Today is Kate’s birthday. We did early birthday stuff two days ago because I’m working today. “I come bearing gifts,” I said as I came through her door, “CHEAP gifts.” She said cheap gifts were fine. (She knows I am of necessity practicing Shoestring Economics.) I gave her two solid-milk-chocolate bunnies, remaindered by the Family Dollar after Easter, and I gave her a wishbone I’d salvaged from a whole-chicken purchase at Safeway. Solemnly I advised her not to impulse-wish, but to think about her wish till her birthday, and then to grasp the wishbone in both of her hands and pull it apart. But before we left for Tokyo Express, I rested the wishbone on my forehead and willed all the wish-power I possess into the wishbone. (That’s a lot of hooey, right? But are you SURE? If you’re saying things like “that’s not the way it works” or “you’re not allowed to grab both ends of the wishbone,” then YOU must think there is some power to this thing. As do I.)

So we went to Tokyo Express, and it hit the spot for both of us–we felt like Harold and Kumar at White Castle. And we went to Samurai Comics, where Kate purchased the magnificent graphic novel KINGDOM COME–and then gave it to me on indefinite loan, because she knew how badly I wanted to read it and savor the magnificent Alex Ross paintings it contains.

And then we went to the Movies. We saw WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT with Tina Fey as Kim Baker, embedded reporter in Kabul, Afghanistan. “Well,” said Kate when I asked her what she thought of the movie afterward, “I didn’t dislike it.”

To My Daughter, With Whom I Am Well Pleased

Happy Birthday, Sweetums.

Your great-grandfather once said, “This is my Grandson, in whom I am well pleased.”

Glad to extend the tradition, because it’s so true
In the case of You.