Monday, June 25, 2007

Second opinions

Abi always likes to get a second opinion about any question that interests her. When she asks for the second time, she doesn't say that she already knows the answer; but if the second answer contradicts the first, she challenges it, and if it omits something from the first, she tries to extend it.
Some recent examples:
  • How does the baby come out of the mother's belly? (She recently asked me this, and I think it was for the second time, because she ascertained that men have only one passage and women have two. I hadn't said this explicitly.)
  • Why has there not been a war on American territory in a very long time? (I told her it was because America was very strong, which in turn is because it has had a good government for the last two centuries. That seemed like a more interesting answer than the standard one about being far from everywhere else, but she said, "That's not what I heard" and proceeded to tell me the standard story herself.)
  • Why is the rainbow flag so common in Provincetown? (She asked me first and listened attentively to the answer; I heard her questioning Josh about it the next day.)

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