The Word Mirror

"Judge a man by his parties." That was the point of The Great Gatsby. Or the opposite. I can never remember. The point is, I do. And so I wonder, what would magical child's birthday party carnival equipment would you most desire? Some people would go for the Bouncy Castle of Anti-Gravity. Others for the Pin-the-furtherly-absurd-animal-part-on-the-Griffin! (For more amusement, also consider Centaur).

But me? I choose the Word Mirror.

See, the Word Mirror's a funny thing. Whatever you put in front of it, it shows you the reflection of the word in it. For instance, if you stand in front of it and laugh ("Ha"), you will see in it a contemplative version of yourself ("ah"). If you're male ("he"), prepare to seem apathetic ("eh").

It's less than impressive to bring a race car before a mirror of any sort and see another reflected back. But for some reason I would be highly amused by bringing Teddy Roosevelt and his thought bubble to in front of the water passage in the Isthmus and seeing it shown back at me. Perhaps this has nothing to do with the Word Mirror at all, and is only because of Teddy's mustache.

Of course, several profound realizations could be made while the birthday boy, now two years old, is amusing himself with a box and some string. For instance, several household objects, a light "bulb" and a door "knob" both become onomatopoeia. Anybody wearing a "decal" would find themselves in, I dunno, some sort of corset? And by the simple act of "retool"ing a device, you'd get to witness honest-to-god vandalism.

Of course, all this is small potatoes, compared to the simple joy of dragging, before the Word Mirror, one small dog.