I find it really annoying when people use "literally" when they don't really mean it. Like the person who says, "I was literally walking on air." You get the idea.
No one understands "literally" better than a child. Children are oblivious to nuances and immune to sarcasm. I think that's why the TV programming for kids is so moronic and why a kid's "sense of humor" is anything but humorous to most adults.
Nati is my friend Pilar's niece. She lives in Florida, but comes up to visit for a couple weeks each summer. Over the years, she developed a friendship with our friend Marcy's daughter Nora who lives close by. They were so enamored with each other, that Nati wanted a football jersey just like Nora's. When she got it, Pilar and Marcy went running for their cameras because the girls looked so darn cute.
Now, my friends are witty and clever and funny (especially after a few glasses of wine), so as she arranged the girls for the picture. Marcy said, "Do you want to be 1,079 or 7,910?" She was met with twin blank stares. Unable to bear the thought of no one getting her cleverness, she said, "The numbers. Do you want to be 1,079 or 7,910?"
Nati put her hand up, fingers and thumb extended and said, "I am 5."
That's the only number she really cared about!
Di
Thinking Nati's way, I'd want to be 5 too! Fortysomething is daunting enough, and 1,079 is just unthinkable... :-)
Posted by: fudgelady | February 06, 2009 at 12:30 AM