Little Gits on the Prairie

This is what Eamonn calls my favorite childhood show, which was, of course: Little House on the Prairie. He was forced to watch it (along with the Waltons) with his three sisters as a child. My guess is that his memories of Little House are not so fond as mine.

I confess that I own two seasons on DVD. And although I own two seasons on DVD, some days when I'm working on a simple project, I'll have the TV on in the background and if Little House is on, I'll watch. The Family Channel airs it three times a day. It makes me happy.

Sometimes my friend Karen and I send each other Little House trivia via e-mail. I thought I was good, but Karen pretty much takes the prize with her Little House knowledge. I do pride myself in the fact that if I happen to miss the title while the opening credits are rolling, I can tell what episode it is within the first five seconds. I can do the same with the Brady Bunch. An admirable talent, I know.

Recently, I think someone at the Family Channel has been a little lax in their duties. In the morning, two back to back episodes run. A week or two ago, the first episode of the morning was the one where Mary qualifies for the state math competition (that episode is called "The Pride of Walnut Grove" for those of you burning to know). The second episode was the one where Ma cuts her leg on a piece of wire and nearly dies of infection (called "A Matter of Faith"). Neither of these is my favorite, but I watched anyway.

This morning, I happened to flip through channels during breakfast and saw the same two episodes on this morning. What the heck Family Channel? With nine seasons to choose from, I don't think we need to be repeating just two weeks apart. Granted, that last season after Ma and Pa left were pretty lame, and how Shannon Doherty ended up on there, I'll never know, but anyway, I've now created an entire blog post about how I'm annoyed with the Family Channel and their programming error today.

I didn't watch, if that makes you feel any better.

But I did call my sister to get her interpretation of the episode about Ma. When Ma is sterilizing the knife and wielding it around at the end, what is she trying to do? Is she going to attempt to amputate her own leg? Other than that poor guy who had to saw off his own arm when he was trapped between two rocks in a remote Utah canyon several years ago, I don't know how successful people have been at self-amputation. Is this what Ma is thinking: "I'll just cut my leg off real quick and then head on over to the barn raising?" Is she just going to cauterize the wound with the hot knife? Is she going to dig out the infected part of the leg? I wondered this as a kid and it weighs heavy on my mind to this day. Maybe I'll write a fan letter to Karen Grassle and see what she thinks.

Got a favorite Little House Episode? Mine are:
-Any episode involving a holiday or conflict with Nellie Oleson, particularly the Bunny episodes.

And here's some trivia. See if you can beat Karen.

Q. What is the name of the raccoon Laura brings home as a pet in season one?