The other night, I took a break from The Two Towers DVD to put together a couple little puzzles with my kids. The puzzles were both picturing Marvel super heroes, and so as we built the puzzles, my kids asked about the different characters, their history and special abilities. Having been blessed growing up with an older brother who had means to subscribe to comics, I was happy to impart my fairly vast pool of fictional hero lore to my eager children. They were a great audience and seemed very excited by some of the powers. Once they had amassed what they felt was an adequate degree of knowledge, they began to choose which ones they wanted, as if I would somehow bestow these super gifts upon them myself. My son's choice went so:

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Caleb: [Pointing to the heroes as he talks about them] If I had Cyclops' laser beam and Wolverine's claws, I could STOP EVILDOERS. [Does a decent upper body power pose.]

Dad: [Looking quite impressed] I bet you could! You'd be a GREAT superhero.

Caleb: Yeah! [thoughtful pause] What's an evildoer?

Dad: [Controlling himself] It's someone who does what is wrong and sometimes hurts other people.

Caleb: Yeah! Like making a boobytrap chair...or...giving tickles.
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Apparently giving tickles is akin to villanous torture. Enhanced chairs? Not sure about that one. I was taking too much care not to blow tea out my nose in laughter to delve further into the evils of modified recliners. I'll just look before sitting down anywhere in the home until I am sure my son's super allegiances are clear.

Word to the wise: Take care when explaining Johnny Storm. My kids got waaaaay too excited about his powers. "Fire is nothing to play with. It will burn you. The Human Torch is just pretend.", I told them. That seemed to quell their thirst for flying pryomania. For now.