With great power comes great responsibility

I will always compare Ferb's crush with Dipper's crush on Wendy (because frankly Gravity Falls is the gold standard for writing a child having a crush on someone significantly older). In Gravity Falls we completely understand Dipper's crush on Wendy is childish and unattainable. We understand why he's having these feelings but it's not endorsing the hypothetical relationship. In Phineas and Ferb, Ferb flirts with Vanessa multiple times and it feels like an adult in a child's body in those moments. Which is funny on a surface level and in isolation, but uncomfortable with a deeper context. Ferb's crush is treated as a running gag instead of an exploration of his character. Which is a shame because there is so much writing potential with Ferb having a crush that can be done in a way that's nuanced and authentic.

YUP. I agree with all of this 100000%. I get what you’re saying with Ferb. Esp with his singing voice in the original show being different than his talking voice!!!! It’s just bizarre in hindsight…maybe he’s wise beyond his years but he’s still a kid :(

I love how Gravity Falls depicts this situation. And as a 12 year old watching season 1 as it aired I TOTALLY shipped Dipper and Wendy. But now as an adult, I just really really love how the show handled that situation. Especially when it doubles down on it with Dipper encountering a younger Wendy and realizing how weird it is for her to think he’s cute AND the fake-Wendy in Mabel’s bubble suggesting to Dipper that they become the same age and him realizing it isn’t real!!!! It’s such a great testament to the reality of the situation. those are the kinds of stories kids need to grow up with, not whatever ferbnessa is😵‍💫.

like I’d LOVE if they did a build up of Vanessa and Ferb having a little friendship leading to an episode where Vanessa learns he’s got a crush, maybe Candace notices and gives Ferb grief for it and he’s embarrassed, or he sees Vanessa with Monty and gets sad. But Vanessa lets him down easy in a similar vein to Wendy and encourages him. It would be so sweet. And important for kids to see!!!!

like. idk. in my heart of hearts, they’re sibling coded and there’s no crush on Ferb’s part (even though him having a crush isn’t bad in my heart he doesn’t have one), and they’re just sibling or “the two coolest cousins at the function” core.

also. ok. OK. the amount of suffering Candace and Isabella go through in regards to romance in the original run of the show………..Ferb can suffer a bit too. they depict romantic angst really well. (almost too well in Isabella’s case.)

See, the first time I grew parsnips, I fucked it up good. I hadn't seen parsnips sprouting before, right, and in my eagerness I was keeping a close eye on the row. And every time I saw some intruding grass coming up, I twitched it right out, and went back to anticipating the germination of my parsnips.

But it turns out parsnips take a bit longer than anything else I'd ever grown to distinguish themselves visually. It's just the two little split leaves, almost identical to a newly seeded bit of kentucky bluegrass when they first come up, and they take a good bit to establish themselves and spread out flat before the main stem with its first distinctive scallopy leaf gets going.

I didn't get any parsnips, not that year, because I'd weeded them all out as soon as they showed their faces, with my 'ugh no that's grass' twitchy horticulture finger.

The next year, having in retrospect come to suspect what had happened, I left the row alone and didn't weed anything until all the sprouts coming up had all had a bit to set in and show their colors, and I've grown lots of parsnips since. They're kind of a slow crop, not a huge return, but I like them and watching them grow and digging them up, and their papery little seeds in the second year, if you don't harvest one either on purpose or because you misjudged the frost, so it's worth it.

If we need someone to do a job, that job is a role in the community and deserves not just a salary but cultural respect for the role.

"high" ambition jobs are all jobs that involve domineering and controlling others. "low" ambition jobs are all jobs that involve service to others. Have you noticed? Because I have noticed.

is actually more needed

than controlling them.