You know, air quotes - the first two fingers of both hands curled in rabbit ears to emphasize the irony of the word to which you add the gesture. Calvin has used them before, much to our amusement at his unique and innocent understanding of their use. He has lately expanded his talent to include sarcasm, mostly directed toward or in conversation with his dad.
Picture a seven-year-old paussing just enough to get his little rabbit ear fingers up in quote marks and raise his eyebrows at the indicated word in the following conversations...
Example #1: Last night at bedtime.
Calvin and Henry: Please, dad...please, please, please...we need a drink.
David: You guys already got your drink. Just lay down and go to sleep.
Calvin and Henry: Please. We need more. We're thirsty!! (etc., etc.,)
David: Fine. Lay down and I'll bring you a drink.
(He brings back a small bit of water in the bottom of a glass so they can each have a sip - they honestly did not need anything to drink and too much to drink leads to extra bathroom trips...you know how it is...)
Calvin: (After having his half of the sip) Yeah, Dad. Thanks for the..."drink."
Example #2: This morning while getting ready to go to school.
Calvin: Can I please wear my light coat instead of my winter one? It's warm enough and I sweat too much at recess.
David: I guess that's fine. If it's cold today, though, you'll want to wear the heavy coat tomorrow.
Calvin: Yeah. I don't think I'll need the winter coat anymore. It's getting warmer and warmer. And when it's spring and not just... "spring," I won't have to wear a coat at all anymore!
It really is fairly hilarious. I just have two questions. Where does a little boy get this stuff? And, is it spring... or "spring"... where you are?
3.25.2010
The Fine Art of Air Quotes
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5 comments:
I'm amazed at his clear understanding of how those little quotey things should actually be used! Hilarious, indeed!
I'm not sure what phase of spring we're in... I thought it was real, honest to goodness spring, and then we had snow flurries all day. So I guess where we are, it's still just "spring".
I can see in my minds eye the bedtime drink story. Funny stuff.
It must be just "spring" here. We are getting sleet as I type this.
That's cute. Still "spring" here. winter coats and gear still in use.
We're not air quoting spring here. It's on. Flowers, trees, the works. But... I did get air quotes from my 8 year old the other day when I asked her to help around the house. She said something to the effect of "am I "helping", or doing it for you?" I about smacked her. And then I informed her that if she was "doing it for me", I wasn't going to be "cooking her dinner" that night. End of air quotes for the day. Who teaches them these things?????
P.S. I'm looking forward to the rynok... it's one of my favorite places on the planet too! I love how you can just sample honey.
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