(no subject)

My office mate's daughters, ages 6 and 9, came in yesterday for hours. Fortunately, I had no pressing work to do, so when they were bored enough to bother their mom, I could distract them both with Cute Overload and ZooBorns. Since I'd first become aware of the concept of the Internet when I was about 11, I wasn't sure how someone younger might understand it today. I did not expect the question of whether other computers could access the same sites.

After I'd checked the fourth-grader's arithmetic homework, she asked what my job is. I decided that the best way to explain copy editing was that I correct mistakes in what other people write. She replied, "So you're like a teacher?"

Harder to explain was where I got the casting of a Darwin's fox paw on my desk, along with a photo of the same fox (or at least the same species). They came to me one Christmas when someone sponsored the care of a fox in my name, but how does a single-digit kid make sense of that, particularly as a gift? I had to assure them I was not "like his mommy" -- more like a godfather, but they took that too literally as well. My clarification was not quite complete when they left. Oh well.