Ethel was babysitting at the neighbor's house last weekend - two little girls, Alexis and Adrian.

Adrian doesn't say much; just eats and giggles. Lexi, however, has an opinion on pretty much anything and everything. And she has decided that Ethel is "Granny Puckett".

Now, if you haven't seen Hoodwinked, then that won't mean much to you -

                                        
- but, then, if you haven't seen Hoodwinked, you really shouldn't be reading this. You might want to stop, now, and go watch Hoodwinked. It's a lot more fun than this blog :)

I'll avoid spoilers (you probably think that you know the story of Red Riding Hood, anyway) - but I will point out that I never knew that Red's last name was Puckett. And Granny is her paternal grandmother, which makes her Granny Puckett.

So, when Lexi found out that Ethel was a grandmother, she immediately latched onto her as "Granny Puckett" - Lexi's parents don't know the movie, so they didn't know what Alexis was so excited about. But Granny Puckett in the movie is a much more...emphatic character than Granny in the fairy tale, and she could very well have been played by Ethel, with enough makeup (Granny looks older than she acts).

...I really enjoy this movie. Some of that may have to do with the idea of Pucketts as being extreme-sports fanatics, for instance (no, you haven't seen the movie) - some of it may have to do with my personal favorite character is Japeth, the banjo-playing mountain goat - having Pucketts in a movie along with an old mountain goat who plays the banjo just sort of makes me feel right at home :)

Japeth can really pick his five-string banjo, but he can't talk; he can only sing (he was cursed by a witch some years ago, the result of which being anything that he wants to say, he has to sing as lyrics). He has a pair of horns for every occasion, he's Always Prepared - he even has a really big pair that he can use as a rocking chair, so that he can sit on the front porch, rock on his horns, and play his banjo.

I really, really like Japeth :) If you watch this video, you might like Japeth too (and here's the same video, including deleted part, in Norwegian :) (...and in Russian :) (tell me that the Internet isn't just completely amazing!...you can see the same goat singing in just about any language :)

Note, please, that I said above "you might like Japeth" - this is not the sort of movie that is for everybody. In fact, I'd say that it's probably not for most people - but if you read this blog, you may have the sort of skewed perceptions that will allow you to sing along wth Japeth ...

...just like Granny Puckett and me :)