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She has credited San Francisco’s “hard-knock politics” as shaping her ambitions and propelling her all the way to the White House as vice president, and now potentially president.

But when I really close-read Annie’s hard-knock life, I couldn’t help but zero in on how bizarre it is—and how bizarre it is that we still love her so much.

I suppose that’s why we continue to blithely share that tune with kids—Annie Jr. remains a popular production in children’s theaters, and though it’s abridged, the junior version features not just “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” but its reprise.

An unreliable but exploitable rumor about PJ and Josie’s hard-knock life in juvie leads our heroines to their Big Idea: starting a self-defense club for females, with noble intentions up front but a yen to get close to the gorgeous, popular girls as a bonus.

The singer stood in a rubble-strewn courtyard in one of the hard-knock neighborhoods of Luanda, Angola’s capital, antsy as he got the performers in line for their final rehearsal before the big competition.