Drawbacks of a teenaged workforce

When the city postponed fireworks on Wednesday, we decided to go see Ratatouille.  (A split decision: A & I loved it; The Little Man thought it was a little funny, but nowhere near as good as Cars, Toy Story, or The Incredibles.  I do think that the movie may demand a little too much attention to social nuance for a 4-year-old to truly love it, especially when there’s no compensatory violence. He thought the short, “Lifted,” was awesome.)

Three notes from our adventure:

• The family in line ahead of us had 3 adults and two kids.  As the man in the family stepped up to the register, he turned to one of the women and said, “Take [name] and the kids and get snacks.”  Then, he turned to the cashier and asked for 1 adult and 4 children for Transformers.  The cashier sold the tickets without batting an eye, and the ticket-taker admitted them without a second glance.   It turns out that teenagers *might* not care 110% about minimum-wage jobs.
• At the Loews theater we attended, there was no way to get water as the drink in a kid’s snack pack (which A and the Little Man share).  When A asked the snack dude, “Well, what if you don’t want to give your 4-year-old soda?,” his first (nonverbal, but very, very obvious) answer was, “Unclench.”  I was proud of him for choking the word down.  Ultimately, we had to spring for an extra water.  And to upgrade from “popcorn-and-Goldfish crackers”, which seems ridiculous, to “popcorn-and-fruit snacks” cost $1.
• According to the black couple coming out of Transformers, the point of that movie is “protect the white girls.”  The woman of the couple claimed that is in fact the plot of all movies.