this channel is all game breaks. Absolutely worth the money, or the time to find it online, which I may or may not have done.

7/) Nice job by Rex Ryan throwing his punter under the bus after a terrible fake punt. Ryan said the punter has the green light to go whenever he wants. That's a you problem. You don't give punters or kickers green lights, and if you do you make sure you give them the re light when it'd be moronic to go. They're punters. Not QBs. Don't give them authority.

Limerick of the Week

Off the team did the Vikes Moss kick

I guess he and Childress didn't quite click

Now he'll sign with the Pats

The we gotta say congrats

To BB for somehow getting a free draft pick.

Peace