So Isaac and I went to Caleba's a few days ago (it just opened up
near us). It was very big, though not as over the top as other stores
of its kind, like Bass Pro Shop. Inside there were tons of mounted
animals--moose, wolves, bears, deer, elk, etc. The best part of the
whole trip was this exchange with Isaac:
Isaac: Dad, is the Moose the biggest deer kind of animal?
Me: Yes.
Isaac: What's the second biggest?
Me: Its called an Elk or Caribou. They are really big, just a bit smaller than the Moose.
Isaac: What's the third biggest?
Me: I don't know that off the top of my head.
Incredulous look....then:
Incredulous look....then:
Isaac: Well, look it up on your iPhone.
There
are moments when Isaac asks me something and all of those years of
reading Guiness and the encyclopedia pay off. One time he asked me,
totally out of the blue, "Dad, what's the biggest scorpion?" I shocked
both of us when I answered in seconds: "The Emperor Scorpion." But that
moment has spawned thousands of similar interrogations by Isaac.
In
many ways, P-Pa had it much easier with his interrogator. There was a
finite realm of knowledge and it was not uncommon for folks back then to
answer "no one knows" even if that meant "its hard to find that
answer." But now, with the advent of the iPhone and our ability to
photograph and document everything, that answer doesn't work anymore.
Only in rare instances, where an answer is truly impossible, will Isaac
accept the "I don't know" or "No one knows" answer. 9 times out of 10,
that doesn't work.
