We face challenges

You've probably heard that most movies, while in production, have working titles, and the final title for the picture is sometimes decided upon after all the filming is done. For instance, only in the last minute was the title "Frankly Scarlet" changed to "Gone With The Wind."

It's now coming out that the Netflix movie now known as "Bird Box" was entitled "Get Blindfolded and Do Stupid Things" while in production.

"Bird Box" was a movie that everyone in the free world watched over the holidays, with the sole exception being myself, it would seem, as I was happily dancing my way through Hallmark holiday movies, all of which star Claudia from "Party of Five" as a young woman of tremendous professional accomplishment who still seeks personal satisfaction of the kind that can only be found by going to one's childhood home town and reconnecting with someone who crushed mightily on you in high school.

Anyway, this bird box picture has Sandra Bullock leading two children to safety. The children are blindfolded for some reason or another.

But this has led to a world in which children (and some adults) are donning the blindfold and then stumbling around like ninnies, banging into the furniture.  And it's only a matter of time before they're out directing traffic with their eyes covered, riding unicycles on the beltway with a blindfold on, tying a handkerchief over their eyes while chopping onions for soup.

Naturally, Netflix, spurred on by a sense of social responsibility and their lawyers, put out a statement:

“Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE.”
“We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes.”

Man oh man. If it isn't the Tide Pods or the Condom Challenge of the Deodorant Challenge, it's going to be something else. And as my wise and wonderful wife says, the need that some people seem to have to get famous on the internet through some silly video is powerful stuff.



45 million people have watched the movie, says Netflix.  YouTube says more than 2 million views have been logged of some girl and a friend doing mundane chores like ordering chicken from Popeyes while blindfolded or getting on an escalator.

And then, someone with a lot more Instagram time than sense combined the Bird Box challenge with the Kiki challenge. That's the one where you climb out of a moving car and dance on the road.



I'm not saying that a lot of kids are doing this, or even that many are. I am saying that even one kid doing this is more than common sense would seem to allow.

And I'm sitting here writing about it.

I do wish to encourage some people to try the deodorant challenge, however. Apply as directed.