Les Bonnes Choses

I can't say I'm especially surprised about the finding that fast-paced cartoons aren't exactly the best fodder for growing minds. Even if it turns out that this isn't replicable or generalizable, I'm happy to use it for the time being to justify banning the inane tripe they feed kids -- at least in my presence. I know a number of talented people in the animation industry, and I'm sure a little part of them dies when they either see or are forced to contribute towards this stuff. But even if you ban Spongebob and its ilk in your house, there's still one problem: The main issue in the study isn't the asinine plot featured in these programs; it's the low attention-span being bred by all the scene changes. I don't suppose you've noticed, but television programming is peppered with commercial interruptions featuring 30 to 60 second spots. All the more reason to PVR your favourite programs, or hell, cancel your cable and wait for it to show up on DVD or the torrent. While you're waiting, maybe read a book or something.

Speaking of ads and cartoons, you may not have had the pleasure of comics in your childhood. I didn't either, for the most part, but I did see one every now and again. One thing that stood out for me were the ads for Hostess products.



I was simultaneously perplexed and amused when Rebecca came home after an evening of shopping with her sister, equipped with a nearly full sample of Hostess snack products, from Twinkies to Snowballs to fruit pies. It was her sister's idea, I am told (ironic, because she's in a university food and nutrition program). I had never seen these products in 3-dimensions. Because of context, they fell in the same category as Sea Monkeys and Charles Atlas body-building mail-order products.

Now, I'm not going to judge her -- okay, scratch that. I did judge her. But she agreed: it was an idea that need never be revisited. Those things were vile.