Thanks to M. for this trailer of TMNT, apparently coming out in March.

No one outgrows the Ninja Turtles. Reminds me of this Lebanese guy I knew back in Saudi Arabia — we were both in the American Boy Scouts thing (don’t ask) — and he used to like the Ninja Turtles (it’s not like any of us didn’t). It was a while back, but I distinctly remember him wearing Ninja Turtles merchandise (a yellow shirt with the then cartoon version of TMNT, and I think matching shorts). I don’t remember his name or really anything else about him. I hope he’s okay, where ever he is.

I remember that my experience with the Boy Scouts wasn’t particularly fulfilling (I missed a lot of Cub Scout sessions and never graduated to Webelos, but I regularly got Boy’s Life magazine). I wonder how much it cost my father. This was back when I used to think Americans were the bomb. I still think Americans are the bomb, but in a different way. (I actually didn’t know the term “the bomb” as applied to good things. That applied to things Iraq and Saddam Hussein did, I thought Scud was pronounced “skirt” and then used to wonder why there were no “frock” bombs. All I know from that experience is that living under the constant threat of bombardment — nevermind actual bombardment — is mortifying and traumatic especially if you’re a five or six year old kid. And therefore I’m really happy that Israel is exercising — according to a Canadian military official — its utmost “restraint” in bombing Lebanon, and is only targeting civilians and children with its precision guided munitions and killing the odd Hizbullah militant here and there by mistake. They’ve only killed 300 in eight days, after all, the official said on live talk radio. Makes me proud to be a Canadian. If there’s anything about this conflict that’s ironical, it’s that Hizbullah’s losses are the “collateral damage” whereas the direct targets are the civilians and children of Lebanon. And then they wonder why the Arab “street” hates the West and its propped up “progressive” and “friendly” leaders. Go figure. I’m still trying to figure that one out.)