Florence King is one of my favorite writers. She wrote the Misanthorpe's Corner column for National Review. When deciding what books to bring to China, I brought along three of hers. I have reread the books three of four times. Now, I am rereading the collection I have of her Misanthorpe's Corner columns STET Damnit!!. Just after the slap the brat incident (you can read about it in myspace blog), I came across this passage:
The Sinless Child ranks with the Noble Savage as a repository of cracked idealism. Unable to think in the intellectual sense, children twitch and flicker in response to the stimuli of the moment like nocturnal creatures on the Discovery Channel, sensing with unerring instinct the perfect moment to strike.
They have a knack for locating adults' soft spots and a sense of timing that can set up an embarrassing moment to the millisecond. The evident nervousness parents exhibit when they bring adult strangers home suggests that the words "Oh, you mustn't say that!" have been spoken before, probably not for the last time. It is a known fact, always denied, that handicapped people, people with scars, homely people, and bald men don't like to be around children because the little fartlings have a mean streak wide enough to drive a truck through.
How true.
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