Erik wonders if the nonsense words that populate the best children’s books are a good idea when your kid is already tasked with learning two languages. “Someday he’ll learn the words “muggle,” “orc,” “Ewok,” Klingon,” “melange,” and “thoughtful lawmaker,” none of which are real,” he writes, prompting many assurances in the comments that “melange” is definitely real.
Craig calls the Red Mountain Pass “a breathtaking drive through the San Juan Mountains”. There are no guardrails, hardly any shoulder; cliffs and canyons soar above and below. It’s also prone to avalanches – one of which killed a man while he was trying to help people who were trapped on the pass. I guess that’s one way to define breathtaking.
Guest Eric Wagner describes the sheer pandemonium that ensues when you’re trying to count birds for science.
Cameron tries to approach her fellow humans the way we instinctively approach trees – “Some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way.”
Cassie channels every parent’s lament – the Faustian bargain that pits reclaiming those precious few hours at night to be your own human being again, against getting the necessary sleep you need to be a functioning human being.