Random thoughts... snippets of life in rural New England
and other various musings of my four-year-old son...
Published on August 26, 2005 By HC1240 In Home & Family
As I drove my daughter to work this afternoon this comment is yelled from the back seat: "That store's a RIP OFF!!"

I laughed. "What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Well... they put that shirt up on a hanger outside the store!"

It still wasn't computing with me. "Noah, do you even know what a rip-off is?"

"It's when they try to trick you into coming into the store to buy something... and all they want is cash!"

Ok... so maybe it's not the technical definition, but not bad for a four-year-old, I guess. LOL. Me thinks the kid's been watching WAY too much Spongebob Squarepants.

We dropped Jessica off and started driving home. Out of nowhere he asks, "Why do they call it midnight?"

Aha... I've got that one covered. I'm all over it. "Because it comes in the middle of the night, I guess."

"Well why don't they call it 'middle night?'"

I told him that was a good question. A few minutes of silence and then he decided he had an answer. "I know why they don't call it 'middle night'... it's cuz that's a silly name for it. 'Midnight' is much better." Problem solved.

If only life were that simple.

Comments
on Aug 26, 2005
Haha...this made me giggle. I used to use that saying a lot when I was younger, then of course I moved to Long Island and learned what exactly a rip off was....Paying too much rent for my one bedroom apartment that my husband and I live in!
on Aug 26, 2005
Darn stores always wanting cash:)
on Aug 27, 2005
Paying too much rent for my one bedroom apartment that my husband and I live in!

... I have friends who moved to Long Island last year, mostly because she grew up there and her family was there. We spent a week with them last May and loved it... but I wasn't paying their mortgage.

Darn stores always wanting cash:)

I was retelling the story to my mother last night and asked him to tell her what a "rip-off" is... he gave her a different definition that he gave me.

"A rip-off is when you buy something, and by the time you get it home it's disappeared."
on Aug 27, 2005
ya, I know that feeling, sort of like going and getting groceries and then coming home to three grown boys. Sometimes it never makes the cupboard, now that's a rip off!!!!
on Aug 28, 2005
I think midnight is derived from the old english, which is probably derived from mitnacht or some germanic derivation.

The 'rip off' thing seems to be all to common. It's good, in a way, since kids are getting more savvy to being wooed, but it is also giving them the impression that normal business is somehow wrong. I guess we can only hope that kids will be tempered later by their massive need to be consumers later, lol.
on Aug 29, 2005
Ooo, or a gallon of gas.


Good reference!


Kids are so adorable. Life is always simpler through their eyes!
on Aug 29, 2005
Kind of like the french fries you ordered with that burger, eh?

Ooo, or a gallon of gas.

... yeah. Kinda like that...

I think midnight is derived from the old english, which is probably derived from mitnacht or some germanic derivation.

You language buff, you! ! Thanks for the info.