I did not take a Donut Walk™ yesterday; I took an IHOP Chocolate Chip Pancake™ walk instead. I sign up for restaurants that give birthday rewards, and this is the week I collect. The pancakes have a lot more calories than a glazed donut but it’s also a further walk, 4.6 miles round trip. It’s right near the Stop & Shop I frequent. I usually take a circular path to Stop & Shop but yesterday I came home the way I went as there was a threat of rain. I used to think it such a long walk, now I’ve done it so often that it becomes a series of short walks between landmarks. That’s all in my head but it makes a real difference in my perceptions, which is what matters. Chocolate chip pancakes are one of the seven wonders of the world and seven pillars of wisdom. I do not use the “pancake syrup”, it’s not maple, that IHOP gives you on chocolate chips, just butter and whipped cream. I do not skimp on the decadence. I used to get them often, at least once a month. I still love IHOP. All that’s changed is my friends and the way I live my life. It’s hard to write about anything else on a day I had chocolate chip pancakes. They were both my dinner and dessert. I supplemented it with reheated mac & cheese when I got home. I can hear some of my friends groaning and making clogged artery jokes. Puritanism is the fear that somebody else is happy.
There are certain tropes in movies and TV that bug me. I rewatched Star Wars: The Clone Wars and I’m now on Star Wars: Rebels. On first viewing I thought the writing was better than in the live-action films, now I see I was grading on a curve as they are animated. I still enjoy them and maybe because of the curve, though I enjoy the live-action films less than most people I enjoy the animated films more. I enjoy the depth they bring to the universe. I enjoy them but I’m here to talk about the tropes, which are in no way endemic to the series. These happen often in both TV and film.
How many times have you seen a show or film where a character breaks out of jail in order to prove their innocence? They do it even though they know it makes them look more guilty and in the process commit felonies. Part of the trope is that they always have friends on the outside that believe in them, but the accused never trust their friends to solve the crime for them. In real life I have never heard of this happening, not once. In real life very few people are proved innocent by the guilty party being caught. That happens but only rarely. I have gotten annoyed at this cliché since I was a child. It’s just bad and unoriginal writing.
I love chase scenes; the chase scenes were the best parts of The French Connection and Bullet. They still annoy me. You see mayhem going on all around the people in the chase and no thought is given to the safety of the people around them. You see cars crashing and flipping over and nobody even getting hurt, let alone dying. They collateral damage are often used for humor, there are shots of them leaving the wreckage and being annoyed, not dead. Just once I’d like to see the hero cop catching the criminal and then being arrested himself for the 12 people he killed in the process.
Today is National French Fry Day so I have to stop at the Checker’s next to the Krispy Kreme where I get my free donut for $1 large fries. Where are my birthday deals from DD and Starbucks? I need to take advantage of them. Now to make my breakfast. It won’t be chocolate chip pancakes.
Wise Madness 