BRING BACK TRADITIONAL ANIMATION ALREADY GODDAMMIT

Just saw the trailer for Hoodwinked.

Holy crap. It looks terrible. It doesn't even look like someone's demo reel from back when teapots, brushed chrome spheres and checkerboards were all the rage. I did better animation with my 486/66, a copy of POVray, and two nights' worth of rendering. (It was called Purvis The Blob and it wibbled.)

And this one defies all logic. Or maybe you'd like to explain to me why the cows (as evidenced by their udders) are speaking in tough guy voices?

I don't want to hear anything about how it's supposed to be for the kids, blah blah woof woof. Kids deserve better.

Alas for, uh...

No more Krispy Kreme in Medford, it seems. Or Saugus. Both franchises have closed. Add to this the one in Copley Square which is no more and you've got a company that came in like a whirlwind in 2003 only to die right out two years amid cries of "So long trendy donut chain" and "Can you still blame the Atkins Diet for this?" It really is the company's own fault, for its rampant expansionism and stock manipulation.

Bostonians who only know Krispy Kreme as the krazy upstart who burst in on the scene two and a half years ago and caused 90-minute drive-through lines as folks waited for HOT DONUTS NOW (and decided maybe Dunkie's was good enough for 'em) may never really know what they were missing. Sad, really. Before 2003 I knew Krispy Kreme as a true Midwest treat, one that I only was able to get when I went coaster-tripping down to Iowa or Ohio (or NYC or Myrtle Beach, but that's another story.) When they arrived on the Boston scene, I was happy, but then realized exactly why it was a good Occasional Treat and not a Regular Thing: them donuts is fat. Eat a half dozen in one sitting and you'll groan about it for days. (Ok, maybe you shouldn't eat a half dozen of anybody's donuts in one sitting, but in my defense, I was drunk.) When I had access to all the Krispy Kremes I could ever want, the novelty was lost and the feeling of specialness disappeared.

Me and charva seem to be the only ones who liked their coffee, as well, and we did very well to treat the Wellington Krispy Kreme (also saddled with the Worst Location Ever) as an Occasional Treat, especially late at night when one or both of us were stuck in CAN'T HANDLE IT Mode.

Additionally, it was the only place in Massachusetts I found where you could get fountain Mr. Pibb. Not any more, I guess.