Party time

Yeah, it was a big party for my cousin's birthday, with pizza and soda and three types of cake. I wound up watching SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents with a bunch of kids. I never did find out if Norm the Genie was played by Norm MacDonald, or just based on him.

I've noticed more and more knots of kids sitting around on the streets talking after dark. Last week there were some sitting on a curb near my house when my friends and I were going to eat - this was around sunset. I saw some more today when I went to pick up a cake for the party, and when a friend and I went to get the pizzas there were some more, about half a dozen, some of then sitting on a sofa convenently placed on the sidewalk. What's with this? Have kids rediscovered the art of conversation? Or are they just discussing where to break into houses to steal money to buy some dope? (Or, these days, some ketamine, oxycontin, and/or crystal meth?)

While I'm on the subject of the social behavior of adolescents, allow me to make two observations from a trip to the Mall last night.

I was there after work, wandering around trying to find last-minute gifts for my cousin. I was in Waldenbooks, looking over the half-price calendars (I eventually got her a half-price Magnetic Poetry calendar) and there was a large-ish group of semigoth teenage kids moseying out of the store - girls, mostly. One of them said, "OK, on the count of three, everyone get out your coconuts!" And - well, I'm not sure what I was expecting. But suddenly they were doing a routine from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. And I was impressed. Did these girls know Monty Python routines?

Then one of the girls started to sing the old Merv Griffin song "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts", and I was doubly impressed. There's no reason that I could think of that she should have known that song.

Maybe there's hope for the future after all.