Bad Words & Butterflies

I spotted a cute saying on the side of a small truck I was following a few days ago: “Old upholsterers never die; they always recover.” So clever, I think I’d call them up if I ever needed any upholstering. But then, at my age it’s doubtful I’d ever need that service.

We’ve had two large butterflies hanging around our arbor vitae and fruit trees, swooping up and around and in and out. They look even larger than the monarchs we usually have, yellow with black striping. They’ve been here for nearly two weeks now. Makes me wonder how long they’ll stay, what they eat, where they sleep. Do they migrate like the monarchs? What sort of chrysalis do they make, what kind of caterpillar emerges? Do they, like the monarchs, have some kind of protection against birds? Monarchs feed on milkweed which gives them a poisonous toxin that keeps predators from making them a tasty meal. I did a little research (very little, because I’m lazy) and found that some species, without the monarch toxin, mimic the coloring of the monarch to keep birds away. One wouldn’t think a butterfly could reason that well. I know, I know, it’s instinctive, not brain-driven. I like to think, though, that these pretty creatures have personalities and the ability to reason, especially when one of them perches on my finger and looks me straight in the eye. We’ve already humanized our three cats, so why not do the same for our backyard buddies?

I went alone to see Bad Words, thinking that Rosalie wouldn’t want to have her ears assaulted by all the bad language. There wasn’t any more bad language than in nearly every other movie we’ve seen, and I laughed out loud at some of the dialogue, something I haven’t done in a long time. Jason Bateman starred in and directed it. Good job, Jason. He plays Guy Trilby, a disgruntled man who wants to punish the people who run the national spelling bee. He’s found a loophole in the eligibility rules that allows him to compete against the other tiny tot contestants. And he has an edge on them: he knows and can spell all the words in our lexicon. We don’t find out why he’s doing this until the final curtain. Along the way, he meets the cutest little boy named Chaitanya (Rohan Chand). Chaitanya wants to be Guy’s friend, almost insists that Guy accept him as his friend. Guy teaches the boy lots of “bad words” and some really bad behavior, but they actually do become friends, even though the two of them will be in the finals of the contest. I know Jason Bateman from the many rom-coms he’s been in. I also remember his older sister Justine Bateman from her role in Family Ties, Michael J. Fox’s sister Mallory. I have only good words to say about Bad Words. In the future, I think I’ll pay better attention to films he may star in or direct.