Clue-Ing Into Changes

Not a terribly exciting day by any circumstances. I did my laundry at Uncle Ken's house, then went straight to work, which was steady-to-dead with no problems.

Since everyone was busy or on vacation, I actually had the TV to myself, which proved to be...no big deal. Everytime I get a chance to watch TV, I'm reminded of why I don't have cable at my apartment. I did a lot of switching around, but I ultimately watched three channels in full - TV Land, Nickelodeon's "Nick Jr" block, and the tail end of the MGM musical "Yolanda and the Thief" on Turner Classic Movies.

One of the interests I picked up from having frequent afternoon and night classes during my first two years of college was a fondness for toddler-oriented programs. I suspect it came from these practically being the only shows of any interest to me (other than game shows) on during the mornings and afternoons. I'm a big fan of "Dora the Explorer," and though I've only seen a few episodes, "Go Diego Go!" is beginning to grow on me, too. Any show that encourages kids to "walk the robot" to get to a volcano is definately fun, and I love learning about unusual jungle animals in "Diego."

"Blue's Clues" was one of my favorite shows in college. I loved playing along with cutie Blue, joking about how Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper somehow picked up (fairly accurate) French accents, singing along with all of Blue and Steve's cute songs, and shaking my head as Steve managed to miss another clue. I can usually figure out the "mystery" before Blue and her owners, but there's been a few shows when even I was stumped.

The particuar episode I saw today involved changes, and it revolved around newborn "baby" spice shaker Cinnamon. God, that made me feel old. I remember seeing the episode where Cinnamon was born. Heck, I remember the episode where his big sister Paprika was born!

I ran into a show I'd only seen in kids' books today as well, "The Backyardigans." I was wary of it at first, from the sing-songy opening sequence, but if the kids' books are any indication, this odd but adorable assortment of animal "kids" have spoofed everything from "Mission: Impossible" to the "Inspector Poirot" books done as an Easter egg hunt. Today's parody was of "Castaway/Gilligan's Island" stories. A trio of "Castaways" (moose Tyrone, penguin Pablo, and pink-bug-thingie Uniqua) need to figure out how to survive on a deserted island. Kangaroo Austin wants to help, but he's too shy, so he gathers things indirectly. The songs all have an appropriate reggae/tropical island flavor.

As much as I enjoyed the show, I will admit, the songs could get repetetous, and Austin's sudden bout of shyness was an obvious ploy (this is never mentioned in any of the books). On the other hand, the show is funny, the characters are genuinely cute, the genre spoofs are fun, and I love the name "Uniqua."