as in uffish thought we drove

Benjamin and I were stuck in traffic the other day. The boy had requested "a drive," and I had obliged. Traffic was thick on the way out of town and on the way back in.

As we sat in gridlock, Benjamin suddenly said, "Look, papa: it looks like a monster!"

Where? Where?

There!

He was pointing to the car in front of us. Between the shape of its trunk and the shape of its tail lights, it did look very much like a monster staring back at us.

Benjamin said, "It has eyes of flame."

I think that counts as his first literary allusion. He was thinking, of course, of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky":

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

echoes of Halloween at Fashion Square Mall

bb: What are these things?

me: They're called mannequins.

bb: What are they doing there?

me: They're showing us how these clothes look.

bb: Why they don't have heads?

me: I think you're supposed to picture your own head if you like the clothes.

bb: I like those clothes!

me: Well, sweetheart, those are women's clothes...

bb: If we had a zombie, he could take off his head and put it on the mannequin!