Scandinavian Toe Rhymes

I'm sure most of use have played "This little piggy…" with a baby's toes or had it done to us. But this isn't the only game to play with babies' toes. When parents in Scandinavian countries play with their babies' toes, they give them silly names. To be sure, the different countries have different names for the toes—in fact, the names can vary widely from family to family.[1] But most of these have some common elements:

• As you name each toe, you give it a wiggle
• You start with the smallest toe and work your way to the big toe
• The name of each successive toe draws something from the name of the previous toe [2]
• The names of the four small toes are said with a normal voice or a 'baby voice'
• The name of the big toe is longer
• The name of the big toe is said with a big, growling voice [3]

These Scandinavian toe rhymes have found their way to the U.S. So if your parents did this with your toes, chances are you have some Scandinavian ancestors. That or one of your ancestors saw someone else doing it, liked it, and adopted it as one of their own customs. Lilli will definitely be learning ours.

Movie Review: Gnomeo and Juliet

As you can guess from the title, this film is based on Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. In fact, the bard himself (voiced by Patrick Stewart) makes an appearance as a statue. The twist is that all of the characters are garden gnomes. There's even one hidden in the title of the movie.[1] In this scenario the garden gnomes are owned by Mrs. Montague and Mr. Capulet, who live in Stratford-Upon-Avon, one in apartment "2B" and the other in house "Not 2B", who have a long-standing feud. This feud is carried out in parallel by their garden gnomes. Mrs. Montague's gnomes are blue while Mr. Capulet's are red.

Movie Review: D.O.A.: Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive was a video game long before it attempted the transition to the silver screen. There is also a nod to the spin-off game, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Films based on video games can fare pretty well at the box office (e.g. Resident Evil, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, etc. [1]), though they're generally panned by movie critics. But there have also been some movies that bombed at the box office despite the popularity of the video game they were based on (e.g. Super Mario Bros., Doom, Double Dragon, Tekken, etc. [2]).

Movie Review: Robin Hood (2010)

I think most of us are familiar with the Robin Hood story because of the Disney movie of the same name, though there are several other portrayals of the legend that I have experienced, including Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe, T. H. White's novel The Sword in the Stone, and Errol Flynn's film The Adventures of Robin Hood.[1] This is more like a prequel to the Robin Hood story. But it's also kind of a remake of Gladiator: it has Russell Crowe in the lead, it was directed by Ridley Scott, the actor who plays Prince John is quite similar to Joaquin Phoenix, and I suspect that if Richard Harris hadn't died, he would've been cast as Richard the Lionheart.

Hindu Chalk Art I: kolam, rangoli, etc.

Hindu chalk art has many regional names: alpana, aripana, chowkpurana, kolam, madana, muggu, muggulu, pookalam, poovidal, rangoli, rangavalli, etc. Women often draw the pattern using rice powder, chalk, etc. in front of a home, especially during Hindu holidays.[1] There are different types of design.[2] For this round, I'll be focusing on two similar types. Read on.

Movie Review: Howl's Moving Castle

I first saw this film at the BYU International Cinema with my friends from the BYU 38th Ward Book Club. Given that it was originally produced by Studio Ghibli in Japan, I'm surprised that the decision makers for the BYU International Cinema chose to show the English-dubbed version rather than the Japanese version with English subtitles.[1] But since that's how they chose to show the film, that's how I first experienced it. And it may be the only film where I prefer the English-dubbed version over the original language. The movie is based on the 1986 book, Howl's Moving Castle, by British author, Diana Wynne Jones. That is, I should say, loosely based on the book. There are quite a few differences between the movie and the book, several of which are significant.

Movie Review: The Green Hornet

This movie started being advertised around the same time as The Green Lantern. Since I am not a comic book aficionado, it was easy for me to confuse the two. This one is based on what began as a radio drama and eventually evolved into a television series, several movies (including this one), a comic book series, and several novels.[1] It is about a newspaper magnate who doubles as a masked vigilante with the help of his valet (and martial arts expert), Kato.[2] As a bonus, he always knows where to send his reporters for breaking crime news.