Daniel Goes to Press

I noticed Daniel was running around with the old digital camera this week, taking candid shots of the parrots, Meka and me.  Normally, Daniel is more of a “still-life” photographer.  He tends to take pictures of things: his Hot Wheels cars, his stuffed animal pets; he likes to take pictures of the pictures we have on the walls around the house.  I asked him what he was doing.

“I’m taking pictures for my newspaper,” he replied.

There are times in my life when I feel as if I’ve been transported to the set of some sitcom from the seventies.  Daniel (a.k.a. “Scoop”) had us all working on the paper this week.  Daniel’s computer has my old inkjet printer hooked up to it, but that wasn’t good enough.

“My paper is going to have color pictures instead of just black and white,” he announced.  I dumped the files off his camera to a memory stick and Meka printed them out on her color printer.  Daniel busied himself with scissors and tape, pencil and pen.  He worked out his own version of Garfield for the comics section.  The first panel has Garfield wearing a birthday hat, sitting on the table next to Jon.

“It’s my birthday!” he exclaims.

“How many presents did you get?” asks Jon.

“Didn’t know I would get that far,” concludes Garfield in the final panel.

I read that over and over and felt that it should be funny, but I wasn’t sure why.

The final edition came out this week and I got to read it after Meka.  It’s the “Newspaper of Information Around the House”.  I made the front page; my grizzled visage poking out of my office door one morning when Daniel knocked while I was working.  I am described as “the photographer’s dad” and I have a lot of cameras.

The parrots had their own page: “Parrot Paradise”.  Pepper looks to be spoiling for a fight, but Daniel describes her as being in the “cute and fluffy position”.  He does mention she really doesn’t like people under fifteen.  Akane is also described as “cute when she’s poofy”.  The classified section, or “shopping stuff” as Daniel put it, featured Hot Wheels merchandise along with a special on pizza from Little Caesar’s and a plug for Bouncing Balls (“available everywhere!”).

Meka got her own section.  By the last page, Daniel describes her as “the… well, you know who!”  I found out she attends college at NIU, she wears an apron when cooking rice (“just like any other moms that cook”) and she likes to vacuum.  “It is like one of her hobbies or something,” reports Daniel.  The next edition is supposed to be out next week.  I’m looking forward to perusing the “Dad Section” that has been promised to me by the editor.