Eat your popcorn quietly in the cinema

[DesDownunder]

We discourage this sort of thing at the cinema where I work:

[Chris James]

Perhaps the popcorn was stale, we get that a lot here. And we also get this:

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/movies/blogs/the-hitlist-blogpost.aspx?post=743f6f06-b5e4-4036-bccf-1a37fe6bffb7

[Paul_and_Paco]

I am not sure about other people's kids, but I would be embarrassed to act that way in a public theater. Movies are for laughing, occasional weeping, and making out! Reading a few of the comments below the second story makes me want to wait till movies come out on dvd.

[DesDownunder]

I can guarantee you that I have seen very stale popcorn being sold in cinemas, but worse was the rancid, out of date, palm oil that was used to cook it.

We worked out that the profit margin was something like 2000%.

My present cinema does not allow popcorn...so there!

[Camy]

Popcorn, and loudly crinkling plastic packaging, and huge teeth rottingly bad carbonated slurpy drink things are all part and parcel of going to the cinema, aren't they?

[Cole Parker]

OK, if Camy can voice such an uplifting opinion I'll rail at something else.

I see this all the time now on the net, but still find it disturbing. Chris' news report is fine and dandy until, in the last paragraph, the writer finds it necessary to add his own two cents and try to tell the world the right way to behave. Why does he do this? He's been telling us what happened. That's news reporting. Then he throws in his own questionable views on behavior, turning the story into an opinion puff piece, and in the process pissing me off royally. I don't need someone to tell me how to behave in and out of a theater, and certainly not thisarrogant jerk.

This isn't the way people wrote articles in the good old days. You know, before this kind of thing became common. Those days.

C

[Gee Whillickers]

OK, if Camy can voice such an uplifting opinion I'll rail at something else.

I see this all the time now on the net, but still find it disturbing. Chris' news report is fine and dandy until, in the last paragraph, the writer finds it necessary to add his own two cents and try to tell the world the right way to behave. Why does he do this? He's been telling us what happened. That's news reporting. Then he throws in his own questionable views on behavior, turning the story into an opinion puff piece, and in the process pissing me off royally. I don't need someone to tell me how to behave in and out of a theater, and certainly not thisarrogant jerk.

This isn't the way people wrote articles in the good old days. You know, before this kind of thing became common. Those days.

C

The solid, clear line between news and editorial has been blurring for years. I agree Cole, it often seems nonexistant these days, especially stories from certain news organizations.

[blue]

That's infotainment! (Yes, bad word. I shall go stand in the corner. And eat my popcorn and drink my Coke or Dr. Pepper or Mt. Dew.)

I like popcorn and sodas. In fact, I need some popcorn on my grocery list. But I don't eat it too often.

The nearest amateur/professional live theater group (Hey, I need to hunt up their schedule!) has a summer tradition, the summer Meller-Drammer. This is a play complete with a mustache-twirling villain (sometimes) and a damsel in distress (sometimes) (dis dress, dat dress...). The audience gets popcorn issued before they're seated, and they are encouraged to throw popcorn, boo, hiss, ooh, aah, laugh, cry, etc., to enjoy the play. ...Um, one year, I appreciated a lot that I was pretty dang sure one of the actors was gay. :) But um, I was too chicken to ask afterward, partly because I was with others who weren't, shall we say, receptive to such an eventuality. (I should've asked anyway, dang it!)

That summer meller-drammer always helps bring in funding for the group and is always great fun for the audience. The poor troupe, of course, all have to help clean up after. But they enjoy the chance to ham it up and see the audience enjoy themselves. -- And the times I've gone to that troupe's plays, I've enjoyed it as much or more than any big-name productions, Theater Under The Stars included. ...I have to confess, I need to go to plays more. I R a bad liberal arts boi, I R.

Otherwise, however, I dislike people dropping popcorn or drinks on the theater floor (movie too). Uh, I was brought up that you take your own dang bag and cup to the handy provided garbage can or take it home, thank you. :) That is called "civilized" and "neat" and "considerate."

Oops, editorializing. I'll go stand in the corner.

Blue's adolescent self really wished the other boy in Dragonslayer had really been a boy, and the water had been a little clearer and closer. Oh well.

[DesDownunder]

Meller-drammer? Disdress?

I be inclined to try to guess which one of the cast was straight.

[The Pecman]

The solid, clear line between news and editorial has been blurring for years. I agree Cole, it often seems nonexistant these days, especially stories from certain news organizations.

I agree completely, Gee. Speaking with my part-time journalist hat on, I grimace at what I read on the web passing for "news," where the writers feel a need to insert their own opinions into the story. I refer to this as "The TMZ-izing of America."

[dude]

I see this all the time now on the net, but still find it disturbing. Chris' news report is fine and dandy until, in the last paragraph, the writer finds it necessary to add his own two cents and try to tell the world the right way to behave. Why does he do this? He's been telling us what happened. That's news reporting. Then he throws in his own questionable views on behavior, turning the story into an opinion puff piece, and in the process pissing me off royally. I don't need someone to tell me how to behave in and out of a theater, and certainly not thisarrogant jerk.

This isn't the way people wrote articles in the good old days. You know, before this kind of thing became common. Those days.

C

Have you never watched the Fox News Channel or MSNBC?

Mike

[Cole Parker]

I don't watch those on purpose.

C