Center of the Earth

One of Gee's favorite Backyardigan episodes is "To the Center of the Earth", a take-off on "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Like most of the Backyardigans, it has catchy music and a funny plotline.

Last Sunday at church Gee saw the sacrament meeting program, on the cover of which was a beehive, in honor of Pioneer Day. "To the center of the Earth, Momma, to the center of the earth!" he exclaimed loudly as he pointed to the beehive. I guess I can sort of see the resemblance:

Speaking of going to the center of the earth, last night Bradley and I watched a ridiculous (and yet still entertaining) movie from 2003 titled "The Core". The basic premise, that the outer layer of the core has stopped spinning, and thus stopped generating the protective EM barrier around the globe, and thus creating utter catastrophe. Naturally, the only thing to do is to journey to the center of the earth and use nuclear bombs to restart the spinning. Of course!

So, obviously, actual geological science is out the window. But I can watch The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe without worrying about the physics of wardrobes and multiverse travel; I can suspend disbelief about traveling to the planet's core, too. (Although there was one point, near the end, that drove me crazy. A brief mention is made about "tectonic plate boundaries near Hawaii". There aren't any. That's the point of Hawaii--it is smack dab in the middle of the Pacific plate. Why that caused my head to explode, when the entire show is about humans in the center of the earth, I'll never know.)

Still, I enjoyed it for the silly, mindless, formulaic movie that is was. Not a very strong recommendation, but a thumbs-up all the same. Nice movie with which to veg out.

And, of course, Bradley and I are reading "Journey to the Center of the Earth" to each other right now. (Among like four other books: The Undaunted, Jehovah and the World of the Old Testament, and the Riddle Master of Hed.) (Our tastes are eclectic, to say the least.)