"And then Oedipus and Jocasta, assured by their supporters on social media that '#LoveWins', decided...."

In the great time suck that is Those Interwebs, ostensibly searching for some information about children and catechetics on the super highway, I found myself on a bypass about the irrationality and inconsistency of the current tv and movie rating system, and then went up a dead-end about the size of Cinderella's, (AKA Lilly James',) waist, pulled in to a private driveway and noticed something tantalizing about how to nip in the waist of an oversized button up shirt, had to back up to the intersection where I saw a criticism of children's literature that was not protective of the environment/blended families/the Other among us, and decided to go brew a cup, no, a mug, stadium cup of almond tea.

But while sipping, the thought came that there is a great misapprehension of the purpose of the fairy tale.

We get modern takes, and reboots and re-writes, and outright bannings of fables that fail to impart information in the manner of a user's manual.
We want Common Core nuts and bolts to help make us better worker bees instead of the grandeur and deeper truths of myth, shrunk to childsize for little hands, and pureed for mouths not yet containging any permanent teeth.
Cinderella isn't about women needing men to take care of them but about spousal and familial love being a greater goal and a rarer prize than almost any other in this life, finer than extravagant clothes and grand houses, (and certainly than inherited wealth, or servants to boss about.)

Have we done this with, (more than the occasional movie, such as the nit-wit Troy, and all stories from the Bible, on which there is open season) do we do this to creation tales, and to myth, as well?

Is there a volume of Greek and Roman Myths that functions as an apologia for Jocasta's incest and assures us that no, Time doesn't devour his children? where Narcissus has a learning experience, falls in and, rescued by followers who learn of his plight via Instagram, resolves to limit himself to only a few selfies a day? Does Atalanta not just scoop up the golden fruit but speed past Melanion just the same, magnanimously allow him to live and go off with her best gal pal to a life of lesbian bliss?

Couture Confus et Erroné

(Why no, I can't speak French. I do know what all those words mean, but whethe they make a coherent phrase is a mystery to me. And speaking of mysteries...)

As so often, I am confused by fashion and almost as often, by fashion terminology, but when did a dress that barely hits he bottom of the kneecap become a "midi dress"?

The range of which the knee is the "mid"-point, even if the floor is the measure of "maxi"-ness, would put the other end of the spectrum gynecologist's territory-adjacent.

Which, now that I think of it, describes quite a bit of clothing I see.
Ah.
Never mind, carry on.

"Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of..."

Someone wrote to an advice column in the Paper of Record, that she felt betrayed by a co-worker, to whom she had expressed, (on the Book of Faces, I think,) her eagerness to be quit of her job.
The co-worker had passed this on to the boss.
WHO WAS THE CO-WORKER'S HUSBAND.

Some people maybe should avoid social networking?
Just sayin'.

A newsletter I receive contains a Letter to the Editor that has alerted me to what may be a sinister conspiracy that the epistolarian has noted.

Thank God he or she has called this to the attention of responsible Catholics! Else, where might this linguistic madness end? Imagine using the Universal Church's official language in Her liturgies, the horror!

But now, hopefully, someone will be "watching."
You know, and "addressing."
A group.

For about two years or so, quite a number of churches have started using Latin for the "Holy, Holy" and "The Lamb of God" in their Sunday liturgies.  Why?

Even the election of Pope Francis has not stopped this trend.  Is any group watching the liturgy and addressing apparent attempt to bring back Latin? 

[name redacted to protect the imbecilic innocent]

(In all seriousness, this is so dim-witted I wonder if the poor thing accidentally stumbled into a Mass in, oh, I dunno, Spanish)
(And while the subject is the Holy Father and languages, does Pope Francis always address the English-speaking pilgrims at the Angelus address in Italian? or did the tv station just use the wrong clip?)

The Smirking Priest

There was a new episode of Father Brown on recently, and Himself dvr'ed it.

NOT GOOD.

The series, which uses plots NOT from the mind and soul and pen of Chesterton is updated to the '50s.
Why not? I'm sure it saved the producers a fortune on cars, clothes, and hiding of modern stuff.

I have no problem with that.

I do have a problem with messing with classic stories, plays, characters, etc., in ways that are anachronistic, or that to suit modern sensibilities remove aspects of plots or personae that render the actions and motivations unintelligible.

For instance, I remember some film movie a while back set in ancient Greece, telling an ancient story, that removed all reference to the gods.
Now, it is not necessary for the writer and director to believe in the inhabitants of Mt Olympus, you can leave them out of the story as characters if you choose -- but if the humans of myth and epic don't believe in their gods, as persons whose will must be reckoned with, who are likely to wreak revenge or demand restitution, who have powers of life and death -- well, the stories stop making sense.

I saw an otherwise mostly good Much Ado once, in which Beatrice not only felt her dear cousin's reputation had been besmirched with lies, she obviously thought that even if Hero had been entertaining strange men in her bedroom, bully for her!
(I just remembered, one other flaw -- it was set in Gone With the Wind territory - did the director not realize that having officers returning from a war wearing uniforms of the Confederacy reads "Losers!!!!!"?)

Anyway, Father Brown.
Silly plot, not very well written, or thought through -- does a Catholic priest coming upon a probably dying Catholic man really go off to solve a puzzle rather than administer last rites?

Okay, writer didn't think that through, had to wrap up story in allotted time, fine.

But in a plot which turned on possible elopement, probable adultery, an underage girl flirting with the help -- wouldn't you have thought there'd be some nod to the sexual mores that would almost certainly be in play in that era, in that place?

If the hot-to-trot girl was making eyes at someone else's chauffeur, who, priest or parent, would suggest that he stay there, in the many-roomed and -corridored manse overnight?

Okay, but maybe that was necessary to the, again, not well thought out plot.

But in a million years, would Father Brown, hearing his (widowed?) aristocratic parishioner swear to the police that she had spent the night in a hotel room with a man, after already telling him that she had spent that night in a hotel room with a different man, SMIRK about it? while the policeman exclaimed over her promiscuity?

Gee, he'd fit right in, in some modern-day circles in catholic England or Germany, wouldn't he?

Polygamy, concubinage, fornication... what's a little kippling* between neighbors?

GKC would not be amused.

(*As in, I say, Elspeth, do you like Kipling?.... I don't know, you naughty boy, I've never been kippled!)