On a lighter note

One nice thing about being a parent, especially when the kids are of your gender and thus have temperamental similarities, is that you can introduce them to stuff you liked at their age, if (and only if) you think it will work.

I remember, at age 10 or so, being amused by a little comic book by Mad Magazine's Don Martin, called "The Mad Adventures of Captain Klutz." Got it last month on eBay as a holiday gift for the fellas, with 8 other Mad books (4 also by Don Martin), for a cool $3.26 including shipping.

Fellas have enjoyed the books, Captain Klutz especially, just as I did at that age.

Sample quote: Captain Klutz is fighting Sissyman, who, having immobilized our hero with an ice cream gun, says:

"And now I'm off to steal a million dollars. But first, permission! Mommy, can I go out to play?"

"Of course, dearikins. But don't be latesies for din-din!"

(He's Sissyman, you see.)

I remember being delighted by this passage, as they are now, when I was of suitable age. Indeed, it would be bootless to deny that I can still recapture a bit of the old feeling.

Don Martin had some genuine merit as a comic artist. I recall his obsession with the fairy tale in which the princess kisses the frog and he turns into a prince. In one variant, she kisses him and she turns into a frog, and they hop off together. In another, he turns into a prince and they ride off together, but then he sees a fly and zaps it with a 10-foot long tongue. In a third, he turns into a prince and then, in the last frame, we see the wedding. People on her side in the audience, frogs on his side.

I'm sure there were more.