Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

The dirklings have mastered this maxim recently. Being ten and eight, they are wont to still play pretend, and their chief sources of inspiration are the comics I buy them and of course cartoons.

I’ve bought several in anticipation of the seasonal migration. One, was a preview issue of Wildsiderz, something about a team of teens with hard light holograph exoskeletons



So, of course now they’re driving me nuts with their unrelenting pretend play, picking out which colors and what animals and how they use their powers.

I know, I brought it on myself. It could be worse, they could be ‘shrooms – sitting around inside playing video games with no imagination at all, or worse yet, jocks that are stat junkies, going on ad nauseum about Barry Bonds’ record, or how the Sonics are doing.

Or whatever it is normal kids are into.

They’ve also recently mastered the art of the half-truth. Telling just enough of an event to make it sound so much more dramatic, casting themselves as the tragic victims.

They’ll make good republicans.