Ok, so maybe Disney isn't totally evil...

Evil, you say? Disney?? Anyone who doubts Disney is evil clearly doesn't have a little kid.

Anyone in this country - the world, really - with a child knows what I mean. The slick print ads that leave small children pleading for the DVDs so innocently pictured next to a doe-eyed mermaid or fairy or, well, doe (yours on Blu-ray for the low, low price of $14.99)... the brightly-colored, music-filled TV commercials that lure kids into the movies (for $20, you can take your kid to Bambi, or Snow White or The Princess and the Frog - then spend the next week trying to reassure your angst-ridden youngster that the bad guy was "just pretend")... and oh yes, the stores. Those most foul stores with those poofy princess dresses and light-up shoes and flowery bouquets AND SPARKLING TIARAS... where no one gets out of the mall for under $75. I always figured that parents of little girls had it the worst, but one day I turned away from the persistent cajoling of my pre-schooler just long enough to realize that the parents of little boys were having the exact same arguments in front of the Buzz Lightyear costumes... and the 'tween-age girls milling around the Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers videos... well, that was just too scary to contemplate.

But despite it all, I still believe in giving credit where credit is due. And Disney is due a little credit in my book today, so here goes.

I was walking around a botanical gardens in southern California today when I read some of the promotional material about the grounds... and apparently all the Koi in the pond came from Disneyland. Disney, the brochure explained, was renovating its theme park in the next county over, and the new plans did not call for any decorative fish. But rather than toss the Koi out with the Koi water (which undoubtedly would have been faster and cheaper), it donated all 250 Koi to the botanical gardens.

So, without expressing any opinion on its initial decision to have a koi pond, or any of its other business practices (marketing to children arguably being only the tip of an iceberg), thank you, Disney, for doing the right thing at least 250 times.