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!

I recall getting spooked by The Exorcist on cable when I was 14 ish. But that may have been more because I was babysitting late at night, it was storming pretty badly, branches kept falling against the house and there was a high school party down the street which meant random people would occasionally wander drunkenly into the yard, lit up by the strobing lightning.

I saw a lot of the Elm Street and Halloween flicks around 9-13 because my best friend at the time loved that stuff, and when her older brothers' watched us, they'd totally let us rent those. In retrospect, I recall more how stupid and gross they were than scary.

I don't like horror much at all.

I recall getting spooked by The Exorcist on cable when I was 14 ish.

I watched with hands over eyes in my 20s. Different stuff pushes the buttons.

Signs of the Cephalopod Underground

That would make an excellent album title.

Oh & said kid I was babysitting would walk in her sleep and moan.

I'm sure that didn't help.

My parents were relatively strict about violence, but could give a shit about sex or language.

The most obnoxious parents I can remember were the ones who brought their screaming toddler to the Psycho (remake) press screening. If you're at a press screening, it means you can either (a) hire a sitter and get your paper to reimburse you or (b) hire a sitter and write it off as a business expense. There is really no excuse for bringing your kid.

When Cousin!Nicole visited, I finally let Emmett watch the South Park movie. I figured the Satan fucking Saddam stuff was too cartoony and oblique for him to get, and I didn't really care if he heard "Uncle Fucka." My rule of thumb is that he's allowed to hear profanity, but he's not allowed to use it.

I don't let him watch things with realistic torture scenes or horror, but I didn't mind letting him watch the mayhem in Kill Bill (on DVD) when the Bride sliced up the Crazy 88s. Lots of blood, but cartoony. I didn't let him watch the realistic scenes of violence in that movie.

He's not interested in romance or sexual content at all, and I won't let him watch that because I think it'll give him too distorted a notion of what sex and love is about. But I was reading specific and detailed things about sex when I was his age.

Emmett was a little young to see the first Harry Potter movie (there were scenes during which he closed his eyes) and LoTR (scary orcs mostly), but he never had nightmares over it, and went back to see them both multiple times in the theater.

if the kid is clearly frightened, or disturbing other patrons, they should leave.

Oh absolutely. The thing you mentioned about the kid at Hannibal is infuriating. If the kid is unhappy enough to say that they want to leave, you don't keep torturing him, or the other people in the audience! Gah. I just think that sometimes what is upsetting to adults blows right past kids. (And vice versa, actually.)

I just told a nobel lauriat that "Everything's 5x5

Please tell me he/she got it.

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

It tends to spread like a virus, too. DH uses them and he never watched the show all that much.