I like the snow and the rain of autumn, but this ain’t bad, either:
I like the snow and the rain of autumn, but this ain’t bad, either:
This morning, Julia had a colossal meltdown that, had it been taped and put up on YouTube, would be an excellent argument for abstinence.
The whole ridiculous mess started when I told her that her breakfast included a surprise. She got very excited, literally rubbing her hands together, and then crashed to earth on discovering that the “surprise” was that I had used a cookie cutter to make her toast into the shape of a ghost. Just as Shannon had predicted a few minutes earlier, Julia reacted not by asking for a different piece of toast, but by going ape – screaming, crying, shouting angrily at me, even, finally, throwing her favorite toy across the room, which merited a time out. I felt surprisingly insulted by her screams that “I don’t like this piece of toast!” but on the other hand, I couldn’t resist laughing out loud when she shrieked, “This wasn’t a surprise, it was just a piece of toast!”
(For what it’s worth, Vivi giggled when she found she had her own “ghost toast,” and made hers disappear very quickly.)
I’ve struggled, lo these many years, with a serious issue comprising two interlocking problems:
1. The distinction between “compose” and “comprise” (which are not synonyms, no matter how those hacks at the New York Times use them) and
2. A mnemonic device for remembering that distinction.
Finally, Saturday, subconsciously inspired by multiple readings of this usage post and certain child-induced nocturnal stressors, I woke up in the middle of the night with what appears to be (2), thus perhaps dissolving (1) with a laser-like beam of certitude. Forthwith:
The synonyms “comprise” and “contain” both contain the letter “i” whereas the synonyms “compose” and “make up” do not.
I know; I know. It’s no “every good boy deserves fudge” or even a “Roy G. Biv.” But it works for me, and maybe it’ll work for you. Now, where’d I put that mnemonic for the amendments to the Constitution?
Genevieve
On a walk last weekend, Vivi looked up at the sky to try to find the moon. She’s usually disappointed when she can’t find it, but this time, she did spot it, and was so excited that she yelled, “Noom! Noom! Play wif me?” This was hilarious, most of all for Vivi, who almost tipped over from trying to laugh and look straight up in the air.
Julia
While having a little snack at the downtown coffeeshop on Saturday, Julia discovered that she had an Asian beetle on her jacket. Deftly, she got the little bug to climb up on her finger, very proudly showing it to me and to Vivi and then watching with complete fascination as the bug wandered around her hand. She almost fell out of her chair when it suddenly extended its wings: “Look, it grew a tail!” “Actually, honey, those are its wings; it just stuck them out because it might be getting ready to fly away.”
The bug didn’t fly away, and in fact clung to Julia’s hand while we finished our scones, cleaned up our table, and then walked down the block to the library. Though I worried that Julia was going to accidentally squish the bug, she was immensely careful, ferrying the creature all the way to the library (a five-minute walk, when you’re with a preoccupied preschooler and a short-legged toddler) and even showing it carefully to Vivi whenever she wanted to see the “wady-buck.”
As we went up the steps to the library, Julia asked, in her “now announcing something serious” voice, “You know why I like this ladybug so much, Daddy?” I said, “No, honey, I don’t. Is it because it’s so little and cute?” She replied, staring at the bug, “No, I like it because it’s science.” On the way to the children’s area in the libe, I had to steer Julia around a few things that she didn’t notice, since she was holding her ladybugged hand about three inches from her face. Then, just as we sat down at the puzzle table, the ladybug extended her wings and really did fly away. Julia was so disappointed, I thought she was going to cry. But then she got very excited about trying to find the library’s bug puzzle. We never did it, but she’s been talking about “my Asian beetle” ever since.
Addendum
A clear marker of the generation gap is whether you call this
a “ladybug” or an “Asian beetle.” <fogey voice> When I was a kid, they were ladybugs, and by gum that’s good enough!</fogey voice>
While playing outside this afternoon, Julia told me, with a silly smile on her face, that “Pumpkin seeds keep coming out of my body and asking if I’m grown up yet.” She’s said this before, but it makes less and less sense every time she says it.
This clip from Talking Points Memo is almost unbelievable. I’d suspect CGI, if the reporter’s questions weren’t so authentically wingnutular. It’s amazing that Biden can sit through this kind of crap.
Like I said, the solo-parenting weekend went very well for everyone. A few highlights from the domestic scene:
In short, the girls and I had a blast. I fully endorse the idea of Shannon going on a little break at least once a year!
1. Name the person who, when asked in 2000, “Are we getting closer and closer to, like, socialism and stuff?” responded, “Here’s what I really believe: That when you reach a certain level of comfort, there’s nothing wrong with paying somewhat more.”
a. Karl Marx
b. Eugene Debs
c. Leon Trotsky
d. John McCain
2. Name the person who, in summer 2008, defended her home region’s unique wealth-spreading mechanism by saying, “We’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively [we who] own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” [sic]
a. Karlotta Marx
b. Eugenia Debs
c. Leonora Trotsky
d. Sarah Palin
That ends well. The girls’ first two and a half days – five girl-days! – without their mother are over. Everyone is healthy and resting. The mother seems to have enjoyed her trip to the Large Southern Red State. The girls definitely enjoyed their various outings in the Northfield-Dundas-Faribault area. The weekend’s activities will be more thoroughly blogged later.
It is officially snowing here in Northfield. Light flurries began promptly at eleven a.m. and have continued since then, occasionally intensifying to pretty heavy blowing. The ground’s too warm to let any of it accumulate, though.
More on this later, but the girls and I went to River Bend Nature Center today for their annual Halloween event. Facepaining was one of the many activities. By coincidence, both girls wound up as kitties. First, Vivi revved up by the experience:
It went pretty well, the 0.5 part of the 2.5 days on my own with girls. Tomorrow, not being punctuated by preschool and the drive to and from the airport, will be more interesting than was today, but Julia did have a few good lines this afternoon:
Me: “You guys are awfully cute.”
Julia: “Aren’t we, though? Aren’t we, though?”
[later]
Me: “The Halloween nature walk tomorrow is a dress-up thing: you guys can wear costumes if you want.”
Julia: “No, that’s okay. I’ll just pretend to be fancy in my normal clothes. Or a witch.”
Stay tuned to see just how she pulls off the fancy-or-a-witch look in her usual (75% pink) attire.
Finally! Should I get my skis ready?
I love this little bit of Tim Krabbé’s fantastic bike-racing novella, The Rider: Absurdist advice is the best kind of advice.
(Free trivia: Krabbé and I share a birthdate, thirty years apart.)
From electoral-vote.com this morning, a little eye-opener:
“RNC Paid for $150,000 for Palin’s Clothes”
Politico went through the financial report the RNC just filed with the FEC and discovered that the Republican National Committee has spent $150,000 for clothes and accessories for Sarah Palin since she was tapped for the VP slot in late August. One shopping trip to Neiman Marcus cost them $75,062.63, for example. They also spent over $4700 on her hair and makeup. Remember how the Republicans howled at John Edwards $400 haircut (which included a house call by the barber)? Google for: Edwards “$400 haircut” and you’ll get 27,000 hits. That was major news for a week. That aside, a far more damaging effect of this revelation is that Palin keeps saying she is just an ordinary small-town hockey mom. It is likely that if Joe-the-plumber’s wife were to rack up $150,000 in clothing expenses in a single month, Joe might ask how she was planning to pay the credit card bill since the median annual salary for plumbers is $37,514. Palin is already being ridiculed all over the place, and this provides more fodder for the comics.