Today we took my young daughter and her cousin to Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World. While my wife sent me on a mission to get a Fastpass for the Everest Expedition (which none of us actually had the guts to ride), the kids each went to a souvenir shop and bought eleven-dollar autograph books.
This grieved me deeply. First of all, it's rough getting through these parks with young kids dragging you every which way. Stopping for autographs was an inconvenience I hadn't planeed for. Worse, there was no way I could get them to understand that the "autographs" were actually being signed by highly unfortunate individuals whose jobs entailed wearing furry animal suits on 97-degree days.
So now, my daughter and her cousin have the signatures of B'rer Bear, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie Mouse (who, like the Clintons, weren't actually together--maybe there's a story there), and a couple of Disney characters I couldn't identify.
And they are happy, happy, happy, despite my cries of "Bah humbug."
So now, I understand a little better why 60% of UFT teachers voted for a contract involving tons of givebacks that didn't meet cost of living. I gotta get to work teaching my kid not to do things like that.
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