Feb 10, contd
I was at the dentist's office this afternoon. Normally, any written or verbal discussion of that aspect of my day would be limited to the one, preceding sentence. (Not that I have very many one-sentenced discussions). Two exceptions today: funny kids and an interesting article, both encountered in the waiting room.
After telling the receptionist my name, I went to browse the magazines and chose the Nov 2004 issue of New York Magazine. Not my first choice, but reading captions in back issues of the Saks catalogue was the other option. And it happened to be the less appealing option.
NY Magazine in hand, I made my way back to the seats and skillfully avoided bumping into the unnaturally-energetic children in the process. Then I heard one of them speak. I know kids do that, speak, but his Russian was better than mine ever was at that age (...and probably is at my current age). And it wasn't even a large vocabulary that caught my attention; I understood everything he said. It's just that he sounded as if a 40 year old man was stuck in his small 9 and a half year old body. My random assignment of age is probably unfair to the boy- I'm a bad judge of age and it is quite likely that he was 6. Regardless, he spoke in a strangely adult-like manner. I half expected him to whip out the Wall Street Journal (the Russian Wall Street Journal, but a [nonexistent] financial newspaper nonetheless) to discuss interest rates with his confused grandfather. As if that weren't enough, he then reached into his back pocket and produced his leather wallet. Granted, most 40 year olds don't ask their grandfathers to guess which of the cards in their wallets are real. But that was the only 9/6 year old thing he did.
Little boys are funny. Especially when they're actually middle-aged men.
After pretending to read but really, stealing glances at the grandfather and boy and carefully listening to their conversation, I realized that I had already flipped through all the ads, table of contents, editorials, and editors notes, and was faced with the first article. Actually, I realized that the grandfather and boy were about to leave and I looked for an article. Anyway, it's similar to what that girl was saying in my class (see Feb 10).
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/columns/imperialcity/10424/index.html
After telling the receptionist my name, I went to browse the magazines and chose the Nov 2004 issue of New York Magazine. Not my first choice, but reading captions in back issues of the Saks catalogue was the other option. And it happened to be the less appealing option.
NY Magazine in hand, I made my way back to the seats and skillfully avoided bumping into the unnaturally-energetic children in the process. Then I heard one of them speak. I know kids do that, speak, but his Russian was better than mine ever was at that age (...and probably is at my current age). And it wasn't even a large vocabulary that caught my attention; I understood everything he said. It's just that he sounded as if a 40 year old man was stuck in his small 9 and a half year old body. My random assignment of age is probably unfair to the boy- I'm a bad judge of age and it is quite likely that he was 6. Regardless, he spoke in a strangely adult-like manner. I half expected him to whip out the Wall Street Journal (the Russian Wall Street Journal, but a [nonexistent] financial newspaper nonetheless) to discuss interest rates with his confused grandfather. As if that weren't enough, he then reached into his back pocket and produced his leather wallet. Granted, most 40 year olds don't ask their grandfathers to guess which of the cards in their wallets are real. But that was the only 9/6 year old thing he did.
Little boys are funny. Especially when they're actually middle-aged men.
After pretending to read but really, stealing glances at the grandfather and boy and carefully listening to their conversation, I realized that I had already flipped through all the ads, table of contents, editorials, and editors notes, and was faced with the first article. Actually, I realized that the grandfather and boy were about to leave and I looked for an article. Anyway, it's similar to what that girl was saying in my class (see Feb 10).
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/columns/imperialcity/10424/index.html