December 08, 2004

congratulations, you're still in the running towards being Australia's next top pumpkin

So Elliot had its first real stress test last night, pumpkin, and it stood up to the challenge admirably well. Harry and Liz came over for America's Next Top Model.

Now I'm fairly sure that, in the annals of history, 2004 will be seen as a year of not particularly good television. Certainly the offerings in the arena of 'reality tv', which is a new concept to us, having been born only a few years previous to your good self, have been below par.

America's Next Top Model, pumpkin, brings to us the absolute pinnacle, the epitome of good quality reality TV. There are people to hate, and people to love. People to throw things at, and other people to throw things at.

Apparently there's an Australian version in the works, but I'm not entirely sure that it's going to come close to the glory of the US incarnation of this particular TyraBanksian juggernaut.

It brings to mind for me, because my brain is constantly in parent mode at the moment, how I'm going to try to help you in your professional endeavours. How I'm going to cope if you decide to become an artist or an accountant, or a piano tuner or a postman. The simple answer is, of course, that I'll support you in whatever you want to do, but it's slightly more complicated than that.

I've talked to you before about the fact that your life decisions are your own to make, and that we're not going to attempt to influence them one way or the other, but that's a total lie. You CAN be whatever you want to be, with a few notable exceptions. You are hereby forbidden from being a staff member or member of parliament in a "family values" political party. The primary question to ask these people, pumpkin, is whose family they are talking about. Keep in mind that they are most certainly, in many cases, talking about families that do not include those of people we love.


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