Journal: News & Comment

Today's lesson

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I've long wondered who on earth watches any of the seemingly unending series of supposedly funny and heartwarming movies where chimpanzees (or, on rare occasions, cute shaggy dogs) take part in sports like hockey, basketball, skiing, or skateboarding. No doubt the chimp (or dog) helps the underdog team win a plucky come-from-behind victory in each case.

There's one on TV right now—in which the pretty scenery and undisguised hockey arena of my hometown of Vancouver somehow stand in for nearby Seattle, with the use of occasional spliced-in shots of the Space Needle. (I'm in the other room, and even from here I can tell that the product placement in this movie is out of control.) My seven-year-old daughter said she'd prefer to watch the end rather than reading our usual bedtime book. "This is a great movie!" she said, and her five-year-old sister agrees.

Suddenly, I remembered that back in 1978, when I was about the same age, the first Clint Eastwood movie I ever saw was Every Which Way But Loose, in which he co-starred with an orangutan.

So now I know.

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