Mardi Gras, Curious George, and the Four Penguins of the Apocalypse from the flick Madagascar (fine, just one penguin) have converged in my son's storytelling.

"Mom, Curious George is a Rampart monkey!"

"Oh, and what is a Rampart monkey?"

"It's a mammal that lays eggs in a nest!"

"Oh, really?" I said, trying hard not to laugh and/or drive off the road (yes, this was, once again, happening in the car). "I thought that was a platypus."

"No, George does that. And his pal Skipper is a Rampart leopard penguin!"

I let him babble on for the rest of the car trip about how George and Skipper laid their eggs all day and all night. I heard all the drama of one of Skipper's eggs making it to term and hatching out of its egg with small crackling coming from it and a peep! I heard other smatterings of Skipper being a big hotelier in Animal City and firing all his monkey employees. I thought this was turning out so much better than the day the little guy announced that "One day, Curious George was all alone. The man in the yellow hat died."

"What????!!!!!" I nearly yelled, happy he'd told me this when we were coming to a stop at a red light anyhow. "What happened????" I asked, horrified.

"Well, George ended up moving to Animal City and working for Skipper," he said matter-of-factly, as though what he'd just said didn't merit any elaboration. Nice. The only time the child has ever mentioned a human being in his stories, and he kills him off. No explanation. The man in the yellow hat is simply gone. Poof. Irrelevant.

Oh, and the Rampart part? Try "Mardi Gras Mambo" for that reference.:

Down in New Orleans
Where the blues was born
It takes a cool cat
To blow a horn
On LaSalle and Rampart Street
The combo's there with a mambo beat

No, I'm not gonna go on with the rest of the song. It's my least favorite Mardi Gras song ever. Hate's not a strong enough word.

Although...Rampart monkeys and Rampart leopard penguins make for mighty interesting costume ideas. Hmmmm...

Naaaah. I just can't go with a trainwreck of a song lyric, storybook animals, and some creative zoology as an excuse to dress up. That would just be wrong, wrong, wrong. It's all happening way waaay too early this year to be that crazy. Heh heh.

_____________________

Recent email from my mom, with the surprising title of "This sucks":

Leigh this is rediculous (sic).

Hang in there Love, Mom

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/24/nola.firehouses/index.html

As ever, Mom is correct. She's also been getting some blogspeak through osmosis, I fear. I'd expect an email titled "This sucks" from Dad more than from Mom; for a moment there, I thought he'd hijacked her email account.

Be well, Mom. Don't worry.