“A hit, a very palpable hit”

There are worse things in life than having one’s home and one’s daughters’ minds deluged with a superabundance of Princesstrial paraphernalia in a postal package from their grandmother. One of them is the doubling of such an inundation, within a week, from the unsparing hands of both their grandmothers. Alas, such was our fate, as on Saturday afternoon the package(s) sent by Grandma Patti earlier in the week were reinforced—their contents doubled and their influence compounded—by another sent by the nefarious Nin. Conspiracy or competition or both, the damage has been done, the wound inflicted, and the mental milieu of our humble home forever poisoned.

Needless to say, the girls were ecstatic. “Better than Christmas!” roared Julia. “More moving than Chapman’s Homer!” Eli cried. The package from Nin contained a DVD of Disney’s “Enchanted,” which was watched twice before the day was done. Eli was the very picture of the film’s title, Julia was bedazzled, and Justin smiled at the snippets he saw, rather in spite of himself. Lia on the other hand had experienced the marvel often felt by those who never watch films. In the spirit of her father, who is constitutionally incapable of reading any published work without calling Justin and Lia and assorted strangers to read aloud his favorite passages, Lia can never see a film without talking about it to all and sundry. So on Sunday eight or so of Lia’s sisters at Church, all of whom have seen the film a dozen times, heard scene-by-scene summaries with color commentary.

In the evening Justin and Lia put the girls to bed and, with classmate and ward member Russell Farr standing watch on the home front, went to a play. Julia stayed in bed after their departure for about forty seconds. After which she, mischievous and obdurate as always, exited her room and peeked around the corner into the living room where she saw Russ at the table, smiling affably. She fled. Then, finding her parents’ bedroom empty, she wept. Russ deftly bribed her with the successive jewels of “Dora” and “Enchanted,” and all was well. Better than well, in fact, as Julia sat in drone-like contentment before a flickering screen until her parents finally returned a few minutes short of eleven. Needless to say she behaved abominably the day following. The editorial board’s praise and gratitude to Russell the Intrepid.

The play was Oscar Wilde’s “A Woman of No Importance,” which both the birthday girl and her date, having never read the play before, thoroughly enjoyed. The first half was only so much frippery and banter—Wilde living up to his name in an excess of cleverness. The second half was surprisingly substantive, even moving. And it was all performed very well by the Yale Reportoiry Theater. These tickets were the last of our year-long package—the best $60 we’ve spent since Lia stocked up on foreign stamps for Justin’s mission letters.

Another momentous event of recent date came Friday, when the first print edition of The Economist since our re-subscription a week or two ago finally arrived. Life has rarely been sweeter.

We also note, because we haven’t before, that the influence of Dora the Explorer upon our family has now expanded into the realm of nomenclature. Julia has been rechristened “Dora”; Eli “Boots” (the monkey); Justin “Diego”; and Lia, most aptly and elegantly, “Back Pack” (the back pack). Eli, in particular is surpassingly fond of these intrafamilial sobriquets. She calls Justin “Dieghi”—a nickname’s nickname and, when Justin sings, “Eli DORO-thea Collings” to the tune of “Israel, Israel, God is Calling!”, Eli responds with terse dignity: “I’m Boots!” So she is.

Friday morning Justin watched the girls while Lia went to the Health Plan for some blood testing (any guesses what for?). In the past Justin has gone with her to these sorts of things because she has a tendency almost to faint. This tendency was continued with a vengeance this time, and it was almost thirty minutes before the nurse who sought to revive her gave permission for her to drive home. Happily, however, she made it safely home and all was well. We hope the same is true for our billions of readers across the globe. And beyond.