Finally, all is made clear

So when Fiona was little, we watched My Neighbor Totoro so often that I really started thinking about this place it was in, the people who were minor characters, what was really going on. It was intriguing, how very little was explicit, how very much it was a child's eye view of the world and adult situations. I've talked about this before. A lot.

When Daisy was little, she wasn't as consistent in what she liked to watch. Totoro, yes, but also a variety of other Miyazaki and Pixar films. And Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella. And all sorts of things. So I never really got a chance to reflect on anything for long enough to come up with questions.

With Billy, he likes cars and trains and fire engines and so forth. We watch a little Bob the Builder. Occasionally Dinosaur Train. Sometimes we go off-script and catch something weird on Netflix. Like Pingu. Wha?

But his old standby is Thomas. Of course. Thomas the Tank Engine, the Really Useful tank engine who sometimes causes confusion and delay. And I think about the Island of Sodor a lot. And I talk to Jake. And I say things like:

It has to be an island near Britain, I mean, it's obvious they're British of some kind. And it is an island, but it's not big enough to be Ireland. The Isle of Man? Is that what it's based on?

Look, there's industry there. Towns. Stations. Docks. They have to be bigger than that stupid map at the beginning of the episodes.

How do the other visiting engines get there so easily? Wouldn't it be really expensive to ship an engine over to Sodor just for the summer? It has to be really close to a mainland. Or to England. Some place bigger.

I mean, Jake, they have abandoned lines. If it were only as big as the map at the beginning, everything would be KNOWN. And they'd never have to have eleventy-hundred danged engines on the place causing confusion and delay.

Sir Topham Hatt? What is that? Why is he a sir? What did he do? (To which Jake replies: obviously, he made the trains run on time).

They have a narrow-gauge line. Jake. It has to be big enough to need that.

Ok, we watch it too much. But just now, as I was debating whether I should call it a night, Jake called up to me:

"Bridgett. Wikipedia has an article on the Island of Sodor."

And I went there. And all was made clear. And you know what? I was right. Irish Sea. Bigger than the Isle of Man, smaller than Ireland. Right next to England. There's a bridge.

Now you too can know all about Sodor, including its actually rather benign etymology, by going to its article here.