15 March 1995

Now You Know


Wife-Mate’s little four-year-old nephew was over for the afternoon and had been left in my care. The kid never seemed to have an answer or an opinion about anything, answering every question “I don’t know.” Just to test to see if he had any thoughts of his own, I asked ...


Dutchman: What’s your favorite food?

Nephew: I don’t know.

Dutchman: Well, let’s go look it up!

So I took him to the kitchen and pulled out the phone book. He couldn’t read, so he had no idea that I was just making this up. After much earnest flipping of the pages, pretending to look for his name, I announced ...

Dutchman: Ah, there it is! Says your favorite food is pizza!

Nephew: Really? What else does it say?

Dutchman: Says that your favorite sport is basketball, and that your favorite movie is “Citizen Kane.”

Nephew: But, I’ve never seen “Citizen Kane.”

Dutchman: Well, young man, you’re in for a treat! It’s your favorite!

A week later I found out that my sister-in-law had been complaining to Wife-Mate. It seems that I had putt some fool notion about “Citizen Kane” being her son’s favorite movie into his head, and now he was pestering her to let him see it.