Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Speaking of Eternal Families and Grammar Rock

I was thinking this morning about Mr Morton.  I have no idea why.  I guess I was wondering if his marriage contrived out of desperation and loneliness ever actually worked out.

I think I might have already mentioned this last week,  but I got so personally involved in some of the Grammar Rock videos, that I could never learn the actual lesson.

As a kid, and even now, I feel SO sorry for Mr. Morton,  that I have trouble focusing on the whole subject/ predicate thing.   All I can think about is this poor guy who talks to cats, sweats a lot, and was apparently so desperate, he married his neighbor, even though they had never spoken a word to each other.  Seriously, how long can that marriage be expected to last?





 NO wonder my generation has such a messed up view of relationships.  


I wonder if there's ever been a follow-up study on the psyche's of kids who watched a lot of Grammar Rock. Because even though I can't remember the subject or predicate, I very much remember Mr. Morton stalking Pearl - sitting on her porch until she came out, and then running away.

Grammar Rock was great at grammar, but not so good at acknowledging men as bright, capable, actual PEOPLE.

(And I'm pretty sure it goes without saying, but for as much Grammar Rock as I watched, I didn't learn too much about grammar.  Or anything else, really.)

14 comments:

mormonhermitmom said...

I can't say I gave Mr. Morton a second thought. I was surprised when SHE proposed. The only other thought I had was, "Why make up words like 'predicate'?" If I can't remember the difference between an adjective and an adverb, is my life really going to that bad?

Still I love to watch them anyway:)

Emmy said...

Sadly I don't think I ever saw Mr. Morton.

Yvonne said...

I watched grammar rock but I don't remember Mr. Morton.

Heather said...

Say what?

CB said...

I have to admit I am a sucker for all the education rock series. I love them, I loved them as a child, and I have bought them for my own children. Have I screwed up their lives??? ha ha Mr. Morton - What a guy!

Jennifer said...

Conjunction junction what's your function

Millie said...

Mr. Morton makes me cry every time I watch it, seriously. I don't remember it from childhood but we have a video (VIDEO) of Gramma Rock, and the first time I saw it, I melted into a pool of mushy goo.

"Now Mr. Morton is happy, and Pearl and the cat are too" - awwww.

Millie said...

*Grammar, not Gramma

Dave said...

JustRandi, did you even watch this episode all the way through?

At the end it says "The Mortons lived happily ever after."

No mystery. No drama. Just wedded bliss. They lasted just fine.

Now, I could go a couple of different directions at this point.

Should I spout off a quick essay extolling the virtues of arranged marriages and the reletive modernism of marrying "for love?"

Or should I ponder the incredible unlikely-hood of a new couple hiring a city bus to cart them away on their honeymoon. (With a cat)

Stacey said...

I have never heard of Mr Morton or Grammar Rock. Am I lame?

Randi said...

Let's not say lame. Let's just say "regrettably ill informed".

Or we could say that I must be *cough* a wee bit older than you.

Jillybean said...

This is the first time I've seen Mr Morton.

I loved the Schoolhouse rock series, we bought the DVDs for our kids and they have enjoyed them too. One of them learned their times tables from watching the videos.

The one I remember the most is,
"Interjection, shows excitement, or emotion.
They're generally set apart from the sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma if the feelings not as strong."

Now I know what I'll be humming for the rest of the night.

rocslinger said...

I'm with Mormonhermitmom, do we really need another word for verb?

Perhaps I'm stating the obvious here but Mr Morton is a fictional charachter, JustRandi, I wouldn't lose any sleep over him or Rose.

rocslinger said...

Oh BTW I watched school house rock in my formative years and I turned out fine, well mostly fine, uh kinda fine........
Maybe you shouldn't use me as an example but my friends, Um, you might have something there after all.