This artichoke thing is popping up all around, the quote in the previous post was gleaned from the Pink Panther movie. Yesterday there was another reference too.

D was resting in the afternoon, tired from a wedding the day before, to which we took M to the church for the ceremony. M was playing a new computer game that we may yet regret buying and I was watching some sport and cooking programs. One of my favourite cooking hosts came on, Lidia Bastianich and one of the dishes she was preparing was chicken with artichokes. In her straightforward way, she clearly demonstrated exactly how to prepare artichokes and I was somewhat comforted to notice that she produced about the same amount of leftover bits as I do.

M wandered in.

"Who's that, Dad?"

"That's Lidia, she's my friend."

"Why?"

"Well, you know that tomato sauce for pasta you really like?"

"Yes."

"Lidia showed me how to make it."

M, rather thoughtfully, then went back to the computer to continue dressing Bratz dolls on screen...despite having four Bratz dolls in her bedroom that she could actually pick up and do the same thing with...in real life.

A while later, D woke up and came to the loungeroom. M had reemerged from her computer and we all sat on the couch together, watching Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. All of a sudden, M turned to me and said,

"Dad, can you marry Lidia so she can cook for me?"

I have a well developed sense of self preservation and what M said was wrong on so many levels, but I couldn't help it.

I laughed. Fortunately, I'm still alive.