I always love it when our boys get attached to a fully-fledged fad that is completely un-related to anything happening in the mainstream – it gives me the warm fuzzy feeling that they are their own agents and can (occasionally) deviate beyond the usual sheep-like behavior dictated by peer-pressure and the mainstream.

The current number 1 in our house is Ghostbusters, which started when I brought home the animated TV series on DVD, with it’s glorious 80’s soundtrack blasting out in dolby.

At this point I started decorating the boys lunch boxes with Ghostbuster imagery (from memory).  (We have been doing this for a while – it’s cheaper than buying branded lunch boxes for every new craze, deeply personalize-able and good fun.

Of course, having enjoyed the animated series the call went out for more, so we started watching the first movie last night.

1984!  (No, not the Amazon take-down.) The first Ghostbusters came out in 1984, which I saw it at the movies when I was about 10.  How time flies.  I must say it’s aged quite well.  Plenty of laughs, particularly when (on their first, destructive job) the maids cart (and various rolls of toilet paper) gets incinerated.  More laughs when Venkman suggests they split up “we’ll do more damage that way”.  I’m not sure if the boys were laughing at Venkman’s disdain for restraint, or my wife - laughing at Venkman’s disdain for restraint.

Trivia: There’s a spooky link between Garfield and Ghostbusters; In Ghostbusters Bill Murray plays Peter Venkman and he also performs the voice of Garfield in the semi-live action movies of late.  Lorenzo Music performed the voice of Garfield in the television cartoon shows and the voice of Peter Venkman in the 1980’s Ghostbusters cartoon series mentioned above.  Spooky.  Geez, I have a good ear to pick that out.

I tried to explain this compelling bit of knowledge to my wife last night but got complaints of having to think too hard. Doh!

On a completely different note, be careful at work – you never know when you’ll be sharing that toliet/shower at the office with a Dalek.  I wonder who would win out of a Dalek and a Ghostbuster with a proton emitting nuclear accelerator?

(Predictably, the Dalek speech bubble says "EXTERMINATE!").