(2024) The List Goes on and on and on and on…

Daily writing prompt
What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

I’ll be honest in saying that movies are more my thing, as far as binge watching anything over and over again. First of all I abhor commercials, so tv episodes usually only consist of about 18 minutes of show and 12 minutes of sales pitches on everything from toilet paper to cars! Secondly, I am not usually captivated enough by a television show, to watch it more than once… let alone more than 5 times.

That being said, I will confess that I’ve watched the Castle series more times than I wish to admit, but we purchased the series on DVD to alleviate all the bothersome commercials.

Now binge watching my favorite movies, on the other hand, is one of my guilty pleasures, as I am an avid insomniac with hours of nocturnal boredom. The list I’m about to give you, are my late night favorites, and the number of re-watches shall not be disclosed… but the number 5 is Childs play for this owl!

My ultimate go to, in the wee hours, is The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings… all of em!

Next up would be the Harry Potter series, but my most watched of that series has to be The Prisoner of Azkaban with Gary Oldman… great actor!

Then we have the entire series of Jurassic Park movies… the original will probably always be my favorite one, primarily due to them keeping it pretty close to the actual book.

Then there’s Tomb Raider… and Stargate… and of course, The entire line up of Pirates of the Caribbean, with Johnnie Depp. I absolutely love the entire cast of characters in each and every movie of this series.

If I were to list for you, every movie that I’ve watched too many times, we would be here til the cows come home, as they say. I will say this… we have a terabyte drive that holds over 600 movies and most of my favorites are on that drive, so there’s that…

Here, have a movie snack…

Heffalump or Woozle…

If someone were to ask if you wished to be either a Heffalump or a Woozle, I bet it would be a good minute before you could confidently answer. Well, maybe it’s just me, beings that I’m quite small and have only just begun reading through the Winnie The Pooh series.

Ok, so maybe I’m somewhat large for an ant, but I was only just born last summer, and it did take me all winter to learn my letters and sounds. If I’m to be any good at writing, I gotta figure a good many things out on my own… that’s what journalists do, you know.

We do a good amount of reading, interviewing, and gathering up the facts, before we put things down on paper… or keyboard.

Please don’t say anything, but I may have gotten in over my head with this Winnie The Pooh business. You see, I sort of made a big deal about being able to read books all by myself, and assured Mee-maw that I didn’t need her help.

Things were going fine, til I got to the part about Heffalumps and Woozles…

Are you kidding me? That’s not fair!

As I’ve been told, time and again, Google is my friend, so I went to said friend. But, now I’m more confused than when I started. I’ll try to explain.

Ok, so according to Google a Heffalump is like an adorably chubby Elephant that can fly, but only when you’re dreaming, I guess. A Woozle is apparently meant to be a Weasel, but cuter, and also flying like the Heffalump… and again, only seen when you dream them.

Time out! Am I the only one whose never seen them before, aside from these Winnie the Pooh stories? How come Google knows about them, and I don’t?

Or, better yet, when did Google ever get the chance to interview the dreamy little stuffed teddy bear, hmmmmm? Answer me that!

Ok, ok, ok… let’s say that I buy this whole Google meets Winnie the Pooh stuff. If I accept that Google got it right, after questioning the teddy bear, I am expected to believe that Elephants can indeed fly, as well as Weasels… but, apparently, only in my dreams. Or does that mean only the teddy bear can see them when he’s dreaming… this is so confusing.

What if I want to see them when I dream? Can I? And, more importantly, do I want to see them? Google says that they represent fear and/or anxiety, well, at least that’s what I think it’s saying. Here, I’ll show you…

What follows are the actual definitions from Google’s AI:

A heffalump represents a childhood fear of the unknown, an imaginary creature stemming from the word “elephant” as mispronounced by a child, often depicted as a large, monstrous, or scary beast. While first described as an unseen, dangerous “heffalump trap” in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh books, the concept was later expanded in Disney’s adaptations to include the real, friendly, and less frightening Heffalumps and Woozles, ultimately becoming a symbol of overcome fears and prejudices. 

A woozle represents the unknown, a manifestation of unfounded fears or anxieties, as depicted in A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh where the characters chase their own tracks, thinking they are Woozle tracks. This concept extends to the “Woozle effect,” where weak, unverified evidence is repeatedly cited, leading to the mistaken belief in a fact or urban myth, such as in political or public health misinformation. 

Wait a minute… how did we get from fluffy purple elephants and pink Weasels, to the White House?

I will agree that elephants can be easily frightened, and weasels ARE rather high energy and anxious creatures, but to compare them to a politician… that’s taking things a bit too far for my liking.

I did like the part about overcoming fear of a thing, and also about truth over here say, as far as the whole misinformation thing goes.

Me? I’m only an ant, and a young one, at that! Somehow, even if I hadn’t gone to all the trouble of looking things up, I think that the book does a fairly good job of helping me figure things out… and it didn’t need a politician to do it! Just sayin.

I better give you some goodies, like Mee-maw does when she gives her two-cents on a thing…

My family is here for a visit, so I hope you don’t mind sharing… they don’t!