Banter Bites

Movies & The Popcorn Predicament

Sometimes you don't miss something until it's gone. But was it the movies? The escape? Or the popcorn?

BANTER BITE BACKSTORY: For both Red and Black (but for different reasons), it seemed like the day (or rather weekend) would never come when Red would feel comfortable, post-pandemic, going back to the movies; but Red never expected the stumbling block would involve one of her favorite things.


If you had told Red in March 2020 that she wouldn't be going back to the movies for over a year, she'd have thought you were crazy, or maybe just setting her up to hear the plotline of a farfetched B-movie. But now, 15 months later, after first having to find a temporary solution to get her movie and popcorn "fix" and then questioning whether it was safe to go back to a theater, Red was raring to go. Until she faced an unexpected popcorn problem,

I checked the movie listing at my local AMC, and there wasn't anything I wanted to see, except for A Quiet Place Part II, having seen the original, which is all about monsters that can't see but detect their prey by hearing even the faintest sound. And therein lay the problem … I remembered how, during this literally almost silent movie, I couldn't enjoy my popcorn because I felt you could hear every crunch across the entire theater. So, the thought of a movie without popcorn was just too much for me.

Of course, Black started to explain to Red the history and business aspects of movie popcorn (theater owners initially resisted selling it), as well as to suggest she be patient as Hollywood's ready to make a comeback with plenty of summer blockbusters. But Black stopped short of talking about how the movie industry will probably be changed forever by the pandemic, instead telling her,

Forget about the popcorn. Think about the fact movies let you "escape real life" for a few hours, and you come out refreshed and with less stress. Which carries into the workweek. So, the sooner you start going back to the movies, the better – for both of us!

No matter what holiday you may celebrate, Red can’t help but quote a line from one of her favorite Christmas songs, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light. From now on, your troubles will be out of sight.”

And Black can’t help but point out that the song wasn’t introduced in a Christmas movie but in the movie "Meet Me In St. Louis."

Wishing you a merry everything and a happy always!

This is one of Red’s favorite Banter Bites in large part because of Black’s “corny” puns, but also because fresh corn is a summer staple – whether cooked on the grill or in the microwave, whether eaten on its own or as a primary ingredient in refreshing summer salads


This may be one of the corniest things you’ll ever read.

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Think you can avoid artificial intelligence? Think again …

BANTER BITE BACKSTORY: Red already fights technology at every turn, preferring to keep her ostrich head in the sand, plus, she finds Artificial Intelligence (AI) scary; whereas Black knows ignoring reality merely postpones the inevitable, so she’s started playing with AI to understand it better …

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