The Crocodile Sitter

This essay can now be found in the first collection of my essays:

Thinking The Lions, and 117* Other Ways To Look At Life (*Give Or Take)

Buy it here.

Unraveling The Mysteries of the Universe, #2:

The babies are at the age where they're starting to like movies, and they have their favorites already. Number one on the list is "Toy Story." They watch it over and over and over. So I watch it over and over and over. And I listen to it, over the baby monitor at night, while they fall asleep watching it. I like that a little -- it's kind of like listening to an old fashioned radio show. "NBC Radio brings you... Toy Story. Sponsored by Smith Brand Cod Liver Oil."

But having watched it roughly 100 billion times, something occurred to me. The toys can move when people are around if they want to -- they do it when they scare Sid at the end of the movie. But they don't move, because they're toys, when people are around.

Buzz Lightyear, though, doesn't think he's a toy for most of the movie. He thinks he's a space ranger. So why doesn't he move when people are around?