Speaking of movies and kids, Leif did something funny without realizing it. He was playing pharmacist with me, my wife, and in-laws. This entailed him cutting pills out of blue and red construction paper and giving people a choice of which pill they wanted. I was the only person in the room who got the pop culture reference though.

I know I saw Terror in the Aisles [link] in the theater, so I guess I was 10, which kind of explains why my parents weren't thrilled about the entire proposition -- someone else's father took us. It wasn't really that scary, though, because you lost so much of the context. And we were always renting horror movies for sleepovers. I don't know when kids cross the line between being too little and thinking those movies are cool.

The boys watch scary movies with the gore. I don't let them play MA rated video games. They love horror movies and don't get scared or anything. When it comes to R rated movies I either get a review from a trusted friend or watch it myself first.

Kids are different and parents should know what bothers them and what doesn't. PotC with pirates was great stuff for the boys. PotC without pirates sounded way too upsetting for them.

With violence I tend to not mind them watching the obviously fictional stuff like SciFi while I shy away from graphic violence in a realistic setting like war. With sex I don't mind them watching sex in movies when presented in a "normal" manner. It's all very subjective.

Since they are "that age" boys they love all the movies geared toward 12yo boys. And they can watch over and over and over again.

I remember when I was little my parents were watching The Exorcist on TV (so it would have been heavily edited, but still)

"Your mother sews socks in heck!"

I don't remember how old I was, but I was freaked out by some version of A Christmas Carol when Scrooge goes to hell.

I'll be it's the Albert Finney musical version because a) I saw that in the theater (that and YELLOW SUBMARINE are the first two movies I remember seeing in a theater my life) and remember that sequence vividly, and b) they always, always, ALWAYS cut that scene out when they showed it on television.

That said, it was the reveal of the ghost of Xmas future as a skeleton that really freaked me out with that one.

oh, yeah, I totally grok that the parent should be able to decide what is appropriate for their child, but if the kid is clearly frightened, or disturbing other patrons, they should leave.

With sex I don't mind them watching sex in movies when presented in a "normal" manner.

::makes note to send porn to Laura's boys::

::makes note to send porn to Laura's boys::

Hee. I showed them the "Internet is for Porn" video and I thought they would split a gut. [link] That was made for my boys.

There were kids at the theater when we saw PotC that were too young. Stupid parents. Like the 3 year old kid that cried half the film.

I just told a nobel lauriat that "Everything's 5x5, the check went out on Thursday."

The Buffyisms sometimes come out of nowhere, like a burp or my Boston accent.

ION, in Minneapolis, Signs of the Cephalopod Underground

A reader discovered this fascinating graffiti in downtown Minneapolis, near the transit center on Hennepin Avenue.

With violence I tend to not mind them watching the obviously fictional stuff like SciFi while I shy away from graphic violence in a realistic setting like war. With sex I don't mind them watching sex in movies when presented in a "normal" manner. It's all very subjective.

You make a lot of sense -- I know I was way more freaked out by Platoon, which was several years later (and I saw it in a second-run theater), than any of the ridiculous horror movies. Horror movies are good clean fun!