Something Fishy

Yesterday was one of those hot days where it's humid enough for the swamp cooler not to perform well, but it just steadfastly refuses to ever actually rain. Eventually, I was only able to defeat the weather's evil machinations by getting into my air-conditioned car and taking a long air-conditioned ride to an air-conditioned movie theater, where I watched a movie that was almost entirely set under water. Take that, evil weather!

For the record, Finding Nemo has incredible animation, a fun story, and more than a few good laughs, on the basis of which I can definitely recommend it. But, OK, maybe it's just me and my big overeducated brain, but am I the only person in the world who is very slightly bothered by the oddity of taking this heartwarming story of parental devotion and having it played out almost entirely by r-strategy critters? I feel like a big humbug saying this, but some tiny part of me is actually ever-so-slightly annoyed by this fact, apparently on the theory that encouraging people (especially kids) to think that human "family values" are universal is bound to cause major problems if we ever meet aliens whose biology and behavior are radically different from ours. I'm just sayin'.