'Mad Max' sequel in the works Hollywood Reporter Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The "Twilight" sequel: werewolves and heartbreak CNN Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Dracula sequel goes back to source CBC News Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Chinese food in America started with the 1848 California Gold Rush and the rush hasn't stopped since.
October 30, 2009
Figured this would be a good day to discuss sequels since I assumed Hollywood would spring "Halloween 45" on us and we could get rid of Halloween at the same time.
Of course, I should have realized it’s not that easy to get rid of Halloween.
(How exactly do you remove sprayed cobwebs from a rhododendron?)
Now, sequels and prequels are different from the remake, which we covered in our last excuse to talk about movies.
Not that, mind you, a sequel can’t also be a remake.
The word “sequel” is from the Middle English, from the Anglo-French “sequele” from Latin sequela "to follow."
Someone said, "A sequel is an admission that you've been reduced to imitating yourself."
A film sequel, to qualify as a sequel, chronologically portrays events following those of a previous work.
As opposed to a prequel which portrays events “pre” before, as in “Another Part of the Forest,” a 1948 movie by Lillian Hellman that came after her 1941 drama, “The Little Foxes,” but really describes the "forest" before.
The first sequel in Hollywood history?
Thomas Dixon, whose book "The Clansman" was turned into D.W. Griffith's successful (despite the Klan thing) "Birth of a Nation," didn't profit by it, so he came up with "Fall of a Nation" and started a Hollywood tradition.
Sometimes sequels have unrelated titles such as “The Jewel of the Nile” that followed
“Romancing the Stone" or “The Dark Knight” that followed “Batman Begins,” which makes it confusing.
I like it when they simply add a number, as in "Lethal Weapon 2," or "Spider-Man 3," which makes it easy for someone like me to know it’s a sequel.
Sequels, if there's enough of them, become a series. From what I gather there are no hard and fast rules on how many sequels constitute a series.
Since the World Series is going on, (I am nothing if not topical) I would say seven is a fair amount.
So by that reasoning, The Godfather sequels wouldn’t constitute a series.
Even though “The Godfather: Part II” was the only sequel (and part prequel) to win an Academy Award. Should we call it a presequel?
But I will arbitrarily make "Rocky" a series, because he's family by now and I hear “Rocky 7” is in the works.
And, oddly enough, “The Thin Man” only begat five afterwards, too.
So I may have to rethink my series qualifications to make it six. You have to be flexible in this business.
However, you can't quibble with these series: 007, with 22. Clouseau bungled his way to eight. (Non-Sellers don't count.) “The Whistler,” one of my favorites, whistled in with enough to qualify. Charlie Chan may have set the record with over 50 installments. Sherlock Holmes deduced his way to close to 20 and “Tarzan” was in that neighborhood.
Looking forward to you going out on a limb too—which, after me, may not be that tough of an act to...follow.
The 25 Best Sequels of all Time movies.aol.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Best Pictures - Facts & Trivia filmsite.org Take a look at an interesting article we found.
The Golden Age of Hollywood: 1930s - 1940s unc.edu Take a look at an interesting article we found.
My Favorite Sequel(s) are all the Pictures of the same ilk that came after the Original 1934...
Oct. 30, 2009 12:45 AM
Favorite sequel?
6% 26% 29% 20% 0% 20%
Should Godfather II count as a sequel, since a large part of it came from the original novel?
My Favorite Sequel(s) are all the Pictures of the same ilk that came after the Original 1934 Picture, The Thin Man ... Superbly Cast, Superbly Acted, and flawlessly well done in every aspect ....... Drama, Comedy, and both seamlessly intertwined all thru each Picture ... These Pictures are pleasingly, Cute !!! Cutest thing that I ever saw, until Roberta Lansky moved to town ... but thats a whole nuther subject ... The Thin Man, STILL Great after over seventy years .......
more on the honor rollAnd Topper....Cosmo Topper to be sure. With Neal, the dog, and George and Marian Kirby. Shasta was a great pup; the forerunner of the star of the show with Kelsey Grammer (can't remember his name)....but I also am a fan of...DR WHO....now there is a sequel/prequel in almost every episode....AND, it IS a series....
and oooh, the stacy Keech detective....oooh, and Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes...Flash Gordon? Buster Crabb (sp?) as any of his iterations....those were sequels,serials,and prequels.....all it took was the musical que to tell you...(organ music in the background{stolen by Wayne's World}doodle a doo,doodle a doo)cliff hangers....
Is there going to be a sequel to the Tamerlane jacket you sold out of so quickly in early fall?
That one deserves a second go.
Coo Coo Ca-Choo, Mrs. Robinson ....... Peterman loves you more than you can know .......
You'll start a flood of Inquiries, with that very same Question, every one of them good Prospect .......
The Dark Knight is probably one of the best sequels in last few years. The story was well develped. I'm not sure what my favorite sequel of all time is, but the sequel that I found most disappointing was 2010, (I think that was the title),. It was the sequel to 2001 A Space Odessy.
Today I wish I could quit my job & spend my days going to the movies, eating corndogs, & sleeping in....
Is 007 a sequel or a series of movies w/ the same character?I am most confused.
12 Angry Men had a sequel with contemporary big name actors, but I still like the original best. I hope they never try to remake To Kill A Mockingbird, the interaction between Gregory Peck and his daughter Scout says as much about qualty parenting {teaching by example} as it does about lawyering being a true profession, not just a conduit to make lots of money. On The Beach was great in the original version, the best anti-war movie ever made, jmo. But the obscure remake, Armand Assante playing the submarine captain trapped in Australia with his crew after nuclear war who has to deal with the love of a beautiful woman that he has discovered, while still in love with his likely deceased wife - wow. Some say that I have a penchant for "chick flicks," perhaps I have merely learned after all this time that it's ok for men to acknowledge that they have an emotional component, and that love (for a woman or for a cause) always trumps apathy, ignorance, greed.
I think I am comingling "remake" with "sequel" ...... not big on sequels, in the technical sense. How can you ever replicate what happened to your heart, when you first met & made eye contact with the woman of your dreams? You can't, not that good things didn't follow. But for just that special moment, that special place of precious hours, days, months....you soared like eagles, life had no boundaries, and you wondered why fools needed drugs to feel "high" ..... jmo
I have always felt that KILL BILL should have been allowed to become a series, instead of just the two. After Tarantino developed the character of O-ren Ishii so well, I have always fell let down that I didn't get to know why B and L hated each otherso much, or learn how Bill came to be, well Bill, or any of the other interactions and stories (and sub-stories) that would have been elucidated had each character on her kill list been allowed to be treated with their own film as Tarantino had planned.
My favorite sequel changes daily; today it's Evil Dead 2 (technically a remake!), yesterday it was Big Top Pee Wee.
Overall, sequels don't bother me as much as others. To me, sequels are like chain restaurants; you know exactly what to expect as soon as you walk in the door.
Bert~ While not a sequel, "A Time To Kill" seemed to be based a "To Kill A Mockingbird." And Mathew McConehay is no Atticus.
Peterman has it wrong. "The Pink Panther" is a sequel the first Clouseaumovie and it was with Peter Sellers was "A shot in the Dark"
The Pink Panther movies with Peter Sellers, were, at the time really good, We found ourselves quoting him and ding the "remember him......" stuff and laughing all over again. BUT (there's the "but") generally speaking sequels are rather disappointing and remakes -- well, don't get me started.
Wasn't The Godfather Part II a prequel?
I have a very bad sense of time(only partially remedied by using a time line)... I sort of have it figured out that if you watch The Return of the Mongolian Invaders first, and The Invasion of the Mongolian Invaders later, that IMI is still the prequel to RMI, despite the chronology. (That is, the sequence isn't the order in which one sees the movies, but the order in which the makers of the film made them...). OK. Also, if the plot goes from film #1, to film #2, and then to film #3, each is the sequel to the one before it (and usually they make the films in the order of the plot...). But if they go back to 'the background movie' showing what happened before movie #1, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars, then I get all balled up. Is the lastest film, which describes what happened before the first film in plot sequence, a prequel, a sequel, or what? Oh,my.... this is so confusing!
Perhaps it's because of my fractured approach to time, but I liked 'Slaughterhouse 5' (the movie) because -- like me -- Billy Pilgrim got the timeline of his life all confused, flashing both back and forward. My friends know that I have a relatively simple approach to time: it happened, it's happening, it is going to happen. FORTUNATELY, one of the things that stuck in my mind from high school was 'time lines'. Most of my history books have carefully assembled timelines (usually in Excel) so I can keep sequences in order. It irritates me no end when I read histories (most of them) that do not have timelines, since then I have to do their work. Otherwise, absent memorizing dates, everything descends into a haze. [Word of warning: NEVER study Roman or Byzantine history without a timeline!] What does this all have to do with movies? Not a lot except it would be very cool if -- in a series of films -- they were to feature a timeline showing the sequence of the films in even an imaginary chronology. I could then take a mental snapshot of that frame and use it to figure out in which order to see the films.... Then I'd just be faced with remembering in which order I'd seen them..... Oh, my :-(
I'd like to meet the guy who came up with the idea of numbering years in ascending order. Ditto the guy who decided to number the days in each month from one to either 28, 29, 30, or 31. They have made my life ever so much easier: the lower the number, the further back in time; the higher the number the more recent. What a fantastic concept! As useful as the wheel or fire!
What count applys to the Lord of the Rings if they filmed them all together and edited them into giant blockbusters that corresponded to the novels? Harry Potter will have 7 after not too long so today a sequel tomorrow a series. After viewing the Halloween classic, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown ( this year my youngest is the ghost who had a little trouble with the scissors) I have to admit to prefering a story that stands on its own even if there are recurring characters from another movie. As for Star Wars, how do you count the cartoon versions?
Maybe one of the advantages of not having a good 'time sense' is that when one watches anything (film or real life) it becomes the only thing that really exists. It's all 'NOW'. Even reading about the Mongol destruction of Baghdad in 1258, it is happening (in one's mind) 'now', since one is reading 'NOW'. It makes history come to life when it is really happening, albeit only in one's brain.....
And speaking of Lord of the Rings, all of those won Academy Awards. I quite like all three of them.
Out of order sequels? What about the Indiana Jones movies?
Part 2 (Temple of Doom) Happened first
Part 3 (Last Crusade) Happened second
Part 1 (Raiders of the Lost Ark) Happened third
I don't count Crystal Skull (fourth in series and chronologically) but that's because the plot was too unbelievable.
What does it say of moviegoers that Sylvester Stallone gains more coverage than The Thin Man? Wait: I may be biased, as I've yet to see any Sylvester Stallone film....
I believe it was Bennet Cerf who pointed out that only twice in history had the sequel exceeded the original:
1) Tom Sawyer
2) The New Testament. But then Mr. Cerf died in 1971.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy
the difference is we are actually living this one...........................
Oops, speaking of egg in one's beard, Y'all all know Tom Sawyer came first and Huck Finn was the sequel.
Georgia ~ Action movies tend to have bigger marketing budgets and are preferred by movie goers over films like The Thin Man. However, Sly has done a few good movies, among them Oscar, Rocky, Cobra, and Tango & Cash. All but Oscar and Rocky are action films, but all can stand on their own.
Mr. Trask ~ How about when the CSA rejoined the the Union and remade the USA? Or would that be a remake?
Doc Nolan: You sure have an inventory of material in your head, sometimes it is humbling just to feel so inadequate, I think of myself as more of an instinctive player in the game of life....
Doc Nolan: Thanks, virtual friend, that was right in front of me, yet I missed it.
Actually Daniel, you got the Indiana Jones movies out of order:
IJ & The Temple of Doom - 1935 (2nd movie)
Raiders of the Lost Ark - 1936 (1st movie)
IJ & the Last Crusade - 1938 (3rd movie)
IJ & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 1957 (4th movie)
The 5th movie is rumored to be set in the 1950's, also.
CptMatt~ Thank you for noticing I switched part 1 with part 3. How I confused those years, I'll never know.
Crystal Skull still doesn't count. I mean honestly, what the heck was with the aliens? I understand why, but it was a total rocket-jump-the-shark moment.
While driving to work (yes, it IS a very slow day here!), it occurred to me that our lives consist of a long string of sequels, about 365 of them each year.... For better or worse, the day shift scriptwriters (a) operate on a team basis, and (b) must be getting paid a flat salary; and (c) have tenure. (How else to explain their abysmal performance!). On the other hand, the folks building the sets are absolute geniuses! As for the night shift, those guys seem to think that YouTube clips strung together with 'blank spaces' in between them are sufficient. They do, however, show more imagination than the day shift guys.
Now here's a question: Is life more like film, more like standup comedy, or more like live theater?
Andy: Godfather II is really 2 movies in one. The flashback section, of Vito in Sicily, coming to America, starting his family, starting his Family, and getting revenge is one part, and comes from the original Godfather book by Puzo. The second part, of Pre-Castro Cuba and Las Vegas is not from the original book. So, it is sort-of a prequel, but not in the normal sense.
Doc~ Dinner Theater. Life is like Dinner Theater.
Daniel Zev: I never looked at those as interrelated, too fascinated by Mockingbird. Great work, virtual friend.
Zev: I must admit that I recently bought a used copy of Crystal Skull, being the die-hard Indiana fan I am. Sure, they jumped the shark but the story wasn't nearly as bad as I'd heard it would be. The son character, I thought, fit in pretty well. Anyhow, it wasn't nearly the dog that Temple of Doom was.
You have heard that the updated version of 'jump the shark' phrase is 'nuke the fridge?'
Strangely, I was most disappointed with it when Ford uttered the word, 'new-cue-ler." Where the hell was quality control???
Col. Zev,
I am not so sure about the reconstructed US. Maybe the US was a good sequel to England, not being just the same movie in a new place, but one with a lot more actors from other places, but then, England could be said to be a sequel to Athens and Rome... Only without the spaghettiand pizza, at least at first.
Patricia Highsmith wrote several Tom Ripley novels and the Matt Damon movie is not the only one- there is one with Malkovich and Ray Winstone and a German one with Dennis Hopper. I think there is even an Alain Delon one. None of these are sequels in the Hollywood sense, but they are based on literary sequels.
WILLIE TRASK: Good to see you in the Village again .......
We date ourselves hugely, because we know who Bennet Cerf was ....... A very important, very powerful person, who is mostly remembered for a Television Show on which he appeared regularly called, WHAT'S MY LINE ... Cerf was so far to the Left, that had he moved any farther, he'd have been on the Right, and he was one of the many Targets of Tail Gunner Joe (sadly) but he was a brilliant man and had the good sense to appreciate and recognize Ayn Rand, who was totally opposite of him in every way .......
Daniel, it's because Lucas was trying to keep the homage aspect of IJ "era appropriate". The first 3 movies were set in the '30s, so they were reminiscent of '30s serials. Crystal Skull was in 1957, so he was trying to mimic the big thing of that era, cheesy scifi movies (think Tarantula, Attack of the Saucer Men, Plan 9 from Outer Space, etc).
The trouble is, he hit closer to cheesy scifi of the late '70s & early '80s (E.T., CE3K, Erich von Daniken).
RoadYacht, Bert and Jalopkin: Do you guys ever sleep?
Yes, the Thin Man series...the best. My son introduces prospective girl friends to them. test #?
As a kid, I read those Bennet Cerf books, my Dad had a few...we didn't have much shelf space for books, but those were prominent on the shelf in the closet that was 'the bookshelf'. Mr Cerf taught me the premise of humor. Not formulaic,mind you,but definately having a pattern.....So, do movies like Laurel and Hardy_ _ (fill in the adventure)become a sequel because of the similarity of characters,or the series,because of the outcome?
Kim~ I have a time machine
KIM: Yes Ma'am ... between 5A and 930A every day except Saturday ... I shut down at 4P on Friday, and do nothing until a few minutes after Sundown on Saturday ... so then Saturday morning I sleep in till about 11A ... Been that way for almost three quarters of a century ... Elementary School was the most difficult time ever for me, having to be in my place with a Brite Shiney Face every morning when I was supposed to be asleep ... I tried to talk to my School's Warden about this "Brite Sheeny Faces" thing, and explain to her about ChronoBiological Clocks, Circadian Rhythm, the Krebs Cycle, undsoweiter ... All she would do was tell me they didn't have Nite School for Six Year Olds ....... Never caught a Break until Junior High School and getting into D E ....... College was even easier ... Torah says, "Do Not Sleep As Others Sleep, But Keep Ye a Watch In The Night ..." So, I'm doin' my part .......
I used to wonder, with the Star Wars movies, how we went from the supposedly "long ago" days of light sabers and Death Stars to the modern era of an ailing NASA and no robots for sale, but then the whole "in a galaxy far, far away" bit soothed my concerns. As far as Bond flicks go, I think the category "whole bunch of films with the same character" fits better, especially because the most recent duo feature Bond as a new agent, but post-Cold War (as attested by the spectacular Dame Judi Dench in "Casino Royale"). The timeline's all out of whack (whatever that means). And I agree with Julia, "2010" was disappointing. It fell into the trap of many sequels. When the first movie was made, there was nothing like it. It was like the Python skit, "And now... for something completely different." Then the sequel comes out. "And now... for something completely the same. And not quite as good." Also, to any other Clint Eastwood fans: even though "High Plains Drifter" was not directed by Sergio Leone, I think it still fits into the Man With No Name series. Your thoughts?
Lady Comrade: Don't forget the "far, far away" part.
My son (now 35) used to drive his parents crazy by memorizing and saying (about five seconds ahead) all the lines from the original Star Wars movie as the three of us watched. Now, my grandson Alex (age 3-1/2 watches the last 17 minutes of the SAME film over and over and over and OVER AND OVER .... well, you get the idea). I'm waiting for him to start memorizing all the lines as his father did. Question: Does that make Alex a sequel to his father?
I'm 4 the Thin Man being the Greatest series of movies & sequels made.
GEORGIA- "ROCKY" is a great movie. It's got everything- love, sadness, friendship, the underdog, turtles, more love- and Sylvester Stallone is wonderful! It also makes you wonder why the wonderful Talia Shire never got more parts. I had the Rocky poster on my wall in high school. Love those Italian men w/ broken noses & hooded eyes...
Georgia: Neither have I. Neither have I. Not a one.
My daughter called Star Wars, Star Bores. I thought she showed awfully good taste for such a little kid.
Seriously: give me a movie about the past and I'll watch it and there's a good chance I'll like it. Show me a film about the future, or mythological beasts, or Tolkien folks, and I won't make it through the first five minutes after the intro.
I'm comfortable with what happened; someone's vision about what might happen invariably gives me hives.
Ok PARK & GEORGIA- I have only seen Rocky- no sequels at all. A girl's gotta stay somewhat pure....
Princess Summerfallwinterspring? Is that you?
Princess Summerfallwinterspring, I remember her...
bebe: I agree. And he's making another one, Stallone is, or so I heard. Just one more to avoid, to endure hearing about.
Rocky Balboa. Is he really Everyman?
Best sequel I know of is a multi. Like Woody Allen, the famous director and pedophile said, "the worst one I've had was right on the money."
Just sayin'...
I saw the first half hour of the second Rocky movie. I'm with Bebe, stay pure.
I do watch all the George Clooney/Brad Pitt Ocean nonsense. Not much of a story line in those flicks. But there is something relaxing about watching Clooney and Pitt in expensive suits.
As I read over the posts after a long day (supposed to be a day off, didn't happen), I see my daughter's Harry Potter hardbound set of 6 books, all interrelated....she read #1 with me, begged me for all 6 hardboud, then she changed (hormones, boys)....maybe I'll read them myself, the author is quite entertaining...lol I love the website here, it lets me "scream" in virtual space, gives me perspective as to context of what is actually happening, tells me that all that formal education didn't go to waste, albeit for a different reason...
Bert~great story about a guy that sees an ad for an entire set of new encyclopedias.probably on disc to keep story current.for only $50...guy calls and asks if it is a mistake. "nope"says the guy on the phone..."daughter just turned 15 and now knows everything "....
Olivia! Nice zinger!
RoadYacht: OMG, somebody else's daughter became a genius overnight too?
I have one niece and no daughters... thank goodness! I remember my mom saying, 'I worry more about the girls [two] than about all you boys [5]." In fact, both sisters went through horrible first marriages and recovered to end up with incredible second husbands who have been tested and proved over the years.... Mom, unfortunately never could see past religion. She once said, "My children have left the Faith [note: six of the seven, actually]; it would have been better if I'd never had children." We understood her disappointment. But she raised her kids to be tough and to stick to their guns -- truly a double-edged sword. Mom was on the wrong side of the sword :-( I still think tough daughters (like tough sons) are a blessing. And I'm still glad I have no daughters or granddaughters; life is trying enough as it is!
When a kid has his uncle's chin, or his grandmother's smile, or his great-grandfather's nose, is the child a sequel?
I don't know if the kid's a sequel or not Doc, but if they've got all of those things, chances are they're pretty unfortunate looking.
As to daughters, I don't know, it seems that both boys and girls need the same amount of attention. Boys at 16 and girls at 16 are both as likely to get into trouble, I think. If you're talking tough as in Rocky tough, my daughter began with Tae Kwan Do at age 10 and she was small in size but dangerous, those little feet of hers -- though she's never had to take anybody out...
That I know of, that is.
Park4~we dint see nuttin' she was jus doin' her homework, we swear, and we woont lie...
And...we know a good lawyer
JULIA & PARK- Stallone was qoted as saying his wife told him, "Stop, you're embarrassing me & the girls."
I still stand by my man in the original "ROCKY".
PARK- yes, Rocky is everyman. Tender to animals, brutal in the ring. Loves his woman- plus the theme song is GREAT! I believe Talia Shire's husband wrote it.
So, all y'all are talkin' about y'all's tough daughters and how tough they are to raise...and they are...no argument here.....directly above me in the bathroom on the second floor is my 10 year old daughter having a Palmetto Bug Moment. To y'all not lucky enough to be Southerners, them's big brown cockroaches.
To my knowledge, this is her first unassisted kill. There is the distinctive yelp and the subsequent banging and moving about of furniture to reach said creature. All's quiet now. I was tempted to go and assist but all women must learn to kill bugs on their own. And pick them up to throw away. In college, I shared a house with two girls. It was so filled with bugs that we carved enough money out of our beer fund to contract with Orkin. After one visit to our basement, his monthly visits consisted of standing at the top of the stairs, crossing himself and tossing down a bug bomb. I became the designated exterminator.
How does this have anything to do with sequels? Dunno, just stream of consciousness, I reckon, and hearing my daughter live my life's fun moments...
Night all.
SHANDONISTA- I'll never forget the first time I saw a palmetto bug. They look like small mammals. Very halloween creepy they are. Your daughter has a wonderful mom. Let them learn early how to slay evil bugs...
I just kilt one a them big ol cockroaches...
We hates them forever! They're always crawling out from under things (not ALWAYS...I of course exaggerate-who, me? never!) and racing about on the counter or floor while I cuss and swat at them with the swatter.
When dispatched, out the back door they go. The birds or ants or whatever can have em.
BRRRRRR
Spiders, wasps, and those things. ick...
poor, poor insects............
In some parts of the world, thems good eatin'....BOO....mwaa haa haa
Yup...we gotta drop what we're doin', go slay the bug, or spider, or wasp, then go back to what we were doin'. We begin training at a very early age, with magnifying glasses and ants. It's our job. Women got more important things to do.
My daughter was the easy one. Damn near raised herself. She was born with a mission in the world, and went after it from Day One. I either helped, or got out of the way. She'd let me know, gently, which was required.
She's 19 now, beautiful in the way only women that age can be. Aced her first year of college so well that she lucked into her dream job over the summer and decided not to go back. Now, she's got a 10th-floor penthouse apartment, her own car, a fabulous boyfriend (a darling, responsible Seriously Grown-Up ex-paramedic from the Alberta tar sands who thinks she hung the moon) and a career running the very complicated life of one of Canada's top TV producers. "My life is charmed," she tells me. Indeed it is, and I'm glad she knows it. At any rate: my work here is done.
Of course, raising this angel created no shortage of hubris in her parents. We'd dress her up in little pinafore frocks and take her to the ballet, the symphony, the best restaurants in town. The parents of those other noisy, uncontrolled little hellions clearly lacked our magic touch with children, we told ourselves over the salade nicoise at Stars. If we had a day with those kids, we were quite sure, we'd get them straightened right out....
Of course, the gods reward such hubris. Our comeuppance was a strong-willed, intensely kinesthetic, deeply dyslexic son who required more hands-on parenting than any three kids I know. There was a long run of several years that a day didn't pass without my wondering which one of us wasn't going to make it till sunset. One of us, him or me, was going off the balcony any minute now.
Raising him was the hardest thing I've ever done. And also the best thing. He's sixteen now, and is suddenly growing up to be responsible, thoughtful, and kind -- and every bit as good a kid as his sister. (Also: he gets better grades. Go figure.) I admit that lately, the old hubris has been quietly rising again...but this time, there's no question in our minds that we've earned it all and then some.