S. sat next to me at breakfast today and spontaneously acclaimed:

You are the best daddy in the whole, wide world!

Overheard this afternoon:

Mama, how does Santa not die?

Marissa said to B. that she doesn't know and thought the matter settled. But I think we need to have that conversation sooner rather than later. She's a very smart one, and she's in school now. The issue will come up again, and I'd rather she hear a gentle and mature answer from us -- Santa is fictional and represents goodness, much like a superhero -- rather than hearing a mocking answer on the playground.

So she's also thinking about death. She's always been fairly sensible about its inevitabilty, but she's been thinking about it. When I asked her if she'd been reading a book on Christmas or how the question came up for her, she said she'd just been wondering and thinking. And maybe she wants to know, is there a way to beat death?

Yesterday I watched The King's Speech and read more of His Master's Voice. Recommend both highly, even though I haven't finished the book yet. Also, as the NYT review correctly states, this is not the easiest introduction to Lem, and the first few chapters are difficult to enter. Nevertheless, his insights into academic communities and their relation to society, his speculations on the nature of extraterrestrial messages, and his broad philosophical speculations are delightful. One example of how Amazon reviews can be absolutely incorrect.

... for access thirty-five years ago to a website collating the captain's logs form Star Trek. Even so, it probably wouldn't have been enough. I would have wanted audio files, screen captures, and videos.

This morning we watched two "America Rock" episodes from my Schoolhouse Rock DVD: "Fireworks" and "No More Kings", in addition to "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here", "My Hero, Zero", and "Figure Eight".

Then the three of us chanted "No more kings! No more queens! No more princes! No more princesses!"

Happy Fourth of July.