I’m a foodie, so cooking and fine restaurants are a big part of my life. I’m also approaching menopause and starting to sense some irrational mood swings.
I went to see Ratatouille this last weekend. I know I’m misremembering the phrasing, but the line, “If you can cook, food can be anything that you want to make it,” made me start to bawl. It made me remember all the fine meals I’ve made out of some of the humblest of ingredients and how much the skill means to me.
What pathetic stuff to cry at, eh? No dogs died, no unrequited love story brought out the sniffles. I hope my hormones don’t wobble completely out of control or Og knows what trivial stuff is going to make me weep.
I tear up everytime I see a commercial about any of the 3-day breast cancer walks. I did one in Atlanta in 2002, and I get choked up just talking about it, even 5 years later. It was such an emotional thing- there were people lined up along the route we were walking, holding pictures of the mothers, wives, daughters and sisters they’d lost, and cheering for us. Some of the people walking were in the middle of chemo. There was a group of men walking who were breast cancer survivors. One woman hugged me, told me she was a breast cancer survivor, and said “you’re walking for me”. I still remember her name- it was Millie.
So, when I see one of the commercials, it all floods back and I get all weepy.
Star Trek NG, the episode where Data “creates” Lahl (Sp?) (His “daughter”)… Towards the end when she and Data are working together, trying with passionless desparation to keep her “Alive”, and failing… Balled like a baby…
Powerpuff Girls, where the girls make their a “new” Powerpuff Girl, who is ugly, stupid and awkward, to the point where the girls start avoiding and even mocking her… Only to have their creation sacrifice herself to save them from certain doom…
The ending of Iron Giant (Not a TV Show, but stilll!)
Sacrifice gets me…
The long-anonymous petty thief, always arrested and booked by Det. Mick Belker, died in his arms after being shot on Hill Street Blues, but not before telling Belker his true name and asking him to say goodbye to the thief’s mom.
My own mom always cried when she saw the AT&T cartoon about the nice little old lady who tells her husband that their son called. The husband is alarmed - is anything wrong? No, she says, sniffling: “He just called to say that he loved us.”
I always puddled up a little for the Toys.com ad from the late '90s, with the loving mom finding a firefly-collection kit for her son online. The background song helped make the commercial: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” performed by the Hawaiian folk singer Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (just his sweet vocalizing the first 40 seconds or so, though; none of the words).
That old Hallmark card commercial where the old lady across the street goes to her mailbox every day, smiling and hoping that this will be the day that she finally gets some mail from someone who cares about her and then gets nothing every single time until the little girl across the street notices and asks her mom to mail the old lady a Hallmark card…yeah, that one. Sniff
A sports one here, baseball. Brooks Robinson, 1970 World Series. Brooks made an unbelievable number of unbelievable plays in that series, but there is one…
I can’t post vid cuz MLB is what they are… I have it (twice) on Ken Burns’ Baseball series.
Lee May, a fearsome right-handed hitter, hits a ball very hard, couple-bouncer, hit in front of the plate to the outsidemost corner of the bag at third. Sharp angle. The play is shown twice in Ken Burns’ vids, once in real time, once in slo-mo. I have watched both literally 100’s of times. Even the slo-mo version… on slo-mo on my VCR. Basically frame-by-frame.
The shot is from about the 1st base dugout. May hits the ball. It travels down to the astroturf of old Riverfront Stadium, with much topspin… Brooks not in the frame…
ball hits turf and bounces up… Brooks not in the frame…
ball bends back downward because of the topspin… Brooks not in the frame…
ball hits turf again and bounces back up… Brooks not in the frame…
ball approaches third base bag… Brooks now at full speed comes into frame
ball bends again downward, over the bag fair, past the bag, in foul territory, and Brooks’ backhand glove is in front of it
He gloves it, and in one motion, heaves it towards 1st base, throwing off-balance, falling, completely giving up his body for the throw… consequences be damned.
What really makes me bawl is the Baltimore play-by-play (HOFer) LEGEND, Chuck Thompson’s call over top of this…
And the 1st base ump. He has his elbows clenched into his ribs, his fists clenched, almost wishing the throw will get May, salivating to call the out…
1st base ump’s back arches, right fist goes up in the air!
I can absolutely remember the strangest thing on television/movies that made me cry.
Keri Strug at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Landing the last vault on one foot because she’d sprained her other one. I bawled for several days (at least I bawled every time they replayed the footage). I even think I call my mother and bawled about it.
My sister and I cried together on the phone once because Fred Flintstone was happy Pebbles was born or Wilma was pregnant, I forget which. We were in our late twenties/early thirties and had seen that episode a number of times before without crying. I suppose it’s bad enough we were watching the Flintstones together over the phone, never mind the crying.
Disney always makes one cry but I was reminded of this yesterday when I was re-watching their version of Robin Hood, and the part where the Friar gets arrested made me sniffle.
Thanks for the heads up on this one. My son has been recently introduced to the Godzilla world; he will certainly react the same way to that ending, as might his dad.
Made me cry too because I hate(d) the Orioles as I was a Big Red Machine fan.
I still can’t acknowledge BR’s greatness because of the heartache he caused me that series. The pains of an 11 year old baseball fanatic burn eternally.
OMFG, I’d seen that when it first aired. That little boy’s face as he runs towards his Navy dad… his squeaky voice and tears as he hugs him tight… I was devastated then, and just now I was devastated all over again (in a good way). Thank you. But I can’t help but think of all the kids whose moms and dads aren’t coming home from Iraq, ever.
Oh, yeah. That one gets me every time. “Superman…” I still think that’s the best damn thing Vin Diesel’s ever done.
Anyway, for me, it’s the end of the first “culture fest” episode of the anime series Azumanga Daioh (well, and the end episode, but since you’re supposed to cry at that…).
The girls have just completed their exhausting first culture fest (an annual tradition in Japanese high schools) as friends together, when one of them says, out of the blue, “Let’s have a victory parade!”
And they do. It’s just them, marching slowly, as the sweetest, saddest, most nostalgic music I’ve ever heard plays. The whole scene is such a mix of happiness and sadness and joy and regret that I totally tear up every single time.
I remember being very young and watching an episode of Fridays. Michael Richards was in a sketch and he was playing an outrageously retarded character. Everyone else was laughing, but I just felt bad for him. Yup, I cried.
Just checking.