“It’s Just About Havin’ Fun”

Kina has been really leaning into her life of leisure this last weekend, perhaps in celebration of summer’s impending arrival. The posture you see in the illustration for today’s top story depicts with astonishing accuracy the barefoot pose she’s struck on various couches this weekend, as she’s reminded the adults (and dogs) around her that we should all strive to exert more energy in the service of fun. Cast off the bonds of labor! Forgo worry! Live life like a four year old!

Fancy the Dog Really Likes Chompin’ on that Sock

Kina befriended two dogs in one fell swoop this weekend—Pearl the Older Dog, and Fancy the Puppy. She’s still not entirely sure what to do around dogs, since she both craves their attention and fears their tongues. Fancy gave her plenty of both, and Kina made a sincere effort to direct young Fancy’s formidable energies towards chomping on an old stuffed sock tied up with string. Eventually, they found their stride, prancing back and forth from our friend’s bedroom to her living room, two bouncy smallies connected by drool and twine.

Pearl was also very sweet but refused to comment for today’s paper.

Where Does Lightning Come From?

Turns out scientists don’t really know! They are all pretty sure it has something to do with a surplus of ions in enormous cumulonimbus clouds, but they haven’t quite figured out how so much electricity is generated. What they do know is that negative ions gather at the bottom of the cloud, which generates a positive charge on the surface of the earth beneath it, and those two highly charged surfaces eventually reconcile their differences by creating an electrical connection through the air. That’s lightning. I say all this because, somehow, despite having watched four lightning videos with Kina this morning, I’ve depicted the base of the storm cloud as being positively charged and the ground as being negatively charged. My bad.

Young Reader’s Section: Daddy Has a Dog

Still working on basic literacy here at TDK HQ. We got “Daddy” straightaway, but she was too impatient to work out “Dog”. Our newsroom is undaunted and will continue to run these stories until we have run out of short words or patience.

May you all find some joy in what remains of your Memorial Day weekend, as we pray for sunshine here. And don’t try too hard; it’s just about havin’ fun.

Today’s Parade is a depiction of our family’s favorite invertebrate and Richard Scarry character, Lowly Worm. Kina insisted on Lowly and paid unusual attention to the colors she used in his portrait. For the third straight week, she’s signed her work, but she begged for her mother’s help in writing out LOWLY. We didn’t even get to WORM.

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