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I took this on my cell phone a few months ago and just came across it again. Matt and I are both blind as bats. I had bifocals in kindergarten. So I would guess Miss Francis is destined to a life of glasses too. Fortunately for her, she’s just the cutest thang ever in these toddler spectacles.       If you haven’t checked out Malcolm Gladwell’s blog, now is a good time to do it. Commenting on the Duke lacrosse investigation, he notes that people just aren’t very good at picking perpetrators out of a line-up. Studies show that it’s even harder to correctly identify someone of a different race. From his blog entry:
I’ve been wondering about facial recognition and race ever since I was one of a couple white teachers in an all-black school in Alabama about ten years ago. Students were constantly getting me confused with another white teacher. I’m blond-haired and German-looking, and this other guy has thick, black Italian hair. Still, students – especially those who didn’t see us every day – had a hard time telling us apart. Gladwell says that it will be interesting to see “whether the legal system is any more willing to acknowledge” these limitations when whites are the ones being picked out of the line-up. I think most of us can predict the outcome of this one, and it’s more depressing than interesting. These lacrosse players will have good lawyers who will artfully explain to the judge or jury the shortcomings of cross-race identification. It’s not depressing that these shortcomings are going to be exposed, but that that they haven’t been discussed already. Some of my earliest memories are from playing in my sandbox in Amarillo. When I was five, Jeremy Sanders and I heard that the world was round and if you dug deep enough, you would reach China. We decided to dig to China from my sandbox. About two feet into the excavation, we hit – and ruptured – a gas pipe. Amazingly, we confessed immediately, and my dad hit the main gas cutoff before anything blew up. Good times. Sally and I agree that playing in the sand is a big part of growing up, so we got a sandbox for Francis this weekend. I feel a little sheepish buying a sandbox instead of building one, but the big plastic tub has its advantages. Regardless, Francis enjoys it. She spent about two hours playing in the sand yesterday.
April 26, 2006 - 12:59 pm
where did you find that sandbox, isn't it funny what parents get excited about!
April 26, 2006 - 2:30 pm
I dug for China also, with the aid of my childhood pal Ryan Pfeiffer. We missed the gaslines, but my parents never quite got the hole refilled. It might still be behind the garage of the home I grew up in. Dig Francie, dig!
April 26, 2006 - 3:08 pm
The only way to china through this sandbox goes through plastic and concrete.
April 27, 2006 - 1:04 am
Scott and his sister dug for China also and we drove by their childhood home and there is still a mysterious sinking hole in the backyard, too funny. I so was admiring all the sandboxes at Toys-R-Us the other day, but we will have to wait until next year. Yes and plastic does have a place in the world of unwanted critters and sandboxes.
April 27, 2006 - 6:56 am
If I can throw my 2 cents in…buy the girl a sk8 board and start training her now and she could be the next Tony Hawk.You could build a ramp in your back yard right next to the sandbox and she could alternate between the two.I would be happy to design the ramp for you free of charge and kid friendly of course I have over thirteen years experience I would just ask that when she got famous she design her first pro-model board with me in mind,her mother could help her with that….catch ya at the Flipside…Eric
May 1, 2006 - 5:58 pm
She looks just like you in this pic, Sal. 🙂 Francis Googie says her ABC’s on Vimeo Okay, if you don’t think this is the most adorable thing you’ve ever seen you’re not my friend. Matt took this video this weekend and I can’t watch it enough. Man, I love this girl. She learned how to say her name this weekend… and she can’t stop singing her ABCDE’s.
April 25, 2006 - 5:42 pm
I love her! That's awesome.
April 25, 2006 - 7:03 pm
That's definitely the cutest video! She's adorable and I love hearing her say her name.
April 26, 2006 - 3:10 am
Does this mean if I do think it's adorable then I am your friend? I sure do hope so! Cuz it's dern adorable! She can say Frances, that's the best part of that. And Matt's singing.
April 26, 2006 - 9:43 am
ok…you got me…its pretty darn cute and as a guy thats not a term I use often….by the way does this mean were still friends
April 26, 2006 - 3:13 pm
For Imron and Eric: I think Sally was clear. If you don't like the video, then you cannot be Sally's friend. She said nothing about the inverse (or the contrapositive, or whatever a logician would call it). Liking the video is a threshold requirement of being Sally's friend, but it does not guarantee her friendship. Said another way, liking the video is a necessary but not sufficient condition for Sally's friendship.
May 1, 2006 - 4:05 pm
TOOO CUTE!!! OK Matt, you can definitely tell that you are a lawyer from your response 🙂 Before we had brunch with the Browns, we had a great visit from Pat Babka and his fiance, Laura. They drove all the way down from Minneapolis to spend Saturday with us, so we had to make the most of it. Pat and I went out and had a 7 a.m. round of nine holes at Columbus Park. We got back in time to take Francis to Scoville Park to meet the Easter Bunny at 10:00. Unfortunately, the Bunny didn’t meet his end of the deal. We waited around for a while and met up with some friends of ours, but the Easter Bunny never showed up. We finally saw him on our drive home. When we got back, Pat and Laura graciously helped us get some things done around our house that really needed to get done. We lugged air conditioners upstairs and shelves to the basement. I then enlisted Pat’s help in cutting the tabletop for Francis’s table and chairs. For those interested in the mechanics of this process, continue reading this paragraph. Otherwise, skip ahead to the next one. We started cutting a 36″ circle using a pivot on the bandsaw table (basically a nail around which the workpiece spun). That wasn’t creating an accurate cut – more of a spiral. So we took the piece off of the pivot and roughed out a circle to about 1/4″ – 1/8″ accuracy. Now, here’s the master stroke: we mounted my router (with a 3/4″ straight bit) on a 5″ x 20″ piece of coated particle board. I nailed one end of the board to the center of the circle, and that pivot point guided the router in a perfect 17 1/2″ radius around the circle. It was beautiful. We had steak and potatoes for dinner, and ended up wishing we lived closer to each other. Funny how that’s a topic on this board often – our friends are scattered to the winds.
April 21, 2006 - 8:33 pm
If only you'd lived in Austin, you wouldn't be so scattered, now would you?? Please move soon. I'm saving a place for you. |
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by Sally
Kristen - Very Cute! Does this mean Francis is wearing glasses these days or was she just "playing" in this photo? Sorry if this is a dumb question…
Matt - She was just trying them out.
Anonymous - Hi Sally
Woody Taylor and Dr. Khoa Tran here in Minneapolis on a Friday night reconsidering many of our high school adventures. We just wanted to say hello, and that your kid is cute but my (Woody's, that is) two boys are marginally cuter. Khoa, tragically, has only puppies to add to this conversation. They are cute but not people cute.
BDH,
woody.taylor@gmail.com