broccoli juice floats in big-brimmed, well-goggled, swimming hula hoop
An astute and observant reader of last week’s issue of The Weekly Letter asked whether I am suffering from ‘hat brim envy’. It is, of course, true that no one can surpass Nazy’s, filled to the brim, hats. But, as you’ll see in this letter, hats are a hallmark of The Martin Family.
A year or so ago, Tiger was happy to wear a hat. (I suspect that he may not appreciate the propellor head photo when he gets older.) More recently, he shuns hats. He has also been in adamant opposition to swim googles — a strongly recommended accessory at the children’s swim school.
“I don’t like them.” Tiger asserted. Aggressively.
“What is your favorite color?” I asked.
“I like Yellow and Blue.”
“Well, then, let’s buy yellow and blue googles,” I replied craftily. “You don’t have to wear them, you can just look at them.” It was, I thought, a good first step. Later, I explained my long-range plan to Nazy.
“Then why did you buy green and blue googles,” Nazy responded.
“He thought they were yellow and blue too,” I thought.
Each week, at swim class, I made progress. In week 1, Tiger agreed to hold the googles. Week 2 - he let me put them on his head, like a hat. Week 3, he agreed to hold them in front of his eyes. Week 4, he showed them to his teacher. Week 5, he let his teacher put the goggles over his eyes. Week 6, he swam ‘one time’ with the goggles. Week 7, he forgot to take them off. Week 8, he reminded me to ‘bring his goggles’ to class.
As we moved through the process, we talked and joked about the situation on the way to class.
“So, Tiger,” I said. “Are you going to wear your googles to swim?”
“Not googles, Dan! It’s goggles.”
“Ah,”I repled. “Goggles. Are you going to wear your green and blue goggles to swim?”
“Yellow and blue, Dan.” Tiger replied.
“Ah ha!” I thought. “Vindicated!” [It turns out that Tiger’s color vision matches mine.]
While I was working with Tiger on the goggle situation, Nazy wanted to tickle his taste buds in the fruit and vegetable arena. (Vegetable resistant, Tiger shares more than color vision genes with his grandfather.) Nazy’s approach involves hi-tech hardware: a cold juicer. Tiger loves dropping stuff into the mechanism.
“You’ll love it Dan!” Nazy exclaimed. “Tiger likes it too.”
“Yeah!” Tiger interjected.
“What’s in it?” I asked.
“Carrots, pineapple, apples, grapes, spinach, pears…”
“No broccoli?” I asked.
The cold juicer has 652,218 individual parts. The juicing process creates nanometer-sized vegetable particles that adhere to the cracks, crevices, nooks and crannies with the tenacity of the strong nuclear force. Washing the cold juicer is my job — and, attacking the task with heavy machinery, I take it seriously. I leave it to Nazy to reassemble the device.
And, speaking of hats,
Reader interrupt: “We weren’t speaking of hats,”
Author response: “We are now.”
In fact, when I searched the hard drive for 'hat' photos, I discovered the cause of my 'out of space' messages from the Operating System. I've had to be very selective. Big brimmed hats run in the family.
Aside: Tiger knows the words to the opening number of Hamilton and can also do the “My Shot” song. This is amazing: although I’ve listened to the soundtrack several times, I still haven’t gotten every word. Tiger, on the other hand, has memorized it even if he’s not completely clear on what the words mean.
This class featured music with hula hoops. Arrow was in his element. In this case, Arrow has inherited some genes from Tiger who is also a hula hoop expert.
Arrow doesn’t just follow Tiger’s footsteps in music class, he also is beginning to replicate the approach that Tiger developed during his “I don’t want to sit in the car seat” era: he arches his back.
This is Thanksgiving week and we’re really looking forward to having the entire Martin Family — parents, partners, offspring and grandchildren together in one time zone, one state and, even, one house. Darius, Christiane and lovely Leandra are flying south from Washington State, while Mitra and Stefan will drive north from Los Angeles. Nazy is designing menus (maybe including cold juiced cauliflower and brussel sprouts). It will be a lot of fun.
And, finally, a comment on the Republican tax cuts: there is, astonishingly, a scintilla of good sense in the plan. The corporate tax rate is too high. However, large corporations don’t pay the official tax rate. (HP, which complained that they couldn’t afford a relocation package for me, paid less tax that year than I did. So, as I told them, “If HP can’t afford it, how am I supposed to pay?&rdquo
Unfortunately, the current plan favors behemoth, fossilized organizations at the expense of nimble, innovative companies because the latter can’t afford to pay thousands of people needed to game the system. The remainder of the ‘plan’ demonstrates the one trick pony (tax cuts) nature of the GOP: while out of office they care about the deficit, while in office they don’t. By their own accounting, the current plan will raise the deficit by $1.5 trillion — i.e. $1,500,000,000,000.00. Amazingly, they are supported by the people who will be most hurt by the plan and by evangelicals who have bought into the claim that while people who admit and apologize for sexual misconduct are guilty, those who deny (like the orange one) are innocent (and electable).
A year or so ago, Tiger was happy to wear a hat. (I suspect that he may not appreciate the propellor head photo when he gets older.) More recently, he shuns hats. He has also been in adamant opposition to swim googles — a strongly recommended accessory at the children’s swim school.
“I don’t like them.” Tiger asserted. Aggressively.
“What is your favorite color?” I asked.
“I like Yellow and Blue.”
“Well, then, let’s buy yellow and blue googles,” I replied craftily. “You don’t have to wear them, you can just look at them.” It was, I thought, a good first step. Later, I explained my long-range plan to Nazy.
“Then why did you buy green and blue googles,” Nazy responded.
“He thought they were yellow and blue too,” I thought.
Each week, at swim class, I made progress. In week 1, Tiger agreed to hold the googles. Week 2 - he let me put them on his head, like a hat. Week 3, he agreed to hold them in front of his eyes. Week 4, he showed them to his teacher. Week 5, he let his teacher put the goggles over his eyes. Week 6, he swam ‘one time’ with the goggles. Week 7, he forgot to take them off. Week 8, he reminded me to ‘bring his goggles’ to class.
As we moved through the process, we talked and joked about the situation on the way to class.
“So, Tiger,” I said. “Are you going to wear your googles to swim?”
“Not googles, Dan! It’s goggles.”
“Ah,”I repled. “Goggles. Are you going to wear your green and blue goggles to swim?”
“Yellow and blue, Dan.” Tiger replied.
“Ah ha!” I thought. “Vindicated!” [It turns out that Tiger’s color vision matches mine.]
While I was working with Tiger on the goggle situation, Nazy wanted to tickle his taste buds in the fruit and vegetable arena. (Vegetable resistant, Tiger shares more than color vision genes with his grandfather.) Nazy’s approach involves hi-tech hardware: a cold juicer. Tiger loves dropping stuff into the mechanism.
“You’ll love it Dan!” Nazy exclaimed. “Tiger likes it too.”
“Yeah!” Tiger interjected.
“What’s in it?” I asked.
“Carrots, pineapple, apples, grapes, spinach, pears…”
“No broccoli?” I asked.
The cold juicer has 652,218 individual parts. The juicing process creates nanometer-sized vegetable particles that adhere to the cracks, crevices, nooks and crannies with the tenacity of the strong nuclear force. Washing the cold juicer is my job — and, attacking the task with heavy machinery, I take it seriously. I leave it to Nazy to reassemble the device.
And, speaking of hats,
Reader interrupt: “We weren’t speaking of hats,”
Author response: “We are now.”
In fact, when I searched the hard drive for 'hat' photos, I discovered the cause of my 'out of space' messages from the Operating System. I've had to be very selective. Big brimmed hats run in the family.
I take Tiger to his swimming lesson each week; Nazy and I take Arrow to music class each week as well. Like Tiger at that age, Arrow likes the music. He sways, dances and wanders around the room.
“And, Dan,” Nazy interrupts, “He just looks cute.”
“That too, my dear.”
This week, he wore his Hamilton tee-shirt, referencing Mitra’s favorite ever Broadway musical.
Aside: Tiger knows the words to the opening number of Hamilton and can also do the “My Shot” song. This is amazing: although I’ve listened to the soundtrack several times, I still haven’t gotten every word. Tiger, on the other hand, has memorized it even if he’s not completely clear on what the words mean.
This class featured music with hula hoops. Arrow was in his element. In this case, Arrow has inherited some genes from Tiger who is also a hula hoop expert.
Arrow doesn’t just follow Tiger’s footsteps in music class, he also is beginning to replicate the approach that Tiger developed during his “I don’t want to sit in the car seat” era: he arches his back.
This is Thanksgiving week and we’re really looking forward to having the entire Martin Family — parents, partners, offspring and grandchildren together in one time zone, one state and, even, one house. Darius, Christiane and lovely Leandra are flying south from Washington State, while Mitra and Stefan will drive north from Los Angeles. Nazy is designing menus (maybe including cold juiced cauliflower and brussel sprouts). It will be a lot of fun.
And, finally, a comment on the Republican tax cuts: there is, astonishingly, a scintilla of good sense in the plan. The corporate tax rate is too high. However, large corporations don’t pay the official tax rate. (HP, which complained that they couldn’t afford a relocation package for me, paid less tax that year than I did. So, as I told them, “If HP can’t afford it, how am I supposed to pay?&rdquo
Unfortunately, the current plan favors behemoth, fossilized organizations at the expense of nimble, innovative companies because the latter can’t afford to pay thousands of people needed to game the system. The remainder of the ‘plan’ demonstrates the one trick pony (tax cuts) nature of the GOP: while out of office they care about the deficit, while in office they don’t. By their own accounting, the current plan will raise the deficit by $1.5 trillion — i.e. $1,500,000,000,000.00. Amazingly, they are supported by the people who will be most hurt by the plan and by evangelicals who have bought into the claim that while people who admit and apologize for sexual misconduct are guilty, those who deny (like the orange one) are innocent (and electable).For last week's letter, please click here
More Music Class Photo
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