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Fairy Bowling with the Cub Scouts

I was doing great until Mike commented on my “fairy prance” bowling style, and I got all self-conscious about it. I guess I do play like a fairy. I approach the lane with a leap, skip and a hop, let the ball go, and as the pins fall, I complete my move with a victory (or sorrow) twirl. Sometimes I’ll even bobble along with a pin that’s threatening to topple, but won’t. Hey, it works for me! When I tried just rolling out the ball like a guy, I fell down and the ball rolled right into the gutter. I had to accept the fairy inside in order to get my game back.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

It was refreshing to see the old movie, since I saw the 2005 remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, when it was in the theatres. The story is the same in both, and I like them both, though they’re likeable in different ways. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is darker, and Neil finds the paddleboat’s tunnel too frightening. It also manages to get in a few more digs of social commentary. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has far better child actors and they play a bigger role than the parents, who had almost all the lines in the original. The new movie is also far more fantastical and Willy Wonka’s factory really looks like a magic world of its own. I only realized later that the geese who laid the giant golden chocolate eggs were replaced by squirrels and chocolate nuts in the remake, but it didn’t make any difference in the story.