Because her kindergarten class did a whole thing on the original Thanksgiving feast this week, we got to play "Indians." She made me pick out an Indian name, and I chose "Runs-with-Cats," but "Princess Clearwater" insisted that I make it "Chief Runs-with-Cats," and I hate to admit it, but that kinda works for me.

Then we did all kinds of things, like painting each others faces (to look like cats), making a placemat for me to use at the feast exactly like the one she brought home from school, and having a "campfire" around a candle.

But it got really cool when we went to have the "feast," which was a grilled cheese sandwich, and the dialogue went like this:

Chris: Does our tribe like our sandwiches cut into triangles or straight across?

Emily: In half.

Chris (demonstrating): Diagonally like this? (lays knife from corner to corner) or straight like this? (lays knife straight across the center)

Emily: Straight. Our tribe doesn't use any diagonals. They don't even have a word for "diagonal." When you say "diagonal" to them, they just hear "blah-bla-blah-bla-blah."

That's my girl! (Benjamin Lee Whorf would be so proud.)

posted by Chris at 11:22 PM Permalink