Out of the Mouth of Babes
Bill McGurn ·
Feb 4, 2011 at 4:00pm
On a less serious note, this week my wife made pasta e fagioli ("pasta fazool" in Dean Martin's memorable lyric) for the family. As 7-year-olds do, our 7-year-old spent a half-hour complaining instead of the five minutes it would have taken to eat.
So my wife resorted the age-old retort of American parents everywhere: "There are millions of starving children who would LOVE to have a bowl of pasta fazool."
Undaunted the 7-year-old responded, "If they are really starving, I doubt they even know what pasta fazool is."
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Jun '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
That's Amore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6-b7CONDI
Dec '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
I'm ashamed to admit that our youngest, the twelve year old will not allow anything to touch his pasta, except parmesan. Parenthood has robbed me of my love for cooking. "Here, kid, have a bare hot dog on a plain bun".
Sigh.
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Kid's an incipient snarker.
Invite me over, Bill. Then you can tell the lad, "See? Just keep smart-mouthing and you'll end up like that guy."
Dec '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Did you try to sell it to your 7-year-old as a pasta dish, or as chicken noodle soup with beans in it?
Dec '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
In 2000, when my oldest were 11 and 9, I took them to northern Italy. It was a wonderful trip, but they pretty much refused anything at lunch or dinner besides pasta with butter and Parmigiano or cheese pizza (breakfast was generally boxed cereal and toast at our B&Bs).
The first night of the trip, we arrived in Ferrara and were tipped to a great restaurant by our innkeeper. I walked my girls through the dark streets of the old Jewish ghetto of the town and found the restaurant. Then I made the signal error of trusting my own Italian and ordered capellacci, thinking capellini or angel hair. Capellacci are tortelloni stuffed with butternut squash - delicious but completely alien to American children.
That night, walking back to our inn, my 11-year-old asked, "Can we move here?" Her reason was that at 10:30 pm, people were out strolling and enjoying the evening, while back home in our SF Bay Area suburb, they roll up the sidewalks at 9 pm.
Great trip - even the meal where the only pasta available had crayfish in it, with their heads on the plate. An impromptu puppet show ensued....
Jan '11
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
CJRun: Parenthood has robbed me of my love for cooking. "Here, kid, have a bare hot dog on a plain bun".
Sigh. · Feb 4 at 4:13pm
Sigh indeed. Our youngest used to look at a hamburger with lettuce and tomato and demand, "Take the food off it!"
May '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
The "millions of starving children" plea never convinced me to eat anything my parents presented to me, either. What convinced me was what we would consider today to be child abuse...
Aug '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
9 year old son(now a teenager):" Dad, I believe in Santa, but this God stuff, it doesn't make sense". Hopefully the Jesuit school will fix that.
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Stuart Creque:
That night, walking back to our inn, my 11-year-old asked, "Can we move here?" Her reason was that at 10:30 pm, people were out strolling and enjoying the evening, while back home in our SF Bay Area suburb, they roll up the sidewalks at 9 pm.
That's what convinced me to move to New York City. As I related to a friend from my California hometown, "There are more people on the streets of Manhattan at 2:00 A.M. than there are at high noon anywhere else.
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Tragic. The kid is a genetic Democrat. Adopted?
Aug '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
No way Kenneth- I predict Charles Mark Jnr will debut on Ricochet in July 2015.
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Bring him on now, cheapskate.
Dec '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Kenneth
Stuart Creque:
That night, walking back to our inn, my 11-year-old asked, "Can we move here?" Her reason was that at 10:30 pm, people were out strolling and enjoying the evening, while back home in our SF Bay Area suburb, they roll up the sidewalks at 9 pm.
That's what convinced me to move to New York City. As I related to a friend from my California hometown, "There are more people on the streets of Manhattan at 2:00 A.M. than there are at high noon anywhere else. · Feb 4 at 4:55pm
The one who was 9 on that trip is now at school in New York -- she loves it there. The older one went to visit -- she hated it, and now she's living out in the quiet town of Clearlake.
Aug '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Kenneth, when he develops a taste for Grande Lattes I'll get it sorted.
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Stuart Creque
Kenneth
The one who was 9 on that trip is now at school in New York -- she loves it there. The older one went to visit -- she hated it, and now she's living out in the quiet town of Clearlake. · Feb 4 at 5:23pm
New York City truly is a great place to live, but a horrible place to visit.
About two years after I moved out of Manhattan and settled in Missouri (don't ask), I came back to the city for a few days and found I no longer had the pace and cadence to negotiate the sidewalks. People were running me over, as I formerly had run over tourists, while muttering expletives under my breath.
Edited on Feb 4, 2011 at 6:08pmOct '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Ah, the memories of dining as a youngster.... One ate was was put on the plate in front of you... If dinner turned out poorly and the adults would not eat it, neither did the kids.
One had personal experience when I decided the liver and onions on my plate was not up to standards. Was informed that if I did not eat it, I would have it cold for breakfast and then lunch until I finished it.
Have any idea what cold liver is like straight out of the fridge by lunch the next day ?
There is a lesson there.. By they way, in those days not obeying a parent got one an appointment with a belt or switch..
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
At age five or six, I was able to eat a whole meal with a Brussels sprout tucked in my cheek, having been instructed to eat my veggies first so they wouldn't be left on the plate. Since the dog wouldn't touch them (either), I would then hide it way in the back of a rarely used drawer in the dining room side board. Years later when we were getting ready to move, my mother and I did some cleaning out prior to the arrival of the movers. "What in the world are these?" she exclaimed as about eight or ten very little petrified balls rolled to the front of the drawer. "Haven't a clue," as I scooped them up and pitched them in the trash (wondering why I hadn't done just that years ago).
Dec '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
barbara, you're lucky the sprouts petrified rather than putrified.
Aug '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
The response to the "starving kids in Africa" line that got me in trouble when I was 8:
"If they want it so badly, can we just mail it to them instead?"
My parents refused to accept this as the brilliant solution to world hunger I believed it to be. Rhetorical questions aren't so apparently rhetorical to kids staring down a heap of lima beans.
Jul '10
Re: Out of the Mouth of Babes
Gosh, that brings back memories.
Memories of being sent to the Principal's office for talking back when I was in the 3rd grade.
My teacher had just pulled the 'Children Starving In Asia' line on me when I refused to eat something on my tray, Something I had specifically asked the dietition NOT to put on it mind you.
After she played her smug trump card I said to her, "Well, wouldn't it be a better solution if I were to send this to them than to eat it all myself?"
In the 60's it wasn't tolerated to show that you could be logical as a child I guess.