Nobody Puts Suleikha in the Corner!

Pot Bunnies*

I’m trying to remember the theme to Halloween but keep hearing The Exorcist theme in my head. I know one of them is called “Tubular Bells.” I remember that from a commercial for those mail-order record collections in the ‘80s.

A friend had a Bluesky post about her BIPAP mask and it makes me think of bibimbap. I’ve never had bibimbap.

The light on my humidifier reminds me of the light in The Great Gatsby.

*Logged high, shared later.

Teal Deer (TL; DR)

Check out this love letter to Dirty Dancing from when I was contributing to Heroes & Heartbreakers (RIP!). I transferred it to a personal blog in May of 2017. I still maintain there was never a TV remake.

“Dirty Dancing’s Johnny and Baby Last Forever (Fight Me!)”

Baby and Johnny live happily ever after. Sure, it’s easy to write off the events of 1987’s beloved Dirty Dancing as a beautiful summer fling set to a kickass 1960s soundtrack—most people do—but I’m here to tell you that they make it. They survive past the credits and the last strains of “The Time of My Life.”

The basic plot of the movie involves a privileged, sheltered, college-bound girl, played by Jennifer Grey, falling for Patrick Swayze’s blue-collar dance instructor. But like so many romance novels we’ve devoured and loved, the emotional core is that they connect despite their differences—and they admire each other because of them. I’ve read summaries that describe Johnny as the worldly one in the relationship—and maybe he is sexually, but in all other ways…? Baby holds the power. Yes, she’s wealthy and educated, but she’s also fearless and brave and strong in her convictions. She goes after what she wants—and who she wants. That floors Johnny. Ultimately, he’s the one seduced, not her.

Baby learns to dance so that Penny can keep her job. She goes to her father for medical help when Penny’s back-alley abortion goes wrong. She faces down her family and the Kellermans to exonerate Johnny when he’s accused of stealing from guests. Why wouldn’t she fight for an HEA with that exact same passion?

And I believe she does. Past the summer. Into fall at Mount Holyoke. Baby keeps winning—with Johnny by her side. There is nothing to suggest otherwise. In Baby’s opening voiceover, she notes that she met Johnny “before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came.” Who’s to say they didn’t experience those milestones together? That they weren’t huddled in front of the TV together, stunned and clutching hands, as Walter Cronkite interrupted As the World Turns? Who’s to say they didn’t dance to “Something” at their wedding? Let’s face it, we’ve taken bigger leaps in fiction—and in life. Opposites attracting and then making a marriage work isn’t a huge hop.

As far I’m concerned, this is what happens after that fateful, forbidden, fantastic summer at Kellerman’s: They make it. They survive. They continue to help people in need. And they keep dancing.

(And, most importantly, they aren’t remade into a soulless, money-grab TV movie by ABC.)