Gimme the spoonful of sugar...

...but hold the medicine.

After yesterday's post, I received the following comment from my former secretary, proof positive that working for the Commissariat of Academic Affairs spoils even the best kids' movies (though I refuse to believe that any movie with the dance sequence `Knees Together, Step in Line!' can be less than a masterpiece).  Seriously -- the comment is surely apposite and shows us that worldliness is at its most effective and insidious at precisely those points we least expect it.  Of course, if they ever remake Mary Poppins I am sure that, in line with current cultural trends, Angelina Jolie will play Mary, and the ugly, scary, mean, old men will be have been replaced at the bank with attractive, sharp-suited young people called `Chad' and `Dave' and `Liz' and `Susan' who will not try to get the kids to hand over their tuppence but will rather offer to loan them a further tuppence so that they can spend twice as much for twice the pleasure -- with no hope of paying it back.  Here's what my former, long-suffering personal assistant had to say:

I just read your latest Ref21 post. Mary Poppins was on TV last night and Ben and I were struck by one song in particular - it's towards the end of the movie, after Poppins has been encouraging the children to share their tuppence with the bird lady, and the father has taken the children to the bank, where he works.  Just before they reach the bank, the kids want to give the lady their tuppence to feed the birds, because that would be the nice, kind thing to do and would make them happy.  Their father forbids them to and instead encourages them to invest it in the bank.  At this point, a number of ugly, old men (the bank managers/board) sing a scary song about safe, sound investment in the bank and how that will make your tuppence into a pound.  Of course the children do the "right" thing and snatch their tuppence away from the evil bank managers and rush out to feed the birds. The clear message of the scene was to encourage children to spend their money to make themselves happy and to avoid saving.  Marry Poppins came out in 1964 in the US and has been a hugely popular movie since then (as I'm sure you know).  No telling how many countless children have grown up with that song in their heads, wanting to spend, spend, spend to make themselves happy. Anyway, given the current economic situation, we found this movie particularly ironic.