Going to See My Man Godfrey Because My Daughter Likes Ninjas

I was just about finished with my picks for the TCM Classic Film Festival (TCMFF), when I realized that there was one matchup that I wasn't sure what to do about. It wasn't a hugely agonizing decision or anything. It was two films (My Man Godfrey vs The Seahawk) where I would have liked to have seen both, but neither was a clear favorite. I decided to turn the decision over to my 15-year-old daughter. I told her that the one was a comedy and the other a pirate movie. I then had her look at the descriptions for both.

She barely glanced at the descriptions. "The comedy," she said. "I don't like pirates. I like ninjas."

I bit my tongue. I had an answer. It was a flippant answer, but an answer none the less. I know enough about Pop Culture to know that the debate over pirates vs ninjas is every bit as real and important yet utterly trivial to young people now as The Beatles vs The Stones was to my generation. I had my answer and I continued to bite my tongue.