Lollipops and Pumpkin Hats

We have happy toddlers, here, in hats knitted for them by Levetta.

Click on the pictures for Extreme Doubleplus Cuteness!

Breakfast rituals.

Those Three Little Words

By my count, I've heard them four times in the last 15 months:

"Double Ear Infections"

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Top Ten List of 3 Word Phrases, Arranged in Order from Best (10) to Worst (1)

10. Dulce de Leche
9. Sweet Potato Pie
8. Manchester F*cking United
7. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. "I burried Paul."
5. Electric Light Orchestra
4. "Do the math."
3. Kentucky Fried Chicken
2. Double Ear Infections
1. George W. Bush

Have An Unusually Happy Thanksgiving

As Charles Nelson Reilly might have put it, "Gobble gobble."


Cheers,
Townblog

Who's Mauling Whom?

The children are incredibly hard to photograph at the moment. Too young to pose, too old to sit still.

Here, they are captured last Sunday astride their Christmas '06 steeds, which we keep stabled in their Granny & Poppa Hinshaw's cozy cottage over the hill, through the woods, and up the elevator to the 26th floor.

Picture courtesy Granny herself.

Civics -- Two Lessons

Ben Franklin, explaining why voting rights should not be connected to property ownership:

Today a man owns a jackass worth fifty dollars and he is entitled to a vote; but before the next election the jackass dies. The man in the meantime has become more experienced, his knowledge of the principles of government, and his acquaintance with mankind, are more extensive and he is therefore better qualified to make a proper selection of rulers -- but the jackass is dead and the man cannot vote. Now, gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the right of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?

John Kenneth Galbraith, on systems of government:

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

(Both quotations can be heard in Chapter 3 of the .mp3 version Al Gore's The Assault on Reason. Or you can read the printed version if you're one of those 20th-century types who enjoys paper and words.)

Bright Spots in an Otherwise Long and Sad Week

-- Listening to (so far) the introduction and first chapter of the audio version of Al Gore's The Assault on Reason at the gym. The book is read by Will Patton, who is all right, but I was sort of expecting and looking forward to hearing Al read his own book. Patton does say "yumin" for the word "human," a word which, I would hasten to point out, "has a f*cking aitch in it." (By the way, if the 2007 me had an opportunity to tell the 2000 me how much I like Al Gore now, I have a feeling the 2000 me might not have done all that volunteering for Ralph Nader. This is NOT, please note, an apology.)

--Listening to the soundtrack to I'm Not There while going to and from the gym. I'm Not There is the forthcoming sort-of-biopic of Bob Dylan. Some interesting takes on Dylan songs from a movie which, given the long article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine last month, seems to gibe with what I've learned about how to appreciate Bob Dylan from my friend Chris. I'm looking forward to the movie, and enjoying the soundtrack in small doses.

--Caleb, having learned that his brother's name is Sam (pronounced "Zsha"), has since decided that everyone's name is Sam.

--Sam feels that everyday is Halloween, and therefore each day brings an occasion to carry around a plastic pumpkin and beg for lollipops.

Thanks to family for being able to baby-sit (read: toddler-chase) for us during funerals and benefit dinners, and for just generally being awesome at family-stuff. And thanks to my wife, who has been getting up early with Sam (who, like Robertson Davies or Charles Darwin, is totally opposed to all this daylight savings nonsense).

Lightbulb Jokes (Sam and Caleb Comics #6)

This was the month of September from the "Sam and Caleb Bad Joke Calendar" for 2007, previously seen only by family members.

The boys were probably around 11 months old when the photos were taken. They were still eating out of those little jars, and still drinking formula. In some ways it seems like years ago, but in most ways it seems like about six and half minutes ago. Watching two boys go from age point-five to age one-point-nine is one way to see time fly. (Another involves throwing a clock out a window...)

How I love the lightbulb joke: a tight little formula and limitless variations. Do you know how many neo-conservatives it takes to screw in a lightbulb?

In which we attempt collectivism and are renounced...

Sam: (Pointing at crayon) Mine!
Daddy: Sam, there is nothing in this house that belongs to any one person. Everything is shared.
Sam: No... Mine!

Sam Hinshaw: Objectivist, aged 20.5 months.

Sam also believes that if you sing loud enough, the words don't matter, so he's still quite loveable.