Since I had multiple questions about my nifty new walking shoes, I thought I'd answer here rather than in comments, so everyone can see. These are approximately what I got. The style name is the same, but I don't see the color I got, which is about the same color as a gray sweatshirt (that heathery gray color). I got them on sale, so they were less expensive than this. And it looks like they do make men's styles. There's a Skechers outlet near me, so I may look into some of the more "casual" shoes that don't look so athletic. If I can walk a lot when I travel without pain or blisters, it's worth it.
It's a really lovely day, so I'm planning to put those new shoes to work. To avoid distractions at home, I'm going to take my brainstorming on the road. The plan is to walk a while, then sit and think a while, and so forth. I think I need trees and water and no Internet to really get into thinking mode. In a while I'll be packing a picnic lunch, some tea and some snacks and heading out.
And now, for a little rant. As I've mentioned, I both love and love to hate the TV series Once Upon a Time. The concept is wonderful, and I love most of the characters, but it has such screwy morality that it makes A Game of Thrones look like Sunday school in comparison (at least A Game of Thrones doesn't show us an evil person and then tell us that this person is actually good and misunderstood). Now they've added characters from the Frozen universe to the show, which kind of has me worried because I deal with small children, and I know the level of obsession that still exists with that movie. For instance, I know that the surest way to get the immediate attention and ire of a five-year-old girl is to sing "Let it Go" with the wrong lyrics. As high as the ratings spiked, it looks like this brought in a lot of new viewers, and this has me concerned because I'm just imagining all the little kids wanting to watch "The Frozen Show" and then getting utterly confused.
The Frozen stuff was actually done rather well. The live-action versions were pretty close to their animated counterparts, and I thought they did a good job of capturing the characters. This is essentially a sequel to the movie, showing what happens later, while also digging into the backstory. And that's all fine. It's the rest of the show that will have parents answering some difficult questions unless they're prepared to fast-forward to just the Frozen-related scenes. Spoilers ahead for season three and the season four premiere.
Spoilers, really!
Basically, they've ruined Robin Hood. Even Kevin Costner is twitching. Errol Flynn is doing backflips in his grave. The cartoon fox and Cary Elwes (even though his version was a spoof) are ganging up to form a posse and take out this impostor. At some time in the recent past (disregarding a curse that kept everyone frozen in time for 28 years), after Robin and Maid Marian were married and had a child, Marian went missing, presumed dead. Robin met the Evil Queen (from Snow White), Regina, who was sort of being good and had supposedly changed (not that she's ever repented of her evil), and they started seeing each other because of reasons (really, I haven't figured out what they like about each other). They'd had maybe two dates when the series' supposed main character, Emma, had a Back to the Future adventure in which she traveled in time and had to set the timeline right. She ended up in the Evil Queen's dungeon, learned she and her cellmate were scheduled for execution for supporting Snow White, and managed to free herself and her cellmate. Then she worried that if the cellmate was supposed to have died and it would change the timeline if she just let her go, so she brought her to the future with her, bypassing the part of history she might have affected. And then it turns out that her mysterious cellmate was none other than Maid Marian. Robin lost her because the Evil Queen imprisoned her and, in the original timeline, executed her.
So, how would you expect the Robin Hood we know and love from folklore, movies and TV to react to being reunited with Maid Marian and learning that it was his current girlfriend who'd actually been responsible for separating them?
a) support his wife and keep her away from the woman who tormented her, possibly dousing himself in bleach after coming in contact with such a heinous bitch? or …
b) insist that his wife see that the woman who was on the verge of killing her has changed, then nobly (and with an air of much regret) insist that he has to abide by his marriage vows?
(Trick question. The real Robin Hood would never have hooked up with a tyrannical ruler, even if she'd sort of changed. That would be like Robin Hood hooking up with Prince John or the Sheriff of Nottingham. Not gonna happen.)
On this show, the answer is b. He doesn't seem at all bothered by the fact that his girlfriend imprisoned and was planning to execute his wife and acts like his wife isn't allowed to be angry at Regina because she's changed. Meanwhile, Regina's first response to having her two-date relationship stymied by the reappearance of her boyfriend's wife is to turn to the man she's been keeping in her secret dungeon to come up with a plan to kill Marian without getting blamed for it. Yep, she's really changed.
And yet the show seems to be drawing parallels between her and Elsa from Frozen, since Elsa is worried that her parents thought her powers made her a "monster," and "monster" is the insult Marian hurls at Regina -- the woman who threw her in a dungeon and was planning to execute her.
So, yeah, be prepared to explain to the kids why Robin Hood wants to be with the Evil Queen more than he wants to be with Maid Marian and why everyone is coddling the tyrant rather than her victim, as well as why someone who actually did evil things isn't held accountable for them because she's changed, even though she hasn't (and apparently, it's all their fault that she's evil), and how this is apparently supposed to be the same as Elsa. Good luck with that. There are times when it's nice not to have the responsibility of parenting.
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