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Oh God, I've been tagged for one of those "meme" things

January 5, 2007 08:09 PM

For those of you not in the know, "a meme" is basically the blogospheric equivalent of one of those getting to know you games.  Kind of like "slap a back, slap a back, slap a back next to ya" or passing an orange to the person beside you without using your hands.  With a meme, different bloggers all answer the same group of questions.

It's not exactly my favorite kind of activity.  But such is the respect I have for the blogger who tagged me--Dr. Mabuse, over at The Kraalspace--who is a fantastic writer, and a very witty and funny person.  And, she recently learned My True Identity, which is the blogospheric equivalent of "I Know Where You Live."

So compelled out of both respect and fear, and fortified by two vodka tonics, I present you with my Meme Thing.

1. Favorite movie:  This one is easy, though my choice may strike some as strange, and here's why.  I was raised by abusive parents, who believed that when it was nice out, children should be outside playing, and when it wasn't nice out, children should be inside, reading or playing board games.  This message was fortified by their refusal to get cable, or upgrade to a color tv (note, I'm only 33--not 73, so color tvs and cable were pretty much the norm in the homes of my classmates).  But anyway, while my choice may be odd, this really is a great movie.  We saw it once while our parents were visiting friends, and begged to borrow the videotape of Thoroughly Modern Millie.  It was billed as "The Happiest Movie of the Year."  In 1967.  So it was definitely outdated by the time we saw it.  It's got Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, and Carol Channing.  In other words, it's so gay-tastic that it should be enough to cause anyone to question my commitment to, um... the conservative wing of the Episcopal Church.  But the movie's great, even though it drags in the middle when Mille goes off to sing, inexplicably, at a Jewish wedding.  We watched it over and over again, what with it being the only videotape we had, other than the tape we had of Mom appearing on a local talk show to speak out against communism. 

Favorite movie with a religious theme:  Shadowlands.  Of course I like Shadowlands, because it is about C.S. Lewis, and the scenery is fantastic.  It probably has more of a romantic theme to it than a religious theme, though.  I honestly can't think of any other movies I've seen with a religious theme, other than The Ten Commandments.  I have seen The Mission.  It's pretty gory, but the soundtrack is fantastic.

Favorite movie priest:  This one is tough.  What movies even have priests in them?  I can't think of any, off hand.  Oh wait.  I suppose there's The Exorcist.  So there you go.  My favorite movie with a priest in it is The Exorcist.  And I guess there's also that whole series where the woman gives birth to the anti-Christ named "Damion."  I forget what they're called, but I think I like The Exorcist better.

Favorite movie nun:  Other than The Sound of Music, I also can't think of any movies with nuns, other than The Flying Nun, which I've never actually seen.  And now that I've already named Thoroughly Modern Millie, I can hardly pick yet another Julie Andrews movie and select The Sound of Music.  But I can say that just the words The Flying Nun remind me of Cathy Siepp's review of the short-lived tv show Pepper Dennis, which Cathy compared unfavorably to "The Flying Nun:"

So 19-year-old Sally Field became The Flying Nun, who because she only weighed 98 pounds was regularly carried aloft by that wing-shaped hat and the winds of Puerto Rico. Mother Superior didn't like it, but still, Sister Bertrille just kept soaring away, regularly dropping in on Carlos the playboy casino owner and hitting him up for money whenever the convent needed new plumbing or something.

My sister and I found The Flying Nun absolutely riveting when we were small, and now I can see why: its connected themes are anorexia and the power of adolescent ecstasy, which in the show disapproving adults can only partially suppress. You don't need to be a compulsive dieter to understand the magical notion of impossible skinniness connected to superpowers.

So there you have it.  All I can contribute to the whole nuns-in-movies thing is a reference that demonstrates good writing about a bad movie.  That's my contribution to the Meme thing.  Now I am supposed to tag someone else.  Curmudgeonry, you're it.  Unless you'd rather I just passed you an orange, without using my hands?

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