“Why do people throw their shoes on a wire?”
One afternoon as we were driving down Route 1, The Four-Year-Old noticed a ratty old pair of sneakers hanging from a telephone wire along the road.…
“Daddyo, have you ever made people eat food and then listened to their tummies?”
After an evening of eating pizza, there was some tummy talk. The Four-Year-Old: “Daddyo, have you ever made people eat food and then listened to their tummies?” My husband: “No. But do you want to know what that sound is called?”
“Mommyo, what does ‘gravitationally improbable’ mean?”
gravitationally improbable (grv-tshnˈalē m-prb-bl) adj. phrase that which is unlikely to occur outside of Kitty World due to the limiting effect of gravity Example: The Four-Year-Old’s…
“What’s the word that means ‘careful’ that starts with ‘reck’?”
When my daughter learned that when you call a person reckless, you are basically calling them careless, she naturally wanted to know: “What’s the word that means careful that starts with reck?” Turns out, there isn’t one now, but there used to be.
“Can octopuses do gymnastics at the bottom of the ocean?”
Warning: Watching the octopus video will raise all kinds of questions, like: Can Princess Octopuses have Prince Octopuses? And what’s in that big balloony head? Fortunately,…
“Can cats do gymnastics?”
Yes, and I’ve got the YouTube to prove it (our cats, who are too old and arthritic to demonstrate themselves, requested that I outsource this one).…
Sand dollar: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
Inquiring Four-Year-Old minds want to know: “Is a sand dollar an animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
“How do they make cooking oil?”
After using vegetable oil to make homemade play-doh, my daughter naturally wanted to know how the vegetable oil itself had been made.
“What is cream of tartar?”
After she learned that we needed cream of tartar to make both snickerdoodles and homemade Play-doh, my four-year-old daughter naturally wanted to know more about this mysterious stuff. So did my husband. “What is cream of tartar anyway?” he asked a bit dubiously.
“Why is it called that?” Caterpickles consults the OED
Lately, The Four-Year-Old has become extremely interested in the origins of words. Questions like “why are grouches called grouches?”, “How did goosebumps get their name?”, “Why are hedgehogs called hedgehogs?”, and “How was the word grump made?” are piling up. So this morning I dragged out our copy of the Shorter OED to find out.
CATERPICKLES 