My sister-in-law, ever the teacher, saw some children catching blue crabs from our bridge. Walking over, she engaged them in conversation and taught them a bit about the crabs, in particular how to tell the males from the females. One of the children, a ten-year-old from the District of Columbia, caught on right away:
Oh! One is the Monument and the other the Capitol!
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
(Photo credit Hackensack Riverkeeper)
the ten year old was actually saying that is how she had previously learned it, as opposed to the rocket ship model. she did say that she guessed she must have learned it since moving to DC.
It has been long enough since this encounter that I feel free to reveal that the two children were actually Malia and Sasha Obama, and the encounter at the bridge included a nervous Secret Service agent—who did not interfere with the lesson—as well as my sister-in-law and the girls. You never know who you're going to run into while living your apparently ordinary life!
