Dinner conversation at the Muirs

David, in the middle of a discussion of astronomy: "And where do people come from?"  Answering himself, "Oh, I know!  They come from God!"
Alan: "No, they come from monkeys!"
David: "Oh, that's right!  Because we are mammals! That's right!"

A little later.
David: "You remember, Mommy, you said that Pluto was no longer a planet." [That was back when Pluto got demoted.]
Doug, surprised: "That's right!  Good memory, David! And do you know why some people say that Pluto is not a planet?"
David and Alan, loudly and in unison: "Because it's too small!"

Also, David wants to be a scientist who does lots of experiments when he grows up.  Alan wants to be an inventor who does experiments, and goes to Mars, and creates Pokemons.  Veering off on the topic of Mars, Doug later told the boys about the Mars robots, and idly asked what they might be powered with. Alan said, "Electricity," and David said, "Sunlight!".

Together, they will rule the world.

Comments

[Marcia]

A corollary story for you, Claudia. I live in a fairly conservative-Christian part of California (sniffle). The girls are nine and eleven now, but years and years ago when they were maybe two and four, we were driving along in the car when Hamachi - the older one - asked "Mommy, where does the wind come from?"

Um... "Well, as the earth spins and the sun warms the earth, you get hot spots on the earth. And that makes heat from the hot spots move toward the colder spots..." I went on and on for a few paragraphs until she lost interest.

A week later I was telling this story to a new friend and her son who was then five. I said, "And she asked me where the wind comes from and I had to rack my brain and think of third grade science and I started talking about how heat moves across the earth to create wind..."

There was a pause. The little boy looked at me and said, "My mom says God makes the wind."

[Noel Maurer]

Marcia, I had no idea how bad the housing situation had gotten in northern California until I heard that story.

[Marcia]

Would you believe: she became and remains one of my best friends. We don't talk politics or religion much. If at all. And her son is thirteen now, so I'm assuming he's learned a wee bit more about where the wind comes from.

But you mentioned housing: she and her family got priced out of the Bay Area, so they moved to Texas, where she's the hippie now. And overall, "who's coming to the neighborhood" has been replaced by "who's coming to the neighborhood now that all these houses are standing empty."