"You look like a baby!"

I was making chit-chat with the nurse giving me the flu shot. She asked what program I was in. Attempting to be pleasant, I answered truthfully. She asked what year I was in. I answered truthfully. She asked how old I am. I answered truthfully. She exclaimed, "You look like a baby!"

All I could think was, "A baby with fully-developed secondary sex characteristics?" But luckily my filter caught that, so instead I said, "Thank you." And smiled. Keeping it pleasant and chit-chatty.

I'm glad I look young. Combined with the H-bomb, I have a handy arsenal of true but astonishing facts with which to floor most interlocutors. Pleasantly.


This post's theme word is taradiddle, "a petty lie" or "pretentious nonsense." I enjoy sprinkling taradiddles amongst the actual facts of my life.

Giant squid puppet

I received a postcard from penpal M. featuring a giant squid puppet, seen here at an incomplete stage:It was built by Les Machines de l'île Nantes, a puppetry workshop in a shipyard. Their projects look very cool. I want to visit!


This post's theme word is swale, "a low or hollow place, especially a marshy depression between ridges." Beware that swale yonder, the locals claim it is infested with giant squid!