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Show wyw, r-iL'. j, jl.A-7-JiiBj'T'L' ""'-'-"' " ff" j 'jr ! "i1' f ' llJ' 1 S PET PEEVE Q2 "W. Scott &H?2) OW, YOU take my young son. At twenty months he was quite a conversationalist, not widely versed, but capable of vocally defending de-fending his position when caught in any minor act of malfeasance. Whenever caught, in the red, or post facto, he quickly said he was sorry and, as far as he was concerned, con-cerned, that ended the matter completely. com-pletely. That's the panacea. If you"ve done something wrong, be sorry, and do it in a "cute" way. A good example happened one day while we' were visiting my sister, Sue. The grown-ups were in the parlor, the kids j at play when the dike broke. .:From beneath be-neath the closed kitchen ,door came a powerful stream of water, fanning fan-ning across the living' room into the parlor, wetting rugs, feet, everything. ' When we opened the door of the kitchen, we found him, still on tiptoes, turning .controls., on the automatic dishwater. The machine, witn top up, without dishes, sprayed ceiling, walls and intruders generously. gen-erously. But the culprit was master of the situation. Nonchalantly repeating repeat-ing the great panacea, "Me sorry, me sorry," he walked across the room to determine if there was anything about the stove that might be worth investigating. It's a favorite story for Sue, and she tells it with flourish, describing describ-ing her wild dash down the basement base-ment stairs in successful flight with ' a giggling child, pursued by a man who couldn't run well with a belt in one hand, and the other busy holding up his trousers. Major punishment in the whole affair was inflicted- on U-know-who, tripped by a trouser cuff on the bottom step. |