Do you suppose that law and econ guru Judge Posner understood the concept of transitivity (i.e., if A>B, and B>C, then A>C) as a little infant? Because my little infant son does not.
He has a new set of blocks to play with. They come in three colors (blue, green, and red) and three shapes (square, circle, and star). He likes grabbing blocks, one in each hand, and chewing on them. The other day, he had a red square and a blue circle, so I picked up a green star and started to pretend like I was chewing on it. He dropped the red square and grabbed the green star from me. So I picked up the red square and pretended to chew on it. He dropped the blue circle and grabbed the red square. So I picked up the blue circle and pretended to chew on it. He dropped the green star and grabbed the blue circle . . . ending up exactly where he was when we started. So I picked up the green star . . . .
So, I conclude, your little Nicholas has you well trained as far as blocks go. Has he instructed you about your blankie yet?
Posted by: Sarah | December 08, 2004 at 01:19 PM
Speaking of Judge Posner, Gary Becker (a Nobel-prize-winning economist I found out) and he started a new blog four days ago. Should be some interesting reading.
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/index.html
Posted by: Law Monkey | December 09, 2004 at 11:10 AM
You're mistaken. He's not thinking, "hey, if Dad likes that one, it must be better." No, he's trying to punish you by taking away that which makes you happy.
So he understands transitivity fine. He's just mean.
Posted by: Dylan | December 10, 2004 at 09:37 AM
Sarah: the little guy's not into blankets or stuffed animals yet. Things have value only for chewing purposes.
Dylan: no need to impute your bitter (but funny) view of the world onto everyone else.
Posted by: Tung Yin | December 10, 2004 at 09:42 AM
Hm... baby psychology. One day his hand's going to be big enough for him to grab all the blocks and you will have none of yours to chew on.
ah... how babies grow so fast....
Posted by: H. | December 13, 2004 at 08:22 PM
One day his hand's going to be big enough for him to grab all the blocks and you will have none of yours to chew on.
If his hands grow that big, maybe he can play basketball or football . . . . Tee hee.
Posted by: Tung Yin | December 13, 2004 at 08:44 PM